"Pardo" abruptly stood up!
The moment she rose, the surrounding space began to violently twist like water ripples!
Mobius's chair, the flashing instruments around them, and even Klein, who had offered the drink, instantly blurred like an erased painting before completely vanishing!
This was a meticulously woven trap!
Her sharp gaze instantly scanned the space, which had become unstable due to the dissipation of the illusion.
Then, her sight froze on the area diagonally ahead—
The space there was forcibly torn open by an irresistible power!
Beyond the rift was not another area of the Paradise, but a void seemingly composed of pure will and Sword Qi!
And beyond that rift, far in the distance, a colossal golden sword blade, unimaginably huge, pointed its tip precisely at her!
The blade flowed with a brilliant and pure radiance like the sun, emitting a supreme sword intent capable of severing falsehood and destroying all laws!
Even across the vast distance, the oppressive feeling brought by the sword intent nearly made her tremble.
A name involuntarily surfaced in her mind—
Taixu Sword Qi!
Perspective shift.
"Sakura" silently followed behind Kevin and Kalpas, while Kosma, as always, walked quietly at the very end.
(Something's wrong...)
Jack's consciousness spun rapidly. (Kevin, Kalpas, and Kosma... this lineup is too excessive...)
She felt an invisible pressure slowly squeezing in from both the front and the back.
It was as if an unseen net was quietly tightening.
Kalpas, walking at the very front, stopped before a door adorned with patterns of scorched earth and fierce flames—the entrance to his domain.
He turned sideways, not entering, but crossed his arms, his gaze beneath the mask seemingly fixed on "Sakura."
Kevin stopped beside the door, his icy blue eyes calm and still, merely raising a hand slightly to signal for "Sakura" to enter the door.
"Sakura's" steps halted.
She looked at the door ahead, which radiated an ominous heat, and Kalpas, who was blocking it; then glanced at Kevin beside her, whose aura was like ten thousand years of cold ice; finally, her peripheral vision confirmed Kosma's silent yet resolute presence behind her.
(Surrounded... has my identity been exposed? When? How?)
The air was stagnant; no one spoke.
Jack's brain frantically calculated the possibility of a breakthrough. The conclusion was—under the watch of three top Flame-Chasers, especially Kevin, the success rate was infinitely close to zero.
Just as her muscles tensed, preparing to force a breakthrough at any cost—
A gentle, peaceful female voice, yet one carrying irresistible power, sounded directly in the depths of her consciousness:
"'Please,' put down your weapon."
The voice seemed to possess a kind of absolute "precept." Along with the sound, countless invisible threads instantly wrapped around her arms, attempting to dissolve her fighting spirit and make her comply with this "request"!
Jack's body involuntarily paused. The fingers holding Ice Prison Hells slightly loosened, and the blade tip tilted down a few degrees... It was now!
"Whoosh—!"
An extremely cold ice cone tore through the air, freezing even space itself in its path!
At the same time, Kalpas's roar, accompanied by monstrous flames, slammed into "Sakura" from the front like an enraged fire dragon!
A pincer attack, a guaranteed kill!
Meanwhile, in another space.
The colossal golden Taixu Greatsword, carrying the supreme sword intent that destroys falsehood, pointed at "Pardo" like divine retribution!
Before the sword arrived, the sheer pressure of its pure will caused the surrounding data to begin disintegrating.
"Pardo's" disguise melted away like snow in the sun before that ultimate power. Purple-red data streams instantly covered her entire body like living things, revealing Madam Herta's original appearance—ash-white long hair, a black and purple Lolita dress, and a pair of purple-black eyes lacking any highlights.
She looked up at the sword tip about to strike her, without the slightest hint of panic on her face.
Just as the sword tip was about to hit her, a single point of purple-red data flow, like the tiniest virus, abruptly appeared on the tip of the greatsword.
Then, like ink dropped into clear water, the purple-red spread instantly!
In barely a fraction of a millisecond, the incredibly powerful Taixu Greatsword, starting from the tip, was completely stained the same purple-red, and then... like a stroke erased by a rubber, it silently dissipated into the air, without leaving even a ripple.
"What a pity."
Black Herta lightly clapped her hands, as if dusting off non-existent dirt. "I originally wanted to play for a bit longer."
The scene rapidly changed before her like the turning of a page. It was no longer the torn laboratory illusion, but a hall of simple yet oppressive style.
She elegantly walked toward the central sofa, which looked very comfortable, sat down, and leisurely crossed her legs.
Before her, Mobius, Hua, Su, and Vill-V—four Flame-Chasers—were tightly bound by solidified purple-red data streams, like insects in amber. Although their consciousness was clear, they couldn't move even a single finger.
Black Herta tilted her head, curiously examining the shocked, unwilling, and helpless expressions on their faces, as if she had found interesting toys.
"Tell me,"
Her tone was relaxed, as if chatting casually. "How did you figure it out? That speed is truly fast. I hadn't even finished playing yet, and I didn't have time to prepare any backup plans, and it's already over? What a shame."
She even shook her head with a sigh, as if genuinely regretful.
The Flame-Chasers remained silent; no one spoke.
Black Herta's gaze turned to Su, who had his eyes closed. "Su, why don't you explain? Wasn't your plan quite successful? Virus injection, Taixu Sword Qi, data lockdown... link after link. Logically speaking, even if you couldn't defeat me, you should definitely have been able to stall until Kevin and the others arrived, right? But what happened? It ended instantly."
A hint of a bitter smile appeared on Su's lips, but he still kept his mouth shut.
In the face of such an absolute disparity in power, any scheme seemed pale and weak.
The power of "the corruption" within the virus probably didn't even count as a joke in front of her.
Mobius simply gave up struggling, her serpentine eyes filled only with the speechless thought, "Where the hell did this thing come from?"
Seeing that no one was paying attention to her, Black Herta's mouth twitched slightly, seemingly a little displeased.
Feigning a serious expression, she looked at Hua, who stood tall next to her. "Hua, you explain."
Hua's body paused slightly, seeming to resist, but the invisible power controlled her, making her speak involuntarily, her voice steady but carrying a hint of forced stiffness: "...From the very beginning, the return of Pardo and Sakura was the biggest flaw. Because they shouldn't have returned—that was our plan—so the moment they appeared, they exposed it. Su's 'disappearance' was part of the plan, and the reappearance of Sakura and Pardo... allowed us to play along and try to lure you into the preset trap..."
Black Herta listened, clicking her tongue in amazement. "I see... I was exposed from the start? I still underestimated the experience of you old... ahem, seasoned warriors."
Just then—
"Rumble!!!"
An extremely intense energy fluctuation, mixed with scorching heat and a violent impact sensation, suddenly transmitted into the hall, penetrating layer upon layer of spatial barriers like an earthquake!
Black Herta slightly raised an eyebrow, sensing the source of the familiar fluctuation.
"Oh? That's..."
Her gaze seemed to pierce through the spatial obstruction, landing on a certain sector of the Paradise where fierce fighting was erupting. A meaningful curve hooked up the corner of her mouth. "Is that Jack's side? It seems quite lively over there too."
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