Solflare: The Painter's Secret-Chapter 146: Golden Light of Desperation

As the heated gases evaporated from the vents on the ground, Hei Yung stood at the front, blue lightning cracking around him in savage arcs.

Behind him, some of the Agathan soldiers leaned on rifles with melted barrels. Others held their sides, blood slipping through their fingers and dripping onto the blackened stones.

At the far front, the Abyssal Maw Lord stood there, its wounded chest—where Longwei's sacrifice had torn through—glistening wetly.

Flesh twitched around its destroyed maw, black-red vapour rolling low across the ground and vanishing into its mouth whenever it breathed.

Leon's jaw tightened as he saw the smaller Oculous Devourers rushing out from the lower vents in packs, snapping their claws at anything that moved.

A wounded Agathan soldier fell to a knee as three of the creatures with black-limbed bodies, too many mouths, and bony forelegs bounded toward him.

Leon's boots hammered on the ground, the dagger singing in the air as he dashed forward, pulling himself free from Zoe's grip.

The first creature's neck got split open in seconds. The second jumped for Leon's face, but he twisted low and drove the blade up, slicing the creature's lower jaw.

Hot fluid burst over Leon's knuckles, yet he ripped the dagger free and slammed his shoulder into the third.

He knocked the creature sideways, then buried the blade into its front eyes.

Ragged breaths gushed out of the wounded soldier's gritted teeth as he looked up. "Storm—"

"Stay down," Leon slowly gestured at the soldier, making him stop moving.

Just as Leon tilted his gaze from the soldier, a shriek cut through the air, followed by smoke.

Two more creatures slipped past the death line and dragged themselves toward a Thule soldier lying flat on his back, one leg trapped beneath a slab of rocks.

The soldier tried to raise his rifle, but one of the creatures whipped it free from his grip.

Leon dashed toward the soldier and the creatures. Zoe got there from the other side at the same time.

She swung her blade and chopped the creature's spine before the soldier's face got savaged. Death vanished from the soldier's eyes the moment he saw his own reflection in the singing blade.

The other creature lunged toward Leon, its mouth opening across its chest.

Leon smiled while increasing his grip on the dagger. He side-skipped the creature, then carved through the side of its skull.

The creature's roar echoed as it whirled around and then collapsed at Leon's feet.

More roaring sounds echoed from the mountain as more cracks began to take shape. Dust streamed down, fogging the air and stinging the eyes of the Thule soldiers.

Zoe shouted at two Thule soldiers who were spinning and rubbing their eyes.

"HEY!"

Her voice reached them but got mixed with howls, the crack of lightning, and the wet sounds of smaller creatures dying under steel and blasting bullets.

At the front of everyone and closer to the Abyssal Maw Lord, Hei Yung hovered in the air, his left arm slightly lowered.

He locked his gaze on the Abyssal Maw Lord as the ring of lightning spiralling from his back burst and tore across the ground.

Thousands of bolts hit the creature's hardened skin, igniting black sparks, but the creature did not fall. Although its body kept on shifting under every strike and every inhale it took.

As air pulled toward it while it inhaled, Leon's red cloth lashed at his neck, dragging him back.

Loose stones scraped across the ground, the dust fog clearing.

Shattered camera parts and dead flesh—both the Thule soldiers and the small Oculus Devourers—jerked toward the giant maw as if the earth itself had been altered.

"Brace yourselves!"

A loud voice echoed as a soldier with broken legs got shoved upward and drifted in the air, heading toward the mouth of the creature.

His screams died the moment he got smashed by the inner jaws of the creature.

More wounded soldiers got pulled as the pull intensified.

Leon planted his boots and grabbed the arm of a wounded Thule soldier who nearly got pulled, then dragged him inch by inch.

Lightning slammed into the creature's throat and blasted the inhale, causing the pull to stop for just a minute.

Screams tore through the air as the flying soldiers hit the ground, dust splashing in the air.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you." The soldier Leon grabbed, kept thanking him after using the remaining strength he had to flee.

The moment the man reached where the smashed vehicles were, another pull took place.

This time, when Leon tried to stand firm, dust blasted into his face, clouding his eyes. He got pulled, yet kept pushing himself through it, resisting being consumed.

Ten feet to his right, the corpse of an Oculus Devourer got lifted and broke apart into dark motes, then surged straight into the creature.

The creature's red eyes blazed like wildfire after the motes got entwined with its inner cells. A roar tore from it as part of its wounded skin began to heal on its own.

The smaller creatures turned wild at every second the wounded part got smeared into fresh new skin. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

In a flash, two of the creatures sprang onto an Agathan soldier and began devouring his skin.

Another two of the creatures dashed toward Zoe from behind while she hauled a wounded Thule soldier by the collar.

"ZOE!" Leon screamed, his eyes widening.

Scraping claw sounds blasted at Zoe's back as she slowly turned her head, her grip loosening on the collar of the soldier.

Seeing the creature's maw an inch over Zoe's head, Leon threw the dagger, then dashed after it.

Golden light blasted in his eyes when the blade of the dagger missed the creature and bounced on the ground.

Tears trailed down Leon's face as the second creature jumped and strangled Zoe's arms with its snake-like tail.

The wounded soldier slipped from Zoe's grip and got devoured first, his blood spraying on Zoe like rain.

Across the field, Hei Yung's gaze flickered over the blazing golden light once, then tilted back to the Abyssal Maw Lord, a silent smile appearing on his face.

At the exact moment Hei Yung turned, the gold light hummed and blasted, scattering the ground and sending flapping flesh flying.

Beneath the beam of blinding gold light, Leon stood there, his chest heaving. Beneath him, Zoe lay on her back, her eyes wide open, her mouth forgetting to close.

Hot tears from Leon snaked down his cheeks and dripped down, reflecting the hazing gold light in them until one landed on Zoe's forehead.