Chapter 146: The Finale of Clockwork

Chapter 146: The Finale of Clockwork

Looking at the entrance of the Cathedral, a thought lingered in his mind. If the Midnight Wings found out that Murphy was behind all of that and might even believe that his actions were wrong, it would make it much harder for Mo Fei.

He looked at the Divine Dragon’s large body and ordered. "Divine Dragon, break the entrance, cover it with everything, and ensure no eyes can enter this hall."

?He didn’t have the time nor the inclination to become a fugitive hunted by the official authorities.

?The dragon breathed with a guttural vibration that shook the remaining oak pews into splinters. Without hesitation, it whipped its massive tail through the air.

?BOOM!

?The carved stone archway at the Cathedral’s entrance collapsed instantly under the force. Tons of solid rocks fell over the entrance as a darkness crept over the entrance, concealing the hall from outside eyes.

?The immediate path for the Midnight Wings was severed, buying him precious minutes.

?Yet, inside the sealed cavern, the atmosphere grew exponentially more lethal, after all... He was still there.

?The Hanged Sage’s upside-down silhouette, though unstable now under the Divine Dragon’s oppressive aura, began to bleed from its hollow eye sockets.

The blood flowed upward along the crumbling pillars, tracing blasphemous symbols that began to hum with a maddening chant, whispering the same words over and over.

?’He is the right... He is the right...’

?Murphy felt the skin on his arms twist, as if unseen hands were trying to knot his blood vessels into hangman’s nooses. As if the blood itself had begun to freeze under the gaze, dying from the weight.

?’I see... Divine Dragon’s uncontrolled presence is forcing the Hanged Sage’s willpower into a mutual destruction mode.’

?The Serpent’s warning echoed sharply in his sea of consciousness.

?Murphy wiped his bloody lip with the back of his gloved hand, his cold grey eyes narrowing in the dark as he pointed his Glaive toward the Hanged Sage. "Divine Dragon, I order you now, go!"

The Divine Dragon had only waited for his order as its massive body disappeared into dark portals, moving his body out of another from one nearby the cosmic being.

Giygogagohgwooh!!

With a loud roar, the Divine Dragon sharp mandible rushed in, breaking apart the cosmic barrier around the Hanged Sage.

Both of its mandibles collided with the barrier as lightning shot through the whole place, creating a ripple around the barrier as its armor tore the barrier across the middle, making a long crack.

The Hanged Sage’s hair fluttered as the barrier had been torn apart, just then, the multiple bloodsoaked nooses lunged at the Dragon, catching its spikes by the ropes.

Its shapeless crimson eyes gleamed with a strange light as it screamed before opening its tendrils wide, instantly breaking the ropes before stabbing the Hanged Sage with the sharp claws on its black tendrils. Its voice itself breaking the Cathedral’s ceiling as multiple chandeliers shattered.

Murphy took a long breath, trying to force his breathing to get even. He couldn’t fight a god-like projection with raw force, and moreover, the Divine Dragon’s unintentional chaos would bring much destruction.

?His gaze darted toward the altar, where the rusted sacrificial knife lay submerged in the dark, glowing pool of blood, and then up to the circular stained-glass window flickering behind the Hanged Sage.

Behind that glass was the deep, unmapped fault line of the estate’s underground drainage system. The low, hissing sound of the water reached him as he prepared for his plan.

?A thin, mocking smile touched the corner of Murphy’s lips despite the excruciating pressure.

?"I can stop the ritual if I do that." Murphy murmured, his fingers wrapping firmly around his Glaive as he prepared to manipulate the remaining spirit threads.

"Then let us bring down the curtain."

?Holding his breath, Murphy stepped directly into the swirling vortex of destructive spiritual pressure.

He pushed his body into the air and called out. "Divine Dragon."

Hearing the call, it appeared directly beneath his feet as he landed on its head before the Dragon lunged at the cosmic being.

The head in the being’s hand screamed a guttural growl; just then the sound reached Mo Fei’s mind, but the white mist quickly curled around him, preventing the cosmic whispers from reaching him.

His eyes flared up as the mask of the abyss showed him the shape of the Cathedral more precisely. "Divine Dragon, hold Him down."

Giygogagohgwooh!!

With a roar, it extended its large tendrils at an unimaginable speed, wrapping around the Hanged Sage, whose attempts to drive Mo Fei’s mind chaos had failed again and again.

Murphy quickly jumped toward His feet and moved his Glaive directly through the spirit threads before pulling down the curtain over the cosmic being.

The air rippled, cracking the ceiling as it finally crumbled, breaking down the whole Cathedral.

Without wasting another second, he landed straight onto the drainage system before driving his Glaive into the walls.

Using all of his efforts, he slashed down the walls and landed a heavy punch straight through it.

Finally, the heavy water erupted straight through the crater, slamming Murphy backward as he caught his footing before jumping straight into the Dragon again. "Divine Dragon, can you destroy the whole mansion after taking me out?"

The Divine Dragon looked back and nodded before flying through the black portals and stopping at the rooftop, breaking through the Cathedral.

Murphy jumped into the land outside as the ground beneath him shook. He looked back at the ground and saw the water reaching toward the ceiling. He also noticed that the being didn’t try to remove the curtain, meaning once His gaze was gone, His powers stopped too?

He waited until the drainage filled half the mansion. "Now open the pathway."

***

In front of the blocked entrance, Lionel stood there, looking at the place, and scratched his head. "How did it suddenly close?"

Behind him, Benson looked around the path. "Destroy the stones."

Lionel nodded and walked forward, but suddenly.

Boom!!

A heavy pressure broke the stones, and from the small gaps, water ran down. Lionel quickly turned. "Fall back!"

Hearing the urgent tone, three Midnight Wings members moved back, retreating as the sudden geyser of water rushed toward them.

They quickly exited the cave, entering back into the hall of the Asterion’s Estate, but didn’t find him there. Although they moved out from the mansion.

Outside, on the roof, Murphy noticed them all coming out and finally ordered. "Destroy it now."

Divine Dragon, who had waited for that order patiently, jumped inside the mansion, leaving Murphy behind as he quickly jumped outward, moving away from the place to keep a safe distance.

Inside, the Dragon extended its shadowy tendrils and roared. Moving its tendrils into one place, it touched all six of the claws of tendrils together as a black orb flared up from the sharp edges of its claws.

It opened them up as the size of the orb increased, reaching to the equal size of six humans, before a beam of shadow came out of its body, destroying everything on its path. The whole place vaporized as the ground around the whole city began to shake violently, creating an earthquake.

A dense cloud of dirt surrounded the whole town.

Lionel watched it all happen and covered his eyes as the dust reached him. Benson looked at the vaporized mansion whose existence turned into dust particles almost instantly and looked ahead at the place where it had come from, but there was nothing; the Divine Dragon had entered back into the dark portal.

It came out of another portal and looked at Mo Fei, who patted his armor. "Good job, now go back to the realm before someone sees you."

With a small nod, it disappeared back into the realm.

Murphy looked through the spirit threads, trying to find Asterion. Finally, a few threads showed up nearby, alongside multiple of them.

Looking at the threads of the Midnight Wings, ensuring that they were still there, he quietly walked toward Asterion.

In just a minute, he reached a small house where Asterion was standing before sixty cultists who looked at him with sharp eyes behind their masks.

One of them spoke in a chilling rasp. "Asterion, we are disappointed by your actions; you have betrayed us."

"Listen to me!" Asterion yelled, his calm expression ruined by the fearful thoughts. "I didn’t do any of that!"

The cultist pulled out a letter with his sign and grumbled. "Asterion, oh Asterion. These are your signs; these are your orders. Because of you, the business that funded us had a massive decline in income. Because of you, all of our funds are ruined; we couldn’t perform the ritual tonight."

"Lis—"

"And by the rules." The cultist interfered, lifting a trembling finger covered in ash. "Anyone who defies us, faces dire consequences to them... and their family."

Another cultist brought him a sack, as the man grabbed it before throwing it toward Asterion.

The sack was covered in a sticky thing, and from it, a head rolled out from the opening.

Asterion’s eyes widened as he looked at the beheaded face, which was shockingly familiar to his daughter. "No..." His expression froze in somberness, his mouth opening as his jaws trembled from the scene.

The cultist circled him and spoke. "Asterion, do you know that we must not falter? Don’t act like you have never done it. Taking the lives of others, so did I do with you as a consequence. If we ever find the actions you did again, the next time it won’t be just your death, remember it."

Fwip!

Crunch—Thud!

Suddenly, a Glaive came spinning, chopping the cultist in half from his waist as the weapon retreated to Murphy.

"And I’ll give you one more rule. Don’t believe you can escape the Law."

All the remaining fifty-nine cultists looked back, but they couldn’t look more as the Glaive slashed through each of them before Murphy stepped through the bloody ground toward Asterion as his Glaive shifted into the gun and he glared coldly. "The chase is over; before that, tell me, are there more people?"

"Yes..." Asterion knew it was over, he couldn’t escape him anymore, and his surprised expression clearly showed it.

"Then I’ll hunt each royal one by one."

BANG!

After shooting Asterion, he looked at the lieutenants. "I’d like to listen to the final words; it’s pointless. Tell me, have you ever killed someone?"

Both lieutenants exchanged a glance and gulped. "N-No... we have never been into any of the ritual... we took the orders but none of the time we killed anyone."

"Intresting." Murphy lowered his revolver. "You may leave for now, since I don’t think you are lying; your mind clearly said this."