Night Journey

Chapter 167 Mental Deviation
As the Chainblade was withdrawn from Dekar's waist, the restriction of the Soul-Binding Alloy on Source Energy dissipated, the silent Source Energy began to flow again, and the pent-up power of Return to Silence surged forth once more.

Ciri had already distanced himself, and the light mist that swirled around him had long since dissipated.

He stood atop the ruins, looking down from above.

The cold rain washed everything away.

The blood gushing from Decal's abdominal wound stained his tattered clothes, spreading a glaring red in the puddles at his feet.

Rainwater rolled down the lines of his cheeks, and his gray hair clung tightly to his forehead.

"What power is that?"

He asked with curiosity, his voice piercing through the rain, "It can actually interfere with the operation of source energy..."

Before he could finish speaking, he seemed to realize something, "Oh, that's right..."

Then, he gave his own answer, confirming a cruel fact.

"Those who personally experienced this power must have all perished, so it's normal that there are no records."

Decal hadn't experienced such a bloody battle in a long time, and the series of surprises brought to him by the Reverse Falcon was extremely enjoyable.

"call……"

Cillian struggled to suppress his painful gasps.

His left sleeve was torn, revealing a shocking bruise, and his arm bone throbbed with pain. Every breath he took was accompanied by a dull ache in his chest and abdomen.

Although Decal's penetrating wound to the waist and abdomen appeared more severe, with each step he took, rainwater mixed with blood seeped from between his fingers and dripped onto the scorched ground.

But Cillian felt no relief whatsoever; instead, his gaze grew even more grave.

The trump card of the Soul-Binding Alloy was exposed too quickly. In the ensuing battle, Dekar will definitely be wary of the Chainblade's attacks.

Although he had figured out the power of the flail and how to detonate the power of Nirvana, who could guarantee that this was all of Decal's power?

How can it be!

Decal has been cooperating with the Claws for a long time. Even though he himself has not been corrupted by Chaos and has maintained relative purity, this does not mean that he would refuse to fall into depravity in a desperate situation.

Just as the Deathbird once summoned the crimson sun that destroyed White Cliff Town, Decal may also possess some forbidden chaotic techniques as his trump card for turning the tide.

No... this is not a doubt, but a certainty.

How could a madman who tries to let the power of Silence devour the entire city not have such extreme methods!
Cillian gritted his teeth.

The gap in social status is like an invisible mountain blocking my way.

Dekar's source energy foundation, approaching that of a fourth-tier rank, is something that Dekar, at a second-tier rank, can never directly match.

More pressing is the gap in status and time.

Bruce's "fireworks show" that ignited the entire city was just a bluff.

As Dai Lin once emphasized, they were not indiscriminate killers. Those explosions, which seemed earth-shattering, with flames tearing through the rain and thick smoke billowing up, actually precisely avoided the crowds and destroyed abandoned buildings and ruins awaiting demolition.

This won't take long!
Once the superhumans in various locations realize that this is just a diversionary tactic, or have dealt with the chaos at the scene, their attention will inevitably be drawn to the battle that has broken out here.

At that time, facing the swarming City Guard staff and other superhumans from various forces, Ciri will have neither the time nor the opportunity to defend himself, and will only find himself in a desperate situation where he is attacked from all sides.

In the eyes of the city's officials, he was the terrorist "Reverse Falcon" who attacked the city's guard, while Dekar remained the high-ranking head of the city's guard and a respected city councilor.

It's time to move the battle to the next phase.

Ciri sheathed his sword, turned around, and retreated rapidly towards the outer city.

Dekar paused, knowing full well that Cirion was trying to lure him away. He feared that the moment he stepped out of the inner city, a pre-arranged trap would await him...

He sneered inwardly.

"There's no reason to refuse."

Ciri's actions, which ignited the entire city, regardless of the outcome or his initial intentions, have completely placed him on the opposite side of Hull City, betting everything.

What about yourself?
Thinking back on all these years of preparation, haven't I also been putting all my eggs in one basket?
Both were gamblers who had staked everything, and only one of them could leave the table alive.

Cillian's figure sped ahead, his secret feather robes fluttering in the wind, like a fleeing ghost. Dekar followed closely behind, his flails trailing a trail of lingering gray smoke in the rain.

Like two streaks of lightning out of control, the two crashed through the rain curtain one after the other and stepped onto the light rail tracks connecting the inner and outer parts of the city.

Beneath your feet lies a rusty, slippery, and cold metal skeleton, while on either side stretches a dazzling urban abyss shrouded in torrential rain.

The strong wind, carrying raindrops, lashed their bodies.

Cillian was the first to leap onto the track, his chain-like lockblade humming rapidly in his hand.

He didn't turn around, but the wide-angle vision of the six-eyed winged helmet had already taken in the relentless killing intent chasing behind him.

Just as Dekar was about to step into the attack range—

Ciri suddenly twisted his body, his movements as fast as a ghost, and used the force of the rotation to sweep his lockblade backward.

The ear-piercing sound of metal tearing instantly drowned out the wind and rain. Wherever the sword flashed, a blinding spark, like a crimson lightning bolt, shattered the thick steel support.

The track structure was twisted and broken, like a spine bitten off by a giant beast, collapsing and falling downwards with flying rusty red debris.

Dekar's face showed no surprise, only a deeper ferocity.

Instead of stopping, he used the momentum of his forward movement to lean his body forward sharply, leaping into the air at the edge of the barrier.

Taking advantage of the moment Dekar's body was suspended in mid-air, Cillian aimed at its head and pulled the trigger. A bizarre scene unfolded.

The steel-core bullet pierced Dekar's skull, stirring up a cloud of mist, but no blood was seen.

"Ha ha!"

Decal laughed wildly, swinging his flail in a wide arc, drawing a deadly curve in the air as it swept towards Cillian's calf.

Cillian caught a glimpse of a deadly dark light out of the corner of his eye. He instinctively tried to dodge, but his center of gravity had not yet been fully adjusted due to the slashing motion.

Both were deadly hunters, seizing upon each other's fleeting weaknesses.

chap——

The incense ball covered in spikes, like a red-hot branding iron, grazed Cillian's calf with extreme force and near miss, and blood immediately seeped out, staining his trouser leg red.

In the deadly clash, both lost their balance and plummeted from the towering light rail line into the muddy, narrow alleyway below.

Bang! Crash—

The dull thud mingled with the splashing of mud and water.

The two men crashed into the depths of the alley almost simultaneously, falling into the mud mixed with garbage and sewage. The enormous impact made their bones groan, and the cold mud instantly filled their mouths, noses, and collars.

The intent to kill ignites the nerves even before the pain.

Decal roared and struggled to his feet, ignoring the excruciating pain from his abdominal wound, and hurled the flail, which was covered in mud, at the spot where Cirion had fallen.

Cillian rolled awkwardly to the side, attempting to block and counterattack.

The chainmail sword and the flail collided and scraped wildly against the narrow alley walls, sparks flying. Walls along the way collapsed, buildings trembled and swayed precariously, and terrified screams came from the cracks.

Covered in mud and blood, Cillian staggered out of the narrow alley and onto the empty street.

A strange sense of unfamiliarity gripped him without warning.

"This is where?"

Having lived in Hel for so long, and through patrols day and night, the streets of each district were already etched into his mind.

But at this moment, he was lost... or rather, he felt a great sense of unfamiliarity with the city before him, as if he were visiting Hel for the first time.

Even more frightening, he subconsciously looked at his right hand.

There, he held a heavy, cold, oddly shaped metal object, with complex, intersecting edges and gaps, the tip of which gleamed with an ominous cold light.

"what is this?"

The concepts of weapons, the significance of blades... these instinctive understandings of combat seem to have been erased by an eraser.

He only felt that the object in his hand was cold, hard, and threatening, but he couldn't remember its name, purpose, or why he was holding it so tightly.

A chill, originating from an unknown source, crept up my spine, colder than the rain.

Time seemed to freeze for a few seconds, with only the torrential rain pounding on helmets and the noise of the streets.

Ciri's fingers tightened again unconsciously. The touch of that "heavy, cold metal" became incredibly familiar—the patterns on the hilt, the faint pulsation brought by the flow of source energy.

"Sword... Chainblade sword!"

He regained his erased senses, and alarm bells rang in his mind.

"why?"

Cillian calculated every move precisely, always maintaining a safe distance from Decal, a distance that seemed to hang by a thread.

But why was I still affected?

Ciri activated the six-eyed helmet. The source energy flowed like a tiny electric current through the embedded complex lens array, switching his field of vision and abruptly changing the scene before him.

At the exit of the narrow alley, De Karl slowly emerged from the shadows of the ruins.

Within his body, a vast and surging azure energy was flowing wildly, its light so intense, layer upon layer, as if countless energy nodes were resonating violently, finally converging into a blinding core point of light.

But what caused Cirion's pupils to suddenly contract and his blood to almost freeze was not the energy within Decal's body.

He was horrified to discover that this eerie blue light was not an isolated case, but rather filled the entire world.

As far as the eye could see, countless, endless swarms of pale blue lights, like disturbed fireflies, completely obscured the view.

They blended into the torrential rain and flowed into the turbid and swift river.

Under the power of the source energy, the entire city of Hel has transformed into a flowing sea of ​​energy composed of billions of dark blue light points.

"This...this is impossible!"

Cillian's mind nearly stopped; his common sense was completely overturned by the sight before him.

Source energy is born from the Sea of ​​Origin, rises in the spirit realm, and is blocked from the real world. Only when darkness falls and the gray realm of the narrow passage spreads in can source energy briefly penetrate in.

But it is daytime now.

The storm may be fierce, but that is still reality.

Beneath the skies of Hel City, there should never be such a massive amount of energy, overflowing as if it were a tangible substance.

(End of this chapter)