Hero Descends

Drip, drip.

The sound of blood dripping grew fainter and fainter, but that was far from a good sign. Lilith forced her eyes wide, trying to make out the movements of the person ahead.

Unfortunately, she possessed neither magic eyes nor any special Pupil Technique, and her Agility was a mere 11 points. She simply could not see movements as swift as lightning.

She clutched her neck with her left hand. She did not know what was happening to her. Pain and fear had not shredded her sanity as they once would have; instead, they sharpened her focus, even making her Mental Power perception and Barrier Technique more proficient.

The white barrier around her continued expanding farther and farther.

She had already realized that the "purification" trait attached to her Barrier Technique had a peculiar restraining effect on the person flickering with dark-purple lightning. That was why the enemy had prioritized Lily of the Three-Section Staff and Hellish Blizzard.

But now, Fubuki had also been severely wounded. The enemy’s only remaining target was herself, and her Level 3 Barrier Technique was not enough to destroy him…

Lilith kept retreating, her other hand pressed over Fubuki’s pierced abdomen. The bleeding there had begun to weaken, which meant Fubuki had lost too much blood and could die at any moment.

What should I do? I’m so weak. I’m no match for him. Loka and short hair are dead, and Mercenary Tao has vanished too…

Lilith’s heart turned cold. Instinctively, she wanted to call for help, but then Mercenary Tao’s mockery flashed through her mind.

Yes, no one was coming to save her. A Reincarnator praying to gods and heroes on the verge of death… wasn’t that laughable?

Sizzle!

Dark-purple lightning flared again. Lilith’s heart jolted. With a flick of her right hand, she threw Fubuki aside and lunged forward herself.

Bang!

The dark-purple lightning pierced through the barrier. Though weakened somewhat, it still shot straight into the ground and exploded.

Lilith and Fubuki were both blasted away.

The wound on Lilith’s neck split open once more.

As blood gushed out, the chill brought by excessive blood loss began to fill her heart.

This is bad… I’m going to die…

Rumble, rumble.

The ground shook violently, as though a massive earthquake had erupted.

Lilith could not even stay on her feet, yet she still forced her Mental Power outward to investigate the area ahead. She clung to a sliver of hope. If the one who had come was Miss Tatsumaki, or… even Mr. Mercenary Tao…

"Hey, Muyun, you still haven’t killed these people?!"

"Are you really going to wait here until Tatsumaki comes back?"

Amid the booming voice, the ground kept bulging upward. Soon, a colossal Stone Golem hundreds of meters tall emerged from the earth.

That overwhelming size, along with the energy trails winding around its body, extinguished the last trace of hope in Lilith’s heart.

The newcomers were enemies again, and this one was another elite Reincarnator at least on the Second Tier.

She sank down dejectedly, dragged the unconscious Fubuki behind her, and carefully brushed the sand and dust from Fubuki’s body.

"I’m sorry, Miss Fubuki. I’m too weak. I can’t protect you at all."

Lilith moved her right hand toward Fubuki’s neck. She knew very well what kind of creatures Reincarnators were. Since these people had already intended to kill Fubuki, they naturally would not care about Miss Tatsumaki.

That meant they were capable of anything.

Before she died, she decided to personally… kill Fubuki.

Her right hand touched Fubuki’s delicate neck. The pulse in her artery was already very faint, and Lilith’s heart filled with sorrow.

At the beginning, no one would have attacked Miss Fubuki. As long as she had run away, she would have been safe. Yet she had stayed behind for the sake of someone as useless as Lilith.

Sizzle!

Dark-purple lightning shone like a sphere. The man in a black jacket and baseball cap finally stopped his super-speed movement.

Standing outside the barrier, he turned and saw the gigantic figure. He knew the other party had also been implanted with Blood of God and had become a divine envoy under Tree Herder.

Muyun merely focused on sensing the distance, trying to detect any sign of Tatsumaki’s arrival.

"Our orders are to lure Tatsumaki here. What is the point of killing these people and running before we have confirmed that Tatsumaki has arrived?"

"Even if Boss Tree Herder does not blame us, that person will not let us off."

The hundreds-of-meters-tall earthen giant grew even angrier at those words.

"To hell with that person. I don’t care about any goddamn orders. At worst, when I leave this world, I’ll spend every last resource enjoying myself, then pull off something big in Japan. Fuck…"

His mental state was clearly unstable. Then, heedless of everything, he raised his fist and smashed it down toward Lilith and Fubuki inside the barrier.

Branding Iron had thought this mission would be simple: kill Hellish Blizzard and a Reincarnator of the same tier, then run. Tatsumaki might not even find him that quickly.

But he had not expected that person to demand confirmation that Tatsumaki had been lured here. Wasn’t that just sending him to his death?!

He had only recently joined Tree Herder’s ranks and did not know how brutally ruthless Tree Herder’s team was. He had still been thinking of saving his own life.

Boom!

The enormous fist churned the air, and blazing-white cloud trails crashed down like a missile.

Before the fist even landed, the terrifying wind pressure passed through the barrier and nearly pinned Lilith flat against the ground.

Lilith suddenly cried out.

"Save her! Save Fubuki!"

"Please, hero!"

She had just sensed an incredibly swift figure entering the range of her Mental Power perception. At this critical moment between life and death, she once more desperately called for help.

But this time, it was not for herself. It was for the person she believed deserved to live more than she did.

Buzz!

A red-haired figure raced forward on swift legs and flew through the air, laughing wildly as he came.

"Hahahaha~"

"I’m not a hero. I am… the Great Hero!"

Six Forms of Arrogant Cold!

The newcomer was Red Dust. His long red hair whipped in the wind, and his tattered clothes made him look like a madman. Yet the energy radiating from him had only grown stronger. His laughter alone was like rolling heavenly thunder, shaking the air.

Then he raised his hand as a blade and slashed through the air.

A nearly thousand-meter-long solid blue-white blade aura crashed down.

Pfft!

Branding Iron was just about to dodge, but the surrounding air had completely frozen. His heart tightened, and he tried to call for help.

Sizzle!

Lightning exploded. Branding Iron’s heart leaped with joy. He had not expected Muyun’s combat instincts to be so outstanding. As expected of a divine envoy enhanced by the Blood of the Thunder God.

The dark-purple lightning transformed into a great spear. It flashed into existence in an instant, then shot from his hand, aimed… directly at Lilith and Fubuki behind the barrier.

Muyun’s reaction was incredibly fast. The moment he sensed the powerful Inner Force that made it hard for him to breathe, he realized that Chaos Sage’s Red Dust truly lived up to his reputation. Even after being strengthened by the Blood of the Thunder God, he could not contend with him.

He erupted into motion instantly, using the godlike speed granted by his lightning power to prepare to kill the targets while Red Dust was slaying Branding Iron.

No matter what happened afterward, killing Fubuki would at least draw Tatsumaki here.

In that instant, nearly everyone’s minds froze.

The dozens-of-meters-long dark-purple Spear of Thunder had already pierced the barrier. Lilith’s hair curled as her entire body was pierced through by electric ions;

Red Dust’s frown seemed to unfold in slow motion. His blade momentum had already been spent, and the icy blade aura had cut into the shoulder of the Stone Golem.

Branding Iron’s joy turned to despair. Before he could even curse Muyun’s ancestors for eighteen generations, the icy blade aura had entered his body.

Crack!

The next moment, a sound like shattering glass rang out. A red fist abruptly filled everyone’s vision.

Boom!

A destructive impact erupted. Even Red Dust trembled from head to toe at that moment. His protective aura shattered completely from just being grazed.

The next moment, he fell from the sky, and the space before him was utterly empty.

Not only the Stone Golem, but also the clouds in the sky, the wreckage on the ground, and the distant black spatial rift.

Everything had vanished.

Lilith gasped for breath, still unable to recover from the icy touch of death. All she saw was a familiar figure appearing on the other side.

The hero… had descended~