Chapter 555: Failure
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 555: Failure
The Sun Wheel ground forward, and the starlight was extinguished. Muen temporarily halted all unnecessary mana consumption, focusing his entire consciousness solely on manipulating the Black Flame.
He raised his hand, aimed at the little girl, and pressed down!
More Black Flame leaped forth, landing on the girl’s hideous magical beast limbs like dark sprites.
But these sprite-like, adorable flames brought no blessings.
Only calamity.
In an instant, the sturdy scales on her claws were incinerated.
The flesh was incinerated.
The bones were incinerated.
Like a piece of ordinary paper catching fire, those powerful magical beast limbs were gnawed away by the unremarkable black flames in the blink of an eye. Not even ash remained.
As more "blood food" was devoured, the Black Flame burned with even greater glee.
It seemed nothing could stop these flames from burning. Even the Sun Wheel deep within Muen’s consciousness seemed to be drawn by them, its rotation accelerating. But as a sharp pain stabbed through his mind, Muen forced the Sun Wheel to stabilize.
No, it can't go too fast, or I won't be able to handle it.
"Roar—"
At that moment, the little girl’s whimpering ceased, replaced by a discordant, bestial howl. Countless blood-red threads writhed chaotically, attempting to repair the injuries left by the Black Flame, only to be devoured in turn.
As if realizing something, another sharp claw extended from a stitched seam, and she violently tore away the burning bear-shaped claw.
"Severing a limb to survive... is that... instinct?"
Muen was slightly surprised by her actions, but only slightly.
Because the Black Flame would not stop burning.
The bear-shaped claw was soon consumed entirely. Under Muen’s control, the insatiable Black Flame lunged toward the girl.
The distance between them was already short. Given the speed at which the flames swept forward, the girl couldn't possibly dodge, even with the speed boost from her dragon wings.
But to Muen’s bewilderment, she didn't try to dodge.
Facing the Black Flame, her pale little face briefly showed the expression of a cat encountering something terrifying. But soon, that flash of terror was replaced by infinite ferocity.
She let out that strange, discordant howl again, and then her body... suddenly expanded!
No, it wasn't expansion.
It was the countless stitched seams across her body. In that instant, they all burst open!
Clang—
Scale armor flashing with the cold glint of steel rubbed and rolled together, producing a piercing metallic screech. These massive scales crawled out from the split seams like a swarm of interlocking giant centipedes, wrapping the girl inside. They formed a sphere and slammed toward Muen!
"Defense is useless against me!"
Muen smiled coldly and clenched his palm toward the sphere of scales.
In an instant, the flickering Black Flame landed on the sphere, joyfully gnawing away at the seemingly indestructible defense. Manipulating the Black Flame, Muen could clearly feel that the scales of powerful magical beasts offered no resistance to the black fire. In just a few breaths, they were nearly burned away.
This exhilarating sensation—as if he could burn the entire world to cinders—gave Muen’s soul a sense of euphoria. He almost wanted to let go of all restraints and let the Black Flame use all of creation as fuel to burn everything to the ground.
But Muen quickly and firmly suppressed that feeling.
He was here to master power, not to be mastered by it. If he were so easily intoxicated by the Black Flame’s might, what would be the point of all his bitter cultivation?
He still remembered the words the Old Loli had told him.
Muen continued to focus his mind, driving the Sun Wheel and launching a final attack at the girl, who now had nowhere to run.
The flames surged once more!
However...
Squelch.
The sound of tearing flesh and a sharp pain from his chest made Muen’s eyes widen in disbelief.
A sinister bone spear thrust out from a gap in the surging Black Flame, piercing through Muen’s chest.
Through the gaps where the Black Flame flickered, Muen saw even more magical beast scales and limbs extending from the stitched seams on the girl’s frail body, rushing into the burning Black Flame like moths to a flame.
Using those limbs as a shield—or rather, using the time it took for the Black Flame to burn through them—the girl, looking like a complete monster with a distorted face, dived toward Muen.
"I see... is this also an instinct granted by the beast blood?"
In an instant, Muen understood.
The girl had indeed lost her reason and ability to think, but the instincts provided by the beast blood within her had found the Black Flame’s only weakness, just as she had when first facing it.
That weakness was... the Black Flame required time to burn.
Or rather, the level of Black Flame Muen could currently deploy wasn't enough to swallow her whole in a single instant.
Therefore, she could buy herself room to maneuver by continuously "shedding her tail" to survive.
And the prerequisite for being able to do such a thing was...
"Just how many things did those bastards stitch into you?"
Expensive limbs of powerful magical beasts were being used as disposable consumables. Even Muen, who considered himself a textbook example of a "prodigal son," couldn't help but curse such wasteful behavior.
At the same time, his pity grew.
However, Muen also clearly realized...
This little girl—or rather, the beast blood inside her—was far more terrifying and dangerous than he had previously imagined.
Beast blood with such horrifyingly powerful vitality, combined with a massive number of stitched magical beast limbs, had created this unspeakable monster.
If she hadn't encountered the Black Flame, which happened to be her perfect counter and had directly cut off her food source, her level of threat—in terms of pure destructive power—would likely have exceeded that of the Indra King’s avatar.
Any ordinary Fifth-Tier Martial Artist who came here would likely have ended up as her food.
And he... was only at the Late Third-Tier!
"As expected, I'm far from the only freak in this world... though I don't consider myself a freak."
Muen grabbed the bone spear lodged in his chest. The Black Flame leaped, instantly devouring the spear, while sprite-like embers danced across his body, healing his wound at a visible rate.
"However."
Muen looked at the girl lunging at him fiercely, and a savage smile gradually curled onto his lips.
"When it comes to going berserk, I’ve never been afraid of anyone!"
Muen stomped the ground. The pitch-black flames tore through the girl’s surrounding defenses. While the Black Flame was locked in a stalemate with her limbs, Muen gripped his dual daggers and proactively charged forward.
Indeed, the clash of blades and claws, the spray of blood and sparks—that was what truly made one...
"Hmm?"
Muen suddenly frowned.
He heard an extremely sharp sound coming from a certain direction.
The sound seemed to come from some kind of musical instrument, but the tone was incredibly rigid, like a whistle. Yet this unfamiliar sound pierced directly into Muen’s mind while he was focused on the battle.
The feeling was like being on the verge of reaching the peak of intimacy when a nearby phone suddenly rings.
Of course, the irritation of being interrupted only happens if it's your own phone; if it's the other person's phone, it usually just makes things more exciting.
To Muen’s surprise, the girl seemed to have heard the sound as well. Her fierce pounce came to a sudden halt, and her face turned slightly toward the source of the sound, as if she were listening to something.
Then, the girl let out a long shriek. More scaled limbs burst from her body and rapidly expanded, pushing the Black Flame outward to create a temporary gap. She instantly abandoned those limbs, flapped her dragon wings, and escaped through the opening.
"She’s... running?"
Muen reacted instantly, his expression darkening.
At this point, how could he possibly let her leave?
The inability to fly was a common weakness for "meathead" martial artists. Muen gripped his hilts and hurled his dual daggers at the girl in the air.
The pure white blades sliced through space, reaching the girl almost instantly.
The girl’s attention was drawn by the blades. Her body swayed as she instinctively dodged.
Because she had sacrificed so many limbs at once, her movements were now somewhat stiff. With Muen pushing himself to full speed, he actually managed to close the distance.
Muen grabbed her and said with a fierce expression:
"You’re... staying!"
Pitch-black flames rose from his body once more. Muen forcibly restrained the struggling girl and locked eyes with her.
In Muen’s eyes, which were swirling with darkness, sparks of fire ignited. Simultaneously, sparks of fire appeared in the girl’s pale, lifeless eyes.
That was the Black Flame beginning to burn the girl’s soul.
At the level of the soul, she could no longer "shed her tail" to survive. A shrill, agonizing wail erupted from her small body. But as the dross of her scorched soul—or rather, fragments of her soul—flowed into Muen’s consciousness along with the Black Flame...
Kill kill kill kill kill...
Die die die die die...
Blood blood blood blood blood...
It hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts...
Infinite malice, infinite desire, infinite pain and lamentation were mixed within those soul fragments. Like a potent poison, they eroded Muen’s already strained mental state.
The Sun Wheel hung high, and the book pages flipped; the poison was quickly eradicated. However, due to this sudden mental invasion, Muen’s spiritual power wavered, and he instinctively retracted the Black Flame from outside his body.
"That was..."
Muen was dazed for a moment before his consciousness cleared.
Then, he saw that perhaps because he had siphoned away a portion of her malice, one of the girl’s eyes was no longer pale and lifeless. A confused, innocent gaze looked at him, and a single, warm tear rolled down.
"..."
Her lips moved, as if she were saying something.
Bang.
But before Muen could hear her clearly, the girl in his arms suddenly exploded, disintegrating into countless chunks of flesh that vanished into the darkness of the Lower District.
"Dammit... what kind of 'Heavenly Demon Disintegration' escape technique is this..."
Muen grasped at the empty air and fell from the sky, collapsing onto the ground.
He looked at his empty hand and let out a bitter laugh.
"I was forced to attack a poor girl's soul and I still didn't succeed. I really... need more practice..."