Chapter 115
Chapter 115: Funeral
"Something like this…I refuse to accept it…I absolutely refuse to accept it!!!"
Tiffany screamed in rage throughout the hospital corridor.
"I am the 7th Seat of the Arashin-kai! The holder of Sovereign Rule!"
"I am the king of gamblers!"
"How could…"
"How could I possibly die in a wretched place like this!"
The moment her words fell, Tiffany maniacally forced her dual domains to activate, attempting to fight back against this corridor.
However, in her greatly weakened state, how could she possibly shake a complete domain?
She could only despairingly feel her own power vanishing like a clay ox entering the sea, her body pinned firmly in place.
Once that damned Thousand-Face Demon Lord rolled out the revolver or the playing cards—
Those two devastatingly powerful tools would leave her with only one path: being slowly drained to death!
"I must tear apart this domain before that happens! Smash that accursed Slot Machine!"
Tiffany bit through the tip of her tongue; the pain brought her briefly back to clarity.
"And you, that damned Joker!"
"Once this old lady gets out alive, I will absolutely make you pay!"
Her bloodshot eyes spun wildly.
Since she couldn't break the domain from the outside!
Then she would kill the domain's master!
At this razor-thin moment of tension, a hospital bed was silently sliding toward her from out of the shadows.
Tiffany's spirit was on the verge of collapse at this point, yet that very desperation had forced her into her optimal combat state.
Detecting a faint sound from behind, she immediately turned her head—but there was nothing there.
Yet the instant she turned back around, a pair of burned hands were already lunging directly at her face!
Tiffany snapped to awareness in an instant!
The reason Ten Thousand Blades hadn't auto-triggered was because it had been neutralized by the domain laws within this corridor!
But that didn't mean she couldn't take the initiative.
"Ten Thousand Blades! Shred her to—"
The vicious words hadn't even left her mouth when fingers made contact with her skin.
The Untouchable Rule had still not activated!
"No! Get away! Don't touch me!"
Tiffany shrieked in horror and forcibly switched rules.
Hmmm!
Untouchable finally activated!
An invisible wall of air locked between the two!
Blocking those hands mere inches from her face.
Using this gap, Tiffany immediately mobilized Ten Thousand Blades in an attempt to counter-kill.
But the Head Nurse reacted with extreme speed, sensing the killing intent, and instantly teleported onto the hospital bed.
Then those long, shapely legs wrapped in black stockings suddenly exerted force, kicking off the bed, sending both herself and the bed hurtling forward to slam into Tiffany!
Tiffany refused to retreat, gritting her teeth, maneuvering the invisible Ten Thousand Blades to meet the attack head-on.
But the moment the edge of the bed grazed her body, Tiffany's pupils contracted sharply!
The Untouchable Rule on her body had vanished into thin air!
"Cough—ugh!"
A tremendous force slammed into her; Tiffany was forced to break off Ten Thousand Blades, her entire body sent flying to the ground as she vomited a mouthful of fresh blood.
She stared fixedly at that hospital bed, and finally understood.
That bed itself carried domain laws!
It could neutralize her Untouchable Rule!
And her current physical condition—
She absolutely could not maintain two rules simultaneously!
If she tried to force it, both would be neutralized at once!
"Damn her…what a tenacious bitch!"
Tiffany wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth.
The Head Nurse had clearly seen through her weakness and began madly pushing the bed to launch charge after charge.
Tiffany was like a disabled person with one leg crippled, able only to take the Head Nurse's brutal kicks to her good leg.
She tried abandoning offense, relying solely on Untouchable to brawl with the Head Nurse!
Though the opponent couldn't touch her, her greatly weakened physical condition meant her strikes on the opponent accomplished nothing—barely a scratch!
"I can't keep dragging this out…I have to gamble everything!"
The gambler's instinct was fully ignited at this moment.
Tiffany's eyes hardened; she completely abandoned defense and poured every ounce of power into Ten Thousand Blades!
Faced with the torrential invisible sword energy, the Head Nurse was indeed forced into constant evasion.
Tiffany pursued with red eyes and all her might, but just then, the Head Nurse employed her old trick again—pushing the bed to steamroll forward!
Tiffany let out a fierce cry, directing Ten Thousand Blades to slash at the bed!
Yet the moment the sword energy touched the bed, it bizarrely vanished!
"Spatial transfer…so it was you all along!"
Tiffany instantly understood everything.
This monster before her was the culprit who had forcibly transported her to the 15th floor earlier!
The domain law that bed carried was Transport!
But when masters clash, a single moment of distraction is enough to be fatal.
The Head Nurse seized this fleeting opening, barreling forward with the bed and slamming it squarely into Tiffany!
"Aahh!"
Tiffany was violently crushed to the ground; fractured ribs pierced her internal organs.
Before she could even catch her breath, those burn-scarred claws reached for her cheeks again.
Tiffany instinctively tried to struggle, but when she lifted her head and saw that bizarre face—that face bearing nothing but horrifying burn scars, without any features whatsoever—she suddenly understood.
'This thing…wants my face?'
A reckless plan took shape in her mind.
Tiffany neither attacked nor defended.
She allowed the Head Nurse's hands to clasp her face.
Riiip!!
The sound of flesh and skin being torn echoed through the corridor.
The Head Nurse had actually, with brute force, peeled Tiffany's facial skin away intact!
"Aaaahhhhh!!!!"
The unimaginable agony drew an inhuman, piercing shriek from Tiffany.
That face of hers, stripped of its outer skin, twitched violently!
Yet both her hands slammed dead-center onto the Head Nurse's impressive chest.
"Now…die!!!"
Ten Thousand Blades erupted!
In an instant, countless invisible blades gushed from Tiffany's palms.
Completely piercing through the Head Nurse's chest!
Crack!
With the Head Nurse suffering a devastating blow, the hospital corridor domain holding her prisoner shattered like a mirror!!
"Ahh—!"
The Head Nurse let out a howl, but still clutched that peeled face.
Summoning the last thread of her strength to grip the bed, she fled the scene.
"Haha…hahahaha!!"
Tiffany collapsed into the pool of blood, "Victory…victory is mine! I won!!"
She shrieked deliriously, tilting her head back to gaze at the true space revealed after the domain shattered.
However, amid those fragments of collapsing space raining down, her laughter abruptly ceased.
Her entire being plunged as if into an ice cave, frozen in place.
Not far away, the Thousand-Face Demon Lord was watching her.
The revolver in his hand had already taken aim at the center of Tiffany's brow.
And behind him, the Slot Machine that decided fate had long since stopped spinning.
3 revolver symbols, lined up in a row.
"No, victory is mine."
"Bang!"
As the Thousand-Face Demon Lord pulled the trigger, Tiffany collapsed at the sound.
The 7th Seat of the Arashin-kai. The Gambler.
Fell here.
……
Seattle Mercy Hospital, 11th Floor Corridor
The ground was covered entirely in the ashen remains of incinerated Supervisors.
Jiang Nan was furrowing his brow slightly, studying the Sovereign Lantern in his hand.
The good news was that, after the extraordinarily brutal "unhindered mowing" from just moments ago—
The Sovereign Lantern had absorbed its fill of experience and had successfully broken through to Grade B!
And even after leveling up, the 30,000-plus Grand Love Points he had accumulated just now—
Still had a full 18,000 remaining at this moment, which was an extraordinarily abundant reserve.
But the bad news was…
This thing, if it wanted to continue advancing upward to Grade A—
Beyond requiring experience points, it had actually locked behind a special condition!
Jiang Nan stared at the panel surfacing in his mind, his expression darkening somewhat.
——————
【Item】: Sovereign Lantern
【Type】: Cursed Object
【Grade】: Grade B (Grand Love Points required for next grade: 15,000, plus imprisoning the soul of 1 S-Grade powerhouse!)
【Function】: Slaying and imprisoning souls; Grand Love Upon the Body.
Current Kill Line: 25%
Current Small World Size: 200 cubic meters
Number of Imprisoned Souls: 0
【Grand Love Points】: 18,000
——————
'So it needs a main soul? Truly a case of ten thousand souls, yet not the right one.'
Jiang Nan clicked his tongue.
He hated this feeling of being stopped just short of the finish line.
Like a Barrett already chambered, but with the bullet lodged halfway down the barrel.
Can't spit it out, can't swallow it back down—irritating from head to toe.
And just as Jiang Nan was weighing whether to attempt fighting his way back down to the 10th floor—
"Master!"
Piano suddenly trembled all over, extending her hand, pointing toward the dark depths at the northern end of the corridor.
"From the north…there are footsteps coming this way!"
"Hm?"
Jiang Nan immediately reined in his thoughts and looked in that direction.
Drag…
Drag…
Accompanied by sluggish footsteps.
From within the black mist, a silhouette was moving toward him—one bloody footprint at a time.
The nurse's uniform on its body had been reduced to tattered strips of cloth.
Black blood dripped continuously from all over its body onto the floor.
What was most hair-raising was what was on its head…
A woman's face skin had actually been draped over it!
That face skin hung loosely over the featureless expanse of its face.
The holes where the eyes should have been weren't even aligned properly.
The one approaching was none other than Head Nurse Charlotte—who had just survived a life-or-death blood battle!
Also the faceless bunny-girl who was madly, secretly in love with Jiang Nan!
At this moment, the Head Nurse had already sunk into her dying moments.
In the corridor domain of the 15th floor, though she had peeled away Tiffany's face skin—
She herself had also absorbed the point-blank eruption of Ten Thousand Blades!
Those countless invisible sword energies had long since shredded her life force beyond recovery.
She was spent, an arrow at the end of its flight.
Charlotte knew it clearly.
She was about to leave this cruel world and meet the final dissolution that awaited all cursed entities.
But…
In the final moment before consciousness sank into endless darkness—
The only thing that surfaced in her mind—
Was not fear of death.
Nor was it resentment toward the Thousand-Face Demon Lord for exploiting her.
It was that man.
He was the only ray of light that had ever shone into the depths of her heart in this sunless hospital.
'I want to see him…'
'I want so badly…'
'To look at him one last time…'
This was the single obsession that had kept her from collapsing on the spot—that had driven her to force one final bed transport.
To crawl all the way to the 11th floor!
But she was also deeply self-conscious.
She knew how hideous her burned face was.
She knew her featureless, charred husk of a face would foul his eyes.
And so, stubbornly, she had hastily draped that freshly peeled face skin over her own.
'This way…when he sees me…'
'He won't find me disgusting, will he?'
'I have…a pretty face now…'
She consoled herself in her heart.
Her vision grew more and more blurred; her steps grew heavier and heavier.
Finally, as she passed through the last stretch of black mist—
She saw him.
That silhouette, standing right there.
Those pair of crimson pupils, gazing at her with calm stillness.
Upon seeing the figure she had so desperately longed to see—
The Head Nurse's heart, already riddled with countless wounds, found peace in this moment.
'How wonderful…'
'Before dying…I finally managed…'
'To appear beautifully before you……'
The last thread of strength sustaining her body withdrew.
Thud.
Her body tilted forward and crashed onto the floor.
That loosely draped, exquisitely beautiful face skin slid slightly as she fell.
She strained to extend that burned, charred hand, wanting to touch Jiang Nan.
She opened her mouth with extreme longing, wanting to spend the very last of her strength—
To say to that man the words buried deepest in her heart.
But…
She had no vocal cords. She had no lips.
The only thing she regretted…
Was that she could not speak.
She could not, with her own voice…
Say to that man, those words…
"I love you."
————————
Author's note:
The 5 cover options for the Book Test have been confirmed!
Everyone, come guess which one will become the winning title!
Note: Image dimensions are limited, so some parts may be missing. Please bear with us.
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