Endless Evolution: Last Star

Chapter 45  Death by Rusty Plague

Brass Puppet stepped forward confidently, leaving flaming footprints on the ground that melted even the sturdy iron floor.

Part of Adam's face was covered in severe burns, and the sharp metal debris had left many cuts on his body, making him bleed.

'Adam! Adam! Get up! You have to do something!'

Silvana's voice rang in his ears, but Adam heard nothing. The Brass Puppet blow had given Adam a severe brain concussion, and he was barely staying awake. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

The only thing Adam saw - was an approaching fiery silhouette with a massive key in its hands. Adam could feel the heat from the fire even ten meters away, and the feeling of imminent death left his body with nothing else to do but squeeze everything out of itself.

'Get up.'

A calm voice spread through Adam's mind, strange and mechanical, the same as it had been in the battle against the Prime Stone Goliath.

Adam took a deep breath, scratching the floor with his fingers in an attempt to get up and continue the battle.

'No flame can burn forever. Everything has a beginning and an end, especially a fire this bright. Even the greatest stars will extinguish at some point, this is just a spark in comparison. You need to survive that period, and you can only do that by igniting your own flame.'

'You know that... And you were ready for it...'

Tremble. Tremble. Tremble.

Evolution Tree and Initial Gene shuddered just as they had the last time Adam had entered Resonance. However, now Lock and especially the chains were also affected.

The chains shook vigorously, and a few of them broke, it was still a long way from fully releasing Lock, but some of the energy was able to escape through the vortex heading up the Evolution Tree, causing it to grow.

Then, Adam's eyes filled with blood, his veins swelled, and his breath began to emanate a frosty vapor as if from the farthest reaches of the north.

"Hey... Looks like I have a second stage too, doesn't it?" Adam smirked, clutching the needle tightly as his blood trickled along it.

Brass Puppet stopped in shock, staring at his opponent. He didn't seem to expect that a human could get out of this position and become stronger - just like he had done with his key.

Whooooooooooooosh.

Brass Puppet swung his key, unleashing a fiery blade. Adam ducked, repeating the previous episode, and Brass Puppet's fist was right in front of Adam's face.

However, this time, Adam set the threads on his glove, under the blow, dispersing the flames and sending sparks from the scratches on the monster's metal arm.

Brass Puppet's eyes went wide in disbelief.

"Surprised? Did you really think the same attack would succeed twice?" Adam said coldly before blocking the key's slash.

Brass Puppet tried to hurt Adam, but the key couldn't get through the needle, only particles of flame passing over Adam's shoulders unable to hurt him.

Then, Adam with an ice-cold look, stepped forward, getting as close to Brass Puppet as possible, and reached forward with his left hand. Before Brass Puppet could realize anything, Adam ripped several tubes and gears from the monster's shoulder, simply crushing them and throwing them away. The flames should have burned him, but the gloves were strong enough to withstand the blaze.

"ARRRRRRRRRRRTTT!!!"

Brass Puppet made a sound for the first time - which was like a mechanical shriek, painful but fierce like the roar of a wild beast. Adam was a bit taken aback, he didn't expect that Brass Puppet could make any sound, but he quickly recovered and attacked.

A long diagonal cut was left along his chest, then Adam attacked again, but Brass Puppet had already come to his senses.

From all the tubes on his body, thick steam came out, raising the temperature even higher and making the cogs spin faster.

Even for Brass Puppet, whose body was metal, such a strain was too much, he wouldn't be able to sustain this flame for long, but... it was also a test for Adam, who had to endure this deadly period.

Bam.

Brass Puppet's fist plunged into Adam's stomach, burning his clothes and throwing him backward. Adam smashed through the wall with his back and flew outward, ending up above a whole district of buildings that were much smaller and below them.

To the east of their battle point, right now there was a large squad with several Phantoms and ten Harvesters. They were fighting against some Nest - large monsters made of metal with hammer arms and horns with electric shocks running between them.

Their hunt was proceeding at its usual pace, and they noticed a Phantom flying out of a building, who was aiming at the ground right next to them.

"What's going on?" The man with the massive sword muttered, glaring at the Adam approaching them. He had black hair and a thick beard.

A woman with red short hair and confident blue eyes stepped forward. "Tsk. Looks like some cocky Phantom can't handle the mission. There was no SOS request, but I'm sure he won't make it without help."

The man raised an eyebrow.

"Pamela, I think we should help him."

She nodded, "Yeah, Zaron, you're right. Then, we'll ask the mission department for half of his bounty. We shouldn't work for free, you know?"

'Back off! You need to get off this area now!'

Suddenly, in their earbuds came a worried voice that proceeded from their Operator in charge of this mission. The Operator had just received information from Silvana.

'He's fighting against his Beginning Monster! You must get to a safe distance as soon as possible!'

Zaron wanted to say something to his squad, but Pamela stopped him.

"Come on. Some newbie's Beginning Monster isn't going to hurt us. We have a whole squad of Phantoms here and..."

A sharp gear covered in flame swept through her, slicing Pamela's body in two, with blood bubbling outward.

"Agh...?" Zaron's eyes went wide in disbelief.

Then, red-hot metal legs came crashing down on top of him, nailing him to the ground and crushing his head.

By then, all the other Phantoms and Harvesters had realized what was happening, and Adam reached the ground, finding himself among them.

However, neither the dead Zaron and Pamela, nor the shocked Phantoms and Harvesters caught Adam's attention. It wasn't that he didn't care about them, it was the Resonance.

All of his genes had been activated to the limit for only one purpose - to defeat Brass Puppet. That way, even if the world was about to end, Adam would only focus on his opponent.

Whooooooooooooosh.

Brass Puppet bounced off several buildings, flying high up and creating new gears.

Then, flames rained down hail upon Adam, squad, and monsters, destroying everything in its path.

For Brass Puppet, Adam was the main target and that was why everyone else had to disappear. "No! Run!" Someone exclaimed, only to be left headless a second later.

One Phantom after another fell to the ground unable to resist the flaming gears as well as the Harvesters, who didn't stand a chance.

The number of casualties was steadily increasing, and not only among the humans, the hunted monsters were already dead as well.

In this scorched earth, among the destroyed iron buildings, only Adam and Brass Puppet remained surrounded by corpses.

However, they continued to fight, trying to tear each other apart as if they were not the cause of this massacre.

At the same moment, one squad a few hundred meters away was trying to escape from a monster with a humanoid physique - one of the Crown Type. But, it was unlikely that any of them would be able to survive.