In The Final Elegy, members of the Ego School are what one might call “Wheelchair War Gods.” Like Darius in League of Legends, their skill ceiling might not be high, but their simple and brutal numerical advantage is enough to give any opponent a headache.
Jiang Ming had been schooled by these Beyonder NPCs many times in the game. Often, he would execute a seamless combo, only for the opponent to tank the damage and send him packing with a single backhand slap.
Jiang Ming stared at the hideous bear claw, the wind at his fingertips quietly shifting its flow.
To be honest, he didn’t want to start a fight. The VR simulation was virtual after all, but now his real body carried this strange power; with every breath, he could feel the flow of magic in the air. He wasn’t entirely certain he could handle a Beyonder and his accomplice at the same time.
But these were cultists.
This realization bound his hesitation like cold chains.
Even setting aside his own sense of justice, he had to deal with them here.
These fanatics were like cockroaches that had crawled into the house; if he let one go today, he’d never sleep soundly again. They were vindictive and acted without any bottom line.
Furthermore, according to his judgment, the man before him was currently in a very weak state. This was the best opportunity!
Thinking of this, he suddenly smiled. The smile was faint, but it made Truss, standing against the light, feel an inexplicable shiver.
Jiang Ming took a step forward, the blood-stained pen tip pointing steadily at his opponent.
“The punishable shall be punished; the sanctioned shall be sanctioned!”
Jiang Ming’s voice echoed in the church, and the loud ringing of a bell came from afar, like a night watchman responding to the start of fate.
“Lunatic!”
Truss growled from his throat. He really couldn’t understand why this young man insisted on a life-and-death struggle.
For some reason, a chill rose in Truss’s heart. Although the other party looked to be only seventeen or eighteen years old, his beastly instincts were screaming.
The way the youth stood in the bloody glow of the setting sun made him absurdly think of the martyrs in the scriptures.
“Damn it!” He spat fiercely. “Just a brat… what’s with the act?”
Truss could feel the magic in his body draining rapidly. Maintaining the Void Domain cost too much. If he could get a chance to replenish his magic… His gaze involuntarily flicked toward Welu.
Jiang Ming watched the two of them quietly; he was in no hurry. Sacrifices by cultists usually required the construction of a Void Domain, which required a lot of magic to support and maintain. Additionally, most Soul Sources of the Ego School didn’t have special mechanics, so the longer the time dragged on, the more advantageous it was for him.
“Welu, come here,” Truss said. He stared fixedly at Jiang Ming. He knew the man before him was waiting for an opening.
He had to make a choice.
“Huh? Boss, what is it?” Welu gingerly moved closer. After Jiang Ming’s rejection, he had already alertly retreated to the edge of the battlefield. An opponent even Truss was wary of was not someone an ordinary person like him could mess with.
Just as he stepped within a pace of Truss—
“Squelch!”
Agony like exploding ice shards instantly pierced his chest. Welu looked down in disbelief, seeing a terrifying, brown-furred claw slowly withdrawing from his chest, the tips still hooked with warm flesh.
“Wh… why?” He coughed up blood, his vision blurring rapidly.
Truss didn’t answer. The bloody claw inside his chest cavity gave a sudden squeeze and a yank!
A heart that was still slightly pulsating and steaming with heat was ripped out by force.
Truss felt the gradually weakening pulse of the heart in his palm.
Jiang Ming’s pupils shrank, and the breeze circulating around him instantly turned violent! His figure advanced like a phantom; while the afterimage still remained in place, he had already appeared three feet before Truss with a sharp wind pressure. The blood-stained pen, like a venomous fang, stabbed straight for the opponent’s throat!
He remembered some things, things about the Ash Angel. According to the game’s lore, the Ash Angel was not a single entity; their existence was like ash, permeating and scattering into every corner of human history.
Among the Ash Angels, seven were the most unique, known as “The First Fallen Angels.”
And one of the original angels had the authority to gain power through devouring.
A name smelling of sulfur and blood drifted through Jiang Ming’s mind.
“Beelzebub of Gluttony.”
Truss let out a roar, and the massive bear claw swung forward with a whistle that tore the air! The claw’s wind was fierce and overbearing, forcing Jiang Ming, who was already close, to temporarily retreat and dodge, his figure stepping back lightly.
Seizing this gap, Truss raised his right hand, lifted the still-throbbing heart to his mouth, and slammed his fingers shut!
“Squelch!”
The heart burst in his palm, and warm blood poured into his wide-open mouth like sweet rain.
He swallowed greedily, making satisfied rasps in his throat.
As the blood entered his stomach, a violent aura suddenly surged from him. His face, previously pale from magic consumption, instantly turned flushed, and his eyes were filled with crazed, bloodshot veins.
He looked up, locking onto Jiang Ming with a demented grin.
***
After Truss swallowed the heart, the berserk power transformed him into a near three-meter-tall half-bear monster. He abandoned all defense, every strike of his claws carrying the force to crush everything.
Jiang Ming relied on the swiftness of the wind to weave through the broken ruins, like a petrel in a storm—seemingly agile, but actually in constant peril.
While dodging, Jiang Ming tried several times to leave wounds on Truss with the pen or a short blade from the ground, but it was to no avail.
This was the numerical strength of the Ego School. Even with only the first stage of “Glimmer,” he didn’t fear metal weapons like short knives after transforming.
One slow dodge allowed a sharp claw to graze Jiang Ming’s back, instantly tearing his clothes and leaving several deep, bone-deep gashes. The pain almost made him faint, and his movements suffered.
“I’m going to catch you!” Truss roared, victory in sight. A massive shadow instantly loomed over Jiang Ming, whose movements were sluggish from the injury. The other power-laden bear claw was already raised high.
Nowhere to hide!
At this critical moment, Truss suddenly froze. He clearly saw that the person before him had black hair.
But he remembered… the sacrifice was supposed to be a blonde man!
Jiang Ming obviously didn’t miss this chance. He faced the lethal claw, took a sudden step forward, and at the same time, his hands made a hollow grasping motion, aimed right at Truss’s wide, roaring maw!
Air currents began to compress and surge, then rapidly shot straight into Truss’s mouth.
In the next second, Truss’s roar stopped abruptly, turning into a strange gurgling sound like someone being strangled.
He felt a massive amount of highly compressed air being forced into his mouth by an invisible power, rushing past his throat and violently invading his lungs and stomach!
His chest swelled unnaturally at a visible rate; the intense pain of bloating and the sensation of suffocation instantly drowned out the euphoria of power.
He wanted to close his mouth, wanted to vomit, but that invisible power was relentless. Even so, those bear claws still swung rapidly, trying to interrupt Jiang Ming’s control.
A powerful gale rose around Jiang Ming, and Truss’s giant claws froze in mid-air. The wind briefly halted Truss’s movements.
Jiang Ming’s face was as white as paper, and nosebleeds flowed freely. Overextending his mental control of the air currents gave him a splitting headache.
But he didn’t relax in the slightest. Jiang Ming clenched his fingers tight.
“Aaaagh—!”
Truss let out an incoherent scream, his eyes bulging and blood beginning to seep from his seven orifices. His internal organs suffered destructive damage under the excessive air pressure.
Finally, with a dull sound, the half-bear monster crashed backward. His massive body hit the ground with a thud, twitched a few times, and then there was no more sound.
His bloated chest still rose and fell eerily, but he no longer moved.
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