Chapter 442 - 412: Coup de Grâce

Chapter 442: Chapter 412: Coup de Grace

Mia’s hand, which had been throwing bottles, froze in midair. An eerie red glow flaring from Adam’s chest was reflected in her purple eyes.

"He’s gone mad!"

Mia shrieked, her voice nearly piercing everyone’s eardrums.

"He’s activated a self-destruct spell! He’s channeling his Magic Power into the underground storage tanks! He’s going to blow up this workshop and take us all down with him!"

Once that highly concentrated Plague Liquid detonated, the entire underground mining area would become a dead zone.

Even for professionals like them, who could guarantee they would survive?

’Stop him!’

Kael tried to get up, but his broken left arm and severe internal injuries made him stagger and collapse the moment he pushed himself to his feet.

The other team members were too far away.

Besides, they had already used up all their ranged ammunition in the earlier melee. Even if they charged over now, they wouldn’t have enough time to get through that thick plate armor.

The red light grew brighter and brighter.

Adam’s blood-soaked mouth split open into a savage grin.

"Let’s... go to hell together."

Time seemed to freeze at that moment.

Despair spread through the team.

Just then.

A faint sound came from a pile of rubble.

It was the sound of shifting rubble.

A hand, caked in blood and grime, pushed aside the stones pinning its owner down.

Xiaolan shakily got to her feet.

Her bird-beak mask was half-shattered, revealing a chin so pale it was completely devoid of color. Blood from her forehead streamed down her cheek, dripping onto her tattered leather armor.

The world was a blurry, overlapping image in her eyes.

A sharp ringing filled her ears.

But in her mind, one person’s voice echoed again and again.

—"When you grasp a blade, you are no longer a slave."

—"Find your reason to wield that blade, Xiaolan."

The man who sat on the throne in the great hall had once gently stroked her hair, pinning the emblem of her new life to her chest.

’A reason?’

Xiaolan raised her head. She looked at Kael, motionless on the ground. At the frantic Mia. At the teammates who were risking their lives for the mission.

’This is my reason.’

’To protect them.’

’Not to kill, but to protect this hard-won light.’

The blood in her veins began to boil.

A power she had never known surged from the depths of her spine—the true power of the "Phantom Veil" bloodline.

The dagger in her hand, "Silence," suddenly became illusory.

It was as if it no longer existed on the material plane.

A gray, translucent edge extended from the dagger’s blade. It was like a shadow in the moonlight—incorporeal, yet it radiated a heart-stopping chill.

Phase Pierce.

Xiaolan moved.

No running start.

No wind-up.

Like a wisp of smoke carried on the wind, she crossed a dozen meters in an instant.

All Adam saw was a blur.

The little girl who should have been too gravely injured to move was now standing right in front of him.

"Useless!"

Adam sneered, about to smash this reckless insect with a headbutt.

"My helmet is made of adamantite..."

Before he could finish, Xiaolan thrust her dagger forward.

There was no resistance.

No sparks from colliding metal.

The ethereal dagger passed straight through the heavy black faceplate as if it were a curtain of water, sinking soundlessly into the space between Adam’s eyebrows.

In that instant, the boundary between the corporeal and the ethereal was broken.

The moment the dagger pierced his brain, it regained its solid form.

Coup de Grace.

SQUELCH.

It was the sound of mashed tofu.

The savage grin on Adam’s face froze.

His scarlet pupils flickered twice, then went vacant.

The red glow on his chest, moments from erupting, dimmed like a flame cut off from its fuel and faded away.

Self-destruct sequence aborted.

His massive body went completely still.

’Threat... eliminated.’

Xiaolan let go of her dagger, swayed, and collapsed backward.

A pair of strong hands caught her.

It was Thomas.

The Priest, who had been cowering in the back, had rushed forward at some point.

"Sacred light, heal these wounds."

A gentle white light shone from his palms, covering Xiaolan.

"Beautifully done, child... By the True Source, that was a miracle." Thomas’s voice was choked with emotion. He stared at the dagger embedded in Adam’s helmet, his eyes filled with awe.

’Ignoring physical defense.’

’What kind of ability is that?!’

Kael walked over, supported by Mia.

He glanced at Adam’s corpse, then at the unconscious Xiaolan. A rare look of relief crossed his perpetually stoic face.

"We’re not done yet."

Kael took a deep breath, suppressing the sharp pain from his broken arm.

"Mia, take two people and come with me to the control room."

"Thomas, you stay here and look after the wounded."

"Yes, sir!"

The team didn’t pause for a moment.

After some quick emergency first aid, Mia and two lightly-injured Ge-Bie-Wu team members followed Kael, stepping over Adam’s corpse and heading for the closed, black iron door.

The door wasn’t locked.

Or perhaps, Adam never imagined anyone would make it this far alive.

CLANK.

The iron door was pushed open.

Inside the control room, two Mage apprentices in gray robes were huddled in a corner, trembling in fear.

They clutched their Magic Staves, but when they saw Kael and the others—covered in blood and looking like demons—burst in, they were too terrified to utter a single incantation.

"Don’t... don’t kill us! We’re just..."

THWIP! THWIP!

Two crossbow arrows pierced their throats.

Kael put away his hand crossbow, stepped over the bodies, and scanned the room.

This was the brain of the workshop.

The walls were covered in complex diagrams of the workshop’s piping, and a massive alchemy table was piled high with all sorts of documents and reagents.