Chapter 169
Chapter 169: Azure Flames Consume the Moon, Blood Stains the Royal City (Part 3)
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Pure force clashed against pure force, all in a single instant.
Captain Grey, gripped tight in my hand, its deadly blade struck against the pitch-black giant blade, the impact sending a sharp ring straight through my ears. Sparks rained down like a scorching red storm, scattering over our bodies and heads. In the next moment, Theresa's face turned toward mine. A soft sound escaped her lips as she breathed out a dark, charred smoke. Her once vivid blue eyes had turned a harsh, deep crimson, and the veins crawling across her face pulsed with a dazzling light.
"Ha!"
Suddenly, she let out a sharp cry.
Seizing the moment before our weapons separated, Theresa shifted her grip on the axe handle with both hands and twisted. The massive axe blade instantly changed its momentum, from a sideways blocking swing into a downward assault, pressing toward me like a falling mountain.
It felt like a force that simply could not be stopped.
In my slow-motion vision, my right hand gripping the scythe handle tore open at the palm, followed by the left hand below it. The way Theresa shifted from defense to offense was far too precise and fast. I couldn't keep up. The scene before me lurched suddenly, trading the murderous nun for the cold grey-brick ceiling above as my body tilted and fell backward.
Bang!
My back slammed straight into the ground, cracking the stone beneath.
"Ugh—"
The scythe handle that had been across my front was driven down onto my chest by the force of the axe. I let out a muffled grunt. The crushing impact and the stabbing pain left my head completely blank. The axe blade grazed my shoulder and split into the ground. Shards of stone flew up and struck the corner of my right eye, and my vision flared white.
The next moment, something seized my collar. Theresa grabbed it and hurled me toward the wall behind her.
Boom—!
The solid grey-brick wall shattered where I hit it. The broken bricks clattered to the ground with a loud crash, and the burst of flying dust swallowed my vision. I felt my entire back had been driven deep into the wall. I struggled to pull free quickly, only to find that I couldn't draw a single breath. A relentless pain rolled through my chest. No matter what I tried, I couldn't get my strength back.
I let my guard down...
That thought flashed through my mind and vanished.
Whoosh—
A sharp gust tore through the dust cloud. The black-and-white nun's habit flickered into view right in front of me. What followed was a relentless barrage of blazing fists, crashing down like a furious storm.
Boom boom boom boom—
The sound of crumbling stone and earth filled my ears, and a sandstorm erupted through the entire room. Iron fists hard as rock hammered into my face, my chest, my stomach... and places I couldn't even identify anymore. My body swayed like a torn rag caught in a dying gust, battered and driven deeper and deeper into the wall by the savage force.
It hurts.
It hurts so much... it's burning... it HURTS!!!
I coughed up a mouthful of blood.
"AHHH—!!!"
I roared in fury, rage twisting across my face, and with every ounce of strength I had, I wrenched one hand free and slapped it hard against Theresa's face. Blue light blazed across my entire body. A bitterly freezing aura erupted outward, coating the surrounding walls in a thin layer of frost in an instant.
Die already!
Pop—!!!
Countless tiny, razor-sharp ice crystal shards burst from my palm along with a gush of frost mist, blasting Theresa's head and half her shoulder completely apart. Blood and flesh splattered all over me, nearly flying into my mouth.
The force of the explosion sent her headless body flying 7 to 8 meters before it slid some distance across the floor, twitched twice... and stood back up.
Damn it... if there weren't still people in here... damn it... damn it...
"Cough, cough cough—"
Fine grit and blood mixed in my mouth. Blood dripped steadily from my nose. My chest was struggling to breathe, and my body... was wedged deep in the wall, with only my two hands able to move.
This is awful... I need to get out of here fast...
Sss sss...
Suddenly, faint wisps of smoke began rising from my body. My nose caught the faint smell of something burning. Before I could even react, a searing, bone-deep pain swept through every part of me in the next second. The blood and flesh that Theresa had splattered onto me had all ignited with the Fire of Sin.
"Ah! Ahh—!"
I screamed in pain. My weak hands flailed frantically over my head and body, desperately trying to beat out the flames. Captain Grey, which I had been gripping tightly until now, slipped from my hand with a clang and hit the floor.
It's burning... it's so hot!!!
I thrashed in a panic for 2 seconds before I finally snapped back to my senses. Blue light lit up in my eyes again. The freezing mist surged around me once more and quickly smothered the flames.
My body couldn't stop trembling from the intense pain.
I forced my head down and looked. My black skirt had been burned through in several places, exposing the charred, smoking skin underneath.
A stabbing, piercing pain.
I drew a sharp breath, my eyes locked with deadly focus on where Theresa was, and clawed at the broken outer wall with my hands, fighting to drag myself out of the gap in the wall.
Not far away, Theresa had already completely recovered.
She hadn't come at me again. She simply stood there, staring somewhat absently at the spine in the blood pool, now turned entirely black. Her lips moved in a quiet murmur.
"After tonight... there will be no more 'Boswell' in the royal city. Rest in peace."
She then bent down, picked up the double-bladed great axe that had landed on the ground, and turned a calm glance in my direction.
"Miss Sylvia, you are very strong. But... I'm truly sorry, I can't afford to waste any more time here."
With that, she turned without hesitation and walked quickly toward the exit. She reached the shattered doorway and then suddenly stopped, turning back one more time.
"If you make it out alive, we'll finish this."
What do you mean... where are you going...
The torn and ragged nun's habit, the final scrap of it, disappeared beyond the exit.
I had no strength to stop her.
I was still fighting with everything I had. Using the only things I could move, both hands, I kept reaching forward into the broken wall, searching for any point I could use for leverage to drag my body out of the narrow crack in the rock behind the wall.
Charles, slumped in a heap behind the blood pool, saw this and started struggling, crawling toward me.
"I'm coming... I'll help you—"
His words had barely landed when a tremendous boom rang out. A violent explosion went off somewhere outside the room, shaking the entire space until it rattled and shuddered.
Right behind it came a surge of dark red flames rolling in through the exit, carrying a wall of scalding heat.
I froze.
In front of me, the soaring wall of fire swallowed up most of the room in an instant. The tongues of flame breathed their scorching heat, riding the air currents to set the stone alight and scale the walls, spreading all the way back to where the blood pool was. All in a single moment.
Elle... she's still over there...
"AHHHH—!!!"
I went wild and started forcing myself outward with everything I had, ignoring the pain screaming through my body, both hands digging at every crack and surface in the stone gap that could give me any kind of grip.
Get out! GET OUT NOW!
My skirt hem was torn apart. My nails snapped off. Blood dripped from my fingertips and ran down my palms.
Too slow...
The fire spread and climbed over the children's bodies.
Their bodies trembled in the flames, convulsing, suffering the overwhelming agony of the heat consuming them. I knew their minds were still fully awake.
"ELLE—!!!"
"ELLE! MOVE—!!!"
Theresa...
I had never hated anyone like this before.
But in this moment, from the very bottom of my heart, no matter what it cost, I wanted to kill her.
Theresa... you deserve to die!!!
Suddenly, Charles looked over at me from across the room.
He was terrified. Terrified so deeply his hands were shaking and his teeth were chattering. Yet something seemed to harden in him all at once, and a fierce resolve broke across his face.
What are you trying to do...
In my vision, the ragged man wrenched his body around.
Dragging his broken leg, in a desperately awkward scramble, he crawled over to where the children were and, just before the flames reached them, threw himself over Elle and the other small boy to shield them with his own body.
The Fire of Sin climbed up his back and caught his hair alight.
"Miss—!" he screamed at the top of his lungs.
"Get out of there!"
"I can't... hold on much longer! Get out—!!!"
He couldn't hold on much longer. That was true.
The Fire of Sin engulfed most of Charles's body in an instant. His head caught fire.
"Ahh! Ahhhhhh—!!!"
Beyond the heart-wrenching screams, he could no longer form any words.
Even so, he strained his head back as hard as he could, desperate to keep the flames on his body from reaching the children.
Tears gathered at the corners of my eyes.
Crack—
With a crumble of dirt and stone, my body came free from the crack and dropped to the ground.