Chapter 407: Leave This To Me
[Wall!]
Deep within the reinforced concrete belly of the command room below the wall, alarms blared a chaotic symphony of impending doom. A lone lady officer rushed out from the heavily fortified bunker. She was wearing a specialized, military-grade night vision mask, shielding her neural pathways from the absolute paralysis of the Blood Sacrifice domain.
"No, I must do it!" She thought, her heart hammering against her ribs. She rushed to the steep, metallic stairway, her boots clanging desperately as she started climbing to the exposed top of the towering defense wall.
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She reached the top, her breath ragged. Through the green tint of her mask, she stared at the apocalyptic array of phantom swords, which were all nine hundred meters above the fragile city. The lady quickly scanned the artillery line and spotted her target: a hybrid rocket launcher machine gun, a monstrous piece of magi-tech artillery ten times her size.
The frozen soldiers on the wall, completely paralyzed by the red sky’s oppressive debuff, stared at her in wide-eyed surprise, completely motionless like statues caught in Pompeii’s ash.
"I know what I am doing!" She yelled, her voice trembling but resolute. She rushed towards the massive gun, forcefully took the targeting tablet a frozen soldier was still rigidly holding, and started rapidly operating the complex machine.
"....?!"
The Lion monster instantly sensed the mechanical movement. It turned its predatory gaze to the giant gun, then scoffed.
"You humans are so stupid! That gun is useless." It muttered, casually pointing its massive sword at the defensive wall, preparing to obliterate the annoyance.
"Fool! I am not aiming it at you." The lady gritted her teeth and forcefully moved the hydraulic controls. The heavy barrel of the gun whirred and moved towards Tang Lu, who was still helplessly frozen in mid-air.
"Huh? You want to kill him?" Now, the Lion was genuinely confused, its mind failing to process the human’s suicidal strategy.
The lady raised her shaking hand, fully committing to the gamble, and pushed the heavy red fire button.
BOOOOM!!
The massive gun released one concentrated, highly combustible incendiary missile, which violently tore through the air, leaving a trail of white smoke, and smashed right into Tang Lu’s paralyzed body.
BOOOOM!
A massive, fiery mushroom cloud rose into the air, the intense heat temporarily stunning the Lion.
"She actually shot him--" The Lion froze, its mind suddenly flashing back, remembering Tang Lu’s earlier, mocking words.
"Attacking me with flames, are you that foolish."
"This?!!" Before the monstrous Lion could even formulate a thought, the atmospheric pressure violently shifted. All the explosive flames from the missile were instantly sucked backwards into the epicenter. It watched in profound shock as Tang Lu, acting as a human furnace, effortlessly absorbed all the pure flames into his body.
BOOOOM!!!
The sudden, massive influx of thermal energy overloaded the spatial constraints. Tang Lu violently shattered the paralyzing debuff on him, his fiery aura exploding outward, and without a microsecond of hesitation, he shot straight up into the sky like a comet.
"What sort of human is this?!! I won’t let you!!" The Lion Monster yelled in absolute rage, shooting into the air to intercept him, only for Tang Lu’s legendary golden shield to appear right in front of him.
"Get out of my way!!" It yelled, viciously slashing its heavy sword at the artifact.
BAM!!!
The brutal collision sent shockwaves through the air, forcing the massive lion backward, while the shield flew the opposite direction.
"I must use it!!"
Tang Lu forcefully stopped his ascent at five hundred meters, hovering in the sky. He was staring directly at the thousand phantom swords slowly moving towards him and the city below. The sheer scale of the attack required an equal measure of power.
"Legendary skill; Sun Manifestation."
BOOOOM!!!
CRACK!
"....?!"
Everyone—the paralyzed soldiers, the terrified citizens below, and the monstrous invader—watched in absolute shock as the cursed, blood-red sky above them literally cracked like a pane of cheap glass. The more Tang Lu’s body glowed with blinding, incandescent energy, the more massive, jagged cracks violently appeared on the fabric of the red sky.
"No!! Die!!" The Lion shot aggressively into the air, refusing to lose its domain, and swung its sword with all its might, sending another devastating wave of the Atomic Blood Slash, only for it to seamlessly smash right into the autonomous golden shield again.
’What the hell is this fucking shield?!!’ It thought, its frustration boiling over. It desperately dodged the floating shield, trying to physically move past it to reach the caster, but to its absolute surprise, the weapon also instantly moved towards it, perfectly blocking its path again.
"Fuck!! You made me do this!!!"
The Lion yelled, its pride as a predator completely shattered. The thick black mane on its head, neck, and back started violently glowing with an unstable, dark energy.
"I am task to wipe out this city!! Nothing will stop me!!" It yelled, and with a single, violent, all-consuming swing of its broadsword, a gigantic, terrifying black lion phantom appeared from the blade, roaring soundlessly, and shot directly towards Tang Lu.
WHOOSH!
Just as expected, the golden shield dutifully flew towards the overwhelming attack to defend its master. But this time, the sheer weight of the black phantom was too much; the legendary artifact was violently smashed into thousands of glittering pieces.
Tang Lu stared at the massive black Lion phantom rapidly moving towards him, and made a harrowing choice: he chose to completely ignore it. The fatal attack was heading directly towards his physical body, but the thousands of falling red swords were targeting the whole city. He would gladly sacrifice his own life for the millions sheltering behind the walls.
The light around him glowed blindingly bright again, hitting critical mass, and the red sky finally shattered into millions of pieces. The terrifying red swords followed next, losing their anchor and turning into harmless red particles, completely making way for the natural, warm sunlight again.
GRAAAA!!
The black Lion phantom roared, inches away from consuming the human. But before it could violently smash into him, the very fabric of space folded. A solitary figure instantly appeared precisely between the phantom and Tang Lu, and with one single, delicate finger, she casually touched the apex of the catastrophic attack.
BOOOOM!!!
The entire, city-destroying attack violently exploded into harmless, dissipating dark particles, profoundly shocking Tang Lu, the paralyzed soldiers on the wall, and even the arrogant Lion monster.
"Who are you?!!"
The Lion yelled, nervously pointing its sword at the woman standing effortlessly before him. She was dressed in a sharp black jacket and practical combat pants, her raven-black hair cleanly styled in a high ponytail. But it was her eyes that commanded absolute authority—her piercing purple eyes were fixed coldly on it. There wasn’t any other color in those cold depths, only an infinite, terrifying purple.
"Leader!!" Tang Lu yelled in overwhelming relief, his voice cracking as he stared at the familiar, invincible back of the Lady.
"I just went out for a week, and so many things have happened?! If I was a second late, you would have died." She said, her tone icy and reprimanding, briefly looking over her shoulder at him.
"I was--"
"--No excuses! If you stopped the swords and died from this Insect’s other attack, who will protect the people then?" She asked sharply, cutting off his justification. She smoothly moved her terrifying purple eyes back to the trembling Lion, her killing intent locking onto the beast.
"Go back to the city, I will take care of things there."
"Yes, Leader!!" Tang Lu nodded respectfully, completely submitting to her authority, and quickly flew away towards the safety of the walls, as the intense flames on his body finally died down, awkwardly leaving him hovering in only his scorched underwear.
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