Chapter 139
Chapter 139
Every operative froze.
Before joining the mission, they had considered the possibility that Liu Ye left Fiends to protect his parents. Their intelligence confirmed that several Fiends served him. That was precisely why the Illuminati had sent them.
They were not surprised to be pulled into a Fiendish World mission.
The rewards and objective, however, terrified them.
The rewards were more lavish than anything offered in any previous mission, while the objective was absurdly simple: survive for ten minutes.
Unless the System had malfunctioned, there could be only one explanation.
It did not believe they could survive here for ten minutes.
“Retreat! Back to the cabin!” Leonard ordered immediately.
Boom!
The ground convulsed. A gigantic mouth opened beneath several operatives near the edge of the group and snapped shut, swallowing them whole.
Then a giant appeared. It was as large as a hill, bloated and corpse-white, like rotten flesh soaked too long in water.
Several people near the cabin suddenly clutched their throats, unable to breathe. Thick pus poured from their mouths. A hoarse whistle escaped as the fluid corroded their vocal cords.
More foul liquid streamed from their eyes, ears, and every other opening in their bodies. It was highly corrosive. They fell and rolled across the ground, maddened by the agony eating outward from within.
Others tried to call upon the Fiends inside them, only to discover that their connections had vanished. No matter how desperately they called, the Fiends did not respond. They could not even force them out of control. It was as though the creatures had disappeared from their bodies.
“Everyone split up and run!” Leonard issued his second command.
Staying together would only make it easier for the Fiends to slaughter them. Scattering offered at least a slim hope of survival.
The instant he finished speaking, Leonard’s body stiffened.
He turned mechanically. A child of four or five stood behind him, smiling.
“Aaaah!”
Leonard tried to summon the Fiend within him, but nothing happened. He immediately threw a severed head from his pack. Green flames engulfed it, and the head vanished.
In its place appeared a headless knight wreathed in green fire. The knight swung its greatsword at the child.
Slash!
The small body split as easily as foam.
Then the knight’s blade shattered.
Leonard looked closer and saw countless tiny children crawling across the sword.
“Hee-hee-hee! Ha-ha-ha!”
Their piercing laughter filled his ears. Pain erupted across Leonard’s body. He looked down and saw gray patches writhing over his skin.
The miniature children were devouring him.
“Aaaah!”
He slapped desperately at his arm-and knocked it clean off. The severed limb burst open, releasing a swarm of childlike creatures no larger than insects.
“Hee-hee-hee! Ha-ha-ha!”
Leonard tried to run, but his body crashed to the ground. His feet remained behind, transformed into more little Fiends.
“No!”
His final scream rang out as they consumed him piece by piece.
Slap!
A photograph fell to the ground. The child picked it up and found Liu Ye’s face on the front. On the back, someone had written three targets in Chinese: Liu Ye’s parents and Guiwa.
The child fell silent.
He understood that these people must be Liu Ye’s enemies from outside. Targeting Liu Ye’s parents made sense, but why were they looking for him?
“Heh. This isn’t so bad. It might be the best thing that brat has ever done.”
Guiwa licked his lips with an unnaturally long tongue, then split apart and scattered.
In the distant forest, an operative ran desperately. He suddenly retched, vomiting countless tiny copies of Guiwa. They swarmed like insects, shrieking with laughter.
“Aaaah!”
The operative staggered backward. One of his eyes fell from its socket and transformed into an ant-sized Guiwa the moment it struck the ground.
His hand burst next, producing even more.
He screamed in despair. Under a microscope, countless Guiwas would have been visible inside his veins, tearing savagely at the walls of his blood vessels while emitting terrifying laughter.
His entire body disintegrated in an instant.
The same horror unfolded throughout the group. Guiwa could divide himself into pieces as small as bacteria. There was nowhere to hide.
Before him, the Fiends inside their bodies were no more powerful than ordinary humans. He devoured them with ease.
Another group reached the shore of a lake, where several small boats waited. They immediately climbed aboard and rowed away.
Perhaps the lake was a dead end, but there was no path to life anywhere. The child Fiend was simply too terrifying.
They rowed frantically toward the center. Gradually, the world around them changed. Both lake and sky turned bloodred, and two crimson suns appeared overhead.
The piercing music of suonas drifted across the water. To their horror, their bodies moved beyond their control and leaped into the river.
The bloodred water corroded their skin. Agony seared every nerve. They struggled with all their strength, but the river expanded like an ocean and swallowed them.
The viewpoint rose higher and higher, revealing dozens of dust-sized figures writhing atop a bright red floral quilted jacket.
Liu Ye’s Mother glanced at them once, then returned to her work. She was reweaving her wedding dress.
Elsewhere, one operative’s mind broke as he watched his companions die. Then he heard a familiar voice.
He looked up and saw his mother.
“Mom!”
He stumbled toward her. She smiled gently and held out her arms. He flung himself into her embrace, certain the danger had passed.
In reality, an enormous head floated in the sky. Countless threads extended from it and pierced the operatives’ brains. More than a dozen people wore vacant smiles, lost in beautiful dreams.
“Huff… huff…”
Two survivors raced through the wilderness. Three minutes remained. If they could endure for just three more minutes, they would be safe.
They entered the forest and stopped dead.
A group of naked Fiends stood ahead, each covering himself with leaves. Some scattered handfuls of foliage into the air. Others waved branches from which white cloths hung. A few held twigs between their teeth.
The two survivors stared.
The creatures looked terrifying. Yet for some inexplicable reason, they also seemed profoundly miserable.