Solflare: The Painter's Secret

Chapter 273: Oops!

Smoke filled the air as vehicles began blasting left, right, and center on the streets of Thule. Men dressed in blue suits stood at the edges of the highways, holding cameras and recording gear, while civilians dashed past them with screams.

"Did you get that on camera?!" A lady with short blue hair turned a flustered face to the cameramen of the CNN reporters of Thule.

"WHAT?" the silver-eyed cameraman shifted his gaze from the lens of the ultracapture camera.

Metal shuffling sounds echoed at his front when the angry, stormy wind reached their side. He gestured at the lady then pointed far across the river, where the border separating Dusthollow from Bastion was. "I think that place will give us a clean, nice shot."

"No, that place is a place for the dead." The blue-haired lady shook her head and lowered her microphone. "I can’t risk going there."

Two spinning, rotten roofing plates slammed into her and any other person standing beside her in perfect halves. But the silver-eyed cameraman only had a faint scratch on the tip of his pinky finger.

"WHAT THE FUCK!" he collapsed to the ground the moment both splattered parts of the lady slapped on the ground.

...

Inside the Bastion hospital, all the live broadcasts from the highways separating Bastion city from Dusthollow froze on the wall monitors.

Chills ran down the spines of the visitors who were deeply following the broadcast, while the captured sudden death of the CNN news crew looped in their heads.

The trees outside the hospital swung their branches harshly when the earth the hospital was on shook.

Laughter echoed from the back of the waiting room, where no light touched. The face of a black-haired lady sitting on a green chair gleamed when lightning tore through the skies.

"What a waste of life," Vera said as she glanced at the faces of the nurses rushing past her as if they had seen the end of the world. "Why do weak humans always fear death?"

Two nurses stopped and glanced at her when the black-haired lady’s voice struck their ears.

A faint, grim grin lanced on Vera’s face when she noticed the nurses staring at her as if she wasn’t from there. "Say whatever you like in your head. I know I’m not from this wasteland."

She stood up and relaxed her shoulders as if going for a fight. "After all, I just came to introduce myself to Zoe and Leon."

She paused when tree-crunching and car horns blasted on the street outside the hospital. "I will come back when Leon returns."

Vera glanced at the nurses for a couple of seconds before stepping out of the hospital with a soft Sousa dance.

...

Rocks fell from the top of the Basalt Mountain and rained on the humans fleeing from the base of the mountain.

Wet plopping sounds echoed when three guys in dirty grey shirts got squashed. Blood sprayed in all directions while wordless screams bounced on the huge cranes.

"Get your asses back in the mountain and start working!" Darian roared when seventy percent of the workers fled and left their loads untouched. "Why the fuck do you think you’re all getting paid in jade coins?"

Gunshots shook the hasty skies when Darian saw Lucas also fleeing from his post. "Where the fuck do you think you’re going?"

Darian pointed the gun at Lucas, but the boy just shoved Darian aside and moved toward the direction his uncle was running.

Lucas stopped and turned when he heard metal clicking sounds echoing from behind him. He locked eyes with Darian then smiled. "Shoot me if you want to lose the only middleman getting things done properly for Jade Baek!"

Darian laughed then brushed his right palm on his face. A black glow seeped out of Darian’s eyes when he lowered his gaze to the ground.

Lucas closed his eyes and spread his arms. "Go on, this is your chance. Shoot me and see how the bullet will reject my body."

The ground beneath Darian and Lucas shook when a loud growling sound escaped through the mountain, followed by green, heated air.

"What are you two waiting for?" Gyeong screamed when he ran to the front of the mountain and saw Lucas standing there as if waiting to be crucified.

His expression shifted when he shifted his gaze to Darian and saw the black glow around him. ’When did he get this strong?’

Gyeong placed a hand on Lucas’s shoulder then leaned toward his left ear. "Get out of here and save the name of your family for once, if you really want to be free from their guilt."

Lucas’s hands came down once when he cracked his eyes open and saw the only soldier among Jade’s men, who somehow had been treating him good.

"Go." Gyeong hissed while watching the grandson of the greatest swordsman fleeing for the first time.

The metal body of the pistol gleamed the moment Darian lowered it and lifted his gaze forward.

His brow furrowed when he saw Gyeong standing there and not Lucas. He walked to Gyeong and stopped beside him. "You should have allowed him to use his partite sword skill against me."

Gyeong shook his head and shifted his gaze toward the rumbling Basalt Mountain. "Is the Abyssal Maw Lord finally awake from its hibernation?"

Dusty wind flew by Darian’s cheeks when he turned and focused on the rootlike cracks spreading through the mountain. "Almost."

...

The tunnel leading into the crest of the Hell Land to Tartarus began closing in when the walls began shaking.

Metal blue skulls filled half of Tartarus while Vaelith’s severed wings began forming on their own. Sharp air escaped from his lungs when he shifted his gaze to the tired and blood-sweating Leon. "At least you have proven to stand face to face with my passive version."

The moment the blue glowing skulls seeped into his chest, the final piece of Vaelith’s feathered wings formed. A concussive wave blasted the shattered land and vaporized everything that came into contact with it, including the cave the silver Triarch was under.

Leon’s golden glow in his eyes fluttered once when he caught sight of his Triarch. Just as he blinked and looked back at it, the titanium steel craft bent inward.

Vaelith vanished and reappeared at the top of the crumpled craft. With just a single tap on the fractured metal, the craft puffed into ash. "Oops!"

Bone-crackling sounds echoed around Leon, as if increasing his grip on the Hi-no-Kami. The burning kinetic-drift shield’s shape transformed when Leon shifted his gaze in its direction once.

A faint blue glow seeped into the golden blaze in Leon’s eyes when two blue skulls seeped out of his right palm, when he pointed it toward the transformed shield hovering in the air.