Chapter 174
Chapter 174: Azure Flames Consume the Moon, Blood Stains the Royal City (Part 8)
***
Rumble, rumble, rumble, rumble... BOOM—!!!
The ground ahead suddenly collapsed into a deep trench with a world-shaking explosion.
The cellar was destroyed!
My heart lurched. I immediately grabbed Lecter by the back of his collar and retreated at full speed using Moon Step. Everywhere I looked, a massive dust storm had kicked up like a tornado dozens of meters high, and deep within it, a huge fissure stretched from the lawn near the clock tower all the way to at least 100 meters outside the walls of Cataloma.
Everything in the fissure's path was destroyed, walls crumbled, buildings collapsed, and half of the old street in the distance was reduced to rubble in the blink of an eye. The raging Fire of Sin blazed against the sky, spewing great tongues of crimson flame from underground, painting the night sky a vivid bloodred.
A moment later, wails and screams began pouring in from afar.
"Damn it—!"
Watching the scene of utter devastation before me, the fury in my chest became impossible to hold back. I let out an enraged shout, then my mind kicked into gear in an instant. I turned to Lecter and said, "You're badly hurt. Stop fighting. Go save people, evacuate the children!"
"Got it."
Lecter understood the situation clearly. He knew that continuing to fight would only drag things down. He gritted his teeth and wiped the cold sweat from his face, then gave me a long, hard look.
"Theresa is still holding back. Church rumors say her Faith Power is stronger than the current Saintess. Be extremely careful. Once she uses a miracle... you absolutely cannot get hit by it. And whatever you do, don't let her take Boswell."
His expression was grave as he gave me his earnest warning.
"I'm counting on you."
I nodded.
"Mm. Leave it to me."
Once decided, act immediately.
I began running sideways around the flying dust, eyes wide open and ears sharp, carefully scanning for any trace of the nun.
At the moment the ground caved in just now, I saw her retreat toward the wall on the right side of the orphanage. Was she trying to use the chaos to slip away with the blood orb?
Like I'd ever let you get away that easily!
Snap—!
A thick pillar of ice surged up beneath my feet, launching my body into the air. Wind howled past my ears as I looked down, scanning left and right below me.
My field of vision was still full of dust and haze, not a soul in sight... I wasn't high enough.
Feeling the pull of gravity starting to take hold, I condensed an ice platform underfoot and stomped hard, launching myself up into the air again.
Theresa... where are you...
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—
In an instant, the sharp screech of objects cutting through the air came from below.
Something was coming... rocks!
The moment my peripheral vision caught the incoming projectiles, my body reacted before my brain could. The short ice sickle in my left hand instinctively swept to the side — boom — exploding into a blinding white mist, and my body used the recoil to shoot sideways. A rock the size of a person's head screamed past, barely grazing my shoulder.
I broke out in a cold sweat. Before I could even exhale, a massive, gut-wrenching force slammed into my abdomen.
There was another rock...
"Ugh!"
The impact sent me spinning through the air several times. Both my body and mind lost all sense of balance, and I plummeted downward with an overwhelming urge to wet myself.
Whoosh whoosh... CRASH—!
I smashed through several barriers in a row and hit the ground hard.
"Ugh... ugh..."
The force of the impact left my mind completely blank. All I could hear was a cacophony of debris flying everywhere, followed immediately by a searing pain in my back. It took a long time before I finally managed to draw breath.
Where did I land...
I struggled to lift my head and swept my gaze around the room... a wooden table... a small bed... looked like someone's bedroom... with a big hole in the ceiling where I had crashed through...
"Ahhhh—!"
A sudden scream nearly gave me a heart attack. I immediately raised my giant sickle and spun toward the sound.
A woman who looked to be in her early 30s was cowering in a corner not far away, trembling uncontrollably. She was clutching 2 young children tightly to her chest, their small faces hidden in the shadows, filled with terror.
"Sorry..." The words came out barely above a whisper, trembling from the unbearable pain wracking my body. "Run."
I need to get up...
That thought had barely surfaced when — BOOM — the wall in front of me exploded inward. The nun came charging through the crumbling rubble and dust, her great axe raised high, and she lifted her right leg —
Bang!
Her kick connected with my stomach, nearly folding me in half. My vision went white. I felt something in my lower back go snap, and my whole body went flying backward, crashing through the wall behind me and landing in a mud-soaked alley.
"Ugh... cough—"
A mouthful of blood splattered onto my collar. My internal organs felt like they were being crushed and kneaded in someone's fist.
Get up...
I propped myself up on my elbows in the mud, struggling to rise, and then I realized... I couldn't feel anything below my waist.
Broken... this is bad...
Suddenly, the hem of a tattered nun's habit filled my entire field of vision. My heart sank. I snapped my head up — the nun, drenched in blood, was raising her great axe wreathed in Fire of Sin in a truly murderous stance, bringing it down straight toward my skull.
No way to dodge.
"Ahh—!"
I had no choice but to twist sideways with everything I had, flinging the short sickle in my left hand at her face, while my right hand gripped Captain Grey as it let out a series of click-click sounds and transformed into an unstoppable spear, thrusting toward the nun's chest.
Thud thud, CLANG!!
The life-for-life exchange was over in an instant. The ice sickle drove in through her mouth and out through the back of her skull. Captain Grey punched clean through her heart. At the same moment, the great axe came down on my shoulder and then detonated —
BOOM...
I lost consciousness instantly.
............
Crack!
The sound of shattering ice jolted me awake. My eyes opened in a haze.
...My left eye can't see... I seem to be leaning against a wall somewhere... everything hurts... I'm sitting in mud... wait, I can feel my lower half again...
Everything in front of me was blurry.
Through the blur, I could vaguely make out Theresa standing by a dim grey wall ahead. With one hand, she tossed aside a shattered ice-blue short sickle. With the other, she gripped the handle of Captain Grey and slowly pulled the blade out of her own chest. As she did, the grotesque wound on her head gradually closed and healed.
Thud.
The bloodied great axe was dropped to the ground, spattering mud.
"Sorry." She walked toward me with slow, measured steps, her voice a long, quiet sigh. "I never wanted to kill you. If things were different... I would have very much liked to be your friend."
"Cough, cough..."
I wanted to say something, but I couldn't make a sound... so instead I raised a trembling hand and slowly gave her the middle finger.
...Ah, she probably doesn't know what that means.
So I thought about it, and tried to spit a mouthful of blood at her instead... but I didn't have the strength, and it just dribbled down onto my collar.
But she got the message.
BOOM—
The great axe, blazing with Fire of Sin, was raised high before my eyes.
"Miss Sylvia... farewell."
Thump, thump...
Thump, thump.
My heart beat clearly and steadily.
At the instant that unbearably itchy sensation swept over me, I suddenly opened the hand I'd been giving her the finger, and "snap" an ice mist exploded in front of my eyes, and I stood up.
My left eye's vision came back...
"You're—"
The shock hadn't even finished forming on Theresa's face before my right hand, glowing with blue light, pressed down onto it, forcing her toward the ground with full force.
BOOM—
Glittering ice crystal shards, mixed with filthy, foul-smelling mud, splashed across my face.
The upper half of Theresa's body was torn to a bloody pulp by the savage blast of cold, her skull shattered halfway through, frozen chunks of blood and flesh flying into the muddy water, onto the walls, taking on a nauseating hue within the thin frost.
...Still not enough.
I flexed my left arm, clenching and releasing my fist... The injury on my shoulder had fully healed, and my left hand was working again.
Kick.
I booted Theresa's great axe off into the distance, then reached down and grabbed her by the ankle, hoisting her frozen body up off the ground by its legs.
...Too many people around here. Theresa, let's take this fight to the sky.
Snap!
An ice pillar erupted beneath my feet. I launched into Moon Step, and my body shot upward like a cannonball, hurtling into the sky.
10 meters... 20... still nowhere near enough.
Crack.
An ice platform materialized beneath my feet from thin air. I tapped off it with my toes and leaped another 10-plus meters upward.
...Again.
Crack.
Still not enough.
Crack, crack, crack—
Just like when I fought the Endless Abyss in that small village, I conjured ice platforms one after another in rapid succession, launching myself to 50 meters... 100... 150... 200... at a speed that defied belief.
BOOM!!
A fierce burst of flames suddenly erupted below me. I immediately felt a searing, agonizing burn, the Fire of Sin crawled from the left arm holding Theresa up to my shoulder, setting half my body ablaze.
"Ahh!"
Flames roared and whipped in the howling wind. I screamed from the burning pain and poured everything I had into driving the Frost Order, unleashing a dazzling blue radiance across the night sky. Dense, bitter-cold white mist surged over my entire body, weaving and clashing with the blazing crimson flames. The steam that surged upward was frozen solid in an instant, only to evaporate again in the next second. The piercing, shrieking noise nearly bored straight through my eardrums, and the air gradually became impossible to breathe.
"Urrghh—!"
Theresa, dangling upside down in my grasp, finally let out a furious snarl. Her other leg transformed into a crimson whip, lashing against my backside again and again.
Bang! Bang! BOOM—!
The flames detonated from her leg with violent force. The brutal impact and scorching heat nearly suffocated me.
Damn it... I'm about to pop...
Can't let that happen... the cold sinks downward... I need to get a little higher first.
Each kick felt like it was rattling my skull. I gritted my teeth and launched upward one more time, before finally reaching my limit. My footing slipped and I pitched to the side.
This is far enough...
In the moment of weightlessness, I swung my arm upward to fling Theresa higher, while simultaneously spreading the fingers of my other hand... and snapping them shut.
Frost World.
Whoosh—
The flames on Theresa's body were extinguished in an instant.
The faint look of anger on her face was frozen in place. Her right leg remained in its kicking position, locked stiff right there, coated in white frost.
High above the royal city, a bitter arctic wind swept and swirled through the night sky.
I closed my eyes as I fell into freefall.
This time... I should have won...
If she just falls like this, she'll shatter to pieces... but she won't land on anyone, right?!
I prayed she wouldn't...
Whoosh whoosh... RIIIIP—!
The already tattered hem of my skirt couldn't survive the brutal wind any longer and was torn away in a large strip, flapping off into the distance, revealing the corner of the bloomers I had on underneath.
...Damn it!
But there was no time to worry about that now.
I was doing my best to control my body, trying to keep some semblance of balance in the air, while racking my brain for how to land safely.
Using the recoil from ice mist... probably not enough. If I don't draw on the Abyss power at this point, I'm going to die on impact.
Just use it once... don't be scared... it'll be fine...
Suddenly, I felt my rate of descent slow down.
...Hmm?
It felt like some kind of air current had caught my back... Before I could even process what was happening, a wind carrying a strange, sweet fragrance swept across my face in a swirling rush, and I suddenly had the sensation of being completely wrapped up in the wind itself. Then, in mid-air, someone wrapped their arms around me.
"Reckless."
A voice, slightly cool and indifference, said those words.