The ritual was disrupted.

When the Queen's Guard, who had been cycling through reincarnation for half a century, suddenly broke the cycle for some unknown reason, when the "Gate of Ascension" in the ritual hall was blown up by intruders, when a group of guys who didn't know where they came from ran into the hall—when the designated sacrifice, in front of the Pool of Elements, sacrificed herself to the green flames, this sacred and ultimate ritual had reached the point of no return.

Now, heretics had stormed in, and destroyers were frantically slaughtering the Holy Lord's followers, destroying decades of painstaking effort.

"What have you done?!"

In the center of the deep pool, the cult leader, with the appearance of a golden-haired young man, roared in fury. His body suddenly rose, transforming into a bloated and terrifying giant with the support of the black mud. He reached out his arm towards Agatha, and countless thorns and bone spurs grew rapidly from the pool, spreading and surging towards the gatekeeper still standing in the flames.

However, all attacks failed to touch Agatha's body, instantly turning to ashes under the burning of the ghostly green flames. The strange flames instead spread backward along the trajectory of the ashes, gradually incinerating the sacrificial symbols and blasphemous objects around the mud pool, and extending towards the pool.

Agatha, still enveloped in flames, with the raging spiritual fire beginning to burst from her body, every wound on her body even turned into a channel for the flames to surge out. It looked as if the flames had turned into liquid, flowing in her blood vessels—the excruciating pain of being burned by the flames had faded away at some point. She laughed in the fire, raised her head, and fearlessly stared at the furious but powerless heretic, murmuring to herself, "Ah… I understand…"

In the next second, her eyeballs were instantly burned away by the spirit fire, fire gushing out from the empty eye sockets. She used these burned-out "eyes" to look around, at the cultists around the deep pool who were in great chaos.

When her gaze swept over them, all the cultists began to burn, and the demons coexisting with them also began to burn. All the blasphemous objects in the hall turned into fuel for the fire, and even the hall itself began to slowly exude the texture of flames.

The Fire-Stealer granted her authority, and she used the authority of fire to end the blasphemy here—this was the truth she saw in the fire at the moment her eyeballs were burned away.

The cultist in the center of the mud was not to be feared; he was just a freak who had completed a self-sacrificial transformation. What really maintained the operation here were those ugly and deformed heretics who were howling around the mud pool.

"Stop! Stop now! You don't know what you're doing! The ritual going out of control benefits no one! It has already progressed to…"

The cult leader, who had transformed into a bloated giant, shouted in vain, constantly creating barriers in an attempt to resist the flames spreading throughout the hall. However, at this moment, a gunshot suddenly came from the side, interrupting his shout.

"Bang!"

A young soldier wearing a soldier's uniform from half a century ago, holding an old-fashioned rifle, rushed in, raising his rifle and firing at the deformed, bloated giant in the center of the deep pool.

The brave warrior was swallowed by the surging black mud in the next moment, but behind him, more soldiers were rushing into the hall.

In terms of time, it had already passed the cycle node of the Queen's Guard's "counterattack battle." These phantom warriors should have all dissipated, but it was obvious that this cycle had been changed by the destruction of the thorny gate—the Queen's Guard, who should have disappeared at the next hour, had returned here from the cycle and began to attack this final hall.

The marine squad led by Lawrence had also engaged in fierce fighting with the nearby cultists and abyssal demons—they had run out of bullets, but they still had sharp scimitars and longswords, and a body that was temporarily not afraid of death. Therefore, even when facing dark priests and demonic creatures who possessed various dangerous powers, they were not at a disadvantage, like powerful transcendent beings.

With a "clang," Lawrence's short sword chopped off a bone spur flying towards him, then dodged a fireball that almost exploded on him. He stepped forward in the flames, cutting the chains behind the neck of a cultist, watching the dark priest's body quickly turn into ashes. Then he raised his head and looked at the long-haired woman standing in front of the mud pool not far away, her whole body burning like a torch.

"Girl! We're here to help!" the old captain shouted loudly, "We're all working for the 'Captain,' right—which ship are you on?"

He could see clearly that the young girl standing in the flames was burning with the same ghostly green flames as himself, so she was obviously one of their own. On the other hand, the flames on the girl's body were darker in color, and the fire was obviously larger than his own, so she must not be an ordinary "one of their own."

Big and green—a big shot under Captain Duncan.

Captain Lawrence made a simple judgment based on his rich adventurer and captain experience, concluding that he should take the initiative to greet a future high-level colleague.

Agatha looked in astonishment at the burly old man who looked like a captain shouting at her.

"What are you saying?!" After two or three seconds, she couldn't help but shout loudly, "It's too noisy here, I can't hear you!"

Lawrence was stunned, turned his head, and confirmed with his subordinates, "Did she respond?"

"How would I know!" Aberration 077 was the closest. The dried corpse was shouting loudly at this moment, his voice mixed with fear and embarrassment. He jumped back and forth in the flames spreading in all directions, desperately dodging the bullets, fireballs, bone spurs, and even the blown-off limbs flying around, the double knives in his hands already had gaps, "I'm a sailor! Why am I fighting a bunch of cultists in the sewers—this is a marine's job!"

"You weren't like this when you went ashore," Lawrence shouted loudly, "You were as excited as a pirate preparing to plunder a city-state."

"You said we weren't pirates!"

"Then I'm appointing you as a marine."

"You motherf—"

"Hm?"

"You mother…"

Agatha listened blankly to the incomprehensible shouts and exchanges between the rude and sturdy sailors and the captain, watching the extremely chaotic scene in front of her—

Who are these guys? Where did they come from? What are they doing?

She saw the strangers burning with the same green flames as herself, and the cultists in the hall were fighting with them. She also watched a large group of soldiers who looked like ancient ghosts rushing in and shooting everywhere. From time to time, soldiers shouted the name of the Frost Queen. Everything here was beyond her understanding, as if…

As if after she chose self-sacrifice, the style of the whole world had changed.

However, soon, a whistling wind interrupted her wild thoughts.

The bloated and deformed giant bent down towards her.

"Everything… cannot be stopped…"

It roared, its whole body spewing out turbid and out-of-control black mud. The once handsome appearance of the golden-haired young man had long disappeared, replaced by a terrifying monster with a roughly human outline.

Its torso was covered with crisscrossing mouths, and chilling friction and whispers came from between the sharp teeth. Its head slowly cracked in front of Agatha, the cracks filled with malicious eyes. The elements had completely eroded and replaced the monster's former human body. It had become part of that pool of mud, or even… part of some larger, more chaotic will.

The bloated giant stared at Agatha with its countless eyes. The mud spreading around it had been ignited, and the flames were even burning back onto its body. However, the monster seemed to feel no pain at all, repeating over and over again, "Cannot be stopped… cannot be stopped… mistake, mistake…"

"You have already failed," Agatha raised her head, looking into the monster's eyes. The flames flowing from her eye sockets twisted the surrounding air. "You should be able to feel that the so-called 'channel' has been cut off—the reversal process between the mirror image and reality has stopped."

"Stopped?" The monster seemed to suddenly wake up for a moment because of Agatha's last words. In the countless mutated eyeballs, the resentment belonging to humans reappeared, "Foolish… You think that because you sacrificed yourself… we have no other sacrifices?!"

Agatha was stunned.

In the next second, she saw the giant suddenly raise its hands high—its arms suddenly changed, growing and dividing rapidly like dry and cracked branches, turning into large patches of thorny structures, and piercing into the roof of the assembly hall and every nearby pipe. Among the thorns, there were weak flashes of light that quickly roamed, like fireflies.

From the depths of this "thicket of thorns," came a cry of ecstasy—

"I see it! I understand! I understand!

"What a magnificent creation! What a grand blueprint! Oh, most great and holy Lord… I have comprehended your intention, I have comprehended… reshaping this world, yes, reshaping… all of us, and all things in this world, will be born again from the flesh and blood of God—believers, the time for sacrifice has come!"

"The time for sacrifice has come!"

In the shocked gazes of Agatha and the marine squad led by Lawrence, all the remaining Annihilation cultists in the hall began to cheer ecstatically. They seemed to have really received some kind of revelation from the truth. In this roaring cheer, they jumped one by one into the pool of mud in the center of the hall!

(I have a bold idea!)

(End of chapter)