BOOM!!
The Resurrection Whale's colossal tail swept through the Void, blotting out the sky. Layer upon layer of life-force ripples surged into a raging tide and slammed into the newly exposed fracture in the main tower!
Sheets of sturdy crystal armor peeled back and shattered like roof tiles in a storm. Yet deep within, the escape pod's bulkhead, glowing faintly with dark gold, welded itself shut amid a despair-inducing clamor of machinery. It sealed the last feeble spark of divine lightning in endless darkness.
"You can't take him away."
The whale's ethereal, merciless thought pierced layer after layer of crystal walls and bore down on the tower's depths like the falling sky.
The Architect gave no reply.
It merely tightened its dozens of crystalline arms. A cornered beast's malice flickered in the cracks of its pallid face. As several core control components went completely dark, ruthless self-destruct orders raced through its remaining neural cables toward the distant fortress outposts that had yet to fall—
If it could not take them, it would burn them all!
At the same time, on the charred rocky plain of the outer intake yard.
"Holy shit... they actually tore a whole tower off?!"
Thunder King's staff tilted in his hand, and he nearly spat out the half-tube of high-energy nutrient paste between his teeth.
The live feed relayed by the Tide Singer liaison to his tactical display looked like a miracle. An immense auxiliary tower stretching tens of millions of kilometers now lay at an angle between the Burden Bearer's bony claws and supporting limbs, like a snapped pillar that had once held up the sky. Layers of bone plates beneath it shielded the divine body that still clung to life. The once-imposing crystal defenses had collapsed, and broken suspended walkways swayed helplessly in the