The violent remnants of the lightning were still crackling in the air.
The surrounding atmosphere was thick with the acrid, burnt smell of objects carbonized by high temperatures.
Electric arcs let out sharp pops as they danced across the surfaces of scattered shipping containers.
Mid-air.
Captain Edward Crowley, with his battered pipe clenched in his teeth, descended slowly like a god coming down to earth, drifting on the night breeze.
His face, which looked like old tree bark, was written over with an insufferable arrogance.
Clearly.
This flashy, savior-like entrance in the middle of everyone’s desperation had thoroughly satisfied the vanity of this old sea dog.
This Lao-Deng really knew how to show off!
Elias craned his neck, watching the white-bearded old man descend, his heart bubbling with envy.
“Old Ed, why can he fly?”
Elias sent an intensely jealous query through the mental channel.
Can supernatural powers really be used like this?
“Because he’s strong.”
Old Ed’s tone was matter-of-fact.
“This is common knowledge, my friend.”
“Once a spawn of the Raging Sea reaches the threshold of Scale Five, they gain the ability to manipulate the wind within an area.”
“I imagine he’s currently using the surrounding airflow to buoy his body up, achieving the purpose of floating.”
Old Ed paused, then added with precision:
“This is not a 【Fly】 spell in the purest sense.”
“That’s still cheating, okay?!”
Elias’s back molars were nearly grinding to dust.
He looked down at his clothes, which were covered in unidentified slime and fish-monster guts, and then at the other man’s pristine, air-walking demeanor.
Comparing himself to others was truly infuriating.
He wondered how long he would have to endure in this hellish world full of monsters before he could reach that level of effortless posturing.
However.
The smug, pretentious look on Captain Crowley’s face did not last long.
The moment his feet landed firmly on the wet wooden pier...
The smile on his wrinkled old face instantly froze.
In its place...
Was an expression of unprecedented gravity.
Elias’s heart skipped a beat.
This old man usually spent his time swindling and deceiving; even if a mountain collapsed before him, he’d just smile and puff on his pipe.
Elias had almost never seen this ‘I’ve seen a ghost’ expression on the old man before.
Something was wrong.
Everyone immediately followed Crowley’s gaze and looked forward in unison.
Specifically, they looked at the few Mist Veil Society cultists who had just been struck head-on by the lightning.
The several black-robed figures were still standing stiffly in place.
Their outer robes were indeed tattered in several spots from the lightning strike, with wisps of blue smoke still rising from the edges.
But looking through the holes...
Their flesh, their torsos, even a single strand of hair—none of it was charred!
They were otherwise completely unharmed!
“Hiss—”
Dabu and Xia’an both sucked in a breath of cold air simultaneously.
Everyone’s skin crawled, a chill rushing from their ankles straight to the top of their heads.
How was this possible?!
One had to know that what Crowley had released during his entrance was the signature Scale Four spell of the spawn of the Raging Sea—【Call Lightning】!
When those bolts of lightning had descended...
The pure aura of destruction contained in the air had made even Elias, standing at a distance, feel a shiver in his soul.
Elias would bet that if he had been the one standing in that spot...
Even if he had cast a max-level 【Moonlight Barrier】 in advance...
By now, he would have been blasted into a pile of evenly distributed activated charcoal, impossible to even sweep up with a broom.
Yet these Scale Three humanoid monsters...
Had actually tanked it with their physical bodies!
This was the most incomprehensible and despair-inducing part.
The unharmed Mist Veil Society cultists also seemed to recover from the brief paralysis of the lightning strike.
They didn’t give the group much time to contemplate the intersection of science and magic.
Moving in perfect unison, they reached into their tattered black robes and pulled out alchemical firearms they had prepared long ago.
In the thick fog, the killing intent locked on once more.
In this tense, heavy moment of confrontation...
“Kid.”
Old Crowley suddenly took the pipe out of his mouth.
He tilted his head slightly, staring at Elias with a bizarre look.
“Did you sleep with their Bishop or something?”
“Even the missionaries of the Mist Veil Society are here.”
“?”
A forehead full of question marks nearly materialized and floated in the air above Elias.
What kind of lightning-fast logic was this old sea dog using?
“Are you out of your mind?!”
Elias snapped, retorting without hesitation.
He was nearly laughed into a rage by this old man’s wild imagination.
Elias whipped his head around.
Looking at Xia’an and Dabu, who were standing by his side in a defensive stance, he complained with bitter resentment:
“My investigator friends, listen to this!”
“This is slander!”
Then.
Feeling that wasn’t enough to vent his frustration, he shouted his grievances directly at the cultists pointing guns at them:
“He’s slandering me!”
The several Mist Veil Society members on the opposite side were clearly also stunned by the old sea dog’s shocking and outrageous comment.
Even with the most rigorous brainwashing training...
The hands holding their guns still shook uncontrollably for a moment.
The eyes behind their masks went blank for a second.
But the professional standards of a cultist ultimately triumphed over their curiosity for gossip.
“Do it!”
A raspy low growl echoed through the fog.
The cultists immediately pulled their triggers.
From the outside, these alchemical firearms looked no different from flintlock pistols.
They had metal barrels and walnut grips.
But the moment the triggers were pulled...
There was no deafening explosion of gunpowder, nor any blinding muzzle flash.
Accompanied by several muffled sounds, like some soft-bodied animal spitting phlegm...
Globs of eerie bullets shot out from the barrels.
These bullets carried a faint, fishy stench.
Elias’s 【Malice Perception】 instantly sounded the highest level of alarm!
Those were not ordinary physical projectiles.
They contained a type of negative spirituality that was impossible to ignore!
“Get back!”
Elias roared, instinctively moving to cover his teammates.
He stepped forward, the spirituality within his body surging like a bursting dam.
【Moonlight Barrier】!
A semi-transparent shield radiating a cold silver glow instantly expanded in front of him.
He prepared to cover the people beside him as they retreated to a safe zone.
However.
He caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye.
His eye twitched violently.
The space beside him was empty; not even a hair remained.
The two elite investigators from the Seventh Agency had already slipped away at some unknown point.
They had already smoothly ducked behind a row of rusted, abandoned warehouses in the distance!
They were poking their heads out, systematically returning fire at the cultists!
“Holy crap! Is the tactical standard of the Seventh Agency just abandoning your teammates?!”
Elias was completely lost in the wind.
Only Bloodsong, holding his repeating crossbow, was still standing there with him like an idiot.
“Splat! Splat!”
The globs of stench-filled bullets slammed heavily against his 【Moonlight Barrier】.
The expected explosion did not occur.
Nor were they deflected or annihilated by the silver radiance.
The bullets simply burst upon contact with the barrier.
What splashed out were not fragments, but disgusting, squirming flesh that looked like skinned slugs!
Even more startling...
These foul-smelling lumps of meat actually adhered to the barrier as if they were alive!
They were greedily devouring the barrier.
A fleshy, red substance—resembling some kind of mutated mycelium—was rapidly growing and spreading outward from the center of those meat lumps.
Like dense spiderwebs, they attempted to crawl along the barrier toward Elias’s hands.
“Ugh!”
Elias felt his scalp tingle, his skin crawling with layer upon layer of goosebumps.
This was too disgusting!
In a situation where he had no idea what kind of vicious curse or effect this thing had...
Elias didn’t dare to be careless.
He grabbed the collar of the still-dazed Bloodsong beside him.
“Move it!”
The two of them scrambled, abandoning their position without any dignity.
They performed a tactical roll, diving behind several large wooden crates in the rear.
In contrast, Old Crowley on the other side appeared quite at ease.
Facing the swarm of slug-bullets flying toward him...
The old man didn’t even change his posture with the pipe in his mouth.
He simply raised a calloused hand.
“Whoosh—”
A gale suddenly rose.
The disgusting meat lumps flying toward him were all caught half a meter from the old man’s face.
They were held in place by an invisible, violent current of air, suspended strangely in mid-air.
They could neither advance nor retreat.
“That should be a 【Wind Wall】.”
In his mind...
Old Ed’s restless mouth started up again.
This old ghost had spent years in the Moon Bay area when he was alive and had dealt with all sorts of transcendents.
He knew the signature moves of the Storm Judges like the back of his hand and was currently rattling off his knowledge incessantly.
“A classic defensive god-tier technique...”
“What the hell are these things?!”
Elias crudely interrupted the old ghost’s lecture.
At this moment, he had no mood or time to listen to a routine evaluation of Old Crowley’s 【Wind Wall】.
Hiding behind the crates, he observed the 【Moonlight Barrier】.
The unidentified squirming flesh stuck to it was still constantly expanding and dividing.
The fine, dark red mycelium was even tentatively waving into the air.
The most direct perception was that the spiritual drain to maintain the barrier had intensified.
“Spirit-Eating Slugs.”
Beside him, Bloodsong—whom he had forcibly dragged over—was panting heavily.
The Resurrectionist’s voice carried an unmaskable panic.
“Those are Spirit-Eating Slugs!”
Bloodsong stared fixedly at the meat lumps, his body instinctively shrinking back.
“Get that thing away from me!”
His voice cracked with extreme wariness.
“That thing isn’t meant for killing people!”
“Once it touches your skin, it will melt your spiritual defense in an instant!”
“Then it will burrow directly into your body to lay eggs!”
“It hatches larvae by devouring your bone marrow and internal organs!”
Hearing this...
Elias felt as if the top of his head was about to be blown off by the chill.
A primal human fear of parasitic organisms instantly gripped his heart.
Lay eggs?!
Inside his body?!
“What kind of goddamn thing is that?!”
Elias swung his hands in a near-reflexive motion.
Without hesitation, he hurled the 【Moonlight Barrier】 far away.
“Damn it!”
“Is it an Alien?!”
Rate on N.U.
