Meteor Fall Master in the 'Starry Abyss'
Chapter 214 - 037. Burning Streets

Chapter 214: 037. Burning Streets

Da-da-da-da-da—

The Grantian soldiers’ heavy machine guns turned a car into a sieve, and the remaining kinetic energy was still enough to rip two of Bemudes’s warriors into pieces. Their surviving comrades, their eyes bloodshot, shifted their positions while raising their rifles to shoot into the distance, attempting to provide fire suppression to help their companions escape.

However, the bullets they fired could only leave a few dented bullet holes in the armor. Even though visibility had become extremely poor due to the influence of Frost Snow and they were caught off guard, the Grantian military still held a technological advantage. They turned on their infrared lights and equipped night vision goggles, still thoroughly out-ranging Bemudes’s soldiers.

"These traitors to the motherland actually think they can take us on in guerrilla warfare by exploiting the alley fighting; that’s just laughable!"

The gunner stopped caring about the heavy machine gun, crawled back into the vehicle and closed the hatch, scoffing.

"Don’t let your guard down. Stay alert to the alleys and windows around you. If they attack from above, our tank armor will have a hard time holding up."

That said, when the auto-reloader stuffed a shell into the chamber and the turret’s main gun swiveled to aim at the bunker, the tank commander just gave a cold smile.

It was over.

"Fire."

The primer ignited, and the heavy shell burst forth with an impassioned spray of sparks, the metallic body spiraling forward, about to fly out of the barrel.

Boom!

Instantly, the entire tank was enveloped in an invisible force field, the vehicle was flattened, with Leoz’s figure dropping down in a flash, his feet landing on what was nearly a pancake of metal, then he immediately sprung up, causing the unlaunched shell to explode inside the vehicle, leaving behind a dazzling explosion and quickly pounced towards another tank.

To a Gravity Manipulator, armored units were like clumsy turtles. The machine guns couldn’t catch up to a figure accelerating at 60Gs, and Leoz had only to hook his fingers to give the 50-ton main battle tank a 20-fold lift towards the sky, causing it to be flung up and then to viciously crash to the ground, kicking up dust clouds shaped like bird cages.

With a Charm attribute of 100.1 points, Leoz was no less formidable on the modern battlefield than a Mobile Armor, clearing a 50-meter radius area around him.

"That’s, that looks like our Beta Rank—it’s Mr. Leoz!"

"Thank goodness, we’re saved!"

"The enemy formation has been broken by Leoz, brethren, for the liberation of our motherland, charge!"

Leoz began to intentionally lower his flight height, casually using gravity to pull two 54-ton ’Raccoon’ style tanks towards him, sweeping them left and right.

With a light beckoning of his hand, two tanks accelerated at 50Gs smashed to the ground in an instant, their ammunition detonating inside, the savage shockwave spreading and tearing apart the earth, flinging all soldiers along the street into the sky, including a few Alpha Stage officers.

"At this rate, the advance is too slow; if we don’t break through this street, we won’t reach Sulut Palace."

The street’s defenses were well-constructed, with snipers in every direction, making it difficult for the advancing teams to push through.

Muttering to himself, Leoz suddenly raised his hand, pulling an approaching Alpha Stage Assassin out of thin air, who showed a look of terror and disbelief as he floundered in mid-air.

"You, what the hell is this—"

"Noise."

Leoz pondered in his mind, then clenched his fist tighter.

Splat!

Under forty-fold gravity compression, the adversary’s body was instantly squished into a pile of mush.

Bullets fired at Leoz’s vicinity were immediately deflected away by gravity. Opening his hands, Leoz continuously grasped with his fingers. The earth, sand, stones, remnants of soldiers, tanks, steel, and concrete on the ground were all stripped away, converging under his will into a ball weighing around 400 tons, which not only blocked all the bullets but also sucked them in.

"Still not enough."

Controlling gravity with his left hand, Leoz grabbed a bag of military jelly, tore open the package with one hand, and voraciously sucked down several mouthfuls, restoring his Arcane Energy. The golden rings in his eyes instantly shimmered with a magnificent glow.

"Hey hey! What is that thing?"

Grantian soldiers behind the defense lines only saw a metallic sphere expand rapidly at the forefront of the firefight, uncannily bizarre.

The larger it grew, the more things around it seemed to fly towards it, including the neighborhood shops and homes, as pieces of sturdy rebar, concrete, and glass shattered around it, bursting ceaselessly. In just a few seconds, it had grown beyond the limits of sight.

Leoz didn’t think it was enough, so he raised his right hand and placed it on the gigantic sphere, which was nearly 50 meters in diameter.

A conservative estimate... somewhere between 1500 to 1600 tons?

[Spontaneous Combustion]

[Mode Two: Cleansing Humanity]

Hummm—Boom!

The molecules heated violently, the ball heated up in just a moment, causing a piercing red-hot surface, and the air to twist sharply. Merely gazing upon it was enough to feel a sting in the eyes.

Gurgle...

The Grantian soldiers weren’t fools, realizing that the scale and material of the object made it indestructible, they immediately turned their heads and shouted loudly:

"Run!"

Gravity Compression Tenfold!

The sphere, weighing a thousand tons and hurtling out at a speed of 98 meters per second, far exceeded the speed of any human. When such a massive sphere, carrying scorching flames and high temperature, was catapulted out at high speed and smashed into the ground, the loud explosion resounded throughout the capital. Shockwaves swept through the buildings on the ground, instantly destroying the entire street’s defenses, and a huge hole tens of meters deep appeared on the ground, swirling with high temperatures and black smoke.

Having lost its gravitational binding, the sphere also could no longer maintain effective cohesion; upon impacting the ground, the vast majority of its kinetic energy dissipater due to its sandy interior structure. However, its disintegration caused the fragments to be flung out even farther, and a sentinel standing guard two kilometers away was struck by one of the scorching fragments, piercing through his head, killing him instantly.

Mr. Leoz stepped into the air one by one, as if climbing transparent stairs. He brought his palms together, rubbing and rotating at the base of his hands, and under his control, gravity collected all the scattered objects, drawing an ocean of fragments across the sky to fall into the deep pit. Under the control of gravity, they systematically filled in and restored the level roadway.

People stared dumbfounded at such an act. The power of Arcane Energy was not unheard of, but in the consciousness of the Grantians, Arcane Energy was nothing more than a trick for performing petty magic — in battle, it was the equivalent of getting winded by one gunshot, two shots leaving you reeling, and three shots sealing your fate.

Mr. Leoz himself admitted that he was just an ordinary Arcane User, and still wrongly accused and wanted by Frost Plated and the GTB. Everyone already admired him and sympathized with his plight.

Yet, now, Mr. Leoz was flying steadily in the sky, casually summoning meteors and effortlessly filling chasms with a power that could truly be described as moving mountains and seas, a far cry from the mundane uses of storing up energy, like lighting a smoke, charging a phone, or displaying a burst of strength, as they had understood it.

"This is a true god..."

Rather than saying it was Arcane Energy, it was more convincing to call this a miracle.

With Leoz’s forceful clearing of the way, the morale of Bemudes’s warriors soared. Marching on a road still sparkling with embers and sparks, they bravely pushed forward.

"That’s better, they should be coming for me now, right?"

Leoz had become a target in the sky, drawing the attention of drones and artillery, which rushed toward him.

But to him, their numbers truly meant nothing.

Gurgle—

The Special Ability Pod extended from the fibers of his clothing onto his forearm, enveloping the elbow and gushing out waste heat into the air.

The "Gene Grafting Enhanced Supernatural Pod" now allowed him to store up to 22 Arcane Energies at once.

But more importantly, he could not only store these Arcane Energies but also combine them, organize and release them in a programmable fashion to create wonderful chemical reactions—

Just as a "Magician" could create elemental reactions with various Magic attributes or combine them into new spells,

"Mutants" had similar abilities.

Leoz drew the Plain Slash Long Blade and a ghastly purple energy in the form of a ferocious demonic spirit emerged behind him. Facing the swarm of incoming drones, Leoz tossed a piece of Yawen’s compressed biscuits into his mouth. He then held the Long Blade before him with one hand and with his left hand’s index and middle fingers, he rapidly drew across the blade.

The "Soul Engraving Swordsman - War Spectre" - Overlay

The resentment formed a huge purple hand that covered Leoz’s hand, as if a bloodthirsty demon ghost was wielding the Long Blade for him.

"Spontaneous Combustion" - Overlay

A woman’s face briefly appeared on Leoz’s, eyes glowing red, and the edge of the blade ignited with surging flames.

"Gravity Contact" - Overlay

Gravity spread like ripples instantly across the entire blade, giving it just the right weight and a terrifyingly high acceleration.

Purple, red, and gold, these colors rapidly changed in his eyes, finally blending together into a commanding red-black.

"I finally understand why so many people enjoy being ’Martial Artists.’"

Leoz opened his mouth, and the breath he exhaled turned into white mist in the chilly wind behind him. He raised his blade, aimed at the incoming swarm of drones and the entire land, and unleashed a single slash!

Swoosh—

Oxygen was instantaneously consumed in the fire, the Battle Ghost’s hand grasping the Long Sword, causing a series of piercing whistles to sound through the air as it traced a full circle before coming to a halt,

The flickering crimson sword light intensely focused into one, instantly slicing through the sky and the earth, with buildings melting away at the hot, smooth cut, slowly shifting downwards along the edge.

Due to the inertia of the Battle Ghost swinging the blade for him, Leoz was caught off guard and turned away, back facing the dense swarm of exploding drones in the sky, just in time to face the advancing warriors of Bemudes.

In the next moment, the skyline behind him filled with a sea of fire, illuminating the dusky red-black sky. Everyone instinctively looked up; and although one man seemed so small compared to the entire night sky or the sea of flames, people found him at once, clearly seeing him with his back to the thousands of burning, destroyed drones.

Only then did Leoz, belatedly, glance at the combination of Arcane Modules he had just formed:

"Trinity—’Ghost Exorcising Extreme Burning Slash’."