Xu Xiaoyou's body was half-embedded into the wall before she slid down, rubble scraping the side of her face as churning dust masked her messy hair. Her tone was helpless: "Cough, cough... Anya, the plan's changed. I need you to buy me some time."
Angelina swept her lance in a wide arc, bisecting the surrounding fish-men. She reached out with her black-gloved hand, seizing a fish-man abomination's massive face and slamming it into the wall, a spray of blood splashing across the corner of her own face. "How long?" she asked.
"I don't know, it depends on luck," Xu Xiaoyou said casually. She tossed the hundred-faced die onto the ground. The durability of 【Death's Boundary】 had only two uses left. If she didn't roll a number above 50 in these final two attempts, it would be Game Over.
She planned to roll the hundred-faced die first; rolls in the 51–60 range would provide buffs like "increased probability for the next roll to be Minor Luck or higher." In the 70–82 range, there was a chance to directly manifest a specific skill card buff. If she rolled a 100, she wouldn't even need 【Death's Boundary】 to resolve the current crisis.
Before checking the roll, she decided to draw her fortune for the day!
Angelina rushed to Xu Xiaoyou's side and leaned down to pick the girl up. Weakened and unable to move due to the negative effect of the failed check on Death's Boundary, Xu Xiaoyou was a burden Angelina had to manage while simultaneously fending off the Siren King and the fish-men.
The bronze die spun rapidly in the air, its eight-sided fortune constantly shifting.
"Today's Fortune: Condense. Misfortune departs and fortune arrives, bad luck disperses, 20% boost to good luck; your bad luck will be transferred to those around you."
"Fortune Advice: Appropriate for: buying lottery tickets, traveling. Inappropriate for: official business."
A window nearby shattered as a harpoon whistled through the air, grazing Xu Xiaoyou's cheek before piercing straight through Angelina's chest.
The silver-haired girl let out a muffled groan. This level of pain was nothing to her, yet the thought of cruelly abandoning the girl in her arms right there still flickered in her mind. She endured the stinging pain of being skewered. As she rounded a corner, she pivoted her feet and gave a powerful tug, ripping the barbed harpoon out of her body along with several chunks of flesh.
Staring at Angelina's gruesome wound, Xu Xiaoyou fell silent. She raised her rose rifle to pick off several fish-men breaking in through the windows, all while continuing to throw the hundred-faced die.
"destiny points: 51."
"Minor Luck: Obtained ten units of inspiration."
Conch-shaped pieces of inspiration fell from the air one after another, clattering loudly against Angelina's head.
"Damn it, they all fell on the floor," Xu Xiaoyou said, devastated, as she continued to throw the hundred-faced die.
The veins on Angelina's forehead throbbed. She took a deep breath and threw the Abyssal White Flower, shattering the wall blocking her path. Simultaneously, she spun around, her long lance moving like a sharp blade as she demolished the surrounding brick walls, burying the pursuing fish-men beneath the debris. Xu Xiaoyou activated 【Explosive Energy Trap】, causing the entire stretch of the corridor to collapse in an explosion.
Frantic fish-men fell into the newly formed craters, consumed by the rising flames.
Passing by a window, the two noticed a bizarre sight. At some point, the area outside the manor had been replaced by a vast, boundless lake, extending like a massive mirror to where the water met the sky. The Withered-Flower manor was situated halfway up a mountain; the tide had already submerged the entire island. The heavy rain continued, but the torrential downpour wasn't falling from the sky; it was rising from the lake's surface toward the heavens, forming a curtain of rain flowing in reverse across the sky.
The fish-men bathed in this reverse rain curtain, their bodies fully soaked in the water. They could see hundreds of black dots in the distance of the lake—fish-men whose limbs were mutating and transforming into even more distorted shapes.
"Anya, ahead!" Xu Xiaoyou warned.
Angelina looked forward. The Siren King's ethereal body crashed straight through a wall. Half of the monster's body was merged with the masonry as the fish-men hidden within its form poked their heads out, jumping out like fish leaping from water to hurl their weapons.
A new roll result appeared. Xu Xiaoyou used an enhanced 【Dense Fire Net】 to tear all the lunging fish-men into pieces of shredded meat. She followed up by tossing an 【Explosive Energy Trap】 to blow out the floor beneath the Siren King while casting 【Attack Deflection】 on Angelina to avoid the mysterious, slender arms that appeared out of nowhere.
The long arms trailing from Angelina were still taking large bites out of her back. The wounds were deep enough to see the bone, nearly reaching her spine.
Once these long arms touched her body, they clung to her like leeches on a bone. Her attacks were ineffective at shaking them off, leaving her no choice but to let them feast on her flesh.
Cradling Xu Xiaoyou, she turned another corner. The fleeing nobles were nowhere to be seen; they had long since been brutally dismembered and devoured by the maddened fish-men at the start of this catastrophe.
The persistent pain stimulated her senses. Her already weakened body now felt as if it were filled with lead, shackled and dragging a heavy iron ball. Her consciousness grew drowsy. Deep, dark scenes flashed past them as the crystal lamps on the ceiling swayed like hypnotic pocket watches, and bright red blood dripped onto the cashmere carpet beneath her feet. In this state, she still had to be on guard against the Siren King's constant threat.
Through the long, agonizing time, their footsteps echoed in the labyrinthine corridors. Angelina used her body to shield the girl in her arms from flying harpoons and iron sand pellets coated in poisonous blood. Her divine endowment had been shattered; her physical resilience was now barely better than Xu Xiaoyou's.
The Siren King's pale arms reached out from every direction of the corridor simultaneously. Xu Xiaoyou timed her reaction perfectly, casting 【Attack Deflection】 on Angelina. The long arms passed through the girl as if she were a ghost, extending uselessly toward the walls.
Yet, one arm had been lurking in the shadows all along, like a venomous snake staring at its prey. It lunged forward like lightning, its target not Angelina, but the blonde girl in her arms!
Angelina reacted, raising her leg to block the attack for Xu Xiaoyou. The twenty-first roll result appeared—"destiny points: 11."
The moment she saw the number, Xu Xiaoyou blurted out: "Anya, look out!"
"Calamity: master-biting spiritual blade!"
Angelina's pupils shrank as a crimson spatial rift emerged behind them. A blood-red, mocking eye curved within it as countless sharp shadows shot out of the void, aimed simultaneously at Xu Xiaoyou's forehead, carotid artery, and heart.
Angelina acted on instinct, dropping to one knee as she hugged and shielded the blonde girl in her arms.
Fresh red droplets fell onto Xu Xiaoyou's eyelashes, blooming like stains. She opened her eyes to see the pale face of Angelina. Blood leaked from the silver-haired girl's mouth, and the long, biting arms were dragged along her limbs and back like a sinner bound by countless chains. She breathed with great difficulty, every cough bringing up more blood.
Angelina lifted her body slightly, creating a small space between herself and the girl.
"I shouldn't have turned back to find you from the very beginning," Angelina said with forced levity. "Giving you a taste of what it feels like to be abandoned... the thought of it was actually quite interesting..."
"Anya? Anya!"
Xu Xiaoyou stroked the side of the silver-haired girl's face. The latter's eyes closed and then opened just a sliver; her dusty eyes were strangely calm, like a pair of exhausted red crystals.
"What exactly am I to you...?"
"Stay awake, Anya," Xu Xiaoyou said.
"You've never had any hope for me from the start, have you?" Angelina rested her chin on Xu Xiaoyou's shoulder. Her blood-soaked hospital gown emitted a thick, metallic scent of rust as her heavy body slumped into that former harbor.
"I saw that character card a long time ago. The 【Anya】 character card. When you first got me, with my mediocre aptitude... you must have been very disappointed, weren't you?" The low voice came through, halting and faint.
Rate on N.U.
