43 Fallen Demon Hunter VS ESPer 6

I looked in astonishment at the spot where Zhuang Cheng had collapsed.

The decapitated corpse lying on the ground burst into flames without the slightest warning, as if an invisible person had poured gasoline over it while I wasn't paying attention and set it ablaze. Not only that, but even the pool of blood spreading across the ground and the brain matter splattered all around began to burn fiercely just like gasoline.

Incredible as it seemed, despite being engulfed in flames, the burning corpse, blood, and brain matter suffered no charring or damage whatsoever. Far from being damaged, upon closer observation, these substances didn't look like they were being ignited at all; rather, they appeared to be transforming into fire itself.

Yes, they were transforming into fire itself. I scarcely knew what I was talking about, but these physical biological tissues seemed as though they had originally been conjured out of flames and were now gradually returning to their true form.

Immediately afterward, a sight even more terrifying occurred to make me doubt my own eyes.

That headless torso, which visually had grown as ethereal and illusory as a flame, actually began to slowly climb back to its feet right before my eyes, acting as if nothing had happened at all.

It fumbled blindly for its missing head, struck empty air, paused for a moment, and then bent down, found and picked up the head that had fallen to the ground, and cradled it in its arms.

He—he was actually still able to move?

This completely unexpected scene left me dumbfounded. "You, you..."

Was he resurrected? No, had he not been killed right from the start?

To be able to survive even after having one's head chopped off—what kind of superpower was this? Immortality? But wasn't he a fire-manipulating esper? What connection could such an ability possibly have with immortality?

He slightly adjusted the direction of the head in his arms so that it faced me, and the horrifying face with its eyes destroyed by the slash seemed to be staring straight at me.

His undamaged mouth then moved, emitting a voice filled with realization: "After lying on the ground and thinking it over just now, I finally figured it out... So you were acting the whole time. Are you the mastermind behind all this?"

How on earth was he able to speak with his head and body separated? His vocal cords shouldn't have been able to function properly at all!

No, calm down, pull yourself together, Kong Da. Although this was my first time encountering an esper who could keep moving after having his head cut off, in this world, that level of resilience was nothing to be surprised at. It seemed his power wasn't merely manipulating fire, but some other unfathomable supernatural ability. But so what?

There were countless unfathomable powers out there, and most agents and demon hunters had to face bizarre forces they couldn't possibly comprehend, no matter how reluctant they were. Real-world combat wasn't like a battle-of-wits manga; there was no rule stating one had to decipher the mystery of an enemy's ability in order to win. To gain the advantage on a battlefield whose trajectory could never be predicted, there had always been only one method—the very method I had always used:

Strike first to gain the upper hand!

Without the slightest hesitation, I transformed into my monster form while swinging my blade-like arms and charging forward. No superfluous words, no unnecessary movements. In just an instant—an instant so fleeting that an ordinary person wouldn't even have time to blink—my slashes rained down on Zhuang Cheng's body one after another, with absolute force and without holding anything back.

The slashes I had delivered earlier through partial transformation were merely sneak attacks where concealment was given the highest priority, and destructive power was secondary. But now, the slashes of my complete transformation sought the absolute limit of destructive force.

If Zhuang Cheng thought I was only capable of physical attacks, he was gravely mistaken. Slashes in the monster form could not only obliterate physical bodies but also slay spiritual entities.

In other words, I possessed the power to directly attack the soul.

Especially now, when my heart was filled with murderous intent and focused solely on attacking the soul, the mana concentrated on my blade possessed an astonishingly lethal lethality. An ordinary person devoid of mana would have their soul shattered just by being grazed by it, and most espers lacking soul-related powers would meet the exact same end.

All my slashes landed squarely, and Zhuang Cheng was instantly torn to pieces. Having completed my charge, I braked behind him and brought my offensive movements to an end.

I won...

Just as this thought reflexively surfaced in my mind, Zhuang Cheng's voice came from behind me: "Physical attacks are useless against me."

The moment the words sounded, my right hand and both legs spontaneously burst into flames out of thin air. The excruciating pain forced a miserable shriek from my lips.

That my right hand would burn I could understand, as Zhuang Cheng's blood and brain matter still lingered upon it. Since his biological tissues splattered elsewhere were burning, my right hand naturally would too. But by what logic were my legs burning out of thin air? He wasn't even looking at me with his eyes right now!

Before this, why hadn't he died?

While screaming in agony, I spun around and collapsed to the ground, his figure swimming into my field of vision.

He was actually standing right there, completely unharmed, and the head cradled in his arms was still speaking to me: "This form is something I originally wanted to reveal to you earlier, if not for the fact that you suddenly opened fire back then... I see. That demon that ambushed me from behind earlier was meant to test whether I could sense things behind my back..."

As he reached the end, he muttered to himself, looking thoughtful.

How could this be? My blade had clearly sliced his body open, so why hadn't new wounds appeared on him? More importantly... the soul attack had been completely ineffective! Not only that, he hadn't even realized his soul was being attacked!

No, I had to deal with the fire on my body first!

I hurriedly swung the blade of my left hand and swiftly severed my own right hand and legs. The intense agony was excruciatingly painful, but compared to letting the fire spread to my torso, this level of sacrifice was acceptable. As long as this monster body was given time, my right hand and legs could regenerate later.

Everything happened in the blink of an eye. For now, I had no intention of continuing my attempts to kill Zhuang Cheng. Trying to deal with an opponent who couldn't be killed no matter how you attacked them was simply a waste of effort; if worst came to worst, I would figure out a way to assassinate him later. I had to escape—transferring through the shadow power!

Under the control of my consciousness, the surrounding shadows immediately surged forward like a tide. I had to escape as quickly as possible; Zhuang Cheng's attack speed was not slow, and his power was unparalleled. If I was even a tenth of a second too late, I would be burned alive on the spot.

Yet I was still a fraction of a second too slow, and Zhuang Cheng's flames arrived instantly.

I still couldn't see the direction from which the flames were coming, and this time they didn't even start burning from the surface of my body. I felt a terrifying heat erupting from deep within my chest and abdomen, as if someone had poured a massive amount of boiling water straight into my stomach. The excruciating pain from the inside out and the internal pressure forced my mouth wide open.

My vision suddenly plunged into darkness, and I could no longer hear any sound, followed immediately by the sensation of something rushing frantically out through my mouth, nose, eyes, and ears.

No, I understood now—it was fire... Fire had appeared directly inside my body and erupted outward from within!

At the same time, the muscle tissue all over my body seemed to have been destroyed, plunging me directly into a state where I couldn't move at all, leaving only a single thought echoing in my brain—

He was actually able to summon his own flames directly inside my body? Outrageous!

However... I wasn't dead yet. Logically speaking, given his firepower, I should have died instantly. In reality, I currently felt as though I was on the verge of death, and my consciousness was tormented to the point of having no strength left. But I was not yet dead; he had shown mercy. That was the biggest mistake he could have made.

The surrounding shadows were still obeying my previous command. As the flames spewed from my facial orifices, the shadows on the ground also opened a portal for transport, causing me to fall right into them under the force of gravity.

"Shadow Transfer" was successfully activated, and I plunged directly into the world of shadows.

Completely unlike the colorful real world, the shadow world had neither light nor sound; it was a place resembling the deep sea. I didn't say this just because my eyes and ears had been burned away; it was simply that monotonous here. Even up, down, left, right, front, and back were imperceptible, and I could only barely sense that "I seem to be moving somewhere."

A person without the relevant abilities couldn't even think or survive here, because there were not even the concepts of time and space in this realm. Even for a user like me, this place was extremely dangerous; a moment of carelessness would lead to getting lost, rendering one forever unable to return to the real world. The only places accessible through shadow transfer were locations I had previously visited in the real world.

Zhuang Cheng had once mentioned that a mental connection existed between him and his flames. Yet beneath the cavern of the fifteenth-floor room, that mental connection had been severed for a time.

Why had it been severed? The reason was obvious: beneath the cavern was a different dimension that did not exist in reality.

The spacetime entered through shadow transport was likewise a different dimension that defied the laws of the ordinary world. No form of radio signal could reach this place, and the connection between Zhuang Cheng and his flames was bound to be cut off just the same. As proof, the flames scorching inside my body rapidly extinguished the moment I entered shadow spacetime. My tortured consciousness finally managed to regain a modicum of composure.

I concentrated my mana on my eyes and ears. Before long, I felt that I had recovered my vision and hearing, and then, like surfacing from underwater, I broke free from this shadow spacetime and arrived at the place I had visited earlier.

This was the abandoned construction site I had previously investigated with Zhuang Cheng, and I had transferred directly to the upper levels of the unfinished building. Due to the halt in construction, the upper floors of this skeleton building consisted only of structural frames. Looking upward from the floor where I stood, the upper stories lacked ceilings and walls, consisting solely of gray frameworks formed by overlapping and crisscrossing steel-reinforced concrete.

Escaping to this place should make me safe, right...? I let out a tentative sigh of relief.

The shadows transformed into solid matter to form prosthetic limbs, granting me temporary replacements for my right hand and legs, allowing me to stand upright.

Suddenly, a fluctuation of mana appeared in my vicinity.