Memory Reaper's Ascension - Chapter 147: An Unseen Enemy

Chapter 147: An Unseen Enemy

Ishiki threw himself back as far as he could with his battered body, just before the pillars blasted with such power that everything that had made the cathedral was blown apart.

Just before it happened… Ishiki summoned the new vestige, [Winds Embrace] he had received after defeating the demon.

The pendant materialized in Ishiki’s hand just in time.

It was silver with a red chain, bearing the symbol of two wings intertwined into each other. The moment his fingers closed around it, he felt something surge through his body.

Translucent wings of pure air burst from his back, shimmering like heat waves in the crimson moonlight. They were beautiful and ethereal, almost invisible except for the way they distorted the light passing through them.

But Ishiki had no time to marvel at the vestige’s appearance.

The pillars burst apart… and the whole fucking cathedral was exploding outward with a shockwave of force unlike anything he had ever experienced was rushing toward him.

’Fly!’ his mind screamed. ’Get away from here NOW!’

The wings responded to his desperation, lifting him off the ground just as the blast wave reached him.

But flying with wings was nothing like he’d imagined.

It was his first time using this vestige and he soon realized that he had no control over his own body… none whatsoever.

The wings flapped erratically, trying to stabilize him and lift him higher into the air. But the blast was too powerful.

The shockwave slammed into him like a cannon ball.

Ishiki felt himself get thrown through the air like a rag doll. The wings almost shattered at the impact and he tumbled end over end, spinning wildly.

Something struck his left forearm and got embedded.

Ishiki screamed as a chunk of stone the size of his fist buried itself deep into his flesh. The pain was immediate and overwhelming, white-hot agony that made his vision go dark at the edges.

Blood sprayed from the wound, painting streaks across his face as he continued to spin through the air.

’I’m going to die,’ he thought with strange clarity. ’Shit! Shit!’

Then he saw a balcony.

It appeared suddenly in his tumbling vision… and the matter of fact he was certainly going in its direction. As he flew through the air, trying to orient himself, he saw a large piece if rock breaking through a building near the Cathedral and then fall on someone who was passing through the alley.

He could not see what happened latter… he could only wish the person made it out because if he didn’t that would just decrease the number of players and make it hard for them to complete the scenario.

He had no choice in the matter and currently his trajectory was set.

Ishiki crashed into the balcony with bone-jarring force.

His shoulder hit first, followed by his ribs, then his hip. He rolled across the wooden floor before finally slamming into the wall of the building with an impact that knocked what little air remained out of his lungs.

The wings dissipated instantly, fading back into nothing.

For a long moment, Ishiki just lay there.

Then his stomach convulsed.

He rolled onto his side and vomited a handful of thick blood and saw as It splattered across the wooden floor, mixing with the dust and splinters.

’Internal bleeding,’ He gritted his now red teeth. ’Damaged organs are the worst…’

Then his eyes fell on the chunk of rock embedded in his forearm.

It was deep, so very deep that he could see the edges of bone through the torn flesh and flowing blood.

The stone had punched clean through his muscles and tissue as if it was a bullet and lodged itself firmly enough that it would require surgery, or at least someone with healing skills to remove it safely.

’At least I’m alive,’ Ishiki thought dizzily. ’If I would have stayed on the ground, I would have been buried under tons of rubble right now.’

The thought should have been comforting… but for some reason It wasn’t. probably because the main problem was just starting.

He pushed himself up with his good arm, using the wall for support. Every movement sent fresh waves of pain through his body.

His wound from the previous fight had reopened completely—the makeshift bandage was soaked through and hanging loose. His forearm throbbed with each heartbeat, blood dripping steadily onto the floor.

Behind him, through the spaces in the balcony railing, he could see the cathedral… or what remained of it.

It wasn’t collapsing… for some inexplicable power the ancient stone and marble was being thrown outwards.

Dust filled the air like fog, illuminated crimson by the moon overhead.

And through that dust, Ishiki could see something very humongous move. It sent a strange sense of fear into his heart.

’I need to get inside,’ Ishiki jogged back to reality. ’The debris are still flying.’

Hundreds or even thousands of chunks of cathedral stone were thrown so high and so far by the initial blast that they had reached the apex of their trajectory and were now falling back down.

Like a meteor shower made of ancient masonry.

Ishiki staggered toward the balcony door… as the whistling sounds of the rocks became clearer.

The first impacts came as he reached the door.

BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.

Rocks struck the street below with devastating force, punching craters into the white marble. Some hit buildings, smashing through roofs and walls like they were paper.

One struck the balcony railing where Ishiki had been lying just moments before, completely obliterating that section in an explosion of splinters and stone dust.

Ishiki yanked the door open and threw himself inside.

The house was dark, empty and abandoned like everything else in this cursed city.

Behind him, the bombardment intensified.

Around the entire Secondary Ring, chaos erupted.

Players who had been sleeping in their requisitioned homes were jolted awake by the explosion and the subsequent shaking. Those who were already awake—patrolling, scavenging, or just unable to sleep found themselves suddenly fighting for survival against an enemy that couldn’t be fought.

Falling rocks don’t negotiate, nor do they stop.

They don’t care about levels, vestiges or how many monsters you’ve killed.

They just fall over anything in their way.

Some players reacted fast enough and summoned shields or activated defensive skills. Some dodged using the superhuman reflexes given by the system.

They survived.

Others who were slower and maybe less lucky…

A chunk of marble the size of a basketball struck a player’s hand as he raised it to protect his face. The hand was severed clean at the wrist, cauterized by the sheer force and friction.

The player stared at the stump in shock for three seconds before the pain hit and he started screaming.

Another player saw his friend get hit as they were laughing about something stupid. Then a rock that was moving faster than bullets clipped his skull.

Half of his head was gone in an instant, leaving only the bottom half.

The top half was splattered across the wall behind him in a grotesque abstract painting made of blood and sticky jelly like matter.

The surviving player stood there, covered in his friend’s blood and brain matter, unable to process what he had just witnessed.

All across the Secondary Ring, similar scenes played out.

Death… Injury… Desperate survival.

Players used every skill they possessed to avoid the random destruction falling from above.

Some made it through… and some didn’t

The bombardment lasted for about three minutes.

Then, gradually, the impacts grew less frequent. The sky cleared as the last pieces of debris found their resting places.

Silence fell over the Secondary Ring.

A terrible, heavy silence broken only by distant groans of pain, screams of help and cries.

And then, cutting through that silence, came a sound that made every player’s blood run cold.