No one had noticed how many attacks Y’zaks had deflected with his head. Everyone was too occupied with the Shades of Chaos that kept coming from the hall. No matter how many shadows Y’zaks and Y’lisabet had smashed, the shadows just kept pouring out like a mudflow. The only thing that limited the shadows’ attack ability was their lack of intelligence. The Shades of Chaos took followed the shortest route, so the space between the hall entrance and the line of defense on the demon hunters’ side was where blockade was necessary.
As Hao Ren was now in the open space, he no longer had to worry that the use of the psionic weapon would unintentionally harm his teammates. He immediately pulled out his gun. Bright blue beam cut through the air, hitting the small square in front of the family hall with a series of explosions. The Shades of Chaos that crept on the square instantly turned into crystal dust. For a moment, Hao Ren was able to kill more shadows than Y’zaks and the little demon combined.
The psionic weapon could kill or destroy anything it hits regardless of the target’s nature and the protective mechanism. It could inflict real damage to anything that was describable as well as indescribable in the world. It was powerful energy almost equal to the power of God. Even only a small gun in the hand of an inspector, the characteristics would not change. Though the nature of the Shades of Chaos was bizarre, it had no match for nor defense against psionic energy.
The only problem was that there seemed to be an infinite number of Shades of Chaos. The psionic gun had limited range of attack, the Shades of Chaos was unstoppable no matter what they did. The shadows had now pushed the battle frontier close to where the sacred-flame defense perimeter was.
There was a strange pungent smell as the sacred flame barrier burned hotter and hotter. The Shades of Chaos had finally come face-to-face with the demon hunters.
Y’zaks and Y’lisabet had retreated to the line of defense. Though the duo was mentally tough enough to withstand a short period of mental attack of the Shades of Chaos, they were cautious not to come into direct contact with any of them.
Now, Vivian was joining them. Her eyes turned blood-red. She summoned chilling energy that spun like a cyclone to carry her into the air before calling out a swarm of bats out of thin air around her. These bats were different from the physical creatures that she used to summon; this version was like a chaotic air mass and energy formed by icy ashes and darkness. These translucent bats flickering with a light inside swooped down at the Shades of Chaos and turned the shadows to become a part of them through assimilation and devouring.
The bats of ash and darkness and the sacred flames of the demon hunters began to intertwine and form a weird black-and-white battle scene. While keeping the bats in motion, Vivian turned around her head and asked Hasse loudly, “When are you going to end the ritual?”
“Just a few minutes more!” Hasse replied loudly, and then looked at Vivian’s bats that flew in the flame. The flame was now different in characteristics with the one used on the evacuation path in earlier. To fight back the Shades of Chaos, it was a lot more violent and destructive. “Does your shadowmancy conflict with the sacred flame?”
“Do they look like there’s a conflict?” Vivian rolled her eyes. “I’m even wearing crosses my body, mind you!”
“That’s not what I mean—” Hasse felt that something was not right, but a sudden scream interrupted him.
A young demon hunter at the defense barrier was screaming.
Hao Ren turned his head around and saw there was a breach in the defense barrier where the demon hunter was. The demon hunter’s shadow was flickering, and the magic shield on his body lit up under his windbreaker. Though White Flame had quickly filled the gap remotely from a distance, it was a little too late; the Shade of Chaos had gotten the warrior.
The warrior was fighting back, but keeping the sacred-flame barrier up had drained him. When the Shade of Chaos attacked, he was defenseless. After a few seconds of trepidation, he suddenly turned to look at a companion closest to him. His eyes were cloudy and void of rationality.
The warrior pulled out his silver dagger and attacked his teammate; fighting began to spread starting with him as the center of chaos.
“This is the worst moment I’ve always feared,” Hesperides said. She took a huge mace with blades and nails out of nowhere and then engulfed herself in flame before lunging at the deranged demon hunter. “Everyone, hold the line. Let me deal with this kid!”
Hasse’s jaw dropped to the ground as he saw Hesperides confronted the enemy with a mace. The demon hunter looked at Vivian. “Hasn’t she recovered from her head injury?” he asked.
“She has got back her character but not her combat style. She has lost the original style for good,” Vivian explained embarrassedly. “After you shot her in her head, she had modified her twilight wand into a mace. After she returned to her normal character, she had no other suitable weapon, so she kept using the mace.”
The scene reminded Hasse when he first met Hesperides in Olympus thousands of years ago. Back then, the nymph was a chicken; she was wielding a wand but timid and lack of combat skill. But fade had changed her. The senior demon hunter shuddered. “What goes around comes around,” he lamented.
The deranged demon hunter was no slouch even before the shadow possessed him. Now he had gotten even stronger after losing his mind. The demon hunter was able to hold off Hesperides and turned the fighting into a stalemate.
Hesperides was glowing so hot that even the ground around her softened, but the deranged demon hunter did not feel a thing. He dodged the attacks from Hesperides by performing a continuous spatial shift and using arrow and rune spells to drain Hesperides’ patience and energy. Seeing the situation, Vivian became a little unsettled. After sending a swarm of bats to deal with the Shades of Chaos, Vivian came to the help of Hesperides.
“Try to catch him!” Hesperides shouted. “The spatial shift of this son of a b*tch is f*cking elusive!”
Vivian transformed into a massive swarm of bats. The bats, filled with lightning, swooped down at the demon hunter from all directions. The demon hunter was about to do another spatial shift, but Vivian had anticipated that. Through the bats, she emitted a directional, ear-piercing whistle at the deranged demon hunter, breaking his sequence of movement. A bright light followed immediately and lit up the entire scene.
The light subsided, and the bats regrouped. The electric shock had immobilized the demon hunter, leaving him standing still like a statue on the spot.
Hesperides strode up to the demon hunter about to knock him out.
Before she could do that, the cloudy layer in the demon hunter’s eyes disappeared, and he regained his consciousness.
The Shade of Chaos had left him.
The joint exorcism of the demon hunters was finally coming to its last stage. It ended with a loud peal. Bright lights burst out of the demon hunters and shrouded the entire building following with the runes above the family hall crumbling down.
When the bright light finally dissipated, Hao Ren found that the family hall was still standing intact, but the Shades of Chaos had gone.
It seemed that the demon hunters were superior compared to the otherworldlings, at least in dealing with various negative forces.
