The almost infinite yellow sun radiation baptism in the Main Universe had forged Mark Grayson's body to an unprecedented and terrifying height.
Power surged within him, like a dormant galaxy, deep, vast, and seemingly inexhaustible.
Although he wasn't sure exactly how much stronger he had become, he could feel that every breath seemed to resonate with the stars, and every tremor of his muscle fibers contained the power to shatter continents.
All this power would now transform into the most fervent flames of revenge against the Great Old Ones!
His objective was clear.
The former Alliance home planet, completely devoured and transformed by the Great Old Ones.
The Great Old Ones' choice of that location as a key target was no accident; there must be something of crucial importance to them there.
Removing this thorn would not only strike a heavy blow to the Great Old Ones but also declare to the entire desperate universe that the counterattack had begun!
The Alliance headquarters functioned like a highly efficient war machine.
Advanced technology from the Main Universe was being frantically analyzed, reverse-engineered, and put into production by scientists and engineers.
Although complete assimilation would take time, easily mass-produced energy weapon enhancement modules, small shield generators, and new alloy armor had already begun to be preferentially equipped to the elite strike forces personally selected by Mark.
The entire base was filled with an excited atmosphere, a mix of grief, hope, and killing intent.
After considerable sacrifice, reconnaissance units finally pinpointed the coordinates of the now unrecognizable planet.
The transmitted images were suffocating.
The former Alliance home planet now resembled a giant, writhing, constantly proliferating biological fortress.
Purple-black fungal mats were as thick as mountains, countless twisted organic structures resembling blood vessels or nerve bundles covered the entire globe, and giant, ovary-like vesicular structures pulsed rhythmically, spewing out high-level Great Old Ones' minions of various forms, yet equally hideous and powerful.
And in the deepest part of the planet, the scout detected an extraordinarily powerful energy signal, seemingly enveloping an indescribable, ominous giant egg.
"That's the place!" Mark pointed at the nauseating light spot on the star map, his voice as cold as iron.
"Assemble the troops! We're going to get some interest back!"
With Ruijia and the White Lion Grom still in critical recovery, Mark temporarily assumed supreme military command of the Alliance.
No one objected; his return and the changes he brought had made him the undisputed core.
An elite strike fleet, composed of the newest warships and bravest warriors, led personally by Mark, plunged like a sharp blade into the heart of the Great Old Ones' territory!
The journey was not smooth, encountering several waves of Great Old Ones' patrol fleets, but in front of the Alliance fleet, partially equipped with new weapons, these obstacles were quickly and violently torn apart.
Mark didn't even make a move; he wanted to save his strength for the most crucial moments.
Finally, the giant, writhing biological fortress planet appeared at the edge of their vision, and from afar, they could feel the mind-bending decay and malice permeating the void.
"All fleets, prepare for orbital bombardment!" "Target all active targets and large vesicular structures on the surface, clear a landing zone for us!" Mark's orders echoed through the fleet's communication channels.
However, just as the fleet entered range and the cannon energy began to gather, an indescribable, cold, viscous, soul-freezing terrifying will, like an awakened ancient beast, suddenly erupted from the depths of that planet, instantly engulfing the entire fleet!
The communication channels were instantly filled with painful groans and screams; many weaker-minded warriors even bled from their mouths and noses, succumbing to madness.
"Ants... how dare you disturb my slumber... desecrate the holy place..." A voice, a mix of countless overlapping whispers, directly affecting the deepest consciousness of all living beings, rang out, filled with extreme arrogance and indignation.
This was Taviel, one of the Great Old Ones! This place was its nest!
Mark's pupils contracted, but he showed no fear; instead, his battle intent surged even more.
Perfect! To catch the bandits, first catch their ringleader!
"Fire!!!" He roared, enduring the immense mental pressure.
In an instant, countless enhanced energy beams poured down like a torrential rain, slamming hard onto the fungal mats and pulsating vesicles on the planet's surface.
Explosions and purple-black goo splattered everywhere, and the Great Old Ones' defense system immediately reacted; countless flying minions swarmed into the air like bees, and giant biological turrets capable of firing corrosive energy spheres emerged from the ground.
A fierce orbital offense and defense battle erupted instantly!
The new weapons demonstrated their power; the Alliance fleet's firepower clearly suppressed the Great Old Ones' conventional defenses, constantly destroying vesicles and clearing out swathes of flying minions.
Mark seized the opportunity, personally leading the landing forces, charging through the atmosphere like a meteor under heavy fire, and descending into a relatively clear area.
"Destroy all visible Great Old Ones' structures as quickly as possible, especially those 'ovaries' and energy nodes!" Mark issued the command the moment he landed, simultaneously unleashing a punch whose terrifying force directly leveled the fungal mats and dozens of charging minions within several hundred meters ahead of him!
The warriors roared and launched their attack.
New weapons and their burning hatred unleashed astonishing combat power.
Mark was like a humanoid natural disaster; wherever he went, there was only destruction; he tore apart giant biological structures with his bare hands, shattered energy cores with a single kick, and any Great Old Ones' minions daring to approach were reduced to dust under his absolute power.
They swept through everything, rapidly advancing towards the planet's core, towards the direction of the strongest energy signal!
In the planet's core region, the former Alliance Parliament building ruins, now twisted into a blasphemous temple, the space rippled violently like water.
A presence slowly emerged.
It had no fixed form, seemingly composed of countless constantly generating and perishing non-Euclidean geometries, flickering unspeakable runes, and flowing absolute darkness.
Merely seeing it was enough to instantly overload and incinerate an unenhanced brain.
Mark felt the immense will lock onto him, but instead of fear, he was delighted, his battle intent erupting like a volcano!
This was what he wanted!
"Everyone, retreat to the asteroid belt!" "This is an order!" Mark's voice, like a booming bell, forcibly overrode the Great Old Ones' whispers, clearly reaching the ears of every Alliance warrior.
The warriors did not hesitate, immediately complying; the fleet and landing forces quickly disengaged from the battlefield.
Now, the stage was clear, leaving only two cosmic-level entities and a planet about to become their battleground.
Without further exchange, the battle instantly erupted into a white-hot frenzy!
From Taviel's constantly shifting body, a grayish-white beam shot out, seemingly capable of stripping away all meaning of existence!
Wherever it passed, space itself seemed to lose color and vitality, falling into a state of absolute nothingness!
Mark's pupils constricted; he dared not meet it head-on, stomping hard with his foot!
He wasn't stomping on matter but directly on spatial curvature; his figure instantly shifted dozens of kilometers in an almost paradoxical manner, narrowly avoiding the annihilating beam.
The beam grazed his original position, turning a section of space behind him into an eternal void of death, where not even light could escape!
The next moment, Mark appeared at Taviel's side, unleashing a punch!
This punch was without frills, yet it contained a terrifying kinetic energy compressed to the extreme, enough to shatter a stellar core!
Taviel's body twisted; countless geometric figures instantly reassembled, forming a distorted shield seemingly made of pure concept.
"Boom!!!!!!!" The clash of fist and shield did not produce the sound of metal, but a soul-shaking roar, like two different cosmic laws violently colliding!
The shockwave spread in a perfect sphere; the fungal mats, mountains, and Great Old Ones' structures within several thousand square kilometers below were instantly vibrated into their most basic particles.
Even the planet's crust let out a global groan of unbearable stress!
With a single strike, both figures swayed slightly.
"Interesting..." A hint of surprise flashed through Taviel's consciousness.
"...A true god... who broke through on his own?" It sensed the purity and vastness of Mark's power's essence, a power of existence filled with vitality and infinite possibilities, utterly different from those Great Old Ones who existed by relying on cosmic entropy!
"Hmph, more interesting things are yet to come!" Mark roared in response, launching an assault like a storm.
His speed surpassed the speed of light, leaving countless afterimages in space, attacking Taviel simultaneously from all directions!
Every punch and kick was simple and brutal, yet contained the most extreme aesthetic of violence, forcing Taviel to constantly twist its form, blocking, dodging, and counterattacking in various bizarre and unpredictable ways!
Taviel's attacks were equally terrifying and unparalleled.
It could freely manipulate gravity, creating black hole traps that instantly crushed matter into singularities; it could release decaying ripples that disintegrated all molecular structures; it could summon ghostly minions of pure malice from the void, immune to physical defense!
This was a true cosmic-level duel!
Their battlefield quickly expanded beyond the planet's surface.
At times, Mark's punch would send Taviel crashing through the crust, deep into the mantle, triggering global supervolcanic eruptions; at other times, Taviel would use its twisted tentacles to hurl Mark out of the atmosphere, followed by an annihilating beam that cleared out a large section of the asteroid belt along its path!
Every collision dimmed the surrounding starry sky, and the ripples of gravity even affected the orbit of the distant Lishi Star!
Mark fought with increasing fluidity; the power accumulated in the Main Universe completely integrated into every cell of his, and he seemed tireless, growing stronger with each passing moment!
He endured Taviel's mental pollution, driving absolute power with absolute will!
Taviel, however, grew increasingly alarmed as it fought.
It discovered that this newcomer not only matched its power level but also subtly restrained it in the very nature of its power!
Mark's power, full of existence and vitality, annihilated and purified Taviel's power of decay and stillness with every collision.
Moreover, the opponent's combat instincts and learning ability were terrifying to the extreme; for any law-based attack it used, the opponent would often find a way to counter or endure it after only one or two encounters!
"Bang!" Mark's heavy punch finally broke through Taviel's layered defenses, slamming hard into its constantly shifting core region!
"Whoosh--!" Taviel let out a painful, sharp shriek; the geometric structures and darkness in that area instantly shattered and evaporated, and although they rapidly regenerated, they were noticeably much dimmer.
This was the moment!
Taviel clearly realized that in a pure head-on confrontation, it was actually at a disadvantage.
Although the difference was minuscule, at their level, even the slightest disparity was an insurmountable chasm!
Its ancient, cunning will instantly made a decision.
Retreat! This being had come into its own and could not be resisted head-on; a long-term strategy was needed!
It made a sudden feint, sending countless twisted tentacles and phantoms towards Mark, while its main body abruptly contracted, coiling around the constantly protected, pulsating giant egg below, and prepared to tear open space to flee!
"Trying to escape!" Mark had already anticipated this and would not allow it to leave so easily.
He abruptly crossed his arms over his chest, his full power erupting, forcefully shattering the phantom tentacles, and charged towards Taviel like a meteor.
However, Taviel's determination to escape was extremely resolute.
It did not hesitate to expend its essence, suddenly spitting out a dark-black breath imbued with the law of extreme decay.
This power was not meant to harm the enemy but to pollute and disrupt the surrounding spatial structure, instantly creating a region of extremely chaotic spacetime turbulence, forcibly delaying Mark for a split second!
In that precious split second, Taviel had successfully torn open a highly unstable spatial rift leading to unknown deep space, and, carrying the giant egg, plunged into it!
"Damn it!" Mark unleashed a punch, his violent power forcibly dispersing the spacetime turbulence, but the rift had already closed, leaving only a rapidly dissipating, nauseatingly cold aftertaste.
He hovered above the ravaged, soon-to-be-disintegrated planet, his expression cold.
Although he had repelled Taviel, failing to capture it was ultimately a regret.
But what it didn't know was that the moment Taviel tore open the spatial rift to escape, in the command center of the Lishi Star base, a group of top scientists were staring intently at the frantically jumping data streams on their screens!
"Caught it!" "Its unique ripple coordinates generated by forcibly tearing space!" "Quick! Reverse engineer it!" "Analyze its energy and spatial fold patterns!" "Algorithm is running... it will take time... but this points us in the right direction; its path back to its lair... is not untraceable!" The scientists' eyes gleamed with extreme excitement as they slammed a hand on the control panel.
"Excellent! Lord Mark held it off, giving us enough time to capture the data from this spatial jump!" "As long as you give us time, we can reverse engineer where it came from, and even... find their true lair!" This was undoubtedly a pleasant surprise!
Mark's fierce battle had not only repelled a powerful enemy but also brought the key to victory!
At this moment, Mark withdrew his gaze and looked at the planet below, already shattered and flowing with magma, ravaged by the aftershocks of his and Taviel's battle.
There was nothing left to save here, only endless filth and suffering.
He slowly raised his right hand, clenching it into a fist.
The vast, star-sea-like power throughout his body once again began to frantically converge towards his fist, and the planet's wailing seemed to fall silent before this absolute power; even the surrounding spatial light bent and collapsed towards his fist.
Then, he directed that star-shaking power towards the planet's core, unleashing it completely and without reservation!
"Rest in peace."
There was no sound, only an extreme light that instantly consumed everything.
The former Alliance home planet, a crucial fortress and reproductive center of the Great Old Ones, was utterly transformed into the universe's fundamental particles in a silent, supremely brilliant light of destruction, dissipating into nothingness.
In the distant starry sky, Alliance members who witnessed this ultimate scene through observation equipment collectively fell silent, only their hearts pounding wildly in their chests, speaking of unparalleled shock and awe.
Mark's figure stood alone in the void, behind him the slowly spreading afterglow of a destroyed planet.
His strength, his victory, like the most fervent torch, reignited hope in the hearts of all resistors.
And the path to the Great Old Ones' true lair had, unknowingly, quietly revealed a glimmer of dawn.
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