parentshiftbook Chapter 663 Fusion and Blood Web
Chapter 663 Fusion and Blood Web
Chapter 663 Fusion and Blood Web
By the time Jemin collected the last floating step, the fluctuations of the battle had become so clear that they no longer needed to be perceived with mental power.
Explosions, shrill energy shocks, and sounds like the panting of a large wild beast came from the depths of space.
He slowed his pace, using the Tai Xu Step to reduce his presence to zero.
He was like a weightless shadow, silently sliding along the gray ground towards the edge of the battlefield.
The core of this space was larger than he had imagined.
It was a circular hall with a diameter of over 500 meters, inside which was a wide, gray-white flat area.
A huge ball of light floated in the center of the hall. The color of the light was between pale gold and milky white, and it pulsed unstablely, like a burning heart.
The surface of the light cluster has countless constantly changing fine lines, and each pulse will cause an energy ripple to spread outward.
Professor Vitor Raine was standing directly beneath the orb of light.
His silver-rimmed glasses reflected the color of the light, and the sleeves of his white shirt were rolled up to his elbows, revealing dense runes on his forearms.
The runes appeared to be seeping through his skin, flashing in sync with his heartbeat.
His hands were placed on a magic circle that was suspended in mid-air, and his ten fingers moved incessantly among the runes of the magic circle, as if he were playing an invisible piano.
With each press of a rune, the pulsation of the light orb would undergo subtle changes, and the entire orb was constantly adjusted under the precise control of his fingertips.
Three powerful members of the Psychic Association stood less than fifty meters away from the ball of light.
The president stood at the very front, and the storm's eerie power was fully unleashed.
But his attack wasn't directed at the professor; it was aimed at the monster standing in front of him.
It was a humanoid being pieced together from flesh, metal, and strange fragments, about three meters tall, with its body covered by a shell resembling bones.
Its arms are not normal limbs, but two thick, fleshy pillars with hammer-shaped ends, which bring up a howling wind with each swing.
The president's lightning struck it, creating a blue arc of electricity on its carapace, but it only took a few steps back, and the cracks on its carapace healed completely within seconds.
The female support's sonic shockwave struck it, causing its body to tremble violently, but its feet seemed nailed to the ground, and it did not retreat an inch.
The male support attacked from the side, his eerie form transforming into a black shadow, attempting to bypass the monster and directly attack the professor, but the seemingly bloated monster's reaction speed was incredibly fast.
Its body would suddenly spin the moment the shadow approached the professor, and the thick fleshy pillar would sweep across, slamming the shadow back.
The three attacked in turn, and all sorts of strange forces exploded in the hall.
But the monster remained between the professor and the ball of light, like a self-repairing wall.
Although this monster showed no intention of attacking, its defensive capabilities were outrageous.
Its body became increasingly rough through repeated wounds and healing, and the color of its carapace changed from grayish-white to dark gray, with the surface patterns becoming increasingly dense.
Its resistance to the attacks of the three people became increasingly high, to the point that the three people could not break through its defense at all.
The president's face was grim, because he recognized the monster.
"Collins!" His voice pierced through the explosion and thunder, almost pleading. "Do you remember who you are? You're a member of the Psychic Guild! You've protected this city for over twenty years! Don't let a madman destroy your last vestiges of consciousness!"
The monster paused for a moment.
The fleshy pillar that was about to smash into the female supporter stopped in mid-air, its head slowly turning towards the chairman.
On that face, so distorted that its features were almost unrecognizable, the mouth opened and made a sound as if something was blocking its throat.
Although the voice wasn't loud, the president heard it.
Seeing his reaction, the chairman's eyes lit up slightly, and his voice became even louder.
"Yes, it's you! Collins! You're still here! You can hear me! You can still control yourself! You don't need to shield him; we can help you remove that monster from your body. The Association's technology can do it—"
The monster's body shuddered violently.
The mouth on that face opened again, and this time the sound was clearer, but still unclear.
The president couldn't hear what he was saying, but Jemin's mental power picked it up.
Jemin's expression became interested, because that syllable wasn't spoken to the chairman, but to the hybrid weirdo himself.
"We cannot retreat."
Then the expression on that face disappeared, as if someone had used an eraser to wipe away everything that belonged to a "person".
Eyes, mouth, eyebrows—all the parts that could express emotions—became smooth, textureless surfaces.
The monster straightened up again, and the fleshy pillar that had stopped swung again, smashing towards the female supporter with even greater force than before.
A trace of grief flashed across the president's face.
He knew Collins was nearing his limit.
With each injury and each recovery, the fusion between the eerie and himself deepens.
When he completely loses his self-awareness, he will no longer be Collins, but will become the monster itself.
Jemin stood behind a stone pillar that extended from the gray floor at the edge of the hall, his gaze shifting from the monster to the professor.
Victor's expression was calm.
He watched as the three powerful psychics bombarded the monster relentlessly, his face remaining expressionless.
His fingers continued to move rapidly across the magic circle, the runes at his fingertips flashing a steady blue light.
His gaze would occasionally drift away from the magic circle and land on Collins.
He was watching how long Collins' body could hold on, how far the fusion between the weirdo and its host had progressed, and how much more time it could buy for him.
The three launched an increasingly rapid attack.
The president's bizarre storm had been pushed to its limit, and the lightning illuminated the entire hall as if it were daytime.
The female support's sonic shockwaves changed from a single direction to a full-range coverage, and each shockwave would cause the monster's body to stiffen briefly.
The male support's shadowy attacks were even more cunning, specifically targeting the newly healed cracks on the monster's carapace, inflicting new wounds with each strike.
Even the fused monsters are starting to falter.
Its carapace developed numerous cracks under continuous bombardment, and the healing process became noticeably slower.
Those cracks extend from the surface to the depths, spreading from a localized area to the entire body.
Its movements also began to change; the swinging of that fleshy pillar was no longer powerful, and its steps began to falter.
Upon seeing this, the three simultaneously intensified their attack.
The president's lightning transformed into a thick blue beam of light, striking straight down from the ceiling.
The female support's sonic waves, intertwined with the thunder, struck the monster's chest with pinpoint accuracy.
The male support's shadowy form transformed into dozens of sharp spikes, piercing the monster's body from all directions, surrounding the lightning.
Faced with the combined attack of the three, the monster's body suddenly froze, then began to tremble violently.
Countless cracks appeared on its shell, and dark liquid gushed out from the cracks, pooling on the ground.
It remained standing, blocking the professor and the ball of light.
But its body has already begun to break down.
The professor's lips twitched slightly, revealing an expression that resembled a sigh.
"What a pity." His voice wasn't loud, as if he were talking to himself, "It's still not quite there. My technique isn't perfect enough."
He withdrew his fingers from the magic circle.
Then, he reached out and grasped the ball of light above his head.
The ball of light exploded the moment it touched his finger, like flower petals blooming.
The surface of the orb of light cracked open with countless fissures, from which milky white light poured out, engulfing the professor's entire silhouette in a dazzling halo.
The runes spread from his forearm, climbed up his arm to his shoulder, from his shoulder to his chest and back, and from his back to his whole body.
His skin became transparent under the runes, and the blood vessels and muscles beneath the skin could be clearly seen being rearranged and reorganized by some force.
The professor's body began to deform in the light, as if he were extending countless tentacles.
He raised his head, his gaze piercing through the light, and looked at the monster that had begun to collapse.
"Thanks for your hard work."
His voice was soft, but it echoed throughout the hall, every word clear and distinct.
The monster's body jolted violently.
On that face that had lost all expression, the mouth opened again.
The sound this time was clearer than ever before.
It was a human voice, old, hoarse, with an almost liberated tone: "————Professor————————"
Before the monster could finish speaking, its body completely collapsed.
The carapace shattered into countless fragments, and dark liquid gushed out from between the fragments, exploding into a huge black splash on the ground.
In the center of the splash, a thin, hunched body dressed in a hospital gown collapsed.
It was an old man.
His hair was gray, his face was covered with wrinkles, his lips were blue, and his eyes were tightly closed.
His body no longer showed any signs of life.
It's Collins.
The president took a step forward, then stopped.
He looked at the small, thin body on the ground, his lips moved, but in the end, no sound came out.
Then he looked up, his gaze piercing through the light, and fixed on the professor.
"Victor Ryan," his voice was low and menacing, as if squeezed from the depths of his chest, "do you know how many people you've ruined?"
The professor did not answer.
He simply stood quietly in the center of the light, watching his body change little by little, like an observer.
The three powerful figures in the association did not give him any more time.
The president had no interest in hearing his answer. He swung his hand down suddenly, and a strange power condensed into a thick bolt of lightning, which struck the professor's head.
The female support's sonic waves and the male support's shadowy figure followed closely behind, the three different types of forces intertwining in the air to form an unavoidable attack.
Then, a red net blocked their way.
It was something between a solid and a liquid, like a mesh barrier made up of countless tiny blood droplets.
The net's texture was extremely fine and dense, with each thread so fine that it was almost indistinguishable to the naked eye.
But their numbers were so vast that they spread outward from the professor's body surface, covering the space within hundreds of meters around him in milliseconds.
The president's lightning struck the net, and blue arcs of electricity spread in all directions along the net, like water flowing into countless tributaries, where the energy was diluted, dispersed, and eventually disappeared.
The female supporter's sonic waves hit the net without even causing a ripple.
The male support figure tried to squeeze through the gaps in the mesh, but the gaps automatically closed the moment the figure approached, blocking it out.
"Blood Web!" The guild leader's voice suddenly rose, trembling with rage. "The catastrophic anomaly that destroyed most of Middleton is actually in your hands!"
The male supporter's expression also changed.
He wasn't unfamiliar with catastrophic anomalies; in fact, he himself was a medium who could communicate with catastrophic anomalies.
But the aura of the Blood Web was completely different.
Although both are catastrophic, the oppressive feeling emanating from the blood web made it seem as if they were not on the same level.
"How can this guy be so strong when we're both at the Disaster level?!" His voice was filled with disbelief.
No one could answer him.
After blocking the three attacks, the blood-red net began to shrink and deform.
The fine, dense threads seemed to come alive as they gathered towards the center, weaving into a human shape.
First the skeleton, then the muscles, then the skin —
Within seconds, a humanoid figure made of blood-red substance stood before them.
That face was Vitor Rayne's face.
If the professor's expression was "calm" before...
On that blood-red face, the expression was indifferent and empty, as if some being beyond human emotion was looking down on a group of ants.
The professor, now back in human form, did not look at the three psychics.
He didn't even glance in their direction.
His gaze passed over the chairman's head, over the shoulders of the male and female supporters, and landed behind the stone pillar at the edge of the hall.
Jemin sighed inwardly.
He knew he had been discovered.
It wasn't because he revealed any flaws, but because of the Blood Web.
The moment this strange creature appeared, Jemin's all-seeing eye detected the problem.
Besides the visible red netting, there were countless fine threads, almost imperceptible to ordinary people, radiating outwards from the blood net itself, covering every corner of the entire hall.
This is a rare, comprehensive search from the physical level.
Each of those transparent lines is an extension of the Blood Web's sensory system, and it can sense anything that comes into contact with them, whether it is a tangible entity or intangible energy.
The Tai Xu Step allows one to blend into the environment, eliminate energy fluctuations, and make others ignore his presence.
But it cannot make Jemin "not exist".
Of course, Jemin also had ways to evade these investigations.
But—there's no need.
The professor's gaze lingered for a moment in the direction where Jemin was hiding.
Then he blinked.
Three powerful members of the Psychic Association disappeared simultaneously, seemingly "moved" from their original locations to another place by some force.
Jemin's mental imprint indicated that they had been transported to another area of this alternate dimension, at least several kilometers away from here.
For a moment, only two people remained in the hall.
(Bonus chapter, one more to go.)
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