Chapter 917: Disease Bomb |
The flesh and blood oozing yellow-green pus sprayed like sudden rain towards everyone in the surveillance room, accompanied by the sudden explosion.
Franca had no time to use the Ice Amulet, nor to grab Jenna and the others to bring them into the compact mirror in her hand. She could only face the explosion, which wasn't too powerful, and the obviously dangerous flesh, blood, and viscous fluid.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
In this situation, the three of them could only actively trigger their Mirror Substitutions, first being shattered by the impact wave, then being coated with sticky flesh and still-writhing yellow-green pus.
Ludwig, who had also been given a Mirror Substitution by each of the three Demonesses, didn't use it himself. Instead, he crouched down, hugging his body tightly to minimize his "exposed area".
During this process, he opened his mouth.
His mouth corners stretched without any restriction, extending all the way to the back of his head. His upper lip pushed his eyes, nose, forehead, and other parts to face the ceiling directly, while his lower lip nearly touched his chest.
Splat, splat, splat, the yellow-green flesh mixed in the explosion's blast rushed into Ludwig's enormous mouth, heading straight for his stomach.
Unfortunately, Ludwig, enjoying this buffet, only lasted two seconds before involuntarily triggering his Mirror Substitution, shattering into pieces.
The explosive blast subsided in an instant, and the figures of Franca, Jenna, and the others were reoutlined in the surveillance room, which was now covered everywhere with viscous flesh and yellow-green pus.
As Demonesses of Affliction, Franca and Jenna both instinctively believed that this place was now full of dangerous diseases, rapidly infecting them.
Without hesitation, Franca raised her right hand, revealing the Ice Amulet she was gripping tightly.
This crystal-clear charm had been remade by Lumian and could now be used for Mirror Traversal four times.
As soon as they saw Franca reveal the Ice Amulet, Jenna and Anthony immediately moved closer to her, grabbing her arm and sleeve. Ludwig hesitated for a moment but still joined the vile Demonesses.
The next second, the four figures blurred and entered the compact mirror in Franca's other hand.
Franca didn't linger at all, bringing her companions to traverse into another metal decorative item with a mirror effect in the surveillance room.
Smack!
The compact mirror, no longer held by anyone, fell to the ground and shattered into pieces, causing the corresponding area behind the mirror to collapse.
These shards would take different amounts of time to become mirrors again in the mystical sense—without considering other factors, the larger the shard and the better the mirror effect, the shorter the time needed to regenerate the area behind the mirror. Conversely, smaller shards would take longer, and if too small, they might risk never becoming mystical mirrors again.
After transferring to the interior of the mirrored decorative item, Franca spoke rapidly while remaining vigilant against a sudden attack from the reanimated female corpse, "A Demoness of Despair doesn't have the ability to make people half-dead and turn them into plague bombs…
"Could it be a Demoness of Unaging?"
"It could also be with help from the Order of All Extinction or possession of a similar item," Jenna suggested another possibility based on her own feelings.
"Is Mushu Hospital not just home to the Mother Tree of Desire?" Franca suddenly had an inspiration. "The hospital as a whole should simultaneously possess the healing abilities related to the Great Mother pathway, the influence of the Mother Tree of Desire pathway on spirit, desire, corpses, and hospital urban legends, as well as control over diseases and pathogens from the one the Order of All Extinction believes in or the Demoness pathway!"
As Franca spoke without any embellishment, she observed the situation in the surveillance room and attempted to use the Ice Amulet's ability to transmit information through mirrors to send simple intelligence to a certain mirror on Lumian.
As long as Lumian hadn't left the current Huafeng District, he would definitely receive it!
Jenna guarded against the direction of the illusory tunnel that resembled a spider web, while Anthony said carefully, "That reanimated female corpse is almost unaffected by Awe, making me feel she's more like a dead person than a living one."
Franca's thoughts raced, and she immediately had two guesses.
"Is she an awakened Zombie, with a Mother Tree of Desire believer hiding nearby controlling her?
"Or, didn't we guess earlier that she might have a companion, possibly Loki? Is it possible that she's actually a marionette, with the Marionettist hiding somewhere nearby controlling her?"
Franca had confronted Loki before and had contact with spies from the Bureau 8 of Intis, so she was quite familiar with the antics of Marionettists.
"But according to the information provided by the Major Arcana card holders, even normal Marionettists can only control marionettes within a range of about 100 meters. Now, with their abilities suppressed to Sequence 7 level, I believe their maximum distance from the marionettes won't exceed 40 meters. Before we came to the surveillance room, we checked the surroundings and there was no one…" Jenna raised an objection.
At this point, she suddenly paused.
It wasn't that there was no one; in fact, there were two people!
Franca and Anthony also realized the issue and simultaneously turned their gaze towards the front of the surveillance screen.
There were indeed people within a 50-meter range—those two security guards!
One of the security guards had been turned into a plague bomb and had already disintegrated into disease-spreading flesh, but the other security guard was still sitting in his position, his eyes concealing a gray-white deep inside, staring motionlessly at the large screen!
Franca and Anthony's gaze fell on that security guard.
The security guard seemed to sense something and suddenly turned his body.
His clothes were now tattered, his body pitted and uneven, different areas of his face either missing skin, suffering abrasions, or with flesh split open and festering.
These were the "aftereffects" of being directly hit by the explosion of the other security guard.
The security guard, with half his face almost unrecognizable as human, reflected the flickering light from the surveillance screen, curled his lips, and revealed an exaggerated, terrifying, and sinister smile.
As his smile bloomed, his body rapidly swelled, becoming a human-shaped balloon like his colleague.
Bang!
The balloon burst, and countless viscous flesh and yellow-green pus splattered onto the surface of the metal decorative item where Franca and the others were hiding, smearing it into a mess and preventing Franca and Anthony from seeing the outside situation clearly.
"Let's change positions," Franca said, turning to Jenna and Ludwig, seizing the opportunity while they still had a few more Mirror Traversal charges.
…
In the Moon Plaza formed by the surveillance footage.
Lumian bent his back, drew the Sword of Courage, and sprinted from outside the men's and women's restrooms towards the reanimated female corpse at the entrance of the passage.
Behind him, on the wash basin mirror between the two restrooms, a female figure wearing a white dress with a loose bun suddenly appeared.
This was a projection created by the Demoness of Despair using the mirror!
Although it only possessed a fraction of the original body's power, it was still capable of assassination. It aimed to deliver a fatal blow to Lumian from behind!
Almost simultaneously, another figure emerged behind this female figure.
That figure had black hair, beautiful features, and a cold expression—it was Lumian's feminized image.
This projection, completed with the help of Precision, instantly turned into a ball of black flames brewing extreme destruction in silence, completely enveloping the mirror image projection of the reanimated female corpse, causing her to be thoroughly ignited amid painful wails.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Lumian, wielding the Sword of Courage, continued without any pause, charging towards the reanimated female corpse without looking back.
At this moment, in front of the reanimated female corpse, crystal-clear but sharp frost spears suddenly condensed, like a beautiful and clean hedgehog showing its spines.
Such a forest of ice spears couldn't be accomplished by a Sequence 7 Witch. Only a Beyonder who had reached the Demoness of Despair level and gained further control over frost, but was currently restricted to Sequence 7 level, could do this. It was equivalent to the Ice Spear Condensation ability evolving into Ice Spear Forest at Sequence 4, but now the Ice Spear Forest was only at the Sequence 7 level.
If Lumian didn't stop in time, he would crash into this forest of ice spears, being pierced through and creating multiple bloody holes.
At this moment, Lumian's figure suddenly became blurry and distorted, like an image displayed through electromagnetic signals suffering from strong interference.
It took only the blink of an eye from becoming blurry and distorted to completely disappearing. Lumian's body quickly outlined behind the reanimated female corpse.
He swung the Sword of Courage diagonally, chopping towards the target's shoulder.
With a whoosh, crimson flames ignited on the surface of the Sword of Courage.
Boom, Lumian's single stroke cleaved the reanimated female corpse into two pieces, exploding her into mirror shards.
The reanimated female corpse, having used a substitute, didn't appear immediately, seemingly disappearing into the dark, empty fourth floor of the mall.
Lumian's expression didn't change at all as he pressed the Sword of Courage downwards in one smooth motion.
Boom! Crimson fireballs flew out from the sword, indiscriminately covering this area, collapsing walls and igniting merchandise.
The crimson fire hell quickly engulfed nearly half a floor in continuously rising high temperatures.
Under such a wide-range indiscriminate attack, the figure of the reanimated female corpse was affected, forced out of her invisible state, and appeared to Lumian's side and rear.
…
Inside the surveillance room.
The reanimated female corpse who had previously fought with Franca and the others left her hiding place in the mirrored object and appeared in the room now covered everywhere with viscous flesh and yellow-green pus.
Taking advantage of the opportunity that various pathogens and decay forces were permeating this place, which would quickly infect and affect Franca and the others once they entered, she condensed a long ice spear covered in white frost in her hand and thrust it towards the surveillance screen, which already had multiple dents and was covered with flesh and pus.
The power of the two previous Disease Bombs wasn't strong, mainly focused on spreading pathogens and decay forces, so they couldn't directly destroy the large screen that was at a certain distance from them.
Now, the reanimated female corpse wanted to personally destroy the surveillance screen, causing the corresponding alternate space to collapse, making the enemies fighting there and her other "self" fall into the chaotic flow together, to be torn into pieces!
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