The searing beams dissipated, and Nuwa came crashing down onto the surface of the sea.
She had expected certain death, yet found herself alive, staring up in bewilderment.
That patch of pure, radiant blue in the sky was expanding rapidly, sweeping aside the endless storm clouds that had shrouded the heavens for untold days and nights. It seized the entire firmament with irresistible force.
The monsters that only moments ago had been incinerating her with their lasers were now utterly motionless.
It was the descent of that pure blue light that froze them in place—and in doing so, spared her life.
But instead of relief, Nuwa felt only dread. Struggling, she swam toward Fuxi's position.
"They're here!"
"They're here!"
Both Nuwa and Fuxi spoke at once, their voices trembling with the same conclusion—words laden with fear.
No wonder the monsters had suddenly abandoned their instinct for self-preservation, hurling themselves in suicidal frenzy. Their masters… had finally arrived.
And until those masters gave the command, the beasts would not move again.
Without them stirring, even the sea itself calmed. The roaring waves that had battered the world only moments ago stilled into impossible tranquility.
Fuxi streaked across the waters to Nuwa's side.
"How badly are you hurt?" he asked, frantic.
Supported by him, Nuwa managed to stand, but her legs could no longer hold her above the sea with buoyant force alone. She leaned heavily against Fuxi to avoid sinking.
"More than half of my pilots are gone. I can barely keep the colossus functional, but it has no combat strength left."
Before her words had faded, a string of blazing red flares lit the horizon.
Odin City's highest-level alarm signal.
Its appearance confirmed it: even Odin's command recognized the blue light in the heavens for what it was—the Reapers, foretold in the records of the ancient gods, had come.
But there were only seven colossi left. And with Nuwa crippled, how could they repel even the monsters, let alone the masters who commanded them?
Despair swallowed Nuwa and Fuxi alike.
"Seal the Sanctum! The Reapers must never uncover its secrets!"
"Scholars and engineers, retreat through the hidden passages into the Sanctum immediately! No one leaves until the Reapers are gone!"
"This cycle was too short. We failed to forge enough god-colossi. Next time! In the next cycle, we will succeed—we will defeat the Reapers and reclaim our freedom!"
Nuwa and Fuxi exchanged a solemn look. Together, they declared:
"Hold the Reapers off for as long as possible."
As they relayed command after command back into Pangeae City, the remaining five colossi surged in from every direction.
Odin. Zeus. Thor. Mars. Athena. Fuxi. Nuwa.
The final seven god-colossi stood assembled at last.
Meanwhile, the pure blue expanse in the sky began to darken with countless tiny black specks.
"They're here—airborne troops!"
With a furious roar, Zeus clenched his fist, and from nothing drew forth a lightning spear over ten meters long. With all his might, he hurled it into the sky.
The spear crossed dozens of kilometers in an instant, piercing the densest cluster of black specks—then exploded in a shattering burst.
Bolts of lightning writhed across the heavens, serpents of electricity lashing wildly.
Tens of thousands of the specks were devoured in that single blast.
At the heart of the storm, Admiral Kizaru jolted violently, his body tingling as every hair stood on end, sparks crackling from his armor.
Fortunately, the warship's energy shielding was formidable. Even such a savage discharge inflicted nothing more than the faint sensation of static.
"What the hell are these natives doing? Why are they attacking us—the reinforcements?!" Kizaru muttered, baffled.
On the bridge, Im looked a little embarrassed as he said to Roya:
"All our technology came from the Indomitable Dynasty. For the locals to mistake our fleet for the soulless legions of the Necrons… I suppose it makes sense."
Roya only gave a faint, noncommittal nod. His psychic senses had already unfurled, sweeping across the planet.
The fact that this world was specially marked in the holo-archives meant there had to be a hidden secret.
If he could uncover it, it might hold the key to destroying both the Silent King and the Necrons themselves.
Naturally, the seven god-colossi were the first targets of his scan.
"What? They're driving metal titans with raw warp energy as their power source?!"
The instant he probed, Roya's astonishment gave way to delight.
Astounded—because even the Necrons, with all their peerless technology, could not directly harness warp energy this way. Yet the natives of this planet had weaponized it.
Elated—because the swarms of monsters infesting this world bore unmistakable traits of Necron bioweapons. This was a Necron resource world.
And the enemy of my enemy… was my friend.
A friend whose technology could be shared.
Roya projected a psychic message:
"Cease fire! We are here to destroy the Necron bioweapons. We are not your enemies!"
Nuwa and the others felt the ripple echo within their consciousnesses, but could not parse its meaning. At most, they sensed it carried no overt malice.
Roya sighed softly. These colossus pilots had been cultivated with great care. Each was capable of projecting a soul into the warp, their psychic strength far beyond ordinary humans.
But they were still too weak. Only by linking twelve minds together could they muster even the bare minimum to move a colossus.
And even then, they unleashed barely one percent of its potential power—sometimes less.
That was why they appeared so helpless before the bioweapons.
But this only confirmed, inversely, that this planet held relics of technology greater even than the Necrons.
The natives had only grasped scraps of it, and already they were nearly able to overthrow the yoke of bioweapons.
"So those markings meant these worlds still hold technologies as mighty as these colossi?"
"If we can gather them all, what need have we to fear the Necrons?"
Roya's spirit blazed with renewed vigor.
Through his psychic link, he issued orders to all landing forces:
"Bypass the colossi. Encircle and destroy the bioweapons. If the colossi attack, defend and withdraw—do not retaliate!"
The situation was too critical; Roya bypassed Im entirely, taking direct command of the battlefield.
The colossi's technology was too valuable.
And worse—deep beneath the sea, the monsters were stirring again.
The arrival of the Hades had tricked their rudimentary hive-minds into sensing what they thought was their master's signal.
But the lack of proper feedback soon made them realize the truth.
The one who had descended was no master.
It was prey.
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