Lama gasped for air, pinned to the vine and powerless to resist anymore.
Patricia finally relaxed and caught her breath.
She started to regain her strength through heavy gasping.
Fortunately, as the demon lost its combat power, the effect of the blackish-red stream draining strength also declined, which saved her from collapsing on the ground.
Enduring her body’s weakness, Patricia called out to her priest beyond the "arena":
"Mr. Morten, I have controlled this demon."
"Can you come in and help?"
Hearing Patricia’s voice, the priest immediately walked over the vine.
When he reached Lama.
The blackish-red stream had also faded to a degree that it no longer affected vision.
Having briefly checked the demon’s condition, the priest shouted to the others:
"Folks, please help buy some time."
"With my current state, it will take about five to ten minutes to completely constrain this demon."
The investigator immediately responded:
"No problem, please go ahead and constrain the demon."
Hearing his companion’s response, the priest no longer paid attention to other matters.
He stepped up to Lama, raised the cross emblem between them, and began to mutter a prayer silently.
"I praise the great Holy Spirit..."
Watching the priest’s actions, Lama immediately felt an unfriendly, holy power emanating from him.
Then, the demon began struggling terribly:
"Human, do you believe your faith is right?"
"Don’t deceive yourself; I can tell you all the truths, unleashing the power that belongs to individual wills!"
In that moment, a white light rose and scorched Lama.
"This reckless behavior of yours is just losing the chance to understand everything."
"You have no idea what you are doing!"
The priest had no intention of heeding the demon’s deception and temptation.
And Lama alone could not escape the blade piercing his body, nor could he cope with the sacred ritual in front of him.
Their eyes met, Lama watched the priest standing quietly in front of the vine, his eyes fixed on him, the muttered prayers unhesitant and continuous.
Soon, a faint white light rose and enveloped both of them.
No more noises were heard.
"Mr. Spencer, thank you very much for your assistance earlier."
Seeing that the priest was working fluidly, Patricia nodded in thanks to Spencer while unconsciously walking toward Ronald.
Glancing at the investigator girl Ronald was carrying on his back, she then asked:
"Ronald, what’s wrong with Miss Nicole?"
"She doesn’t seem to be doing well..."
Ronald pulled his hand back to lower Nicole to the ground, then pointing at the vine behind him, he said:
"This plant maze was created by Nicole just now."
"After performing large scale magic consecutively, she just couldn’t keep up, so now I’m carrying her."
After briefly observing the investigator girl on the ground, Patricia didn’t say much more.
She shifted her gaze to the vine behind.
She steered the conversation towards the next issue to be resolved by everyone:
"Since it was Nicole who created this vine, what happened to the cult magicians we dealt with before?"
"The situation is not optimistic."
At that moment, Spencer stepped forward and took the initiative to answer:
"If things go as expected, that group of cult magicians should catch up soon."
"Miss Patricia, you shouldn’t be fit for combat now, should you?"
Patricia nodded immediately:
"At least not for a short while."
At this point, investigator Kate suggested:
"In that case, we should make some preparations now, some obvious preparations."
"We mustn’t let them have it too easy when that group of cult magicians catches up."
Spencer and Kate, the two investigators, looked at each other.
Then, tacitly nodding, they headed toward the grapevines.
Clearly, when it came to ambushing enemies, these two investigators were professionals.
As for Patricia, who had lost her ability to fight, along with Ronald, who was a temp,
They had automatically been categorized as non-combatants needing protection.
Watching the investigators disappear into the maze of grapevines,
Patricia waited a few breaths before seriously addressing Ronald:
"Ronald, how reactive is your ability?"
"If I remember correctly, you possess strong reconnaissance capabilities, and you can control the opponent’s actions, right?"
With no other men around, Ronald candidly began to explain:
"However, among those cult magicians, my ability only brought down the most unfortunate one."
"There are still thirteen others who can move freely."
"I fear my ability has been leaked to the other side through some channel..."
Hearing Ronald’s words, Patricia frowned unequivocally.
Based on her understanding of the man before her, he was not the type to carelessly expose his abilities.
Then, apart from herself,
Who else in Berengwich knew about Ronald’s real strength?
Noting the doubt in the girl’s eyes, Ronald directly voiced his speculation:
"There must be a mole in the investigative agency, and a high-ranking one at that."
"In all of Berengwich, aside from you and me, only very few enemies are aware of my abilities, and ordinary agents of the mystical side do not have the habit of discussing the scenes of their capture with jailers."
"It must be those cult magicians, describing intelligence in their communications with the mole inside the investigative agency, that led to the exposure of my abilities."
"That does make sense..."
With a mole inside, their situation was indeed quite problematic.
Not to mention her current lack of direct combat capabilities.
Her most handy longsword had pierced the demon’s body, pinning it to the grapevine and could not be retrieved.
As a precaution, she only had two small daggers hidden inside her clothes.
Compared to the longsword suited for swordplay, her effectiveness with daggers was nowhere near as exaggerated as before.
After a brief exchange,
Ronald then picked up Nicole and hid her among the vines in a direction away from the cult magicians.
Although it was a minor action,
This small detail might influence the outcome of the impending battle.
Having hidden the young investigator, Ronald lightly clapped his hands.
With the priest focusing on sealing the demon, only Patricia stood before him.
In such circumstances, he wasn’t about to entrust the decisive chance of fate to the two investigators.
Under the cover of night, before Patricia,
Ronald flicked his wrist, summoning a black tome.