"Hong... ye..."
In the enormous crater.
Yue Xiaofei stared at the red figure, impaled by a spear and swaying on her feet.
His mind went blank.
An indescribable surge of fury and heartbreak erupted within him like the most violent volcano!
"No!!!"
"Don't... touch... her!!!"
A roar so hoarse it seemed to rise from the Nine Nether Hell tore from his throat!
RUMBLE!!!
The next instant!
An aura even more terrifying, more savage, and more primal than when the Sun King had activated [Gene Lock: Second Stage] shot skyward from the crater!
It was not golden.
Nor was it blood-red.
It was destruction in its purest form!
RUMBLE!!!
The earth trembled!
No!
It was not trembling!
It was roaring!
With Yue Xiaofei's crater at its center, the ground within a ten-thousand-meter radius heaved violently like waves!
Bottomless fissures spread wildly in every direction like a spiderweb!
Abandoned factory buildings collapsed!
Solid ground caved in!
It was as though the entire world had met its end!
"This... is this... an earthquake?!"
Wild Chicken clung to a massive steel pillar, liable to be swallowed up at any moment.
"No!"
Stone Monkey, the tactical analyst, stared fixedly at the Energy Detector, which had gone completely haywire and was blaring alarms, and shrieked in horror:
"It's not an earthquake!"
"It's Xiaofei's heartbeat! His heartbeat is causing all of this!"
What?!
At those words, everyone turned toward the crater in horror!
Thump!
Thump!
Thump!
Terrifying heartbeats, so heavy they seemed capable of crushing heaven and earth, slowly sounded from the depths of the crater!
They no longer carried the thunderous might of the [Emperor Engine] running before, like ten thousand galloping horses and war drums sounding in unison.
Instead, they were a more primal, more muffled, more despair-inducing rumble!
Every beat!
Was like the heartbeat