NOVEL NEXT Chapter 52: Pigeon? PIGEON!!!
"What!? You jerk, coming here now to talk smack? Can't you see I'm busy here! Also, how the hell did you even get in here!"
David was pissed and really wanted to grab that dopey pigeon and throw it out, but he didn't have time to deal with a pigeon right now. The shadow tide was moving fast—in just a breath, it had already caught up to his ass!
Using the Hand of Monster to push off the wall, David barely managed to pull ahead of the dark shadows again. But that pigeon on his head kept pecking at his forehead going "coo coo."
"Leave none alive... must leave none alive..."
The pigeon kept muttering the Fourth Prince's orders, until it noticed David had completely given up on chasing his target and was just focused on running. That's when its cooing started changing in a creepy way...
"Coo... leave none alive... coo... coogucoogubonecoogawacoo~~~~~"
David suddenly got an ominous feeling. An aura more dangerous than the shadow swarm behind him burst forth violently from on top of his head!
Strange sounds of flesh twisting and breaking rang out, accompanied by the pigeon's glitchy twitching noises. A massive amount of white feathers suddenly appeared.
"What the hell!"
David reacted lightning-fast and shook his head, flinging the completely twisted pigeon off. Then he watched as that "pigeon's" body suddenly expanded at incredible speed, instantly filling the entire corridor.
White feathers exploded everywhere, and a monster-like giant white bird appeared in the corridor!
A third vertical eye grew between its hollow eye sockets. Its up-and-down opening beak split into four parts. Sharp fangs burst from its mouth, and deep within that hideous maw, light was flashing...
This was supposed to be a pigeon???
David was shocked again.
He realized he'd really misjudged the Fourth Prince. How could that pervert woman who'd even changed genders to chase power possibly send a dopey pigeon to assist him?
This was clearly a terrifyingly powerful monster!
The "monster pigeon" faced the swarming shadows and opened its huge mouth, blasting out a blinding beam of light with a whoosh!
The shadows let out terrified screams under that light, as if they'd met their natural enemy. The shadows hit directly by the light immediately melted like snow in water.
If David knew more about rituals, he'd be able to see the essence of this "pigeon"—it wasn't a monster at all, but a powerful synthetic beast combining third-tier Natural Light Ritual abilities.
There was an old saying in the Order: folks on the Natural Light path were best at making "unnatural" things... which is why it looked so twisted.
The massive strange bird let out a loud weird cry in the corridor. It barely spread its four white wings, their hard feathers like blades, leaving deep scratches on the walls on both sides.
As it kept spraying light from its mouth, massive numbers of shadows were destroyed, and its steps pushed forward in the opposite direction.
The giant bird's goal was to charge through that door, kill the alchemist who'd escaped into the Shadow Realm, and complete the mission Her Highness had assigned!
But there were just too many shadows. They swarmed over it, bypassing the light to cling to the pigeon's body, beginning to corrupt and corrode its incredibly tough feathers...
Seeing that even that super monster pigeon couldn't hold out much longer, David immediately turned back to keep running.
But he'd barely run a few steps when the corridor ahead collapsed with a huge hole from a massive impact!
A roaring beast charged out from inside, and along with it came shadow clusters that had killed their way down from the upper levels!
That massive beast had a lion-like head, but its body resembled certain primates. Its forearms were long and thick, its build stocky. Even on all fours it was fifteen feet tall, its head touching the corridor ceiling.
Most eye-catching was its chest, glowing with intense light!
"A glowing heart?"
David paused for a moment. This monster was apparently one of his targets for coming here.
But the monster was wailing right now. It was already tangled up with a bunch of shadows. Its sharp claws and fangs couldn't hurt those shadows at all—only the light radiating from its heart could resist the shadows' corrosion.
But it couldn't exactly rip out its own chest cavity!
The shadows specifically went for its limbs and head, gnawing away, and it had no way to deal with them...
Right then, David noticed some construct soldiers wielding lightning blades and hacking at shadows emerging from the big hole the monster had smashed through. His eyes flashed, and he accelerated toward them.
The monster struggling and roaring in the corridor saw a human running toward it and immediately swung its claws in rage.
"Get the hell out of my way—!"
The green monster claw blocked the beast's strike. The crimson Hand of Divine Corpse suddenly stabbed out, cleanly ripping out the monster's heart!
The Hand of Divine Corpse's cooldown had finally finished. David didn't hesitate to spend ten thousand life energy to instantly kill it, then swung out another divine corpse arm.
The dark red hand blade chopped a construct soldier behind the monster clean in half, giving it no chance to resist.
David grabbed the construct soldier's arm, and immediately heard a prompt from deep in his soul.
[Construct arm discovered. Initiate Limb Grafting Ritual?]
This prompt had actually appeared before, but David hadn't tried to trigger the ritual then.
You had to understand—every time he obtained a new type of arm, the Limb Grafting Ritual would summon a ritual evil spirit. He'd been traumatized by those things and never wanted to inexplicably get burdened with more of those troublesome entities.
But now the situation didn't give him a choice. Those shadow swarms from the Shadow Realm behind him had already bypassed the super monster pigeon's body.
The shadows tangled up with the monster immediately shifted their target to David after the monster died.
He had to immediately obtain a weapon that could deal with shadows!
"Come on! Start the ritual!!!"
The moment he shouted those words, the shadows sweeping toward him also reached out their malicious arms. Massive dark power condensed, and black lightning struck down from above.
BOOM!
This was the real "death curse"!
It ignored the protection of life energy, stabbing straight into David's soul. The health bar on his panel was nearly emptied in an instant!
...
Meanwhile, the white monster bird finally charged through the door leading to the Shadow Realm. It spread its twisted four wings and flew out with a whoosh.
Its massive body cut through the shadows like breaking through waves. The light spraying from its beak pierced the black world like an arrow.
Not far away, a black-clothed man wearing a helmet stumbled forward in terror. But his stamina had reached its limit—he couldn't run anymore.
The monster bird's three eyes locked onto him. It folded its wings and dove down!
"No!!! You can't kill me!!! Only I can understand the ancient knights' blueprints! Only I can replicate the ancient knights' technology!!! I've already succeeded! I've succeeded!"
Alchemist Seymour shouted in terror, but the diving giant bird showed no sign of sparing him.
Its terrifying talons pierced through the alchemist's heart. The monster bird's four-part maw bit through the alchemist's head along with his helmet, crushing them together...
Its mission was finally complete.
Leave none alive!
It was Her Highness's most excellent messenger, far better than that foolish hunter...
The surrounding shadows rapidly surged in, enveloping the monster bird's body, and began to feast.