Ambush at the Passage Entrance and the Splitting Mutation
"Enemy attack! Protect Fa!" Kayla roared, her Thunderfrost power erupting instantly! She directly activated her fourth transformation—"Annihilation Form: Thunder Fang Ice Prison"! Lightning veins bulged beneath her bronze skin, her left hand transforming into a massive beast claw composed of raging thunder, while her right hand became a cutting giant claw made of countless high-speed rotating, razor-sharp diamond-shaped ice crystals! She charged toward the diving enemy like a cannonball.
"Target locked! Threat level: High!" Rex's electronic eyes instantly locked on the target, his back armor plates sliding open as dozens of frost-covered nano-drones swarmed out, weaving a dense net of ice-blue freezing beams in an attempt to slow its speed. At the same time, his shoulder-mounted ion cannon began charging, flickering with eerie blue light.
TISK's Lava Hammer flowed with ice-fire patterns, shielding in front of Fa. Arya's Storm Bow was instantly drawn to full, light and dark elements converging at the arrow tip. Yuyuer's crystal orb shone with brilliant blue light, ready to cast illusionary interference. Lin Ya's roots burrowed into the platform's ice layer, spreading an emerald halo, preparing to bind. Zhamisi, supported by Yuyuer, had her venomous fangs curved blade coated in deadly poison, her snake pupils locked on the target.
However, just as Kayla's Thunder Fang Ice Prison was about to collide with the variant Winged One, a sudden mutation occurred!
The variant Winged One's central metal carapace suddenly cracked open with a blinding purple-black fissure! Accompanied by a teeth-gritting tearing sound and energy blast, its body abruptly split right down the middle during high-speed flight into two slightly smaller but identically shaped entities! The splitting process was as quick as lightning, as if instantly duplicated!
"Splitting?!" Yuyuer exclaimed in shock. "Is that its special ability?!"
The two split entities moved in perfect synchronization; one continued to meet Kayla's Thunder Fang Ice Prison, while the other eerily traced a sharp-angled zigzag, flashing with high-frequency oscillating blade arms, aiming straight for Fa, who was protected behind TISK! The split not only evaded Kayla's frontal interception but also instantly threw off the precision targeting of Rex's drone swarm and Arya's arrows!
"Fa! Watch out!" Arya's cry carried despair.
At the critical moment!
"Time Stasis!" Fa's right star eye burst with ethereal light! She compressed her ability to its limit, precisely applying it to the split entity assaulting her and its blade arm trajectory!
Buzz!
The ghostly fast blade arm trajectory instantly became clear and sluggish! Though only for less than 0.5 seconds, it was enough!
"Icebound Abyss!" Yuyuer reacted with god-like speed, abandoning wide-range illusions as her dragon bone staff pointed fully at the split entity's feet! Pale white chill surged forth, instantly freezing its lower body along with the surrounding ice surface into solid ice! The split entity's charge came to an abrupt halt.
"Get lost!" Kayla's Thunder Fang giant claw slammed viciously into the other split entity, the raging thunder electrocuting it black and sending it flying backward, crashing into an ice crystal pillar. But due to her distraction, she took part of the opponent's blade arm's oscillating impact head-on, cracking her ice crystal giant claw.
"Superconductive Freeze Shot!" Rex seized the opportunity, his ion cannon roaring! The eerie blue beam precisely struck the upper body of the split entity frozen by Yuyuer! Crack crack! The terrifying absolute low temperature instantly turned it into an ice sculpture!
"Furnace Shock!" TISK grabbed the timing, his Lava Hammer carrying an ice-fire halo as it smashed down heavily! Boom! The frozen brittle split entity, along with the ice sculpture, was shattered to pieces!
The other split entity, repelled by Kayla, struggled to rise but was precisely pierced through the connection between its compound eyes and brain by Arya's "Wind Arrow: Spiral Pierce," wrapped in spiraling airflows, convulsing as it fell.
The battle erupted and ended in an instant. Fa's face paled slightly, a stabbing pain coming from her right eye; the consumption of Time Stasis was immense. Everyone's hearts raced with lingering fear—this splitting variant Winged One had terrifying tactical value.
The Guardians' Reinforcements and Celestia's Action
At the same time as Fa's team dealt with the threat at the passage entrance, the battlefield situation changed again!
In the distance, the twelve dual-winged Guardians protecting the Star Shard giant island were under immense pressure; those variant behemoths were thick-skinned and immensely strong, each impact shaking their formation to the brink. However, at that moment, from other floating islands in the dome and hidden passages, twenty-three powerful auras suddenly lit up! The remaining twenty-three dual-winged Guardians had finally arrived!
They streaked across the battlefield like meteors, joining the fray with death-defying momentum! Some had wings burning with even fiercer holy flames, condensing massive Hammers of Light Judgment to smash at the behemoths; others spread demon wings, summoning light-devouring shadow abysses to trap enemies; still others, azure-winged warriors, sang resounding songs that summoned violent hurricane tornadoes, shredding several flying monsters! Their addition was like a shot of adrenaline into a dying body, instantly stabilizing the core battlefield's decline and even beginning to push back those variant behemoths!
This sudden turn of events finally prompted the always coldly overlooking Celestia to move!
Purple-black light surged in her eyes, clearly surprised and enraged by the Guardians' reinforcements. She no longer waited; her four wings vibrated fiercely, her form turning into a space-tearing purple-black lightning bolt, charging straight at the giant island housing the Star Shard! Her speed was extreme, leaving trails of afterimages in the air, her goal clear—she intended to personally seize the Star Shard!
"Stop her!" The leader of the Guardians protecting the Star Shard giant island, an elder with four resplendent golden wings, roared fiercely. The five nearest and strongest Guardians (two angel-winged, three demon-winged) immediately broke from the behemoth battle circle, unhesitatingly charging toward Celestia! They knew her terror well; only together could they block her!
Five powerful energy beams—blazing white holy flames, shadow impacts, azure wind blades—interwove into a net of destruction, sealing Celestia's path!
"Obstacles! Get out of my way!" Celestia's icy voice carried disdain. She didn't even slow down, pointing her long spear wrapped in dark purple energy forward! A condensed jet-black beam struck later but arrived first, precisely hitting the weak point where the five energy beams converged!
Boom——!!!
A blinding energy annihilation flash erupted instantly! The violent shockwave tore a massive void in the surrounding cloud sea! The net woven by the five Guardians' combined efforts was pierced and disintegrated in one strike! The five were shaken violently, sent flying backward by the explosion's aftermath, their wing glows dimming, faces filled with horror! Celestia's power was even more terrifying than they remembered!
Though delayed slightly, Celestia's speed only slowed a bit, still unstoppable as she charged toward the giant island! Two particularly massive, fiercely aura-ed variant Winged One guards beside her (one resembling an armored mammoth, the other like a three-headed hellhound) roared and followed, clearing scattered Winged Clan warriors attempting to intercept along the way.
The Necklace's Fall and Salsa's Shout
Just as Celestia broke through the five Guardians' blockade, getting one step closer to the giant island, one repelled demon-winged Guardian elder, unwilling to fail, endured his injuries and gathered his last strength to unleash a cunning shadow energy whip at Celestia's neck! Though she dodged in time, the whip grazed her, dislodging the necklace.
Snap!
A crisp sound! The whip precisely struck the seemingly unremarkable silver chain hanging from Celestia's neck!
The silver chain snapped! A small, oval-shaped object plummeted from high altitude, tumbling toward the battlefield below!
Salsa, who had been closely monitoring Celestia's movements, had her mechanical cat's amber electronic eyes instantly capture the falling small object! High-magnification zoom activated! Through the flying war flames and energy turbulence, she clearly saw—it was an open, old-fashioned metal locket-style necklace pendant! Inside the pendant was embedded a small, somewhat yellowed holographic image photo!
In the photo was Celestia! But the her in the photo had a brilliant smile, clear eyes without a trace of shadow, filled with youthful pride and vitality. Nestled beside her was a male Winged One with a gentle smile and eyes pure as water. He had only a pair of the most ordinary gray-brown bat wings, his smile shy yet sincere. It was exactly as Elder Ankris described—Aerios!
This discovery exploded like thunder in Salsa's soul body! She instantly recalled infiltrating Champagne's (the masked woman's) subconscious in the wooden cabin outside the Silent Ice Palace ruins, in the depths of that filthy sea of consciousness, seeing that eerie research lab scene: among thousands of glass incubation pods, one immersed in ink-blue nutrient fluid, body riddled with tubes, emaciated, skin an unhealthy gray-white, back connected to instruments constantly extracting some substance from the comatose figure... That face, though pale and haggard, had features identical to Aerios in the photo!
"It's him! Aerios! In Doomsday Rebirth's lab! Being used as live experimental material!" Salsa's soul body fluctuated violently within the mechanical cat shell, intense anger and the urge to reveal the truth making her disregard everything as she used the mechanical cat's amplifier to let out a piercing wail toward Celestia in the high sky, penetrating the battlefield:
"Celestia! Stop! You've been used by Doomsday Rebirth!!" Salsa's voice carried soul-shaking tremors, piercing explosions and roars. "Aerios wasn't cured at all! He's in Doomsday Rebirth's lab! I saw it with my own eyes! He's being used as live experimental material, having cells extracted, being tortured! They're lying to you! They can't save him; they'll only turn him into an eternal test subject!"
This sudden shout was like ice water thrown into boiling oil, causing the intense battlefield to fall silent for a moment! Many Winged Clan warriors and Doomsday Rebirth monsters subconsciously looked toward the source of the voice.
Celestia in the high sky froze abruptly! Her movement, about to touch the giant island's edge, halted stiffly! The towering purple-black energy showed a momentary disorder and fluctuation. She whipped her head back, those ice-cold, vacant deep blue eyes burning with destructive desire, for the first time truly and focusedly looking down at the mechanical cat on the platform below, and at Ankris beside the cat, supported by Lin Ya and Arya.
"You... what did you say?" Celestia's voice was no longer cold but carried an incredulous tremble and... rage from a touched reverse scale. "Vile lies! The organization promised that as long as I bring back the Star Shard, they can awaken Aerios! He needs the Star Shard's power!" She subconsciously touched her empty neck, where only the broken silver chain remained, panic spreading like poisonous vines in her heart. Salsa's words were like a cold awl, ruthlessly piercing the belief barrier she had built with anger and despair.
"Promise? That's Doomsday Rebirth's shackle to control you!" Salsa didn't back down, the mechanical cat's electronic eyes staring dead at Celestia. "I infiltrated your organization's high-level subconscious! I saw the lab! I saw Aerios! He's comatose, immersed in nutrient fluid, body full of tubes! A madman named Dr. Zheng is using his cells for experiments, creating those twisted monsters (she pointed at the variant Winged Ones on the battlefield)! The Star Shard is just the key to their ultimate plan; it has nothing to do with saving Aerios! They're just using your love for him!"
"What evidence do you have!" Celestia's voice suddenly rose, sharp and piercing, carrying mad paranoia and a trace of imperceptible fear. "Show the evidence! Or I'll tear you to scrap metal!" Her dark purple spear pointed at Salsa, the tip's energy fluctuating violently, destructive aura locking below! Her two powerful variant guards also let out threatening low growls.
"The evidence is in these monsters' brains!" Salsa immediately shouted, pointing at the variously shaped variant Winged Ones on the battlefield. "They were manufactured! Their memory fragments must have lab scenes, Dr. Zheng, even others with Aerios! I can read them! Just give me a live one! Let me show you the truth!"
This proposal was extremely bold and full of risk. But at this moment, Celestia's heart was already roiled by the necklace's fall and Salsa's accusations, unleashing massive waves. The forcibly suppressed, extreme fear for Aerios's safety erupted like a beast breaking free, beginning to tear at her sanity. Doomsday Rebirth's promises from that Winged Clan woman, the organization's coldness, Aerios's pale face before coma... various scenes clashed fiercely in her mind.
"Fine!" Celestia's eyes flashed with a nearly mad determination; she needed an answer, even if it was despair! "I'll give you one 'evidence'!" Her gaze instantly locked on the three-headed hellhound-shaped variant guard beside her—this guard's aura was the most violent, its wings closest to Aerios's original bat wing features in her memory (though twisted into hellhound bat membranes), perhaps retaining more memories.
The three-headed hellhound guard seemed to sense Celestia's malice, its three heads simultaneously letting out uneasy low growls, instinctively wanting to retreat.
But Celestia's movement was faster! Her Shadow Wings fanned fiercely, her form instantly appearing above the hellhound guard! Her dark purple spear didn't thrust, but her four wings erupted with terrifying purple-black energy storms, like invisible shackles, instantly binding the massive hellhound guard rigidly in the air!
"Roar——!!!" The hellhound guard's three heads let out terrified and confused roars, struggling madly, but under Celestia's absolute power suppression, it was like sinking into an abyssal quagmire, unable to move.
"You... what are you doing? Lady Celestia..." One dog head uttered unclear, electronic-noised human speech, filled with fear.
Celestia's face was expressionless, her eyes terrifyingly cold. Her left hand gripped the void, purple-black energy condensing into several sharp spikes!
Puchi! Puchi! Puchi!
The spikes precisely and cruelly pierced through the hellhound guard's wing roots and limb joints! Dark purple blood splattered!
"Urgh ah——!!!" A non-human, wretched howl echoed across the battlefield! The massive body slumped completely like a rag sack, only the three heads still futilely roaring and struggling.
Celestia, like discarding trash, hurled the action-crippled three-headed dog variant guard from high altitude viciously toward the platform where Fa's team stood!
Boom!
The heavy body smashed onto the ice crystal platform, sending ice shards flying. The three ferocious dog heads twisted in agony and fear, purple-black blood rapidly spreading and freezing on the ice surface.
"Read!" Celestia hovered in the high sky, purple-black energy encircling her like boiling fury, her voice like cold wind scraping by. "Show me the 'truth'! If there's even a hint of falsehood, all of you will pay the price for the lies!" Her gaze locked dead on Salsa, sweeping over Ankris and Fa, that look mixed with the last faint glimmer of hope and an impending destructive storm.
The platform fell into dead silence. All eyes focused on Salsa and the writhing "evidence" on the ground. Elder Ankris looked at Celestia's mad and pained eyes, his lips moving, finally turning into a heavy sigh. Fa gripped her short blade tightly, ethereal light flowing in her star eyes, prepared for the worst.
Salsa's mechanical cat shell slowly approached the still convulsing and roaring variant hellhound. The amber electronic eyes held an unprecedentedly condensed blue soul light.
"Salsa, be careful!" Yuyuer whispered worriedly.
"I know." Salsa's soul body responded calmly and resolutely. She walked to the relatively intact middle head of the hellhound, ignoring its venomous and fearful gaze. The mechanical cat's head armor slid open a small section, and a stream of soul light far more condensed, deeper, and carrying a chilling silent aura than when infiltrating Champagne emerged like the finest surgical probe, precisely entering the hellhound head's brow!
Abyssal Memory Reading and the Impact of Truth
Salsa's soul body instantly plunged into an even more violent, chaotic sea of consciousness filled with pained howls and mad killing desires. This was the consciousness sea of a forcibly modified, soul-twisted variant creature, more filthy and dangerous than Champagne's. Countless fragmented scenes cut at her perception like high-speed spinning blades: cold metal operating tables, glaring shadowless lamps, body-tearing and forced suturing agony, violent agents injected into the body causing genetic collapse yet forcibly stabilized, Dr. Zheng's fervent mutterings before the console, and... absolute fear and obedience toward a certain existence...
Salsa endured the pain of her soul body being polluted and torn, like steering a leaf boat in raging waves, carefully avoiding consciousness traps, diving forcefully along memory fragments related to "source," "lab," "specimen."
Found it!
The scene suddenly clarified: a massive circular lab filled with various pipes and instruments. At the center, a huge cylindrical reinforced glass incubation pod stood out. Inside was filled with ink-blue, constantly bubbling viscous nutrient fluid. A figure floated within—it was Aerios! His eyes tightly closed, face a deathly gray-white, body terrifyingly emaciated, nearly skin and bones. Countless tubes of varying thickness pierced his spine, limbs, even temples like malicious vines. His gray-brown bat wings behind him now showed a sickly purple-black, the membranes covered in twisted proliferating veins and metal implants, appearing abnormally ferocious. Complex instruments connected around the pod, screens jumping with heart-jolting data streams. A figure in a stained white coat, hunched over (Dr. Zheng), stood before the console, his twig-like fingers operating rapidly. A hoarse, metal-grating voice echoed in the memory fragments:
"...Perfect specimen...S-001 (Aerios's code)...cell activity stable...mutation induction success rate...73%... 'Jintro' fusion key...continue extracting neural activity factors...record data...energy compatibility test...prepare next phase..."
Then, the scene switched: another lab scene. Several incubation pods held even more twisted, pained Winged figures. One of them vaguely resembled the early, not fully mutated humanoid form of the hellhound guard whose memory Salsa was reading! He and other test subjects convulsed and deformed painfully in the pods. Dr. Zheng's fervent voice rose again: "...Inject S-001 stabilizing gene segments...suppress rejection reaction...power amplification...300%! ...Excellent! ...Continue...create more perfect species!"
The memory fragments ended abruptly there, drowned by stronger pain and violent killing commands.
"Ah——!" Salsa's soul body let out a wretched scream (the external mechanical cat amplifier syncing with a piercing buzz), forcibly ejected from the filthy consciousness abyss, scrambling back into the mechanical cat shell in disarray. The cat shell trembled violently, the eye light extremely dim, even showing fine cracks.
"Salsa!" Everyone exclaimed in alarm.
But Salsa, ignoring the severe pain and weakness in her soul body, immediately projected the key memory scenes she had just read—about Aerios and the lab—directly into the air before Celestia via the mechanical cat's projector! Those images of Aerios immersed, extracted, treated as "perfect specimen S-001," Dr. Zheng's fervent and cold words, were like the sharpest ice awls, ruthlessly stabbing into Celestia's eyes and heart!