"Not bad for strength!"
After the rolling flames faded, Lucien stood in midair completely unharmed, his clothes untouched and not a single strand of his dark hair disturbed. His amethyst eyes were calm, almost bored. With his current level of defense, even if he stood still and allowed Phoenix Man to attack endlessly, the result would remain the same. Phoenix Man would collapse from exhaustion long before breaking through.
"Damn it!"
Phoenix Man roared in fury, his wings spreading wide as scorching flames surged violently around him. He could not accept this outcome. The gap between them felt unreal.
But his roar cut off abruptly.
His ferocious expression froze, then turned pale.
Lucien raised a single finger, calm and precise. In the next instant, he flicked it forward.
Boom!
Phoenix Man's head exploded like a smashed watermelon. Blood and brain matter scattered through the air, his defense utterly meaningless before Lucien's power.
The headless corpse dropped to the ground, the thick smell of blood staining the earth below. Lucien remained suspended in the air, watching without emotion.
Then, a change.
A wisp of flame appeared on the corpse, faint at first, then rapidly growing. Within seconds, it engulfed the entire body, forming a blazing fireball that floated upward.
It resembled a miniature sun, radiating heat and light.
The wind brushed past Lucien's hair, swaying it gently, along with the miniature Gatling gun and rocket launcher earrings hanging beneath his ears.
"He really can be reborn from fire."
About ten minutes passed.
Within the blazing sphere, Phoenix Man's body reformed, fully restored. When he emerged, his aura had transformed completely.
Before, he was only Demon-level.
Now, he had stepped into Dragon-level.
Lucien narrowed his eyes slightly, analyzing.
This ability resembled a near-death evolution. If Phoenix Man could continue reviving like this and grow stronger each time, then theoretically, his potential had no clear limit.
Boom!
The fireball expanded violently before exploding outward, melting everything within the crater. From the inferno, Phoenix Man stepped out, his golden-red eyes blazing like living flames.
"Haha… this power!"
He spread his wings wide, clenching his fists as he reveled in the overwhelming strength surging through his body. His laughter echoed wildly through the sky.
At the same time, alarms blared across L City.
"Warning, Dragon-level disaster fluctuations detected in L City. All citizens, evacuate immediately."
"Warning, Dragon-level disaster fluctuations detected in L City. All citizens, evacuate immediately."
Panic spread instantly. Civilians fled in chaos, while heroes moved in the opposite direction. C-Class, B-Class, and even A-Class heroes rushed toward the danger.
Phoenix Man looked down at Lucien with disdain.
"No matter who you are, you can die peacefully now."
With magma-like heat flowing around him, he thrust his hand forward. A massive wave of fire shot out, tearing through the air with a deafening roar.
A mushroom cloud erupted into the sky. Flames and black smoke swallowed the battlefield, turning the bright sky dim and suffocating.
"Haha!"
Standing within the inferno, Phoenix Man laughed madly, intoxicated by his newfound power.
Then his laughter stopped.
"The temperature is acceptable, but…"
Lucien's voice came calmly from within the flames.
He stood exactly where he had been, completely untouched. He had not even bothered to defend himself. The surrounding heat was enough to melt steel, yet it could not harm him in the slightest.
His cells had long since adapted.
Once, high temperatures posed a threat to him. But after years of continuous strengthening, his entire body had evolved. Every cell had undergone relentless transformation.
Heat like this was now meaningless.
"How is that possible…"
Phoenix Man's eyes widened, disbelief filling his face.
Pfft!
A sharp sound pierced the air.
Phoenix Man's body trembled violently. Blood spilled uncontrollably from his mouth and nose as he slowly looked down.
A crystal-like thorn had pierced straight through his chest.
It extended from behind, originating from Lucien's tailbone.
"Stay, or life."
Lucien's right hand was wrapped in a swirling white mist, the essence of the soul itself. With a casual motion, he reached forward.
From a distance, Phoenix Man's soul was forcibly dragged out.
Dragon-level or Demon-level, it made no difference.
All were equally powerless before him.
In the end, both body and soul disintegrated into nothingness. This time, there was no fire, no rebirth.
Phoenix Man's story ended here.
Lucien opened his light screen and glanced at it.
There was no record.
Not even worth registering as a secondary character.
With a sudden burst, Lucien shot into the sky, hovering above the city as he checked his next target. Locking onto a direction, his body vanished in a flash of golden-white lightning, leaving only a fading trail behind.
Three minutes later, K City.
An explosion shattered the ground at the city's center, tearing it apart and exposing a deep underground structure, identical to the one beneath L City.
Another branch of the Monster Association.
Lucien hovered in the air, looking down at over fifty monsters surrounding him.
"You all stop breathing."
The moment his words fell, one monster after another collapsed to the ground, lifeless.
Thump. Thump.
Silence followed.
At the front stood two figures, both dressed like ninjas. Their long hair stood upright, burning with flames. Their presence alone radiated Dragon-level pressure.
"Who are you!"
They were Gale Wind and Hellfire, leaders of the K City branch.
Lucien showed no interest.
Whether they were Dragon-level or not, if they were not significant enough, they held no value.
So…
Two crystal thorns shot forward like lightning, piercing straight through their hearts. Instantly, their life force was drained, devoured completely.
At the same time, Lucien extended his hand again, the white soul mist swirling.
Their souls were ripped out effortlessly.
Not just theirs.
Every remaining monster, even the weaker ones, had their souls extracted in an instant.
Lucien checked the light screen again.
Nothing.
With a sonic boom, he disappeared once more.
Meanwhile, at the Hero Association headquarters, tension filled the room as staff and heroes stared at the satellite feed. The massive craters in L City and K City were clearly visible.
Then, excitement erupted.
"Is this… the power of a god?"
"He destroyed an entire Monster Association branch alone!"
"Gale Wind and Hellfire were Dragon-level, and they were killed instantly!"
Voices overlapped as staff members struggled to contain their excitement.
"Send teams to clean up the aftermath immediately."
The director gave orders quickly, his voice filled with urgency.
If this continued, the Monster Association might be wiped out in a single day.
J City.
Screams filled the air as explosions and fire consumed the streets.
At the center of the city, a massive centipede rampaged. Even coiled, its body stretched across several streets. Heroes attacked from all directions, but its shell was nearly indestructible. Every movement of its body caused destruction like an earthquake.
Centipede Elder.
A Dragon-level monster.
Its head bore the face of an old man, wrapped in layers of grotesque flesh.
It had come for revenge. The deaths of Centipede Senior and the Centipede Brothers, who had been killed earlier, had not gone unanswered.
Now, it sought to wipe out all humans in J City.
In the eastern district, the area had already become ruins. Corpses of heroes lay scattered, their bodies torn apart, blood and organs painting the ground red.
A towering monster with four vertical eyes and spiked hair stood among them, gripping an A-Class Hero by the legs.
With a brutal pull, he tore the hero in half.
Gouketsu.
Once human, now a Dragon-level monster after consuming monster cells.
"Gouketsu, retreat now!"
A figure emerged from the ground nearby.
His body was pitch black, with a pale white face, a twisted grin, and a single horn on his head.
Black Sperm.
Another Dragon-level monster, and one of the most dangerous.
His body could split endlessly, each fragment retaining full strength. With over eleven trillion cells, he could merge into an even stronger form known as Golden Sperm.
A nearly impossible opponent to kill.
But now, his expression was tense.
Uneasy.
Something was coming.
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