While the Alliance Council was still debating Trigg's insane and cold scavenging plan, Trigg himself had quietly left the Unyielding.
He refused all escorts, relying solely on a modified Viltrum shuttle with top-tier stealth capabilities. Like a phantom in the universe, he followed the coordinates provided by Allen, heading towards the scorched star system X-7, which had been purified by the White Lion.
The shuttle landed at the edge of the valley where Allen had previously disembarked.
Trigg descended the gangway, his Imperial robe flapping in the sulfur and energy ash-laden wind.
His sole remaining right arm hung naturally, and the mechanical prosthetic, shimmering with a cool blue light, subtly flexed its joints, emitting a faint metallic hum.
His deep-set eyes, like frozen stellar cores, calmly surveyed the scorched earth, ravaged by primal violence.
Torn mountains, piles of burning mutant debris…
The air was thick with the suffocating aftereffects of pure power collisions.
Without instruments, a vast, wild life force, imbued with pure hunting desire, roared from the shattered plains ahead like a lighthouse in the darkness, accompanied by the dull tremor of the earth and the dying psychic screams of Great Old Ones creatures.
A cold arc formed on Trigg's lips, and he stepped forward.
His steps were steady, each leaving a clear imprint on the cracked earth.
He no longer concealed himself; the Viltrum Regent's aura, tempered by life and death, restrained yet deadly, surged forward like an unsheathed, peerless blade!
At the edge of the plain, as Trigg's figure came into view, the White Lion had a space-folding giant beast pinned beneath its claws.
Its massive head suddenly lifted, its white mane, stained with dark red viscous fluid, shook, and its golden eyes, burning with pure battle intent, instantly locked onto the small figure radiating a cold, sharp edge.
An unprecedented tremor, stemming from primal life instinct, shot through both the White Lion's spine and Trigg's heart simultaneously like a high-voltage current!
The White Lion's bloodthirsty excitement was instantly replaced by an even more fervent ecstasy, as if meeting a worthy opponent!
It smelled it!
Not chaos and madness, but an extreme cold, precise, and efficient will to destroy!
A dangerous aura it had never before tasted, one capable of threatening its invincible body!
Trigg's pupils also contracted slightly.
At close range, the sheer vitality and power emanating from the White Lion's pure physical body, like a stellar core, far exceeded any data descriptions!
That was the embodiment of primal cosmic power!
The mechanical prosthetic at his severed arm hummed uncontrollably at high speed, its internal energy circuits groaning as if roaring with excitement.
"You know, on the way here, I thought of a string of words to convince you… But now, the moment I see you, I want to tear you apart!"
Trigg's gaze turned icy, and he directly tossed aside his Imperial robe.
"Hehehe… What a coincidence, so do I!"
The White Lion's excitement for the person before it was palpable.
No probing, no idle chatter.
Only the roar of the most primal battle intent!
Boom—!!!
The White Lion's massive body abruptly vanished, leaving only a giant crater hundreds of meters in diameter. The air, compressed and torn by pure speed, produced an ear-shattering sonic boom!
Almost simultaneously, Trigg moved!
Instead of retreating, he advanced, stepping forward abruptly into the destructive storm!
The cool blue light of his mechanical prosthetic instantly flared to a blinding intensity, its internal structure groaning under the strain, operating at overload! A Extreme Burst driven by pure physical strength!
Bang!!!!!!
Like two supernovae colliding violently on a planetary surface!
A terrifying shockwave ring exploded, instantly clearing everything within several kilometers. The ground, like fragile glass, collapsed and shattered!
At the center of the impact!
The White Lion's giant claw, capable of crushing mountains, was locked in a death grip with Trigg's mechanical iron fist, enveloped in a cool blue force field!
The battle ignited instantly, transforming into a destructive storm sweeping across the planet!
The White Lion became a destructive lightning bolt.
Pouncing, tearing, tail-whipping—each movement carried the primal might to shatter mountains and crack the earth, which groaned and broke beneath its claws!
Trigg, on the other hand, was the most precise killing machine, a perfect fusion of a Viltrumite's formidable physique and the overclocked power of his mechanical prosthetic!
His speed was no less, even more unpredictable and elusive!
He precisely dodged fatal bites, ricocheting off collapsing boulders for leverage, his mechanical iron fist striking fiercely at joints, abdomen, and throat like a venomous snake, each impact erupting in a dull thud of metal hitting rock and dazzling sparks!
The White Lion's combat was a rhapsody of wild instinct, its claws tearing through the air, leaving behind streaks of dark spatial cracks!
Trigg's killing was a cold art, predicting trajectories, avoiding fatal spots by mere millimeters, his counterattacks precise and ruthless, the brutal efficiency of Viltrumite combat techniques pushed to the extreme!
But then, Trigg discovered that the White Lion's fur and muscles were incredibly tough; heavy punches capable of destroying warships only left shallow marks and dents, and its bones were indestructible!
And Trigg, relying on his formidable physique, combat prediction, and the instantaneous localized defense of his mechanical prosthetic, managed to withstand claw strikes capable of crushing mountains!
With each block, the ground beneath his feet exploded and sank as if struck by a meteor, blood seeped from the corner of his mouth, but his eyes grew even colder and sharper!
Their battlefield was the entire planet!
From the plains to the mountaintops, the White Lion's claw leveled a hundred-meter peak, and Trigg's punch blasted through a mountain's belly.
They fought by the edge of a boiling lava lake, where molten waves were churned up by the aftershocks!
They fought into the Great Old Ones' toxic swamp, where viscous poison evaporated and purified in the storm of power!
Everywhere they passed, space groaned, leaving behind lingering, distorted cracks!
Wandering powerful mutants fled like startled birds, frantically escaping this forbidden zone; no being dared to approach these two monsters who shook the stars with pure physical strength!
The scorching sun, the myriad stars.
The biting cold night, the faint morning light…
A full day and night of frantic, intense battle!
The White Lion grew wilder with each clash, the flames in its golden eyes burning more intensely!
It had never been so exhilarated!
Its power even slowly climbed during the battle!
Trigg was like a cold perpetual motion machine, the Viltrumite's stamina and will sustaining him, his mechanical prosthetic already scorching red, smoke rising from its joints, parts deformed, the cost of overclocking immense!
Each injury made his battle intent purer!
Blood at the severed arm's interface had dried and was soaked with sweat; he, too, felt the most primal exhilaration of a Viltrum Warrior deep within his bloodline!
Crack—crunch!
The planet beneath them groaned its death throes, continental plates shifted, cracks like giant scars on the planet, the crust repeatedly torn, the mantle erupting.
Super tsunamis swept across the remaining landmasses, the planet's axis of rotation shifted, the atmosphere was torn open, the Great Old Ones' pollution completely dispersed, but this planet was on the verge of total disintegration.
As the setting sun of the second day dyed the shattered earth a tragic, bloody red, the intensity of the battle finally began to wane.
It was not an exhaustion of power, but a tacit, charged pause.
After another earth-shattering collision, both sides were flung hundreds of meters apart by the immense recoil.
The White Lion's massive body heaved slightly, its snow-white mane stained with dust and dried blood, several areas repeatedly struck by Trigg showing cracks and swelling in the fur, its eyes still burning like molten gold.
Trigg stood on a patch of solidified lava, his body covered in bruises and lacerations, his smoking mechanical prosthetic visibly deformed, a trail of blood at the corner of his mouth, his chest heaving violently, but his back remained straight as a javelin.
His eyes were locked on the White Lion, still cold, but with less killing intent and more gravity and a hint of imperceptible recognition.
"Beast!"
Trigg's voice was hoarse, yet it pierced through the wind and the earth's dying groans, ringing out clearly with undeniable authority.
"Your power… is impressive. In this crumbling universe, to waste it on meaningless hunting is too great a pity."
The White Lion tilted its massive head, a flicker of almost mocking light in its burning golden eyes.
"So, you came as an envoy? For those people sitting on the Alliance council chairs? Or to tell me, disgustingly, about the 'life of the entire universe' and such nonsense?"
Trigg ignored the silent mockery, every word like a cold iron nail.
"Join the Alliance, serve me, and your claws, your power, will have a broader battlefield, more powerful prey!"
"Those Great Old Ones who truly threaten the foundation of the universe, those schemers hiding in the shadows! There, you can freely tear apart even stronger beings, enjoy more exhilarating destruction!"
He raised his smoking mechanical arm, pointing to the scarred planet, then to the vast starry sky.
"And not here, ravaging these… remnants!"
"What the hell did you say?!"
The White Lion's response was a sky-shattering roar, not of anger, but of being offended, underestimated, a roar mixed with disdain and untamed defiance.
A tiny insect, daring to point the way for it?
But it had to admit, this tiny being was the only one who could wound it, who could fight it to such a standstill!
His words, like a stone thrown into lava, stirred unusual ripples.
However, this roar seemed to exhaust its last ounce of strength.
The immense vitality, like a stellar core, after a full day and night of super-extreme exertion, finally rapidly receded like an ebbing tide.
Its massive body swayed violently, its forelegs suddenly bent, crashing heavily onto the scorching ground, kicking up clouds of dust.
It tried to push itself up, but its muscles groaned under the strain, and in its golden eyes, the wild flames were, for the first time, covered by a deep fatigue, the light rapidly dimming.
Almost at the same instant, Trigg's strained will also reached its limit.
A Viltrumite's stamina was not endless, and the mechanical prosthetic's overclocking had long been overdrawn.
His body swayed, his knees uncontrollably bent, and he dropped to one knee, his sole remaining right hand bracing firmly against the scorching ground to prevent himself from falling completely.
Blood dripped from the corner of his mouth, leaving dark marks on the scorched earth.
He looked up at the equally exhausted White Lion, his eyes still cold, but with a complex understanding.
This beast would never submit to any form of allegiance.
Its pride was harder than a fist.
Just then, a familiar high-speed shuttle, emblazoned with the Alliance logo, tore through the thin and chaotic clouds of the X-7 system like a ghost, hovering precisely above the two of them.
The roar of its engines drowned out the groans of the earth.
The hatch opened, and Allen's figure appeared, his face bearing an unprecedented gravity and a hint of lingering fear.
He looked at the two exhausted monsters below, who had nearly shattered the planet, especially the mountain-like white giant beast, prostrate and breathing like thunder, and gasped in a cold breath.
"Regent!"
Allen's voice came through the loudspeaker.
"Please forgive my intervention! The Council… the Council's resolution needs it! The scavenging plan… needs it!"
His gaze swept over the ravaged ground below and the two incapacitated monsters.
"Please allow me… to take you from here! This planet won't last another hour!"
Trigg laboriously looked up, glanced at Allen, then at the White Lion nearby, which was growling and panting, its golden eyes fixed on the shuttle, full of vigilance and defiance.
The corner of his mouth twitched, as if he wanted to say something, but in the end, he only nodded almost imperceptibly.
His exhausted body no longer allowed him any further resistance or choice.
Allen no longer hesitated; the shuttle quickly lowered a tractor beam and a massive restraint field generator.
A soft but powerful beam enveloped Trigg and the White Lion.
Trigg relaxed his resistance, allowing the beam to slowly pull him up. The White Lion, however, let out one last threatening growl, struggling to break free, but its weakened body was powerless under the field's suppression. Its massive body was slowly lifted by the beam, the restraint field enveloping it like an invisible cage.
The two beings who had just shaken the stars now, like defeated titans, were slowly pulled into the tiny shuttle by the tractor beam.
The blood-red sunset cast the shuttle's shadow onto the collapsing planet below, and also into Trigg's weary yet still unfathomable eyes, and into the White Lion's golden pupils, filled with defiance and untamed pride.
--+--
T/N: While I am an inexperienced Translator, I have a Patreon! While it may seem empty as of now, webnovel will get 2 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
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If you guys wanna check it out.