An icebound lance materialized in her hand.
"In my capacity as Supreme Guardian, I command you to rise—" Cocolia raised Amber high.
"—Engine of Creation!"
The wind and snow scattered as a colossal mechanical hand rivaling the Ambrosial Arbor emerged from behind Cocolia!
"It's an ancient machine of the Architects! Everyone, watch out!"
At the sight of the Engine of Creation, Bronya's pupils shrank to pinpoints. She hurriedly grabbed Stelle beside her and fled backward.
The giant hand descended, but Zhang Xiu neither dodged nor retreated. Instead, he tensed every muscle and caught it with his bare strength!
His bones shuddered. Gritting his teeth, he actually wrenched the Engine of Creation's massive hand aside!
But as the Geomarrow engine on its mechanical arm shone gold, the Engine of Creation still sent Zhang Xiu flying through the sheer bulk of its body.
It slowly rose, its body as imposing as a city wall, standing firm behind Cocolia amid the wind and snow.
"Engine! Crush them!"
With a gesture of Amber, a beam gathered at the Engine of Creation's forehead and swept across the ground beneath their feet. A string of explosions stirred up clouds of dust, obscuring their vision.
"This is so unfair! What are we supposed to do?!" March 7th looked at the tiny bow in her hands, at a loss.
"That thing's ten thousand times bigger than Svarog! I'm not even as big as its fingernail!"
But the Engine of Creation was not their only opponent. Fragmentum creatures kept emerging, launching reckless attacks at the Stellaron's command.
"Amber! The lance in Cocolia's hand is what lets her control the Engine of Creation!" Serval smashed a Fragmentum Creature's head apart with her electric guitar, then looked toward where Zhang Xiu had been thrown:
"We have to find a way to stop Cocolia!"
The next moment, Zhang Xiu burst into motion, leaping onto the Engine of Creation's arm and sprinting toward Cocolia high above!
A beam shot toward him, and he raised his sword to knock it away. When a Flame from Outer Space attacked, Zhang Xiu kicked it away, sending it crashing into a distant wall and exploding into dust.
Seeing Zhang Xiu charge through unopposed, Cocolia simply ignored him and instead commanded the Engine of Creation to bring its mountain-sized fist down on Stelle and the others below!
But a crimson beam from beyond the sky blasted its left arm, forcing it to halt and leaving it disabled.
"...Hello, hello? Can you hear me? The signal's terrible..."
Himeko's reassuring voice reached every member of the Astral Express Crew.
"Nice work, Auntie Himeko! Leave the rest to us...!" Zhang Xiu felt the cold wind lash his cheeks, yet the blood in his veins boiled with excitement.
"Auntie... Himeko?" Far away aboard the Astral Express, Himeko's mouth twitched.
Upon reaching the Engine of Creation's shoulder joint, Zhang Xiu pushed off and leaped straight toward Cocolia.
At the sight, Cocolia did not hesitate. She began embracing the Stellaron's power wholeheartedly, and frost started forming over her body.
"So this is... its power!"
Knowing she had no intention of turning back, he stopped trying to persuade her. Instead, he rested his greatsword on his shoulder and waited quietly for her transformation.
Cocolia's skin gave way to a deep galaxy, while ice-blue armor grew over her body.
Her size abruptly swelled several times over. Even at 1.8 meters tall, Zhang Xiu did not reach her knees.
—Cocolia, Mother of Deception—
Cold light flashed as Cocolia raised her right hand toward the heavens, bringing down two towering pillars of ice.
[Call of Ruthless Annihilation]
As she swept her right hand upward, carving violent ripples through the air, several rings of light appeared before her.
[Omen of the End of the World]
Zhang Xiu raised his sword and charged, taking the freezing waves of light radiating from the ice pillars head-on.
Cocolia did not stay rooted in place as she did in the game. Using her ability to fly, she darted around the Engine of Creation while the ice spikes forming in her hands rained down on Zhang Xiu like a flood.
Yet her fixation on Zhang Xiu made her unwittingly forget everyone else.
With her companions' help, Stelle climbed up while the Engine of Creation was disabled. Bat in hand, she leaped into the air and swung at Cocolia, whom Zhang Xiu had forced into a corner!
Ice cracked. Stelle's all-out blow only barely shattered a little of the ice armor covering Cocolia.
Once Stelle had exposed herself, Cocolia seized her by the neck with one hand and summoned Amber again in her right.
The lance thrust forward. Stelle's eyes went blank as Amber pierced clean through her chest, and she fell from the air.
Though Zhang Xiu knew that this would earn Stelle a gaze from the Aeon of [Preservation], granting her the power of a Path and restoring her completely, he still reacted at the sight.
Out of his desire to protect his companion, he abandoned Cocolia and rushed straight toward the falling Stelle, intending to catch her in his arms.
The instant Zhang Xiu touched Stelle, his mind reeled, and his thoughts went blank.
When he came to his senses, he found himself alone in the Pathway Rift.
What's going on? I came to the Pathway Rift too? But where's Stelle?
Zhang Xiu looked up, only to find nothing around him but a brilliant galaxy and layers of deep-blue nebulae in the distance.
There was no lance in this Pathway Rift, nor anyone else, nor any illusory fragments of the past.
"Hey! Anyone there? Honey? Are you here?!"
He called loudly into the emptiness, but no one answered, leaving him no choice but to walk forward.
Zhang Xiu could make no sense of the situation. At last, amid all his confusion, a change came over this Pathway Rift:
A figure stood amid countless shadows, their face impossible to discern.
Before Zhang Xiu could approach, the figure spoke in a voice that betrayed neither age nor gender:
"Why do you want to save others?"
Faced with this question, Zhang Xiu answered instinctively, almost without thinking. "Because I want to save them. It's that simple. Anything else?"
After receiving his answer, the figure stopped looking at Zhang Xiu and turned their gaze behind them instead:
"Ki-ták-ste-mas."
Words of unknown meaning left their mouth, and a thunderous crash from the depths of the starry sky answered them.
A colossal hammer descended, burning eternally, as amber forged a crystalline wall—
—The Aeon of [Preservation], Qlipoth, cast his gaze upon Zhang Xiu!
With that, Amber Era 2158 officially began!
The moment Zhang Xiu regained consciousness, the first thing he felt was his burning heart.
Beside him, Stelle stood safely on the Engine of Creation's massive mechanical hand, holding Amber.
Amber had chosen Stelle, and Qlipoth's gaze had made her a Pathstrider of [Preservation].
And the Engine of Creation, belonging to the Architects, had naturally chosen her as well.
March 7th and the others, who had just broken free of the Fragmentum Creatures surrounding them, reached their side too. Seeing Stelle safe and sound, March 7th snapped her fingers in excitement.
"This is impossible..." Cocolia blurted out in shock at the sight before her.
"Plenty of things are impossible. Now, face us."
Zhang Xiu and Stelle exchanged nods. They raised their weapons, pointing them straight at the monster high above.
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