Chapter 163: Apophis

Venigo flicked out the empty shell casing and, using a speedloader, quickly reloaded six rounds into the cylinder. That brief window of time was more than enough for Apophis to close the distance.

Lunging straight at him was Apophis's bone-white round shield.

With a light tap of his foot, propelled by a jet of compressed air from his boots, Venigo slid backward two steps. The human head of Apophis flashed with light, and the bone blade in its right hand slashed out almost simultaneously, aiming straight for Venigo's midsection.

The distance was precisely measured... Clearly, Apophis's routine of rushing, slamming, and slashing was executed with deadly proficiency.

Unfortunately, Venigo's danger perception had already vaguely anticipated this very moment.

Without even bothering to aim, Venigo whipped his revolver upward and fired. With a deafening boom, a specially weighted Dum-Dum bullet struck Apophis's outstretched right arm dead-on.

That single shot cleanly blew Apophis's right arm to pieces.

Apophis let out an enraged, agonizing shriek, swinging its left-hand bone shield without a moment's hesitation to smash Venigo away.

However, the blow did not injure Venigo. In fact, Venigo had already leapt backward on his own initiative, riding the momentum to dissipate the majority of Apophis's force.

Instead, he seized the opportunity to widen the distance.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Three bullet holes instantly appeared on Apophis's human head. This time, it hadn't managed to raise its shield in time, taking Venigo's continuous gunfire point-blank.

The monster swayed, and its two snake-like heads immediately whipped around to wrap protectively around the wounded primary head.

"Not dead?" Venigo muttered in surprise, instantly tossing out a grenade without a second thought.

High-Explosive Grenade Mark S, a product of Nanoka's invention workshop, known for its rather unstable performance—though clearly, Apophis's luck was poor, as it happened to catch the one with maximum destructive power.

With a deafening roar, Apophis was blasted backward.

Venigo glanced back; those mercenaries had long since fled, scared off by the savage combat style he and the monster had displayed. Aside from the purple monsters littering the ground, the only ones remaining here were Venigo and Sophie's group.

Venigo turned his gaze back. He poured the last remaining drops of golden-red alien cell fluid from a shattered vial onto the remains of Apophis. Instantly, that mass of cell fluid treated the monster's corpse like a fine meal, devouring it at an astonishing speed.

"Venigo, won't it go out of control?" Sophie reminded him softly, instinctively stepping in front of Venigo to shield him.

"It's fine. Cells that have already parasitized once cannot do so again. As for going out of control... rest assured. Once it has consumed the corpse, it's nothing more than a lump of raw material," Venigo chuckled lightly.

Without a shred of hesitation, he sliced the purplish-red alien creature before him into pieces. Before it could regenerate, he unbuilt his current character configuration, reconfigured a new character—the Cryptic Scholar—and cast Purifying Alchemy on the ominous mass of alien matter.

"Harvesting complete, let's move on," Venigo said.

In Venigo's eyes, the illusory ruins were merely something to check out along the way; what truly interested him were these mutated creatures suspected to be the handiwork of Nua.

As they pushed forward, the sights were shocking. It seemed hundreds of mercenary adventurers had been lured here. Along the path, the corpses of the fallen and the severed purple limbs of monsters were visible everywhere.

"It seems the number of monsters created isn't particularly high," Venigo muttered to himself. "It looks like Nua hasn't completely succeeded yet. If the infection capability isn't strong, these monsters aren't enough to constitute a catastrophe."

"I want to change weapons," the little wolf-girl suddenly announced. "I don't want to end up covered in filth."

Thinking about it, Venigo realized she had a point. He pulled out three short rods, pieced them together into a long staff, and handed it to the little wolf-girl. This type of weapon required no particular technique; as long as one had sufficient strength, swinging it generated immense impact. Coupled with the angled edges and weights on the head of the staff, it could easily shatter rock.

Given the little wolf-girl's explosive strength, even raw iron could be easily dented or cracked by her blows.

"What about me?" Suna asked timidly.

The Dark Regnar Crossbow. Venigo had acquired this weapon quite a long time ago but had rarely found an opportunity to use it. Handing it to the young vampire now, it could finally serve a purpose.

Considering that Suna's strength was not her strong suit, Venigo temporarily installed a foot stirrup on the crossbow body to make it easier for Suna to reload. Due to weight limits, Suna was only equipped with two quivers containing forty-eight specially crafted bolts.

"Ignore the small fry; your only job is to provide cover and snipe the highest-threat targets," Venigo reminded her softly. "You know how to use this, right?"

"Mm, I've learned how," the young vampire nodded, skillfully drawing a crossbow bolt and placing it into the loading groove before gritting her teeth and pulling back the heavy string.

Her strength was indeed on the weaker side. Venigo scratched his head, slipped off his own ring, and handed it to her.

The young vampire's expression instantly turned brilliantly complex, her lips mumbling incoherently about things like, "A confession? Am I blushing? Should I reject him..." Venigo was both exasperated and amused. He reached out and gave the young vampire's head a firm pat, laughing as he scolded, "It's not a proposal, I'm just lending it to you, you idiot."

It was merely a magical ring that increased physical strength, what on earth was the girl getting so nervous about?

Such an item, to Venigo, was nothing more than common junk he could pick up anywhere by transforming into the Scavenging Kitty and wandering around.

Just as Venigo was about to speak, a sudden pang of unease struck his heart, and he grabbed Suna, darting rapidly away from their spot.

The next second, right where they had been standing just moments before, two charred arms abruptly burst forth from the ground, grabbing blindly at the empty air.

"Zombies?" Venigo frowned, raising his right hand to reveal his gleaming, specially modified revolver.

Venigo quickly lowered his gun; the zombies before them were clearly ordinary undead creatures, not worth wasting expensive bullets on. Besides, before he could even aim, the little wolf-girl, having grown bored, stepped forward and smashed the skulls of the two zombies one by one with a single swing each.

Nearby, more corpses were dragging themselves up from the ground, surging toward them amidst an overwhelming stench.

"I finally understand why it's so quiet around here," Venigo sighed.

The Forest of Silence, the paradise of the undead.

Sophie silently stepped in front of Venigo. Gripping her arena blade tightly, she gazed at the oncoming horde of zombies and slashed fiercely.

Thirty-Fifth Style: Soaring Moon!

A crescent moon of sword light instantly sheared several of the lead zombies clean at the neck. Without even sparing a glance at the charred remains, Sophie brandished her greatsword, cleaving every approaching zombie in two.

Her movements were precise, as if measured with a ruler, consuming her stamina with extreme parsimony. Sophie knew very well that enemies like zombies were practically useless individually, with their only advantages lying in their terrifying numbers and "vitality." Anyone who failed to conserve their stamina would simply be swallowed up by the tidal wave of the undead.

Venigo stood right behind Sophie.

He said nothing, merely standing in quiet contemplation. Seeing two zombies attempt to flank Sophie from the left, he snapped his fingers as if waking from a trance.

Finger Gun: Viper.

The roaring compressed air blew the zombie on the left into absolute tatters right from the center of its face, while the zombie on the right lunged its claws toward Venigo.

Venigo didn't even bother to raise his head. With a soft whoosh, that zombie had already collapsed to the ground.

In truth, before the whoosh even sounded, a bolt had already struck the zombie squarely in the head. The heavy, blunt-tipped crossbow bolt possessed immense impact force, powerful enough to smash the zombie's brittle bones and internal matter into pulp, instantly neutralizing it.

Venigo gestured toward Suna's hiding spot in a silent expression of praise. Turning back, he looked at the massive crowd of zombies ahead and shook his head.

"Sophie, we're short on time," Venigo said.

Quick character build, FFTA system, Level 40 Illusionist, build complete.

Primary skill: Illusion; secondary skill: Black Magic; counter skill: Magic Counter; passive skill: Magic Defense Down.

This "Illusion" referred entirely to ultra-large-area magical attacks. Although it required a brief moment to accumulate mana, the astonishing area of effect and the friendly-fire-free nature of the attacks made the wait entirely worthwhile.

A moment later, a considerable amount of terrifying mana had accumulated between Venigo's hands. Following a hand gesture, he released it into the air. The next second, countless pinpricks of white starlight appeared across the entire space above.

The light dots fell like a torrential downpour, silent yet creating the phantom sound of a pelting rainstorm. Under their staggering numbers, those unassuming little specks of light accumulated a terrifying destructive power—especially since holy-elemental magic inherently dealt vastly greater damage to undead creatures.

Furthermore, there was Venigo's innate "Magic Defense Down" characteristic.

In an instant, the surrounding zombies were completely cleared out. The only ones still capable of movement were the larger ones possessing greater strength.

In life, they might have been mighty warriors or massive beasts, making them far sturdier than ordinary zombies. Thus, under the shimmering glare of Illusion: Southern Cross, they still retained the ability to move.

Just as Venigo intended to let Sophie and the little wolf-girl mop up these "remnants," several purple humanoid figures suddenly crawled out from the woods.

"So that's how it is. Those purple monsters need a little time to infect their targets," Venigo snapped his fingers.

Just as he had anticipated, those purple monsters lunged fiercely onto the surviving zombies, enveloping them like a pool of disgusting slime. Seconds later, the zombies swallowed by the purple monsters completely transformed in appearance.

These zombies now possessed a layer of purple burial shroud wrapping their entire bodies. From a gap in the fabric where the head should be, a single, burning red eyeball glared outward—aside from that, not a single other feature remained exposed outside the purple shroud.