Although the attack came suddenly, Eula was no pushover.
In that critical moment between life and death, she managed to raise her greatsword across her chest, blocking most of the impact.
Even so, she was still sent flying and coughed up blood—but fortunately, her life wasn't in danger.
Sigewinne immediately rushed forward to examine Eula's injuries and began administering emergency treatment.
"How is this possible?" Jean stared in disbelief at the reactivated, menacing Ruin Guard.
"A Ruin Guard's weak point has always been its core! Eula clearly destroyed it just now and even withdrew from her eerie state—so why is it still standing!?"
"Oh!!! I remember now!!!" Paimon suddenly shouted, "When the Traveler and I were exploring across Teyvat, we encountered Ruin Guards like this in Sumeru!!!"
"These kinds of Ruin Guards seem to have been specially modified—even if you destroy their cores, they can't be completely taken down!"
"Paimon dear, then how did you and the Traveler deal with them back then?" Lisa asked.
"At that time, we had to use a special purification device to completely defeat those strange Ruin Guards…" Paimon said with a troubled look.
"But where are we supposed to find something like that now???"
"There's no need to bother with such things." Kujou Sara stepped forward, her voice resolute.
"Before absolute power, no other means are necessary."
"I accepted the Raiden Shogun's command—to conquer the twelfth floor of the Spiral Abyss—and I will not stop here."
Su Yuan looked at Kujou Sara and thought to himself that she was right.
Even if this Ruin Guard had lost its weakness and could endlessly revive, if it were completely crushed into dust under overwhelming power, could it possibly regenerate again?
Moreover, Kujou Sara's eerie condition was different from the others.
Most of the others' transformations were triggered by specific individuals, but hers was tied to a single objective.
If she failed to fulfill the mission assigned by the Raiden Shogun, she would fall into an eerie state and use that eerie power to accomplish it.
Then, as the Ruin Guard loomed before them, "Kujou Sara" entered her eerie state, raising her bow high as she unleashed arrow after arrow wreathed in lightning infused with eerie energy!
Although this strange Ruin Guard possessed the ability to endlessly revive, in other respects, it didn't seem to differ much from a normal one…
It was struck down again and again by "Kujou Sara," yet it kept standing back up each time…
Finally, after being defeated for the twenty-fourth time, the Ruin Guard's entire body was already battered and broken.
Although it still seemed to want to rise once more, the mechanical structure of its body could no longer support such a movement…
"Even after being beaten almost into a pile of scrap metal, it still tries to revive…" Aether watched this scene thoughtfully and murmured, "What kind of immense power… what kind of unyielding will is this…?"
"Could it be that mechanical creations truly have no emotions or consciousness of their own?"
Regardless, once the Ruin Guard lost all ability to move, Kujou Sara appeared to finally withdraw from her Eerie state and said,
"Everyone, this Ruin Guard is indeed very strange…"
"Even after entering my Eerie form, I still couldn't completely annihilate it."
"But fortunately, it can no longer obstruct our path. Let's continue forward to the fourth floor!"
Thus, everyone bypassed the fallen Ruin Guard, passed through the gate of the third floor, and descended the spiral staircase, arriving at the entrance to the fourth floor…
And then—they were all dumbfounded.
Because at the entrance to the fourth floor, there were two doors, each leading to a different passage.
"What's going on now?" everyone wondered in confusion.
According to the previous information gathered about the Spiral Abyss, the branching paths shouldn't appear until after the eighth floor—starting from the ninth floor onward, it was supposed to split into upper and lower halves.
But this was only the fourth floor—how could something like this appear already?
As expected, many unexpected changes and anomalies had occurred within the Spiral Abyss…
"Everyone, look! There seems to be a sign here!"
At that moment, Klee suddenly noticed a signpost standing in the middle of the forked path.
It was covered densely with writing:
[There are two paths here: one leads to life, the other to death…]
[On the path of life, the monsters you encounter will be few in number and weak in strength—you'll be able to deal with them easily…]
[But on the path of death, you will face terrifying monsters beyond imagination—certain death awaits, with no chance of survival…]
[I know you've brought many people here to conquer the Spiral Abyss, but here, you must split into two groups.]
[Also, don't even think about having everyone take the same path…]
[If you do that, that path will definitely become the path of death.]
[I'll be waiting for you at the end of the twelfth floor of the Spiral Abyss…]
[I just wonder—by the time you get there, how many of you will still be standing before me?]
Seeing the all-too-familiar handwriting, Su Yuan couldn't help but exclaim, "That's right—this is Aji's handwriting!!!"
"The final piece of the Darknight Hero's puzzle really is hidden within the Spiral Abyss—and Aji himself is here too!!!"
"But… now that the path has split into two, what should we do?" Aether frowned and spoke in a low voice.
"Could this be a trap set by Aji?" Paimon said thoughtfully.
"Maybe there's no real 'path of life' or 'path of death' at all—he just wants to divide our forces and pick us off one by one!"
"I agree with Paimon!" Klee nodded firmly and added, "Mama always says that unity is strength! If we split up, our power will be weaker!"
Thus, everyone decided unanimously to ignore Aji's instructions and continue moving as one united group.
"Well then," Su Yuan said, "the question now is—do we take the left path, or the right?"
"Su Yuan, we'll leave the choice to you. We all trust you," everyone said together.
"Alright then," Su Yuan replied, "in that case, let's flip a Mora! Heads for the left path, tails for the right!"