Chapter 45: Betrayal

“Ou Mi You! Suppress his left hand!”

“Got it!”

Ou Mi You took a quick step, lowered her body, and in the blink of an eye was at the man’s left side.

The man’s left hand was no longer normal human anatomy.

What had once been a thin arm was now as thick as a steel pillar, with constantly growing sub-limbs flailing wildly from it, blocking anyone from getting close.

Seizing that extremely short opportunity, Ou Mi You’s long rifle pierced through the man’s left hand.

She spun it in the air, then drove the rifle into the ground, pinning the man down.

Le Paxi, already ready, raised her massive hammer high.

The fierce blow nearly shattered the man’s entire body.

Countless fragments splattered everywhere.

The muscle tissue and organs that had detached from the body seemed not to have reacted yet, still twitching vigorously.

That strike had already declared the man’s death.

“Whew, finally took him down. He was really troublesome—how did he grow all those things?”

Le Paxi didn’t pick up on Ou Mi You’s comment.

She looked at Abraham, who still wore a relaxed expression.

“Now, what else do you have left that you haven’t used?”

“Haha, you flatter me, madam. I only have this last trump card.”

Abraham’s gentle gaze couldn’t hide his maddening desire.

Le Paxi clearly felt that he still thought victory was within his grasp.

What else could there be?

“But now, it’s time to bring up our little friends.”

As Abraham spoke, a hidden door opened behind him.

The siblings were tied to a chair, raised up from below.

“Little sister and little brother!”

“Big sister! Save me! That weird old man kept us locked up in a pitch-black place!”

The little girl was still very lively, but it was clear she hadn’t been treated well.

The little boy, on the other hand, glared at Abraham with fierce anger, as if he wanted to devour him.

“Big sister will save you right now! Watch me beat that weird old man down!”

Ou Mi You exaggeratedly rolled up her sleeves, vowing to teach Abraham a harsh lesson.

“Ladies, don’t be so hasty. Don’t you think this dance drama is only reaching its most exciting part?”

As he spoke, Abraham swung the iron chain wrapped around his arm again.

The sound of the chain whipping and striking the ground echoed through the space once more.

Ou Mi You and Le Paxi reflexively turned to look at the man, who had been reduced to a pile of flesh.

The muscle tissue, already turned into a mud-like mass, reassembled itself.

The man’s form gradually reappeared, as if the destruction had never happened.

“Whoa… that’s really kind of gross.”

In just a few seconds, the man stood before them again, exactly as he had been ten minutes ago.

But compared to before, this time the man clearly showed strong hostility toward the two of them.

His eyes were no longer empty and lifeless; instead, they were filled with the primal killing desire of a mad beast.

And because the man had returned to his original form, the siblings recognized him.

“Dad!”

They shouted in unison.

“Dad… Dad?! Huh?!”

Ou Mi You cried out in shock, her eyes darting between the man and the siblings.

“Uh… he does look kind of similar?”

“That’s not the point. We need to deal with this threat now.”

“Big sisters, are you going to fight Dad? Is Dad… a bad person?”

Just as the two were about to act, the little girl’s voice made them stop.

“Uh, how do I put this…”

“Your dad probably doesn’t recognize you anymore. Right now, he’ll only hurt you.”

“How can that be… Dad was always so gentle… Why did he become like this…”

The little girl watched in fear as her father roared like a wild beast.

Drool greedily dripped from his mouth, his gaze fixed on Ou Mi You.

“This is all that weird old man’s doing.”

“It’s because of you, weird old man!”

The little girl shook her body angrily, causing her chair to wobble dangerously, as if it might fall over at any moment.

“Haha, truly shameful. I failed to show you your father in his most perfect state… and now you’ll never see it.”

Abraham swung the chain again.

His tone shifted from the earlier gentleness to an icy coldness.

“Begin. This sacrifice.”

The man suddenly went berserk, roaring in agony as he threw his head back.

Then he fixed his attention on the siblings tied to the chair.

“Wait! What are you doing?!”

Ou Mi You moved faster than the man, blocking his path.

“Ahhh…”

The man clearly had no intention of explaining.

Even with Ou Mi You in the way, he still tried to charge at the siblings without any regard.

This was no heartwarming family reunion.

If they let this man run loose, he might do something terrible.

While Ou Mi You held the man back, Le Paxi had already circled behind him.

Her raised hammer was about to shatter the man again.

But at that moment, a loud boom came from an unnoticed corner.

Without much thought, Le Paxi redirected her weapon and smashed the incoming cannonball, causing a violent explosion.

“Ugh!”

Le Paxi stumbled slightly.

As the thick smoke cleared, someone stood in the corner that had been empty.

That person stepped out of the shadows.

The most striking feature was her massively bloated arm.

Clearly, it was the arm of a mad beast.

Her body was also covered in armor similar to Daizer’s, but it looked bulky on her.

It felt as if these body parts had been forcibly stitched together.

The figure approached.

Only then did the two recognize who it was.

“Mora?”

Though half her face was covered by armor, the visible half was enough to identify her.

It was Mora, who had been captured earlier and lost contact with them.

Unlike the man, Mora was clearly still fully conscious.

She recognized them too.

“It’s almost complete… I won’t let you interfere with them.”

“Complete? Complete what?”

Mora didn’t answer Le Paxi’s question.

She swung her thick arm, and the muscles on it began to writhe like boiling water, gradually transforming into a cannon barrel.

Boom!

Another roar sounded.

This time, prepared, Le Paxi precisely detonated it with her hammer away from herself.

Taking advantage of the smoke from the explosion, Mora dashed forward.

By the time Le Paxi could see her clearly, Mora was less than a meter away.

The Madmen’s weapons were originally designed to better fight mad beasts, so the weapons were generally massive.

This became a disadvantage in close combat against humans.

As long as she got close to Le Paxi, the giant hammer couldn’t be used effectively; only the handle could be employed.

Mora clearly knew this.

Her arm deformed again, shrinking drastically into a short dagger as she pressed into Le Paxi for close-quarters combat.

“Heh, I didn’t expect you to catch that. Seems you know a thing or two about large weapons.”

Even though Mora had found her weak point, Le Paxi remained calm, her usual faint smile still in place.

‘That knife was given to Leng Qiongling. There’s no other weapon to use now.’

As Le Paxi thought this, Mora suddenly accelerated forward, crashing into Le Paxi’s chest, the dagger stabbing straight at her abdomen.

Clang!

The tip of the dagger was perfectly blocked by Le Paxi’s handle.

“Stabbing there won’t hurt me even if it hits, you know? If you’re going to stab, aim for a vital point.”

As if teaching a slow-witted disciple, Le Paxi spoke to Mora in a warm, gentle tone.

“Huff…”

Mora understood the logic, but this monster in front of her showed no openings.

She couldn’t even injure the arm—how could she hit a vital point?

Only then did Mora truly understand how incomprehensible the Madmen were.

They could react in the next instant after an opponent made a move, knew every movement inside out, and responded with precision down to the micron.

And trying to match strength head-on was utterly futile.

Comparing strength with a MadMan was like a normal person arm-wrestling a bear—even worse, far worse.

Even if by some miracle she seized that one-in-a-million chance, any scratch would vanish in an instant before the Madman’s terrifying regeneration, as if it never existed, leaving not even a scar.

Even though Mora had forcibly attached the mad beast’s body to herself, it was the crudest patchwork.

Not only could she not use the mad beast’s original power, but her own body was damaged by rejection reactions.

In severe cases, it could even be fatal.

But this was the limit of what she could achieve.

She would burn her own life, just to reach that elusive vision.