Jack observed the basement. Unbothered by the thick smoke. It was a massive space. Filled with stone pillars and crates. And panicked people.

  Three factions were here. The Undeath Sect. The Purity Cult. And the Eternal Soul Cult... And they were like a hornet's nest that had just been poked with a red-hot iron.

  Bolts of necrotic energy hissed through the smoke. Fired blindly by the Undeath Sect warlocks.

  "Intruders!" Someone screamed. Likely an Eternal Soul member.

  "The Eternal Soul has been betrayed!" Another voice shrieked. Followed by the sound of a blade burying itself in meat.

  The confusion totally engulfed the place. The cultists were already suspicious of one another. The smoke just triggered the switch to act on their paranoia.

  Jack felt a ripple in the air to his left. He could sense it. Yara Noire had arrived. Moving through the haze like a predatory fish in murky water.

  Jack didn't focus on her though. Or on the other regular cult members in the location. Instead, he activated his [Eyes of Judgement].

  Immediately, the world was overlaid with myriad numbers of information and raw data. Names, affiliations, and statuses hovered over the heads of the combatants.

  Jack filtered most information. He was trying to find a specific target. And, he found it. He saw a pulse of green, valuable radiance coming from the far corner of the room. The place where the eight Purity Cultists had rallied.

  A man stood there. Calm amidst the carnage. He was not the representative of the Purity Cult who talked in the meeting. He looked like a normal follower instead. One who closed his eyes and was deep in a fanatical prayer at the moment.

  Jack's judgement vision zoomed in. Giving him important information. Underneath the man's white cloak, on the skin of his back, a complex geometric tattoo glowed with a sickeningly unholy light.

  It wasn't just a normal tattoo. It was a distorted spatial tattoo that sealed a great relic. One of his main targets in this operation. The one his special sight identified as the... [Aberrant Anchor].

  The pieces of information flickered in Jack's mind. The [Aberrant Anchor] was a relic that phased anyone bound to it slightly out of the current reality. And all eight Purity Cultists were currently bound to it.

  To any attacker, the Purity Cultists looked like they were there. But blades would pass through them. And spells wouldn't be able to harm them. As long as the relic was in the tattoo and they were in its effective range, they were effectively undamageable.

  "Love! Illusion cover." Jack commanded in low whisper.

  Reina didn't ask why. She raised her hands. And a thicker veil of illusionary fog draped over them. To anyone else in the room, they were now just a patch of swirling smoke and shadow.

  Jack activated his [Incarnation Shift].

  His body instantly shrank. His bones clicked and rearranged themselves in incredible speed. Just within a blink of an eye, he turned into a doll-sized puppet. With its signature carved pumpkin head, wizard hat, and high-collar mantle.

  He was no longer Jack Night, the human mercenary. He was now... Jack Lantern. The Devil Puppet. The Bizarre Puppeteer.

  He summoned a dark pearl. With a simple flick, it quickly transformed into a doll like figure. A puppet that looked like a green, baby-ninja monkey. Envy.

  Jack poured his energy into the puppet. Commanding it mentally to activate his [Camouflage Aura]. Immediately. Envy became one with the background. A vacuum of presence.

  Following Jack's next mental command, the puppet scurried across the floor. Its wooden and metal joints were surprisingly silent. It moved past a scaled primal sorcerer who was in combat with an acolyte from the Purity Cult. And slipped behind the artifact holder.

  Envy reached out with his bladed arm. His [Treasure Theft] bizarre skill was instantly activated.

  This wasn't a physical pickpocketing. It was a conceptual snatch. The [Aberrant Anchor] was bound to the cultist's soul via the Spatial Tattoo. Normally, it would take a ritual to remove.

  But Envy's skill didn't care about rituals. It bypassed the seal. Directly into the ethereal space where the relic was anchored.

  With a sharp yank, the glow on the cultist's back vanished. The man gasped. His eyes opened wide as he felt a piece of his possession being torn away. He turned around but saw nothing.

  Envy had slipped away. Back in its camouflaged state. Carrying a full sized anchor that was far too big for the doll-sized puppet. The big anchor should attract attention. Yet, it didn't, as it was also camouflaged.

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  The bizarre puppet didn't stop. Jack's triangular eyes on his pumpkin head were already on his second target... the leader of the Eternal Soul Cult.

  This cult leader was now carrying a lantern made out of moonstone on his waist. It was the [Azure Moon Lantern]. This one was Jack's next target.

  Envy leaped easily across the chaotic basement. The puppet was invisible. But Jack could still see it. A blur of mismatched size... of its tiny body and the big anchor it carried.

  The Eternal Soul leader was busy chanting a defensive ward when Envy landed behind him. He didn't seem to notice it at all.

  Jack mentally commanded Envy to use [Treasure Theft] again. The ninja puppet's free arm was pointed at the target's waist.

  The lantern vanished from the leader's waist. Appearing instantly in Envy's wooden arms.

  The puppet didn't hang around. It scurried back toward Jack while the Eternal Soul leader was still busy fighting the Purity Cult's fallen acolytes.

  The puppet weaved through the chaotic mess of the confused combatants. Back to Jack. Unhindered by the smoke that got thicker and thicker the longer the chaos happened.

  Jack looked at the puppet and the two relics. He didn't want to carry these hot potatoes while fighting. He needed to store them.

  He spotted a broken piece of a silver dagger lying on the floor. Its reflective surface was small. But it was enough. Jack touched the fragment and activated his [Mythical Mirror Realm].

  The surface of the shard rippled like water. Jack grabbed Envy's arm and shoved himself, the puppet and the two relics into the reflection.

  They slipped into the Mirror Mansion. His private, extra-dimensional storage and sanctuary. Without any hesitation, Jack dropped the [Aberrant Anchor] and the [Azure Moon Lantern] randomly in the mansion. They would be safe there. They should.

  "Good job, Envy." Jack praised the puppet as he retracted it back to its pearl form.

  Jack reversed his transformation. [Incarnation Shift]. His puppet body swelled as he instantly grew back into his human mercenary form. He felt the rush of his physical strength returning. He could again feel the familiar weight of his equipment.

  Envy disappeared as Jack transformed. Only his devil puppet incarnation could accommodate any bizarre puppet.

  Jack glanced at the two relics. He restrained his desire to analyze the relics and acquire treasure spellcards from them. The fight wasn't over yet.

  [Mythical Mirror Realm]! He returned back to the foggy basement. And he immediately realized that the situation drastically changed. His action of stealing and putting the relics in his Mirror Mansion had created much greater impacts than what he had expected.

  The Purity Cult lost their invulnerability. It seemed that they were considered out of range. Too far away from the [Aberrant Anchor] to make use of its effect.

  But, at the same time, the suppression from [Azure Moon Lantern] also disappeared. Giving back the full power of the two eldritch warlocks from the Undeath Sect and the six remaining acolytes from the Purity Cult.

  At the same time, the heavy smoke started to overwhelm most of the transcendent people in the basement. It was not just visual obstruction anymore now. It started to affect their respiration system.

  Transcendent ones had stronger resistance to smoke and air pollution than normal people. But very few were truly immune to them like Jack and Reina.

  These overwhelmed cultists charged out of the underground level through the two exit points. But Jack could hear explosion and gun shots from above. The escaping cultists were being slaughtered by the sheer number of the Mercenary Union members waiting up there.

  The Undeath Sect warlocks were still in the basement. Their bodies were covered by undead armors made of cracked bones and rotten flesh.

  The armors didn't help them much. As their opponent was Reina. Using her fog magic power, she practically strangled the two and forced them to slowly die. Killed by suffocation.

  Jack could also sense Yara Noire moving behind a Purity Cult acolyte and sliced his throat. Before disappearing back into the shadows.

  The leader of the Eternal Soul Cult roared loudly. Attracting Jack's attention. The masked man's aura was contorted in unbridled rage. He had discovered that his lantern relic was gone.

  "Where is it? Who dare take the Lantern? Bastard!" He shrieked uncontrollably.

  Jack moved. Charging to the man's direction. His movement wasn't like Reina's graceful blink steps, nor Yara Noire's stealthy maneuver. His was the blunt, direct charge of a straightforward predator.

  He stopped directly behind the Eternal Soul Cult leader, who was too consumed by his missing artifact to sense the imminent threat.

  "Looking for something?" Jack asked. His voice was low and calm. Not threatening at all.

  However, it made the leader spun around in shock. The masked man's eyes went wide, startled. Black flame burst out of his hands.

  But, before he could react further, a fist connected with his jaw. It wasn't a powerful, bone-shattering blow. It was a precise uppercut. The kind of strike that disoriented the mind and rattled the skull.

  The man stumbled back. His eyes were unfocused.

  Jack stepped in again. His movements were fluid. His elbow slammed into the leader's solar plexus. Stealing his breath. The cultist doubled over. Wheezing.

  Jack quickly realized that. this 'leader' was weak. That black flaming hands were just... visual effect. Even without his shotgun, he could beat this leader easily. A weak transcendent man like him dared to plan a scheme that aimed to massacre so many people?

  Jack grabbed the masked man by the collar of his expensive looking shirt. Lifting him roughly.

  "Your little ghost ship plan just got dismantled... Ugly Bastard!" Jack snarled. His eyes were burning with a cold fury.

  He delivered another, more brutal strike. Aimed squarely at the masked man's temple. The cult leader's eyes rolled back. And he slumped unconscious in Jack's grip.

  Jack's sight suddenly caught a glint in the man's finger. A ring. A nobleman's ring. A piece of memory nudged his mind. The simple few words from Lady Gemrose... 'The owner of that factory... That's Baron Baggourd, isn't it?'

  This should be Baron Baggourd or one related to him. That should be why a weak transcendent man like him could be the leader. It was definitely through bribery.

  Jack originally planned to capture him for interrogation. But he changed his mind. He had heard many stories of noblemen escaping punishment because of his 'noble' status. He didn't want it to happen to this guy.

  His [Eyes of Judgement] flashed. Informing him that he was right. This man was Baron Baggourd. A member of the Eternal Soul Cult and its branch leader in Sapphire City. He was also a man with very dark karma. With numerous sins ranging from mass murder to sexual abuse of... children.

  Jack glared at the nobleman. And then, he looked at the man's dagger. Sheathed on his waist. He grabbed it and drew it. A ceremonial dagger, not exactly an effective weapon. But it was enough...

  He raised the dagger and stabbed the baron's chest with full power. The dull blade pierced the skin, flesh, and... heart. Ending the nobleman's life instantly.

  Jack dropped the man's body and spitted on the ground. The bastard was lucky to die so easily.