"Soon—I won't keep you waiting~"
Phantylia let out a soft laugh, her tone once again tinged with that familiar, unfathomable allure.
It wasn't blind optimism, but confidence rooted in her very nature.
Whether as the ancient Heliobus's near-immortal spiritual essence, or now in this body fused with Douluo Star's life core, her regenerative ability was downright bug-like.
Though the power of Nihility was extremely troublesome, its lingering corrosion intense, the destruction she wielded was equally formidable—she was not without countermeasures.
After a brief rest, she had forcefully purged the vast majority of the void-taint still lingering within her.
And once the most troublesome interference was cleared, the terrifying, boundless vitality contained in the golden-tree body began to truly take effect.
Visibly, the ghastly void-cracks across her form were rapidly filled and repaired by surging emerald life energy, and her transparency was swiftly receding.
If not for the need to first expel that thorny void corruption, then in terms of purely physical lethality, with her current reserves of life force she could have restored herself almost instantly.
Celenova watched in silence, a cold gleam flickering in her eyes—calculating something once more.
Crack!
A piercing, abrupt shatter exploded like ice smashed through by brute force.
To Celenova's flank, the void burst like fragile glass, a hole blown open as countless shards of space sprayed outward.
Then a long-hafted battle-axe, wreathed in raging gale-force winds and flashing with cyan-gold cold light along its edge, tore out of the breach like a lancer charge, boiling battle intent surging.
Its target could not have been clearer: Celenova, standing still.
Where the axe passed, even the stable structure of the subspace seemed rended, leaving a twisted trail that would not mend for a long time.
Heh, looks like trouble you brought on yourself~ So… handle it on your own.
Seeing this, Phantylia not only didn't lift a finger—she even let out a gloating chuckle.
She was still gravely wounded, and had no desire to run into the Xianzhou's Arbiter-General Feixiao now and add risk for nothing.
Before her words finished, her figure blurred into a wavering wisp of ghostly green star-flame, melting soundlessly into the surroundings like a specter and vanishing into the turbulent depths of subspace—cleanly slipping away.
Celenova showed no reaction to Phantylia's desertion—not even a flicker in her gaze.
All her focus had gathered on that space-rending, awe-inspiring battle-axe.
Faced with a blow fierce enough to cleave mountains and sunder seas, Celenova's response was simple and direct to the extreme.
She merely raised her right hand—white as jade, seemingly delicate and powerless. At the tip of a slender finger, a point of pitch-dark radiance condensed, absolute and annihilating—as if it could erase all things. It was destruction power compressed to the utmost limit.
She neither dodged nor used any flashy technique. She simply met the axe's edge head-on and tapped it, almost casually.
Boom!!!
Finger-tip and axe-blade—two forces utterly mismatched in size and apparent might—collided with a roar.
The expected energy explosion did not occur. Instead, a ring of silent yet terrifying shock spread from the impact point—a ruinous ripple mixing pure destruction with raging wind element, blasting out in all directions.
Where the ripple passed, space itself twisted and shuddered like water rippled by a thrown stone.
The subspace Celenova had personally opened—supposed to be incomparably stable—was ripped like paper, torn into countless pitch-black fissures by the sheer collision.
Chaotic external void-energy flooded in at once, screeching with a tooth-aching hiss.
A single seemingly casual exchange nearly annihilated this hideout.
The long-hafted axe, trailed by lingering gale, spun back. Its haft dropped perfectly into a white-jade hand brimming with explosive strength, caught steady and sure.
Space was torn wider like a theater curtain, and that magnificent, colossal fox-like celestial steed—Flying Aureus—trampled through the fragile barrier. Its proud head and gale-empowered hooves bespoke the extraordinary.
Beneath it stood a woman general, tall and firm as a pine, battle-axe shouldered in pride: the Xianzhou Yaoqing's Arbiter-General, Feixiao.
"At last, I've got you, Celenova."
Feixiao's mouth curled in a wild, unrestrained grin, as if facing not a mortal enemy but an old friend reunited.
"Courtesy must be returned. I remember your 'hospitality' very well. So—here's my gift in return."
Her tone was light, even teasing, as if she had not been ambushed by Celenova and nearly ended in one wave. Only the blazing battle intent in her eyes showed she wasn't joking.
Celenova stayed silent. She wasn't surprised Feixiao had found her so quickly and barged in.
The ambush had failed to finish the job. With this general's fight-harder-the-tougher-it-gets nature, coming to settle accounts was inevitable.
Feixiao had just stepped forward, axe on shoulder, when the surrounding space violently rippled.
Shk-shk-shk-shk—!
Four figures, steeped in thick destructive aura and at extremely high energy tiers, appeared without warning at the four cardinal points around her, forming a deathtrap that sealed every path of advance and retreat.
To the east, a tall woman held a phoenix longsword burning with ghostly violet flame.
Across her cheeks, neck, and bare arms ran molten-gold destruction sigils. Her aura was violent and blazing, surpassing this world's so-called Limit Douluo—the Fire Phoenix Soul Master Corps leader, Luan Feng.
She had been wholly assimilated by destruction and rejuvenated—restored to her youthful looks—her body back at its peak, no longer aged.
To the south, a giant of a man like a mountain had completed his martial soul embodiment. Cruel black horns sprouted from his head, his whole body swathed in boiling dark-red flames. Each step shook the void—The Evil Lord Soul Master Corps leader, Mad Bull Douluo Wang Yiheng.
To the west, a lean, hard-eyed man gripped a long dark-gold blade. His bare upper body swelled with corded muscle; beneath bronzed skin, streams of destructive golden blood ran like magma—The Terror Claw Soul Master Corps leader, Blade Soul Douluo Liao Mengkai.
To the north stood a silent hulk clad in heavy soul-guiding armor, wielding an extravagant silver warhammer crackling with arcs of lightning that radiated oppressive dread—The Evil Lord Soul Master Corps vice leader, Silver Hammer Douluo Xia Xuancheng.
These four were already top-tier ninth-level soul mentors. After being assimilated by Celenova's destruction, their power surged to terrifying heights. In sheer energy tier, each had broken past this world's limit.
Normally, even joined together, the four would be no match for the battle-hardened Feixiao.
But now was different—because Celenova, once a Harmony Emanator, was present.
Among the Lords Absolute of Extinction, Celenova might not possess the highest individual combat prowess, but her most frightening ability was unification.
She could perfectly synchronize forces that existed as a collective, unleashing a terrifying strength far beyond a simple sum—transmuting quantity into quality.
That was why the Destruction Aeon God, Nanook, so often sent her as a vanguard general—she maximized the efficiency of destruction's flood.
At this moment, though Celenova hadn't struck directly, her invisible harmonizing field had already unfolded.
She not only linked and stacked the power of the four, but also, in some uncanny way, drew upon, infused, and overlaid the destructive energy of countless antimat ter legion shades in the distance onto them.
With Celenova's bug-tier support, Luan Feng, Wang Yiheng, Liao Mengkai, and Xia Xuancheng were forcibly pushed to an unbelievable height—the threshold of demigod.
Given sufficient antimat ter legions as a base, Celenova could even briefly shove them into true godhood.
Even so, four demigod-class assailants would have been enough to sweep all before them and overturn heaven and earth on the Douluo Continent.
Surrounded by four monstrous demigods, Feixiao not only showed no fear—battle-light burned brighter in her heroic eyes.
She grinned, baring white teeth. Her overwhelming aura climbed higher; the axe on her shoulder thrummed as if thirsty for blood.
"Whoa, that's some overenthusiastic hospitality."
Feixiao laughed aloud.
"Perfect to limber up—let's have ourselves… a proper brawl."
Before her voice fell, azure gale-force power exploded from her, and Flying Aureus screamed skyward.
Her posture and presence made it seem not that she was surrounded, but that she alone would fight the multitude and encircle them instead.
This was the Arbiter-General—no worry, no regret, unbeatable.