Chapter Sixty-Nine: Recognizing Hell (6)
Uh-oh…
I’ve been caught!!
This was the thought that popped into my head in an instant.
The moment I noticed the Female Swordsman had suddenly vanished, my heart skipped a beat, and as the tension shot through me, I instinctively took two steps back, squinting my eyes and quickly scanning the area.
No one on my left…
Nothing unusual on my right…
Peering through the doorway, I couldn’t see anything new in the city… those Knights had long disappeared… and the Sword Demon was nowhere in sight either.
But she couldn’t have quietly snuck away right under my nose without me noticing…
She just didn’t have the chops for that…
So I really have been caught…
When did this happen!?
Just now, maybe…
Rumble, rumble, rumble…
Suddenly, the ground beneath me began to shake.
!
Boom—!
Without having the time to ponder what was happening, the moment I felt the tremor, I used Moon Step to leap into the air amidst the splattering mud and muffled sounds, rocketing nearly a hundred meters up in the blink of an eye. As I caught my breath in the howling wind, I looked down at the city wall where the tower stood tall, then spun around in mid-air, my right hand shooting out a burst of Ice Mist to propel me downward.
d*mn…
Is this because I was previously untouchable? Made me think I had some immunity against this illusionary power…
I didn’t even realize when I had fallen under its spell…
I was too careless.
But this wasn’t a problem I could easily avoid just by being cautious. I began to realize that the moment I stepped into the Castle, I had already entered a dangerous predicament.
With a ‘thud’, I landed squarely on the rooftop of the tower, my feet firmly planted on the wind-eroded rubble. I straightened my back, no longer hiding, standing boldly in the wind, tousling my messy hair as I slowly raised my head.
I don’t care what you are…
Whether you’re a living creature, a mere remnant of a deceased deity, or some freak spawned from the Church’s mad experiments, it matters not…
Since you’ve already noticed me…
Why don’t you dare to show yourself?
Rumble, rumble, rumble, rumble, rumble——
The intense shaking continued, and the once-grand scenes of the castle resurfaced in my vision. While it wasn’t exactly bright and cheery, it exuded an elegant, ancient aura, like an old aristocratic castle full of historical weight. But now, it was painted in bl**d red, as if drenched by a torrential downpour of dark bl**d.
There were no Knights, no Horned Horses, and no visible movement anywhere…
The only sight before me was a multitude of crimson, fleshy tendrils spreading throughout the narrow alleys of the tower, covering the entire fortress, as thousands of greedy insects drank deeply from the bl**d of this castle and the land it stood on, pushing it toward a painful demise, soon to become mere dust in history.
The horrifying scene flashed before my eyes like a nightmare. I fully lifted my head, taking a deep breath as my gaze locked onto the dark, roiling sea of bl**d in the sky.
The crimson clouds churned like monstrous waves, the wind howling towards me as if screaming. My hood was blown away, my dark, silky hair whipping behind me. The tent behind me fluttered high, trying to yank me backward. The chaotic air forced me to hunch over to keep my balance, then I raised a hand to shield my eyes.
Is it coming…?
For some reason, after my initial shock and surprise, at this very moment, as I faced the sudden, tumultuous waves of rancid wind, a faint excitement bubbled up in my heart.
Ha…
Perfect.
Let me see what you are…
If you’re powerful enough—
Let me also get a glimpse of my current power limits.
However, that feeling lasted only a few seconds before being interrupted by a slight, pulsating headache.
“Ugh…”
I looked up at the sky, already adapting to the fierce wind, and freed a hand to gently massage my temples, squinting my eyes tighter.
Here we go again…
Is this because my mind is being affected?
Amidst the growing headache, I faintly began to hear a bizarre whispering carried by the wind, like the murmur of countless demons, deep and dense, coming and going, driving me to distraction. But before I could fully process this, I saw those withered “roots” crawling and spreading throughout the castle, moving slowly, coming to life all at once.
!
The power of sin, slowly reviving?
No…
I don’t feel it… it’s not sin…
It’s fake…
This is still an illusion.
As I quickly judged within, before me, the horrifying roots outpaced my thoughts, twisting and weaving, a relentless wave surging from the ground toward the skies, combining above the castle to form a gigantic, bl**d-red web that completely obscured the sunlight.
In the next moment, that web lunged at me like a tidal wave.
This has to be an illusion…
Despite the certainty in my mind, my body instinctively prepared to dodge, but those roots-turned-bloody tendrils were moving at an unbelievable speed. Just as I began to lift my foot, the massive net had fully ensnared me, swallowing me whole in an instant.
…What a stink.
The moment my vision plunged into darkness, the first thing I smelled was a strong, rancid odor like rotten bl**d.
Then came the slimy touch and the suffocating pressure of being gripped by numerous tendrils, all accompanied by that nearly suffocating stench.
Ah…
My clothes.
At this moment, I surprisingly found myself thinking about my clothes.
But this is truly disgusting…
Are they trying to gross me out to d*ath?
Heh…
Making such a terrifying racket, and yet the method…
It feels a little weak.
Crack, crack, crack, crack, crack——
In the next moment, the Frost Power erupted from within me, releasing a bone-chilling cold that felt like it could freeze everything in its path.
Whether it’s an illusion or whatever…
Just get the hell away from me.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
It was a fearsome sound, like the collapse of mountains and the splitting of the earth.
If one could look down from the sky, they would see countless tentacles lunging at the castle walls, a surge of overwhelming bl**d flooding the tower, engulfing a small figure standing atop it in an endless crimson tide.
That scene resembled an enormous wave crashing down on a tiny ant, offering no time for suffocation—just that moment’s tumultuous current was enough to rip it to shreds.
All this happened in a flash, too quick for the eyes to follow… but regardless, that ant was certain to d*e, and if anyone could witness this earth-shattering spectacle, they wouldn’t even need to think to draw that conclusion.
But the next moment—just as the gigantic bl**d web descended from all sides, swallowing the ant and rapidly constricting—those grotesquely twisted masses formed by the bl**d web began to gather and pulsate, swelling all at once.
Stunning blue light shot out from the gaps in the swollen mass, a brightness so intense it was blinding, radiating from the core of those tendrils like an ice-blue sun.
With an ear-splitting cracking sound, a torrent of white mist burst forth from within the mass, spreading in a way that even the speed of those tendrils couldn’t compete with. At that moment, as all the squirming flesh turned to ice, a tremendous explosion erupted from the tower’s peak, piercing winds spiraling around the light like unstoppable blades, violently shredding all the tentacles around me into bits, bits flying everywhere.
Rumble, rumble, rumble, rumble, rumble…
The solid tower, in the face of such a violent explosion, had no chance of standing firm, crumbling like shredded paper beneath an invisible yet forceful hand, falling alongside the walls of the castle. The astonishing cold spread in just two seconds, almost reaching the entire southern wall of the castle, under the carpet-like shockwave, buildings near the southern wall began to collapse.
The densly frozen pieces of tendrils were flung hundreds of meters into the air within moments, and at the same time, a cloud of dust surged from the southern side of the castle, as if a sandstorm had risen. Those chunks of bloody flesh rained down into the swirling dust, the sound like hell breaking loose.
Shortly after, the giant “ant” that overturned the waves stood suspended in the air on a platform of ice, gradually revealing her figure amidst the dust.
It was as if she had performed a trivial task, nonchalantly flicking her collar.
