Mystery: The Last Shepherd

Chapter 380 Anger

The Eastern District, the epicenter of the plague.

A bone-chilling cold enveloped the entire street, ice crystals formed, and eerie blue flames flickered silently until they slowly died out. The ground was left with crisscrossing wounds, as if torn apart by the claws of a giant beast.

The faces of the dead were covered in frost, their lifeless eyes bearing witness to everything that had happened in the battle.

"Hehe. You're really hard to deal with, it took me so much effort."

Panatia's body trembled slightly beneath her white robe, her voice tinged with weariness. She hadn't expected that someone who was merely a Sequence 5 would possess so many bizarre abilities and be so difficult to kill.

"Cough cough."

Opposite her, Lu Ze pounded the ground with his sword, coughing violently. His lungs were like a broken bellows, struggling to inhale even with all his might.

He looked up when he heard Panatia's voice.

Lu Ze's eyes were bloodshot, but a cold, crazed smile appeared on his face.

"puff!"

Immediately afterward, under Panadia's astonished gaze, he tore open his own chest with his bare hands, removed his ravaged organs, and threw them as a flesh bomb at the white-robed witch!

This guy is crazy!
Panatia instinctively chose to dodge, and the ice crystals behind her quickly condensed, forming an ice mirror. She herself, guided by invisible spider silk, created distance and hid inside the mirror.

"boom--"

A deafening roar followed in the next second, and the flying flesh and blood hissed and corroded everything around them.

"Thankfully, we weren't affected."

Panadia thought to herself, then looked up and found that Luze was no longer there!

At the same time, while she was in the mirror, she suddenly felt a chill down her spine, as if something was crawling on her back and invading her body, trying to take control of her body!
A vengeful spirit, a combination of "mirror jumping" and "evil spirit possession"!
The street fell silent instantly, with only a few mirrors standing silently, a hidden confrontation taking place in an unseen place.

"Click, click"

A dozen seconds later, the ice mirror shattered, and two figures emerged from the dissipating cold air, one standing and the other sitting.

"puff!"

The standing figure suddenly drew a slender ice spike in his hand and used it to pierce the chest of the person who had fallen down.

"Very good, you are really strong."

Panatia's voice was no longer as composed as before, but had become cold. "Unfortunately, the gap between Sequence 5 and Sequence 4 cannot be bridged by extraordinary abilities."

She meant it sincerely. If Luze were a Sequence 4 Black Knight, his "Spirit and Flesh Blade" alone would have been enough to give her a headache.

"You're not qualified to defeat me."

Panadia felt genuinely fortunate; it was wonderful to have nipped a powerful enemy in the bud!

"Cough cough."

An ice spike pierced Luze's chest, and crimson blood seeped from the wound only to freeze instantly. He glared at Panatia with furious eyes, his crimson robe billowing as if it were about to liquefy.
"If he's not qualified, then how about I?"

A voice, tinged with anger, suddenly rang out from behind.

"who!"

Panatia turned around abruptly and saw a tall woman standing on the other side of the mist. She was dressed in men's-style equestrian attire, with perfect proportions and a beautiful face, yet she gave off an unapproachable aura.

Queen!

At this moment, the Queen's handsome features were filled with obvious anger as she looked at Panatia.

"!"

In an instant, Panatia was overwhelmed with immense fear, as if her heart had been ripped out. The woman before her emanated no spiritual energy, yet she instilled in Panatia a profound and inescapable sense of powerlessness. There was only one possibility for an extraordinary being to evoke such a feeling in her—

High-sequence beings above Sequence 4!
"Bang bang bang!"

All the ice mirrors shattered in an instant, filling the air with icy air and sending ice crystals flying everywhere, creating a spectacular scene.

"Ahhhh-"

Panatia let out a high-pitched scream as invisible spider silk dragged her body away from her opponent at incredible speed. Her speed was astonishing, yet even so, her face was filled with utter despair, as if she knew her struggles were completely futile!
The Queen simply stood there, watching her flee into the distance, a glint of light flashing in her eyes.

A squad of toy soldiers dressed in red military uniforms suddenly appeared in front of the witch. Their bodies were the size of normal people, and their movements were stiff, but the bayonets on their rifles gleamed with a bright, cold light!
Panatia, who had seemed so at ease fighting Luzer, appeared utterly powerless against this squad of toy soldiers. With desperate screams, she was stopped, trapped, and repeatedly pierced by bayonets, her blood splattering onto the soldiers' painted, hardened faces.

"Desperate Nightingale" was killed by the Queen.

"Humph"

The Queen coldly observed the black iron-colored mist surrounding her. She raised her hand, about to take action, but suddenly looked up at the sky, as if she had sensed something.

She quickly changed her gesture and waved downwards.

"crash"

A pumpkin-shaped carriage immediately emerged from the fog. The carriage doors opened, and the soldiers put away their rifles and carried Panatia's body and Luze into the carriage.

The carriage started and drove into the gloomy fog.

After a while.

"Woo——"

A violent wind howled past, fiercely sweeping everything away, instantly dispelling the heavy fog. Visibility on the street suddenly increased, and as far as the eye could see, numerous corpses lay dead on the ground, silently accusing everything.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

"Are you ok?"

Inside the moving carriage, the Queen asked Luze.

"."

Lu Ze looked at her silently.

The Queen's hair was somewhat disheveled, and her clothes bore minor signs of damage, suggesting she had been through a battle before arriving here. Considering the damaged gathering place, perhaps she had also encountered much hardship since returning to Backlund.

Being able to get here and save myself is already quite an achievement.

They were just lambs to the slaughter, unlike themselves who were so lucky.
Thinking of this, Lu Ze felt a surge of intense pain again. The faces of everyone who died seemed to appear before him, crying and pleading.
Damn!

He suddenly reached out, grabbed the ice pick in his chest, and pulled it out hard!
"Woo!"

The ice was firmly frozen to the flesh, and Lu Ze's forceful movements tore out the surrounding flesh as well. The intense pain instantly overwhelmed his brain, causing him to stop recalling the painful memories.

"It is regrettable that we were unable to avert this disaster."

The Queen sighed.

Despite her extensive preparations, she ultimately failed due to the influence of some behind-the-scenes force.

"but."

She set her sights on the witch's corpse, "At least we'll know who the real culprit is."

　Thank you to reader "Owl Keeper" for the 100 reading coins.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)