America: The Cremator

Old John's head snapped back, spraying a large amount of blood and brain tissue onto the brick wall behind him, leaving a horrifying mark.

His body slowly slid down, eventually collapsing into the sewage. The hand that had been holding the gun fell limply, but his fingers remained firmly gripping the handle.

Elena watched all this in silence. After a long while, she took a deep breath, as if she wanted to inhale all the foul air from underground into her lungs.

She stood up, patted Su Long on the shoulder, and said in a low voice.

"Let's get started."

Surong nodded, removed the fuel canister from his back, turned on the valve, and poured the viscous, specially made cremation oil evenly over old John's body, ensuring that every inch of skin and every piece of clothing was completely covered.

Hannah walked to the body, knelt down gently, clasped her hands together, and began to softly chant a hymn to send off the deceased.

After confirming that the fuel had completely covered the corpse and the parasitic slimes, Suron took out an ordinary windproof lighter from his pocket.

He pressed the lighter, and a wisp of primordial fire, disguised as an ordinary flame, rose from the lighter's nozzle.

Just as Surong bent down to set the corpse ablaze, he glanced at Elena out of the corner of his eye.

The woman who always stood at the front turned around, her back to the scene before her. Holding a walkie-talkie, she walked away alone, seemingly unwilling to witness this final moment.

The next moment, flames clung to old John's corpse.

boom--

Flames shot skyward.

The flames, like a living beast, instantly devoured old John's corpse along with all the filth inside his abdomen.

There was no struggle, no screaming.

Under the scorching heat of the primordial fire, old John and his cowboy attire, marked by the era, along with all the gelatinous monsters parasitizing his body, turned into a handful of fine, grayish-white powder.

Only the revolver remained.

It lay quietly at the boundary between ashes and sewage, the gun barrel scorching hot from the flames, but the silver plating on its surface remained undamaged, reflecting a cold luster.

Su Long stepped forward, bent down, and reached out to pick it up from the cold puddle.

It felt unusually heavy, far exceeding the weight of an ordinary revolver.

He used the cuff of his protective suit to wipe the dust and water stains off the gun.

This is an 8-inch barrel Colt Python revolver with intricate and beautiful ivy scroll patterns engraved on the barrel and cylinder, a craftsmanship that is quite rare even in custom firearms.

The one-piece walnut handle, scorched by the First Fire, has been completely carbonized, giving it a deep, pure black color. Yet, when held in the hand, you can still feel the delicate texture of the underlying wood structure, which fits snugly against your palm.

Every part of the gun was meticulously maintained, and each rotation of the cylinder produced a crisp, pleasant mechanical sound, clearly indicating that its previous owner treasured it.

Su Long sensed something and activated his spiritual vision.

In his field of vision, the outline of the gun was enveloped in a faint, soft glow, like moonlight.

This energy fluctuation was very similar to the aura emanating from the lantern at Elena's waist, but much weaker.

Clearly, Old John was also a relic-type exorcist.

This revolver is the sacred object to which he poured his life's blood and beliefs.

The moment Su Long's fingertips touched the engraved pattern on the gun barrel, a line of light blue subtitles appeared before his eyes.

[Burning the corpse of a C-rank exorcist yields the entry "Sirius's Contract☆"]

With a slight thought, Su Long quickly opened the attribute panel and found the newly created entry at the bottom of the entry list.

【The Contract of Sirius☆】

Type: Blessing

Introduction: In the summer of 1981, John Brown and Colt Sirius began their adventure... Today, Sirius's adventure continues! This is a holy lance with a soul. Now, you inherit the will of your predecessor, forge a new pact with it, and continue the battle with it!

Rating: The most reliable partner!

Su Long looked at the brief introduction, his gaze lingering on the name "Sirius" for a moment.

He recalled that Colt only introduced the 8-inch barrel version of the Python series specifically for hunting between 1980 and 1981.

It is likely that a man named John Brown bought this then-newest Colt pistol more than forty years ago and named it "Sirius".

He carried it with him, walking through the shadows where no one knew him, using this gun to end countless strange beings. In the end, over the long years, he transformed a weapon forged from ordinary iron into a sacred object with its own soul.

Some people fight using relics left behind by legends.

And some people are legends in themselves.

Sulong tucked the revolver, named "Sirius," into the leather pocket on his waist that was originally used to store tools. The cold touch of the grip was still clearly audible through his protective suit.

He turned around and looked in the direction where Elena was.

The woman had ended her call with headquarters and was now looking down, her fingers rapidly operating on the small tactical terminal on her wrist.

A moment later, she looked up: "Shoggoth's file access has been granted to us, and the information has been synchronized to your personal terminals."

"You have thirty seconds to read this; you must remember all the key information."

After she finished speaking, she and the two task force members began to look down and read the information on their terminals.

Su Long looked at his empty right hand and was about to speak when Hannah next to him held up the tactical terminal in front of him.

"Su, let's watch it together."

Su Long nodded and turned his gaze to the lit screen.

[Code Name: B-017]

Name: Shoggoth

[Level: B (Threat level fluctuates between high and low based on individual age and size)]

[Appearance Description: The core of this entity appears as a massive, amorphous protoplasmic mass composed of a viscous, black gel. Its surface is covered with numerous autonomously rotating, luminous eyeballs. Its size is positively correlated with age; currently observed juveniles are approximately 5 meters in diameter, while adults can grow to over 30 meters in diameter.]

[Environmental Characteristics: This entity typically inhabits large, dark, and damp enclosed underground spaces, such as caves, mines, and large urban sewer systems. It is primarily scavenging, and its activity areas are usually accompanied by large-scale D-rank slime swarms.]

[Capabilities Overview:]

1. Mental Shock: It can release high-intensity circular mental shockwaves into the surrounding environment through the compound eye structure on its body surface. Biological targets covered by the shockwave will experience severe headaches, nausea, dizziness, temporary blindness, shock, and other physiological symptoms.

2. Atonement Clay Sculpture: This ability allows the user to absorb biological samples such as blood and hair from their target, using their own secreted black gelatinous substance to create a clay sculpture that mirrors the target's form. This clay sculpture shares a supernatural connection with the target; any physical damage inflicted on the sculpture will be proportionally transferred to the target. This effect is extremely difficult to remove or block using conventional exorcism methods.

3. Tentacle attack: It can extend the gelatinous substance on its body surface to form dozens of highly resilient and powerful tentacles, which can directly whip, entangle, and tear the target.

4. Crushing and Devouring: Utilizing its enormous size and mass, it can directly crush its targets. Alternatively, it can completely envelop and swallow its target, then thoroughly decompose it using highly acidic digestive fluids.

[Physical Hazard Level: Extremely High. Records indicate that during the war in Afghanistan, a disturbed adult body single-handedly destroyed a U.S. forward operating base in Kunduz province, causing over 300 combat casualties.]

[Psychological Harm: Extremely High. This entity possesses powerful wide-area psychological attack capabilities. The "Atonement Clay Sculpture" ability has a devastating effect on the mental and psychological well-being of human targets, and there are currently no effective treatment cases.]

Su Long's gaze slowly moved across the lines of cold text, his brain racing as he compared the information in the file with his existing abilities.

The mental impact, with my mental attribute just raised to 10 points, might be able to withstand some of it, but it's impossible to be completely immune.

Physical attacks, whether tentacles or crushing blows, are beyond what my current weak physique can withstand.

The ability called "Atonement Clay Sculpture" sent a chill down his spine.

Once it obtains your blood sample, it means you could be torn to pieces by that unseen attack at any moment, without warning.

Surong glanced at Hannah beside him out of the corner of his eye.

The girl's face was paler than ever before, and she clearly realized that they were about to face a monster who had single-handedly wiped out an entire military base.

Or at least it is of the same kind.

Su Long slowly exhaled, easing the oppressive feeling caused by reading the files. He finally understood why the battle-hardened old John had such a deep despair in his eyes at the last moment of his life.

He finally understood why Elena had immediately requested top-level tactical support upon hearing the name "Shoggoth".

"We...are going to fight Shoggoth? Really?"

Hannah asked, her voice trembling slightly.