The Creators: From Night City

Page 275

Chapter 536 Shooting a Live Pig

"Ha, hypocritical god." The other party mocked as it spread its body as far as possible, devouring the corpses on the ground.

He wants to temporarily change his form.

"In any case, this drowned fat pig is a Lord of Cinder, and I'm afraid only Lothric's dragon breath can burn him clean." For some reason, the Watcher did not run away, but instead followed from a distance and began to communicate with Jiang Bing.

The other party was clearly very dissatisfied with Eldridge. He took out two pot-shaped objects from his bag and threw them forcefully onto the now much larger pile of mud. The ceramic outer wall was fragile and shattered immediately upon impact, bursting out a ball of flame.

The black mud on the burned part immediately contracted, showing that high temperature and fire had a miraculous effect on such disgusting things.

"Damn it, no wonder he's a character who's passed on the fire; his resistance to fire is ridiculously high. Even the Black Flame Pot had no effect." The opponent, however, was still not satisfied with the damage.

“My name is Hawkwood. If you don’t know fire magic, I suggest we leave now.” The man patted the flattened pouch at his waist, making it clear that the Black Fire Bottle was all he had.

Eldridge had already devoured most of the corpse that Jiang Bing had killed. His mud-like body was constantly contracting and churning, trying to expel more of the ethereal aura and expand the area covered by the thin layer of ethereal mist.

Then, under Jiang Bing's gaze, the other party used the corpse swallowed into the mud to create a lower limb for himself, composed of dozens of thighs belonging to different people, like a deformed centipede supporting his huge muddy body as he crawled forward.

Although these legs are not very flexible, and are even somewhat clumsy, they greatly increase his mobility compared to his original crawling motion.

Having gained speed, the opponent did not attack Jiang Bing, but instead crawled towards the swampy forest not far away, enveloped in the deep mist.

What a joke! He could clearly see Jiang Bingfang's performance just now. Who knows what would happen if they really fought? Preserving his life is the most important thing.

As someone who vowed to survive the Deep Sea Age, Eldridge naturally prioritized his own life.

As Jiang Bing answered the other's question, he watched the 'Deep Saint' flee frantically, along with the spy wearing a chainmail hood.

"What a deformed monster! It's laughable that he can be called the 'Saint of the Deep.' In my opinion, flames are his promised place. But since you can't kill him, let's get out of here quickly." The spy's tone was always tinged with a negative and sarcastic tone.

"I don't know fire magic, but I do know a little about other explosive methods."

Under Hawkwood's watchful eye, Jiang Bing sent the [Negotiation] back to Heiml, then pulled a giant double-barreled explosive gun out of thin air.

【treaty】

The technological development in this world is quite strange. The existence of magic makes technological development very slow. Long-range methods are still limited to longbows and crossbows, and the application of gunpowder is also very simple.

He stared at the strange-looking thing in Jiang Bing's hand, and was about to ask a question when Jiang Bing pulled the trigger.

boom!

A burst of flame several meters long erupted from the muzzle, and the gust of wind generated by the cannonball made the cloak of the onlooker flutter loudly.

boom!!!

An explosion, many times louder than a gunshot, rang out from afar.

Eldridge's hastily assembled body was blasted into a large crater, and amidst the flying mud, many of his legs were scattered and sent flying.

A painful howl resounded from the depths of the soul.

However, the opponent truly lived up to his reputation as the Saint of the Deep; although his combat power was not much, his vitality was incredibly stubborn.

In addition, since he was already a lump of harmless mud, the crater created by the bomb quickly recovered as it writhed.

However, the second blow of the [Treaty] came quickly, interrupting the opponent's accelerated escape and, like whipping a sack of flour, exploding more and deeper abyss from within the opponent.

However, the damage it can cause is limited to this. The attack of the [Treaty], which is powerful enough to destroy cities and fortresses, can only shatter the opponent into pieces, but cannot endanger their lives at all.

Although the sludge that was blown apart looked terrible, it would soon gather back into the other person's body from all directions.

Conventional gunpowder and explosions are unlikely to cause him effective damage. After all, compared to his body riddled with bullet holes, Eldridge's soul has remained very stable, and he is known as the Lord of Cinder because of his enormous soul.

Jiang Bing had no choice but to reveal some of his 'trump cards'.

"Get the artillery crew in position," Jiang Bing communicated with Heiml in his mind.

Inside 'Heiml', the artillery crew at the 'Gustav Cannon Position' on a high hill instantly sprang into action. Several Palicoes excitedly jumped around, some activating the loaders, others checking the shells.

Meanwhile, the operators in the control room, who were on standby 24 hours a day, quickly completed the self-check before firing and filled all three giant cannons with high-explosive shells as required.

The same ballistic supercomputer quickly estimates the firing trajectory and awaits further calibration.

Hawkwood wanted to say a few more discouraging words, but he noticed that Jiang Bing's eyes had been emitting a faint golden light. As their eyes met, a strange feeling welled up in his heart.

Regardless of how dilapidated and deformed this world may be in other aspects, its beings are all exceptionally outstanding in terms of their soul abilities. Hawkwood may look thin, but his soul perception, which is dozens of times stronger than that of ordinary people, made him suddenly turn his gaze to the space above Jiang Bing's head.

The golden light almost completely dyed the three-colored [Power-Taotie] a golden yellow, and the loose world rules of this world made the manifestation of extraordinary power even more obvious.

Like a god, Jiang Bing soared into the sky amidst the air currents, providing more precise vision guidance for the upcoming attack.

Jiang Bingcai watched Eldridge run several kilometers away in a panic before he began his own operation.

Under Hawkwood's astonished gaze, the seemingly eternal and unchanging Rodland sky was torn apart.

A spatial rift formed from the location where Jiang Bing was anchored, behind which was a giant cannon of the 'Peace' class, already poised to fire.

The ballistic supercomputer quickly adjusted the firing trajectory by visually scanning with optical equipment and fired without hesitation at Jiang Bing's command.

boom!!!

The commotion of tearing the sky apart was already enormous, attracting the attention of everyone within a radius of dozens of miles. The sound of the cannons firing was like thunder, its echoes reverberating across the surrounding fields.

Chapter 537 I Won't Pass on This Fire

However, the rising flames and dust mushroom cloud, hundreds of meters high, completely obscured the effects of these strange phenomena.

Every time Jiang Bingding designated the giant cannon as a 'peace' level weapon to fire, it would be accompanied by a permanent change in the terrain.

Compared to the Peace cannon installed on the World, the land-based cannon, because it can indirectly ignore the effect of recoil, has had its caliber and power increased by Jiang Bing, making it even more destructive.

For example, the high-explosive shell launched this time weighed a terrifying 11.2 tons. The shell casing was made with high-quality ores from the Monster Hunter world, which allowed the explosive charge to reach 48%. Moreover, the explosives used were high-quality explosives from the Monster Hunter world, and the theoretical explosive power was equivalent to a terrifying 50 tons of TNT.

The earth is shaking!

Massive numbers of trees were sliced ​​horizontally by the shockwave, deformed vegetation was uprooted, and countless rocks shattered into pieces that flew in all directions.

Even though they were several kilometers apart, the shockwave was still so powerful when it reached their location that it almost made them lose their balance.

Hawkwood could only hold his round shield in front of him and assume a defensive stance to prevent himself from being blown away by the violent airflow.

The unusually conspicuous, deep fog had vanished without a trace in the violent explosion, and Eldridge's disgusting figure, which resembled a worm frantically fleeing, had completely disappeared.

This finally put Jiang Bingwei's mind at ease. He had thought that this purely physical attack wouldn't be enough to harm the enemy.

As the spatial rift closed, Jiang Bing descended from the sky, his golden radiance fading away. Amid Hawkwood's timid expression, Jiang Bing took the lead, guiding him towards the epicenter of the explosion.

The 'Profound Saint' is probably dead.

After all, the explosion center had become a giant crater about 200 meters in diameter. All vegetation, rocks and soil had been completely crushed and vaporized. The surface inside and around the edge of the crater had melted due to the high temperature caused by the explosion, forming a hard and smooth vitrified layer.

The black mud, deep and mysterious, was instantly reduced to ashes under such an attack.

Hawkwood swallowed a non-existent saliva and peered down into the pit.

Jiang Bing, as if he had discovered a treasure, leaped down into the still-hot pit, surrounded by air currents. When he flew back up, he was holding a twisted and deformed object that had been forged by the high temperature and could only be barely identified as a crown.

This was the crown that the Profound Saint always wore on his head. When the other party was destroyed by the explosion, it was not destroyed for some reason. Instead, it merged with the huge soul that had dissipated from the other party's body when he died, and became something that even Jiang Bing found amazing.

The damaged crown looked ordinary, but it felt warm to the touch. Jiang Bing was certain that the warmth was not caused by high-temperature baking, but rather by the intermittent flame patterns on the crown.

An extremely large and complex amount of soul power gathered and adhered to it, and from the 'craftsman's' perspective, it was constantly radiating bursts of soul-level fire and heat.

This is the power of the First Flame.

To be precise, it is the remnant of the First Flame.

Eldridge had burned in the First Flame, so his soul naturally carried the aura of the First Flame. It was this aura that convinced Jiang Bing that the First Flame was the key to igniting the [Ether Furnace].

He tried to extract the embers remaining in the crown, but found that the flame only had its form; the essence of creation and burning of the primordial fire was empty.

That's normal, since it's just the residue left after burning, and the flames are just remnants of the past.

However, this means that Jiang Bing's idea of ​​using the remaining embers on the crown to ignite the [Ether Furnace] has fallen through.

The quality of this flame is not good enough.

This is not good news. It means that if Jiang Bing wants to truly obtain the Primordial Flame, he can only go to the Fire-Borrowing Ground of this world, the core area where this world exists, to come into contact with the original Primordial Flame.

Although he didn't know where this place was, Jiang Bing was certain that such a world-originating existence was not something that could be approached casually.

"Could this be the Lord of Cinder, Shibasaki?!"

Compared to Jiang Bing's focus on the flames contained within, Hawkwood's reaction was much more intense. He looked at the scorched and twisted crown with a complex expression of shock, sadness, hope, and despair, his tone filled with an inescapable sense of fate.

"Oh, so you know what this is?" Jiang Bing tossed the crown up and down and turned to ask.

"Of course, it is the symbol that makes the Lords of Cinder worthy of being called Lords of Cinder. It is the condensation and solidification of the enormous soul power within them, and it is also the guarantee that the flames will continue to burn."

"I never expected that Eldridge, that drowning fat pig, would be the first to become firewood." The spy chuckled twice, yet felt it was only natural.

"But that's normal. After all, compared to the other Lords of Cinder, he was just a lump of mud that forcibly condensed a huge soul by eating people. He didn't have much power at all. He should indeed die at the very beginning of all the Lords of Cinder."

Linking the Fire, a ritual unique to the world of Dark Souls, is related to the very essence of this world's existence and was shaped by its past.

The past of this world is simple in a way.

In the beginning, the earth was covered in a gray haze, with only stones, ancient dragons, and towering trees, which ruled the world.

Until one day, the First Flame ignited from the earth, and light and darkness, life and death, became clear.

Gwyn, the Sun King who first discovered the First Flame, obtained the King's Soul (Great Soul) with the power of lightning.

The old witch Izalith obtained the power of fire, the Soul of the King.

The Tomb King Nitto obtained the power of death, the Soul of Death.

The nameless dwarf also gained power, but hid it as a secret.

The scaleless white dragon Seath betrayed the ancient dragons, revealing to Gwyn the secret that the ancient dragons' immortality came from their scales.

Gwyn, as commander, led his Silver Knights, allied with the witches and the Gravelord, to wage war against the ancient dragons.

Gwyn and his knights conjured lightning spears that destroyed the ancient dragon's scales, Nitto released a death miasma that corroded the dragon's exposed body, and the witch Izalith and her followers burned the ancient tree where the dragon had dwelled with a firestorm.

Thus, the era of Gu Long came to an end, and the era of Chu Huo began.

The whole world entered a prosperous Age of Fire.

The descendants of the dwarves survived and multiplied at this time, becoming human, and worshipping the heavenly Gwyn royal family as gods.

However, the First Flame created the world as we know it. After burning for a long time, it began to extinguish. Once the First Flame went out, all the order of this world would fall apart again. So, Gwyn, the Lord of the Sun, took the lead and threw his own Soul of Kings into the First Forge, which contained the First Flame, sacrificing himself to maintain the world's existence.

Chapter 538 Fire-Lighting Ritual Site

But after a thousand years, even the mighty Sun King Gwyn will eventually be consumed by fire. Without fuel, the First Flame will go out, the fundamental rules of the world will gradually disintegrate and loosen, the boundary between life and death will become blurred, the curse of the undead will erupt, many countries, including Baldur, will be destroyed by the undead, and human civilization will face a major crisis.

Later, the ritual of linking the flame came about. Countless heroes, beings with powerful souls, became kindling, either voluntarily or involuntarily throwing themselves into the First Flame to sustain the world.

This process is called passing on the fire.

The 'Lords of Cinder' are among the most 'powerful' of these beings.

The Deep Lord, Eldridge, was a Lord of Cinder who was not consumed by the First Flame.

He was originally a high-quality firewood artificially raised by Lothric. His main job before burning was to eat, gathering the souls of those he ate into himself, waiting for the day he would be stuffed into the hearth.

"Go, go."

Jiang Bing fiddled with the crown and beckoned Hawkwood to continue on his way.

"Where are you going, Your Excellency Sabur? We might be going the same way." The other party was polite, but the implication was clear: stay away from me, let's go our separate ways.

"Don't worry, it's definitely on the way. Wherever you go, I'll go." Jiang Bing didn't understand what the other person was saying, or perhaps he didn't want to understand.

…………

The bells had been ringing in Lothric for a long time, and a long time had passed since he and Horace rose from their graves. He wondered if the other Unburnt Ashes had risen from their cold graves and begun the urgent path of linking the fire, which they had been supporting.

Anri, from Astra, was thinking about all sorts of random things.

She straightened the knight's shield on her back and encouraged her companion, "Horace, we'll be at Firelink Shrine soon, hang in there!"

Horace, clad in a full set of heavy executioner's armor, mumbled twice, finally managing only a muffled "hmm," which sounded dull and indistinct under the cover of his helmet.

"This is already a positive response from him," Anri thought to herself. After all, her companion was Horace, known as the Silent Knight. For him to utter a single word was already a testament to their extremely good relationship.

"This time, we will definitely kill Eldridge and Horace with our own hands, and avenge those comrades who died at his hands." Anri said to his companions, leaning on the scabbard of his straight sword.

Everything in Rodland was dilapidated, and almost all the creatures they encountered along the way were hostile to others. Anri could only talk to himself to relieve his boredom, but fortunately, Horace was by his side. Although he did not speak, he was a very good listener.

“He climbed out of the coffin again, Horace. Of those ‘sacrifices,’ only the two of us escaped. I think it was all for this day.”