The Chichibu Mountains, a place where no detector could find them…
The Semi-Devourer piled the corpses of the mountaineers together.
Then, his single eye shot out a searing beam of light, setting them all ablaze.
To the side, Changshi God chewed on an energy bar while looking at the darkening horizon.
There shouldn’t be any more pursuers.
“No. 4, remember to contact the Cardinal Council tomorrow. I didn’t defect… I just relocated.”
The Semi-Devourer known as No. 4 nodded.
He finally had time to sit by the bonfire and enjoy his dinner.
It was the corpse of the man in the face mask from the Curtain Cluster.
Semi-Devourers also possessed the traits of Devourers; consuming Ability Users would strengthen them.
As the strongest combat force of the Saints in Japan, he had already consumed an unknown number of Ability Users.
The surroundings were silent, save for the crackling of the burning wood and the grisly sound of chewing.
Changshi God turned his head away in disgust.
“Eat faster,” he urged impatiently, the energy bar in his hand already squeezed out of shape.
“Lord Bishop, you’re too tense,” No. 4 said indistinctly, his single eye rolling around.
“Those DRG dogs won’t find this place. Even if they do, they’ll just be an extra meal for me.”
The battle earlier had given No. 4 immense confidence.
The elites of the Curtain Cluster and the swordsmen of the Dark Crow Unit were like clay chickens and pottery dogs before him.
This sense of expanding power made him feel that even if he faced the so-called Jiang Jian Yue, he could tear her to shreds.
Changshi God didn’t speak, but the sense of unease in his heart grew stronger.
‘That feeling of being watched… it hasn’t disappeared yet.’
Suddenly, the chewing stopped.
The chirping of insects and birds in the forest vanished in an instant.
The shadows of the trees, which had been swaying in the wind, also went still.
“What’s wrong?”
Changshi God snapped to his feet, his fatty flesh trembling.
No. 4 dropped the severed limb in his hand.
His single eye stared fixedly at the pitch-black night sky above.
The four bone spurs on his back vibrated frantically, letting out a warning sound similar to a rattlesnake.
“Something… is up there.”
Changshi God looked up.
He saw that the originally sparse starlit sky had been obscured by a shadow at some point.
There was no roar of rotors, no howl of an engine.
There was only deathly silence.
The shadow descended slowly.
By the faint light of the bonfire, Changshi God finally saw what it was.
It was a young girl floating in mid-air.
Her pitch-black combat dress and shoulder cape moved without wind under the surge of the anti-gravity field, like a flower blooming in the night.
She looked down at the two people on the ground from above, her eyes showing no emotion at all, as if she were looking at two bedbugs about to be crushed to death.
“Jiang Jian Yue?!”
Changshi God screamed.
His legs went weak, and he slumped to the ground.
How was this possible?
“Playing God!”
No. 4 roared, taking the initiative.
He kicked off the ground, causing a large crater to instantly fracture the earth, and his massive body soared into the sky.
The four bone spurs on his back carried a piercing whistle as they tore through the air, stabbing straight toward the girl in the sky.
“Get down here!”
Boom!
In the next second, the girl flipped her body in the air, meeting him with a downward kick.
Bang!
No. 4 was smashed back into the ground at a speed faster than his ascent.
Smoke rose, and rubble flew everywhere.
Changshi God was knocked over several times by the shockwave, crawling back up covered in dirt, the fear in his eyes deepening.
Within the dust, No. 4 stood up unsteadily.
Half of his body was a bloody mess from the fall, but granulation tissue writhed frantically at the wounds, and he recovered completely in just a few seconds.
“Interesting…”
No. 4 spat out a mouthful of bloody phlegm, a fierce light gleaming in his single eye.
“It seems you’re a top-grade ingredient!”
Jiang Jian Yue descended slowly, hovering at a height of 0.5 meters above the ground.
“Ingredient?”
She tilted her head, a hint of mockery flashing in her blood pupils.
No. 4 lunged again.
This time, he was even faster, leaving afterimages in the air.
Jiang Jian Yue’s mind stirred, and a Swift Sword flashing with a cold light instantly popped out from the gap in her arm guards.
There were no fancy movements, just a simple sidestep.
Screeeech —
An ear-piercing sound of metal grinding rang out.
One of No. 4’s bone spurs was sliced off cleanly, the cut as smooth as a mirror.
“Ahhh —!”
No. 4 screamed.
Before he could retreat, Jiang Jian Yue’s whip-like leg had already struck his head.
Thud!
No. 4 was kicked away like a ball, stopping only after crashing through three cedar trees.
Just as she thought the Semi-Devourer had been dealt with and turned to look at Changshi God…
Zing —
A searing laser instantly pierced through the girl’s lower abdomen, burning a hole through her combat suit.
At the same time, Changshi God reacted, slamming his hands together.
The ground beneath her feet turned into a pitch-black swamp, and countless black ghostly hands reached out from the mire, gripping the girl’s ankles tightly.
“Hmm?”
Jiang Jian Yue finally put away her playful thoughts.
The hole in her abdomen healed rapidly, and the regenerating combat suit covered her alongside the progress of her recovery.
Zing, zing, zing —
Searing beams of light continued to shoot from the darkness, hitting Jiang Jian Yue’s arms, thighs, and even her head…
However, the speed of the light beams could not keep up with Jiang Jian Yue’s recovery speed.
“Monster!”
Changshi God cursed as he watched half of the girl’s charred face quickly restore itself to its original state.
In the next moment, he saw the girl grab her own arm and rip it off with a forceful tug.
Crack —
For some reason, the joint of Changshi God’s arm also snapped instantly, his flesh being torn apart.
“Aaaaargh —!”
The black swamp evaporated instantly, and those ghostly hands shattered inch by inch.
Sizzle…
White smoke lingered, carrying the smell of roasted meat.
Jiang Jian Yue flexed her newly grown fingers, waiting for the combat suit to regenerate and cover them.
Tilting her head to dodge a laser, her gaze gradually turned icy.
As a close-combat brute, she hated long-range attacks the most.
Whoosh —
Pale Gray Flame ignited in her palm.
She casually slashed out a crescent-shaped flying flame, followed by the screams of the Semi-Devourer coming from the woods.
“Next… it’s your turn.”
Jiang Jian Yue turned around slowly — she knew she didn’t need to worry about the Semi-Devourer for now.
“No… don’t come over here!”
Changshi God screamed as he backed away, his face pale while he clutched his severed arm.
She hovered 0.5 meters off the ground, approaching slowly.
“You… you can’t kill me!”
He gasped for breath, sweat soaking his greasy clothes.
“I am a Bishop of the Saints! I have important information! About the ‘sacrifice’! About ‘God’! And… and the dirt on those politicians! If you let me go, I’ll give you everything!”
“Information?”
She stood before Changshi God, looking down at the man who looked like a pile of mud.
“Do you think I… need… your information…?”
Jiang Jian Yue reached out and grabbed Changshi God’s fat neck, lifting his 200-pound body with one hand.
“Urgh… cough…”
Changshi God’s feet kicked wildly, his face turning the color of pig liver.
“My subordinate died.”
Jiang Jian Yue’s voice was soft, yet it carried a bone-chilling coldness.
“Just… to catch a… piece of trash like you. I originally… wanted to interrogate you. But… it doesn’t matter anymore.”
Jiang Jian Yue’s fingers tightened.
With a crisp crack, Changshi God instantly lost the strength to struggle.
“Missy!”
Hum —
A few low-frequency noises came from behind.
Jiang Jian Yue tossed Changshi God’s corpse aside and turned to see several members of the Dark Crow Unit in combat suits landing.
Then, without knowing who started it, they all knelt on one knee in unison.
At a glance, it truly had the atmosphere of an evil organization.
“Sorry for making you step in personally,” Maria said, lowering her head in guilt.
“It’s fine. Clean up the scene.”
“Yes, Missy!”
Maria responded immediately, standing up quickly and waving to her team.
“Group one, handle the Bishop’s corpse. Check for any belongings or abnormal residues! Group two, follow me to deal with the Semi-Devourer! Prepare incendiary bombs!”
The team members moved quickly to clear the scene.
Jiang Jian Yue’s figure had already taken off, merging into the night.
She sped toward Tokyo, the night wind making her cape and combat dress flutter loudly.
The feeling of flying was addictive; it gave one a sense of freedom and lack of restraint.
‘It’s probably why gravity is always insulted.’
The whistling wind was blocked by the noise-canceling function in her collar.
Only the steady, low hum of the anti-gravity system remained in her ears.
[The Dark Crow Unit has taken over the scene. Cleanup will be completed within 20 minutes.]
The electronic voice of the combat suit’s AI assistant sounded inside her collar without any fluctuation.
“Understood.”
Even though Jiang Jian Yue knew she didn’t need to reply to an AI assistant, she still gave an answer.
As the mountains receded, a breathtaking sea of light gradually filled her vision.
Tokyo.
Even in today’s economic downturn, its night view was still so luxurious that it seemed as if it would burn through all the electricity.
Countless bands of light wove into a net, tightly binding the land.
“It’s so beautiful…”
Meiguan’s voice, rare for not being prickly, carried a sense of wonder.
“Not many people get to see the most bustling metropolis in Asia from this perspective, right?”
Jiang Jian Yue looked down at the masses below.
Her heart wasn’t exactly filled with grand ambition; rather, she felt uneasy.
Whenever she encountered such magnificent scenery, Jiang Jian Yue always felt very small.
She couldn’t quite explain her own thoughts.
Unknowingly, her flight path deviated from the original route.
A massive oval building appeared directly below — the New National Stadium.
For tomorrow’s Opening Ceremony, the place was still brightly lit.
Staff members were busy inside the huge venue like ants, adjusting the lights and sound systems.
The massive stage had already been constructed, looking like an altar with a wide-open mouth, waiting for the offerings to be presented.
Jiang Jian Yue hovered directly above the stadium, her black figure perfectly blending into the night sky.
No one noticed that a pair of blood-red eyes was watching everything from above.
‘Tomorrow, I’ll be standing there.’
Jiang Jian Yue reached out across the void, as if she were holding the entire stadium in her palm.
In front of hundreds of millions of viewers, she would appear as the leader of the host organization.
“You still have to control the idol to hop and jump around. Remember not to forget the lyrics.”
“Shut up!”