243 Chapter 243: The Angel of Fire (2/2)

Shun Yin amputated his arm with his blackened, smoldering sword. The charred blade enveloped Cronus's remaining body with flames on par with those generated by the sun, and he screamed in agony. His arm vanished, completely incinerated, and it wasn't long before his head and chest followed it into the void, reduced into ashes.

”Phew…” Shun Yin wiped the perspiration from his brow. ”I didn't expect my Can Huo de Tai Dao to be this powerful.

”It's not over yet!” Angelica warned. The next second, an explosion of silver mana erupted from Cronus's ashes, but Shun Yin leaped away in time. Gritting her teeth, Angelica blasted the silver maelstrom with crimson flames, slowly destroying it. The gigantic human outline that had gradually grew out of the ashes began to collapse again.

By purifying the time magic that Cronus cast, Angelica was neutralizing his resurrection and ensuring that he stayed dead for good. Even though this was similar in principle to the magic she originally wielded, she would never have been capable of casting purification flames of sufficient strength to neutralize Cronus's far more powerful time magic if she had not chosen to sacrifice her humanity and merge with a spirit.

That was why she had chosen to take this drastic step. In order to stop Cronus for good. Otherwise he would just return to life over and over again by rewinding time, and eventually slaughtered every single person here who belonged to the Global Federation.

This was the only chance they had for survival.

”UWAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

With an inhuman howl, Cronus's existence slowly faded away from this dimension. Without a physical form to which the spirit could tether itself, Cronus's biological body was expiring rapidly and losing cohesion. It wasn't as if Cronus's essence or soul could remain in the physical domain for very long if he didn't have a body to house it. It was dissipating, purged and cleansed by Angelica's relentless purification flames.

And then, just like that, he was gone.

”Cronus!”

Serena shrieked when she sensed and witnessed the demise of her husband. Greenish-black mana rolled outward from her body as she turned toward the two kids, incensed. At least eight pairs of hands burst from behind her, each carrying a different weapon.

”I suggest that you worry about yourself instead,” Lionel advised. He had a point. Serena was in a critical condition, having been mauled by his countless Sakura blossoms. Her black synthetic suit had been ripped in a hundred different places, and she had lost a massive amount of blood from several dozen injuries. In fact, she was barely able to keep herself upright, staggering from the pain and blood loss.

”!!!”

Serena whirled around and slashed at Lionel, but he parried her short sword. Her eight pair of arms hammered or slashed down on him, but flexible wood sprang out from behind him, each bearing a green dragon coiled around it and blossoming leaves, and curled around the spectral appendages, restraining them. They began to diminish as the wooden technique drained the mana from them at an incredible rate.

”Kuh!”

Serena swung her second short sword, but Lionel ducked under it. Before she could respond, he twisted the sword in his hand and sliced off her arm.

”Argh!”

Screaming, Serena staggered back, blood spurting from her amputated limb, but before she could react, Lionel twirled his sword in an almost elegant fashion and rammed the tip of his blade into her chest, puncturing her heart.

Blood dripped from Serena's lips as she stared hollowly at the sword piercing through her chest, and then she slumped over lifelessly.

”That should do it.”

Kicking Serena down and ruthlessly yanking his sword out of her corpse, Lionel turned toward the injured Yue Guang.

”Are you all right, Yue Guang?”

”Yes, my lord.” the future security chief nodded and accepted the hand that his master offered him, allowing the latter to pull him to his feet.

”Good. Then I suggest that we…”

His proposal was cut short when a familiar figure burst into the cavern, followed by a massive White Tiger.

”I did it! I purged all the data in the cloud server, and destroyed the computer mainframe! I also went through the other rooms and wrecked them! There shouldn't be any physical hard disks containing the data, at least not in this facility!”

Glen Porter looked pretty proud of himself, but his triumph was short-lived. Catching sight of Angelica's angelic form, he did a double take.

”Angie!? What happened to you?!”

Angelica offered him a sad smile.

”I'm afraid that I'm…not Angelica. Well, I am still her, but at the same time I'm not her.”

”Huh? What the hell are you talking about?!” Glen scowled at her. ”Stop speaking in riddles and explain clearly!”

”I'm afraid I can't do that.” Angelica shook her head. ”Maybe we'll meet again, but for now…”

She disappeared, turning into a ball of fire that streaked toward Shun Yin and vanished into his chest. Shun Yin could feel a familiar and nostalgic warmth spreading throughout his body. Closing his eyes, he clamped his fingers to his chest.

”W…what?! Where did she go!? Angie!?”

Glen was gaping at the unbelievable spectacle, and his eyes came to a rest on Shun Yin's stationary form, the last place where Angelica went.

”Shun Yin! What's going on?! What happened to Angie?!”

”I would also like an explanation, if you don't mind.” Lionel joined them, backed by his bodyguard. ”It appears that…she underwent the same process as the Assassin we were fighting earlier. If I recall from the data correctly, that was Spirit Possession…”

”What?!” Glen's face paled considerably. He spun toward Shun Yin and grabbed his shoulders. ”Don't tell me she went and turned herself into a spirit?! Why?! Why didn't you stop her?!”

”I tried to.” Shun Yin slumped down wearily, feeling as if the weight of the world had just sank into his shoulders. ”But she tricked me. I know it's not an excuse…I'm sorry.”

”Instead of apologizing, why don't you start from the beginning?” Lionel suggested gently, placing a hand on Glen and coaxing him away. Shun Yin nodded.

”It's a long story…”