Book 10: Chapter 33: Final Kill.

“Grrr…” Spotting Wolf charging towards him from a distance, the Bingren lowered its stance, arms hanging loosely. A low growl, similar to a canine magical beast’s, rumbled in its throat, as if warning the opponent not to come closer.

Seeing Wolf ignore the warning and keep charging at full speed, a trace of savagery finally flashed in the Bingren’s crimson eyes. Its huge body lunged forward, limbs moving like a true beast hunting its prey.

“Ding ling…” Where the Bingren’s limbs struck, ripples spread in the empty air. Hexagram Crystal Mirrors, pulsing with distinct energy waves, appeared beneath its feet. For a moment, its momentum felt like a raging tiger descending a mountain.

After fully merging with the Seventeenth Fallen Angel, Qin Lun seemed to have lost his self-awareness. Using the Bingren’s body, he actually deployed a Crystal Mirror Magic Array, an Apostle Skill that hadn’t originally been integrated into the Gospel World.

“Magic? If I recall correctly, the Gospel World doesn’t have laws of magic, does it?” A flicker of astonishment crossed Wolf’s face. He watched the Bingren warily, then his gaze suddenly sharpened. “No… this is the energy fluctuation of anti-particles. A variation of the AP Field?”

“So it can even be used like this?” A hint of appreciation curled Wolf’s lips, and he nodded thoughtfully. “Interesting. Learned something new!”

Appreciation aside, Wolf had no intention of going easy. He stiffened his right hand into a knife-hand strike. A subtle vibration shimmered along its edge, distorting the surrounding space visibly.

Two figures streaked past each other like lightning. The fearsome-looking Bingren shuddered, and a stream of muddy-yellow liquid, mixed with dark green plant fibers, sprayed from its right shoulder. A neat, ditch-like wound appeared on its shoulder, the flesh inside strangely gone.

This was the wound left by Wolf’s knife-hand strike. The deputy leader of the Holy Light Team wielded space abilities with incredible skill. His “Puppet” skill wasn’t just for movement; it could become an attack form. The space-distorting ripple around the edge of his hand was actually a miniature spatial rift. Even a brush against it would cause irreparable damage.

The Bingren whipped its head around, a vicious light in the savage gaze of its face. Its jaw worked ceaselessly, chewing on nothing, and drool trickled down the corner of its mouth. Countless tiny tendrils of flesh, threaded with delicate, hair-thin, dark green fibers, sprouted from the shoulder wound, knitting it back together at a visible pace.

“Berserk? Or just a rampage?” Wolf glanced at his own right arm, his eyelids twitching slightly. A milky white fluid oozed there. Next to torn muscle and sinew was a row of deep, teeth-like marks.

In the brief clash, he had also been injured. His opponent’s ferocity had exceeded expectations. It felt less like fighting a person and more like facing a roaring beast.

Actually, the complete bio-soldier mecha (Bingren Mecha) had not been designed with full facial features, certainly not with that terrifying, fang-filled mouth. Certain functional organs on the bio-soldier were actually the result of the Gith Angel genes.

The angel clone tissue, serving as the control core, had been implanted within the soldier’s body and genetically fused with the Jannamer bio-tissue. This fusion caused the growth of “body organs” beyond the original design.

The Gith Ordnance Officers had repeatedly tried to remove these extra “organs,” but each time, the bio-soldier simply “grew” them back. Eventually, they gave up. Other than giving it a more fearsome appearance, these additions had no negative side effects.

“This is going to be rough!” Wolf took a deep breath, watching the Bingren charging silently once more, and shook his head wearily.

He had fought Apostles with berserker skills before. Usually, Apostles rarely resorted to combat methods that robbed them of reason. But once they did, it meant they were confident they could turn the tables with that power, unconcerned about the inevitable aftermath.

Qin Lun had initially struck Wolf as rational and cunning. This current fighting style was completely different, as if he were a different person now. Wolf was certain the enemy before him had lost self-awareness; now, he was tangling with a true beast.

Normally, Wolf wouldn’t hesitate—defeat the enemy first. But things were different now. Having lost Silver Lightning, the Apostles of the Holy Light Team were forced into a certain compromise with the enemy. He could defeat Qin Lun, but he needed to keep the opponent alive. This significantly increased the difficulty of the fight.

“Maybe that’s why that guy recklessly pushed himself into this state,” Wolf thought with resignation as he charged towards his foe.

One was a sniper specializing in gun arts; the other was a battle master who usually boasted within the team as a ‘space dancer’—yet now they grappled like two savages at close quarters. This brief fight had left Wolf nearly choking on frustration.

Their struggle became perilous in the extreme. Only a few exchanges later, both were already drenched in blood. Even with the regenerative abilities of the rampaging Bingren and the Jannamer offspring, they couldn’t keep pace with the steadily increasing wounds.

Caught up in the furious combat, however, Wolf failed to notice the crimson in the Bingren’s eyes was gradually clearing, a shadow of cunning lurking deep beneath the mask of apparent insanity.

“ROAR!” Another dangerous, close-quarters clash drew an enraged roar from the Bingren. But this time, as the two figures passed each other, the Bingren didn’t turn back. Instead, it raced toward the mountain range below, scrambling on all limbs.

“Finally trying to run?” Wolf’s eyes lit up, and he let out a long sigh of relief. A beast was just a beast. Realizing it couldn’t match its opponent, flight was inevitable.

The deputy leader of the Holy Light Team saw no reason for doubt. He flickered forward instantly, chasing without hesitation. After the intense fight, he didn’t dare close the gap too quickly. His stamina was severely drained, and manipulating space had its limits.

“At most, just one chance!” Facing away from Wolf now, nothing remained of the Bingren’s earlier madness on its face. Though exhaustion was evident, its eyes gleamed sharply as it subtly clenched a fist.

In truth, Qin Lun’s consciousness had regained clarity quite early in the fight. Different from Wolf’s understanding, he hadn’t anticipated that deep resonance with the Seventeenth Fallen Angel would cause temporary unconsciousness—during which even Joey hadn’t awakened.

But upon regaining consciousness, the memory of the recent battle was etched vividly into his mind, every movement crystal clear.

He had purposefully ridden the wave of the artificial frenzy, continuing the final, habitual combat to familiarize himself with the various fighting techniques unlocked during the rampage. This bout had yielded immense gains.

Though the berserk Seventeenth Fallen Angel had no self-awareness, it seemed to unleash the innate biological instincts implanted within the Bingren body.

The combat instincts deeply encoded in the genes of the Jannamer bio-tissue, the angel clone, and Qin Lun himself were gradually awakened. The skill of shaping the AP Field into Pentagram Crystal Mirrors was one example.

Of course, Qin Lun’s most significant gain should be the sheer versatility in utilizing the Holy Thorn. That it could serve as a link to the clone control core was something even Qin Lun hadn’t realized before.

While he lacked measuring instruments, Qin Lun sensed his resonance rate with the Bingren had greatly improved during this fight. Originally hovering around sixty-something percent, it likely now exceeded ninety.

The Seventeenth Fallen Angel within combat no longer felt sluggish to Qin Lun. Its movements flowed naturally and smoothly, as if this mechanical soldier had truly become his own flesh and blood body.

Plummeting from the sky like a meteor, the Bingren slammed into the mountains below the battlefield. The continuous explosions stirred up massive plumes of dust that caused Wolf, chasing from behind, to feel a shiver of apprehension.

Naturally, it wasn’t fear of the enemy killing him, but worry the massive noise might awaken the Cosmic Octopus again. Muttering a curse, Wolf deliberately slowed his pursuit. Unlike before, given the Bingren’s current frenzied state, he wasn’t concerned it would slip away unnoticed.

After crashing down, the Seventeenth Fallen Angel slithered swiftly to the back side of that broken cliff face they had passed before, using it to block Wolf’s line of sight.

Qin Lun cautiously glanced back. Judging it impossible for Wolf to see his actions from this angle, he calmly extended his left arm.

Muscles across the Bingren’s entire body trembled subtly. Muscle groups, manipulated by the Holy Thorn, surged toward the forearm like countless small snakes. They twisted, coiled, and extended from both ends, astonishingly forming an exaggeratedly large longbow.

A flicker of pain crossed Qin Lun’s face. Fully merging with the Seventeenth Fallen Angel had only one side effect: his nervous system could now fully feel the agony wrought by these transformations.

The longbow in his hand wasn’t merely simple Jannamer bio-tissue. The thorny spikes covering its surface were clearly products of the Holy Thorn. This bow was entirely crafted with the Holy Thorn as its bone and frame, Jannamer bio-tissue as its substance, and the bowstring itself woven directly from the Holy Thorn.

The bottom tip of the longbow dug deep into the rocky layer beneath its feet, anchoring it for a stable shot. The entire bow, standing upright, towered over even the Seventeenth Fallen Angel. Qin Lun took a deep breath, planted himself in a solid archer’s stance, drew the bowstring taut, and placed a silver knight’s spear on the string like a colossal arrow.

With the undying nature of Jannamer’s offspring, the Reaper Spear was the only trump card that possibly held a chance to kill his adversary. Wolf couldn’t aim to kill Qin Lun, but Qin Lun faced no such restriction against the deputy leader of the Holy Light Team. Any and all means were justified.

Killing Wolf would free him from worrying about the remaining members. Whether the Patroller Team members suffered losses in the ensuing chaos wasn’t Qin Lun’s concern.

Just as he’d told Robin, Qin Lun wasn’t the team’s babysitter. Besides, killing a High-Rank Apostle here would also aid Lost’s current predicament. At least the two major alliances, Chaos and Apostle Monument, would have reservations and hesitate to poach recklessly.

Chasing down from the sky into the drifting dust clouds over the mountains, Wolf suddenly jolted as if struck by lightning. A wave of deathly peril, as palpable as standing before the God of Death himself, engulfed him.

“HAH!” The deputy leader of the Holy Light Team bellowed, eyes blazing. Layer upon layer of spatial ripples materialized instantly before him. Almost simultaneously, a point of dazzling light appeared before his eyes, traveling as fast as instant teleportation…