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Superhumans of the Dome City-Chapter 67 - 40 Self-Deprecation and Reckless Abandonment in the Face of Love
67: Chapter 40 Self-Deprecation and Reckless Abandonment in the Face of Love
67 -40 Self-Deprecation and Reckless Abandonment in the Face of Love
If one were to discuss what had just happened, it seemed likely that only the Superpower User was fully aware.
Just as the Spiral Spear was about to strike the black-haired woman, it disintegrated midair, forming six sharp spikes that pierced through her body.
Gongsun Ce’s right fist swung upward with ferocious force, connecting with her jaw, ending the battle with a splendid uppercut.
“Hisss…ah!
It hurts, hurts, hurts, hurts, hurts.”
Overextending himself had aggravated the wound on his left arm.
Gritting his teeth, he picked up his left hand from the ground and attached it to the white surface of the break.
It was barely hanging on…but if he wanted it to heal properly, he’d have to make a trip to the operating room after this fight was over.
Gongsun Ce opened his pocket watch to take a look.
The current time was 10:11:30, and it had been six and a half minutes since the Curse Scale had taken effect.
The battle with Shiyu Ling had taken a total of 5 minutes and 15 seconds.
“You go for my heart, I return with a punch, and throw in six holes for good measure.
Ahh, feels great!
With that, we’re even, Miss Shiyu.”
Shiyu Ling lay sprawled on the scales of the giant dragon.
Currently, she was undoubtedly gravely injured.
From a professional’s standpoint, she could only be considered slightly better than someone with just one breath left.
“…Heh.
If you really like me that much, just finish me off.”
“What happens to you afterward is none of my concern.
This time, because of Yan Qi, you didn’t hurt any innocent citizens, so I only paid back what’s mine.
If you’d actually caused a major disaster with the Dragon Disaster, I would have torn you to pieces myself, nothing more.”
“Still the selfish man!
Unable to decide even life and death for oneself, I’ve become so wretched!”
Shiyu Ling laughed loudly, the movement causing fresh blood to seep from her wounds, but she didn’t stop in the least.
“Tell me, Superpower User!
Why am I being hunted down when all I did was avenge a group who deserved death a thousand times over?
Why have I ended up like this when all I wanted was true freedom?”
“Then why don’t you tell me instead, Impermanence Law Enforcer?
Why was my heart torn out when I was simply doing a favor for you, my older sister?
Why was this city nearly turned to statues previous to this when its people were merely living their lives as usual?”
The Superpower User pushed up his glasses: “Let me guess what you’d reply, ‘That’s how unreasonable this world is,’ right?”
“Ahya… indeed, we are quite alike.”
Was he similar to this woman?
In the confidence he held in himself, in his abilities, and in his intellect, they might be.
“In our self-righteousness, we are alike.”
The young man brandished his left arm to the other, the roughly reattached left hand shaking as if it might fall off at any moment.
“But I don’t care about myself as much as you do.”
“Hahaha…”
His hand-chop struck the woman’s neck, abruptly silencing her laughter.
Qin Qianbai squatted next to Shiyu Ling.
She raised her hand, pondered for a moment, and then tapped twice more.
“Hey, if you tap her again, she really will die.”
“She deserves it.” Miss Qin tilted her head.
“Need help?”
The gray-haired young man shook his head.
“Not necessary.
Please clear the area; I’ll be finished shortly.”
“Okay then, no idea what you’re doing, but good luck.”
Qin Qianbai, with the black-haired woman, leapt from the head of the giant dragon and walked away, stepping on the air.
Now, in the high sky above Cangshou District, there was only one half-dead person and one badly wounded dragon left.
Just like three years ago, at the end of Supibia.
“…Huh.”
He controlled his body as it floated up, halting in front of the enormous golden Dragon Head.
His gaze swept over the broken neck of the giant dragon, looking like two collapsing bridges.
The difference from three years ago was that of the three-headed Colored Glaze Dragon, only one remained.
He knew the reason behind this lamentable state.
For the two Dragon Heads that had been lost belonged to the ones he had personally severed three years prior.
—What is your wish?
—Enter the world of Kong Hua.
He heard such a voice speak in his heart.
—I shall grant your wish.
—The Colored Glaze Dragon shall grant everyone’s wishes.
I wish for all those who died three years ago to be resurrected.
I wish for everything lost three years ago to return.
For a moment, he almost uttered these words out loud. fгeewёbnoѵel.cσm
But he was no dragon worshipper, nor was he an Impermanence Law Enforcer seeking power.
Gongsun Ce could not allow himself to indulge in unattainable dreams like them.
“I want to bring an end to the events of three years ago.”
And so, the young man spoke.
He reached out, calling for a power that was not his own.
“Come forth, the final black sword, the calamity of Silent Star.”
Within the giant dragon, a cut opened in the center of Gongsun Ce’s heart.
Matter, far too vast to fit within a mere piece of flesh, slowly emerged from the wound as if pulled by an invisible hand.
Warped cross-like spikes, a sword hilt wrapped in blood-red cloth, the ominous and sharp blade was like a darkness coalescing; it was as if night itself had taken shape into a sword.
It was a sword, a pitch-black Longsword.
It burst through the Colored Glaze Dragon’s spine, finding its way into the hands of the gray-haired young man.
The golden Dragon Blood streaked across the sky, like a dazzling Star River.
The heartless giant dragon roared, its voice filled with agony, more strident than when it was pierced by a thousand blades.
Gongsun Ce gripped the sword hilt tightly.
This was not his sword; this weapon had never belonged to him.
It once lay in the hands of a golden-haired, silver-armored Knight, who charged at the one-eyed giant dragon with it in hand.
Back then, the weapon wasn’t in this form but was a vast war machine with a magnificent silver-white exterior.
Since then, the weapon had changed hands.
What he now held was not a protector of life but a taker of life, a weapon with great power that protected nothing.
The Superpower User thought self-destructively that he really couldn’t become anything significant.
If he truly was a knight protecting everyone, he would have killed Shiyu Ling right then and there.
If he truly was a hero with justice as his creed, he should have prevented the arrival of the Colored Glaze Disaster at the onset.
If he was a strategist with hundreds of schemes, he should have seen through others’ plots midway through the events.
If he was a cautious and careful planner, he should have avoided the misfortune of being ambushed at the last moment.
He was still wavering, still hesitant, still emotional, still arrogant, still careless, still quick to anger.
Gongsun Ce was a Superpower User, an extraordinary student, and that was all.
If there was any true meaning to his existence, it probably lay in what he was about to do next.
He enveloped the Longsword with white matter on both sides, altering it to resemble the shape it had three years ago, yet not quite the same.
Instead of a silver-white giant sword, he could only create a plain white shell that wrapped around the black blade, glaring like a shoddy prop.
It was but a poor imitation.
He mimicked the movements of the woman from his memory, wielding the sword with both hands as he slashed at the indifferent giant dragon.
Gongsun Ce whispered softly,
“Falling Arc Light.”
A cross-shaped starburst erupted from the tip of the sword.
The light was icy cold and piercingly sharp, impaling the head of the Evil Dragon, bleeding a red and black night.
The color of blood, a reddish outer flame wrapped around dismal black light, became a cross shape etched into the body of the Colored Glaze Dragon.
Two ancient scars flickered, tearing apart the colossal body, the flesh of the God collapsing from the sky and falling towards the city below, sprinkling onto the corpse of another deity.
— Has your wish been fulfilled?
He watched the final Dragon Head tear apart, hearing a faint call within his heart.
“Yes, it’s been fulfilled.
Farewell, Colored Glaze Disaster.”
No more voice echoed.
The Dragon Head dissipated into light.
On the night of February 13th, every inhabitant of the Cangshou District looked up at the sky.
Whether it was the bigwigs in the high-rises or the ruffians in the streets, whether Superpower Users or Impermanence Law Enforcers, informed or uninformed, all were mere, fragile humans.
Before such a magnificent sight, before powers transcending the mundane, everyone was equal.
They witnessed the red and black light tearing the Colored Glaze Disaster asunder, a colossal cross emerging from the fissure of the dragon’s body, as if an unknown deity was meting out divine punishment on the Evil Dragon.
A light from nowhere swept across the sky, the blood and flesh of the Colored Glaze Dragon dissolving into light.
The event was grand but silent, immense, yet soundless.
Everyone gazed at that patch of red and black sky until the light faded, and darkness once more enveloped the city; only then did human voices emerge, breaking the silence.
They were the ecstatic cheers of the citizens and the relieved sighs of the bigwigs.
In the 66th-floor meeting room in the Cangshou District, everyone unconsciously paused in their actions.
Liu Zhongwu and Onowell looked at everything displayed on the screen, sighing one after another.
“It’s over.” “It’s over…”
At the end of an alley in the Fixed Wing District, several exhausted An Yushi collapsed to the ground.
A man in a robe sheathed his knife.
He stepped over them, joining others on the bustling street to appreciate the cross of light in the night sky.
He smiled and reached out to the sky.
“How beautiful.”
At another end of the Fixed Wing District, inside a garden-style residential complex, a sweat-soaked young man clutched his chest as he rose from the ground.
He ran out to the courtyard, just in time to witness the dragon’s disintegration.
“Well done…
Ah Ce.”
At the border of the Thorn District and the Central District, atop a tall building.
Yan Qi flicked his brush, retracting the cage that had trapped the giant dragon back into the pen.
He extended his palm to catch something falling from the sky.
It was a glass bead that fell because of the dragon’s death.
The proud man laughed heartily.
“Well done, Gongsun boy!”
Yet more voices spilled from the people’s mouths.
Their sounds echoed throughout the city; still, they could not reach the heights where Gongsun Ce floated.
All he could feel was the silence.
I should go back to rest, the Superpower User thought to himself.
“…”
However, at that moment, a strange sensation of weariness appeared in his body.
He could still lift the sword, could still breathe, should still be able to fly until he landed.
But he was so tired, exhausted, he didn’t want to do anything.
He had to get back before the ten-minute limit was up.
But first, let him rest just a few seconds…
“…”
Just a few seconds.
Gongsun Ce closed his eyes.
His body, drawn by gravity, began to fall.
Just rest for three more seconds, no, four.
With his descent, the soundless stillness finally left.
With eyes closed, he could hear the whoosh of the wind.
Below, there was a faint calling of people, mingled with laughter and tears, probably discussing what had just happened.
As he fell, the lightless dark slowly brightened.
With eyes shut, he could still sense the light.
The Cangshou District beneath the night sky twinkled, light spilled from windows of the residential buildings, large advertisements glowed on the exteriors of tall buildings, and streetlights lined the roads endlessly.
This was what Yan Qi had defended, what Qin Qianbai and Shiyu Lianyi had preserved, what unknown significant and minor figures had safeguarded…
and probably, what he himself had protected.
Occasionally, he thought to himself, it’s okay to be kind to oneself.
Not everything is pointless, and it’s not that nothing can be accomplished.
At least this time, the Dragon Disaster hadn’t destroyed the city.
How long had he rested?
He seemed to have forgotten how much time was left; was it time to open his eyes…
As he thought this, he felt himself hitting something.
Not the hard ground, but caught by someone’s arms.
A slight itch passed over him, like hair brushing against his face, a familiar sensation, just as she had carried him out from underground before.
“Where’s Shiyu Ling?”
“Don’t know, just tossed her aside.”
You really are a petty person, aren’t you?
But after this, none of it would matter to him…
“I’ll just…”
“Yes, take a rest, Ah Ce.”
Would she be smiling at this moment?
She’d probably reply without expression, as usual.
Thus, the young man in Qin Qianbai’s arms smiled and fell asleep.
She carried her friend across the night sky.
Heading towards the warm lights of the city.