Seeing this scene, Huohuo's small face turned deathly pale. An impulse and instinct from deep within her heart drove her to tear off the sealing talisman on Tail's tail.
The seal disappeared, and Tail regained his freedom.
"Hahahaha! Goodbye, Huohuo!"
Tail laughed loudly. The final look he gave Huohuo was rather complicated, as if saying farewell, yet also carrying a trace of nostalgia.
In the end, he turned into a stream of light and rushed into Cirrus's body in an instant.
"You… bastard! What the hell are you doing here?! Get out! Get out of me——"
"Hahahaha, Cirrus, why don't you try absorbing this great one as well?"
"Are you crazy?! Why are you helping humans?!"
"Hahaha, reason? Do I need a reason? If I must give one——"
Tail's laughter was mixed with thick disdain and anger.
"It's just that this old man looks down on you, this idiot who only knows how to play tricks!"
"Wuaaaaaaah——!!"
As control over its form was contested by Tail, Cirrus let out a pained roar.
On the ground, after Huohuo realized what had happened, the overwhelming fear in her heart was, for the first time, thrown far, far away by her.
"Spirits and talismans, heed my command!"
She could not let Tail's efforts go to waste. At the very least… at the very least, she had to save Stelle!
Cirrus no longer had the leisure to pay attention to the attacks coming from the ground.
When heliobi of similar strength devoured each other, they would fall into a stalemate, and it was difficult to determine a winner.
Whoever fell into a disadvantage would be doomed for eternity.
There was only one way to kill a heliobus——
To be devoured by its own kind.
"Since you're seeking death, don't blame me for disregarding our kinship! Die!!"
Cirrus let out a sharp, mournful roar of rage.
"Hahahaha, then let's die together!"
"Bastard, bastard, bastard… wait, you little ghost, how——"
Cirrus was furious, and the fear in its voice could not be hidden at all. Clearly, Tail's suicidal fighting style had truly threatened it.
Stelle, who had actively allowed herself to be swallowed by Cirrus, also shouted at this moment: "Tail! Wait!!"
Dazzling white light pierced out from within Cirrus's body. Accompanied by raging flames that spread out, it wrapped Cirrus layer by layer.
Boom——
In an instant, a line of fire burst out from inside Cirrus's body——
Its body violently exploded at a certain moment, turning into countless fireflies that scattered in all directions, leaving behind only unwilling screams.
The line of fire descended from the sky and landed heavily on the ground.
The fireflies extinguished, revealing Stelle inside, holding a flaming lance, her expression grave.
Desperate crying reached her ears. She glanced around at the overflowing fireflies, and her gaze finally landed on Huohuo. She fell silent.
"Tail… Tail..."
"Ai."
A familiar soft sigh sounded.
Stelle turned around and discovered that Leon was standing behind her at some point.
The players who had chosen to report to Leon were stunned. Before they could say anything, the screen went black along with Huohuo's crying, and two lines of white text appeared.
[An unexpected heliobus disaster turned into a rain of fire across the sky.]
[Cirrus took the chance to possess a nether envoy in the chaos and was promptly controlled by the Ten Lords Commission reinforcements. However, Tail's whereabouts are already nowhere to be found...]
Quest updated.
※ Sojourners' Ghastly Reverie
Talk to Huohuo (Optional) Talk to Xueyi (Optional) Talk to Cirrus (Optional) Talk to Leon
Ah Xian came back to her senses in a daze and subconsciously said: "I give up. Even heliobi get stabbed?"
She put away her thoughts, searched for Leon's location, and went over to interact.
This reliable adult seemed to have arrived a bit late this time.
She felt there was probably some unknown reason.
Before the dialogue, Ah Xian asked the bullet comments what the difference would be in the subsequent development if she reported to Leon at the start of the plot.
[Master charges into Cirrus's body. After exploding out, he'll be injured.]
[That's right. If you choose Leon, there won't be any injury. It's still actively breaking out of Cirrus, and the person is fine.]
[Didn't anyone notice the white light that lit up around Cirrus earlier? At that time, it was probably Leon making a move to protect Master.]
"Soga."
Ah Xian suddenly understood and went to talk with Leon.
Unexpectedly, the text that popped up was not Leon's lines, but a narration-style summary.
[Leon seemed to be pondering something and did not notice you at the first moment.]
"Leon?"
Stelle waved her hand in front of his eyes.
"…Mm, are you alright?" Leon came back to his senses.
"I'm fine. Just now, you made a move to help me, right? Thank you."
Although Stelle was very curious about what Leon was thinking, seeing that he had no intention of saying anything, she didn't ask.
Leon: "Even if I hadn't made a move, Cirrus wouldn't have been able to do anything to you. With another heliobus that wasn't weak barging into its body, it was destined to fail."
"What I didn't expect was that even the Luofu has a Ten Lords Commission Judge who coexists with heliobi."
Stelle: "Even the Luofu has one? Meaning other Xianzhou ships…?"
Leon: "Zhu Ming. Let's not talk about that for now. You should go talk to them first."
"Alright."
Stelle turned around, swept her gaze across Qingqiu Terrace, considered for a moment, and first walked toward Xueyi.
At this time, the players discovered that Leon turned his head to look at Hanya, who had arrived with reinforcements not far away.
"(May I have a word with you, Judge?)"
The voice sounded directly in Hanya's mind. The latter was stunned for a moment and nodded almost imperceptibly.
Ah Xian waited for what would happen next, but the next second the perspective returned directly to Stelle, and the person was already standing in front of Xueyi.
Damn.
No choice. She could only clear the quest first.
Through the dialogue with Xueyi, she learned that Tail seemed to have disappeared. Xueyi didn't even know whether she should feel happy or sad for Huohuo.
The Ten Lords Commission reinforcements had arrived. The unconscious Guinaifen had also been sent to the medical hall for care.
Although Cirrus hadn't died, it had also lost most of the power it had gathered and was temporarily not a threat.
Hearing Cirrus's outcome, Stelle felt slightly unhappy. She turned her head to look at where that guy was currently.
She had to go mock it.
"AAAAAH! Don't even think about sealing me into the formation!"
As she approached, she heard Cirrus, controlling a nether envoy, letting out a roar filled with unwillingness and rage.
Seeing Stelle walking over, it couldn't help but stare fixedly at her.
This guy had actually taken the initiative to become bait earlier, all for the sake of breaking out from inside its body. Its courage was ridiculously big.
But that white light that had instantly disintegrated it earlier was clearly not this little girl's doing, nor was it Tail's.
Damn it. There's still an unknown expert?
Could it be a stronger Judge?
"Bastard, bastard, bastard, bastard! Tail, you, and those Judges — one day——"
"One day I will find an opportunity to tear you all to pieces!"
"I will bite your bones until they crunch, drain every bit of your strength, and then spit you into the cracks of the ground like phlegm!"
Stelle remained silent and let Cirrus curse. Suddenly, a smile appeared on her face.
"Cirrus, do you know what you look like in my eyes right now?"
...