Chapter 123 My Home

Beneath the bridge, shivering, Sethron was startled. He felt his vision tremble, and rubble continuously hit his head. This safe and secluded little world was no longer safe, but he couldn't explain why.

He mustered the courage to open his eyes and saw cracks like tree branches appearing on the stone bridge. The smoke dissipated, and the few people still outside fell and got up again, like children who had forgotten how to walk. They couldn't maintain their balance, and the very ground that supported them trembled. The once stable structure was disintegrating and crashing under the stone demon's will, like fragile ice in a raging tide.

“No…” Saislun’s face turned pale. He sensed the power from underground. “No…!”

Transparent ice crystals covered the ground, attempting to stabilize the crust, but this was a drop in the bucket. His ice layer instantly collapsed and shattered, and the stone bridge that provided him with protection collapsed, and the rubble smashed into his head, causing him to bleed.

Sethron whimpered, curled up in a ball, and fashioned a shelter like an igloo from ice. The small city shook violently, tall buildings sinking into the ground, and peaks rising from the flat ground. Amidst the roar of destruction, the sky turned gray with dust.

The big earthquake began.

·

Jin Ye raised his right fist, still retaining the power to cause earthquakes, and it floated back and forth like an amorphous balloon. The next moment, its arm and most of its body were blasted apart by blue lasers, and its head and lower body were pierced through by a spear and thrown into the ground.

Chu Hengkong gripped his spear and unleashed a surge of energy, scattering the golden leaves into a pile of shattered sand. But the wisp of dust seeped into the earth, forming an identical silhouette a few hundred meters away. It spread its hands and gathered up the dust like a knife. Chu Hengkong swung his spear, slicing through the wind and sand.

A temporary truce.

The assassins reached the same conclusion. They were obsessed with their grudges, but none of them took human life lightly. They had no reason to act like heroes saving the people, but they also had no reason to ignore the casualties around them and continue their desperate struggle. Shax fired repeatedly, shattering the golden leaves, but a second later, a third and fourth leaf flew out from the wind and sand. Their aura was identical to the stone demon that had caused the earthquake earlier, and even the Immortal Machine's analysis showed no difference.

"Stone demons, the most troublesome kind." Shax put away his pistol and put Black Pill back on his shoulder. "Fight on our own!"

A cloud of sand and dust rose above Jinye City, covering the sky and the sun. Shax flew into the wind with his backpack. Two of the stone monsters chased him away, while the other two strolled leisurely across the trembling earth and attacked Chu Hengkong.

He attacked again, his tentacles wrapped around his spear, the fire of ambition flashing from its lance. The stone monsters' movements were as light as paper. It actively scattered to avoid the thrust, transforming its hammer-like arms and smashing down with a gust of wind. Chu Hengkong shook his spear, sending sparks flying, his azure flames shattering the enemy's ethereal form. Another stone monster took the opportunity to disperse, transforming into a ball of sand to envelop the assassin who had fired the spear.

In an instant, Chu Hengkong's head was completely engulfed in dust, and colored gravel covered his entire body. Under the stone demon's control, each grain of sand became a tiny, sharp scalpel, and the dust was like a swarm of ants that could penetrate any hole. Under such a terrifying attack, even a martial artist's body would be shredded to bones.

A golden light flashed deep within the gravel, and the colorful gravel suddenly scattered. The stone monster's ant colony died, having encountered a poisonous substance that killed them on contact.

Phantom body annihilation force field!

Chu Hengkong emerged from the smoke and dust, unsurprisingly watching another stone demon emerge from the ground. The same aura, the same power. This wasn't some simple sleight of hand, like the clone technique. If it were merely using a portion of its mental energy to manipulate the mechanism, the annihilation field's attack would have damaged the demon's body. Yet, in his perception, the stone demon remained unscathed. The enemy's power seemed nearly limitless, as if the entire earth provided its endless support.

Chu Hengkong activates the communication relic. (Give me some information.)

(Run, run, run!) Vander screamed in his head. (Holy shit, how could I not recognize that thing? It’s a Stone Demon! Outer Path Sephiroth 3, Calamity Species: Stupid Demon!)

(The annihilation field is useless this time. How can I deal with its clone technique?)

(Dude, you're drunk, aren't you? You're still using the clone technique? It's a natural disaster, an earthquake, a landslide, a mudslide. Every shard of earth and every grain of sand is its weapon. If it wants, this entire island can become its body. Compared to the size of the mad monster, your annihilation field is at most a needle! Can you kill a giant with a needle?!) Finder was extremely anxious. (If you want to deal with the three monsters, you have to start from the physical level. You need the matter disintegration ray now!)

(My spine can't fire a light cannon yet. Other methods.)

(Either you invent a poison powerful enough to kill an entire island, or you run.)

(Suggestion received.) Chu Hengkong switched the communication partner, (Captain——)

Ji Huaisu was very calm: (Just focus on fighting, I will save as many people as I can.)

(…I’m counting on you.)

My partner was impulsive, but she wasn't blind to reality. She didn't say, "Leave the rescue to me." Given the situation, she could only rescue those she saw.

Chu Hengkong held his breath, dispersing the dust. The effect of Yi Qi Qian Qiu eliminated the need for him to breathe, which in turn prevented him from inhaling sand and gravel. The shockwaves intensified, and the lower-lying buildings began to collapse. People sought refuge in open areas, but could find no safe shelter.

In front of the panicked crowd, an ugly hand emerged from the ground, pointing at Chu Hengkong and the mountain behind him that was shaking due to the earthquake.

"Mudslide," it said.

The sand softened, the mountains collapsed, and the earth and rocks flowed like a river, carrying trees with them. A golden wave rippled across western Jinye City, a mudslide weighing thousands of tons. The sheer force was enough to demolish a single-story building, but now most civilians had no homes, their houses destroyed by the earthquake!

Chu Hengkong turned and ran without hesitation. A bright yellow crystal emerged from his sleeve, a swirling stream of water swirling within it, resembling a yellow bead. The back of the white spear had three grooves, into which he inserted the remaining demonic fire and the yellow bead, one after the other. The fire of ambition suddenly rose from the spear, transformed into a majestic dragon under the influence of an inexplicable force.

"The might of the whirling dragon, the legacy of the flame demon. Demonstrate your holiness with the help of the flames. Defeat evil with the will of the gods, punish the evildoers—"

Prayers to the gods resonated through his spirit, and a fiery dragon clung to the spear handle. The man with the spear, swiftly transformed into green lightning, thrust his spear directly into the flood's crest. The dragon god's might manifested through the spear, like sunlight shattering a natural disaster.

Secret magic: Dragon pattern spear!

This was one of the trump cards he carried when he left Huilong City. The Secret Script Bead crafted by Youyou himself, combined with Qisu's modified spear and the Fire of Ambition, provided immense explosive power within a low-mass framework. The single strike disrupted the debris flow triggered by the stone demon, obliterating nearly 90% of the mountain's mass. The remaining 10% was dispersed by the impact, narrowly grazing the city walls.

The shadow of the Dragon God rose into the sky, and the white spear was stuck diagonally into the ground. Chu Hengkong had just picked up the spear when his vision was shrouded in shadow.

A new mountain rose from the earth, far larger than the original yellow hill. A stone demon with a hollow head stood on the top, pointing a shriveled finger at its city.

"Landslide."

Mountains collapsed, mudslides swept down, and without a moment's respite, a new wave of natural disasters struck instantly. The stone monster Jinye flew up from the mountain, its arms open as if in an embrace.

A strong wind gathered above the city, and countless dust particles fell from behind the stone monster. The dust was crystal clear and colorful, like stardust falling from the sky.

Chu Hengkong's face darkened as he realized what the enemy was about to do. Dense dust and high-density flammable gas spelled a disaster sweeping across the city. Even he was powerless to stop it.

·

Sethron, a wall of ice covering his head, shivered as he walked along the deserted road. Cries, groans, and the sounds of despair filled the air. Animals scurried under the rubble in terror, and young people bumped into him as they fled. No one cared about him at this moment; not even the animals bothered to pay any attention.

His igloo had just been destroyed, shattered by the avalanche caused by the golem. He tried to find shelter but to no avail. The world was crumbling and there was no safe place.

He passed many buildings that seemed familiar. The stadium where he used to play. The store where he bought snacks. The restaurant where he and his coworkers had lunch. Seeing those buildings almost brought him back to consciousness, but in the blink of an eye, the buildings he had passed by were reduced to rubble and blood. All destroyed, all gone, with no one to prove they ever existed. He couldn't tell if disaster had destroyed the real buildings, or if he was just remembering a false past.

"It's not... fake... No! No!!"

A sharp pain stabbed deep within his head. Unrecognizable images shredded his memory, mingling with the man's triumphant laughter. Sethron couldn't make sense of anything. He ran aimlessly, clutching his head. When he came to his senses, he arrived in front of a residential building. Miraculously, in the city-wide earthquake, this one-story building had survived. Ivy grew on the exterior walls, and a crooked blue mailbox stood outside, bearing a familiar name.

Sethron's home.

The middle-aged man burst into tears and rushed madly towards his home. He had found sanctuary. Here was his bed, his sofa, and the old blanket he'd used for years. No matter the trivialities of school or work, they could cross the door and intrude upon his life. This was the safest place in the world. As long as he was hidden at home, no one could harm him. No matter how chaotic the world was, he could still sleep peacefully and feed his animals in the yard.

But suddenly, his movements stopped. He saw a rainbow of dust falling from the sky, shimmering like butterfly scales. The butterfly that had scattered the scales floated in the sky, surveying the city like a ruler, its faceless, faceless, a laugh like the wind.

"What's going on?" "Don't breathe in the dust." "A new cutting attack?"

At this moment, the incompetent Sethron was the first to understand the situation.

——Dust explosion.

Seth Lun, who worked at the factory back then, knows the horror of this phenomenon. High-density dust, when exposed to a fire source, burns violently, triggering a massive explosion in a fraction of a second. And that disaster won't spare humans easily. Backdrafts can trigger secondary explosions, and if the concentration doesn't decrease, there could be a third and fourth explosions... The factory where he once worked was destroyed by a dust explosion. He still remembers the bloodied faces of his fellow workers and the blanket of blood he saw after surviving.

Now the dust covers the entire city.

The stone monster can control the airflow at will.

He saw a bit of light falling from the stone monster's fingertips, like a firefly flying into the summer night.

“No…no…”

The home can no longer be protected.

This street, no, this city would be blown away and buried. People who didn't care about him would be torn apart by the blast, and the small animals he loved would be burned in the fire. Not only would there be no safe place, there wouldn't even be a place to stay. His home would be destroyed. So many people's homes would be destroyed—

“My…home…!!”

Fear, nothing but fear, an unprecedented terror gripped his soul, tears streaming uncontrollably. Transparent ice crystals erupted from the man's side, elemental power surging with emotion. That force instantly enveloped the entire city, transforming into thousands of icicles reaching the sky. A force powerful enough to freeze the entire city surged into the sky at his will, single-handedly bearing the brunt of the explosion!

The pupils of the man frozen in ice were dilated. He fell heavily to the ground, his body stained red with his own blood.

At the moment the light and fire fell, everyone in Jinye City looked up at the sky.

Thousands of icicles hold up the icy rooftops that form homes that shroud the city.

Regardless of the roar of the explosion, it remains motionless!

(End of this chapter)