Gunsoul: A Xianxia Apocalypse

Chapter 69: Orbital Strike

Arc ascended through the atmosphere at phenomenal velocity.She moved so quickly that her cloak had burned away at the friction of the air. She had lost her hat too, which annoyed her. It had been a gift from Jim long before he became the Gun.

But Jim had died long before that poor Revolver put his spirit to rest; their curse had seen to that when it made him its newest host, and Arc had no wish to join him in the Nowhere now. Not while that bastard Zoa continued to breathe, not while the Gun continued to haunt this broken land.

She refused to bite the bullet before either of them did.

Victory or defeat meant nothing in the grand scheme of things. There would always be a warlord threatening the wasteland, or a disaster knocking down everyone trying to build anything. Arc thought she could make a difference once, and failed. Why make a stand now?

Her thoughts turned to her apprentice, who had continued to keep his faith even after seeing where their shared Path would inevitably lead them to. The way he’d picked up that girl Holster and so many companions reminded her of Jim and her own old companions.

Arc used Bullet Materialization to fire a bullet back at the earth below, then attempted to switch places with it. She immediately sensed an invisible wall form between her and the projectile that canceled her teleportation technique.

Her jaw clenched in frustration as she flew through a cumulonimbus. The Yinyang Khan hadn’t severed her from gravity’s bind. He had put a curse on Arc that separated her from the very concept of . His sutra spell widened the distance between them in a way that blocked even teleportation.

That kind of curse worked on very specific parameters. The best way for Arc to escape it was to change .

“Gun Demon Incarnation,” she whispered to herself.

Her body changed to fit the shape of her soul.

Her flesh turned to sleek steel and her skin to graceful, ethereal black leather shaped from woven shadows. Her clothes disappeared, replaced with lethal gear born from the depths of her spirit. A cloak of darkness adorned with skulls flowed from her back; her head grew a new pointed black hat that was part of her skull. It cast a veil on her mirror-face and a high collar of gunsmoke clouds covered her neck. Ammunition belts of spirit-bullets strapped themselves around her waist. Her rifle-arm had grown more grotesque and massive, though it felt light as a feather to her. It had gained three more conjoined barrels to blast a foe with, and a chain coiled around the weapon. Her other hand shed its organic flesh to reveal a skeleton of steel. Only her mane of fiery auburn hair alone remained unchanged.

Arc mused. It had been a long time since she used Gun Demon Incarnation, and it never failed to make her feel .

It had been so long since she had fought a fight worth her while. It pumped her up with excitement, no matter how much she wished to deny it.

Arc sensed the Yinyang Khan’s technique losing its hold on her, the curse now unable to identify her new form as its intended target. Her velocity slowed down while she whipped up a circular Barrier on which to stand. From the way she floated above the clouds, the sudden increase in temperature, and the rings of ice floating above her in the void of space, the Yinyang Khan had flung her all the way to the stratosphere. Good thing she stopped there. A few more seconds of this treatment would have sent her spiraling into the darkness of space.

Arc focused her Truesight on the ground below; on that thin stretch of land between teeth-shaped rocks and an oil sea which people called the Fanged Coast. Her vision sharpened on a massive qi-powered highway, on the ruined city at the beginning and end of it all.

The Yinyang Khan and Czar Zoa were engaged in a quick-paced fistfight on the ground. The former had more arms to punch with, but the latter was both quicker and a better hand-to-hand combatant. The Khan’s face grew into a maddened scowl as Zoa deflected each and every one of his lightning-fast hits. He must have tried to sever the nuclear cultivator’s soul from his body as well, only to fail miserably.

Arc knew it was only a matter of time before Zoa found an opening in the Khan’s frantic assault to counterattack. She aimed at both of them with her rifle arm and built up electric qi within it. Her body produced its own bullets while in Gun Demon Incarnation, so she only had to charge it to increase its speed.

Over twenty kilometers separated them from her.

Hardly the hardest shot she ever took.

A mighty projectile erupted from her cannon-arm at reentry speed.

A Recoil Blast of tremendous power propelled a fist-sized electrified bullet towards the earth below. It crossed the atmosphere in a split second and hit its targets with the strength to blow up a small city.

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Both duelists sensed the projectile coming just in time to whip up Barriers to protect themselves. However, only Czar Zoa was familiar enough with Arc’s techniques to create one capable of withstanding the impact. The Yinyang Khan’s shield cracked, the resulting explosion burying him at the heart of a district-sized crater.

Arc saw Czar Zoa point a hand at her. She barely had time to move to the left with a Recoil Shockwave before a purple gamma ray burst surged from the earth below, piercing the clouds and continuing its course into the depths of space. Arc wasn’t certain how Zoa managed to pinpoint her position, but she felt confident he would lose out on a long-distance sniping duel. She loaded her rifle-arm with a new shot and prepared to fire another Railgun Blast.

Zoa raised his left hand at her, and Arc plummeted.

The power forcefully calling her down to Earth felt quite different from the Khan’s cur

Czar Zoa slammed his hands together, both of them glowing with nuclear light, and then began to chant.

“I am become Death–” Arc tensed upon recognizing his Authority’s incantation. “Destroyer of worl–”

Arc cast Bullet Teleportation on the projectile stuck inside his skull.

She erupted out of Zoa’s head in a shower of bones and diseased white flesh.