Chapter 608 - 588: Battle!
Chapter 608: Chapter 588: Battle!
"R—Rear! Two Dawn Star Level signal sources! Approaching at high speed!"
The Witch Demon Apprentice’s voice completely warped inside the bridge, echoing across the entire communication network. The three figures that had just swept out of the battleship, preparing to deploy their abilities, simultaneously froze in the void.
"Are there more?" they wondered.
The two clusters of pale green Soul Fire deep within the Skeleton Duke’s eye sockets shrank violently, then rapidly expanded like a storm! His massive Spiritual Power swept across the entire battlefield like a raging tide, instantly locking onto all high-energy reactions in the void.
One, two, three... six! Six independent, distinct Dawn Star Level Energy Sources!
"Six Dawn Star Level Golems!" The Skeleton Duke’s voice carried a hint of shock, but it was immediately replaced by ruthless cruelty. His eerie white jawbone snapped shut, emitting a cold sneer that sounded like clashing metal.
"So it’s just a bluff!"
His vast spiritual roar resembled a clap of thunder, forcibly smoothing over the wavering doubts in Kesuga and Sara’s hearts.
"Aside from the ascended creation leading the charge with dual Laws, the rest are all just tin-can puppets with empty energy fluctuations! Without a Law, they are nothing more than slightly harder lumps of iron!"
An encounter in the sea of stars outside the Plane never offered any route for retreat. Dawn Star Level Golems that hadn’t yet ascended their Laws were at most considered half a Morning Star in terms of combat power. They could be fought, and they had to be fought!
Turning his head to look at the two beside him, his gaze was like a tangible blade as he quickly distributed their combat forces. "Kesuga, you deal with the two in the back! Sara, the remaining two in the front are yours! I will handle the smallest one, as well as that Ascended Golem!"
The moment the order was given, the void was thoroughly ignited by the flames of war!
One hundred and forty-four thousand Mad Bee drones converged into a black sandstorm, overwhelmingly crashing into the Undead and Blood and Flesh Puppets released on the periphery of the Skeleton Duke’s Fleet. The long-range attack arrays of the enemy’s seven battleships fired with all their might. Eerie green Necromancy rays and Curse beams wrapped in vengeful Ghost spirits tore through the void. The crisscrossing barrage carved one shocking void after another into the black sandstorm.
Although the power of these methods was largely reduced against bodies of steel, every volley still caused hundreds, if not thousands, of Mad Bees to disintegrate in mid-air, exploding into clusters of silent flames.
However, the launch bays of the Hive Mother Ship were like an inexhaustible spring—destroy one batch, and the next would already arrive to fill the gap. The Mad Bees were fearless in the face of death, faithfully executing their orders to consume, pin down, and pave the way.
Blood and Flesh Puppets continued to surge wildly from the decks of the enemy battleships. In the void, gray, writhing chunks of flesh pieced themselves together into various deformed combat forms. Skeleton Knights, Ghosts, Witch Demons, Void Worms... The assets the Skeleton Duke had accumulated over hundreds of years poured out like a flood from opened floodgates.
But the quality and quantity were completely on different dimensions.
The total number of Undead and flesh-and-blood units under his command that could fight in the void did not exceed fifty thousand, and the elite units equivalent to a Second-level Wizard numbered no more than a thousand. On the opposite side, the number of Mad Bee drones alone was already several times the total number of his entire forces. Not to mention that behind that black sandstorm, twelve thousand true killing machines and high-speed flying elite Golems were steadily approaching while firing.
Each PX-3 possessed eight Dragon Cavalry Floating Cannons that resembled steel wings. This meant that merely surrounding the approaching twelve thousand Combat Golems, there were also ninety-six thousand independent, deadly floating fire points. Let alone the Storm Falcons, Freedom Gundams, and Gabriels—these high-speed units that could also unleash their firepower.
Inside the bridge of the Ten Thousand Miles of Sunshine, Allen stood by the porthole, calculating the distance between the two legions.
"Focus fire!"
The order was issued. Ninety-six thousand Dragon Cavalry Floating Cannons began to shoot, and the chest main cannons of the twelve thousand PX-3s simultaneously charged and fired.
FWOOSH!
This silent deep space was illuminated by a blinding sea of light that was impossible to look directly at. Tens of thousands of destructive light beams crossed the space, relentlessly bombarding the enemy fleet trapped in place without any blind spots. The total energy level was equivalent to the unreserved, full-strength strikes of five Morning Star Wizards!
The light faded away.
The two outermost White Bone Battleships, along with their shields and hulls, were instantly pierced and vaporized. They expanded into two massive orange-red fireballs in the tranquil void before being completely swallowed by it. The Low-tier Undead Sea was vaporized in massive swaths amidst this rainstorm of light pillars.
The six Dawn Star Level Golems were rapidly approaching. The encirclement sharply contracted, and the elite units of both sides began to engage in close combat.
Thirty-six Freedom Gundams and five Gabriels shot out like arrows loosed from a bowstring, piercing through the formation of the PX-3 legion. One Freedom Gundam instantly dodged a Bone Spear, and in a flash of lightning, it directly cleaved a hundred-meter stitched Giant Beast into two halves with its Ship-Slicing Blade.
On the other side, a Gabriel deployed its Eight-winged Judgment form. Eight homing flying blades drew elegant and deadly arcs in the void, acting like a school of bloodthirsty sharks as they sliced through an incoming squad of Ghosts into a sky full of fluttering Soul Fragments. The explosive flames became the most magnificent backdrop for this feast of slaughter.
The Skeleton Duke realized at this moment that his legion had been suppressed, and the situation was dire.
"All members, attack!" The Skeleton Duke’s furious roar exploded over the comms.
The battleships had become moving coffins. Under such saturated strikes, staying behind was a surefire path to death. The doors of the seven remaining battleships flew wide open, and all Undead capable of flight swarmed out!
And what the Skeleton Duke had to face was a comet rushing straight at him, dragging a silver trail dozens of kilometers long—No. 18.
Amidst a kinetic sprint at fifty times the speed of sound, the Spiritual Remains Steel Fist tore through the thin Magic Power, instantly magnifying in the Skeleton Duke’s eyes.
"A mere empty shell... dares to attempt god-slaying?!" The Skeleton Duke pressed his withered claw against the air.
The Law of Boneification surged violently! Without the need for any material medium, dozens of massive, pale giant bones exceeding ten meters in diameter grew and intertwined madly from the vacuum, condensing into a thick and ferocious White Bone Shield in the blink of an eye!
BOOM!!!
No. 18’s fist smashed solidly against the giant White Bone Shield. The terrifying kinetic energy brought by her extreme speed instantly erupted. That giant shield, capable of withstanding a battleship’s artillery strike, caved in at the point of impact. Spiderweb-like cracks spread frantically before it shattered with a loud bang, sending billions of bone fragments splashing in all directions like a storm.
But it was exactly this momentary obstruction that allowed the Skeleton Duke to completely finish the close-combat form transformation belonging to a veteran Morning Star!
His black robes burst apart in the majestic impact of Magic Power, and his originally withered-looking skeleton began to proliferate wildly. Crystal-clear bone matter surged from every joint and every inch of bone in his body, intertwining, restructuring, and forming into armor!
In the blink of an eye, a Bone Armor with extremely sharp lines covered his entire body. His shoulder blades extended outward, and incredibly sharp Bone Blades grew from his chest and knees. His Chest Armor was tight like a cold, hard sculpture, with a crystalline shimmer flowing across its surface, resembling white jade. Its hardness far surpassed the Bone Shield he had casually created just moments ago. This armor wasn’t bloated in the slightest; instead, it exuded a sense of elegance.
"Come!" A single word slipped from beneath the Skeleton Duke’s chilling white jade bone mask. Four massive, hundred-meter-long bone arms grew from his back, resembling four giant siege hammers, smashing down directly upon No. 18, who had just broken through the shield!
Faced with this attack that felt like Mount Tai bearing down, No. 18’s petite body appeared incredibly insignificant, but she didn’t pause for a moment. With the Storm Airflow acceleration system and Anti-gravity Array working in tandem, her figure drew an unbelievable zigzag in the void, passing through the gap in the encirclement of the four bone arms by a hair’s breadth.
In the next instant, she appeared in front of the Skeleton Duke’s chest. Twisting her waist, she whipped her leg out! Her Spiritual Remains Steel right leg was like a battleaxe, carrying terrifying strength as it viciously kicked his chest!
CLANG—!
A loud noise that seemed capable of shattering souls vibrated through the void, carried by the gases generated around No. 18’s body. The white jade Chest Armor, flowing with the Power of Laws, was actually kicked inwards, caving in from the blow. The Skeleton Duke’s body turned into a cannonball fired from a barrel, flying backwards through the void for over a thousand meters, leaving behind rings of shattered Magic Power wherever he passed.
"What hard bones!" Even No. 18’s cold expression rippled slightly as she shattered the void with her steps and charged forward again without any hesitation.
A thousand meters away, the Skeleton Duke forcefully halted his retreat. The caved-in white jade armor on his chest writhed and smoothed out like water ripples within the flowing light of his Laws, and the eerie green Soul Fire in his eye sockets burned to the absolute limit.
"You think the mere brute strength of an Alchemy Puppet can hurt me?!" The Skeleton Duke fiercely clapped his palms together, his cruel sneer echoing through the starry sky. "Remember to beg your master to build you a little sturdier!"
SWISH!
In the void, tens of thousands of White Jade Bone Spears wrapped in Necromancy Curses condensed out of thin air. Their tips flickered with eerie green glimmers. Like an inverted rainstorm, they completely enveloped every path of No. 18’s advance!
No. 18 crossed her arms in front of her chest. The Hephaestus Type-III Engine roared at full load, and her Spiritual Remains Steel skeleton lit up with blinding Runes.
AT Field!
CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG—!
An extremely dazzling display of fiery sparks and silver lights instantly exploded in the void! Those Bone Spears, capable of piercing through battleships, were mostly blocked by the Protective Force Field. The rest crashed against her Spiritual Remains Steel skeleton, snapping inch by inch and exploding into powder, failing to leave even a shallow dent.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, a bone arm had already silently formed behind No. 18. Its five fingers spread open, turning into a sky-blotting bone claw that violently grabbed down!
However, it was as if No. 18 had eyes on the back of her head. She abruptly turned around and blasted her left fist upward, hitting the bone claw dead in the center of its palm.
With another loud bang, the bone claw was shattered by the punch, but a white jade afterimage had suddenly crossed a thousand meters of space. The four bone arms and the Skeleton Duke’s true body attacked simultaneously.
A waltz of bone and steel played out madly in the center of the battlefield, interwoven with explosions and light beams.
No. 18’s figure turned into a bolt of silver lightning, shuttling at high speeds around the body clad in White Bone Armor. Every single one of her attacks was simple, direct, and efficient—straight punches, whip kicks, elbow strikes, knee bashes. Yet every attack contained enough physical strength to shatter mountains.
The Skeleton Duke utilized the Law of Boneification to its absolute limit. His Bone Armor could deform at will, his arms could turn into long blades, bone wings could grow from his back, and he could even create countless bone traps and clones in the void to confuse his opponent.
BOOM!
No. 18 shattered the armored bone man’s head with a single punch, but it was merely a momentarily generated bone dummy. The real Skeleton Duke had already appeared below her. Dozens of pale bone chains covered in barbs shot explosively from his body, tightly binding No. 18’s limbs like wild pythons.
"Caught you!" the Skeleton Duke sneered.
However, in the next second, the power output of the Hephaestus Type-III Engine inside No. 18’s body sharply increased, and her Spiritual Remains Steel skeleton erupted with light.
SNAP! SNAP! SNAP!
The dozens of incomparably tough bone chains, torn by pure and extreme physical monstrosity, shattered and exploded one by one like dry, withered branches!
"What?!" The Skeleton Duke’s Soul Fire jumped violently.
In the instant he lost focus, No. 18 had already countercharged, slashing a knife-hand strike toward his neck! The Skeleton Duke hurriedly dodged sideways, but he was still a fraction of a second too late.
SLASH—!
The indestructible White Jade Armor on the Skeleton Duke’s left shoulder, along with half an arm, was forcefully sliced off at the root by No. 18’s knife-hand strike!
"You bastard!!"
The intense pain caused the Skeleton Duke to let out a furious roar, and his two clusters of Soul Fire suddenly flared brightly.
"Senluo Bone Prison!"
The sea of stars within a five-kilometer radius instantly lost its dark purple background. Countless giant white bones resembling towering trees frantically pierced out from the nothingness, crisscrossing each other. In an instant, they wove into a spherical cage that blotted out the void.
This magnificent and forbidding dead-white giant sphere contracted and collapsed inward at a terrifying speed. The physical crushing force of billions of tons interwoven with the Boneification Curse formed a life-extinguishing grindstone, intending to forcefully grind that damned metal creation at the center of the sphere into fine dust!