America: The Cremator

"Mission accomplished! All personnel retreat! Retreat immediately!"

As Elena spoke, she slammed her left hand against the extinguished brass lantern at her waist.

A tiny orange flame suddenly ignited on the wick, and an inviolable aura instantly spread outwards from her center.

The massive mass of protoplasm that was crawling toward them emitted a violent hissing sound under the light. Its surface tissues quickly charred and vaporized, rising in plumes of white smoke, and it was forced to contract backward.

The light seemed to have thoroughly enraged the enormous creature.

It stopped wriggling, and its enormous, tar-like body began to churn and boil violently, with thousands of pus-filled, pale green eyeballs on its surface converging toward the center.

A shrill scream, not belonging to the human language system, exploded directly in the depths of everyone's minds.

"Takli-ri!"

"Takli-ri!"

With a shriek, the eyeballs that had gathered on its body finally merged together, forming a huge single eye with a diameter of more than two meters that floated above its body.

An invisible spiritual fluctuation spread from the eyeballs, instantly enveloping the entire underground cavity.

Su Long's vision blurred, and it felt like he had been slapped hard on the back of his head. A sharp pain and dizziness exploded from the back of his head.

The other four performed much worse.

Hannah let out a painful groan, clutching her head tightly with both hands, and collapsed to her knees in the cold sewage, her body convulsing violently from the intense pain.

The two battle-hardened task force members also painfully threw down their rifles, curled up on the ground, and dug their fingers deep into their hair.

Even Elena, at this moment, was covering her forehead with one hand, her body swaying precariously, and for the first time, an uncontrollable look of pain appeared on her usually taut face.

The entire squad was completely rendered incapable of fighting in that instant.

Only Su Long withstood this wave of impact. After the initial excruciating pain, his mental attribute, which had increased to 10 points, began to take effect. A cool energy surged from the depths of his consciousness, quickly calming the violent mental shock and allowing him to regain control of his body in just one second.

He looked at the huge eyeball that was still emitting mental ripples, and without any hesitation, his right hand flashed to his waist and grasped the Colt Python revolver named "Sirius".

The moment the cold walnut wood grip touched his palm, a faint warmth flowed down his arm and into his body.

Su Long raised his arm and aimed the heavy muzzle of his gun at the giant single eye that was suspended in mid-air.

boom!

A dull, heavy gunshot rang out in the empty sewer, its force even drowning out the roar of the water in the distance.

A spinning .357 Magnum silver bullet sliced ​​through the viscous air and precisely pierced the center of the enormous eyeball.

The next moment, the huge eyeball deflated inward like a watermelon injected with high-pressure gas, and then exploded with a bang.

The sky was filled with a ghastly green slime and scattered fragments of tissue, like a bizarre downpour.

As the eyeballs exploded, the mental shockwave that had enveloped the entire space dissipated.

Elena was the first to recover. She glanced at the rifle that her teammates had thrown away on the ground, then at the heavy revolver in Sulong's hand, and then immediately picked up her lantern to increase its brightness.

"Takli-ri!"

Shoggoth's furious shriek rang out again.

Dozens of black tentacles, like giant pythons, tore through the gelatinous layer of its massive body, lashing wildly towards the team's location with a whistling sound as they ripped through the air.

Elena confirmed that the two task force members had regained their combat readiness and immediately ordered them to open fire to suppress the enemy, while simultaneously calling for backup over the radio.

"Headquarters! This is 'Black Chess'! We have confirmed the target location: the center of the intersection of pipes B11 and Z07! Repeat, target location confirmed! Requesting immediate support!"

"Roger that," came the calm reply from the walkie-talkie. "Coordinate calculation in progress. Please hold on for a moment and ensure the anomaly remains at the current coordinates!"

Before the words were even finished, those sky-covering tentacles were already within arm's reach.

The two task force members quickly opened fire on the swarm of tentacles.

Elena also brandished her silver greatsword, creating an impenetrable net of swords in front of her.

Fortunately, the black gelatinous substance on the surface of all the tentacles that entered the light quickly charred and hardened, greatly weakening both their strength and speed. This gave everyone a precious opportunity to aim and block.

Otherwise, the first wave of blows alone would have been enough to tear this squad to shreds.

Standing at the back of the group, Su Long watched the silver sword flying up and down in Elena's hands, then looked at his own revolver with only four bullets left, and quickly made a judgment.

He shoved open the magazine, dumped out the four remaining bullets, and shoved them into Hannah's hand.

"Hannah, please!"

Hannah had already gotten up from the ground. She glanced at the bullet in Su Long's hand and immediately understood his intention.

Without the slightest hesitation, she ripped off the gauze on her hand, which was almost stained red, revealing the hideous cross-shaped wound on her palm.

She then pressed the bullet heads of the four .357 Magnum bullets one by one into the center of the cross-shaped wound.

Such a rough action made Su Long frown.

"Here you go," Hannah handed the bullet stained with holy blood back to Suron. "Don't waste it."

Su Long took the bullets, quickly loaded the four bullets back into the magazine, closed it, and fired a shot.

The bullet accurately struck another area on Shoggoth's body where an eyeball was forming. The holy blood attached to the bullet exploded into a blinding white light the moment it touched the bizarre body, completely purifying the nascent tissue.

At the same time, a task force member pulled an M67 grenade from his tactical vest, removed the safety pin, and hurled it at Hughes' massive body.

The grenade traced an arc in the air and penetrated directly into the monster's body.

boom--

A muffled explosion came from inside Shoggoth's body. The violent shockwave tore open a huge cavity, and thousands of pre-made silver-tungsten alloy fragments swept in all directions, piercing countless holes emitting white smoke inside the monster's body.

However, the damage caused by the grenade was extremely limited to Shoggoth's massive size, and the torn cavity quickly began to heal.

The next moment, the walkie-talkie on Elena's chest rang again:

"Ground personnel evacuation complete! B-52 White Falcon bomber has arrived at the attack launch point! Prepare to drop a GBU-39 bunker buster bomb on the target area, equipped with a miniature explosive seal and a silver-tungsten alloy penetrator warhead!"

"Repeating! Bunker buster bomb coming! Everyone take cover immediately! Avoid shrapnel damage!"

"Get down!"

Elena let out a sharp shout.

Just as she was about to lie down, she caught a glimpse of Su Long standing there, wearing only a thin rubber protective suit.

She lunged forward and, just before the shockwave of the explosion arrived, pinned Su Long down heavily.

Surong felt a soft, elastic body crash into his arms, Elena's cold tactical vest pressed tightly against his chest.

"Don't move!"

Elena's voice rang in his ears.

The next moment, a deafening roar silenced the world.

Boom—

A powerful shockwave, carrying countless fragments of rock and metal, swept through the entire underground space, slamming against the walls with a dense, rain-like crackling sound.

Su Long clearly felt Elena's body, which was lying on top of him, tremble a few times and let out a few suppressed groans.

After an unknown amount of time, when the devastating impact finally subsided and the dust settled, Su Long immediately helped Elena up.

"How are you?"

Using the light streaming through the hole in the ceiling, he saw what was behind Elena.

Two bowl-sized dents were clearly visible on her heavy bulletproof vest, which was made of Kevlar and ceramic inserts. The edges of the fabric were torn, revealing the broken bulletproof inserts inside.

"It's nothing..." Elena shook her head, trying to steady herself, but her left leg went weak. "It's just that my thigh seems to be scratched."

She forced herself to stand up straight and immediately inquired about the team's situation.

"Hannah?"

"I'm fine, Captain!"

"Black's number two and three pieces?"

"Reporting, Captain, we're alright too!"

After receiving confirmation that everyone was safe and sound, Elena breathed a sigh of relief and, together with Sulong, turned her gaze to the epicenter of the explosion.

The scene before us was truly spectacular.

The sewer ceiling had been ripped open, leaving a huge hole more than three meters in diameter. Broken steel bars and concrete structure were exposed, and the midday sun formed a dazzling beam of light that shone down vertically.

Shoggoth had been completely torn to pieces.

Countless black, gelatinous fragments of varying sizes covered the surrounding walls, floor, and ceiling, and were rapidly decomposing and evaporating under the sunlight.

However, after Sulong activated his spiritual vision, he saw a different scene.

The spiritual light within most of the fragments has completely dimmed.

Only directly below the center of the explosion, at the core of the largest piece of debris, about three meters in diameter, a stubborn, murky red light still flickered like a candle in the wind.

Sulong's pupils contracted sharply:

"That guy's not dead yet!"