Hunter of Immortals

Chapter 322: Rider of Decay

Ultimately, the fundamental reason why Adam was struggling immensely against Herman was because he was too weak.

However, on the other side, things were progressing far more smoothly.

Raven had secured two leads from Chen Yiran, one of which he had given to Adam, while he had set off to investigate the other one himself.

Of course, as safety precautions, he had brought along Chen Yiran to be his guide, as well as Hebi no Miko, his most powerful ally.

Due to the fact that all three of them were wanted fugitives at the moment, they had all adopted disguises.

Each of them was wearing a colorful exoskeleton, giving them the appearance of a trio of hippies.

Of course, these strange disguises had been provided by none other than Big Genius.

At this moment, the three of them had arrived at the residence of another Lamp Keeper, a man by the name of Phil. In contrast with Herman, this Lamp Keeper was following the mantra of hiding in plain sight, living in a rather chaotic civilian area.

Of course, that didn't mean that he was going to grow complacent or let down his guard.

As a top-tier adapter, he was constantly alert to everything around him, so he immediately felt a sense of peril as soon as the trio began to approach him.

However, he was only able to sense half of the peril that was coming toward him.

Who's there?

A disheveled-looking middle-aged man turned around on the street to discover Raven's trio, and a panicked look appeared on his face.

The reason for his panic was that even though he was an adapter with extremely sharp telegnosis, he was only able to sense one and a half people, even though he was being approached by three.

He was able to detect Chen Yiran as normal, but as for the other two people, he could only sense a hint of the man's aura, while the woman was completely undetectable to him, and that led him to focus all of his attention on the woman.

The woman had colorful paint all over her face, and her body had also undergone some very strange retrofitting procedures, so the Lamp Keeper was unable to identify her.

However, he didn't manage to identify Chen Yiran.

The two of them had met on several past occasions, so he recalled Chen Yiran's appearance very clearly.

"What are you doing here? Are you not afraid of being caught by the special psychic police?" Phil asked as he feigned a composed expression.

He could already tell that the trio had come to him with less-than-friendly intentions, but he was pretending to be oblivious.

If he were to expose them and force their hand, then a direct confrontation would ensue right away, and that was an outcome that he had to avoid as he required some time.

While Phil was speaking to Chen Yiran, he pressed a button that was concealed within his clothes. It was a supersonic device that could send out a signal on a sound frequency that was inaudible to human ears.

"Don't bother. We've already taken care of your subordinates prior to coming here," Raven said as he strode forward and extended his right hand in a friendly manner. "I can tell you now that from this distance, you're not going to be able to get away. Rather than fight in futility, why don't you join us?"

"Who are you?"

"Who are we?" This was a simple question, but Raven was at a slight loss for how to answer it. "Good question. Who exactly are we? Trouble-makers?"

Phil was subtly looking around as Raven was speaking, and all of a sudden, he activated the jetpack on his back in an attempt to get away, but sure enough, his efforts did indeed prove to be futile.

Just as Raven had said, from this distance, no one could get away from an adapter of his caliber.

In the instant that Phil began to activate his jetpack, Raven immediately invaded Phil's psychic world using his mechanical neuron electrical synapse transmitter.

Upon entering the psychic world, Raven adopted his faceless humanoid form with some difficulty, then looked around to find that he had appeared on a massive plot of farmland. All around him was a type of strange plant that he had never seen before.

Judging from the primitive appearance of this plot of farmland, it didn't appear to be situated anywhere on the North American continent.

While Raven was inspecting those strange plants, the sky suddenly turned dark, and a Rider of Decay with a completely rotten body descended alongside the darkness.

The rider was straddled atop a tall horse, which also had a decaying body, and as it descended from the heavens, all of the surrounding plants began to rot away and sprout maggots.

The Rider of Decay was wielding a derelict sword, and as it swooped down from above, it slashed its sword toward Raven's head, in response to which Raven raised an arm and manifested a shield to defend himself.

The sword struck the shield, but there was no metallic clang as one would expect. Instead, the clash produced a dull and muffled thump, much like the sound of a piece of rotten wood striking a pile of cotton.

Immediately thereafter, the shield that was manifested by Raven began to decay and fall away, much like a piece of wood that was being gnawed at by a colony of termites.

"Very impressive!" Raven praised, following which a pair of massive raven wings appeared on his back, using which he swatted the rider away. "I hear that you refer to yourselves as Lamp Keepers. What does that mean? Is it your purpose to shine light on the path ahead? Also, is your Guild of Immortality a reiteration of the Illuminati of the past? How many people are there in your organization? I have so many questions for you..."

After the wings appeared on Raven's back, countless tentacles also sprang out of his body, attempting to latch onto the Rider of Decay. However, not only was the rider's sword imbued with the power of decay, the same applied to his entire body as well.

Thus, those tentacles had only just made contact with him before falling away as piles of rotten flesh.

"I thought you were going to a formidable adversary, but you're really nothing special!" Phil scoffed as he slashed his sword through the air once again, cleaving Raven's body into two.

Black mist rose up from the two halves of Raven's body before rising up into the sky to reveal his true form, which was a massive Raven that stood at dozens of meters in stature.

"You're a psychic mutant?"

The Rider of Decay tugged on his reins as he looked up at the sky, then clamped his legs forcefully on either side of his steed, instructing it to gallop up into the air as he pointed his sword directly at Raven.

As he did so, a domain of decay gradually spread through the air, and everything within the domain quickly began to rot away.

The earth, the soil, and even the air was filled with the odor of rot and decay.

Under the enhancement of this domain of decay, the sword that the rider was wielding was able to accumulate an enormous amount of power of decay, and even with Raven's enormous body, being struck by the sword in its current form would've resulted in a grievous injury.

However, as a psychic mutant who had absorbed countless anomalic personas, Raven was certainly no slouch.

A loud cry escaped from Raven's beak, and an enormous hexagram emerged within the domain of decay. Countless chains then extended out of the hexagram to ensnare the Rider of Decay in mid-air.

The rider's power of decay was able to quickly degrade the chains, but at the same time, those chains were also constantly being mended thanks to the energy provided by the hexagram.

The Rider of Decay severed the chains with his sword, but more chains rose up to take their place.

While the battle was taking place, a female voice rang out from down below.

"I can't believe you still haven't managed to take care of him after all this time. You're weaker than I imagined, Raven."

"Direct battle had never been my forte."

Raven descended from the sky as he spoke, and at the same time, the Rider of Decay was able to sever all of the chains around him with an almighty sweep of his sword.

Looking down from above, he was able to see the other two people who had invaded his psychic world.

One of them was an elderly technomancer, which was Chen Yiran's psychic body.

The technomancer clearly wasn't very powerful, standing outside the boundaries of his domain of decay, not daring to set foot in it.

However, the other person had appeared directly within the domain, yet not only was she completely unscathed, she was looking so relaxed that she was practically bored.

As soon as Phil caught sight of the woman's psychic body, a sense of shock and horror instantly welled up in his heart.

Hebi no Miko? Why is she here?!