novelraw Chapter 275: Nothing, really. We’ve just killed so many that they’ve lost their courage
Chapter 275: Nothing, really. We’ve just killed so many that they’ve lost their courage
"What should we do?" Edward looked towards Alexander.
"What’s there to say? Kill them!" Alexander responded without a second thought.
"Ha ha... well said! Kill them it is!" Edward laughed heartily. The ice and snow surrounding him accelerated abruptly, and a myriad of snowflakes whirled at breakneck speeds.
Gigantic cyclones of ice and snow hurtled forward, cutting through flesh and sending blood splattering in their wake. Evil Ghosts were swept away, tumbling through the air in disarray.
Both men advanced in unison. Alexander, wielding the Underworld Sword, cut down ghosts with each swing—whether they were Ghost Kings or Ghost Princes, or just common ghosts clouded by greed.
Blood spurted forth, only to be instantly frozen into vivid red snowflakes. In this storm of crimson ice and snow, Alexander and Edward moved steadily but resolutely towards the heart of the ghost town.
When the enemy numbers became too overwhelming, creating a colossal circle of entrapment with no room for evasion, Edward would appear at Alexander’s side and use his spatial talent to teleport them to a different location, where the killing would resume.
With each merciless execution, the terror began to creep into the faces of the attacking ghosts. Many snapped out of their greed-driven trance, weighing the odds of their grim gamble.
As time ebbed away, Alexander lost count of how many ghosts he had killed. Were they in the thousands? Tens of thousands?
Corpses piled up behind him, and the ground was streaked with rivers of blood. His arm began to numb, and his ghostly energy ebbed and flowed in a cycle of consumption and restoration.
In the end, although there were still fearless ghosts charging at them, wherever Alexander and Edward went, the ghosts there instinctively retreated.
The sight was terrifying.
The two men—or more accurately, Alexander, guided by Edward—were engaged in a frenzied massacre of the entire ghost population of the city.
Even if a King-level ghost could have defeated Alexander, they never got the chance. With Edward’s tactical support, enemies could not even approach Alexander.
Before the forbidden power wielded by Alexander, be they King-level ghosts or the lowliest souls, all met their end with a single stroke of his sword.
With a flash of light, Edward activated his spatial ability once more, whisking Alexander away from the encircling swarm of ghosts. They appeared in the only open space left in the city.
In an instant, the surrounding ghosts recoiled as if electrified, retreating several steps. This time, they hesitated to rush forward.
One by one, their faces filled with terror. Even the bravest among them were beginning to waver in the face of such relentless slaughter.
Step by step, Alexander walked through the blood-soaked streets of Ash City. Blood dripped from his sword, each droplet landing on the ground like a solemn note in a dark symphony.
With each step that Alexander and Edward took, the ghosts around them retreated a pace.
If not for the mountainous heaps of ghost corpses, if not for the rivers of blood that stained the ground and their own bodies, Alexander and Edward could have been mistaken for heroes leisurely strolling along a beach.
The crowd of ghosts parted automatically as the two men walked through their midst, slowly but surely approaching the lord’s mansion.
Suddenly, a wave of exhaustion caused Alexander to stumble.
Eyes among the surviving Ghost Kings brightened instantly. Shouts rang out: "He’s faltering! Attack now! Seize him while we can!"
Excitement gleamed in the eyes of the ghosts at this rallying cry. Yet, no one moved; all hesitated, all waited. They were poised like hungry wolves, prepared to pounce the moment they sensed further weakness.
Wiping the ghostly blood from his face, Alexander revealed an eerie smile—one tinged with exhaustion yet undeniably unsettling.
With a wave of his hand, a card materialized in the air. A dazzling white light emanated from it, and a gigantic portal, several meters wide, materialized on the ground.
With the hum of engines, Su Rong, Annie, Tony, and others rode out of the portal on motorcycles.
Any flicker of fighting spirit and greed that had just sparked in the eyes of the ghosts was swiftly extinguished; they retreated in unison. Courage had left them utterly.
With a sudden movement, Alexander hurled the Underworld Sword like a bolt of lightning. In an instant, it pierced through the throat of one of the vocal Ghost Kings, pinning him and another ghost to the ground.
"We now rule Ash City! Does anyone object?" Alexander proclaimed.
Alexander had made a similar declaration just once before. The response he received was an uproar that filled half of Ash City and a sea of greedy, angry gazes from countless ghosts.
However, a mere hour later, the demeanor of every ghost had changed. Now, they all looked at Alexander and Edward with unmitigated terror.
"What’s going on?" Su Rong, armed with a molten spear and shrouded in ghostly energy as if ready to fight to the death, was baffled by the sight before her.
"Yeah, what happened to them?" Annie and Tony echoed, their faces filled with confusion as they looked at the terrified ghosts surrounding them. It was as if they had become monstrous demons in the eyes of these spirits.
At this moment, Alexander and Edward looked as if they had bathed in a pool of blood; their bodies were coated in a thick, red, ghostly fluid.
Edward once-pristine black tailcoats had turned crimson. Even he white gloves were now a lurid shade of red. Blood from ghosts dripped down his faces. Yet Edward, who was always so concerned about his appearance, was unfazed by their gruesome state.
Licking his lips, Edward wore a chillingly jubilant smile and spoke in an icy tone: "Nothing, really. We’ve just killed so many that they’ve lost their courage."
Such a simple sentence, yet it was imbued with an air of boundless brutality and bloodlust.
Members of the Fierce Ghost Association who had just arrived instinctively looked around them. It seemed as if the ghosts’ terror of Alexander and Edward was now being redirected onto them; the spirits began to withdraw.
As they did so, Su Rong and the others finally saw the scene behind the two men, the trail of destruction they had left in their wake.Now they understood why the ghosts throughout the city were so utterly terrified.
Before them lay a corridor made of flesh and blood, a pathway that seemed to have erupted straight from the bowels of hell itself. Stretching from the city gate to where Alexander stood, for miles on end, it was a horrifying boulevard of crimson carnage.
On the ground, on the houses, on the walls, and even on the locust trees that lined the road—shattered arms, broken legs, fractured bones.
Intestines dangled from tree branches, and blood so thick it could be measured in inches flowed in rivers beneath them, carrying with it eyeballs rolled back in their sockets.
Corpses. Everywhere, corpses. A river of plasma that stretched for miles, a hellish landscape painted with the brushstrokes of death.
And this massacre was orchestrated by only two men. No wonder both were drenched in blood from head to toe.
No wonder they dared to casually toss their swords to slay, retrieving them nonchalantly while in the middle of a city swarming with millions of malevolent ghosts.
Wherever they walked, enemies parted to let them through, none daring to utter even a word. No one could even bring themselves to meet their gaze.
Amidst the encirclement of all the hostile forces in Ash City, Edward was seen accompanying Alexander as they silently picked up the Underworld Sword. Then, step by measured step, they walked towards the Mansion of the City Lord.
If it weren’t for the hellish corridor of flesh and blood, if it weren’t for the nearly congealed blood armor that clung to their forms, this wouldn’t seem like a siege at all.
It would appear to be more akin to a coronation.
Following behind Alexander, Edward’s appearance was anything but elegant—a stark contrast to the rest of his life.
Even at the time of his death, he had maintained an impeccable sense of decorum, dressed in a tailored tuxedo and white gloves as he sipped poisoned red wine in a final act of sophisticated suicide.
Now, however, he was soaked in the stench of gory ghost blood, his gloves dyed a gruesome red, with pieces of flesh even caught in his hair.
Yet, deep inside, Edward was extraordinarily exhilarated.
Millions of ghostly eyes were on them, their blood boiling within their veins, ghost energy swirling around them in tumultuous currents. A snowstorm of red flakes spun wildly around Edward.
Noticing Edward’s grandiose demeanor, Alexander offered a faint smile. Although his body was weary, he summoned his ghostly energy once again.
Thousands of blades suddenly materialized, dancing in a whirlpool around the duo. Flashes of lightning darted within the blades, encasing them both in a tempest of red snow and electrical fury—as if gods of death and destruction had deigned to walk the earth.
Finally, in this very moment, Edward’s good will rating, which had stubbornly hovered at 99, inched up to become a perfect score.
"Congratulations, good will rating has reached a peak value of 100. Special talent of Unobstructed Social Communication Charm Syndrome activated! Edward’s ultimate friendship reward unlocked! Covenant special talent: Talent Borrowing!"
As the voice echoed in his ears, Edward’s approval reward was finally triggered. Dark contract symbols appeared on both their foreheads.
Since entering this horror world, this had become the ninth covenant Alexander had signed.
....
Ding Ding!
In a futuristic, expansive office space, an ear-piercing alarm rang out in tandem with red warning lights. The ninth indicator light on the curved screen lit up, saturating not just the room but the entire base with a sense of imminent action.
In that very office, Sophia looked up at the screen, her beautiful eyes filled with excitement.
"The time has come at last! By the authority vested in me as the commander of the Styx Project, I hereby initiate the final phase!"
In the cosmic void, nine massive metal structures within a styx illuminated with a bright white light. The dense white mist that blanketed the styx began to be rapidly absorbed by these towering constructs.
Above the river, a figure slowly opened its eyes.
The world of horror was subtly, yet unmistakably, changing.
The mist surrounding the Six Ghost Realms began to undulate, creeping towards the unobscured areas. Within that mist, knights clad in dark armor, hidden among mountains and forests, gradually opened their eyes.
...
On Earth, in a cozy room, Dolly, who had been peacefully asleep, suddenly snapped her eyes open.
Gone were the expressions of an innocent, shy young girl. What replaced them were emotionless eyes, a chilling sense of detachment, and pupils that had turned a pure, haunting white.