Chapter 80: Blazing Flame
The moon was bright and the stars sparse. The curfew in Saint Dan City had long since begun, but tonight, no one paid it any heed.
Boom after boom came from near the royal palace. The once magnificent palace was now half-collapsed, with nearly three-meter-long light spears piercing the broken walls and ruins. Half of the palace was in this state, with many corpses pinned within the debris.
Another loud crash rang out, followed by a dazzling white laser sweeping across the palace. Wherever it passed, it first left a scorching red high-temperature cutting line, then exploded, sending rubble flying.
Midair, the six light wings of the Blazing Flame Beast didn't flap, yet it floated there. Its eyes, composed of concentric rings, held only cold indifference. This gaze was actually more terrifying than killing intent.
Below, a large group of wolf-like monsters gathered. They stood upright, their fur pitch black, their eyes a murky brownish-yellow. This was the most common appearance of fourth-stage beast transformers. By the fifth stage, some grew larger, while others transformed into different forms.
These beast transformers were gathered by Zuiyasi. Only someone from the Ancient God System like him had such ability.
Not far away, a large crowd of men and women with stiff black fur growing on their arms or necks stood with arrogant expressions. They were the Forsaken—severely beast-transformed individuals who still retained a shred of sanity but were despised and targeted by the world.
On the other side were the former subordinates of the Blazing Sun Monarch. After the Blazing Sun Monarch became the Blazing Flame Beast, these Sand Clan members neither chose to die loyal nor flee. Instead, they stayed to fight the Blazing Flame Beast. Saint Dan City was one of the two safest gathering places. If it was destroyed, their future days would be extremely difficult.
These three combat forces were led by Wude, Zuiyasi, and Lilim respectively. Wude was the new leader of the Forsaken. Zuiyasi controlled those beast transformers. As for Lilim, the Sand Clan of Saint Dan City were willing to temporarily follow her.
There were three reasons: 1. Being a leader now meant dying quickly, unless one had strength. 2. Anyone in the Sand Clan with any say had basically been killed off by Su Xiao, Wude, and Zuiyasi. 3. Lilim was one of the leaders of the Trace King Hall. This identity was enough to gain obedience in a short time. To the natives of the Sand World, the Sun Church, the New Kingdom, and the Trace King Hall were equal powers.
A sound of something breaking through the air came from above. Purple light flickered in Lilim's eyes. A phantom identical to her appeared behind her.
Pfft, pfft, pfft…
Light spears crisscrossed, piercing Lilim's delicate body. Before blood could flow along the spears, the pierced Lilim gradually faded. The phantom a few meters behind her materialized, quickly becoming solid.
Lilim's face paled slightly. Her dodge seemed casual, but it was actually quite dangerous. The Blazing Flame Beast's attacks were too swift.
Swoosh!
A light spear came from Lilim's right. Who knew how she had angered the Blazing Flame Beast? It kept focusing on her, barely bothering with the others.
The light spear emitted a blinding white light, buzzing. The spiral spear stabbed toward Lilim's head from the right. More deadly was that, enveloped by this white light, her whole body went numb, unable to move even a finger.
Several black tentacles burst from the ground, carrying a twisted, oppressive feeling, forming an arm. The palm of this arm split open, revealing an eyeless eyeball.
Everything around froze for an instant. Except for Lilim, whose numb body recovered.
Hum~
The light spear brushed past Lilim's ear, leaving her cheek stinging.
Dozens of meters away, a humanoid monster made of black tentacles stood there. It was over ten meters tall, its head an upward-pointing, particularly thick tentacle. Zuiyasi was inside this humanoid monster's chest.
Zzzt!
A laser swept across, accompanied by screams and beastly roars. A scorch mark over three meters wide and hundreds of meters long appeared on the ground.
"Roar!!"
"Save me, I'm not dead yet!"
A Sand Clan member with only his upper body left crawled forward, shouting that he could still be saved. Actually, he couldn't. A bang came from the scorch mark behind him—the second stage of the laser's attack.
Shattered flesh evaporated in the blazing explosion, turning into burning sparks. Cruel yet beautiful.
Wude looked up at the Blazing Flame Beast above, pondering the gains and losses of dealing with this thing.
Clang!
A water-formed cutting plane slashed diagonally upward from the Blazing Flame Beast's waist. The Blazing Flame Beast didn't dodge. The cut part of its body turned into light particles, then reassembled into solid form. The injury disappeared.
This wasn't elementalization. The Blazing Flame Beast had indeed been cut in half. But now, it was both flame and living being. Living beings get injured and have vital points. Flame does not.
Simply put, the Blazing Flame Beast had two forms: solid/flame body. Its solid form was stronger in combat. Its flame form was pure energy, weaker in combat.
When the solid-form Blazing Flame Beast was injured, it would switch to flame form. In this form, the concept of injury didn't exist—it was an energy body. Then, when it switched back to solid form, the injury disappeared.
This ability seemed less useful than elementalization, but it was actually much more troublesome. Elementalization was useless against certain countering abilities and couldn't immune many attacks.
The Blazing Flame Beast simply didn't immune attacks. Its flame form wasn't for immune—it was for eliminating injuries after being hit. Note: not healing, but eliminating.
The one who had just attacked was Water Brother. He still walked alone, his blind staff tapping the ground. The air within dozens of meters around him felt distorted, as if it had turned into transparent liquid.
The Blazing Flame Beast floated midair, forming light spears that rained down. The spears were as dense as raindrops, creating air bursts and ripples with each thrust.
Besides light spears, it could control one of the five light orbs behind it, using lasers to sweep at enemies below.
The Blazing Flame Beast had no flashy abilities. Flame form + light spear rain + explosive laser + flight—that was it. Yet this was enough to suppress everyone below, showing the former strength of the Painting World's royal family.
A rustling sound came from the Blazing Flame Beast's body. Black insects appeared, crawling on its surface, constantly gnawing. Not only that, wolf-like beast transformers were thrown up from below.
Black smoke surged. Over a dozen ropes made of black smoke wrapped around the Blazing Flame Beast, preventing it from turning into flame for a short time. This was Wude's doing. This Devil Clan member always delivered the most painful blow at critical moments.
Zuiyasi and Wude had successively used their trump cards. It looked like they were preparing to take down the Blazing Flame Beast in one go.
Water Brother looked up and "saw" this. Ripples spread around him. The next instant, he disappeared, appearing behind the Blazing Flame Beast.
Boom!
A water pillar fell from above, slamming the Blazing Flame Beast to the ground. The ground where the water pillar struck shattered, constantly being cut.
In the torrent of water and flying rubble, the Blazing Flame Beast's body was quickly shredded, eventually completely shattered.
"Is it over?"
Lilim spoke, her face slightly pale. With the threat of the strong enemy gone, she relaxed a bit. The pain from her pierced abdomen made her face even paler.
"Stage one is over. One good news and one bad news. The good news is that the stage two Blazing Flame Lord can't fly. The bad news is that the Blazing Flame Lord is stronger than the Blazing Flame Beast."
Water Brother spoke calmly. As a contractor of Death Paradise, he had both the advantage of semi-dataization and detection-type equipment.
Don't underestimate detection equipment. Based on semi-dataization, it was a major advantage for all contractors.
"There's another round?"
Lilim's mentality was a bit broken. She didn't know what grudge the Blazing Flame Beast had against her. It often prioritized attacking her. She didn't know if the upcoming Blazing Flame Lord would give her extra "attention."
In the pitch-black sky, a golden ring had appeared at some point, dispelling the darkness.
There was an ancient legend in the Painting World: when all the royal descendants representing the Blazing Flame died, the Blazing Flame Lord would be reborn in the residual light of the last clan member, to conquer the enemy who erased their final bloodline.
An ethereal murmur sounded, reaching everyone's ears. The flesh of the dead Blazing Flame Beast scattered on the ground gradually turned into spark-like light particles, floating upward.
Boom!!
A shockwave rippled outward. All nearby corpses shattered and flew backward, then gathered together with the light particles from the Blazing Flame Beast's remains, forming a huge flesh ball.
A beam of light converged from the golden ring in the sky, striking the flesh ball. The flesh ball instantly shriveled, as if something inside had absorbed its nutrients.
The flesh ball turned into ashes mixed with sparks, scattering around. In this somewhat tragic scene, a big boss with a horse's lower body and a human's upper body walked out from the flying ashes.
This was the Blazing Flame Lord. His lower horse body was covered with scale-like dark golden armor plates—metallic, strong, unstoppable.
As for the Blazing Flame Lord's upper body, his arms were covered with dense, ancient light patterns. In the center of his chest was a golden ring mark. After the initial confusion, his gaze became stern and cold.
"My poor descendants, you failed to escape this fading world."
The Blazing Flame Lord's horse hooves stepped forward. He surveyed everyone present with a scrutinizing gaze.
"Sand Vassals, Beasts, Forsaken Followers, Undead, and… sea fresh beasts?"
The Blazing Flame Lord mistook Zuiyasi, who had tentacles on his body during battle, for a sea creature—seafood.
He had never seen an Ancient God. That was normal. Ancient Gods of the same rank wouldn't come to the Painting World. It wasn't that they didn't dare, but there was nothing to do here.
With a muffled bang from afar, a polearm flew spinning through the air. It was a long-handled warhammer about two and a half meters long, similar in style to the weapon used by the Nightmare King before, but different in color. The previous one was dark green; this one was dark gold.
Clang! The Blazing Flame Lord grabbed the handle of the long-handled warhammer. Doubt showed in his eyes. On his weapon was hanging a piece of clothing—a little old man clinging to his warhammer.
At the edge of the battlefield, Bubu Wang saw this, his dog eyes wide. Wasn't the one clinging to the Blazing Flame Lord's warhammer Kaisa?
The Blazing Flame Lord looked at Kaisa. Kaisa, clinging to the long-handled warhammer, swallowed hard and asked:
"Need weapon maintenance?"
Bang!
Kaisa was blasted away by the impact from the long-handled warhammer, breaking through a sound barrier, smashing through over a dozen walls, and disappearing from sight.
Wude, Zuiyasi, Water Brother, and Lilim didn't act. The reason was that the Blazing Flame Lord gave a strong sense of oppression. Whoever attacked first would get hit.
Seeing this, Zuiyasi detached from the tentacle monster. Under his command, all beast transformers charged at the Blazing Flame Lord.
"He is the cause of the beast transformation. The moment to change fate has arrived."
Wude shouted. A contract parchment shattered inside his sleeve.
[Contract: True Words]
By consuming this contract parchment and combining it with his own ability, whatever he said, even if it was a suspicious lie, would be considered truth. This was the Trickster, Wobo Wude.
Over a hundred wolf-like beast transformers and several hundred Forsaken charged at the Blazing Flame Lord from all directions, preparing to surround and kill this big boss.
"Don't be afraid."
Lilim also shouted, pointing forward with her slender finger. The nearly 300 Sand Clan members near her all had purple light in their eyes, showing fierce expressions as they charged at the Blazing Flame Lord. This was how Charm Heart Lilim earned her reputation.
For a moment, the ground rumbled. Under the siege of beast transformers, Forsaken, and Sand Clan, the Blazing Flame Lord's figure was no longer visible.
Over a thousand people surrounded the Blazing Flame Lord. And these beast transformers, Forsaken, etc., were not weak. Some were even elite units or minor leaders.
Boom!
The long-handled warhammer struck the ground. A strong light flashed. Before it could spread, it was covered by beast transformers.
Seeing this, Water Brother didn't act hastily. Wude, Zuiyasi, and Lilim were not from the Paradise camp. Among everyone present, he was the only one from the Paradise camp. Only he could obtain treasure chests, World Sources, etc., by killing the Blazing Flame Lord. No one would compete with him.
The previously stalemated battle, after the Blazing Flame Lord became stronger, didn't put Wude, Zuiyasi, etc., at a disadvantage. Instead, they were sure to win. The Blazing Flame Lord was indeed stronger than the Blazing Flame Beast, but he couldn't fly. This meant he would be surrounded.
No one noticed a subtle wave sweeping through—Bubu Wang's aura ability.
[Blessing of the Snow Goddess Lv.30: Within aura range, all friendly targets recover 430 HP and 32 MP per minute.]
[Spirit Blessing Aura Lv.30: Within aura range, all friendly targets' max HP increased by 25%.]
[Awakening Aura Lv.30: Within aura range, all friendly targets' stamina recovery speed increased by 32%.]
[Swift Aura Lv.30: Within aura range, all friendly targets' movement speed increased by 12%.]
Four buffs appeared simultaneously. The Blazing Flame Lord, surrounded by beast transformers and Sand Clan, suddenly increased his charge speed. At his level, let alone a 12% increase in charge speed, even 2% was very noticeable.
Any ability wasn't as simple as its skill description. Speed and strength were closely linked. Faster charge speed brought greater charge force.
With a rumble like an earthquake, the Blazing Flame Lord burst out of the encirclement. His metal-scaled horse hooves were covered with shredded flesh and blood.
The Blazing Flame Lord's charge speed grew faster and faster. The ground he passed all shattered. His target was Zuiyasi.
Zuiyasi made a move to retreat, but once the Blazing Flame Lord started charging, within 30 meters, he was faster than spatial movement. Spatial movement had an activation delay. He was there in the blink of an eye.
The Blazing Flame Lord swung his long-handled warhammer. The blazing flame covering his body instantly gathered on the warhammer. He swung.
Everyone heard a *whoosh*. The warhammer tore through space, slamming into Zuiyasi's chest.
With a bang, Zuiyasi's upper body turned into blood mist. His lower body fell to the ground.
Black-red blood dripped from the long-handled warhammer in the Blazing Flame Lord's hand. He turned his horse hooves, facing Wude.
Wude's mood immediately soured. He was puzzled. How had this strong enemy suddenly become stronger? It wasn't scientific.
Far away, on the city wall, Su Xiao, holding [Blood Feather], was watching the distant battle. The reason he hadn't used [Blood Feather] to give the Blazing Flame Lord a healing-type was that the healing-type nun he had chosen earlier was currently wielding a club, fighting the Blazing Flame Lord in close combat.
After weighing the options, Su Xiao decided to save the use of [Blood Rain] for the Holy Light Paradise combatants. In a one-on-one fight, if he put [Blood Feather] on the opposing combat healer, the opponent's feeling would be beyond despair.