NOVPUBBoom!
A sound that shook the heavens echoed.
An immense, terrifying force converged onto the fired bullet.
Even though it was a mere pistol shot, it roared with the intensity of a cannon blast.
For a moment, it felt as if the surrounding air had solidified, even the flames halted their flicker.
Witnessing this, Dasten took two steps back.
Clearly, it was afraid.
It could sense the nightmarish energy contained within that bullet—something it couldn’t withstand. It wanted to flee.
However, it was too late.
Daniel’s face contorted, erupting in a malevolent grin, "Thinking of escaping now?"
"Too late for that!"
"A monster or a Great Old One, what difference does it make?"
"As long as I live, I will obliterate you all!" "Especially you, Atelarxus!"
He watched, wide-eyed, as the bullet struck Dasten.
The creature, writhing on the ground, exploded in an instant.
Limbs and body parts scattered in every direction, and its foul blood splattered the ground.
A madness overtook Daniel, whose face had always been so calm.
"Is that all the Great Old Ones have got?"
Of course, he understood that this Dasten was just a fragment of the original.
Still, the victory felt exhilarating.
If he could defeat an avatar with a single blow, was the main body that far off?
If he could kill the real body of a Great Old One, was Atelarxus far behind?
Madness consumed Daniel’s heart.
At that moment, Julia’s voice echoed from the direction of the fifth-floor office, "Daniel, where are you?!"
Having lost sight of Daniel for a considerable duration and with the fire rapidly engulfing the entire mall, Julia’s worries for his safety intensified.
She took the aerial ladder into the mall, hoping to locate him.
Standing by the railing on the fifth floor, she caught sight of Daniel on the open ground below and breathed a sigh of relief, "Are you alright?"
However, her calls went unanswered.
Fearing he might be injured, she urgently said, "Stay right there! I’m coming down to get you out."
Julia hurriedly descended the staircase.
Upon reaching the first floor, the sight of blood and scattered flesh rendered her both shocked and nauseous.
For a moment, she questioned what horrific event had taken place here; the aftermath was unimaginably gruesome.
Yet, her primary concern remained Daniel’s safety.
She approached him rapidly, sidestepping the flames to ask, "Are you okay?"
Daniel’s manic grin faded, and he gave a subtle nod.
Just when he thought that with Dasten’s demise, things might finally settle, an unsettling stir arose from the direction of the spilled blood.
Approaching the site, Daniel saw that among the remnants of Dasten’s exploded body, countless threads—resembling sentient worms—still connected every piece of flesh and droplet of blood.
He remembered the unique ability of these threads: to mend and stitch.
Just as Daniel assumed that Dasten was about to resurrect, to his astonishment, the threads abruptly changed course, making a beeline for Julia.
Whoosh!
Countless threads floated in mid-air, hurtling towards Julia at an astonishing speed.
As she was walking towards Daniel, Julia sensed the impending danger.
Just as sparks of electricity manifested in her hand, her gaze met with a horde of wriggling thread-like worms soaring directly at her.
Any ordinary person would probably faint at such a sight.
While Julia didn’t pass out, she felt a chilling tingle up her spine.
Fear swiftly overtook her, leaving her no time to react.
The threads burrowed into her body one after the other.
First, a hint of pain flashed across Julia’s eyes, which soon gave way to confusion and emptiness, eventually replaced by insanity, rage, and bloodlust.
Her body began to twist in a grotesque manner, as she slowly crouched, preparing to crawl on the ground.
It became evident that the threads were the real essence of Dasten, and it had chosen to resurrect within Julia!
Smack!
Like a shadow, Daniel appeared before Julia, delivering a powerful slap across her face, aiming to interrupt the rebirth.
The force of his blow sent the threads, which hadn’t fully entered her, scattering outwards.
Sensing that some might still remain, Daniel dealt successive slaps on Julia’s face.
Smack!
Smack!
Smack!
The sharp sound of each slap seemed even louder than the gunfire earlier, leaving Julia dazed and seeing stars.
The threads fell to Daniel’s feet, contorting in what appeared to be agonizing pain.
Sensing Daniel’s feet nearby, they instinctively tried to crawl upwards.
Daniel, taken aback, quipped, "Trying to use my body for your resurrection?"
He chuckled, curious to test if his powers could render him immune to Dasten’s control.
Without hesitation, Daniel scooped up the mass of writhing threads from the ground, immediately feeling an intense itch on his hands.
In no time, the threads pierced through the flesh of Daniel’s palms and burrowed deeper, crawling up his arm and spreading throughout his body.
Daniel could sense an eerie and malevolent force beginning to corrupt his being.
Delving into his own consciousness, he saw these threads meandering amid a gray mist within him.
However, each strand writhed violently, as if the mist caused them profound pain.
As they spread across his entire body, the malevolence they carried suffused every inch of him, preparing to consume him whole.
Yet, deep inside, Daniel remained unflustered, even finding the situation somewhat tedious.
It was clear that these threads were no match for his immunity. 𝒏𝙤𝙫𝒑𝙪𝙗.𝙘𝒐𝙢
With a mere thought, Daniel manipulated the gray mist inside him to engulf the threads.
As an overwhelming power enveloped them, they seemed to panic, their forms bristling in terror.
They desperately tried to escape, but having come this far, there was no way out.
The engulfing gray mist stained the once transparent and almost imperceptible threads a deep shade of gray. Soon, tranquility was restored.
"It’s finally over. So exhausting," Daniel murmured, exhaling heavily.
Using his power that inflicted hundredfold damage had drained him, leaving him feeling as though the life was sucked out of him.
All he desired now was to lay on the ground and recover his strength.
But just as his body began to collapse, he felt a strange tautness within.
His descending body eerily halted, suspended in mid-air.
Startled awake, Daniel calmly commanded, "Stand."
Miraculously, as the command was given, his body, as if lifted by an unseen force, straightened up, standing tall.
Had Julia not been momentarily knocked unconscious by Daniel’s recent series of slaps, she would have gaped in awe and surely noticed the faint gray threads occasionally visible on Daniel’s body.
Yes, this was the power of the threads.
They could control everything and, under any circumstance, command one’s own body.
Dasten’s power had been thoroughly assimilated by Daniel.
In just a brief moment, Daniel’s vitality was restored.
Yet, he didn’t move. Instead, under his mental guidance, he summoned all the threads. He discovered that each thread seemed to possess an individual life force.
"Extinguish the flames," he commanded.
The threads, like loyal soldiers, drifted in all directions.
They located all usable firefighting equipment in the mall: some carried fire extinguishers, some wielded fire hose nozzles, while others turned the valves at fire hydrants.
Numerous threads even found their way to the mall’s control room, searching for the automated fire suppression system’s control devices.
Once everything was set, the firefighting operations began systematically.
Fire extinguishers tackled minor fires on the ground, while water from hose nozzles combated the blazes within various stores.
Once the automatic fire suppression system was fixed, the fire alarm detectors sensed the fires, triggering automated water sprinklers across each floor.
Then, a single thread dragged a palm-sized stone statue before Daniel.
His eyes sharpened, "A statue of the Great Old Ones?"
It was the statue that Jack had unearthed in Mauritania.
It appeared that Pierce had infiltrated Jack’s body through it.
Such an ominous object surely needed to be destroyed.
As Daniel was about to crush the statue in his grip, he abruptly heard what seemed like the slithering sound of tentacles.
To his astonishment, the tentacles on the statue became as lifelike as those of an octopus.
The four tentacles tightly wrapped around Daniel’s hand, secreting a sticky substance.
"What’s going on? Are you trying to resurrect inside me as well?"
Daniel asked, his expression unchanging, as he reached out with his other hand to seize the tentacle.
But the suckers on the tentacles had a formidable grip, and combined with the slimy secretion, they proved impossible to remove.
The next moment, a sinister pulse emitted from the statue’s eyes.
Daniel’s vision blurred and darkened, his mind grew hazy, and his grip involuntarily loosened.
Emerging from the statue’s eyes was the ghastly spirit of a boar, which hastily rushed into Daniel’s eyes.
The intense pain snapped Daniel back to reality.
He could feel a forceful assault on his mind. Simultaneously, Pierce’s voice echoed inside his head.
"Heh heh heh, bet you didn’t see that coming! I’m still alive!" it cackled.
"The ancient wars of the Old Gods from eons ago couldn’t kill me. Did Dasten think it could take me down?"
"Hmph, even if it revealed its true form, it wouldn’t stand a chance!"
"Foolish human, offer your body to me now. The great Pierce Duminas will make you the most powerful being on this planet!"
Pierce’s soul, imbued with a potent and malevolent force, began to invade Daniel’s psyche.
