Chapter 1848

NO. 463：Elimination must be thorough

Similar opening, or rather the start.

The lightning's scale is entirely different.

The blood-colored lightning, almost comparable in thickness to the main cable of a space elevator, combined into one, forming a visual effect not inferior to Jie De's phoenix shockwave's massive lightning pillar, is Mogajidola's excellent achievement in attempting to split the gravitational light beam into two.

Anti-gravity light beam——【DestroyedKaiser/Destroy Emperor Wave】

The blazing, rising thunderbolt crosses the vast distance in just a few seconds.

But even if it's just a few seconds, Lugesaite should have had the leeway to dodge, yet she was locked into an inevitable moment by causality!

Bang!

Silent space ought not have any room for booming transmission, but when that scarlet color gouged a deep, searing scar onto the iridescent dragon's shell, every witness felt as if their heart had been struck by a heavy hammer, instinctively giving the explosion a tremendous presence.

Yet no screams or howls were heard.

But it's no matter, for beside the iridescent dragon stood the Evil Jetton, forged of black iron and magma, which had already raised its claw responding to the dark-red fireball.

It did not miss.

The opponent did not suddenly struggle to rise and abruptly dodge.

This dark great fireball struck solidly, yet also lacked any explosion with sufficient sound and light effect.

It was merely burnt out, merely annihilated, merely causing the Color Dragon's shell, full of wounds and cracks, to vanish crisply; the onomatopoeia fitting the scene should instead be——

Pop.

Exactly.

It should be the slight yet crisp sound of a cork pulled from a bottle, as Lugesaite's upper half of the head together with half a shoulder, at the moment the fireballs overlapped, turned into a hollow where countless crystallized blood burst forth.

Dead?

Although it's not quite an instant kill, Lugesaite, whose defenses had already been breached multiple times before this, was indeed battered from being surrounded, and it was about time someone stepped in to finish her off cleanly—but……

Would it be that easy?

Even after landing the final blow, the Evil Ash Jetton, gazing at the Color Dragon's corpse drifting naturally in space, also used its facet‑shaped crystal eye to examine its own claw that had just sheared off half of the opponent's head.

The feel… actually isn't wrong.

But that doesn't mean that doing this alone counts as a victory, does it?

After all, for monster users like them who rely on monster containers, that body is merely a skin suit.

While damage certainly brings mental and even neurological strain, losing combat ability or even life would at least require being repeatedly forced out of transformation multiple times—such an extreme outcome would only happen after being knocked out of form again and again.

Moreover, a skin suit is just a skin suit.

Even if the opponent isn't using cards or capsules but rather a method akin to bodily modification or consciousness transfer to keep this Lugoset's body active, so that even now, even if dead, it hasn't dissipated into black mist and light points but floats in space like a genuine biological corpse—

——that can only be a diversion.

"Officer, have you detected any abnormality on the barrier?" Aomo Lindun's true form, which had transformed into Evil Ash Jetton, immediately activated the standby communication.

And the response from the other side was equally blunt: "No, the barrier's readings have remained stable… huh?"

"What did you find?" Aomo immediately asked.

"The barrier monitoring showed that a certain region had experienced two seconds of unnatural numerical fluctuation, which equals——"

"Dimensional fluctuation," the demon interjected, cutting off his attempt to give himself a science pop, saying, "But don't therefore interfere with the existing barrier."

"I am currently issuing an order to remind." The commander of the on‑site directive team assigned to liaise with Aomo is also quite experienced, clearly aware that this could also be a ruse.

"I have already ordered monitoring of all areas inside the barrier; no matter what she turns into, even if she infiltrates down to the atomic level of the microscopic world, we must flush her out!"

"But also please pay special attention to the monster body codenamed Color Dragon."

"Received; the danger lurking inside the monster body is also something we've heard of before."

The City of Heaven's Gate truly can accumulate any kind of work experience…… Aomo felt this exclamation flash through his mind, but he simply continued gazing at the Color Dragon being inspected by four space shuttles and two starships closing in within the encirclement line, and at the officers each holding some kind of instrument, steadily advancing and scanning in space, momentarily speechless.

Although he also wanted to join, given that Gilbalis's scan showed no abnormal life signs, he indeed had no other recourse.

Yet he also wasn't in a hurry to dispel his transformation.

Besides exchanging a glance with Magagidora, which likewise hovered in mid‑air with its three dragon heads each looking around, experiencing the unique sensation of 'seeing oneself seeing oneself,' though it still gave off an 'unfamiliar' air and naturally looked away, his attention was focused more on the external network of this sealed zone: the Beast Cult still had some fugitives not yet captured being hunted down, and Sai Luo and Jie De had also joined the pursuit at this moment.

This also means that the previous forward base that could still be called a frontline battlefield has been completely played out.

Those who should be arrested have been arrested, those who should be confiscated have been confiscated, those who should be destroyed have been destroyed; I suppose there's still some sentimentality.

Feeling sentimental about all this, if I were to appropriate the criminals' loot to replace the reward, it would be quite troublesome, and I don't know how much red tape I'd have to cut through to get the collection I originally intended to obtain just by sneaking in and grabbing the wild fur.

Thinking about it this way, it's really all the fault of the Seven Demon Kings.

If it weren't for them, or something behind them, giving me a clear sense of crisis, I wouldn't be rushing to increase my strength like this.

Just smashing the foundation I had painstakingly built is still quite regrettable.

Although the foundation's completion isn't high either, that's all because the threshold is too high; once past the threshold, there ought to be a broad smooth road ahead! Although there's also a group led by the High Priest targeting……

Forget it, it's all in the past…… Aomo thought, past events only need to be put aside until one truly has leisure to review and organize, and people ultimately must live in the present and look toward the future, so besides paying attention to the various sector situations of this grand manhunt, I should also check what the digital world has gained after dealing with the Belfy Beast (sleeping form).

But… the digital world?

Digital, digital……

The demon, repeatedly chewing over this concept in his mind, suddenly realized he had missed a key element that determines a development with extremely low probability but not zero, namely:

"Officer! Could you immediately verify the communication devices held by all personnel participating in this operation? Especially the networks they involve!"

He spoke extremely fast, but for a super‑quality officer it's no problem, so the reply remained steady and plain: "I've finished checking, no abnormalities; escaping via data is likewise something we guard against, so please rest assured."

"Even if the Seven Demon Kings of the digital world personally launch an assault?"

"Even…" The officer, about to reflexively repeat the emphasis on safety, suddenly realized his surprised question: "How deep is this cooperation between the two sides?"

Information about the Beast Cult and the Digital Monsters, especially the cooperation of the Light Monster (fallen type), also appears in the report documents Aomo provided; the police also haven't neglected to notice this point, and you can also gauge the police's attitude toward it from the officer's words.

Is it merely the extent of cooperation in specially laying down network firewalls that would prompt them to lend a hand in this situation of being hunted?

Those demon kings aren't exactly generous, friendly partners; not taking this chance to stab them in the back would already be considered fine—normally that's how it would go, and Aomo Lindun has no objection to that.

But right now, this high priest's silent, lifeless outcome gave him a strong sense of unease, making his thoughts unconsciously drift toward the possibility that perhaps the other party had been fake from the start, or that she had escaped in some way.

The possibility of blending into the crowd in some way is not nonexistent, but this is also the local police's most familiar stubborn tactic; their preparation for such situations has always been the best, which actually lets him feel somewhat relieved.

He reassuringly turned his thoughts toward the direction where "the more he thought about it, the more he felt the possibility wasn't that low":

"No, but perhaps compared to cold indifference and taking advantage with a single strike, the possibility that the other party chose to give help in times of need is also not low."

Yes... Aomo's words proceeded along the line of simulated profiling... If the Light Beast (Fallen Type) were willing to lend them a hand, it would necessarily be scheming their usefulness, a usefulness that could be used now, whereas such usefulness placed on the Lilith Beast would be outdated, the Beelzebub Beast obeys outwardly but opposes inwardly, and the Belphegor Beast is temporarily offline...

The demon had already given up questioning the police, and instead directly called out to the Xiangyu siblings who should still be in the Hei'an area or remotely monitoring.

【Yuehuanshe: Has there been a sudden influx of large amounts of abnormal data in the Hei'an area?】

【A new work is coming soon!: How do you know? Do you know them?】

"... " Aomo raised his head again to look at all this before him, and did not immediately move.

To move would mean opening a road, meaning having to dismantle the blockade on site, and he had not completely abandoned the suspicion that a disguised high priest might be lurking here; after all, this too was a direction of extremely low possibility but not nonexistent.

(End of chapter)