Battle on the Riverfront

Chapter 692 Battle on the Riverfront

Qin Nan hovered slightly above the ground, her magical wings fluttering gently. Her eyes were sharp as she vigilantly surveyed the battlefield. She wasn't focused on killing, but rather on keenly observing every unusual detail on the battlefield.

Suddenly, her pupils contracted sharply.

She saw a cultist whose chest had just been pierced by a dark crystal spear. As he fell, the place where his body hit the ground did not spurt out the expected blood. Instead, the corpse shrank and shriveled up at a visible speed, like an ice cube thrown into boiling water.

The skin quickly lost its luster, turning ashen like withered tree bark. Even more terrifying, as the corpse shrank, wisps of extremely fine, dark red smoke-like substance began to seep out from the body's orifices, wounds, and even pores.

"This is..." Qin Nan's heart trembled violently.

She immediately raised her perception to the limit, activating the full range of detection functions of "Magic Vision".

This time, she saw it much more clearly.

Not just that cultist, but all the "madmen" killed on this battlefield, regardless of whether they were refugees or anything else in life, would undergo terrifying mutations in their bodies within a second or two after they fell to the ground and died.

Flesh and blood rapidly dissolved, as if sucked away by an invisible straw; muscles collapsed, and skin clung tightly to bones.

The bones decomposed rapidly. The hard bones seemed to have undergone thousands of years of weathering in an instant, silently shattering and disintegrating, eventually turning into pale powder finer than dust.

Dark red blood mist rose, and all the decomposed matter eventually turned into wisps of extremely fine dark red mist carrying a strong filth and bloody smell. These mists did not drift away with the wind, but seemed to be drawn by an invisible force, like rivers flowing into the sea, and rapidly converged towards the city walls at the front of the river basin.

The whole process was incredibly fast and silent, yet it was filled with a chilling sense of blasphemy.

No wonder there were no corpses or bloodstains on the battlefield except for weapons and armor, because all the dead sacrifices were completely digested and absorbed by this huge living altar in an instant, leaving not even bone fragments.

"Lady Scáthach!" Qin Nan's voice was urgent, reaching Scáthach's mind directly through magical communication. "Something's wrong. The flesh and bones of all the slain enemies are instantly decomposing, turning into a dark red blood mist that's being sucked into the city. This altar is actively feeding on them!"

Scáthach, who was casually kicking another charging madman into a cloud of blood mist, paused slightly.

Her deep purple eyes instantly became even more profound, like two bottomless pools of blood, their light sharp as knives, locking onto the dark red currents that were gathering towards the city.

"As expected..." Scáthach's cold voice rang out, carrying a hint of expected seriousness, "The core... is moving."

She suddenly looked up, her crimson gaze piercing through the pervasive bloody mist, as if trying to penetrate the deathly silent city walls.

"The core of the altar, that mouth that sucks blood and flesh, is not fixed in one place; it roams the city, actively seeking the most fertile nutrient field."

"6

She instantly understood the cultists' intentions: to send these corrupted refugees to storm the legion not only to deplete their resources and create chaos, but also to turn the battlefield into a mobile canteen at the heart of the altar.

Every kill, every death, provides the freshest nourishment for the soon-to-hatched, writhing creature of pleasure. The constant movement of the altar's core makes it difficult for ranged attacks to lock onto it, and also greatly increases the difficulty of destroying it.

In this way, the chaotic fighting on the front lines of the river basin will not end this; on the contrary, the stronger the resistance, the faster the pleasure-creeping creatures will escape.

"Qin Nan".

Scáthach suddenly looked up at the sky.

"Immediately, pursue those blood mists."

"Use all your senses to lock onto that 'core' that's constantly moving within the city!"

"Found it! Mark it!"

"And then..." Scáthach's lips curled into a chilling, destructive smile. "Tell me."

"Where is it!"

"Understood!" Qin Nan's crisp reply rang in Scáthach's mind without the slightest hesitation.

She exchanged a glance with Little Grey; without a word, a tacit understanding had been achieved through their souls connecting.

"Gale, help me!" Little Grey let out a clear cry, and its body shone with a bright blue light.

Pure and chilling wind elements instantly enveloped Qin Nan and herself, transforming into a streak of bluish-purple light that tore through the air, and without hesitation rushed into the city wall that was as wide open as the entrance to hell, filled with a heavy stench of blood and filth.

As she watched the resolute streak of light plunge into the darkness and disappear into the depths of the doorway, Scáthach's blood-red eyes flickered slightly.

She didn't even turn around; her icy voice, like the clash of steel, pierced precisely into the ears of the mercenary leader, Desk.

"Desk, give the order."

"Stop the senseless killing."

"Change tactics, suppress, control."

"Use ropes, nets, or simply break their legs and lock their joints to keep them alive but unable to move."

"Alchemist Guard, activate maximum power mental protective field, stand at the forefront, dispel the foul whispers and clear the way for the following troops."

"The legion will enter the city in stages and in an orderly manner, while the others will provide fire support."

The command was concise and instantly reversed the core of the battlefield strategy—from killing the sacrifices to cut off the nutrient supply, to paralyzing the sacrifices, cutting off their lifeline. Although it was riskier and more complicated to operate, it was the most direct way to stop the altar core from continuing to feed.

"Yes!" Desk was startled and immediately understood Scáthach's meaning. He turned around abruptly, raised his voice, and shouted out Scáthach's command in a loud voice amplified by his fighting spirit, without missing a single word.

The Black City Legion's formation instantly meshed again like precise gears. The front shield wall no longer pursued lethality, but instead focused on ramming and shield bashing, striving to knock down and push away the charging madmen.

Countless barbed, tough ropes and specially made metal nets were thrown out, precisely targeting the frenzied figures. Soldiers in the rear, wielding blunt weapons, acted like precise surgeons, focusing on joints and support points. The dull cracking of bones was accompanied by frenzied roars.

The Alchemist Guard's energy armor emitted a high-frequency hum, and the pale blue mental protective field advanced forward like a tangible light curtain, forcibly dispelling the invisible mental pollution in the air. The entire legion was like a war machine that had suddenly switched modes, transforming from an efficient killer into a ruthless suppressor and trailblazer.

At this moment, Qin Nan and Xiao Hui, who had rushed into the city, found themselves trapped in a suffocating, blood-red demonic realm.

Stepping over the city wall was like passing through an invisible barrier, and the scene before my eyes changed dramatically in an instant.

The sky was no longer a deathly gray, but a thick, turbulent, dark red, like flowing blood.

There was no sun, no clouds, only this nauseating sky that seemed ready to rain blood at any moment, shrouding the entire city in this eerie bloody light.

The stench of blood in the air was more than ten times stronger; it was no longer just a simple, stale smell, but a mixture of sweet, putrid odors.

The pungent smell of sulfur and a kind of...mental noise, like the combined wails of countless dying creatures.

Even with the gentle breeze surrounding Xiao Hui protecting her, Qin Nan still felt dizzy and disoriented, as if her soul was being torn apart by filthy claws.

The streets below were deserted, littered with signs of battle: collapsed houses, broken beams, and scattered debris. But just like outside the city, there were no corpses, no bloodstains. Only wisps of dark red blood mist, seemingly alive, were silently and greedily gathering and flowing from all directions toward a certain direction deep within the city.

"This, this is simply the inside of a living stomach..." Qin Nan suppressed his discomfort, stuck out his tongue, and activated his magical vision to lock onto the direction of the densest flow of blood mist.

"Sister Nan, watch out!"

Just as Qin Nan concentrated on tracking the blood mist, Little Gray's sharp and urgent warning sound exploded in her mind.

At the same time, a chilling, sharp, and terrifying aura, carrying a pure will to destroy, erupted like a venomous snake from the shadow of a half-collapsed clock tower to the side and rear.

*Sizzle!*

A condensed, almost tangible, grayish-white sword aura, emanating a dark and chilling energy, silently tore through the viscous, blood-red air, moving at a speed beyond the limits of visual perception! Its target was Qin Nan's unsuspecting back.

The scent of death descended instantly.

Qin Nan's hair stood on end. Her magical girl instincts kicked in, and at the last second, she twisted her body sharply, while the magical shield she had been maintaining instantly condensed behind her.

boom! ! !

The gray-white sword energy slashed fiercely at the hastily formed magic shield.

A piercing cracking sound rang out as the magical shield, which was strong enough to withstand a barrage of crossbow bolts, was shattered like fragile glass by a single sword strike. The remaining sword energy, carrying a chilling aura, slammed into Qin Nan's magic-enhanced combat suit on his back.

"Ugh!" Qin Nan groaned, her body feeling as if it had been struck by a heavy hammer. She was thrown forward uncontrollably by the enormous impact, and a cold, eerie energy, like a maggot clinging to her bones, tried to invade her body.

Fortunately, her core magic erupted instantly, forcibly dispelling the energy, but the burning pain in her back and the surging sensation of blood and qi still made her dizzy.

"Sister Nan!" Xiao Hui was shocked and furious. In an instant, it transformed into a blue whirlwind and stood in front of Qin Nan, looking warily in the direction from which the sword energy was coming.

From the shadow of the half-collapsed clock tower, a figure slowly emerged.

They were neither deranged refugees nor cult members.

She was a young girl.

She looked to be no more than sixteen or seventeen years old, with a slender and tall figure. She wore an old-fashioned white outfit embroidered with intricate silver-gray runes, and a dark red belt around her waist.

Her long, silvery-white hair, flowing like a waterfall, stood out starkly against the blood-red sky. It was tied back with a simple silver ribbon, revealing her smooth forehead. Her face was exquisitely beautiful, like a doll's, yet it was expressionless, utterly devoid of emotion, only a cold, deathly stillness.

What was most chilling were her eyes—empty, lifeless pupils, as red as the purest rubies, containing no madness, no anger, only a pure, utterly indifferent command to life and destruction.

In her hand, she held a long sword with an ancient design, a narrow blade, and an ominous gray-white light flowing throughout.

The sword tip pointed diagonally at the ground, with eerie blood-red fuzz remaining on the blade.

She stood there, like a killing doll stepping out of a blood-red painting, radiating an aura identical to the blood-red barrier around her.

Yet, it possesses an even purer and colder death sword aura.

Qin Nan endured the pain, steadied himself, and unfurled his purple magical wings once more. Standing shoulder to shoulder with Xiao Hui, he stared intently at the suddenly appearing white-haired, red-eyed girl.

"...Controlled...weapons?"

The thought flashed through Qin Nan's mind instantly.

Those empty eyes, that pure will to destroy, are not something a normal human being possesses.

The white-haired girl remained silent, her scarlet pupils like the most precise aiming scope, locking onto Qin Nan once more. She slowly raised the gray-white longsword in her hand, the tip pointing directly at Qin Nan's heart.

Qin Nan sneered, and with a flick of her jade hand, the amethyst dagger landed in her hand like a butterfly, gleaming with a dangerous light.

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