Chapter 274 - 270: Shooting Oneself in the Foot

Chapter 274: Chapter 270: Shooting Oneself in the Foot

The intense sounds of gunfire and explosions had long since alerted nearby residents and workers. If the police hadn’t explained the situation beforehand, the Metropolitan Police Department’s emergency lines would have likely been overwhelmed.

This area was similar to an industrial park. There weren’t many true residential clusters, but they existed. More numerous were the commercial office buildings and corporate towers that dotted the landscape.

At this moment, nearby residents and those still working overtime late into the night began receiving notifications from the police, property management, or security. For those who didn’t respond, authorities would try to notify them in person.

"Hurry up and get on the bus! Keep moving, people in the back! Let’s go, let’s go! As soon as it’s full, get it out of here..."

Police and the Land Defense Army were maintaining order and organizing the resident evacuation. Buses that had just arrived were now being boarded.

Overtime workers, night owls, residents in their pajamas, and even late-night "hospitality" workers—the people, some panicked and some dazed, arrived at the evacuation point to this very scene.

Everything was being handled as a top-priority emergency.

For special incidents, the Metropolitan Police Department had the authority to manage non-standard crises. This meant they could force local government cooperation without providing any explanation, but they would have to give a reasonable one afterward or face political accusations.

This command was not only politically risky but also one that made a lot of enemies. In truth, the crises Japan had faced before were not this extreme. This was the first time such an order had ever been used.

Fortunately, this was a business district, so the number of people to mobilize late at night wasn’t too large. Furthermore, anyone a few kilometers away was at least outside the blast radius of weapons of mass destruction.

That’s right. Since conventional weapons were proving ineffective, the relevant Japanese departments were already prepared to accept heavy collateral damage.

Several helicopter gunships had already taken off and were en route. Additionally, two fighter jets armed with air-to-ground attack missiles were now airborne.

Kumamoto Taro had not yet informed the three mysterious men who were in the thick of the fight.

Conducting a ground bombardment in East Great Capital, the Capital of Japan, was no small matter. The explosive yield of the missiles was enough to completely destroy the TV station building, with a shockwave far beyond what a rocket-propelled grenade could produce.

Unless it was an absolute last resort, the Special Affairs Agency would not give the order to attack.

...

Hanato Doichi, Clooney, and Zuo Zhongqiu had no mind to spare for any of this. After the rocket attack, although the Magic Power signature was still strong, a brief silence fell over the building.

"Too slow! They’re too damn slow! These Japanese guys are moving way too slow!"

Clooney listened to the sounds around him. The hustle and bustle of the civilian evacuation drifted in intermittently. He knew he couldn’t blame Japan’s Special Affairs Agency, as very little time had actually passed, but he couldn’t help but complain to relieve the pressure.

"Clooney, if the Captain heard you right now, he’d definitely knock some sense into you with a punch."

"Quiet! Something’s not right!"

The Puppet Demon Spirit. As its name suggests, it belongs to a special category—the Demon Spirits.

Demon Spirits are neither Natural Spirits nor Yin Spirits. Although they fall into the category of Magic Creatures, they still possess certain obsessive traits.

From this perspective, there’s some logic to how certain worlds attribute the origin of Demon Spirits to products of obsession, but the theory of Magic Power Spiritualization is the more mainstream view.

In other words, its body and soul can be seen as a special kind of active Magic Power, possessing the same penetrative properties. It’s just that the fundamental Magic Power that constitutes its life cannot be easily used.

In this respect, they actually fit the concept of Ghost Souls from Earth’s legends better than most Yin Spirits, only they are much stronger.

There aren’t many known types of Demon Spirits, and some unknown ones might even be mistaken for Yin Spirits. The Puppet Demon Spirit is one of the most famous.

Its "Intentional Limbs" and "Puppet Strings" can be interchanged within the range of its Magic Power radiation. Very few have ever seen its true form; at least, there’s no description of it in the Association’s records.

Several minutes had passed since the rocket explosions, but the Puppet Demon Spirit had made no new moves, making the three reservists uneasy.

’What is it doing?’

SWOOSH SWOOSH SWOOSH~~

Another dozen or so rockets came flying in. But this time, hearing the whistle of them tearing through the air, a sudden sense of alarm flared up in the three reservists.

"Crap!" "Dodge!!"

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Force exploded from their feet, shattering the ground as they scattered to evade at their top speed.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!...

A dozen or so rockets peppered the area in front of the building, erupting in violent explosions and engulfing the three powerful figures in fire and light.

In the temporary command post on a distant rooftop, Kumamoto Taro and the other command personnel froze in shock.

"What the hell are those bastards in the Land Defense Army doing!!!"

From the dozen or so fire support positions on surrounding rooftops and on the ground, furious roars from command came crackling over the radio.

"Squad 03, what are you doing?! Your objective is to provide cover for the three mysterious individuals and attack the building..."

"Squad 06, report the reason for that last volley..."

"Squad 01, who gave the order to fire?"

...

The roars over the radio received no response.

At the rocket team positions, the gunners were still pulling the triggers nonstop, as if hoping their empty launchers would fire again. Meanwhile, the soldiers responsible for reloading and providing cover were either on the ground vomiting or had collapsed, unconscious.

In front of the building, the smoke from the explosions gradually began to clear.

"Cough cough..." "Cough cough... Ptui..."

Hanato Doichi and Zuo Zhongqiu coughed up and spat out mouthfuls of blood. Clooney climbed out of a nearby patch of grass.

These were high-explosive rockets. Even without a direct hit, the force of the blasts was not to be underestimated. A normal person would have been killed instantly.

Due to its unfamiliarity with human anatomy and modern firearms, the puppeted soldiers’ accuracy was nowhere near that of a human Soldier. This resulted in the rockets being scattered rather than aimed.

Trying to simply rush out of the kill zone might have actually led to getting hit.

The three of them relied on their danger Perception, rapidly changing positions based on the rockets’ arrival and detonation sequence to evade most of the damage. They weathered the remaining impact with their superhuman physiques.

To those watching nervously from near and far through binoculars and other scopes, the scene that unfolded was of three figures rising to their feet again amidst the smoke.

Though their clothes were tattered and they looked utterly wretched, to outside observers, these three had somehow survived what looked like a dozen direct hits from rockets.

’At the epicenter of such an explosion, wouldn’t even an armored vehicle be blown to bits?’

"So this... is the Puppet... Demon Spirit?"

They had only scrapes on the outside, but their internal organs had suffered a significant shock.

Clooney was in better shape than his two comrades. He walked over to stand with Hanato Doichi and Zuo Zhongqiu again.

The three of them took out petals from the Flower of Life and a few Vermilion Fruits from hidden pockets in their clothes, putting them all in their mouths to chew.

From the moment they’d intervened until now, a mere ten-odd minutes had passed, yet they had already consumed more than a third of their Magic Power. And this was while the Demon Spirit was clearly just toying with them.

At this point, the Special Affairs Agency belatedly realized that their fire support positions must have been puppeted again. Soldiers had already been dispatched to injure and subdue the controlled personnel.

They then abandoned the outer fire support positions entirely, with all personnel pulling back to a safer distance.

A helicopter circled in the distance overhead, its loudspeaker blaring.

"Attention, three volunteer fighters. We will be launching air-to-ground missiles in 30 seconds. The building is estimated to be completely destroyed in one minute..."

Cold sweat broke out on the three men as they heard this. Their first reaction was to roar at the sky.

"Don’t say it out loud! It can understand you!!!"

Unless transmitted through means devoid of mental fluctuations, like television or telephone, understanding language was a common ability for Magic Creatures. Those with strong control could even transmit linguistic intent through Magic Power vibrations.

Although the helicopter was using a loudspeaker, at this distance the mental fluctuations were still exceptionally clear. It was almost a hundred percent certain that the Puppet Demon Spirit understood what was just said.

Unfortunately, it was too late to shout a warning.

BOOM! A tremendous crash echoed out.

Many of the TV station’s curtain wall glass panels that hadn’t yet shattered suddenly detached. They shot out like playing cards flicked by countless invisible hands, striking the helicopter before it had any chance to evade.

THUD! THUD! THUD!

Three Door-sized panels of curtain wall glass struck the front, middle, and rear of the aircraft in succession. The impact killed most of the pilots and crew instantly.

The helicopter’s main rotor tore off, and the aircraft fell in a parabolic arc, crashing to the ground in the distance.

RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE...

The ground began to tremble slightly. A plume of black smoke, invisible to the naked eye, rose from the building. It was an illusion created by the thrashing of countless ink-black Magic Puppet Threads.

A distorted silhouette with dozens of withered Intentional Limbs appeared outside the building. Its most conspicuous features were a pair of deathly pale eyes. They had no pupils, only concentric coils of gray lines.

In total, it was as large as several buses.

"Shit! Run!!"

Zuo Zhongqiu roared. In an instant, he, Hanato Doichi, and Clooney shattered the ground beneath them and fled outward at top speed.

But after just a moment of mental hesitation, an immense sense of crisis washed over them. They only had time to curl up and raise their arms to block before they vanished from their spots with three loud THWACKS.

The three were sent flying like balls, struck by Magic Puppet Threads that moved as fast as teleportation. They crashed into nearby buildings at a speed even faster than they could move on their own.

SWOOSH SWOOSH SWOOSH~~

BRRRRRRT....

The sounds of countless rockets and airborne rotary cannons filled the air. The six or seven helicopter gunships that had just arrived opened fire with everything they had, their targets all locked on the TV station building.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!...

From the first floor to the seventeenth, the entire TV station building was engulfed in explosions and a sea of fire.

Meanwhile, aboard the F-XX fighter jets, several missiles had been launched the very moment the announcer helicopter was attacked.

The Puppet Demon Spirit’s body had already moved clear of the building, so the continuous explosions and shockwaves landed almost entirely behind it.

But it was clear the flames of the explosions still had some effect on it, forcing it to use its Magic Power to block a portion of the fire and concussive force.

Suspended in the air a dozen meters from the building, the Demon Spirit’s deathly pale eyes watched the burning skyscraper with curiosity. Then, it turned its gaze to the helicopter gunships in the sky that were still pouring down fire.

With a CRACK, Hanato Doichi reset his dislocated left arm. He struggled to climb out of a pile of concrete. To block that last blow, the generative moss on his arm had withered by more than half, and he had spent a huge amount of his Magic Power.

However, the generative moss was truly worthy of being a Tree Shepherd’s symbiotic material. Though it had withered, it was already showing signs of reviving after just a few dozen seconds.

In his line of sight, several tactical missiles were closing in at high speed, trailing flames. The Puppet Demon Spirit had also spotted the missiles, but its attention was focused on the helicopter gunships.

Less than a second after their fiery trails became visible, the missiles plunged diagonally from the sky into the building.

At the same instant, a blinding flash erupted.

BOOM—

An explosion dozens of times more powerful than before sent up a small mushroom cloud, completely engulfing the Puppet Demon Spirit, which was only a dozen or so meters from the building, within its damage radius.