Watching the monsters swarm from the distance, Hysilens suddenly had an idea. She temporarily set her longsword on the ground, took a deep breath, and gently parted her lips:
"♪~♪~~"
"♪~"
A deep, beautiful voice suddenly filled the air, instantly resonating throughout the surrounding space. It was Hysilens' Siren Song. She had tested this ability when she first donned this Identity, but had never used it in actual combat—this was its first time.
In the midst of battle, their teammate suddenly dropped her weapon and began singing. Arthur, Pan Ming, and Demon Axe all froze, turning to stare at Hysilens in astonishment.
Hysilens winked at the trio, her body swaying lightly to the rhythm of the song as her long purple hair swished behind her.
Arthur frowned in confusion. "It sounds beautiful, but why are you singing now?"
Pan Ming looked even more bewildered. "What's going on?"
Only Demon Axe noticed something amiss. "That song... look at those monsters in the distance!"
Pan Ming remained unmoved, but Arthur peered into the distance. He saw that the monsters that had been swarming toward them had all stopped in mid-air, circling aimlessly and even turning on each other.
"This song possesses an incredibly powerful hypnotic effect," the Demon Axe explained. "You're just not within her attack range, so you're unaffected. But the monsters under the Mother of Flesh are completely immersed in illusions."
In other words, as long as Hysilens kept singing, these ordinary monsters would never be able to approach, posing absolutely no threat. Moreover, she was only humming—music without lyrics—which required no effort, allowing her to maintain the song for an incredibly long time.
"Perhaps a few exceptionally powerful ones might break through the illusions and charge forward," the Demon Axe added. "We only need to deal with those stragglers."
Arthur, however, asked a crucial question: "How long do we have to hold out here?"
Hysilens shook her head while continuing to hum. She didn't know either. Pan Ming chimed in, "This effort is to protect the Material World. Naturally, we'll hold out as long as possible—until the end of time, until our bodies can no longer move."
Hearing this, Arthur grinned. "Right, then there's nothing more to say! We'll slaughter every monster that comes, until I can't swing my axe anymore!"
-
The scene shifts to Okhema, where Melly has already received the tentacle meat block from Hysilens. She is now conducting in-depth research, attempting to activate the locator device invented by Ding Lang.
In a laboratory, Melly, Heinrich, and Anaxa—arguably the three most brilliant minds in the world—watch as the tentacle meat block is inserted into the machine. Their faces betray varying degrees of tension.
This is only natural. After dedicating so much time to research and development, they were now one final step away from success. How could they possibly remain calm?
Hum~
With the power supply engaged and a soft hum, the machine whirred to life. Melly exclaimed triumphantly, "It's working!"
Anaxa silently exhaled in relief. If this had failed, starting from scratch would have cost them an immeasurable amount of time. With this immediate success, he could now proceed with the mission to obliterate the Mother of Flesh's resurrection point, preparing for the final battle.
Melly cradles the machine as the trio leaves the laboratory. Outside, Tribios and Evernight have been waiting anxiously. Melly briefly explained the device's operation and usage. With the press of a button, a virtual holographic screen materialized before them.
The glowing screen resembled a radar display, with a small blue dot at its center surrounded by concentric circles densely packed with red dots—at least a hundred or more.
Each of these red dots represented a world already corrupted and fallen to the Mother of Flesh.
Heinrich glanced at the display and remarked, "To be honest, this is fewer than I expected. After all, the Outer God is an ancient being who's lived for who knows how long. I wouldn't have been surprised to see thousands or even tens of thousands of resurrection points. Is this all it's managed to conquer?"
Melly pursed her lips. "Isn't fewer a good thing?"
"True enough," Heinrich conceded.
However, the machine only provided approximate locations, not precise coordinates. This meant they couldn't use the Century Gate to travel directly to these worlds and would still need to use Magic Ships for each journey.
Heinrich suggested, "Then let me take this machine, pilot a ship, and bring Miss Evernight to these worlds. Once we're there, she can persuade the Outer God to forget about them all?"
Tribios interjected, "No, Anaxa should accompany Evernight instead. Heinrich, you have other urgent matters to attend to."
She then informed Heinrich that the Abyss had been invaded. "You must return to the Arcane Federation immediately and warn all Wizards of the Conjuration School to cease summoning demons."
Only Heinrich could handle this matter. Although Anaxa held considerable prestige within the Arcane Federation, it paled in comparison to Heinrich, the founder of the nation.
Heinrich paused, startled. "Is that really happening? I understand. I'll take care of it immediately."
With that, Evernight and Anaxa boarded the Magic Ship and departed from this world. Heinrich returned to the Arcane Federation, leaving only Tribios and Melly behind.
Tribios frowned slightly. "I have a vague, unsettling premonition."
She couldn't pinpoint the source of this feeling; it was purely a visceral intuition. She twirled a strand of crimson hair near her ear around her finger, rubbing it between her fingertips.
As Tribios opened the Century Gate, preparing to return to her office, a soldier dashed up, panting for breath. "W-wait, Holy Maiden!" he gasped.
He had just sprinted from Tribios's office to this spot. If she went through the Century Gate now, he'd have to run all the way back again.
Tribios felt her right eyelid twitch twice. "What's happened?"
"T-terrible news!" the soldier exclaimed. "Something's gone wrong with both the All Nations Alliance and the Dragon Ember Empire!"