Chapter 556: [A Godless World] (24)
Just as they had seen from outside, the interior beyond the pitch-black entrance was shrouded in dense black mist, so thick that they could barely make out anything at all.
Ember hurried after the rapid footsteps ahead of him. He reached out instinctively, trying to grab Adrian.
But at that very moment, a sharp tearing sound split the air from the front.
Ember’s eyes widened. He threw himself to the side, but he was too slow.
In the next instant, a powerful force suddenly slammed into him, knocking him to the ground. Both Ember and Adrian tumbled across the floor.
The place where they had been standing only a heartbeat earlier was now pierced by a skeletal spider leg that emerged from the black mist. It scraped across the ground with a chilling rasp.
The scent of fresh blood drifted from right beside him. Instinctively, Ember grabbed Adrian’s wrist and muttered,
"I thought you were walking in front of me."
"You’re such an idiot, Ember."
Adrian replied with apparent indifference.
Although they couldn’t see each other through the darkness, Ember could still hear the sound of fabric being torn. Adrian seemed to be bandaging his own wound.
The comments section couldn’t help but erupt in frustrated complaints.
[Seriously? The show’s production quality keeps getting worse. It’s already this dark, and they can’t even shine a light so the audience can see?]
[Exactly! Just hearing the sounds isn’t enough. What I wanted was to see Adrian’s naked body with my own eyes!]
[...]
[Not to disappoint you guys, but with Adrian’s build, I doubt he has much muscle anyway.]
[Isn’t he a snake? Maybe his abs are just covered in scales.]
[Alright... that mental image actually gave me the chills.]
"Are you badly hurt?"
Ember frowned unconsciously. The smell of fresh blood was far too strong.
Adrian answered in the same unconcerned tone as always.
"You’ll find out soon enough. You’d better make it up to me properly."
Hearing Adrian’s familiar teasing voice, Ember couldn’t help letting out a quiet sigh of relief. At least it seemed Adrian had already forgotten what had happened earlier.
Even so, Ember couldn’t stop himself from saying,
"I wasn’t trying to blame you, Adrian."
After a brief pause, he chose his words more carefully.
"But don’t kill people just because of me."
He tightened his grip around Adrian’s wrist.
Adrian fell silent for a moment before nodding.
"Alright, alright. Why are you being so sentimental, Ember?"
It was probably the first time in Ember’s life that anyone had ever described him that way.
Adrian, however, didn’t think he’d said anything wrong.
He muttered,
"And those people kept saying you’re some ruthless Demon King who kills without batting an eye and will stop at nothing to win. I only took care of two pieces of trash, and you’re already making this much of a fuss."
Ember: "..."
He cleared his throat softly, his voice returning to its usual calm, cold composure.
Ember pulled Adrian up from the ground. Feeling their bodies standing side by side, he said slowly,
"You can smell where it is, can’t you, Adrian?"
As he spoke, his other hand moved, and a heavy baseball bat instantly materialized in his grasp.
Adrian answered without the slightest hesitation.
"I’ll smash every last one of them. Lead the way."
Ember didn’t waste another second. Grabbing Adrian’s wrist, he sprinted forward!
The creature lurking in the darkness clearly hadn’t expected things to unfold like this. The humans, who should have been trapped prey, were now charging straight at it without the slightest hesitation!
Under normal circumstances, Ember alone would have stood little chance against this monster, especially since it was a boss-class creature.
But that was only before Greed had appeared.
Now its power had been sealed to a mere fraction of what it once was. That was why it had summoned the black mist—to exploit the darkness and slaughter humans without facing any resistance.
Yet now, the impossible had happened.
Someone could see through the darkness and was charging directly toward it!
"Aaaaaaah—!"
A deafening scream echoed from every direction, as though countless different voices were shrieking at once.
"Eight o’clock! A spider leg is coming in!"
The instant Adrian spoke, Ember spun around.
Clang!
The sound of metal crashing against metal rang out. It was followed by the monster’s pained shriek.
But it wasn’t over.
More and more spider legs lashed toward them until they were attacking almost simultaneously.
Adrian’s voice remained perfectly steady.
"Keep running straight ahead as fast as you can. It can’t catch you... now sidestep to the right..."
"It’s constantly moving away from you. Do you have any long-range weapons?"
"I do," Ember replied without hesitation.
At the same time, a small amount of water appeared in the palm of his hand.
Most people considered Ember’s ability useless. Even Ember himself had once thought the same.
He could summon water, but only in pitiful amounts—barely enough to quench anyone’s thirst, let alone serve any purpose in combat.
But long ago, Ember had discovered another way to use that tiny amount of water.
Compress it...
Then launch it faster than light itself.
Even a single drop of water could pierce through the toughest walls.
Two minutes earlier, the audience’s omniscient view had already been restored.
From their perspective, they could clearly see countless spider legs—formed from elongated ribs—stretching out almost endlessly. They surrounded Ember from every direction, cutting off every possible escape route, while every razor-sharp tip was aimed straight at him.
If Ember’s assassination attempt failed, both he and Adrian would be skewered like sieves.
[Does Adrian know this? Does he even know?!]
[He isn’t even wondering what happens if they miss?]
But Adrian simply raised Ember’s hand, pointing it toward the exact position he had locked onto.
His voice was cold.
"Fire."
Whoosh!
A piercing whistle split the air as the compressed droplet spun violently through the darkness, slicing forward as though it intended to cut through space itself.
But at that exact moment, the monster’s body suddenly flickered.
Like an illusion, it shifted completely out of the projectile’s path.
[Oh no, oh no!]
[It missed!]
[Aaaaaah!]
[Is this goodbye?!]
[Damn it, stop playing it in slow motion already!]
[Look at Adrian!]
Just when everything seemed destined for a tragic end, Adrian suddenly opened his mouth wide.
In the next instant, a sound at such an impossibly high frequency erupted that it felt capable of making a person’s brain explode.
Everything happened in less than a single second.
Thud! BOOM!
The projectile changed course.
The monster no longer had anywhere left to run.
From the very beginning, whether Ember’s shot had missed or not...
It had always been a bullet that could never miss.