Gunfire thundered.
Red and white matter burst forth with the pellets like macabre fireworks, obscuring the vision of companions behind while projectiles, carrying diminished but still lethal kinetic energy, painted the dark wizard's face crimson.
Glenn hoisted the corpse one-handed as a human shield, intercepting an incoming blade. Threading the shotgun barrel deeper, he pushed the muzzle through the back of the skull to press against the dark wizard beyond, then squeezed the trigger again.
Gunfire erupted behind him—Hermione had regained her feet and reloaded, now securing Glenn's rear. In her sector, few enemies remained capable of movement.
Kicking the corpse dangling from his shotgun toward advancing dark wizards as obstruction, Glenn withdrew behind Hermione to reload his magazine.
Glenn's black robes were saturated with blood, stained with countless fragments of human tissue, yet his expressionless face remained pristinely pale. This stark contrast made Glenn appear unnervingly dangerous.
Barely twenty seconds had elapsed since Glenn and Hermione entered the cavern, yet the dark wizards who'd detected distant commotion and prepared their ambush faced near-complete annihilation.
Weapons called firearms spat flame and death. Projectiles called grenades unleashed devastating shockwaves and shrapnel. Without magical enhancement, even dark wizards practiced in various unorthodox body-strengthening arts found their mortal flesh utterly defenseless against modern weaponry.
Having perpetrated countless atrocities, these lawless dark wizards finally experienced an emotion long absent from their repertoire.
Fear.
Witnessing acquaintance after acquaintance—collaborators with divergent goals but temporarily aligned interests—perish horrifically before their eyes, lives fragmenting like crystal dropped from impossible heights, and observing this boy wielding instruments of death with methodical cruelty, his obsidian gaze devoid of humanity as he trained weapons upon them—finally, these dark wizards knew terror.
When one who has abandoned humanity faces death at another's equally inhuman hands, does humanity return?
The answer: yes—manifesting as fear and regret.
But fear springs from impending personal extinction, while regret concerns delayed escape rather than past atrocities.
People die when killed.
Those who kill invite retribution.
Having chosen murder, one must accept death at others' hands. To experience fear now, regret now, merely accelerates the march toward oblivion.
The threads of sanity in dark wizards' minds had stretched taut since comrades began falling—now they snapped entirely.
With Glenn and Hermione controlling firearms while guarding the cavern's sole exit, several psychologically fragile dark wizards actually turned their backs on the pair, attempting flight toward the cages imprisoning magical creatures.
Supremely foolish.
"Hermione, handle them."
Glenn spared them no glance, delegating elimination of fleeing enemies to Hermione. Compared to his shotgun's close-range area devastation, her assault rifle's mid-range precision capabilities better suited current circumstances.
"Understood."
Hermione raised her HK416 to eye level. Through the optic, achieving proper sight alignment, Hermione's gaze locked onto a panicked, fleeing dark wizard.
Unlike previous engagements, Hermione hesitated—her subsequent shot passed mere inches from the intended target.
This didn't indicate misplaced mercy but calculated strategy.
The dark wizard who'd narrowly escaped felt every hair stand rigid, perspiration cascading down his spine, pulse racing toward two hundred. Yet survival's sweet relief prompted an involuntary smile.
However, at his intended destination, a sharp crack, brilliant spark, and metallic clatter sent his heart plummeting into despair.
His suspended hope finally died.
Hermione's precision shot had severed the cage lock. A crimson claw pushed the door wide.
A creature—neither quite leopard nor tiger, bearing single horn and malevolent countenance—slowly emerged. Entirely scarlet-hued with five trailing tails, it fixed blazing eyes upon the approaching figure and roared with primal fury!
"ROAAAAAR!"
Thunder-like vocalization echoed like stone striking stone as the beast exploded from confinement!
A creature whose form resembled a red leopard, possessing five tails and one horn, whose voice rang like striking stone—named Zheng.
"No! Stay back, you monster!"
The crimson predator instantly pounced upon the fleeing dark wizard, jaws opening to rend and tear.
Though Zheng typically hunted tigers and leopards, this hardly precluded human prey—especially when confronting the architects of its torment.
Razor claws extended, plunging deep into the victim's chest cavity. Bloodied maw gaped wide, savagely clamping onto the dark wizard's throat.
Arterial spray painted stone walls.
The dark wizard's terrorized curses died abruptly. Crimson foam bubbled from his lips as limbs convulsed, resistance weakening until a final spasm stilled all movement.
Such scenes multiplied throughout the chamber.
"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Each gunshot liberated another imprisoned magical creature. Each roar—or terrified scream—signified another dark wizard overwhelmed by vengeful beasts.
Sharp talons and fangs shredded flesh, disemboweling victims. Beaked creatures without teeth pecked out eyes and punctured arteries. Massive specimens delivered crushing impacts or brutal charges, reducing opponents to pulverized remains.
Since anti-magic arrays still suppressed spiritual energy, the magical creatures relied purely on physical assault.
This suited them perfectly.
The agony dark wizards had inflicted would be repaid a thousandfold.
Accumulated hatred from creatures subjected to unbearable suffering now erupted with volcanic fury.
The area before Hermione transformed into hellish abattoir under bestial vengeance, momentarily exceeding even Glenn's sector in sheer carnage.
Yet Hermione's expression remained unmoved. The young woman's features had crystallized into glacial composure matching Glenn's.
Because she possessed moral judgment. Because she understood empathy. Because she witnessed bone-deep lacerations and exposed viscera marking the creatures' bodies, observed rage blazing in their eyes, and glimpsed heart-wrenching anguish lurking beneath that fury.
These people deserved nothing less than death.
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