[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-solflare-the-painter-s-secret":3,"chapter-solflare-the-painter-s-secret-solflare-the-painter-s-secret-chapter-145":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","Solflare: The Painter's Secret",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1323073,1757,"Chapter 145 145: The Death Line","solflare-the-painter-s-secret-chapter-145",145,"\u003Cp>As the last wave of Longwei's explosion faded in sheets of trembling heat, scorched wind swept across the broken and melted field.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ashes, burnt flesh, and the bitter smell of melted stone lanced through the nostrils and lungs of every pale face.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Rivers of orange light ran down through the cracked rock where the blast had struck deeper. Chunks of basalt stone rained from above, striking the ground with loud, dull sounds.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In an impossible beam of golden light, which began to dissipate as the sparks from the blast flew around, Leon stood there, one boot half-slid back.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His ears rang. For a few seconds, all he could hear was the shrill emptiness and the wild beat of his own heart.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although he wasn't badly affected like the soldiers who had formed a ring for the reporters, he could feel their pain in his bones.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The world before him moved in fragments of smoke, falling pebbles, and the torn shape of the collapsed ground, giving him the memory of Alchemania.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zoe's hand reached out for him, then stopped halfway, her eyes opening. \"Where is the other Agathan hero?\" The words escaped her before she could construct them into proper sentences.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She looked at Hei Yung's body, which remained in the midst of hazy blue lightning that had formed a ring behind his back.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Where Longwei had stood was now a crater of molten rock and white steam. Nobody. Not even a splash of blood on the side of the mountain that hadn't melted completely.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As the steam began to shift, it looked like the heat was only bending the air.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But when the slick remains of the Abyssal Maw Lord emerged slowly from the fog of smoke, the red-black vapor got swallowed in a long, greedy breath.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Leon's heart stopped the second he found the creature still standing. 'HOW THE FUCK IS IT STILL ALIVE?!' he screamed in his head, but his eyes spelled the heat out.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Large patches of the creature's black flesh were burned away, raw surfaces glistening wetly where the blast had carved through.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the upper jaw, a section of its maw had collapsed inward, exposing pale bone and quivering tissue beneath its skin.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When Hei Yung saw the giant vertical maw stretching from its skull to its chest, he ascended, lightning igniting melting sparks around him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Black-red vapor poured from the split mountain and rolled toward the creature, followed by pieces of dead Oculus flesh skidding over the ground.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The ring of blazing lightning dashed toward the creature's direction, followed by Hei Yung.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"No…\" Leon screamed. His right arm pointed toward the flying man as if wanting to stop time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The ring of lightning transformed into a drilling wheel as it neared the creature, then struck at the ruined section of its chest where Longwei's sacrifice had burned mercilessly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Behind the angrily flying man, a soldier standing ten paces to Leon's right broke free from the ring, then lowered his melted rifle.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He gave out a short exhale, then collapsed on one knee, his left fist slamming into the ash-filled ground.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After three sharp breaths, he pushed himself up, then cleared the ash from his face and chest.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"This thing took that and stayed alive…\" he whispered, turning to the other soldiers who were strangled in constant coughing of blood.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>One Agathan soldier inhaled deeply, forced the cough to a stop, then stood up. His boots scraped hard over the loose gravel as he joined his standing colleague.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He placed a heavy hand on the first soldier's shoulder. \"Every civilian needs to evacuate from this place, especially the Qings.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Both of them whipped their heads toward Kira and Darian, who were mysteriously standing inside a green dome that had cracked thoroughly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Near the convoy, reporters who had been saved by the metal parts of the vehicles shoved at each other in blind panic.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>One man abandoned both his camera and microphone and ran with his hands over his head.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Another stumbled over a dead reporter whose body had been burnt beyond recognition and slammed face-first onto the ground.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Screams escaped from him as he tried to crawl away, but the boot of a fleeing cameraman kicked his head as he moved past him without looking back.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Inside the collapsing dome, which wasn't ready to dissipate yet, Kira's breathing turned sharp and ragged. \"This is impossible.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She took a step backward, then another, nearly tripping over her own heel.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When Darian's arms lowered, the cracked green dome dissipated into motes and danced in the air.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kira's eyes remained fixed on the creature and the lightning god, but the arrogance she had worn was gone. \"Darian, do something.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Darian didn't answer. He simply crouched down to his knees, gasping harshly for air while sweat traced tiny paths on his face and arms.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Dust clung to his cheek, nearly entering his half-open jaw.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He shifted his gaze from his sword and focused on the creature.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At a short distance, Leon shifted his gaze and saw Darian staring at the Abyssal Maw Lord with his jaw half-open.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For the first time since Leon had known him, Darian looked stripped bare, like a man who knew he had walked into the wrong nightmare.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zoe moved in front of Leon before he could catch her moving. \"Don't stand there,\" she said with an unsteady voice.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She turned, her eyes searching for her sword.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When she found it, she ran toward it, picked it up, and ran back to Leon.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zoe swung her sword to her left waist, then reached out for Leon's arm. \"Let's help them, Leon.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She pointed at the soldiers whose bodies rejected them when they tried standing on their feet.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Leon drifted his gaze from the soldiers and stopped at the crucial fight between the screaming lightning and the creature that seemed to move back after every lightning strike.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"He…\" Leon swallowed, then sighed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A few meters away from the creature, Hei Yung floated in the air, casting tons of lightning bolts at the creature at the speed of a nanosecond.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After the thousandth bolt landed on the creature, it gave out a striking exhale, then began its inhale descent.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This time, the pull seized more than vapor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Loose rocks lifted from the ground, broken lenses from smashed cameras scraped over the stones, and the sleeve of a dead Thule soldier jerked violently as the body got dragged six inches forward.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Leon's red cloth whipped from his neck and snapped against his jaw.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Heavy wind pulled Hei Yung toward the maw of the creature, but he dashed through it and descended in front of the Agathan soldiers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"All Agathan, form the death line. Thule forces, move your civilians out of sight.\" His scream raked through every soldier's ear.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The reporters had already fled, so there was no one the Thule soldiers could take out, only themselves.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Agathan soldiers jolted back into motion, only a few joining the Thule soldiers while they fled from sight.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When the soldiers reached the reporters who had fallen and become victims of the stampede, one female soldier stopped at the other side of the convoy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She hooked an arm around the chest of a cameraman and hauled him while still looking over her shoulder at the creature.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"On my command, CHARGE!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The soldiers dashed like bees as Hei Yung's scream struck for the second time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Leon watched Hei Yung move another step forward, blue light sliding over Hei Yung's own cheekbone and throat.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hei Yung's left arm trembled once at his side.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was so slight that none of the others noticed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Leon did.\u003C\u002Fp>",1273,"2026-06-05T19:15:29.583Z",1,"novelbin.me","5068276a1678239283798e77df39d1e3959f11cbf12fb3e8c651a425b8ad158c","solflare-the-painter-s-secret-chapter-146","solflare-the-painter-s-secret-chapter-144",272,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fsolflare-the-painter-s-secret-cover.jpg"]