Hiding in the shadows, Croix was taken aback.
Although she had known before coming that the Noble Red Society planned to exact revenge on Aiwass—the scale of this retribution was way too large, wasn't it?
Princess Isabel was still inside, and there were a large number of officials and businessmen. The Supervisory Bureau and the Supervisory Court were also present... were they abandoning all pretense?
Before, Croix had wondered how they were going to assassinate Aiwass with such tight security around here?
But when she saw the Aberrant Limb Demon being forcefully summoned back using a sacrifice, she started to lose her composure.
Great, Aiwass was surely not going to survive this one, and it would not be her turn to perform the assassination.
The problem now was that she might not be able to escape either.
An Upper-Level Demon was at least a fifth energy-level creature. There were probably fewer than a handful of fifth energy-level Transcendents in the whole of Avalon who could confront them head-on and win.
The Aberrant Limb Demon was the weakest of the Upper-Level Demons. Due to its low intelligence and lack of particularly complex abilities, it was the easiest to make a pact with and the most commonly known Upper-Level Demon.
Even Croix wouldn't dare to provoke the Aberrant Limb Demon.
Its limbs and organs could deform at will, meaning an assassin's "vital strike" was essentially ineffective against it.
It was also immune to curses and toxins, highly resistant to both decrees and petrification, and added to that the strength to match Gordon's and the ability to match Croix's speed, as well as the vigorous energy that hardly ever tired and a powerful life force that could regenerate indefinitely unless a limb was severed...
The Aberrant Limb Demon may not have the other Upper-Level Demons' peculiar and complex special abilities, but it hardly needed them. This was strength in its simple, brute form—the type of enemy that assassins most hated to encounter: impossible to outrun, impossible to overcome, impossible to kill, impossible to withstand.
Unless Croix could successfully advance to the fifth energy level, being targeted and pursued meant certain death. This was far scarier than the Supervisory Bureau.
So when she saw the Aberrant Limb Demon, her first instinct was to run fast.
If the Aberrant Limb Demon roamed chaotically, passing by Croix, it could easily pluck her out of the shadows.
But she couldn't even run away!
Because those damned Legal Mages had gone and sealed the walls... She used to have tools specially made for breaking barriers, but she had used them up a few days ago. Now, she had to wait for them to lift the seal before she could leave. The problem wasn't too big, after all, Princess Isabel was also trapped, so they had to let her out, right?
But she soon gave up the thought.
Because those Demon Scholars had obviously set up the ritual here in advance, sealing the walls and activating a barrier to prevent entry and exit. Even the Legal Mages who had placed the seals couldn't undo them...
Not to mention the ordinary people on the second floor, even Princess Isabel couldn't escape for the time being. The only one who could easily slice through the Demon Wall was Gordon of the Sky Cavalry, but now he was entangled with the Aberrant Limb Demon.
"You Avalonians really are useless!"
Croix thought bitterly, "Do you really need me, an Iris person, to take action?"
Obviously, a spy had infiltrated the ranks of the Supervisory or the Inspectors preparing the venue. While placing the seals on the wall, he had prepared the Demon Ritual in advance.
That's how prepared Demon Scholars were.
For Transcendents with the profession of Demon Scholar, encounter and ambush battles were not at the same intensity.
...Given the situation, she had to find the summoner or the Contractor of the demon while the Aberrant Limb Demon was restrained.
Indeed, she was no match for the Aberrant Limb Demon, but that was if she faced it alone—an assassin had assassin's methods.
The Aberrant Limb Demon didn't have the teleportation ability like the Hook Demon. Its sudden appearance meant it was either just summoned by someone or called back to its master's side with a sacrifice.
And it clearly had a master.
The attack priority of the Aberrant Limb Demon usually favored normal people over the disabled, and the healthy over the sick. The younger and healthier a person was, the more likely they were to be attacked. Given Aiwass was wheelchair-bound, under normal circumstances, the Aberrant Limb Demon would definitely not attack him first; thus, it must be manually controlled.
This control had a delay; it couldn't allow it to speak or make overly complex movements...
Its limb deformation speed was much slower than that of a normal Aberrant Limb Demon, and its reaction speed was also significantly slower. Otherwise, after a few exchanges, Gordon would have been skewered. There's no way they could fight back and forth as they were doing now.
The controller, after all, was human, without the innate ability to manipulate bodily transformations to dodge attacks at will. Nor would their reaction speed match that of the Aberrant Limb Demon. For a demon , having a brain was clearly a downgrade. But without a brain, precise commands couldn't be issued, and it could only be let to attack indiscriminately with its hatred and loathing for healthy humans.
But even if Gordon could hold on for a while, he wouldn't last long.
If his companion, the Gryphon, were still by his side, and he could take to the air for hit-and-run tactics, perhaps they could hold the enemy back for a few hours.
But, as a cavalryman, a member of an air force unit, he now had to stand his ground alone, fighting the Aberrant Limb Demon head-on to protect the numerous civilians in the club venue. It was also because the Demon Scholar wasn't yet accustomed to the Aberrant Limb Demon's body. Once he got used to it, Gordon's defeat would be inevitable.
Croix had to kill the demon's Contractor before Gordon was defeated. Since the seal had been placed, he must also be inside.