"Bang!"
The handle of the umbrella ferociously smashed Mark's chin. As he was about to fall backwards, he took two steps back to balance his body. Then another "bang", the umbrella handle struck him directly on the side of the neck. Mark collapsed onto the ground, unconscious.
Shiller walked forward with the umbrella in hand, intending to check Mark's condition, but he heard the rustling noise behind him.
Shiller stopped, drove the tip of his umbrella into the ground, turned around, and saw the previously impaled Arthur with a purple glow floating on his body. His eyes and the wounds left by Shiller were also radiating this type of glow.
Where the light emerged was like large spotlights. You could clearly see the trajectory of the light beams in the darkness. Arthur floated up slowly, straightened his body in mid-air, and the staff ornamented with a crocodile head flew back into his hand. When he re-opened his eyes in mid-air, his long hair danced even without wind.
Arthur landed, slowly raised his head, took a deep breath, and all the wounds on his body were gone. If it wasn't for the blood on his clothes revealing that he had died once, no one would be able to tell what he had just experienced.
With the umbrella in hand, Shiller stood across from him and observed this peculiar resurrection ceremony. When he had pulled his umbrella knife from Arthur's throat, he was absolutely certain that Arthur had been killed by him. There was no possibility of playing dead. But just now, he resurrected again.
At this moment, Shiller saw the terrifyingly huge figure of Khonsu appear behind Arthur. He opened his falcon's mouth and communicated some information to Shiller:
"The Egyptian gods have the power to govern life and death. When a human body dies but the soul does not move to the other side, they can be resurrected. Amit has such power, and so do I..."
"Do not attempt to kill him, but control him, trap him, and seal him away, just as we did to Amit..."
The voice of the Moon God always carries a certain ethereal echo, as if it comes from the moonlight, but Shiller gave no response. He just kept staring at Arthur.
Khonsu began to hesitate. He felt like he had made a wrong choice. He needed a person who could fight, not one who only knew how to brawl.
The indifference in Shiller's eyes told Khonsu that he had no intentions of heeding his advice and still wanted to kill Arthur.
However, for some reason Khonsu didn't try to stop him. He just simply disappeared. At the same time, Arthur lifted his scepter high. The crocodile head balance on the scepter began to make clicking noises and swung non-stop.
The balance tattoo on Arthur's arm also began to swing. He shouted, "I will judge you! Sinner!"
The crocodile balance started to swing more violently, showing no intention of stopping. Shiller just stood there, quietly watching him perform. After the atmosphere calmed down and become a bit awkward, Arthur, somewhat confused, held his scepter up to his eye and tried to hold the shaking crocodile head down with his other hand.
However, no matter what he did, the crocodile head showed no signs of stopping. The heads on both sides of the scepter swing faster and faster, almost leaving an afterimage. Arthur kept shouting into the air: "Stop! Stop! Keep the balance! Judge him!"
After performing a one-man-show for a long time, he finally noticed something wrong. Arthur gritted his teeth and, holding the now slightly uncontrollable scepter in both hands, said, "Grant me the power to judge him!"
"Zing--"
The metallic glinted umbrella knife clashed with the crocodile head at the top of the scepter. Arthur switched his scepter to his other hand, crossed both arms to fend off another stab. His eyes glow, revealing a ghostly shadow of the crocodile face.
Magical glow emanated from the top of the staff. Arthur, who initially looked very cultured, seemed fierce now, wielding the staff as if it was a sword. He raised the scepter high with the crocodile head facing downwards, and stabbed towards Shiller's shoulder which was merely inches away.
"Bang!"
The umbrella popped open, the sharp magical luster drew a line across the umbrella's surface with the exotic snake skin pattern, the friction produced a rather ear-piercing noise, but the staff failed to leave any marks.
Arthur, fixating his gaze on the location of impact, saw the snake skin patterns on the umbrella surface resisting his attack began to rotate eerily, containing a power that confuses the mind.
At the moment he hesitated, the umbrella was closed, and the knife struck out again. "Rip"--, the blade traversed from the collarbone on the side of the neck to the underarm, and blood flowed like a river.
The edge was so sharp that the wound didn't spurt blood immediately as it sprung open. For a brief moment, one could see the fascia covering the bone. Only when the blood exploded out was a scene of indistinguishable flesh left.
Yet Arthur did not scream in pain, he only let out a low growl. Shiller, having scored a strike, didn't charge forward again, but instead, fell back a couple of steps.
He curiously watched Arthur's reaction. Apparently, this was not normal.
Although not everyone screams when they get hurt, people facing pain usually show many stress reactions, such as instantly contracting muscles, curling up, covering the wounds, and even Mark, a well-trained agent, could assume a defensive posture in the shortest time after being injured. However, there'd always being a moment of delay. This was human instinct.
But Arthur didn't. The low growl he let out was more like being frustrated with his defence failing, rather than feeling pain from the wound.
The glow erupted from the wound again, and before long, the wound created by Shiller healed up.
Arthur gave a mocking smile and said, "You want to defeat a devout practitioner with pain? You're dreaming!"
"You don't feel pain?"
Shiller asked in a strange tone once again.
"Devout faith, fearless of all pain!" Arthur raised his scepter and shouted, "The ability to judge sinners is the cure for all wounds!"
After his declaration, Arthur noticed that Shiller was still expressionlessly staring at him. He felt somewhat annoyed, because from the beginning till now, it was like he was the only one performing, as if the man standing in front of him was not his co-actor, but a spectator in the audience.
Shiller's detached demeanor ignited Arthur's fury. Just as he was about to say something to provoke Shiller further, a black shadow he could scarcely see whizzed past him.
As the blade sliced through the air, the gleam it emitted was brighter than the moonlight overhead, creating ripples in the atmosphere much like the aftermath of an oar slashing through water.
With a hiss, the tip of the blade plunged into Arthur's shoulder, gliding along the eerie patterns on the umbrella, revealing a white, delicate hand gripping the handle. The well-maintained fingers did not seem to belong to a professional killer.
There was no horror when this hand held a pen, yet now it evoked an overwhelming sense of dread. With veins bulging from his arm onto his hand, Shiller twisted the blade, withdrawing the umbrella knife, and slashed downward again.
With a snap, Arthur's right arm broke off at the shoulder, along with the scepter in his hand, sending them flying.
Arthur's mouth agape, he clutched his bare shoulder while Shiller took two steps back, observing his reaction.
He was certain now. Arthur's lack of pain response was not due to his claim that belief could heal all pain, but rather because he was indeed incapable of feeling pain.
Arthur turned, his face pale and distorted, toward the arm and scepter which had been flung away. His flowing hair framed his face, making him resemble a wild-haired hobgoblin. Meanwhile, his limb stump sparked with light.
Shiller took note that during the process of bodily restoration, the light emitted was stronger and took longer than before.
Once Arthur's arm had restored, he beckoned, and his scepter flew back into his grasp. He realized that the man before him was a lunatic killer, that reasoning was impossible. Hence, he decided to abandon his usual believer-indoctrination prattle.
Bending his knee slightly, he leapt into the air, flew a distance backwards, and lengthened the distance between him and Shiller. The tip of his scepter flashed with a purple light.
In front of Shiller, a purple magic array appeared, and a grotesque hand stretched out from the ground, clawing fiercely.
Just then, a blade descended from the sky, piercing straight through the monstrous hand. The blade was withdrawn, a parallel slash executed. The hand was severed, black blood spraying everywhere.
A monster's cries of agony echoed as it pulled its arm back. Left all at sea, Arthur clutched onto his scepter tightly as the purple glow grew denser.
The severed wound on the monster's hand began to emit a purple light, indicating the start of restoration attempts.
This time, the monster was clever not to have any sort of prelude to its resurrection. It intended to crawl out from the magic array directly.
However, the magic array had appeared on the ground, and the creature would likely appear headfirst. Its emergence couldn't possibly be upside down.
The summoned jackal's head barely peeked through the magic array when a blade swooshed past.
With a snip, the jackal's head was sent flying, landing before Arthur, its momentum causing it to roll around several times, eyes wide open in a resentful death glare.
Shiller once again withdrew the umbrella knife and looked at Arthur. Arthur stood there, swallowing hard, raising his scepter again, pointing it at Shiller and yelled, "You murderous devil! You forced my hand..."
Arthur muttered in ancient Egyptian, begging for strength it seemed. Instantly, the top of his scepter shone brightly, casting a purple light. Several magic arrays appeared a few meters away from Shiller.
The speed of the magic arrays increased perceptibly, and dozens of jackals leapt out, slowly closing in on Shiller.
Shiller stood motionless, but he retracted the blade from the tip of his umbrella, used the tip to strike the ground, and said: "Wake up."
As his gaze shifted, the previously unconscious Mark was stirring – or, more accurately, it wasn't Mark, but the alternate personality hidden in his body, - Jack.
As Jack stood up, he instinctively rubbed his chin where he felt a faint pain. This didn't deter him; instead, it stimulated him.
Likewise Mark, along with every other agent, wore a stern expression with cold eyes. This demeanor often intimidated ordinary people. Each agent would be trained to embody this sharp disposition to counter unforeseen events.
But at this moment, Jack's eyes resembled Shiller's, aloof, gloomy, full of murderous intent, just like every born killer.
Without uttering a word, he outstretched his hands, and bands of moonlight condensed around him, wrapping him up tightly.
This battle suit was unlike Mark's Moonlight Battle Suit. It lacked the mysterious chest plate, the gallant cloak, and the hood. All it had were the mummy-like bandages enveloping his entire body, with only his right eye exposed, radiating a heart-pounding red light.
If one could say that Mark's Moonlight form could be called the Moon Knight, then Jack's Moonlight form could only be called the Moonlight murderer.
His actions lived up to his terrifying reputation. His hands clenched in mid-air as two long curved knives appeared. With the silver light twinkling and the blades crossing, one of the knives plunged into a jackal monster's chest with a swish.
When the curved knife was pulled out, the eerie purple light reappeared. The wound on the jackal's chest healed quickly. Jack took two steps back, squinting his lone exposed eye as though lost in thought.
But clearly, someone had already found the answer for him. Holding the umbrella knife, Shiller didn't look at the jackal monsters. He was fixated on Arthur. The moment his strange, eerie voice rang out, the mayhem blossomed like a field of flowers.
"Tear them apart."