Chapter 454 - 428: Severed Arms and True Face

Chapter 454: Chapter 428: Severed Arms and True Face

A dark-red beam of Energy slammed into the spot where Roland had been, triggering a small-scale Annihilation explosion.

Murky smoke and swirling dust instantly filled the air, obscuring the area from view. A nauseating stench of decaying Energy hung in the air.

Beneath his faceplate, Hagry’s lips twisted into a savage grin as he roared internally.

’The power of the Corrosive Hand Cannon... not even that old bastard Tangde would dare take a direct hit! This damned Veil Breaker must be nothing but ash by now!’

A potent mix of confidence and cruel excitement coursed through him, convincing him that victory was at hand.

’Now, I just have to charge over and put my sword through his remains to make absolutely sure!’

With that thought, he tightened his grip on the hilt of his Chainsaw Sword, and its spinning teeth whirred with even greater excitement.

At the same time, one of his arms shoved the controls for his vehicle, pushing its power to the maximum.

The metal mount beneath him let out a strained roar as its speed skyrocketed. Like a frenzied iron beast, it charged brazenly toward the lingering cloud of smoke and dust.

The gale-force wind from the Magic Vehicle’s high-speed Charge instantly tore an opening through the billowing dust cloud.

Hagry’s eyes bulged, eager to witness his opponent’s mangled corpse. He even licked his dry lips in excitement.

However, the moment the dust parted, the cruel smile on his face froze, replaced by utter shock and disbelief.

Inside the smoke...

...there was nothing.

There were no remains as he’d expected, no dismembered body, not even a single trace of blood.

’How is this possible?’ Alarm bells screamed in his mind. All four of his arms tensed instinctively as his head whipped around, desperately trying to catch a glimpse of the phantom-like figure.

In the same instant that panic seized him over his vanished target, a deep, resonant voice laced with unmistakable ridicule sounded as if it were right beside his ear.

"Nice toy. A pity it’s a little slow."

The voice was so close it made his skin crawl! Hagry could even feel the faint puff of air from the words brushing against his helmet.

Before the voice had even faded, Hagry was given no chance to pinpoint its location.

A brilliant golden streak, like a bolt of lightning tearing through the gloom, suddenly carved an exquisite and deadly arc through the air.

SWISH!

SWISH!

Two sickening thuds—the sound of a sharp blade shearing through metal and flesh—rang out almost simultaneously.

They were followed by two sharp clatters as heavy objects hit the ground.

Hagry blinked, his gaze instinctively dropping toward the sound.

He saw his prized Chainsaw Sword, its teeth still spinning wildly, and his Corrosive Hand Cannon, its muzzle still glowing with the embers of dark-red Energy. Both now lay silently on the ground, along with his severed limbs.

’Wha... what just happened?’

The dazed thought had just trickled like an icy stream through his fear-frozen mind.

Only then did a heart-rending, indescribable agony—like a delayed tsunami—erupt from the stumps of his two arms, instantly overwhelming his entire nervous system.

It wasn’t the clean pain of a cut, but a brutal combination of searing heat and the feeling of being torn apart.

"ARGH!"

A blood-curdling scream, completely distorted by the pain, erupted from beneath his helmet.

Blood gushed from his severed arms like a ruptured waterskin. His Power was instantly drained, and he lost all control of the rampaging vehicle beneath him.

CRASH!

The out-of-control Magic Vehicle suddenly skidded like a headless fly.

Its metal frame shrieked as it scraped against the ground before it lost balance completely, tumbling and skidding sideways and kicking up a massive cloud of dust and rubble.

Hagry was thrown violently from the vehicle by the immense inertia. He slammed hard into the ground and rolled several times before coming to a stop.

He struggled, trying to push himself up with his two remaining arms, but the searing pain and massive blood loss made his vision swim with black spots.

Before he could even lift his head, an ice-cold sensation pressed precisely against the exposed skin of his neck.

It was the only gap in his full-body Armor.

He struggled to lift his heavy head, bit by agonizing bit.

In his blurry vision, a pair of gray eyes, cold as ancient glaciers, slowly came into focus.

Roland stood before him, the icy tip of his Moonlight Longsword held steady against his throat.

Hagry could feel his life hanging by a thread.

He painfully swallowed a mouthful of bloody saliva. A voice, hoarse with pain and Fear, squeezed out from beneath his helmet.

"Who... who in the hell... are you?"

Roland looked down at him, his gray eyes devoid of emotion, and calmly repeated what he had said before.

"I told you. I’m just a traveler passing through."

Seeing that Hagry was completely incapacitated, Roland sheathed his Longsword and called out toward the Shell Ship.

"Duraga, clean up the battlefield!"

Then he turned to Avril, who had leaped lightly to his side.

"Tie him up. Be careful."

The Elf Maiden nodded and skillfully retrieved a sturdy rope.

Roland, meanwhile, turned and walked over to the two severed arms.

He squatted down and pried the Chainsaw Sword and the strange Hand Cannon from the stiff, severed hands that still gripped them tightly.

Then he began to examine them.

The Chainsaw Sword’s blade wasn’t a traditional edge but a row of tightly packed metal teeth, constantly spinning at high speed. A driveshaft inside a complex mechanism in the hilt drove the teeth, giving the entire weapon a crude yet violent aesthetic.

It was less a sword and more an industrial tool built for the sole purpose of tearing things apart.

The Hand Cannon was even stranger. It was cast entirely from dark metal, with a short, thick barrel covered in heat vents and conduits of unknown purpose. The grip also contained an engine-like structure that was currently emitting a faint heat and residual Energy fluctuations.

Roland’s Perception was keen. He could tell that the true driving force for both the Chainsaw Sword and the Hand Cannon came from a continuously operating core located somewhere in the grip or inside the weapon, a core that emitted an unstable, ghostly light.

’And this core...’

Roland narrowed his eyes, focusing his Perception. An instant later, a flicker of surprise crossed his face.

The essence of the core’s Energy was almost identical to the stagnant, chaotic, and bizarre Magic Power in the air. In fact, it seemed to be a highly compressed and constrained form of it.

Using this strange Magic Power to cast Magic that required fine control and an orderly structure would be inefficient and greatly reduce its potency.

However, for powering these relatively simple "devices" that were designed for instantaneous Energy release, it was a perfect fit.

Its inherently disordered and chaotic Traits meant that by using a specific device to provide minimal guidance and set a simple release variable, the vast, volatile Energy contained within could be unleashed in an instant, converted into terrifying destructive force.

It was just like...

Recalling the dark-red beam from the Hand Cannon—a blast capable of material Annihilation—a chill ran down Roland’s spine.

The Power of that single shot was, to some extent, comparable to a weakened version of [Dragon’s Breath].

Achieving that with a weapon powered by an external device was simply incredible.

’However...’

Roland weighed the heavy Hand Cannon in his hand before stuffing it into his pack.

’The speed... it’s just too slow.’

No matter how astonishing its power, it was meaningless if it couldn’t hit its target.

In a true battle between Transcendents, that brief charging time and projectile delay were more than enough to determine life or death.

Putting his thoughts aside, Roland turned back to the bound Hagry.

By now, Avril’s nimble hands had bound Hagry so tightly that he looked like a giant maggot writhing on the ground.

Avril herself stood a few steps away, fanning the air in front of her nose with a look of undisguised disgust on her lovely face.

"Roland, next time, let’s have Galvis do the tying up. This guy... he has this stench that just won’t go away."

Her words made Roland notice it too—a strange odor was indeed emanating from Hagry.

It wasn’t the usual smell of dirt or sweat, but something deeper and more disturbing...

...like a pungent mixture of rotting organic matter and some kind of chemical Potion.

It was the foul stench of putrefaction, as if his very flesh were slowly rotting.

This discovery made Roland raise an eyebrow. He took the hard tip of his scabbard, inserted it precisely into the seam where Hagry’s helmet met his chestplate, and with a clever flick of his wrist, pried it open.

CRACK!

With the sharp crack of a metal clasp breaking, the heavy, scratch-covered helmet covering Hagry’s face and head fell off and rolled to the ground.

"Ah!"

The instant Hagry’s true face was revealed, Avril let out a short cry of alarm. Her pupils constricted, and she instinctively backed away, nearly hiding behind Roland.

Even the composed Roland couldn’t help but frown deeply at the sight of that face, his eyes filled with utter bewilderment.

Exposed in the dim light was a face that couldn’t be called "normal" by any stretch of the imagination.

His skin was a sickly, mottled blue-gray, as if devoid of all vitality.

But the most horrifying part was the ghastly sight of new growth and decay coexisting on this deathly canvas.

Some areas were swollen with pink, grotesque tissues that proliferated wildly like granulation flesh. They twisted and squirmed, trying to cover everything.

Other areas, however, had completely rotted away, revealing blackened, pus-oozing necrotic muscle and even glimpses of the bone beneath.

The new and old tissues intertwined, as if waging a silent, brutal war that twisted his face into a living, indescribable nightmare.

The thick, putrid stench originated from this very sight.