The Stellaron's Mutation

The tremors from the massive fist's impact had yet to subside, and the entire frozen platform was humming.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to look at Stelle as she flew backward.

"Stelle!"

March 7th shouted. Watching Stelle fly backward, she promptly put away her bow and rushed toward her.

She reached Stelle and dropped to her knees in the snow. Her fingers trembled as she reached beneath Stelle's nose, scarcely daring to breathe.

"Stelle? Wake up! Can you hear me?"

She called out several times, but the person lying in the snow gave no response.

Elsewhere, the Engine of Creation attacked again, sweeping a mechanical arm at Bronya.

Bronya raised her rifle and held it across her body, barely managing to block the flying chunks of ice. The force transmitted through the weapon made her arms go numb.

She turned toward March 7th and called urgently, "How is she?"

"Her breathing's steady... and it doesn't look like she has any fatal injuries..." March 7th's voice was thick with tears, but she was no longer as panicked as before. "She was probably just... just knocked unconscious by the impact."

Having confirmed that Stelle's life wasn't in danger, March 7th felt a little more at ease.

She carefully placed Stelle a little farther from the battlefield so she wouldn't be caught in the ensuing fight. Then she gripped her bow tightly and turned to face the Engine of Creation.

March 7th stood up and picked up her bow again, drawing the string to its fullest.

"How dare you do that to one of us!"

Several ice arrows flew from the string, striking the red sensor on the Engine of Creation's head with pinpoint accuracy.

Thick frost spread rapidly, covering the ominous red glow.

The Engine of Creation's movements faltered, but it recovered in an instant. The next second, the ice shattered piece by piece under the impact of energy from within.

It ignored March 7th and locked onto Bai Luoming again. The man who had repeatedly damaged its outer armor had clearly become the most dangerous target in its eyes.

So it continued to keep Bai Luoming in its sights.

Its mechanical arms swung incessantly, hammering down one after another in pursuit of the white figure on the battlefield.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

Bai Luoming moved at high speed between the massive mechanical structures. Every spot where he set foot was smashed to pieces by a giant fist the next moment. Ice chips and rocks flew everywhere.

As he dodged, he complained to the Engine of Creation, "Come on, you hit her with an elbow, but instead of finishing her off, you keep chasing me and pounding away? What's wrong with your aggro mechanics?"

"Don't say that! What if it understands you?" March 7th shouted anxiously from a distance, afraid his words might remind the Engine of Creation.

Hearing that, Bai Luoming immediately shut his mouth.

Dan Heng bounded along the edge of the platform, his spear turning into a streak of cyan light as it thrust straight at the Engine of Creation's knee joint.

The spear tip struck the metal casing, sending a long shower of sparks flying, but left only a shallow white mark.

On the other side, Seele darted between shadows and rubble, swinging her scythe at the energy transmission node Bronya had pointed out.

The sharp blade cut through some of the conduits, but the Stellaron's energy immediately surged in, forcibly keeping the node running.

Bai Luoming seized the brief opening after one mechanical arm missed its strike. He planted a foot on the cold steel and propelled himself upward, running along the arm straight toward the engine core.

"Hum!!"

As Bai Luoming charged toward the core, another enormous palm, vast as a mountain, was already waiting halfway there. It slapped down at him head-on.

A shadow engulfed him in an instant.

Bai Luoming didn't dodge. He twisted in midair and crossed his arms above him, taking the Engine of Creation's blow head-on.

The instant their forces collided, an invisible shockwave burst outward from him, sweeping great swathes of snow off the platform.

The Engine of Creation's force drove Bai Luoming straight out of the air and pinned him to the ground.

He didn't take a single step back, but the tremendous force held him firmly in place, unable to break free anytime soon.

The situation fell into a stalemate once more.

The red light in the Engine of Creation's core flashed faster, as though it were drawing on its power to crush the tiny creature that dared to wrestle with it.

Just then, a red beam pierced the turbulent clouds above Everwinter Hill and struck the Engine of Creation's shoulder with pinpoint accuracy.

The violent explosion tore straight through its thick outer armor, sending a torrent of energy into the machine.

The Engine of Creation lost its balance, its enormous body tilting to one side.

"That's Himeko's orbital cannon!" March 7th looked up in delight, searching around the platform. "Could Himeko and Uncle Yang be here?"

She looked around several times, but saw no sign of Himeko, only wind and snow.

"They're probably still on the outskirts," Dan Heng said calmly. "They likely saw the Engine of Creation and fired that shot in support from a distance. Unfortunately, the spatial interference here is too strong. We can't contact them for now."

Bai Luoming didn't waste this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

He exerted force with both arms, flung the Engine of Creation's palm aside, and sprang into motion.

Following the enormous breach blasted open by the orbital cannon, he charged straight at the exposed energy core.

His first punch slammed into the energy shield around the core.

The shield shattered on impact.

His second punch smashed unimpeded into the transmission mechanism inside the core.

"Crack."

A harsh screech of twisting metal came from inside the engine.

Under Bai Luoming's assault, the lights on the Engine of Creation abruptly went out.

The mechanical arm raised high in the air lost all support and crashed heavily to the ground, sending ice and snow flying.

Bai Luoming jumped down from the disabled engine and shook his slightly numb right hand. "Good thing my stats are pretty high. Otherwise, with that thing locked onto me the whole time, I'd probably have been done for long ago."

The battle had subsided for the moment, and in the snow, Stelle finally came to.

The moment she opened her eyes, she saw March 7th's face, full of concern.

She asked instinctively, "That big guy... did I scare it off?"

March 7th glanced at Stelle and said irritably, "It was you who got sent flying more than ten meters by its elbow first."

Stelle was silent for a moment. She pushed herself into a sitting position and protested, "What? I was clearly testing the upper limit of that big guy's attack just now."

As she braced her hand against the ground and prepared to get up, a faint flame suddenly lit up inside the ancient lance that had been lying quietly beside her.

The flame rapidly grew.

Stelle felt her consciousness come into contact with a steady, weighty will.

Countless fragmented images flashed before her eyes: seven hundred years ago, people built the first city wall amid the wind and snow; through countless cold winter nights, armored guardians braved the blizzards and stood watch at Belobog's borders...

That was the will of Preservation, the foundation on which this city had endured to this day.

In an instant, golden-red flames kindled at the lance's hilt and quickly spread along its entire length.

At that moment, the Path of Preservation formally answered her.

"See? It answered you." Looking at the blazing Flaming Lance, Bronya finally relaxed her tense expression a little.

Stelle grasped the Flaming Lance, feeling the warmth coming from it, a warmth that shared the same source as the power within her.

Then the first thing she did was look up at Bai Luoming and ask earnestly:

"So can I use it to pry open trash cans now?"

Bai Luoming: "..."

She certainly hadn't forgotten her original goal.

The Flaming Lance's power flowed along Stelle's arm and through the ground, surging into the disabled Engine of Creation.

The Stellaron's control was completely severed.

Stelle soon discovered that she seemed able to give the old-era engineering machine a few simple commands.

She tried to concentrate and control the Engine of Creation.

With a low rumble, the enormous mechanical creation stood up again under everyone's astonished gazes.

Its massive mechanical body turned to face the deeper reaches of Everwinter Hill.

Before anyone could react, however,

the Stellaron inside the Engine of Creation detached itself from the energy core and rose into the air.

A powerful suction burst forth with it at the center.

On the distant battlefield, the frozen remains of Fragmentum creatures, the metal wreckage of the Antimatter Legion, and the mechanical parts that had just been smashed apart all broke free of gravity and slowly rose into the air.

Countless fragments gathered densely around the Stellaron, forming an ever-expanding sphere.

"Everyone, fall back!" Dan Heng immediately shouted a warning.

"It's using the wreckage to reconstruct a new vessel!" Bronya's face darkened.

Bai Luoming looked up at the growing sphere of wreckage and couldn't help saying, "Come on, man. You even get a second phase?"

"Can you be serious for once?" March 7th retorted.

Stelle immediately controlled the Engine of Creation behind her, swinging its massive mechanical arm and driving an elbow hard into the sphere of wreckage in the air.

The Engine of Creation struck it heavily several times in succession, but only sent fragments cascading off the sphere's outer layer.

The suction released by the Stellaron quickly pulled those fragments back in, and the same force nearly tore off some of the armor on the Engine of Creation's fist.

Seeing this, Stelle had no choice but to make the engine retreat.

Everyone could only watch as the sphere of wreckage hung in midair. Soon, a pressure far greater than before descended over the entire platform.

The sphere of wreckage slowly split open down the middle.

A vaguely humanoid creature, forcibly pieced together from Fragmentum matter, Voidranger remains, and mechanical structures, stepped out into the air.

The Stellaron was embedded in its chest.

Bai Luoming turned his head and said to Stelle beside him, "Look, your brother's come out."

Stelle studied the twisted figure carefully, then shook her head. "I refuse to acknowledge that relative."

"Can you two discuss this after we finish fighting?" March 7th was nearly driven mad by the two of them.

"This hastily assembled body is still imperfect."

The Stellaron construct raised an arm made of metal fragments and flesh, its voice echoing across the empty platform.

March 7th tightened her grip on her bow and said in disbelief, "It... can talk?"

"Although I can only maintain it for a very short time... it is enough to utterly destroy you obstacles."

With that, terrifying energy bore down on the entire platform. Everyone felt their breathing catch, and even the Engine of Creation behind them creaked as metal twisted under the pressure.

The Stellaron didn't look at Stelle, who had just awakened the power of Preservation. Its gaze instinctively locked onto Bai Luoming.

In an instant, it vanished from where it stood and appeared directly in front of Bai Luoming.

It struck.

Bai Luoming instinctively crossed his arms to block. The tremendous force made his arms go numb, and the ice beneath his feet instantly caved in.

Before he could catch his breath, the Stellaron's second strike followed.

The blow was so fast that all Bai Luoming could see was a fist growing larger and larger.

Just then,

everything around him froze.

The swirling snowflakes stopped in midair, the Stellaron's raised arm froze in the air, and his companions' anxious expressions in the distance were fixed in that moment.

The whole world was like a painting with its pause button pressed.

A teasing voice spoke softly in his ear:

"What a sorry sight."