After the journey they had shared, Hoshimi Miyabi, who had completely accepted Andrew as a comrade, saw him agree to her departure. With full trust, she turned and set off.
On the 'Carrot' she carried, Belle had already marked the shortest path to the front line for her.
For Hoshimi Miyabi, who had become a Void Hunter relying entirely on her own strength from start to finish, this was enough. Although she couldn't use her full power due to Wuwei's instability, as long as the suppression from Icebrink allowed Wuwei to revert to a standard Tachi, that was sufficient for her.
She rushed to the front line at top speed.
Facing the Ethereals that were still surging like a tide after so much time, Hoshimi Miyabi slowly drew Wuwei from its scabbard.
In her heart, which had always remained calm regardless of the situation, a trace of irritability couldn't help but surface.
The opponent worth fighting was clearly right there, and the trustworthy companion was still there pondering countermeasures. Yet, she had no choice but to leave.
Although she hadn't shown any resistance to Andrew's arrangement from beginning to end and had obeyed his instructions very decisively... for a martial arts fanatic like Hoshimi Miyabi, leaving was still leaving, even with a perfectly reasonable justification.
Looking in the direction Nineveh was advancing, Hoshimi Miyabi couldn't help but feel a bit unable to let it go.
The knot in her heart made her chest feel as if a breath was stuck there. Looking at the countless Ethereals in front of the defensive line, she could only choose to vent all this pent-up frustration on the monsters before her.
She bit her lip lightly.
Surging ice flames began to burn invisibly in the air; this was the anger belonging to Hoshimi Miyabi. Not directed at others, but at herself.
If only she could be a bit stronger, if only she could completely subdue Wuwei...
But in this world, the one thing not lacking is 'if'.
As the Tachi in her hand swung out, incomparably sharp sword qi cut through the sky in an instant.
Hundreds of Ethereals turned into glittering Ether crystals under this single blade. A huge vacuum instantly appeared on the battle line, significantly relieving the pressure on everyone in an instant.
Looking at the battle line that had been directly cleared in front of them, several soldiers, upon realizing that Hoshimi Miyabi had come to support them, breathed a sigh of relief. Their physical strength exhausted, they could no longer hold on and slumped onto the ground, sitting heavily.
It wasn't until after slashing out this blade that the frustration in Hoshimi Miyabi's heart dissipated a little.
The next moment.
As if wanting to vent the sullenness of only being able to watch Andrew protect her throughout the journey, several more fierce streaks of sword qi were slashed out.
Accompanied by large swathes of Ethereals turning into a field of Ether crystals, the seemingly endless Ethereal tide finally seemed to see hope of an end at this moment.
Meanwhile, on the other side.
As Hoshimi Miyabi departed, Andrew did not rush to chase after Nineveh, who was flying further and further away, in a mindless frenzy.
Taking advantage of the brief peace where no Ethereals would appear for a short time due to the battle just now, Andrew looked through his goggles. He carefully examined a map organized by Belle via the H.D.D System in an extremely short amount of time, showing the positions of all spatial rifts along Nineveh's subsequent route.
The data belonging to Nineveh's advancement route was also detailed by Belle in this data set.
Referencing these two incomparably detailed pieces of intelligence, Andrew immediately began to search earnestly.
At the same time.
As time passed second by second, Ray, watching Andrew's every move via the broadcast in Scott Outpost, couldn't help but feel anxious.
The total time left for Andrew was only three minutes. Yet, in everyone's perspective, he had already been standing still in place for nearly a minute.
In fact, the moment she learned that the initial forced decapitation operation had failed and that there were only three minutes left until Nineveh approached Shiyu Tower, based on experience, Ray had already judged the outcome of this operation as a failure in her heart.
It was precisely then that Ray had issued the retreat order to the Defense Force stationed at Shiyu Tower.
Watching Andrew, who kept flipping through the intelligence in his goggles without the slightest intention of giving up—as if he hadn't realized this point at all—Ray understood his unwillingness.
But under the current circumstances, stopping Nineveh was simply impossible.
Setting aside everything else, just the question of whether Andrew, who couldn't fly and could only chase on the ground, could catch up was a huge question mark.
One had to know that according to the path data currently displayed in the Carrot, the shortest distance between Andrew and Shiyu Tower right now was significant. Even at the limit of human speed—43 kilometers per hour—it would take twenty minutes to arrive.
So even if Andrew set off non-stop from the very beginning, his speed would need to be at least 266 kilometers per hour.
Given the current time remaining, he would need to reach a speed of 400 kilometers per hour to make it. And this wasn't even accounting for the Ethereals he would inevitably encounter, which would slow him down.
Not to mention, it wasn't just about speed.
Asking a Proxy to improvise an analysis of shortcuts within a Hollow also took time.
Even for Ray, who had military data support, if she wanted to improvise an analysis of another route, she would need at least one minute.
Even if Phaethon, as a legendary Proxy, was strong, they shouldn't be too outrageously far off the mark.
In the face of these two unsolvable major problems, no matter what Andrew wanted to do, it was already too late.
Under the current conditions, detonating Shiyu Tower in advance before Nineveh arrived was the best, and simultaneously the only, choice.
Thus, to prevent Andrew from drilling into a dead end, Ray chose to take the initiative to shoulder this responsibility.
She spoke up: "Andrew, there are only two minutes left. It's... already too late."
But regarding Ray's reminder, Andrew, who was fully concentrating on finding that most suitable spatial rift, turned a deaf ear because he was too engrossed.
It wasn't until another dozen seconds had passed that Andrew finally found the target he needed.
He immediately pointed without hesitation to one of the hundreds of rifts along Nineveh's path and spoke into his headset:
"Belle, guide me on the path that can exit from this rift. The only condition is that it must be as short as possible! At the same time, sync the time of how long until Nineveh passes this point in my goggles!"
But now, the time remaining was only one minute and thirty-seven seconds.
Ray, who still felt in her heart that everything was already too late, continued to persuade him earnestly: "It's too late, Andrew. Causing this situation is not your responsibility."
Although it was very difficult, Ray still said it word by word: "There is only this much time left; even for Phaethon, it's too late. The best method is to choose to actively detonate Shiyu Tower in advance when Nineveh arrives in front of it."
However, Andrew did not choose to agree with Ray's words of dissuasion.
Revealing a confident smile, Andrew then said very seriously: "Relax, things haven't reached the level where we need to perish together with Nineveh yet. On the contrary, I feel you might have underestimated the gold content of my partner, Phaethon, as a legendary Proxy."
As Andrew's voice fell, Belle's relaxed and confident tone came from the headset: "Heh heh~ If I didn't have a few tricks up my sleeve, how would I dare to claim the title of Legendary Proxy? In the aspect of Hollows, I am invincible!"
At the same time, a brand new route sent by Belle appeared in front of Andrew.
Although dangerous, there was no doubt that this path containing only thirteen nodes was absolutely the route with the shortest distance to the position Andrew mentioned.
And until this moment, the time Belle had spent was only a total of seven seconds.
Seven seconds.
Don't look at it as just nine times faster than Ray's analysis speed. One had to know that for Ray to become one of the main persons in charge of Scott Outpost as a scholar, her strength as a Hollow Investigator was absolutely at a first-class standard among all official investigators in New Eridu.
Compared to the mixed bag of Proxies in the gray zone of the Proxy Net, her strength was a complete and utter crush.
This also meant she didn't actually hold too many expectations regarding the so-called gold content of the Legendary Proxy that had recently been widely circulating on the Proxy Net.
But the facts told her just how outrageously wrong she was.
Phaethon's speed was faster than hers by this much.
It could be said that the more one understood the profession of a Proxy, the more shocked one would feel at the strength Phaethon was currently displaying.
"Th... how is this possible..."
Looking at the scene before her, Ray, as a Senior Scholar of the Whistar Academy, had now even started to doubt whether the things she learned in the Academy were the same species of knowledge as what Phaethon learned.
Otherwise, both being investigators, why would the gap be so large to this extent?
Comparing herself to her was simply like getting into a boxing ring and having the referee tell you your opponent's surname is Ty.
You thought your opponent was Tyson, and under the assumption that you could at least struggle a bit, the red curtain opens and you discover your opponent is actually called Tyro (Ultraman Taro).
The gap between the two was already so huge that it made one unable to raise any thought of comparison.
In front of Phaethon, finding a way in the Hollow was as easy and casual as walking in their own back garden.
However, right now, teammates were definitely better the stronger they were.
The strength of Phaethon made her immediately breathe a slight sigh of relief. Ray couldn't help but sigh inwardly with emotion. The name of a legend was not in vain.
Seeing this, a trace of hope couldn't help but surge in her heart.
It was just that this hope could be said to be fleeting.
When she saw the detailed intelligence of the nodes this route passed through, Ray still couldn't help but widen her eyes slightly.
"This... is this really okay?!"
In the thirteen nodes drawn by Belle, according to the Defense Force database markings, these nodes were basically all High-Danger Nodes.
One had to know that to be marked as a High-Danger Node, it started with a combination of extremely dangerous Level 3 Ethereals at the very least; Level 4 Ethereals were the norm.
And a Level 4 Ethereal could directly become an overlord-like existence in a small Companion Hollow.
Regarding Ray's words, Andrew, who had already obtained the route, chose to answer directly with practical action this time.
"Well then, I'm off."
Accompanying Andrew taking a step forward in a full-force sprint, the originally flat ground shattered instantly as his foot landed.
As Andrew charged continuously, the originally flat ground beneath his feet became a mess in an instant. If an uninformed person saw it, they would only think this place had just been trampled by a giant beast not long ago.
Different from Hoshimi Miyabi's lightness and sharpness when running, facing the dangers along this road, Andrew—despite clearly not wearing any armor—ran like a heavy tank with the gas pedal floored.
In front of him, anything blocking the way would be thoroughly crushed to powder.
Ethereals, cars, buildings, even abandoned military chariots.
No existence could make his footsteps pause in the slightest. In front of Andrew running recklessly, all obstacles were nothing more than foam that shattered at a touch.
Watching Andrew in the footage, who resembled a runaway dump truck as he directly smashed a hole through a military heavy troop carrier left behind during the Fall of the Old Capital...
Ray couldn't help but genuinely feel that her description was indeed too conservative.
In less than a short minute, Andrew had directly pierced through thirteen nodes that were all marked as High-Danger Zones in the military map according to the route.
On average, each node took only 3.8 seconds.
Although she had felt this way when watching the recording of the concert that one time, regarding the scene before her eyes, she still sincerely felt one word: Ridiculous.
But even so, the crowd was still unclear on how exactly Andrew intended to threaten Nineveh, who was flying at an altitude of several thousand meters.
One had to know that after so many years of Slash-and-Burn Operations, there wasn't a single time the military didn't conduct the operation with the aim of completely subjugating Nineveh.
But the final results of these actions were also obvious.
Every military crusade against Nineveh had to end by declaring failure after the opponent suffered relatively serious damage.
This was, of course, not humans showing mercy.
As the damage reached a certain threshold, Nineveh would immediately disengage from the battlefield regardless of everything and fly towards the high sky.
And when facing Nineveh in the high sky, humans didn't have any effective methods to threaten her.
When the altitude reached a certain degree, the shells of human ground forces couldn't reach her at all, and humans, whose air power consisted only of helicopters and airships, couldn't fight the incomparably agile Nineveh in the air.
Leaving aside airships, which were complete toys in front of Ethereals... the lasers composed of high-concentration Ether energy could instantly slice helicopters—which were complete targets for Nineveh—in half.
As for human Void Hunter-level powerhouses, they naturally couldn't fight Nineveh in the high sky without any foothold.
Although there was a possibility of winning, humans were unwilling to bear the risk of losing a Void Hunter.
After all, no matter what, Nineveh—for whom they already had systematic suppression methods—had not yet reached a level of threat to humanity that required elimination at all costs. Compared to risking humanity's already scarce power to chase and kill her in the air...
The higher-ups were still more willing to wait for her to land on her own before restarting the crusade.
But this time, following Nineveh's mutation, her situation was completely different from before.
Nineveh, who never had a goal in the past, now had a goal because of that embryo. It was impossible to wait for her to descend on her own now.
Rather, if they waited until she was ready to land, it would be too late even if the Defense Force wanted to stop her.
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