Lord of Prayer

Chapter 140: Chapter 112: I Am Your Dad

“I admit, you’re very strong right now.”

The Gentleman glared at him, his face contorted in a savage expression. “But this is where it ends!”

In that instant, the Gentleman, now in his Corrupted form, vanished. Zhou Chen’s eyes flew open in shock as a chill shot up his spine. The next thing he knew, the world was spinning. With a thunderous crash, he was violently slammed into the ground, sending shattered rock flying.

A furious barrage of fists rained down like a storm, hammering every inch of his Battle Armor. Sparks flew as dents appeared all over the custom Alloy Battle Armor. In a flash, cracks spiderwebbed across its surface, and pieces of the armor began to break away.

The terrifying Power traveled through the Battle Armor and into his body. Agony wracked Zhou Chen from head to toe. His ribs cracked and his arm fractured. Under the intense mental assault inherent to the Corrupter, blood began to seep from his ears and nose.

Zhou Chen kicked out, but the Gentleman simply caught his leg. Grabbing his calf, he swung Zhou Chen around, repeatedly smashing him into the ground. The earth trembled violently, throwing up clouds of dust and sending metal components from the armor flying.

’Damn… I wished my shadow couldn’t be invaded… He isn’t using Shadow Style, he’s just that fast?’ Zhou Chen coughed up a mouthful of blood from the impacts, his Battle Armor now in shambles. He activated the Holy Emblem again, but the moment its sacred aura flared, the Gentleman had already tossed him aside and retreated into the distance.

’He’s faster than Shadow Style!’

The Gentleman plunged his hands into the ground, ripped out a massive chunk of concrete, and hurled it with all his strength. At the same time, the Shadow Demon Pool at his feet began to surge and spread, threatening to swallow Zhou Chen.

Zhou Chen rolled to dodge the incoming concrete. The gun he’d been holding was completely destroyed in the earlier beating and was now useless. Instead, he skillfully flicked out a bullet with his hand, but the Gentleman was already nowhere in sight.

Suddenly, his danger sense blared a powerful warning. He vanished in an instant, activating Forbidden Object C-059: Hidden Dragon to become a shadow that floated away. A moment later, a thick, sharp, black Long Saber slammed down on the spot where he had just stood.

“A Shadow Type Artifact? You’ve got quite the collection of toys, don’t you…”

The Gentleman turned slowly, a cold sneer on his face as he watched Zhou Chen materialize in the distance. His eyes were shot with blood.

One of his arms had taken the shape of a Long Saber, but it reverted to normal a second later. His body was now half flesh and half Shadow Matter, allowing him to alter his physical structure at will.

A foul wind rushed past as the Gentleman attacked again. In his degenerate Corrupter state, his Power and speed far surpassed their previous levels. This time, however, he was noticeably slower.

The injuries he had sustained earlier were starting to flare up, especially the Soul-Burning Flame that had invaded his body. The longer it burned, the more intense the effect became, pushing his already damaged mind to the brink of collapse.

’But I just need to finish Zhou Chen before that happens!’

Just then, the Gentleman noticed something odd. Zhou Chen had removed the helmet of his Battle Armor and put on a pair of black sunglasses.

VROOOOOM!!!

The roar of a chainsaw suddenly erupted. Right in front of him, the Gentleman saw Zhou Chen pull a high-speed, spinning chainsaw from his tactical backpack and swing it down in a vertical chop.

The Gentleman was horrified. ’My burst speed is faster than Shadow Style! How did he sense me?’

’He couldn’t possibly have seen me!!!’

In a flash of white sparks, the rapidly spinning chainsaw sent a spray of black flesh flying. The Gentleman was sliced in two.

’I wish for the wounds from the Bloodthirsty Chainsaw to be temporarily unhealable!’

Zhou Chen made the wish internally. Gritting his teeth, he followed up with a backhanded slash, swinging the Bloodthirsty Chainsaw with all his might.

The Gentleman raised a hand to block, but the chainsaw shredded it as easily as a piece of paper.

Vicious arcs of white light crisscrossed as the chainsaw diced the Gentleman into dozens of pieces.

The fleshy chunks writhed, attempting to fuse back together, but an unknown power was preventing the Gentleman’s Recovery. The sacred aura from the Holy Emblem flared again. In response, the Gentleman hastily converted all his severed pieces into Shadow Matter, which sank into the ground and flowed swiftly toward the distant Shadow Demon Pool.

The moment they converged, a gunshot roared.

A pale, crystalline bullet shot out from Forbidden Object C-048: Sand Shadow. It was a bullet of materialized Essence, formed by condensing a large amount of Zhou Chen’s own Essence. Upon impact, the Cyan Flame would erupt, unleashing a terrifying, incinerating power.

And with Sand Shadow’s unique effect, hitting the shadow meant hitting the body itself.

It was the perfect counter to the Gentleman.

The bullet sank into the Shadow Demon Pool, erupting in a bright, pale blaze. What followed was the Gentleman’s heart-rending scream.

Zhou Chen kept pulling the trigger, not stopping until he had emptied the revolver.

The Shadow Demon Pool began to contract, gradually solidifying back into the Gentleman’s body and shadow. He lay on the ground, gasping for breath, his body twitching and convulsing. Several gruesome, unhealable gunshot wounds marred his form, along with a dense network of cuts from the chainsaw.

His physical wounds refused to heal, but the damage to his mind was even more severe. The combination of the Soul-Shocking Copper Whistle and the Soul-Burning Flame had all but destroyed his psyche. His thoughts were rapidly dissipating; his consciousness was in tatters.

Zhou Chen spat a bloody wad onto the ground. A broken rib had pierced through the flesh of his torso. Luckily, it hadn’t hit any internal organs, but the pain was still intense. He stared coldly at the fallen Corrupter as he used Alchemy to craft more bullets, one by one, and load them into his revolver.

“Gentleman, you should know that the main reason I even took this mission was our personal grudge.

If you lot had succeeded, you would’ve vanished without a trace, and it would’ve been almost impossible to find you again. So when it came to getting my revenge, it was now or never.”

“…Ha… ha… And here I thought you were really here to save Erin…” the Gentleman scoffed wearily. “It seems she’s not that important to you after all.”

“My daughter is important to me, of course. But dealing with you is just as important.”

“…” The Gentleman seemed to pick up on something in Zhou Chen’s words. “You were affected by the Obsession Projector?”

“Probably.”

“Hahaha… Interesting. You actually think Erin is your daughter. Hahahahaha…”

The Gentleman roared with laughter, which turned into a violent coughing fit. “I regret to inform you that your precious daughter is already dead. You’re a pretty pathetic ’father,’ unable to even save your own child. She died a truly miserable, painful death…”

But the impotent fury he expected never came.

The Gentleman knew all about “Wu Cheng’s” obsession. It was an incredibly terrifying and unyielding fixation. Ninety percent of the people affected by the Obsession Projector would have their personalities overwritten by “Wu Cheng’s.” Even a Tier Three Ascender would succumb if they had no defenses against it.

All one had to do was mention to “Wu Cheng” that his daughter was dead, call him a pathetic father, or describe how horribly she died, and he would fly into a blind rage and lose all reason. This was the trap the Gentleman’s group had set for the strike team. Getting even a few members to fall for it would significantly weaken their overall Power.

He’d never thought Zhou Chen would be the one to get hit by it. But he hadn’t lost his sanity; he simply raised his revolver calmly.

“Gentleman, I don’t know if any of this is real or fake. I don’t even know if I’m really Erin’s dad. The only thing I know for sure is this—”

“I might not be her dad, but I’m your daddy!”

BANG BANG BANG…

Along with the gunshots, the Gentleman’s head burst open like a rotten watermelon. His body convulsed once, then went still.

Zhou Chen didn’t advance recklessly. Instead, he formed a few more bullets and fired them over. He was just about to use Alchemy to whip up an Alchemy Bomb and toss it over to make sure the job was done when the Magic Wand on the ground in the distance suddenly glowed with white light and vanished.

“What the fuck?” Zhou Chen froze. That was his loot!

He’d been coveting the Magic Wand’s Abilities for so long!

Things like the Great Transformation of Living People, turning bombs into flowers, turning buildings to sand, Human Body Cutting… they were all incredibly powerful Abilities. Anyone would be jealous.

He hurriedly ran over, only to find the Magic Wand had vanished without a trace.

’Is this… like the Forbidden Objects I borrowed from the Star Association? Does it automatically teleport away when its user dies?’

A wave of disappointment washed over Zhou Chen. But just then, a sound drifted from the distance…

’Piano music?’

He looked toward the source of the sound.

—The auditorium.