The blood-colored figures were nearly pouring out of the passage entrance, their numbers so great that the Light Screen had begun to distort.
There was no time left.
Sevian turned and swept her gaze over the elders on the platform.
"Grand Elder Liu Yijun!"
Her voice sounded like meshing gears, each word hammering out.
"You do it. Control the mechanical claw, transform it into a giant axe, and attack the passage!"
Every trace of color drained from Liu Yijun's face in an instant.
He dropped to his knees with a thud.
"City Lord, I can't!"
His voice trembled. It was no act; he was genuinely shaking.
"I can't wield it!"
"The Heaven-Opening Divine Axe isn't something ordinary people can even touch!"
"Only you can withstand the divine might of the Heaven-Opening Divine Axe!"
Sevian's gaze grew colder.
Liu Yijun spoke faster and faster, as if afraid someone would interrupt him.
"That last axe strike nearly drained all your strength!"
"Sending us up there wouldn't mean fighting the enemy. We'd suffer the backlash immediately, our souls utterly destroyed!"
"With this body and my level of cultivation, I couldn't withstand even one ten-thousandth of the axe's power!"
"Forcing it to activate would only make my body explode on the spot and completely destroy Mechanical City!"
"I cannot do it!"
"I wouldn't dare!"
Sevian fell silent for a second.
That second felt longer than a year.
She understood.
Liu Yijun wasn't making excuses. He truly couldn't do it.
This old fellow had been with her the longest. He knew the price of taking that seat.
Anyone other than the City Lord who sat there would end up dead or crippled.
Sevian's gaze passed over Liu Yijun and swept toward the others.
The Second Elder.
He lowered his head.
The Fourth Elder.
He stepped