America: The Cremator

Chapter 178 The Nightmare Butterfly Appears!

The semi-transparent system notification box gradually faded from Su Long's sight.

He glanced distractedly at the latest data in the resource panel; the experience points had jumped to fifty.

Clearly, tonight's profits will be quite substantial.

The massive steel hatch slowly disappeared, and the raging purple-gold flames inside the furnace were extinguished.

"Stand firm!" Su Long shouted without turning his head, then lifted his right foot and stomped heavily on the scorching hot anti-slip steel plate.

With a low hum, the domain began to collapse, and the surrounding steel walls and the crematorium embedded within them quickly dissipated, returning everyone to the underground cabin.

As a B-rank exorcist, Elena possesses an exceptional ability to adapt to changes in spiritual rules. She simply swayed her shoulders to regain her balance and, wielding her greatsword, began to guard her surroundings.

But Marcus and his companions were in a much worse state, all of them seemingly drunk, swaying and unable to stand steadily.

Nancy, who didn't like exercise to begin with, suddenly felt her legs go weak and collapsed to the ground, retching incessantly: "Oh God—I feel like someone is fucking my brain."

Seeing that the team members were all reluctant to go, Elena immediately announced, "Take a one-minute break, and we'll set off again in one minute."

Upon hearing Elena's words, everyone immediately sat down on the ground, catching their breath while looking around.

The cocoons that had previously covered the entire cabin floor and ceiling, so dense they were terrifying, had all vanished.

Large swirling white ash particles drifted in the air, falling lightly like cotton wool or snowflakes.

Martin reached out and caught a drifting white ash. With a gentle squeeze, the ash instantly turned to powder at his fingertips. Looking at his hand covered in ash, he exclaimed in disbelief, "That big butterfly—it's just gone like that?"

Jack leaned in, his voice filled with awe: "I've been a sniper for six years and seen all sorts of heavy firepower coverage—but I've never seen such killing efficiency."

Lucia relaxed her tense nerves, put the pistol back in its holster, and let out a long breath: "It seems the mission went more smoothly than expected—Adam's revenge can finally be taken."

Despite the praise from the crowd, Su Long did not show any signs of relaxation.

He turned around, looked at the group of operators who thought they had already finished their shift, and poured cold water on their enthusiasm without any mercy: "Don't be too happy yet, the mission isn't over yet."

Marcus's smile froze. He scratched his head. "Not over yet? But didn't you already stuff that big worm into that giant iron furnace and burn it to ashes?"

Su Long shook his head and chuckled: "The one that was burned to death just now was indeed very big, but it was too weak. Its strength was only C-level, at best it was just a well-developed cub."

"What we need to deal with is a B-level anomaly."

"Everyone, stay alert and don't let your guard down. Fighting a B-rank monster can be deadly if you're not careful."

Finally, he looked at the gate at the other end of the cabin and said in a solemn tone, "The real monster is probably behind this door."

After hearing Su Long's speech, everyone present couldn't help but gasp.

That terrifying monster with a wingspan of over twenty meters and a deformed human head was just a cub? How terrifying must its true form be?

Upon hearing Su Long's speculation, everyone lost interest in chatting. After resting and recovering, they helped each other to their feet and headed towards the deepest part of the cabin.

An even larger and heavier industrial gate stood before everyone.

Countless thick black cables extend from the surrounding walls, all connecting to the mechanical lock disc in the center of the gate.

Staring at the tightly closed gate, everyone's expression became unusually solemn.

Suron turned to Marcus and the others and instructed them, "You stay where you are and establish a defensive line. Keep an eye on the movement in the rear passage to prevent enemy reinforcements from cutting off our retreat."

They knew that going in would only add to the burden on Suron and Elena, so they nodded in agreement without hesitation.

Marcus patted the bulletproof plate on his chest and said confidently, "Leave it to me! I have plenty of ammunition. This is just a small passage; none of those gun-wielding idiots will get in."

The group quickly found cover and prepared to build a defensive position. Su Long turned his head to look at Elena standing beside him: "Let's go, let's deal with that damn butterfly!"

Elena nodded slightly: "Open the door."

Su Long took a deep breath, and the World-Destroying Flame reappeared in his hand. He was about to step closer to the gate when he suddenly stopped.

Suddenly, a viscous, eerily shimmering colored ink seeped from the bottom of that tightly sealed industrial gate.

As if possessing a life of its own, the ink surged wildly through the cracks in the gate, climbing and spreading upwards along the rough concrete wall. Red, yellow, blue, purple—various highly saturated colors intertwined and collided wildly on the wall, forming a bizarre and grotesque abstract painting.

"Back off! Watch out!"

Sulong immediately extinguished the flames in his hand, grabbed Elena's wrist, and pulled her backward at breakneck speed.

The colors on the wall are flowing faster and faster.

The viscous pigments began to devour and merge with each other, eventually forming a huge colorful vortex directly above the gate, emitting a nauseatingly sweet smell.

"What the hell is this thing?" Marcus couldn't help but swear from behind the cover.

Su Long sneered and flicked his wrist: "Looks like we don't need to knock on the door anymore; the master himself came out to greet us."

As soon as he finished speaking, the huge vortex of paint suddenly spewed outwards, and large patches of colored paint peeled off the wall, quickly recombine and reshape themselves in mid-air.

The outline of a huge and bizarre butterfly gradually becomes clear amidst the vibrant colors.

This thing doesn't conform to the structure of any living organism in nature at all; it's like something that crawled out of an oil painting by some mad painter.

Its wings are strangely colorful, some blood-red, others blackish-purple.

The colors overlapped and flowed on the surface of the wings, sometimes piecing together distorted human faces, sometimes transforming into sharp fangs, exuding a suffocating beauty of death.

What's even more chilling is its body, pieced together from hundreds of pale fingers of varying lengths, which constantly flex, stretch, and scratch in mid-air, producing a sickening, bone-grinding sound.

At the top of its head, two thick tentacles stand tall.

The ends of the whiskers were connected to two huge, bloodshot human eyeballs.

Those two eyeballs darted wildly in their sockets, finally locking onto Su Long, who was standing at the very front.

It flapped its colorful wings violently, and the colors at the edges of the wings quickly melted away.

Red, yellow, blue, and purple pigments dripped down the outline of the wings. The moment they touched the ground, they did not seep into the earth, but instead clung to the rough, non-slip steel plate and swam quickly.

These highly saturated colors spread wildly along the walls, ceilings, and floors, forcibly turning the originally gray-black industrial facilities into bizarre blocks of color.

Wherever the color passes, the texture of the steel plate disappears, the thickness of the wall is smoothed out, and the three-dimensional structure of the entire space is being forcibly reduced to a flat abstract painting.

This guy is unleashing a bizarre aura!

Without hesitation, Su Long clasped his hands together, preparing to forcefully open the "Domain of Billions of Corpse Incinerators" again, using a domain to fight another domain.

However, the moment the world-destroying flames gathered in his palm, a sudden, intense dizziness surged from the depths of his brain.

It had only been three minutes since he last used his domain to deal with dozens of monsters. Even with his sixty points of mental attribute, the energy expenditure from using his domain twice in such a short time was still beyond his limit.

Su Long gritted his teeth, forcibly suppressing the throbbing pain in his head. Looking at the bizarre butterfly in front of him, he narrowed his eyes slightly. His domain could not be expanded, which meant that his mental energy had reached its limit.

What should I do?

Should I immediately use experience points to increase my mental strength?

No, it will take at least several tens of seconds from adding points to improving mental strength to unlocking new abilities!

This guy has bizarre abilities. If we don't figure out its killing mechanism immediately, a few dozen seconds is enough for it to wipe out everyone on the scene!

After analyzing the current situation, Su Long decisively activated the [Intelligence Master] active skill.

[Solved]!

In an instant, a long string of text appeared in front of Su Long.

[Code Name: B-034]

【Name: Nightmare Butterfly】

【Alternative names: Halo Demon, Finger-Winged Demon】

[Rank: Upper B]

[Appearance Description]: Its overall outline resembles a combination of the wings of a giant lepidopteran insect and a deformed body.

Under natural light, its surface does not produce normal diffuse reflection, but instead exhibits a gloss and thickness similar to wet oil paint, with the color undergoing unpredictable blurring and changes depending on the viewing angle and the wavelength of the light source.

[Environmental Characteristics]: When the Nightmare Butterfly appears, the light in the area will exhibit non-geometric refraction. The beams of straight light sources (such as flashlights and laser pointers) will bend along their propagation path, forming a curved light path similar to paint spreading in water.

A distinct mixed odor of linseed oil, turpentine, and indigo pigment was detected in the air, with the concentration increasing linearly over time.

[Skills Overview]

1. The core attack method of Nightmare Butterfly is to transform any physical entity into a blurred state similar to watercolor or oil paint.

In physics, this process manifests as the loss of structural integrity of the target substance, the replacement and alteration of intermolecular forces by some unknown force, and the eventual collapse of the target into a two-dimensional, irregular, colored patch.

The Nightmare Butterfly can transform anything—living things, inorganic matter, and certain energy fields (such as flames and electric fields)—into a pigment state. The transformation of energy fields results in the energy briefly existing as colored light spots (approximately 0.5 seconds) before dissipating. The transformed spots no longer possess any of the original target's physical or chemical properties.

Scope and limitations: After each conversion on a target, the Nightmare Butterfly requires approximately 3 to 5 seconds of "recharging" time. During this period, the pigment layer on its wings will noticeably thin, color saturation will decrease, and its tentacles and eyes will briefly lose focus. Therefore, it can attack continuously, but it cannot convert multiple targets simultaneously in a very short time.

2. The Nightmare Butterfly of Pigment Mist can vibrate its wings, scattering pigment particles from its wing surface into the air, forming a mist 20 to 30 cm in diameter.

A thick, colorful fog.

The pigment mist can remain suspended in the air for up to 30 minutes, unaffected by the natural environment.

The paint mist contains a large amount of hallucinogenic substances. Inhalation can cause central nervous system dysfunction. Victims will experience severe dizziness, spatial disorientation, and visual distortion within 10 to 20 seconds, seeing objects as if they were painted with brushstrokes, straight lines becoming curves, and flat surfaces becoming waves. Subsequently, victims will experience a large number of hallucinations.

These hallucinations last for 5 to 15 seconds and then dissipate on their own. They are not physically destructive, but they can cause a strong psychological impact.

颜料雾中，噩梦之蝶自身的移动速度和晕染转化的充能时间均缩短约40%（充能时间从3—5秒降至1.5—2.5秒）。

[Physical Hazard]: High.

The physical danger of the Nightmare Butterfly stems from the irreversibility of its infective transformation ability and its high lethality.

The victim is reduced from a three-dimensional entity to a two-dimensional color spot in the instant of the staining transformation. There are no known medical or supernatural means to reverse or alleviate this process.

[Psychological Harm]: Extremely High.

Observers who witness the blurring and transformation process (seeing their companions turn into paint) may experience a persistent loss of reality—they begin to question whether their world is also "painted" and whether objects might blur at any moment. This symptom usually subsides on its own after the exposure ends, but in severe cases, it can develop into dissociative identity disorder, requiring long-term psychotherapy.

Meanwhile, survivors exhibit a strong negative reaction to highly saturated colors (especially deep red, cobalt violet, and peacock green), manifesting as nausea, palpitations, and even brief hallucinations (they begin to "bleed" when they see these colors). The neural mechanism of this symptom is speculated to be generalized conditioned fear, which is quite difficult to treat.

[Important Information]: Nightmare Butterfly can identify which individuals have the strongest fear and prioritize inflicting infect and transform them.

The Nightmare Butterfly cannot transform an object that is being simultaneously illuminated by at least three different wavelengths of light (the light source intensity must be greater than 100 lu). This phenomenon is known as the "pigment stabilization effect," and the mechanism is speculated to be that multispectral interference disrupts the coherence of the halo field.

Su Long stared at the string of text containing a great deal of information and immediately mobilized the power of "Raphael" in his mind.

A mouthful of spiritual liquid appeared out of thin air in his mouth, sliding down his esophagus, and his mind gained ultimate clarity.

Then, Su Long decisively entered immersion mode, and everything around him slowed down instantly.

Marcus's movements as he picked up the machine gun became extremely slow, and the ashes falling from the air almost stopped in place.

Su Long quickly scanned the files on the panel and immediately felt a sense of urgency.

This monster's abilities are utterly unreasonable; it can forcibly reduce three-dimensional physical entities to two-dimensional patches of paint. Physical defenses are meaningless in the face of such abilities.

Su Long's gaze continued downwards, landing directly on the last line.

[Important Information: The Nightmare Butterfly cannot transform an object that is simultaneously illuminated by at least three different wavelengths of light. Multispectral interference can disrupt the coherence of the halo field.]

Upon seeing this text, Su Long immediately understood how to deal with this strange phenomenon.

He quickly de-immersed himself, and the flow of time in his field of vision suddenly returned to normal.

Surong turned to look at the group behind him and shouted sharply, "Don't move! Put your guns down! Turn on your tactical flashlights! Shine them on each other! Make sure the beam covers everyone! Now!"

Although the group didn't understand why Su Long would remind them like that, their long-standing professional skills made them quickly put away their guns, take out tactical flashlights, turn them on, and shine them on each other.

Taking the opportunity, Su Long glanced at Elena and quickly reminded her, "Elena, turn on the lantern!"

As he spoke, Su Long raised his right hand, and a purple-gold flame of world destruction roared up from his hand. At this moment, Elena also lifted the brass lantern at her waist with one hand.

In an instant, the team members were completely enveloped in light.

Surong stared at the bizarre butterfly ahead and said in a deep voice, "Nancy, Lucia, you two stand at either end and don't move. The flashlight beam's range is small; you must ensure the beams overlap. Your positions are crucial; neither of you can be left out!"

He emphasized his words, his gaze sweeping over the others.

"Everyone else, stay where you are and absolutely do not leave the area illuminated by the flashlight beam!"

Ahead, the Nightmare Butterfly, composed of countless pale fingers and vibrant colors, had its two antennae standing tall on its head.

The two enormous, bloodshot eyes at the end spun wildly, locking onto Su Long and the others at the center of the tri-colored light. Then, the giant, eerily colored wings suddenly flapped downwards.

A visible, colorful ripple spread out from its body, sweeping across the surrounding area.

The world around them collapsed completely the moment it came into contact with that colorful ripple.

The thick concrete wall suddenly lost its physical structure.

The hard wall, already covered with a layer of paint, softened instantly, turning into a large patch of irregularly spreading colored ink.

The steel bars inside the wall turned into streaks of dark red paint, dripping down the wall surface.

The anti-slip steel plate on the ground also liquefied, and the originally clear patterns became a mess, turning into pools of colorful oil paint that flowed freely.

The industrial searchlights overhead, along with their connected black cables, collapsed into two-dimensional colored patches in mid-air, fell to the ground with a thud, and merged into the sea of ​​paint.

Just when Su Long thought the current deployment was basically safe and he could safely add points to his mental attribute, a scream suddenly rang out from behind him.

Surong turned around abruptly and saw Nancy pointing a trembling finger in Lucia's direction: "Lucia—your light! Your light is out!"

Nancy trembled violently, large beads of cold sweat appeared on her forehead, and the flashlight in her hand swayed up and down.

Suron immediately turned to look at Lucia, only to see that although she was nervous, she was still holding the tactical flashlight steadily in both hands, and the blinding white light was shining on Nancy without any sign of going out.

Surong instantly realized that Nancy was under an illusion!

He immediately shouted, "Nancy! You're hallucinating! That butterfly is fooling you! Lucia's light is on! Trust me, stay in that position and absolutely do not move!"

However, Nancy shook her head desperately.

The world in her eyes had completely transformed into the distorted starry sky depicted in Van Gogh's paintings, even more bizarre and grotesque than the paintings themselves.

"No—your lights are out too! All of them are out!" Nancy screamed in terror, her reason completely collapsing at that moment.

She slammed the tactical flashlight in her hand to the ground and turned to run away.

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