Chapter 415: Breaking the Formation and Killing the Enemy |
At this moment, inside an underground storage room within the Fire Worship Cathedral, the light of the teleportation array faded, revealing the figures of the four members of the Suroma team.
One of them had a calm expression, while the other three looked astonished.
"What's going on?" Amanda looked around at the dimly lit surroundings. "Why were we teleported here? Where are the people from the other teams?"
Peter also wore a look of shock, not understanding the situation.
Moon Key frowned and looked at Captain Adam. Judging by the latter's expression, he wasn't surprised that they hadn't teleported together with the other teams, clearly having anticipated this outcome.
Adam's wife, Amanda, also noticed this and asked uncertainly, "Adam, what exactly..."
"The location we teleported to is inside the cathedral," Adam said. "This is because the mission assigned to us by the king is different from the other teams."
"What do you mean?" Peter immediately asked.
"The entire Action Team's mission is to decapitate the leadership of the Fire Thief Worship Cult, but our mission is... to capture the Your Holiness alive."
"This..."
The other three had not expected the Suroma team to have a separate mission! More seriously, apart from Captain Adam, none of the other three teammates were aware of this mission.
"This approach will lead to a breakdown of trust," Moon Key said.
Amanda also said, "That's right, Adam! When the other teams realize we're not there, they'll definitely think we've betrayed them...!"
Adam's gaze flickered slightly. "Perhaps. But we are only acting separately; we haven't betrayed or sold them out."
Peter, standing to the side, lowered his head upon hearing this, hiding his unnatural expression.
"We teleported directly inside the cathedral, giving us a significant time advantage," Adam said. "Therefore, we must use this time difference to complete our mission. Let's move out immediately."
After speaking, he raised his palm. The power of his force field manipulation activated, and the storage room door was instantly crushed into a pile of wood splinters.
Moon Key and Peter hurried to follow. Amanda looked at Adam's back with a complicated expression in her eyes.
Adam, the you from before would never have done something like this... Did you agree to the king's request for the sake of the child?
Just as the Suroma team began their operation from inside the cathedral, the other group that teleported to the front gate had already entered the trap prepared by the Fire Thief Worship Cult.
"Damn Suroma! Why?!"
An Ascendant from the Xisiya team cursed loudly, his eyes filled with confusion.
It wasn't just him. At this moment, each person felt more perplexed than angry.
Not long ago, the Fire Thief Worship Cult had launched a bomb attack on Suroma, killing and injuring over a thousand people. Yet now, the Suroma team chose to conspire with the Fire Thief Worship Cult to plot against the other members of the Action Team. Where was the logic in that? What benefit was there in doing so?
But now was not the time to ponder these questions, nor even the time to think about revenge.
There was only one problem to consider right now: how to escape from this trap!
Several top-tier Ascendants reacted the fastest. Guan Tong immediately moved to the edge of the formation, wanting to get out but was blocked by an invisible barrier.
Bai Xuewu also instantly summoned her "Snow Traces" mecha and charged outward, but was similarly blocked by the barrier.
The others used their abilities and items one after another, encountering the same situation.
Seeing this, the young bishop Bake laughed. "Don't waste your energy. This formation was specially prepared for you. Did you really think you could escape so easily?"
As his words fell, chains began to appear one after another within the dark brown formation. Two Ascendants from smaller nations were accidentally bound by the chains and let out miserable screams.
The chains seemed to be coated with a potent poison. Upon contact with the skin, they rapidly corroded it. One person's bound arm revealed white bone within mere seconds.
"Swish!"
Bai Xuewu swung her Power Sword, severing the chains. However, new, more numerous chains continuously generated from the bottom of the formation. No matter how the group defended or destroyed them, they kept appearing endlessly, as if inexhaustible.
Watching the group trapped in dire straits, Bake wore a playful, cat-and-mouse expression on his face. "As long as the formation isn't broken, these chains won't stop appearing. And if you want to break the formation, hehe~"
"This formation is gathering a super large amount of Mind Power!" Chen Na, currently under Guan Tong's protection, closed her eyes tightly and activated her Perception Domain. The distribution of Mind Power concentrations in the surrounding area was all captured by her.
"It's those cultists! I can sense their Mind Power continuously flowing into the formation!"
Hearing Chen Na's words, everyone immediately understood the situation.
So the reason so many cultists were pouring out from inside the cathedral was to provide the Mind Power to sustain this formation.
Seeing the formation's secret exposed by a little girl, Bishop Hiss snorted coldly. "So what if you know? A formation powered by the combined Mind Power of hundreds of believers—how can a mere dozen of you hope to break it?"
"Damn it!"
Bai Xuewu tried attacking the formation's barrier, but just as Hiss said, although her Mind Power was high, it was nothing compared to the combined power of several hundred people.
If this dragged on, everyone would be exhausted to death within the formation.
"Xiao Na," Guan Tong calmly asked in a low voice at this moment, "can you sense the total amount of Mind Power the enemies are injecting into the formation?"
"Yes!" Chen Na said seriously. "Approximately fifty thousand points."
"Fifty thousand, huh. Good, I'll break the formation."
After speaking, Guan Tong handed Chen Na over to Silver Fox and Uenoshi for protection.
Yang Ran, who was nearby manipulating flames to incinerate the chains, anxiously said, "Captain, didn't you hear what that one-eyed bastard said? This formation gathers the Mind Power of hundreds of cultists!"
The total Mind Power sustaining the formation was fifty thousand. This was indeed a terrifying amount, a certain death trap for ninety-nine percent of Ascendants.
But Guan Tong just happened not to belong to that ninety-nine percent.
He didn't say much more. Instead, he quickly injected a massive amount of reserve Mind Power from the Terminal panel into the [Wordless Book] in his arms.
Ever since leaving Xisiya, he had commissioned Black Star every day to purchase large amounts of flowable Mind Power. Later, because he assisted the Countermeasures Research Office in identifying parasitized forms, the fee he received was also flowable Mind Power. Combined with self-converted reserves, over the past nearly month, he had accumulated a total of around one hundred fifty to one hundred sixty thousand points of reserve Mind Power.
If it were just him, he could have simply used Body Swap to escape. But the formation also contained others, so he decided to forcefully break it.
To ensure absolute success, he mobilized seventy thousand points of reserve Mind Power. After conversion through the [Wordless Book], a basketball-sized circular Small Space condensed above the palm of his right hand.
The moment it took form, almost everyone present felt a certain immense pressure.
"That is!" Hiss's pupils contracted, sensing something was wrong.
Bake, who had been smiling all along, now also frowned, the smile disappearing from his face.
Chen Na looked at Guan Tong in shock. Her [Perception Domain] could clearly sense just how terrifying the amount of Mind Power contained within that "black ball" on Guan Tong's right hand was, completely surpassing the formation powered by over a hundred cultists!
"Hurry! Both of us, reinforce it!"
Bishop Hiss shouted loudly and, together with Bake, joined the ranks of those injecting Mind Power into the formation, wanting to stop Guan Tong from breaking it.
But they were a step too late, or rather, even if they joined, it would be useless.
Because their combined Mind Power absolutely could not make up for the gap of twenty thousand points.
Guan Tong waved his hand and pressed the Small Space against the formation's barrier. The moment they made contact, a hole was devoured into the latter, and the formation instantly collapsed!
How is this possible?!
All the cultists of the Fire Thief Worship Cult were dumbfounded, looking at Guan Tong in disbelief.
Even the two bishops, Hiss and Bake, were stunned, unable to imagine how a single person could break a certain-kill grand formation jointly established by over a hundred Ascendants.
"Well done!"
"Kill these bastards!!"
As soon as Guan Tong broke the formation, the morale of the Action Team members soared. Each one pounced on the members of the Fire Thief Worship Cult like wolves and tigers, venting all their anger over Suroma's betrayal onto the enemies.
Bai Xuewu took the lead, maneuvering her mecha into the enemy crowd, cutting down twenty or thirty cultists in the blink of an eye.
Yang Ran used raging flames to ignite numerous cultists. Silver Fox leveraged her speed advantage to carry out consecutive assassinations. Uenoshi, however, did not attack, staying in place to protect Chen Na.
As for Guan Tong, his targets weren't the small fry, but the two bishops, Hiss and Bake.
Bake was already fighting Bai Xuewu, so Guan Tong set his sights on Hiss.
Chen Na wasn't idle either. Once the formation was broken, she could spread her attention elsewhere.
This spread allowed her to immediately capture the locations of several important figures!
"It's the people from the Suroma team!" Chen Na exclaimed in a low voice. "I sense them; they're inside the cathedral!"
Hearing this, Uenoshi said, "It seems their teleportation location was inside the cathedral. Could they really be colluding with the Fire Thief Worship Cult?"
Others also heard Chen Na's shout, including the two bishops, Hiss and Bake.
Guan Tong noticed that these two also showed surprised expressions on their faces, which puzzled him: It seemed they didn't know the Suroma team would teleport inside the cathedral?
What exactly was the reason behind this...
Guan Tong didn't dwell on it and said loudly, "Everyone, eliminate these cultists as quickly as possible."
"Alright!"
Originally just the captain of the Beixing team, Guan Tong's act of breaking the formation earned him immense respect from the Ascendants of the other teams. They had already tacitly acknowledged him as their leader and now responded verbally one after another.
"Hmph, eliminate quickly, is it? I'll eliminate you first, you heretic!"
Bishop Hiss charged forward, having chosen Guan Tong as his opponent.
He raised his hand and tore off the black cloth covering his left eye. A four-legged, winged tengu crawled out from within the eye socket. After landing, its body rapidly expanded over tenfold.
Guan Tong's title ability activated, instantly seeing through the monster's true nature.
[Crow Tengu]: A carrion beast residing within the eye socket, possessing immense strength and flight capability.
"Tear him apart!"
At Hiss's command, the Crow Tengu let out a strange cry, flapped its wings, and pounced at Guan Tong.
Not wanting to waste time, Guan Tong covered his entire body with Shadow Armor and charged forward. His left hand pressed against the Crow Tengu's head, and the Nano Swarm immediately decomposed its skull. The headless tengu instantly fell to the ground, dead.
Hiss's eye twitched. He hadn't expected his usually undefeated summoned beast to be eliminated by Guan Tong in one move! What was that black glove?
He was just about to make a move when he suddenly felt his entire body tremble. The item he carried that defended against Mind Power attacks was damaged, indicating something was attacking him.
Looking down, he saw that black shadows had, at some unknown time, climbed up half his body.
"Sha—"
Hiss's head instantly separated from his neck and flew off. Silver Fox and Guan Tong, who had appeared behind him, exchanged glances. The two had just coordinated.
Guan Tong attracted the enemy's attention, while Silver Fox used her super-high-speed movement to deliver a backstab kill, not giving Hiss a chance to use more items.
With Bishop Hiss dead, the remaining Bake was left struggling alone.
He was already having a hard time dealing with Bai Xuewu alone, constantly on the defensive. After the formation was broken, the Priests and the Disciples suffered backlash, their combat power greatly reduced, and were easily slaughtered by the other Ascendants of the Action Team.
Seeing Hiss beheaded, Bake knew that dragging things out would only lead to his death. His body flickered and disappeared without a trace.
"He vanished?"
"His ability is Invisibility," Guan Tong said. He had already seen through it via his title effect. "But he cannot attack while invisible; it's only suitable for escape."
After the remaining cultists were cleaned up, Guan Tong stopped everyone who wanted to enter the cathedral.
He took out Silver Hunt from his ring and adjusted it to Missile No. 6.
"No need to go in. I'm going to blow up this cathedral directly."
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