Apocalypse Forecast Chapter 80: Making a Key?

Terrifying energy destroyed the prison, and a roar erupted. Countless iron bars bent, and the concrete crumbled like mud, scattering in all directions. Huai Shi was almost buried in the ruins.
At the center of the explosion, Qi Yuan floated in the air as if there were no gravity, convulsing violently. Something black entered his body. His pupils dilated, covering his entire eyeballs.
Qi Yuan slowly descended to the ground. He stepped on the flesh, blood, and bones beneath his feet and let out a sigh of satisfaction.
"What on earth is this..."
Huai Shi groaned, buried under the crushed stones.
"I told you, Huai Shi."
Qi Yuan turned around and sneered.
"...that I had tried every conceivable method. All of them. But there was one thing I forgot to mention—"
Qi Yuan said.
"And now, I have obtained power. From within the paradise of the abyss."
From the hands of the Salvation Church.
Qi Wen would never have dreamed that the son he thought was useless had, before he knew it, converted to the Salvation Church, attained a higher status than Wang Hai, and received the baptism of the Sovereign.
Now, Qi Yuan had drunk the blood of power, received the protection and blessing of the Blissful Paradise, and assimilated with the power of hell.
To be more precise, while a Sublimator ascends by transcending their will over matter, Qi Yuan at this moment had voluntarily accepted the erosion of hell, fusing his ego with the eternal and unchanging abyss to become a Solidifier.
The current Qi Yuan was a monster remodeled by the abyss.
"Now, I have obtained power!"
Qi Yuan laughed, cheered, and spread his arms. Countless fresh blood flowed out from the corpses on the ground, boiled on the stairs, and gathered around his body to form a robe of blood.
Huai Shi secretly raised his muzzle and tried to pull the trigger.
But at that moment, the gun left Huai Shi's hand, was crushed in Qi Yuan's hand, and turned into iron scrap. Huai Shi was lifted by his collar by Qi Yuan.
"I want you to understand..."
Qi Yuan bared his teeth and laughed cruelly.
"This isn't a personal grudge."
Bang!
Huai Shi was thrown to the ground by Qi Yuan. He thought his body would shatter.
A bent steel bar protruding from a cracked wall pierced Huai Shi's chest and stabbed his lung. Then, Qi Yuan's hand penetrated his ribs and entered Huai Shi's chest.
And he crushed what was moving inside.
His heart burst.
Huai Shi convulsed and then stopped moving.
Qi Yuan slowly pulled his hand out, threw away the crushed heart, raised his face, turned around, and went up the stairs.
Soon, confused gunfire could be heard from above.
And then all sound ceased.
In the silence, Huai Shi's stiff body twitched slightly, and his pupils slowly returned to his eyes, which had been rolled back. Huai Shi concentrated and listened, but heard nothing.
Did he leave?
He left.
Convinced, Huai Shi's face twitched with pain.
"Is anyone there?"
Huai Shi forced his voice out.
"Help! Someone!"
A normal person would be dead by now.
Huai Shi thought he was also close to death.
But since he clearly wasn't dead yet, he tried his best to call for help.
Thinking the Special Affairs Bureau was unreliable, he prayed that the Crow, who spent all day killing time, would come quickly.
"Oh my, it's been a while, how did you end up like this?"
The Crow's voice rang in his ears, and then, a face he had only seen once before was right in front of him.
The Crow was no longer a crow, but in human form. And before he knew it, she was standing in front of Huai Shi, the hem of her gorgeous skirt fluttering right near him. She lowered her head, brought her well-defined face close, watched Huai Shi's flustered state, and finished the cola in her hand in two gulps.
Leisurely and happily.
Thank goodness... if Huai Shi weren't on the verge of death, he would have begged her to let him have a sip.
Huai Shi opened his mouth and spat blood at the Crow. The meaning was, "Don't just stare, help me quickly."
"Ah, yes, yes."
She pinched the hem of her skirt, lifted it slightly, and knelt down. Tempting, beautiful white calves appeared before Huai Shi's eyes. Huai Shi's gaze traveled even higher.
The hand that had been pinching the skirt went deep into her collar and took out a strange key. The Crow dangled it in front of Huai Shi and laughed happily.
"So, shall we make a spare key?"
Huai Shi nodded hurriedly.
"Make it, make it!"
"Make it?" The Crow raised an eyebrow. "How many?"
"As many as you want!"
Huai Shi felt like he was going crazy.
"Hurry up, I'm dying."
"Don't panic, I'm here, so why would I let you die? It might be a little tough, though."
The Crow said something quite profound so casually.
The Crow wore a mysterious smile and took out an old piece of parchment from her sleeve. When she spread it out, it was densely packed with strange characters. Resembling seal script, they also looked like some kind of variant of characters.
Delicate fingers spread the parchment in front of the boy.
"...Will you sign it?"
"Are you trying to take advantage of my weakness?"
"Don't praise me so much. You're going to die anyway if you don't sign, so you will, right?"
The Crow laughed happily.
"...Do as you like."
Huai Shi sighed and noticed that his left hand had healed before he knew it.
Huai Shi gritted his teeth, raised his finger, poured all his strength into it, and wrote his name in black characters—Huai Shi!
The moment Huai Shi finished the last stroke, jet-black flames ignited from the parchment, burning it to ash in an instant. The demonic flames spread in a flash, moving from Huai Shi's fingers to his body, entering his lungs and viscera as if clinging to his bones, and burned fiercely.
All his thoughts were swallowed by the flames.
Indescribable pain engulfed Huai Shi, making him let out a raspy scream in the fire.
Huai Shi struggled blindly and fell to the ground, trying to escape the iron bar piercing his chest. And then, he saw the woman lift her foot and step on his body.
"Calm down. Don't look so naive."
The Crow stepped firmly on Huai Shi, then reached out and pulled the twisted iron bar out of Huai Shi's chest. Mud and blood dripped onto the ground from the end of the bar.
"You said you wanted to make a key, right? Here, take it."
The Crow wiped away sweat she hadn't even broken, twirled the gorgeous key in her hand, and shoved it into the large hole in Huai Shi's chest.
And then, she twisted it with force.
As if a gate leading to hell had opened inside his body, Huai Shi felt an endless torrent overflow from the gaps of creation. It instantly filled every corner of his body, inflating Huai Shi like a balloon.
Just when he thought he would explode, the flames covering his body burned vigorously, burning up and volatilizing everything that had flowed into his body.
Only the essence that could not be burned slowly melted into his body in the high heat.
It was as if he had become a lamp wick.
His feet were suffocating in kerosene, and his head was wrapped in flames.
Huai Shi spat blood from his mouth. The blood seemed to have changed, turning black and hissing when it touched the air. Ravaged by intense pain, Huai Shi opened his eyes wide.
"What is this?"
"Your Stigmata."
The Crow stepped on Huai Shi to keep him from moving, summoned the Book of Destiny from Huai Shi's soul with one hand, opened it on her palm, and pressed down on Huai Shi's head with the other.
"Huai Shi, in the presence of Heaven, I contract with you."
In an instant, Huai Shi felt as if his brain had been struck hard by a sledgehammer. Everything went black before his eyes, and his soul began to tremble at her words.
"In the name of [ ], I guarantee it."
Huai Shi felt like he had heard that name before. But he couldn't hear it clearly. The power brought by that name shook Huai Shi, and he couldn't maintain a clear consciousness, as if he were being crushed by surging waves.
"—I manifest my royal authority here, and you shall exist eternally with its radiance."
Boom!
Huai Shi felt like he had become a bonfire.
Huai Shi's consciousness broke free from his body, which had turned into burning firewood, melted into the black flames, and began to rise. Amidst infinite expansion and contraction, he danced on the edge of destruction and rebirth.
Huai Shi finally saw her.
The woman who contracted with him.
It was not a dreamlike beautiful phantom, but the raging waves hidden deep within the phantom—as if the lightning woven by endless blazing fire and radiance filled the entire world.
Due to the terrifying flood of power, pervasive flames burned like waves from her eyes and fell into an infinite sea.
When she spread her wings, infinite light illuminated the world, and when she lowered her eyes, all things fell into the karmic fire.
The world was collapsing, and the world was being reborn.
The survival and destruction of all things were unified in her hands, given a beginning, an end, and all meaning.
Now, all phenomena spread out beneath her eyes, and a voice with the dignity of ten thousand tons declared to Huai Shi.
"I will be your witness."
She whispered in Huai Shi's ear.
"Just as you are my witness."
At that moment, the infinite phantom collapsed and vanished without a trace. Like a painful, long dream.
Huai Shi felt the door that was an extension of his body suddenly close, and then he felt as if he were wrapped in flames.
Pushed by her palm, Huai Shi's consciousness returned to his body. Just like a sword forged by lightning fire being sheathed.
Huai Shi felt his heart beating.
Blood flowed through his blood vessels and reached every corner of his body. Huai Shi felt his lungs breathing, smelled the scent of blood remaining in the air, and heard the roar coming from the distant city.
Huai Shi felt his hands, and then his feet.
Huai Shi felt that he had returned to the world.
Huai Shi was alive. And with a body that lacked nothing.
Huai Shi opened his eyes wide. Remembering the painful dream from just a moment ago, he let out a scream and jumped up from the ground. As if fearing that the nightmarish memory would chase him, Huai Shi began to run madly through the prison, running from one corner to the other end.
After a while, Huai Shi finally calmed down.
He leaned against the wall, sweating and panting.
Then he hung his head and looked blankly at the place in his chest that felt uncomfortable.
"What the hell is this!"

Translator's Note:
"Shall we make a spare key?"... This is based on a joke born on the internet. "Making a spare key" is "配钥匙" (pèi yàoshi) in Chinese. "配" (pèi) has the meanings of "to be worthy of" or "to deserve." The story goes like this:
Key maker: "Do you want to make a spare key? (您配吗? - Nín pèi ma?)"
Fortune teller: "I won't (我不配 - Wǒ bù pèi)"
Key maker: "That's right, you won't (对,您不配 - Duì, nín bù pèi) = You are not worthy."
Then the fortune teller got angry and countered.
Fortune teller: "I am a fortune teller. What are you? (你算什么东西? - Nǐ suàn shénme dōngxi?) = You are nothing. [Note: '算' (suàn) has the meanings of 'to tell fortunes' and 'to count as.']"
"您配吗?" is internet slang, so young Chinese people will get it, but older people might not understand.

Translator's Comment:
Well, Huai Shi has finally acquired his Stigmata.
In the end, what was Huai Shi so surprised about? Look forward to the next chapter!