Chapter 667: The Heart of Chaos

Inside the stadium, all seats were filled with fervent believers.

In many ways, they were no longer even human.

Their mental power had become half intertwined with the Nightmare of God.

Their mental strength had reached an extreme fueled by fanaticism.

This extreme state rendered them nearly immune to any mental pollution, leaving their entire focus with a single thought.

That thought was to pray for true salvation.

It was precisely this extremism and fervor that transformed them into the beating heart fueling the city’s madness.

Yet suddenly, amid this fanatic and singular devotion, a cold, oppressive voice resonated.

Many of them had their facial muscles twitch ever so slightly, unable to keep one eye open.

Immediately, their vision filled with the jittery static of an old television screen, as noisy white specks danced relentlessly before them.

In a flash, the image sharpened, yet turned monotonous: a giant black shadow rose from the ground, growing enormous as it dominated their entire sight and engulfed their minds.

“You…”

Someone suddenly lost control of their mind and stared at that black shadow.

“Hell Kitchen…”

The massive shadow let out a hollow laugh, uttering words that clashed with its style before lunging fiercely forward.

In that instant, every onlooker’s resolve crumbled.

The lunging black shadow filled their entire vision as they witnessed scenes so brutal they could scarcely believe: some saw themselves, utterly worthless, crawling by the roadside awaiting death; some welcomed the arrival of a real world only to be shunned from it; others found themselves condemned as not devout enough and exiled to the wastelands.

Their faith could help them resist fear.

But the stronger the faith, the deeper the fear.

Before reaching a critical point, faith almost rendered them immune to all mental pollution, including fear; yet once fear began to gnaw at their mental strength and exceeded that limit, it would instantly devour them, leaving them worse off than ordinary people.

“Thump…”

A massive heartbeat suddenly roared through the air as immense mental power surged through the city.

This surge of mental power also carried away a portion of Father’s strength.

They hoped that the collective mental energy of the entire city could dilute that fear.

“Hahahaha…”

Amid their actions, Father’s maniacal laughter enveloped the entire stadium.

The black shadow did not try to resist; instead, it effortlessly followed the flow of mental power, spreading throughout Flame City like ink spreading swiftly, staining every corner.

Thus, everyone in the city beheld that towering shadow.

Some, lost in their frenzy, were abruptly startled awake as the black shadow invaded their view.

Others, devoutly worshipping a deity at home, saw the statue tremble and shatter with a crash.

A mental monster, roaming the streets—so elusive that even humanoid spiderwebs couldn’t capture it—was busy seizing one panicked person after another, only to be suddenly overtaken by the encroaching black shadow, which silently caused it to collapse and vanish entirely.

In that moment, the mental worlds of everyone in Flame City seemed to close down and then restart…

Then, out of the endless darkness, a pair of eyes as red as blood appeared fiercely.

Some people suddenly collapsed, their bodies curling into unnatural positions.

Others, like fish out of water, lay on the floor gasping for air as beads of sweat trailed down their foreheads.

Until recently, the entire city had been in a state of frenzy.

Countless abilities and rituals clashed within the mental realms of Flame City’s residents, exerting their influences and colliding.

These clashes in the mental world affected the various behaviors and maddened states of the city’s populace.

Yet in just an instant, the city fell eerily silent.

……

……

“Haha, it’s been years since I felt this way…”

Within the stadium, the fervent believers watched as Father’s strength was sent far away, only to return swiftly; the faint echoes of hallucinated voices and maniacal laughter seemed to fade briefly, only to rush back with even more terrifying force.

The shadow deepened further, cloaking the entire stadium.

One by one, those seated began to collapse uncontrollably, falling and trembling as they screamed.

Moreover, the speed of this breakdown was accelerating, affecting over half of them.

“They’re still very strong…”

Lu Xin, standing atop the stadium, murmured his assessment.

With Father completely unrestrained and no one to hinder him, his pollution could almost instantly corrupt an entire city.

Yet here, facing fewer than ten thousand people, Father’s corruption was inexplicably prolonged…

…lasting several minutes.

Tsk tsk!

……

……

“What kind of monster is that?”

At that moment, in the meeting room of the Underground Base, just as the tension had eased slightly, everyone’s hearts spiked once again.

Even though they were below ground in the safest part of Flame City.

They felt as if they were on a roller coaster, with no respite in sight.

On the screen, at one moment, an abnormal surge of mental pollution instantly exceeded all limits, blanketing the entire city.

Even the numbers spewed by the detection instruments turned to gibberish.

It seemed that the force of the pollution had momentarily surpassed the detector’s peak capacity.

This was already an unbelievable occurrence, but what was even more astonishing was that in the monitoring of the stadium, they saw a figure standing at its peak.

“Click” “Click” “Click”

The computer system automatically recognized it and swiftly switched to another screen.

With the shutter clicking repeatedly, the image zoomed downward, growing clearer until a lone figure appeared atop the stadium, looking up at the camera with a gradually brightening, beaming smile.

That smile seemed to pierce right into the soul, causing everyone’s hearts to sink.

“Crash…”

It was Hell Designer’s cup that toppled suddenly. Before he could wipe it away, he sprang up, his voice noticeably altered:

“So it’s him…”

“He actually emerged from the Nightmare of God?”

His face showed a mix of exasperation and sudden realization: “I wonder why these spiderwebs appeared…”

“I wonder how we’re facing such an all-out assault…”

“So it’s him—he never truly entered the Nightmare of God; he’s been secretly orchestrating everything…”

“……”

“……”

Surrounding him, the Flame City Executives could barely keep up with his words.

All they could do was murmur in alarm, asking, “What do we do now?”

“What do we do? What do we do? Are you only going to ask me?”

Hell Designer’s forehead almost burst with blue veins as he fretted over one baffling question: “Nightmare of God…”

“Did he never really enter the Nightmare of God, or… did he come out?”

“……”

“Designer, sir…”

Before another thought could form, a loud cry erupted from someone.

Irritated, Hell Designer turned to see everyone staring blankly at the screen, where the figure—who had just flashed a radiant smile toward the camera from atop the stadium—had now turned and slowly reached out his hand towards the sky. The mental fluctuations above the stadium peaked dramatically.

“What is he doing…”

Even Hell Designer felt a sudden chill deep within his heart upon witnessing this.

……

……

At the stadium, as it seemed that Father had polluted over half of the believers and amassed enough strength, Lu Xin took a deep breath and slowly reached out his hand towards that massive heart suspended in the sky.

With his movement, the shadow below rose in unison.

A huge hand slowly extended towards the heart and then grasped it forcefully…

“Thud…”

The heart pounded wildly, its color suddenly shifting from pure white to one tainted with impurities.

At that moment, Lu Xin’s eyes widened in astonishment.

……

……

“He…”

In the Underground Base, everyone’s heartbeats seemed even more intense than the object above the stadium.

Some, already suffering from high blood pressure, could no longer bear the overwhelming pressure and slumped in their chairs, clutching their chests.

“Beep——”

Then came an elongated electronic sound.

They turned their heads weakly, their bodies shuddering as if electrified.

They saw Hell Designer holding his hand up high, a remote control in hand, pointing squarely at the center.

With a crisp alarm sound, one of the glass cases swung open to reveal a young man in a black suit and top hat, his pale face slowly lifting as his bewildered eyes flickered with countless fleeting images.

“Buzz…”

The lights in the room began to flicker erratically.

Some noticed the papers in front of them slowly developing wrinkles.

“It’s time to let them act…”

Hell Designer let out a long sigh.

Gazing at the open glass case in the center, he seemed to steel himself before slamming down twice heavily.

“Beep——”

“Beep——”

Two more prolonged tones sounded as two other glass cases were opened.

From within, the person cradling a glass cup and the one whose body unnervingly leaked strange bits of flesh both opened their eyes simultaneously.

In the office, all the lights exploded at once.

The emergency red lights flickered on, casting a blood-red glow over everyone’s faces.

“That guy—crazy, cunning, vicious…”

“He even possesses abilities beyond my understanding, and the guts to use them without hesitation…”

Hell Designer’s low voice resonated, half in awe and half in fury: “I always believed I was smart enough, yet every time I faced him, he slipped away, catching me off guard!”

“This time, let’s settle it fairly…”

“Now, I’m willing to consider you a true opponent…”

“……”

“……”

It was at that moment that Lu Xin’s hand touched that ‘heart.’

But as soon as he made contact, an odd sensation washed over him.

This was not a mere heart.

Ordinarily it would be nothing more than a product of the fervent believers’ mental prayers—a creation of their mental power. Because he could see mental monsters directly, he could perceive this ‘heart’ clearly; from another’s perspective, it might appear as nothing more than an amorphous burst of mental energy.

Yet when he touched it, he felt an inexplicable tremor.

There was something inside!

And it was alive—a living creature!

This wasn’t a heart at all, but an embryo—a seed born from mental power.

……

……

“Thump…”

As the thought struck Lu Xin, the embryo continued to beat.

With each thump, an enormous surge of mental power was unleashed, flooding the entire city.

And with every release, its connection to the city deepened.

Lu Xin could even see faint, illusory chains forming around the embryo, moving like tendrils in the ebb of mental energy, stirring the surroundings into a subtle vortex…

“Whoosh!”

In a sudden move, Lu Xin retracted his hand and called out to Father, “Give it your all—we must stop this thing from manifesting…”

Then, in a low voice, he told his Sister, “Tell Xia Chong…”

“I’ve found the entrance to Hell…”