Chapter 3262

The moon was bright and the stars were sparse. The curfew in Saint Dan City had started long ago, but today, no one took the curfew to heart.

Roars came from near the palace. The once magnificent palace had now half-collapsed. Light spears nearly three meters long were stuck in the ruins, and the other half of the palace was the same, with many corpses pinned to the ruins.

Another loud noise followed, and then a dazzling white laser swept across the palace. Wherever it passed, it first left a scorching red high-temperature cutting line, then exploded, sending stone fragments flying.

In mid-air, the Flame Beast's six wings of light didn't flap, yet it floated. In those eyes with pupils consisting of nested rings, there was only cold silence. This gaze was actually more terrifying than killing intent.

Below, a large group of monsters resembling werewolves were entrenched. They stood upright, with black fur and murky brownish-yellow eyes. This was the most common appearance of a fourth-stage beast-transformed person. By the fifth stage, some grew in size, while others transformed into other forms.

These beast-transformed people were gathered by Zuiyas; only he, with his Old God lineage, had this ability.

Not far away, a large group of men and women with black bristles growing on their arms or necks and arrogant expressions were located here. They were the Forsaken, heavily beast-transformed, still retaining a trace of sanity but already spurned and hated by the world.

On the other side were the former subordinates of the Monarch of the Blazing Sun. After the Monarch became the Flame Beast, these Sand people didn't choose to be loyal to the death, nor did they flee; instead, they stayed to deal with the Flame Beast. Saint Dan City was one of the two safest gathering places; if this place were destroyed, their days ahead would definitely not be easy.

These three combat forces were led by Wood, Zuiyas, and Lilim respectively. Wood was the new leader of the Forsaken, Zuiyas controlled those beast-transformed people, and as for Lilim, the Sand people of Saint Dan City were all willing to temporarily take her as their leader.

There were three reasons: 1. Being a leader now meant dying quickly, unless you had strength; 2. Anyone among the Sand people who had any say had basically been played to death by Su Xiao, Wood, and Zuiyas; 3. Lilim was one of the leaders of the Trace King Hall, and this identity was enough to convince the crowd in a short time. In the eyes of the natives of the Sand World, the Sun Church, the New Kingdom, and the Trace King Hall were equal powers.

A sound of breaking air came from above. Purple light flickered in Lilim's eyes, and a phantom identical to her appeared behind her.

Pfft, pfft, pfft...

Light spears crisscrossed, piercing Lilim's delicate body. Before blood could flow down the light spears, the pierced Lilim gradually faded. The phantom a few meters behind her materialized and completely solidified in a short time.

Lilim's face turned a shade paler. Her evasion just now looked casual, but it was actually quite dangerous; the Flame Beast's attacks were too swift.

Whoosh!

A light spear attacked from Lilim's right. Heaven knows how she had offended the Flame Beast; it kept hammering her and didn't pay much attention to anyone else.

The light spear bloomed with dazzling white light, buzzing. The spiral light spear stabbed toward Lilim's head from the right. What was more fatal was that after being enveloped by this white light, her whole body went numb, and she couldn't move even a finger.

Several black tentacles broke through the ground, carrying a twisted and suffocating feeling, forming an arm. The palm of this arm split open, and an eyeless eyeball appeared.

Everything around them froze for a moment, except for Lilim, whose numb body also recovered.

Hum~

The light spear stabbed past Lilim's ear, making her cheek burn with pain.

Washinoki Washinoki Jishi of meters away, a humanoid monster made of black tentacles stood there. It was over ten meters tall, and its head was an upward-pointing, exceptionally thick tentacle. Zuiyas was inside the chest of this humanoid monster.

Zzzzt!

A laser swept across, accompanied by screams and the roars of beasts. A scorch mark over three meters wide and several hundred meters long appeared on the ground.

"Roar!!"

"Save me quickly, I'm not dead yet."

A Sand person with only the upper half of his body crawled forward, shouting that he could still be saved. In fact, he couldn't. A loud explosion came from the scorch mark behind him; this was the second-stage attack of the laser sweep.

The shattered flesh evaporated in the flame explosion, turning into burning sparks, cruel yet aesthetic.

Wood looked at the Flame Beast above, pondering the gains and losses of dealing with this thing.

Clang!

A cutting surface made of water slashed diagonally upward from the Flame Beast's waist. The Flame Beast didn't dodge; the part of its body that was cut turned into light particles, re-gathered, and restored to a solid state, with the injuries disappearing.

This wasn't elementalization. The Flame Beast had indeed been cut in half just now, but it was now both flame and a living being. Living beings could be injured and had vital points, but flames didn't.

Simply put, the Flame Beast had two forms: solid/flame body. Its solid form had strong combat power, while the flame form was a pure energy body with weak combat power.

When the solid-form Flame Beast was injured, it would transform into the flame form. In this form, the concept of being injured didn't exist for the Flame Beast; it was an energy body. Afterward, when it transformed from the flame state back to solid, the injuries disappeared.

This ability might seem inferior to elementalization, but in reality, it was much more unsolvable. When elementalization encountered restraining abilities, it wasn't of much use, and many attacks couldn't be immunized.

The Flame Beast simply didn't immunize attacks. Its flame form wasn't used to immunize attacks; it was used to eliminate injuries after being hurt—note, not heal, but eliminate.

The one who attacked just now was Water Brother. He still walked alone, his blind cane tapping on the ground. The air within dozens of meters around him gave people a sense of distortion, as if the air here had turned into transparent water.

The Flame Beast floated in mid-air, forming light spears that attacked downward. The light spears were so dense they were like raindrops, piercing out bursts of air and ripples.

Besides light spears, it could also control one of the five light balls behind it, using lasers to sweep across the enemies below.

The Flame Beast didn't have flashy abilities. Flame form + light spear rain + explosive lasers + floating—just these abilities allowed it to suppress everyone below, which was enough to show the past strength of the Painting World's royal family.

Rustling, crisp sounds came from the Flame Beast's body. Black insects appeared, clinging to its surface and constantly gnawing. Not only that, but werewolf-like beast-transformed people were also being thrown up from below.

Black smoke raged, and a dozen ropes made of black smoke wrapped around the Flame Beast, preventing it from turning into flame for a short time. This was Wood's method; this devil-race member could always give the enemy the most painful blow at a critical moment.

Zuiyas and Wood used their trump cards one after another. Looking at the momentum, they were clearly preparing to take out the Flame Beast in one wave.

Water Brother looked up and "saw" this scene. Water ripples spread around him, and in the next instant, Water Brother disappeared. He appeared behind the Flame Beast.

Boom!

A water column fell from the sky, slamming the Flame Beast to the ground. The ground where the water column hit collapsed with a roar, constantly being cut.

In the raging waves of water and stone fragments, the Flame Beast's body was quickly shredded, eventually turning completely into fragments.

"Is it over?"

Lilim, whose face was slightly pale, spoke. Without the threat of a strong enemy, she felt more relaxed, though the pain in her pierced abdomen made her face even paler.

"The first stage is over. There's one good news and one bad news. The good news is that the second-stage Flame Lord has no flight ability. The bad news is that the Flame Lord is stronger than the Flame Beast."

Water Brother spoke in a calm voice. As a contractor of Death Paradise, he had both the advantage of semi-digitalization and detection-type equipment.

Don't underestimate detection-type equipment; this was a major advantage for all contractors based on semi-digitalization.

"There's another round?"

Lilim's mentality was a bit broken. She didn't even know what grudge she had with the Flame Beast; it often prioritized attacking her. She didn't know if the Flame Lord about to appear would "pay extra attention" to her.

In the pitch-black sky, a golden ring of light appeared at some point, dispelling the darkness.

There was an ancient rumor in the Painting World: when all the royal descendants representing the Flame died, the Flame Lord would be reborn in the world within the residual light of the last clansman to conquer the enemy who had erased their last bloodline.

Ethereal whispers appeared, reaching the ears of everyone present. The flesh and blood scattered on the ground after the Flame Beast died gradually turned into light particles resembling sparks, floating upward.

Thud!!

A wave of air surged outward, and all the corpses around shattered and flew backward, then gathered inward, condensing with the light points formed by the Flame Beast's remains into a huge ball of flesh and blood.

The golden ring in the sky converged into a beam of light, projecting onto the flesh ball. The flesh ball instantly shriveled, as if absorbing nutrients from something inside.

The flesh ball turned into ashes mixed with sparks, drifting away. In this slightly tragic scene, a big boss with the lower body of a horse and the upper body of a human walked out from the flying ashes.

This was the Flame Lord. His lower horse body was inlaid with scale-like dark golden armor plates—metallic, strong, and unstoppable.

On the Flame Lord's upper body, his arms were covered in dense, ancient light patterns, and there was a golden ring mark in the center of his chest. After the initial confusion, his gaze became stern and cold.

"My poor children, you failed to escape this fading world."

The Flame Lord's hooves stepped forward, and he surveyed everyone present with a scrutinizing gaze.

"Sand-kin, beasts, forsaken, undead, and fresh sea-beasts?"

The Flame Lord mistook Zuiyas, who had tentacles on his body during the battle, for a sea creature—that is, seafood.

He had never seen an Old God, which was normal. Old Gods of the same tier wouldn't come to the Painting World. That's right, this was a place even Old Gods didn't want to come to—not because they didn't dare, but because there was nothing to do after coming here.

A muffled bang came from afar, and a long-handled weapon flipped and flew over. It was a long-handled nail hammer about two and a half meters long, the same style as the weapon previously used by the Nightmare King, at least the color was different—the previous one was dark green, and this one was dark golden.

With a clatter, the Flame Lord gripped the handle of the long-handled nail hammer. Confusion appeared in his eyes; at this moment, clothing was hanging on his weapon—it was a little old man, hugging his nail hammer.

At the edge of the battlefield, Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang saw this scene, his dog eyes widening. Wasn't the person hugging the Flame Lord's nail hammer Caesar?

The Flame Lord looked at Caesar, who was hugging the long-handled nail hammer, swallowed hard, and asked:

"Do you need weapon maintenance?"

Bang!

Caesar was sent flying by the impact of the long-handled nail, breaking through a sound barrier and smashing through a dozen layers of walls, disappearing from everyone's sight.

Wood, Zuiyas, Water Brother, and Lilim didn't make a move because the Flame Lord gave off a strong sense of oppression. Who would be the first to get hammered?

Seeing this, Zuiyas detached from the tentacle monster, and under his urging, all the beast-transformed people rushed toward the Flame Lord.

"He is the cause of beast-transformation. The moment to change fate has arrived."

Wood shouted, and a contract parchment shattered in his sleeve.

【Contract: True Word】

Consuming this contract parchment, combined with Wood's own abilities, the words he spoke, even if they were suspicious lies, would be considered true. This was the trickster, Wobo Wood.

Hundreds of werewolf-like beast-transformed people and hundreds of Forsaken rushed toward the Flame Lord from all directions, preparing to besiege this big boss to death.

"Do not fear."

Lilim also shouted, pointing her slender finger forward. The nearly 300 Sand people near her all had purple light in their eyes, rushing toward the Flame Lord with fierce expressions. The reputation of Charm-Heart Lilim was gained this way.

For a time, the earth roared. Under the siege of the beast-transformed people, the Forsaken, and the Sand people, the Flame Lord's figure could no longer be seen.

Thousands of people besieged the Flame Lord, and these beast-transformed people, Forsaken, etc., were not weak; some were even elite units or small leaders.

Thud!

The long-handled nail hammer smashed into the ground, and bright light appeared. Before the light could spread, it was covered by the beast-transformed people.

Seeing this, Water Brother didn't rush to make a move. Wood, Zuiyas, and Lilim were not from the Paradise faction. Among everyone present, only he was from the Paradise faction; only he could obtain treasure chests, World's Source, etc., by killing the Flame Lord, and no one would compete with him.

The battle situation, which had been scorching before, was now, after the Flame Lord became stronger, not only not at a disadvantage for Wood, Zuiyas, and others, but they were actually in a winning position. The Flame Lord was indeed stronger than the Flame Beast, but he couldn't float, which meant he would be besieged.

No one noticed that a subtle fluctuation swept by quietly; it was Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang's aura ability.

【Gift of the Ice Goddess Lv. 30: All friendly targets within the aura range recover 430 HP and 32 mana per minute.】

【Spirit Gift Aura Lv. 30: All friendly targets within the aura range have their maximum HP increased by 25%.】

【Awakening Aura Lv. 30: All friendly targets within the aura range have their stamina recovery speed increased by 32%.】

【Swift Aura Lv. 30: All friendly targets within the aura range have their movement speed increased by 12%.】

Four-fold buffs appeared simultaneously. The Flame Lord, who was being besieged by the beast-transformed people and Sand people, suddenly had his charge speed increased by a notch. At his level, let alone a 12% increase in charge speed, even 2% would be very noticeable.

Any ability wasn't as simple as written in the skill description. Speed and power were closely linked; faster charge speed would bring stronger charge power.

With a rumble, as if there were an earthquake, the Flame Lord rushed out of the encirclement. His horse hooves, full of metal scales, were covered in minced meat and blood.

The Flame Lord's charge speed became faster and faster, and the ground he passed through all cracked open. His target was Zuiyas.

Zuiyas made a move to retreat, but once the Flame Lord charged, if the distance was within 30 meters, he was faster than spatial movement. Spatial movement still had an activation delay; he arrived in the blink of an eye.

The Flame Lord swung the long-handled nail hammer in his hand, and the flames covering his whole body condensed on the nail hammer in the next instant, swinging it out.

Everyone heard a whoosh; the nail hammer tore through space and swung onto Zuiyas's chest.

With a loud explosion, the upper half of Zuiyas's body turned into a blood mist, and the lower half fell to the ground.

Black-red blood dripped down the long-handled nail hammer in the Flame Lord's hand. He turned his horse hooves, facing Wood.

Wood's mood immediately turned bad. He was very confused: how did this strong enemy suddenly become stronger? This wasn't scientific.

In the distance, on the city wall, Su Xiao, holding 【Blood Feather】, was watching the battle. The reason he didn't use 【Blood Feather】 to get a healer for the Flame Lord was that the healing-type nun he had chosen earlier was currently swinging a club, fighting the Flame Lord in close combat.

After weighing the pros and cons, Su Xiao decided to save the use of 【Blood Feather】 for the combatants of Saint Light Paradise. If it were a one-on-one duel, and he put 【Blood Feather】 on the opposing combat healer, the feeling of the opponent would be more than just despair.