Chapter: 175. The Last Hope
Similar places, similar developments.
Above Chuanye City, silvery-white stars hung high, casting dazzling brilliance that rivaled the sun.
Under the taint of the end, Adam had completely shed his human form. His body stood like a towering nightmare, layers of rotten flesh piled upon one another, twisting tentacles continuously growing and writhing. Huge, distorted bone spikes erupted from his back; each breath carried a deep, guttural roar, as if the abyss was roaring, shaking the entire city.
Fortunately, within the mirrored flower domain that Nagi had unfolded, the entire city was merely a reflection within a mirror, devoid of any living presence.
Nagi floated in midair, her silver-white starry eyes reflecting the giant before her. Her black hair fluttered without wind, golden flames swirled around her, resembling a deity descending to the mortal realm.
As she extended her right hand towards Adam, the earth trembled in response. From the cracked surface, pillars of ice crystal shot up, aimed directly at Adam’s massive and distorted body. The rotting flesh on Adam’s exterior instantly froze at absolute zero, and the writhing tentacles, upon touching the giant ice pillars, were turned into ice sculptures by the extreme low temperature.
Immediately afterward, streaks of golden flames cut through the sky like the wrath of descending angels, turning the frozen tentacles to ashes in an instant.
Adam let out an angry roar, his body suddenly swelling. A fist the size of a mountain came crashing down, and the raging airflow swept the surroundings, causing buildings to collapse under this devastating punch!
—Boom!
However, just as the fist was about to hit Nagi, the ground suddenly convulsed, and an indestructible wall of earth rose up, firmly blocking this devastating blow.
Debris flew everywhere, dust filled the air, yet Nagi’s figure did not retreat an inch.
Nagi gently raised her hand, and a golden flame gathered at her fingertips, transforming into a long spear engulfed in flames. She twisted her graceful figure in midair and hurled the spear towards Adam.
In the next instant.
The burning golden spear pierced through Adam’s shoulder. Intense flames instantly spread, scorching his flesh and emitting a cracking sound as it burned black. Rotting blood rained down like black droplets, crashing onto the ground and eroding deep, bottomless pits.
Just like her battle against the pseudo-deity Bai Ling in the domain of dusk years ago.
Before Nagi’s overwhelming power, even the rampaging Adam was no match for her, completely suppressed by various “elements,” living up to the title of Elemental Sovereign.
However, unlike the encounter with the pseudo-deity Bai Ling, the magic power within Adam was incredibly strong, making it difficult for Nagi to find a suitable way to utilize Hydra’s abilities against him.
—It seems I have no choice but to bring him to the brink of death?
Nagi pondered as she spread her arms, instantly causing the temperature in Chuanye City to plummet. The air crystallized into gleaming frost, countless icicles hanging in the air like spears of divine punishment, pointing towards Adam’s twisted form.
But an unexpected event occurred.
Perhaps due to the significant damage inflicted by Garuda’s close-range self-detonation, which the End could not ignore, it was evident that the End’s control over Adam had not kept pace. The purple-black glow in Adam’s grotesque large eyeball suddenly flickered erratically, and his consciousness returned to his body—
“I, I…” Adam opened his blood-dripping maw full of fangs, uttering a confused and pained sound.
The sight before Nagi caused her to hesitate, and the countless icicles hanging in the sky did not fall.
“Adam?” Nagi asked softly, holding onto a glimmer of hope.
“…Brother Guang?” Adam’s massive eyeball rolled, reflecting Nagi’s current appearance, and he vaguely recognized this as the true “Elemental Sovereign.”
But before Adam could understand what was happening, the purple-black starry pupil lit up once more.
He lost consciousness again, a massive gash of flesh splitting open on his chest, from which a beam of black-purple magical energy erupted, aimed straight at Nagi.
Nagi’s pupils constricted; her instinct to fight prompted her to react in time. She clapped her palms together, and a massive barrier of ice and snow condensed in front of her, instantly blocking the destructive magical beam. The impact exploded, shaking nearby buildings to pieces.
“…What am I doing…”
After this strike, the starry pupil vanished again, and Adam regained consciousness briefly.
He hugged his grotesque and ugly head, struggling in pain.
As the ice and snow barrier shattered into sparkling ice crystals, Adam looked at Nagi, who had assumed a fighting stance, as if recalling something—
“Is that so… I was about to… again…” Despair appeared in Adam’s massive eye, his mouth mumbling in pain.
“So it turns out… the so-called end… is actually me…”
He gazed at his twisted and grotesque body as well as Nagi confronting him, finally understanding everything.
“It’s me, it has always been my fault…”
Adam let out a painful howl, his towering giant form curling up like a child who had made a mistake.
Seeing this scene, Nagi also revealed a pained expression.
“So Brother Guang, you… have never really died… that’s wonderful… that’s wonderful…” Adam mumbled like he was going insane, but the next moment, the purple-black glow once again covered one of his pupils—
Without any hesitation, Adam suddenly reached out, tearing half of his face apart. The remaining eye looked towards Nagi, who was suspended in the air.
“Brother Guang—run—while I can still control myself—”
He knew he was beyond saving; if this continued, he would become a puppet of the end.
Although he wanted the “Elemental Sovereign” in front of him to end his life, it would undoubtedly bring the curse of the end upon her, a tragedy he had witnessed many years ago atop the altar, and a scene he absolutely did not want to see.
Thus, the only thing he could do was urge the Elemental Sovereign to escape as far away from him as possible.
Faced with Adam’s awakening, Nagi’s lips moved—
“You idiot, how long has it been? Have you already forgotten my character?”
Nagi chided softly.
“…Brother Guang?” Adam froze at her words, but the purple-black starry pupil did not slow its coverage despite his halt.
“The first time you saw me, you should have known, I am not the kind of superior who would abandon my subordinates—”
Nagi’s lips curled slightly, revealing a proud and arrogant smile.
Adam recognized it; that was the smile the Elemental Sovereign often wore in the past, the expression he remembered most vividly from their first meeting—the confident, powerful, and gentle savior.
In that moment, he suddenly realized that the hero in his heart was about to do something he did not want to witness.
“Brother Guang, what are you planning to do… no, stop, run away—”
“The responsibility of a subordinate is the responsibility of a superior; you don’t need to bear this sin for me, understand?” Nagi interrupted Adam, her silver-white starry pupils beginning to flicker while a verdant glow gathered in her right hand—
“No, no! I already—Brother Guang, run! Run away!” Adam let out a heart-wrenching scream. Although he didn’t know what the “Elemental Sovereign” before him planned to do, it was certainly something he did not want to see.
“Hey, Adam.” Nagi spoke in the tone of the past Elemental Sovereign:
“I didn’t expect you to actually rise to a high position in the Special Ring SEMA… that’s amazing.”
Hearing the acknowledgment from the “Elemental Sovereign,” Adam’s eyes brimmed with tears—
At the same time.
The verdant light of Hydra-Ouroboros transformed into a shooting star, aiming straight at Adam’s massive distorted body.
If it was simply absorbing the fragments of the end within Adam’s soul, he would still not be able to revert from this monstrous form to a human, as there were no “containers” around to hold his soul. Therefore, Nagi intended to use the power of Hydra to revert his body to a younger form as much as possible.
“However… other than a hulking man, I feel a younger appearance would suit you better…” Nagi laughed.
The starry pupils flickered.
The verdant shooting star struck Adam’s body.
His towering form rapidly shrank at a visible speed, and the purple-black glow in his eyes was being devoured by the silvery-white light—
“I bequeath to you the Special Ring SEMA that I created, Adam, guard it for me.”
The now youthful Adam plummeted from high above, desperately flailing his arms, yet he could not reach the distant girl.
Everything was just like the last time.
Because of him, the Elemental Sovereign was once again tainted by the end, and he had once again committed an irreparable mistake.
—Is it over?
Just before Adam’s consciousness was swallowed by the darkness known as despair, he saw a blinding dawn in the endless dark—
It emanated from a stunning light produced by pitch-black flames.
Adam did not know where a surge of strength came from; he suddenly opened his eyes wide.
A pitch-black flame tore through the heavens, soaring across the sky like a meteor, heading straight for Nagi.
He recognized that pitch-black flame; it was his last hope—
Adam squeezed out the last bit of strength from his body, removing the ring from his finger.
“Kan!” He opened his mouth, releasing a shout that seemed to come from the depths of his soul, and with all his might, cast the ring imbued with the power of authority towards Kan.
I’m counting on you, the new protagonist.
Please, you must save her—
