Chapter 664: Childbirth

A gloomy black lunar eclipse hung high in the sky, the pale white light clinging to its rim spilling a halo, making it look like a white ring.

The mist suddenly thickened, rising up to the treetops.

A piercing bell toll blazed out without warning, like countless screams shrieking against metal, the echo of wailing lingering on.

The black lunar eclipse seeped out viscous plasma and white secretions, snaking down a tangle of vines into a river.

In an instant—

The stench of rotting flesh and sulfur filled the air.

Haili stared wide-eyed at the bizarre scene in the sky.

"Th-this is the moon bleeding?"

"More than bleeding, it looks like childbirth."

"Childbirth? How could—mmph!"

Haili cried out in pain, clutching her head with a dazed and agonized expression. "Someone is talking inside my head."

Rod frowned, crushing in succession the magic rings of 【Spell Nullification Ward】 and 【Calm】.

Haili's condition immediately improved considerably.

But it seemed casting focus alone would no longer be enough.

He also pulled in the unconscious Medelin and the bound Layla Star-Tongue.

The great star-cloud spirit had a screw loose; she welcomed any and all whispers in the head.

The giveaway was her pupils blown wide and her features gone wild.

"This is it! This is it, don't mind me, Rod—my new album is about to come out!"

Rod couldn't be bothered with her.

He hit her with another 【Mirage Net】 to knock her out, tied her up, and tossed her on the ground.

"Rumble rumble—"

The ground suddenly heaved violently; the twelve sealing stone pillars beside the Soundless Throne in the distance cracked and collapsed.

And the pitch-black lunar eclipse in the heavens seemed to be a massive rift, and after pouring out a great flood of red-black plasma, it finally spat out a solid—

Countless scorched-black limbs, twisted entrails, bones strung with threads of blood came pouring down like a rainstorm!

These remains writhed together in midair, letting out a sickeningly sticky sound of friction.

Boom—

On the open ground in the distance, a skyful of dust surged upward.

Having witnessed all this, Haili stared wide-eyed, and amid boundless terror, blue blood streamed down her face.

Rod feared she might go mad on the spot.

He hurriedly cupped her face and pressed it into his chest.

"That's a god—that's a god! It has the aura of a divine spark on it! Rod—that's a deity, we're done for—"

"Not that bad, not that bad—the organs aren't even complete, and it still had to borrow the power of a moon god whose remnant blood is tens of thousands of years old; calling it a false god would be a stretch."

Rod patted the back of the agitated star-spirit young lady, soothing her in a soft voice.

Back when Little Little Bangde the little pony-girl wasn't as big as she was now, she used to cry a lot too; the moment Caliste scolded her, she'd come crying to the wooden cabin to talk to him.

Rod always soothed her just like this.

Haili, it seemed, took to this just as well, and quickly calmed down—but then she buried her face in Rod's chest again, weeping and talking nonsense.

It wasn't that her combat training was lacking.

It was the after-effect of the psychic shock carried by the lunar eclipse.

Rod fished out another handful of magic rings, crushing several mental-protection spells in succession to layer them together.

"Stay put."

"No! Where are you going?!"

Haili grabbed his arm and wouldn't let go, crying so hard that tears and snot came out together—rather comical.

Rod couldn't help laughing out loud.

He reached out to wipe away her tears, and blew her nose—

Never mind.

Rod grabbed the sleeve of Haili's clothes and used it to wipe her small, delicate nose clean.

"Of course I'm going to kill it. Otherwise, want you all to die here?"

"No! You'll die! That's a deity!"

"Just a trash god. Not just this one—every evil god that awakens from now on, I'll kill every last one of them too."

"Huh?"

Rod pried her hands off, smiled, and stepped back a few paces.

With a boom, both hands erupted with Chao Gao Gong-level 【Repulsion】, combined with the explosive force of the cracking ground, and he instantly leapt into midair.

Then came the tangerine-red flame airflow of 【Scorching Wind Shift】 wrapping around him.

But he didn't pivot at all toward the thing that had landed in the distance; instead, he kept rocketing straight up toward the high sky.

Watching the rolling smoke boil in midair.

Haili stood with her mouth half-open, her arm stretched out toward Rod for a long while without lowering it.

At the massive crater.

A headless giant corpse had already taken shape.

Six human arm-bones propped up a hill-like torso; its belly split open into a great maw dripping with pus; on its spine rose a dense thicket of severed limbs, like a writhing grove of brambles.

Its 'head' was a giant pale eyeball embedded in its chest cavity; the instant its pupil contracted, the entire forest was stained a sickly purple-red.

"Get out!!!"

The voice of Eyeball Miss Lu Ka was thick and muddled, but the fury in her words was unmistakable.

The giant corpse serving as the labyrinth's consciousness clearly had no ability to speak.

In response, twelve shadow witches emerged from the darkness, shaking brass bells.

The bell-tones became tangible ripples, summoning more corpse chunks down from the lunar eclipse in the sky, which slapped and adhered themselves onto the body.

"Aaaaaah——!!!"

Eyeball Miss Lu Ka let out a pained, inhuman wail.

The feminine vocal line had become blurred beyond recognition, sounding more like a mix of wild beast and wind funneling through a crevice.

"No! I am the Moon Goddess Lu Ka! Don't even dream of defiling my body!"

Her words were domineering and proud, but the fear within them already betrayed a hollow bravado.

Rumble rumble—

In the sky, a fireball churning with billowing black smoke swelled with a boiling sound that shook the air, streaking down from high above the horizon like a meteorite.

The eyeball in the chest cavity slid and rotated slickly, dragging the massive, nauseatingly bloated body to face the sky.

It actually trembled with fear involuntarily, and in its shaking, even knocked loose some corpse chunks.

Eyeball Miss Lu Ka was stunned for half a beat.

She sensed Rod's presence, but why was it coming from high above in the sky?

Not caring anymore, she simply roared with wild joy:

"Rod. Rod!!! Kill these mongrels defiling the divine body! I shall grant you the domain of a demigod!!!"

Still, no one answered her.

But Miss Lu Ka felt it didn't matter; just looking at the fireball rumbling down from the sky and the fear leaking from the bloated body defiling the divine being filled her with confidence.

Hum—

A violent surge of spiritual fluctuation.

The fireball in the sky suddenly swelled to more than ten times its size.

Muscles like purgatory lava burst forth; the liberation of power reached its peak.

The Bronze Dragon battle-soul's body lurked within, its massive iron wings stained by flames, roaring furiously at the twisted monster on the ground!

+10 【Dragon Heart】, +12 【Dragon Strength】, 【Blessing of the Ancient Tree of the Firmament】 【Power Liberation 2800%】.

Combined with the base amplification of the Flame Domain.

The deliberately extended distance of rising to the absolute limit before falling had pushed the might of 【Blazing Wind Leap】 to the highest point in history.

The firmament suddenly warped, clouds churning and splitting like festering wounds, the air scorched into charred-black fissures, and the sharp detonations surged in like the shrieks of ten thousand dead souls.

The pale eyeball's pupil on the chest cavity went rigid.

Such tremendous power.

Even if she wouldn't die, she would once again fall completely into endless slumber, and recovering her strength before those Qun Feng Yin mongrels did would be an absolute fantasy.

"Hold on! You don't need this much power, Rod!! Don't let it hit me!!!"

(End of chapter)