Hunter of Immortals

Chapter 356: Lamenting Wall

Chapter 356: Lamenting Wall

The monster that had been created by the horse-faced anomaly was a creature resembling the mythical Cthulu. Adam wasn't able to sense much power in the creature's tentacles, and he felt like he would be able to free himself with ease.

However, in the next instant, all types of negative emotions flooded into his mind, plunging his thoughts into a state of disarray.

The powers of someone's psychic body reflected the special characteristics of their personality.

The human skin artist was someone who created pieces of artwork that evoked boundless negative emotions within both his subjects and the beholders of the artworks, and this ability was amplified in the psychic world. Even though Adam was fused with Sludge, he was unable to ward off the corruption of these negative emotions, and he immediately became extremely weary and pessimistic.

Humanity is evil at its core... There's no actual point to anything in life... Humanity has brought nothing but destruction to this world... Wouldn't it be better if everyone just died?

It was as if Adam had suddenly been afflicted by severe depression, and he instantly lost all of his will to fight. As a result of his nihilistic emotions, even his psychic body was becoming weaker.

He fell to one knee, and it was as if all of the strength had been sapped from his body, making him resemble a corrupted stone statue.

Thankfully, prior to rushing into battle, Adam had already invoked his other anomalies.

Those anomalies could sense that he was in a battle, and they quickly arrived on the scene one after another.

Hellhound was the fastest of all of Adam's anomalies, so it was naturally the first one to arrive on the scene, rushing at the Cthulu-like creature before sinking its fangs into one of the creature's tentacles, tearing it off with a vicious whip of its head. At the same time, its other two heads were releasing flames and toxins to ravage the creature's body.

After undergoing multiple evolutions, Hellhound was a bona fide level five anomaly at this point, and after its latest evolution, bone spikes had sprouted from all of its joints.

After destroying several of the Cthulu-like creature's tentacles, Hellhound spun around in mid-air, tearing the creature's body to shreds with its blade-like bone spikes.

The creature was quite lackluster in both its physical strength and defenses, but its emotional attacks were extremely potent.

After the creature was killed, Adam's emotions gradually returned to a normal baseline, but there was still a hint of lingering fear in his heart as he rose to his feet and cast his gaze toward the anomaly before him.

That was quite the close call, but at the same time, Adam was able to gather some information on his opponent from that exchange.

Fighting an opponent that one knew nothing about was always a risky endeavor, and it was very important to know what the enemy's strengths and weaknesses were.

The skill of constantly learning and adapting during the course of a battle was one that was just as important as any ability, particularly in battles in the psychic world, which were extremely unpredictable.

Adam had encountered opponents with all types of abilities in the past, so even though he had been caught off guard here, he was able to quickly steady himself.

During high-level battles, falling prey to an opponent's ability in an unsuspecting manner could easily result in fatal consequences, and there was even a chance of major upsets taking place.

For example, with his time-based abilities, someone like Herman could potentially kill an opponent far more powerful than himself, as long as that opponent didn't excel in physical defenses. Another example was Medusa, who, in the right circumstances, could also defeat opponents of a far higher level than herself, and the same applied to this horse-faced anomaly as well.

The horse-faced anomaly's physical body wasn't very powerful, but its strange abilities made it very troublesome to deal with.

From that initial exchange, Adam had determined that this thing was at least a level six anomaly.

However, Adam was no slouch himself at this point, so he had nothing to fear.

After being rescued by Hellhound, Adam charged at the anomaly once again while instructing Hellhound to flank the anomaly from the other side.

It was clear that the anomaly didn't excel in close-quarters combat, and Adam was eager to target that weakness.

The foundation of all good strategies was making use of one's strengths to attack the opponent's weaknesses, and with two level five anomalies that excelled in close-quarters combat, Adam was certainly well-equipped to target the anomaly's shortcomings.

Adam charged at the anomaly from one direction, leaving a trail of destruction and wreckage in his wake, while Hellhound galloped through the air from another direction with a cloud of black mist around its entire body.

The horse-faced anomaly quickly waved his brush through the air at the sight of the two oncoming assailants, and before long, two more monstrous creatures had been created.

This time, Adam didn't allow the creatures to make physical contact with him. Instead, he uprooted a street light and swung it at the creature like a club.

Part of the creatures' bodies were destroyed by two heavy blows from the makeshift club, following which a flurry of Explosive Fireballs arrived from Hellhound to destroy the pair of creatures, and Hellhound wasn't slowed down in the slightest as it charged straight through the flames and sank its fangs into the anomaly's body.

The anomaly howled in agony once again, but as soon as it opened its mouth, the street light was plunged down its throat, piercing through the back of its neck.

After that, Adam's massive hand came crashing down, and the anomaly's head was completely pulverized like a watermelon after just a few powerful slaps.

Despite this, Adam didn't dare to allow complacency to set in against a high-level anomaly, and right as he was about to tear the anomaly's body to shreds, paint began to spread from the anomaly's brush, which had been dropped onto the ground. Before long, an enormous mural with a radius of several hundred meters had appeared on the ground.

The mural depicted all of the displaced victims of the nuclear attack, and all of them wore different expressions, displaying emotions like pain, horror, and urgency, but there were also some people who seemed to be excited by the situation and were taking advantage of the chaos for their own benefit.

The countless different faces came together to form the world-renowned artwork known as the Lamenting Wall.

In the instant that the wall appeared, a strange sigh rang out from the earth, as if the entire ground had been infected by the tragedy in the scene being depicted, and Adam and Hellhound found themselves falling into the mural.

It was like a nested dream, or a psychic world within a psychic world.

Upon falling into the artwork, Adam could see that the surrounding scene was already beginning to change.

Even though he was still in the same city from before, the eruption of light from the nuclear explosion seemed to be permanently lingering in the air, refusing to fade, while the expressions of the people down below had become even more twisted, and molten lava was flowing over the ground.

While he was observing his surroundings, all of the people depicted in the mural using human skin turned to face him in unison, and they opened their mouths up wide before letting loose a collective piercing screech.

The screech was filled with despair, pain, horror, resignation... Countless negative emotions were swirling together at once to crush Adam on a mental level, and Hellhound also collapsed to the ground with an anguished wail.

This emotional attack was 10 times more powerful than the one unleashed by the Cthulu-like creature, and neither Hellhound nor Adam was able to withstand the attack, instantly succumbing to the overwhelming wave of negative emotions washing over them.

At the same time, the headless horse-faced anomaly reappeared in a corner of the mural, and its body was slowly regenerating as it derived power from the despair around it.

Its regenerative abilities were severely lacking compared with Sludge's, but time could heal all wounds.

In its eyes, its opponents were nothing more than lambs to the slaughter at this point anyway, so it was in no hurry to strike.

After regenerating its head, the anomaly picked up its brush again, quickly creating several giant monstrous creatures that rushed directly at Adam and Hellhound.

It had decided that it was time to put an end to this battle.