Chapter 68
Chapter 68: Raging Wildfire (Part 6)
***
Suddenly, a wave of heat rushed forward, and the fiery color cast half of my body in red. My heart gave a warning, and I waved my arm.
Crack crack crack!
An ice wall rose from the ground beside me, blocking the incoming tongues of flame.
Hiss hiss——
Steam surged upward in waves as the ice wall rapidly melted. The flames that Scarred Face had just unleashed seemed even hotter than those on Valarr’s body. Then his figure flashed out from one side of the ice wall, the bright fire in his hand trailing flames as he crouched low and charged at me.
In an instant, an azure light once again enveloped my entire body, bursting forth with a radiance even more dazzling than the flames. I stretched both hands forward and forcefully pushed toward Scarred Face’s figure.
Order Power unleashed at full strength, no longer holding back.
CRACK——!!!
Massive ice spikes rose to the heavens, stretching up more than 10 meters high, freezing Scarred Face and everything around him. Frost exploded outward, causing ice rain to fall from the sky.
The next moment, a crimson light suddenly illuminated the base of the towering ice spikes, and terrible rumbling sounds came from within.
Boom… Boom… Boom——!!
After three massive explosions, the ice spikes burst apart. Dark brown flames rolled up in savage waves, bursting out from inside with a scorching temperature, advancing with an unstoppable momentum to incinerate everything in an instant.
My hair curled slightly, and a burnt smell permeated the air as I narrowed my eyes.
Can’t dodge this one, have to take it head-on.
I raised the short scythe across my chest as dense ice mist enveloped my entire body layer by layer.
BOOM——!
A violent explosion thundered beside my ears, followed immediately by a “whoosh” as a massive shockwave rumbled through the ground beneath my feet. Large amounts of snow and dirt flew 5 meters into the air. I couldn’t withstand the force for a moment and stumbled back several steps in succession, nearly falling on my backside.
My arms and scalp were numb, my ears constantly ringing. Flying ice crystals and spraying tongues of flame occupied my entire field of vision. The “whoosh whoosh” sounds of objects cutting through the air were endless, as black and white smoke intertwined as they rose high into the sky.
This strike from Scarred Face gave me almost the same sense of pressure as the black blade from the Endless Abyss.
What’s going on, how could he suddenly become this powerful…
With a grave expression, I stared uncertainly toward the front as Scarred Face’s figure emerged from the gradually collapsing ice spikes. The flames on his body flickered several times as he let out a high-pitched cry.
“I am the devoted servant of the God of Truth——!”
“I am—”
Then his voice suddenly cut off. Just as I thought he was about to unleash another tremendously powerful attack, the flames extinguished.
Scarred Face’s body swayed, and he unexpectedly fell straight down, causing me to suddenly freeze as I had already taken up a stance ready to continue trading blows with him.
…Huh? What happened?
Is this some new technique?
I cautiously watched his figure lying on the ground, somewhat worried he might be feigning. After waiting a while, I saw his body rapidly deflate like a leaking balloon.
“Don’t bother looking, cough cough… he’s already dead.”
Valarr, who was frozen in the ice spikes, spoke up, his voice sounding somewhat weak.
I turned to look at him questioningly and saw his face was deathly pale, no longer bearing his previous violent expression. He was now staring blankly at Scarred Face lying on the ground.
Shortly after, he showed a mocking smile.
“Forcibly raising the Fire of Sin to the third stage ‘Blood Sacrifice’… in the end he couldn’t even last one minute before his body gave out…”
“…What do you mean?”
I didn’t quite understand what he was saying.
Blood Sacrifice? Third stage?
I remember he mentioned something about revival earlier… is this the Gate of Truth’s classification of the levels of Fire of Sin?
Valarr didn’t answer me.
Flames still burned on his body, though the fire was now flickering weakly. Frost covered his body, freezing his black robe, leather armor, skin and even his blood. His body trembled constantly.
Scarred Face seemed to have truly died. His body lying on the ground had withered to almost a skeleton. Even with how strange that Fire of Sin was, there was probably no way to save him now.
I thought there would be a big battle… As expected, even though the Gate of Truth uses Fire of Sin to burn themselves in exchange for power, the price is also very high.
“Hey, girl.”
I tilted my head.
“Cough cough. Tell me honestly, did you… did you use your full power?”
“……”
Full power?
Not really, it’s just… at the last moment, because I was worried about Lafayette’s situation, I couldn’t help wanting to quickly deal with the enemy. As a result, I still used this kind of large-scale attack with little technique to speak of, overwhelming the enemy with Order Power.
If the Duke knew about this, he’d probably scold me.
“Is that so…” My silence seemed to make him understand something. He raised his head, suddenly feeling somewhat emotional. “This is really… unexpected.”
As his words fell, suddenly a thundering of beast hooves came from the direction of the forest.
Rumble rumble…
I turned to look and saw countless hunters riding horned beasts, charging forward like thunder. Looking at their numbers, there were at least a thousand people, perhaps even more.
That is…
The ground trembled. The hundred-meter distance was crossed in an instant. Iron hooves rode the giant waves, crashing into the already dispersing city guards with overwhelming force.
In an instant, blood sprayed and limbs flew. Everywhere was filled with frenzied shouts. The city guards’ formation didn’t even have a chance to struggle before being completely crushed.
“It’s the hunters——”
“Run! We can’t fight them, there are too many… f**king run!!”
“Winter City’s reinforcements have arrived! We can’t escape, we can’t escape——”
People fell in swathes. The soldiers began to flee but didn’t get far before being trampled by hooves behind them. Blood and flesh fragments sprayed from their mouths, followed by the hunters on horned beasts delivering finishing blows.
Lafayette’s guards raised their swords and shouted.
“You’re late, haha!”
“These are just the ones we left alive——”
“Hey hey! Our Great Prince, where do you think you’re running to? Your leg is already lame, give it up!”
In my view, Lafayette waved to the lead hunter.
“Bella! Go support Peipei over there, she’s fighting with heretics from the Gate of Truth — uh, has the battle already ended?”
The lead hunter appeared to be female. She looked in my direction from amidst the crowd and said a few words to Lafayette, then spurred her constantly neighing horned beast and led a team galloping toward me.
The evening darkness descended as stars began twinkling in the sky.
The crescent moon’s shadow hung overhead, casting down a blue-white light.
“Caw——”
Ravens cried out in the sky.
The snow had stopped falling at some point without anyone noticing.
“You’ve won.”
Valarr’s weak voice came to my ears again. I nodded slightly, walked two steps to stand in front of him, and raised the short scythe in my hand, gesturing at his neck.
“Like this, if I chop down. Will you die?”
Valarr gave a light laugh.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“The power of fire is already very weak, I’m afraid I won’t be able to recover again… What a pity— there were still so many things to do…”
Perhaps realizing he was about to die, he seemed like a different person at this moment, speaking with unexpected courtesy… if one could ignore his wretched appearance, this might be an appropriate description.
Completely unlike the Valarr in my impression, is this… a case of speaking kindly before death?
“Girl, is this your first time… encountering the Gate of Truth?”
“Second time.” Then suddenly remembering something, “Those merchants, were they your people?”
“Merchants…?” Valarr thought for a moment before suddenly realizing, “Oh, you mean those… those guguo grass peddlers, they were cough cough cough! Captured by you?”
I nodded.
“Something like that.”
“Those were just… guguo grass peddlers, working for gold coins. Most of them… probably hadn’t even heard the name Gate of Truth… They were all executed by fire by the church, right? Hahaha cough cough——”
After a bout of violent coughing, Valarr spat out a mouthful of frozen blood clots.
“They sold, guguo grass, to you. To make, black spheres?”
“Ah, yes, that’s right.”
He admitted it immediately. I looked at the weak smile on his face, my intuition telling me he was lying.
So I thought for a moment.
“What is the Gate of Truth?”
“Haha, what do you… think it is?”
“…Complete and utter, madmen.”