The volley of holy light cannons was like God cutting the seams of the sky, and Ryan's retina was burned by the strong light, leaving a black blind spot. He used muscle memory to stab the holy sword into the core of the furnace, and the "Timeless ω" code on the hilt did not burst out energy, but Liria's cry - a sharp, quantum tremor like a baby's first cry.
"The output power is still 19% short!" Irene's chip exploded with sparks in the scar, and Ryan's symbiote's right arm began to carbonize due to overload. "Selina's reverse scale... use her blood..."
On the furnace control console, the reverse scale with the last words was melting. Ryan grabbed the scale and slapped it into his chest. The moment the black blood seeped into the furnace interface, the entire Xingyuan core roared like the first generation of the Dragon King. The amber light column that soared into the sky smashed the first wave of holy light cannons, and the aftermath burned the clouds into 299 concentric scorch marks.
(Gray's ice claws pierce the observation window——Misha's fragments of consciousness scream in the bright light——Elena's mechanical fingers dig out the reverse scale——)
"The left lava tube has ruptured!" The roar of the vampire engineer was mixed with the sizzling sound of mucus splashing, "The core temperature has exceeded the critical point!"
Ryan's symbiote gear bit the joystick, and the furnace mutated due to Selina's blood - it no longer spewed magma, but a quantum storm with crystal debris. Wherever the storm swept, the energy of the Holy Light Cannon was refracted back to the Vatican fleet, but each refracted trajectory dragged a slime trail like Liria's tears.
"Something's wrong..." Ryan's scar suddenly tore, and what flowed out was not blood - but fluorescent blue mucus from the same source as Liria's tears, "Erin! Check the core status!"
The chip's alarm was drowned out by the second salvo. The muzzles of the thirty-seven Vatican flagships lit up the "III" brand at the same time, and this time the beams had a strange crying frequency. The quantum storm of the furnace suddenly collapsed in the middle of the interception, and spider-web-like cracks exploded on the surface of the Xingyuan core, oozing out more mucus.
(Young Ryan slaps the glass in the incubator—Lyria's fish tail wraps around Elena's mechanical spine—The Judge's mask drips with mucus—)
"The resonance point is in the upper atmosphere!" Irene released an overload pulse, burning Ryan's optic nerves, "The refraction angle is wrong!"
Ryan's symbiote's right arm was completely destroyed. He tore the mechanical tendons with his teeth and inserted the broken limb into the emergency interface of the furnace. In the gushing mucus, he saw the mechanical spine of the first judge deep in the Star Abyss rift absorbing Lyria's tear mucus and reorganizing into a Cthulhu-style quantum creature.
"Selena...you bet right again..." Ryan injected the last tube of reverse scale blood into the heart, and crystals grew wildly from the wound into a temporary armor.
The third volley was more deadly than the previous two. The Holy Light Cannons formed a Type III Brand Matrix in space, with the crying face of Lyria's cloned embryo emerging at each node. The quantum storm of the furnace was absorbed by the matrix, feeding back to the Vatican's fleet with even hotter energy beams.
"The core is about to explode!" The blood clan engineer's screams came to an abrupt end, and he was corroded by the mucus into a pool of beating "III" type brand.
Ryan broke through the explosion-proof glass of the observatory, and the Xingyuan Holy Sword pierced into the core crack. The code on the hilt suddenly changed to "Lyria-ε", and the phantom of Lyria's body emerged from the sword, and the fish tail wrapped around his wrist: "Brother... This way we can be forever..."
(Gray's ice claws are engraved with the termination code——Elena's tears drip onto the controller——Selena's reverse scales shatter into stardust——)
"Forever your head!" Ryan tore off the fishtail phantom, and the holy sword burst out not light but darkness - absolute, all-devouring star abyss protoplasm.
Darkness crawled all over the Holy Light Cannon matrix like a living thing, and all energy beams were twisted into funny curves. The flagships of the Holy See exploded one after another, but Ryan couldn't laugh - the cracks in the core of the Star Abyss were erupting a tsunami of slime, and floating on the crest of the wave was the reorganized quantum body of the First Judge.
"Gift..." The Judge's mechanical spine split into a mouth and spit out 299 clones of Elena, "The Matrix gives you the last..."
The slime tsunami suddenly froze. Liria's true form descended from the void, and her fish tail smashed all the clones. Her "III" brand no longer flashed the Holy Seal of the Church, but the code of Ryan's reverse scale scar: "Mom... lied to us..."
Branch Undercurrent
Gray's ice claws were reassembled in the sea of mucus, engraved with "Protoplasm Awakening Warning". Deep in the Star Abyss Rift, the skull of the first generation dragon king was absorbing the mechanical spine of the Chief Judge, and Selina's reverse scale pattern appeared on the surface...