Chapter 390 - 388: Not Just Brawn, but Technology

Chapter 390: Chapter 388: Not Just Brawn, but Technology

There were two possibilities.

The first was that they had unknowingly entered something akin to an enemy’s Secret Realm. But Secret Realms couldn’t be created on a whim; if the enemy had that kind of power, the sixteen of them would have been dead several times over by now.

The most likely possibility was that those defensive positions, just like the police station from before, had all been overrun.

"Boss, what do we do?"

Maki rested his giant Serrated Blade on the ground at an angle. The bloodstains on the weapon flowed smoothly down its edge, and the Magic Steel Weapon was once again cold and gleaming.

"Something’s not right. The military is not to be underestimated. Even with the appearance of Yin Spirits, it’s not enough to explain such a bizarre defeat, especially when they had plenty of heavy weaponry."

This feeling reminded Blaise of a special Secret Realm on Dawn Silent Moon Island: the Red Beldam Testing Hall.

It was a training ground where masterful illusory environments were constructed for members of the Knight Order to hone their minds. The most famous training program was called "Solitary Island."

Right now, the sixteen Knight Order members felt as if they were on a solitary island. Aside from the occasional roar of a Demon, everything around them was eerily quiet.

"Has everyone in the city been killed?"

A candidate wearing a heavy Magic Steel Fist Blade on his arm asked in a low voice.

"No. There won’t be many survivors, but there are definitely some."

They all spoke in extremely low voices, using a vocal control technique that made their words raspy and limited how far the sound traveled.

Finding the survivors scattered throughout the city one by one would be no easy task.

Besides, a more powerful Demon must have appeared. They were facing an entire Otherworld; it couldn’t be small fry like before forever.

As the squad leader, Blaise had to think like one.

"We’ll move carefully toward the original location of the Association Secret Realm. See if we can find the members who were guarding it. If not, we’ll consider retreating."

Dawn Members were physically powerful, and their battles were never quiet. Combined with the connection they shared through their brands, if those members were still alive, the chances of finding them were high.

"Let’s move out. Watch your surroundings..."

As Blaise spoke, he suddenly signaled everyone with his eyes. The Magic Power in his arms had already been quietly channeled to his eyes.

Just a moment ago, he had felt his arm grow warm—a sign that something threatening was nearby.

The other fifteen men moved out again with Blaise, and by unspoken agreement, they all began to draw upon the Magic Power they had been carefully conserving all night.

A strange presence drifted around them, like viscous black smoke. The smoke itself didn’t seem to be a single entity, but rather followed them in disconnected wisps as they moved.

’A black shadow... I’ve never seen anything like this...’

The candidates exchanged glances, indicating they were ready.

Blaise abruptly raised his arm, a Magic Steel Hand Cannon appearing in his hand. The other fifteen men drew their own weapons from their hips or from within their "portable pockets," each now holding a Hand Cannon.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!...

Sixteen thunderous gunshots, accompanied by muzzle flashes, erupted almost simultaneously. They were followed by another volley, and then another.

The standard model of the Magic Steel Hand Cannon held twelve rounds. The men fired eight volleys in rapid succession before ceasing.

Blaise leaped to where they had hit the target, only to find something that resembled soot, completely odorless.

"What is this stuff?"

Maki landed beside him, shouldering his Serrated Blade.

"Is this the corpse of this kind of Dem— Hmph!"

Before he could finish his question, Maki instinctively dodged to his left, but he was a step too slow.

With a flash of crimson, his right arm, still tightly gripping its Magic Steel Weapon, was severed cleanly at the shoulder, sending blood everywhere.

Blaise moved in that same instant, charging into Maki like a raging bull and tackling him more than a dozen meters away.

Another candidate leaped up to catch Maki’s severed arm and weapon.

"Damned scum!! It was my shadow!"

Maki’s face was pale as he stuffed a petal from a Flower of Life into his mouth.

The other Knight Order members landed around the pair, forming a defensive perimeter. None of them dared to let their guard down; a strange feeling told them the Demon was still watching.

But for now, while the Magic Power burning in their bodies couldn’t help them perceive the creature directly, it did heighten their reflexes.

In the next moment of silence, a sense of crisis washed over Blaise. He abruptly leaped to the side, dragging Maki with him. The feeling of danger didn’t vanish—it intensified. Acting on a sudden premonition, he spun around and raised his Magic Steel Hand Cannon to block.

CLANG~

The resounding clang appeared and vanished with a shower of sparks.

Out of the corner of his eye, Blaise saw his own shadow bulge outward before snapping back to normal.

"It really is a creature from the Shadow Realm! And a Magic Creature at that!"

The fifteen candidates reacted instantly. Even as Blaise was speaking, they raised their Magic Steel Weapons and swung at their own attacking shadows.

CLANG! CLANG! THUD! BANG!...

Aside from one man who received a nasty gash, everyone else narrowly dodged the successive fatal attacks.

"So many of them at once?"

Maki forcefully contracted his shoulder muscles to staunch the bleeding. He took his severed arm and weapon from his comrade, stuffed them both into his portable pocket, and held his Magic Steel Hand Cannon in his left hand.

Blaise was constantly scanning their surroundings.

"No, there aren’t that many. It’s only one, and we caught it off guard and injured it."

As he spoke, everyone recalled what they knew about such creatures.

The Shadow Realm wasn’t like the Dark Realm where Mumu had come from, nor was it a separate world. It was more of a classification for a type of creature. Since any normal world is composed of both light and shadow, creatures of the Shadow Realm could potentially appear anywhere.

But the emergence of Shadow Realm creatures was often baffling. They seemed to lack any gestation period and would just pop into existence, yet they possessed some traits of living things, such as needing to consume nutrients, the capacity for thought, and emotional desires.

Even Shadow Realm creatures that could communicate were often unable to explain anything about their existence before they appeared, possessing only a few vague, image-like memories.

Therefore, many powerful and erudite Magic Creatures believed it was highly probable that a true Shadow Realm existed—much like the theory of a true Mirror World—but it was a thesis that couldn’t be proven.

However, because Dawn possessed the Demon Eye, they had some authority when it came to claims about the Mirror World.

It was safe to say that the Mirror World most likely didn’t exist. Any creatures that appeared through mirrors were probably using a clever trick, similar to the Demon Eye, though their methods were likely less sophisticated. They never revealed their secrets, all to maintain an aura of mystery.

"I’d say being able to use our own shadows against us means its control over Magic Power is considerable. It already qualifies as one of the Otherworld’s Magic Controllers."

The member with the Fist Blade remarked.

This wasn’t just a casual remark.

The shadow of a human, or any living being for that matter, isn’t just a simple shadow. It also projects a portion of one’s Soul Spiritual Power. This is why some old superstitions warned children not to play by stepping on shadows; there was a grain of truth to it.

The bodies and souls of the Knight Order candidates were already quite powerful. It could be said that all sixteen people standing here had the potential to become Official Knights.

Their shadows couldn’t be controlled by just any run-of-the-mill creature from the Shadow Realm.

"It seems the guardians of the Association Secret Realm have likely met a grim fate."

"A Magic Creature would definitely sense our Magic Power. For it to linger means it’s confident it can kill every last one of us!"

As Blaise said this, the bridge of his nose twitched slightly. He clearly wasn’t as calm as his tone suggested.

Anger was written on the faces of the others as well.

A large part of it was grief and indignation for their fallen comrades, but it was also the fury of being underestimated.

"Heh heh heh... So we’re being treated like small fry, are we...?"

"Heheheh..." "Hahahaha..." "Hah..."

...

Including Maki, who had lost an arm, all sixteen of them began to laugh, their chuckles carrying a mad, terrifying edge.

And with their laughter, their body temperatures began to change.

The Demon blood on their bodies, affected by the rising heat, began to steam. As the heat from their bodies met the cold night air, all sixteen of them became shrouded in white mist under the starry sky.

The enemy hadn’t attacked again, likely because it found them to be a handful and was trying to stall. It was probably waiting for other Demons to be drawn to the commotion.

Time was not on their side, and they couldn’t afford to hesitate. Thankfully, the existence of their portable pockets made many things much more convenient.

"Just one measly Demon dares to look down on us... I know you can understand me. This world of ours is—Attack!"

Blaise roared the command without finishing his sentence.

Eight of the sixteen men had already covertly prepared something. They had pulled the pins and started a countdown. Upon hearing Blaise’s command, they threw the flashbangs in their hands toward their calculated positions.

Less than a second after leaving their hands, FWOOSH! FWOOSH! FWOOSH! Eight explosions merged into a single, blinding flash of light. The light was so sudden it blanketed every blind spot, making shadows vanish or warp in an instant.

THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD!...

The concrete pavement beneath their feet cracked and caved in, forming eight craters.

Eight figures, eyes narrowed, vanished the instant the flashbangs detonated. The Magic Steel melee weapons in their hands hummed with Magic Power, overflowing with their own Soul Nature.

Creatures from the Shadow Realm couldn’t hide in the shadows of living beings. They could use the shadows of inanimate objects for concealment, but they were still physical life forms with bodies and forms. They couldn’t truly merge with a shadow, much less teleport between them. Eliminate the shadow they were hiding in, and they would be exposed.

’There’s no way your reaction speed is faster than light!’

"Die!!!"

A blind spot by a building, previously shrouded in darkness, was hit by the flashbangs. The building’s shadow vanished instantly, revealing a patch of viscous shadow that had been hiding within.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!...

Magic Steel Weapons were no ordinary items, and that held true even for their alloyed versions. Infused with Magic Power, the melee weapons struck with the destructive force of cannonballs. The building was half-demolished under the eight-man assault, and the shadow was blasted apart into fragments.

It was as if the eight of them had anticipated the Demon’s possible hiding spot before the flashbangs even went off, decisively choosing the most likely location. This was how they were able to land their attacks the very instant of the detonation.

This was a testament to the tactical prowess of the Knight Order’s members.

However, an attack of this level wasn’t enough to kill it. But at that exact moment, a second, perfectly timed round of flashbangs detonated in the air from adjusted angles.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!...

This time, it was gunfire.

The scattered fragments of shadow, resembling the small clumps of viscous smoke from before, were frantically fired upon by the candidates with their Magic Steel Hand Cannons, which they had somehow already reloaded.

They fired their Anti-Magic Bullets as if they were free.

Two seconds later, everything fell silent.

"It’s not as simple as you think!"

Only then did Blaise finish the sentence he had started to lure the enemy in, the one he had cut off so abruptly. However, the warmth returning to his arm told him that the Demon was no longer able to hear it.

The Magic Power the sixteen of them wielded wasn’t their own; it was scarce, yet highly volatile. As a Magic Creature from the Shadow Realm, it should have been able to sense this.

Perhaps it had been on guard, but it had instinctively dismissed the sixteen of them as a major threat. It probably never imagined they would use flashbangs.