Chapter 46: The greater the ability, the greater the responsibility

"Jin!"

Lucian's voice thundered through the office, raw with fury. In the next instant, he vanished completely.

When he reappeared, he stood at the epicenter where the strange fluctuations had first begun to ripple outward. The air itself seemed to crackle with tension.

Before him loomed a gloomy old man whose presence radiated malevolent energy like a dark miasma. Beside the elder stood a young man clutching a golden scale that gleamed with an otherworldly light. The ornate winged hat perched on his head and the matching winged boots adorning his feet immediately caught the eye.

Master-level red quality card: God of Trade·Hermes.

This was the source of Jin's infamous moniker, "Demon Scale."

Scarlet card materials were being fed into the golden scale in a steady stream at that very moment, each one disappearing with a soft whisper. The haunting murmur of otherworldly transactions echoed through the void, filling the air with an ominous resonance.

"Jin! You knew the plan had been discovered, didn't you?! The angrier Lucian became, the sharper his mind became.

He had finally realized the horrible truth: the entire association scheme had been exposed from the beginning.

"Hehehe." The gloomy old man's laughter sounded like nails on a chalkboard and carried a hint of genuine emotion. "If Little Wu hadn't gone off to deal with those street thugs, I'm afraid you really would have kept us in the dark forever."

Even the wisest man makes mistakes.

Lucian now understood exactly where they had slipped up: it was Koga, the man Gustav had deliberately released. But there had been no other choice. If Koga hadn't been freed, the Crimson Oath Society would have grown suspicious, forcing them to launch their plan prematurely or retreat into the shadows and wait for another opportunity.

A massive figure with a coal-black face began to materialize behind Lucian like a vengeful spirit. Taking a deep, steadying breath, Lucian suppressed the volcanic rage burning in his chest and spoke each word with deadly precision: "Then you can stay here forever!"

Jin's sneer was like ice scraping against stone. "Come and try if you think you can!"

What Lucian didn't realize was that his presence served Jin's purpose of keeping him occupied and away from the real action perfectly.

Velkairos, the jewel of the Empire of Aetherlight, needed to burn. The more chaos, the better.

Back in the office, Azrael felt relieved when he noticed the red-robed judge still standing guard in the room. Despite everything, Lucian prioritized the safety of the students above all else.

Royce's eyes burned with terror and rage as he glared at the crimson figure. His voice cracked like a whip: "Get out!"

"Get out!"

The students recoiled from the sudden explosion of hostility, but they had heard enough. The revelation that Novex Financial had been working with the Crimson Oath Society sent them scrambling toward the elevator, desperate to reach the ground floor.

But just as they moved

"Royce, don't you want to become diamond-level? Let me help you achieve that dream right now. Hehe."

A sinister voice slithered through the chairman's office like poison, instantly freezing the souls of every student present. The temperature seemed to plummet, and an overwhelming sense of dread washed over them.

However, the cold snort of the red-robed judge shattered the mental chains binding them, allowing the students to regain their composure.

At that same moment, Royce's agonized screams pierced the air, filling everyone with bone-deep terror.

"AHHHHH!!!"

"This kind of diamond-level power! This kind of diamond-level power!"

"I hate it! Lucian and Jin, you both have to die!"

Before their horrified eyes, Royce's body began to tear and expand like a grotesque balloon. His human form stretched and contorted, growing larger with each passing second.

Azrael's sharp mind had already begun piecing together the horrifying puzzle. "Dragon?" he whispered.

Indeed, Royce was undergoing a monstrous transformation from human to dragon. The only problem was that this dragon wasn't made of scales and sinew; it was constructed entirely of writhing scarlet flesh and blood.

Royce's voice became increasingly distorted as his humanity slipped away.

"ROARRRRR!!!"

The deafening roar shattered every top-floor window, sending glass cascading down like deadly rain. The massive dragon thrashed wildly, tearing through walls and support beams with its powerful limbs as if they were paper.

"Why are you all still standing there? Run!" Azrael thought. He hadn't expected the Crimson Oath Society to be capable of such horrific transformations.

Fragments of broken glass and chunks of concrete plummeted from above, causing screams of panic to erupt from the citizens below.

Azrael and the other students had already fled the top floor, pounding down the emergency stairwell. The elevator was obviously out of commission in this situation; the fire escape was their only hope.

The problem was that the Novex Financial building towered thirty-three stories into the sky.

The constant vibrations shaking the entire structure made it clear to the fleeing teenagers that the building wouldn't hold together much longer.

Suddenly, inspiration struck Azrael like lightning. He immediately called out to the students around him.

"Listen carefully! I have a flying mount that can carry all of us down safely." Azrael spoke rapidly, his words tumbling over each other in his urgency.

The students exchanged uncertain glances before nodding in unison. "Then we're counting on you, Azrael Shen."

"Azrael, I'll never forget this kindness for the rest of my life."

On the twenty-ninth floor, Azrael took the lead and pushed open the fire door.

But the office area that greeted them made his blood run cold.

Before him stood several demons of the same type he had encountered in that cursed secret realm. Looking at their tattered office uniforms clinging to their grotesque forms, Azrael realized with mounting horror that these monsters had once been ordinary Novex Financial workers.

"Crimson Oath Society!" Azrael snarled the name through gritted teeth, his voice dripping with hatred for the architects of this nightmare.

The teenagers behind him grew anxious. "What's wrong, Azrael? What's inside?"

Azrael said nothing, simply stepping aside to let them see for themselves.

They all fell silent when they saw the scene before them; their faces were pale with shock and disgust.

But they were all geniuses in their own right. Combining Lucian's words from earlier about the top floor with what they knew about Royce's transformation, they felt a mixture of relief and fury.

"Thank God we didn't sign those contracts," someone whispered.

"Yeah, but it's tragic what happened to these innocent people."

However, there was no time for extended mourning.

Azrael immediately summoned Luffy, Kaneki, and Yoriichi Tsugikuni. In a blur of devastating attacks, they swiftly eliminated the flesh demons.

Nick couldn't help but study Kaneki more carefully. He hadn't expected Azrael to possess a biological card of such caliber. Judging from the combat performance he'd just witnessed, Kaneki's card was clearly not inferior to his own.

"You really are as strong as a monster, Azrael," Nick thought, feeling a mixture of admiration and unease.

But now wasn't the time for such contemplations.

Kaneki's kagune lashed out like crimson lightning, instantly shattering the massive, floor-to-ceiling window into glittering fragments.

Summoning his Pidgeot, Azrael turned to face everyone with grim determination. "You go down first. I'll stay here and go down last."

Everyone stared at him in stunned silence. They hadn't expected Azrael to choose to be rescued last. After all, Pidgeot was his card. No one would have blamed him if he had chosen to escape first and sent his mount back up to ferry them down one by one.

"Azrael."

Hearing his name and seeing the hesitation on their faces, Azrael's expression hardened. "What are you still hesitating for? Go!"

The students snapped out of their paralysis immediately. They would properly express their gratitude once everyone had survived this ordeal.

As Pidgeot carried them down one by one, Azrael finally found himself alone on the twenty-ninth floor.

Looking at the devastated office area around him, he couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. "At least nothing else went wrong."

Just as he was about to collect some of the card materials that had condensed from the defeated demons' waste, a thunderous crash echoed from above.

"BOOM!"

A massive, scarlet figure smashed through the ceiling like a meteor and landed directly in front of Azrael with an earth-shaking impact.

As the smoke and debris gradually cleared, Azrael finally got a clear look at the creature.

"Hehe, eat, eat, eat."

Heavy, ragged breathing filled the air, and sticky saliva dripped from the corners of a gaping maw. The monster's abdomen split open to reveal a second bloody mouth lined with razor-sharp teeth.

Looking at the familiar torn business suit still clinging to the creature's grotesque form, Azrael whispered two words with dawning horror:

"Boss Grave."

It seemed that no one connected to Novex Financial could escape this fate.