Chapter 179: The Opera House’s Symphony of Slaughter

David didn't hesitate. He turned toward the hypersonic shuttle, the long blade hanging at his side, its dark crimson glow not yet fully faded.

Mia followed, laptop clutched to her chest. "Lon's using himself as bait?"

"He's not that stupid." David climbed into the cockpit. The engine roared to life. "He's telling me the prey just delivered itself."

Jennifer stood at the hangar gate, watching the shuttle rise. She said quietly to Hassan, "He just got the blade. He hasn't fully adapted to the energy circuit yet."

Hassan's face remained expressionless. "The boss never needs to adapt."

The shuttle burst through the sky above the Black Forest, its hypersonic engine tearing through the air currents. The night sky toward Berlin was stained orange-red with firelight.

One hour later, above the Berlin State Opera House.

From this height, the classical building showed no police cars, no civilians.

Mia pulled up thermal imaging. "Five high-energy targets inside the opera house, clustered in the stage area. Lon's in the front row of the audience section—vitals unstable but still alive. There's an electromagnetic shielding layer around the perimeter. My signal can't penetrate the internal network."

"You stay up here." David unbuckled his seatbelt and moved to the cabin door.

Mia glared at him. "You're jumping from three hundred feet?"

David glanced at her, the corner of his mouth twitching. "I'll be steadier when I catch you."

He stepped out. Wind filled his shirt. The ground rushed up at him. The opera house's painted glass dome spread beneath his feet, its saints and angels muted by darkness.

David's telekinetic force exploded downward. The entire dome shattered.

Colored glass shards flew in every direction. Iron frames twisted and snapped. Dust and rubble rained down. David descended from the sky, both feet crushing the backs of front-row seats. The floor cracked in a spiderweb pattern. The shockwave flipped half a row of chairs.

Inside the opera house, the lighting was dim. Only a third of the crystal chandeliers were lit. The stage curtain hung in tatters. Scorch marks and bullet holes covered everything.

Lon sat center in the third row, half his shoulder soaked in blood, his suit mostly shredded. He held a glass of red wine.

He saw David crash through the ceiling and raised his glass. "David! Perfect timing! The performance isn't over yet!"

On stage, five figures stood under the spotlights.

The woman in front was tall and slender, dressed in a silver-white gown. Her eyes were closed, two old scars visible in the eye sockets. Her hands rested on a black harp, fingertips touching the strings, her posture as elegant as if she were about to begin a solo.

Lacia Wayne. The blind musician. Behind her stood four gene warriors.

The one on the left had a body that, from the shoulders down, was entirely flowing black liquid—like a sentient mass of tar, with dark purple specks of light churning inside.

The two on the right wore full-coverage exoskeleton armor, gravity field generators embedded in their chests, blue pulses running at low frequency.

The last one was massive, his body from the neck down nothing but swollen bio-enhanced muscle. His arms were as thick as a normal person's waist, horny plates growing from his knuckles.

Lacia tilted her head slightly, a faint smile on her lips. "I've been waiting for you a long time, Mr. Sherman. Lon said you'd come. Seems he really does know you."

Lon took a sip of wine and winked at David. "I told them if they waited half an hour, my good grandson would show up. They didn't believe me."

David stepped down from the wreckage of seats, his gaze sweeping across the five on stage before settling on the harp in Lacia's hands.

"You used yourself as bait?"

"What else?" Lon spread his hands. The wine sloshed. "These five things chased me for three days. I can't beat them, but I can outrun them. But I'm tired of running. They have something you need."

Lacia laughed softly. "You're very clever. Pity clever people don't live long."

Her fingers plucked the strings.

David's eardrums tightened sharply.

Sound waves far beyond human hearing range slammed directly into his cerebral cortex. His vision blurred instantly. His head felt like a nail was being driven into it.

Lon in the seats clutched his ears. The wine glass fell and shattered on the floor.

David's head rang with deafening noise. His telekinetic power wavered briefly.

Lacia increased the intensity, ten fingers flying across the strings, frequencies layering. A second wave, a third wave of ultrasound surged forward. "The stronger your psychic power, the stronger my attack."

At the same time, the liquid assassin moved.

The black liquid mass slid down from the stage edge, soundless, hugging the floor as it glided toward David—fast, like a flat shadow snake.

David clenched his back teeth. The ringing in his head continued. He forced down the psychic fluctuations and gripped the hilt at his waist with his right hand.

The dark crimson blade left its sheath. The Crimson Tear pulsed violently, energy flooding into the blade. The edge blazed with searing red light.

David suddenly lifted his foot and stomped down, shattering the floor beneath him.

The entire floor exploded outward from the point of impact. A shockwave spread in a circle around him. Theater seats flew in rows. Floor tiles pulverized to dust. The tremor swept brutally across the ground.

Only the space in front of Lon seemed protected by an invisible barrier. Rubble, wood splinters, and shockwaves passed on either side of him without spilling a drop of his wine.

The liquid assassin, gliding across the floor, was hit head-on by the shockwave. Its flat body was forced upward, compelled to resume human form in midair.

Lacia's melody broke for a beat. The shockwave struck the stage. The harp's frame shook. Her fingers were forced off the strings.

David didn't give her a chance to resume playing. Gripping the blade with both hands, he swung toward Lacia.

The blade touched nothing solid, but a dark crimson high-temperature force field exploded from the tip, forming an arc-shaped slash that tore through the air toward the stage.

Lacia's expression finally changed. She slammed both hands down on the strings. All the strings vibrated simultaneously, releasing a dense ultrasonic wall, trying to block the slash.

The instant the ultrasonic wall met the dark crimson field, the two energies collided violently. The air exploded in visible ripples. Stage floorboards peeled up in sheets.

Lacia's ultrasonic wall lasted less than two seconds.

The dark crimson slash cleaved through the sonic barrier, along with the harp—

The black harp split down the middle. Strings snapped and flew. Metal fragments embedded in the backdrop curtain. Lacia was thrown backward by the residual force field, her back slamming into the stage backdrop. The muffled crack of breaking ribs was clearly audible.

She opened her mouth as if to speak. David was already on the stage.

The long blade swept horizontally, passing through Lacia's waist without pause. The high-temperature cut instantly sealed the blood. Her body separated top from bottom, collapsing on the stage, the silver-white gown burned with blackened edges.

"Elegant lady." David flicked the blade. "Pity your harp wasn't hard enough."

The liquid assassin, having reformed, lunged immediately. The black liquid transformed into dozens of tendrils, stabbing toward David from every angle.

David didn't retreat. His left hand rose. Telekinetic force became invisible crushing pressure, enveloping the liquid assassin's entire body.

The black liquid churned violently, trying to break free. The tendrils twisted and deformed.

David closed his five fingers. The telekinetic force compressed inward.

The liquid assassin's body was forcibly compressed, dark purple light specks flashing frantically, as if screaming. The entire black mass was squeezed into a basketball-sized sphere, its surface boiling and bubbling.

David raised his blade with his right hand and drove the tip into the center of the black orb.

Dark crimson heat instantly pierced the liquid core. The black liquid ignited from within. Dark purple light specks extinguished one by one. The entire orb shrank to fist-size charcoal in three seconds, fell to the floor, and crumbled to powder.

The giant bio-warrior roared and charged, both fists hammering down toward David's head.

David sidestepped. The punch grazed his shoulder and destroyed a load-bearing pillar behind him.

He backhanded a slash. The blade cut through the giant's calf. The dark crimson incision went deep into bone. The giant dropped to one knee, mouth open in a howl.

David lifted his left foot and kicked the giant's chest.

Hundreds of pounds of body mass flew backward, crashing through the wooden wall of the stage's side panel, disappearing into the backstage depths. The violent impact sounds continued for several seconds before stopping.

The two gene warriors in exoskeleton armor finally moved, simultaneously pressing the generators on their chests. Blue light pulses flared.

The ground beneath David's feet suddenly sank. A terrifying gravity crushed down from above. His shoulders dipped slightly under the pressure. The floor beneath his feet cracked. Fragments collapsed into the ground.

"Ten times gravity field! He can't stay standing!" The other one maxed out the generator's output. "Increase to fifteen times! Crush his bones!"

David's knee bent slightly. His shirt pressed tight against his body. Muscles tensed. Veins bulged.

Fifteen times gravity. An ordinary person would have been flattened to paste.

David raised his head, looking at the two warriors. A dark crimson flash passed through the depths of his pupils.

The air began to distort. Telekinetic force prepared to counterattack.

Massive psychic energy exploded from David's body. An invisible force field crushed outward in all directions, colliding head-on with the gravity field. The two forces formed a vacuum zone around David. Floor, seats, rubble—all suspended.

The gravity generators began overload warnings. Blue light flashed wildly.

David slowly straightened. He held the long blade reversed, tip down, dragging across the floor, carving a scorched trail as he walked toward the two warriors.