Bang! Bang! Bang!
"Roar!" With a furious roar, Tyrant charged at the group again.
Lucas stood at the front, watching Tyrant raise its revolver and aim at its own head. "Another defense-type monster, huh? Too bad even the strongest defense has a weak point."
Bang!
The revolver in his hand thundered, and, confidence shining in Lucas's eyes, the bullet streaked through the air trailing a red line straight for Tyrant's head.
The massive impact struck the onrushing Tyrant's skull, yet the bullet that had been unstoppable in earlier battles seemed to fail this time.
Clang! The round exploded squarely on Tyrant's forehead; the monster's charge merely slowed half a step before it resumed as if nothing had happened.
Without even glancing at the lava blocking its path, Tyrant plunged in; the thousand-degree heat was no more than a warm bath, dealing no damage.
This time it was Lucas and the others whose faces changed. "Such insane defense!"
Dual revolvers lifted toward Tyrant's eyes, Lucas barked, "I refuse to believe your eyes are as tough as your hide!"
Just as he was about to fire, Tyrant—still twenty meters away—twisted its face into a savage grin, and its Purple-Gold body activated.
Violet light across Tyrant's body flared brighter, its eyes turning pure Purple-Gold.
Bang! Bang!
At that instant two bullets shot toward its eyes at extreme speed.
Clang-clang! Two metallic rings sealed the fate of the Holy Soldier Squad.
"What the—?!" Lucas saw his shots land squarely on the monster's eyes without leaving a scratch; his expression finally cracked and he instinctively stepped back.
"Melee fighters, stop it!" he yelled while retreating.
Over twenty Holy Soldiers wielding close-combat source artifacts rushed forward to meet Tyrant.
"Damn purple freak—stop right there!" Among them, a squad leader wore meter-long metal gauntlets that blazed gold as he punched.
Whoosh! Tyrant didn't even look; it simply swung a hand.
The casual swipe moved faster than the gauntleted captain could react; a phantom blur struck his left side and he instinctively raised an arm to block.
Boom! The giant hand met the gauntlet, and the captain's face twisted in horror—an unstoppable force shattered the gauntlets into metal shards that sprayed everywhere.
Tyrant's palm slammed into his body; the next second the squad leader exploded into a mist of blood.
The sudden kill stunned the charging Holy Soldiers—no one expected a Controller-level captain to be one-shot.
Tyrant cared nothing for their shock; its four-meter muscle-bound frame exploded with terrifying power.
Boom! The ground under its feet burst as Tyrant shot toward the ranged Holy Soldiers.
To every melee Holy Soldier, Tyrant's figure simply vanished.
Bang-bang-bang! In the next instant their bodies were smashed like rag dolls, erupting into blood-mist while broken source artifact fragments rained down.
Using the momentum, the four-meter Tyrant skidded to a halt before the retreating ranged squad.
A sniper, trembling, looked up at the towering monster now in front of him.
Tyrant met his gaze, then suddenly dipped its head and bit the man's skull.
Crunch! A headless corpse collapsed.
The sight terrified Klan, who was hiding behind Quinna.
Oliver, in the center, ignored Tyrant and looked right—where the defense line had also broken.
King of the Deep Sea held the upper half of a middle-aged man: the owner of the Crimson Eye.
The red barrier vanished, gray fog rolling toward the Holy Soldier Squad.
Oliver strode toward King of the Deep Sea; at a glance he judged the right-side monster slightly stronger.
Lucas was on the left, so total annihilation wasn't imminent.
In the middle, the Cold and aloof woman glanced at Tyrant, then sent the swirling snow overhead howling toward it.
Watching the melee squad wiped out in seconds, Lucas roared in rage, "You bastard!!"
Buzz! Energy rippled through his revolver, crimson metal extending to sheath both his arms.
Just as the Eternal Church's top fighters prepared to go all-out, gray mist swallowed them whole.
Oliver, heading for King of the Deep Sea, froze; everywhere was ashen, apocalyptic haze.
"The space changed!" He realized instantly something was wrong.
The clamor of other Holy Soldiers and the sounds of battle vanished the moment the fog closed in.
'Damn—spatial power here? This just got messy.' Oliver spun, searching.
Even with Dominator-level perception he could sense barely thirty meters; visibility was down to ten.
Without him, the rest of the squad stood no chance against those two monsters.
"Those things are top-tier Controller level; only Lucas can handle them," he muttered, breaking into a run through the fog.
Moments later his face twitched; his left hand flashed out and tapped the empty air.
Buzz! A translucent barrier sprang up.
At that instant the gray fog ahead tore open a dozen-meter gap, and a semi-transparent wave slammed into the barrier.
Screee! The ground outside the barrier exploded into a hundred-meter-deep, hundred-meter-wide crater—stones pulverized to dust that drifted before Oliver.
"That power—has this city's Source-Artifact User made a move?" He stared down the tear: a tunnel of clear air stretching over ten kilometers.
At the far end, on a three-story rooftop, stood a Silver-White Monster, a seven-meter Metal Sphere hovering above its head.
As Oliver watched, the creature acted again.
It raised a hand toward him; the sphere overhead spun, releasing invisible pulses at ten-times sonic speed.
"Interesting—let's dance." A cold smile curved Oliver's lips.
A wide split opened across his left palm; something yellow poked out.
His right hand seized the protruding object and pulled.
A yellow-and-red Warning Tape snapped taut, anchoring itself in mid-air before him.
As the invisible pulses arrived, Oliver's mouth curled: "Inside the line…"
Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!
The moment the pulses touched the tape they vanished.
"No entry." Oliver's gaze locked with the distant Silver-White Monster.