The Inquisitor froze.

The light from his eyes had also faded.

I wasn't sure what was happening, but the only other person here was Clementine.

And as I glanced into the distance, I spotted her hovering not too far away.

Her expression was even colder than the one I had seen on the Inquisitor's face.

She took a deep breath and then twirled her fingers in an arc.

In the next instant, the Inquisitor's halo shattered, and a blinding light emerged.

Once it faded, I spotted three Reapers standing idly by, but one of them still had a needle in their neck.

Clementine and I met eyes for a brief moment, and figuring that this was my chance, I quickly turned into lightning and reappeared in front of the two Reapers.

They reacted swiftly.

But unlike earlier, they were much slower, likely tired.

Using Telekinesis, I increased the gravity weighing down on them significantly.

And once they came to a complete halt, I barraged the entire area with lightning, piercing and destroying their bodies until nothing but ash remained.

Once the flowery scent emerged, I knew the two had been killed.

But as for the last one...

"Hold on a second..."

Clementine descended beside me with her arms crossed.

"Let me try something first, okay?"

"..."

"Okay."

With a faint smile, Clementine focused back onto the idle Reaper.

To my surprise, a silvery bubble began to emerge from the Reaper's head.

Once the bubble was the size of a basketball, it detached from the Reaper's head and floated over to Clementine.

She touched it carefully, then started molding it with both her hands until finally, the silver bubble became a thin, needle-like blade.

It was the same blade that the Reapers used.

Though with the flick of her wrist, the weapon vanished.

The moment it did, the final Reaper fell limp.

"Clementine?"

I approached her.

"Mind telling me what exactly that needle is?"

She whistled playfully, and then the needle flew back to her, landing straight in her palm.

"After I destroyed the last tower, a giant ice coffin appeared, and inside it was this needle."

She tossed the needle to me, and I caught it.

"Have a look for yourself."

And that's exactly what I did.

[Soul Sewing Needle]

[Description: A needle capable of perfectly stitching together souls and enhancing their properties. A maximum of 5 Souls can be merged together. When merging souls, you may select to merge together the Gifts of all the souls to produce a single powerful Gift, or you may select to keep the Gifts, up to a maximum of 5 Gifts.]

[Bonus Feature: The Soul Sewing Needle is unbreakable.]

My eyes were wide the entire time I was reading the description.

But once I finished, yet another pop-up appeared in front of me.

[Ding!]

[You have completed the emergency quest!]

[Reward: +100 Free Stat Points + The Artifact (Soul Sewing Needle).]

[Additional Reward since you found it within 168 hours: x5 Special Ability Cores.]

I was pleasantly surprised.

But I had no intention of hogging the Soul Sewing Needle, because clearly, it fit Clementine and her fighting style perfectly.

However, this also made me realize something.

The Inquisitors... Was the Soul Sewing Needle the reason why they existed?

The more I thought about it, the more certain I became.

It was too big of a coincidence.

And I don't believe in coincidences.

"Keep that needle safe, because now that we got it, we've basically become archenemies with the Evangelists. They'll stop at nothing to get it back."

"I figured. Don't worry, it'll be safe with me."

Just then, her expression soured.

"I saw you fight, and what was that, Amon? It was like you were trying to get yourself killed. Did you forget what happened last time?"

Her hands trembled slightly.

"Please stop fighting like you're invincible."

Seeing her pleading expression, I felt my composure cracking slightly.

But both Clementine and I knew that a simple sorry wouldn't be as good as showing it through actions.

So I didn't say a word and instead pulled out five black marbles from my dimensional ring.

They were the five Special Ability Cores.

"I'm thinking we go back to the normal catacombs and get the remaining three Special Ability Cores. Then we'd be able to split them equally."

She tilted her head.

"We're splitting? I thought you were going to eat them all."

"...Do you take me for some kind of hoarder?"

"Maybe?"

Noticing my bewildered expression, Clementine let out a chuckle.

"I'm just kidding. Let's go."

As she began playfully skipping toward the exit, I promptly destroyed the remaining Reaper's body.

Though...

"Clementine? Did you bring the ice coffin too?"

She turned around, puzzled.

"Why would I bring a coffin?"

Because a giant ice coffin sounds like a cool place to set up a jacuzzi.

"We probably shouldn't leave any traces, since they might be able to locate us later down the line."

"Mm... Okay. Give me a second."

With those words, she changed direction and quickly zipped through the air, leaving my sight.

Then, just a few seconds later, she came back.

"I put it in my dimensional ring. We can leave now, right?"

"Of course."

I wasn't sure whether to be happier about the 5 Special Ability Cores or a cool jacuzzi.

Either way, we quickly retraced our steps up the staircase until finally, we made it back into the long hallway.

We walked through it silently and eventually reached the other staircase.

This was the staircase we'd have taken the normal route.

But since I knew there were some goodies waiting for us down there, Clementine and I eagerly headed down.

Once we reached the bottom, we were met with a massive room, lit up by hundreds of torches.

There were a few runes on the ground, and the only way to pass this floor and head down was to use our energy and connect all the runes in this room.

It was a pretty boring floor, and it'll take us a while.

Well... I guess I should tell her—

"How many floors did you say these catacombs had again?" she asked.

"...Eight?"

Clementine nodded at me.

Then, with a slight wave, her body suddenly turned silver as she fell through the floor, leaving me standing with my mouth wide open.

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