Ending It All

"What are you all standing around for?! Concentrate your fire on that guy!!!"

Commander Kromi gripped the heavy machine gun mounted on the stair railing and, ignoring the risk of hitting his own men, opened fire on the man slaughtering his way through the crowd!

But his target moved like a ghost, so fast that it made their eyes spin. The muzzles could only chase after him, firing at his heels.

Xia Tianming switched between claws, blades, and then the Whip-Blade. Every attack took out swathes of enemies as quickly and efficiently as possible, without the slightest hesitation!

Wherever he went, screams rang out. He moved so fast that all anyone could see was a black-and-red blur!

"Spread out!! Don't bunch together!!"

Seeing his men disappear in droves, Commander Kromi screamed in a fit of hysteria.

But on this narrow spiral stairway, there was no room to form any kind of battle formation.

And with Xia Tianming and the Hunter rampaging through the crowd, unstoppable, the already chaotic scene became even more uncontrollable.

So no matter how many troops they sent here, it was practically no different from sending them to their deaths. Their numbers were useless in a place like this!

A rocket trooper carrying a 120 mm launcher struggled to lock onto the fast-moving target. After calculating the lead, he immediately triggered the firing mechanism.

Boom!

A rocket trailed flames as it shot from the launcher, flying straight toward its target. It struck the spot where Xia Tianming was about to land, triggering a massive explosion. A mushroom cloud of fire engulfed him!

"Did I hit him?!"

The rocket trooper saw that he'd scored a hit and danced with joy.

But he hadn't been hopping around for long when he suddenly froze.

As the flames from the explosion gradually faded, he saw that the target was still standing unharmed amid the embers, his entire body covered in a layer of black-and-red material that looked like some kind of medieval armor...

Xia Tianming had entered his [Blacklight Armor] form. Viral tendrils had layered themselves over his body and hardened into armor, completely covering even his face. He looked like a demon that had crawled out of Hell!

The armor, hardened from viral tendrils, was covered in countless sharp black spikes. Anyone who so much as touched him would be pierced full of holes!

This form sacrificed a little speed, but greatly strengthened his defenses, making him nearly immune to most direct gunfire and the aftershock of explosions!

The rocket trooper saw that his weapon had done no real damage to the enemy and had only drawn his attention. The target was now turning his faceless, terrifying head to stare in his direction...

Terrified, he dropped the spent launcher and turned to run. He'd barely taken a couple of steps when he felt something plummeting down from above.

Thud!!

A sudden, powerful shockwave knocked the rocket trooper to the ground. When he struggled back to his feet, the demon covered in biological armor was standing right in front of him...

"Ah!!!"

The other soldiers saw their enemy leap dozens of meters through the air like Superman and land here. Once they recovered from their shock, they quickly raised their guns and opened fire!

Gunfire erupted once more, but the barrage only scraped sparks from the viral armor covering Xia Tianming. It couldn't hurt him in the slightest!

Then Xia Tianming raised his right hand. Blacklight Tentacles coalesced again, forming a black blade two meters long along his right arm!

The flashes of gunfire all around him reflected off the blade, casting a heart-stopping crimson glow!

With [Virus Armor] combined with [Blacklight Blade], he had become a complete killing machine, capable of both attack and defense!

Xia Tianming ignored the bullets coming at him from every direction and swung his blade through the enemy ranks, reaping them one after another. Almost no one could stop him!

This completely shattered the soldiers' morale. They had never felt so helpless.

Even when they'd surrounded Alice, that woman had been just as formidable, but at least she still had to dodge bullets and could be wounded. They'd had some hope of winning.

But this monster ignored every kind of gunfire and slaughtered their heavily armed, battle-hardened troops as easily as crushing ants. The pressure it placed on them, both mental and physical, was immense.

Finally, someone took the lead, and a number of soldiers dropped their weapons and fled with their hands over their heads.

This entire operation was a suicide mission!

Seeing his men begin to flee, Commander Kromi flew into a rage. He turned his machine gun on the deserters and roared at them to pick up their weapons and keep fighting.

Suddenly!

A deafening roar came from the side. Kromi turned to look.

The hideous beast, its body riddled with bullet holes, was charging straight at him. Its furious strength made the steps beneath it tremble!

"Come on... you bastards! Let's see who chickens out first!!!"

Commander Kromi raised his heavy machine gun and held down the trigger, firing at the Hunter as it charged straight toward him. The flames shooting from the muzzle illuminated his twisted, savage face!

Splat!

But he only looked cool for a couple of seconds. The Hunter slammed down its massive claw, crushing him and his machine gun into a bloody pulp.

With the commander dead, the remaining soldiers descended into chaos like headless flies. They threw away their guns and armor, desperate to run faster.

Just then, after Xia Tianming had used the Blacklight Blade to reap and devour the lives of several squads, he felt something inside him reach a critical point. A restless energy was about to burst forth.

Suddenly!

He bent his knees and leaped from the spiral staircase, falling freely through the air and into everyone's view.

The sight left them stunned. What was going on? Was he trying to jump to his death?

What they saw next would become the ultimate nightmare for every one of them!

As Xia Tianming leaped through the air, his body suddenly swelled at a rapid pace, while countless black-and-red tendrils kept extending from within him!

When he had swollen to the limit—

Whoosh!!!

Countless black tendrils burst from his body like a supernova!!

They were like black venomous snakes with minds of their own, shooting in every direction with the speed of thunder and lightning. Each tendril pierced a soldier with pinpoint accuracy and force, leaving not a single one untouched!

At the center of all the tendrils, Xia Tianming resembled a banyan tree that had lived for tens of thousands of years, its countless tendrils branching out like roots and connecting to the bodies of hundreds of soldiers!

The soldiers trembled as they lowered their heads and stared at the tendrils piercing their abdomens. Their bodies liquefied like candles before their eyes, flowing into the tendrils and becoming nourishment for the Blacklight Virus...

In less than a second, Xia Tianming had ended every life in the spiral passage, suspended in midair.

Everything fell silent.

Myriad Tentacles. An end to all things.