2 PM, the most sweltering time of the day.
At this moment, on the outskirts of the Hongda Chemical Plant.
The air was thick with a pungent chemical smell mixed with a faint burnt aroma, the remnants of the fierce battle from this morning.
In a blind spot of a building’s shadow where the sun couldn’t reach, Phainon’s figure slowly emerged.
He leaned against the wall beside him, his golden pupils slightly contracting under the reflection of the intense light, calmly observing the environment ahead.
The originally open factory gate was now blocked by yellow and black caution tape, looking particularly glaring under the sunlight.
Several conspicuous notice boards stood at the intersection: “Construction Site, No Unauthorized Entry.”
Seven or eight “workers” wearing heavy blue uniforms and hard hats were scattered around.
Some were pretending to discuss blueprints, while others wiped the slight sweat from their foreheads.
Although it was high noon, these people showed none of the fatigue or distractedness typical of ordinary workers.
On the contrary, with just one glance, a knowing smirk curved Phainon’s lips.
Even though sweat had already slightly soaked their backs, their posture remained upright, their weight always balanced between their feet, ready to sprint at any moment.
Although their gazes seemed to be avoiding the blinding sunlight, they were actually using the brims of their hats for cover, ever vigilant for any sign of movement in their surroundings.
Especially a few of them, whose right hands would occasionally and subconsciously touch the bulged area at their waists, the most convenient spot for drawing a gun.
“SWAT officers disguised as workers, huh…”
Phainon silently made his judgment in his mind.
“Wearing full work uniforms on duty in such scorching sun, they’re really putting themselves through a lot.
It seems the security level here has been raised significantly because of this morning’s loss of control.”
He glanced up at the Sun in the Sky, then down at the starkly black and white shadows on the ground.
This kind of defense in broad daylight was simply Hell for an ordinary infiltrator, as there was no Darkness to hide in.
But in his eyes, this extreme light, on the contrary, created the purest Darkness.
“The brighter the place, the deeper the Shadow.”
Phainon murmured to himself.
The moment his words fell, a cloud happened to briefly block the Sun, and the light between heaven and earth instantly dimmed by a shade.
The guards’ pupils instinctively adjusted their focus due to the change in light, creating an extremely brief visual delay.
Now’s the time.
Phainon’s toes lightly tapped the ground, and his entire body turned into a blurred afterimage.
He didn’t choose to avoid the sunlight, but instead did the opposite, using the black shadows cast by the buildings as springboards.
It was like dancing on the piano keys of light and Shadow.
He made no sound at all, and even the faintest rustle of wind was covered by the sound of the wind blowing through the grass.
Like a ghost, in the moment the guards wiped their sweat and blinked, he silently crossed the security line and disappeared into the huge Shadow cast by the high wall outside the factory.
Then, under the cover of the Shadow, Phainon successfully entered the factory.
“It seems this is the place.”
Inside the dim workshop, the air was utterly foul.
Phainon raised his hand to cover his nose and mouth, his brow furrowing slightly.
The stench, a mixture of high-voltage ionized ozone and scorched flesh, was drilling into his nostrils without a single gap.
He didn’t need any navigation; this physically repulsive smell was the best landmark.
He began to lighten his footsteps.
Although his boots were stepping on the iron plates of the chemical plant, they didn’t make the slightest sound.
His gaze passed over the rusty railings, and the scene below rushed into view without reservation.
At this moment, in the very center of the chemical plant’s first floor, a bloated and deformed mass of flesh lay limp on the ground, with countless cables of varying thicknesses plugged into its back like blood vessels.
At this moment, in the very center of the chemical plant’s first floor.
A monster with a pitch-black surface was quietly curled up in the Shadow.
Its body was covered in a layer of black scorch marks, the traces left by countless high-voltage electric shocks, emitting a foul burnt smell.
The area around the monster was completely cordoned off with caution tape, obviously because the authorities considered this thing to have temporarily lost its threat and was in a suppressed dormant period.
However, in Phainon’s Golden pupils, what he “saw” was a completely different scene.
Beneath that lifeless, scorched black shell, countless blue and purple energies were surging wildly inside.
They were like a swarm of diligent bees, reweaving the meridians deep within the already necrotic tissue.
Every minute fluctuation of energy made the deep-seated flesh a bit denser.
It wasn’t screaming, nor was it struggling, but instead enjoying the “feeling of fullness” filling its body in the silence.
“Using the carbonization of the skin to conceal its true nature, completing its transformation in the seemingly dead silence…”
Phainon’s fingers curled slightly into a loose fist, his gaze cold.
“Truly…
a despicable and deceptive wisdom of survival.”
As his words fell, the air that had been stagnant suddenly turned scorching.
Countless tiny Golden particles converged wildly in his palm, a heat more pure and divine than electric current.
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A low hum of a sword vibrated through the air.
The two-handed Great Sword “Dawnmaker” was already gripped in his hand, the patterns flowing on the blade as if they had just been stripped from the surface of a star, emitting a scorching radiance that dared not be looked upon directly.
“Although I don’t understand your core operating principle, I want to conduct a simple experiment.”
Phainon flipped his wrist, the sword tip pointing straight at the monster below, his tone calm.
“If I forcibly insert a ‘probe’ burning with Blazing Sun Fire into this core filled with unstable energy, what kind of reaction will you give?”
There was no charging motion.
In the next instant, Phainon’s figure vanished from the spot.
The dim factory was forcibly torn apart by a Golden Thread that suddenly lit up!
“Who?!”
On the second-floor corridor, Chen Lang, who was observing the Revenant through his tactical goggles, suddenly felt the hair on his body stand on end.
His retinas hadn’t even had time to capture the figure’s trajectory, only feeling a blur in his vision, as if a sun had materialized and detonated in the center of the factory.
Too fast.
So fast it exceeded the capture limit of human dynamic vision.
By the time Chen Lang’s brain finally processed the visual signal, that Golden streak of light had already pierced through the monster’s core without any hindrance.
Pshhh!
That was the sound of a high-temperature blade instantly vaporizing flesh and blood.
“ROAR!!!”
The monster, which had been lying on the ground like dead meat, suddenly arched its back and let out an extremely piercing shriek.
The sound wave carried a physical shockwave, making Chen Lang’s eardrums ache and almost knocking the specially-made pistol out of his hand.
“What…
is that?”
Chen Lang gripped the railing tightly, his pupils constricting violently.
He saw the monster’s skin begin to crack wildly, blue electric arcs erupting from within, only to be instantly devoured by a violent red light.
Deep within the cracks, the red and blue energies, like a flood out of control, surged back and forth inside the monster’s body, stretching it like a balloon about to burst.
An aura of annihilation instantly enveloped the entire factory.
“This is bad!”
Only those two words flashed through Chen Lang’s mind.
The next moment.
“BOOM!!!”
The light shattered the monster’s shell, unleashing all the energy that had been compressed to its absolute limit.
The explosion’s fireball, with the monster as its center, expanded instantly and swallowed all the surrounding equipment, the steel melting and twisting like wax under the extreme heat.
The heatwave washed over him, and Chen Lang was forced to shut his eyes against the searing light.
Before this world-shattering power, humans were as insignificant as ants.
However, the expected agony never came.
The moment before the flames were about to consume the corridor, a hand suddenly grabbed him by the back of his collar.
Immediately after, Chen Lang felt himself being hoisted into the air.
Whoosh
The wind howled in his ears as he was thrown like a sandbag.
The instant his body flew out of the factory doors, he forced his eyes open against the stinging light for a fleeting glimpse.
Amidst the sea of fire, a white figure stood silently.
The person held a greatsword engulfed in flames, looking like a god descended into Purgatory against the backdrop of the raging explosion.
“Cough, cough…
cough cough cough!”
On the gravel lot outside the chemical plant, Chen Lang rolled several times in a disarrayed manner before finally managing to bleed off the momentum.
He lay flat on the ground, gasping for air, his mouth filled with the sand and mud he had just bitten into.
“Captain Chen!
Captain Chen!”
“What happened?!”
Several SWAT team members disguised as workers only then reacted, rushing out from behind their cover with guns in hand, their expressions panicked.
The explosion just now had been like a sudden earthquake, making the ground beneath their feet tremble.
They rushed to Chen Lang’s side, hurriedly trying to help him up.
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Chen Lang shoved away the outstretched hands, not bothering to wipe the blood and grime from his face as he staggered to his feet.
He stared intently at the chemical plant that had been turned into a torch, his eyes bloodshot.
“Someone broke in…
just now!
Quickly, retrieve all the surveillance footage from the surrounding area!
Hurry!”
He roared as he pressed his headset with a trembling hand, his voice hoarse from extreme tension.
“Grizzly calling Command Center!
Grizzly calling Command Center!”
“The Revenant containment site has been forcibly breached by an unknown force!
The Revenant was detonated by an unknown method, causing a massive explosion.
The fire is out of control!”
Static crackled over the headset, followed by the commander’s steady but urgent reply:
“Copy.
Report the Revenant’s status and the intruder’s information.”
Chen Lang took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down as he scanned through the raging flames, trying to find that figure.
“Revenant…
status unknown.
Intruder’s identity unknown, suspected to possess extremely high mobility and a high-lethality thermal weapon.
Requesting immediate deployment of a heavy firepower squad to seal off the surrounding area!”
“Understood.
Reinforcements will arrive in five minutes.”
The communication cut off.
Chen Lang felt his heart still hammering wildly in his chest.
He whipped his head around and roared at the stunned team members beside him:
“What are you all standing around for!
Can’t you hear the orders?”
“Surround the Hongda Chemical Plant!
Don’t let even a single fly escape!”
“Yes, sir!”
The team members were snapped to attention by the roar, immediately splitting up into pairs and setting up temporary blockades by utilizing the terrain.
Only as he watched them disperse did Chen Lang lean against a concrete bollard, all the strength drained from his body.
He turned his gaze back to the sea of fire, his fists clenched unconsciously, his nails digging deep into his palms.
The image clung to his mind, impossible to shake.
Amid the blinding explosion, that white figure had been so clear.
He remembered the sensation.
The moment he was hoisted by his collar, the other person had shown no killing intent.
Instead, were they…
saving him?
“If they’re an enemy, why not just let me die in there?”
Chen Lang muttered to himself, his brow furrowed into a deep frown.
“Wielding a flaming great sword, possessing extreme physical prowess, and targeting the Revenants…
Could it be someone from the Advent Cult?”
“No, that’s not right.”
He immediately dismissed his own guess.
“Those lunatics would only capture those monsters at any cost.
They’d never make them their primary attack targets, let alone deliberately save a policeman during an explosion.”
“Who…
are you, really?”
Chen Lang stared at the factory building as flames rose, trying to find an answer within the flickering tongues of fire.
What he didn’t know was…
Less than a hundred meters from the blockade, in the shadow of a ruined wall…
A corner of a white hem embroidered with gold was fluttering gently with the heat waves.
Phainon stood quietly in the shadow, his golden eyes watching the busy police officers and the disheveled Chen Lang in the distance, his face devoid of expression.
“It seems this sword strike had a pretty good effect.”
He whispered softly, then turned and melted into the depths of the complex alleys like a drop of water merging with the sea, disappearing silently.