Noid struggled, but the elite doom was too strong. He couldn't even fight a complete cultist now; where would he find the strength to resist something so overwhelming?
The elite doom had a value of 2.4.
Noid was beaten down. The ferocious bone spikes completely destroyed his armor and pierced through his abdomen, causing blood to spill everywhere. He thrashed his remaining arm, trying to escape the elite doom's grip, but his efforts were fruitless.
Fortunately, the wound didn't cause too much damage to his internal organs; he just lost a lot of blood. Even so, if he hadn't had the adrenaline injection from the beginning, Noid would have fainted from the pain.
The bone spike was pulled out of Noid. The elite doom opened its five mouths like a blooming horror flower. It was about to take a bite to kill the creature in front of it when it froze. A shiny metallic object was shoved into its mouth, along with the sound of a gun firing straight into its eye.
BANG!
The loud shotgun blast was like a bomb explosion. It was the commissioner. Taking advantage of the manager and the cultists being so engrossed in the scene of the elite doom about to eat Noid that they didn't pay attention to the elderly woman who had been flung away, she quickly grabbed the shotgun he had used earlier. She shoved the alloy briefcase she had been carrying all this time into its mouth, then fired the gun to distract the elite doom, buying time to pull him out.
When the commissioner lifted Noid, she found that his abdomen had a deep hole in it, full of blood, and she could even see his internal organs. If this injury wasn't treated quickly, he would die in a few minutes from excessive blood loss.
CRACK!! CRACK!! CRACK!!
The alloy briefcase was crushed by the elite doom's teeth and spat out. Even the cube inside was flung out, landing near where Noid and the commissioner were.
She had no mind to pay attention to the cube. Her hands, stained red with blood, pressed against Noid's wound. Her mind raced with thoughts of how to escape this situation, but all of them were unfeasible.
"A bunch of troublemakers! Throw that old woman to the Doom Lord too!"
Being obstructed twice, the manager held a grudge against the commissioner and gave the order to kill her.
Following his command, a complete cultist stepped forward. To everyone's surprise, Noid blocked the cultist's path, shielding the commissioner and the children behind him. A person whose body was in an extremely tattered state could still act to protect others, which astonished everyone.
Even the manager, who had been determined to kill Noid, felt a flicker of change. A person who possessed such incredible conviction and will, once in his hands and turned into a cultist, he could definitely turn Noid into a terrifying weapon.
But that thought just flashed through his mind and was immediately extinguished, because Noid would most likely never submit to him.
As for the commissioner, she looked at his back, wondering what a person must have gone through and endured to be able to continue standing there.
The fear of death is an inherent instinct of living creatures. People like Noid before carried a huge amount of negativity, or rather, despair. It was like a poison that gradually gnawed and rotted the soul, wearing down the will. Tragic events weren't the cause of everything but were just a beginning, a crucial point, or a fuse. The despair they endured every day, that grew every day, was the true horror.
In the end, despair swallowed the instinctual fear of death, pushing those people to the brink of suicide. How strong must a feeling that can overwhelm the fear of death be?
Such deaths were not uncommon, and Noid's fate was supposed to be one of them. But he was healed, he was saved. Jack always thought of Noid as a hero, not knowing that Noid also saw him as his hero, because he had saved him and awakened him.
Breaking through despair, forging his will anew. Noid not only had his own will, but he also carried the hope of the people who had saved him. Therefore, he could lose, he could be pushed to the deepest bottom, but he... would never give up.
Noid stood his ground, facing the cultist who was slowly approaching. The cultist could have used his extreme speed to throw both Noid and the commissioner into the doom's mouth, but he deliberately advanced slowly as if mocking Noid's feeble efforts.
Noid was swaying, about to collapse, which showed his current state. His spirit could endure, but it didn't mean his body could.
The commissioner stood up, gripping the shotgun tightly, her eyes filled with determination. Even if she died, she would fight to the end.
Just then, Noid's mind sensed something, like a guidance. He bent down, and at his feet was a strange cube.
Under the impulse from his consciousness, he picked it up. The commissioner saw what he was about to grab. Her pupils constricted, and she tried to stop him, but it was too late. Noid had already picked it up.
A terrifying energy erupted. The cultist was thrown back. The cube, which had seemed like a dead object, was now constantly changing, evolving, and spinning. The energy was getting stronger, but only the cultists and the elite doom were struggling to resist it. Not only that, all the Doom cultists in the stronghold were in a similar situation, all of them rolling around miserably, screaming in helplessness.
In contrast, normal people like the commissioner and the children were fine, not in any danger.
She stared blankly at Noid. He could... control the cube?
Her eyes gradually became red. How many years had it been? The people on the Mars crew with her all those years ago still had deep regrets, even though it wasn't really their fault. They had tried their best to atone, to save their people and their homeland. Among them, this "divine" creation was what they had put their greatest hope in. But as time went on, it remained silent, rejecting everyone. Until today...
Was that person... was it him?
Meanwhile, Noid fell into a strange state. His vision seemed to be stretched to infinity. He traveled through endless dimensions, points of ending and beginning...
The manager trembled uncontrollably. He didn't know what Noid was holding. He wanted to fight back, but all his struggles were just as he had described Noid's resistance: useless.
His consciousness was overloaded by the cryptic images. Noid's eyes rolled back, and he collapsed to the ground. A wave of energy burst out, harmlessly passing by the commissioner. But when it hit the cultists, they turned into dust and dissolved. The elite doom struggled frantically, but it only lasted three more seconds. The manager had transformed into a deformed monster with four arms, 2.5 meters tall, this was his trump card. Unfortunately, his fate was the same as the others. He was wiped away like a pencil mark, leaving no trace.
The cube returned to normal, as if its energy was depleted. It disappeared, leaving behind a still-injured Noid.