*Whoosh—!*
The roaring of the wind was all he could hear. The briny tang of seawater and the acrid stench of burning wood instantly flooded his nostrils.
Cold. Bone-chillingly cold.
"Cough...!"
Tang Ping was nearly suffocated by the wind pressure, his body dragged through the air like a tattered rag. The wounds sliced open by flying debris tore once more, sending a burst of agonizing pain through him. He couldn't move. His limbs were numb.
*—I'm going to die.*
The moment that thought surfaced—
"Give my Loyal Servant back to me!!"
The girl's furious voice tore through the night sky. Tang Ping felt a violent jolt. It was her.
"Tanosi...!"
In the next instant—
**BOOM!!!**
The air exploded. A petite silhouette plummeted from above, her fists crashing down like falling meteors. The screech of twisting metal erupted as the mechanical arm gripping Tang Ping snapped open.
"I'm saved—"
Before Tang Ping could finish his sentence, the massive, out-of-control sphere pressed down directly on him.
"AAAAAAAAARGH—!"
Man and sphere began to fall. Tang Ping's vision spun wildly. Death was closing in.
*—Too late.*
*Swish!*
A white tentacle suddenly coiled around Tang Ping's waist, snatching him from the jaws of a pulverizing fate. Meanwhile, the spherical monster was slammed into the ground, causing the earth to cave in.
"Huff... huff...!"
Dangling in mid-air, Tang Ping finally saw the thing clearly under the moonlight. It was a giant silver sphere, about two meters in diameter, with no visible seams. Its surface was matte, looking as though it swallowed all light. Two slender mechanical arms slowly unfolded—evidently, the tools used for the kidnapping.
"What the hell is that thing...?"
"Glad you're okay..."
Before Tanosi could finish, another sphere slammed out of the darkness at high speed.
**CRASH!!!**
"Ngh—!"
Tanosi was sent flying, and the tentacle holding Tang Ping was severed. Their connection was broken.
"TANOSI!!"
Tang Ping fell again. This time, there was no one to catch him. *This is bad! I'm going to hit the ground!*
"Don't panic, Loyal Servant!"
"Where are you? I can't find you!" Tanosi's voice seemed to whisper in his ear, but Tang Ping looked around and still couldn't see her.
"That thing took me somewhere else, far from your location. I am speaking to you through the link of the Water God's Seal."
"Telepathy... Wait! That monster is still alive!"
*Clang! Clatter!*
From the deep pit below, harsh electronic static continued to echo. Clouds of dust mixed with shattered stone sprayed upward. It was awake. It wouldn't be long before it returned to the surface. Tang Ping was running out of time.
He brought his palms together, concentrating every ounce of energy in his body.
"AAAAAAAAAAAH!"
Tang Ping roared as azure flames erupted from his body, turning him into a blue fireball. *Don't be nervous... just like when I defeated that mutated strawberry monster. Remember what Monica taught me...*
The priority now wasn't defeating the enemy; it was landing!
Just as the spherical monster climbed out of the hole, Tang Ping—about ten meters directly above it—fired an energy blast from his hands.
**BOOM!**
The powerful blast pinned the monster back into the pit, while Tang Ping used the recoil to steer himself into a rough landing on the nearby grass.
He lay there gasping for air for a moment before scrambling toward Tanosi's direction. In the pitch-black night, he couldn't tell north from south, but he knew the loudest explosions would lead him to the person he was looking for.
As he ran, Tang Ping shouted into the void, "Let's retreat first! The base is destroyed, and we don't know how many enemies are out there. Fighting now is a disadvantage! We should pull back to a nearby island and—"
"Retreat? Why should I retreat? I am being attacked on my own land, in my own country, and you want me to run?!"
"..."
Tanosi practically screamed those words. Tang Ping was left speechless. Ahead, the sounds of battle grew even louder.
"Listen to me! I have done nothing wrong, and I have no reason to back down! I will make them pay! If you want to run, then run by yourself!"
The girl's pure, uncompromising resolve struck a chord in Tang Ping's heart. He stopped in his tracks. *She's right. This is our country. We were attacked. Why should we be the ones to flee? Aren't they the ones in the wrong?*
Tang Ping closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened them, his chaotic emotions had settled into a cold resolve.
"Then I'm not running either! Let's defend our home together!"
Tang Ping dropped into a combat stance, energy surging within him once more.
"That's more like it!"
A female voice appeared alongside the whirring of rotors. Tang Ping looked up. It was a drone.
"Monica!" Tang Ping cried out in relief.
"Don't move!"
The drone, like a black falcon, dove down. The moment it touched Tang Ping's head, its form shifted. Without even feeling an impact, a black tactical helmet was suddenly fitted onto his head. It had a foam lining for comfort and a streamlined, matte-black metallic finish. The glass HUD lit up, and Monica's voice spoke through the integrated speakers.
"This is the Aetheris II, Tactical Helmet Edition. While its functions are identical to the first generation, it offers superior protection and is far more durable."
"Thank goodness you came, otherwise I really wouldn't know what to do!" Tang Ping expressed his heartfelt gratitude.
"Don't get the wrong idea. I'm just afraid that if you die, my workload will increase. It's not like I'm worried about you or anything!"
"..." Such a textbook *tsundere* template, coming out of Monica's mouth... A few black lines practically materialized on Tang Ping's forehead.
"What? Isn't this exactly the 'flavor' you like?" The speaker blared teasing words, yet Tang Ping acutely detected a trace of fluster within them. He was certain that if Monica possessed a human body, she would be blushing furiously right now.
"Fair point. In that case... I'm counting on your support!" Tang Ping grinned and charged toward the spherical monster as it climbed out of the pit.
**BOOM!**
Tang Ping slammed his fist against the surface of the spherical monster. Instantly, his fingers went numb, and pain began to lance up his arm.
"So hard!" Tang Ping stared at his hand, kicked off the ground, and retreated backward. The mechanical arm barely missed snatching him.
The screen before him displayed: **Spherical Monster Lv.??**.
"What's going on? Why isn't the display showing its level?" Tang Ping evaded another attack, the lack of information causing him to panic slightly.
"Analyzing... Numerical values undetectable! Conjecture: The enemy possesses a cloaking technique. Suggestion: Locate its weakness while engaging in combat."
"Easy! For! You! To! Say!" Tang Ping barely dodged several more capture attempts by the mechanical arms and refocused the mana within his body.
"Ha!" Azure energy condensed in his hands, and in the next instant, it blasted against the spherical monster. However, this power failed to pierce that rigid metallic shell.
"It's too hard; I can't break through its defense! It's way stronger than that strawberry monster!" Tang Ping was certain that the enemy's true level absolutely exceeded Level 70.
Seeing his attacks were ineffective, Tang Ping immediately changed direction and dove into the forest. Here, the enemy's line of sight would be obstructed, and it would be restricted by the terrain. For Tang Ping, with his relatively petite build, this was the perfect battleground.
Trees continued to topple. But the sphere's speed—was decreasing.
"It's working!" It might have been strongest in an open area, but within the forest, it couldn't accelerate at will.
"But it's not enough...!"
*Crack!* Trees were smashed through directly. The distance—was shortening.
"Lady Tanosi, can you come help me first?" Having no other recourse, Tang Ping decided to seek aid. However, the voice Tanosi transmitted caused his expectations to shatter.
"Listen well, Loyal Servant! I have also encountered several powerful foes over here and cannot come to save you for the time being. You must repel the enemy before you on your own."
"No way?!" Seeing things begin to head in the worst possible direction, Tang Ping plunged into internal chaos, his face turning as deathly pale as a corpse.
"Do not panic, Loyal Servant."
"You are the contractor of an Evil God. Not only does your physical strength already far exceed that of an ordinary human, but with my permission, you can also freely utilize my power."
Somewhere unseen in the distance, explosions detonated one after another. Tang Ping knew he had no other choice.
"What do I do?"
"Call my name. Praise me loudly! And I—the Avatar of the Abyss, the Reaper of Life, the Supreme Evil God who reigns over all things, Tanosi—shall grant her most faithful believer the greatest miracle in the world!"
The girl's impassioned shouting echoed in his mind. Even though he didn't know where Tanosi was, Tang Ping felt as though he could see her figure. As always, she held her head high in pride, using those purple eyes brimming with confidence to despise all things in existence. No one was qualified to stand before her, and no one could obstruct her path forward. The world was her playground, and her dining table; she did as she pleased. Even if it meant making an enemy of the entire world, she held no fear.
*And I... can I be like her? Sending all those annoying jerks flying, doing whatever I want, living so willfully.*
*It seems like I was like that when I was a kid too, causing trouble everywhere, only doing what I wanted to do all day long.*
"Tang Ping, dodge!" Monica's voice came from his ear. Tang Ping executed a flying lunge, evading another attack, and ran toward the depths of the forest without looking back.
***
Tang Ping ran desperately. In this moment of life and death, his brain began to work frantically, and the entire world seemed to slow down. He couldn't hear the sounds outside; only a stream of past memories flashed before his eyes, finally stopping at this very moment.
*When did it start? I became so cowardly, such a failure... Will a 'me' like this have the ability to repel the enemy before me?*
"Need you even ask? Isn't it obvious!" A loud voice echoed in his mind... Was it Tanosi? ...No! This was... my voice!
"No problem! You can do it!"
The rear suddenly fell into silence.
*Shoom!*
In the next second, the spherical monster appeared right in front of Tang Ping. With no way to evade, Tang Ping crashed directly into it. He felt as though his internal organs had nearly shifted position.
"Don't be afraid! It's just an empty shell. Defeating it is as easy as pinching a bubble." Just as his consciousness was about to vanish, the voice in his mind pulled him back to reality. Tang Ping gritted his teeth against the searing pain in his abdomen, rolled over the tree trunk in front of him, and bolted in another direction.
"Think of your humble life in the past, those hardships that once pressed down on you until you couldn't breathe. Didn't you also grit your teeth and endure, slowly... persisting... all the way here!"
"Pick it up again, my lost courage!"
Tang Ping bit his lip. The salty taste of blood snapped him back to alertness. Even if his body continued to tremble uncontrollably, his gaze was incredibly resolute. Whether the words echoing in his mind were hallucinations or self-hypnosis, it didn't matter.
*I want to... survive!*
***
Tang Ping veered sharply, leaped onto a massive boulder, and dove straight into a thick tangle of vines.
In the next instant—
The sphere charged.
*Snap!*
The vines instantly coiled around it. Entrapment successful. However, this wouldn't hold for long.
"VREEEEE—!"
A scalding steam erupted from the sphere's shell, and a high-pitched, piercing screech echoed through the clouds. It began to struggle violently, the vines coiling around it pulling taut until they were on the verge of snapping.
Tang Ping, at this point, was powerless to flee. With his internal mana nearly depleted, there was only one way left to survive—upgrading the contract. He extended his right hand, looking at the Cthulhu mark upon it, and offered the first prayer of his life.
"The silver-haired Evil God descended from the heavens. Her eyes are as radiant as amethysts, her face like an angel's, and her body like a demon's."
Tang Ping poured out his emotions for Tanosi—pure and devoid of lies.
*CRACK!!!*
The vines shattered all at once. The sphere broke free. It charged straight ahead.
Distance—ten meters.
Oddly enough, even though the enemy had broken its shackles and was closing in, Tang Ping felt no fear. He could feel a warm current surging from within his body, flowing through his veins, permeating every muscle fiber, and finally restoring his battered body to its original state. The source of it all, without a doubt, was his prayer.
The link was being established; the distance between him and his God was shrinking.
"She is more tyrannical than Qin Shi Huang, more mad than Van Gogh; even the radiant Venus pales in her presence. She is the symbol of evil, the enemy of the world, and a great trouble I cannot refuse."
"User's internal energy surge detected: 55%... 72%..."
Neither Monica's voice nor the enemy's approach mattered to Tang Ping anymore. In his eyes, there was only devotion.
"If she wishes, the Earth shall perish. If she wills it, the world shall be reborn."
"86%..."
The spherical monster was right in front of him. The distance was less than a meter. It only had to reach out its hand to seize him.
Then—
The **Azure Wood Bracelet** on Tang Ping's left wrist emitted an intense light. A divine dragon made of pure water soared out, striking the spherical monster head-on and blasting it backward. As the water dispersed, an ancient longsword remained plunged into the ground. Its hilt featured dragon motifs, and the blade shimmered with a silver light under the moon.
Tang Ping didn't know where it came from, but he had no time to think; he had to seize this rare opportunity.
"Almighty Tanosi! Your humblest servant prays for your mercy—grant me great power!"
"99%..."
The moment Tang Ping finished his words, the Water God's Seal on the back of his hand glowed with a blinding blue light. An inexhaustible power surged from within him, shooting straight toward the heavens.
In a distant castle, a cloaked figure noticed it as well.
"This is...?" she whispered to herself before sprinting toward the stairs leading downward.
***
"Contract upgrade detected. [Death Knight] rejected! Target updated, searching... [Dark Knight] matches! Contract established!"
"Energy accumulation at 100%. WARNING! WARNING! User must release energy immediately, or the body will be unable to withstand the load!"
Monica's warnings blared through the speakers, but Tang Ping did not respond. No... rather, he couldn't even manage to say a single word. Divine power possessed infinite possibilities, easily allowing a mortal to break their limits and reach the realm of a superhuman. However, this tyrannical power was also eroding Tang Ping's body. He was like a balloon filled to the brim with water, liable to burst at any second.
He had to settle this battle as quickly as possible!
Tang Ping stepped forward and drew the longsword. The characters inscribed on the blade gleamed in the light: **[Seven Star Dragon Abyss]**.
*Shoom!*
The spherical monster vanished again, flickering into existence behind Tang Ping. He didn't turn around.
"Abyssal Sorcery..."
The Water God's Seal glowed brilliantly once more. Eight semi-transparent tentacles sprouted from Tang Ping's back like a blooming flower, condensing into a snow-white shield.
*BOOM!*
The attack was blocked.
"...Jellyfish Barrier."
Time seemed to freeze. The earth trembled. The air vibrated. The Proxy of the Evil God slowly turned around and raised his longsword. There was no mercy in his eyes.
"Now... the counterattack begins!"