Self-Destruct

Xia Lun turned around. The hive drones had spread out in a fan-shaped formation before the Mechanical Prophet. Their overheated surfaces glowed red, like irons fresh from the furnace. The lasers from earlier had clearly been fired by them.

“The Arcane Sage sent me to provide support… The others are still dealing with the remaining monsters and can’t get away for the moment.” The Mechanical Prophet grinned and gave Xia Lun a thumbs-up.

A strange noise came from ahead. Flesh writhed, shattered bones sprouted wildly like plants, and muscle fibers twisted together like worms and snakes. In the blink of an eye, the Chaos Demon God’s head had restored itself to its original form.

“That guy is the true body of those monsters?”

Complex streams of electronic data flowed through the Mechanical Prophet’s pupils. “Let me scan this creature’s energy field…”

Bzzzt—crackle!

White smoke suddenly poured from the Mechanical Prophet’s head, while tiny sparks spurted from several of its heat vents.

“Ah, it overloaded. I actually can’t detect it.” The Mechanical Prophet staggered half a step backward, his tone gradually growing solemn.

According to his precision sensors, the monster’s energy field was like a true black hole in the universe. It not only devoured every detection wave, but even caused a brief disruption in his energy circuits.

And now, the Mechanical Prophet watched as a black hole came hurtling straight toward him.

“Move.”

The Mechanical Prophet was still standing there in a daze when Aina’s cold, clear voice suddenly came from behind him.

The thrusters on his back erupted with a brief burst of blue flame, and he immediately darted aside.

The Chaos Demon God’s target had never been him. It was Aina behind him.

The creature only reacted to the powerful threats it could sense. In fact, when facing Xia Lun, it had paid him very little attention.

Roar!

The monster’s twisted arms stretched forward. Its palms began to writhe and split apart like melting candles, transforming in an instant into a flood of flesh that filled the sky. With nauseating squelches, it surged toward Aina.

At that moment, the staff floating beside Aina had already released an incomparable radiance, as though it had become the center of the world.

Aina knew that ordinary methods would be completely ineffective. Instead, the Chaos Demon God would devour their power and turn it into nourishment.

That was why every attack she launched was a long-brewing killing move.

“Crimson End.”

It sounded as though she were proclaiming the judgment of the world.

The crimson staff Aina used to cast her spell disintegrated and melted away. It transformed into countless glittering crimson motes, which gathered within a magic array that suddenly appeared before her.

Then Xia Lun’s vision was consumed by pure red.

There was no thunderous explosion, no shock wave of energy—only an expanse of red that continued to deepen and expand. The color was so pure that it seemed like the first hue born at the dawn of the universe, or the final ray of light at the end of all things.

Time lost its meaning at that moment, and even the concept of space grew blurred. No one knew how much time had passed. Perhaps it was an instant; perhaps it was eternity. Only after an unknowable span did the crimson radiance slowly fade.

Xia Lun felt an intense unreality, as if the world had truly undergone an apocalypse and reincarnation, and they now stood within the new world born after that cycle.

When the crimson radiance finally receded like a tide, reality slowly pieced itself back together.

In his dazed state, Xia Lun felt a slightly cool little hand gently take hold of his right hand. Her fingertips trembled faintly.

When he came to his senses, he realized that Aina had somehow taken his hand.

The Mechanical Prophet stood frozen in place. Even the streams of data in his eyes had stopped moving and flickering, growing dim and lifeless. Clearly, the extraordinary energy shock had temporarily shut him down.

A moment later, a pleasant melody came from inside his head, followed by a gentle female voice saying, “Rebooting.”

As for the Chaos Demon God, not even a trace of it could be seen in the void.

“What happened?” The Mechanical Prophet’s voice was filled with obvious electronic interference. “Something incredible seems to have happened just now… Where’s that guy? Has the matter been resolved?”

No one answered him.

“Are you all right?” Xia Lun supported Aina by the shoulder and asked her softly. He could tell that Aina was somewhat weak.

Aina gently shook her head.

“Do you need me to carry you?”

Aina’s eyes lit up, and she slowly nodded.

The technique of fusing bloodline power with magic was unbelievably powerful, but it also consumed an enormous amount of her strength.

Even that long staff—a bloodline divine artifact she had painstakingly nurtured—had been destroyed by the attack she unleashed.

“Phew… So, can we go back and hold a victory banquet now?” The Mechanical Prophet breathed a sigh of relief. An exclamation mark appeared above his head. “Thank you for your efforts, Scarlet Goddess. You have eliminated the powerful enemy that threatened the entire universe…”

Thump—

A strange heartbeat suddenly echoed.

The joy on everyone’s faces instantly froze.

Xia Lun slowly turned around.

In the void, a few strands of blood first twisted together like living creatures. They then rapidly multiplied and swelled, forming a constantly throbbing mass of flesh shaped like a heart. After that, it quickly condensed into a humanoid figure.

“Damn it! How is this thing still alive?”

The Mechanical Prophet’s face was filled with disbelief. His breastplate abruptly slid open on both sides, revealing cannon barrels within that glowed with a dangerous red light. The surrounding hive drones also rearranged themselves into an attack formation.

Beep—

Accompanied by a sharp, piercing hum, a golden laser cannon shot forth.

The surrounding hive drones crackled, then dimmed and fell silent. Clearly, they had been completely destroyed by the overload.

But just as the laser was about to strike the Chaos Demon God, the flesh raised a crystal-clear, sharply pointed crystal like a tentacle. The laser was scattered by the crystal, and the diverging beams sliced distant meteorites in half, revealing cross-sections glowing bright red from the heat…

Yet they had barely harmed it at all.

“Warning. Energy reserves are nearly depleted. It is recommended that you activate a warp wormhole and return to the energy replenishment station…” A cold electronic voice sounded from within the Mechanical Prophet’s body.

“What? You want me to flee in the middle of battle? How could I possibly do that?” The Mechanical Prophet’s expression turned ugly. When dealing with that monster the day before, he had been one of the primary attackers, and his Incineration Cannon had consumed a great deal of energy.

Before he had even had the chance to return and replenish it, he had encountered something like this again.

The Mechanical Prophet’s gaze shifted toward Xia Lun and Aina.

“They’re our comrades! Human comrades! How could I disgrace our civilization in front of them?”

His radiant wings spread open, and his thrusters erupted in an instant, flames blasting dozens of meters into the void. He poured out every last bit of energy he had.

In the blink of an eye, the Mechanical Prophet charged straight toward the Chaos Demon God, meeting its freshly restored, twisted face head-on.

“Die, monster.”

Beep, beep, beep…

A shrill warning blared from the Mechanical Prophet’s chest. Then a violent explosion swept across everything nearby.