Fear and despair enveloped the thousands of resistance fighters.
The war mechs were no more than a kilometer away at their closest, and facing a nuclear explosion at that distance, running was completely meaningless.
Holding out against it was even more impossible. Even if some Ascendants had defensive items, very few could withstand a nuclear blast.
Even if some special effect could block a single attack, it couldn't eliminate the intense nuclear radiation left behind after the detonation.
"There's no way they'd actually detonate, right?!"
In the brief silence, someone shouted in disbelief.
Others joined in, shouting as well.
"Impossible! Nuclear-bombing their own people, even Bruce couldn't bear those consequences!"
"It's just intimidation, they definitely wouldn't dare. Otherwise, every nation in the world would join forces to eliminate him!"
Some people still clung to delusions, but Guan Tong knew better than anyone that Bruce not only dared, but would absolutely follow through.
He could read Bruce's mindset. For someone like that, once a threat was issued, if the other party refused to comply, the threat would inevitably be carried out.
So the very second after his refusal, he expanded his Shadow Domain, protecting Ai Ya while morphing into numerous shadow tendrils to grab as many resistance members on the scene as possible, then flapped his shadow wings and fled from the war mechs at supersonic speed.
Just three or four seconds later, the explosion came.
KRRR-KRRR-KRRR!
A dull rumble, followed by a piercing shriek that seemed to tear the air itself apart, surged from behind.
The pale light of the blast instantly illuminated heaven and earth. Guan Tong could feel the violent winds and searing heat chasing after him as he flew forward at full speed, not looking back.
If it were just himself, he would have used Body Swap to escape immediately, but with Ai Ya in tow, that wasn't possible. There also wasn't enough time to put her into a shelter and take her away.
Fortunately, this was the Manjia Mountains, and the small town sat at the foot of the peaks.
He flew into the mountains at supersonic speed. The solid rock formations were enough to block most of the blast's shockwave and radiation.
Once the heat behind him subsided, he steadied himself and turned to look. The afterglow of the explosion lingered at the edge of the sky, forming a ring of sickly purple-red.
He glanced at Ai Ya. She was unharmed, protected by the thick shadow wrapping, but she had fallen unconscious. He had no idea what was happening inside her mind right now.
As for the others...
Guan Tong looked down. When he had flown off, he had tried his best to manipulate his shadow tendrils to grab as many people as possible and drag them along, but those people were being pulled behind him, so their speed naturally couldn't match his own.
When the shadow tendrils released, some had already died from the blast's effects. Others were unconscious, their lives hanging in the balance.
Some couldn't withstand the speed of Guan Tong's movement, suffering internal organ damage and coughing up blood from the high-velocity travel. But that was still better than being vaporized by the heat on the spot.
Only a few Ascendants who were luckier, or had defensive items that offset part of the damage, looked like they were still in decent shape.
These people wore dazed expressions, some unable to believe they had actually survived. Others wept uncontrollably, whether from the shock of the nuclear blast or grief over the loss of loved ones.
Guan Tong swept his gaze across the scene. Of the several thousand resistance fighters in total, he had only saved around three hundred. The rest had all perished in the detonation of the four tactical nuclear bombs.
He glanced again at the unconscious Roy, and was about to leave when someone called out.
"Shadow, wait!"
It was Roy. He and Verin had been among those Guan Tong saved, but their other companion, Donny, was nowhere to be seen.
They knew full well that anyone who hadn't escaped wouldn't have a complete body left behind.
Roy walked up to Guan Tong, his eyes bloodshot. "Shadow, you're Verin's savior, you're our savior!"
"Savior, my ass!" someone shouted in emotional collapse. "Almost everyone is dead, and you call that a savior? If he had just handed over that girl, maybe... even surrendering and being taken prisoner would've been better than this! That way, so many people wouldn't have died!"
"The hell are you spouting?!" Roy snapped, turning his head to curse. "That bastard Bruce never planned to let us live anyway! Without Shadow, we'd all be dead right now!"
"You're called Roy, right?" Guan Tong spoke up. "I'm leaving. Take care of yourselves."
Roy said urgently, "Can we come with you? By the way, that spy we caught earlier..."
"Not needed anymore."
Guan Tong had wanted to use the spy as a breakthrough, mainly to get into the Hall of Halls to find Ai Ya.
Now that Ai Ya was in his hands, what he needed was to strip away Gaelid's consciousness, or simply kill it outright, so that Ai Ya's consciousness could fully control her own body.
As for the Hall of Halls...
Without Ai Ya as an "obstacle," Yelanka's earlier proposal wasn't necessarily off the table.
Was Suroma the only nation that could use nuclear bombs? Was Bruce the only one?
The cold, murderous intent in Guan Tong's eyes frightened Roy.
He had played rock music for years and had seen all kinds of unhinged characters, but facing Guan Tong, he still felt inexplicably intimidated. Even his habitual cursing instinctively died in his throat.
This pressure wasn't just because of the "Shadow" reputation. It was also because of his actions and demeanor.
Just the fact that he had instantly killed dozens of modified Ascendants was terrifying enough on its own.
Those people, despite the modifications, were still governed by human consciousness, unlike the robot soldiers.
Guan Tong killed them as casually as slaughtering chickens, without a flicker of emotion. Even facing a nuclear explosion that claimed thousands of lives, his expression never changed... In Roy's eyes, this couldn't be summed up as mere cold-bloodedness. He felt that he and his people weren't even on the same dimensional level as Guan Tong.
He turned to glance at the wounded Verin, gritted his teeth, and pleaded, "Can you take us with you? You're still going to deal with Bruce afterward, right? We can help!"
Guan Tong didn't respond. The ring on his left hand flashed, and a pile of food appeared on the ground.
"This is the food you asked me to bring earlier. Forget the Ascension Coins. As for taking you along, I have no such intention."
Guan Tong could tell that not all the survivors were like Roy, still holding onto rational thinking. Some of the survivors he had saved were even looking at him with resentment in their eyes.
Presumably, these people had friends or comrades who died in the nuclear blast, and they were blaming him for it.
Guan Tong had no interest in arguing with these people. He had already made things clear before. If there was anyone to blame for the deaths and injuries, it was the one who ordered the nuclear strike, not him. He felt no guilt whatsoever.
If any of these resistance members wanted to pin this devastating outcome on him, he didn't care either. As long as they didn't show obvious hostile intent. Otherwise, he would deal with them the same way he had dealt with Duanmu Feng.
"But—"
Roy tried to push further, but Guan Tong had no intention of continuing the conversation. After setting down the food, he spread his three pairs of shadow wings, shot vertically into the sky with Ai Ya, and vanished from sight in an instant.
Everyone watched his departing figure, completely lost and unsure of what to do.
"Roy..."
Verin's weak voice snapped the dazed Roy back to reality. He walked over and crouched down. "How are you feeling?"
"I'm fine, just a hole in my leg from that force field spear." Verin could still manage a smile. "Roy, aren't you the Camp Leader? Shadow even left us food. Surely we can survive this?"
Those words snapped Roy out of his stupor. He nodded firmly, then stood up and shouted at the top of his lungs.
"Everyone, snap the hell out of it! Want revenge? Then you need to survive first! Pick up all this food and head deeper into the mountains!"