Chapter 416: Affront against God

Hollonite. Belladonna remembered it well, surprisingly enough considering her less than impressive memory before her Scribe skill.

But that, she definitely made sure to remember that, as it was basically her very own kryptonite. A metal that somewhat resembled silver, and existed seemingly to kill or torture her for the horrendous sin of being alive.

She had done some research on it, but it was inconclusive. The records that talked about it didn’t cover where it came from or why it had such an effect on her, only that it did. After all the main source of information on Hollonite was the storybook on the effective ways to kill her kind, something she already knew in spades after her first encounter with it.

Not even Revenant knew where it came from, only that it was considered a ’Holy Metal’ and that certain churches or powerful organisations kept Hollonite weapons, which had been passed down through the generations, for the express purpose of killing the unkillable.

Yes, despite how little she knew about it, Belladonna remembered Hollonite well, especially the pain that it caused.

Which was how she knew that what she had slammed against was not Hollonite. It was worse.

Much, much worse.

In the brief second, perhaps not even that long, that Belladonna’s back touched the innocent stone wall, her entire body was flooded with a hellish pain that was unlike anything she had felt before.

That was saying a lot, coming from her. She was used to pain, and in this world she had gotten a host of new experiences. Burned, stabbed, slashed, torn open and poisoned - to name a few.

But this... it didn’t just burn her exposed skin, although it still took a sadistic delight in turning her lower back into a Jackson Pollock of agony, torment and charcoal black skin.

It was as if a sword had been pulled from the fiery depths of hell itself, and had been plunged through her spine and into the deepest depths of her being.

Before now, Belladonna had not been entirely sure about the concept of a soul, but now she was absolutely certain. Because she could hear it screaming inside of her as it burned.

By the time her knees hit the ground and she was flopping face down, tears were streaming down Belladonna’s cheeks uncontrollably.

Five seconds, that was all she allowed herself. She toned out Figg’s shouting, which was already hard to make out from the ringing in her ears, and allowed herself five seconds to simply wallow in the pain and miserable.

Five seconds for tears to drip from her cheeks, as she trembled underneath the impossible gravity.

Just five seconds of weakness, before she strangled it and dragged it down to the burning depths of her newly discovered soul, where it could be dealt with later.

Pushing herself up, Belladonna rose to one trembling knee and raised her head against the dragging force of the gravity that seemed to be increasing.

Figg’s face flashed with relief when he saw her get up, and he let out a heavy sigh when she gave him a weak thumbs up.

He shouted again, but the words still failed to reach her as anything more than a garbled mess.

After a few seconds of shouting, he noticed the confused look on her face, and just gestured wildly to the side of his neck before pointing upwards.

Belladonna frowned again before following his gestures upwards, as she strained herself against the radiant light of the full moon hanging above them, where she saw a shadow crossing over the moon.

It was long, easily twenty metres from nose to tail. A serpent was her first thought with that size, but the wicked sharp fins on its side and on its back, along with the rows of teeth - so many that they overflowed out of its mouth - there was only one thing such a visage could belong to.

There were fish that swam through the moonlight, so of course. Why wouldn’t there be a shark. A type of shimmering, silver thresher shark by the looks of it. Even if its teeth could give a great white a run for its money.

And of course, right there on its neck, Belladonna could just make out the wriggling tail of a disgusting black leech that had burrowed its way into the shark. A web of wicked black veins spread across the sharks once majestic body, a plague infecting what was once pure and wondrous.

The black soulless eyes of the Corrupted Moonlight Shark locked onto Belladonna, which sent a wave of bloodlust bursting through the clearing, and the shark was quick to lunge after it.

It’s long, sail-like tail whipping back and forth as it shot through the air, aiming straight towards Belladonna.

Raising her hand, Belladonna curled her hand into a finger-gun before firing. Her fingertip exploded as a bullet of bloody iron blasted out from inside of her, followed by a volley for three more.

The [Blood Bullets] pinged off of the sharks shimmering scales, not even leaving so much as a scratch. One got close to the half burrowed leech tail, but the constant wriggling of the sharks body as it charged made the shot impossible.

At least one shot did something good, as it burst through the Shark’s eye. But even down an eye, the beast didn’t stop for even a second. It didn’t even flinch, as it lunged at Belladonna again.

Before it hit, she activated [Shadow Veil] to meld with the darkness. At least, she tried to. But her environment stayed the same, her body stayed tangible and non-shadowy, and the shark remained charging towards her and close enough to bite her head off - which was exactly what it planned to do.

She barely leaned back in time for it to pass over her, it’s overflowing teeth passing a hair in front of her face, before she quickly dove to the side so she didn’t get whipped by the tail as it passed.

Rolling across the grass, Belladonna raised her hand again and got ready to fire, when she noticed that her fingertip - what was left of it - was covered in blood. Fresh blood, that was dripping from the gaping wound still in her finger, that was showing no signs of healing in the slightest.

"Shit... That can’t be good."