493 Crimson Hell
Sprinting through the silent, desolate, and dilapidated Fourth Epoch Trier, Lumian’s abdominal injuries came under control, thanks to his potent self-healing abilities. It seemed they wouldn’t worsen any time soon.
Fortunately, the four of them remained relatively close, avoiding the perils of getting “lost” or separated from the group.
As Lumian contemplated finding a place to hide, a large number of violent fragments of light materialized in front of them.
It was evident that the power emanating from the Fourth Epoch Trier had been transferred from a distance.
Lumian and the others were no strangers to this terrifying storm of light. They had encountered it once in the wilderness, courtesy of Gardner Martin’s silver-white full-body armor.
Gardner Martin? Lumian halted in time, wisely refraining from rushing into the weakened but still perilous storm of light.
Franca’s expression became complicated, uncertain whether this encounter was luck or misfortune.
As the light subsided, she witnessed Gardner Martin’s head, a long, blood-stained spine trailing behind. His armor was incomplete, his face covered in charred and hideous wounds. The helmet had caved in, revealing his grayish-white brain faintly. His eyes appeared empty, unfocused, and filled with dizziness, as if he had experienced an exaggerated shock from the intense impact.
Gardner Martin’s adversary stood as his silver-white armor-clad body, lacking a head. The neck stump was drenched in blood.
Raising his hands, he condensed a massive axe made of light.
Though incapable of unleashing the Hurricane of Light, it proved sufficient for ordinary combat.
Franca gazed at the familiar yet unfamiliar tragic face and exhaled. She took out a mirror and reflected it.
In that moment, Gardner Martin’s thoughts returned to normal. Aside from his headless body, he saw Franca’s beautiful lake-colored eyes, appearing calm.
Franca placed her right hand, engulfed in black flames, on the mirror reflecting Gardner Martin’s head and whispered, “I’ll liberate you.”
Gardner Martin, still reeling from the immense blow to his body, found himself instantly enveloped by black flames, his spirituality igniting from within.
Struggling to scream, he discovered his voice stifled. Desiring aid from the great will and attempting to utilize his uniqueness to summon Fourth Epoch Trier’s bestowed power, he encountered only silence.
With a whoosh, the headless Gardner Martin wielded the radiant axe, striking the head’s face. The missing visor shattered, and the axe cleaved into the skull.
Lumian, having taken a few steps to the side, raised his right hand, unleashing a crimson fireball, almost white, like a cannonball aimed at Gardner Martin’s sunken skull.
The fireball landed on the crack, exploding and tearing apart the unprotected grayish-white brain.
Under the relentless assault from his body, lover, and subordinate, Gardner Martin’s head and eyes bulged, filled with hatred and pain.
As the silver helmet landed, Gardner Martin, still clad in armor, spun around, raising the glowing axe and charging at Lumian and the others.
With each step, his stature appeared to expand, and by the time he stood near the headless Gardner Martin, his clothes and pants strained against his growing form.
The power of an Ascetic!
During his time at the edge of Fourth Epoch Trier, Lumian had strategically “Compressed” some of his strength. Now, he was unleashing it.
Although the accumulated strength wasn’t overwhelming, it had visibly transformed him. Coupled with the enhanced speed, agility, and physique granted by the Arrow of the Bloodthirsty, Lumian was confident in withstanding the impending attack from the silver armor-clad Gardner Martin.
Just as the collision became imminent, Lumian deftly sidestepped, allowing the axe of light to cleave through the air. He swiftly punched the headless Gardner’s wrist.
With a resounding bang, the headless Gardner discarded the radiant axe, clenched his metal-gloved fist, and delivered a forceful strike against Lumian.
Lumian’s body swayed slightly, while the headless Gardner stood like an unwavering mountain peak.
Retracting his left fist, Lumian released it, swinging it in the air to alleviate the pain as he prepared to strike with his right fist.
At that moment, Franca, having vanished while Lumian approached the headless Gardner, reappeared behind the enemy clad in silver armor.
Raising the iron-black ring on her left thumb, her eyes illuminated like lightning.
Unsure if the headless body could still be affected by Psychic Piercing, Franca believed it should be possible. As long as there was a spirit, Psychic Piercing could exert its influence.
In an instant, the headless Gardner froze. The exposed skin and flesh on his neck and chest twitched.
Jenna, who had been slower due to reciting incantations and using materials, arrived as well. Revealing herself at a distance from the headless Gardner, she caused black flames to condense and fly out, landing on the enemy’s bloody neck, unprotected by the silver armor. This ignited the spirit in a state of pain.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Anthony Reid sprinted past Jenna, closing the gap between him and the headless Gardner.
Then, his pupils turned vertical, a faint golden hue coloring them.
Frenzy!
Suddenly, flames erupted from the headless body in the silver armor, scorching its flesh.
Upon witnessing this, Lumian leaned back, kicking the ground with his right foot to “fly” away from the headless Gardner. Simultaneously, he condensed crimson fireballs, nearly white, around him.
The fireballs whizzed through the unprotected neck and into the body, detonating from the inside out with a resounding rumble. The silver armor trembled violently as the headless body was reduced to charred flesh and blood, “painting” the inner layer of the armor.
Boom!
Lumian, propelled backward by the explosion’s waves, landed on the ground.
Simultaneously, the silver-armored mountain collapsed to the ground.
Just as Lumian rose and prepared to commend Franca and the others for their coordinated effort, he suddenly sensed the sky transforming into a deep shade of blood-red.
However, it wasn’t rain. It was flames—blazing-white flames.
Within this fiery deluge, droplets of blood accompanied the falling fire.
Franca swiftly rolled towards a nearby building, utilizing its extended roof as cover from the scorching-white fire rain. Lumian, Jenna, and Anthony followed suit.
White-hot flames and drops of bright red blood fell at an increasingly rapid pace, painting the surroundings in hues of red and setting buildings ablaze.
The burning structures melded into a sea of flames.
Contemplating whether to activate the Blood Emperor’s aura for potential solutions to the unfolding horror, Lumian’s eyes caught sight of Madam Magician, clad in a knot shirt and beige dress.
A sigh of relief escaped him.
Resplendent starlight illuminated the scene, and they vanished from the street, taking with them the Pride Armor, Gardner Martin’s corpse, and various items scattered on the ground, all converging into the diminishing golden vortex in the sky.
…
Blazing-white flames, mixed with blood, cascaded down, but they passed through Bernadette Gustav’s form, unable to ignite Her.
It was as if the Angel existed beyond their reach.
Her focus remained on the dense gray fog and the diverse corruptions within the city. After a moment, Her body transformed into transparency, eventually disintegrating into a pile of bubbles that mirrored the flames.
As the bubbles dispersed, so did Bernadette, departing from Fourth Epoch Trier.
…
Two elegant women with captivating eyes approached the wall-like grayish-white fog, only to realize that the sky above was tainted with blood, and dense white flames, resembling raindrops, descended.
Just as they considered seeking shelter, a golden sun suddenly reflected in their eyes.
In the blink of an eye, they were entirely purified.
Elsewhere in Fourth Epoch Trier, the Hostel residents who had ventured within were already undergoing abnormalities. Some perished, transformed into monsters, others were engulfed in incandescent white flames, and a few caught sight of the sun.
…
Madame Pualis discovered a relatively intact asymmetrical house amidst the chaos.
Observing distant sunlight and blazing-white flames setting nearby buildings ablaze, she hesitated to seek refuge within the door due to the deep, terrifying darkness within.
Suddenly, her head throbbed violently, and she heard an almost illusory cry of a baby.
It was the cry of her child, a fragment of memory echoing nearby.
Driven by the mystical sensation, Madame Pulias ventured into the infinite darkness beyond the door.
…
Amidst the incandescent white flames that descended, Voisin Sanson, positioned in the collapsed square, was set ablaze. However, he promptly reverted to his original state.
Soon after, he witnessed his impending purification by the sun.
In that moment, his peripheral vision captured a figure emerging from behind a grayish-white stone pillar at the square’s edge.
It was a diaphanous, indistinct lizard-like creature.
The creature’s cold eyes silently observed him.
…
In Fourth Epoch Trier, numerous buildings were engulfed by incandescent white flames, their facades now tainted red by rainwater transformed from blood and charred black by the inferno.
Red Angel Medici, donned in blood-stained black armor, emerged from the wilderness into the resplendent city, now permeated with the air of destruction.
He navigated through the charred and collapsed houses, moving amidst falling white flames and beneath blood-like raindrops, a visible smile gracing His face.
The two decaying wounds on His face, exposing the bones beneath, had already started to heal, leaving behind marks resembling a mouth.
Splash.
Flames and blood cascaded from the sky, casting a fiery glow upon Fourth Epoch Trier and shrouding the ruins, transforming it into a crimson hell.
After 2,081 years, Medici had once again ascended to the title of King of Angels.