Why is his holy light red?

Chapter 77 An Unbreakable Cage

Mercury never imagined that, more than being devoured alive by monsters, his deepest subconscious fear was being forced by his own father to save the world.

But upon closer reflection, this future is indeed terrifying, and he doesn't want to become the second Holy Angel.

The crimson holy light surged instinctively, attempting to cleanse this mental pollution. Through previous training, Mercury's crimson holy light had developed a slight resistance to illusions.

However, this being's ability to corrupt the mind seemed even stronger than the golden holy light. Mercury resisted with all his might, but could only slightly distort the scene before his eyes. The god radiating blinding golden light in mid-air continued to descend slowly, its enormous hand about to press down on his head.

Mercury was unsure what the effect would be if he were pressed down by that hand.

With the last vestige of reason preserved by the red holy light, Mercury bit his tongue hard, swiped his phone screen with trembling fingers, and pressed play.

Flora's ethereal chanting flowed from the hidden earpiece, like a bucket of ice water poured over Mercury's head, pulling his consciousness out of the illusion. The golden deity in his sight vanished in an instant, like a burst bubble.

But when his vision returned to normal, he saw a dark gun muzzle spitting out dazzling flames.

The masked clown, unleashing terror, is raising a specially made machine gun and frantically emptying the magazine at Mercury.

Meanwhile, Rex, crackling with electricity, was locked in combat with another masked clown. Both were incredibly fast and agile, but Rex seemed to be toyed with, unable to touch his opponent no matter what he did.

"Bang bang bang bang"

The dense hail of bullets struck the layer of red holy light, exploding into dazzling bursts of sparks. The bullets twisted and deformed, falling limply to the ground, yet they didn't even graz Mercury's skin.

The masked clown, seemingly unaware that Mercury had broken free from the illusion, muttered, "This is an armor-piercing shell; it should be able to penetrate a tank by now."

According to common sense about superpowers, 90% of fancy superpowers are no match for a small handgun, and the remaining 10% can't withstand a barrage of bullets from a heavy machine gun. If it were an unlucky guy like the Psychic, once he fell under mind control, he would have been turned into a pile of mush by those bullets.

Unfortunately, he encountered the monster Mercury, whose holy light had long been fused with his cells, so he wasn't afraid of being ambushed even when he was asleep, let alone being under the influence of an illusion.

Mercury maintained the illusion of muscle stiffness, secretly gathering his strength. Just as the heavy machine gun fired a crisp "click" and the magazine was completely empty, the asphalt beneath his feet collapsed with a roar, and he charged towards the clown in front of him like a cannonball.

Without any fancy moves, the iron fist, wreathed in a dark red light, slammed precisely into the Joker's right hand, which was holding the gun. The violent impact instantly crushed the Joker's hand bones and flesh, blasting him, along with the specially made machine gun, into a twisted mass of scrap metal and blood.

Having landed a successful blow, Mercury suddenly exerted force from his waist and hips, using the violent momentum of his charge to twist his body and throw a second punch, aiming straight for the Joker's head.

In a life-or-death battle, screw holding back.

The holy light, unleashed at full power, scraped against the air, creating a deafening sonic boom before the fist. The immense air pressure tore apart the clown's pale mask, revealing the horrifying face beneath.

It was a face that could hardly be called human—no bridge of the nose, no brow bone, pale, smooth skin stretched taut across an oval shape. The only things left on the face were three black, round holes around the eyes and mouth, as if punched out by a hole punch, exuding a nauseatingly inhuman feel.

Mercury's pupils contracted slightly. He wanted to take another look, but his devastating fist had already slammed solidly into the face.

"Bang--!"

With a dull thud as flesh exploded, the grotesque head shattered like a watermelon struck by a hammer. Thick, sticky blood mixed with pale bone fragments rained down, scattering wildly under the cold glow of the streetlights.

The headless body wobbled twice before crashing straight forward onto the asphalt. Mercury's gaze swept over the severed neck, and his expression immediately changed.

There was no spurting blood at the cut, nor any torn throat or muscle. Beneath that realistic human skin was a section of white, plastic-looking skeleton, gushing out a viscous, red and white liquid that emitted a pungent chemical odor.

This thing isn't human at all!

"Rex, watch out!"

Before he could utter the warning, Mercury's gaze met that of the last clown.

Mercury felt a surge of crisis and suddenly pushed off with his feet, preparing to rush over and finish off this last monster.

However, it was too late.

The semi-transparent circus tent appeared out of thin air.

This time, however, its coverage expanded dramatically, not only trapping Rex and the fallen Radiant Messenger, but also imprisoning Mercury, who was more than ten meters away, in this invisible cage.

Through the distorted light barrier, the clown burst into a piercing laugh.

"Tsk, I underestimated you. I didn't know brute force alone could be so troublesome." The clown tilted his head strangely, like a lab rat in an observation box, sizing up the people in the tent.

His tone was laced with undisguised malice and mockery. "Our old rule still applies: only death can lift the curtain on this tent. However—since there are more spectators this time, the ticket price will naturally have to go up. This time, two people have to die to open the door!"

Enraged, Rex slammed his fist, crackling with electricity, into the illusory tent. But the high-voltage current, upon contact with the semi-transparent light barrier, was like a drop of water hitting the deep sea—it caused no change whatsoever.

Mercury didn't waste any words either. He suddenly exerted force from his waist and hips, and swung his right leg out with a ferocious side kick like a heavy battle axe.

"boom--!"

The air was torn apart by a deafening sonic boom, and the powerful reaction force instantly shattered his specially made tactical leather shoes into pieces, causing the ground beneath his feet to tremble violently.

However, the seemingly fragile tent-like structure remained completely still.

Mercury withdrew his numb right leg and frowned deeply.

In the instant of contact, he could clearly feel that the force that was enough to kick through the steel plate was not "blocked," but rather forcibly removed and mostly transferred by some strange rule.

This thing is not a simple energy shield at all, but a special ability with a special mechanism, and brute force seems to be meaningless.

But Mercury did not give up. His gaze swept quickly across the enclosed space around him, and the next second, his figure turned into a series of afterimages.

The trailing red light bombarded the tent relentlessly, attempting to find a weakness in the defenses through continuous impacts.

But after dozens of full-power bombardments, the light barrier remained completely unchanged. It seemed to mock their futile efforts, as the invisible cage began to slowly shrink inward over time.

"Save your energy." A twisted, eerie laugh came from behind the clown mask outside the tent. "I made myself perfectly clear, this is a deathmatch tent. The ticket is for two lives, and not one can be missing."

Rex's breathing became noticeably rapid, and he forced himself to move closer to Mercury, trying to suppress his panic: "What do we do now?"

"What's there to be afraid of?" Mercury showed no sign of discouragement. "I don't believe his abilities are without flaws. Or—"

His gaze fell on the patch of ground he had trampled into pieces. Without any hesitation, Mercury bent down, his iron fist, enveloped in red light, slamming into the hard ground like a hydraulic drill.

His fingers gripped the inside of the roadbed, and his arm muscles tensed suddenly. With a "crack," a large chunk of thick asphalt was ripped away like a manhole cover. Since the surrounding walls couldn't be broken, he would dig a tunnel from underground.

With its unreasonable physical strength, in just a few seconds, rubble flew everywhere, and a large crater was formed.

Just as he was about to continue digging deeper, Rex suddenly shouted in terror, "Stop! Mercury, don't dig! That tent is pressing down on us! We'll be crushed to death!"

Mercury paused, then suddenly looked up.

Sure enough, as the pit deepened, the projection of the tent hanging overhead also sank down a bit.

"Hahahaha!" The clown's morbid laughter pierced through the light barrier and crashed in. "I advise you to hurry up and choose who to die! I think that kid with the red glow is much stronger than you, you electrician. Shouldn't the weak be more sensible and end it all themselves, instead of causing trouble for the strong here?"