BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
Amidst the urgent alarms, the core temperature of the Bull of Heaven rose rapidly, approaching the critical point for a chain reaction.
Just then, a Minotaur monster suddenly crashed into the core region and dissipated into mist.
Its structure, identical to the Bull of Heaven's, was recognized as part of the main body. The Bull of Heaven's instinctive mechanisms immediately digested and absorbed the Minotaur, and a massive amount of energy was irresistibly transferred to the newly added low-energy zone.
The alarms fell silent in an instant. The temperature display for the Bull of Heaven's core dropped from a highly dangerous crimson to blue in a single second, eventually even reaching green.
Releasing energy for attacks and absorbing energy for expansion were both instincts of the Bull of Heaven. Now, these two instincts were in conflict, directly bringing the once-dangerous temperature down.
Under this new equilibrium, the heating device activated by Kudou Asuka did not stop running.
The Bull of Heaven's most dangerous parts—its horns and legs—were already cooked through, entering a complete high-temperature meltdown state and causing the enemy to lose control.
"Great, it's working!"
Seeing the alarms cease, Saigou Homura pumped his fist in excitement.
"Don't pop the champagne just yet. Here it comes again!"
Izayoi also smiled, but his eyes remained locked on the Bull of Heaven, vigilantly watching for any abnormalities.
He keenly spotted a dazzling flash of electricity even before the monitoring instruments sounded an alarm.
The enemy had likely noticed their failure to trigger a nuclear explosion, but they hadn't given up. They immediately switched to another area to try again.
"I see it! Milady, same strategy as before. Cool it down as much as possible!" Saigou Homura immediately began directing with renewed focus.
"No problem!"
Kudou Asuka nodded confidently, then turned to issue a command to the Minotaur monsters.
"Release all your energy. Bring yourselves to a near-death state, but don't die yet. You can only kill yourselves after I throw you back into the main body, to absorb the maximum amount of its energy!"
Not only was she ordering them to commit suicide, but she was also making them exert their maximum value before death to hinder their own main body.
If one were to ignore the fact that the Minotaurs weren't human, her command was as cruel as it could possibly be.
Pest, who was standing nearby, couldn't help but tremble.
And yet, this outrageous command was executed by the Minotaurs without the slightest reservation.
They all unleashed their power to the fullest, overdrafting their energy to the brink of death, then waited like silent stone statues to be thrown into the main body to balance its temperature.
The effect of this voluntary energy release was far greater, absorbing much more energy than if they were defeated by normal means.
To make a comparison, a Minotaur blown apart by one of Izayoi's punches had actually expended less than one percent of its energy. Even after returning to the main body, it wouldn't need much of a recharge.
But a Minotaur that exhausted itself to the limit under Kudou Asuka's command could drain over ninety-nine percent of its own energy, completely sucking itself dry.
The difference between the two was almost a hundredfold.
"Milady's power is just absurd... Even the enemy researchers couldn't have imagined their own creations could be controlled to this extent!" Saigou Homura couldn't help but exclaim.
The core of this tactic depended on whether Kudou Asuka's energy absorption rate could keep up with the enemy's energy release rate.
He had initially thought it would be a tug-of-war, but looking at the results, it was a complete stomp. Kudou Asuka had utterly crushed the enemy's strategic intentions.
Wherever a Minotaur was present, the Bull of Heaven's energy level would plummet.
On the temperature monitoring map, he could sometimes even see the bizarre spectacle of the Bull's head in a high-temperature meltdown while its tail was completely frozen solid.
"Oh, not at all. Everyone's contribution was just as important."
Hearing Saigou Homura's praise, Kudou Asuka was quite pleased with herself, but she humbly shared the credit with the others.
"If not for little brother Homura's strategy, You's precise guidance, Miss Pest's help finding the Minotaurs, and the help of those other two brawny individuals, we couldn't have thrown the Minotaurs to the designated spots."
Though her words were modest, they were also sincere.
Without everyone's teamwork, it would have been impossible to control the Bull of Heaven's temperature with such fine detail.
Saigou Homura's role as the strategist and tactician went without saying. To ensure the Minotaurs could be delivered to their designated locations before they dissipated, Kasukabe You's precise delivery was equally vital.
And to guarantee a sufficient supply of Minotaurs, Pest was needed to use her bats' sonar abilities to locate targets within the dense fog.
Naturally, on this assembly line, Kudou Ayato, who was responsible for defeating the Minotaurs and bringing them to Kudou Asuka, and Saigou Izayoi, who handled transport relays and served as a backup for Kasukabe You in emergencies, were also crucial.
But due to personal grudges, Kudou Asuka had deliberately omitted their names.
"Brawny individuals, huh? Thanks so much for the compliment, Milady!"
Saigou Izayoi grunted in dissatisfaction but didn't argue.
"Seeing as I didn't play a huge role this time, I'll let you have the spotlight for now!"
He knew that his value as muscle this time around couldn't compare to Kudou Asuka's.
"Better than someone whose limbs aren't developed at all, who stubs their toe on the bed in the morning and cries their eyes out!"
Kudou Ayato, however, shot a glance at Kudou Asuka, showing her older sister no mercy.
"Th-that's a lie! I didn't cry!"
Kudou Asuka's face instantly turned beet red as she spouted nonsense about not crying over something so trivial and actually having hidden abs. The atmosphere immediately became cheerful.
Five minutes passed quickly.
The enemy faction clearly didn't realize what was happening at first, assuming it was just a remote control malfunction.
It wasn't until three minutes had passed, when more than half of the Bull of Heaven had turned into cooked meat and entered a state of meltdown, that they finally realized their detonation attempts were being systematically thwarted.
In a fit of rage, they... raged.
Using Minotaurs against the Bull of Heaven—even if they knew the strategy, they had no way to counter it. Even if they wanted to make things more difficult by attempting multiple detonations, it was practically impossible.
With more than half of the Bull of Heaven out of their control, their efficiency at releasing energy in an instant had already dropped. If they tried to detonate multiple points, it would actually extend the detonation time by more than threefold.
Not only would that make it difficult to meet the baseline values for a critical reaction, but the slower process would also make them more vulnerable to being sniped.
Thus, as they continued their detonation attempts in a futile rage, their efforts ultimately ended in failure.
In the end, the entire Bull of Heaven entered a high-temperature meltdown state, completely out of their control.
"Done! Good work, everyone!"
Looking at the content displayed on the screen, Saigou Homura finally relaxed.
Whatever came next, the Bull of Heaven before them was defeated.
"The next step is to reverse-engineer the Bull of Heaven's underlying mechanics. If we succeed, we should be able to find other, more convenient ways to deal with similar monsters in the future."
As the person who best understood the Third Stellar Particle, he had that confidence.
"Yeah, studying the enemy's weapons is your job."
Izayoi nodded, then cracked his knuckles.
"But for us, the most important task isn't that. It's finding the mastermind behind this whole thing."
"I don't know who they are, but they dared to mess with us directly, without a single care for the risk of a nuclear explosion. Vicious bastards like that need to be punished!"
As he finished, Izayoi flashed a ferocious grin.
As far as he was concerned, if someone wanted to challenge them, he would never refuse.
He didn't care if the opponent unleashed A-weapons and tried to attack with brute force.
In fact, he had always been fond of that kind of physical communication.
However, completely disregarding the environment and even attempting to nuke a modern city with a population of over one hundred million—that crossed his line.
"Indeed."
Hearing this, Kudou Asuka nodded in agreement.
"Anyone who'd do something like this can't be an ordinary faction. We have to hit them hard!"
Watching the group, who, despite their frequent arguments, were surprisingly united at critical moments, Pest nodded, feeling a bit inspired.
If she were to compete with them, it seemed like it would be fun, even if she lost.
"So, does this mean we've completed the first round of the challenge and defeated the Bull of Heaven?"
Pest looked at Little Black Rabbit, posing the question to the proctor.
Her words immediately caught everyone's attention, and they all turned to look at Black Rabbit.
"Uh, well..."
Little Black Rabbit's expression stiffened. Her gaze drifted to the side as she tapped her index fingers together in front of her chest, an attitude of "no comment."
"You can't even tell us that?" Kudou Ayato looked at the rabbit-eared girl, finding it strange.
"Black Rabbit, bad!"
"No, it's not me!"
Little Black Rabbit quickly waved her hands, but she didn't know how to explain without breaking the rules Su Mo had set.
Seeing her predicament, Izayoi raised an eyebrow, a flicker of realization in his eyes.
"The results can't be announced yet... could it be—"
Before he could finish, Saigou Homura's panicked voice suddenly came from behind him.
"This is bad, Big Bro Izayoi, everyone! Come look at this!"
Everyone immediately gathered around, looking at the computer screen which displayed a weather satellite view of Earth.
Unlike a conventional weather map, this one was covered in nearly a hundred dense, crimson dots.
Asia, Europe, the Americas, Australia... all the islands where human civilization was most active were filled with similar red dots.
"What is it, Homura?" Izayoi asked, puzzled. "Is there a problem?"
"The Bull of Heaven... the embryonic form before the Bull of Heaven was born!"
Saigou Homura pointed at the dense red dots on the screen, his voice shaken and dry.
"The embryonic form of the Bull of Heaven?"
Izayoi froze for a second, then leaned closer to the screen and asked, "Which one are you talking about? The area with the dense red dots?"
"No."
Saigou Homura shook his head.
"All of them. Every single red dot perfectly matches the precursor signs of the Bull of Heaven's birth, and we've detected traces of A-activity..."
At these words, even Izayoi couldn't help but suck in a sharp breath.
Looking at the dense cluster of red dots on the map, his voice trembled.
"Are you trying to say that right now, over a hundred monsters on the level of the Bull of Heaven are being born simultaneously across the globe?"
Hearing this, the others who hadn't understood Homura's meaning now stared with wide, disbelieving eyes.
How could monsters of that caliber possibly appear in such numbers?
However, facing their gazes that pleaded for a denial, Saigou Homura gave a heavy nod.
"Yes! Over a hundred Bulls of Heaven are being born, and it's too late to stop them!"