Chapter 177
Chapter 177: Azure Flames Consume the Moon, Blood Stains the Royal City (Part 11)
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The monster's massive head suddenly began to tremble.
"The... re... sa..."
A deep, hollow voice carrying a vocal quality eerily similar to Theresa's seemed to emanate from the countless voids across the monster's face. But if you listened more carefully, it felt like it was hidden somewhere deep within a dream, those omnipresent, nightmare-like sighs.
Its head shuddered and twisted before me, spitting out strange, incoherent words at a rapid pace: "I am...The...dead...I clearly...ah...return to god...Theresa...sin..."
The jumbled words overlapped one another, the speed almost frantic. In the span of half a second, I could only barely make out a few slightly clearer words.
Then, half a second later, it stopped trembling...and spoke with perfect clarity.
"【Abyssal Language】I am... the will of God. I am... the angel of Diana."
I froze.
A loud buzz rang through my head.
A soul-shaking wave of disbelief surged up from somewhere deep inside me and rippled outward through my entire body.
It can speak the Abyssal Language...
That unbelievable fact instantly took over my entire mind. Even the sharp howl of wind in my ears couldn't pull me back to my senses.
What on earth... is this thing...
"Stop spacing out!"
A cold, sharp cry came from the street to my left, snapping me out of my daze.
The sky above me suddenly darkened.
Out of the corner of my eye, a massive blood-red hand, blazing with roaring flames, came crashing straight down toward the top of my head.
The shock jolted me back to reality. I reacted just in time, rapidly shifting my footwork into Moon Step, my figure shooting off like a meteor as I leapt into the air.
BOOM—!
The giant hand slammed into the ruins. As rubble and dust exploded in every direction, I conjured a platform of ice beneath my feet, kicked off hard, and raised my right hand into a loose grip in midair. With the crunching, compressing sound of ice forming, crack crack crack— the pale, mist-wreathed extreme-ice sickle was back in my grasp.
Snap!
I changed direction to dodge the swing of its other hand, then raised the blade and dove straight toward the monster's head.
"THERESA—!"
The moment the shout left my mouth, the monster abruptly lifted its head.
The voids across its face suddenly blazed with scorching light. The blood-red, grotesque skull cracked open into a massive maw lined with countless jagged spikes, and from the deep opening, a furious column of crimson fire erupted — I instinctively raised my left arm to shield my face.
"Ahh—!!"
So hot... so hot...
The instant I felt that searing temperature, panic surged through me. I threw everything I had into pushing my Frost Order to its absolute limit, desperately fighting back the heat that bore down on my body.
A faint blue light flickered within the towering column of fire, like a candle flame teetering in a violent gale, on the verge of being snuffed out at any moment.
This is bad... dodge, dodge, dodge...
Then all at once, the roar of wind filled my ears, the fire column's assault suddenly faltered, and a powerful suction force appeared to my right side, yanking me free from the Fire of Sin.
My whole body went cold.
Then a tremendous crash thundered from below.
BOOM—!
A frenzied storm of wind hurled chunks of stone and wall fragments through the air. I glanced sideways and saw Victoria, floating in midair, her orange-red long dress billowing and swirling in the churning shockwaves.
She held her left hand extended flat in front of her, palm facing in my direction... that powerful pulling wind was coming from there. Her other hand gripped a plain longsword, its downward slash trailing a ghostly afterimage. Devastatingly powerful wind blades tore through the air with an ear-splitting roar, scoring deep gouges across the hard stone road before crashing into the monster's ribcage.
BOOM BOOM BOOM—!!!
A relentless barrage thundered on without pause, blood and flesh flying in all directions.
"ROAARRR—"
The monster seemed to be in pain.
It let out an earth-shaking screech, heaved its massive, revolting body up through the air, and coiled toward Victoria like a predator about to pounce.
I immediately shouted: "Victoria, let me down!"
Victoria shot me a quick glance and understood immediately. She pulled back her raised left hand.
The moment I felt the wind force vanish, I rapidly adjusted my posture mid-air and landed steadily on top of the monster's head. I raised the extreme-ice sickle high and brought it down with everything I had—
CLANG—!
Ice crystal sparks scattered everywhere.
Too hard...
The rows of white bone covering this monster's skull were harder than steel...
Sssss—
Standing on 2 of the monster's ribs, steam instantly began rising. The skin exposed to the air burned with a stinging pain. Its body temperature was extremely high, I had to push out ice mist at full force just to barely keep myself from getting scorched.
Gritting my teeth against the aching numbness in my right arm, I fixed my eyes on the voids in its face, the extreme-ice sickle hissing and spewing white mist, and brought it down again.
Bang—
Ice mist exploded in every direction, enveloping both me and the upper half of the monster's body.
"ROAARRR—"
It began to struggle frantically, abandoning its pursuit of Victoria. Its massive body shot upward at full speed, spun several rotations, then flipped over to slide backward with its back facing down.
Don't even think about throwing me off!
The extreme-ice sickle had lodged itself firmly inside one of the voids on its face from that last strike. I clenched my jaw and held tight to the handle, my entire body dangling in midair, the tearing pain in my arms was driving me to the edge of madness.
"Ahh—!!"
With a cry, blue light burst from my left hand, and I drove my fist straight into the void in its skull.
CRACK—!
Full-force ice mist detonated on the monster's face, freezing half its skull solid.
Not enough! Again!
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK—!
My slender, delicate fists blazed with ice-blue light, driving into the voids of the monster's skull one after another. The ice mist seeped deep inside, and I felt its body begin to tremble slightly.
It's working!
Whoosh—
Victoria closed in right behind me.
Seizing the moment, she swung her sword in one clean arc. A powerful wind blade slashed into the monster's ribcage, carving a deep wound.
"ROAARRR—"
The monster was howling like mad.
Its struggling grew even more violent. The grotesque giant hand ignited with crimson flames and slammed down hard toward its own head.
Damn it!
The crushing pressure hit me like a wave, I let go immediately. The instant my body dropped, I blasted another burst of ice mist straight at its face bones.
This thing's body temperature is too high... even if I can freeze it first, the frost just melts away in the next instant... I need to think of another way...
"Watch out!"
Victoria's voice, she sounded frantic, what was she...
BANG!
A massive force struck me on the head.
Zzzzz...
Everything went dark.
In a daze, I saw Victoria reverse direction in midair, trying to dive down and save me... She was immediately caught up in the countless ribbon-like cartilage strips on the monster's head.
A hurricane swirled around her, forming a terrifying blade-like tornado that shredded the cartilage into pieces... but the cartilage blazed with fierce red light... flames scattering everywhere... I couldn't see clearly anymore...
BANG—!!
"Ugh..."
After the impact, a suffocating pain tore through my back.
"Ugh... hah... hah—"
My face had gone completely red. It took a great struggle before I could finally drag in a breath, only to get a mouthful of dust.
"Cough cough! Cough..."
I was hacking so hard tears were streaming down my face.
The back of my skull felt numb, a nauseating kind of numb. I reached back and touched it... my hand came away soaked in blood.
Thankfully, I hadn't fallen from too great a height. I lay there on the cold road surface and tried moving my arms and legs... good — painful, but nothing broken.
BOOM—!
The commotion above was deafening.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Blast after blast continued ringing out... Victoria was still tangled up with that thing...
I need to get back up there and help her...
I struggled to my feet, then suddenly heard faint voices not far away.
"That's... a Pontifical Knight..."
"And Her Majesty the Queen... they're fighting the monster..."
"Can we survive this..."
I spun around in surprise.
In a narrow corner of an alleyway shrouded in darkness, I could faintly make out... quite a number of people hiding there.
Why are they hiding here... wait, that girl...
I rubbed my eyes.
There was a small, trembling face peering from behind the crowd, and I could just barely make out... it looked like Sarah.