Collapse, Survive

"Rest and work in moderation" is a phrase I like. You're a good-for-nothing, Seele, so go ahead and rest. Hee hee hee, I won't make fun of you."

Fang Jie, on the other hand, wasn't particularly tired. Even after being poisoned by Seele... let's ignore that. He wasn't afraid of being low on health; the lower his health, the more ferocious he became.

He could still unleash more bolts of lightning, striking down the Cleft monsters that were rushing in from all directions. The commotion here had grown a bit too large, and the very aura of life attracted them, driving them to destroy it.

Fortunately, most of them were cannon fodder, unable to withstand a single blow.

If they could withstand it.

"Something big is coming."

Seele's gaze suddenly sharpened. She turned around and grabbed the scythe she had discarded with one hand. Despite her lack of self-control and being so exhausted her legs were weak, did she still have to fight, Seele?

"This should be the source of the Cleft in this area. If we eliminate it, we'll have peace for a long time."

Seele absolutely would not allow any monstrous entity to dare disrupt her garden, even if all these flowers came from a single tree, a type of birch-like plant that was unremarkable but tenacious seven hundred years ago.

Seele didn't recognize it, so she'd just consider it a flower. She didn't recognize many things.

Flowers, trees, the sky, the breeze, pebbles, sand, the earth...

But she had taken responsibility for this garden.

A pressure, brought by the immense life energy reaction, emanated from ahead!

Faster than that, a storm of spiral arrows erupted and shot forth!

From the edge of the distant Rivet Town, deep into the heart of another Cleft area.

"Wooooooo—!!!"

The wind howled, carrying ice and snow, tearing a corner of the entire ruined Rivet Town in half. The arrows ripped through various debris, creating massive voids, as if a scene from a myth was being reenacted.

This was an elite unit of the Anti-Matter Legion, equivalent to a Trampler, the vanguard that sounded the horn of civilization's end.

During the reforging process in the War Furnace, fragments of a Twilight Beast were integrated into it, making it a Fusion Warrior, possessing both wisdom and strength.

Furthermore, during the Cleft's expansion, it encountered Erosion, causing its power source to mutate and granting it a more agile combat style.

This was why Seele was tense. Fang Jie was indeed efficient at dispatching cannon fodder, but he had been fighting for so long, and together with her, they had consumed a significant amount of energy...

"Release, Kai—"

A deep phantom with an unusual flash, its purple eyes unblinking, locked on. Seele trailed afterimages, her scythe striking the furiously destructive arrows a thousand times in an instant, slicing them into nothingness.

Precise, elegant, high-frequency, good dodge, and low destructive power.

Fang Jie felt she was truly exhausted.

This didn't affect her mechanics, which was strange. Did she swing her scythe first and then hit, or did she first determine the 'result' of the scythe, or rather her hit, and then launch herself?

This continuous firing also wasted a lot of energy. A better choice would be to dodge—but she didn't want to dodge.

Fang Jie didn't waste time observing further. Another slash descended, cutting through the extremely dense, gapless, high-density wind barrier on the Stormbringer's surface, as well as its force field that surpassed that of regular grunts, and its flesh mixed with ancient beasts...

However.

"This thing is too agile, damn it."

Despite its immense size, it was incredibly nimble.

Before its vital core was severed, the Stormbringer let out a piercing cry. The sonic roar impacted its surroundings, and its limbs, powerful enough to shatter the city walls built by the Builder, erupted with light as it charged forward as if teleporting.

That was essentially folding space, escaping the current dimension to utilize subspace speed.

This naturally negated the follow-up power of "Four Souls Severed." Fang Jie wasn't so extravagant as to imbue a single rapid slash with enough power to break through space; he didn't have that level of control, especially since... he should be tired too.

The Stormbringer wasn't like those cannon fodder among cannon fodder, who would be instantly paralyzed and unable to resist by "Mental Shock" and then instantly killed. It could still struggle and resist, which only meant it was injured.

But what was the use of being injured to such a beast born for war?

The wounds were visibly healing, not affecting its combat ability at all.

This was it.

—The horn of civilization's destruction.

Imagine, a creature that is agile, cannot be intercepted, possesses immense destructive power, can use single-target folding space and Mach sprints with a resilient body, has excellent regenerative abilities, and can wield force fields and storms.

When these factors are combined into a single "individual," it's not an exaggeration to say it blows the horn of civilization's destruction.

But Seele was already accustomed to it.

"Hey, aren't you going to draw that sword?"

She didn't want to sprint a long distance to desperately kill the Stormbringer; she was afraid she wouldn't be able to protect the garden, even if she could recreate it later...

She didn't want that.

Put in some effort, Fang Jie.

Seele entrusted her trust, expecting him to perform.

"Actually, it's all the same."

Fang Jie wasn't deliberately not drawing his sword to show off. On the contrary, drawing his sword would be the 'cool' move.

"This sword, Jizo Mitama, is also known as 'Kuro' in another world. Besides Soul Steel and Erosion authority, the material it's forged from is a virus that erodes everything."

As he explained, Fang Jie moved towards the Stormbringer.

Flying.

"BOOM—!!"

The ground shattered in response, like a volcano erupting or lightning striking in an instant. He propelled himself forward, skimming along the broken voids of the town, leaving lingering echoes.

"Its attack method doesn't rely on sword slashes. Each use allows it to erode more phenomena, and integrate everything it erodes into me, who uses it."

The use of God Keys always came with significant side effects, with Skyfire Self-Destruction being particularly notorious. Jizo Mitama would be no different. Although Fang Jie had easily unlocked 'Mental Projection,' Jizo Mitama could grow and transcend automatically.

If one continuously used it to slay Honkai Beasts, Herrschers, and erode everything, who knew what the user would become?

It was likely they would either meet an untimely end or, unable to bear the ever-increasing erosion, fall into becoming an 'evil spirit.'

Therefore, Fang Jie preferred to use it to unleash the Herrscher of Thunder's authority rather than the erosion itself. The things contained within the Automata he had devoured with his last slash not long ago...

Belobog Martial Arts referred to it as the expansion of life, but Fang Jie didn't want to expand down the path of a 'Twilight Beast.'

Amidst the rumbling explosions, Fang Jie didn't draw his sword. Instead, dark green light coiled around his right hand, shaping itself into something resembling a blade, an arrow, or a spear.

The Stormbringer moved at high speed, carrying howling winds and sonic waves. Wherever it went, destruction followed. Yet, it saw the sky filled with light, covering its location...

"Try mine."

He didn't have Seele's mechanics, only...

Stats that were probably higher than hers.

No matter how tired he was, they were higher!

The world froze, all things turned black and white. A single thought detached from reality, stepping into the Imaginary. Space-time fractured, electric light and flowing shadows.

Like Seele, it was difficult to describe this state with speed, but it didn't prevent Fang Jie from having time to charge up, moving as swiftly as a shooting star.

And time-stop commentary.

Without the divine mystery of reversing cause from effect, a strike that couldn't skip the process truly transformed from the past into the present, moving towards the future.

"Man, sword, god, ghost, the world is like flowing water. Ferry me—"

Not a single strike, but multiple projections unfolded, continuous and endless. It wasn't locking onto a single point; countless lightning beams erupted, covering the entire area, annihilating thousands!

"—A Thought, Immeasurable Kalpas!"

The high-density wind barrier shattered in response. Even though its terrifying fluidity allowed it to withstand 'Raikiri,' it was still insufficient against these lightning beams. Its body, along with its vital points, was instantly pierced thousands of times. Through the holes, one could see melting and fragmentation around the wounds.

High offense and low defense were the Legion's characteristics, and integrating fragments of ancient beasts didn't change that much.

In response, the Stormbringer's choice was—

The Legion's characteristic came with a death cry.

"Kill!!"

Hundreds and thousands of lights suddenly erupted in the air. It was the pervasive wind, shooting out to slice the enemy into a thousand pieces.

Even more terrifying was the charge that followed, the Stormbringer itself trampling with sub-space speed.

The Trampler's strongest attack was this charging kick. Even though the source of its power had mutated, becoming the more agile Stormbringer, it remained etched in its instincts.

Once it hit, a single kick capable of destroying a spaceship was not uncommon.

Seele might be able to dodge it. Her speed was abnormal; it wasn't something that could be described by mere speed. It was just that her physical body was fragile, her attack method relied on her scythe, and her knowledge and imagination were severely constrained by harsh reality, making them extremely lacking.

Fang Jie... wasn't as fast as her.

If a Stellaron Spirit were here, it could probably interrupt its leg with a single bat swing... Fang Jie didn't have such powerful artifacts, and Jizo Mitama wasn't known for its defensive capabilities.

Even if he wanted to predict it, the Stormbringer, with its giant centaur-like appearance, its body structure, its power-exerting habits, and its combat reactions...

Were all unfamiliar.

So he was sent flying backward.

Ripples spread through the air. Under Seele's astonished gaze, Fang Jie turned into an afterimage and flew backward, at a precise, perfect angle, soaring high into the sky!

The surroundings then exploded with solid thuds, like roaring thunder. The Stormbringer's charging momentum was instantly dismantled, preventing it from crashing directly into the garden, or into her, who would surely have blocked it.

The scene was comparable to Adam's Hammer meeting Rebecca, or Afu beating up Jackie Chan.

Since there was no sky in the Underworld, Fang Jie hit the 'roof.'

With a violent tremor, Seele's lips twitched twice. For a moment, she suddenly couldn't move.

This feeling, this feeling...

She seemed to want to move, but ultimately, her body was powerless. She panted heavily, unable to even speak.

Very tired.

"Conf..."

Before the curse could even escape his lips, lightning, even more ferocious than before, descended from the sky, drawing a perfect ninety-degree angle across the chaotic battlefield.

Triple speed! He was at least three times faster than before!

If Seele had attended school, she could have given a unit of measurement: Mach 7, thirty percent of the first cosmic velocity of her home planet's pioneering efforts.

And with a swish.

The ground turned to scorched earth, and even the frigid air ignited from the intense friction. The Stormbringer, already pierced through its 'Anti-Matter Engine' by the Lightning Strike Spear, had its remaining life extinguished on the spot.

Its head was blown off, its body sinking into the ground, creating a deep pit, a brutal display of explosive force.

—Heavenly Descent into Fire.

More like a post-mortem beating.

But it also suppressed the subsequent self-destruction. Even with its power source mutated, the Stormbringer's self-destruction was no match for a mere Void Thrash.

It was blown apart along with its dying words. Even the surrounding air, compressed by Mach-speed velocity, was no longer a murky milky white.

During this intense friction-induced heating, the dense air had turned a scorching, fiery red, transforming into flames!

Steel of insufficient strength would inevitably turn red hot, soften, let alone air.

But this heat was nothing to Fang Jie.

He felt like he could genuinely bathe in lava.

After all, compared to the way the air itself turned everything to scorched earth just by contact and friction during his brutal flights, lava wasn't as efficient as him.

In short, the scene was comparable to Adam's Hammer meeting Rebecca, or A Fu beating Jackie Chan into submission.

"RUMBLE—!"

The sound of the atmosphere being torn apart finally arrived, mixed with a whisper:

"Slipping is unavoidable."

Although tired, Fang Jie, who still had some strength left, felt a bit dejected.

This was why he always stood his ground to sever attacks—he was unfamiliar with his own power and movement patterns while flying, always feeling like he had no leverage in mid-air, like Furina cautiously practicing walking on water right after receiving her Vision.

And if he habitually sought leverage...

Fang Jie raised his head. The murky sky of the Underworld suddenly had a massive hole appear due to the high-speed penetration of an "object," extending into a huge crater, the edges of which were already emitting a scorched, glassy hue!