Meanwhile, inside Shiyu Tower.
In the end, the only squad that did not execute Isolde's retreat order, choosing instead to remain defending Shiyu Tower, was currently using the Ether-accumulating rifles in their hands to sweep away all the small Ethereals attempting to approach the tower.
As the squad captain killed an approaching Level 1 Ethereal with a single shot, he subconsciously raised his head once again to look at the sky.
In his line of sight, that shadow belonging to Nineveh was constantly drawing closer from above the heavens.
Looking at that incomparably massive Ethereal, the squad captain shrugged and looked at the two people beside him, who were more like brothers than mere squadmates.
Speaking somewhat cautiously, he said:
"Actually, I feel like you two didn't have to stay behind with me to keep Number Two and Number Four company."
Regarding his words, Number Three, who had just cleaved a Tyrfing—a Level 1 Ethereal attracted by the Ether energy—in half with a single blade strike, curled his lips in annoyance.
He chose to snap back directly.
"Piss off! We're at this point and you're getting sentimental on me? What? You think Number Five and I aren't qualified to stay and keep those two company?"
Number Five, who was holding a single-soldier rocket launcher, immediately picked up the conversation:
"Exactly! Boss, it's no fun if you act like this. Staying behind was a decision we made together!"
As he spoke, he fired a rocket from the launcher in his hands, blasting a Mandragora in the distance—which could provide buffs to other Ethereals—into fragments.
Then, he also spoke without any politeness:
"Anyway, even if we run, we'd just die in the shockwave. Compared to dying in some unknown place, why not just stay here directly to accompany Second Brother and Fourth Brother who are sleeping here?"
Hearing this.
Although he was the one who initially said he wanted to stay, as the captain, the Boss still mumbled somewhat hesitantly:
"Isn't there still a probability that we could survive..."
Regarding this captain who suddenly became sentimental again, Brother Three, acting as the squad's main attacker, immediately retorted upon hearing these words:
"Tch, then why were you the first to say you wanted to stay when you heard about the retreat?"
Although he was constantly being snapped at back and forth by his own team members as the captain, he still looked as if he had no temper at all, whispering softly:
"Isn't it because now there's the two of you added to the mix..."
regarding the captain's quiet muttering, Number Five, who had been standing beside him, rarely didn't speak up to snap at him. Instead, he just turned his head, glanced at him, and said:
"What? Regret it?"
Subconsciously reaching out to scratch his cheek, the Boss, acting as captain, mumbled for a moment before unable to stop himself from sighing. Eventually, he nodded frankly and said:
"A little."
Seeing him like this, Number Three spoke up again after slicing another Ethereal in half with a single stroke:
"Regretting it now? Too late!"
Looking at the outside world where the distance to Shiyu Tower was only a few thousand meters remaining, and where he could already clearly see Nineveh's outline, he continued to speak somewhat grumpily:
"You go ahead and regret yours, anyway, I don't regret it! With the effort spent regretting, you might as well kill two more Ethereals sneaking in, or pray that some miracle happens and blasts that big guy directly to death with a 'boom'."
Accompanied by Nineveh's approach, the Boss, who could already faintly hear the sorrowful screams Nineveh couldn't stop emitting due to her wounds, heard these words.
After hesitating for a split second, he opened his mouth and said:
"How about... I really pray for a bit?"
"Piss off!" x2
Although the mouths of the three never stopped moving, each of them was unconsciously watching Nineveh, who was growing larger and larger in their line of sight.
They all knew that the moment Nineveh arrived at Shiyu Tower would be the instant of their deaths.
Death is forever the heaviest of topics.
Silence spread among the three. Finally, the Boss, as the captain, wore a tranquil expression and was the first to speak:
"In the next life, bring along Number Two and Number Four. Let's all be brothers again."
The two standing beside him didn't say much, only giving a soft 'mm-hmm' in a low voice, which counted as a reply.
However, in this originally heavy atmosphere, the nagging murmurs of the Boss did not stop.
"As a mascot, in the next life, I think it's indeed most suitable for me to be Number Five. That way, I won't need to be forcibly dragged out by Number Three and the others to train all the time under the pretext that a captain can't be embarrassing..."
Hearing this, the veins on the foreheads of the two beside him, who were originally immersed in a sorrowful atmosphere, couldn't help but bulge slightly.
The next moment, the two could no longer hold back and grabbed the captain's neck in a chokehold.
"You guy, have a bit of ambition! And we did that for your own good! Even if you become Number Five, it just changes from the title of Captain to Squad Member!"
Feeling the tightening arms around his neck and seeing Nineveh in the sky already almost in front of Shiyu Tower, in probably just a few seconds, they would sleep here eternally along with this tower.
But just then, an anomaly that had never appeared before entered their line of sight.
As the Boss, he slapped his team members' arms with all his might, pointing in Nineveh's direction and shouting loudly:
"Wait wait wait! Look there! Can there be meteors inside a Hollow? And it's red!"
"Huh?" x2
Yes, a meteor.
A meteor falling straight down appeared in the trio's line of sight with a posture that caught everyone off guard.
And its target was incomparably clear: it was precisely Nineveh, who was roaming above the sky like an incarnation of death.
Time rewinds to Andrew advancing continuously through the fissures.
Throughout this journey, Ray had never, from beginning to end, imagined what method exactly Andrew intended to use to deal with Nineveh, who was high in the sky.
Until Andrew finally arrived at the destination guided by Belle.
On the ground, a deep spatial rift appeared in front of everyone, and in Andrew's hand, he was already gripping a Tyrfing he had casually grabbed from the roadside at some point.
Casually tossing the Tyrfing, whose limbs had already been snapped, to his side, Andrew then stood beside the rift.
The countdown ticking away in his goggles made everyone understand that he was currently waiting for something.
Isolde stared at the rift in front of Andrew on the screen.
When she checked the map synchronized by Belle to see what location its corresponding exit led to, Isolde, who had previously maintained silence while observing Andrew's every move, finally realized what he was planning to do.
Subsequently, she couldn't help but cry out in astonishment:
"Wait, are you intending to jump down from an altitude of several thousand meters?!"
Accompanied by Isolde pointing out Andrew's plan, everyone in the command post looked at Andrew, whose expression remained as usual, with incomparable astonishment.
And the constantly rolling countdown in his goggles also reached the end.
Ten seconds.
Isolde couldn't help but widen her eyes. Regarding the possibility she had thought of, she couldn't help but refute with a voice trembling with agitation:
"No, you can't! This is too dangerous!"
"Andrew! Your original identity is just as extra support coming to help; you don't have the obligation to risk your life like this for this!"
"All the stationed soldiers in Shiyu Tower have already been arranged to evacuate at the first opportunity. There is no need to perform such a risky move purely for a single Shiyu Tower!"
Although publicly, this was indeed the case, what Isolde didn't say was...
The reason she was so agitated was also partly due to the selfishness hidden in the bottom of her heart.
Andrew was, after all, her greatest hope for completing her own revenge without going through the Exaltists.
If any accident happened to him because of this...
Isolde had never forgotten that the cause of this incident was her own tacit approval. So, if Andrew met with an accident because of this, then she would also bear a part of the responsibility.
At the same time, she, who had finally seen hope with great difficulty, would only be able to walk down that path of no return.
Whether for her former team member Orpheus or the current Obols Squad.
If there was a choice, she absolutely did not want to rely on the power of the Originator to complete her revenge no matter what.
But such selfishness could not be spoken explicitly in the current setting.
Meanwhile, beside the rift.
Regarding Isolde's somewhat agitated words of dissuasion, Andrew was extremely calm.
Staring at the number constantly counting down marked by Belle in his goggles, while waiting for the timing he needed to arrive, Andrew spoke up:
"Three minutes. It won't be enough time, right?"
Regarding these sudden words from Andrew, Isolde didn't even react for a moment.
She subconsciously replied:
"What?"
Five seconds.
Andrew slowly drew Icebrink from his back. The previous Great Iai had not consumed the power gathered within it; the blade, still crimson red, was still emitting an incomparably dazzling fighting spirit.
Icebrink, who similarly felt a resonance with Andrew's plan, was now completely fired up.
In her impatient, slight tremors, the intense red light had even begun to unconsciously distort the air. The sharp blade edge seemed sufficient to tear apart even the fragile space in front of it.
The hands gripping Icebrink's hilt began to exert force unconsciously, and terrifying power began to accumulate within his body.
He prepared to use, after a long time, what he had learned back then from the hands of his master, the Sapphire Star.
That single, most pure slash known to all Tachi Hunters.
No need to reserve power for subsequent moves that could chain into combos. Focus all the power of the entire body.
Breathing, movement, even the slight unconscious trembling of the muscles had disappeared.
Everything was for that strongest strike.
There would be no subsequent large-area multi-blade qi slashes; there was only the Tachi's sharpest, and also strongest, single blade.
Staring at the massive yet slender tip of Icebrink in his hand, Andrew said in a deep voice:
"With only three minutes of time, the soldiers won't have enough time to completely retreat outside the danger zone of Shiyu Tower's explosion range, right?"
Hearing Andrew's words, Isolde was somewhat at a loss for words for a moment.
Andrew was right.
Three minutes seemed like a long time, but when attempting to retreat out of the explosion range formed by Shiyu Tower—whose detonation power was enough to create a massive rift—it was...
One could only say it was falling short.
Although it might barely be enough to evacuate outside the explosion area, with the incomparably violent shockwave that would follow the explosion, it would be difficult for ordinary soldiers to survive.
Not only that.
As the peril-filled Hollow Zero, the Ethereals that could appear at any time to block the road made this evacuation, which was a race against the Reaper, directly turn into a game of luck.
The shockwave generated by the explosion, the omnipresent Ethereals, and the spatial rifts that could appear unstably at any time.
In this Hollow Zero where monsters were everywhere, wanting to survive the explosion of Shiyu Tower could only be described as being the lucky one in ten thousand.
She had to admit that what Andrew said was correct.
And just now, in order not to let Andrew take the risk, she had treated the detonation of Shiyu Tower as a necessary price for the future of humanity, thereby choosing to directly ignore another possibility.
A possibility where humanity could achieve victory directly without paying any price.
And if she wanted that perfect possibility to appear, the only thing she needed to do was to believe in this man in front of her who had already made her give up the power of the Originator.
Three seconds.
After staying silent for just a split second, Isolde, having made up her mind, finally said very seriously:
"If you fail, such an action would be throwing your life away."
And regarding these final words from Isolde, which couldn't quite be determined as dissuasion or not, Andrew replied with a relaxed face but concisely:
"Relax, I'm confident."
Without continuing to say more, Isolde ultimately chose to believe again.
Since she had already chosen to place her chips on him before, then continuing to choose to believe now was presumably also quite reasonable, right?
Two seconds.
As the final voice fell, Andrew slightly closed his eyes.
Opening them again, only the sharp edge of his fully gathered focus remained in his eyes.
One second.
The strength of his entire body gathered in his arms at this moment, then the blade, and finally a single point.
The terrifying power formed a certain subtle qualitative change at this moment. On the blade edge, that originally blazing red light was stained with a trace of black, so subtle it was hard to detect, in this instant.
Although this color was like an illusion to bystanders, disappearing again just an instant after appearing...
The touch of change that Andrew sensed did not dissipate.
The long blade was sent forward.
Relying on the broken body of the Tyrfing as a springboard, Andrew leaped high in the next moment using this subtle reaction force.
Accompanied by the sound of the Tyrfing shattering, Andrew leaped fiercely toward the rift in front of him.
Zero seconds.
"Spirit Helm Breaker!"
When passing through the rift, that mottled black merely obscured his vision for an instant before dissipating again.
Following that was the whistling wind.
Blazing red light covered the blade's body. While slicing through the air, it left an incomparably long tail of flame in the sky.
Dragged by gravity, Andrew felt himself constantly accelerating, and accelerating again.
The air beneath his feet was constantly compressed, seemingly forming an invisible membrane. Accompanied by the massive acceleration, wild winds circled around him, forming visible streams of air.
But everything around him could not affect Andrew in the slightest.
In his incomparably focused eyes, there was only his target from beginning to end, and beneath him was the figure just happening to pass under this rift—Nineveh.
Nineveh, who had never imagined she would be attacked from top to bottom at this altitude, had no defense whatsoever against Andrew's existence.
By the time she noticed the terrifying aura and the sharp sound of breaking air coming from above her head...
Everything was already too late.
"ROAR!!!!"
Like a mixture of a beast's roar and a young girl's shriek, the incomparably bizarre roaring sound carried a sense of panic, astonishment, and anger.
Panic that she would actually be attacked in this place.
Astonishment that one of the culprits who had injured her to this extent before actually dared to come to her home turf.
And following these two was an endless anger.
It was too late to dodge, but she could still block.
All the tentacles behind her instantly barred across her chest, layering and overlapping, supporting each other, attempting to use this to block this slash coming from above.
But, it was useless.
From beginning to end, the Spirit Helm Breaker of the New World had always been about moving forward with indomitable will.
This Spirit Helm Breaker was like cleaving mountains and cracking rocks. The sharp Tachi was unavoidable at extreme speed.
Almost instantly, it had already slashed onto Nineveh's body.
The next moment.
Her tentacles, which could directly whip military autonomous mechs into two sections, did not play any blocking role. Andrew's Tachi landed on Nineveh's body as if it had merely swiped through air.
Then came the core acting as the head, the chest cavity, the abdominal armor, and finally the most complete cocoon.
The core already formed on that unformed embryo, just like the main core in Nineveh's abdomen before, could not put up any resistance in the face of Andrew's Spirit Helm Breaker.
And the difference between it and Nineveh under Andrew's blade was merely the difference between air and flowing water.
It wasn't until Andrew's Tachi had strafed straight through Nineveh's entire body that the attack, condensed to the extreme, finally dispersed at this moment.
Light.
Blade light.
Massive blade light spilled out, accompanied by Nineveh disintegrating in mid-air with delayed reaction. The moment the dispersion appeared, the terrifying energy seemed to have finally found a vent.
Instantly, the sword qi formed merely by the aftershocks seemed to break out of the body and fly toward the boundless sky. The radiance reflected into everyone's eye sockets.
Blocking out the sun and sky, as if it had severed the firmament.
____
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