Returning to the Mysterious Era-Chapter 654 - Im Cassius, Just Another Covert Martial Arts Practitioner
Holy Fist Skyfall’s head snapped around, his eyes as sharp as two steel blades. A man stepped out from the deep darkness untouched by moonlight. He was powerfully built, with chiseled and cold features. His black eyes had a clear, aloof superiority in them.
A plain black coat draped his body and an inexplicable aura of dominance seeped out.
"You..."
Holy Fist Skyfall's gaze swept over him and his heart jolted. He couldn't sense the man's energy or aura at all!
The man before him seemed like an ordinary human. However, if he were really an ordinary human, how could he have hidden in the shadows without being noticed by so many experts? All the more since even Holy Fist Skyfall himself had noticed nothing. It was only when the black-clad man came out on his own that he had sensed him.
Holy Fist Skyfall narrowed his eyes, quickly calming the surge of feelings in his heart.
"Who are you? Black Ops Agency? Steel Knights?"
He was wary, but not truly afraid. A sudden incident at the brink of victory could fluster anyone but the seal was already broken and the Lord of Flooding Light within the Miracle Garden was about to descend. That was enough to give him confidence.
"I'm neither of the Black Ops Agency nor related to the Steel Knights," the black-clad man said as he walked toward him.
"My name is Cassius... just an ordinary Covert Martial Arts Practitioner, that's al—"
Before he finished, a violent voice cut off the man's self-introduction. Its crude contents were brutally succinct.
"What the hell are you babbling about?! Go to hell!"
The only one not tied down by an even foe, the Fifth General King, charged back from the Black Ops Agency and Gate Organization battlefield at full tilt. Since the ritual had succeeded and the seal was about to rupture, he had intended to return and guard the ancient altar. However, a man stepped into his flight path, yammering a pile of nonsense.
Since he was already in combat mode, the hot-tempered Fifth General King was ever crude, rash, and straightforward.
Since you claim you're an ordinary Covert Martial Arts Practitioner, I'll kill you with one punch!
Bam!
The burly figure shot forward with arms as thick as tires clamping together. A towering ape phantom behind him merged with his body in an instant. A snarling grin appeared on his face as jutting fangs grew from his mouth.
The wind howled as a massive fist swung out!
"Die!!!"
Pop...
A crisp sound like a cork being pried from a wine bottle rang out. The Fifth General King froze in midair, his body utterly still. His brutish, jowled face stiffened as two hot trails of blood dripped from his lids, forming twin streams of bloody tears.
A little finger rested lightly on his forehead sheathed in hard monkey hide.
After half a second's silence, Cassius slowly withdrew his outstretched arm. The Fifth General King's burly body arched and crashed to the ground. His bulging eyes seemed about to pop from their sockets as he stared straight at the sky. A mangled hole in his forehead gushed blood.
A pair of long legs in black boots stepped over the Fifth General King's corpse.
"Human life is truly fragile. Just a light poke and it bursts like a bubble. You people should cherish your lives. If you don't, I can only take it..."
"Samir... Lord Samir... was killed in a single strike!"
The Gate Organization members gasped. They had only seen the Fifth General King, one of the Gate Organization's top forces, charge in, freeze, and fall back dead. This man named Cassius had killed the Fifth General King with ease. What more, with just a light poke of his finger!
Fear and horror spread among the Gate Organization members like a virus. Some panted and clenched their fists, while others felt a shiver down the spine. All of them felt fear like sheep confronted by a wolf in the pen.
Tap... tap...
The approaching footsteps sounded like the grim reaper on a hunt. It made hearts pound. Some Gate Organization members couldn't help but back away, afraid they wouldn't even know how they died.
It was a curious scene. A figure in a trench coat walked toward the altar while the throng of black-robed men by it parted to either side. Only Holy Fist Skyfall stood his ground.
Cassius's gaze lightly skimmed the flanks formed by the people who feared him so much. Then he looked again to the sole man who hadn't retreated—Holy Fist Skyfall.
A feral smile curved his lips.
"See? They're all afraid. I can hear fear thumping in their chests... What about you?"
On the altar, Holy Fist Skyfall was silent as Qi covered his body. The Black Ops Agency and Steel Knights still battled the Gate Organization. However, part of their attention was inevitably drawn to the incident by the ancient altar. That included several of the Gate Organization's General Kings, and the powerhouses entangled with them. After all, the Fifth General King who had just rushed up had been insta-killed!
Even Holy Fist Skyfall, the deputy leader, couldn't do that!
Two blood-soaked figures crawled out from a pitted mountainside. They were the Chief Mechanist and Knight Commander.
One hand braced on the rocks, they panted hard as they stared at the brewing confrontation. The Fifth General King's corpse lay in a pool of blood. To the right, many of the Gate Organization's experts were full of dread and only dared to surround him from afar.
In the circle's center, the man who killed the Fifth General King faced off against Holy Fist Skyfall.
"This person's strength is definitely not beneath Holy Fist Skyfall!"
"He's from the Covert Martial Arts world? A Gate Organization's opponent from within the Covert Martial Arts world?"
Knight Commander and the Chief Mechanist spoke in shaky tones. At the same time, a spark of renewed hope lit their eyes. It seemed like the tide might turn! If this man struck quickly, everything could be salvaged. The Gate Organization's goal of breaking the seal might even collapse.
"Friend! Destroy that altar, quickly! The ritual is almost complete!"
The Chief Mechanist Dixie couldn't help but shout loudly. He wanted to urge Cassius to act fast because the Lord of Flooding Light in the Miracle Garden was about to emerge. The seal's great breach had already allowed half its body through! That mountain-like monster's outline alone was terrifying to the extreme.
At the altar, Holy Fist Skyfall's gaze was icy. Two streams of hot white vapor jetted from his nostrils. The Qi gathered over his body had taken the form of a flying dragon that was sprawled across his back. Its huge, grim wings spread apart, blotting out the moonlight.
"You intend to stand against our Gate Organization? Useless, it's already too late. Once the ritual is started, the remaining energy gathers itself and wrecks the seal. The Lord of Flooding Light within is also tearing at it and about to come out completely. Heheh... If you run now, you might yet keep your life..."
Holy Fist Skyfall slowly spread his arms, the fierce aura of an extreme combat artist billowing around him. Even the air around began to ripple.
"You misunderstand. I never intended to sabotage your Gate Organization's ritual..." Cassius smiled faintly, looking harmless.
Just as Holy Fist Skyfall thought Cassius feared the soon-to-emerge Lord of Flooding Light and meant to ease things, Cassius went on.
"Have you eaten coconut? A coconut's shell is so thick and hard you have to work to crack it open to taste the sweet juice inside. I'm still too young and don’t have the right tool to pry open the coconut. Though I may be ignorant of those ancient secrets, your leader, Xiadu, knows of it, and gave you the tool. It’s a perfect way to slice open the coconut's shell for me... By that logic, I ought to thank you."
Cassius stood before Holy Fist Skyfall and looked beyond him toward the distant Miracle Garden. A vast figure was forcing its way out of the rift and raising a commotion like an earthquake. The Lord of Flooding Light was about to break free, yet his face remained unruffled. Merely a faint glimmer of excitement flickered in his eyes.
The Lord of Flooding Light was like a great fish, one weakened by millennia of confinement. Its taste would surely be exquisite!
"Why aren't you moving? Not yet!? That monster is almost out of the seal!" In the distance, the Chief Mechanist was frantic.
Knight Commander trembled as he leaned on his hammer. "You mean, you want to strike at the Lord of Flooding Light!?"
Holy Fist Skyfall's eyes widened in utter incredulity. He of course understood what an Ultimate Dark Form was. It was a terrifying realm on par with the end of the Covert Martial Arts path, Holy Fist.
On the altar, Holy Fist Skyfall involuntarily stepped back twice, as if realizing something. Shocked words burst from his mouth.
"Could you be... a Holy Fist?!!"
As the words fell, a headwind like a hurricane slammed into him. The flesh of his face rippled over his skull, distorting his expression. He clutched a corner of the altar to barely steady himself. The other Gate Organization members nearby couldn't resist at all and were flung wildly into the air.
They drifted in every direction like torn sacks. Holy Fist Skyfall could barely make out what was in front of him through the gale. There, amid white billows of Qi like boiling water, a figure slowly raised an arm. Five fingers closed as if grasping the far-off Miracle Garden.
The figure swelled fast, from small human size to higher and larger. At last, its feet trod the earth and its head pierced the clouds, blocking the moon. A vast silhouette fell across the land, devouring every mountain peak.
Rumble...
A booming voice pealed like muffled thunder, numbing eardrums. "Lord of Flooding Light! You could never have imagined that the day you break the seal is the day you fall! I will send you off into absolute death..."
Laughter covered heaven and earth.
"Remember my name, Cassius! Hahahaha..."
Boom!
The winds reversed as a gigantic steel-armored arm pressed down.
Bam!!!
A translucent crimson energy from the giant arm thrust out and slammed into the steel limb. Light exploded at once from the seams of the red arm as molten lava streaked into the sky. The temperature of the entire area began to soar.
Crack...
The Lord of Flooding Light finally burst from the seal, only to stagger the instant it emerged. In the moonlight, it appeared as a being akin to a balor of flame. Its whole body seemed molten, with a surface temperature near the sun's. It seemed to possess flame-like abilities similar to the Flaming Sun Holy Fist.
In truth, however, its power was not flame but flooding light. In other words, a high-temperature radiance that rampaged like a flood, destroying everything. Wherever the light passed, all things fell silent. Every living body would be slain.
At its peak, the Lord of Flooding Light was immensely powerful with the strength to vie for a position in the top ten Ultimate Dark Forms. But now, imprisoned from antiquity to the Hongli Federation's modern era, it had been ceaselessly eroded by the Miracle Garden's Southern Dipper energies.
At the moment, if not completely spent, it had been weakened to the extreme. Gone was the time where a casual walk across the land could turn a thousand kilometers to scorched earth. This was the moment it was easiest to kill the Lord of Flooding Light!
"Rooaar!!!"
A terrifying roar shook the sky as countless flares rivaling the sun's surface blazed. They pounded Cassius unendingly, layer after layer. Nearby peaks melted from the extreme heat, drooping like soggy sludge.
Countless black currents rose to the sky, veiling the bright moon. The flood of light continued without pause, but it had an end.
At a certain moment, the radiance faded. But a massive black figure still stood. The Golem armor was white-hot, webbed with cracks and seemingly very damaged. Yet with a snap, the Golem moved again, red light kindling beneath the visor.
Brutal killing intent boiled.
"Since you can't kill me, it's my turn to kill you!"
