Sergeant Jones's suicidal, all-consuming, final attack cracked the surface of the "Wailing Aggregation's" massive "Turbid-Color Core" on impact. Terrifying fissures spread like a spiderweb in an instant, and a thick, foul, purplish-black core fluid gushed from the cracks like the monster's filthy blood.
But that was all.
Sergeant Jones's desperate final blow severely wounded the "Calamity-Tier" monster, but it failed to destroy it.
The "Wailing Aggregation," thoroughly enraged and with its core having suffered unprecedented damage, became even crazier and more savage. It let out a roar that was sharper, more piercing, and filled with an endless lust for slaughter.
The horrific tentacles on its massive body, which had been attacking other targets, instantly changed direction, transforming into a furious tide of black vipers capable of destroying everything. Within a second, they completely and cruelly drowned Sergeant Jones, who had collapsed to the ground, exhausted and unable to resist.
There was no heroic death cry, no epic struggle.
Shen Kai only "saw" the brilliant crimson red representing Sergeant Jones's life get completely and cleanly devoured by the filthy, chaotic, venomous purple-black.
It was as if light itself had been utterly consumed by the night.
"Sergeant Jones—!!!!!!"
Behind their cover, Nadeshiko could no longer control the immense grief and despair crashing over her like a landslide and tsunami, and she let out a heart-wrenching, mournful cry. Ryan collapsed to the ground as if all his bones had been removed, clutching his head in agony and emitting meaningless whimpers.
Captain Gestalt, with an arm as hard and cold as steel, pressed them down firmly, roaring in a hoarse voice, "Record the data! That's an order!"
But all of this seemed to be growing distant to Shen Kai.
Sergeant Marcus Jones's heroic sacrifice and that of his fearless "Worker Bee Six" squad was the final, incredibly heavy straw that broke the fragile "mental barrier" Shen Kai had been struggling to maintain.
It shouldn't be like this.
Life shouldn't be so fragile, so easily trampled and consumed by these monsters from the abyss.
Protection shouldn't be so pale and powerless against absolute violence.
He felt ultimate rage, ultimate sorrow, ultimate despair, and ultimate hatred for his own laughably weak incompetence.
All of these tsunami-like negative emotions, like the purest grade of nuclear fuel capable of triggering a chain reaction, were instantly thrown into and infused into the mysterious "Colorless Core" in his chest, which had been abnormally silent until now.
This triggered an unprecedented and terrifying chain reaction that he could neither predict nor control.
A strange, pure light of "void" gradually filled his eyes—a light capable of devouring and annihilating all surrounding light and color.
It was something he had deeply suppressed with human reason and morality, something he subconsciously and instinctively feared—a primal, terrifying power born from the combination of his otherworldly "Void Devourer" essence and the unique properties of his "Colorless Core."
Finally, at this moment, it broke free from all the shackles imposed by fragile human consciousness.
It was about to awaken in a world-shattering, subversive manner upon this desperate battlefield.