The cold Antarctic sunlight shone on that twisted body, reflecting a nauseating and eerie luster.
Alexia—or rather, the monster that was once Alexia—hovered in mid-air.
With every vibration of her pair of giant, transparent dragonfly wings, they produced a sharp, air-tearing hum.
"Beep— Beep— Beep—"
The research facility's self-destruct alarm, like a death knell, echoed across the empty helipad, pounding on everyone's nerves.
Nine minutes and forty-five seconds.
"She's blocking our way!" Ada's voice carried a rare gravity.
"We don't have time to waste with her!" Chris clutched his agonizing chest, forcing himself to stand straight, the muzzle of his M4A1 locked onto the Queen Bee in the sky.
However, everyone knew that conventional firearms posed no effective threat to this monster, whose flight speed was beyond common logic.
Alexia's amber eyes burned with a frenzied killing intent, fixed firmly on Noah.
This man had ruined her perfect evolution.
At the same time, he had made her taste humiliation and pain.
She wanted to tear him, along with everyone around him, into pieces, using their flesh and blood to nourish her newly born body!
"Hiss—!!!"
With a shrill shriek, Alexia's figure turned into a blurry afterimage in mid-air, twisting and diving at an angle that completely defied the laws of physics!
Her target was exactly the person she hated to the bone: Noah!
"Fire!" Chris roared.
"Da da da da da!"
"Bang! Bang bang!"
In an instant, the MP5, UMP9, M4A1, and every other automatic weapon still capable of firing spat out dense tongues of fire, attempting to construct a curtain of death in mid-air.
However, Alexia was too fast.
Her flight path followed no pattern at all; sometimes she hovered like a hummingbird, sometimes she dived like a falcon, and sometimes she shifted laterally like a ghost.
Most of the bullets hit empty space; only a few stray shots grazed her bloated lower body, bringing up sprays of green blood, but they failed to cause any substantial damage.
"Watch out!" Jill shouted.
The moment Alexia dodged the barrage, she had already dived to a height of less than three meters from the ground!
Her arms, which had completely mutated into sharp arthropod-like limbs, clawed fiercely at Noah's head with an air-tearing whistle!
Noah's pupils shrank as he exerted sudden force with his feet, his whole body retreating explosively.
Those sharp limbs practically grazed the tip of his nose, the wind they generated making his cheeks sting with pain!
Missing her strike, Alexia gave a violent flap of her wings, her body performing a beautiful flip in mid-air to gain altitude again. Simultaneously, her bloated lower body suddenly sprayed a thick, green liquid with a sickly sweet, fishy scent!
"It's corrosive fluid! Scatter!" Noah barked.
Everyone dove toward the surroundings in disarray, dodging the green liquid that poured down like a rainstorm.
"Sizzle—"
The hard concrete floor of the helipad was corroded by the green liquid, sending up plumes of white smoke and leaving behind ugly, pitted marks.
"We can't be this passive!" Leon leaned against Ada, gritting his teeth as he reloaded his broken butterfly. "Her mobility is too high; we can't hit her at all!"
"We have to find a way to restrict her movement!" Claire's voice came from not far away. She was firing while moving rapidly, trying to find an angle to launch a grenade.
But Alexia didn't give her the chance.
With every attack, she accurately predicted their positions, forcing them to constantly move and dodge, making it impossible to form an effective focus of fire.
"If this continues, we'll either be killed by her or blown up!" Chris's breathing became increasingly rapid. The sharp pain in his chest made every shot feel like his lungs were being torn apart.
Noah's brain was working at high speed.
Speed.
Her advantage was speed.
To defeat her, he had to first neutralize her speed.
And her speed came from those high-frequency vibrating wings.
A crazy idea surfaced in his mind.
He glanced at Jill, who was carrying a massive electromagnetic gun and also looking for an opportunity.
The gun on Jill's back was their only chance.
But this gun needed to charge and required aiming.
Against such a high-speed moving target, hitting it was an almost impossible task.
Unless... she could be made to stop.
Even if only for an instant.
In an instant, Noah's gaze became incredibly sharp.
He stopped dodging.
He stood in place and took a deep breath, the power within his body surging wildly through his limbs and bones.
He curled his finger at Alexia in mid-air.
A provocative gesture.
Alexia's chaotic consciousness, occupied by hatred and madness, was instantly ignited by this gesture!
She let out an even sharper, more venomous screech!
Her figure vanished from mid-air once again!
This time, her speed was faster than ever before!
She turned into a black line almost invisible to the naked eye, falling straight from high altitude toward Noah's position!
She intended to use her hardest body parts to completely crush this damn bug into a pile of meat!
"Noah! Get out of the way!" Claire cried out, her heart almost stopping at that moment.
However, Noah did not dodge.
His legs were slightly bent, his body lowered, assuming the most stable stance.
Every muscle in his body was tensed to the limit.
He stared fixedly at the approaching black line.
Just an instant before Alexia was about to collide with him, Noah's body twisted violently to the side at an incredible angle!
He abandoned all defense, completely exposing his left shoulder and chest to the opponent's path of attack!
He would use his own body to take this impact head-on!
He would trade this intense pain for a chance to grab her!
"Puchi—!!!"
Alexia's blade-like limb stabbed fiercely into Noah's left shoulder!
A stream of green-gold, highly corrosive blood instantly surged from her limb, wildly eroding Noah's flesh!
Unimaginable agony, like a bursting flood, instantly flooded Noah's nerves!
He felt as if the left side of his body had been thrown into aqua regia; his flesh and bones were making a tooth-aching "sizzle" as they were corroded!
But he did not retreat!
He even let out a beast-like low growl, suppressing endless pain!
At the same moment he was hit, his hands, which had already gathered all his strength, clamped down like iron pincers on Alexia's pair of high-frequency vibrating, giant transparent wings!
"Got you!" Noah's face was distorted by pain, but his eyes erupted with a terrifying brilliance!
Alexia's pupils suddenly contracted!
She felt the immense power coming from the base of her wings; she wanted to break free, wanted to fly back into the sky!
But it was too late!
Noah used the last ounce of his strength, his waist exerting sudden force as his body twisted frantically in the opposite direction!
"Screech—!!!!!"
A scalp-numbing sound, like the tearing of thick leather!
Alexia's pair of giant wings, as beautiful as works of art, were brutally and violently torn from her back by Noah!
Green-gold blood gushed wildly from the wounds on her back!
"Ah—!!!!!"
Alexia let out a shrill, pained scream!
Having lost her wings, her bloated body could no longer maintain flight; like a kite with a broken string, she crashed heavily to the ground.
"Leon! Now!" Noah roared this sentence with his last bit of strength, his whole body collapsing to one knee due to exhaustion and pain.
Leon, who had been gritting his teeth and waiting for an opportunity, had already raised his broken butterfly the moment Noah grabbed Alexia!
Ignoring the sharp pain from his splinted leg, and supported by Ada, he focused all his spirit onto the front sight!
There was only one chance!
"Bang—!!!"
The deafening gunshot echoed across the helipad!
The large-caliber magnum bullet, carrying all of Leon's fury and hope, followed a straight trajectory and accurately slammed into Alexia's face, which was twisted and deformed by pain!
A spray of blood exploded on her face!
The bullet, powerful enough to pierce light armor, blew half of her face into a bloody mess. The massive impact caused her body, which had just tried to crawl up, to suffer a brief but fatal pause!
"Jill!!!" Chris's roar came through.
She didn't need his reminder!
Jill had already hoisted that sci-fi-looking giant electromagnetic gun onto her shoulder!
The energy circuits at the front of the gun had already lit up with a blinding, eerie blue light!
"Goodbye, Queen."
Jill's gaze was cold as she pulled the trigger.
"Hum—!!!"
There was no world-shaking explosion.
Only a low and distant hum, as if coming from the depths of the Universe.
A thick, extremely condensed beam of eerie blue energy blasted out from the muzzle!
Instantly crossing the spatial distance, it accurately hit that ugly, stalled body.
Time seemed to be completely frozen at this moment.
On Alexia's bloody face, a final trace of shock and unwillingness was frozen.
The next second.
Starting from the core hit by the energy beam, her entire body silently annihilated and decomposed, turning into the tiniest particles flickering with electricity.
No explosion, no flying flesh and blood.
Only the purification of being erased from this world.
After completely vaporizing Alexia, the eerie blue beam continued forward for several hundred meters before finally dissipating in the cold Antarctic air.
"Beep— Beep! Beep! Beep!"
The alarm became increasingly urgent!
"Five minutes left!" Ada glanced at her watch, her expression changing drastically.
"Quick! To the hangar!" Chris roared.
Claire immediately rushed to Noah's side and supported his swaying body.
"I'm fine..." Noah shook his head, looking at the terrifying wound on his left shoulder that was deep enough to see bone and still emitting black smoke.
The powerful self-healing ability of the g-virus was rapidly repairing the wound.
Everyone stopped hesitating.
Ada and Jill supported Leon and Chris, who could barely stand.
Claire used all her strength to put one of Noah's arms over her shoulder, supporting him as they ran frantically toward the hangar on the other side of the helipad!
"Boom—!!!"
Behind them, the main building of the research facility suffered its first violent explosion!
A massive fireball soared into the sky, and the violent shockwave almost knocked everyone to the ground!
They rushed into the hangar, where a medium-sized transport plane was quietly parked.
"I'll fly!"
Ada handed Leon over to Jill and dashed into the cockpit, her hands moving over the complex instrument panel with fluid precision!
The roar of the engines in the enclosed hangar sounded exceptionally deafening!
The transport plane's hatch was slowly lowered.
Everyone helped the wounded on board the plane in a disheveled state.
"Take off! Take off now!" Chris shouted at the cockpit with all his might.
The transport plane began to taxi down the runway, its speed getting faster and faster!
"Rumble—!!!!"
Just as the transport plane's nose lifted and it left the ground to climb into the air, the entire Antarctic base turned into a sea of fire at that moment!
A series of violent explosions completely swallowed the entire island!
A massive mushroom cloud rose behind them!
The violent shockwave caught up with the newly airborne transport plane, causing the entire fuselage to jolt violently!
Inside the cabin, everyone was tossed around, but every face was written with the relief of having survived a disaster.
They had finally escaped.
The atmosphere was somewhat somber on the simple metal seats in the transport plane.
Chris lay on the floor, his head resting on Jill's lap as he panted heavily. His cracked ribs made every breath accompanied by sharp pain.
He looked at his sister Claire, who was sitting opposite him, helping Noah treat his shoulder wound with a medical kit.
"Claire." Chris's voice was somewhat hoarse.
"I'm here, Chris," Claire immediately responded.
"Me and... some of my old partners, we're... we're taking the lead in establishing an organization," Chris spoke slowly, as if gathering strength. "It's called the BSAA."
"It hasn't been announced to the public yet."
"The purpose of this organization's existence is to deal with demons like Umbrella and to prevent biohazards from reoccurring in any corner of the world."
His gaze turned toward Noah.
There was a sense of sincerity in those weather-beaten eyes.
"Noah, your skills are excellent. Better than any agent I've ever seen. I hope... you can join us."
Claire's heart tightened, and she subconsciously looked at Noah.
Noah met her gaze and gave a soft nod.
Then he looked at Chris, his voice steady and powerful.
"I promise you."
A smile of relief appeared on Chris's face.
His nerves, which had been tensed for so long, finally relaxed completely at this moment. He could no longer hold on; his eyelids dropped, and he fell into a weary sleep on Jill's lap.
Jill gently stroked Chris's hair, then she looked up and reached out her hand to Noah.
"Welcome."
Noah shook her hand and nodded.
Claire leaned against Noah, burying her head in his chest, her voice carrying a hint of trembling.
"Thank you... thank you for being willing to help Chris."
Not far away, Leon, using a metal pipe he found somewhere as a crutch, limped over with a grinning face to Ada, who was in the pilot's seat studying the flight path.
"Hey." He smiled mischievously. "You were pretty worried about me just now, weren't you?"
Ada didn't even turn her head; she just let out a disdainful snort from her nose and rolled her eyes at him, ignoring him.
Silence returned to the cabin once more, with only the steady roar of the engines remaining.
Noah lowered his head, leaning close to Claire's ear, and spoke softly in a voice only the two of them could hear.
"Remember... our promise?"
"When we find your brother..."
Claire's body trembled slightly. She didn't speak, but only held Noah tighter.
She nodded, nestling her whole body into Noah's embrace, feeling the warmth that gave her immense peace of mind.
Outside the window, the long Antarctic night had passed.
A red sun was slowly rising from the edge of the horizon.
Golden sunlight pierced through the clouds, spilling onto the wings and illuminating the weary but hope-filled faces inside the cabin.
The transport plane, draped in that brilliant morning light, flew steadily away... (Code: veronica, End.)