Chapter Forty-Two: Wings of Death

The battle between Gongsun Ce and the dust explosion had only just begun. Qin Qianbai was still being tangled up by the wanderer, and Qi Luo, without equipment to assist her, found her abilities difficult to bring to bear. Counting it up, the members of the small club were, at this moment, almost all swept into the turmoil.

The source of today’s commotion was, of course, Miss Qi Luo, who was clutching her hand and groaning in pain. Yet at the very heart of the vortex were several other superpowered individuals. Was this the work of chance? Or had it all been arranged by the chess player? The one behind the curtain had still not appeared, but all the visible pieces were already in place. The useless pawns had been one by one removed from the board and cast to where they belonged. Once the pieces had lost all meaning, they could no longer stir up any storm; there was no need to spare them a glance. What would become of them afterward was already fixed in the chess player’s mind.

At least for now, the reckless actions of two ordinary people had yet to stir even the faintest ripple.

Someone was still watching the focal point of the battle.

The red lion’s battlefield.

-

"Five... or was it three?"

Cardesia kicked away the enemy rushing at her, then raised a hand to count the black lights in the sky, confirming that three opponents remained.

By now, she had already defeated twenty-seven core members of the Death Wing. This had not come without cost. Half of her right arm had gone stiff and unusable, a small hole had been pierced through her side, and her stamina had been consumed far beyond expectations.

Half of the "feathers" in this ambush had been newcomers absorbed by Skullhead only in recent years, and several of them were especially strange in their behavior. Cardesia knew nothing of their abilities, which meant she had been fighting one unfair engagement after another. To come out with only these minor injuries was already lucky.

"Hey~ anyone old-timers left?" the blonde woman asked lazily. "How badly was Gongsun Ce hurt when he got this far back then?"

"Hard to say, Sister Lion. Your fighting styles were different. Back then he went at it like a madman, and whenever he got hurt he just filled the wounds with white substance. In the end, half his body turned white. Nobody knew how bad his injuries really were; they just thought it was terrifying."

A veteran Feather actually answered her. The voice came from beside a scorched wall. Blackened rubble lay scattered everywhere, and a man in dark clothing stepped out from within the wall itself.

Cardesia did not rush to attack. This one was an old hand, and she knew exactly what his ability was.

"You’re in a hurry to get out too?"

"Whether I get out or not is another matter. But duty and kindness must not be forgotten... pardon me."

The man in black bent low and pressed both hands to the seared ground.

"Wall!"

Four gray walls, each ten meters high, burst from the earth and sealed the street tight. At the tops of the walls stood the last two Feathers. One had an icy vortex rising beside him; the other gripped a dazzling war hammer!

"Wonder Aspect: Divine Resonance—"

"Void Aspect: Divine Resonance—"

They were both Lawless Executors of the Divine Resonance stage!

Lawless Arts at the Divine Resonance stage were formidable foes indeed. If they were allowed to fully unleash their offense, even the red lion would likely be driven into an extremely disadvantageous position. However...

Ah, look!

The moment those gray walls rose from the ground, the flames flickering along the road were carried up by them as well. The tiny flames at the two men’s feet suddenly swelled, becoming the crimson heads of lions, jaws gaping wide with blazing fangs.

"Lion Bite."

The two lions bit down at once. Fire roared violently within their mouths, and before the Divine Resonance Lawless Executors could even begin to cast their arts, they were effortlessly finished off.

Thud, thud—the two charred bodies fell from above, and Cardesia did not even look back. Killing them first meant she did not need to waste her brain on breaking their abilities. That was the basic common sense of ability combat!

"Last one. Oh, right, what are these newcomers shouting about, with their this-aspect and that-aspect nonsense? I’ve run into several already today. Some new kind of psychological suggestion research?"

The blonde woman asked curiously, and the old Death Wing member answered with a wry smile.

"They’re all outside reinforcements the boss hired at a high price, sneaking in under the guise of tourists. He had planned to do something big... sigh. Plans never keep up with change."

Outside reinforcements?

Superpowered individuals from outside?

There were still fish that had slipped the net beyond the City in the Sky?

Her instincts told her this matter deserved deeper scrutiny, but this was no time to sit down and have a proper chat. The underlings of Skullhead had only offered such vague information because they hoped to leave room for goodwill. If one really wanted them to reveal top-secret intelligence, no amount of face would make any difference.

Boom!

Raging fire swallowed the last Feather.

Cardesia drew a deep breath.

From this moment on, there was no room left for conversation.

Skullhead’s ability had been activated.

-

Far away, by the water.

"Preparation complete... you may rest assured."

The subordinate who had quietly reported departed.

Skullhead raised both arms.

His hoarse voice sounded like a funeral bell ringing up from the depths of hell, chilling even his closest underlings to the bone.

"Thirty feathers woven into a black wing."

"Let the black wing lead you to death!"

The thirty vanished black beams lit up once more in the heavens. Cold shafts of light linked together, becoming an ominous single wing, and the tip of that wing was unmistakably pointing toward Skullhead’s location.

Skullhead looked up at the strange phenomenon overhead and smiled with satisfaction. His laughter was shrill, like a night owl in the woods. The men in black picked up their weapons and filed out, leaving only Skullhead standing alone.

"Come, red lion," he said, his smile vanishing at once as he stared darkly into the distance.

"Let me see whether you still deserve that name."

Far away, flames dyed half the sky red.

-

The instant the wing took shape, Cardesia felt her heart turn cold. Violet-black points of light spread over nearly half her body. The wound in her side split open, nearly doubling in size, and several smaller injuries from the earlier chaos were suddenly worsened as well, becoming impossible to ignore.

Skullhead’s Death Wing had activated.

She looked up at the black single wing in the sky; the direction its tip pointed toward revealed Skullhead’s position.

"Tch!"

Cardesia muttered irritably, then immediately turned her body into flames and shot down the street like a meteor, racing toward the direction indicated by the wing.

Tat-tat-tat-tat!

The lowest-ranking black-clad men blocked her path and unleashed covering fire with heavy machine guns!

Not a trace of supernatural power was contained in the rain of bullets. In her flame state, she only needed to charge straight through—but—

The flames vanished. Flesh appeared. Cardesia had voluntarily canceled her transformation into fire!

At this moment she was unquestionably a fragile mortal body, no harder than paper beneath the storm of bullets. Oddly enough, neither the enemy launching the attack nor she herself found this the least bit surprising!

"Blaze Burst."

At the red lion’s command, a tornado of fire formed in the middle of the road. The flaming wind melted every bullet and sent molten iron surging into the black-clad troops. In the blink of an eye, that small squad had all lost the ability to fight.

Cardesia let out a breath of relief. Yet the moment she relaxed, the fingers of her left hand came together like a knife and stabbed toward her abdomen—toward her own wound!

!"

Cardesia’s left arm froze violently, her nails stopping a hair’s breadth before they could pierce flesh. Frowning, she raised her left hand, seized her immobile right arm, and drove her nails deep into the flesh.

"Disgusting—cough, cough!"

She could not help cursing aloud, only for dust and smoke to pour straight into her mouth and nose, nearly choking the girl. After struggling for a long while, Cardesia finally managed to turn her upper body into flames and narrowly escape disaster.

To risk suffocation just from speaking—was this because she had been terribly unlucky? The suddenly worsened injuries, advancing through gunfire, the inexplicable act of self-mutilation—how was any of this to be explained?

"You have walked the path of death!"

Another batch of armed black-clad men rushed in, their eyes brimming with the piety of fanatical believers.

"You cannot escape the fate of death!"

The black wing in the sky revealed the truth. This was precisely the bizarre and terrifying effect of Skullhead’s ability.

Death Wing was both the name of the organization and Skullhead’s superpower. Its activation could be divided into two stages. In the first stage, the subordinates chosen by Skullhead as "feathers" would gain enhanced physical strength and stamina, while black countdown lights shone in the sky. Once all the feathers were defeated, the dispersed black light would return to the world, taking the form of a single wing, with the direction of its tip revealing Skullhead’s location.

When Death Wing entered its second stage, the target would be shrouded in the curse of death. This dark, destructive will acted upon both mind and body: it worsened every physical injury, turned everything nearby into a lethal trap, and even made the target fall under an irresistible urge to destroy themselves!

To put it in the plain language even the lowest thugs of Death Wing could understand: your body weakened, misfortune was at its absolute worst, and on top of that, you had become a suicide volunteer. This ability would continue until the target stopped breathing, or Skullhead himself lost consciousness. The gangsters’ crude curse at this moment became the most fitting description of all:

You have walked the path of death!

"......"

Cardesia said nothing. She very much wanted to curse him again, but doing so would only aggravate her injuries, and that would not be worth it. At that moment, she even found herself missing Gongsun Ce: the gray-haired youth could make Skullhead foam at the mouth with nothing but his tongue, and even while risking suffocation he would still hurl insults.

Lianyi would not have done that. If he encountered a situation like this, he would only give an helpless smile and then find a quick way to resolve it, she supposed.

She tapped her head, her thoughts already drifting again; her condition really was awful. Stop being stupid. Lianyi’s ability was telepathy—he could not solve a problem like this.

Come to think of it, Lianyi still had not contacted her. Could he still be moping alone somewhere... Thinking of this, she could not help but smile bitterly. The gangsters’ shouting sounded annoyingly loud, making her mood even worse.

With so much energy, why not do something better than running around with Skullhead? She could not understand these people at all. Even though they were all superpowered beings, she could not understand why they were so excited either.

Death Wing was a troublesome ability. If dragged on long enough, it would drive a person to self-destruction; by the end, the ability’s effect would likely make even the user stop breathing on their own. It sounded quite terrifying, but—

In the early stage, just after being hit, there were still ways to fight without relying on the body.

"Red Lion, Blazing Giant General."

The lion’s head soared up, becoming a ferocious visage. Flame condensed into a gilded giant body. The red lion gave no heed to anything else and committed all her strength. Behind the girl, a twenty-meter-tall lion-headed general stood upright, raising a blindingly bright saber toward the black-clad men!

With a clang, someone’s weapon fell to the ground.

The thug at the front trembled as he spoke through quivering lips.

"E-energy conservation..."

Cardesia curled her lip.

Once the enemy was all beaten down, there was no need to worry about endurance in battle.

-

There were depressions of all sizes along the spine of the Dragon of the Firmament, and some of the suitably located pits had been selected as reservoirs during the city’s planning.

Skullhead now stood beside a small reservoir in the central district. It was only ten meters deep, with a storage capacity of about one thousand cubic meters—not much of a facility, lightly guarded and easy to control.

Skullhead devised different deaths for different enemies. Those who liked to toy with words had their heads gnawed by beasts; those who took pride in robust bodies were stripped of their muscles by machines.

Today, he had deliberately chosen this small reservoir as the site of his final battle with the red lion.

"Boss, she exploded into a giant. The brothers in District Two couldn’t stop her."

"Boss, she started mutilating herself, but the brothers in District Three were beaten down too."

"Boss, quite a few timid ones want to run. We can probably hold out here for another three minutes at most..."

Skullhead ignored his subordinates’ reports.

"Boss—"

"You may all leave."

The messenger froze, then immediately answered in a low voice and hurried away, leaving Skullhead alone by the water.

The leader of Death Wing looked down at his mechanical arm. The weapon had cost a fortune; it would be a pity to bury it with him.

In about thirty seconds, the lion would arrive.

He recalled scene after scene from the time he had come to this city. At first he had been bullied relentlessly. Later he discovered how to use his ability, but he could not unleash it by himself... In the beginning, there were only three desperate children willing to follow him. In the Fierce Wing District they fought with clubs, defeating the arrogant tyrants with their bodies and their wits... They inherited his power, though the price was that his face had been ruined... He put on a skull mask... He killed one person after another, occasionally saving someone, and came to have a band of subordinates loyal only to him... He built a business, controlled both wings, and even the men in white coats had to consult him about affairs...

Then his true enemies came: the lion, the demon man, and that damned superpowered freak. He had never won once. Not once. Even his most loyal subordinates grew afraid.

But Skullhead did not fear. He pinned photographs of his mortal enemies in his room to remind himself never to forget defeat. He gathered every scrap of intelligence, even rumors too flimsy to trust. He swore to himself that one day he would repay the humiliation of those years with their blood and lives.

He blinked, and the past drifted away like wind.

In reality, there were no subordinates left to plot vengeance with him. Those he had sent out had all been defeated; those remaining had all been dismissed. Only a single man in a skull mask stood forlornly by the water, pathetic and laughable.

The sky was red as though dusk had arrived early. The wing of death swept diagonally downward, its tip pointing straight at his own head.

A streak of red light cut through the black feathers and plunged downward at tremendous speed, following the single wing’s guidance. Skullhead gazed at the blazing trail across the sky and murmured, "Red lion..."

"—Flame Star!!"

Her figure could not be seen, only her fury descending together with the meteor. The star of flame streaked across the heavens and crashed into the earth, drowning the black-clad human shape in a sea of light and heat!

"Come back...!"

Flame Star struck the target with perfect precision. Nothing grew around the reservoir but barren ground, and the blaze was drawn back before it could touch the water’s surface, sparing the fish within the reservoir from death by the narrowest margin.

Cardesia walked forward with great difficulty. Her path was crooked and unsteady, as though she might collapse at any moment. Half her clothes were stained red with blood, and her left hand clutched her own throat so tightly that she seemed on the verge of being strangled by her own hand.

The power of Death Wing had not yet lifted.

The skull mask flickered faintly amid the still-burning flames. Cardesia advanced in agony, while a threatening blaze sparked in the air.

"Enough, Skull Face." Her voice sounded squeezed from her throat. "Or I really will kill you."

The skull in the fire said nothing.

Cardesia gritted her teeth and took another step forward, preparing to hurl a fireball.

That step let her see more clearly: what burned in the flames was not flesh, but shattered electronic components; the parts she had thought were black clothing were in fact a highly refined black shell; only two silver mechanical arms belonged to the real Skullhead, and they had already been melted away by more than half.

She was facing yet another decoy.

For a moment, Cardesia forgot to breathe.

Impossible. The direction of the wing’s tip pointed to Skullhead’s location. Just as Gongsun Ce’s telekinesis was invisible and her flames could never become a spray of water, this was a rule that Skullhead’s ability had to obey.

She looked up at the dome above.

The black wing she had been following suddenly vanished, and with it the sky’s color became clear, as if an invisible hand had lifted a thin membrane covering the heavens. The true sky appeared in the girl’s eyes. The black wing was vivid as life, unchanged in every detail from before, except for its direction.

The tip of the black wing pointed toward the district near the Fierce Wing, in a direction completely opposite from here.

"...!"

Cardesia’s left hand suddenly tightened with greater force, and the flames by the reservoir nearly all went out.

The half-damaged decoy moved its mouth and played a recording from the true body.

"Lions are feared because they are fierce, cunning, and terrifying."

"And you, Cardesia—look at yourself now."

The will to self-destruction took complete control of her body.

Unbidden, under Skullhead’s hoarse voice, she stepped forward, inch by inch approaching the water.

Cardesia stood by the water’s edge, her reflection wavering on the surface.

"Fragile, reckless, weak. You have forgotten your wild nature, lost your claws and teeth, and even thrown away your keen instincts."

"A mere trick, and you cannot even see through that."

To kill a lion, one needs a grand stage.

To drown a cat, a nondescript puddle will suffice.

The power of Death Wing fully dominated her body. Cardesia fell into the water, and the current rushed into her mouth and nose, making it impossible for the girl to breathe.

She sank into the dark water, her will growing gradually hazy.

Before she was swallowed by darkness, she heard the enemy’s final message, which sounded especially strange through the water’s surface.

"You are no longer the red lion."

"Just a cat that can breathe fire."

The ripples on the surface dispersed, and no flame remained on the bank.