Chapter 389 Fight
The professor sat cross-legged in silence in the dug-out underground bunker. The place was crowded, the air was stagnant, and while it wasn't cold, the tense, suppressed breathing of the crowd, mixed with the smell of earth and snow, weighed heavily on the hearts of all the survivors.
The makeshift shelter, dug close to the mountain, was far from comfortable, even crude. A few whale oil-burning lamps, fixed to a raised platform of ice, provided limited illumination, casting the swaying shadows of the people on the walls. The surroundings and the top were made of rough permafrost and ice, lightly tidied and reinforced with simple wood to prevent collapse.
This kind of shelter might be able to withstand a natural blizzard, but for a saint, it was cruder than paper. Furthermore, the terrifying noises, even weakened by the thick layers of frozen soil, continued to hammer at everyone's strained nerves.
The Populist soldiers were relatively safe. The small group of Imperial soldiers brought back by Leon Croft huddled in a corner, like frightened birds, their eyes hollow and terrified. They were clearly devastated by the horrific snowstorm and the prolonged torture they had endured. Any unusual noise from the outside world, even the simple stretching of a Populist soldier nearby, was enough to send them trembling with fear as they tried to reach for their weapons, only to find nothing.
As the professor predicted, Leon Croft hadn't brought back many Imperial soldiers. It was a stroke of luck that he hadn't been mistaken for a traitor and deserter and summarily executed by the Second Legion. Some of these soldiers, unwilling to join the civilian army, chose to hide elsewhere. Those left behind were wounded and unable to move.
Some were moaning and crying, others were mumbling prayers to the gods or cursing the damned cold and the Yankees.
Marcyline sat casually beside the professor, seemingly relaxed. But a closer look would reveal the red-haired girl's muscles tensed subconsciously, her green eyes flickering across the room. Yialos sat near the entrance, his spear resting on his knees, silent.
The ghost was using his fingers to pick at the thick ice crust under his feet, sketching something on the thin floating snow, and then quickly smoothing it out and starting over.
No one knew what the infamous ghost was thinking, and no one dared to ask. Only the red-haired girl beside him looked at his calm profile, then suddenly reached out and casually patted his shoulder, pressing him down so hard that his body tilted heavily. "Don't worry, it'll be fine."
The black-haired young man paused, sat up straight again, and responded calmly, "Yeah, I know."
"Are you worried about Azuka?" The red-haired girl stared at his face and asked suddenly without warning.
The other party paused, then asked expressionlessly, "What about you? Are you 'worried' about him?"
“…”
The red-haired girl stared at him intently.
"Actually, I'm not worried about his strength," the professor said calmly. "Even if Salvatore becomes a god, or even if White Nightmare attacks all together...even Samuel, the immortal god of night and death, can't defeat him. Clearly, Salvatore isn't up to the task."
...He was worried that this guy would become confused due to worry, or suddenly go crazy.
"—but you should be more worried about him, Odileus."
Those smoky gray eyes finally turned, gazing at the red-haired girl's face with unusual calmness. "The forced divine descent must have consumed a great deal of energy, requiring Ferros to prepare more sacrifices for you and generate more faith in an attempt to replenish his divine power... Odileus, do you dare to face him directly?"
——He definitely didn’t dare, otherwise he wouldn’t have dared to sneak out until the other person was “restrained” by the god-like Salvador.
Yialos stood up suddenly and tried to pull the ghost behind him, but the black-haired young man who was still sitting on the ground raised his hand to stop him.
"...a smart person."
Marshilin smiled slowly. When a cold, cruel look appeared in her bright, clear green eyes, it was extremely abrupt and terrifying. "It's a pity that I don't like smart people, because they always like to think they are smart and can escape the pursuit of the sea."
"It's 'wise-up,'" the professor corrected coldly. "Your cultural level truly needs improvement—and the seawater you rely on here is covered by a hundred-meter-thick ice and permafrost, and is also suppressed by another ice god. In your current state, how much of a storm can you stir up?"
"At least controlling this body is enough to kill everyone here, including you." Sea God Odile shrugged and sighed. "But this little girl's will is damn strong. She's worthy of being my chosen one... Don't want to hurt her? That won't work. You must obey your master's will."
"—Go to hell!"
A resounding roar echoed throughout the shelter. Both the civilian and imperial soldiers stared in horror and bewilderment as the red-haired girl suddenly stood up, frantically, as if arguing with them.
"What kind of god are you? You're certainly not my master!" Maxine's face flushed red with anger, the veins on her forehead throbbing violently. It was obvious she was locked in a difficult struggle with another terrifying entity within her. "You're brutal and bloodthirsty, cruel and uncultured. You don't even consider your followers human. You're completely uneducated! How dare you ask others to trust you, worship you, and pray for your protection?!"
"Foolish... ants..." The red-haired girl's voice was distorted by a cold and arrogant tone: "Becoming... nourishment for the gods... is... your... destiny...!"
"Fate, you ancestor!" Maxine roared back even louder, her green eyes burning with pure, unyielding rage. "Get out of my head! Give me back my body! You coward who only dares to show off in other people's heads!"
The fragments of Odles' soul twisted in anger. He tried to manipulate the divine seal engraved on the soul of God's Chosen One to inflict unbearable punishment. However, he was horrified to find that the connection between him and the divine seal was becoming weaker and weaker for some reason. The soul of God's Chosen One was actually showing a tendency to completely suppress him.
"...You don't think we've been dealing with the gods for so long, knowing what the hell the Divine Seal is, but we can't do anything about it?" The professor looked at the roaring soul fragment in surprise. "I thought you would have some more brilliant ideas, and I even opened up a new battlefield for you and had people buy time, fearing you wouldn't dare to come..."
Is this the result? A hint of dissatisfaction appeared on the black-haired young man's face. It was a waste of all his efforts and efforts, including countless guarantees, to finally get the other party to agree to let him face the fragment of the god's soul.
Maxine clutched her head tightly. Ever since she learned the true power of the divine seal, she'd been constantly worried about being forcibly possessed by the cruel god, forcing her to watch helplessly as she hurt the people she cared about.
But when that day finally arrived, she only felt a strange sense of calmness, as if everything had settled, and an almost violent rage that gushed out from the depths of her soul.
Why? How could such a scumbag be called a god? How could he so recklessly kill and harm so many people for his own selfish desires? How could he manipulate her life as if it were his own fault?!
Good is good, bad is bad. Even gods who become villains deserve to be killed by humans who rise up to fight.
The red-haired girl's muscles tensed violently, and her green eyes seemed to burn with flames. The power of the god of resistance and change was protecting her soul, but the light in her eyes was not from the gods, but the purest and most brutal wave of human will.
She didn't seem to be trying to expel a supreme being in fear, but rather was fighting a ferocious and greedy beast that had invaded her territory. She used all her strength, even with desperate madness, to tear out from the depths of her soul everything that did not belong to her!
"Get out!"
The shelter suddenly began to shake violently, clods of earth and ice falling down in unison, making it difficult for anyone to stand still. An Imperial soldier, seemingly finally overwhelmed by the internal and external troubles, clutched his head and screamed, "It's over! We're going to die! You lunatics! We're all going to die here!"
"Silence!" Ikaros shouted sharply, standing with his gun in hand. His aura of strength suddenly erupted, quickly calming the situation. He couldn't help but glance at the ghost, who had quickly hunched his head in the corner to avoid the rubble, but remained calm. A complex expression flashed in his eyes.
He knew the ghost had been speaking to him. If this group of people had truly found a way to break the divine seal besides killing the gods, then wouldn't Her Majesty the Queen...
But now was obviously not the time to think about these things. The ghost slapped something somewhere, and golden flowing runes suddenly spread across the walls and the ground of the entire shelter, spreading like water waves, quickly trapping the soul fragments that were forced out of Maxine's body and that only the professor could see. The other party was obviously in a state of rage and panic, and tried to break out in all directions but couldn't find a direction.
At the same time, the movement from the surface suddenly disappeared, and the earth-shattering roar and crashing sound came to an abrupt end, leaving only the heavy and tense breathing of everyone in the shelter and the crackling sound of burning whale oil lamps.
Everyone looked at each other, no one knowing whether the silence was followed by deeper despair or a respite after the natural disaster. Only the black-haired young man slowly exhaled, stood up, and brushed the dust and debris off his shoulders.
"it's over."
He spoke softly, looking up at the door of the shelter that was pulled open from the outside. He squinted subconsciously because of the sudden bright light and the slender figure that appeared in the backlight.
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