Chapter 55: Changes (Part 2)
Leaping out of the world barrier and into the void, Baniel's expression shifted slightly as he silently surveyed the surrounding darkness.
In the star domain around the Jetram World, ring-shaped formations were rapidly unfolding. Silver-blue psionic radiance began to blaze fiercely in response to his arrival. In that instant, the barrier of the Jetram World was reinforced, and the old mage temporarily lost the ability to return immediately.
Behind the ring-shaped formations, illusory figures emerged—high-ranking Takur priests who had crossed the star river by breaching the blockade of the Space-Time Hub. These cyclopean giants had abandoned their physical bodies, descending here as pure psionic incarnations. They surrounded the originally sealed space-time coordinates, seemingly intent on holding this position and preventing the old mage from resealing it.
"...So you were lying in ambush for me here... Were the previous assassins just meant to dull my thinking?"
Seeing this prepared formation, the white-haired old mage's expression calmed. He could already tell that the space-time seal was being gradually undone. This cyclopean civilization truly possessed extremely advanced space-time technology. "I underestimated the civilization behind you."
No one replied.
His old friend, the psychic sovereign William, was not here, so no one laughed and followed up with a line like, "So what if you underestimated?" to play along.
But Baniel didn't need anyone to reply anyway.
He just found it amusing.
"Is that all... there is?"
Four hundred and seventy-three high-ranking psionic priests, bathed in an unknown divine power, all possessed the status of Ultimate-rank. This was the highest level that could escape the blockade of the Space-Time Hub. And these four hundred and seventy-three psionic Ultimate-ranks, united through the power of the formation, constructed a psionic fortress that did not exist in the material realm but was indeed indestructible.
In response, the old mage raised his hand and closed his eyes. Having traveled across the continent and many worlds for years, all ordinary people thought he and William were approachable, easygoing gentlemen—not much for fighting, not particularly powerful. Many had even forgotten that in the past, he and his friend had jointly held back an ultra-large-scale Black Tide that could have destroyed an entire human settlement.
Not needing to fight didn't mean being incapable of fighting.
A light gathered in the old man's palm, then rose in the darkness. The radiance of the six elements, mixed with countless rune particles, illuminated the surrounding star domain, piercing straight through the void.
Baniel opened his eyes. One eye was like a normal person's pupil, while the other was a revolving rune-pupil. On his body, countless points of light were peeling away, separating—the countless 'cells' that made up his rune-body. These cells transformed into light, ascending along the light pillar deep into the void, and then.
Just like that, they became an army.
"Rune Fortress beginning materialization... Elemental Army manifesting—Rune Energy charging, 11... 24... 40... 59... 75... 99%, charge complete. War Fortress activated, initiating full-range, full-void lock-on..."
"Aksis Fortress, fully armed deployment."
A voice devoid of emotion or fluctuation echoed across the entire star domain, and the radiance that had pierced the void dissipated.
In the void, a massive floating city, a war fortress, materialized.
It was a creation that seemed to step straight out of imagination and oil paintings—grand and magnificent. The bastion-like metal walls gleamed with dazzling runes. Energy towers stood at the edges and corners, and armies of elemental spirits, like flocks of birds, circled the fortress in patrol. On the walls, the muzzles of massive rune cannons gathered golden energy light.
This was a fortress, a bastion of war, a temple of elements and runes. And it was not alone. A dazzling divine light flashed, and another fortress manifested. Elemental beings clad in mana armor walked onto the battlements, silently forming ranks and condensing massive rune crossbows in the air.
One fortress after another condensed in the void. Baniel withdrew his left hand, which had already decomposed by more than half, and stared at the light that was continuously 'decompressing' and 'liberating' itself from the constraints of the mage's physical body. The old man, whose entire form had already dissipated by more than half, calmly looked ahead at the psionic army, which was hurriedly contracting its formation and preparing to strengthen its defenses. A cold, mocking curve lifted the corner of his mouth.
Comparing formations with me?
"What you're about to face... is a Legendary."
...
Inside the Jetram World.
Chu Hao linked himself to the entire Space-Time Hub, using his unique life form to perform high-speed calculations and complete the remaining docking procedures.
He could hear the sounds coming from the distant star river, from his homeland—the repeated queries and inducements of the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground, the howling that echoed through time and space. Chu Hao could feel this sound growing louder, the sensation becoming clearer. The other side seemed to have sensed the signal from the Jetram World and was actively drawing closer, preparing to converge.
This moment was the eve of success. As long as Chu Hao continued to complete the docking procedure, the space-time star gate would open, allowing reinforcements from the Mycroft World to arrive directly at this end of the star river. But this was also Chu Hao's most vulnerable moment. If someone were to disrupt the completion of the docking procedure now, all efforts would be wasted.
Clearly, the Mycroft people were not the only ones aware of this.
On one side of the Jetram World, in the black-purple sea, a colossal creature began to slowly emerge from the deep ocean. It broke through the water, unleashing a roar that shattered the atmosphere. This monster was over seven hundred meters in size, shaped like an ancient Salamence, its wings blotting out the sky. But it had three heads and two tails. On its chest and abdomen, ferocious metal spikes were retracting and protruding. An extremely powerful energy fluctuation radiated from the golden crystalline formations on its skin.
This was a giant beast raider from the Amos Royal Court. After being dismissed by Emperor Amos, the vast majority of the Amos fleet had indeed retreated back to their homeland to avoid a sneak attack by the Takur people. But a small portion still obeyed Emperor Amos's secret orders, using bio-jumps to charge directly at the Jetram World. Among the void demons Baniel had eliminated earlier, many were these Amos raiders following orders. But just as the old mage had guessed, these were all just smokescreens.
The real tool the Amos people used to destroy the Space-Time Hub was this.
Its cells had been dropped from the void into the deep sea, absorbing geothermal heat and ocean floor minerals to grow. The giant beast's embryo fed on minerals and rocks, rapidly growing stronger. This giant beast, specialized in internal world destruction, had the destructive power to annihilate a city of ten million within a few hours. Its life span was less than seven days, but within those seven days, it could wipe out most countries on a planet—its triple beams of magic, elements, and aether could be fired simultaneously, even capable of destroying the earth's crust and creating a great rift valley straight to the magma layer.
At this moment, the three-headed Tyrantrum was breaking through the sea, charging rapidly towards the nearby Space-Time Hub. Its gene library contained all knowledge related to destruction, so the Tyrantrum clearly knew that for a precise structure like the Space-Time Hub, damaging even a single part would lead to irreversible errors.
But this biochemical beast, whose only purpose in life was to complete its mission, suddenly stopped.
It halted.
Because two figures appeared before it.
The dragon girl stood in mid-air, her hands crossed in front of her, a lightning-wreathed tail gently sweeping behind her. Beside Lisa, Syndica stood with a smile. Though this former greater demon had now transformed into a dragonman bloodline, the horns on his head remained as fierce as a demon's.
The two who had come to guard Chu Hao coldly stared at the monster before them. At this moment, the entire Jetram World was covered in dark clouds, churning heavily in the sky. But only now could the rumbling thunder be heard stirring within the clouds. Azure lightning coiled through the layered clouds, like a dragon circling above the world.
Without using any power, Lisa and Syndica naturally stood suspended in the air, as if gravity did not exist for them. Facing the three-headed Tyrantrum, which was roaring at them and simultaneously accumulating energy in its three mouths for a breath attack, the two said nothing. Then, they both raised their hands. The dual magnetic fields rotated, causing blinding arcs of lightning to burst from every pore and every scale on their bodies.
At that moment, the three-headed Tyrantrum's breath attack also erupted. The violent and brutal main cannon of a warship, integrated into a living being, had now transformed into three vast, roaring streams of light that twisted the vacuum. The surging and fierce impact tore through the atmosphere in an instant, ionizing everything. The intense heat even ignited the rain, turning the entire world into a domain of steam.
But facing this breath attack, capable of destroying a city or leveling a mountain in a single blow, the two were not afraid but delighted.
Finally, they had a touchstone after their advancement. The surging feeling needed no suppression. They only needed to use all their strength, pour in their entire spirit, and wholeheartedly unleash that one blow!
"Lisa!"
"Syndica!"
"—Magnetic Field Rotation, Seven Hundred Thousand Horsepower!"
"—Breaker! Heaven! Startling! Fist!"
Shouting each other's names simultaneously, the air around the dragon girl and the flame demon exploded. Within their seemingly delicate bodies, strengthened muscles tougher than diamond burst forth with force enough to stop a volcanic eruption with a single punch. The mere trembling of their bodies shook the surroundings into a vacuum. And in the next instant, both accelerated simultaneously, transitioning from stillness to motion, turning into two rushing bolts of lightning, charging head-on towards the three-headed Tyrantrum's breath attack!
Boom!
The next moment, a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering roar echoed across the world. After an extremely bright white light flashed, an extremely dark black followed. Then came a violent tremor, like a mountain collapsing. A towering, hundreds-of-meters-high heat tsunami surged from the center of the collision, spreading in all directions. The thick clouds covering the sky were directly blasted away, revealing the bright starry sky behind them!