CHAPTER 42: 42. GREEN PETALS OF DEATH..

The Deathbloom Arrow.

A weapon of last resort—an arrow tipped with alchemized toxins so foul and grotesquely lethal that a single whiff of its scent meant instant death. Gas masks were useless against it. The poison didn’t care about protection, it simply killed.

It was so dangerous, it could kill the one who fired it.

And Tony knew that.

This was his final card. A suicide strike meant to drag his enemies to hell with him.

BOOOOM!!!

The arrow smacked into the ATM Shin was crouched behind, using for cover and then exploded, not in flames, but in a thick, blooming burst of green. No fire, no debris, just a beautiful, horrifying haze. Green petals scattered through the air, riding a sudden gust of pressure. The gas surged outward like a storm wind, cloaking a 500-meter radius in mere seconds with its rotting mist.

Tony smiled as he inhaled, welcoming death like an old friend. Tbis was it. His sweet, bitter vengeance. If he was going to die, he’d do it with the man who slaughtered his comrades. The man who killed Gerald.

He sucked in a deep breath of the gas willingly.

Then came the agony.

He felt as if a thousand razors had torn down his throat, shredding a path straight to his stomach. He staggered, hacking violently, clutching at his neck as spasms wracked his chest, his ribs jutting beneath his skin like jagged blades straining to escape.

Then came the rot.

A sick, viscous heat filled his lungs, pressing outward, slithering up his airways like boiling sludge. It crawled through him with sentient malice, cooking him alive from the inside out.

Thick green mucus poured from his nose, and blood jetted from his ears in twin streams, splattering to the ground. His eardrums burst, leaving him in a perfect, suffocating silence.

Except for the wet, chewing sound of his own collapsing organs.

He fell to his knees, his eyes rolling back, then bulged grotesquely, yellowing, and laced with spiderweb veins. He opened his mouth to scream, but no sound came. Only a spray of black, frothy bile and chunks of tissue spilling deep from his insides.

Clawing at his face, he scraped his skin raw, his fingernails peeling off as he tried to dig out the burning sensation beneath his flesh.

His teeth shattered, falling from his mouth like cracked porcelain.

He dropped, face down before he convulsed a few times, then his body going still, but only on the outside.

Inside, his heart had melted. His liver burst like a rotten fruit. His bladder exploded, and his bowels released.

All that remained was a twitching, bloated corpse with a mouth foaming, and muscles still spasming as if his soul hadn’t figured out it was dead.

Meanwhile....

The moment the gas exploded, Shin’s system screamed in his head.

[ALERT: IMMINENT BIOHAZARD.]

Without hesitation, he raised his hand and activated Spirit Healing and a blinding gold aura wrapped around him like a divine shroud. The holy light surged outward, purging the gas around him and stretching toward the convenience store, shielding his teammates as well.

But the gas fought back. His eyes turned red, bulging under the pressure, veins popping. Still, he stood firm, focusing every last bit of energy into holding his skill.

Thanks to the MP he had harvested from Lawrence’s soul, he sustained the Spirit Healing for a few precious seconds—just enough.

Then his power drained dry.

He collapsed to the ground as the green mist cleared, vanishing like it had never been there. But its legacy remained—death. The air stank of rot. Insects, birds, and small animals lay still in its wake. Trees and flowers nearby had blackened and wilted, like they’d been scorched from the inside out.

**

Far away, Ado staggered into a shattered building, coughing blood between wheezing laughs.

"The group leader’s insane... If I hadn’t used Dragon Lung Breathing... I’d be dead meat..."

His head pounded. Blood soaked his tongue.

(Dragon Lung Breathing—a martial art technique that compresses a single breath into the dantian, circulating oxygen-rich Qi slowly through the body, minimizing all vital functions—heartbeat, energy, breath.)

He’d sensed the arrow the moment Tony released it and bolted. Even so, the gas caught up. Now he was barely hanging on. Outside the safe zones, anyone could strike a dying man. So he decided to get into the ruins, hiding, hoping to purge the lingering toxins from his lungs before someone found him.

**

Back at the store....

Yuki had also moved fast.

Just as the gas burst, she crouched over Lilian and the recovering Ayaka then tthrowed up a blazing fire barrier around them. The dome scorched everything outside but remained cool within. When the gas touched the flames, it combusted in a crackling burst of green and blue fire, neutralizing before it could penetrate.

As the danger faded, Yuki dropped her shield. Lilian instantly leapt to her feet, dodging the trap by the door as she bolted out of the store, screaming:

"Divine Lord Shade! Divine Master!!"

This outside world truly wasn’t safe, and yet, her master seemed to like coming out here. Everything was dying, but for now, she didn’t care. Her eyes scanned the broken streets until she found him: Shin, unconscious, breath ragged, lying still.

"Violent woman! Bring Aya! We need to go—now and take them to the hospital!!"

Yuki raised an eyebrow. "...Violent woman?"

She clicked her tongue. "This damn NPC..."

Still, she lifted the frail eleven-year-old into her arms and followed Lilian, who cradled Shin like he weighed nothing.

Yuki muttered under her breath, "Guess you guys are stronger than you look..."

They passed Tony’s body.

Or rather, what used to be Tony.

Yuki gagged and spat to the side. "What a fucking idiot."

"All that... to kill a 20-year-old boy?" she muttered in disgust, shaking her head.

"Some men really are useless."

But her gaze drifted back to Shin in Lilian’s arms. He’d survived. The Deathbloom arrow had killed everything else, even its own shooter, but not him.

He intrigued her.

Not just in sex which was already better than she expected, but the way he defied death itself. She wanted to see more. To see how far he could go in this rotten world.

A smile touched her lips.

"Maybe," she whispered, "I’ll stick around a little longer."

TBC