Chapter 19: IF-0-1, Tearing Apart Integration.

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Chapter 19: if-0-1, Ripping Reunion Apart

Chernobog.

“He’s out of control.”

Amiya emerged from the swirling dust. Without bothering to brush the grit from her hair, she said bitterly, “The Doctor has lost control. Doctor Kal’tsit was right. We’re retreating.”

A large number of Rhodes Island operators withdrew in orderly fashion. The Reunion’s encirclement had not yet been completed; their defensive line had not even been established before the enemy broke through it. All they could do was stand at a distance and salute as they watched them leave.

“They’re retreating?”

W received the report from her subordinate, her face filled with disbelief. Rhodes Island had come in force to recruit someone, and she had originally expected a fierce battle. Yet they had not fired a single shot before turning around and leaving. Could that person’s hibernation really have become eternal sleep?

“Hey, our deal is off. Rhodes Island has given up.”

W turned around and saw the Sarkaz man draw his greatsword. She spread her hands. “You still want to fight me after all this?”

The Sarkaz man answered coldly, “If my old friend refuses to accompany me, then I’ll have to seek instruction from Talulah instead.”

W said with a headache, “I mean that your plan can no longer work. I just received word that Rhodes Island has abandoned its attempt to recruit that person. There’s no point in holding me here. I don’t have many friends, and losing one would put me in a bad mood.”

“They gave up?”

The Sarkaz man froze for a second. W did not look as though she were lying. Had Rhodes Island really abandoned the operation?

“Don’t ask me. I don’t know.”

Boom!

A nearby high-rise building suddenly collapsed.

W opened her mouth. Not far away stood a man wrapped tightly from head to toe. He had leaped down from above, landing stiffly enough to send a web of cracks across the ground.

“You…”

She only had time to utter the first word before the silent man shot toward her like a cannonball. His jumping power was astonishing; with a light leap, he crossed several dozen meters. In W’s pupils, a fist grew larger and larger. She hurriedly threw out a smoke bomb and dodged backward.

“Before he fell asleep, he was commanding the final battle of the Kazdel civil war. His body instinctively regards Sarkaz as enemies. We have to work together to suppress him. Flamebringer, neither of us is his match alone!”

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Flamebringer folded his arms and sneered. “When he has no reason, all I can do is stay as far away as possible. How do you think my squad was completely wiped out?!”

W’s face was full of fury, but there was nothing she could do. Gritting her teeth, she turned and fled without the slightest hesitation.

The man chased after her for several steps, then turned his head. His eyes, reduced to nothing but white, fixed themselves on Flamebringer. Flamebringer’s expression shifted slightly. There was no way he could confront that man, who resembled an evil spirit, here. He made up his mind and ran without a trace of guilt.

With their leader gone, the Sarkaz casters under W also began to retreat. They successfully drew the man’s attention toward themselves, only to discover in horror that spells capable of effortlessly destroying buildings vanished into his body like mud sinking into the sea.

He let out a frenzied roar that sounded nothing like a human voice. Five fingers tore through a defensive shield and dug into flesh, crushing the Originium crystals within. In the space of only a few breaths, he killed several people with horrifying brutality, sending the caster unit into a rout.

“What in the world is happening?!”

Mephisto, controlling the wandering infected, stared toward the horizon. W’s Sarkaz caster unit had failed to appear on the flank to coordinate their assault, and he still could not break through the Ursus defenders’ line. Was he really supposed to let his men smash their heads bloody against those Ursus iron tortoises?!

A whistle tore through the sky. Mephisto turned and saw a dark figure sweep across the roof of a three-story building before crashing into the structure opposite. Flying chunks of concrete struck and toppled numerous Reunion soldiers. Mephisto watched expressionlessly. That dark figure had just taken out his communications department…

Elsewhere, the communications officer shouted into the telephone, drenched in sweat.

“Hello? Hello?!”

“Beep… beep… beep…”

Only a dead tone remained in the receiver.

The situation was urgent, and he had to report it immediately. The communications officer dropped the phone and sprinted toward the front line. Their commander was reminiscing with a former Ursus general…

…

Ah!

Mephisto screamed. Gone was all his former elegance and composure. A dark-blue hand gripped him fiercely by the collar and slammed him into the brickwork. If healing arts had not been continuously taking effect, he would already have been knocked unconscious like his brother.

Faust’s heavy sniper rifle had been reduced to scrap. He had achieved something no other member of the Reunion had managed so far: he had successfully shot the monster in the chest. But, just as the Sarkaz casters had discovered, the attack had no effect whatsoever. Then a flying stone destroyed his weapon, followed by a fist that demonstrated the eternal truth that a warrior would always overpower a marksman.

A monster! He was absolutely a monster!

Mephisto’s fury, pain, and fear tangled together. He could feel that the hand holding his collar was impossibly hard, impossible to move even slightly. More than that, he could not understand why such a monster existed in Chernobog.

At some point, the temperature around them had dropped considerably. A layer of frost gathered on Mephisto’s brows. He had already passed out and was casually tossed onto the ground. The silent man turned around.

Several meters behind him, a young Cautus girl hovered in midair. She was the source of the cold.

“It’s you?”

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FrostNova ignored Mephisto, who lay motionless on the ground, and stared at the man’s face. She was too shocked to speak.

“Huh?”

In an instant, he moved.

He was so fast that FrostNova only had time to condense a sheet of ice before her. It was useless. The ice shattered instantly, and a foot left a gray-black mark on her abdomen. Her entire body was sent flying into a field of ruins, where she fell silent.

He was too strong—so strong that he completely overwhelmed most of Reunion’s officers. Countless terrified eyes watched his back from hiding places nearby.

A red-haired Lupo woman curled up in a corner, trembling violently. She did not dare show her face, even though she too was one of Reunion’s officers.

She would be killed. She would definitely be killed. Her trembling body could no longer move. Only the leader could stand against him.

Hellagur caught his old friend by the arm and urged him, “Don’t go. You’re not his match. The proper way to deal with him is certainly not to confront him head-on.”

Patriot let his hand fall dejectedly and spoke one word at a time. “The Sarkaz… culprits… he… was not… originally… like this.”

At last, the man’s eyes, reduced to nothing but white, fixed upon the silver-haired, horned girl standing amid the flames.

She held her sword level. Fine blue scales had grown from her fair skin, covering every inch of her body like armor. Amid her ferocious expression, her slit pupils locked onto him.

Thump.

A remarkably clear heartbeat echoed in everyone’s ears, leaving most of them dizzy and nauseated.

Hellagur sighed. “Has she really grown this far?”

Patriot said, “The true tyrant… Talulah… the dragon.”

Boom!

The two powerhouses collided.

Surging flames swept across the earth. Waves of force rolled outward, raising a sky full of dust that blotted out the heavens and the sun.

I can satisfy one reader’s request: this chapter will not count toward today’s update.

End of Chapter