The Last Gentleman
Chapter 615: 613: Devouring Failure

Boom!

The Velsman Teaching Building exploded massively at its base, and as a symbolic structure and one of the Twin Peaks of the academy, it completely collapsed.

Two figures rapidly flashed through the mountains and landed on a nearby campus square.

The once green grass had long been dyed bright red, and the moon, almost above Zion’s head, poured as much moonlight as possible onto the duo battling below, creating a strangely beautiful scene.

It illuminated Glatoni’s superhuman, primitive-like exaggerated physique, his intricate blood armor, and the mouths floating all over his body,

as well as the eerie corpse in the darkness, its eyes wrapped in black cloth, now wildly twisting its joints, each finger cracking audibly.

The Marquis looked at the ’corpse’ before him, his thoughts returning to several months ago,

when he first led a great army to forcefully invade Zion. Due to the construction of the Skin Bag Pulse Tower, the abilities of most gentlemen were reduced, making the initial invasion go quite smoothly.

As one of the Seven Marquis, he had been unrivaled, even becoming somewhat relaxed in his mentality.

Not until this corpse, named Zede, suddenly emerged from the shadows and tore apart a new Earl skilled in reconnaissance but not in combat right before him.

Only then did Marquis Glatoni realize that the humans here were not simple, not expecting that such characters existed among the ordinary humans.

Back then, the Marquis acted very decisively, immediately activated his blood armor, and united his team to suppress Zede, eventually trapping him in a monastery-like prison within the academy after much difficulty.

Glatoni had never before seen such a physique and was very impressed with it.

Using the Marquis’s authority, he spared no expense to perform a ’full-body blood transformation’ on Zede, even utilizing a full third of the essential blood designated for city construction for Zede’s baptism and transformation.

For four long months,

in Glatoni’s view, even if Zede hadn’t transformed successfully, at least half of his body had changed, making him biased towards the blood people.

But now, it seemed all the native blood plague that flowed into Zede’s body, attempting to infect and transform his flesh, had completely failed, resisted by his corpse-like special physique, degraded, and even absorbed as nutrients.

Over these four months, Zede, who had been immersed in the blood tank, not only had not transformed but had used the pure blood to nourish his body, continuing to train his corporeal form while unconscious, becoming stronger.

"A person like you should not be confined to a mere human organization, going to the Old World will afford you greater, better development! I can feel your body seems related to the [Monastery].

Although I do not know your relationship with the Monastery, I’d guess it’s likely adversarial.

With your strength, turning into a blood person, you would certainly become one of the ’Seven Marquis’ and enjoy the highest grade of blood resources. Currently, the weakest among us is no match for you, and you could easily rise to power if you joined us!

I can also promise you other terms, once my Lord is resurrected and the new manor rebuilt, restoring the [Source Epidemic Area] title. Even if you want to kill someone from the Monastery, we will fully support you.

I can even consider proposing to the higher-ups to abandon Zion as a stronghold and choose another city to establish our manor in the New World."

Marquis Glatoni was in good spirits, still extending an olive branch to Zede in this situation.

Zede slightly tilted his head, "I’m not interested in killing just one person from the Monastery, but everyone. If you are willing to assist me... I could indeed consider."

This statement starkly changed Glatoni’s expression, "[Suffering Monastery] is not like an ordinary Source Epidemic Area; it is recognized and directly managed by the World Origin, responsible for guarding special prisoners of the Old World and maintaining the balance and development of the Old World.

No one dares to touch the Monastery, not even the biggest organization, Cancer Palace.

By doing this, you would be making enemies of the entire Old World, and there would be nothing but a dead end for you."

However, Zede never had the intention to compromise; it was just casual conversation.

"Don’t be so serious; I naturally wouldn’t rely on outsiders to handle Monastery matters... Come then, invader, continue our four months of battle. I’ve thought a lot during this time; you shouldn’t be able to bite me anymore."

Zede stood as straight as a corpse on the ground, not moving at all, even the flowers and grass around him completely still, an absolutely still state Zede had never shown before.

On Marquis Glatoni’s side, although he didn’t care about other people’s various mockeries, when the taunts targeted his devouring ability, the situation became a bit different.

"Not going to be bitten... No one among the Seven Marquis dares to say such a thing."

Glatoni raised his right arm, all the mouths on his palm and arm’s surface making a nibbling motion.

Multiple devourings came simultaneously,

yet Zede still maintained his motionless standing posture, as if standing at the center of a still water surface.

And the Marquis, at the water’s edge, seemed to be placing several pebbles gently onto the water. Even if the naked eye saw no ripples, Zede could feel the extremely slight, multiple waves spreading toward him.

Whew~ Gently exhaling,

Zede, relying purely on perception, moved three and a half steps to the left at 37.1°, standing sidelong.

Hum!

Nine pits, each with teeth marks, appeared on the ground around Zede, but the position where he stood remained untouched; even half a step more would not have been okay.

"What!" Glatoni’s eyes widened, this was the first time such a situation had occurred.

Due to the Marquis’s momentary daze, the ’corpse’ in his field of vision had already disappeared, even its aura gone without a trace.

"Where did he go?"

Glatoni immediately had the mouths all over his body stick out their tongues, catching the ’flavor’ of the air.

Not on the horizontal plane, nor in the sky.

"Underground!"

The speed at which he perceived the scent was slightly slow!

Crack~ The ground split open, and a pale corpse arm suddenly stretched out.

Glatoni also took countermeasures, growing multiple mouths in the lower leg area, ready to devour Zede emerging from below... But what emerged was not just one arm, but multiple corpse arms!

Slap~Slap~Slap!

Each hand accurately grabbed the mouths on the surface of the marquis’s lower leg, interrupted the devouring, and suddenly pulled down, trying to drag him underground.

"This guy!"

Glatoni instantly used his main mouth, looked down at his lower body, and bit down!

Buzz!

An immense devouring crater that spanned dozens of meters instantly formed, even swallowing up the marquis’s own right leg, with fresh blood dripping from the wounds.

Unfortunately, by the time he bit down, Zede had already retreated, and what was swallowed were just some useless corpse arms.

"This guy..."

Glatoni spread his blood wings, floated in the air, and looked at the ground with considerable wariness, as if he would be dragged underground the moment he landed.

Soon, the marquis noticed the soil loosening again,

Whoosh!

The soil broke open, but Zede did not appear

Instead, a ’Corpse Arm Gun’ made out of dozens of corpse arms stitched, kneaded, and compressed shot out—an ability unique to Zede—thrown out with his absolute power.

The speed of the spear was unbelievably fast, even seemingly tearing through space.

Whoosh!

"What kind of speed is this?"

A drop of cold sweat slid down the marquis’s forehead, feeling that if he tried to catch the spear with his arm, it would likely be pierced through directly, making devouring ineffective.

He could only use the more efficient main mouth again,

Crack! He felt a sour pain in his back molars but still managed to crush and swallow the long spear.

However,

Just as the marquis ’tasted’ the spear, a lifeless, eerily silent figure had already leaped into the air.

However, it was still tasted by the marquis’s tongue.

"Trying to pinpoint the timing?"

The marquis wouldn’t give him any chance, but since the main mouth couldn’t be used continuously for devouring, he had to employ the mouths on the front of his body and both arms for joint devouring.

Nearly forty mouths together bit at the figure in the air.

Crack!

A sound of something jamming spread across the sky,

Like accidentally biting down on a hard stone while eating, and it was a very large and hard stone.

Glatoni, with more than ten mouths, directly sprayed out blood and spit out broken teeth—he had never bitten something so solid before.

In front of him,

The figure suspended in the air suddenly curled up,

With its legs bent, feet pressed against its buttocks,

Hands holding its head close to its back,

Presenting tightly tensed, pale, and robust corpse muscles,

Its body covered with various bite marks, some areas bitten through the skin revealing flesh and bones inside, but overall unchanged, merely superficial wounds.

Zede withstood the frontal devouring through pure physical strength, a fact that would certainly cause a sensation at the Skin Factory if it got back.

The next second,

The curled-up Zede suddenly sprang out, landing a foot on Glatoni’s still bleeding abdominal muscles.

A massive gust of airwave exploded in the air,

Glatoni plummeted like a bullet, even breaking the sound barrier on his way down, with visible airflow vertical to the ground!

Boom!

The entire Zion shook, and a hundred-meter-wide crater was blasted at the center of the campus.