Chapter 256 The End of the Incident (7000 words)
The dragon roared violently, furiously, and loudly, and the ground began to shake violently again. The birds in the sky scattered.

Although the dragon raised by Father Bernardo was only a fourth or fifth generation dragon, the oppression that pure-blooded dragons exerted on living creatures was already evident.

The entire street had been blocked off, the crowds were dispersed, and people in police uniforms stretched the cordon from one end of the street to the other. The sirens of fire trucks and ambulances could be heard from a long distance away. Micro-earthquakes continued. Firefighters and medical personnel kept coming in and out.

There was actually a filming car parked on the street within the cordon. The cameraman was setting up a camera far away, and the staff next to him was holding a clapperboard with the name of the XX crew written in English on it.

"They are all members of the Temple of Solomon." Aki explained, "This time the commotion was too big, and conventional public relations methods might not be able to suppress the heat of this matter, so they simply called in people to disguise themselves as a Hollywood crew. If the public took any photos, they could explain that the crew was filming a movie here."

Lu Mingfei nodded. Kassel College had actually used similar PR methods. The logistics department was like this. The executive specialists on the front line only needed to devote themselves to the battlefield and fight the dragons, but the aftermath personnel had a lot to consider.

Just as Lu Mingfei was about to cross the cordon, he was stopped by a police officer wearing sunglasses. They were not allowed to pass until Aki showed his ID.

"Miss Qin still has the alchemical matrix implanted by Bernardo in her body." Watching Selma put Qin in the ambulance, Charlotte reminded the medical staff in the car, "Don't give her medicine rashly. Let her rest first. I will remove the alchemical matrix from her body later."

These medical staff were also members of the Order of Solomon's Temple. They knew Charlotte's identity and naturally understood what she was saying. They nodded, and the ambulance drove away.

The collapse of Santa Maria de Mavila Church was more serious than Lu Mingfei had imagined. The spire and roof collapsed, and the front of the building became a ruin. This Christian church, which has existed for more than six centuries, may end its history today.

Mans and Ye Sheng stood among the crowd of people doing disaster relief in front of the church.

"professor!"

Aki trotted to Mans, stopped, bowed his head, and then reported the situation. Mans nodded to Aki, and then his iron-like eyes swept from Charlotte to Selma, and finally fell on Lu Mingfei, who was covered in dust behind Aki.

Lu Mingfei and Mans stared at each other.

"You are very decisive in doing things."

After staring at each other for a minute, Mans finally spoke: "But this doesn't mean I'm praising you. You are a high school student now, you haven't joined the academy yet, you haven't received professional training, and you even lack relevant mission execution experience. So being too decisive may not be a good thing for you now. Fortunately, in terms of the result, you did a good job and successfully stopped Bernardo and saved Miss Qin."

Ye Shengyaji and the others all knew the professor's personality. Professor Mans was a well-known iron-fisted professor in the college, and this seemingly harsh and semi-critical speech was actually a compliment to the professor.

However, Lu Mingfei didn't know that Professor Mans was praising him... or maybe he didn't care.

Lu Mingfei raised his hand. This was a habit he had developed from carrying out many missions. He knew that he needed to get a signal from the team leader before he could speak during a mission.

"Lu Mingfei, do you have a question?"

"Yes."

"explain."

"Father Bernardo is still alive." Lu Mingfei said, "Although Miss Qin, who served as the vessel, has been rescued by me, Father Bernardo directly replaced the dragon blood into his own body. The roar just now may mean that Father Bernardo has broken through the cocoon."

"I know. We have made sufficient preparations. Just leave the rest to us."

Mans remembered what Ange had said to him: "Protect our precious S-level students", so he had no intention of letting Lu Mingfei participate in this matter.

Mans finally shifted his gaze away from Lu Mingfei and looked at the people around him.

"Whether in theory or practice, the school's default opponents for you are all dragons. Dragons are the mortal enemies of humans, although most executive officers may not have the opportunity to face these mortal enemies in their entire lives. But this time, your chance has come."

His eyes swept across the faces of his students one by one. Ye Sheng, Aki, Selma and others stood with their hands behind their backs, with solemn expressions.

"You are about to take on a real dragon-slaying mission. Although your opponent may only be a dragon-shaped Deadpool, he also possesses power that rivals that of a purebred dragon. Not everyone has such an opportunity. In this mission, you are no longer regarded as students, but as the elite of the executive department, true warriors. I hope you can show your courage as a warrior and let the blood of the dragon sharpen your spirit."

Mans' words were without any voicing or stress, just like he was simply describing something, but they were powerful enough to inspire people. Even Lu Mingfei was inspired by Mans's speech.

"Now repeat the task list: Commander-in-Chief Mance. Observer Selma, responsible for observing and calculating wind direction and speed. Number one gunner Ye Sheng occupies the sniper position in Block A, and number two gunner Yaji occupies the sniper position in Block B... Did everyone receive it?"

"Got it!" Several people answered in unison.

After the pre-war mobilization was completed, Ye Sheng Yaji and his men immediately entered the state of executing their mission, with expressions as serious as soldiers.

Mans opened the trunk of a van nearby, and Ye Sheng and Yaji each carried out two oversized black boxes from the back. When they opened them, they revealed dazzling metal accessories. Selma stood by with the blueprints, directing the two to assemble them.

Lu Mingfei recognized the contents of the black box. It was a QLU06 35mm sniper grenade reflector, commonly known as the LG5, an anti-material weapon originally produced in China.

Not only is the caliber large, but the effective range is even over 4000 meters. Even aircraft are included as one of the main targets of this anti-material weapon. It can launch high-initial-velocity grenades by shoulder-to-shoulder, and has the ability to kill with fixed-distance and fixed-point air-blasts.

After being improved by the Equipment Department, this weapon obviously has higher efficiency and lethality than before.

Mance came over carrying another white box.

"This is the alchemical armor-piercing bullet specially developed by the Equipment Department for this gun."

Professor Mans opened the box and took out the 35mm caliber warhead. "The warhead is embedded with 300 alchemical shrapnel using a spiral process. It can penetrate armor and kill at a range of 1600 meters. The dispersion circle of the shrapnel is within 2 meters in diameter, the killing radius is 15 meters, and the armor penetration depth is close to 160 mm. It can even cut through the scales of a third-generation dragon."

Lu Mingfei was originally wondering what dragon-slaying weapons the academy would come up with... Unexpectedly, they actually took out two anti-tank howitzers. I don't know how these crazy people in the academy transported this kind of legion warfare weapon from the United States to Portugal.

However, the academy was obviously more restrained this time. After all, there were many weapons modified by the equipment department that were more lethal than these two howitzers. When implementing the "Bronze Plan", the academy even installed storm torpedoes on the Moniach, and equipped it with alchemical warheads that were powerful enough to cause underwater landslides.

This is the usual style of these crazy people in the academy... Lu Mingfei has become numb.

It was obvious that Ye Sheng, Yaji and Selma had done very well in the weapons assembly class at the academy. They assembled such a complex device very smoothly without any hesitation. Soon, both QLU06s were assembled.

The two men carried the QLU06 and ran to two different intersections near the church, placing the guns on the roofs of the cars next to them.

They had already put on their headsets and stood diagonally opposite each other, covering the entire church as their shooting range.

"The wind is from 6 o'clock at 15 mph."

Selma held a walkie-talkie and a telescope, calculating the current wind speed and direction while informing the two in real time through the walkie-talkie.

Professor Mance frowned as he stared at the ruins before him.

The violent dragon roar sounded again. This time the amplitude of the earthquake was larger than the previous ones. The street was sinking due to the huge earthquake.

Even a third-generation dragon breaking through cocooning would not cause such a violent movement. However, the reason why the entire Tagus Street was shaken like a magnitude 7 earthquake was that there was a huge basement under the church, and it was also close to the river.

As the basement collapsed, the church sank, and the sewer structure was damaged. The water from the underground river rushed into the sewer, changing the geological structure of the entire block and even most of Santarém.

Huge cracks appeared on the road, big enough for vehicles to fall off, and the entire ground was shaking. However, Ye Sheng and Yaji, who were lying on the sniper position on the roof of the car, remained motionless, always looking at the sky in their field of vision.

With a loud bang, the ruins suddenly exploded, and large pieces of rubble shot out in all directions, falling straight towards Selma in front of the ruins. But Mance had already stood in front of Selma one step ahead, with his arms open.

Word Spirit·Dust-free Land

The area of ​​the Dustless Land expanded instantly, forcing all the falling rubble out of the area, but in the dust and mist, the dragon-shaped creature flapping its wings had already left in the opposite direction. He was running away!
Deadpool is considered by most hybrids to be a low-intelligence creature who has lost consciousness and sanity, and all his actions are driven solely by bloodthirsty instincts.

However, some studies have found that there are still a small number of deadpools who can retain some of the thinking ability of humans. They retain some of their memories as humans, can detect potential threats and dangers, and know how to avoid crises.

Obviously, the Deadpool-like Bernardo is such a Deadpool. He sensed the trap that Cassel Academy and Solomon's Temple would set up here, and even knew to attack Selma, who was in charge of the command, first. After a sneak attack failed, he escaped with the diffuse dust.

However, the dust did not help him delay for long. Professor Mans did not take back the Word Spirit, and the Dust-free Land was still expanding towards the sky. Lu Mingfei had never seen anyone expand the alchemical field of the Word Spirit to such a large extent, even the lime and dust that were raised were blown away by the alchemical field.

He used the power of words to truly open up a dust-free land.

"Selma, report!"

"Roger that!"

The moment the dust that blocked her vision was blown away, Selma had already raised the telescope and her sights were accurately locked on the increasingly smaller black dot flying in the sky.

"Distance 500 yards, ballistic drop 11.14; Correction, 11.22; Correction, 11.29."

Correction of bullet deviation from trajectory involves wind margin, wind value, moving target, and target lead, which usually requires full or half correction equipment. However, Selma gave accurate correction data with just her naked eyes and skin senses. This is why Professor Mans brought her, a freshman, into his team.

This tanned Latin beauty can do more than just dance. Calculation is her real strength. This is the terrifying part of Word Spirit Difference.

Ye Sheng did not speak, because if he spoke, his sight trajectory would shift slightly. A professional sniper needs to hold his breath, concentrate and remain motionless.

The moment Selma's voice reporting the data ended in the headset, he pulled the trigger with his index finger, and the 35mm alchemical bullet was fired instantly. The powerful recoil of the QLU06 grenade launcher almost numb Ye Sheng's shoulders, and even the car on the roof of which he was lying was shaken back more than ten centimeters.

The bullet traveling at four times the speed of sound cut through the autumn wind and shot straight at the winged lizard flying in the sky. The range of 500 yards was well within the effective range of this gun. As long as it hit the target, Bernardo would surely die even if his dragon blood was a third-generation dragon.

However, the bullet missed the target. It activated the Word Spirit·Royal Power in an instant, changing the gravity in the area. The alchemical warhead, which was subjected to dozens of times the gravity, fell in its trajectory in the instant of flight, and almost flew past its feet.

"Distance 900 yards, ballistic drop 30.77; Correction, 31.18; Correction, 31.60."

Before it could feel relieved for having escaped, the second shot came whistling in. Yaji followed Ye Sheng and pulled the trigger.

Although she didn't know the principle of how the other party changed the trajectory of the bullet, the moment she saw the bullet falling through the telescope, countless numbers and mathematical symbols flooded into Selma's brain, and she instantly calculated the angle of the bullet's fall. She gave a new correction data. Aki fired the second bullet and hit its abdomen with incredible accuracy. The alchemical shrapnel exploded in an instant. The rotating shrapnel sawed through its dragon scales like countless small cutting machines, penetrating into its torso and internal organs.

In the field of vision, the dragon-shaped creature that tried to fly towards the blue sky was ultimately unable to soar in the sky. It struggled to flap its wings, but ultimately could not stop falling, landing in a corner of a distant block. A few seconds later, the sound of it falling to the ground was heard from afar.

The members of the Solomon's Temple who were blocking the street immediately drove to the direction where the dragon-shaped creature fell. Mans put down the telescope and nodded to Ye Sheng and Aki who were carrying QLU06 back with great effort.

"The people of Solomon's Temple are a bit unruly. That is our trophy. We will drive over there later and take the fragments back to see if we can do some research on them."

As he spoke, his eyes swept over several people, "You all performed very well this time. You didn't show any panic when facing the dragon-like Bernardo. Ye Sheng's first shot found a deviation in the trajectory. After Selma corrected the trajectory, Aki's second shot hit the target accurately, and we didn't let Bernardo escape. I will give all of you full marks for this internship."

"Thank you, Professor." Several people nodded.

Of course, there are more than just these students who deserve praise. There is also Lu Mingfei, the "precious S-level student" mentioned by Principal Ange. If he hadn't acted decisively and stopped Bernardo's plan, Bernardo would have completed his dragon transformation and escaped before they returned.

Thinking of this, Mans remembered that he should say something to encourage Lu Mingfei. After all, he is a future S-level student, and in this operation in Portugal, he performed very well, just like a specialist with rich experience in carrying out missions.

He even had the idea of ​​taking Lu Mingfei as his student.

Although it was a bit early to talk about this now, he wanted to apply to the principal after he returned if possible. After all, when Lu Mingfei joined the academy, Ye Sheng and Yaji had just graduated. And the youngest Selma was already a senior at that time.

By then, the only student under his command would be the little girl from the Chen family whom the principal wanted him to contact.

The little girl from the Chen family is crazy. If I take this S-level student under my wing and let him get along with the little girl from the Chen family, maybe some special sparks can be created?

Mance looked up, but found that he was nowhere to be seen.

"Hey, where's Lu Mingfei?"

It was Charlotte who answered Mans: "Lu Mingfei just left a few minutes ago."

"He just left a few minutes ago?" Mance was stunned. "Where did he go?"

Charlotte shook her head. "He just said he would be back in a minute."

……

Dark shadows rushed through the alleys.

There was no one along the way. People had long been dispersed by the local Solomon's Temple. Only the sound of cars and sirens could be heard in the surrounding streets. However, these cars would not drive into the alleys between the houses. No one would come.

The dizziness became stronger and stronger, and some of the black shadow's consciousness gradually blurred, while another part of his consciousness became clearer and clearer. His mouth became drier and drier, and the feeling of thirst and hunger surged up together, but he didn't want to drink water.

He wanted to drink blood.

Just get out of here... Just get out of here...

The end of the alley was getting closer and closer, the sun was getting hotter, and if he ran a few more steps, he would -

A figure suddenly flashed out and stood in front of him.

The black shadow was stunned, and in the blood-red vision, the face of the figure gradually became clear.

"You are... Lu Mingfei?" Bernardo was shocked. "You are Lu Mingfei! Why are you here? You shouldn't...!"

"We shouldn't chase that dragon, right?" Lu Mingfei said.

Lu Mingfei looked at Bernardo in front of him. Perhaps the person in front of him could no longer be called Bernardo, because he had clearly shown signs of becoming a dragon. His joints were reversed, his muscles were bulging, his scales were dense, and wing membranes were growing on his back. He no longer looked like a human being.

However, the other party could not be called a "dragon" because the dragon transformation on his body only stopped abruptly. The wing membrane just barely covered his back like a butterfly's wings.

It was like someone had forced it out of the cocoon before it had completely emerged, so it was in this deformed state that was almost underdeveloped.

"The dragon-like creature that flew out of the ruins of the church was actually the pet dragon you raised, right?"

Lu Mingfei said, "I saw the chains on the dragon, so I determined that the dragon-shaped creature that Professor Mance and his team sniped was not you. I guess you only exchanged half of the dragon's blood and cut the blood transfusion tube in advance, so the dragon did not die. And you were not immediately contaminated by the dragon's blood, and temporarily retained a part of your human consciousness. The dragon transformation on your body was not completely completed, like a deformed child."

"You used it as a substitute scarecrow to help you attract the attention of people outside, and then you used the dust raised by the dragon when it flew out of the ruins to escape from the alleys around the church."

After Lu Mingfei finished speaking, he looked at the monster in front of him that was neither dragon nor human, like a demon in a picture of hell, and suddenly an indescribable feeling surged in his heart.

It's not sadness, nor is it pain, but it's like suddenly attending a funeral that has nothing to do with me, and a feeling of mourning arises subconsciously in my heart.

"You should have seen what you look like now, right? Do you think it's worth it?" Lu Mingfei asked.

"It's not up to you to decide whether it's worth it or not." Bernardo sneered.

"The Church of Santa Maria de Mavila just collapsed completely. The grenade that Ye Sheng fired in vain landed on the other half of the church. That's where you spent your entire life upholding your faith, right?"

"Let it collapse. Since God has chosen to abandon me, why should I continue to believe in him?"

Lu Mingfei shook his head: "Perhaps it is because your faith has never been sincere that God has abandoned you."

A thunderous sonic boom sounded, and Bernardo suddenly launched an attack. He roared and ran wildly, with his comically short wings swept back! The air was swirling wildly! Although the bones all over his body were shrunk and twisted, he was still a real dragon body, able to burst out unparalleled strength and speed.

Although Lu Mingfei now has the physical fitness of an A-level hybrid, it is obviously not enough to face Bernardo, who has become half dragon and half Deadpool. Lu Mingfei was hit hard by Bernardo and pressed down, and the sharp dragon claws locked Lu Mingfei's throat tightly.

His throat was completely crushed, and Lu Mingfei held his breath, resisting the huge force pressing down on him while quietly reaching for the "Staff of Hermes" attached to his waist.

"Although my Word Spirit can't do anything to you, you are obviously no match for me in a close combat with a dragon-transformed me." Bernardo smiled coldly, "Although I don't know your bloodline rating. But with a Word Spirit like Hai Yuan, your bloodline is probably higher than that of the girl in the Gao Tinggen family... A+ grade? Or S grade?"

The more Bernardo spoke, the more obvious the madness in his golden eyes became, and his bloodthirsty gaze almost penetrated his eyes and fell on Lu Mingfei.

"I haven't failed yet... Although the dragon blood gene is contaminating me, if I have you as a new container, I can exchange the poisonous blood in my body with you, filter it again, and then inject it back into my body... It should work. The Holy Palace Medical Association has mastered the bloodline recasting technology, and they must also have similar blood filtering technology...!"

Holy Palace Medical Society?
The moment he heard the name, Lu Mingfei's fingers finally reached the Staff of Hermes behind him. This weapon made entirely of the Philosopher's Stone was almost a natural enemy to dragons.

Chu Zihang once killed Jörmungandr, the king of earth and mountains, with just Menek Cassel's knife using the Philosopher's Stone as a blade. Lu Mingfei only needs to stab this walking stick into Bernardo's chest to completely get rid of this pitiful man.

However, before Lu Mingfei could pull out the cane, Bernardo suddenly knelt down.

If Bernardo hadn't begged for mercy because he discovered that Lu Mingfei was carrying a deadly weapon, he wouldn't have even noticed Lu Mingfei's actions.

A sharp whistling sound rang past Lu Mingfei's ears. A few centimeters away from Lu Mingfei's head, a deep and sharp hole was shot out of the ground by something. If Lu Mingfei looked around carefully, he would be able to see that the thing that shot out the hole was a bullet, and he might even find that the bullet's warhead was the Philosopher's Stone.

But Lu Mingfei did not look for it, because half a second later, a blood flower bloomed on Bernardo's forehead, and then the black and red smelly liquid splashed on Lu Mingfei's body, with boiling smoke. It was a mixture of dragon blood and human blood.

Bernardo fell on Lu Mingfei.

"So, that's how it is..." Bernardo murmured.

The pressure on his body was gone, and Lu Mingfei immediately sat up again, helping Bernardo who had fallen on him. He had almost completed his dragon transformation, and the scales on his body had a defense power comparable to that of a tank armor, but the bullet spun into his head effortlessly, and the deformed shrapnel split a bowl-sized wound on his forehead.

Bernardo lowered his eyes, his dragon form gradually faded, and he turned back into the shriveled, shrunken old man. He looked at the sky, and the blue sky was just a patch of red in his vision.

"Lu... Mingfei."

Although the sound was very subtle, Lu Mingfei still heard it. His head was pierced directly, but he still had the strength to speak.

"Yeah." Lu Mingfei said "Yeah" to indicate that he heard it.

"You said... can I go to heaven...?" Bernardo asked in a very soft voice.

Lu Mingfei did not answer immediately. This poor man finally remembered his faith when he was dying. He wanted to beg for God's mercy... or just a word of comfort from Lu Mingfei.

In Lu Mingfei's eyes, what Bernardo did was not much different from what Herzog did. The only difference was that Herzog was a bad guy through and through, while Bernardo might have really been a beloved priest.

He was silent for a few seconds and then responded:

"It is God's job to judge whether you go to heaven or hell. I can't give you an answer."

After hearing what Lu Mingfei said, Bernardo's pupils suddenly widened, and then slowly shrank.

"That's true..." Bernardo smiled, "You are really... very..."

The rest of the words were not finished.

he died.

……

(End of this chapter)