When Child saw the Ruin Hunter extend its cannon, his combat instincts already sensed something was wrong.
By the time the dark yellow energy began gathering and rapidly swelling at the front of the silver cannon barrel, the casual expression on Child's face finally changed.
He had initially thought that no matter how powerful the target's displayed strength was, he wouldn't be surprised. But what happened next was entirely beyond his expectations.
"This power is..."
The aura emanating from the energy projectile caused him to freeze instantly, because he had felt this kind of power before by Tsaritsa herself.
'This is impossible! Why can a Ruin Guard use divine power?'
Childe was speechless, his will to fight nearly shattering.
But reason stopped him from turning and fleeing immediately.
'No, that's not right.'
'Compared to Tsaritsa's power which is as vast as the ocean, the amount of divine power contained in this energy projectile isn't much. At most, it's just a rudimentary form.'
Childe shook his head vigorously.
He glanced at his bewildered Fatui subordinates. He knew perfectly well that even a small amount of divine power was something they couldn't withstand. Even if he went all out and took the hit head-on, he would be severely injured at best.
A man of importance does not stand beneath a crumbling wall.
As the Eleventh of the Fatui Harbingers, Childe's life was far more valuable than that of an ordinary soldier. Logically, his best choice would be to abandon his subordinates and immediately escape the blast radius.
Any other Harbinger would have chosen to preserve themselves.
"...But I am Ajax."
Childe smiled and placed his right hand on his chest, where a crystal similar to the Vision at his waist rested.
"I am someone destined to grow stronger through continuous battle!"
He could not run.
If he fled now, his path of combat would be shattered.
That was a cost he found harder to bear than losing his life.
...
High in the sky.
"Whoa, this guy can still transform into an armored superhero? Looks pretty intimidating, I'll give him that."
Watching the transformed Childe charge head-on toward Herloxia's energy projectile, Ji An muttered to himself.
"Good thing I didn't hesitate earlier and used the Special Energy directly. Otherwise, I might really have been held up by him."
As for the outcome of their collision, he honestly couldn't predict it.
It wasn't a lack of confidence in the craftsman's conceptualized First Mimicry form.
Mainly because the current version was a super neutered one.
According to what he saw in the craftsman's first design draft, "The Heart of Man," during his previous simulation run, the craftsman designed Herloxia's First Mimicry form specifically to counter the divine power barriers of gods.
It stated that for gods, physical attacks could hardly inflict serious damage. To truly harm a god, one must simulate a power similar to divine power.
According to the craftsman's concept, to achieve the theoretical damage of the First Mimicry form, Herloxia's core needed to evolve at least three times and consume more than 10 units of Special Energy.
With his current, heavily nerfed version in all aspects, how much damage it could actually cause was still questionable.
Ji An was using this opportunity to test its power.
From the results, the power of the First Mimicry form did not disappoint him.
Herloxia's dark yellow energy projectile had already collided with Childe's lightning spear in mid-air.
After a moment of silence, a blinding light erupted from the point of impact.
An ear-shattering explosion sounded.
The Fatui soldiers below, before they could even react, were sent flying by the shockwaves from above, tossed about and disoriented.
Childe, at the center of the explosion, even after channeling all his power to resist, felt his armored suit shatter and disintegrate in the brilliant light. Without the armor's protection, his body was soon battered and bloody.
Finally, the remaining force of the energy projectile gradually dissipated.
Childe, now almost a bloody mess, could no longer hold on and plummeted from mid-air.
"Herloxia."
Ji An was no saint.
As a great man once said, "Don't show mercy to those who aren't willing to show you any."
These guys had tried to kill him outright during their earlier ambush; he wasn't going to show any mercy now.
"Chirp."
Herloxia's red eyes flashed. It retracted the cannon barrel of the First Mimicry form and aimed its ordinary cannon barrels at Childe and the Fatui soldiers below.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Projectiles shot forth, flying towards Childe and the others below.
Under the barrage of powerful artillery fire, the canyon below was blasted into a mess, dust filling the sky.
Logically, no one below should have survived such an assault.
But Ji An's brow twitched.
A subconscious feeling of unease crept up on him.
"Chirp."
Before he could figure it out, Herloxia, for some reason, moved suddenly without his command.
Whoosh—!
Its power core went into full load.
Herloxia held Ji An in its arms, turned around, and swiftly retreated backward.
At that moment, Ji An felt an extremely terrifying sensation enveloping them.
A sharp pain shot through his head.
The next moment, an illusory scene appeared before his eyes:
A palace forged from ice, steps leading upward shrouded in a hazy, cold mist.
On the high platform at the top of the steps, a stunningly beautiful woman sat high upon a throne, resting her chin on her hand, her ice-blue eyes gazing down at him indifferently, as if looking at an insignificant ant.
Under her terrifying pressure, Ji An's very soul felt permeated with coldness, unable to muster a single thought of resistance.
"This isn't real!"
Ji An bit his tongue hard, the jolt of pain snapping his consciousness back to reality.
He broke out in a cold sweat.
That consciousness had extended from Childe's direction. Even from such a distance, it could still exert such terrifying pressure on them.
Just who was that woman?
Ji An took a deep breath, knowing he couldn't get greedy now. They had to leave.
"Herloxia, let's go!"
Upon his command, Herloxia swiftly flew away in the direction opposite the canyon.
'With this, the other party probably won't catch up, right?'
However, the moment that thought crossed Ji An's mind, his vision blurred again.
It was the same ice palace as before.
The stunningly beautiful woman on the throne looked at him coldly with her ice-blue eyes and raised her finger, pointing at him.
Simultaneously, several ice spikes emanating a chilling aura, coming from Childe's direction, actually caught up to Ji An and Herloxia from behind, surpassing them in speed.
"Herloxia!"
Ji An shouted.
A poleaxe appeared in his hand, and he swung it at one of the ice spikes.
Herloxia was faster than him; a silver flash of its long blade struck down the remaining ice spikes.
Seeing her attack blocked, the woman shrouded in icy mist didn't seem to mind. A breathtaking smile curled at the corner of her lips.
Then, the scene before Ji An's eyes completely dissipated.
Standing in Herloxia's hand, the high-altitude wind ruffled his hair.
Ji An's face was dark, his thoughts churning: 'The final ice spike attack wasn't very powerful. It felt more like a warning than a genuine attempt to kill.'
Even from such a distance, the other party could still employ such methods.
How terrifying her true power must be was simply unimaginable.
"In the face of truly powerful beings, this level of strength still isn't enough."
He silently reflected: "We still need to keep improving both my and Herloxia's power."
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A/n: Hey over on my patreon there are currently two for the time being exclusive books which are
Zenless Zone Zero: Loving Daily Life Starting in New Eridu
Honkai Impact 3rd, I Can Transform into a Valkyrie!
patreon.com/deadlygoober