17: Chapter 17 When Despair Descends, the Last Light of Humanity Remains!

The chill spread!

Ice crystals spread!

Just as the crystallization spread toward the Skeleton King's body,

When her right arm was crystallized from the outside in, turning into an azure blue ice sculpture,

The Skeleton King, who came into genuine contact with the Crystal Disaster, finally experienced another terrifying characteristic of the Crystal Disaster.

— — Extreme cold!

Ordinary skeletons' soul fires were too incomplete to withstand the pain of the Crystal Disaster, shattering and tearing apart directly.

To put it bluntly, these mooks had too low intelligence and acted on instinct; their leaping soul fires couldn't endure the impact of the Crystal Disaster either, shattering their souls instantly so they couldn't even perceive the pain.

But the Skeleton King was a born ruler, after all.

The toughness of her soul fire was beyond ordinary comparison.

Because of this, she was forced to endure this excruciating pain that other skeletons didn't have to bear.

[Extreme Cold]

The moment the crystallization spread across her body.

"Ah——"

A shrill scream rang out from the Skeleton King.

The piercing pain erupting from the depths of her soul caused even her, a veteran of numerous battles, to wail involuntarily.

The terrifying piercing pain felt as if her entire soul had been frozen stiff by the extreme cold, bearing the piercing of hundreds of millions of ice needles every single moment.

The grand villain, who was originally matchless in dominance and brought terror to the return of the dead,

At this moment, she was letting out a sharp shriek, practically crying like a three-hundred-pound fatty.

But it was of no use.

She could only watch helplessly as the terrifying crystallization continued to spread across her body.

Watching herself being swallowed up by the Crystal Disaster bit by bit!

— —

"Hiss, how miserable! Just hearing the sound makes me feel the pain!"

"What a pity for such a great beauty!"

"Huh? A great beauty? Poster above, you're truly down bad; when you're getting intimate, should someone come at you with a sword to take your head?"

"Ew~ What kind of Skeleton King, she talks a big game like a badass, but as soon as they fight, she's so weak! Resolved in two or three moves. I thought she was a tough character, but turns out she's just another nobody."

"Hey, hey, hey, are you guys serious? This person even triggered celestial phenomena; she's definitely a big shot, okay? Being suppressed and devoured isn't because she's weak, but because the Crystal Disaster is too terrifying!!"

"Crystal Disaster: I only made a slight move, and that is the limit of what you can endure!"

"..."

With the Skeleton King's 'selfless contribution'

And her own strength, she fully corroborated the terror of the Crystal Disaster.

In the hearts of the onlookers, the terrifying level of the Crystal Disaster began to skyrocket straight up.

Panic!

Unease!

...

As various emotions spread and permeated,

It also made Su Xiu, who was in the middle of harvesting, burst into a wide grin.

[004 Crystal Disaster triggered massive emotional fluctuations, Emotion Points +32191]

[Emotion Points +51931]

[Emotion Points +29102]

[...]

Points numbering in the tens of thousands at every turn directly refilled his deflated wallet.

His efforts were finally not in vain.

Creak——

After the crisp shattering sound rang out,

The skeleton struggling for her life also ushered in her own doom.

Cracks gradually spread across the ice layer, finally reaching their limit, blooming outward, and scattering into countless ice crystal fragments.

This dreamlike, illusionary death was completely unremarkable, just like the other skeletons.

Until her death, she didn't know that the moment she appeared, death became the only possibility.

However, it was precisely this harsh cracking sound

That reminded the surrounding onlookers of the terror of being dominated by the Crystal Disaster.

The villain met her end, and the undead veil was directly interrupted.

But their crisis hadn't truly been resolved yet!

The Skeleton King had fallen, and an even more terrifying Crystal Disaster was waiting behind!

Looking at the overwhelming frost in the live broadcast,

The Netizens were completely numbed.

"Holy crap, the Queen has fallen, what do we do?"

"Could the Crystal Disaster just spread downwards like this and develop in a rolling fashion? Judging by its explosive infection speed, it wouldn't take long to crystallize the entire world, right?"

"Good grief, is my empire going to perish just like this? I haven't even pulled for the Primogems I worked so hard to save!"

"..."

The Netizens in front of the live stream instantly turned into utter chaos.

The chat comments flooded the screen frantically.

Anyone with a bit of brain could think of the consequences after the Crystal Disaster spread.

The world-destroying crisis was right before their eyes.

They were so scared that they trembled while typing chat comments; their violently fluctuating emotions yielded harvests of points that made Su Xiu's hands almost soft from collecting.

As expected, fear was the greatest earthquake of the human heart.

— —

Meanwhile, on the other side,

On the battlefield, Zhao Jinlong faced the outward expansion of the Crystal Disaster directly.

His expression was different from theirs.

There was tension and dread, but unlike the Netizens, he wasn't panicked day and night.

It wasn't that his skills were high and his guts were big.

Or to put it another way, soldiers weren't truly fearless of death or anything.

It was purely because he still had his final backing.

Out of the corner of his eye, he looked at 002 beside him; on the young girl's face, half-concealed by a black veil, not a trace of fear could be seen.

Even in the face of the spread of the Crystal Disaster,

The detached expression on her face did not waver in the slightest.

Moreover, Zhao Jinlong wouldn't forget,

The reaction she made earlier when he had unrightfully assumed the 'Chaos' girl was staying behind for him.

Her calm gaze looked far into the distance beneath the earth.

Looking at it now, her target this time was very likely the crystal in the cave!

That was the true core of the Crystal Disaster! The hexagonal crystal!

In other words, representing the Association, she was extremely likely here for the Crystal Disaster!

"Lord... Chaos, can you deal with this anomaly?"

Zhao Jinlong pressed his lips together.

Raising his head, he tremblingly opened his mouth.

In his hesitant voice, he couldn't help but add an honorific.

When a natural disaster passed and he fell into despair, he instinctively chose to cling to someone powerful.

His strength wasn't strong enough, so the young girl from the Association who called herself 'Chaos' should have a solution, right?

Not to mention cracking and shattering the Crystal Disaster, even if she could make a move to stop it and curb the speed of its spread, that would be wonderful!

At least, it could leave some more reaction time.

On Zhao Jinlong's eager face, there was thick hope.

— —

"Blue Star crystallization? An unstoppable doomsday?"

"No!"

"We might still have hope—"

"Look at the woman next to that group of black suits! Her expression didn't change at all in the face of the Crystal Disaster, her identity..."

Just when Zhao Jinlong tentatively spoke up, wanting to ask 002 to make a move to break the deadlock,

The Netizens in the live broadcast room

Finally had a smart person pop out.

Among the massive base, although blindly following the crowd occupied the majority, after all, there were still those with independent thinking.

Keen gazes constantly scanned and looked around the scene, trying to find a way to break the deadlock.

When their eyes were practically blurring,

Although they still hadn't found a way to break the deadlock, he discovered an anomaly.

Calm!

The expression of the mysterious young girl wearing a black veil and half-concealing her face was simply too calm!

So calm that it made people suspicious.

Facing the Crystal Disaster, the crowd in the cemetery was all so scared they were about to pee their pants, and even Zhao Jinlong, who was holding the line in front, relied on strong willpower to suppress his fear, with plenty of fluctuations on his face.

But 002 had been calm from start to finish.

The ancient-well-without-ripples indifference on her face didn't look like a fake calmness at all.

It looked more like confidence from the bottom of her heart?

But on what grounds?

On what grounds could a young girl be confident facing the Crystal Disaster, when even the Skeleton King was crystallized and shattered?

Where on earth did her confidence come from?!

Layer upon layer of doubts rolled in their hearts, as if it was only lacking the last layer to pierce the window paper, to connect the final link of obstruction and string everything together, but it always failed to succeed.

Just as the wise men were scratching their ears and cheeks, the sudden change that occurred next completely lifted the fog.

Beneath the desperate situation!

The final light descended!