Chapter 179
Chapter 179: Azure Flames Consume the Moon, Blood Stains the Royal City (Part 13)
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"Move! Run this way—!"
From the distant streets and alleyways, a burly man in a cyan-white cape called out to the crowd, urging them to flee.
The civilians scattered like startled birds, too frightened to even scream. I spotted a girl who looked just like Sarah... she seemed to glance at me for a moment, then ran off with the crowd into the distance.
Was that Sarah...
Too dark to tell... Forget it, now's not the time to think about that.
I shook my head lightly and stumbled.
...Dizzy.
Heat spread from the back of my skull downward, trickling into my neck... but it stopped quickly.
I lifted my gaze toward the night sky blazing like a midday sun.
A crimson sea of fire churned above, like the apocalyptic vision of a world tearing itself apart. Massive explosions rang out continuously overhead, their dull thunderous reverberations shaking the heavens and echoing throughout the royal city.
At the center of the inferno, a slender figure rode the swirling winds and waves, weaving and soaring around the monster's enormous body. She dodged tongue after tongue of terrifying flame, the longsword in her hand hissing through the air as she struck the creature again and again, sending bone and flesh flying.
"GRRAAAWWW—"
The monster was clearly badly hurt. It let out a horrifying shriek and, wreathed in roaring Fire of Sin, trailing thick black smoke, came plummeting down like a falling star.
Can't let it land here...
That heart-scratching itch surged through my body again. I felt my wounds knitting back together as I stepped forward. The ground erupted with ice pillars beneath my feet, launching me into the night sky like a cannonball. Wind roared past my ears as I fixed my eyes on the blazing fireball plummeting from above. When the distance felt right, I kicked off an ice platform and sharply changed direction mid-air, flashing to the monster's right side.
"Victoria! Get clear—!"
I shouted as I threw both arms out in front of me, palms open, eyes sweeping rapidly across the ground below... the civilians were running too slowly, and every direction seemed to have people in it. The only open space... was a small plaza several streets away.
Hit it that direction.
I made my decision in an instant. Victoria had already broken away at just the right moment.
The next second, a blinding blue radiance burst from my entire body.
"Ahhh—!"
CRACK— BOOM—!!
A strike with everything I had.
Thick ice mist, glittering with countless crystalline shards, poured from my palms in a torrent. A surging frost wave swept up a sky-high tide of cold, swallowing the monster whole in an instant.
Crack, snap, crunch...
My vision blurred as the ice mist swallowed everything.
At the heart of the freezing current, the roaring Fire of Sin flickered and dimmed the moment it was consumed by that bone-chilling cold, losing all its ferocity. The impact hit the monster head-on, altering its falling trajectory, sending it careening toward the distant plaza. The sound of frost locking into place spread across its body.
Good... that's got it frozen for now.
My body began to fall again.
At the same time, a wave of crushing exhaustion washed over me.
I don't think I... can keep this up much longer...
Whoosh—
Wind screamed past my ears, and my hair whipped wildly against my face.
From the corner of my eye, Victoria swept around the ice mist, her figure tracing a graceful arc through the sky, and shot toward me at full speed. With one arm, she pulled me tightly against her.
"Pfft—"
I couldn't help letting out a small breath.
She's holding too tight... her arm is digging right into my chest. That really hurts.
BOOM—!
The monster's body crashed into the plaza, shattering the stone lion statue standing at its center. Amid the billowing dust, one of its arms broke apart, and countless ice crystals wrapped around flesh and bone sprayed outward in every direction.
"Are you... okay."
Victoria's voice was still cool and composed, only laced with slightly ragged breathing.
She looked a little rough around the edges right now. Her dress was scorched through in several places. One of her shoes was gone. There was a serious burn on her arm, her golden hair was a tangled mess with every tip curled up from the heat, and her face was smudged black with soot... and even so, none of it could hide how beautiful she was.
"I'm..."
I barely managed a single word before the wind shoved itself into my mouth.
The moment Victoria grabbed hold of me, she didn't pause for even a second. Her other hand immediately swung the sword. A massive wind blade took shape before us in an instant, and in the next moment it screamed through the air toward where the monster had fallen. She twisted sharply mid-flight, tucking me firmly against her side like she was carrying a doll, and dove straight down toward the small plaza.
Wind raged all around, and even my ears ached from it.
BOOM—!
The wind blade sliced through the rubble and struck the monster's body, cleaving its frozen form clean in half at the waist.
But we both knew that alone wasn't enough to kill it.
...But I was already so tired.
Tired enough that my mind had started to go foggy. Even with her arm pressing painfully into my chest, I couldn't find the will to say anything.
I could feel that my stamina had been completely drained dry.
This wasn't from overusing the Frost Order... the Order power within my body was still full, probably enough to last for a long while yet. I could feel that clearly. It was just that my body itself was terribly weak.
Deep down I knew exactly why it had come to this. It was because of those wounds healing earlier.
That consumed the power of the Abyss.
Gurgle...
My stomach was hungry. Very hungry.
I could actually feel it churning.
I want to eat something... anything, just eat something... eat something...
Sniff, sniff.
Victoria's scent filled my nose... the warm smell of a human body... mixed with the charred burning of flames... like grilled meat.
It smells so good...
I really want to take a bite out of her.
Smack!
Through the haze, something suddenly slapped my forehead.
"You've still got the nerve to fool around."
"...Huh?"
Snapping back to reality, I realized that at some point, I had already bitten down on the arm Victoria was using to hold me.
A jolt of alarm shot through my heart, and I caught myself immediately, letting go at once.
A thread of saliva stretched and dripped from my chin... it tickled.
I quietly pinched my own thigh to shake off the daze. I tried to think of some excuse to explain myself to her, but what came out was: "I was just... tasting it..."
Mm. It was salty.
What am I even...
Victoria's brow furrowed slightly, her eyes fixed straight ahead. "Pull yourself together."
Tap.
She landed gently in the circular plaza and set me down, her right hand swinging the longsword back into motion at the same time.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
"GRRAAAWWW—"
The shriek that erupted from behind snapped me out of my daze.
...Right, I'm still in the middle of a fight!
Not good...
Feeling the scorching heat at my back, I bit the tip of my tongue and spun around sharply.
In my field of vision, the monster's severed lower half rapidly dissolved and scattered in the flames... then reformed into writhing chunks of flesh and blood, disappearing into the hollow of its skull. Countless crimson threads of blood surged from its fractured spine, weaving into a new body.
The monster slowly lifted its head in the firelight, and that bone-chilling face turned back toward me.
"GRRAAAWWW—"
Fire of Sin came roaring out alongside its howl.
...Moon Step!
Whoosh—
I activated Moon Step and sidestepped, the inferno screaming past me so close it seemed to warp the very air. When I reappeared roughly 10 meters away, my legs gave out beneath me. I tumbled across the ground twice and hit the side of a flower bed in the plaza with a dull thud, face-first.
Ow ow ow...
I almost had tears in my eyes.
No... at this rate I'm going to lose.
If I lose... then everyone in the royal city... I can't lose. I won't lose...
I struggled to my feet, wiped the drool from the corner of my mouth with the back of my hand, and shouted up at Victoria in the sky above:
"Think of something to drive it out of the city—!"
Once it's out of the city... I can kill it.