Alexander and Yue were the first to face the brunt of the assault.
Alexander roared, his twin pistols spitting fire as hot bullets accurately struck several pouncing scarabs.
Puff!
Puff!
The struck scarabs exploded violently, but they didn’t die.
Instead, they transformed into small balls of viscous, golden slurry that looked like liquid fire, splashing in all directions!
A drop of the slurry splattered onto Alexander’s tactical glove; the specialized fiber carbonized and vanished instantly, sending a surge of intense, burning pain straight to his brain!
This couldn’t even be called a battle; it was a disaster!
He tried to circulate his Divine Sense to whip up a firestorm as a shield, but the surging tide of insects seemed capable of devouring energy!
The flames he released were like ice cubes thrown into a red-hot iron pot — they were quickly submerged and melted by the golden tide.
Instead of stopping them, the energy caused the nearby scarabs to swell in size!
‘Damn it! These things can absorb energy!’
Alexander rolled away clumsily, dodging the swarm that clung to him like maggots on a bone.
His coat was already riddled with charred holes, and his skin stung with waves of sharp pain.
On the other side, Yue’s situation was equally perilous.
Her Divine Sense, Overload, acted upon her own body, granting her superhuman speed and strength for a short duration.
It was enough for her to cleave through the scarabs lunging at her.
Her figure wove through the swarm, her twin spikes becoming a black whirlwind of death as golden sparks constantly burst around her.
But they were endless!
For every one she destroyed, ten or a hundred more were born from the halo.
They were fearless, resembling a golden sandstorm that constantly compressed her room to maneuver.
One scarab broke through her defense and slammed hard into her shoulder armor.
Sizzle — !
There was no sound of impact, only the sound of a red-hot iron searing flesh.
The shoulder armor, forged from alloy, actually melted through like wax!
The scarab embedded itself inside, frantically releasing light and heat as it tried to burrow into her body!
Yue let out a muffled groan, a flash of pain and resolve flickering in her eyes.
She swung the hilt of her short spike down with brutal force, smashing and tearing the scarab away along with a small piece of her own flesh and a fragment of her armor!
“I’m sorry,” x said to the pale Tang Rou.
The man wearing the hood had not lied; it didn’t take x long to find Tang Rou in the direction he had indicated.
“Boss, why are you apologizing? It’s my fault. I failed to protect the Divine Artifact.”
Tang Rou curled up, burying her head deep between her knees.
“You must be exhausted. After finishing the mission in Mexico, you came straight here without a moment’s rest. Even if you were a mule, you’d be worn out by now.”
“Your injuries…”
“We can talk about that later. Go and get the Divine Artifact back first.”
Tang Rou kept her head buried, pointing vaguely in a direction.
x could not see her expression.
“Understood.”
x nodded slightly and set off in the direction Tang Rou had pointed.
“Boss!”
Tang Rou suddenly called out.
Before their eyes, a golden sun slowly rose.
A devastating hum filled the entire space, and the high temperature distorted the air, filling their vision with a boundless expanse of gold.
In the distance, a massive number of scarabs swarmed forward.
They covered the rocks and obscured the sky, forming a tight encirclement.
“What is… this?”
Tang Rou asked in terror.
“Emergency. Near the B8 Zone, the temperature is rising rapidly, and the divinity fluctuation values are skyrocketing. Vigus’s projected result is… an accidental awakening of the Word of Ra,” Director Carter’s voice came through the communicator.
“The awakening level of the Word of Ra isn’t high. At this level of awakening, an Ancient God can only exert less than 30% of its power. It’s fine; I’ll handle everything,” x said, addressing both the communicator and Tang Rou.
The power of a god was only at 30% — saying he would handle everything seemed far too boastful and unrealistic, yet when the words came out of x’s mouth, Tang Rou felt an unexpected sense of peace.
“Safe travels,” she whispered finally.
Alexander’s flames had been suppressed until only flickering embers remained close to his skin.
Yue’s movements had also slowed significantly due to the accumulating burns and the massive consumption of her Overload Divine Sense.
Every swing of her spikes felt heavy and sluggish.
The outbreak of the scarabs was like a heartless golden natural disaster.
The destructive torrent formed by the swarm sought to completely consume and purify these two mortals who dared to disturb the gods.
Suddenly, Alexander seemed to think of something and screamed at Yue, “The sea! Jump into the sea!”
Although they were some distance from the ocean, for these energy-devouring insects and the miniature sun in the sky radiating devastating heat, jumping into the sea was undoubtedly their most effective means of self-preservation.
Before he finished speaking, Alexander squeezed out the last of his Divine Sense.
The remaining flames around his body flared up, forming a brief wave of fire that pushed back the swarm of scarabs blocking the path in front of him and Yue.
A flash of surprise crossed Yue’s grayish-blue eyes, but it was instantly replaced by determination — she immediately understood Alexander’s intent.
Faced with such a terminal disaster, their only sliver of hope lay in setting aside their differences and cooperating to survive.
Thus, under the deathly threat of the golden glow filling the sky, a truly bizarre scene unfolded: the woman whose face was obscured by a burlap sack suddenly hoisted the burly, blonde man onto her back.
Yue’s Divine Sense helped them charge toward the coast at high speeds, while Alexander’s twin pistols and flames provided a measure of protection.
In an almost absurd posture, the two began a desperate run for their lives toward the dark sea that symbolized survival.
***
Inside the cave.
Lin Yu frozen in place, while Christina leaned against the stone wall.
Warm blood was spreading through her uniform.
His mind was a total blank — he never expected that Christina would actually use her body to shield him from that lethal volley of gunfire.
It was like something out of a cliché television drama — absurd, yet bone-chillingly real.
In the dead silence, only the Energy Detector gripped in his hand was screaming, emitting a strange noise.
The energy curve in the center of the screen had long since broken its restraints, surging toward the top of the scale like a wild horse.
The red light flashed frantically, nearly melting through the screen.
Loss of blood made Christina’s face even paler than the limestone of the cave walls.
She glanced at the helpless Lin Yu and said, “There is nothing to feel guilty about. I’m the one who recruited you into the School. If you were to die here — “
She coughed, the tips of her fingers gripping his sleeve cold.
“I would hate myself from the bottom of my heart.”
Perhaps the sound of the device was too conspicuous, for the rustling sound of boot soles crushing gravel echoed from outside the cave.
The footsteps slithered closer like venomous snakes.
A new round of death was being chambered.
Vines of fear grew wildly in Lin Yu’s chest.
He slammed the Energy Detector hard against the rock wall — but that damned humming continued to echo in the cave.
“Escape on your own. It’s already hard for me to move.”
The rustling footsteps slowly drew closer.
She looked toward the cave entrance and raised her gun once more.
“Find a way to survive.”
Christina was right.
The two gunshot wounds, combined with severe blood loss, had already robbed her of the ability to move.
Lin Yu looked at Christina, hesitated for a moment, and then turned to dash into the dark tunnel.
Five steps, ten steps…
Not long after, sharp gunfire rang out behind him.
Something sharper than death pierced his spine, and an inexplicable sense of dread crawled into his heart.
He turned back and ran like a madman.
When he returned to the scene, all he saw was Christina collapsed in a pool of blood.
Not only that, but in the next heartbeat, another dense barrage of bullets swept toward her like the Grim Reaper’s scythe.
Debris and dust flew; the shadow of death had never been so clear.
“No. 2!”
Lin Yu screamed like a madman.
In the next instant, the world changed.
The wind stopped.
The flying dust froze in mid-air like a crude still-life painting.
The bullets that had just left the muzzles, carrying burning, murderous intent, hung suspended in the air just a few meters away from their noses.
The bullets rotated slowly, their rifling grooves clearly visible.
The din of the battlefield had been put on mute, leaving only a deathly silence that felt almost like a vacuum.