The Shepherds Are Dense

Chapter 92: War Correspondent Chloé

Chloe, hidden in the shadows, watched in stunned disbelief.She’d known the Red Nobility Society planned to retaliate against Aiwas, but this scale was absurd!

Princess Isabel, countless officials, and merchants were present, with the Inspectorate and Supervision Office on site. [Are they not even pretending anymore?]

She’d wondered how they’d assassinate Aiwas with such tight security.

When she saw the Distorted Limb Demon summoned via sacrifice, she nearly lost it.

[Fine, Aiwas is dead for sure, and I won’t need to act.]

But now, she might not escape either.

Upper-tier demons were at least fourth-tier. In Avalon, fewer than a handful of fifth-tier superhumans could defeat one alone.

The Distorted Limb Demon, the weakest upper-tier demon, was low-intelligence with simple abilities, making it the most contractable and recognizable.

Even Chloe wouldn’t dare provoke it.

Its limbs and organs could morph freely, rendering an assassin’s critical strikes useless.

Immune to curses and poison, highly resistant to legal commands and petrification, it matched Chloe’s speed, rivaled Gordon’s strength, regenerated unless dismembered, and had near-endless stamina.

Lacking the complex, eerie powers of other upper-tier demons, its brute strength was enough—a nightmare for assassins: uncatchable, unbeatable, unkillable, unstoppable.

Without reaching the fifth tier, Chloe would die if targeted. Far scarier than the Inspectorate.

Her first instinct was to flee.

If the demon rampaged, it could yank her from the shadows.

But she couldn’t—those damned legal mages had sealed the walls.

She’d used her boundary-breaking tool days ago. Now, she had to wait for them to lift the seal. [They’ll let Isabel out, right?]

But she soon gave up.

The demon scholars had pre-set a ritual, reinforcing and demonizing the sealed walls, unbreakable even by the mages who set them.

Neither the second floor’s civilians nor Isabel could escape easily. Only Gordon, the Air Cavalry, could cut the demonic walls, but he was entangled with the demon.

“Useless Avalonians!” Chloe cursed inwardly. “Do I, an Irisian, have to step in?”

A traitor among the venue’s inspectors or supervisors must have rigged the seals for the ritual.

Prepared demon scholars were leagues above their ambush strength.

Chloe had to find the demon’s summoner or contractor while it was distracted.

She couldn’t kill the demon alone, but assassins had their methods.

Unlike the teleporting Iron Hook Demon, the Distorted Limb Demon was either freshly summoned or recalled by sacrifice.

It clearly had a master.

Normally, it prioritized healthy, young targets over disabled or sick ones. Aiwas, in his wheelchair, wouldn’t be its focus unless controlled.

Its delayed, sluggish limb morphing—unlike a natural demon’s instincts—suggested human control, slowing its reactions. Without this, Gordon would’ve been skewered in rounds.

Gordon was holding his own, but not for long.

With his griffin, he could kite for hours. But grounded, protecting civilians, he was at a disadvantage.

The demon scholar, still adjusting to the demon’s body, would soon overpower him.

Chloe had to kill the contractor before Gordon fell, forcing the demon’s banishment.

With so many on the second floor, how to find the summoner?

[Why bother distinguishing? I’m not Avalonian—just kill anyone suspicious.]

She’d confirm first but wait to strike.

Let Gordon and Aiwas die, then kill all suspects. [I’m not getting chased again. No more life-saving tools—I need to be cautious.]

Once the slaughter thinned, she’d kill the scholar and escape.

Slipping from the camera’s shadow amid the chaos, Chloe glided underfoot to the second floor.

Demon scholars worked in pairs. She quickly found the apprentice—the girl with the “Eyes of Fear” jar, rebuffed by magic.

Made from twenty fresh human eyeballs of those who died in fear, infused with dark mana, it caused panic and chaos within thirty meters when shattered.

A low-level ritual spell, but practical, disrupting even high-tier superhumans’ willpower.

Chloe had bought one from the Pelican Bar’s wild elf bartender before its closure.

Used well, it enabled high-level assassinations.

She’d wasted hers escaping days ago.

[Throwing it outright? It’s for traps!]

At this height, it’d panic low-tier superhumans below, but the thrower would be affected too. [Only a few meters from the second floor—newbie?]

[An expendable pawn?]

The mentor likely thought they could escape, but no demon scholar could flee griffin knights.

[Unless someone in the capital, like the Trade Minister, is sheltering them.]

[Got impatient, huh? I deserve some credit…]

Chloe’s gaze shifted to the opposite second-floor side.

The apprentice’s exposure revealed the mentor’s likely position—opposite, at least thirty meters away, up to forty-five with throw distance.

She’d locked their area.

Then, the demon grew agitated, shifting its focus from Gordon to Aiwas, taking two sword hits to charge him.

[What are you doing, demon?!] Chloe fumed from the shadows. [Keep pressing Gordon—he’s almost done! If a priest heals him with light, he’ll recover!]

As she considered a poisoned dart to Gordon’s back during healing, she froze.

A dazzling glow erupted, enveloping the club.

Aiwas, wielding a fire-and-light-surging holy sword, sliced off the demon’s arm with ease!

The demon howled like a wounded wolf, retreating, black smoke rising from its wound, golden-red cracks spreading slowly.

[A holy weapon!]

Only a holy weapon could so easily sever an upper-tier demon’s body.

[His trump card!]

Chloe’s pupils contracted, first relieved she hadn’t acted, then consumed by greed.

[I want it! I it!]

One step from the fifth tier, having killed over fifty nobles and high-tier superhumans, she’d only seen her “Eagle Eye” leader wield a holy weapon.

As greed surged, her soul’s emerald Adaptation glow darkened with a shadow-like tinge—Love path influence.

She noticed a plain middle-aged man opposite the petrified apprentice, crying out, trembling as if waking from a nightmare.

[The contractor!]

Edward, watching the second floor, spotted him too, shouting “[Arrest]!” and suspending him.

Other legal mages, unaware but quick, piled on commands: [Still], [Silence], [Arrest], [Search], [Shackles], [Cage].

Non-lethal, the spells wrapped the man in dazzling silver chains and cuffs, immobilizing him instantly.

The mages relaxed, thinking the enemy caught.

But Mea, alarmed, shouted, “Kill him, now!”

Before her words landed, the one-armed, shrunken demon roared wolf-like, its speed surging.

Ignoring Gordon, it launched a thunderous assault on Aiwas, who’d just wounded it!

(Chapter End)