Chapter 109: A horror movie

Xander and Rain stood motionless without uttering a word, quietly bearing the brunt of everyone’s rage.

It wasn’t until Liam drew his gun and aimed it straight at Nyl, who was bound tightly on the ground, that his golden pupils clouded over with sheer, unhinged madness. He was on the verge of losing his mind completely.

Nyl let out a cold, mocking sneer. "Even if you kill me to vent your anger, it won’t bring your Guide back, will it?"

"I don’t give a damn!"

Arden and San rushed forward immediately, holding back the frantic Liam.

Nyl shifted his gaze toward Xander. "Back then, you drove me out of the Sentinel Tower to fend for myself. Now, your Guide is facing certain death. Xander... this is your retribution."

With bloodshot eyes, Xander stepped forward, looking ready to snap Nyl’s neck right then and there:

"You brought that entirely upon yourself!"

Beside the armored vehicle, Cyrus had been leaning against the door the entire time, flicking a lighter continuously between his knuckles. The flame flickered on and off, periodically illuminating his dark, gloom-ridden face in the shadows.

Click.

The lighter cap closed with a sharp, crisp snap.

In the very next second, the triumphant smirk on Nyl’s face froze. A terrifying, overwhelming surge of spiritual pressure instantly invaded his sea of consciousness.

It was an agonizing sense of strangulation born from absolute, top-tier rank suppression—like an ant staring up at a towering mountain.

Nyl’s spiritual network was being violently eroded and shattered, as if ten thousand steel nails were driven repeatedly into his skull, churning his mind to pieces!

"You... you..."

Unfathomable dread and terror welled up in his eyes, reflecting Cyrus’s icy, sinister gaze.

Nyl didn’t know Cyrus. When Nyl left 616, Cyrus hadn’t been exiled there yet, so Nyl had no idea such a terrifying monster existed within this team.

Nyl’s rank had been on par with Xander’s, which was why he had always been reluctant to obey Xander’s orders. He felt he was far better suited to be the leader.

He was a consummate egoist—so much so that he had abandoned his brothers in the insect nest to save his own skin. Rain had nearly died back then, if Xander and Arden hadn’t risked their lives to drag him back.

An agonizing, heart-wrenching shriek pierced the night sky as Cyrus utterly destroyed Nyl’s spiritual sea.

Rather than giving Nyl a quick death, forcing a Sentinel to watch himself turn into a complete invalid was far more torturous and soul-crushing.

Spiritual erosion was Chi’s unique ability—an ability that could poison not just alien beasts, but fellow humans as well, making him deeply feared by everyone around him.

"A bunch of useless trash."

Cyrus tossed Nyl aside like a piece of garbage and melted straight into the gloomy darkness of the night.

He was going to find Bunny.

Liam and Astin quickly followed his lead, and the remaining Sentinels began departing one after another.

Only Rain stayed behind; he still had questions he wanted to demand from Nyl.

***

Even at top speed, reaching the radiation zone from here would take at least two hours.

The forbidden zone lay desolate and dead after the sandstorm swept through.

Collapsed steel structures were buried under thick layers of yellow sand.

A lone hand broke through the desert soil, loose sand sliding down the tactical sleeve as Bunny dragged herself out of the drift, groggy and barely conscious.

She only remembered being caught in the vortex of the sandstorm and hurled somewhere unknown.

Relentless high-intensity combat and escape had left her utterly exhausted. Forcing her battered body upright, she trudged slowly through this unfamiliar territory.

She was so hungry... so thirsty...

This appeared to be the ruins of an ancient city—nothing remained except scattered rubble and cracked concrete blocks.

Bunny walked for a long time, unable to find an exit.

Suddenly, a dark silhouette flickered past behind her, kicking up a gust of eerie, freezing wind.

Alerted instantly, Bunny drew her handgun and spun around.

"Who’s there?!"

There was nothing behind her—except an empty tin can, clattering noisily as it tumbled in the wind.

Huh? Am I seeing ghosts?

Bunny scanned her surroundings. Beneath the pale moonlight, the ruined wasteland buildings stood as silent and dead as tombstones, sending a spine-chilling shiver down her back.

Her nano-tactical suit emitted a flashing red alert: the radiation levels in this zone were hovering near off-the-charts critical.

She forced her pounding heart to calm down. A dense, heavy fog blanketed the area, completely disabling her communication radar. Moreover, this wasn’t a clean, white mist—it was a dingy, grey haze formed by a mix of toxic dust, radiation waves, and airborne particulate matter, rivaling the worst industrial smog.

For a brief moment, Bunny felt as though she had stepped right into Silent Hill.

Her life was truly way too theatrical.

As she crossed an empty street, her boot suddenly tripped over something.

With visibility under one meter, she was essentially walking blind. Crouching down, she discovered a battered stuffed rabbit doll with mismatched button eyes.

The seam near its tail had split open, exposing clumps of knotted, yellowed cotton. The entire toy was filthy and ancient. Thinking nothing of it, Bunny tossed it aside and kept moving forward.

Up ahead in the fog, a dark figure darted past at high speed. This time, Bunny was 100% certain her eyes weren’t playing tricks on her.

"Hold it right there!"

Gripping her gun tightly, she gave chase, but the figure vanished into thin air once more.

It seemed to be playing a game of hide-and-seek with her—leading her on a wild goose chase while refusing to show its face.

Growl—!

Chasing the mysterious entity, Bunny arrived outside an old, standalone apartment building. The door to the second-floor master bedroom creaked open with a low moan.

Keeping her weapon raised, she stepped onto the weathered wooden stairs, which groaned noisily under her weight. Hunched low, she approached the room at the far end of the hallway step by step.

Great. Now I’m literally acting like the foolish main character in a horror movie who walks straight into trouble.

It wasn’t that Bunny wasn’t scared; rather, she was clinging to a sliver of hope that she might find another human, having no idea where on earth she was.

Taking a deep breath, Bunny kicked the door wide open and swept the room for potential threats.

It was completely empty.

The room appeared to have once belonged to a young boy. The bedding and sheets had rotted away, while toy cars, model airplanes, wooden blocks, and nautical puzzles lay scattered across the dusty floor.

Every piece of furniture was heavily decayed and coated in grime, with yellowed, peeling Marvel posters clinging to the walls.

Bunny’s eyes drifted downward, her pupils contracting in shock—the very stuffed rabbit she had tossed away earlier was lying right there on the floor!

Seriously? Did I stumble onto the wrong set? This isn’t supposed to be a horror flick, right?!

Just as Bunny turned on her heel to retreat, she found herself nose-to-nose with a pair of bright, piercing yellow eyes.

"AAAAAARRRRGH!"

A deafening, blood-curdling scream pierced through the ceiling as Bunny’s eyes rolled back, and she passed out cold.