Nellie looked at Hewitt with an apologetic expression:
"I'm sorry for getting you involved in this because of Jimmy's issues. He just can't accept the fact that he lost his father, so he's a bit out of control."
Hewitt didn't blame her too much:
"I understand. After all, he's just an ordinary child. I'm used to this kind of thing, cough, cough, cough..."
The demon hunter covered his mouth with his right hand, keeping the blood on his leather glove.
Nellie asked with concern:
"What's wrong with you?"
Hewitt answered:
"I just got a little hurt earlier, I'll be fine after some rest."
Although this would be considered a minor injury by human standards, Hewitt still had an old ailment in his heart.
But in reality, it was just the decaying blood leaving his body, much like humans need to breathe. Hewitt also needed to expel the blood from his body.
These impurities were usually stored in a device in his chest.
"I'll go look for Ogden again and see if those two people took him away. When I leave, don't open the door for anyone, no matter who comes. As long as you don't open the door, no one can harm you."
Hewitt then walked up to Hela, slipped a bracelet off his right hand, and placed it on the girl's slender right arm, specifically instructing her:
"If you encounter any bad people, touch this bracelet and silently say 'Thrasir', then the bad people won't be able to harm you."
Then Hewitt looked at Nellie, the only one who remained calm besides Hela:
"Whatever you do, don't open the door after I leave. Otherwise, I won't be able to save you."
After bidding farewell to everyone, he left the basement alone.
The demon hunter lit a carbon filament bulb and undressed in the empty room, taking off his coat and lining to reveal his muscular chest.
Although not very noticeable, Hewitt had some muscle contours on his body, a slight remnant of his time as a demon hunter.
There was a gunshot wound on the left side of his chest, but it was almost healed now, and the scar was not very noticeable. The demon hunter took a small knife from his waistband and gently made an incision on the inner left side of his chest.
He intended to remove the foreign object from his body.
Hewitt removed his glove and placed his hand on the incision. The shallow wound suddenly seemed to come alive, expanding on its own as his fingertips touched his body.
His slender fingers smoothly inserted into the wound, which continued to widen and stretch. The demon hunter, relying on his understanding of the human body, avoided most of the areas that shouldn't be touched.
A little deeper, a little deeper...he touched it. The cold metallic sensation, an indispensable part for most vertebrates, the never-ending pulsation.
Click.
The sound of the connection breaking echoed as Hewitt pulled out his own heart.
His pale hand left the gap, but the gap continued to expand and contract, as if waiting for something.
This heart was not red, nor did it have familiar valves and chambers. If any ordinary human tried to replace their own heart with it, the result would be death due to a lack of blood in the brain.
Hewitt stuffed a shiny silver metal replacement on the table back into the wound, and his face regained its color. When he pulled his hand out of the gap, the separated flesh healed quickly at a visible speed, as if nothing had happened.
The mechanical heart he had removed was on the messy table. Unlike the brand-new replacement he had just put in, this old heart looked rotten, with a disgusting hollow right in the middle.
A gunshot hole.
The old demon hunter heaved a sigh.
He had deceived Nelson.
The pistol had no ability to swallow souls at all, he hadn't even been able to inscribe the curse in time. If they couldn't resolve the matter immediately, the others might kill Ogden first.
But just now, he hadn't been able to find Ogden and Peter.
This was somewhat strange.
The demon hunter had aged, and it was no longer his era.
If it was in the past, he only needed to wave his hand and the entire White Lion Club would vanish like evaporating ashes at the material level.
The demon hunter's expression was filled with sighing and lament.
But now he was no longer as he once was, so he needed to use his brain a bit more to achieve his goal without revealing his identity.
Even now, with his power in decline, the demon hunter still had his own confidence.
Not to mention, this wasn't the first time he had been in such a situation. In his long life, he had been defeated, lost his power, and fell into desperate straits countless times.
He couldn't recall how many enemies many times stronger than him he had killed in adversity.
The worst outcome would be death and then spending a few hundred years returning to the human world from the lost heart. Perhaps some strange fellow would revive him before that.
However, the demon hunter couldn't help but laugh helplessly. If only the important things in this world were life and death, victory and defeat, he could easily kill people with the forbidden items in his possession.
For example, a key that permanently overlaps an area with a shadow world, where no living beings in that area would survive.
But if he wanted to use this key to kill Nelson and Peter, the cost would be the souls of everyone in Dawnshire Town and the surrounding area. Evacuating the residents would be difficult without alerting the enemy to the anomaly.
Furthermore, this would attract many of his old friends to investigate, and in their eyes, he had been dead for a long time. Not to mention how troublesome it would be if his past enemies found out about this.
He had already retired and did not want to fight and kill anymore.
However, Hewitt still needed to deal with potential troubles first. And he also had his sights set on Nelson and Peter.
Hewitt had immediately recognized Nelson's condition; he must have had a blood transfusion and it was the blood of a Frost Giant.
And perhaps the White Lion Club possessed the corpse of a Frost Giant, or even the heart of a Frost Giant.
Back then, the residents of Niflheim had waged war against the gods of Asgard. Although the outcome was the Aesir Gods' nearly eternal rule over Oberlia and Father of Gods, Wild Hunt King Odin's unshakeable kingship.
But those Frost Giants, exiled to Uttingham, caused great harm to the Warner Clan and Aesir Gods, even establishing a Giant's kingdom there.
A Heart of Frost Giant might allow Hewitt to go without a substitute for a long time.
If given the chance, Hewitt hoped to obtain that heart without violence or harming others. He wouldn't rush into things; his current desire was for a lengthy and peaceful retirement. The Heart of Frost Giant was just a tool to bring him closer to his goal, and it would be ridiculous to destroy the goal in the process of achieving it.
Hewitt put on the clothing specialized for hunting demons, filling every pouch on his body with magical tools.
At his waist, he carried twin blades capable of tearing through real Frost Giant flesh yet would cause the user to commit suicide. He wore a necklace in front of his chest that made him fearless of arrows and bullets but at the cost of never finding true love. He also wore a coat impervious to blades, with no side effects other than being a bit expensive.
Finally, carrying the shotgun that could swallow souls, the demon hunter considered himself fully prepared.
The demon hunter never waited for prey to come to him voluntarily.