Chapter 187: The Archer Class Really Is Made Up Of Archers
With a bow in his left hand, Bai Luo's right hand held no arrow.
He stood still, eyes locked on the glowing muzzle of the Kamuijima Cannon, now charging once again. Calmly, he raised his right hand—and spread his fingers ever so slightly.
From his palm, red light coiled and converged, weaving itself into the shape of a long, twisted blade. Ancient energy radiated from the weapon; its structure was bizarre, the blade shaped like a massive drill, spiraling like it could pierce the heavens themselves.
Faint crimson lightning crackled around the blade, wrapping it in power. Bai Luo took the sword and placed it across his bowstring.
He inhaled deeply, then drew the longbow with immaculate form.
The crimson lightning that had encircled the blade now coursed over his entire body, pulsing with increasing intensity.
BOOM—!
The unconscious bodies that had collapsed beside Bai Luo due to "The Moon Reflected in Second Spring" were swept away by a sudden shockwave. Pale blue energy surged forth, intertwining with crimson lightning, both converging upon the drawn bow.
The red lightning surged wildly now, clashing vividly with the ominous purple thunder of the Kamuijima Cannon.
On the deck of a warship bathed in red light, a commanding officer's expression twisted with dread. He shouted a desperate order:
"All Kamuijima Cannons—fire! Fire them all!"
"HAAH!"
Just as the cannons unleashed their wrath, Bai Luo released his fingers.
In that instant, the red light vanished.
A deep blue arrow burst forth—faster than sound, faster than the Kamuijima Cannon itself. A deafening sonic boom echoed as the arrow tore across the sea, parting the ocean with waves meters high, streaking toward Tatarasuna like divine judgment.
BOOOOM—!
The air current alone from the arrow's passage extinguished the incoming cannon rounds, shredding them before they could even display their power.
The deep blue arrow embedded itself in a dock right next to three of the Kamuijima Cannons stationed on Tatarasuna.
There was a moment of stillness.
Then, from the point where the arrow struck, a monstrous wave of force exploded outward.
Ships, crates, wooden planks—All disintegrated.
One entire vessel was hurled through the air and came to rest diagonally along the coastline.
A towering mushroom cloud rose high into the sky. Seawater rushed in to fill the void left by the blast, and along with it, the dock—Kamuijima Cannons and all—was obliterated in a single strike.
Of the cannons once stationed at Tatarasuna, only three now remained.
The bow dissolved into nothingness.
Bai Luo's clothes shimmered, shifting back into the wandering swordsman garb of Batousai.
After all, the trial card had a time limit.
To achieve his goal of overwhelming intimidation, Bai Luo had poured nearly all its power into that single shot.
'All that destruction from a standard skill... If I could've activated the elemental burst... I might've had a shot at erasing the island outright. Tch—shame it's only a trial card.'
Even after firing such a monstrous attack, Bai Luo felt no exhaustion.
That arrow had drawn from the card's own power, it barely taxed his body at all.
And even then… that wasn't the technique's full power.
As he looked at the gaping hole torn into Tatarasuna by his arrow, even Bai Luo couldn't help but marvel.
'Guess I've finally got an attack that can reshape the terrain…'
The shot had accomplished its purpose.
The entire shogunate army stood frozen, stunned by the overwhelming display.
Not just them—everyone aboard the refugee vessel stared in shock, dumbstruck.
To them, only gods could change the shape of the land itself.
Like that place—Musoujin Gorge. The scar from the Raiden Shogun's blade... it's still there to this day.
Could this red-robed drifter really be...?
Creeeak—
Before the stunned crowd could process what they'd seen, the deck beneath them groaned ominously.
The ferry trembled.
Already riddled with holes from the shogunate's earlier attacks, and now having endured the shockwaves of a Kamuijima Cannon barrage—it had reached its limit long ago.
That it had held together this long was a miracle in itself.
Bai Luo's arrow had frightened the soldiers into silence, made them hesitate to fire again—but in the end… It no longer mattered whether they fired or not.
The ship was doomed.
"Patch the boat! Hurry!"
Panic returned to the faces of the refugees as several scrambled below deck, desperately searching for leaks.
But the moment someone touched the seawater trickling through the broken hull—
They convulsed.
Then collapsed.
The water was saturated with high-voltage current, remnants of the Kamuijima Cannon's thunderous discharge.
And the sea...
Had become a silent executioner.
No one could get below deck anymore.
Which meant, Bai Luo's arrow had only bought them time, nothing more.
"Divine One, please save us! We will worship you, we swear it!"
"Lord Battousai! Please, just one more miracle! We beg you!"
To the desperate survivors aboard the ferry, Bai Luo had become something more than mortal. That single arrow—its power, its brilliance—was the act of a god. And now, with nowhere left to turn, they prayed to him as if he truly were one.
But Bai Luo could only respond with a pained smile.
He was out of miracles.
He had no more power left to give.
One by one, despair took hold. Some began to leap into the sea.
They knew what awaited them in those electric, lightning-laced waters.
Death.
But better to die swiftly than wait for the inevitable aboard a sinking corpse of a ship.
The crimson-tinged sea crept ever higher, lapping over the deck like the hand of a cruel god. One after another, passengers fell, their bodies twitching as the current seized them.
Bai Luo gritted his teeth and hacked down a large chunk of the ship's side. Using rope from the mast, he fashioned a makeshift platform.
He gathered as many people as he could onto it.
But it could only hold a few dozen at most.
And even then, hope was nowhere to be found.
In that crushing despair, the Tatarigami awakened again.
It wasn't just the deranged one anymore, even those who had seemed sane moments before began to unravel.
Blood seeped from their skin, oozing from pores, mouths, and eyes.
Crimson mixed with lavender seawater, staining the world with madness.
It was grotesque.
Of everyone left aboard, only Bai Luo and the woman beside him—Sveta—remained unaffected.
Was the Tatarigami truly evil?
...No, not exactly.
Like the aftermath of Havria's death, or the cataclysmic collapse of a demon god—these things brought devastation simply through their presence.
The disaster wasn't willed, but it was real all the same.
That alone might've been manageable—If only humans hadn't learned to use that very calamity for themselves.
Somehow, somewhere along the line, mankind had begun weaponizing this uncontrollable influence.
And when humans wield power they were never meant to touch—Disaster follows.
"...Sigh."
A single breath.
And then, snow began to fall.
It shouldn't have. Not now. Not in this season, over these seas.
But it did.
Heavy, feather-like snowflakes drifted down from the sky, blanketing the cursed scene below.
The power of ice and snow enveloped the region corrupted by the Tatarigami, containing the spreading madness within a frozen cradle.
Those writhing in agony... stopped.
Peace returned to their faces.
Though their skin paled, frost coating their lashes and cheeks, they curled up together like children in their mother's arms, and slipped into a final, quiet sleep.
They would never wake again.
"Your Majesty the Tsaritsa—!"
At Bai Luo's side, Sveta fell to her knees on the frost-covered ice, bowing deeply—not to Bai Luo—but to the shimmering phantom behind him.
A ghostly silhouette floated there, regal and terrible.
The Tsaritsa of Snezhnaya.
Every Fatui Harbinger had been granted divine authority by her hand.
But even Sveta hadn't expected it for her to descend like this.
What shocked her even more was that this goddess, long believed to have abandoned love and mortals alike, had manifested a miracle, here in a foreign land, to save them.
. . . . .
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