The Creatures that We Are

Again, Gao Yang was the first to move.

Absolute Barrier!

Gao Yang channeled his energy. Golden light erupted from beneath his feet, forming a translucent shield that encased him.

"Fuck! It's Absolute Barrier!" Qin You cursed.

Liao Liao's face darkened.

They had considered this possibility but dismissed it after analyzing the situation. An Absolute Barrier would drain Gao Yang's energy far more than their combined attacks would cost them. It would only delay the fight to the next turn. The trade-off hadn't seemed logical.

Yet here they were.

Sir Jiang, prone on the ground, released a hoarse, heavy sigh of frustration. Though his eyes were ruined, Qin You's outburst told him everything. His final attack would be futile.

In his clash with Gao Yang, he had fallen short.

Not eliminating the Divine Scion now would complicate things for Qilin, but Sir Jiang trusted him. He trusted the human he had chosen.

After Gao Yang's turn, Liao Liao acted.

Clink. She summoned God of Firearms once more and fired. The bullet sparked harmlessly against the golden barrier.

Then came Sir Jiang's turn.

The Judge's domain seemed to strain under increasing pressure. The pattern beneath Sir Jiang's feet remained dark instead of turning green, like a game frozen mid-sequence.

Knowing these were Sir Jiang's final moments, Gao Yang called out, "Sir Jiang! You said not to open the Gates of Closure. Why?"

"Ack, ack, ack..." Sir Jiang descended into a coughing fit. Rather than answering, he rasped, "Qilin...is humanity's only hope. My answer won't be wrong..."

Gao Yang clenched his teeth. The pride monster refused to reveal anything even before his death.

However, it made sense. Qin You and Liao Liao were still here. If they were the ones to get out of here alive, Sir Jiang wouldn’t want them to bring with them the truth of Sir Jiang and Qilin’s scheme.

"Gao Yang..." Sir Jiang's voice weakened. "I...sought out Yun once, asking her to turn in the answer sheet with me. She turned me down..."

At his grandmother's name, Gao Yang's chest tightened. Behind the pain bloomed a warm pride.

His grandmother's answer had been family.

"Yun gave me a poem then...ack, ack... It's quite nicely written. Ack, ack... I'll...read it to you..."

Gao Yang frowned.

The pattern beneath Sir Jiang finally flared green.

His body shuddered as the domain's will seized control. Slowly, he raised his pink prosthetic arm toward the sky.

As he moved, he began to recite:

“High wall rises, red moon laments.”

“Mist thickens, gods perish.”

“The ignorant sleep upon the mist,”

“Along which the fearless ascends.”

“The lost seek wonderland eternal.”

“All fascinate. All return to void.”

Gao Yang memorized the poem and asked, “What does it mean?”

But Sir Jiang didn’t answer. He couldn’t.

His cybernetic arm fractured, splitting into curved, razor-sharp metal plates that unfurled like a blooming spider lily. At its center, a dark red core bristled with countless hollow points. Sir Jiang's charred chest collapsed, ribs jutting outward as the flesh beneath withered like rotting fruit.

The flower-like mechanism had devoured everything—organs, tissue, energy—as fuel for its final purpose.

Brilliant white light erupted from the core, not as lasers but as compressed vortexes of spatial displacement. These gray rays arced into the sky before raining down on Gao Yang. Clink, clink, clink. Dozens of projectiles struck the Absolute Barrier, bursting into swirling spatial distortions that splattered against his shield.

Gao Yang masked his unease. Without the Absolute Barrier, in his current state, death would have been certain.

"Fuck!" Dr. Jia leaped with relief. "Great! I'm not dead! I guessed right! He didn't come after me!"

Through the translucent barrier, Gao Yang watched Sir Jiang—now a hollowed shell, features dissolving, chest gouged open—become nothing more than a cold corpse.

The enemy he had hated to his core was finally dead.

He released a long breath.

At last, I've completed half our revenge.

Lithe Snake, Gray Bear, Can... many are watching. As their captain, I must see this through.

Sir Jiang's death cast a heavy shadow over Liao Liao and Qin You. After another half-minute delay, the pattern beneath Qin You flared green.

Frustrated, he summoned Plant, attempting to strangle Gao Yang through the Absolute Barrier—a futile waste of energy. Both their golden bars had dwindled to a quarter of their original length.

Then came Nico's turn.

He had begun this game preaching with religious fervor, but his fervor had dimmed as the Divine Scion proved more resilient than expected. Victory balanced on a knife's edge.

"How much longer can you hold on, Clear Mirror?" Nico turned to the giant gray pillar. Clear Mirror's face was fading, transforming from sculpted relief to flat sketch.

In a couple of turns, Clear Mirror might become one with the gray stone pillar, weathered away by the law of fairness.

"I don't know." Clear Mirror's voice echoed from all directions, once thunderous, now threadbare. "I'll sacrifice everything."

Nico chuckled and rose unsteadily, his flax robe's sleeves swaying. "Be grateful, Clear Mirror! This is God's trial for us! The real trial!"

He took two hand grenades from his robe. "Clear Mirror! I'll be departing before you. I await your good news on the other side."

He yanked the pins.

"Fuck!" Dr. Jia shouted. "Really? This is cheating!"

Gao Yang remained frozen—not by choice, but by Clear Mirror's will. The domain's interpreter had deemed Nico's attack a "support action" for his teammate. Gao Yang had no choice but to accept this "support."

"God!"

Nico spread his arms wide and hurled himself at Gao Yang.

"Your will is to descend upon the world! Your grace is to shine on—"

Boom!

The explosion engulfed Gao Yang's position. Its searing light painted Dr. Jia's horrified face in crimson.

Houseau3's Thoughts

And finally, Sir Jiang died.

Wonder what significance the poem holds.

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