Gun of Ashes

Lorenzo shouted.

”I know! If this explosion doesn’t injure Him, it’s really miraculous!”

The Plague Doctor responded loudly, his focus entirely on the sea serpent.

Now, the Plague Doctor was like eroding the sea serpent physically, with crimson tendrils constantly weaving through its flesh, spreading to its nerves and bones. It was akin to the Stomach Chewing Grass that Lorenzo once encountered, a manifestation of the Authority of Yanar’s transformation.

As the tendrils delved deeper, the Plague Doctor could sense the anomalies deep within this flesh.

Heat, the deeper he went into the sea serpent’s body, the more the Plague Doctor could feel the intense high temperature, focusing entirely on that, completely unaware of the explosion below.

”Plague Doctor! You’d better take a look!”

Lorenzo shouted again, this time with a few hints of urgency in his voice.

The Plague Doctor turned his head and saw the flow of fire surging above the raging waves.

This was an ambush planned to kill Lorenzo, although it was eventually used on the sea serpent, the effect was still extraordinary. Below the two of them, on the sea serpent’s midsection, there was a huge wound over ten meters long, as if struck by an enormous sword, slicing the sea serpent apart, staining the surrounding sea red with blood, and scorching blood vapor rose in waves.

Lorenzo didn’t think that this was something the explosion could do. There was a dazzling glow in the sea below, as he saw the gradually sinking iron, which was the ram of the Blood Shark.

Under normal circumstances, using a ram to attack would also require consideration of the ship’s structural stability and other factors, but in the destruction and sinking of the Blood Shark, there was no need to pay attention to any of that.

The roaring explosion lifted this heavy ram, and propelled by the explosion, it stabbed like a swiftly thrust lance, fiercely hitting the sea serpent’s trunk, almost completely piercing it.

”I mean, have you gone this far just to kill me!”

Lorenzo shouted, unable to help himself, as he watched the ram sinking to the sea floor.

If it weren’t for the sea serpent’s sudden intervention, Lorenzo might indeed have been plotted against by the Plague Doctor. Even if he had dodged the explosion, the impact of the ram would have been enough to destroy the Morning Glow Advance.

”Do you think I could have planned all this?”

The Plague Doctor screamed as well, never having thought that the explosion would cause such a reaction.

”At best, it’s a coincidence. If I had this ability, you’d have died in Ice Bay long ago!”

The Plague Doctor was staring down below, while the corner of his eye remained cautious of Lorenzo. Their alliance was temporary, and once the crisis at hand was resolved, neither of them knew what might happen between them.

”But... what is that, Plague Doctor?”

Lorenzo was staring at the huge wound below. Once the blood washed over it, the edges of the wound were clearly visible.

Beneath the scale armor was soft flesh, and the edges were crimson, with countless tendrils dancing crazily within, pulling each other and trying to close and heal the terrifying wound again. But its size was too large, making such self-healing seem extremely slow.

In the depths of the wound, large bones exposed with cracks jutted out, as white as sculptures, interlaced within the flesh. Further below was where Lorenzo’s gaze lingered. Originally, he thought there would be fascia and organs beneath the flesh, but all that met Lorenzo’s eyes was rising light.

The light forged the main body of this sea serpent. Now, as the wound broke open, this confined light was also escaping, beginning to pour and falling into the sea along with the blood, creating dense steam that dissipated rapidly.

”That’s... fire? Solidified fire.”

The Plague Doctor found the scene before him incomprehensible, but the tendrils he had embedded into the depths of the serpent’s body responded, confirming that it was condensed fire, surging within its body, fire wrapped by scale armor.

”This is... Purifying Flame.”

Lorenzo murmured, seeing the white light like breathing through the gaps in the scales fade away.

”Plague Doctor! Get away from Him!”

Lorenzo shouted loudly, only having time to warn about this, because just as Lorenzo finished speaking, starlight surged between the gaps of the scales.

An incredibly scorching high temperature was released from within the sea serpent, enveloping the entire sea surface in a dense sea mist because of this heat. The storm drove strong winds to disperse it, but soon, more mist emerged again.

From the perspective of the Morning Glow Advance, only the sea serpent wrapped in erupting sea mist could be seen, followed by a glaring strong light that was impossible to look at directly, like a melting daylight, ascending flames entwined around the sea serpent, gathering into the brilliance of its head.

Lorenzo detached from the serpent’s body or, more accurately, was forced off. At the moment when the brilliance surged, an intangible wave of high-temperature swept over the snake’s body, directly passing over Lorenzo, causing his surface to begin widespread carbonization in an instant, and the claws embedded within the scale armor crumbled in an instant.

The high temperature encroached upon most of his body, his pupils dissolved into a sticky gel after a few seconds of endurance, followed by the disintegration of limbs, causing his vision to plunge into darkness in an instant. Lorenzo couldn’t see the Plague Doctor’s situation, but he knew the Plague Doctor had already sunk deep into the sea serpent, likely not having time to dodge any of this.

He could imagine the Plague Doctor’s body collapsing into ashes, a scene he had witnessed many times. The sea serpent killed them just as Lorenzo used the Purifying Flame to kill demons. This was never an equal battle.

From afar, Hebdo watched the battlefield where thunderous fog and sea mist intertwined. He saw the towering daylight surge again, and in the blinding light, a stream of light several meters thick was discharged.