novelraw Chapter 26 : The End of the Curse
Chapter 26 : The End of the Curse
Chapter 26: The End of the Curse
Inside the Emperor Suite of the KTV.
When Zhang Jie knocked down all of Wang Defa’s thugs and appeared before him, Wang Defa’s overwhelming instinct to survive made him tumble off the sofa, crawling and kneeling on the floor, frantically kowtowing to Zhang Jie.
“Don’t… don’t kill me! Big brother! Spare my life, hero!”
Tears and mucus streamed down his face. There was not a trace left of the so-called transcendent; he looked like nothing more than a wretched, tail-wagging stray dog begging for its life.
“I… I know I was wrong! I’ll never dare again!”
“It was all Lin Lan! That woman forced me to do it! She’s the real mastermind!”
In order to live, Wang Defa betrayed his teammate without the slightest hesitation.
“As long as you let me go, I… I’ll be your dog! I’ll tell you all the intel about everyone in 【Shadow】! I’ll help you kill them!”
However, Zhang Jie merely looked at him coldly, as though watching a pathetic clown.
The fire of vengeance had already burned away the last trace of mercy in his heart.
He slowly raised his hand, clenched it lightly in Wang Defa’s direction.
Wang Defa’s eyes widened in terror as he realized he couldn’t make a sound.
His mouth gaped open, but his throat only let out a wheezing “huh… huh…” sound, as if an invisible hand had gripped his neck in a deathly choke.
Then, a crushing sense of suffocation struck!
The air around him seemed to be completely drained away.
He struggled desperately to breathe, but only inhaled emptiness.
Zhang Jie had used his control over wind to create a small “vacuum zone” around Wang Defa, silently stripping him of both breath and voice.
Wang Defa’s face turned a dark, congested purple, his eyes bulging and bloodshot.
He writhed and rolled in agony on the floor, clawing desperately at his own neck, fingernails bending backward, yet still unable to draw in a single breath of air.
Zhang Jie watched him in silence, eyes cold as ice.
He wanted this venomous scum—who had killed his teammates through deceit and almost taken Liu Gang and Sun Na’s lives as well—to die in the most excruciating agony and despair imaginable.
When Wang Defa’s consciousness began to blur and his body convulsed violently from asphyxiation, Zhang Jie finally lost the last of his patience.
He brought his right hand together, fingers like a blade, and slashed gently toward Wang Defa’s neck.
A “wind blade,” sharp as substance and thin as a cicada’s wing, shot forth.
“Pfft—”
A soft sound.
Wang Defa’s head flew high into the air, tumbling twice before landing, his face still frozen in disbelief and sheer terror.
The headless corpse twitched a few times on the floor as blood gushed from its neck like a fountain, dyeing the expensive carpet crimson.
【Shadow】 faction player 【Cursemaster】 has fallen
【Current remaining players: 【Radiance】—7, 【Shadow】—3】
At the moment of his death, every surviving player heard that cold, emotionless system prompt echo in their minds simultaneously.
……
Abandoned textile factory.
At the very same second Wang Defa was decapitated—
The unconscious Liu Gang and Sun Na suddenly regained awareness, feeling a lightness throughout their bodies.
That sinister force—like maggots gnawing at their bones, endlessly devouring their vitality—vanished without a trace!
Their power… had returned!
That same volcanic surge of power flooded back into their limbs and bones!
More than that—after surviving death itself and enduring the “tempering” of the curse, they felt their power had become even purer, even stronger!
“【Cursemaster】…”
Liu Gang’s eyes snapped open, radiating a terrifying gleam. “That kid… he did it!”
At that moment, several assault troopers clad in exoskeleton armor stormed up to them, black gun muzzles aimed squarely at their heads.
“Targets incapacitated, prepare to detai—”
Before the captain could finish speaking, he met Liu Gang’s eyes—eyes like those of a primordial beast.
Liu Gang and Sun Na exchanged a glance, seeing the same naked resolve and madness in each other’s eyes.
Become test subjects, slaughtered at will?
They would rather die fighting!
“Roar—!”
Liu Gang let out a thunderous roar, and a power far more terrifying and violent than before erupted from within him!
Inside the mobile command vehicle—
“Not good! Target energy readings are spiking exponentially!”
The technician screamed in horror as the two signal dots on the monitor turned from green to a glaring blood-red. “Report! Energy index has… has exceeded measurable limits!”
“What?!”
Colonel “Thunder Hawk” shot to his feet, eyes fixed on the screen.
On the battlefield, from within the pile of twisted metal, two monstrous energy flares surged skyward!
The entire abandoned textile factory—and the buried foundations beneath—along with every piece of metal within several kilometers, began to vibrate violently, producing an ear-piercing metallic resonance!
It was as though all the metal had heard the call of their king, transforming into two colossal torrents of steel, surging toward Liu Gang’s location!
Massive steel beams twisted like serpents, crushing the soldiers and spider robots who had just rushed in into pulp in an instant!
Liu Gang slowly rose from the ruins, his body encased in endless steel.
Rebars became his bones, steel plates his muscles, mechanical parts his organs…
A towering, hundred-meter-tall steel giant of terrifying visage rose from the earth!
Its massive metal head loomed above nearby buildings, and its two eyes—made of searchlights—glowed with cold red light as it gazed down upon the mortal soldiers beneath it.
And upon the steel giant’s shoulder, Sun Na’s figure soared skyward!
Her entire body was engulfed in blazing crimson flames, transforming into a phoenix with wings spanning over a hundred meters, burning with fierce fire!
The phoenix spread its wings and cried toward the heavens!
The terrifying flames formed a circular wall of fire—like divine fire from myth—detonating all incoming shells and missiles mid-air!
A hundred-meter-tall steel giant.
A burning phoenix of flame.
Gods and demons had descended!
……
Before this apocalyptic, mythic sight—beyond the limits of human imagination—Colonel “Thunder Hawk,” after a brief moment of shock and stupor, did not tremble in fear.
Instead, a soldier’s fury and madness burned in his eyes.
“Monsters…”
He clenched his fists so tightly that his nails dug into his flesh, forcing out words through gritted teeth.
“So this… is your true power?”
He regained his soldier’s ruthless composure, seized the comms microphone, and roared hysterically into it:
“All units, heed my command!”
“Artillery batteries—target coordinates locked! Fire indiscriminately!”
“Erase that entire sector from the map!!”
“I don’t care what it costs! I don’t care how much collateral damage there is!”
“Today—even if you were gods—I’ll slaughter you all the same!”
The order was given.
From the city’s outskirts, long-prepared long-range artillery positions roared in unison!
Dozens of large-caliber self-propelled howitzers spewed flames of annihilation!
Shells trailing long tails of fire shot into the night sky like reverse-falling meteors, shrieking as they tore through the air, raining down upon the steel giant and the flaming phoenix!
Amid that apocalyptic bombardment, the steel giant took thunderous steps, roaring as it charged toward the military positions.
The fire phoenix cried sharply, wings spread wide, soaring against the storm of shells!
Steel and flame.
Technology and transcendence.
The fury of mortals, the wrath of gods and demons.
In this darkest hour before dawn, the most tragic—and most glorious—collision was about to begin!