The intense pain completely ignited the ferocity of the Third Great Old One's avatar!
From its severed tailbone, what gushed out was no longer simple blood, but dark matter as thick as asphalt, exuding an aura of extreme malevolence and decay.
They writhed like living things, attempting to re-connect the severed part, and even aggressively entwining and corroding Mark's arm in reverse!
Mark let go without hesitation, flinging the still-writhing giant tail stinger like a javelin at the avatar's head, while simultaneously using the recoil to rapidly retreat.
The dark matter missed, landing on the ground and instantly corroding a large area into a bubbling, absolutely dead zone devoid of any life.
"Ant! How dare you! How dare you wound me so grievously!"
The avatar's voice was no longer languid and condescending, but filled with hysterical rage and disbelief.
Its massive body trembled violently from pain and anger; each tremor caused tectonic plates to shift, and new volcanoes erupted wildly across the oceans and land!
It no longer cared for any form; its remaining flesh writhed and deformed madly, with countless twisted tentacles bearing suckers and bone blades, and even more limbs resembling those forcibly stitched on from other terrifying creatures, bursting forth from every part of its body!
At this moment, it was more like a chaotic storm of flesh and blood, purely born for slaughter and destruction!
Mark took a deep breath; the wound on his ribs had mostly stopped bleeding due to his powerful metabolism, but the internal injuries and immense physical exhaustion were very real.
There was no trace of retreat in his molten-gold pupils, only an even more fervent will to fight!
He knew that the real moment of life and death was about to begin!
"Roar!!!"
The avatar let out an inhuman roar, its massive body lunging at Mark with a speed completely unsuited to its size, almost like teleportation!
Countless tentacles and sharp claws rained down like a furious storm, each strike containing the power to shatter mountains and evaporate oceans!
Mark roared back and charged forward!
He pushed his strength, speed, and reactions to an unprecedented maximum!
The battle instantly entered its most brutal and intense phase!
Their figures once again became two interweaving streaks of light colliding madly, but this time, the frequency and intensity of the collisions far surpassed before!
Every clash was no longer a simple repulse, but a brutal struggle of trading injuries and risking lives!
Mark shattered a large swath of incoming tentacles with one punch, and foul-smelling fragments of flesh rained down, but three bone-deep wounds were immediately torn open on his back by another sharp claw!
He spun around and delivered a hand-blade strike, severing that claw along with the limb it was connected to, but his calf was then tightly ensnared by a tendril like a giant python, and immense force, enough to crush diamonds, furiously squeezed his shinbone!
He roared, pushing off with one leg and leaping up, bringing the tendril wrapped around his leg crashing down onto the ground; with a thunderous roar, the earth collapsed again, and the tendril was largely torn apart by this brute force!
He then used the recoil to smash headfirst into the avatar's chest wound, his fists pounding its internal structure like pile drivers!
The Great Old One's avatar let out a painful shriek, and more dark matter and twisted limbs coiled out from within, attempting to engulf and dissolve Mark!
Mark's power surged, forcibly shaking off these defilements, but his body was inevitably corroded by more corrosive energy, with burn-like marks appearing on his skin, even revealing the faintly shimmering silver-white bones beneath!
They fought from the shattered abyss to the lava-spewing fissures of the earth's core, then from the earth's core to beyond the atmosphere, with stray fist-winds occasionally clearing out small asteroid belts they passed through!
This was an ultimate test of will, strength, endurance, and recovery!
Mark's combat skills became even purer and more efficient under extreme pressure, every ounce of his strength utilized to the maximum.
The Great Old One's avatar, however, constantly created trouble and inflicted damage on Mark with its bizarre and unpredictable attack methods and powerful vitality.
Blood was spilled across the starry sky and the planet's surface as if it were worthless.
Finally, in an all-out, no-frills, head-on clash of power that exceeded all limits!
"Boom!!!!!!!!!"
A circular shockwave, centered on them, instantly spread across the globe, completely blowing away the already thin atmosphere, revealing the planet's surface below, which looked as if it had been ravaged billions of times and was utterly fragmented!
Mark's figure was slammed back to the ground like a meteor, creating a massive impact crater more than several kilometers in diameter!
He lay at the center of the pit, covered in blood, his blood intermingled with dark red filth, many wounds bone-deep, and even his internal organs severely shaken!
He struggled to get up but couldn't help but spit out a mouthful of blood mixed with organ fragments; his strength receded like a tide, and his vision began to blur.
He was almost completely exhausted.
And the Great Old One's avatar was equally miserable.
Its massive body was nearly half-dismantled, countless limbs broken, its core flesh a mangled mess, constantly leaking dark matter, and its aura had withered by more than half.
But it still hovered in the air, though tottering, clearly retaining a sliver of power to move and kill!
It slowly descended, landing at the edge of the large pit, its abyss-like eyes fixed on Mark, who was almost immobile at the bottom of the pit, filled with cruelty and satisfaction.
"It's over… you stubborn… little pebble…"
Its voice was hoarse and broken, yet it carried the declaration of a victor.
"Your power… your body… will become my best… supplement… allowing me to recover… faster…"
It raised a twisted, remaining claw, gathering its last strength, aimed at Mark at the bottom of the pit, and was about to deliver the final blow!
Just at this critical moment!
"Whoosh—Boom!!!"
A thick, blazing white energy beam, like a spear of judgment cast down by a god, suddenly shot down from beyond the unnoticed planetary orbit!
It precisely and fiercely struck the Great Old One's avatar's back!
The attack came too suddenly, and its power was extremely concentrated and immense; the Great Old One's avatar, in its extremely weakened state, had no time to react and was directly blasted forward, stumbling.
Its gathered power was interrupted, and a huge charred hole was blasted open on its back!
It let out a shriek of combined shock and fury!
Mark struggled to look up.
He saw a sleek, medium-sized spaceship, gleaming with silver-white metallic luster and a style completely different from mainstream technology, breaking through the thin atmosphere, rushing towards the battlefield like a nimble metal leopard!
The spaceship's hatch opened, and a burly figure with a mane like blazing flames shot out like a cannonball, carrying a furious battle intent and a deafening roar, smashing fiercely into the Great Old One's avatar, which was off balance from the sneak attack!
"White Lion?!"
Mark's heart was violently shaken, a surge of pleasant surprise at a narrow escape, but immediately, a greater doubt instantly flooded his mind.
It's him!
How could the White Lion, who was practically inseparable from Trigg and known as a battle maniac in the Alliance, be here?!
The White Lion's entry instantly changed the battle again!
The White Lion was also a top-tier warrior, with ferocious strength and a wide-open, wild, and murderous fighting style.
His claws and bone blades could easily tear through the Great Old One's avatar's remaining flesh defenses, and his roar could even temporarily shock the avatar's mind!
However, even though the Third Great Old One's avatar was at the end of its rope, its status and combat experience still far surpassed the White Lion's!
It quickly recovered from its initial shock; facing the White Lion's storm-like attacks, it no longer resisted head-on but countered and dodged in more bizarre and tricky ways.
"Another… annoying… insect!"
The avatar shrieked, its remaining tentacles coiling and thrusting like venomous snakes, often delivering heavy blows in the gaps of the White Lion's attacks!
Although the White Lion was brave, the disparity in strength was still evident.
He was quickly found out by the avatar, and a heavy impact, imbued with the power of decay, slammed fiercely into his chest!
"Puff!"
The White Lion spat out a mouthful of blood, the bone armor covering his chest instantly shattered, and he was sent flying backward, embedding heavily into a collapsed mountain in the distance, silent for a moment.
But the White Lion's actions were not without value!
This brief delay bought Mark invaluable time to catch his breath at the bottom of the pit!
His superhuman recovery ability worked frantically at this moment, combined with the demigod-like potential within him, greedily absorbing all available energy around him like a dry riverbed welcoming a downpour.
His injuries stabilized and healed at a visible rate, and his depleted strength surged anew within him like a reawakened volcano!
When the Great Old One's avatar once again turned its attention to Mark, preparing to completely eliminate this major threat, what it saw was no longer an exhausted warrior awaiting death.
Mark Grayson had slowly risen from the bottom of the pit.
Most of his wounds had already healed, leaving only faint traces.
A calm yet incredibly resolute flame burned in his molten-gold pupils, and his aura was not only fully restored but even more refined and dangerous than before!
Beneath his tattered battle suit was a perfect body that seemed to contain the power of an entire galaxy.
The Great Old One's avatar's movements froze, and in its abyss-like eyes, for the first time, an emotion called astonishment, and even a hint of fear, appeared!
"You…"
It had just uttered one word.
Mark gave it no chance.
He channeled all his newly recovered, even improved, strength, without reservation, into his right fist.
The extreme power compressed into a single point, causing severe distortion and collapse of the surrounding space!
The next moment, he moved!
His speed surpassed any previous instance!
It was as if time itself had fractured the moment he took that step!
The Great Old One's avatar only saw a blurred afterimage flash by, and even neural signals didn't have time to transmit to its broken limbs!
Mark's figure had already appeared before it, almost pressed against its shattered core wound!
That right fist, condensed with all his strength, all his will, all his fury, like the first thunderclap that opened the heavens and earth, silently yet overwhelmingly, imprinted itself into its core!
Time seemed to solidify again.
The Great Old One's avatar's movements completely ceased, its massive body as if a pause button had been pressed.
Mark slowly withdrew his fist, landed, his back to the giant avatar, breathing slightly, white steam rising from the surface of his body.
One second later.
"Crack… crunch…"
Centered on the point where Mark's fist struck, countless tiny cracks instantly covered the Great Old One's entire body, and incredibly dazzling light burst forth from the cracks!
Then—
"Boom!!!!!!!"
An indescribably massive explosion resounded through heaven and earth!
The Great Old One's massive body, like a supernova ignited from within, was utterly pulverized and annihilated from the inside out.
It turned into countless microscopic dust particles and scattered energy fragments, and the pervasive, nauseating stench of decay rapidly melted and dispersed like snow under sunlight.
The dark red in the sky suddenly faded; although the planet was still shattered, the suffocating evil oppressive feeling finally disappeared.
In the distance, the surviving Koryans stared blankly at all this; the deathly silence lasted for a long time, then erupted into deafening cheers mixed with cries and shouts!
They were saved!
That god-like stranger had defeated the demon!
Mark, however, felt no joy of victory.
He stood in place, feeling his strength once again largely depleted, and looked up at the starry sky, his gaze heavy.
He had only destroyed an avatar, and the other party had clearly stated that this was merely to recover faster and rescue its kin.
The Third Great Old One, Shub-Niggurath, and the terrifying Great Old Ones behind it, would never let this go.
This planet… was exposed.
He turned and walked towards the temporary gathering place of the Koryan survivors.
Without much small talk, he went directly to their leader.
"You can't stay here anymore."
Mark's voice carried an undeniable resolve.
"The Great Old Ones' gaze has fallen upon this place; next time, it might not just be one avatar."
The joy in the Koryan leader's eyes instantly turned to fear and despair.
"But you still have hope."
Mark pointed to the sky.
"My home, Earth, although also facing threats, we are still fighting, we are building defenses, we are uniting all forces."
"There, perhaps, can offer you temporary refuge, and your strength and knowledge can also enhance Earth's defenses; this is a path to survival, and an opportunity for you to contribute to resisting the Great Old Ones."
Migration!
Abandoning their homeworld to travel to an unknown planet!
This was a difficult, almost cruel, decision.
But after witnessing the horror of the Great Old Ones and the power Mark displayed, the Koryans hardly hesitated for long.
Survival and continuation are the most fundamental instincts of a civilization.
With Mark's assistance and guidance, the remaining Koryans quickly gathered everything they could carry, including their population, civilization database, precious genetic banks of species, and the few remaining operational spaceships.
They formed a poignant yet hopeful migration fleet and began the long journey towards Earth.
Mark gave them Earth's coordinates and the GDA's identification code.
Soon, on the shattered planet, only endless ruins remained, two massive impact craters, and the unconscious White Lion embedded in the mountain.
Mark walked to the collapsed mountain, dug away the boulders with his bare hands, and pulled out the severely injured and unconscious White Lion, whose bone armor was mostly shattered, laying him on the ground.
His own strength was also slowly recovering; he sat quietly beside him, his molten-gold pupils scrutinizing this unexpected guest, waiting for him to awaken.
He had many questions that this old acquaintance, his temporary comrade in arms today, needed to answer.
Why did he appear here?
Why did he suddenly go into hiding in the Alliance back then?
Beneath the starry sky, the shattered planet seemed to fall into a deathly silence, with only two powerful individuals, one sitting and one lying, awaiting the start of their conversation.
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