Chapter 240 Duel for the Dead

The outer reaches of the Corpse Demon City vanished in the glare. The defense, secured with the sacrifice of a hundred thousand corpses, was directly breached by the will of the world's creation. The gravity trap lost its balance due to the massive shift in position, allowing Chu Hengkong and Ji Huaisu to enter the city. Then, Shax's Wheel of Judgment roared in, soaring over the city walls like a platinum hawk, dropping a bomb on the limb spider.

"The sniper has a set of skills." Ji Huaisu exclaimed.

"After all, he was once No. 3." Chu Hengkong laughed, "Now is the time to charge!"

The limbed spider on the tower swatted away the explosives, clinging to the wall with its hands to prevent itself from collapsing. Its already pale face had become almost transparent due to its miscalculation, but its bulk prevented it from catching up with the others. The limbed spider's back split open, and it chanted rapidly, commanding its two messengers: "Curse Thunder, hold them back. Burning Embers, knock down that World-Splitting Wheel! If he gains the upper hand, we'll be in trouble!"

"Brave men, do not flee!" Curse Thunder roared, "Fight me quickly and prove your bravery!"

Its massive body disintegrated into lightning, then reformed into a thunder giant before Chu Hengkong. The buildings within the Demon City were mobilized by the limb spiders, gathering together and blocking the path with the cursed thunder. The buildings within the city still retained the properties of the city walls, allowing the limb spiders to manipulate the Demon City to unleash their magic. A new magic was about to be unleashed, aiming to trap Chu Hengkong once again.

However, the encirclement shattered before it could even take shape. Ji Huaisu leaped up and smashed her club against Curse Thunder's head. The Holy Trinity Array formed on the surface, and the two within it simultaneously lost their supernatural powers. She bravely punched with her flesh, smashing into the wall of flesh and blood alongside Curse Thunder.

"You want to fight so badly, little brat?" Ji Huaisu grinned, "Then I'll fight with you!"

The troops split up and Chu Hengkong took the opportunity to break through the defenses and climbed onto a stone tower that was twisted like a dead tree. He was about to charge straight at the castle, but suddenly he turned sideways and slashed with his sword.

A dark arc of light flashed through the mist, like a dim, solitary star falling silently in the night. That starlight suddenly ignited before the murderous blade, a cold murderous aura colliding with willful resolve. A crater-like crack opened up at the point where the blades intersected, crushing buildings within a kilometer to dust.

Thousand Nights of Twinkling Stars.

Chu Heng fell back to the ground, his feet scraping bright sparks against the earth. Even with his martial arts skills, he couldn't completely neutralize the blow, and needed to gradually absorb the force by moving. Under the blow, he retreated to a position close to the city gate. A hooded messenger emerged from the mist, the silver visor beneath his hood gleaming with a cold light.

"Your attitude towards me is very bad." Chu Hengkong raised his sword, "I also practice the Canxin Sword Art."

"Unfortunately. I've never gotten along with Chongming."

Ye Xing took up a stance, a shadowy black light flashing across his short blade, Long Yu. His spirit was fully aroused, and the Nightmare King's command revived the rusted Zanxin's sharp edge. The ancient blades collided in mid-air, leaving a thousand fierce slashes like a crisscrossing whirlwind, sweeping across the city.

·

If it weren't for this occasion, I would really like to get closer and observe the duel between the Sword Ghost and the Snake.

Unfortunately, this is a battlefield, and if you dare to show your head, you must be prepared to be hit.

Shaxx lowered his auxiliary sights; the newly upgraded equipment was now more than enough to track the swordsmen's movements. He loaded his special bullet, and the silver figure was about to align with the crosshairs, but just before firing, he abruptly abandoned the opportunity to increase his distance. A blazing bird of fire swooped through the airspace he had previously been in, scattering a wall of scorched lava upon its landing. The fire magic had split the Nightmare City in two, cutting off its central axis and obstructing Shaxx's observation.

Burning Embers maintained his lava giant form as he nocked a flaming arrow the size of a building. "It's been ages since I've hunted birds."

"A sniper battle?" Shax stopped in mid-air. "Not bad!"

The regulating nozzles on one side of the Wheel of Judgment all started working, and he used the increased thrust to roll and avoid the arrows. Driving the Wheel of Judgment felt like driving a motorcycle in the sky, but far more agile and faster than that.

This machine abandoned the all-around cockpit that was highly sought after among the Pijie Wheels because Shax believed that it would hinder his sniping speed. In order to maximize the freedom of shooting, he didn't even have a shield at his hands, only two joysticks and a projected virtual control panel. Any Pijie Wheel with common sense would go crazy when seeing this design.

The console was controlled directly by mental power, and the images of the selected materials switched continuously across it. The dust of the Calamity Specter, the husk of the Wicker Man, the water of the Shadow River, all copied with mental power.

Selected Bullet: Dust Bullet. Quantity: 4000.

Full bomb launch.

On either side of the World-Breaking Wheel, the armament wheels, like auxiliary wings, simultaneously opened their armor, and four thousand bullets leaped out in batches, neutralizing the flames into blue dust. The bullets were fired in a circular pattern, and the dust spread behind the World-Breaking Wheel's trajectory, like a cluster of flowers of destruction blooming above the city.

The arrow rain failed under the missile barrage. The magical interference of the dust bomb disrupted thermal perception, and flames scurried to the ground like headless flies. Ran Jin grabbed an unexploded bullet and examined it carefully. He had seen this kind of bullet before in battles with snipers, but it was a precious weapon, never used except in critical moments. Now that dust bombs have become a mass-produced and common weapon, the enemy clearly does not have such a large number of them.

"Information duplication?... It's a world of difference from the past."

This was a common method of the World-Breaking Wheel: it replicated information acquired at one point, combining it with mental power to recreate past creations. While a typical World-Breaking Wheel could only replicate the previous stage's Strange Blade as a weapon, Shax's information replication encompassed every bullet he had ever created. As long as the material used to blend the bullet was lower than the current particle size, he could reproduce it without limit.

By then, the missile swarm had broken through the hail of arrows, heading straight for Burning Ember's massive form. Burning Ember allowed the bullets to pierce his body, his elemental form preemptively creating holes to dodge the incoming fire. He pulled back his fists, then thrust them out simultaneously, unleashing a fiery storm. Two tornadoes of flame shot skyward, attacking the Wheel of Judgment from both sides.

Shax swerved ninety degrees to avoid the fire tornado, accelerating forward through the gaps between them. If the enemy attempted to block his range of movement, he would have to move away first to seize the opportunity. But his once nimble movements suddenly became sluggish, and the regulating nozzles of the World-Splitting Wheel lost their light. The accelerator had failed, and the heat was being absorbed by magic, flowing into the giant's open bow.

The longbow in Burning Ember's hand expanded to three times its original size, drawing heat from the battlefield into a massive orange arrow. Shaxx decisively pulled the lever, channeling a tremendous amount of mental energy into the gun, transforming it into a high-energy beam and launching it first. Burning Ember faced the barrage head-on, unflinching. His arrow surged as it gathered power, like a horizontal storm.

"Death Cloud Earth-Splitting Arrow."

The moment the giant arrow released its bowstring, the city was bathed in intense light and heat. The Earth-Splitting Arrow tore through the bombardment head-on, piercing the sky with a force comparable to a storm, striking directly at the Wheel of Judgment in the cracks!

The storm rippled, thick clouds rising, then contracted due to air pressure, triggering a second explosion. Burning Ember peered carefully behind the clouds, seeing two weapon wheels careen off, one of which crashed to the ground after losing momentum. Shax's primary destroyer wheel rose from above the thick cloud, its platinum armor riven with burnt cracks. The sniper's forehead bled from the impact. He attempted to fire, but the violent jolt threw him off target, and his bullet sank into the rubble.

Burning Ember twitched his lips. "A heavy firepower-type World-Splitting Wheel is indeed an ingenious idea. However, a little bit of specialization also inevitably brings weaknesses. Your World-Splitting Wheel lacks structural stability, and it will easily disintegrate if hit directly."

“That’s pretty accurate,” Shax said. “That’s how I designed it.”

Ran Jin was startled, suddenly clutching his chest. His left chest became a hollow void, a gray bullet piercing his body, bringing about an irresistible death.

He had been hit by a fatal bullet. A sniper attack, as invisible as a ghost. But why? When was the shot fired? Where was the trajectory? What was the impact point...?

The two destroyed weapon wheels slowly flew upward, ripples of energy emanating from their center. Ran Jin suddenly realized that they weren't shot down; the enemy had deliberately disintegrated their World-Splitting Wheels to evade the attack. He had deliberately thrown the two weapon wheels, exploiting their position to deflect the sniper attack.

The Wheel of Judgment, the judgment system. Derived from the integrated structure of the Dustless Land, it can define the components of the World-Splitting Wheel from the same source as "the same coordinates," thus achieving spatial continuity between the Destruction Wheel and the Weapon Wheel. Those two heavily armed components also serve as "gun muzzles," making the entire Wheel of Judgment a sniper device for Shax!

A gray deathly intent extinguished the flames, and the lava giant dissipated into ash. Seeing his inevitable death approach, Burning Ember roared in anger and severed the majority of his body with a single hand. He sacrificed nearly half his strength to avoid death, but the price was that his body shrank to half its original size. However, Burning Ember continued to shrink after abandoning his torso, and in the blink of an eye, he was back to normal size, and even the flames on his body gradually died down.

The insulated flames rose, dust transforming into ferocious features within them, while steam swirled behind them, forming a magical circle. Dust, water, and fire—incompatible forces—were united by the Rainbow Mage's spell. The unconscious elements, now transformed into a frenzied monster, became a demon, a fusion of greed, anger, and delusion!

"Great Burning," Burning Ember threw up his longbow, "Three Demon Fires!"

The Everburning Bow flew into the bodies of the Three Demon Fires, imbuing them with frenzy, rage, and fighting spirit. Emotion is the most essential elemental power, and empowered by this, the Three Demon Fires suddenly transformed, spewing a monstrous flame from their mouths. They wielded their power frantically, completely unconcerned about whether their attacks hit or not. Their bodies swelled with a roar, a self-destructive magic of the burning embers, annihilating the Three Demon Fires along with their enemies.

"You're planning a terrorist attack," the sniper sneered. "I'd have vomited seeing this a long time ago!"

Two rings of weaponry flew in, and the primary destruction wheel detached at that moment, leaving three rings arrayed in front of the sniper's muzzle. Shax was now completely free of the world-shattering wheel, floating in the air solely on his jetpack. He aimed his gun and pulled the trigger. A bullet, driven purely by mental energy, whizzed out, flying through the three rings one after another. Each ring acted as an accelerator, imbuing it with tremendous momentum.

As it escaped the triple rings, the bullet's destructive power rivaled that of a hawk's thrust. Yet, the instant it cleared the destructive wheel, it vanished, returning to its fixed starting point at the double arming wheel. Spatial continuity took effect, and the bullet returned to its accelerated trajectory. The ritual of granting speed was repeated, the extremely fast bullet accelerating with far greater efficiency than before.

Ten times. A hundred times. A thousand times. The Judgment System became a mind-powered particle collider, its bullets transformed into high-energy particle beams in a hyperaccelerated cycle. On the 3,512th cycle, the Judgment System reached its theoretical load limit. Shaxx released the spatial blockade, unleashing a pure white high-energy particle beam, completely obliterating the Three Demonic Fires in the instant before self-destruction.

This is the blow that penetrates the Corpse Demon City, and is the "Judgment" that gave the World-Splitting Wheel its name!

The overflowing light nearly obliterated his vision, transforming the world into a pure white. The triple rings, depleted of energy, flew back around him, reassembling into the complete Wheel of Judgment. Shaxx reached into his chest, as if reaching for a cigarette.

A strange shadow flashed at the edge of his vision. A terrifying monster leaped out from the bright light, its hands adorned with giant purple claws. It was Burning Ember, Burning Ember transformed into shadow! When the Three Demonic Fires exploded, he had transformed into a life form, using the intense light of Judgment as a medium to shift his coordinates.

He's more than just a brute who can only wield fire. He's a disciple of the Archmage Vansalar, the child who once forged his limbs into a demon-killing force. He's never lacked courage, and he's always willing to stand on the front lines of a life-or-death struggle.

Shadow claws smashed directly into the Wheel of Judgment, the frenzied elemental force leaving deep gashes on its surface. However, Burning Embers froze at that moment, the armor on the side of the Wheel cracking, and its internal folding mechanical arms instantly ejected. Within these mechanical arms was a platinum-colored javelin, the Holy Blood Lance transformed into a cold weapon!

No one would waste precious internal space on a mere robotic arm, when countless armaments could achieve a design with a wider range of applications. But Shax did just that. He always reserved a means of dealing with close combat. Even if his fragile body was approached by an enemy, he would fight to the death with his gun.

Shax turned and raised his hand. He didn't hold a cigarette, but a pistol. The muzzle of the gun pressed against Burning Ember's forehead. The Rainbow Mage's brow relaxed, and he stood straight.

"Great warrior, Shax Ibn Ould," said the Burning Embers. "It is an honor to face you in this final battle."

"Nice fight, Embers."

Shax pulled the trigger.

"You are not weak."

The death bullet pierced his skull, and the Rainbow Mage dissipated into ash. The ancient spirit bound by the Celestial Prison finally received the duel he had longed for.

The Wheel of Judgment fell back to the earth. Shaxx leaned back in his chair, gazing into the distance at the sky where the dust had cleared.

This new equipment is more laborious than expected...

The dried-up mental energy made his brain ache. He closed his eyes and took a short rest. The hot muzzle of the gun slowly cooled down, and a wisp of white smoke floated into the air.

The first battle of Operation Dawn, Shaxx versus Ember.

The winner is Shax.

(End of this chapter)