The Abyss of Nothingness was like a festering wound in the universe, with churning dark-purple energy currents and molten core lava emitting a nauseating glow.
Trigg stood like a mountain on the edge of the abyss, his silver-grey heavy armor covered in pits and slime from tentacle corrosion, his eyes fixed on the opposite bank.
There, Nolan floated in mid-air, his body swaying in violent spasms, as Nolan's clear will and the purple-flamed cyclops formed by ancient corruption tore wildly at his skull like two storms!
At the bottom of the abyss, the Old One's shadow, composed of twisted geometric lines and wildly spinning dark-purple star-points, let out a silent shriek from the critical damage of Mark's desperate heat vision, countless tentacles twitching and withering in frantic disarray.
The battle hung precariously on a tragic balance.
Trigg's massive fists clenched. He was waiting, waiting for the battle within Nolan to settle, the one that would decide victory or defeat. Regardless of the outcome, he would use his fists to bring it to a complete end!
However, a deeper chill, originating from the instinct of life itself, pierced his spine without warning, colder than the whispers of the Old Ones, more absolute than the threat of annihilation!
Buzz—
This was not a sound, but a spatial tremor, beyond hearing, acting directly on the soul!
The entire steel crust of Vitrum Prime groaned under the strain at that moment, and the churning energy currents of the abyss seemed to be forcibly smoothed by an invisible hand!
All individuals on the battlefield, fighting, struggling, and wailing, instantly froze as if suspended in time!
The sky was completely obscured.
A colossal ship, flowing with dark-golden liquid energy and subtly shifting between absolute geometry and organic fluidity, silently hovered above the firmament.
On its hull, countless mysterious patterns, flickering with platinum-gold light, emitted an ancient, cold, and condescending pressure that overlooked all living beings!
"What is this thing?"
Even Trigg, who had conquered hundreds of planets, was stunned in place.
Below the colossal ship, a massive structure composed of countless nested, rotating dark-golden rings slowly unfolded, aiming at the abyss and the chaotic battlefield below.
A suffocating sensation of extreme spatial compression and forcibly twisted rules spread out.
Buzz!
An indescribable stream of light descended silently!
Instantly smoothing out the wrinkles in space!
Bang!
The stream of light first swept over Nolan, who was struggling violently on the other side of the abyss. His body, covered in wildly flickering dark-purple energy veins, instantly solidified, dimmed, and disintegrated!
The purple-flamed cyclops was extinguished like a blown-out candle, completely gone. The two violently conflicting wills within him were forcibly frozen and suppressed by a higher, colder will!
Nolan's body suddenly arched, and he spewed out a dark-purple blood mist mixed with fragments of internal organs, then was violently slammed deep into the cliff face like a broken puppet, embedded in the alloy rock layers!
However, just as Nolan lost consciousness and was embedded in the rock wall!
A soft yet irresistible platinum-gold tractor beam, precisely emitted from the belly of the Titan ship, gently picked up Nolan's shattered body like the finger of a god.
Under the beam's embrace, the remaining dark-purple corrupting energy on Nolan, attempting to resurface, was instantly suppressed, stripped away, and purified, like a venomous snake encountering its nemesis.
His broken body was gently but undeniably pulled by the beam, rapidly detaching from the collapsing cliff and flying towards the dark-golden glowing hatch of the Titan ship.
Like a runaway creation being reclaimed by a deity.
"Damn it!" Trigg's eyes almost spat fire as he watched Nolan being taken away, but the pressure from above kept him from making any rash moves.
Immediately afterward, the space-smoothing light stream continued without pause, sweeping towards Trigg, who stood like a mountain on the edge of the abyss, like an invisible eraser!
"Roar—!!!"
Trigg unleashed his ultimate power, his entire body burning with energy like a star!
Attempting to defend, to evade!
Boom—!!!!
With a dull, soul-shaking roar, Trigg's heavy armor collapsed and deformed inward like building blocks. His massive body was thrown backward uncontrollably, as if struck by a starship, blood trailing a horrifying arc through the air!
Rumble!
Crack!
Trigg crashed through several layers of alloy wreckage like a cannonball, finally embedding himself deep within the twisted metal debris.
His heavy armor cracked like a spiderweb, and his chest plate was deeply dented with a terrifying imprint. He coughed violently, spitting blood foam, his eyes filled with shock, humiliation, and bewilderment in the face of absolute power.
The Titan ship had no interest in the struggles of an ant.
Below the bow, an even larger and more complex multi-ring structure silently unfolded, aiming at the abyss and the entire corrupted Antarctic continent!
A cold, emotionless mechanical resonance echoed in the depths of every survivor's consciousness.
"Deep penetration of Old One contamination detected. Planetary matrix entropy increase critical. Purification protocol... initiating!"
"Coordinates: Vitrum Prime, Antarctic region."
"Executing... planetary-level annihilation purification."
At the center of the colossal ship's core multi-ring structure, a singularity so pure it devoured light emerged.
A torrent of energy that stripped away space erupted, leaving glass-like cracks in its wake!
...
Zero Well core.
The massive geocentric cavity was already filled with violent vibrations and energy currents.
Eve and Rudy had just escaped an onslaught of guards corrupted by the Old Ones when they felt the terrifying spatial tremor originating from the surface, penetrating through layers of alloy.
"What... what's happening up there?!"
Rudy clutched his arm, which was grazed by an energy beam, his face pale.
"I don't know! But the energy readings... they're beyond comprehension! Extremely dangerous!"
Eve's face was ashen. Her material perception was wildly alarming, as if she were standing in an erupting volcano.
She abruptly looked at the pulsating dark-purple star-core fragment-7 in the center; the fragment was now violently trembling, emitting a frantic, uneasy dark-purple glow, seemingly resonating with the drastic changes on the surface.
"Run! This place is going to collapse!"
Before she finished speaking.
Rumble rumble rumble!!!
The alloy dome of the entire geocentric cavity emitted a piercing metallic tearing sound. Gigantic cracks spread like a spiderweb, and countless burning alloy fragments and broken energy pipes rained down like a storm.
The ground violently heaved and cracked! Surging lava erupted from the fissures!
"Damn it! The exit!"
Rudy pointed in the direction of the spiral passage they had entered, which was now completely blocked by collapsed boulders and twisted pipes.
"This way!"
Eve's gaze locked onto a relatively narrow maintenance pipe next to the base below the star-core fragment; it was a backup escape route the Robot had scanned earlier.
She slammed her hands against the wall, activating her material restructuring ability!
The thick alloy pipe opening was forcibly pried open and reinforced like soft putty!
"Run!"
Eve yelled, diving into the narrow pipe first.
Rudy followed close behind.
The pipe was dark, filled with acrid smoke and scorching hot air, with the deafening sound of collapse and the roar of erupting lava behind them.
The entire deep well structure was rapidly collapsing under the spatial tremors caused by the Titan's arrival and the impending purification strike!
"Faster! Faster!" Rudy roared behind Eve, his bomb backpack bumping and scraping in the confined space.
Eve gritted her teeth, sweat soaking her entire body.
Her ability was not only used to keep the passage ahead from being blocked by collapses but also to constantly restructure the cracking ground beneath her feet. The mental strain was immense, and her vision was dimming.
But only one thought was in her mind.
Survive!
...
Surface.
The space-stripping torrent silently plunged into the abyss. The abyss, along with everything in it, was completely erased as if by an eraser, leaving only an absolute void, terrifyingly smooth, with incandescent spatial currents flowing at its edges.
The rules of destruction spread like ripples, and the steel crust silently collapsed, disintegrated, and turned into particle dust!
"Fuck—!!!"
Trigg, who had just struggled free from the wreckage, his eyes splitting with rage, saw the annihilating tide of death consuming everything, relentlessly pursuing him.
He instantly locked onto a relatively intact spaceship in the distance.
That was the Ark.
As Trigg was about to force his way into the spaceship, the Robot's cold electronic voice urgently sounded.
"Highest threat level, deep well escape signal detected! Hatch emergency opening!"
Hiss—!
The Ark's hatch slid open the instant Trigg reached it.
Trigg's massive body crashed into the cabin like a cannonball!
Almost simultaneously, a hoarse shriek came from the direction of the deep well's surface entrance wreckage!
"Wait!"
Two disheveled figures burst out from a crack in the collapsing alloy gate like cannonballs—it was Eve and Rudy!
Eve's face was ashen, blood at the corners of her mouth, clearly severely overexerted.
Rudy dragged an injured leg, his bomb backpack only half-full.
Behind them were erupting lava and the completely collapsed deep well entrance, consumed by the edge of annihilation!
The Ark's hull, which had just lifted off, lurched violently. An emergency escape hatch on its belly instantly opened, and a tractor beam shot out precisely, enveloping Eve and Rudy, who were running wildly.
"Hold on!"
Eve only managed to shout once before being violently pulled towards the ship by the tractor beam. Rudy shrieked, desperately clinging to the edge of the beam.
The two were pulled as if by an invisible hand, barely making it into the Ark's open hatch at the exact moment spatial annihilation consumed the ground they had stood on!
Bang!
The escape hatch instantly closed!
"Engines overloaded! Full power disengagement!"
The Robot's cold command!
The Ark's engines roared with a tearing sound, its blue-white afterburners blasting to their maximum. The ship, like a whipped top, violently bucked and struggled to break free from Vitrum Prime's powerful gravitational pull, hurtling desperately towards deep space!
Trigg gasped, looking down through the violently shaking viewport.
The massive silhouette of Vitrum Prime was rapidly shrinking in his vision.
In the Antarctic region, an absolute void, despairingly huge, with incandescent spatial currents flowing at its edges, was rapidly expanding, devouring the empire's steel territory.
Around the void, the distorted halo of space was like the wail of a dying planet.
There was no explosion, no firelight, only silent annihilation.
Just as the void expanded to its limit, seemingly touching the planet's core.
Boom—!
A point of blinding white light, too brilliant to look at directly, erupted deep within the void, followed by a chain of destructive sympathetic detonations, the ultimate flash triggered by the collapse of spatial structure and massive uncontrolled energy!
Vitrum Prime, this steel planet, under the cold purification of the Titan race, became like cosmic dust. Before the Ark's cold viewport, it erupted into a brief, dazzling, yet utterly terminal... firework of destruction.
The incandescent light illuminated the bridge, and it illuminated the lava-like fury, humiliation, and bitter hatred in Trigg's eyes.
It also illuminated Allen, who lay in the medical bay with only faint signs of life under a soft blue light, and Mark, carefully placed on a floor stretcher by Trigg, his arms gone, his breath weak.
Eve and Rudy slumped in a corner, the immense shock of their near-death experience leaving them speechless for a moment. They just stared blankly at the planet outside the viewport, now turned to cosmic dust, watching the fleeting fireworks, their eyes filled with endless sorrow and bewilderment.