Chapter 17: Hesitation Leads to Defeat!
【Crisis Management System】
An otherworldly powerhouse from the Lost Star River, the top combat force of Mycroft Civilization, Joshua van Radcliffe, an existence capable of rivaling Emperor Amos himself—the Crisis Management System was precisely such a gift bestowed by this formidable figure upon himself and Creler.
Erma did not fully comprehend the true meaning behind the word 'system'; it was a term only someone from Earth in a past life could truly understand.
In reality, whether it was Ying and Lin, or No. 3, or others like Creler who had been granted such a system, none of them understood why Joshua insisted on calling this 'blessing,' 'divine gift,' or some form of 'favor' a system. But since Joshua liked to call it that, everyone else had to accept it.
Erma had witnessed the power the Crisis Management System granted Creler. It transformed Creler, who to her was as insignificant as a roadside insect, into a formidable Transcendent being that even she would find troublesome to deal with seriously—after 'donning the armor,' Creler truly became like a different person, his abilities turning bizarre and powerful.
Yet precisely because of this, Erma deliberately ignored it.
How could one casually trust something so abnormally powerful, granted by a former enemy from an alien civilization? Using it recklessly would surely lead to complete subjugation by its giver.
Ultimately, she even doubted Emperor Amos himself and wanted to rebel against him. How could Erma so easily trust such an otherworldly Transcendent creation?
"...As I thought, I still don't trust it."
Gazing deeply at Creler before her, Erma saw no trace of doubt in his eyes, only surging pride, anticipation, and curiosity—she could tell he wanted to know what power his system truly held, and in truth, she wanted to know as well.
Looking up, the colossal Void Warship, Erma's true body, 'gazed' at the enormous Ultimate Being before her. She could see it, bearing a massive snail shell, its internal flesh still mutating and sublimating, this bizarre monster staring back at her with greedy, malevolent eyes, as if watching an ant by the roadside, a readily accessible dessert.
"But I know this is no time for hesitation."
Erma murmured to herself, then pressed one hand against the gem on her chest.
And so, light blazed forth!
—Hesitation leads to defeat!
【Crisis Management System, Activate!】
"Load Transcendent Plugin—Shadow Gold!"
【Crisis Management System, Activate!】
"Load Transcendent Plugin—Azure Sky Blue!"
【Loading complete—y?】
"Don armor!" *2
In that instant, Erma and Creler activated their systems simultaneously. The radiance of Shadow Gold blazed, enveloping the human form completely, while the azure-blue light, carrying a biting frost wind like wind-eroded bitter cold, stirred up a frost-fog that froze even molecules, clearly visible in the void, covering Erma's main warship entirely!
Within the white frost-fog, a cyan light could be seen shining! It swelled abruptly, then contracted, forming a layer of 'armor' on Erma's surface, white and cyan interwoven, complete with a pair of steel wings!
【Holy Radiance Illuminates the Sky】
Meanwhile, at the periphery of the sealed world, the Ultimate Being, who had barely escaped the supernova explosion and was rejoicing in its narrow escape, suddenly sensed a 'crisis'—he, no, it! It sensed that where the 'little bugs' had gathered, a sharp spear had suddenly appeared! What it had thought was merely reserve food, a dessert easily crushed, had transformed into a ferocious beast!
Abruptly looking up, its still-twisting, indistinct face—impossible to tell if it was flowing grease or a constantly shifting, deformed visage—sprouted a massive eye. The Ultimate Being saw, within the frost-fog spreading and billowing even in the void, a bizarre 'figure'—a warship of light, vibrating its wings, charging towards it at breakneck speed!
"Riiip!"
In the void, the thirty-three layers of sealing formations, shattered by the supernova explosion within the sealed world, had completely broken apart. Their material remnants drifted through the void, substances crafted by gaochao (highly advanced) technology capable of withstanding the void's baptism without disintegrating—but as the winged warship of light charged forward, everything shattered amidst the screeching sound of energy rotation!
【Joshua System Special Installation Version Activated... Linking to Crisis Management System, Beginning Modular Processing... Transcendent Armor·Holy Radiance Sky Full State Activated】
"Initiate, 'Blazing Light Falcon'!"
With Erma's furious shout, a beam of radiant light flashed. Thousands of pale-white streaks of light, like a meteor shower, shot straight towards the connection point where the Ultimate Being had yet to detach from its cocoon. Simultaneously, sensing danger, the Ultimate Being roared, a semi-transparent energy shield forming around its body. It collided with the incoming energy meteors, producing a massive, blinding light explosion in the void. The entire cocoon was blasted backward, and the shield shattered during its retreat!
On the other side, Erma, having completed her 'transformation' with a pair of wings now adorning her warship's stern, paused briefly, seemingly shocked by her own power.
"This... this power?! It lets me so easily cross the boundary of the 'Commander' rank and reach the level of a General—"
"Damn it, a hidden General?!"
The blasted-back Ultimate Being was both shocked and enraged. It had believed that after enduring sublimation, it was unmatched in the entire Royal Court except for the Emperor. Even against titled Generals, it could simply flee. But who knew it would first endure the supernova explosion within the sealed world, and then, while severely wounded, be ambushed by Erma, whom it had dismissed as an ant: "Wait, we're on the same side—"
The Ultimate Being intended to buy time for recovery through conversation, but before it could finish its mental transmission, it fell silent—not voluntarily, but because the overwhelming energy tide suppressed all extraneous fluctuations in the surrounding void, preventing it from speaking or transmitting information. In truth, the moment the Ultimate Being 'hesitated' between attacking directly or fleeing to buy recovery time, it lost all initiative and opportunity for counterattack, as well as any chance of actively seeking victory.
Because it saw a vast stream of light roaring towards it from Erma's bow.
Because the 'Blazing Holy Radiance' had arrived!
Boom! Even the void could erupt with a roar from the energy tide. The cold frost-fog spread through the void with a flash of light, freezing everything, extinguishing even the glow of the Great Magic Tide. Faced with such a fierce 'cold light,' the Ultimate Being unhesitatingly raised a shield condensed from fire elements. Energy drawn from the planet's core coalesced into a hemispherical lava barrier, firmly blocking the front.
But did the dissipating cold air mean the attack was 'freezing'?
Completely wrong!
The full-force strike condensed from 'Transcendent Armor·Holy Radiance Sky' gathered all energy and heat from the surrounding space. The essence of this ultimate technique, the supreme magical skill 'Blazing Holy Radiance,' was to plunder all surrounding energy, creating a super-high-temperature ray in an environment approaching absolute zero! Its core temperature reached 450 million degrees. Had the battle not been in the void but in a normal Transcendent world, or even a fire-element world, the maximum temperature could have exceeded 10 billion degrees!
At the center of the ice-blue frost-fog was a stream of sub-light-speed, ultra-high-temperature particles of platinum-white light! Behind that magnificent color lay the annihilating light of destruction that erases all things!
The component 'Azure Sky Blue·Holy Radiance Sky' was a supreme arcane creation designed by Joshua after consulting with various Legendary Mages. Its power was hailed as 'the Law of Heavenly Wrath,' capable of igniting the azure sky and making radiance illuminate the heavens! 'Blazing Light Falcon' condensed surrounding energy to create homing high-energy magic missiles, each with temperatures nearing a million degrees, akin to the solar corona. Upon contact with the enemy, they released terrifying light explosions, repelling the foe.
'Blazing Holy Radiance,' as described, cooled the periphery of its core beam to near absolute zero while the core energy beam itself possessed temperatures of hundreds of millions of degrees—a dual assault of ice and fire, enough to destroy all tangible matter!
Furthermore, Erma discovered she also possessed 'Shock Burst Light Bombs' and 'Transcendent Seals' capable of destroying an enemy's bodily structure and sealing their internal energy flow, but now was not the time to ponder this.
Absolute heat and absolute cold arrived simultaneously. Even by Legendary standards, this high-power magical cannon strike easily pierced the fire-element shield, heavily slamming into the Ultimate Being's body, which had yet to retract fully into its shell.
One could see the cold instantly solidify the Ultimate Being's flesh, followed by the heat incinerating it into basic particles. Its incredibly durable body was first dented by the sub-light-speed high-energy particle stream, flesh shattering, then the rapidly spreading heat, following the cracks of shattered flesh, ignited and burned away the front half of the Ultimate Being's body and bones.
"Uwaaaaaah!!!"
Everything happened in a mere instant. The Ultimate Being could only feel its 'head' completely obliterated in a flash, its entire body sent spinning rapidly through the void by the magical cannon's impact. Even its shell, sturdy enough to withstand prolonged solar corona burning, was half-shattered by the residual blast.
—Hesitation leads to defeat!
—The chance for victory lies in that single instant!
Pressing the attack, Erma had no time to observe her results. After unleashing her strongest strike to blast away the Ultimate Being, she unhesitatingly forced her energy to gather again. One could see the wings of the Transcendent Armor vibrate violently, then curl into shapes resembling the rocket nozzles of the Fire Elf Empress. Sparks of high-energy nuclear fusion ignited within, erupting. The immense explosive force propelled Erma's colossal warship body forward, charging ahead!
Even in the void, chaotic space-time turbulence was stirred up. The light mist of the Great Magic Tide was completely dispersed. Erma's figure vanished like a phantom, then, arriving later but faster, caught up with the trajectory of the blasted-back Ultimate Being.
"Die!"
But contrary to everyone's expectations, the Ultimate Being, supposedly completely incapacitated, suddenly erupted. From its half-shattered shell, dozens of spiked tentacles, like those of a starfish, surged forth. They elongated rapidly through the void, seemingly trying to grab the charging Erma.
—The head was never a vital point. For an Ultimate lifeform, every part of the body is a core hub, and also a expendable lizard's tail to be shed!
These tentacles gleamed with sharp edges. Energy blades composed of Life Energy rotated at 130,000 revolutions per second. Had these fifty-plus tentacles firmly latched on, not even a planet's core would escape being gouged out, let alone Erma's body!
"Leave it to me!"
At that very moment, a layer of dim shadow covered Erma's surface—the Transcendent abilities of Shadow Desolation and Solar Flare Refraction, under Creler's full control, were completely bestowed upon his comrade. The shadow subspace, capable of devouring even light, faced the incoming cutting tentacles head-on, firmly blocking the Ultimate Being's attack like an indestructible fortress.
The next instant, Erma, propelled by nuclear fusion explosions to nearly one-tenth the speed of light, carrying kinetic energy sufficient to cause an ecological extinction-level impact, slammed solidly into the terrified Ultimate Being's shell!
The Ultimate Being was not without means of resistance. It did everything it could: gathered an energy light shield, extended limbs to brace outside the shell against the impact, and itself rapidly retreated sideways and backward, attempting to dodge or deflect part of Erma's collision force.
But caught off guard, facing Erma's kuangbao (violent and ferocious) and unhesitating assault, it could only feel its limbs instantly pulverized, its shell shattered into pieces, flesh and blood mangled, blackish-brown greasy bodily fluids splattering into the void before being frozen solid. Its entire body, as massive as a warship, was once again easily sent flying by Erma like a paper airplane!
Yet the unexpected occurred.
"Heh, this is my escape route!"
While being sent flying, the Ultimate Being, having already recovered its senses from the earlier beating, had figured things out: Erma's actual strength was far inferior to its own after Ultimate evolution. She was merely exploiting the burst of some Transcendent item, kicking it while it was down after it had just endured the supernova explosion. There was no need to face her head-on. It could simply run first and seek revenge later!
This Ultimate lifeform, which cared nothing for honor, laughed heartily, using the force of Erma's impact to unhesitatingly turn and accelerate its escape. Erma's series of fierce attacks had indeed severely wounded it, but they had also severed the remaining connection between its main body and the cocoon. Now, freed from all restraints and enhanced by Ultimate evolution, the Ultimate Being's speed naturally surpassed Erma's, who needed Transcendent Armor's boost just to touch the Legendary realm. Moreover, that speed was partly thanks to Erma's own contribution.
In less than a second, the Ultimate Being had traversed nearly half a star domain. Simultaneously, a ring of light appeared before it—clearly a space-time anomaly caused by a short-range jump. It intended to use a short-range jump to break free from Erma's pursuit, buying time for a long-range jump to escape.
However, despite seeing the enemy about to flee, Erma showed no sign of worry, even as the azure gem on her chest began to flicker, emitting an unsteady, dim red light indicating insufficient energy.
On the contrary, having recovered from the previous collision, she began to calmly halt in place, gathering all the dissipating energy from the surrounding void, shrouding half a star domain in blurry ice fog.
—The armor's energy is nearly depleted; this is the final strike!
—Jump, initiate!
On the other side of space-time, the Ultimate Being, already planning to flee, sneered. About to leave the battlefield, it naturally paid no heed to how terrifying the enemy's attack might be. But just as it prepared to initiate the jump and leave this star domain, the Ultimate Being was shocked to discover its body remained motionless, completely unresponsive.
Jump, failed?!
And at that moment, the Ultimate Being could hear, from within its own body, a slightly strange, otherworldly accent!
"Right here, Erma! Aim at my location and fire!"
Within the Ultimate Being's body, in the shadow space between internal organs and inner walls, Creler, his tone clearly tinged with nervousness but more so with excitement and thrill, shouted through mental connection: "Fire at me!"
—When did he get in?!
Even the Ultimate Being's enhanced thinking core couldn't immediately figure out where Creler had come from. But soon, it understood: he had likely slipped in through the shadow when it extended its tentacles to slice Erma, using the contact between its attack and the shadow barrier!
And the reason it couldn't successfully jump was precisely because Creler's presence acted like an internal dimensional anchor, locking it firmly in place!
But thinking takes time, and so does hesitation.
Thus, the Ultimate Being's only chance of victory—or rather, survival—was completely cut off.
Boom boom boom boom!
Without a shred of hesitation, Erma remained silent, concentrating all her power into a single point, then abruptly unleashed it. The overly condensed high-energy particle beam flew out silently, illuminating half the star domain. All the remaining Amos thought sub-individuals yet to evacuate witnessed the dazzling arcane pillar, like an eraser, shining upon the Ultimate Being's body as it frantically tried to defend, then wiping it clean, like graphite marks on paper!
Long before this, Creler had already used the ability 'Shadow Path' to escape the Ultimate Being's body interior, dodging to the side. Erma's full-power strike did not hit him, instead allowing him to witness the immense power of 'Blazing Holy Radiance' up close, leaving the captain endlessly impressed.
"So powerful, Lady Marshal..."
The Ultimate Being's strength was undeniable. A monster capable of devouring stars, had it not been severely wounded by the sealed world's supernova aftermath and ambushed by them in their transformed armored states, it would never have been so ignominiously destroyed. In truth, had he and Erma not fought together, a single counterattack from the enemy would have directly killed Erma, who seemed to have the upper hand.
But now was not the time to ponder this... After all, they had won.
Thinking this, Creler, drifting through the void, looked up at his own head.
There, a massive, semi-transparent bio-ship extended a tentacle towards him.
This tentacle did not directly coil around Creler, nor did it approach rashly. It simply hovered before him, seemingly waiting.
The young Mycroft captain shrugged, meeting the bio-ship's gaze easily. They exchanged smiles, then Creler reached out, actively touching Erma's tentacle, allowing her to draw him into her body.
The incident concerning the Extreme Virus plague in the Bloody Star River had temporarily concluded. The Amos and Takur people's war to purge the Ultimate Being was in full swing. This Transcendent plague, originating internally and spreading throughout the star river, had caused immense disaster, claiming the lives of hundreds of billions, or even more, of intelligent beings.
But this did not mean such bizarre plagues only appeared in the Bloody Star River.
—In several star rivers adjacent to the Bloody Star River, in the border star systems of a few obscure small Void civilizations, inexplicable coughing sounds were heard. Several households closed their doors to visitors, employees went absent, students took leave, and then vanished without a trace.
Due to the prevalence of jump, space-time gate, and various transmission systems, some intangible, formless things spread faster than any intelligent being could imagine.
Silence began to spread from one world to another, bringing with it unceasing 'quiet' and panic.
—The Starry World.
A series of mysterious, hidden fluctuations were spreading throughout the world from some unknown source. These fluctuations were extremely weak, as if they didn't exist, nearly imperceptible, and their purpose was impossible to deduce.
Where these fluctuations passed, orderly intelligent life was almost completely unaware. But the Chaos minions seemed to receive some instruction, gradually withdrawing from their original strongholds, retreating into the dark interstellar darkness... They left silently, so quietly that even the Galactic Guardian Alliance, their enemy, was completely oblivious.
And so—
The plague spread.
:.:
[IMPORTANT: Replace every Chinese term above with its English translation or pinyin transliteration. Output the full corrected text.]