America: The Cremator

Chapter 207 American Officials (LEGO Edition)!

The team continued advancing through the dark underground tunnel. The violent explosion seemed to have triggered a stress response from the tentacles overhead, causing numerous rustling sounds from the ceiling and surrounding walls.

Less than five minutes later, the sound of dripping slime came again from the darkness ahead.

As the beam of the tactical flashlight swept across, a huge, scarlet lump of flesh appeared in everyone's view.

Its appearance was exactly the same as the previous monster, with an extremely obese upper body and its lower body tightly attached to the pipes on the garage ceiling. Its huge mouth, torn to the ears, was full of serrated teeth.

Suron lifted Sirius up and pulled the trigger.

boom!

The dark red fireball tore through the darkness, instantly vaporizing the monster's head and the connecting pipe at its base.

[Burning the branches and roots of the "Great Devourer" grants 10 experience points.]

A notification popped up on my retina, but there were still no entries.

Sulong ejected the bombs from the pod to cool them down and continued forward.

The giant devourer clearly sensed their threat and began frequently mobilizing these roots to intercept them.

Over the next 200 meters, they encountered two more of these rhizomes.

One creature emerged from the collapsed elevator shaft, while the other hung directly at the intersection of a row of ventilation ducts, attempting to block the driveway with a large-scale acid rain.

These two monsters were much larger, covered in pustules, and emitted a deadly stench.

But under Surong's firepower, the two monsters were burned to ashes before they could even spit out acid.

Two more notifications popped up on the panel, totaling 30 experience points. The attribute bar remained unchanged.

This further confirms Sulong's conjecture.

These monsters are nothing compared to the true size of the Great Devourer.

Stepping on the charred ashes on the ground, the four avoided the acid on the ground and finally walked out of the underground driveway filled with rusty cars.

The view ahead opened up.

This is a relatively flat area, and without the obstruction of those abandoned vehicles, most of the accumulated water on the ground has receded.

The beam of a tactical flashlight illuminated a wide stairwell entrance.

Dania shook the slime off her machete and looked around at her surroundings.

"Finally out of there! The sour smell from that stretch of road was honestly almost like my socks that haven't been washed for days —"

"This giant eater's intestines are completely rotten—perhaps it needs to see a doctor?"

Su Long took out the architectural drawing from his pocket, glanced at it in the flashlight, then tapped the current position on the drawing and slid his finger along a straight line to the opposite side.

"According to the structural markings on this blueprint, the safe house we're looking for is right across from this stairwell."

The gazes and flashlight beams of the other three converged on it at the same time, but the scene it illuminated made everyone stop in their tracks.

There was no safe house door as expected; instead, there was only a huge, deformed tumor blocking the way.

This thing is over five meters in diameter and completely covers most of the area where the wall and ceiling meet.

The surface of the sarcoma was covered with a thick, translucent mucous membrane, through which flowed turbid, dark red mucus.

Through that mucous membrane, you can clearly see those thick, dark purple blood vessels underneath.

These blood vessels are tightly intertwined, emitting a dull throbbing sound.

Thump, thump.

With each thud, a large amount of acidic mucus seeped from the surface of the mucous membrane, dripping onto the floor tiles and burning out pits.

Hundreds and thousands of fleshy tentacles and translucent blood vessels of varying thicknesses extend from the walls, load-bearing columns, and even the floor.

The tentacles were firmly embedded in the surrounding concrete, fixing the tumor in place.

The ends of the blood vessels all flow into this huge sarcoma, continuously supplying nutrients.

It's like a giant fleshy ovary hanging in the center of an equally enormous fleshy spiderweb.

Surong stared at the nauseating behemoth, his gaze sweeping over the purple veins: "If our map is correct, there should have been a door here?"

Dania stepped on a tentacle close to the ground and crushed it: "Su, I don't know about that. Anyway, my eyes tell me that there's just a lump of rotten flesh here."

The presence of this lump of rotten flesh indicates that the safe house has been cut off from the outside world.

Hannah looked at the tumor, then at Surong, her voice tinged with worry: "Surong, the target is gone. What do we do now?"

Sulong holstered Sirius back into his waistband, crossed his hands, and cracked his knuckles.

"What else can we do? Everyone get ready for battle, I'm going to take this thing apart!"

After saying that, Su Long fixed his gaze on the huge tumor.

The giant devourer's elaborate blockade of the door couldn't possibly be just to obstruct rescue efforts.

There's definitely something hidden inside this tumor, but directly destroying it with violence might cause the situation to spiral out of control.

Since we're going to take action, we must factor in all possible unforeseen circumstances.

Su Long turned around and began assigning tasks to the team members.

"Danya, we don't know what kind of monster is hiding in this tumor. If some melee-savvy monster rushes out, you need to hold it off in front and create space for everyone to deal damage."

Dania gripped the handle of the heavy machete with both hands and stretched her arms: "Leave it to me, I was just wondering where to chop with this axe."

Surong then looked at Hannah, his tone becoming serious: "Hannah, if this tumor explodes or there's a large-scale acid splatter, you must immediately activate the shield to protect everyone."

Hannah nodded emphatically, immediately holding the heavy Bible to her chest, ready to unleash holy light at any moment.

Finally, Surong turned his gaze to Rodney Campbell, who was standing at the back of the line, and spoke in a very serious tone.

"Mr. Rodney, this tumor is, after all, something left behind by the Great Devourer."

"The methods of A-level are unpredictable and difficult to guard against. If we encounter any unexpected situations or troubles that we cannot handle, we will ask for your assistance."

Rodney calmly looked at the throbbing, enormous tumor in front of him, gripped the long-handled black umbrella in his right hand, and gently pressed his thumb on the metal buckle of the handle.

Swish.

The black umbrella opened instantly.

The umbrella surface is a deep black color, and it does not reflect light at all when a flashlight is shone on it. The umbrella surface is supported by twelve ribs forged from high-purity silver.

At the end of each umbrella rib hangs a small, exquisite silver bell.

With Rodney's slight movement, the twelve bells rang out with a clear and melodious sound in the dark underground space.

The sound seemed to carry the power to dispel pollution; the moment the bell rang, some of the pungent stench in the surrounding air was expelled.

This A-rank exorcist from the Campbell family has finally used his sacred artifact.

Rodney held the black umbrella in one hand, the silver bells swaying gently at the edge of the canopy. He then looked at Suron, nodded slightly, and spoke in a steady tone, yet with unwavering confidence.

"Go ahead and do it, Commander. I'll take care of everything."

Su Long nodded and turned to look at the tumor in front of him again.

He knew very well that if he used Sirius to attack the tumor, the explosion from the fireball would cause a large-scale splash of acid.

Right now, he needs more sophisticated attacks, such as [The Ruler].

As the entry was activated, a sharp pain shot through Su Long's brow as immense mental energy and high-pressure airflow converged wildly.

The surrounding air was pulled into this invisible vortex, and then Sulong compressed this force inward as much as possible.

The vortex, originally the size of a human head, rapidly shrank in size under the pressure of mental energy.

Immediately afterwards, Su Long activated the world-destroying fire within the group, and the flames adhered to the compressed vortex.

The high temperature instantly dispelled the surrounding chill.

The compressed cyclone merged with the world-destroying fire, eventually transforming into a small, dark red dot the size of a coin in front of Sulong's brow.

Sulong's gaze swept over the thick veins connecting the walls and the ceiling.

At the same time, the spot of light suddenly elongated.

A very thin, dark red, high-temperature beam of light shot out from the light spot and struck the thickest purple blood vessel on the right side of the tumor.

The moment the light touched the surface of the blood vessel, accompanied by a pungent wisp of smoke, the tough, translucent membrane was cut open.

Before the dark red viscous liquid surging under high pressure could even spray outwards, it collided head-on with the beam of light that was thousands of degrees hot.

"laugh""

A piercing vaporization sound rang out.

The acid was vaporized into a white mist under the compressed light of the world-destroying fire.

Su Long continued to control the high-temperature beam of light, sweeping it across the edge of the tumor.

Wherever the dark red thread passed, the fleshy tentacles and purple blood vessels of varying thicknesses broke off.

The high temperature sealed the incision completely, preventing even a drop of acid from leaking out.

Standing at the back of the group, Rodney watched this scene and admired the young man even more.

Rodney had seen far too many exorcists who relied on brute force or large-scale spells to bombard the enemy.

But such precise manipulation as that of Su Long, compressing and stabilizing such violent fire power, is simply unheard of.

This control over spirituality far exceeds the level expected of a B-level exorcist.

Dania looked at the fallen tentacles in front of her, and was very envious of the power of Sulong's move.

"Su, that was a really cool move! Could you teach me how to use it later?"

Su Long did not respond; at that moment, he had focused all his attention on the beam of light.

The last three blood vessels connected to the ceiling were severed by the high-temperature light.

Having lost all its support points, the tumor lost its balance and peeled off the wall.

"Smack!"

The heavy chunk of meat slammed onto the floor tiles, like a large mass of rotting entrails being forcefully thrown onto a cutting board.

As the tumor fell to the ground, the translucent mucous membrane that had covered the massive structure quickly dried up, and the entire thing withered rapidly at a speed visible to the naked eye.

In less than three seconds, the entire tumor changed from a vibrant bright red to a lifeless brown.

Immediately afterwards, the mass of brown, rotten flesh began to dissolve over a large area.

Large chunks of tissue liquefied, turning into a pool of murky blood that emitted an extremely foul odor, spreading outwards along the cracks in the floor tiles.

Hannah, who had been on edge the whole time, breathed a slight sigh of relief.

But at that moment, Su Long noticed the anomaly in the center of the blood.

Inside that pool of completely dissolved blood, there seemed to be a dense mass of things wriggling.

next second.

"Hiss hiss hiss—"

'

A sharp, dense scraping sound erupted from the depths of the viscous blood, followed by a large cloud of grayish-black mist that spewed out of the hole and rushed towards the four people.

Only when they got closer and the beams of their tactical flashlights shone on the "mist" did they realize what it was: thousands upon thousands of moths.

These moths are the size of an adult's palm, with plump abdomens and wings covered with twisted patterns resembling human faces.

They flap their wings extremely fast, and the friction sounds are produced by the bony serrations on the edges of their wings scraping against each other.

"Hannah! Shield!" Suron shouted.

Without needing any prompting, Hannah had already flipped open the Bible the instant the anomaly occurred.

Golden holy light burst forth, erecting a thick, hemispherical barrier half a meter in front of everyone.

boom!

The first few hundred moths seemed to have crashed into an invisible iron wall, making a series of loud thuds.

"Jingle bells!"

These moths were extremely fragile; upon contact with the holy light, they burst open, turning into plumes of foul-smelling blood mist.

But there are just too many of these things.

The moths behind continued their frenzied charge, stepping over the corpses of their companions. Hannah gritted her teeth, clutching the Bible tightly with both hands.

The frontal assault was blocked, but the massive swarm of insects, realizing they couldn't break through from the front, immediately began climbing up the golden barrier.

In the blink of an eye, a large number of moths bypassed the top and sides of the barrier, directly crossing Hannah's defenses and swarming towards the four from above and the flanks.

"Get out of here!"

Dania cursed angrily, gripped the axe with both hands, and suddenly exerted force with her waist. The heavy axe blade brought a violent gust of wind, directly smashing a dozen moths that were close to her flank into a bloody pulp.

However, such an attack is completely ineffective against the swarm.

Su Long frowned and immediately activated the vortex between his brows, unleashing a powerful fan-shaped shockwave.

A strong wind swept through.

It directly blew a large swarm of moths that had bypassed the top of the barrier backwards, sending them crashing into the wall behind them and exploding into piles of fleshy pulp.

But that's still not enough.

The swarm of insects was so dispersed that it filled the entire space above the basement and was still pouring out of the hole.

Su Long's mind raced as he searched for a way to break the deadlock.

To ensure absolute defense, he can directly activate the sacred relic "Uriel" at his waist.

The upgraded Uriel can instantly deploy an indestructible spherical force field shield, completely isolating these moths.

However, the shield's coverage area is extremely limited, only enough to protect him alone.

If a large-scale clearing operation is to be carried out, the most effective method is to completely release the suppression and release a high-temperature flame mist outward from oneself as the center.

But now the four of them are standing too close together, and the domineering heat of the World-Destroying Flame doesn't distinguish between friend and foe.

Once he activates the mist, the moths will indeed be burned to ashes, but at such close range, Dania and Hannah behind him will also suffer severe burns.

In those few seconds, Rodney Campbell, who was standing at the very back of the line, moved.

The long-handled black umbrella he had been holding with one hand suddenly detached from his grasp and slowly floated upwards.

The black umbrella hovered steadily in mid-air when it rose to a height of three meters above the ground.

The umbrella was fully opened, blocking everyone's view from above.

As the black umbrella came to a stop, the silver bells hanging at the ends of the twelve ribs began to shake violently.

"Ding-dong—ding-dong"

The crisp sound of a bell echoed in the empty basement. The moths that had been frantically rushing towards the crowd suddenly slowed their wing flapping upon hearing the bell.

The next moment, a vast expanse of dense, impenetrable black light was cast beneath the suspended black umbrella.

This layer of black light was like an inverted cylindrical barrier, completely enveloping the four members of the team.

The moths, distracted by the ringing bell, instantly lost their target and began to circle around outside the range of the black light.

Then, Rodney straightened his suit cuffs, looked up at the swarm of insects flying all over the sky, and slowly uttered a single word in a calm tone.

Acid rain.

The next moment, a gray-green cumulonimbus cloud suddenly gathered above the area not shrouded in black light.

The rain started to fall.

These raindrops, carrying the odor of a mixture of sulfur and strong acid, pelted down at incredible speeds among the swarming insects.

The moths didn't have time to dodge.

The moment acid rain touches a moth, its wings, with their twisted patterns, are directly corroded and penetrated.

The bony serrations liquefied rapidly, and then rainwater poured onto their plump bellies, producing a violent corrosive sound.

Their bodies rapidly shrank under the baptism of strong acid, eventually carbonizing into clumps of charred residue.

The once dense swarm of moths was completely wiped out by the torrential acid rain.

The air was filled with a pungent, watery vapor.

This moisture was highly corrosive, but it dissipated immediately upon contact with the black light barrier erected by Rodney.

crackling and popping—

Countless charred remains crashed densely onto the floor tiles.

Those moths turned into black carbon residue all over the ground, and with the washing away of acid rain, they turned into puddles of unrecognizable black mud.

Surong stood inside the barrier, watching the clearing that happened in an instant. He then turned his head and glanced at Rodney Campbell, who was standing behind him with a calm expression.

From their initial meeting at the exorcism banquet to becoming teammates, this was the first time Su Long had witnessed the exorcist take action.

All Sulong knew before was that the umbrella in Rodney's hand was a sacred object containing extremely strong spiritual energy.

This time, he truly witnessed the terrifying destructive power of Rodney's sacred artifact.

With just a single sentence, combined with the sacred artifact, thousands upon thousands of monsters were wiped out.

Su Long quickly calculated in his mind.

He has only encountered a handful of A-level combatants so far, besides the one in front of him, there is also Mrs. Hedley, who fought alongside him against Baphomet on the trial island.

Neither of these two individuals is a mere empty shell.

Mrs. Hedley's ability to control her domain is terrifying, while Rodney's control over the rules of spirituality and sacred objects is so precise it's appalling. They are both truly top-tier combatants.

A few minutes later, the gray-green clouds in the sky quickly faded, and the acid rain stopped.

Rodney raised his right hand and made a fist in mid-air.

The long-handled black umbrella that had been hovering above his head immediately closed and fell back into his palm, and the black light barrier surrounding the four of them dissipated.

As the black light faded, a lingering sour smell wafted over.

Sulong tugged at the edge of his gas mask, and the beam of his tactical flashlight pointed straight ahead.

After the tumors and connecting blood vessels that had been blocking the wall disappeared, the door to the safe cabin was finally revealed to the four people.

The door is now in a terrible state. The metal structure of the explosion-proof door has been completely corroded, and the thick outer shell has turned into a slag full of holes, which keeps peeling off.

But deep within those rusty holes, a pure silver hue peeked out.

That was a pure silver interlayer poured into the main structure of the gate.

In this space dominated by corrupt rules, only this layer of high-purity silver remains resilient, resisting the intrusion of all external supernatural forces.

Su Long walked to the front door and tapped the exposed silver interlayer with his finger, producing a dull metallic clanging sound.

Hannah, clutching the Bible, moved to the right side of the door, her tactical flashlight beam illuminating the lock.

The situation there was even worse than the door itself.

The originally complex electronic combination lock and mechanical locking mechanism have been corroded into a welded-on lump of iron.

The backup hydraulic valve, which was used to open it manually, was also completely deformed.

Hannah turned her head, her voice filled with anxiety: "The door's defensive structure did hold, but its mechanical locking mechanism corroded and deformed along with it. The entire door is completely sealed off; there's no way to open it. How are we supposed to get in?"

Dania walked over and examined the door: "Break it open with brute force? But the thickness of this pure silver layer looks quite large. Even if my axe could cut through, it would get stuck because of the silver's malleability. It's too inefficient."

"If we don't get the people out of here quickly, who knows what other things might happen in this building."

Rodney stood at the back, holding the black umbrella, without saying a word, and turned his gaze to Sulong. Now that he had handed over command, the plan should be decided by Sulong.

Su Long looked at the welded-on lock, then glanced at the thick layer of pure silver in the center of the door.

"There's no need to look for any opening mechanism, and there's no need to chop with an axe."

Su Long simply slung the tactical flashlight back onto his shoulder strap: "Since this thing is a silver wall, we can just burn it through."

After saying that, a dark red light gathered between Su Long's eyebrows.

The melting point of pure silver is around 960 degrees Celsius, and the high-temperature ray between his eyebrows, manipulated by his micro-manipulation, was enough to melt it into molten silver in an instant.

Dania took two steps back, giving Su Long some room to maneuver: "Take it easy, don't roast the officials inside too."

Su Long nodded: "Don't worry, I know what I'm doing."

The next moment, the light between his eyebrows suddenly extended.

"laugh-

'

The moment the high-temperature beam of light touched the pure silver, a blinding white light burst forth, and the hard silver interlayer was directly cut through, with drops of molten silver flowing down the cut.

Su Long turned his neck slightly, and the beam of light began to slowly slide along the outline of the door shell.

An arc was formed on the door panel. Su Long planned to carve out a circular opening in the center of this heavy blast door, large enough for a person to pass through.

As the cutting progressed, large amounts of silver liquid continued to spill out.

The high temperature dispelled the original stench in the basement, and the air was visibly distorted by the heat wave.

"That's about it."

Su Long looked at the circle that was already mostly drawn, with only the last bit of connection remaining.

Just as the beam of light was about to be sealed off.

"Thump!"

A muffled thud suddenly erupted from inside the door panel.

The sound was extremely loud, as if some heavy object had slammed into the door.

The entire pure silver explosion-proof door shook violently under the impact, and the rust hanging on the outer layer was shaken and fell to the ground with a clatter.

Although Su Long was puzzled, he did not stop.

The dark red beam of light continued to push forward, cutting through the last few tens of centimeters.

The circle is closed.

Clang!

Before Su Long could dissipate the beam of light, a second impact came from inside the door panel.

This time the commotion was even more violent than before, causing the entire basement to tremble.

The next second, the gate that had been completely cut off detached from the frame and crashed head-on towards the four people outside.

"Be careful!"

Dania roared, threw the heavy machete in her hand to the ground, spread her legs wide, and lowered her waist.

If this door were to hit them hard in this narrow passageway, everyone behind them would be seriously injured on the spot.

In that instant, large patches of black and yellow tiger stripes quickly appeared on Dania's originally fair skin.

Her muscles swelled up in an extremely violent manner, her clothes were stretched taut, her originally slender fingers instantly grew sharp bony claws, and her pupils turned into bright blue vertical pupils.

The half-beast transformation is complete.

"drink!"

Dania let out a roar that was not human, and slammed her head into the flying door panel, pressing her hands firmly against the hot metal edge.

"Bang!"

The kinetic energy from the door impacted her arms directly, causing Dania's upper body to lean back, her arm muscles bulging, and the tiger stripes almost burning under the force.

Her feet carved two grooves nearly a meter long in the road, sending pebbles flying and a pungent, burnt smell wafting out.

"Crunch"

With a sharp metallic scraping sound, Dania abruptly stopped in her tracks, bringing the massive door panel to a stop in front of her chest.

The intense heat from the fire that had cut through the edge of the door panel hadn't subsided yet, scalding her palms until white smoke rose from them. But she seemed oblivious, and with a sudden burst of strength, she shoved the heavy disc aside.

With a muffled crash, the door slammed into the floor tiles, creating a large dent.

Looking at the silver disc on the ground, and then at Dania who was still panting heavily, Sulong couldn't help but marvel inwardly: "The power after being transformed into a beast is truly astounding."

This pure silver laminated door, plus the outer sheet metal, definitely weighs over several tons.

Not to mention that it was carrying the kinetic energy of the impact, and Dania actually caught it with her bare hands using her half-beast physical strength. What's the difference between that and stopping a steel coil with your bare hands?

With the crisis averted, Su Long pulled out his tactical flashlight, and the beam shot directly into the interior of the safe cabin through the large hole that had been cut open.

Dania, Hannah, and Rodney followed immediately, and four beams of light tore through the darkness inside the safe room, illuminating the scene inside.

Upon seeing the internal images, even Su Long, who was usually very mentally strong, felt his stomach churn.

The entire space of the safe room was filled with a huge monster.

Its shape resembles an extremely bloated mountain of flesh, or rather, it is a monstrous corpse pieced together from countless severed limbs.

The monster's base was enormous, with hundreds of human legs stitched together in a dense pattern.

These legs haphazardly stepped on the ground, supporting the enormous weight above.

Under immense pressure, even the lowest leg was broken, with bone fragments piercing the skin.

Hundreds of arms stretched out around the mountain of flesh.

These arms, varying in length and thickness, waved and scratched erratically in the air like the tentacles of a sea anemone, even tearing at each other.

The central torso of the mountain of flesh is made up of countless compressed and deformed thoracic cavities and abdomens stacked together.

Through the torn flesh, you could see the writhing and tangled internal organs inside.

At the top of the mountain of flesh, dozens of human heads were densely piled up.

These heads included both men's and women's heads; some had faces covered in blood, while others had bulging eyes.

They were roughly sewn together with strands of black fascia, and each mouth opened and closed, emitting indistinct howls and meaningless murmurs.

Dania looked at the mountain of flesh, the tiger hairs on the back of her hand standing on end, a feeling of disgust welling up from the bottom of her heart.

"Damn it, what the hell is this thing?!"

Hannah turned pale, turned her head away, bit her lip tightly, and dared not look at her a second time.

The beam of the flashlight moved across the mountain of flesh, and Su Long's gaze finally settled on an arm that was extending from the left side of the mountain of flesh.

That arm was thicker than the others, and judging from the remaining dark blue fabric on the sleeve, it must have been the hand of a security guard.

At this moment, a huge military walkie-talkie is being tightly gripped in this hand.

The thumb of that hand was repeatedly pressing the transmit button on the side of the walkie-talkie.

Press down, release, then press down again.

"Drip—drip—drip—"

'

The beeping sounds of the electronic buttons were particularly jarring in the deathly silent safe cabin.

This hand, along with the mountain of flesh it is on, is continuously sending emergency distress signals to the outside world through this walkie-talkie.

As Su Long stared at the walkie-talkie that kept flashing red, images of high-ranking military officers in the outer command post, frantic with worry after receiving distress signals, flashed through his mind.

The commanders were still planning how to divide their forces for the rescue and how to pull their esteemed colleagues out of the contaminated building.

Thinking of this, his tone became undisguisedly mocking.

"Wow."

"Look, look, we've found the government officials, more than a hundred of them, all neatly stacked together."

"And they were quite thoughtful. Knowing that we had so many people with us and it would be difficult to carry them all, they made a platter for us, so we didn't even have to look for it."

This is clearly the work of the Great Devourer.

It not only consumed the people outside, but also crushed up the "canned meat" hiding in the safe cabin and assembled it into a trap to lure the enemy.

Rodney Campbell, standing at the back, looked grave.

He looked at the walkie-talkie that was being tightly gripped in the monster's hand and immediately understood the whole situation. His voice was deep: "So, this is the source of the faint distress signal that the command post detected."

"It deliberately left the walkie-talkie behind, deliberately letting the hand keep sending signals."

"It's because it knows that people outside will keep sending people in to rescue these survivors."

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