Chapter 386: Twin Stars of the Battlefield
"Once outside this optimal range, or when dealing with Hollows that possess more complex internal structures and highly chaotic Ether environments, the connection stability drops drastically," Wise explained, his tone calm and analytical. "Its mobility and adaptability will be greatly reduced, perhaps even rendered entirely unusable in extreme cases."
He cast a brief glance toward Belle. The younger Proxy nodded in immediate agreement, crossing her arms to support her brother's point. Wise turned his attention back to the group. "Therefore, most commissions that involve exploring deeper Hollows, investigating volatile environments, or requiring highly flexible on-the-fly responses..."
"...will absolutely still need to rely on the professional experience and practical combat capabilities of the Cunning Hares. Technical testing is one thing, but running a true business cannot survive without reliable partners."
Those words acted as a massive dose of reassurance to the members of the Cunning Hares. The deliberately exaggerated, pitifully worried expression plastered across Nicole's face instantly vanished. It was smoothly replaced by her usual shrewd yet brightly confident smile, completely shedding the dramatic persona she had worn just moments prior.
"Well, that is wonderful to hear!" Nicole patted her chest proudly, her tone returning to its usual crisp, business-savvy pitch. "Proxy, do not worry about a thing. Just give us a shout whenever a lucrative job comes up! Our Cunning Hares will definitely deliver on both quality and quantity. We guarantee customer satisfaction!"
With that minor employment crisis neatly resolved, the atmosphere between the two groups shifted back to a harmonious, cooperative rhythm. The teams naturally merged into a single formation. Wise and Belle, using their deep familiarity with the shifting terrain, took the lead. They handled the group through the jagged concrete ruins, advancing swiftly toward the unconfirmed Ether fuel tank storage point located just a short distance ahead.
However, long before they could even catch a glimpse of the storage facility, the deafening sounds of combat interrupted their trek. From nearly a hundred meters down the corridor, bursts of intensely violent explosions shook the ground beneath their boots. The roaring blast of raw energy, mixed with the distinct, guttural howls of enraged Ethereals, echoed sharply through the winding, corrupted passages of the Hollow.
"They are fighting fiercely," Anby noted, her voice flat but alert. She tightened her grip on the hilt of her straight sword. Faint, crackling arcs of pale electricity began to dance along the metallic blade, illuminating her stoic face in the dim light.
"It seems the situation over there is not exactly going smoothly," Nicole added, completely dropping her previously relaxed demeanor. She hefted her heavy briefcase weapon into a ready stance, her fingers hovering over the deployment triggers. "Those damaged fuel tanks must have leaked, attracting quite a few tough nuts to crack."
Wise narrowed his eyes, his voice dropping an octave. "Let us move. We need to check it out immediately."
The group wasted no more time on words. They broke into a synchronized sprint, rushing headlong toward the source of the chaotic noise. The hundred-meter distance was devoured in a matter of seconds as they vaulted over shattered debris and twisted metal pipes.
They pushed through the final narrow bottleneck, a jagged passage choked with rusted, damaged industrial pipes, and burst out into the relatively open expanse of the storage point. The area resembled a small transfer platform found in an abandoned commercial port. Yet, the sheer scale of the battlefield before them forced the entire rescue party to skid to a dead halt in unison. They completely forgot their initial intention to charge in and provide backup.
The reason was simple. The battlefield before them did not look like it urgently required any support whatsoever. Instead, the newcomers found themselves utterly paralyzed by the impressive spectacle of absolute destruction unfolding in front of their eyes.
In the dead center of the metallic platform, several massive Ether fuel tanks lay scattered like discarded toys. Two of the heavy containers had been violently ruptured, spewing a thick, highly concentrated purple mist that permeated the surrounding air with a toxic haze.
Amidst that swirling, toxic mist and the blinding flashes of exploding fire, a single figure darted through the dense swarms of high-level Ethereals. She moved with the devastating velocity of a burning meteor.
It was Himeko.
Yet, her current appearance was entirely divorced from the elegant, coffee-brewing, intellectual, and gentle navigator they usually saw relaxing in the parlor car of the Astral Express.
She was clad head-to-toe in a magnificent set of crimson armor that perfectly blended a sleek, simplified design with an imposing sense of heavy, lethal heft. It was the Herrscher of Flamescion.
The armor's metallic lines were razor-sharp. Every joint and seam glowed with a scorching, internal brilliance, as if housing a miniature sun. Three sword-like modular attachments hovered dynamically behind her back, emitting continuous, rippling waves of searing heat that distorted the very air around her.
Gripped firmly in her hands was a monstrous greatsword, nearly as tall as Himeko herself. Its broad, heavy blade was entirely engulfed in a raging torrent of unquenchable flames. It was the legendary blade, Surtr.
Letting out a clear, commanding battle cry, Himeko triggered the Herrscher of Flamescion armor. The suit erupted with a massive burst of fiery propulsion, launching her forward. She crashed like a blazing cannonball directly into the guard of a massive, shield-wielding Dullahan.
That heavy, crystalline shield, a defensive barrier easily capable of withstanding sustained heavy gunfire, offered no resistance. Before the superheated, burning edge of Surtr, the shield parted like warm butter encountering a red-hot knife.
Clang! Boom!
An ear-piercing screech of tearing metal and a concussive energy explosion rang out across the platform. Surtr did not merely slash. It struck with an unstoppable, crushing thrust, directly shattering the Dullahan's crystallized shield into a million glowing fragments.
The massive blade's momentum did not diminish in the slightest. It cleaved straight through, splitting open the Dullahan's heavy chest armor. The strike cleanly severed its glowing core, instantly igniting the monster's remains and turning half of its body into falling ash.
Roaring flames instantly engulfed the Ethereal's crumbling remains. using the heavy recoil of her own strike, Himeko gracefully spun on her heel, her greatsword following the fluid motion of her body. The burning blade carved a flawless crimson arc through the air, violently forcing back a massive Farbauti that had attempted to lunge at her from the flank. The glancing blow left a deep, molten trench glowing brightly across the brute's thick arm armor.
She looked exactly like a mythical Valkyrie descending upon a mortal battlefield. Each and every strike she delivered carried a domineering, absolute force meant to crush everything in its path, paired with a scorching heat designed to incinerate all opposition.
The Dullahan's reinforced shield and the Farbauti's dense armor truly seemed as fragile as wet paper before Himeko and her blazing sword.
Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the ruined storage platform, an equally astonishing and terrifying scene was unfolding.
Welt had just executed a slightly risky, yet mathematically precise side-roll. He narrowly dodged three purplish-black arrows, each heavily imbued with highly volatile, corrosive Ether energy. The projectiles had been fired simultaneously from three different blind angles, courtesy of a trio of Thanatos snipers occupying the high ground of the storage racks.
Three deep, smoking craters were left bubbling in the concrete exactly where the older man had been standing just a fraction of a second prior, the ground rapidly melting away under the corrosive payload of the arrows.
The elder statesman of the Express, a man always known by his peers for his gentle composure and boundless wisdom, now wore an expression of absolute, razor-sharp focus.
He remained in a half-crouch, his right hand planted firmly against the cracked ground. His left hand calmly reached up to adjust the frame of his glasses. 'Charging complete,' he muttered under his breath, his voice devoid of panic. "Then, let the experiment begin."
The very next moment, the atmosphere itself violently warped.
Using Welt as the absolute epicenter, a terrifyingly powerful gravitational field erupted outward, instantly twisting the surrounding air and bending the ambient light into a localized singularity.
Violent blue and white energy arcs leaped wildly from the ground, converging into a localized storm around his crouching figure. Immediately after, countless massive blue energy components, gleaming with a cold, unforgiving metallic light, materialized directly out of thin air. They rapidly assembled, interlocking and embedding themselves around Welt's body as if they possessed a mechanical life of their own.
The construction process was so blindingly fast that it nearly exceeded the physical limits of human perception.
In the wide, unblinking eyes of the Cunning Hares, Wise, Belle, and even Himeko, who had just cleared her immediate surroundings to glance over, they only saw Welt dodging ranged attacks one second. The very next second—
Clang! Clash! Voom!
A towering, four-meter-tall heavy blue mecha, brimming with brutal mechanical aesthetics and an overwhelmingly oppressive aura of power, had completely enveloped Welt's human form.
The mecha's armored lines were rugged and aggressively sharp. Its shoulder plating was massively thick, designed to weather artillery fire, while its optical sensors glowed with a piercing, cold red light that cut through the toxic mist.
Yet, the most striking feature was the weapon gripped tightly in its massive mechanical hands. It held a giant energy greatsword, almost as tall as the mecha itself, wrapped entirely in a vibrating, lethal orange energy glow.
The Tyrant Sword Demon had descended upon the Hollow.
Welt, now fully transformed into a towering mecha giant, stood an entire head taller than even the largest, most physically imposing Farbauti Ethereal present on the platform.
The machine lowered its heavy head slightly, its cold red mechanical eyes slowly scanning the chaotic battlefield. Without a single superfluous movement, the Tyrant Sword Demon simply took a heavy step forward. It moved with the unstoppable momentum of a collapsing mountain, simultaneously swinging the massive orange energy sword in a wide, horizontal arc.
Voom! Swish!
The heavy energy sword violently displaced the air, emitting a low, terrifying roar that vibrated right through the chests of the onlookers.
Even before the physical blade arrived at its target, the sheer pressure of its sharp energy edge had already parted the thick layer of dust and debris on the ground, leaving a clean trench in its wake.
The targeted Farbauti did not even have the time to process the threat, let alone raise its arms for an effective block or attempt a dodge. It was cleanly and effortlessly cut in half at the waist by the simple, brutally efficient horizontal sweep.
The Tyrant Sword Demon slowly turned its chassis. Its heavy mecha joints emitted a deep, intimidating metallic grinding sound. The massive energy sword was angled casually toward the ground, its superheated tip dripping with sizzling, melted Ether residue.
Welt faced the remaining Thanatos snipers and Farbauti brawlers. The monsters were visibly stunned by the sudden display of overwhelming force, temporarily ceasing their relentless attacks. A heavily processed, low, and metallic male voice boomed from the mecha's external amplifiers. "Next."
Standing together on the ruined platform, the crimson Valkyrie and the azure mecha giant formed a terrifying vanguard. One was aggressively agile, the other immovably steady. One was fiercely fiery, the other coldly stern. They complemented each other flawlessly, completely dominating the chaotic battlefield with an unmatched, suffocating presence.
Scattered all around them lay the shattered remains of Ether crystals and the burning, disintegrating remnants of high-level Ethereals. And standing just at the edge of the platform were the deeply shocked newcomers, their jaws slightly slack, having completely forgotten to step forward and offer their help.
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