Around nine p.m., Sienna and Chris returned. Sienna came back with a huge pack. Seeing everyone in the living room, she tossed it onto the ground."I"m so tired. Chen, reimburse this."
Chen Zhao accepted Sienna"s bill and felt a headache coming. "Eight thousand nine hundred dollars? What kind of bill is this?"
"Processing fee for special bullets."
Chen Zhao was in pain. He had to put in money to help people these days. The tens of thousands that he"d earned this past three months was emptied in two days.
Sienna rummaged through the bag and took out some clips of bullets. "David, try it with your gun. See if it works."
"I have a gun too." Fali jogged to her room and came out with a gun.
And Chris happened to have a gun too.
Chen Zhao was speechless. "You all have guns?"
"Is it strange?"
"My gun can use these clips too."
"Mine too." Chris aimed everywhere with her gun.
"Don"t point it at me. You can kill someone." Chen Zhao hurriedly dodged the muzzle.
These bullets were made from angelic crystals. They were mainly used against supernatural beings, but they could hurt humans too.
"Fali, you and Chris partner up. Don"t run around."
Everyone looked at Chen Zhao. "Are we going now?"
"Wait," Chen Zhao said. "Just a bit more."
"Wait for what?"
"The time isn"t right."
"This should be the best timing," Sienna said in confusion. "It"s four hours until midnight. The old witch will become much stronger between 12 and one a.m."
"My helper isn"t here yet," Chen Zhao said.
"Helper? You have a helper?"
"It"s the thing that you can"t see."
"Uh…isn"t he always beside you?"
"No. He has his own activity time."
They couldn"t understand. They thought that the thing protecting Chen Zhao was like his pet. He should be beside Chen Zhao at any time. They couldn"t comprehend his answer.
Blackie hadn"t come back yet. Chen Zhao had to wait for him to act together.
Blackie couldn"t deal with Winry when she was in the ghoul state, but if he destroyed Winry"s ghoul body, then he could attack the evil spirit.
Thankfully, Blackie didn"t make them wait too long. He came back after half an hour.
"Okay, my helper is here," Chen Zhao said. "We can set off."
"You mean that the thing is beside us now?" Sienna looked around curiously. Unfortunately, she couldn"t see or feel anything.
"Yes."
"Can you tell him to let us see?"
"I"m afraid not." Chen Zhao shook his head.
Blackie still couldn"t appear before people, but Chen Zhao remembered that Ethan had seen him through the rearview mirror when they"d driven back from looking for Blackie.
Chen Zhao couldn"t figure out why Ethan was able to see him. Blackie didn"t understand why a regular guy saw him either.
However, that accident only happened once. It never happened again when Blackie rode in Ethan"s car.
Beelzebub, Raymond, Walter, and Carrie were left at home to protect Chris and Fali. They couldn"t protect themselves and could be a burden to take around. It also wasn"t safe for them to stay home alone, so the little demons had to stay with them.
…
David and Sienna came to Winry"s house. The building was like a witch"s home from a movie—a sharp point in the night sky.
Even though it was night, a crow was still on the roof, cawing hoa.r.s.ely.
David gulped. His grip tightened subconsciously around his gun. "This place doesn"t feel right. You and Chen are spiritualists, but the place you live doesn"t have this feeling."
Sienna didn"t feel comfortable either. "Stay sharp and follow our plan."
"I know."
David followed behind Sienna as she knocked on the door. A moment later, the door opened. A stooped figure stood inside the door.
The lights weren"t on, so the surroundings weren"t clear. However, a rotten smell flooded out of the house. Sienna stepped back in disgust.
The figure took a step forward instead. "Little girl," Winry said in her strange voice. "You smell like magic."
Sienna"s eyebrow arched. She immediately threw a bottle at Winry. The liquid inside s.h.i.+mmered as if it was fluorescent.
Winry grabbed the bottle easily. "Tsk…holy water? Little girl, who"s your teacher? Don"t you know that holy water is meaningless to a fellow witch like me?"
The bottle exploded and the liquid splashed onto her right arm. Pain seized her. Winry"s entire arm started wilting with a shocking speed.
"Ah…this isn"t holy water… I will kill you all!"
David whipped his gun out and fired at Winry.
The witch flashed and dodged the bullet with surprising speed. She slammed into David"s chest. It felt like he"d been hit by a car and he flew out.
Sienna threw two more bottles of holy water. Winry didn"t try to catch them again and retreated quickly instead.
Just as she attacked Sienna, there was a gunshot. David had fired again from the ground.
"Ah…" A bullet hit Winry"s left thigh. She practically lost feeling in that leg.
She jumped and disappeared within the deep and dark door.
"David, you alright?"
He stood up with difficulty. "I"m okay. Did the old witch escape?"
"I don"t know. Let"s go in and look."
Winry"s house had no electrical appliances or even light. Thankfully, David prepared a flashlight, but this was the old witch"s lair, so they didn"t dare have any mishaps. They nudged forward cautiously.
Suddenly, Sienna seemed to kick something. "David, move the light here. There"s something under my feet."
"A body! It"s a body!"
Under the flashlight, the two finally saw a dried corpse clearly.
Crash—
David b.u.mped into a shelf and something shattered.
"What did you break?"
"Blood! It"s all blood…oh G.o.d…" David"s feet were covered in blood.
The house was instantly filled with a b.l.o.o.d.y scent.