The Ultimate Evolution

After hearing Sheyan’s analysis, Aziz turned around and looked at him in disbelief. “She has such a deep mind?”

“It’s nothing,” said Sheyan with a smirk. “She thinks she has us contestants under control because if Gothmog dies, all of us are finished, so she’s not worried at all. But she doesn’t realise that she’s dragging Glory Party’s reputation through the mud. Who else would cooperate with them after this? That’s a woman’s shortsightedness for you. She only saw what’s in front of her, and not the overall situation. Ugh….”

At the last sentence, Sheyan saw Zi looking over with a weird smile on her face, so he immediately shut his mouth and dared not say another word.

Fortunately, the situation on Gothmog’s side was still under control. There were still a few dozen elite Uruk-hai around him. He appeared to be really angry. He was currently shouting and yelling at his underlings passionately, commanding them to pincer the enemies from the left and right.

Orcs and Uruk-hai were renowned to be fearless of death, and the host of Uruk-hai around Gothmog were the cream of the crop. They could frequently be seen suicidally leaping at the King’s Riders to drag them down from their horses.

The fanatical Gothmog roared and bellowed to encourage this kind of behavior, but King Theoden’s heart was dripping blood. Each of his King’s Riders was precious. Every one of them he lost would require a great deal of effort to retrain again, cavalrymen and horses both.

Sheyan suddenly looked to the distance. The Orcs who were responsible for defending against attacks from Minas Tirith had been defeated by a mixed regiment of foreign cavalry and contestants from the city. They were advancing rapidly in this direction, cutting through the Orc army like a dagger. Obviously, they were also targeting Gothmog, intending to defeat the leader of the enemy army!

Sheyan narrowed his eyes. “This is a chance,” he said in a low voice.

Aziz’s eyes seemed to glow like the sparks of gunshots. “A chance? You mean a chance to turn the tables?”

“That’s right,” Sheyan nodded. “When the mice hide in the mousehole, they’re very hard to catch, but if they decide to come out and seek death themselves, the mousehole will become defenceless. If we can somehow charge past them, we might even be able to charge right into Minas Tirith. Don’t forget, the key to winning this war is not to kill a certain number of enemies, but to conquer the White Tower of Minas Tirith!”

Sheyan was looking at his hands as he explained. He could not help but ask himself: was it time for him to go all out? If he could end this war right here and now, it would be a much better plan than what he originally had in mind.

Following Sheyan’s order, the entire party started to charge towards the mixed regiment coming from the opposite direction. Aziz seemed to have disappeared into thin air, but they all knew his bullets would be there when they were needed!

Following a howl from Kulutego, two huge stones weighing hundreds of kilograms each were hurled at the crowd on the opposite end. The stones were on fire and dripping magma! After they crashed into the steel rider in the lead, they shattered and blew away a large number of flying arrows!

The leading steel rider who bore the brunt of the attack was smashed to the ground together with his mount. The mixed regiment had charged in a triangular formation, so Kulutego’s two stones had as good as knocked a large piece off the tip of the triangle!

But at that moment, a red point suddenly appeared on Kulutego’s body where his heart was. The next instant, a loud gunshot was heard!

‘Let The Bullets Fly’!!

MCDH’s ‘Let The Bullets Fly’!!

Kulutego’s AoE attack was so terrifying that he had no choice but to make his move.

Kulutego trembled violently all over. His hands grabbed his chest tightly, but could not stop the blood from flowing out of the wound. The giant beast let out a string of furious roars! The eye on both his heads lit up with a horrible red glow.

“Mother Earth will forever have her eyes on you! The anger of the earth elements will seep into your soul!”

“The Lord of Lava will curse you eternally! Your health will forever be affected by the heat!”

Having chanted these two lines of incantations, Kulutego collapsed. When his huge body fell to the ground, it looked like he had jumped into a swimming pool; the earth rapidly melted to take him in until he was completely submerged.

MCDH who had attacked him from afar suddenly sensed something ominous. When he checked his surroundings, he saw that his feet that were originally treading on hard ground were now ankle-deep in mud. He pulled his legs back out with difficulty, but when he put them down again, the same thing happened!

This was one of Kulutego’s Blood Curses, ‘Mother Earth’s Gaze’! The one cursed would never again be supported by solid earth! Their movement speed would also be permanently reduced by 50%. The curse could only be dispelled after returning to the Realm.

MCDH’s hair started smoking. He frantically put out the fire with his hand, but he was in a sorry state by the time he did. When he checked his status, he found that he had yet another negative condition, ‘The Lord of Lava’s Spurn’. Any part of his body that was easily combustible would be randomly and frequently ignited. The curse could only be dispelled after returning to the Realm as well.

These two negative conditions were honestly very disgusting. The first curse made the target lose their mobility, while the second curse not only made it hard for the target to have a good rest, they would also be easily found when they hide.

But a strong sense of crisis rose in MCDH’s heart again for some reason. It was definitely not because of the two curses, because it was a hard-to-describe fear, like a cold knife was merciless pressed against his heart!!

“Why do I feel this way!!? Why? I’m surrounded by thousands of ally troops and protected by my party members!”

The only explanation for MCDH’s ominous feeling was that Sanzi had been angered.

When Kulutego collapsed, Sanzi’s eyes had turned bloodshot! He could feel the blood rushing to his head. He unhesitantly used the powerful ability he had just learned, ‘Butterfly Effect’!!

The moment he activated the ability, he felt as if his breathing and his heartbeat had stopped. The whole world turned black and white. The human figures were black, and the background was white, like a silhouette drawing.

The figure Sanzi laid eyes on would have numerous lines radiating outwards from their body. The lines were also black and had varying thickness. When he moved his eyes away, the lines would disappear, and they would only reappear when his gaze moved back to the person.

According to the explanation of ‘Butterfly Effect’, no one could live in the world by themselves. They must interact with the world, communicate with it. These lines represented the interaction between a particular person and the world – this specific line connected him to his feelings, this one connected him to his desires, this line connected him to his children, this line connected him to his parents, and so on…

“It’s him.” Sanzi locked in on MCDH, his eyes sparkling strangely. In his vision which saw only black and white, MCDH had less connection lines than other people, but one particular connection line was especially thick.

Of course, Sanzi would not know that this was actually MCDH’s love connection, but he knew that the thicker the line that was severed, the higher the chances of success! A tiny, black-and-white, very common-looking butterfly flew over nimbly and circled around the thickest connection line on MCDH several times. The wind which resulted from the flapping of its wings seemed slight, but the line actually faded gradually because of it, until the line finally vanished.

This was ‘Butterfly Effect’ — to use the wings of ignorance and love to extinguish the fire of life and death.

A tiny speck of dust gradually became a towering peak that reached into the sky. A drip of water made ripples that ended up as the waves which engulfed the entire ship!!

***

The whole process of ‘Butterfly Effect’ seemed long, but that was only from Sanzi’s perceptive. For Sheyan and the others, they only saw the illusion of a plain-looking butterfly flying out of Sanzi.

After that, Sanzi sat on the ground exhausted, sweating, gasping and retching.

“Is Kulutego OK?” asked Sheyan.

“He’s still alive,” said Sanzi with a wry smile. “Not the worst case scenario, fortunately. However, he’ll now fall into a long dormant period, so he probably can’t take part in the following battles anymore. But the sniper who shot him didn’t get off easy either!”

Sheyan’s eyes flashed. “Did you use that move?” he asked.

“Of course. I want him dead!” replied Sanzi ruthlessly, albeit in a tired voice.

By now, Sheyan had already recognized MCDH, this old acquaintance of his. But in any case, neither side owed the other anything in the last Realm War. Sheyan had even rescued MCDH first. Right now, they were fighting on opposite sides, so there was no need to be merciful.

Party Ace’s long range attack capabilities, which had been strengthened after Aziz joined them, had once again become their weakness with Kulutego now inactive. In terms of combat power, they had lost the equivalent of at least a Temperer.

That was why, for both business and personal reasons, MCDH must die!

“The butterfly has flapped its wings… the hurricane will soon appear,” Sanzi murmured with his eyes closed. “The more frequently the target encounters dangerous situations, the faster and fiercer the butterfly effect will come to be.”