Meanwhile, on the intercepting defensive line deployed by the Defense Force.
"Drifting Snow."
Accompanied by the trails of chilling blade marks left in the air by Wuwei, which was wrapped in ice flames, the Tachi in Hoshimi Miyabi's hand slashed out fiercely with the waving of her arm.
Hiss—
With the whistling sound of the blade edge slicing through the air at extreme speed, in just a mere moment, the Ethereals in yet another area were cut into fragmented Ether crystals by her single slash.
On the battle line beneath her feet, crystals like these had already paved a thick layer over the ground of this area.
She was currently sweeping away the Ethereals endlessly surging toward the battle line at top speed.
Not far from Hoshimi Miyabi, Meow-Da—whose rescue pressure had been significantly reduced because her support caused the probability of ordinary Defense Force squads encountering danger to drop rapidly—was currently holding the Chainblade Dragon Great Sword high in his hands.
"Meow-aaaah!!"
When the accumulated power reached the Red Blade state, the Chainblade Dragon Great Sword hacked down heavily, driven by the strength of his entire body.
Thud!!
Accompanied by a dull sound akin to a massive solid iron block smashing into the ground, a Level 4 Armored Hati in front of Meow-Da was split into two halves, along with its armor.
The so-called heavy armored shell was like a thin layer of plastic before Meow-Da's Great Sword, shattering in an instant.
And its Core, which had been protected by the armor...
As Meow-Da lifted the Great Sword again, revealing the Core beneath that had not yet completely dissipated, its shattered appearance looked less like it had been cut, and more like it had been directly smashed into fragments by immense force.
The cooperation between the two had been established the moment Hoshimi Miyabi arrived at the battle line.
Hoshimi Miyabi, whose move range was larger and whose attacks and movement were swifter—making her ability to deal with crowds stronger—was responsible for sweeping away all ordinary Level 1 to Level 3 Ethereals that could be solved with a single slash in their normal state.
Meanwhile, the powerful individuals mixed within, whose individual strength reached a level requiring some time to resolve, were handed over to Meow-Da, whose single-target output capability with the Great Sword was explosive.
Basically, just when Hoshimi Miyabi finished sweeping away all the ordinary Ethereals, Meow-Da would coincidentally smash a Level 4 Ethereal mixed among them into two sections with a charged strike.
The fact that Nineveh's ability to attract Ethereals could at most only attract those three tiers lower than herself really helped a lot. If she could attract Level 5 Ethereals, then not only would the battle line be difficult to maintain, but Meow-Da and Hoshimi Miyabi would also be unable to achieve the current situation where they instant-killed everything they fought.
As they killed more and more Ethereals, the cooperation between the two became increasingly proficient.
Consequently, the speed of sweeping Ethereals also became increasingly rapid.
This not only shared the burden for the ordinary soldiers, but even the pressure on Section 6 and Obols Squad, who acted as the spearhead at the very front of the battle line in other areas, was alleviated significantly because of this.
"Meow?"
Standing beside Hoshimi Miyabi with his Great Sword on his shoulder, Meow-Da scratched his head in slight confusion.
He didn't know why, but when he and Hoshimi Miyabi slashed their way past the area Section 6 was responsible for defending, Tsukishiro Yanagi, acting as the frontline commander, seemed to have a smile on her face that suddenly became a bit strained for some reason.
Her eyes also became a bit dangerous.
Presumably... it shouldn't have anything to do with him... probably.
Meanwhile, behind Meow-Da.
Gazing at that very familiar, fluffy large tail behind Meow-Da, Tsukishiro Yanagi's eyes couldn't help but narrow slightly.
She pushed her glasses up gently with her finger, concealing her gaze under the reflection of the lenses.
In the sky, Nineveh was still flying unwaveringly toward her target. There wasn't much distance left between her and the Shiyu Tower that needed protection.
Although the Defense Force's battle line had become stable again due to their participation, in the final analysis, the fundamental reason for this battle occurring was to protect Shiyu Tower.
Therefore, this meant that as long as Shiyu Tower was detonated, the interception battle that had lasted so long would simultaneously be declared a complete failure.
But even so, Hoshimi Miyabi showed no intention of moving.
Andrew had never sent a message admitting defeat, so he definitely had his own assurance.
Hoshimi Miyabi chose to believe in this comrade she had only recently acknowledged.
Before Andrew succeeded, what she needed to do was to follow Andrew's arrangement and exterminate all the incoming Ethereals that might be infected with the Frenzy Virus right here.
Hoshimi Miyabi took a light, deep breath and sheathed Wuwei.
But just as the two finished sweeping the area in front of them and were just preparing to proceed to the next area...
Suddenly.
In the sky, Nineveh, who was originally flying toward Shiyu Tower, raised her head as if she had discovered something, looking toward her own... overhead?
Why would she suddenly look overhead?
Unlike Hoshimi Miyabi's initial reaction of confusion, when Meow-Da saw this scene, he immediately revealed a look of sudden realization and understanding.
Time seemed to stagnate at this moment.
Accompanied by a streak of crimson blade light that seemed as if it would cleave space itself apart, extending all the way from the sky to the ground, Nineveh, who had been roaming in the air, froze in place the instant the blade light appeared.
It wasn't until a trace of trembling involuntarily appeared in Nineveh's body.
The next moment, her body involuntarily split apart along the vertical line drawn by the blade light, as if realizing it only with a delay.
Like a bird in the sky losing its wings.
After this single slash, Nineveh, whose Cores were all completely pulverized in an instant, was powerless to resist the capture of gravity any longer.
Splitting into two halves along the smooth incision, she plummeted straight toward the ground in two directions.
In Hoshimi Miyabi's unconsciously widened eyes, Nineveh was like a fish that had suddenly lost the water it could swim in. The only thing she could do was make that final, futile struggle in the air.
She was already near death under the combined attacks of Andrew and Hoshimi Miyabi; from start to finish, she had purely been forcibly hanging onto her last breath through the embryo in the cocoon. She couldn't even last until hitting the ground before turning into brilliant Ether crystal fragments in mid-air.
Under the illumination of the light, it was dazzling, like a rain formed of light.
This Named Ethereal, marked as extremely dangerous, who had once brought incomparably painful tragedy to New Eridu—Nineveh—was completely annihilated under everyone's shocked gazes.
Like an incomparably grand firework, celebrating this undisputed victory belonging to humanity.
Although Nineveh had completely dissipated, the Etherealized Gore Magala Larva inside the cocoon, because its core was destroyed for the first time and it belonged to the Dragon species with tenacious vitality, instead plummeted toward the ground carried by inertia.
At the same time.
With the death of Nineveh, the Ethereal ecosystem named the "Mutualistic Symbiotic Ethereal Swarm," which had her as the core, collapsed completely at this moment.
The moment Nineveh died, the Ethereal swarm that had originally gathered due to the high-concentration Ether energy she emitted at all times lost the target that attracted them constantly. They no longer had a completely unified direction of advance.
The Ethereal tide, originally sharing a single goal, diverged at this moment.
But what truly caused it to descend into chaos and collapse were those Ethereals among them infected with the Frenzy Virus.
Without Nineveh's suppression, the Ethereals that had fallen completely into a frenzied instinct released the tyranny that had been forcibly suppressed until now.
Anger.
Destruction.
Mania and the desire to destroy everything completely obscured the Ethereals' already scant ability to think. Completely controlled by the Frenzy Virus, they slowly raised the weapons on their bodies.
The next moment, they swung fiercely at the other Ethereals beside them.
After all, since they wanted to destroy, compared to the humans who were layered and shielded by their companions, it was naturally more convenient to directly attack the other Ethereals right next to them.
And the Ethereals being attacked weren't existences that only knew how to take a beating without fighting back.
The mutual strife between Ethereals advancing in different directions, the indiscriminate attacks of the Frenzy Virus Ethereals, and the Ethereals dragged in due to accidental injuries during the fighting grew in number.
Finally.
Under a chain of reactions, the original battle line turned into the most chaotic battlefield.
Countless Ethereals within it were constantly slaughtering and devouring each other.
Instead, their original enemy, the Defense Force, after eliminating that portion directly in front of them, was directly left to one side, only able to stare blankly at that incomparably chaotic battlefield.
For a time, the soldiers on the battle line were even a bit at a loss for what to do.
Fortunately, Isolde, acting as commander, quickly discovered that rather than sitting back to reap the benefits, this battlefield looked more like raising Gu (venomous pests). She decisively commanded the army to completely surround this area.
Subsequently, snipers and heavy gunners killed and eliminated all threatening targets in the battlefield one by one.
At the same time, they could assist in the self-destruction of this massive swathes of Ethereals.
After all, she hadn't forgotten that the root cause of this massive disaster was precisely because Nineveh had been infected with the Frenzy Virus.
If this were allowed to spread directly inside the Hollow...
Isolde really didn't dare to imagine what kind of consequences would arise in the future.
Although the Frenzy Virus had long been leaked due to the Exaltists, exterminating all these Ethereals would inevitably delay the spread of the Frenzy Virus within the Hollow to the greatest extent.
In this way, humanity would at least have the opportunity to attempt to find countermeasures.
According to the words previously pried from that woman, Sarah's, mouth...
This time, one of the main purposes of the Exaltists doing all this was to use the massive quantity of Ethereals in Nineveh's "Mutualistic Symbiotic Ethereal Swarm" to spread it directly throughout the entire Hollow Zero.
Although she didn't know what the opponent's goal was.
But since they were her enemies, then no matter what the opponent wanted to do, stepping in to stop it was the right move.
It wasn't until Section 6 and Obols Squad together had completely corralled the gradually shrinking Ethereal tide, ensuring no Ethereal would escape, that Isolde finally breathed a sigh of relief.
At the same time.
The moment Andrew landed, Isolde began doing something equally, or even more, important compared to this matter.
That was attempting to re-establish contact with Andrew.
In the final video footage transmitted back by Andrew's goggles earlier...
Accompanying the instant contact between Andrew—who was falling with extreme acceleration—and the high-rise building beneath his feet, an incomparably massive boom rang out.
Subsequently, the video feed was left with only darkness.
No echo, no image.
For a time, only a deathly silence remained in Scott Outpost.
It wasn't until some time had passed that the message sent by Phaethon broke this incomparably heavy atmosphere.
Although the H.D.D System had completely lost Andrew's position in the Hollow and could only calculate the approximate area where he might be through his original trajectory of descent, they confirmed one thing.
That was that Andrew was still alive.
But the intelligence that he was merely "alive" left the deviation value of his true condition far too huge.
Whether Andrew's body had suffered any difficult-to-heal injuries due to the violent collision with the ground upon landing, and what exactly Andrew's current status was...
No one knew.
Currently, the best method was to immediately delegate personnel to go provide support and check on how Andrew was doing.
And the fastest person currently in Hollow Zero was undoubtedly the other Void Hunter, Hoshimi Miyabi.
Isolde, whose heart was extremely anxious, couldn't care about much else now and immediately began attempting to contact her.
This made Roland, who was at the side, unable to suppress some surprise.
Why did Isolde, who had always been known for being calm and decisive, suddenly become so composed when Andrew lost contact?
Wasn't it confirmed that Andrew was still alive?
But upon careful thought, he felt it was extremely reasonable.
After all, whether it was saving Shiyu Tower from being detonated or completely slaying Nineveh, who had been a major trouble for New Eridu for many years, Andrew had become a hero in the truest sense.
It was no exaggeration to say he had saved New Eridu once again.
After all, detonating a Shiyu Tower in Hollow Zero, which had finally trended toward stability with great difficulty...
Although there was indeed a high probability that it could make Nineveh's evolution fail, what changes and chain reactions would occur in Hollow Zero because of this...
What result it would ultimately lead to, no one knew.
Detonating Shiyu Tower, in the final analysis, was just delaying a massive disaster belonging to New Eridu a little bit further.
Fortunately, this worst-case scenario did not occur.
And after Isolde contacted Hoshimi Miyabi at top speed and explained Andrew's condition to her at top speed, Hoshimi Miyabi immediately nodded in agreement without hesitation.
It just so happened that the Defense Force had completely corralled the Ethereals; with Tsukishiro Yanagi and the others present, presumably no problems would arise.
Looking at Meow-Da beside her, Hoshimi Miyabi asked seriously:
"I'm going to confirm your Boss, Andrew's, condition immediately. Do you want to come together?"
"Confirm Boss's condition?"
Hearing Hoshimi Miyabi's words, Meow-Da froze for a split second, then shook his head decisively and said:
"No thanks, meow."
Saying this, Meow-Da slung the Great Sword back onto his back, then took out a collection jar from his backpack and said:
"Compared to looking for Boss, I have a more important thing to do right now, meow."
"If Boss knew I didn't go to gather materials and samples from the Gore Magala's corpse but ran to find him instead, that would be the real reason I'd get knocked on the head by Boss, meow."
Saying this, Meow-Da ran toward the location where the Gore Magala larva had fallen.
Previously, the Boss had specifically emphasized to him again and again, through his own painful experiences, that when an Ethereal dies and has materials, one must, must carve them immediately.
Otherwise, the Ethereal corpse would turn into pure energy and Ether crystals in a short while!
And the Ethereal Gore Magala, that was also an Ethereal!
Anyway, it was just a height of a few thousand meters; Boss definitely wouldn't have any issues right now.
So it was no big deal if he didn't go see him.
But that Ethereal Gore Magala was different.
If it died, it was truly dead; time waits for no one, meow!
Samples of this kind of mutated monster must be preserved at all times so that experiments could be conducted to make targeted preparations for the next encounter. If he delayed for a moment, then whether it was the materials or the Frenzy Virus research samples, all would disappear completely.
In that case, leaving aside how to perfect the illustrated handbook information, when encountering it again, they would still be completely blind just like the first time.
That wouldn't do.
And after hearing these words, Hoshimi Miyabi didn't realize what exactly Meow-Da meant specifically. She simply took it as Andrew having instructed Meow-Da in advance before setting off to ignore him and collect samples immediately after the battle ended.
Regarding this situation, Hoshimi Miyabi understood perfectly.
But the worry for Andrew in her heart was difficult to suppress.
If Andrew had to perform such a high-risk move to destroy Nineveh because she couldn't contribute, and it even ended up causing some mishap to him...
As the Head of the Hoshimi family.
If Andrew suffered some irreversible injury in order to help her crusade against Nineveh, she would have to take responsibility for this!
Thus, the moment she received the coordinates and route map, Hoshimi Miyabi dashed toward the crash coordinates sent by Belle.
Almost instantly, the buildings passing by her side blurred into a single sheet under her extreme speed.
____
👻🔥Whant more?: Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: Group chat of the Dead
✅ Read 40 chapters ahead on every series!
✅ Unlock supporter-only perks and news!
Let's reach these milestones together:
🎯 100 Powerstones = +1 free chapter for all readers
🚀 140 MEMBERS = +5 bonus chapters for all series!
👻 Walnut-chan on P...