"Is he… a devil or a god?"
Wood swallowed hard. The fierce, blazing sea of dark-purple fire flickered constantly, reflecting the radiant golden light and filling people with an inexplicable sense of dread.
The fire was silent as it devoured everything.
Aside from the dancing flames, the two of them couldn't sense the presence of any smoke.
Because its fuel was metal, stone, the Thing, and the Xenomorphs—the filthiest corruptions in the world.
Yet this extraordinarily bizarre flame caused the three most terrifying monster hunters in this Pyramid of Death to stop fighting each other and flee at the same time.
Hank shook his head. "He is either God… or he is the God of Death."
Hank himself carried the nickname God of Death and was a legend in the agent world.
In countless missions he had taken part in, he had always been the only one to come back alive.
Without exception.
Predictably, on this mission as well, Hank had lost all of his teammates.
But this time, his firepower configuration had not been designed to fight aliens or alien monsters, and he had once believed he was facing his first—and final—failure.
But now,
Hank saw hope.
Luke directed the flames of Amaterasu toward the deepest part of the pyramid.
It had to be said that although the flames of Amaterasu had many drawbacks, such as slow speed and high energy consumption, with a sufficient energy supply and in a confined area, it was the perfect method.
Once the Amaterasu fire took shape, neither the tenacious Xenomorphs nor the well-equipped Predators had any way to cross that sea of flames.
Sure enough, there are no useless abilities, only useless people.
The same power in different hands is the difference between heaven and earth.
Amaterasu, which was infamous for having zero kills in Naruto, became so overwhelming in Luke's hands that it sent three terrifying and perverse alien species fleeing in panic.
Dozens of Xenomorphs and Things were killed, though not yet in the hundreds.
It was a pity that these creatures could not provide more Anomaly Points.
Luke chased the Predators to the doorway, glanced at Hank and Wood, and confirmed their identities with the 3D stereoscopic map.
Then he flicked his finger, and a black flame landed on Wood's head. The woman immediately let out a painful, inhuman scream.
Hank instantly realized that Wood was not human.
She had long been parasitized by the Thing.
But how had this man figured it out?
Hank was terrified that Luke would set him ablaze as well, but thankfully, the mysterious man did not.
Luke continued forward. The flames of Amaterasu remained in the outer area, forming an insurmountable wall of fire that sealed off every route of retreat inside.
"You are… Hank, the God of Death?"
Luke glanced at the man wearing the gas mask. This kind of equipment was indeed effective against the Thing—
of course, only temporarily.
Hank nodded, then quickly shook his head.
"I am Hank, but I am not the God of Death. You…"
Hank wanted to say, You are.
But without knowing Luke's temperament, he didn't dare speak recklessly.
Luke let out a soft chuckle and gave him a meaningful look.
"If I were you, I'd turn back now. Before long, nothing will be left here."
With that, Luke left the deeply unsettled Hank behind, stepped forward, opened the door, and walked inside.
In the next instant, three cold flashes streaked through the air—three metal spears slammed into Luke's chest, only to be stopped by a faint layer of golden light.
Sacred Shield could withstand all magical and physical attacks.
Only exceptionally powerful special attacks could pierce the shield and harm Luke before his energy was depleted.
In Warcraft, only attacks like the Finger of Death used by the Burning Legion's second-in-command, Archimonde the Defiler, could break through an Invincibility Shield.
That was a powerful demon with world-destroying combat capabilities.
Mere Predators—especially armed with nothing more than an ordinary spear—could never hope to break through the Sacred Shield, even if they were wielding a weapon forged from a triple alloy of uru metal, adamantium, and vibranium.
The Predator had anticipated this. After throwing the spear, he immediately pressed a switch on his left arm, deploying an automatically tightening wire net.
Even knowing Luke's strength, these three novice Predators showed no fear.
As members of a hunting civilization, their entire lives were devoted to pursuing prey.
To them, hunting powerful enemies was the highest honor.
So the stronger Luke appeared, the more excited they became.
If they could kill him, they would not only complete their coming-of-age trial, but also rise as powerful, highly honored warriors.
Luke stood still, allowing the wire net to fall over him.
At the same time, a Thing-Alien and a Xenomorph crept up from behind. The moment Luke was ensnared, they both lashed out with their tails.
The tips of those tails were as sharp as bayonets—sharp enough that even Predator armor couldn't withstand them.
But against the Sacred Shield, their attacks were completely nullified.
The Xenomorph Queen let out a furious roar.
At the same time, twenty Xenomorphs charged forward.
They mercilessly attacked one another with their sharp teeth, stabbing into their own companions to release the highly acidic blood within—blood capable of corroding steel—to assault the golden light surrounding Luke.
But unfortunately, the powerful acid merely sizzled as it splashed against the golden light, while that faint glow remained completely unshaken.
Luke studied the Thing–Xenomorph hybrid with curiosity.
"Did the Thing parasitize the Xenomorph, or did the Xenomorph parasitize the Thing?"
He was genuinely intrigued by this question.
Although the Thing could parasitize all organic life, the blood inside a Xenomorph was highly acidic—enough to corrode any foreign cells that weren't acid-resistant.
Moreover, if a Xenomorph showed any sign of being assimilated, the Queen would immediately detect and eliminate it.
Xenomorphs operated under a variant hive mind, and the Queen held absolute control over ordinary drones.
The Thing could not possibly assimilate large numbers of Xenomorphs without being discovered.
After careful observation, Luke confirmed one fact: the Thing-like mutation in the Xenomorphs had occurred during the Facehugger stage.
The Xenomorphs had captured some Things and allowed Facehuggers to parasitize them. During this process, the Facehuggers' blood transformed into a non-acidic substance, which caused the Facehuggers themselves to be assimilated by the Thing's cells.
The resulting Xenomorph was then able to grow normally, disguise itself as a member of the species, and continue repeating the same process.
Once the number of Thing–Xenomorph hybrids surpassed that of the normal Xenomorphs, they would reveal themselves and attempt to assimilate the highly reproductive Xenomorph Queen.
In this way, they would gain not only overwhelming reproductive capabilities, but also terrifying methods of attack and survival.
It should be noted that while the Thing feared extreme heat, Xenomorphs could survive in both extremely low and extremely high temperatures.
Moreover, they possessed ways to locate targets through pheromones, electromagnetic field detection, and heartbeat sensing.
Although the Thing lacked true intelligence, it instinctively sought to grow stronger, reproduce, and expand its species.
The Xenomorph, therefore, was the optimal host for its evolution.
What's more, they could even steal the Xenomorph's genetic inheritance ability, allowing them to obtain the host's traits through an alternative form of parasitism.
It was easy to imagine that, if Luke had not come here, Hank—with nothing but a broken pistol left—would have had absolutely no way to eliminate these monsters.
Not even the three young Predators could have done it.
If these abominations—fused with the superior genes of Xenomorphs, the Thing, and Predators, along with Predator technology—were truly allowed to escape Antarctica, humanity's extinction would have been inevitable.
Compared to such creatures, even the Skrulls would seem harmless.
Luke could even tell that among the three Predators, one—the one with cat-like whiskers—had already been infected by the Thing.
The Predators must have been encountering this kind of creature for the first time, as they clearly lacked any effective means of detection.
"Well.. too bad for you~ Everything ends here."
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