America: The Cremator

Chapter 179 Likes playing with colors? Let me show you!

"Come back!" Elena shouted, but it was too late.

The moment Nancy stepped out of the circle of light, the eerie colored ripples swept past, abruptly freezing her running motion in mid-air.

Her legs lost their three-dimensional structure below the knees, collapsing directly into a flat, colorful patch that quickly spread across the scorching hot, non-slip steel plate.

Losing the support of her legs, Nancy suddenly shrunk, her upper body falling straight forward.

"Nancy!"

Marcus's eyes widened in fury. Instinctively, he dropped the machine gun in his hand and lunged forward, trying to pull the girl back into the circle of light.

However, as soon as he lunged forward, his lower body instantly turned into paint and spread out, and he fell to the ground.

"Idiot!" Surong cursed through gritted teeth.

These guys completely disregarded the bizarre and dangerous nature of the B-rank higher-ups!

The mutual assistance between comrades that is usually commendable becomes meaningless in the face of this kind of rule-based ability, except for throwing away one's life!

"Mr. Surong"

Before he could even think, another shout reached Sulong's ears. He quickly turned around and saw that Lucia's short hair was losing its original texture.

Without Nancy's flashlight beam, Lucia's hair began to blur and soften at the edges, turning into streaks of dark brown oil paint that slowly flowed down her cheeks and neck.

Seeing the changes in Lucia's hair, Su Long didn't have time to think. He clasped his hands together and then pulled them outwards with force.

The purple-gold flames that were originally perfectly fused together were forcibly torn apart by him.

Pure, dazzling golden primordial fire rose from his left palm, while dark, deep purple hellfire ignited in his right.

The moment the hellfire broke free from the suppression of the primordial fire, extremely violent negative emotions surged up Sulong's right arm and rushed to his head.

Countless agonizing screams and insane curses exploded in his mind, attempting to destroy his sanity.

Su Long grunted, gritted his teeth, and withstood the mental shock, raising the two balls of flame high.

Golden light, purple fire, and the yellow light from the lantern in Elena's hand—three completely different wavelengths of light converged in mid-air, completely enveloping Lucia.

The soft, flowing oil painting texture on Lucia's hair stopped instantly; the color no longer spread downwards, and the originally blurred edges regained the physical structure that hair should have.

She was panting heavily, cold sweat streaming down her face, frantically wiping the ink off her face and head, her expression one of terror.

Outside the aperture, Jack and Martin looked at Marcus and Nancy lying on the ground, trembling like leaves.

"Captain! Advisor! Save them! They're still alive!" Jack's voice was desperate, and the beam of his flashlight swayed violently with his body.

Surong glanced at the two people on the ground and saw that outside the range of the light, Nancy and Marcus had completely lost their three-dimensional outlines.

He shook his head helplessly: "It's hopeless. Focus, don't look at them!"

The two of them were like paints being frantically rubbed onto a canvas.

At first, you could still see Marcus's arm struggling to reach forward, but the thick arm quickly lost its thickness in mid-air and turned into a flat block of color.

A few seconds later, the two men's limbs were completely blurred into a blurry, colorful patch.

Their faces were forcibly elongated, their features melted together, leaving only a large, open mouth-shaped patch of color, as if emitting a silent wail.

Finally, even the slightest ripple disappeared. The two lay completely flat on the scorching hot, non-slip steel plate, turning into two pools of extremely saturated oil paint.

Jack and Martin watched this scene, their breaths catching in their throats.

Living people were turned into a bizarre pool of paint right before their eyes!

The next instant, the transformation process was completely finished, and the two splatters of paint belonging to Marcus and Nancy on the ground merged into the other paints.

The ink, which was originally insufficient to cover the entire space, was greatly replenished and quickly spread outwards, enveloping the entire space.

The world around them suddenly spun around.

Once everyone regained their footing, the scene before them had completely changed.

The dark and damp underground chambers disappeared, and they stood in a bizarre, completely enclosed space.

The ground beneath my feet and the top of my head were covered with dark yellow linen textures, and the surface was covered with layers of dry, cracked, peeling scabs of oil paint.

Su Long tried stepping on it, and the ground sank in like a piece of rotten meat. It took a full ten seconds for it to slowly spring back and flatten.

The space had no boundaries, only thick, rusty red oil paint that was so thick it couldn't be dissolved.

The oil paints flowed slowly like a waterfall, and if you looked at them for too long, your vision would become distorted and blurred.

"What the hell is this place?" Martin asked, his voice trembling.

Su Long looked up, his gaze fixed on the Nightmare Butterfly hovering in the very center.

It looked even larger and more deformed than it had on the outside.

With each flutter of the colorful wings, the entire space seemed to be crumpled like a piece of waste paper, with the surrounding scenery dissolving, distorting, and then randomly recombining.

Brushstrokes floated everywhere in the air.

Lead white, verdigris, scarlet—lines of various colors wriggled in mid-air like worms, occasionally darting out at varying speeds.

What's even more disgusting is that from the pus seeping from the scabs of the oil paint, deformed remnants of the painting are constantly oozing out.

A noblewoman missing an arm, a knight with his head upside down, and even a hunting dog stitched up haphazardly.

They were silent, just floating in mid-air, slowly approaching the living people in the circle of light.

"Don't look around! Keep your eyes on the flashlight beam!" Elena shouted, the brass lantern in her hand emitting a faint spiritual light that barely countered the oppressive feeling around her.

Suddenly, the Nightmare Butterfly in mid-air stopped fluttering its wings.

Its two huge, bloodshot eyes suddenly lit up with an extremely eerie, colorful ripple.

Psychological attack!

The ripples swept across everyone in an instant. Su Long felt as if the solid mental barrier in his mind had been smashed hard by a sledgehammer, and his whole brain buzzed.

Fortunately, his 60 points of mental attribute were strong enough to withstand the attack.

He turned to look beside him, and Elena swayed violently, nearly dropping the lantern in her hand. She clutched her forehead, letting out a muffled groan, her breath instantly fading.

Lucia was in an even worse state. She was covered in sweat, biting her lip until it bled, and her legs were trembling violently, but she was still holding the tactical flashlight tightly in her hands.

"ah--!"

Jack and Martin behind him suddenly let out extremely shrill screams.

These two were already on the verge of collapse, and when they were swept away by this mental ripple, the strings of their reason snapped completely.

"Fake! It's all fake! We're all in the painting! All in the painting, hahahaha!" Jack laughed maniacally, throwing away his sniper rifle and flashlight, and grabbing his hair with both hands so hard that his scalp was torn apart.

Martin joined in, laughing and crying, tears and snot mingling together: "I don't want to play anymore! Let me out! Let me out!"

The two completely lost their minds and turned to run out of the circle of light.

The moment the two rushed out of the area covered by the three-colored light, their thighs instantly lost their thickness and turned into a rapidly spreading smear of scarlet paint.

Their upper bodies slammed heavily onto the linen floor. Then, their heads, torsos, and arms, like a watercolor painting splashed with water, quickly blurred and dissolved, turning into two irregularly edged patches of color.

One second they were two living people, the next they were two lifeless puddles of oil paint on the ground.

The entire squad is now down to just Suron, Elena, and Lucia.

Looking at the bizarre, colorful world around her, Lucia's tactical flashlight swayed more and more violently, and she cried out in a trembling voice, "Mr. Suron, I'm so scared!"

"I'm falling—I'm dropping—there's nothing but emptiness beneath my feet—those colors are pulling me—they're tearing at my legs!"

Her vision was completely unfocused; the scene before her was already fragmented. In her perception, she was falling at an extremely fast speed into a bottomless, colorful abyss, surrounded by those bizarre creatures.

Su Long held up the golden and purple flames with both hands to stabilize the core of the halo.

He shouted, "Lucia, listen! That's all an illusion! You're standing firmly on the non-slip steel plate! Hold on tight to the flashlight, and absolutely do not move!"

Lucia bit her lower lip hard, gripping the metal handle of the flashlight tightly with both hands. She forced herself to close her eyes, not to see or hear, relying entirely on instinct to maintain the angle of the beam.

At the edge of the aperture, the fragments of oil paintings, missing limbs and other debris, were slowly approaching.

Elena sidestepped and positioned herself at the outermost edge of the light circle, her greatsword flashing with a sharp silver arc.

"Whoosh!"

The knight's remains, with its head upside down, were cleaved in two by the greatsword, turning into two thick pools of colorful paint that splattered on the ground with a "thud." With a backhand swipe, she cleaved a deformed hunting dog that lunged at her in two.

Elena quickly took half a step back, regaining her footing in the core area of ​​the light circle, and said, panting heavily, "Suron! There are more and more monsters! We can't hold out much longer! What's your plan? I'm ready to assist you!"

The surrounding ruins of oil paintings, like sharks smelling blood, surged in from all directions in dense numbers.

The aperture range is being continuously squeezed.

As Su Long watched the monsters closing in, he knew very well that defense alone was useless; he had to use his domain to forcibly cover this eerie area!

Many of his teammates have already died, and now it's the final moment. Even if something worse happens during his skill point allocation, he can't worry about that now!

Su Long took a deep breath and decisively activated the immersion mode, instantly slowing down everything around him.

Elena's swinging of her greatsword slowed down, the splashes of paint in mid-air froze in place, and the Nightmare Butterfly's flapping of its wings became extremely slow.

He immediately brought up the system panel and unhesitatingly allocated twenty points to his mental attribute.

The numbers on the panel were jumping wildly.

[Spirit: 80 (A childlike heart!)]

[Mental attributes have entered a new stage! The mental barrier has been significantly strengthened once again!]

[Gain the active skill "Innocent Heart". After use, you can enter a state of unlimited mental energy for 30 seconds.]

[Seconds. During this period, spiritual power will absolutely not be depleted, nor will it be eroded, distorted, or polluted by any external force!]

As Su Long read this explanation, his heart suddenly raced.

Unlimited mental power! And it's immune to all contamination and distortion! This is practically a divine skill tailor-made to deal with this bizarre, rule-based monster before us!

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

A giant hand made of scarlet paint had reached the edge of the light circle and was about to grab Elena's shoulder.

Thank goodness, we made it!

"Elena, step back!"

Su Long shouted loudly, and at the same time quickly activated [Innocent Heart]!

boom!

An unprecedented sense of clarity and vastness exploded in my mind.

His previously depleted mental energy was instantly replenished, even overflowing.

The deep-seated fatigue in my brain was swept away.

The mental barrier protecting the brain became unbreakable at this moment. The colorful ripples emitted by the Nightmare Butterfly, which were enough to drive people mad, crashed into the mental barrier without even causing a ripple.

Su Long stomped his right foot heavily on the soft linen floor, and purple-gold flames climbed up his legs, enveloping him in an instant.

A majestic crown, formed purely from firelight, suddenly took shape atop his head.

Immediately afterwards, an extremely domineering domain ripple, centered on Su Long, swept wildly in all directions.

This ripple, carrying extreme heat and a pure aura of destruction, forcefully sliced ​​through the surrounding thick, rusty blood-red paint bands.

"Clang!"

A deafening metallic clang echoed through the space.

The originally soft and twisted linen floor was forcibly replaced by a hot, heavy, non-slip steel plate.

Immediately afterwards, the walls around them, which were covered in paint, were brutally torn apart.

Towering steel walls, some tens of meters high, rose from the ground, crushing the oil painting debris that tried to approach.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

Hundreds of massive crematorium doors burst open against the steel walls, and dark red flames erupted wildly from the depths of the furnace.

The Domain of Billions of Incinerators has descended once more!

This time, supported by boundless spiritual power, the expansion speed and intensity of the domain reached an extremely terrifying level.

The purple-gold sea of ​​fire instantly filled half of the space, burning all the ink strokes and oil painting remnants floating in mid-air to ashes. The moment they came into contact with the flames, they didn't even have a chance to struggle.

Lucia's legs went weak, and she collapsed onto the scorching hot steel plate.

She gasped for breath, looking at the familiar steel structures around her, and tears welled up uncontrollably.

"He came back to life—he really came back to life—"

Elena, carrying her greatsword, strode over to Suron's side, her heart filled with awe as she looked at the ever-brightening crown of flames above his head.

This guy has activated his domain twice in a row. Does his mental power have no limit?

Right in the center, the Nightmare Butterfly was clearly enraged by this sudden turn of events. Its two enormous eyes on its head stared intently at Su Long, and its colorful wings began to vibrate violently, filling the air with an extremely pungent smell of turpentine.

Large swaths of colorful fog shed from its wings and spread rapidly outwards. Wherever the fog passed, even the flames spewing from the crematorium showed brief distortions and color changes.

"Painted Fog Realm"

Su Long snorted coldly, not taking this move seriously at all.

With the absolute immunity of "pure heart", this dust attack, which also has hallucinogenic and spatial distortion effects, is completely ineffective against him.

Su Long raised his right hand, palm facing up, and loosely clenched it.

"You like playing with colors, huh? Well, I'll show you what's what!"

He clenched his fist tightly, and all the crematorium doors on the surrounding steel walls emitted a piercing roar at the same time.

The Nightmare Butterfly hovering in the center sensed extreme danger. Its two huge, bloodshot eyes on its head spun wildly, and its colorful wings flapped downwards violently.

A violent, colorful storm formed between its wings, carrying a power strong enough to distort the rules of three-dimensional space, and swept straight toward Su Long and the others.

This storm, mixed with countless mutilated oil painting limbs, distorted faces, and the pungent smell of turpentine, attempts to drag everything in front of it into the two-dimensional abyss of paint.

The colorful storm slammed into the edge of the domain of billions of crematoriums, and the two completely different forces of law collided violently.

The raging purple-gold flames formed an insurmountable wall, firmly blocking the distorted storm outside. Any colored paints, severed limbs, or fragments attempting to penetrate were instantly incinerated upon contact with the flames, not a single trace escaping.

Su Long raised his hand and swung it sharply at the Nightmare Butterfly in front of him.

In an instant, thousands upon thousands of humanoid monsters, formed entirely of purple-gold flames, roared as they burst forth from the furnaces of countless cremation furnaces.

They stepped onto the scorching hot, non-slip steel plates and plunged headlong into the colorful, eerie realm of the Nightmare Butterfly.

The moment the firemen burst out of the boundary of the domain, the Nightmare Butterfly's "Smudge Transformation" rule took effect instantly. The hundreds of firemen at the forefront had their originally three-dimensional bodies forcibly flattened by an invisible force, their thickness instantly reduced to zero, and they collapsed directly into puddles of flat golden paint.

These golden patches spread rapidly across the dark yellow linen floor, seemingly about to be swallowed up by the surrounding blood-rust-colored paint.

The gold pigments that were flattened into two-dimensional blocks did not lose the terrifying energy they originally contained.

Conversely, the massive, world-destroying fire was forcibly compressed into an absolutely flat space, causing the energy density to reach an extremely dangerous critical value.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The raging purple-gold flames, centered on the golden paint, raged wildly in all directions. The extremely compressed energy release was several times more terrifying than the fireman's self-destruction.

The thick, blood-rust-colored paint strips around them were blasted to pieces and then completely burned by the high temperature.

Sulong squinted, staring at the floor at the center of the explosion.

The explosions just now blasted more than a dozen huge, charred holes into the dark yellow linen ground.

The linen fibers along the edges of the holes were burning and curling, and through those holes, one could vaguely see the gray-black concrete floor of the real world below.

Su Long laughed out loud and turned to look at Elena beside him: "Elena, watch your step."

Elena followed his gaze and immediately noticed the holes blasted through the air. She pondered for half a second, then quickly realized: "The underlying logic of this monster's domain is a giant canvas!"

Su Long snapped his fingers and chuckled, "That's right."

"The ability to forcibly pull the real world into a painting is indeed tricky."

"But unfortunately, it ran into me."

Su Long raised his hand, and a dazzling flame rose from his palm.

"Elena, do you know?"

"Even more beautiful than the Mona Lisa is the Mona Lisa on fire!"