Shrouded Seascape-Chapter 1140. Entrance

Anna's crazed yet unnervingly composed voice echoed throughout every corner of the Earth. She had hijacked every available communication transmission.

"Hear my call, Oh Lord of the Endless Void! Shifter of Stars! Firm Foundation! Creator of Suffering! The Great One! Father of the Void and Chaos! God of Primordial Darkness! Lord of Dimensions, Keeper of Gates! Pathbreaker! Primordial Almighty Lord of Eternal Life! Your servant is calling upon Your name!"

The hysterical madness underlying the incantation sent a shiver down Tobba's spine. This lunatic was really planning to sacrifice all seven billion lives on the surface world.

"Hey, what are you staring at?" Anna called out, jolting Tobba back to his senses.

The sight before Tobba vanished. The Fhtagnists were gone. He looked to the distant city and saw nothing. The only sound that could be heard was the thunderous explosions.

Anna wasn't standing at the edge performing any ritual. Instead, she was right next to him and glaring at him, her eyes filled with slight annoyance.

"N-nothing. I just... found you too beautiful and got stunned," Tobba said, cooking up an excuse.

Anna rolled her eyes; she couldn't be bothered to entertain the nonsense coming from the mouth of a two-year-old brat. She turned and made her way to the nearby makeshift tent to check on the latest battle reports.

"Don't worry, High Priestess. Most of the IMF's mobile task force members have been wiped out. They've already lost," Jackal reported calmly, his expression unfazed despite witnessing the downfall of the very organization he once served.

As she watched the high-definition combat footage transmitted from a military radar drone, Anna gently patted Jackal on the shoulder.

"Don't underestimate the enemy. This is the IMF we're talking about."

As soon as the words left Anna's lips, a few crimson flares soared into the sky and erupted.

Jackal's eyes lit up with apparent glee as he exclaimed, "High Priestess! The outer perimeter of the underground stronghold has been breached! They can't hold out much longer. If we advance—"

Bzzzzt!

Jackal's words were cut short as Anna yanked Jackal down with a sharp pull.

Out of nowhere, a blinding beam of energy sliced through the air. A thin red line was drawn across the necks of everyone standing inside the tent, including Anna.

A silent second passed before the sickening squelch of severed flesh rang out. Heads fell to the ground as the tent collapsed inward.

"High Priestess?" Jackal called out in a crouched position. His eyes were wide with apparent despair and horror as he stared at Anna's headless body.

Just then, Anna's body twitched slightly before a new head pushed its way out from the severed stump of her neck.

Unlike humans, her fatal point was not her head. In fact, her entire Dioite body was just a mere deception. A severed head was nothing more than a snipped tendril tip.

"What did I tell you earlier? Don't underestimate them. Someone's coming. Looks like they're pulling that decapitation operation again."

With that, Anna stepped out of the collapsed tent and looked toward the distant city. However, she didn't see anyone approaching. Rather, the enemy had attacked from the sky."

She slightly tilted her head upward, and dozens of irises squeezed into her eye sockets. She saw it then—hundreds of space drop-pods, ignited from friction and in flames as they tore through the atmosphere.

"All to your stations! Anti-air ready!" Projectile after projectile shot out from the columns of missile barrels and soared toward the skies, aimed at the descending drop-pods.

Yet just before they could hit their targets, the flames surrounding the drop-pods seemed to have turned controllable. With a roaring whoosh, their embers lunged toward the flying missiles.

While the anti-air projectiles exploded in the air like a grand display of fireworks, the very last drop-pods crashed heavily on the earth.

The door of a drop-pod slid open and several individuals emerged from within. Their identity was a given from the distinct phoenix insignia on their shoulders.

A hint of understanding flickered across Anna's eyes.

I see how it is... The IMF has placed its most elite task force in outer space. No wonder I have never come across them.

After the Phoenix Task Force, the other drop-pods opened one by one. Each held a mobile task force, their shoulders branded with a different insignia. Indeed, they were the final trump cards the IMF had up their sleeves.

With a will on Anna's end, her mind-controlling thoughts spread out like a wave toward the approaching enemies.

However, this was the first time that her powers were rendered ineffective. Among these hundreds of mobile task force members, someone or something countered her mind-control ability.

The four task force members of the Phoenix suddenly raised both their hands, and everything in the vicinity capable of combustion ignited into flames. The tongues of their flames spread rapidly.

"Kill them all," Anna ordered in an icy tone.

Immediately, her followers charged forward.

The distant battlefield had finally reached home turf, with both sides clashing in fierce combat. Now, battles raged simultaneously across the strongholds of both factions.

Yet, no one had expected what came next. Just as they were engaged in a chaotic clash, Anna, with a handful of her followers, boarded a vehicle. They stealthily slipped away beneath the earth and headed for the city.

"High Priestess, are we leaving just like that?" Jackal asked as he glanced over his shoulder with traces of unease in his eyes.

"Since we already know that they're here to kill us, why should we clash with them head-on?" Anna replied. "How will that benefit us?"

"They're merely pawns. We need to find the leader," Anna added, her eyes fixated on the city that was drawing closer.

The IMF had deployed its final elite forces, which also revealed a fatal vulnerability. Their command center was now undoubtedly left poorly defended. All she needed to do was strike at the heart, and the battle would be over.

The car soon entered the city, where firebombs and unleashed anomalies rampaged unchecked.

Anna closed her eyes, allowing her thoughts to spread out as she combed the city for anything that was still alive.

With the memories of these living creatures, Anna quickly locked into the right direction.

Upon reaching the entrance of the underground stronghold, she was greeted with a scene of brutal carnage.

People clad in clothes with different insignias were engaged in a vicious battle with the IMF operatives. Bodies littered the ground, their limbs twisted at odd angles.

"Move! Charge in!" Anna commanded.

Her squad surged forward.

As soon as they saw Anna, several IMF operatives abruptly switched sides and began to attack their own allies. These moles, whom she had planted within the IMF for years, had finally been activated.

Thanks to them, Anna faced sparse resistance, allowing her to move deeper into the IMF site.

The situation within was just as savage, with corpses strewn and piled up along the corridors. Clearly, both sides fought fiercely in the cramped environment.

Due to the cramped space, progress was rather slow.

Just as Anna was ready to pivot and find a detour, a hint of delight flashed across her face.

"Hah. To think that I would find one here."

Anna's form swiftly split apart, as a massive tentacle writhed out of her back and shot toward a man in camouflage.

Startled by the attack, the man hurriedly shouted, "Miss 315! What are you doing?! I'm a Flamebearer of the Green Flames Brotherhood!"

"Nice acting—but that's all there is to it," Anna remarked. "I don't judge someone by their appearances or insignias. I only look at their memories. Sorry to say, but you're no Flamebearer. You're one of those up there, Nightwatch."

Realizing that Anna had seen through his disguise, the man's anxious expression vanished instantly. His lips parted; wave after wave of wriggling maggots poured out from between before scattering in all directions.

As the maggots squirmed away, the man's body shriveled up, his skin collapsing inward, as though those worms made up his true form.

For anyone else, an ability of this level would pose a significant threat. Yet, it was barely effective against Anna.

Emerald flames roared to life and surged forward to form a blazing wall that surrounded the escaping maggots. A series of sickening pops and sizzling sounds resonated through the air as the maggots burst into charred pulps down to the very last one.