The ripples conveying information were no excuse Zhou Xuan had invented, nor was this merely a matter of him saying that someone was standing guard. The Law itself was confirming it.
As the expenditure of a million Metal points allowed Law Power to rewrite Demon Spike, it also welded everything Zhou Xuan had infused earlier, including the presence of comrades and Military Order, into the Giant Beast's core structure.
The message—"The line stands forever; your comrades have arrived"—was never spoken aloud, yet it was etched deep into every bone, every Divine Rune, and every pulse.
Their ten-thousand-year obsession had finally received an answer, not from civilians begging them to stay or from a commander's orders, but from a final, immutable confirmation at the level of the Law.
You held the line, and someone has come to take your place. This position will never be abandoned. At that moment, the Northern Gale sweeping across the sky fell still.
Only belatedly did Zhou Xuan realize that the Northern Gale, which had never ceased in the Boundary-Breaking Mountains, had died without warning. The ice shards swirling through the sky hung motionless for an abrupt instant, then fell silently onto the scree slope without making the slightest sound.
A seam opened in the heavy clouds, letting a shaft of light fall onto the dark-metal skeleton. The Giant Beast's bones gave off a soft luster in the sunlight, and intricate Divine Runes flowed through the light, revealing traces of ancient inscriptions.
The first translucent remnant soul then drifted out of the Giant Beast's ankle bone. The figure wore incomplete, battered armor, with holes covering its chest and back.
Its blurred features dissolved into a haze of light, making its face impossible to discern. The figure retained a human stance, holding half a broken spear in