179: Strange arrival

"Old Jack?!"

Lin Feng's heart was filled with doubt and alarm; that was definitely not a voluntary action by the Specter Aggregate!

It was more like... a loss of control?

A forceful stripping away?

As this thought arose, the Alien Queen's shriek and the Specter Aggregate's wail suddenly soared to a maddening peak!

As if sensing a fatal threat, their struggle instantly became more brutal and chaotic, the clash of energies almost flattening the entire church ruin!

Rumble!

In the depths of the church, in the area shrouded by the deepest darkness, a fluctuation a hundred times more terrifying than all previous energy clashes combined suddenly erupted!

An indescribable, nauseating "aura" surged out like a material tsunami!

That wasn't a smell, but a conceptual "sense of presence."

Decay!

Degeneration!

Annihilation!

Absolute malice towards all life and order!

This aura was thick and viscous, like the essence of billions of living beings rotting and fermenting in despair, instantly filling the entire space!

Lin Feng and the Alien Queen simultaneously felt their souls freeze, their bodies stiffen, and even their thoughts seemed to fall into stagnation.

The specter tentacles, which had been furiously attacking, also seemed to hit a pause button, suddenly halting. The countless suffering faces in its core all turned in unison towards the depths of the church, revealing an instinctive, deep-seated... fear!

Buzz!

In the depths of the church, the dense, gloomy mist that seemed to devour all light suddenly collapsed inward. Immediately after, a dazzling, ominous dark-purple light fiercely tore through the darkness!

"Crack! Crack! Crack!!!"

A deafening, shattering roar, as if the very foundation of the entire plane was groaning!

Space, like a shoddy canvas violently torn by an invisible giant claw, was forcibly ripped open, creating a massive rift with edges oozing viscous, blood-like dark-purple energy!

This hideous rift pierced through the church's dome and plunged into the ink-black, polluted sky, as if tearing a bleeding wound in the firmament!

Through that enormous spatial rift, Lin Feng saw a sight he would never forget—on the other side of the rift was an endless, churning, boiling chaotic void, filled with destructive energy currents and unnameable colossal shadows.

And directly in front of the rift, at the junction of this prime material plane and the chaotic void, a figure stood alone, with its back to them.

It was the assimilated Old Jack!

Or rather, it was his body, currently being re-"sculpted"!

His body became more transparent, and beneath his skin, countless tiny, grayish-white maggots seemed to be squirming and reorganizing.

His head slowly lifted at an extremely unnatural angle, looking into the depths of the boiling void rift.

On his face, the last trace of Old Jack's features was being completely erased, replaced by an empty, inhuman sense of a "vessel."

"Passage... stable... anchor point... confirmed..."

A disjointed, cold, mechanical, and emotionless voice emerged from "Old Jack's" mouth, each syllable echoing with spatial vibrations.

The next second, the spatial rift violently fluctuated!

A "hand," or rather a "limb," indescribably massive, suddenly stretched out from the rift!

It was not a physical entity; it was more like a forced aggregation of countless twisted, writhing, agonizingly wailing translucent specters. It was covered with dense, constantly opening and closing, rotating compound eyes that gleamed with madness and malice, and "fingers" formed from countless biological remnants.

Some resembled human hands and feet, some were like beast claws, and some even resembled insect limbs.

This terrifying giant claw, carrying an aura that annihilated all life, disregarded spatial distance and descended directly above "Old Jack's" head!

"No!!!"

Just as the giant claw was about to touch "Old Jack's" crown, a faint roar, yet filled with endless pain and struggle, miraculously erupted from deep within the assimilating body!

It was Old Jack!

That fading crimson light, the last remnant of Old Jack's soul essence, in its extreme pain and unwillingness to accept its fate, unleashed its final and most brilliant struggle!

"Burn... out... my... soul!!!"

Old Jack's remaining will let out its final, desperate roar, a roar of mutual destruction!

The rule of immolation, suppressed to its extreme within him, ignited like a powder keg, exploding with a thunderous boom!

Not attacking outwards, but... from within, burning himself!

Boom!

A crimson, blood-red flame, carrying an aura of resolute destruction, suddenly burst forth from every pore and every encroached part of "Old Jack's" body!

This flame carried Old Jack's lifelong fighting spirit essence and his last soul will, furiously burning the specter energy that was entangled and permeated within him, as well as the terrifying giant claw that had just descended!

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle!

Like a scorching branding iron pressed onto rotting flesh!

On the dark-purple giant claw, the parts scorched by the crimson flames instantly billowed with large patches of foul-smelling green smoke. Countless tiny specters shrieked in extreme agony in the flames, instantly turning into nothingness.

The giant claw's movement suddenly paused, and it was even forced to recoil slightly by this resistant force originating from within the "vessel"!

"Ant! How dare you obstruct me?!"

A vast, overlapping, terrifying will, seemingly a fusion of the painful wails of billions of living beings, struck every living being's mind like a material heavy hammer, imbued with towering rage at being offended!

The spatial rift violently vibrated, and more dark-purple energy surged out like viscous blood.

Old Jack's resistance was like a drop of water thrown into boiling oil; although it caused a violent reaction, it was ultimately too weak.

The crimson immolation flames lasted for less than two seconds before being furiously extinguished and devoured by a larger, purer dark energy.

The last trace of humanity on Old Jack's body completely vanished, and that crimson light of his soul, like a candle in the wind, in the endless darkness... completely extinguished.

"Vessel... perfect... descent... begin!"

The cold, mechanical voice sounded again, without a ripple of emotion.

The giant claw, briefly hindered, was now unimpeded. With destructive power, it slammed down on "Old Jack"—who should now be called the "Vessel"—'s head!

Puff!

There was no earth-shattering explosion, only a chilling, faint sound, as if a bubble had burst.

The "Vessel's" body, like a punctured balloon, instantly collapsed inward, transforming into a pure, rotating dark vortex.

The giant claw, composed of countless specters and remnants, seemed to have found its perfect destination, entirely "merging" into that dark vortex!

Rumble, rumble, rumble!!!

The entire space violently trembled!

The church ruins completely collapsed, huge stones raining down like drops, yet they were silently annihilated into basic particles as they approached the dark vortex.

The spatial rift suddenly expanded, its dark-purple energy edges writhing and proliferating like living things, becoming more stable.

An indescribable, suffocatingly terrifying pressure, like an awakened world-destroying beast, emanated from that dark vortex!

This pressure transcended the physical plane, directly affecting the soul. Lin Feng and the Alien Queen felt their hearts gripped by a cold giant hand, each beat incredibly difficult. The fear stemming from their life instincts almost made them prostrate themselves.

At the center of the vortex, an "existence" was rapidly forming and condensing.