God-Tier Extraction Talent: Reincarnated in a Game-like World!

Chapter 561: The Demonic Sect [2]

Gabriel’s fingers hardened slightly around the scroll, but his face did not change much under the mask. The name should have stirred something inside his memories, yet only a blank space answered him, and his brows drew together.

He had lived through a ruined future and heard of hidden families, fallen kingdoms, secret orders, and monsters that wore human skin. Even so, he could not remember hearing anyone speak about a Demonic Sect with fear or anger.

"The Demonic Sect," Gabriel repeated, his voice low as he watched the projection closely. "I have never heard of them before. Are you certain that was their name?"

The alchemist’s eyes narrowed as if the question had insulted him. His translucent hands clenched behind his back, and the light around his figure gave a faint uneasy ripple.

"I am dead, not senile," he replied with clear irritation. "They called themselves that, and the people who knew them used the same name. It was not a rumor I picked up from frightened servants."

Gabriel accepted the rebuke without reacting to it. The problem was not whether the alchemist knew what he was saying, but whether Gabriel’s own future knowledge had already started to lose value.

An unease settled in his chest as he checked every major memory he carried. If events were changing this early, his advantage could thin without warning, and that was genuinely troublesome.

"Speak clearly," Gabriel said while pushing the thought aside for the moment. "Why were they connected to this place?"

The projection looked toward the sealed wall behind the table, and his anger became colder.

"They were after the Core Suppressing Spike," the alchemist said. "Not only the tomb, not only the inheritance, and not only the materials hidden here. Their eyes were on the spike itself."

The Core Suppressing Spike was not something common people should know about. Even in his own understanding, it was not an item that could be chased casually by some nameless group.

"They knew about it during your time," Gabriel said, more to measure the answer than to ask. "It means they were already moving while you were alive."

The alchemist gave a short, bitter laugh and looked back at him. His shoulders rose slightly, and his jaw tightened as if the memories still felt fresh despite his death.

"They were active," he replied. "Do not mistake silence for absence. They rarely showed themselves openly, but each time they appeared, something important was already being pulled from the shadows."

Gabriel frowned a little deeper behind the mask. If the sect had existed in the past and still left no clear trace in his future memories, there were only a few possible reasons.

Gabriel added, his tone calm despite the thought moving through his mind, "If they were active then, they may be much more active in this lifetime."

The projection studied him carefully after those words. Its anger did not fade, but interest returned to its gaze as if Gabriel had stepped near the same conclusion too fast.

"You speak as though you have lived for two lives," the alchemist muttered. "Strange words, but I will not ask. I have already seen stranger things from you."

"What could be their goal?" Gabriel asked, ignoring the alchemist’s rambling. "A sect does not move for an object like the spike without a reason. What did they want from it?"

The alchemist did not answer at once. His gaze drifted toward the table, and one translucent finger tapped against its edge without making a sound.

"I do not know," he admitted at last, and the words seemed to sour his mouth. "Our encounters were brief, and I was not in a position to sit down with them and ask for their plans."

Gabriel’s expression remained steady, but his eyes grew colder. The alchemist was proud enough to hate admitting ignorance, which made the answer more believable than a false claim of certainty.

"You fought them," Gabriel said. "Tell me what level you would classify them as."

The projection’s face tightened again. For a dead remnant, it still carried the old shame in the set of its mouth and the stiff way his shoulders pulled back.

"I fought one of their casual members. Not an elder, not a leader, and not one of the people who gave orders. He was only a man who was part of them."

Gabriel watched him without blinking. The alchemist’s words were plain, but the pause after them said more than any proud speech could have done.

"He pushed me back," the projection continued, voice lower. "I killed him in the end, but I paid for it. If someone like that was ordinary among them, their real force was not something I could ignore."

Gabriel’s thoughts moved quickly. A casual member had pushed back a Paragon who could create pills modern alchemists could not even understand, which meant the sect had not been a small threat.

"Did they leave signs? Marks, habits, methods, anything someone inside this place might reveal without meaning to?"

The alchemist shook his head once, slow and unhappy. His eyes moved toward the corridor beyond the chamber, as though even now he expected a figure to appear there.

"They hid their traces well," he said. "Their qi felt evil, but not in a way most people could name. They also avoided long fights unless they had no choice."

Gabriel absorbed each word and placed it beside what he already knew about the tomb thanks to the knight he encountered. The other participants, the strange timing, the spike, and the hidden sections all began to form a much more unpleasant picture.

If the alchemist was telling the truth, the Demonic Sect had followed the same target across eras. If they knew the Core Suppressing Spike was here, they would not wait outside politely while others reached it first.

The members of the Demonic Sect could already be inside this tomb with them.

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