Chapter 333

Chapter 333: Taking Action

With a fierce, exhilarating leaping strike that gathered the northern chill and the thunderous power born of the storm, and with a sense of pressure finally being released, Vanna’s body soared high. An icy blade had already formed in her empty hands, and in the cold radiance of the World’s Wound, the Vice Admiral’s sword came crashing down.

The air tore open. The nearby airflow twisted into blazing heat under the violent impact. By the time the blade had fallen halfway, it even began to take on a plasma-like texture, like roaring flames coiling around the ice-forged edge. The sight of ice and fire interwoven was so eerie and magnificent that even the cultist who looked like a Demon visibly froze for a moment.

For this Annihilation Priest, this should have been a successful ambush. He had noticed the uninvited guests ahead of time and used a spell to hide his own aura. His Demon body, fused by a deep symbiotic pact, could even let him completely stop his breathing and heartbeat for a short time. Yet this concealment that should have been flawless somehow got exposed and alerted his target.

The prey that should have been his target had now turned into a ferocious beast striking back – and that beast’s strength far exceeded his expectations.

The massive blade wreathed in great force came crashing down. The Annihilation Priest had no time at all to counterattack. He could only throw everything into a strange, piercing shriek. Compressed inside that scream was a powerful spell. Layers of black bone plates and rocklike shields rose up from all directions in an instant to block Vanna’s falling path.

At the same time, the Abyssal Demon made of jagged bone shards moved under the drive of the pact to stand in front of its master, opening its mouth toward Vanna as it prepared to unleash a powerful corrosive breath.

Only at this moment did the shape of the skeletal Demon fully condense out of the shadows – it was actually a Abyssal Hound, a size larger than Dog.

Vanna had no intention of slowing down or dodging.

“Boom!”

A thunderous crash shattered the peace of the veil of night, laced with a string of tooth-grinding, sharp, tearing noises.

With one leaping chop, Vanna smashed the energy barrier and rock shields that the Abyssal Deep priest had summoned, along with the Abyssal Hound’s corrosive breath and half of the Demon’s dog-like head, all into flying shards.

The shock wave swept through the alley like a cutting gale, clearing away dust and smoke in an instant. The Abyssal Hound, now with only half a head left, shrieked as it was flung backward. The symbiotic pact chains dragged the Annihilation Priest with it for more than ten meters. They rolled along the ground together for a long while before finally stopping and struggling to get back up.

The heretic priest’s twisted, mutated body trembled violently. The backlash from the symbiotic pact when his Demon was badly wounded made it hard for him to think. That deformed body hunched in the dimness, and for a moment it was hard to tell which one was the Demon and which had once been human – him, or the Abyssal Hound beside him.

The Abyssal Hound beside him staggered to its feet as well. Even with half its head cut off, the Demon’s powerful vitality still kept it from dying. It let out a muddled low growl toward Vanna, while the damaged bone plates on its body clattered down one after another.

Vanna walked forward with no expression, casually tossing aside the long ice sword that had already shattered into pieces from the impact.

That thing had been meant to be disposable from the start, made just for a perfect, full-score leaping chop. Now it had fulfilled its mission.

The Annihilation Priest across from her barely lifted his head, struggling with all he had to clear his mind. Obscure, difficult Demonic whispers spilled from his mouth.

The power of a spell condensed into form. A twisted mass of bone and stone laden with rot appeared in the air in front of him and howled toward Vanna like a cannon shell.

Vanna raised one hand and caught the “shell” by force. She ignored the wisps of smoke that quickly rose from her palm and moved forward at the same pace. With her other hand she grabbed the half-head of the Abyssal Hound, which still seemed a bit dazed, and casually stuffed that “rotting projectile” into the neck cavity exposed by its missing skull.

The Abyssal Demon struggled wildly on instinct. Yet the strength that could have flipped a Steam Tank could not budge Vanna’s arm. In its thrashing, it tore off the rest of its own head, while the “rotting projectile” it had summoned with its own power had already been forced into its own belly by Vanna. The bone plates layered inside the Demon’s body gave off a crisp, continuous cracking sound, then quickly filled with bright light.

Vanna lifted a foot and kicked the soon-to-explode Demon away. Then she grabbed the Annihilation Priest beside it and casually yanked him up, holding him in front of her like a shield.

In this lightning-fast exchange, the latter had no idea what was happening.

With a thunderous bang, the Abyssal Hound she had kicked away exploded violently in midair. Bone fragments raked through the alley like shrapnel, and the Annihilation Priest in Vanna’s hands was instantly riddled through like a sieve.

But he was not dead yet. He only convulsed and curled up under the fierce, sudden pain.

The entire clash had been very short.

“Your symbiotic pact Demon is dead. Judging by how far your body has mutated, you have about six minutes of life left,” Vanna said. She tossed the Cult priest onto the ground and set her boot on the place that was probably his head. “I know your sort would never say a word even if someone left you alive, but I still decided to try. You have three minutes to give your last words. That will decide the way you spend the other three minutes dying.”

On the other side, Alice at the entrance of the alley understood even less. She only stared wide-eyed as she watched Vanna trade a flurry of blows with a suddenly appearing enemy, casually smash a hideous thing that looked like some distant relative of Dog, and then leave the attacker seemingly on the verge of dying.

She had no idea what had just happened, but it was obvious that Vanna was very strong.

So the doll grew excited, clapping her hands hard: “Miss Vanna, you’re amazing!”

But in that moment of distraction, she seemed to forget that a few “strings” were still floating under the street lamp across the way.

The air near the entrance of the alley twisted.

A second attacker had been hiding in the shadows.

Vanna’s fight with the Annihilation Priest had been too swift. What happened in the alley had gone beyond what the attackers expected, and the priest’s companion had not had any chance to help. Now this hidden second cultist had just arrived – at a very bad time.

With the twist of the air, a short but sturdy figure appeared near Alice. He had rushed here in a hurry, only to see Vanna deep inside the alley already stepping on the Annihilation Priest’s head.

The cultist froze for a moment. He looked up at the brutal scene inside, then over at the blonde woman beside him, who had just reacted and was now looking his way with a curious expression.

The next second, the short, stocky man turned and ran without the slightest hesitation.

But he had only taken two steps when a voice sounded from behind him: “Hey! Wait!”

He suddenly felt as if something had yanked him. That pulling force tugged at every joint in his body, making him hang in place as if a huge power were dragging on him.

The cultist turned his head in shocked fear. He saw black smoke rising in the air beside him. The Abyssal Demon that shared his symbiotic pact seemed to want to struggle out and manifest to fight back, but something held it down in the shadows so tightly that it could not take shape at all. He turned his head further and saw the woman with long golden hair in a dress looking at him, her hand stretched into the air as if she were grabbing something invisible.

“Don’t go yet,” Alice said. She held on to the “strings” and stared at the cultist who was trying to run, doing her best to make her expression look a bit intimidating. “The captain said people like you are all bad. We can’t just let you go – you’ll go hurt other people.”

Not far away, the Annihilator who had just run out of the alley now hung frozen in midair in a bizarre, almost comical posture. His head had already twisted back to a frightening angle. He stared in fear at the blonde woman at the alley mouth. Driven by his instinct to survive, he seemed to break free of that “pulling” sensation just a little, and at once he put all his strength into flicking his wrist.

A prepared piece of rune paper slipped out from his sleeve.

“Choose life… and devour…”

He forced the words out with difficulty, his throat mixing them with obscure Demonic whispers. The pre-stored spell activated. The rune paper burst into flame before it even hit the ground and began to seek out targets to attack according to its master’s command.

Within a certain range, every living person.

The rune paper burned away quickly in the flames. Nothing happened.

The cultist stared, eyes wide, watching this in terrified disbelief.

Alice also widened her eyes not far away, watching the scene in confusion.

She had neither breath nor heartbeat.

And she had no idea what had just happened.

But she belatedly reacted soon enough – that cultist had apparently tried to kill her just now.

She felt a little scared, so she tugged hard on the “strings” in her hand: “The captain said when I go out, I have to protect myself.”

The cultist’s body went completely rigid at once. The little bit of “freedom” he had just managed to regain was stripped away, and even his wrists and lips could no longer move. A strange numbness began to spread. He felt his body quickly growing stiff, cold, and… no longer like flesh and blood.

The world in his eyes went dark.

But in the next second, something seemed to appear within that darkness.

A hollow, deep voice that seemed to come straight from a chest cavity sounded in his ears –

“Ah, a new Attendant has arrived.”