Chapter 154: Battle of the High Tower

A tower hundreds of meters tall pierced straight into the clouds, and the brilliant light released from its summit dispelled the mist, serving as the most formidable barrier for City Three.

Yet, right beneath this tower—which represented protection and hope—rivers of blood had already flowed.

The ground was littered with blown-up armored vehicles and the charred corpses of soldiers. In the eyes of the surviving tower defenders, there lingered an intense terror and disbelief.

The source of all this negative emotion was the red-haired man standing in the center of the battlefield.

The tower defenders, who had initially held the upper hand in the firefight, suffered catastrophic losses in just a short span of time after the Legion Leader joined the battle.

This red-haired man... or rather, the demon capable of manipulating flames, had already become a nightmare for the numerous tower defenders.

It wasn't until Fu Ying rushed over, giving the tower defenders a backbone and a fighting chance, that they managed to regain some of their confidence.

"The leader of the Anomaly Processing Department?" The red-haired man had his hands in his pockets, wearing a calm expression, though a flash of undisguised admiration crossed his eyes when he saw the woman in the distance with a golden phantom floating behind her.

"Join us. With your abilities, it is simply too much of a waste to serve a decaying faction like the Alliance." Even though countless gun muzzles were aimed at him, the red-haired man acted as if nothing was wrong, and even had the leisure to extend an invitation to Fu Ying, who was in the enemy camp.

Even though he clearly knew Fu Ying was the head of the Anomaly Processing Department.

Fu Ying breathed heavily. Her abilities were not particularly strong in direct combat; belonging to the mental control type, it was difficult for her to directly control the mind of the red-haired man, whose mental strength was far from weak. She had suffered quite a few setbacks in their previous clashes.

However, facing the red-haired man's recruitment, Fu Ying let out a disdainful sneer.

"Do rats like you, hiding in the dark and plotting every day, deserve to have me join you? Besides... I am not serving the Alliance; I am serving City Three."

Hearing this, the red-haired man shook his head with apparent regret. "What a pity. It seems you do not fully understand what we are doing. Decaying things will eventually head toward destruction, and newborn forces represent the future.

"The alternation of the old and the new will inevitably demand the sacrifice of lives, but it is not the conspiracy you make it out to be. On the contrary, our plan minimizes the losses during this transition between the old and the new."

After talking to himself for a moment, the red-haired man was naturally a man with a broad perspective. Recruiting Fu Ying was merely a spur-of-the-moment idea; failing to get the desired response only brought a slight sense of regret, which would not make him halt his actions.

Snap!

With a crisp snap of his fingers, a pitch-black phantom standing a full three meters tall instantly appeared behind the red-haired man. The ghoul-like anomaly released a terrifying and eerie aura.

Even the many tower defenders who were unable to look directly at anomalies suddenly felt as if their throats were being gripped by an invisible giant hand.

The next moment, flame-like substances emerged over the pitch-black anomaly, and the space around the red-haired man seemed to distort due to the intense heat.

Swish!

Large swaths of blazing fire suddenly appeared out of thin air on the battlefield, sweeping toward the position of the tower defenders like a wild horse breaking its reins!

Fu Ying gritted her teeth, the golden light of her "Divine Focus" blazing behind her as she plunged straight into the raging sea of fire.

The only way for the mental-control-type "Divine Focus" to deal with the flames was to use her own body to quell the extreme heat.

Depending on the chilling aura of the anomaly, the intensity of the sea of fire decreased significantly, merely burning a few unlucky souls who failed to dodge in time.

Yet, after dealing with this wave of attacks—which was nothing more than a casual maneuver to the red-haired man—Fu Ying's aura withered by another fraction.

Using anomalous powers to directly and massively influence reality was undoubtedly an immense burden on an Anomaly Walker!

"It really is a pity that you are going to die here." The red-haired man walked across the battlefield as leisurely as strolling in a courtyard. The numerous bullets fired toward him were all intercepted by the giant-like pitch-black anomaly beside him, their hardened warheads melted into scorching liquid by the anomaly's power and casually splattered onto the ground.

"I know you firmly believe that even if I defeat you, I won't be able to enter the tower. Because there are still other Anomaly Walkers from your City Three inside the tower, right? And the building materials of the tower are not ordinary substances; even for my anomaly, breaking through would indeed take a very, very long time.

"But what if I told you there is a traitor among your subordinates?" The red-haired man curved the corner of his mouth, exuding an aura of absolute control over everything.

"An Anomaly Walkers like you are going completely against the grain, failing the power within you. Clearly, you are no longer the same kind of existence as ordinary people, yet you listen to your magistrate's hypocritical propaganda and fight in the name of protection.

"Heh... But do all the Anomaly Walkers in your City Three truly identify with this fragile belief from the bottom of their hearts?"

Fu Ying let out a sharp cry and suddenly charged forward, her attacks interrupting the red-haired man's words. Brilliant golden light surged into her pupils, and "Divine Focus" rushed forward, swinging its fists.

Bang! Bang!

The anomaly known as the Black Flame Giant opened its massive hands and easily caught the fists of "Divine Focus."

Seeing this, Fu Ying was greatly shocked. The power rating of "Divine Focus" had easily reached the B-rank.

Yet the black anomaly before her could block the attack of "Divine Focus" with such ease, which meant this guy's power was at least B-plus.

An A-rank was even a distinct possibility.

Controlling flames and possessing such formidable close-combat strength—even for Fu Ying, whose combat experience was countless, she felt somewhat drained.

However, she would not give up easily. The ability of "Divine Focus" activated the moment it contacted the Black Flame Giant.

"You want to fall asleep."

A voice carrying a powerful bewitching effect instantly rang in the red-haired man's ears, and he really did lower his head and close his eyes for a split second.

Fu Ying immediately seized this opportunity to lunge forward to the red-haired man, pulling out the tactical knife at her waist with a reverse grip and fiercely stabbing toward the enemy's throat.

However, the red-haired man's eyes snapped open. Possessing a mental strength that was likewise extraordinary, he broke free from this influence—which went against his will—in an extremely short amount of time. The Black Flame Giant beside him let out a silent roar, and extremely scorching flames immediately surged through all the space around his body!

Boom!

The wave of fire impacted, and Fu Ying was overturned onto the ground by the rolling shockwave. After several consecutive tactical rolls, she managed to steady her footing and crouch halfway on the ground. The tactical knife in her hand became scorching hot, and dense little blisters instantly formed on the hand she used to hold the hilt.

"If you had ambushed me, you might still have had a chance of winning. In a head-on confrontation, you dying at my hands is only a matter of time," the red-haired man stated a fact in a flat tone.

Suddenly, however, he turned his head aside, and a dazzling beam of high-energy laser pierced through the air, grazing past his cheek!

And after reaching behind him, this laser beam violated science by refracting multiple times in the air, charging toward his face once again!

The Black Flame Giant extended a massive hand. The illusory palm made contact with the real laser, and the palm churned violently, yet it successfully exhausted all the energy of the laser.

The red-haired man gently touched the lingering warmth on his face with one hand. Far from being enraged by the sneak attack, he turned around with great interest to see who on earth had ambushed him.

Not far away, "Old Monarch" and "Refractor" stood side by side, gazing at the red-haired man without a shred of fear.

"Interesting."