135. Turning My Scarred Body into Flames
She was like a phoenix, charging fearlessly into the midst of impostors, her left arm tightening from the intense pain before quickly spreading open like a wing, igniting the floor and ceiling. Bathing in flames, she surged forward.
The impostors scattered, panicking, unable to confront the overwhelming destruction. Four or five didn't escape in time, and as they climbed over seats, the exposed skin touched the sparks, causing large sections of their bodies to melt like butter, their muscles burning away painfully until they died.
Luo Zhi•Hidden calmly fitted a bayonet to his rifle, gripping it with both hands. He thrust it toward Qiu Ran, whose body was burning fiercely, stabbing her in the abdomen and stopping her in her tracks.
"Don't panic. She's just a spent force. A human body can't last long while burning—just put out the fire, and let me devour her."
Just as Luo Zhi•Hidden finished speaking, a hand grabbed the rifle.
Smack.
Luo Zhi looked up, seeing the woman's unrecognizable face burning in the fire, her flesh fueling the flames.
Qiu Ran opened her mouth but said nothing. The bayonet melted in the high heat, and the wooden stock caught fire. Luo Zhi's pupils contracted, and he quickly dropped the bayonet, picking up a fire axe from the ground. He turned and swung it upward toward Qiu Ran's remaining left arm.
Crack—
Li Aozi tore open the door and stepped inside, just in time to see Qiu Ran's left arm fly off, landing at his feet.
Losing an arm, Qiu Ran could no longer maintain her balance, stumbling. Luo Zhi weighed the axe, swinging it again toward Qiu Ran's neck.
Smack!
The fire axe hit her right shoulder, causing Qiu Ran to pause, unable to move closer no matter how hard she tried.
Luo Zhi, smiling with a face identical to his, said in a voice just like his:
"Now you can't move forward, can you—"
Before he finished, the sharp axe melted, molten iron sliding down Qiu Ran's shoulder. The wound's edges were cauterized by the fire, stopping the blood. Her pupils merged with the flames, unable to see clearly, but the axe handle caught fire.
The transmitted heat burned Luo Zhi's hands, forcing him to drop the handle. In the next moment, Qiu Ran slammed into the impostor's chest.
Bang!
Her vocal cords were destroyed by the fire, and flames spread as she advanced. The impostors ignited just by being near her, the carriage's ceiling burned, and the seats and floorboards burst into flames. They screamed, fleeing, but they forgot the train was speeding, with wind rushing from behind.
"—No!"
Luo Zhi's pupils shrank, his body ignited, unable to stop Qiu Ran from pushing him into the carriage filled with flammable materials.
Boom—
The rapid combustion escalated into an explosion, throwing Li Aozi to the ground.
Flames spread quickly, creating a sea of fire between Qiu Ran and Li Aozi.
Li Aozi stumbled to his feet.
"Cough, cough—cough!"
He quickly picked up Qiu Ran's severed arm, ignoring the scorching heat that burned his palm. Using his neural tendrils, he extracted Qiu Ran's Omega Energy.
If Qiu Ran lost her Omega Energy, her self-ignited flames should stop—most Omega Energy effects could be ended by removing the energy or killing the host.
This was the only way; maybe there was still a chance to stop it.
The neural tendrils burned in the hundreds of degrees heat, pain spreading throughout his body. Li Aozi gritted his teeth, continuously extracting Qiu Ran's genetic sequence. What usually took moments in a battlefield now seemed like an eternity.
Faster, faster!
Without Omega Energy, he couldn't cross the fire, and Qiu Ran might extinguish her flames.
Li Aozi had never hated time passing so slowly.
The residual heat twisted his neural tendrils, but the pain was nothing. As he continued extracting, he finally heard the sound he had hoped for—
[Omega Energy Pod Activated]
[Extracted Omega Energy from Target]: [Spontaneous Combustion]
Rating: Omicron (Ο, the fifteenth Greek letter)
[Active Effect]:
Mode One•Purify Impurities: Consumes Omega Energy, centered on your palm, granting 'accelerated oxidation' to any theoretically flammable object, ignoring surrounding oxygen levels to forcibly create high temperatures.
If the target is a living being, it grants 'Burning State,' dealing 7% of the target's maximum health as spell damage per second, with a corresponding slowing effect based on the target's [Willpower] attribute.
When the target is a carbon-based lifeform, spell damage converts to true damage.
Mode Two•Cleanse the World: Immediately consumes 50% of Omega Energy, creating a 10×10 cubic meter field of extreme high temperature and high pressure in front of you, causing massive spell damage and secondary physical damage.
After five seconds, all oxygen in the field will be consumed, with parts of the ground turning into 'lava terrain,' lasting up to 40 minutes.
If a being with [Constitution] below 10 points is within the field, regardless of other attributes, it grants [Incinerate];
[Incinerate]: In this state, healing is negated, permanently reducing 10 points of [Constitution].
Note: Targets killed by incineration will turn to ash, with bodies forbidden from resurrection.
Note: This state deals true damage to undead and carbon-based lifeforms.
"You should live like fire, enduring through the long night, unquenchable."
High-temperature and flame-type Omega Energy always had immense destructive power, but those who wielded them were often gentle and kind.
Like elephants and whales, though massive and powerful, they were gentle and friendly.
The flames in the carriage gradually died down. Dragging a long knife, Li Aozi hurried forward, seeing pools of black tar with some hard fragments along the way.
The air was filled with the pungent stench of smoke and fire, like rotten eggs boiled in hot water, stinging the eyes and nose. His tear glands immediately went to work, secreting tears to soothe the burning pain.
Half-dead blobs of tar wriggled toward him. These burnt impostors could no longer mimic, and after struggling a few times, they disintegrated into pieces on the ground.
"Qiu Ran… Qiu Ran…"
Li Aozi walked to the middle of the cargo carriage. The explosion had destroyed everything, windows shattered, and wind blew in, carrying white snow sand.
There was no sign of life. In such an explosion, neither impostors nor humans could survive. The wind howled through the shattered windows, making ghostly wails, but he didn't give up hope, searching through the fallen, broken seats, his eyes scanning every corner.
Finally, at the end of the carriage, he saw a kneeling figure.
Qiu Ran knelt, her body burned black by the flames.
"Qiu Ran!"
Li Aozi rushed forward, a surge of joy filling his heart. He dropped his weapon, his joy breaking through his restraint. Forgetting caution, he knelt quickly, reaching out to help her up.
Crack—
As his hand touched the charred body, Qiu Ran's outline collapsed, crumbling. The wind blew through, filling the carriage with black ash.
Li Aozi opened his palm, his hands stained with black ash.
—It wasn't snow but the ash of her burned body.
The fire had taken Qiu Ran's life, and the wind scattered her remains, blending with the frost and snow, merging into the eternal night of the outside world.
This was the introduction of Qiu Ran's [Spontaneous Combustion] ability when she first appeared:
You have the ability to induce and accelerate oxidative heating to a certain extent.
The essence of fire is the phenomenon of combustion. Flammable materials being rapidly and intensely oxidized by oxygen will cause fires, and you can accelerate this process.
Honestly, no one would want to be your enemy because the pain of being slowly burned to death by fire is far worse than other ways to die.
However, this ability doesn't make you immune to fire damage. The maker of the fire often meets a bad end, and hopefully, you will too.
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