Chapter 170
As he flung away the tower shield, its weight vanished in an instant. He looked up to see, above the clouds, a brilliant blue stream of lightning stretching for miles across the sky.
The sight was a breathtaking blend of despair and beauty that momentarily stunned him. In the next heartbeat, a red bolt of lightning shot down, and before he could think, he was engulfed in a flood of crimson light.
Boom—!
The massive red lightning bolt struck Oubode, drowning him in a sea of red.
Lucy, who happened to witness this scene, stared in shock at the flash of red. The next moment, a violent tremor and shockwave hit her.
Following that, red lightning surged outward from the ground, radiating from Oubode like the canopy of a tree.
These bolts nearly covered the entire area, leaving both Lucy and Shaer with no way to escape. After being pushed to the edge of the shadow barrier by the shockwave, they were struck by the red lightning on the ground, momentarily losing consciousness.
In a dark void, fragmented words of ancient Ansu echoed before Shaer and Lucy once more.
These characters, entirely different from modern Ansu except for the numbers, sparked confusion in both of them, but Shaer understood.
The number preceding the word "calamity" had changed from "1" to "2."
Time passed, though how long she couldn't tell. The searing sensation gradually roused Shaer from her stupor. She slowly opened her eyes, her awareness returning.
Had they failed…? Were they back in reality?
The cold touch of rain was gone, replaced by the warm gusts of wind that dried her hair and clothes.
The ground beneath her was dry earth, not the sofa in Aivina's study.
No… still in the simulation…
Shaer felt her body slipping from her control, but fortunately, she still had the ability to manipulate shadows, which remained largely unaffected.
Two shadows gently helped her up. With blood streaming from her orifices, Shaer struggled to turn her eyes, fighting against dizziness and the double vision before her, looking toward where Oubode had been.
There was no sign of Oubode now, only a pile of extraordinary items and materials, shimmering with various colors, stacked nearly to her calves—a heap of "remnants."
Oubode was dead.
At that moment, not far from Oubode's body, a massive fire tornado was rapidly forming, sucking everything around it into its vortex, including the remnants left behind by Oubode.
The fire tornado climbed higher, expanding quickly under the force of the hurricane. In less than ten seconds, the entire area would be engulfed.
Suddenly, Shaer felt a chilling sensation in her throat.
She slowly looked down to see blood flowing down her neck, but she felt no pain.
Shaer's figure began to fade, and in the next moment, she appeared ten meters away, supported by the shadows. She looked back at the spot where she had just stood, and there was Lucy, clutching several blades, standing less than three meters away, staring at her.
"I… understand now…"
Lucy gasped for breath, but a smile still broke through her exhaustion. She reversed the blades in her fingers, finally pinching them between her index and middle fingers.
"This is a 'trial'… a gamble fate has dealt me, a test from destiny…"
Lucy was covered in blood, but it couldn't hide the madness in her eyes: "Oubode is out of the game! And you, the counterfeit 'Judge'! It's time for you to rest…"
Clink—
In the howling wind, the "Lucky Coin" was tossed into the air by Lucy. It seemed unaffected by the hurricane, landing upright on the back of her hand.
Then, Lucy's fist turned slightly, and the standing "Lucky Coin" tipped over, the rust-red-eyed angel gazing skyward.
Her seal… limited in the number of times it could be released? She could control its falling direction?
Why?
"Hahaha… Hahaha! Did I win? I won again! I can control it now!"
Lucy had no strength left to throw the blades again, her mental state teetering on the edge of madness, making it hard to gauge how much rationality she still possessed. Even the wounds on her face had reopened, the "things" she had stuffed inside now beginning to surface.
The fire tornado was rapidly approaching, and Shaer knew it wouldn't be long before both she and Lucy would suffer its wrath… and with her throat cut, Shaer clearly couldn't withstand the onslaught from Lucy, who still seemed to have energy to laugh.
Oubode was out of the game?
Shaer knew this all too well, for it was her doing.
She understood that the condition for the second calamity was to ensure one of them died. Lucy had likely realized this too, which is why she had cut Shaer's throat as soon as she woke up.
But Shaer would not die so easily; she wanted to see this through to the end more than anyone.
Click—
The shadow behind Shaer pressed the pocket watch in its hand.
Echo of Time.
In the next moment, the shadow dove into Shaer's own shadow, controlling her to walk stiffly toward Lucy.
"Huh?"
Noticing this, Lucy tightened her grip on the blade. As Shaer approached, she lunged forward, stabbing it into Shaer's chest.
"Goodbye. In every sense, you are my 'benefactor.'"
Lucy gasped, grinning.
But soon, her smile faded.
Because she saw Shaer, the girl whose heart she had pierced, stiffly raising her hands to grasp Lucy's wrist.
"You…"
A surge of immense strength came from the girl before her, and before Lucy could react, she was yanked down to the ground.
"What do you want?! Let go of me!!! Let go!!! You lunatic!!!"
Lucy frantically stabbed at Shaer's calves and arms with the blade, but the terrifying red-haired girl seemed utterly indifferent to the pain, dragging her toward the fire tornado that loomed closer.
"Let go of me!!! No… no no no no!!!"
The two figures were instantly swallowed by the fire tornado.
In an instant, they were lifted by the raging winds, their clothes, hair, and skin rapidly carbonizing in the flames, even their eyeballs melting away.
Lucy's screams were completely drowned out by the wind, and Shaer, overwhelmed by intense mental fatigue, lost consciousness.
In the sixth second of being caught in the fire tornado, both Lucy and Shaer had turned to ash, leaving only a whirlwind of extraordinary materials, items, and seals swirling in the sky.
In the eighth second, the ash that symbolized Shaer began to rapidly reassemble against the direction of the fire tornado, and in the blink of an eye, she returned to the starting point, kneeling on the ground, clutching her slashed throat.
Boom—
In the ninth second, the center of the fire tornado exploded, a burst of flames breaking through the barrier and shooting outward, sending various debris flying to the edges, breaking through the shadow barrier and scattering into the void.
The barrier shattered.
But Shaer was hurled dozens of meters away by the shockwave, her bones shattered, completely unable to move.
Lying on the ground, her once-bright eyes now dim, she gazed at the raindrops falling from the sky, praying to survive until the side effect of "Time Distortion" activated.
Adele had already reached the second tier; why hadn’t she thought to ask her for more potions…?
This was what occupied Shaer's mind at that moment.
She had to keep herself thinking, even about trivial matters.
Finally, it was over…
Shaer fought against the overwhelming urge to sleep, even as raindrops fell into her eyes, she dared not close them.
She had a premonition that if she shut her eyes, she would never open them again.
But, as fate would have it, things did not go as planned.
Once more, a series of completely blurred ancient Ansu characters appeared before Shaer's eyes.
She couldn't make out the others, but the last number, "3," was crystal clear.
The third calamity…
Shaer lay weakly in a pool of blood. Seconds later, her form began to flicker, half of a silver wolf mask appearing on her face, the pain in her body dissipating in an instant, though her spirit remained drained.
"Damn it…"
Shaer cursed in Chinese.
She yanked off the silver wolf mask from her face and staggered to her feet, muttering curses under her breath.
Looking up, the lightning stream in the sky had dissipated, but the layers of dark clouds still loomed overhead, as if she could reach out and touch them.
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