"Enemy with the highest threat level locked on," Svarog announced. Two mechanical hands shot straight at Hanxing.
"So I'm the biggest threat?" Hanxing sneered and created two clones. The mechanical hands struck both clones with precision.
"Target locked. Fire!" Dozens of missiles soared into the air, more than ten of them heading for Hanxing. "Tch." Hanxing slashed twice to open a spatial portal, sending all the missiles inside to detonate.
"Everyone, be careful," March 7th warned. She fired an arrow that struck Svarog's foot and turned to ice, freezing him in place.
Before long, the group suffered a casualty: Bronya was hit by a missile. Hanxing reacted instantly, flashing to her side as his Star Eyes activated. Bronya appeared before him, unharmed. "Thank you."
Caelus knocked a missile aside with his bat, and the group launched a counterattack.
"You started a fight without calling me? That's not very sporting of you." A man's voice came from a distance. Hanxing looked back and saw Sampo.
"I can handle this alone," Hanxing said coldly. "Come on, one more person is better than one less." The two drew their weapons and stood back to back like close comrades in arms.
Soon, Hanxing's clones cut down the mechanical hands and charged forward together. Dan Heng seized the chance to drive his spear into the joint in Svarog's leg, while Seele took off one of his arms with a slash of her scythe.
"Enemy threat level has increased again. Assessment error. Reassessing: extremely dangerous." Several more missiles fired, and two struck Hanxing's clones.
The corners of Hanxing's mouth rose ever so slightly, too subtly to be noticed.
In an instant, Svarog burst into flames. One blaze destroyed his cooling system, while another burned near his central control center.
"Central control system overheating. Requesting cooling." Svarog processed the command. "Request failed. Cooling system offline." His body slowly toppled over.
Hanxing pointed his saber at Svarog, its blade already glowing red.
"Please don't hurt Mr. Svarog." Clara suddenly appeared and stood in front of him. The embroidered spring saber returned to normal, and no one noticed Hanxing let out a slight sigh of relief.
"Mr. Svarog can't fight anymore. Please... please don't hurt him!" Clara said, her voice thick with tears. "Cla... ra..." Svarog spoke her name behind her.
Hanxing silently put away his saber and extinguished the flames. Dan Heng pulled out his spear as well. "Mr. Svarog, please don't push yourself anymore. Could you tell everyone what you know?" Clara turned to Svarog with concern and asked, "Mr. Svarog, you said you were willing to grant me one wish, didn't you? Clara's greatest wish right now is for everyone to come together, like... like a family," Clara said.
"During this time, Clara learned something-the results of 'calculations' don't necessarily bring everyone happiness. Even if people know the world outside isn't all that wonderful... they still want to stick their heads out and see it for themselves," Clara said to Svarog.
"Rebooting assessment system. Reboot successful. Converting variables. Variable one: Clara's request... Variable two: outsiders' motives... Assessment result updated: decision-making authority will be entrusted to the outsiders. Access to information related to the Stellaron granted." Svarog reassessed the situation and issued the commands in a mechanical voice.
"Does this... does this mean we succeeded?" March 7th said with feeling. "It's all thanks to Clara," Caelus said. "Isn't it? Otherwise, even if we'd beaten Svarog, he wouldn't have let us access that information, right?" March 7th continued. Dan Heng, however, focused on a more practical question. "Hopefully his memory bank really does contain data related to the Stellaron."
"Is it over? Have we, Wildfire, and the Underworld... have we won?" Seele murmured to herself, but no one answered her.
"Finally... the time has finally come." At the same time, Bronya spoke quietly. "What, are you nervous?" Seele came up beside her. "Rather than nervous, it's more like... something in my chest is hurting terribly." Bronya fell silent for a while, then turned to Caelus. "...I'm ready, Caelus. Go and uncover the truth. I'll listen from here."
"The data and audio recordings related to the Stellaron have been compiled. Would you like to access them, outsider?" Caelus nodded. "I want to receive the data."
"Requesting access to database file number 13175. Encryption level: highest. Access approved. Playing now..."
A flood of information soon poured out, and Hanxing nodded from time to time. Silver Wolf had already hacked the so-called "intelligence." He had long known these truths.
"You go ahead and discuss it. I'll wait for you at the entrance to the surface later." Hanxing walked over to Svarog. "Sorry. I'll see if I can fix you." "It's all right," Clara said. "Clara can take care of this herself."
Hanxing said nothing more. His eyes turned blue, and his Star Eyes worked rapidly. Before long, Svarog stood before them, completely restored. "Thank you, outsider," Svarog suddenly said.
"Don't mention it." Hanxing then left. He went to a secluded corner, slashed twice to open a spatial portal, and arrived at the entrance between the upper and lower districts.
"Haah... haah..." Hanxing panted heavily. After healing Svarog, he had felt especially exhausted. "Could it be because I stayed up late?" Hanxing wondered, but he could no longer think about it. He leaned against a wall and fell asleep.