The war continued.
Once she confirmed that Duanmu Huai had reached his destination, Echote swiftly changed her tactical style, once again reverting to her original gloomy, timid, and ruthless self. Under Echote's command, the Inquisition Fleet used several abandoned warships to block the charge of the mechanical battleships. Then artillery fire several times more ferocious than before erupted, completely stopping those warships in their tracks.
The Inquisition did not need shields, because the artillery fire itself was the best shield.
Meanwhile, deep within the Mechanical Planet, another battle was unfolding.
A war of machine against machine.
One side was steel and beams, scorching high-energy lasers crisscrossing the dim space as they attempted to burn every enemy to ash.
The other side was steel as well. They silently advanced into the roaring explosions, using their bodies and fists to destroy every enemy blocking their path.
Duanmu Huai merely stood at the back, saying nothing as he silently toyed with the cards in his hand.
A pitch-black, enormous Ancient Construct materialized out of thin air before him. Then, the acceleration device hovering beside Duanmu Huai suddenly split apart, producing a thruster that attached itself to the construct. The latter then shot toward the battlefield ahead like a shell, silently swinging its iron fists and smashing everything it saw. A moment later, several lasers flew across one another, turning the Ancient Construct before them into ash.
But this clearly meant nothing.
Another flash of light passed through Duanmu Huai's hand. Then, beams resembling scanning lasers swept across the battlefield. Several cards returned to Duanmu Huai's hand, and he released them once more.
Ancient Creation, Mysterious Creation, Analyzing Creation...
However, these scraps of junk were merely bait Duanmu Huai used to delay his opponent. He was waiting for one card—the card he had never