r18novel Chapter 12 The Legacy of the Titans
Chapter 12 The Legacy of the Titans
"There might be a loophole inside! We need you guys to create pressure outside!" Cheng Song said urgently. "Give me a chance, I'll sneak in and see if I can cause some trouble. If not... well, I'm just waiting to die outside anyway!"
Mi Tong gasped for breath, her eerie green eyes glancing at Cheng Song, then "at" the huddled female figure at the core of the "mother nest," and said hoarsely, "His soul fluctuations...resonate strangely with the core's pain...the plan is feasible, but the risks...are extremely high..."
"There's no road without risk!" The anvil smashed a zombie's head with a hammer blow, coughing up blood as he roared, "Trust him one more time! We'll clear a path for you! Thirty seconds at most!"
Ah Qi gave Cheng Song a deep look, her gaze incredibly complex—scrutiny, weighing her options, and finally settling into a cold, resolute determination. "Thirty seconds. If you don't come out in thirty seconds, or if the situation worsens, we'll proceed with the original plan and launch a full-scale attack, then build you a cenotaph." She paused. "Remember, control yourself."
"Incantation..." Cheng Song looked at Mi Tong.
Secret Eyes nodded with difficulty: "The agreement remains the same. If you are assimilated, I will detonate it."
"Deal!" Cheng Song grinned, revealing his blood-stained teeth.
No more words were spoken. Ah Qi, Iron Anvil, and Secret Eye exchanged a glance, simultaneously unleashing their last bit of power!
"Roar!!" The anvil threw away the battering ram and, like a ferocious humanoid beast, charged at the defender, using its flesh and blood to hold it tightly, creating an opportunity for Ah Qi!
Ah Qi let out a long roar, her internal energy seemingly igniting completely. The pale golden energy solidified, transforming into a dazzling golden light at the tip of her fist! "Mountain Crushing - Ultimate Intent!"
She held nothing back, her target now the Pain Ripper blocking her path to the Mother Nest Foundation! Wherever the golden light passed, monster limbs flew through the air, tearing a gap in the tide!
He plunged the Secret Eye Staff into the ground, his black robes billowing even without wind. He spat out a mouthful of his heart's essence blood, spraying it onto the black crystal of the staff! The crystal shone brightly, and an unprecedented, solid shadow barrier, as solid as a black city wall, suddenly rose up, temporarily blocking most of the monster horde surging from the flanks! But he himself seemed to have all his strength drained away, collapsing to his knees, blood flowing from his seven orifices, only his eerie green eyes still fixed on Cheng Song's direction.
It's now!
Cheng Song forced himself to stay alert, suppressing the virus raging within him due to their proximity to the mother nest. "Buddy, the main course is here! Hold on! Work first, eat later!"
Like an arrow released from a bow, he rushed towards the base of the mother nest along the brief passage of flesh and blood blasted out by Ah Qi's fist!
The monster roared, its tentacles lashed out, and energy surged everywhere. Cheng Song pushed his speed to the limit, dodging, rolling, parrying with his dagger, and even taking several non-fatal attacks with his body. The wound on his left rib completely reopened, and blood stained half of his body. But his eyes were only on a wound on the outer shell of the Mother Nest, a wound that had been slightly cracked and was oozing a viscous green liquid, previously affected by the attacks from A Qi and the Anvil.
right here!
He lunged at the "wound" without hesitation, and plunged his still-functioning left hand, along with his right arm, which was almost numb but slightly distorted under the influence of instinct and had blackened fingertips, into the warm, slippery crack filled with surging life energy and chaotic consciousness!
"The feast is about to begin!"
"boom--!!!"
His consciousness was once again swallowed by the torrent. But this time, he was prepared and forcibly held onto a sliver of clarity.
The next moment, he squeezed into the inner chamber of the nest. In the center lay a female body, pierced and pinned to the void by the twisted crystalline spear dripping thick green blood. Her wings were tattered and dim, her body crawling with writhing dark green mycelium and constantly opening and closing pustules. Her beautiful face was a mixture of extreme pain and a sliver of remaining, defiant clarity. Her consciousness was like a flickering lamp in a storm, about to be extinguished.
Around her, endless, viscous, dark green corrupting energy, exuding a fatherly aura, like living pus, relentlessly tried to engulf and assimilate her completely. Further away, in the void above, the phantom of the compound eye behind the rift cast an even more solid and malicious "gaze," relentlessly suppressing the body's last resistance.
Cheng Song's arrival instantly shattered the fragile balance.
The woman's remaining consciousness looked at him, her gaze filled with pain, confusion, and a complex, indescribable emotion.
The corrupting energy of the benevolent father and the gaze of his compound eyes showed a strong rejection, hostility, and a trace of... the cold anger of a higher being towards an ant that offended him, towards Cheng Song, this alien being, and especially the virus in his body that was full of devouring properties.
The virus went completely berserk within Cheng Song's body! It sensed two delicious treats—the pure, high-level, yet currently incredibly weak, primal energy of the woman, brimming with a protective aura, and the corrupting energy of the benevolent father, aggressive and twisted, yet also belonging to the realm of devouring and evolution. It wanted to consume them all! Especially that twisted crystal spear, the core of the ritual and the strongest anchor of corruption; in the virus's perception, it was an absolute delicacy, radiating the brilliance of a full-course banquet!
"Devour her! Devour that spear! Evolve! Perfect!" The greedy roar almost drowned out Cheng Song's thoughts.
"No!" Cheng Song roared from the depths of his soul, not refusing to be devoured, but refusing to be controlled by instinct. "Line up! Prioritize! Eat the appetizers first, then consider the main course! Follow orders!"
He directed his devouring desire entirely toward the dark green mycelium and pustules that were entangled and eroding the woman! At the same time, he transmitted the idea of "helping to clean up the garbage," along with the eerie sense of pride of being a "professional cleaner," to the woman's remaining consciousness.
The woman seemed to understand. A faint yet brilliant spark ignited in her dying eyes. She no longer merely resisted; with her last strength, she actively marked the corrupting energy that was eroding her, even subtly guiding it towards Cheng Song—as if to say: "The trash is here, take it away! Don't touch me!"
"roar--!!!"
The virus, having received a clear target and permission, roared like a ferocious beast unleashed, following Cheng Song's guidance, and pounced on the marked corrupted energy! Black, devouring power emanated from Cheng Song, clashing violently with the dark green corrupted energy! Devouring, counter-devouring, annihilation, regeneration…
This is not Cheng Song controlling the virus, but rather he forming a dangerous and fragile triangular alliance with the virus's instincts and the lingering resentment of that unidentified woman, to jointly fight against the benevolent father!
The corrupting energy of the benevolent father roared and retaliated. The phantom of the compound eye behind the crack shone brightly, and an even more terrifying pressure of will descended, attempting to crush Cheng Song, this "troublemaker," along with the woman.
The pressure on everyone outside suddenly increased dramatically! The monsters attacked as if they had gone mad. "Thirty seconds are up!" Iron Anvil roared, spitting out a mouthful of blood.
Inside, Cheng Song felt his soul and body being torn apart and burned. The virus's engulfment was not without cost; with each collision with the corrupting energy, a portion of chaotic and painful thoughts returned, impacting his sanity, and the woman's figure grew fainter and fainter.
"Not enough...almost there..." Cheng Song's thoughts raced as he saw the crystalline spear pinning the woman's body. It was both a shackle and the connection between the spear and the Mother Nest. The most complex corrupted runes at the connection point, the core of the entire ritual, would inevitably affect the ritual if destroyed.
"The final blow... help me!" Cheng Song gathered all his willpower, along with a brief but violent surge of energy generated after the virus devoured some of the corrupting energy, into an invisible shockwave, a fusion of devouring and destructive intent, slamming it into the core runes! At the same time, he clearly conveyed his intention—"Destroy the runes, and I'll help you pull out that toothpick!"
The woman's remaining gaze flickered one last time, as if in a sigh, or perhaps in a sense of relief. With her last ounce of strength, she ceased resisting the spear, instead channeling all her remaining "protective" essence against the spear, rushing against the flow towards the runes! It was a suicidal act of cooperation, but she chose to trust this unfamiliar little fellow, who chanted strange slogans and harbored a monster within.
"BOOM—!!!!!!!!!"
An attack from both inside and outside! Cheng Song's virus-devouring impact, combined with the woman's final burst of power, simultaneously struck the core corruption rune!
The runes instantly dimmed, cracked, and shattered!
"No—!!!" A roar that transcended hearing and directly affected the soul, filled with endless rage and malice, came from behind the crack! The phantom of the compound eye trembled violently, its light rapidly dimmed and dissipated, and the terrifying gaze quickly became blurry and distant.
The crystal spear that had pinned the woman rang out with a crisp "crack" as it broke apart inch by inch from the point where it pierced her body!
The moment the restraints were released, the figure, nailed to the void with tattered wings and a broken body, suddenly let out a long, silent cry that seemed both liberated and endlessly sorrowful. The last vestiges of decaying mycelium and pustules on her body, writhing and struggling to fight back, melted away like snow meeting the sun, turning into nothingness as the spear broke, the core runes shattered, and the Cheng Song virus devoured and tore at her body.
The woman... or rather, the former guardian, the last vestige of her pure spirit, finally gained a brief, final moment of clarity from billions of years of pollution and torment.
Her figure rapidly became transparent and ethereal, as if she might dissipate in the wind at any moment. Her tattered wings of light unfurled slightly, scattering a few last specks of starlight-like dust. She slowly turned around, her gaze falling on Cheng Song, whose soul and body were on the verge of their limits due to his full-force guidance and absorption, and whose consciousness was blurred.
That gaze no longer held pain, but only profound weariness, a relieved peace, and a trace of... a complex and incomprehensible gratitude and curiosity towards the strange object before it.
A faint yet incredibly clear thought, as if directly imprinted on the core of Cheng Song's fading consciousness, carried with it ancient linguistic rhythms and a vast sense of time and space:
"Outsider... I am grateful for your kindness... Cleanse my defilement... Break my shackles..."
"My name is... Watcher 07... the last of the Titans... I should have perished with my race... but I encountered the Reapers while I was asleep..."
The light spread upwards, her figure becoming increasingly faint, but her gaze grew clearer, as if piercing through Cheng Song's body and seeing the roaring darkness within him, as well as the undisguised interest in the twisted crystal spear fragments that had fallen to the side and whose material was beginning to emit unstable fluctuations.
"You... are quite interesting... harboring great evil... with a cunning heart..." A faint, almost mocking ripple seemed to emanate from her thoughts. "This spear... was forged by the benevolent father and bestowed upon his capable lieutenant, the Reaper... originally a tool of imprisonment, erosion, and transformation... containing a trace of corrupting power..."
Cheng Song's attention was instantly drawn back: "Authority? Can I understand it as a military tally that can mobilize the power of the benevolent father?"
The figure of the Titan's Legacy seemed to pause slightly, a mixture of helplessness and a faint smile lingering in its fading consciousness: "...Your focus...is indeed peculiar. It's not inherently wrong, but its core has been thoroughly corrupted and polluted. Forcing its use will inevitably backfire, ultimately turning it into a puppet of the benevolent father."
"What should we do? We can't just keep it as a collectible..." Cheng Song was getting anxious; his teammates outside were still risking their lives.
"Do not haste..." The last, purest remnant of the Titan's legacy, like a candle flickering in the wind, resolutely drifted toward the pile of spear fragments. "With the last flame of my watchful eye... I will cleanse its filth... sever its ties with the Father... and reforge it."
That glimmer of light gently enveloped all the fragments. There was no earth-shattering spectacle, only a subtle, tinkling sound, like glass being wiped clean. The remaining green blood on the fragments evaporated rapidly, the ominous fluctuations were smoothed out, and those twisted, blasphemous patterns seemed to be wiped away by an invisible hand, becoming smooth and simple, faintly revealing a deep, starry hue.
A moment later, the light dissipated. A metal rod, about 1.2 meters long and as thick as a fist, dark silver in color with a flowing, star-like shimmer on its surface, floated silently in the void. It no longer exuded any corrupting or evil aura, but only a neutral quality with a faint spatial fluctuation.
"This thing... no longer bears the mark of a benevolent father... its corrupt authority has also been purified."
"The 'change' has been activated... but its specific form and power... require your own will, energy infusion, and refinement... before they can manifest..."
The voice of the Titan's Legacy had become so faint as to be almost imperceptible, and her figure had been reduced to a faint, smiling outline.
"...You may choose its name yourself..."
"This is the beacon of the Titan Ark... the final 'cornerstone' of our civilization... I now bestow it upon you..."
A single, most brilliant, and solidified starlight detached from her almost vanished chest, hovered for a moment, and then transformed into an almost imperceptible stream of information, actively imprinting itself on the surface of Cheng Song's soul, merging into one. Cheng Song immediately felt that his soul now possessed an ancient "star map imprint" pointing to some unknown dimension of time and space.
"...I hope you will use it wisely...and not let it fall into the hands of 'Corruption' or other evil spirits..."
"The Father's gaze...is branded upon you...your name will surely be in the reaper's book..."
Her voice grew farther and farther away, more and more ethereal, and her final form almost completely turned into dust.
"The road ahead is difficult... perhaps one day... again..."
Before the last word could be fully conveyed, it vanished completely into the collapsing, chaotic core of the Mother Nest, along with the last scattered specks of starlight. There was no explosion, no lamentation, only an extreme, utterly serene and desolate silence.
It's as if a tormented giant has finally found peace. Or as if an ancient civilization has come to its final end.
Cheng Song leaned against a protruding rock, panting. Then, a thought struck him. The dark silver, star-like metal rod appeared out of thin air in his hand, slightly heavy and cold to the touch.
"Changes?" Cheng Song murmured, trying to infuse his mind into it.
The ends of the long staff glowed slightly, and the staff emitted an extremely faint "humming" sound, like a mechanical component sliding or a liquid flowing. The next second, to Cheng Song's astonishment, one end of the staff rapidly extended, shaped, and thinned, transforming in less than a breath into a Tang-style horizontal sword about eighty centimeters long, with a single-edged blade, a straight blade, and a cold gleam flowing from its edge! The hilt also automatically twisted and fitted itself, perfectly adapting to the shape of his hand.
"Holy crap! It really can transform! From now on, you'll be called 'Thousand Forms'." Cheng Song's eyes lit up, and he couldn't resist swinging it. The blade sliced through the air, producing a clear, melodious sound. Cheng Song's eyes lit up. Although his body was screaming alarms everywhere, and he was so weak he could barely stand, the joy of getting a new toy overwhelmed everything. He couldn't help but lean on the long sword with one hand, while his other hand trembled as he drew the black dagger that had been with him for so long and now looked quite ordinary from the leather sheath at his waist.
"Come on, brother," he said enthusiastically, introducing the two weapons in his hands as if introducing friends. "Let's get acquainted. This is my old buddy. He's been with me to slash walkers and stab Lickers. He's decent quality, but he doesn't last very long."
He brandished the dagger; its blade was already riddled with fine nicks and chips, making it appear particularly desolate in the dim light.
"And this one," he raised the dark silver longsword in his hand again, the eerie blue light of the blade illuminating the blood-stained, silly grin on his face, "is the newcomer, a high-end custom-made by the benevolent father, personally purified by the Titan, a versatile and all-around good comrade."
He paused, his gaze sweeping back and forth between the two weapons, a Frankenstein-like excitement gleaming in his eyes.
"As the saying goes, you have to put a mule to the test to see what it's made of. Before the older comrades retire, the new comrades have to show their abilities, right? That's called a handover of work, hmm, making the best use of waste resources."
As he spoke, he took a deep breath, forced himself to stand firm, held the dagger horizontally in front of him, and raised the long sword high.
"Sorry, old friend, I'll give you a spectacular exit."
As soon as he finished speaking, he used all the strength he could muster at that moment to slash his long sword fiercely at the horizontally placed dagger!
"laugh--"
A sound like paper tearing.
The already scarred black dagger showed a smooth, clean, laser-cut edge where it had come into contact with the Thousand-Shaped Blue Blade. The front half of the blade spun away and landed with a clatter in a pile of rubble a few meters away.
The Thousand-Shaped Azure Blade was spotless, without a single white mark. Even at the moment of impact, the azure light on the blade subtly shifted, as if easily absorbing the impact force. It also quietly absorbed and analyzed the extremely faint energy characteristics of the Spirit Realm game's forging system contained in the dagger's material.
"Awesome... awesome..." Cheng Song sat on the ground, looking at the half-broken dagger in his hand, then at the undamaged, subdued longsword, and a painful yet satisfying smile spread across his face.
"Old friend, you left us without regrets." He muttered to the remains of the dagger, then carefully placed the Thousand Forms horizontally on his lap, and stretched out his trembling fingers to gently stroke the cool, smooth blade with its hidden starry sky patterns.
"From today onwards, the job of slaying monsters, defending yourself, opening cans, and occasionally pretending to be a martial arts master" he said in a low voice. The light in his eyes, which had been scattered due to weakness and blood loss, re-condensed into a bright light that belonged to Cheng Song, carrying weariness and stubbornness. "I'm entrusting it to you, Brother Qianxing."
As if in response to his words, the Thousand-Shaped Blade glowed slightly, and the speed at which the dark blue light flowed seemed to increase slightly, emanating a faint, intimate, and affectionate wave of intent, like a fledgling bird recognizing its master.
"Scavenger!!" The anvil's anxious roar came again, accompanied by the monster's final dying scream.
The "mother nest" has stopped beating, and large patches of decay and cracks have appeared on its surface, indicating that it is slowly collapsing. The roars from the outside world have also diminished considerably, clearly showing that the interruption of the ritual has had a significant impact on the monsters.
"Here we are! What's the rush! Can't we have an onboarding ceremony with our new colleagues?" Cheng Song grumbled irritably, using his knife as a crutch. After struggling several times, he finally stood up shakily, put the knife back into his backpack, and walked towards his teammates. His face was pale from blood loss, but he also wore a genuine smile that said, "This is a huge win."