Chapter Fifty-Four: The Lord-Class Aberration

Five teams rapidly contracted, each with a servant retreating as he scraped deep grooves into the earth with the tip of his axe. Two other servants carried enormous wooden barrels, walking backwards as they poured gunpowder into the grooves. Behind them, others bore planks to clear their path, preventing any accidental falls. Each demolition group had multiple fuses designed to avoid mishaps. Despite the palpable tension, everyone managed to maintain rhythm, and no chaos broke out.

[You believe that igniting the explosives in twenty-seven seconds will be the optimal choice, allowing it to be severely wounded at the explosion's center!]
[Warning! Before it’s badly hurt, no one should look directly at it. Among all present, only you and Shanna can barely withstand its psychic interference!]

"Severely wounded?!"
Collin’s pupils shrank. Did this mean that over a ton—almost two tons—of explosives might still not kill it outright? Had the so-called 'significant damage' at a hundred pounds merely blown off its toes? What kind of stats did a Lord-class aberration possess?

"Good thing I didn't get cocky and charge in with just a ton. I almost fell for that misleading prompt. The information it provides really demands careful scrutiny," Collin cursed under his breath, quickly retreating and refusing to let his mind wander. He needed to focus on the gray mist ahead, watching the aberration’s direction, reading the countdown on his prompt.

Thirty seconds. Ten seconds. One second!

"Light it!"
Collin shouted, calmly pouring blood from the lantern to ignite his assigned fuse on the ground.
"Run! Don’t look back!"

As soon as his words rang out, the servants dropped their barrels and began a brisk withdrawal, loudly repeating Collin’s warning: no looking back! The gunpowder streaked swiftly across the ground.

As the Lord-class aberration approached, Collin began to feel a distinct discomfort in his mind—a subtle pain, as if his brain were being kneaded. Before long, when the group reached the forest’s edge, Collin waved to halt the teams and issued another command:

"Everyone, get into the pits! Cover yourselves with planks! No talking! No raising your heads! Keep your eyes shut!"

Upon hearing this, all five teams lay down in the prepared pits, covered themselves with planks, plugged their ears, and opened their mouths—a standard method to withstand shockwaves. To prevent disaster, Collin and the others didn’t leave the woods but instead hid in temporary trenches, ensuring the Lord-class aberration wouldn’t abandon its pursuit.

These trenches had been dug earlier, when the other teams placed the barrels in the forest. They were half to one meter deep—meant to shield them from the terrifying shockwave unleashed by the thousand kilograms of explosives. The digging teams had withdrawn at Collin’s first shout, returning to the armored vehicles and leaving the site to him. No one was idle in this operation!

Now, the people in the trenches listened as the crackling sound of burning gunpowder faded swiftly through the dead woods, growing fainter and fainter. Their hearts climbed into their throats, fear was unavoidable, and emotions ran wild.

This was the Lord-class aberration’s psychic interference. Even separated by hundreds of meters, its power still exerted some effect—subtle and not easily noticed. Only Collin, accustomed to dealing with aberrations, could sense something amiss.

This time, Collin was certain—the Lord-class aberration’s power seemed to be blocked by that church. When they’d faced the creature with only a wall between them, not even ten meters away, there’d been no effect. This alone proved the church’s anomaly.

But now wasn’t the time to dwell on such things. The only one with eyes open, Collin, stared intently at the mist, focusing on the prompt in his mind, wary of any unexpected developments.

He habitually bit the inside of his cheek, using pain to suppress stray thoughts and keep the prompt functioning properly. But suddenly, a sharp sting began in his eyeball, stabbing into his brain, stirring his thoughts, bringing an indescribable agony.

"It can attack from this distance?!"
Horrified, Collin realized he’d somehow 'seen'—in a peculiar way—a grotesque, swollen foot covered in tumors emerging from the mist! Above the foot, in the shadow beyond the mist, a terrifying giant’s silhouette was rapidly approaching—moving in an unnaturally bizarre way, nothing like a normal person’s gait.

What struck Collin hardest was the psychic contamination radiating from that monstrous foot! On its myriad tumors grew multiple eyeballs, all locked onto him!

They were trying to establish eye contact with Collin, then unleash horrific contamination, stirring extreme emotions within him, launching psychic punishment against the fool who dared look directly from hundreds of meters away!

Yet, clearly, the distance made this 'punishment' non-lethal.

In Collin’s vision, the giant’s five-meter tall body emerged swiftly from the mist, disregarding all the traps laid here, advancing by trampling everything in its path. But in that moment, Collin closed his stinging eyes as if sand had entered them, rolled into the trench, pulled the plank over himself, and fell flat to the ground.

The next second, flames shot skyward, instantly engulfing and consuming the giant’s figure.

Almost simultaneously, whether crouched in trenches or waiting by the armored vehicles, everyone felt a shockwave—so powerful it could annihilate all—rush forth. In the blaze, a distinct 'boundary' appeared—semi-transparent, a visual distortion caused by immense pressure compressing the air during the explosion. It lasted only a fleeting instant, but its effects lingered far longer.

Immediately after, a tremendous rumbling echoed throughout the space, slightly delayed but, to those experiencing it, arriving almost in tandem. In the briefest of moments, everyone’s organs trembled, their chests compressed, a powerful suffocation struck as if they couldn’t breathe. All thoughts in their minds were scattered by the shockwave—an instant of utter blankness.

At that moment, the only thing in their world was the explosion.

When Collin and the others came to, they saw nothing but endless mist and smoke blotting out the sky. Gravel, shards of stone, branches, even burning tree stumps rained down with a steady patter. Nearly two tons of gunpowder had truly unleashed terrifying power!

"Good thing it was two tons of black powder. If it had been two tons of TNT, we’d have skipped the cremation step and gone straight to burial."

The rumbling lingered in the air. Amidst this upheaval, Collin felt as if the world itself had been destroyed. He pushed up the plank in the trench, rose to survey the post-explosion landscape, his scattered thoughts quickly coalescing.

Yet, something struck him—his heart sank suddenly, because...

The kill notification never appeared!