Chapter 646 – Wind Rupture
In the devastated underground library of the Church District in Tivyán, Duval unexpectedly devoured his comrade during a sudden action. This move was not only unforeseen by others like Braun but also by Doro and Vania who were monitoring the battlefield.
“Du… Duval Elder…”
“What is this guy doing…”
Without paying attention to anyone else’s thoughts, Duval, after devouring Sander, slowly lowered his bl**d-stained hand. At this moment, the eyes on his left head had completely turned into a ghostly green, with an eerie smile appearing at the corner of his wolf mouth, indicating that the consumption had brought about some strange changes to his body.
Without pausing, the demon wolf opened his left wolf head and, after taking a deep breath, forcefully exhaled, spewing out a dense dark green mist from his ferocious mouth. This mist rapidly dispersed in all directions upon contact with the air.
“That is…”
“Quickly escape!”
Seeing the dark green mist spewed by Duval, Braun and the others couldn’t help but change their expressions. They immediately started dodging recklessly, climbing out of the underground restricted book library along the pillars to escape. They knew what that mist was; it was a type of miasma filled with pathogens!
The ability to mutate through consumption is what the Fear-eating Demon Wolf possesses. He can gain corresponding mutation abilities by consuming any Extraordinary Being related to “Cup”… Extraordinary creatures… or even Extraordinary Items. For Extraordinary Beings, as long as they are primary or secondary holders of “Cup”, they can be consumed to gain these mutation abilities.
Sander was a White Chalk Tier from the Plague Path, and he shared the same primary “Cup” as Duval. After devouring him, Duval could acquire the abilities of plague miasma and pathogen claws. As long as Sander wasn’t fully digested, Duval could continuously use these abilities, with more frequent usage leading to faster digestion. A Fear-eating Demon Wolf can digest up to two different Extraordinary entities simultaneously at most.
This deadly miasma spreading into the air was Duval’s countermeasure against the elusive assassin. Although the assassin was fast, Duval couldn’t keep up, but he could fill the entire underground library with miasma, leaving no place for the assassin to hide!
Indeed, things unfolded as Duval predicted. Doro’s Night Demon Emanation Body, created with the involvement of “Cup,” could be considered a form of life in a certain sense, thus it could be affected by the miasma.
“This is getting troublesome… such an ability…”
From the carriage far away, Doro muttered to herself. Currently, Duval’s miasma was rapidly spreading in the underground restricted book library, soon filling the entire space. The Night Demon Emanation Body was not entirely invisible when hidden, so it couldn’t remain unaffected.
Facing the rampant miasma, Doro had to control the Night Demon Emanation Body to act immediately, darting out from the shadows at top speed before the miasma could affect it. She moved under the shattered ceiling, rapidly climbing upward by leaping between walls and pillars, trying to escape the underground library.
However, when the Night Demon Emanation Body left the shadows, its concealment inevitably broke. Duval’s extremely sensitive sense of smell instantly detected the enemy’s presence. When he closed his mouth, which was spewing miasma, and looked towards the direction of the sudden scent, he saw the Night Demon Emanation Body jumping upward among the stone pillars, almost escaping from underground.
“You won’t get away!!”
With a roar, the massive demon wolf swiftly swiped with his sharp claws, hitting the stone pillar used by the Night Demon Emanation Body for climbing, shattering it instantly. In an instant, the Night Demon Emanation Body, about to escape the underground library, lost its foothold and fell down uncontrollably, while Duval immediately lunged at it.
For the Night Demon Emanation Body, the situation was dire. Without flight capabilities and losing its foothold, agility and dexterity were useless. It could only watch helplessly as the werewolf’s large mouth approached.
At this critical moment, Doro controlled the Night Demon Emanation Body to throw the book “True Crimson Holy Mother” it had just seized, aiming to distract Duval. Sure enough, Duval changed his target upon smelling the book, biting in another direction and swallowing the flying book mid-air. Meanwhile, the Night Demon Emanation Body took advantage of this delay to quickly adjust its position in the air, changing the pillar it clung to by stepping on a damaged one. After two swift leaps, it successfully escaped the underground restricted book library and reached the outside.
On the other side, after swallowing “True Crimson Holy Mother,” Duval turned his gaze upward and jumped out of the spreading miasma from the underground library, landing on the square in front of the main hall.
Returning to the sunlight, Duval immediately caught the scent of the elusive assassin again. However, instead of pursuing, he looked in another direction—the spot from where he had jumped previously. Having successfully retrieved “True Crimson Holy Mother,” there was no need for further pursuit; he just needed to leave immediately.
“We… uh…”
“Boom!!”
Just as Duval was about to give his subordinates nearby a retreat order, another unexpected event occurred. Duval suddenly felt a powerful punch strike his back. A strong downward force pressed him onto the ground.
Amidst the rumbling, Duval’s body was embedded into the ground. Around him, the ground suddenly exploded, with cracks spreading everywhere, resembling a heavy, invisible punch. This impact not only created a large pit but also triggered a powerful chaotic airflow sweeping across the square.
“What is this…”
Struggling to pull his wolf head from the ground, Duval turned to look up at the sky. There, he saw clouds swirling in the wind and, beneath them, a golden-haired man floating in the air. Wearing Prít’s general military uniform, he held a stone sword, his cold gaze overlooking the wolf below.
That was Harold, a member of the House of Despenser and the Chief of the Anonymity Headquarters in Tivyán!
‘Air Force Soldier! The Royal Red Tier of Prít! How did they arrive so quickly?! They should have been diverted elsewhere!’
Seeing the figure in the sky, Duval was shocked. According to their original plan, the Red Tier of Prít should not have arrived at the Hymn Cathedral so soon.
Amidst astonishment and confusion, Duval realized he couldn’t smell the Red Tier wind mage due to their nature, unaware of Harold’s arrival. Harold, however, paid no mind to Duval’s thoughts. He gathered high-pressure air into a cannon and shot it toward Duval again.
Harold’s air cannon was invisible and faster than sound. Only when Duval sensed the subtle distortion of the air did he realize the attack had resumed. Quickly crawling out of the crater to dodge, Duval was still grazed by the edge of the cannon, sending him flying and crashing to the ground. Seeing this, Harold immediately pursued, swinging his sword and releasing a wind blade.
Harold’s wind blade flew faster than the air cannon, expanding rapidly in mid-air. Just as Duval had barely risen from the ground, he failed to dodge in time and lost his right arm to the wind blade. The long blade cut a thirty-meter-long, deep fissure into the ground.
With one arm severed, the demon wolf let out a fierce howl. However, the situation didn’t allow him to retrieve his arm, as Harold’s continuous wind blade attacks were relentless. He could only desperately dodge.
Thus, Duval ran on the ground, dodging Harold’s wind blades, leaving deep, long scratches on the earth as if a giant invisible whip was being swung, marking countless traces.
“It has finally come… the Kingdom’s Red Tier… now this wolf has met its match…”
Inside the carriage, Doro murmured as she watched the scene unfold in the church. She had instructed the Night Demon Emanation Body to seize “True Crimson Holy Mother” to stall Duval and prevent them from escaping immediately. Ultimately, she released “True Crimson Holy Mother” as bait because the person she was waiting for had arrived.
After Duval’s surprise attack on the church district, Vania had already sent a distress signal to the An Yin Bureau, requesting the nearby Red Tier to arrive as soon as possible. The time the Night Demon Emanation Body spent engaging Duval was sufficient for Harold to reach the scene.
In the church district, Harold continuously attacked Duval with large, fast-moving wind blades. Even with Duval’s utmost efforts to dodge, he couldn’t avoid all of them. His massive body was repeatedly sliced by wind blades, leaving deep gashes. Structures were neatly sliced off their corners, and buildings Duval hid behind were quickly destroyed.
Facing Harold’s relentless assault, Duval could only regenerate and dodge continuously, unable to retaliate effectively. This was because Harold was high enough that Duval’s usual attacks couldn’t reach him. Duval’s claws were too short, and even his miasma would be easily blown away.
Of course, Duval wasn’t completely passive. He was waiting for an opportunity, waiting for his severed claw to fully regenerate.
This opportunity came soon. As the sharp claw without any hair grew out from the wound, Duval dodged to the back of a building in the church district. Then, he vomited a large iron canister about half a meter in diameter from his right head, regurgitating raw meat. Duval swallowed the meat without hesitation.
Immediately after eating the canister’s contents, the building Duval had used as cover was partially destroyed by an air cannon blast. Duval’s figure was exposed once more to Harold’s sight, and Harold immediately attacked again.
Dodging Harold’s onslaught several times, Duval finally counterattacked, leaping onto the roof of a building in the church district and then jumping across multiple rooftops. Finding a good angle, he burst forward with all four limbs, launching his massive body like an arrow toward Harold, hundreds of meters above.
Aware of this, Harold prepared himself. His body transformed into a swift wind, easily dodging Duval’s attack. Once Duval began to fall, Harold struck with a vertical wind blade, aimed directly at Duval. Unable to maneuver in mid-air, Duval could only watch helplessly as the blade approached.
Harold’s wind blade sliced Duval’s body vertically in half. Duval’s left and right halves separated, one with a head dripping bl**d falling down, and the massive body crashing to the ground with a thunderous noise.
“Now, even if he survives, he will be temporarily incapacitated…”
Watching the dust rise, Harold murmured, and just as he was about to blow away the dust with a strong wind, a black arrow shot out from it, heading straight for Harold.
“Has he recovered so quickly…”
Facing the new arrow, Harold transformed into a wind and dodged successfully, avoiding another attack. He raised his sword again, ready to deliver another strike to divide the beast into more pieces.
However, when Harold truly saw the appearance of the black arrow, his eyes widened. Though it was a werewolf, it wasn’t the ten-meter-tall dual-headed demon wolf but a single-headed one, five to six meters tall with intact limbs—a smaller version of the demon wolf!
While Harold’s attention was fully drawn to the smaller wolf, another black arrow shot from the dust unseen by Harold, striking him from behind. As the arrow slowed, revealing another five to six-meter-tall single-headed demon wolf silently staring at Harold’s back.
The wolf in front was Duval, and the one behind was also Duval… This unusual phenomenon was due to the reserve meat Duval ate from the iron canister, which belonged to a White Chalk vampire. Eating this meat allowed Duval to split into two, using the dust as cover for one to feign an attack while the other struck from behind. Harold hadn’t anticipated this new ability and was now successfully ambushed.
Without hesitation, the successful ambushing half of the wolf slashed at Harold’s back with its claws. Just in time, Harold detected the ambush through the abnormal disturbance in the air behind him. He immediately abandoned his intended wind blade attack on the other half of the wolf, transforming into a breeze to escape urgently.
The ambushing half seemed to anticipate Harold’s reaction, stopping its attack and opening its mouth to spew a large amount of green miasma. Harold’s elemental transformation caused the wind to inadvertently carry away much of the miasma, mixing it with the airflow.
Ultimately, the wind carrying the miasma reformed quickly, converging back into Harold’s body. However, when he reappeared, his face was pale, clearly looking unwell.
…
While Duval and Harold continued their intense battle, turning the church district into chaos, Vania stood atop a tower on the main cathedral of the Saint Hymn Cathedral, watching the nearby battlefield. Seeing her familiar home severely damaged, she felt a pang of sadness.
“Lord… the evil of gluttony… is destroying the sacred domain. All these atrocities must end… Please grant me the power to judge sin…”
Hearing the terrifying wolf howls amidst the distant wind, the white-robed nun prayed. Listening to her words, Doro couldn’t help but think.
‘It’s time to end this…’
