Chapter 81: The Fierce Battle Ends
The razor-sharp, knife-like wings sheared through the heavy air, tearing a piercing shriek from the atmosphere itself. It moved with terrifying velocity, closing the distance in a single, breathless blink.
"Belle! Look out!" Dan Heng and Chasca's warnings overlapped, ringing out with desperate urgency. But the beast was already upon her.
Death loomed, casting a suffocating shadow over Belle. Yet, her survival instincts flared faster than conscious thought. In the razor-thin margin before those jagged claws could shred flesh and bone, she triggered her elemental shift. Her physical form dissolved, transmuting entirely into a pure, intensely cold mass of crystalline ice.
Whoosh!
The dragon beast's massive claws and sweeping wings tore violently through the frozen mist, shattering her elementalized body into a thousand glittering shards.
But the shattered ice did not melt into the corrupted earth. Instead, the frost caught the ambient light, swirling backward in a rapid vortex of freezing energy. A dozen paces behind the beast, the crystals slammed back together, solidifying into Belle's completely unharmed figure.
She stumbled slightly as her boots hit the dirt. Her face was drained of color, chest heaving from the sheer adrenaline of the near-death experience, yet her eyes remained locked on the enemy, burning with stubborn defiance.
"Oh, come on! It changed again!" Paimon stomped her tiny boot in mid-air, her fists clenched in absolute frustration.
The battlefield descended once more into a grueling, suffocating war of attrition.
It was a nightmare loop. Every time the group pushed their bodies to the absolute limit, pouring every ounce of their strength into a decisive strike, they believed they had finally shattered this relentless monstrosity. They would watch it fall, only for the core of the Deep Simulated Crystal Tree to violently twist and collapse inward. Bathed in a sickening, purple-black Abyssal light, the core would rapidly reconfigure, birthing a completely new demonic form—each one possessing entirely different, yet equally lethal, combat mechanics.
First came the Maguu Kenki. The phantom swordmaster had forced them into a lethal dance of close-quarters combat, its erratic teleportation and sweeping waves of phantom sword qi nearly catching even Dan Heng off guard.
Then, it had morphed into the Gluttonous Yumkasaur Mountain King. The massive beast had rained down explosive, fiery devastation, turning the battlefield into a blazing inferno. If not for Belle throwing up desperate, towering walls of ice to absorb the searing blasts, they would have been reduced to ash.
After that, it was the Jadeplume Terrorshroom, forcing them to frantically dodge its furious, thundering charges and the insidious, tracking Dendro spores that sought to root into their very flesh.
The only thing keeping them from being entirely overwhelmed was Paimon. Drawing upon the vast, chaotic reservoir of combat experience she had accumulated traveling across Teyvat with Lumine, the little guide acted as their tactical overwatch. She hovered high above the fray, frantically shouting out elemental weaknesses and predicting attack patterns—even if her warnings occasionally came a half-second too late.
Relying on sheer, stubborn willpower, their rapidly developing teamwork, and their unique combat arts, the trio managed to systematically dismantle every terrifying iteration the Deep Simulated Crystal Tree threw at them.
But the real enemy wasn't just the beast. It was the ticking clock.
This damned, unkillable monstrosity had firmly pinned them down in this desolate wasteland. They had barely managed to gain any ground toward the location where Mualani had sensed Kachina's presence. Every wasted second felt like sand slipping through their fingers.
"This isn't working." Dan Heng's voice was tight. He planted his feet, driving Cloud-Piercer forward in a sweeping arc of wind that forced the towering avian beast back a few paces.
Belle leaned heavily against a jagged rock, her breath coming in ragged gasps. She watched the colossal monster begin to gather elemental energy for yet another charge, her eyes dark with mounting anxiety. "It's a literal damage sponge... Every single time we break it down, it just reshapes itself and gets right back up. We are completely stalled out here!"
Dan Heng tightened his grip on Cloud-Piercer, the cool metal of the shaft grounding his racing thoughts. His sharp, calculating gaze tracked the beast's twitching muscles, then flicked toward his companions. Belle was running on fumes, and Chasca's breathing had grown shallow. While his own stamina reserves were still holding, a team was only as fast as its most exhausted member.
Could they force a breakthrough? Ignore the beast and run?
He dismissed the thought instantly. Turning their backs on an Abyssal entity of this caliber was suicide; it would simply slaughter them from behind. But continuing this war of attrition was equally fatal. Were they supposed to just hold the line and pray for reinforcements?
A coordinated barrage of wind, ice, and piercing gunfire finally shattered the avian monstrosity's current form. The beast let out a garbled, mechanical screech before dissolving once more into a swirling cloud of scattered, purple-black Abyssal energy.
Dan Heng shifted his stance, bracing for the inevitable, sickening twist of light that signaled the next mutation.
But the light didn't twist.
Instead of expanding into a new nightmare, the disintegrating energy violently convulsed. It surged and contracted in place, pulsing like a dying, arrhythmic heart. The sickly purple-black aura flickered erratically, the internal energies clashing in a chaotic frenzy.
Then, with a sharp, vacuum-like hiss, the thick armor of corrupted energy enveloping the center collapsed inward.
The true, naked core of the Deep Simulated Crystal Tree was finally exposed.
A terrifying, chaotic gravitational pull erupted from the exposed crystal. It acted like a black hole, frantically siphoning the ambient Abyssal corruption that choked the air. Swirling tendrils of dark energy rushed into the crystal, feeding its desperate hunger.
Simultaneously, a geometric Void Realm Force Shield materialized around it. Ominous, glowing runes locked into place across the barrier's surface, forming an absolute defense around the recharging core.
"What... what is it doing now?" Belle gasped, bracing her hands on her knees as she stared at the swirling vortex of dark matter.
Dan Heng's eyes narrowed, his analytical mind instantly dissecting the phenomenon. "It's recharging. The constant forced mutations must have completely drained its internal reserves." He leveled his spear at the pulsing barrier. "It's in a vulnerable state. It had to halt its offensive cycle to siphon ambient corruption from the environment. That shield is a desperate, stopgap measure."
"Vulnerable? Recharging?" Paimon's eyes widened, her little gears turning at breakneck speed. "Wait! Doesn't that mean this is our only window to actually kill it?!"
"Exactly." Chasca's voice was deadly calm, though her eyes burned with a fierce, resolute light. "If we let it finish absorbing that energy, everything we just did means nothing. It'll come back worse than before."
She tossed her longbow aside. Reaching out, she channeled the very depths of her willpower, summoning her true weapon. A massive, strangely shaped Phlogiston rifle materialized in her grasp, pulsing with a brilliant, ghostly blue light.
With a fluid, acrobatic leap, she mounted the floating rifle, locking her boots into the grips. The heavy muzzle spun, instantly acquiring a hard lock on the dead center of the Void Realm Force Shield.
"Shadow-Chaser Bullets!" Chasca roared.
She didn't hold a single drop back. She poured every last ounce of her remaining Nightsoul power directly into the weapon's chamber, the metal whining under the sheer stress of the concentrated energy.
Buzz—!
The muzzle flared with blinding intensity. A torrent of energy rounds, dense as a torrential downpour, erupted from the barrel. Trailing vicious, ghostly blue streaks, the swarm of projectiles hammered into the exact same microscopic coordinate on the Void Realm Force Shield.
Trapped deep within the Night Kingdom, her Nightsoul points could not regenerate naturally. This was a true, all-or-nothing gamble.
Each Shadow-Chaser Bullet carried devastating elemental piercing power. The relentless kinetic impacts caused the dark barrier to vibrate violently, the ominous runes flickering and distorting under the strain.
"Now! Break the shield!" Dan Heng commanded.
He lunged forward, Cloud-Piercer becoming a blur of jade light. Violent gales of Anemo energy spiraled around the lead as he thrust it brutally into the fractured center of the barrier.
Belle gritted her teeth, pushing past her exhaustion. She threw her hands forward, unleashing wave after wave of extreme, biting frost, the sub-zero shockwaves slamming into the weakened runes.
Paimon hovered anxiously, her tiny fists clenched so tight her knuckles turned white, vibrating with the urge to do something—anything—to help.
Crack... crackle!
Under the combined, pinpoint bombardment, the Void Realm Force Shield finally reached its breaking point. A jagged, glowing fault line spider-webbed across the center of the barrier.
Dan Heng's piercing gale and Belle's freezing shockwave hit the fissure a fraction of a second later. It was the final, devastating blow.
Boom—!!!
The Void Realm Force Shield shattered like cheap black glass. The explosion sent jagged fragments of corrupted energy screaming through the air, dissolving into harmless smoke before they hit the ground.
The monstrous entity convulsed, completely paralyzed. Its beating, crystalline core hung suspended in the air, utterly stripped of its defenses.
"The core is open!" Dan Heng shouted over the ringing in their ears. "Everything you have! Now!"
Nobody hesitated. They dug deep into their very souls, dragging out the last dregs of their power.
Dan Heng vaulted into the air, his spear descending in a blinding arc of jade wind, striking with the devastating force of a falling meteor.
Belle unleashed her Everfrost Extreme Cold, a localized blizzard of razor-sharp ice lances that rained down upon the crystal with merciless precision.
Chasca's Phlogiston rifle roared one final time, the barrel smoking as she fired her absolute last Soul-Ripping Wind Bullet directly into the core's center.
Even Paimon joined the fray. With a dramatic, nervous shout, she summoned her bizarre, muscular spectral stand—Star Paimon. The towering, heavily muscled phantom flexed its exaggerated arms, ripped massive boulders straight out of the corrupted earth, and hurled them like cannonballs at the exposed crystal.
Rumble... BOOM!!!!
Every single attack converged on that fragile, unprotected core at the exact same millisecond.
The world went white.
A blinding flash of pure, destructive light swallowed the battlefield, followed instantly by a deafening, devastating explosion. Chaotic currents of conflicting elemental energy violently expanded outward, tearing deep, jagged trenches into the barren wasteland.
This time, there was no sickening twist of light. There was no miraculous rebirth.
The core of the Deep Simulated Crystal Tree was utterly and completely annihilated.
Deprived of its animating heart, the massive, hill-like husk of the beast froze. Then, inch by agonizing inch, it began to weather away. The physical structure crumbled into fine, purple-black ash, catching the harsh winds of the Night Kingdom and scattering across the sky. Within seconds, the nightmare that had pinned them down for so long vanished without a trace.
"We... we actually did it?" Belle stared at the empty, scorched earth, her voice trembling with disbelief.
"Finally..." Chasca slid off her floating rifle. Her legs gave out the moment her boots touched the ground, and she was forced to lean heavily against the weapon's chassis just to stay upright. A deep, bone-deep exhaustion washed over her face, softened only by immense relief.
Dan Heng exhaled a long, slow breath, resting his weight against Cloud-Piercer. Despite the victory, his sharp eyes continued to scan the desolate horizon, refusing to drop his guard until he was absolutely certain the threat was neutralized.
Paimon floated down, dramatically patting her tiny chest. "Oh, thank the stars... Paimon was so scared! It's finally over..."
But the universe, it seemed, wasn't quite finished with them yet.
Right at the epicenter of the crater, exactly where the Deep Simulated Crystal Tree's core had been erased from existence, the air began to warp. Another anomaly was taking shape.
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