Marvel Magic Case Files

Chapter 1608, Chapter 1604: The Lunar War (120)

Constantine watched as the wounded behemoth sank into the molten iron. The supernatural blood flowing from its skin ignited like oil, scorching the flesh and sending up bright sparks. The behemoth roared in pain, Blackcard Burt thrashing about, its tattered bat wings churning and churning in the crimson molten iron, unleashing deafening psionic sonic waves, yet it could not escape its fate of sinking. The sound only ceased completely when the molten steel poured into its snout, scorching its throat. The Commander of the Royal Guard fired a shot downwards, pressing the behemoth's skull, still partially submerged, into the molten iron.

As the last sonic bubble exploded in the molten iron, the molten metal erupted, cooled, and fell like lava, countless tiny, irregular steel beads landing on the deck like a pleasant downpour. Constantine lowered his arm, brushing away the solidifying droplets of molten iron from his battle robe. He believed that this incredibly resilient behemoth had finally met its end; the king of the Attilan Inhumans had ultimately died in its castle, which was not a disgrace to its royal honor. However, Constantine would not witness another behemoth suffer the same fate, and the possible witnesses in this linear timeline were not equipped with communication systems; he did not expect to receive answers after asking questions.

Constantine saw a flash of golden armor appear from the corner and then disappear.

He nodded in that direction and made a tactical hand gesture typical of the Guardians of the Order, even though he wasn't sure if the other party could receive the message. He waited a while longer, until only the gurgling of the molten metal river and the groans of the broken metal supports remained, and the power armor's detection system detected no life signals, before he reopened the communication channel.

Hannibal, Hammurabi, Derrick, and the other members of the Royal Guard entered through the reopened blast doors. Maintaining their tactical formation, they descended the stairs and saw their commander standing on the deck above the boiling molten iron. The rusted blast doors couldn't block out the deafening roar of the battle. The place had been altered; metal that shouldn't have rusted was corroded, the walls blistered like blisters, and every deck was imbued with a sense of agonizing pain—they didn't know what enemy Constantine was fighting, but the shockwaves made the deck beneath their boots tremble. Even though the Royal Guard were a group of superhumans who always maintained composure and rationality, they couldn't help but speculate and worry about their commander's safety.

Everything here suggests that even Commander Constantine of the Royal Guard endured a fierce battle to complete the mission. The other Royal Guard members knew nothing of the details of the mission, but they could still use their acquired knowledge to identify the enemy's type and determine their size and general appearance from the traces left at the scene—the twisted and creased lattice decks and the bent steel supports indicated the enemy's immense size and strength. The horror here was deeply unsettling; etheric energy permeated the metal and the air, and some of the broken steel even showed vein-like patterns growing within them.

The Royal Guards descended the stairs, clearly seeing the claw marks and power weapon damage on the decks above Constantine's position. Vast breaches in the decks were large enough to accommodate the behemoth that had left claw marks on the five-meter-high support structure. The Royal Guard Commander's power armor bore obvious blunt force impact marks, indicating that Constantine may have collided with a metal support. The rubies inlaid on his shoulder armor were shattered, and his crimson battle robe was stained with large patches of blackish-purple blood. Only the massive lance the Emperor had brought to Attilan Castle remained pristine, as if the enemy's filth could never taint this divine weapon.

The Guardians' management structure is flat. As a temporarily formed combat squad, other Guardians officers could also check Constantine's physical condition through the information displayed on the holographic projection tactical panel on their helmets. They were surprised to find that the power armor was severely damaged after absorbing most of the damage. The silent servers at the joints were constantly humming, and a piece of armor plate had been forcibly torn off, exposing the electronic muscle bundles and exoskeleton frame behind it. However, the power armor's medical system records showed that the Guardian Commander was still standing in front of them unharmed and moving freely after experiencing severe injuries such as muscle strains and bone fractures.

The shattered deck was covered in large swaths of congealed or charred blood and bits of flesh. Some of it had fallen from cracks in the upper deck, while others were gigantic, mutated limbs that far exceeded the limits of normal mutants and human genetic mutation, still exhibiting neural responses even in their fragmented state. Hot air blew up from the cracks in the deck, causing the flesh to rot at a visible rate. The foul stench was unbearable, forcing the Royal Guards to shut off the external air vents of their visors, sacrificing olfactory clues just to barely endure the stench.

"Next target, priority is Crimson."

"Crimson-level target!"

Dita plunged her longsword deep into the mutant's body and punched him in the head. The powerful blow left the mutant, who wore a crude metal helmet, disoriented. Even though the helmet was severely deformed and his skull shattered, it didn't fall off. It wasn't until Dita kicked it to the ground that she realized the helmet had inevitably fused with the mutant's skull. She curled her lip in disgust, then swung her elbow, sending a much larger mutant staggering backward. She drew her plasma pistol and fired a white-hot plasma ball, burning a large hole in the body blocking her path. Through the smoking, fleshy body, Dita glimpsed a figure in a deep red robe pushing towards the crowd behind them.

"Blasphemer!" Tita's roar startled the figure, which then revealed a ferocious expression. The figure opened its mouth and spoke in a language Tita couldn't understand, waving its arms behind it. Immediately afterward, the mutants beside her became agitated as if injected with a battle drug. They all looked at Tita, broke away from the fleeing crowd, and pounced on her and the other two combat sisters. The combat sisters had no choice but to ignore the order to conserve ammunition and pull the trigger again, clearing a bloody path.

"Stop! Or I'll cut your head off right here!"

Tita's warnings had no effect.

Seeing her followers, who were protecting her, being blown to pieces by the explosives, Priestess Firiel extended her finger and chanted a difficult, obscure incantation. The power armor's audio capture function clearly recorded Priestess Firiel's pronunciation, but could not identify the script to which it belonged. In the blink of an eye, threads of deep purple energy converged in the air, and a giant claw the size of a mortal grew out of thin air, its bones, muscles, and blood vessels all taking shape in an instant. The bloody claw had no skin, and its sharp, filthy nails swung towards Tita and the battle sisters. Tita instinctively swung her longsword, severing one of the fingers of the demonic claw formed by the incantation. The other two battle sisters only had time to fire their guns and grab the mutants who were blocking their way to stop this vile magic.

They watched as the mutant's skin, gripped by the spell, began to dissolve, as if it were immersed in a potent acid. The victim remained conscious, unaffected by any pain. One of the combat sisters curled her lip and ended its suffering with a bomb. In the blink of an eye, the demonic hand swallowed the victim whole, and the finger Tita had severed regrew, then continued flying towards the combat sisters as if alive.

The next second, the demonic hand slammed into a shield. Aparishia, shield in hand, charged through the crowd and pinned the demonic hand against the wall. Before she could even express her gratitude, Tita and the other two battle sisters turned and rushed towards the fleeing priestess, Feliel—this time, she had been pushed aside by the throng. Seeing the charging battle sisters, she brandished her fluorescent blue nuclear fuel rods. The two battle sisters activated their steel wings, flying over the fleeing mutant cultists, tracing an arc in the air before crashing down beside Priestess Feliel.

One of the sisters deftly dodged the attack from the side, piercing the priestess Ferrier's armpit with a bayonet mounted on a bomb gun. Another fighting sister punched the priestess in the face, forcing her to swallow the vicious curse along with her broken teeth. Only then did Tita rush in front of her. She activated her steel wings, smashing through swarms of mutants, her fiery tail scorching human bodies, her wielding longsword smoothly slicing through dense flesh and bone.

"Heretic. In the name of the Emperor, I sentence you to death." Tita coldly looked at the priestess, Feliel, whose eyes were squinting in pain. "You will be judged at the stake, and any defilement you have caused will be completely purified. Rejoice, your blasphemy against the human race will be cleansed, and your sins will be repaid in sacred torment."

The fighting sisters gripped the priestess Feliel's bloodied chin tightly.

This was somewhat redundant, as the priestess Ferrier's jaw and cheekbone were already shattered, but to prevent her from uttering any poisonous words, the battle sisters held her fingers tightly. The power armor, combined with the android's own strength, allowed the battle sisters to easily crush the priestess Ferrier's fingers, and she coughed up a bloody scream from her broken mouth.

"you……"

"Shut up, you blasphemer!"

Without Tita issuing a command, the battle sisters gripped Priestess Ferrier's chin even tighter. Fragments of jawbone pierced her skin, protruding like sharp blades, the immense pain nearly causing Ferrier to lose consciousness. The battle sisters looked at Tita, and after receiving her nod, issued their orders. Seeing the battle sisters with their steel wings, the genetically modified warriors immediately broke away from the front lines, gathering around Commander Tita. No longer conserving ammunition, they used every means to clear a large empty area. The mutants attempting to escape were forced to turn back, loading onto the waiting genetically modified warriors. Those behind ran even more desperately backward, trying to return the way they came, even stepping on the bodies of their own kind, even as their fallen comrades suffered shattered bones and ruptured internal organs.

"Your trial is coming, but not now."

Tita bent down and spoke to Priestess Ferrier through the audio grille of her power armor. The blood-red tactical spieseye was fixed on Priestess Ferrier's eyes. Tita saw the cult priestess's eyes filled with malice and hatred. She removed her helmet and looked directly into the cult priestess's eyes. "I will let you continue to suffer. But eventually your soul will be purified, everything your master gave you will be wiped away, and you will die as a human. Thank Him, for our Lord is the savior of humanity, and even a lost heretic like you can receive His mercy."

"If you were willing to spend the time you would have spent talking pulling the trigger, we might have already completed our mission."

Perhaps due to the spellcaster's agony, the demonic hand formed from the incantation vanished in a wisp of dark purple smoke. Before disappearing, however, the incantation left several deep claw marks on Aparisha's shield, and even the ion shield generator overheated under the strain. Aparisha, while hacking down the mutant cultists crowding towards her, lazily mocked the Sisterhood's lack of military discipline. The Sisterhood, however, remained unmoved by the knights' taunts, and even Catherine, floating in mid-air, offered no response. The radiance she unleashed burned the skin of mutants who had never seen starlight before; multiple visual organs malfunctioned from the pain. This radiance had never appeared in the eternal night of Attilan Fortress. Many mutants evolved black eyes, but when the longed-for light arrived, they painfully closed them, unable to look directly at it.

"Now you should hurry up and kill these mutants," Aparishia said. "At least you have to complete the regency's mission."

"We have completed our mission." Tita raised her head, avoiding the gaze of the priestess lost in anguish. Pain is sacred; pain can bring clarity, pain can lead sinners to repentance. Tita wore a smile rarely seen since leaving the Emperor's side, a smile tinged with an unprecedented sense of satisfaction. "Now is the time to cleanse these sins. Sisters, bring the Emperor's mercy to these sorrowful lives."

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(End of this chapter)