After blasting out this punch, Aaron knew the situation was bad.
This strike was undoubtedly his strongest attack at this stage, and Kevin had indeed been hit physically.
The problem was, Kevin wasn't some idiot who would let Aaron strike his vitals if he couldn't defend in time.
At the last moment, he actually used the Meta-Morph Factor within his body to form an incredibly thick layer of Honkai Beast armor behind his back.
Simultaneously, he forcibly used the core that was about to shatter to release a Honkai energy field behind him.
Under the suppression of the gravitational field, although Aaron's punch hit Kevin, the placement was slightly off.
A strike that could have inflicted heavy damage or even beaten Kevin to a near-death state failed to cause fatal damage to the man before him.
The Eye of Aeon could peek into the future, and Aaron had indeed seen this future through the Eye of Aeon just now.
But after seeing the future, Kevin made the corresponding moves, which clearly indicated that this action was something Kevin came up with on the fly after being pushed to the brink.
And now, Aaron saw a new future.
A future he absolutely did not want to see.
"Cough... cough cough!"
Spitting out a large mouthful of blood, Kevin slammed his fist into the ground the moment he landed. Mimicking Aaron's attack when using Whale's Domination, he bounced his body up again to complete a displacement.
Kevin, knowing he couldn't defend against that strike, had used the force of the impact the moment he was hit to propel his body, allowing him to catapult to a position further away from Aaron.
After two consecutive displacements, Kevin once again opened up a small distance from Aaron.
However, having already suffered from Whale's Domination, Kevin certainly wouldn't think that such a small distance was an insurmountable chasm for Aaron.
That move not only had extreme destructive power but also carried a certain degree of interference properties...
No, for a powerful warrior like Kevin, the special effect attached to that punch was the interference.
If it were a slightly weaker Fusion Warrior, they might have already died under the rigidity plus shattering effect caused by this punch.
After this strike interfered with Kevin's movement, combined with the propulsion effect that created explosive force through collision, it achieved the dual effects of [Interfering with the enemy + Instant displacement].
Faced with this special combination, Kevin, after neutralizing the force in his body, simply didn't have time to make a complete response.
This time it was because the mimicked core in his hand still had power, so... what about the next punch?
Even now, having opened up distance from Aaron, Kevin could feel that his body was almost falling apart.
If he hadn't taken countermeasures in time, Kevin felt he would probably be lying on the ground right now.
Moreover, the mimicked Rock Herrscher Core had exhausted its power. If the battle continued, An-Utu would sooner or later revert to the Judgment of Shamash because it couldn't connect to a second core.
Even possessing An-Utu and the Star of Eden, Kevin had fallen into a disadvantage.
Then, after losing his equipment advantage, could Kevin still defeat Aaron in his currently injured state?
Kevin didn't know the answer.
But Kevin knew that if he didn't leave now, the probability of failure would only increase.
At the cost of his physical condition deteriorating and sustaining injuries, Kevin saw the trump cards Aaron hadn't used yet.
Powerful recovery ability, terrifying speed, and those explosive displacement techniques.
Judging from the fact that Aaron hadn't used his acceleration ability again after the armor on his body was incinerated, Aaron's acceleration ability lay in that armor.
But even if that armor, which allowed Aaron to accelerate to the extreme, had been incinerated by An-Utu, Aaron's other trump cards were enough to give him an advantage when facing Kevin.
And at this step, Kevin could be certain that he hadn't fully probed the opponent's trump cards.
The hourglass that flashed past Aaron before, and that gilded pupil in his right eye socket when he was burned down to a skeleton, were obviously very powerful items.
Only in the battle just now, Kevin failed to probe the functions of these two items.
In the next battle, even if Aaron didn't have that acceleration armor, it didn't mean Kevin would have a greater advantage than before.
Aaron lost the acceleration armor, but Kevin also lost the Star of Eden.
Even if that Star of Eden was just a mimicked Star of Eden, it indeed played a huge role in this battle.
Kevin, having lost the mimicked Star of Eden, would be unable to use An-Utu and the Star of Eden's gravitational field in the next battle. Facing Aaron who could use special displacement techniques, Kevin felt he might lose even more miserably than this time.
With the gravitational field, Kevin could hinder the opponent's movement while using [Might of An-Utu] to complete a Judgment of Shamash to heavily injure the enemy.
Without the mimicked Star of Eden, let alone controlling the enemy's gravity, Kevin couldn't even liberate the Might of An-Utu mode.
*Sure enough, has the time come to retreat?*
*I truly fell into a disadvantage this time... No, there's no need to save face at a time like this.*
*Obediently admit my incompetence, admit this defeat.*
*The biggest problem now is...*
*How do I complete a retreat from right under Aaron's nose?*
*Control of the Key of the Void is in Su's hands; I can't use the Key of the Void to complete a transfer.*
*And choosing to disengage from the battlefield... Aaron will definitely not let me go.*
*Aaron, who hates Project Stigma and knows I advocate for it, will absolutely throw another punch the moment I turn my back on him, attempting to blow my head apart.*
*But if I continue to stall, I was beaten to heavy injuries even when my physical condition was intact.*
*If I continue fighting... no, toss that thought aside for now.*
*Think about how to retreat.*
Just as both Kevin and Aaron were preparing to make their moves, countless cyborgs wearing black robes appeared on the battlefield simultaneously.
The scene Aaron had just seen through the Eye of Aeon had now become reality.
"Liege, your subordinate is late, please forgive me!"
A Gray Serpent appearing beside Kevin grabbed Kevin's shoulder and directly activated the quantum teleportation system.
And at this moment, Aaron immediately activated his Magnetic Field Rotation power and launched a palm strike at Kevin who was attempting to leave.
Magnetic Field Rotation: 420,000 Horsepower—
"Whale-Slaying Cannon!"
Whale-Slaying Cannon, a variant martial art Aaron realized from the Whale-Slaying Tyrant Fist.
Its principle was the same as the Whale-Slaying Tyrant Fist, but in terms of release method, the Whale-Slaying Cannon condensed magnetic field energy into a light cannon and fired it at the enemy.
While this strike had the characteristic of [Long-Range Attack], its destructive power decreased quite a bit because the energy was projected externally.
And due to the external projection of power, the characteristic of [hardening the enemy with power and then shattering them] associated with Whale-Slaying Tyrant Fist martial arts was also weakened—after all, the process of breaking the opponent's physical defense with a fist was directly omitted by the Whale-Slaying Cannon.
But now, to interrupt Kevin and Gray Serpent's action, Aaron couldn't care about that much.
However, just as Gray Serpent spoke those words to Kevin, the bodies of the other cyborgs suddenly began to swell.
These 'Gray Serpents' had already been injected with the transformation potion developed by Jackal before transferring over via the quantum teleportation system.
In this instant, over a dozen huge Emperor-class Honkai Beasts appeared on the battlefield simultaneously, using their bodies to block in front of Kevin and Gray Serpent.
If it were just that, the situation wouldn't be the worst.
What was worse was that these mass-produced Emperor-class beasts weren't here to be meat shields.
"Long Live—World Serpent!"
After shouting this slogan, the bodies of these Emperor-class beasts suddenly began to expand.
The Whale-Slaying Cannon pierced through the bodies of five or six Emperor-class beasts, its power weakened significantly.
But Aaron, seeing this scene, immediately jumped back with a drastic change in expression.
Royal Ultimate Indestructible Body!
Using a special energy circulation method to reinforce his body's defensive capabilities again, Aaron blocked his arms in front of him.
These Gray Serpents weren't here to be meat shields.
They were all here to be bombs!
Before this operation, Gray Serpent and Jackal had conferred and thought of a loophole in this plan.
The probability of Schicksal and Anti-Entropy fighting was high, but what if they didn't fight?
After all, the chances to save the Liege were already pitifully few. If Anti-Entropy really didn't fight Schicksal... then their side would be in an awkward position.
So the two finally made a choice.
The Deep might experience spatial shattering due to energy impact, finally allowing the Liege to emerge from the Sea of Quanta.
Then if Schicksal and Anti-Entropy didn't fight, the energy impact would have to be caused by World Serpent.
So at this moment, Gray Serpent began testing whether the quantum teleportation system had returned to normal operation.
And Jackal began improving her Honkai Beast transformation potion.
The Honkai Beast transformation potion Jackal created originally had the effect of [turning the user into a Honkai Beast for a short time].
The Emperor-class transformation potion Gray Serpent used was originally the most unstable kind.
After a little thought, Jackal found that as long as she removed the stabilizing components from the [Most Unstable] potion, the potion, which originally had limited output, would have even worse stability, leading to easy energy rampages.
In normal combat, the side whose power went on a rampage would very likely fall into self-destruction due to the inability to control the power.
But the problem was—they went there to be bombers this time, not expecting normal combat.
For those warriors with Divine Keys, an Emperor-class that only had a few minutes of combat time was useless.
Anyway, Gray Serpent's clones didn't expect to return this time, so they might as well be decisive and use these clones as consumables.
Of course, the unfolding of events was unexpected.
Currently, among the Titan mechs appearing at The Deep, a portion had been confiscated by the two doctors from Cocolia.
Normally speaking, these mechs wouldn't have any problems.
But during previous transactions, when Cocolia traded with Gray Serpent, Gray Serpent had once traced the connection and planted a backdoor.
After hacking into Cocolia's faction's computers via the network, Gray Serpent had actually hacked the internal systems of one or two Titans.
Of course, Gray Serpent's hacking skills weren't awesome enough to hack the entire control system directly; he could only carefully use the surveillance systems on the Titans to see what was happening around them through the hacked systems.
Then he saw it: Anti-Entropy and Schicksal really started fighting.
And not long after fighting, both sides got heated, and a spatial rift appeared.
Seeing this scene, Gray Serpents and Jackal, who had gathered at World Serpent HQ, had eyes glowing green with envy.
It's out!
The Liege, the Liege is coming back!
And the subsequent events made them even more excited.
Kevin came out and successfully defeated the Sovereign of Anti-Entropy.
But, just as they had been excited for a short while...
An incredibly eyesore figure appeared.
Although the other party was wearing a suit of armor, Kevin identified him immediately.
*This guy is Aaron... wait, why did he appear in this place this time?*
*Otto definitely wouldn't let him interfere in this mission, so Otto only sent four people this time; this was obviously keeping the mission information confidential.*
*Did Siegfried notify him?*
*That's not right either. If Aaron knew about this in advance, he didn't need to fight his way from the Mariana Trench to The Deep at all; Siegfried could have just used the quantum teleportation system to pick him up.*
*Him jumping directly from the Mariana Trench to The Deep showed that Anti-Entropy didn't intend to trouble him this time... bullsh*t, how ridiculous is this kid's intelligence source?*
*He could even catch the tail of this.*
*Although with Kevin having both the Judgment of Shamash and the Star of Eden, in Jackal and Gray Serpent's eyes, the probability of Kevin failing was practically zero.*
*But for some reason, Gray Serpent just felt incredibly anxious inside.*
*Underestimating Aaron... well, their World Serpent had never underestimated Aaron.*
*But without being fully prepared, World Serpent had already lost two Divine Keys, countless Gray Serpents, a modified Emperor-class Honkai Beast, and countless transformation potions because of Aaron.*
*These incredibly painful costs forced Gray Serpent to prepare for the worst.*
*In the end, he chose to be a big bomber.*
*Not seeking to blow Aaron to death, just interfering with the battle between Aaron and the Liege would be enough.*
*Except for the Gray Serpent taking Kevin off the battlefield, all Gray Serpents injected the improved, extremely unstable Emperor-class transformation potion.*
*And in this moment, watching Aaron's terrifying palm cannon, these Gray Serpents all made the same move simultaneously.*
In the next instant, all the scenery before Aaron's eyes twisted.
Under the efforts of these Gray Serpents...
—The entire city of The Deep was detonated on the spot by the Honkai energy they released.
....................