novelraw Chapter 190: The Victory of the Nobles
Chapter 190: The Victory of the Nobles
Before Lin Jie pulled the trigger, the first person to feel the immense pressure was not the final executor Lin Jie, but the creator of the opportunity, Ethan.
As he projected the powerful [Deflection Force Field], forcibly severing the spiritual link between the isolated island and Ammit, two mental impacts of different natures slammed into his brain.
One impact came from the Devourer Ammit.
This impact was the chaotic, primitive malice of a UMA, devoid of any human logic.
It held neither anger nor hatred, only an instinctive rejection of the interruption of its "feeding" behavior and a devouring desire for anything attempting to challenge its existence.
This impact was brutal and unreasonable, attempting to erase Ethan's very existence from the world.
The other impact came from Nephthys.
This was a resentment born of humanity, containing sharp, venomous curses and the fury of desecrated faith.
If Ammit's impact was a natural disaster, then Nephthys's impact was a man-made calamity.
Her will transformed into venomous snakes wreathed in black fire, tearing at Ethan's reason, screaming and roaring in his mind, using malicious words to curse his soul and attempting to drag him into the abyss of madness.Ethan didn't even have time to let out a pained grunt before scalding blood uncontrollably gushed from his mouth and nose, staining the river water before him crimson.
The impact his brain felt in that moment was like being crushed between two colliding locomotives.
Everything before his eyes shattered—the isolated island, that woman, his teammates—everything dissolved into an abstract painting composed of countless rapidly spinning fragments of color.
His consciousness was being torn and crushed, his spirit dragged into the abyss.
At the moment he was about to lose consciousness, when the [Deflection Force Field] that held the team's hope was on the verge of collapse, the noble pride and sense of honor imprinted deep in his soul awakened from the depths of his bloodline.
He could not fall. He absolutely could not stop his interference before confirming the enemy's demise.
This was his promise, the promise of the Redgrave family.
"Ahhhhhhh—!!!"
Ethan let out a bestial roar.
Summoning the last vestiges of his clear will, he strained to maintain the force field output of the [Deflection Malevolence Mirror].
His eyes, due to extensive ruptures of capillaries within his skull, turned a uniform crimson, his appearance terrifying like a demon returned from hell.
But he still stared at the isolated island, using his own will on the brink of collapse to hold up that "vacuum zone" for Lin Jie.
He didn't know how much longer he could hold on.
Was it half a second, or three-tenths of a second?
But it no longer mattered.
He had already offered up everything he had.
He could only buy Lin Jie this final instant.
And Lin Jie leveraged the heavy trust Ethan bought with his life to a degree beyond imagination.
The moment he pulled the trigger, his entire being—his essence, energy, and spirit—felt drained, all merging as one with the [Serene Heart] in his hand.
His soul seemed to break free from the shackles of his flesh, transforming into a concept of pure will that existed solely for the purpose of "hitting the mark."
This will flowed down his arm, through the cold steel of the gun, and finally infused into the alchemical bullet forged from high-purity mithril, primed and ready in the cylinder.
The instant the bullet was struck and launched by the heavy hammer, the azure blue "Guardian Scale" beneath the barrel suddenly lit up.
A faint blue spiritual film, originating from the "Loch Ness Guardian Deity," enveloped the entire bullet.
Thus, an alchemical bullet was born—infused with the concept of "divine ballistic stability," carrying the will and hope of two hunters.
"Bang!"
The bullet left the barrel.
Its flight was calm and elegant, without any flashy sound or light effects, without stirring up unnecessary ripples or leaving traces on the turbid water's surface.
It ignored the air resistance, ignored the chaotic water vapor permeating the battlefield, and ignored the invisible veil formed by the high-speed flow of sand grains on the surface of the isolated island.
It pierced through all obstacles, pierced through all chaos, pierced through all illusions and disguises.
With an unstoppable momentum, it precisely struck that "core sand" hidden among the multitude of sand grains, yet glaringly obvious in Lin Jie's vision.
In that second, all the clamorous sounds of the world—the river's flow, William's panting, Julian's prayers—were erased.
There was no earth-shattering roar, for this was not a destruction of matter.
There was only a faint "crack," a sound so weak and ethereal it was drowned out by the flow of the surrounding muddy river water.
The "core sand" emanating with a dark red glow, the origin bearing the entirety of the Devourer Ammit's consciousness, shattered upon impact with the empowered alchemical bullet.
It was reverted.
Reverted into an ordinary grain of silicon dioxide, devoid of any special significance.
Immediately after, like the first domino falling, an irreversible chain reaction played out upon the isolated island floating in the floodwaters.
The circular island formed from dry sand grains, having lost the "core's" immunity that rejected all liquids, could no longer resist the infiltration of the surrounding Nile River water.
"Splash!"
The turbid river water greedily surged onto this "sanctuary," gradually swallowing the dry sand grains that had lost the protection of spiritual power.
And those sand tentacles, frozen mid-air in their attacking posture after their links were severed, lost their collective consciousness at the same moment.
They crumbled, disintegrated, dissipated.
Ultimately, they turned back into a mass of wet mud and sand, a mixture of black and yellow hues, stripped of all spirituality and malice.
"Ah!!"
At the exact moment Ammit's consciousness core was destroyed and reverted, Nephthys, standing on that isolated island as the mastermind puppeteer, also let out a piercing shriek as the deep, spiritually bound mental link she shared with the UMA she controlled—forged through several evil rituals—was forcibly severed.
It was a pain unimaginable to mortals, akin to having one's soul torn apart alive and then repeatedly ground in a meat grinder.
A massive spiritual backlash surged back along the severed mental link, flooding into her cerebral cortex.
"Pfft!"
Crimson, scalding blood simultaneously gushed from her eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.
Her beautiful, mysterious eyes, bulging outward in an extremely terrifying manner due to the skyrocketing intracranial pressure, became bloodshot, filled with shock and agony at the reality before her.
She didn't have time to utter a complete last word.
She didn't even get to see clearly who it was, or by what method she couldn't comprehend, that destroyed her "Great Ammit," whom she revered as a deity.
Her slender body arched backward, and amid that shriek, she fell unconscious, bleeding from all seven orifices.
Thus, a perilous battle concluded in a clean and decisive manner.
On the turbid water surface, only the four exhausted, drenched victors remained, floating quietly, breathing in large gulps of the free air tinged with moisture and the smell of gunpowder.
William silently swam over, lifted the already unconscious Ethan from the water, carefully hoisting him onto his back with gentle movements.
Lin Jie holstered the [Serene Heart] in his hand. Exhaustion washed over his entire body, but a relieved smile appeared on his face.