A massive beam of white light shot towards Red-Haired Jason, the powerful impact forcing his bulky body backward.
The dazzling holy light was blinding. After a few seconds, Roy stopped firing the beam.
At this point, Red-Haired Jason was charred all over, and his body had shrunk a bit. However, he hadn't been killed by the holy light, just looked pretty rough.
How could this be?
Roy was a little incredulous.
Jason was definitely an undead creature, and an angel's holy light should be super effective against them.
The reason Roy hadn't used his angel form against Jason at the resort earlier was because he was afraid of accidentally offing him and losing the chance to track down the organization behind the resort.
Now he was really going for it, but such a powerful blast of holy light hadn't killed Jason, which made Roy start to wonder.
Thinking about the weird red tentacles on Jason's face and the physical changes he just went through, those were all signs of life.
Could it be that Jason wasn't undead anymore?
Just as he was thinking this, Jason's body mutated again.
The skin of the Hundred-Kill Teenage Boy, which had been burned black by the holy light beam, cracked open like broken pieces of coal, and a ton of wriggling, bright red tentacles grew out from inside.
The scene looked like some kind of sea anemone was growing out of coal.
(Sea anemone)
If it were really a sea anemone, Roy might have thought it was kind of cool, but these tentacles growing out of a person's body, covered in gross slime, just made him feel sick.
At this point, you could tell Jason had completely lost control of his body. His head was lolling to the side because of his body cracking open, and it seemed like it wasn't working anymore, just a decoration.
As Jason changed even more, Roy could feel some kind of invisible wave spreading out from his body, carrying a strong feeling of malice and a mysterious whisper.
This is getting weirder and weirder!
Roy figured he couldn't let Jason keep changing, or who knew what the heck that guy would turn into.
But his demon form and angel form didn't seem to be doing the trick against Jason right now. So, how could he take him down quickly and safely?
Roy couldn't help but think back to when he had merged his demon and angel forms under Michael's pressure, turning into his Nephilim form.
The Nephilim form had the benefits of both forms, with the temporary physical stat boost of the demon form and the energy release ability of the angel form.
However, the Nephilim form couldn't use hell energy to modify weapons, and it couldn't create halos to buff his teammates. This form's special abilities also used up a lot of energy.
So, Roy still mostly fought in his demon form because it was just more convenient.
Plus, Nephilim were considered taboo, and it would be a pain if either the forces of Heaven or Hell found out about him, even though Michael, who had gone back to Heaven, already knew Roy's true identity.
Yeah, Roy didn't know that some demon queen had also figured out his secret.
Right now, he could only try and see if the Nephilim form would work.
This whole thought process seemed pretty long, but it only took a split second in Roy's head.
At that moment, Roy transformed again, turning into his Nephilim form with gray hair, gray wings, and gray eyes. At the same time, the fully mutated Jason, walking like he didn't know anyone, charged right at him.
As Jason got closer and closer, the whispering in Roy's ears got louder and louder. This sound seemed to mess with his thinking.
He couldn't let this guy get any closer!
Roy immediately used the special ability unique to his Nephilim form. Gray chaotic energy appeared in his hands, forming a giant fist that slammed into Jason, actually knocking him back several steps.
It worked!
The special ability of the Nephilim form was to turn chaotic energy into something solid.
While both involved releasing and using energy, the holy light from the angel form was magic damage, but the materialized chaotic energy of the Nephilim form turned the energy into unstable matter, actually combining both physical and magic damage, making it a pretty rare type of mixed damage.
With this kind of attack, it was basically impossible for an enemy to completely resist. They'd have to take one type of damage or the other, right?
Or did they want to take true damage?
Seeing that the special ability of the Nephilim form was effective, Roy started constantly making gray fists to attack Jason.
Ora ora ora ora...
At this point, Jason's weakness became obvious. This guy didn't have any ranged attack abilities. Facing the constantly appearing gray fists, he could only be knocked back again and again.
However, Roy noticed that Jason's body was starting to twist again, like it was trying to evolve new abilities to counter Roy's chaotic energy.
He absolutely couldn't let this guy keep evolving!
Roy turned the chaotic energy into a longsword and launched it with all his might, directly pinning Jason to the wall.
Jason kept twisting and struggling, his body visibly changing.
"Boom!"
The longsword made of chaotic energy exploded inside Jason's abdomen, silently turning most of his torso into dust.
[Ding! Obtained Jason Voorhees's Fate Treasure Chest! Open it?]
[Ding! Obtained the Fate Treasure Chest of the Seed of Silence! Open it?]
Was it really this easy?
After detonating the chaotic energy inside Jason's body, the rest of him turned grayish-white, like broken plaster.
Roy guessed that he had probably hit Jason's weak spot, which was that weird thing called the Seed of Silence, which was why he was able to take him down so quickly.
Actually, a lot of things are like that. When you know the key point, it seems really simple.
But if you can't figure out the key point, you'll just be running around like a chicken with its head cut off.
In fact, if the chaotic energy hadn't been so penetrating and able to explode, it would have been pretty tough to quickly blast Jason's weak spot.
"Huh, where did that woman go?"
Erica seemed to have snuck off while Roy was fighting Jason.
But it didn't matter. That chick didn't know that Kayako was right behind her. Roy could totally sense the location of the cursed dagger and find her.
Of course, before that, he still needed to let Niddy in. After all, who knew what they might find in such a big underground base. It just so happened that Niddy was really good with electronics and machines, and maybe she could hack into the base's computers and dig up some information.
Soon, Roy found the entrance to the cabin, since it was near the lab.
"Thank goodness! Roy, you have no idea how worried I was up there!"
Niddy immediately gave Roy a big hug as soon as she came down. You could tell she was really worried about him.
"You should trust me, Niddy."
Niddy nuzzled against Roy's chest like a cat.
"But I just can't help but worry!"
After letting Niddy get some of her worries out, Roy let her go.
"Alright Niddy, I need you to hack into this base's computer and copy the data from it. Can you do that?"
Hearing this, Niddy frowned.
"I'm not sure. I didn't bring my stuff, and I don't know if I can pull it off."
The security systems in these kinds of underground bases are usually pretty complex. You can't just easily crack them with a regular computer. You'd probably need some specialized decoding equipment at least.
Roy took back Sadako's cursed dagger from Niddy and handed it to her.
"Sadako in the dagger can get into some electronic devices. Maybe you can train her to help you crack the security system."
"Okay, I'll try my best!"
"There might still be survivors in some areas, so you need to be careful. And some areas might be pretty bloody, so you should brace yourself."
"I know, I know!"
Even though Roy's reminders were a little much, Niddy's eyes still turned into little crescent moons when she felt Roy's genuine concern.
After that, Roy continued to track Erica.
Sensing the general location of Kayako's cursed dagger, Roy arrived in front of a huge circular blast door. You needed some kind of ID to get through it.
Roy obviously didn't have any ID, so he just transformed into his demon form and then forced the blast door open.
A blast door that could withstand over ten tons of pressure was no different from a soda can lid with his 72 strength stat. Roy ripped it open in a few tries.
Behind the blast door was a tunnel that looked really long.
This tunnel wouldn't be going under Crystal Lake, would it?
Roy roughly pictured the base's layout in his head and realized that this tunnel really did lead to the center of Crystal Lake.
Why would they build a tunnel like this?
With this question in his mind, Roy stepped into the long tunnel.
The shortest distance across Crystal Lake from the resort side to the other side was several miles. He wouldn't really have to go all the way to the other side of the lake, would he?
After walking for a while, Roy noticed that the original metal tunnel had turned into a glass tunnel. He could see the scene at the bottom of the lake through the glass, like being in an aquarium.
However, a normal lake bottom isn't as lively and interesting as an aquarium. Plus, it was still nighttime, so Roy could only see darkness all around.
If it weren't for the indicator lights on the floor of the glass tunnel, walking in a place like this would have been pretty creepy.
At least if Niddy were here, she'd definitely be so scared she'd cling to Roy the whole time, not even daring to open her eyes.
Suddenly, Roy noticed some faint red lights flashing below the glass tunnel.
This red light flashed like the breathing light on a ROG computer, with a very steady rhythm, so much so that Roy almost thought he could hear some kind of long and deep breathing sound in his ears.
Using that eerie red light, Roy thought he saw some strange, twisted, nightmare-like things constantly wriggling, and they were getting closer and closer...
Roy suddenly snapped back to reality. The red light and the wriggling things had all mysteriously disappeared, like it had all been a hallucination.
But the feeling just now had been so real that it gave Roy a suffocating feeling he couldn't describe.
Roy was sure that there was definitely something in the deep, dark bottom of Crystal Lake, maybe the very thing Elizabeth had mentioned, the thing that could block her senses.
Realizing this, Roy didn't dare to look down again and quickly picked up the pace, wanting to get through this glass tunnel.
Luckily, the glass tunnel wasn't too long, only about a kilometer.
You could tell from this that the cabin's technology was really something. They were actually able to build such a long glass tunnel.
You have to remember that glass can't withstand pressure like metal can. Building a one-kilometer-long glass tunnel at the bottom of a lake is way harder than building a metal tunnel that's over ten kilometers long.
Wouldn't it be better to use this technology to help people? Why go for this kind of shady stuff!
Reaching the end of this tunnel, Roy found another large blast door. It looked like he was about to reach his destination.
Roy used the same method as before to force open the blast door. Behind the door was just an elevator.
Weird, was this elevator going up?
Roy was sure that the underwater tunnel he had gone through was less than two kilometers long. That distance definitely couldn't reach the other side of the lake, so had he arrived on a small island in the middle of Crystal Lake?
There were a few small islands in the middle of Crystal Lake, and those islands had already been bought up and were private property.
The resort staff had mentioned this before.
It seemed like the organization behind the cabin was the one that bought the island, but the resort staff just didn't know it.
Luckily, the elevator didn't need any kind of ID. They probably figured that the two huge blast doors were secure enough, and adding ID verification to the elevator would be overkill, so Roy got into the elevator without any problems.
The elevator slowly stopped after going up for a few minutes. Roy carefully stepped out, only to find himself inside a wooden cabin.
The decorations inside the cabin were very ordinary, giving off a cozy vibe, like someone really lived there.
However, Roy could still tell from the thick dust in some places that this cabin hadn't actually been lived in for a long time.
So, here's the question: what was the cabin organization's purpose in having this cabin?
That sounds a little confusing, but based on what Roy currently knew about the cabin organization, this cabin was definitely not as simple as it looked on the surface.
So, Roy became even more cautious, but nothing happened until he walked out of the cabin.
Roy was a little dazed, feeling kind of strange.
Could it be that this little cabin belonged to some big shot in the cabin organization, built with company money to satisfy some personal whim?
Thinking about it more, it didn't quite add up because even though the cabin looked really well-maintained, based on Roy's experience, the house was at least 30 years old.
But the elevator Roy had just come up in and the underwater tunnel clearly looked pretty new, definitely no more than 10 years old.
If the underground base hadn't been renovated recently, then it had to be this existing cabin on the island in the middle of the lake, and then they added the underwater tunnel and elevator later.
Just as he was thinking this, Roy suddenly realized that the environment outside the cabin looked really familiar. The open space under his feet, the patch of grass not far away, and the red roof of the cabin.
Wasn't this the place where Carrie was having a ritual performed on her by the cultists in her dream?
There was absolutely no mistake! Roy couldn't help but narrow his eyes.
Could things really be such a coincidence?