Chapter 85: World Nucleus
After trekking across the wasteland for several days and nights, they finally arrived at Frostcreek Refuge City.
It was one of the Radiant Path’s most important strongholds, home to a large number of its followers. Pandora Davis, one of the church’s high-ranking priests, resided in the church at the heart of the city.
Finn and Olivia donned red robes and bluffed their way through the checkpoints, making their way deep into Frostcreek Refuge City.
As an influential priest, Pandora Davis wasn’t exactly camera-shy. It was easy enough to find a photograph of her. In the grainy image, she had a shaved head, a stern gaze, and a dignified bearing.
When they reached the central church, Olivia circled the enormous building three times. At last, she located Pandora Davis.
For some reason, Olivia’s cheeks turned slightly red.
“I can see her, Master,” she whispered to Finn.
Finn nodded, trusting her judgment. When no one was looking, they smashed a window and slipped into the church.
With her X-ray vision, Olivia could see the entire layout of the building and knew exactly where to go.
Under her guidance, Finn passed through a long corridor lined with extravagant stained-glass windows and arrived at an oak door.
“FBI! Open up!”
Bang!
Finn kicked the door off its hinges, and he and Olivia stormed in with guns raised.
The scene inside was completely indecent.
Pandora Davis was caught in the act. Not only was her scalp bare, but the rest of her was as well. She wasn’t wearing a single scrap of clothing.
Three equally naked men were with her, and the four of them were in the middle of an orgy.
With their fun abruptly interrupted, all six people stared at one another in awkward silence.
“Are you two here to join us?” asked a muscular man. He leered at Olivia and licked his lips.
“Who... are you?” Pandora Davis demanded, though the cock in her mouth reduced the words to a muffled mumble. “Who gave you permission to come in?”
“Get them!”
One of the naked men lunged forward. Sparks burst from his fingers, and blue currents of electricity slithered through the air like snakes.
Finn met him head-on without flinching at the lightning. He raised his sword high and brought it down in a diagonal slash, cutting from the back of the man’s left shoulder through to his right armpit and cleaving him in two.
Blood burst from the wound and splattered across the room.
The sight of blood killed the mood at once. One man shrank back into a corner, while the other tried to flee. Olivia snapped a high kick into the back of his head, dropping him to the floor with a thud. Whether he was alive or dead was anyone’s guess.
“You’ve got some nerve!” Pandora Davis shrieked. “Do you have any idea who I am?”
“I know exactly who you are. You’re the reason we came.”
Finn strode forward and pressed the tip of his bloodstained sword beneath Pandora’s chin.
The blade gleamed coldly beneath the fresh blood coating its edge, and Pandora trembled in terror.
Pandora’s knees buckled, and she collapsed to the floor.
“What do you want? I’ll give you anything! Please, don’t kill me!”
“We won’t kill you,” Finn said without batting an eye. “Give me the answers I want, and I’ll let you live.”
“What do you want to know? I’ll tell you everything!” Pandora blurted out.
“Why did your Holy Pontiff send diving bells into the Alderon Sea?” Finn leaned down, his expression dark. “What did you find down there?”
“They found a glowing crystal on the ocean floor! It was shaped like a cube! His Holiness said the Holy Radiance had sent him a revelation, commanding him to present the crystal as a sacrifice to the Holy Radiance!”
A glowing, cube-shaped crystal?
Finn’s heart jolted.
That was exactly what a World Nucleus looked like!
He had spent so long wandering around the wasteland, searching blindly without a single lead. At last, he had found a trace of the World Nucleus.
And somehow, a native had gotten to it first.
Finn could barely contain his impatience, as if a hundred huskies were shredding paper inside his chest.
“Where is the World... this cube now?” he pressed.
“In the Holy City. His Holiness hid it there. He said he would offer it to the Holy Radiance upon its descent.”
Pandora gave a full account, hoping Finn would spare her life.
“What else do you know? Tell me everything else, and I’ll let you live,” Finn coaxed.
Pandora rambled on for quite some time, but the rest was mostly useless.
The only valuable information concerned the Radiant Path’s military deployments. Most of the Holy Army of Deliverance had already been redeployed to the Holy City and the Alderon Sea in preparation for the Holy Radiance’s descent.
The man Olivia had knocked unconscious earlier had woken up at some point. He was wriggling toward the door like a maggot, trying to slip away unnoticed.
“Stop!” Olivia shouted, leveling her submachine gun at his head.
The man suddenly pulled his legs beneath him. His bones and joints bulged outward, forcing his legs into the backward-bending shape of an insect’s. His toes dug into the floor, and he kicked off with explosive force, shooting forward like an arrow.
Olivia had no choice but to pull the trigger.
A burst of bullets tore into the man’s back, ripping open several bloody wounds.
The deafening gunfire alerted the entire church. Someone peered around the end of the corridor and saw the carnage inside.
“The High Priest has been kidnapped!” he screamed.
Footsteps immediately thundered in from every direction. Armed followers of the Radiant Path converged on the room like a rising tide.
“They know you’re here. You’ll never make it out now.” Pandora Davis thrust out her chest.
Believing the situation had turned in her favor, she regained some of her confidence. “But let me go, and I can guarantee your safety!”
“Did I ever say we were leaving?” Finn gave her a cold glance, then turned to Olivia. “Come here. Stay close to me.”
Olivia sprang lightly into Finn’s arms. She knew what was about to happen and immediately buried her face against his chest.
Finn wrapped his left arm around her soft waist in the classic one-arm-around-the-girl pose.
With his right hand, he hoisted a rocket launcher loaded with a nuclear-tipped rocket onto his shoulder.
“Don’t even think about resisting!” Pandora Davis shrieked. “One rocket won’t save you!”
Finn ignored her and pulled the trigger.
The backblast scorched the church, and a dazzling nuclear fireball erupted in the heart of Frostcreek Refuge City!
The flash heat set Pandora Davis ablaze. In her final moments, she screamed in agony.
“You said you wouldn’t kill me!”
“I didn’t kill you,” Finn replied helplessly. “Your body was just too weak to survive a nuclear explosion. You can’t blame me for that.”
“You—!” Pandora’s scream vanished beneath the shock wave.
The first nuclear-tipped rocket devastated Frostcreek Refuge City, but Finn was nowhere near finished.
Standing upon the scorched earth, he fired two more nuclear-tipped rockets in different directions.
It was as though two new suns had risen from the ground. Blinding light and flame surged outward, igniting and consuming everything as the earth trembled.
At the same time, Finn felt the blonde girl in his arms trembling slightly, as if she were terrified.
He gently stroked Olivia’s silky golden hair, then took out his phone and checked the note on it.
“Twenty-nine days until the Holy Radiance descends. Let’s welcome it with the grandest fireworks imaginable.”