The Subjugation Ritual and the Voidworm's Death

Bzzzz!

Lynae and Mo Bai used the Voidworm's moment of weakness to put some distance between themselves and it.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Just as they pulled away, several beams of light shot in from afar.

"We did it!"

From the delight in Lynae's voice, those white beams were the defensive array they had planned to activate.

"Lynae! And Mo Bai?!"

Rover arrived on her motorcycle. Like Lynae, she was surprised to see Mo Bai.

But she had been through enough battles to know this was no time to catch up.

"Get close while that big thing is restrained and weakened by the Binding Vow!"

Lynae spoke to Mo Bai and Rover beside her.

"Got it!"

They nodded, then rode with Lynae toward the Voidworm from three different directions.

Attacking from three sides would let them harry the giant worm from every angle.

"Roar! Roar!"

Bound by the defensive array and already harassed by Mo Bai using his fused Shikigami, the Voidworm had grown especially violent.

It looked at the ants scurrying around beneath it and the light restricting its freedom. It stopped holding back.

As a monster formed from the power of the Void Threnodian, it could turn everything it hated into nothing.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Powerful laser beams shot in every direction as it thrashed its massive body and gaping maw.

It's attacking at random...

Mo Bai could tell the creature had all but lost control.

As its enormous body churned wildly, it dragged up boulders buried deep underground.

"Good opportunity," Lynae said with a smile from the other side.

The boulders would give them cover as they closed in on the Voidworm.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Sensing its enemies approaching, the Voidworm grew even more impatient. This time, its beams fired directly from the core at the center of its body rather than from its mouth.

The attack covered every angle, forcing Lynae and Rover to dodge in a hurry.

One was a former New Federation mercenary; the other was a Threnodian of the Black Shores. Both could evade the Voidworm's attacks.

By contrast, Mo Bai had already struggled against the Voidworm's earlier assault.

He knew he could never dodge this desperate strike on his motorcycle.

Should I call for help?

He glanced at Lynae and Rover ahead of him.

No. They've already reached the monster. Calling out now would only distract them.

I'll have to leave the rest to them...

With that thought, Mo Bai leaped off his motorcycle.

Thud.

Boom!

The Voidworm's attack struck Mo Bai's motorcycle dead-on, blowing it apart in a ball of fire.

"Damn it!"

Lynae and Rover heard the explosion behind them, but neither looked back.

They knew they had to deal with the giant worm first.

Besides, they remembered that Mo Bai could hide in shadows.

Vroom!

The two rode up to the Voidworm, and Rover leaped into the air.

Her Resonance ability let her fly and keep the Voidworm occupied, while Lynae attacked from the ground with equipment mounted on her motorcycle.

"Roar!"

Under their combined assault, the Voidworm let out a pained Lament.

Bang!

Rover showed it no mercy. She seized the opening and drove her exquisite longsword down from the air, pinning its head to the ground.

At that moment, both women had the same thought.

We can win.

If we keep this up, the monster will...

"Roar!!!"

The Voidworm rose again, compressing all the energy in its body.

It ignored the two women beside it and aimed its gaping mouth at its original target.

"Oh no! It's targeting Star Torch Academy!"

Lynae cried out as she realized its intent.

Even if it died, the monster meant to take something with it.

Lynae would never let it succeed.

Vroom!

She opened the throttle and rode up the Voidworm's body.

"Lynae!"

Seeing this from the air, Rover feared Lynae might do something reckless and immediately tried to fly down to help.

Boom!

But several more Lasers burst from the Voidworm's core, cutting her off in midair.

Worse, some of the beams were headed for Lynae.

Just then, a shadow beneath the Voidworm deepened.

Thud.

A hand emerged from it. In the light of the Voidworm's Lasers, the hand cast a shadow.

It looked like a long, winding snake.

"Great Serpent!"

Mo Bai's voice rang out as he summoned a new Shikigami.

"Hiss! Hiss! Hiss!"

A huge white snake, almost as large as the Voidworm, emerged from the Voidworm's shadow and coiled around it.

Mo Bai had not yet subjugated this new Shikigami. For now, he had merely drawn the Voidworm, Lynae, and Rover into the subjugation ritual.

The Great Serpent Shikigami would not obey Mo Bai's commands, but it would instinctively attack anything in the ritual that posed a threat to it.

So it wrapped itself around the most conspicuous target: the Voidworm.

That bought Lynae enough time.

"Roar!!"

"Hiss! Hiss! Hiss!"

The Great Serpent's massive body blocked every laser from the Voidworm's core, leaving Lynae and Rover free to move.

But the Great Serpent had little intelligence. After taking the full force of the Voidworm's attacks, it dissolved into a pool of shadow and vanished.

Vroom!

While the Great Serpent held the Voidworm back, Lynae reached the top of the monster's head as it prepared to attack the academy.

Vroom!

With the engine roaring, Lynae launched her motorcycle into the air and came face-to-face with the Voidworm.

It was dangerous. The Voidworm still had one last charge of energy in its mouth.

But Lynae was not afraid.

The Voidworm wanted to hurt the academy.

It wanted to hurt the first place that had taken in a mercenary like her and let her experience warmth and happiness.

She would not allow it.

Click-clack.

Lynae jumped backward off the motorcycle, landing behind it in midair, then hurled her paint cans.

With the aid of her Resonance ability, she could turn every one of those cans into a small bomb.

The bombs would add force to the motorcycle's own momentum...

Boom!!!

The exploding paint cans drove the motorcycle into the Voidworm's throat. Then the last charge of energy in its mouth detonated along with the motorcycle.

"Oh no..."

From the air, Rover saw that the blast had reached the Voidworm's core.

That meant the Voidworm itself was about to become a giant bomb!

Boom!

The shockwave from the Voidworm's self-destruction hurled Lynae straight into the sky.