Fine then.
Since he couldn't reach the old man, Elias could only turn his attention to his teammates beside him.
Fortunately, the soul barriers of the two official investigators weren't so airtight.
“You two,”
Elias's voice echoed in their minds, carrying a trace of urgency.
“Do you have any reinforcements coming?”
He poked his head out and glanced at the group of black-robed men in the distance, who were pouring down ferocious fire.
“Those guys over there are some seriously tough nuts to crack!”
Xia'an was currently hiding behind an abandoned shipping container, gasping for breath as she reloaded her firearm.
Her forehead was covered in fine beads of sweat.
“We requested reinforcements a long time ago!”
Xia'an replied rapidly through the mental channel.
“But...”
Her voice was filled with deep helplessness and anxiety.
“The scale of this sea-folk invasion is just too massive!”
“Gunfights are breaking out all over Hastings Port. The defensive line is stretched way too thin.”
“The agency simply can't spare enough personnel to help us right now.”
Xia'an gritted her teeth, suddenly darted out, and pulled the trigger again.
“We don't even know when reinforcements will arrive!”
Hearing this, Elias's heart instantly sank.
“Dammit.”
Since outside help was out of the question, he had to figure out the enemy's background first.
He turned to look at Bloodsong, who was still shooting methodically beside him.
“Hey, Bloodsong.”
“What exactly is the rank of 'Missionary' that Old Crowley mentioned just now?”
Bloodsong didn't answer immediately.
He raised the special repeating crossbow in his hands, his eyes focused.
Several 【tracer rounds】 tore through the thick fog one after another, trailing bright tail flames.
They embedded themselves precisely into the disgusting biological barrier in the distance, leaving behind several burning, glaring spots.
Only after finishing this tactical sequence did Bloodsong crouch back down behind cover.
“You can think of them as fanatics a tier higher than those ordinary cultists.”
Bloodsong explained quickly through the mental channel.
“The Mist Veil Society has absolutely no restrictions when recruiting low-level members.”
“As long as they're alive, even if they're ordinary people with zero spirituality, they'll take them in.”
Elias raised an eyebrow.
The threshold for this cult was low indeed; they practically welcomed anyone.
“Then how do they get promoted?”
“Based on performance.”
Bloodsong's voice turned cold.
“Their members can only receive their 'Lord's' Divine Favor once they have done enough for him,”
“proving their twisted faith through actual deeds.”
“Only then can they receive their 'Lord's' Divine Favor.”
Bloodsong glanced at the black-robed figures looming in the distant firelight.
“The guys who came today move with perfect coordination and are extremely well-equipped.”
“They are clearly Missionaries who have already received Divine Favor.”
“You could say they are the elite backbone of the Mist Veil Society.”
Saying this, Bloodsong turned to look at Elias.
His eyes were filled with profound confusion.
“I seriously don't get it. What kind of heinous thing did you do?”
“For them to go so far as to send an entire squad of Missionaries just to assassinate you?”
Hearing this, Elias felt a wave of guilt wash over him.
Clearly, the Mist Veil Society must have caught wind of something.
They suspected he might know the whereabouts of the Soul Pendulum, or perhaps they believed the item was on his person.
That was why they spared no expense, sending a squad of execution specialists here to intercept him and snatch it.
While the two were talking...
...high in the air...
...the high-level spell Old Crowley was casting—【Ice Storm】—had already fully materialized.
The cyclone that had merely been circling in the sky suddenly slammed down toward the ground.
The wind eye grew increasingly dense, its rotation speed reaching a terrifying magnitude.
The surrounding temperature plummeted rapidly.
Every single ice crystal was like an incredibly sharp knife.
The ice crystal storm swept through.
They easily sliced through the air and the thick sea fog on the pier.
They shredded the wooden crates along their path and even left behind dense, pale-white cut marks on the thick iron shipping containers.
Naturally, the cultists standing at the center of the storm bore the brunt of it.
The sharp ice crystals acted like a meat grinder, instantly shredding the wide black robes they wore.
The robes turned into tattered rags, flying in the wind.
They also completely exposed the true bodies hidden beneath the fabric.
Elias's 【Moon Vision】 had remained active the entire time.
This granted him sharp eyesight even in the darkness and thick fog.
Under this high-definition perspective...
...he could clearly see that the cultists whose robes had been shredded could hardly be called human.
Their exposed skin was a sickly grayish-green.
Its surface was covered in dense fish scales.
A translucent mucus was constantly oozing from the gaps between the scales.
Whipped by the 【Ice Storm】, the mucus was stretched into stringy lines before rapidly freezing solid.
However...
...even in the face of this 【Ice Storm】, which was powerful enough to mince an ordinary person into meat paste...
...not a single one of the nine remaining Missionaries chose to retreat.
At this moment, each of them reached into their robes and pulled out another familiar black egg case.
It was the exact same thing that could hatch a biological barrier.
Without hesitation, they smashed the slimy objects at their feet.
“Crap!”
Elias couldn't help but curse from behind his cover.
“They have one each?!”
The next second...
...the moment the nine black egg cases hit the ground, they began to expand simultaneously.
This time, the biological barrier did not merely form a single, thin wall of flesh.
The expanding egg cases rapidly fused with the barrier that had been formed earlier.
Disgusting fleshy buds and tentacles erupted from the nodes, stretching and proliferating outward to the sides.
They made contact with one another in mid-air, quickly stitching, weaving, and locking together.
Within just a few breaths...
...rotten meat and internal organs had built an airtight defensive line around the nine cultists.
Connecting end to end...
...they formed a circular fortress of flesh on the pier!
The nine cultists were completely enclosed at the center of the fortress.
Their figures vanished behind the wall of flesh.
Even the muffled chanting coming from their mouths was mostly swallowed by the thick, fleshy wall, sounding incredibly distant.
Seeing this...
...Bloodsong's face instantly turned pale.
It looked even worse than his usual Resurrectionist complexion.
“The Sea Stomach Barrier!”
Bloodsong practically ground his teeth as he spat out the name.
“What's so special about this thing?”
Elias looked at the flesh fortress, an ominous feeling rising in his heart.
“This is one of the most disgusting defensive methods of the Mist Veil Society.”
Bloodsong stared intently ahead, speaking at a rapid-fire pace.
“This fortress is alive!”
“As long as the casters enclosed inside are alive, it can continuously devour their spirituality.”
“It converts spirituality into flesh, undergoing endless proliferation and self-repair!”
“Even if you blast a huge hole in it, it will grow back with rotten meat within seconds!”
A meat-shield fortress with infinite health regeneration?
How the hell were they supposed to fight that?
Elias couldn't help but feel a lingering sense of dread.
He had really lucked out today.
If Bloodsong hadn't had that sudden stroke of genius at the critical moment to lead the enemies to Old Crowley...
...then even with official investigators like Xia'an and Dabu present today...
...against a Missionary squad with this kind of setup...
...he would have definitely been doomed, captured alive by the Mist Veil Society, and taken back to be brutally tortured.
While Elias was still shaken...
...the 【Ice Storm】 crashed head-on into the massive 【Sea Stomach Barrier】.
It was the ultimate clash of spear and shield.
Under normal circumstances...
...against this kind of large-scale physical slicing damage, the Sea Stomach Barrier could completely tank it by relying on its abnormal regenerative abilities.
Slice off one piece of flesh, and two more would instantly grow back.
As long as the cultists' spirituality inside wasn't completely drained, it remained an impregnable wall of despair.
However...
...as an old monster who had spent decades weathering the seas, Old Crowley...
...how could his attacks be limited to simple physical slicing?
The sky full of ice crystals scraped against the thick outer flesh wall of the Sea Stomach Barrier.
Instantly, flesh and blood flew everywhere.
Dark red blood, viscous tissue fluids, and newly sprouted pink flesh buds gushed out from the massive wounds.
They instinctively tried to fill the sliced-open gashes.
But at that exact moment...
...the absolute freezing cold of the 【Ice Storm】 revealed its true power.
Before the newly erupted mucus and flesh buds could stitch themselves together...
...they were turned into a block of chilled flesh under the absolute low temperature.
It was as if time itself had been paused.
Every time the barrier attempted to repair a wound, the 【Ice Storm】 ruthlessly coated it with a layer of hard ice.
Slice, bleed, freeze.
Slice again, bleed again, freeze again.
It was an endless, vicious cycle.
Within just a few seconds...
...under everyone's stunned gazes...
...the entire massive biological fortress transformed into a grotesque fortress of frozen meat!
Its surface was covered in a thick layer of white frost.
Beneath the translucent ice, one could clearly see the frozen, dark red blood vessels and hideous flesh buds.
It was bizarre, yet possessed a sort of deadly, chilling beauty.
Only at this moment...
...did Elias finally realize.
This was Old Crowley's true purpose in casting the 【Ice Storm】!
From the very beginning, he had never intended to use the slicing force of the storm to shatter this wall of flesh that could regenerate infinitely.
He wanted to use the absolute cold to freeze it entirely into a single solid block!
As the Sea Stomach Barrier was completely frozen...
...the cultists hiding inside the fortress completely lost control of the situation.
Their spiritual nodes were forcibly sealed within the frozen walls of flesh.
The regeneration mechanism of the Sea Stomach Barrier was stuck in an awkward state.
It could neither continue to expand and proliferate outward, nor could it be actively dispelled by the casters inside.
The nine once-arrogant Missionaries...
...were thus trapped and left to die inside the invincible shield they had summoned with their own hands.
It was a perfect case of spinning a cocoon only to trap oneself.
Elias looked at the massive ice fortress glittering coldly under the moonlight.
Then he looked at the white-bearded old man, who was still puffing on his pipe, without even a single hair out of place.
He had to hand it to him.
Lao-Deng was still Lao-Deng.
Rate on N.U.
