Mission ② · The Second Staff

Foreword:

The higher the monkey climbs, the more clearly its buttocks are exposed.

[Part 1: Blood-Red Stars]

The armored vehicle blocked the entrance to the Kansai pedestrian street. Meteor carried Berloberg off the vehicle and quickly ran in the direction of the Spirit Calamity Radar.

More than a hundred people rushed out from both sides of the street, all of them panicked ordinary citizens. Occasionally, one or two militiamen from the Police Department could be seen. These armed Snowy Owls clutched their walkie-talkies, as if they were paralyzed with fear.

"Hurry! Hurry, hurry, hurry! All citizens, this way! The fire department will be here soon. Follow the signs to the nearest underground shelter! This is Spirit Calamity! I repeat, this is Spirit Calamity! This is not a drill!"

"City Hall! Calling for backup! I need to call for backup!"

"A monster has come in! Where did it come from? What is it?!"

"I can't stay here!"

"Wow!"

A piercing scream came from the west end of the street. Meteor braked suddenly and stopped to take a closer look.

A vicious dog leaped out of the window of a room on the second floor of the shop. It was a monstrous beast that Mercy Society, a Spanish hound that had been influenced by the Blessed Holy Blood and infected with the Vita Imprint.

It landed lightly, grabbed the conscript's neck, and with a gentle bite, as if its thick tongue and palate were working together, without even moving its teeth, the conscript's skull turned into mud like a soft biscuit.

Meteor looked closely and realized that this vicious dog was not as docile as the monster information submitted in the anonymous public channel; it had changed a lot.

As Jason Megan mentioned in his documentary notes, under the influence of the Flash Butterfly, this terrifying Blood-giving Monster has become an apostle.

Its bright red fur has all fallen off, leaving it completely bald. Even without its fur, it is still over six meters long (not counting its tail). When it stands on all fours, it can reach the shops on the second floor with its twisted snout.

Its head was almost as big as the front nose of a Wuling Hongguang minivan, with a slender snout and sharp teeth. After losing its fur, its eyes also disappeared, as if it had some characteristics of Flash Butterfly, while its belly and back skin were covered with densely packed, nearly fifty human heads.

These human heads, mouths agape, seemed to be ingrained in the skin of the [Hound Apostle], imprisoned in a cage of flesh and blood, straining to peek out, trying to break free of their confinement, following the [Hound Apostle]'s steps, emitting strange gurgling sounds as its belly trembled unnaturally.

That was not the wailing of the dead, but rather a chilling and terrifying ecstatic laughter.

The hound apostle lowered its head, and a thick, forked red tongue emerged from the beast's snout. It curled up the headless corpse of the conscript and stuffed it into its belly.

A Xing was caught off guard by the sudden surge of psionic energy and lost his balance. In just two seconds, the monster that was about twenty meters away had vanished.

He was stunned for a moment, and then felt a gust of wind on his head!

Four pale white animal claws landed on the bricks of the long street, behind him.

He looked back and saw the hound's forked tongue waving, but when he got closer he realized—it wasn't a tongue at all!

These are the wings of a Flash Butterfly!

Meteor was dumbfounded, and for a moment, a sense of fear actually arose in his heart.

The immense spiritual pressure engulfed him like a quagmire, as if he had returned to the deathly realm of Niflheim, where his path to ascension was about to end prematurely!

The Flash Butterfly was hidden inside the mouth of this grotesque flesh and blood, within the apostle's skull—a mere kiss from the hound could transform a mortal's body into Madness Butterfly.

At this moment, Meteor was unable to move. Under the immense threat, it felt as if his legs did not belong to him. The light from the luminous stone flickered on and off, and the crimson mist emanating from the beast's mouth carried a strong stench. Even with the wolf mask as protection and the protective netting that absorbed a large amount of impurities, he was still mentally and physically traumatized and felt unbearably nauseous.

His abdomen began to convulse; his muscles spasmed at the first glance. When he met the tongue and the hundred eyeballs on the wings, at that moment— A Xing almost completely went mad.

He could feel the itching on his skin. His right hand gripped the handle of the Wild Wolf ACE, but he couldn't pull the gun out. His fighting spirit was thwarted; he felt stunned, as if his mind had gone blank.

He had never thought of that before.

--You will lose, you will die, and you will leave nothing behind.

He had never had such a thought since arriving in the underground world.

But today, he seemed to be wavering.

In just a few seconds, the Flash Butterfly that had merged with the apostle, like a knight riding a warhorse and driving a chariot of flesh and blood, observed the interesting prey before it with the evil eyes on its wings. It seemed to have found excellent material and wanted to use Bu Liuxing's essence to shape another apostle, to shape another creation of flesh and blood.

At this moment, the meteor finally passed the test.

He bit his tongue hard, jolting awake from the excruciating pain!

Pull out the Wild Wolf ACE and pull the trigger on that freak who defies all reason!

With a loud "boom," the scorching gunfire sounded like a dragon's roar, and the shotgun shells made the hunting dog tilt its head and involuntarily dodge!

The meteor was doused with a bucket of ice water!

That's not a sign that the shot was effective! Absolutely not!

He fired while retreating! He was practically running forward, shooting sideways and backward, his arm jerking the handle of the Wild Wolf ACE, hearing the loud bangs of the semi-automatic bolt firing continuously!

His body was being shoved by the savage firearm, his eyes fixed on the movements of the Apostle Hound!

--That was definitely not a wound caused by shooting, nor was it a sign that it was in pain and was staggering!

This terrifying monster has countless eyes! It seems to be able to see bullets! Can its dynamic vision even detect bullets?!

It seemed to be deliberately tilting its body and turning its head to the side to protect the wings of its Flash Butterfly, allowing its relatively strong skull and flesh to take the hits from the scalding shrapnel!

It can see supersonic warheads.

The thought flashed through his mind, and Meteor was nearly scared out of his wits.

The moment the Hound Apostle was wounded by the bullet, patches of bloody sores appeared on its pinkish-white skin. It staggered and fell quickly, as if drunk, slipping and tilting strangely. Then, like flowing water, its flesh and muscles sometimes relaxed and sometimes tightened, as it burrowed into the shop corridor and escaped the meteor's trajectory.

Meteor reloaded while taking off his gloves.

--Because my hands were so sweaty, way too sweaty.

Because his body had betrayed him, his flesh seemed to be in a state of extreme terror. Sweat almost soaked through his cut-resistant gloves, but he remained numb, as if performing a work task, removing the magazine from the Wild Wolf ACE and replacing it with a new one.

He locked onto the malevolent and eerie spiritual pressure, his gaze sweeping across the second floor and then the third. From the fake chimney of the shop and from the exquisite decorations of the mansion, a cluster of blood-red butterflies flew out.

The hound-like apostle made no sound, clinging silently to the narrow crevice of the alleyway, against the pristine white exterior wall of the clothing store, a piece of fresh human flesh dangling from its mouth.

--Meteor followed the scream and looked over.

The monster's head skin is healing rapidly, and it appears it has already devoured several innocent passersby.

It was carrying a woman in its mouth; judging from her clothes, she looked like a tailor or the owner of a clothing store. The scream was coming from the woman's mouth.

Bright red sores were slowly eroding the woman's skin; she screamed and cried out in agony as she called for help from the shooting star.

Please! Please! Please!

"Help! Help!"

She couldn't say anything more; her mind was gradually drifting away. Her two arms were tightly gripped by the Flash Butterfly, as if this evil demon was going to continue testing Bu Liuxing.

This is the method they intend to use to destroy Bu Liuxing's mental world.

"Save"

The poor woman heard gunshots—

--Ah A Xing's wolf breathed out flames of anger, but the distance was too far and the effect was limited. This time, it didn't even cut the flesh. It was like a handful of sand hitting the surface of water. The hound took the hit with the thickest, most resilient skin on its face.

A Xing switched to a single bullet, gritted his teeth, and pulled the trigger. He quickly drew his samurai blade and fired rapidly.

The powerful single-shot slug struck the hound's nose, causing it to tilt its head back, followed by an even more pitiful and painful howl from the woman.

A Xing's eyes were unfocused, and the 9mm bullets from his gun seemed to be hitting the hostages.

It's like--

--It's as if this monster has sentience and is doing this on purpose.

Blood trickled down the woman's abdomen and chest. If Meteor hadn't fired, she might not have been injured, but even if Meteor did nothing, she would still die.

"Kill him."

The woman stared intently at the shooting star.

--A kind of dimness emanated from his eyes, a desolation devoid of any life force as he faced death.

"Kill me. Kill me, hehehe. Hehehe. Kill me."

Before merging with the Flash Butterfly, you will feel an inexplicable ecstasy.

It's like returning to a mother's embrace, returning to a cradle of eternal joy and peace.

It was a joy that transcended neurohormones, transcended worldly concerns, and surpassed all suffering and hardship.

A Xing raised his gun; he had finally confronted his inner demons.

--It seems the hound knew, it seems the Flash Butterfly knew.

What is the softest spot in the heart of this nameless warrior?

Meteor would never lay a hand on a woman or a child; even an enemy would make him hesitate and waver.

It was as if, in the instant their eyes met, the Flash Butterfly had already seen through A Xing's Gate of Death, understood his mind, and corrupted his sanity.

"Hehehehehehehe!"

The woman's hair fluttered, assimilated by the Flash Butterfly's feathers, tugging at it little by little, trying to push it deeper into the beast's kiss—

--But the Apostle Hound did nothing. It remained motionless, seemingly obeying the command of the Flash Butterfly, quietly observing this era, trying to see clearly how capable the human warriors of this era really were.

The sudden splitting of her scalp made the woman shudder in pain; her eyes rolled back, and a stream of bright yellow urine dripped from under her skirt.

--Meteor fired again, his eyes almost popping out of their sockets, a deafening roar bursting from his throat, and the marks of a red butterfly crawling up his neck.

Red Stone People is the Madness Butterfly's favorite warrior. When his Madness Index jumps from A- to S, or even beyond the norm, he will naturally fall into a state of complete madness, losing his reason, being dominated by anger and hatred, becoming a madman who cannot distinguish friend from foe, and it is not impossible that he will eventually join the Madness Butterfly Sect.

At a distance of over forty meters, many bullets missed their mark. His usual shooting training results were not this bad, which proved that Meteor had lost control of his arm.

[Part ② - Fury]

Fortunately, the bursting brain matter ultimately saved him.

--Finally, the hostages were rescued from the hounds' mouths and from the shackles of the Flash Butterfly.

The woman died, and immediately Flash Butterfly, which was then stuffed into the belly of a hunting dog.

Without much thought, it was as if a door had finally opened for the meteor.

He seemed to linger outside the door for a very long time, but never went over. The Rose Shining Stone on the wolf mask, which was originally a bright red, now looked as if it was covered with a layer of gray, turning into the dark red of wine.

He shouted loudly, put away his gun, and let out a fierce howl.

"Fight me! Fight me! You!"

It points to the Flash Butterfly that continues to climb upwards.

"You fight me! Fight me!"

Meteor quickly caught up, but unable to climb the smooth courtyard wall, he immediately slipped into the mall. Seeing that the Hound Apostle was about to go to the rooftop, he ran forward in three steps at a time, almost falling as he rushed onto the escalator.

He gripped Berloberg tightly, intending to cleave the beast in two, but a deep fear gripped his heart. He didn't know if he could do it; only one thought remained in his mind: to cut, chop, and mince these monsters.

He walked past the second-floor children's clothing market and infant counters and saw a young mother wearing only half of her body in maternity clothes. It seemed that the hound was picky about its food and didn't want the pregnant woman, only carrying her protein-rich legs and the baby in her belly.

Meteor's mind was severely damaged once again. He simply ignored everything and continued his frantic rush upstairs. When he reached the food stall on the third floor, he tripped and fell into a pool of blood, his feet slippery and unable to stand.

With great difficulty, he got up and saw nearly a hundred corpses lying by the roadside. Men, women, and children had their heads removed and were blocking the fire escape door. It seemed that they had been driven here and could no longer escape.

He walked forward step by step, until he could walk no faster, but the light emanating from Berloberg remained with him throughout.

--Ah A Xing comforted himself, trying to deceive himself.

It's nothing, it's nothing.

In the eyes of these beasts, Ming Ge was probably the same; he was a butcher who slaughtered their cubs, a mob that killed them cleanly and efficiently.

If I'm supposed to be afraid, wouldn't I be terrified at the sight of Ming Ge?

This isn't right, A Xing, you can't be afraid. You have to keep moving forward.

Pushing open the fire escape door, I saw a dense crowd of people gathered on the stairs leading to the rooftop. They were just blocking the way, unable to go upstairs or dare not go downstairs, as if other escapees had already taken refuge on the rooftop.

Upon seeing the nameless man covered in blood, these ordinary citizens recognized the Flash Butterfly Armor; after all, the news of the Big Sister wearing it and beating up the Rose Sect was still fresh in their minds.

The road was narrow, A Xing wanted to go upstairs, but he was a little too slow in sheathing his sword. The blinding light from the Berloberg illuminated the stairwell, and some citizens started shouting and calling for help.

"What happened?"

"Is he/she anonymous?"

"I want to get out of here. Help!"

"I'm bleeding. Some bastard broke my leg."

Their mournful wails and the swarming citizens gave Meteor almost no chance. When they tried to grab Meteor's clothes, the sharp rifling of the Flash Butterfly Armor Suit cut their hands until they were covered in blood. When they saw the blood flowing like a river in the food stalls on the third floor, resembling Human Hell, they were immediately frightened and pushed each other backward. Several people tumbled down the stairs and fell, suffering head injuries and bleeding profusely.

A Xing raised his sword and shouted, "Get out of the way! Get out of the way! I want to go to the rooftop! I want to go to the rooftop!"

The citizens were extremely uneasy and terrified. They tried to avoid a road by lying on top of their companions, but then vomited due to severe dizziness and extreme mental tension.

Suddenly, a young man covered in red spots, driven mad by the Vita Imprint, rushed up to grab A Xing's gun!

"Give it to me! Give it to me!"

The young man seemed to realize that his life was coming to an end, and it was almost instinct that compelled him to grab the gun and find some sense of security.

A Xing swung his hand to knock away the attacker's fleshy hand, appearing calm on the outside, but inside he was churning with turmoil—and looking at the panicked crowd around him, he noticed that their eyes were starting to look strange.

He was like a lone wolf that had left civilized society and its pack, finding it difficult to trust these innocent and helpless people anymore.

He rushed to another passageway, avoiding the crowded fire escape, and arrived at the food stall's exhaust duct. He used his strong and fierce body to break through the wall, and then grabbed the duct and climbed to the roof.

There were fourteen or fifteen people on the rooftop, blocking the entrance to the rooftop, seemingly feeling that the narrow rooftop couldn't accommodate so many people—but now it had become empty.

Because the Apostle Hound had arrived, it had eaten and drunk its fill and did not continue killing. It seemed to be waiting for the meteor to jump onto the rooftop, and then it would pounce on it!

The meteor, still unsteady on its feet, raised its sword to meet the enemy! A sense of exhilaration filled it!

He was thinking about what Ming Ge had said—

--A wandering knight from hundreds of years ago could kill Flash Butterfly, and so can Bu Liuxing! He can definitely do it! He is by no means weaker than the warriors of ancient times!

The Rose Shining Stone reignited its raging flames, unleashing a refreshing power from every part of its body!

He exerted almost all his strength, twisting his waist, his big boots snaking across the rooftop planks, creating a bright spark, the rubber emitting a burnt smell, turning into a plume of black smoke!

With a powerful sweeping strike, it slammed into the Apostle Hound's long teeth, then bounced off! Blood gushed from Meteor's hands as the flesh was slashed open by the rapidly spinning hilt of Berloberg's sword!

This immense clash of forces resulted in his utter defeat!

He knocked the Apostle Hound's head off course, but didn't cause much damage. However, the sharp teeth veered off course, and the massive beast, weighing several tons, pounced, slamming into A Xing's left torso. This caused A Xing's left arm to break, and his body flew backward, soaring more than twenty meters from the shop's rooftop, landing on the second floor of the adjacent building and smashing through the exterior wall.

His entire body was covered in wounds, and his Flash Butterfly Armor was tattered. Only his remaining fighting spirit sustained him as he gripped Berloberg tightly.

He felt short of breath, as if his lungs were being pierced by sharp, broken ribs. He struggled to wriggle out of the clutter in the shop and find the Universal Elixir to heal himself. He felt that the wolf mask seemed to have deformed and grown into the flesh of his face. The multimedia center had no signal, and the electronic equipment on the helmet was broken.

Just once--

Just like that.

Am I going to die?

Thinking this, Meteor went upstairs to the rooftop, only to be struck again.

Only forty-one seconds had passed; the time on the watch felt both so long and so short.

He couldn't move his left arm; it seemed as if his left arm was glued to his waist and abdomen. His lumbar spine was deformed by the immense force, but not completely broken. The pain signals that this Homo sapiens body could transmit had already caused severe cognitive impairment in Meteor's brain.

He wasn't afraid of pain, but he was afraid of seeing his inner demons again.

He was breathing weakly, feeling as if his body was a large kettle, constantly leaking liquid, while the composite layer of the Flash Butterfly Armor flowed out the Universal Elixir, slowly plugging the hole.

In the blink of an eye, the hound apostle whose head had been knocked askew by Berloberg caught its breath. It climbed to the side of the rooftop, ready to leap in front of the meteor to claim its life.

Meteor's left arm was still quite unruly. Without surgical intervention, it was almost fused with the twisted and deformed Flash Butterfly Armor suit, making it difficult to separate from his side. The intense pain was driving A Xing insane.

He struggled to his feet and saw several education and training signs in the shops on the second floor.

When he heard the crying of the preschool teacher and the children, his mind went completely blank!

"Fight me! Fight me! You fight me!"

He was panting heavily, shouting at the evil demons above his head while trying to remind them—

--I wanted to warn the others in the dimly lit room, and to urge the women and children to seek refuge immediately.

He could barely stand. He crawled out from the soft, deformed foam mats, wooden tables and chairs, and the remains of a bunk bed, and immediately went to the pit on the second-floor exterior wall, intending to jump down.

He howled loudly, barking defiantly at the Apostle Hounds.

"Fight me!!!"

The pink and white behemoth leaped forward gently.

--At that moment, Meteor's eyes widened as he saw his formidable opponent through the shattered golden mask and the crater in the Great Wolf Helmet.

He wielded the sword with one hand, but his strength was less than fifty percent of what he had used when he was fighting with all his might at the beginning.

--Absolutely unstoppable

He wanted to jump down; perhaps the apostle hounds would follow him, but then what?

What happened after that?

It's so noisy, why is it so noisy?

Why is there so much noise?

Can you please give me a moment to wake up?!

Meteor gritted his teeth so hard they almost shattered. He stared at the mythical unit hurtling down with a foul stench. It felt like a ritualistic ceremonies were being held in his ears, the sounds of metal and glass shattering almost making him unable to think.

The next second, a black motorcycle rushed out of the shop.

The massive front wheel crushed the pine partition wall, smashing a path through it.

Wen Bucai kicked A Xing in the waist, sending the honest-looking boy flying downstairs. Then, he pulled a giant sword from the back of his motorcycle.

--No, calling it a sword is far too big and too heavy.

It's like a gate, just a block of iron with six sides and no spine!

"Whoa!"

A breath of bright red, murky air escaped from Wen Bucai's black-haired, black-eyed mouth, as if he had inhaled too much of the city's smog and arrived here with a surge of rage.

The instant the motorcycle burst out of the building, [Drunkard] followed Wen Bucai, gripping the hilt of the greatsword and stirring up a surging wind of sword energy!

"Pfft--"

The knight riding a steel warhorse cleaved the hound, who had Flash Butterfly, in two! As he landed from the second floor, the tires drew a dark semicircle beside A Xing.

Thick, sticky blood tumbled down the slope of the giant sword, and when the wind blew against its blade, it immediately produced a strange, whistling sound, like the sound of a flute or the howl of a demon.

The massive blade, nearly two meters long, shattered its head, then tore through flesh and smashed bones. Its immense potential energy was unlike that of Berloberg's tiny toothpick, which offered no chance of deflecting the blade!

Its flesh and blood turned to mush, and it lay paralyzed on the ground, cut in two!

However, he's not completely dead yet!

Wen Bucai spoke righteously to the writhing mass of flesh and the two halves of the dog's head.

"I advise you not to move around, otherwise you'll only cause more pain."

He brandished his greatsword and roared to life, like a cavalryman's pre-charge challenge.