“You sure you didn’t see it wrong?”
His face shifted like storm clouds. Bei Yuan fisted the man’s collar, forcing him to meet his gaze.
“Absolutely. It was Luo Shanshan and Misty Tide, the two on the wanted poster.”
The runner’s collar was cinched tight. Breath snagged. His face blanched, then purpled like bruised fruit.
“Send two to tail them. We’ll follow and watch.”
Bei Yuan let go. His eyes cut toward the direction the runner had come from. His voice fell like iron. “Form up. We move soon. I want to see what these women think they’re playing at.”
...
“ROAR! ROAR! ROAR!!!”
“ROAR! ROAR!”
The commercial street shook with the Corpse Devourers’ thunder. A tide of bodies surged like a zombie siege, sprinting madly down the avenue. Every inch swarmed with their shadows.
“One hundred twenty-seven… one twenty-eight… one twenty-nine…”
On the tallest rooftop in the shopping street, Nana Toki gripped the Black Great Axe. She counted heads one by one against the storm below.
“Hiss… hiss…”
“Hiss… hiss…”
The building shivered under her feet. Corpse Devourers slammed the walls, flesh pounding stone. Each hit boomed like a drum of ruin.
Rot stung the air, rank and high as smoke. Their tusked jaws clutched scraps of meat, slick with black blood.
All teeth and hunger. All snarl and nightmare.
One hundred twenty-nine total. With the two over there, that should do it.
She ignored the frenzy below. On the roof, Nana Toki narrowed her eyes. Far off, two red points flared in the distance.
Signal torches she’d given Luo Shanshan and Misty Tide. They were to light them only after drawing enough Corpse Devourers.
Two red sparks at once meant both had finished.
Time to regroup and finish this damned side quest.
She watched the ring of gaping maws below and almost laughed.
Her right hand opened. From empty air, a gray-white ability flower bloomed in her palm.
Days of testing had taught her this: Misty Tide could eat her ability. So could she.
When she ate it, her body sharpened. Strength rose, a clean, hard jump.
Others? No idea. She hadn’t tested.
But—
If she set her ability flower on a dead animal or person, it turned them into a Corpse Devourer that only obeyed her.
That was interesting.
“Awoo.”
She bit down the flower. On the roof, Nana Toki rolled her shoulders. Bones clicked like beads.
Then—
Bang!
Her legs kicked hard. The shop’s roof cracked beneath her. She shot toward the signal torch like a bullet from a muzzle.
...
Bang—!
Bang—!
Bang—!
Amid that ocean of roars, the swarm slammed the lobby doors again and again. Inside, faces went bloodless as paper.
Hope drained from every floor. Anxiety, tremor, dread wrote themselves across their cheeks.
The air froze solid.
Each impact was a soul bell from the underworld, striking hearts, announcing sentence.
“You said two hundred, right?”
Bei Yuan stared at the mass hammering the doors like lunatics. Veins bulged, angry ropes across his temple.
“Are you blind? Does this look like two hundred to you?”
“It… it’s two hundred, I swear…”
His fingers locked around the runner’s throat. The man clawed for air, legs kicking uselessly.
Fear bled across his face.
“Each of them… about two hundred…”
He hadn’t expected those women to be that bold. Two people, dragging close to four hundred Corpse Devourers.
If he was right, most in the Fog City were here.
“Tch.”
The man’s eyes rolled. Bei Yuan clicked his tongue, then flung him aside like trash. He smacked the wall and slid down limp.
“Everyone prepare to engage. Hit back with everything you have.”
He didn’t spare a glance for the heap on the floor. He barked orders, pushing his team to ready their abilities.
But—
“Boss, can we even win?”
Doubt rippled. Faces turned lost, then frightened.
“There are hundreds down there! Hundreds!”
“Most of us can only stall one. You want us to fight hundreds? That’s suicide!”
“Yeah, exactly—”
“Quiet!”
A bolt of lightning struck at his feet. The scorched floor smoked pale and bitter.
His face looked carved from night.
“If you don’t fight, you die.”
Shadowed and cold, Bei Yuan glared at his people. “We’re in a high-rise. That’s terrain on our side. Even if the swarm rushes in, if we coordinate, we won’t kill them all, but they won’t break us. We buy time. We evacuate in batches.”
“Right. I can stretch time with my spatial ability.”
Jiang Xinli stepped forward, voice steady, trying to anchor hearts.
“But—”
“No buts!”
A long lightning spear spun into his hand. Sparks hopped, restless and fierce. “Either fight, or die.”
“...”
...
“Where’s Xixi?”
On the high-rise roof, Luo Shanshan stood with Misty Tide, scanning the streets, searching for Nana Toki’s shape.
Roars rolled up in waves, deafening. One after another, a relentless drumbeat.
The building trembled under Luo Shanshan’s feet. It felt like it might tip and fall the next second.
How long until Xixi came back?
She frowned at the flood of Corpse Devourers. What was Xixi thinking? Could anyone kill this many?
“Do you think Xixi can do it?”
She slumped a little, eyes sliding to Misty Tide.
“Eat… eat…”
Right. Misty Tide was the same as ever. A gentle fool.
She sat on the edge, legs dangling, not afraid of falling. She sucked one finger, golden eyes fixed on a point.
“What is it, Misty Tide?”
Luo Shanshan turned, curious, following her gaze.
A shadow approached from far away. Luo Shanshan narrowed her eyes. It was Nana Toki, rushing in with the Black Great Axe. Behind her, under her, another heavy pack of Corpse Devourers.
“Xixi, over here!”
She snatched the signal torch buried beside them and waved. Nana must have seen it. Her pace picked up, swift as wind.
...
“Everyone, ready! When they break the doors, we hit back!”
Inside the building, Bei Yuan had his people set.
Suddenly—
Boom!
A blast tore the air. The ground trembled like a strung bow.
Everyone flinched. Those at the windows saw Corpse Devourers launch into the sky with severed limbs, then crash down. Green blood burst, a fireworks spray across the street.
As shock rippled, Bei Yuan caught it—at the center of the swarm, the Black Great Axe was rammed into the ground, blade buried, like a monarch tempered by blood and storm. Viscera and torn arms made a throne around it.
Whoosh—
As expected, a figure dropped from midair, landing steady beside the Black Great Axe.
The Colossal Axe gleamed cold in the thin sunlight. Nana Toki stood there, grin wild, eyes bright with wicked joy.
Heh. This thing?
Honestly, people are scarier.
Pop!
A Corpse Devourer lunged. Nana Toki’s hand moved. A casual flick, no glance given.
Its skull burst without warning. Green, clotted blood splashed the street.
Bei Yuan’s scalp tightened. A bad feeling rose, cold and sour.
That woman seemed to be looking at him.
Pop pop pop pop pop!
The first fall wasn’t the end.
Corpse Devourers poured at Nana Toki, relentless, teeth bared.
Roars screeched. Blood-mouths snapped for her throat.
She never moved. She didn’t even shift her gaze. It was as if she didn’t need to aim to crack skulls.
She swung the Black Great Axe. Wind howled from the sweep. Headless bodies piled into mounds, layer on layer.
Soon, within a ring around her, nothing living stood—only limbs and blood.
Those headshots sounded like a conductor’s baton, beating out the apex of violent beauty. One note after another. One fall after another.
From the windows, Jiang Xinli belonged to the rescued. Yet she had never wanted someone outside to die so badly.
She begged the swarm to drown that woman, to tear her apart.
No matter how she screamed inside, Nana Toki stood untouched in a sea of teeth.
As if Corpse Devourers were nothing worth mentioning at all.
