### Chapter 110: The Annihilation’s Might (Part 1)
BOOM—
With a muffled sound, dust exploded everywhere.
The young woman zipped through the air like a gust of wind, vanishing and reappearing right in front of Pope Knight Carlos.
He stood there for what felt like ages.
The man seemed to finally notice something, his hazy gaze slowly regaining focus. He lay on the ground, coughed a few times, bl**d frothing from his mouth, and opened it as if trying to say something, but no sound came out.
In his blurred vision, that familiar yet slightly strange young lady stood beside him, her dark dress shimmering with a dull glow against the gray sky. With an air of superiority, she looked down, locking eyes with him, her expression neutral, her scarlet eyes betraying no hint of emotion.
“Ugh… cough cough…”
Suddenly, Carlos seemed to remember something.
His face twisted in pain as he painfully lifted his mangled right hand, trembling arm barely making its way to his bl**d-soaked collar. A jolt of pain surged through his brain, consciousness swirling in and out, but he held onto that one thought, pinching the grease-stained, bloody parchment with two fingers, yanking it out with some effort.
“Ah…”
He gasped in pain, the sound weak and feeble, as the parchment half-extricated from his clothes refused to budge any further. Breathing heavily, his limp hand dropped again, and the paper bag, now damaged from previous scuffles, spilled a few contents onto the ground.
It looked like pastry made of dough and eggs.
The golden, baked exterior was now covered in dust, some even smeared with a hint of bl**d. The few pieces that dropped were mostly deformed—cracked or flattened—and the remnants in the bag were nothing more than crumbs that were certainly unappetizing.
“Cough… ugh… hrgh…”
Carlos’s throat felt like it was filled with bl**d and phlegm. He opened his mouth several times, his gaze once again drifting, but after a moment, he finally managed to force out a few words.
“You must know… in… Wister Town… getting… this… is… no easy feat… especially… cough cough, especially sugar… Guess how I… got my hands on it… cough! Hack hack—”
The man was gasping for air, sounding like a wheezing bellows with every breath, as if he were about to hardly make it to the next second.
“Too bad… some got… ruined…”
He tried once more to lift his hand, but it wouldn’t budge, his body feeling as heavy as lead, eyelids drooping, head spinning, and the image of that girl blurred into three doubles above him before fading away.
“Little… Hil…”
Carlos murmured, voice slurring, “Why… did… you k*ll… those clerics…”
“……”
The girl didn’t respond.
“Answer cough cough… answer me…”
The man kept pressing, his voice barely audible.
After that, the girl—seeming like a mere doll, going from awakening to decisive killer without uttering a single word, showing no emotion—now gazed at his frail, pained face, and she finally spoke.
“They hurt you.”
Her voice was clear, melodious, flowing in a manner completely different from before.
Hearing her voice, Carlos’s pained expression suddenly froze.
One second, two seconds passed.
“You…”
He opened his mouth again, his once blue eyes utterly unfocused, his lips trembling as he managed a fragile smile that spoke volumes, one that was either for her, or perhaps a reflection of his own choices.
“You’re still… the same… you… aren’t you…”
“……”
The girl frowned slightly, contemplating, as if she were about to say something else.
But she realized that the man could no longer hear her.
Pope Knight Carlos, who had been given a hard time by swirling winds and dust, slowly closed his eyes.
…………
In the sky above, dark clouds continued to roll restlessly.
Kneeling beside the unconscious man, the girl squatted down, her face still impassive as her crimson eyes fixed intently on his face, staring blankly for a while.
Then, she reached out her right hand, the thumb and forefinger clad in dark armor, picking up one of the fallen pastries from the ground. Holding it up to inspect, she pouted and blew off the dust, gingerly placed it in her mouth, taking a small bite along with the mingled bl**d, chewing slowly.
A warm tear rolled down her bright red left eye.
She then shoved the entire pastry into her mouth, her cheeks puffing up as she chewed vigorously. Her previously expressionless face suddenly reverted to the cute and playful demeanor it once had, yet her bl**d-red eyes seemed colder than ever, like frost in a winter’s blizzard, swirling with an undercurrent of rage.
At that moment, the once-dormant girl finally revealed her emotions.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh—
A light breeze swirled past her, lifting the bl**d-streaked hair of the man lying on the dusty ground. His calm face, covered in dark red grime, reflected in her eyes that now burned with anger. She stretched out her right hand, resting it on his messy head, just as he used to do to her, tenderly ruffling it a few times.
Then, the face reflected in her eyes, so familiar it was almost a part of her, suddenly ignited like fire. She heard the noisy sounds of knights behind her, apparently trying to approach, the clattering of armor mingling with the chaotic hoofbeats, faintly laced with a divine buzz.
“Divine Scale, form up—”
“We shall face an unprecedentedly terrifying enemy! Everyone, snap to it! Look for my signal, listen to my orders, according to the will of the divine, the light of the ‘Chain of Divine Lock’ will once again illuminate this barren land—”
“Third squad, reset!”
“Fifth squad, reset!”
“Eighth squad, reset!”
“Faith Organization…”
Hearing these shouts, the girl swallowed the food she had been chewing, exhaled a warm breath, and black smoke swirled up with the heat, accompanied by a sharp sizzle. The flames in her eyes grew more intense, and her body, encased in black armor, crackled ominously with each movement. Then with a roar, massive bat-like wings, burning with scarlet inferno, unfurled dramatically from her back!
She didn’t get up; instead, she ripped the tattered, bl**d-soaked cloak of the Pope Knight from under him with a fierce tug, the fabric tearing soundly in two.
Gripping one half tightly, flames seemingly erupted from her eyes. Her white hair began to grow longer, bl**d veins blooming beneath the exposed skin. A pair of slender, dark red horns gradually formed on her forehead, crackling with red lightning, wreathed in black smoke, while a serpentine tail of dark light slithered out from under her dress, lifting up high and suddenly crashing down—
BANG!
With a thunderous course of sound, the ground behind the girl cracked wide open, fissures extending dozens of meters away, dust flying like a tsunami, blasted apart by the fierce winds.
That was just her casual gesture, yet it threw the knights and clerics a hundred meters away into disarray. The shouts from that direction grew wildly frantic as she slowly turned back amidst the chaos.
She gazed at the panicked crowd and raised the hand that had patted Carlos’s head.
Then, she slowly brought it down.
RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE…
In the sky above, a whirlpool of scarlet fire suddenly coalesced, an earth-shattering boom rupturing the dark clouds as a scorching whirlwind swept over the desolate land, a fiery meteor emerging terrifyingly from the cloud layers.
