Chapter 318: Out of Control

The Aurora Sea surged violently in the sky, like souls rejoicing in the light. Their applause had no sound, yet in another world, it sounded like thunder.

The figure in red standing atop the ruins was now standing quietly, like an actor on a curtain-call stage, embracing and enjoying the applause... As the many Calamities approached, his enjoyment came to an abrupt end.

His head twisted one hundred and eighty degrees, looking at the menacing Calamities behind him, and he suddenly opened his mouth, his voice booming like thunder:

"TAI!!!"

This single syllable instantly swept across the entire ruin. Chen Ling's voice seemed to have a certain magic, striking the souls of all people and Calamities... At the same time, the scarlet belonging exclusively to the audience lit up again in his hollow pupils!

The many Calamities paused, because this time, they truly felt the "World-Ending" aura emanating from Chen Ling. It was an aura even more terrifying than the entity deep in the Forbidden Sea. Beneath that human shell lurked a hideous and mysterious scarlet monster...

Under the light glance of those eyes, the anger that had been burning in the hearts of the Calamities was suddenly extinguished, and an indescribable terror occupied their souls!

They stood in various parts of the ruins, looking back toward the depths of the Forbidden Sea, not knowing what to do for a moment.

But at this moment, the depths of the Forbidden Sea also fell silent;

*CLAP—!!*

A crisp sound of applause broke the dull, deathly silence.

The figure in the bright red opera robe suddenly raised his hands above his head and clapped, then spread his legs and squatted, gesturing toward the many Calamities in a very strange posture...

"WA-YA-YA-YA-YA-YA-YA!!!!"

A sharp, meaningless sound erupted from his throat, like an old general on an opera stage, glaring at the enemy and roaring while moving into position.

Under the shock of this sound, several Calamities were immediately terrified, the fear in their hearts growing more intense. They could even clearly feel the scarlet monster emanating killing intent... That chilling sound was a provocation and contempt toward them.

They retreated step by step, not daring to get close to the figure in red. And the eeriness had only just begun;

Exaggerated and vibrant colors flashed across Chen Ling's hollow face, interweaving into patterns of completely different temperaments. The five painted faces of "Sheng," "Dan," "Jing," "Mo," and "Chou" flashed frantically, his aura changing again and again, and the corners of his mouth curled up eerily during this process...

"This is..." In the ruins in the distance, Club K saw this scene, her pupils constricting slightly.

Before anyone could see what Chen Ling's final face was, his hands suddenly covered his face, and the disorder and eeriness came to an abrupt end.

The sobbing wind blew across the deathly silent ruins. He was like a red sculpture, standing there for over ten seconds.

In the wait where everyone's and the Calamities' heartbeats nearly stopped, he moved.

He spread his arms wide!

A black face was exposed to the air!

It was a face pitch-black like an abyss, the skin and features seemingly swallowed up. In the position of the eyes on that face, a pair of scarlet pupils opened eerily, and the red, crescent-moon-like mouth below curled into an exaggerated smile that stretched all the way to the ears... Grim, mocking, and hair-raising.

That was the face of the audience.

Club K's expression turned extremely ugly. Her brows knitted tightly together, not knowing what to think...

And the other Calamities were even more terrified. A ripple came from the depths of the Forbidden Sea, and the few Calamities in the ruins seemed to receive some kind of order, immediately turning around and leaving, retreating all the way outside the city wall.

The figure moved. Wearing a mocking black smiling face and draped in a bright red opera robe, he danced forward with a rhythmic pace.

His wide, scarlet sleeves danced in the wind. As black snowflakes fell on his shoulders, his body seemed to have no weight, like a red butterfly in this gray world, dancing alone in the ruins of the deserted street.

His toes touched the charred black ground, like a dragonfly touching fallen leaves on water—the locations where every corpse burned to ash in the explosion had originally been.

He danced among the lost souls.

"『I... see the sky weeping』,"

The voice sounded from Chen Ling's throat, carrying a certain rhythm, echoing in the sky above the ruins.

These simple eight words made Club K's pupils shrink. She looked at the red-clad figure dancing silently in astonishment, her eyes filled with disbelief!

"『I hear your voice』;"

"『I smell longing blooming in the thorns』,"

"『I come from the direction of the sunset』..."

Four consecutive lines rang out. At this, even the Twilight Society members outside Aurora City had their expressions change.

"Requiem Ballad???" [10] turned his head sharply toward the city ruins, "Who is singing the Requiem Ballad??"

"It's a man's voice... not that person?"

"In this world, there should only be those four who can sing the Requiem Ballad... but the others aren't in the Aurora Realm, and it wasn't that person singing... then who else could it be??"

"Is there a fifth person in this world who can sing the Requiem Ballad?"

"Wait, this voice... why does it sound familiar?"

Chu Muyun and Bai Ye looked toward the city ruins, and as if realizing something, their pupils contracted involuntarily...

……

"『The earth and rose-red are your bed』,"

"『Frost, snow, and the setting sun are your heavy makeup』;"

"『I will weave hope into dancing kapok flowers』,"

"『Until the rocks remember the fragrance of flowers』."

"『Weeping child』,"

"『Please close your eyes gently』;"

"『Until the twilight falls in the darkest era』,"

"『I will promise you the morning glow and the blue sky』."

The figure in red danced lonely among the lost souls with the sound of the ballad, covering nearly a hundred meters in a single step.

He wandered over the deathly silent, frozen ruins, not caring about anyone's gaze at all, like an actor immersed in the performance stage.

When the last line of the ballad fell, he seemed to lose all his strength. The black smiling face gradually faded, and he tumbled headfirst from the top of a hundred-meter-high broken wall toward the charred earth...

Just as his forehead was about to hit the ground, an arm caught his figure steadily.

Club K looked at the completely unconscious Chen Ling, a flash of conflict and complexity in her eyes. After a long silence, she shook her head and walked straight out of the city with him.

"Are you really going to save him?" A voice sounded from behind.

Club K stopped. On the ruins behind her, a red-haired woman wearing an Enforcer trench coat was watching her quietly.

"If I were you, I would kill him right now... The thing inside him is definitely not simple. It's not just a threat to humanity, but also to your Twilight Society." Hong Xiu spoke again in a deep voice.