Chapter 391 - 389: Silent Rage

Chapter 391: Chapter 389: Silent Rage

After eliminating this Shadow Realm creature, Blaise and the others could finally breathe a small sigh of relief.

Killing a Magic Controller in their condition had pushed them to their absolute limit. Although it only took a few strikes, the mental energy they expended was immense.

Furthermore, their Magic Power was a non-renewable resource. Fearing their attacks wouldn’t be strong enough, they had essentially gone overboard, and the eight who participated in the attack had used up more than half of their reserves.

"To be able to ambush and kill it at such a small cost means our luck is pretty good."

Brown took a few deep breaths, releasing all his pent-up stress.

"Maki, how are you?"

"Just a scratch!"

Maki glanced at his right arm. The remaining Magic Power in his body had already helped seal the artery, and the power of a Flower of Life was forming a thin film over the wound.

"We can’t stay here any longer."

Although he was reluctant, Blaise decisively gave the order to retreat.

The sixteen of them could only turn in unison toward the city center and give a solemn salute, pressing their fists to their hearts—a final farewell to the Secret Realm Guardian.

It wasn’t that they didn’t want to press on, but that they no longer had the strength. They would have to be careful just to get out of the city.

Seeds appeared one by one in everyone’s hands.

In Blaise’s hand was a Sound Transmission Flower Seed. He activated it with a thought, sending out a report with the intel that Magic Creatures—specifically, a creature from the Shadow Realm—had appeared.

Meanwhile, several other Knight Order reservists used their remaining Magic Power to slightly stimulate their seeds. The Demon Seeds in their hands immediately sprouted and leaped from their palms like fleas.

Each one found the corpse of a Demon and burrowed inside.

"This scene is pretty unnerving. Good thing they’re on our side! Let’s go!"

SWISH, SWISH, SWISH.

The moment the seeds were all released and the order was given, the sixteen of them made a swift retreat.

On the Demon corpses, tendrils extended from the seeds, branching out and growing within seconds. As the bodies shriveled at a visible rate, menacing Demonized Plants had already covered an area of over ten square meters.

And the one thing there was no shortage of was corpses. Left unattended for just a few minutes, two whole city blocks were enveloped in a vast, dark-green shadow.

It wasn’t just the surface that was covered; the network underground was even more extensive than the one above.

Another group of otherworldly creatures appeared nearby. Although they were highly alert to the strange green growth, they had no idea that the roots underground had already spread much farther through the soil.

PFFT! PFFT! PFFT...

Whether it was concrete or the soil of the greenbelts, the roots burst through everything, ensnaring or impaling the Demons on the surface before they could even react.

Not a drop of blood was left, as it was all absorbed by the roots.

The dozen or so plants continuously transported nutrients to the central point where they first sprouted. There, a tree-like plant was coalescing and growing.

The vines twisted together to form a large tree with a dense crown, and a flower bud at the very top grew steadily larger.

About ten minutes after Blaise and his group had fled, the enormous flower bloomed, releasing a strange fragrance that drifted in all directions.

Upon smelling it, all sorts of Otherworldly Demons were irresistibly drawn by the fragrance and began moving in that direction. Even some of the Magic Creatures, despite knowing something was wrong with the scent, couldn’t help but want a closer look.

The strange flower’s greatest function was to attract attention. Its fragrance traveled extremely far and fast, and the scent lingered for a long time.

It would at least help draw a great deal of attention away from Blaise and his team. Perhaps it could also help other survivors, if there were any left.

This long night was finally coming to an end. Blaise led his comrades on a continuous breakout from their position near the city center.

BOOM! BOOM!

Two grenades exploded in the distance. A reservist shook out his hand, then pulled the pins on the remaining three and launched them like cannonballs.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

After the explosions, the dozen or so wounded people picked up their pace again.

The complete contamination of San Francisco City and its surroundings was constantly spreading, creating the illusion that the path of their breakout was endless.

No matter how far they pushed, no matter how many they killed, there were always more Demons ahead. They could never see a safe location.

They had long since left the urban area. Although houses still appeared occasionally, they were now in the San Francisco Suburbs or even farther out.

A reservist leaped to a peculiar indentation on the ground—the regular tracks of a heavy object having been rolled over it.

"A mobile Armed Defense Station... it’s already been dismantled. They’re not that stupid, then!"

"Don’t underestimate those Generals. They might not be physically strong, but when it comes to strategic vision and judgment, we’re not even in the same league."

These tracks were clearly from the defense perimeter that was meant to be established here earlier. But when they discovered the contact points were spreading, the order was decisively given to dismantle the station and retreat.

"There aren’t many shell casings on the ground. They must have evacuated right after discovering the issue, avoiding a situation where the defensive line got encircled. The Commander is a sharp one!" Blaise concluded.

They stopped for less than a minute, but all sorts of Demons had already appeared in their line of sight again, including some bizarre-looking monsters that reeked of rot.

"Ghouls... What kind of world are we up against?"

"Keep pushing, no more breaks!"

Their speed had been dragged down again and again by their declining stamina and the increasing number of Demons.

They brandished their Magic Steel Weapons once more, and their Magic Steel Hand Cannons were reloaded.

...

The sky was already brightening. Five helicopters circled cautiously on the city’s outskirts, keeping a visual distance from each other.

One of the pilots noticed intermittent blips appearing on his Radar screen. He immediately used the VHF radio to repeatedly send a warning to the other aircraft.

With a clear line of sight in the air, VHF communication was still somewhat effective.

"Attention, coordinates XXX.XXX. Suspected aerial targets."

A few dozen seconds later, seven or eight four-winged, monstrous birds, slightly larger than the helicopters, flew closer and closer.

SCREEECH!

The piercing cry made the Soldiers inside the helicopters frown. Their headsets had good noise-cancellation; if they’d heard it with their bare ears, their eardrums probably wouldn’t have taken it well.

"C-formation! Cannons, open fire!"

After the command was repeated three times, all helicopters received the order and turned their noses.

RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT... RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT...

......

The 20mm rapid-fire cannons spewed long tongues of flame. With a tracer round mixed in every few bullets, the five helicopters seemed to be lashing out with five long whips made of light.

THWACK! THWACK! THWACK! THWACK...

The four in the lead were torn to shreds in an instant by the immense kinetic energy of the cannon fire. The other four scattered to the sides in a panic.

The RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT... continued unabated. The streams of tracers truly looked like whips, arcing to chase down their targets. After four or five seconds of concentrated fire, the remaining four were sent plummeting back to the ground.

Attacking like this from a hovering helicopter gave the pilots an unreal feeling, like they were playing an FPS game.

The people in the aircraft were a thousand meters in the air, looking down at the distant San Francisco City. There were no sounds of gunfire, no glow of fires—only the dark specks of monsters could be seen.

"When I came here two weeks ago, it was still a bustling city down there," a Soldier lamented.

Just then, more blips appeared on the Radar. The pilot checked the remaining ammunition for the onboard weapons and chose to notify the formation to withdraw.

More than ten minutes after the helicopters left, Blaise and his group arrived at an unknown location on the ground.

"These winged things... their bodies aren’t cold yet. They must have been shot down by military aircraft."

Blaise hissed in a pained breath. After inspecting the corpse, he collapsed right on top of it.

"If we had gotten here a little earlier, maybe they could’ve given us a ride..." Maki said, a hint of regret in his voice.

"Haha, don’t be silly. They would never land in a place like this."

This area should have been relatively barren, but now it was like a sparse forest. Nature’s frenzy during this time had spread green everywhere.

Three reservists leaped into the nearby trees, plucked some very tempting-looking fruits, and tossed them to their exhausted companions.

By the time day broke, aside from their encounter with the Shadow Realm creature, they’d had two more near-death experiences and lost three more comrades.

Now, all thirteen survivors were injured.

They still had some Flowers of Life, but these "minor injuries" weren’t worth wasting them on. As for the Vermilion Fruits used to restore stamina, those had been consumed long ago.

However, having reached this location, they had mostly escaped the most dangerous area. The density of Demons was noticeably lower.

The plucked fruits could only restore a limited amount of energy. The immense crises they had faced earlier had drained everyone’s stamina, but they were enough to quench their thirst.

The sensation of moisture soothing his dry mouth was so comforting that it allowed Blaise a moment of relaxation. By the time he felt a sharp pain in his mind, it was too late.

His vision blurred and doubled. The colors of several nearby trees and the dirt on the ground began to shift—it was all fake.

’An illusion Ability?’

He saw Maki roaring madly as he threw his weapon, saw a few comrades collapse helplessly to the ground, and even saw several others take out explosives.

BOOM!

An explosion erupted in the wooded area. The shockwave toppled a circle of trees and tore up a patch of ground.

...

When Blaise woke up, the left side of his body was in excruciating pain, while his right side was completely numb.

He could feel someone carrying him on their back, running frantically. In his weakened mental state, he could barely perceive that there were at most three others around him.

The midday sun was nothing like it should be in early spring; it felt scorching, as if the sun was desperately unleashing its brilliance to help the world resist the darkness.

Neil and Oliver insisted on staying at the established defensive line, unwilling to retreat to the civilian settlement.

So much time had passed, and Blaise still hadn’t emerged. They could only console themselves with the thought that perhaps he had broken through in a different direction.

Before lunch, they received a notification. The two of them dropped their utensils and rushed out with the Soldiers.

They saw five Dawn Members in the camp’s temporary hospital.

They were all lying on hospital beds as doctors urgently treated their injuries.

Half of Blaise’s body was horrifically mangled, like a torn rag doll. The hands of a doctor operating on him were trembling so badly that an older doctor who hurried over had to take his place.

Their injuries were each more severe than the last. A normal person would have died a hundred times over from such wounds.

A few nurses tried to take their weapons away but found they couldn’t pry open their tightly gripped hands.

In truth, even if they could, they wouldn’t have been able to lift them.

Outside the surgical tent, crowds of Soldiers who had previously retreated from the city were gathered. No one spoke; they just waited in silence.

About an hour and a half later, several Dawn Members arrived at the defensive line and took the five dying patients, along with Oliver and her son.

...

Los Angeles, United States. The 19th Organization Branch Center.

Baru, sitting at his desk, crushed the lighter in his hand into a metal ball as if it were clay.

"Master Sage, I want to go to San Francisco!"

A Sound Transmission Flower seed automatically withered in his palm. About half a minute later, the phone on his desk rang twice and then stopped.

His face was expressionless as his body, more powerful and sturdily built than a brown bear’s, rose from the chair in his office.