00:37.
Ye Mo had just taken a half step with his left leg, his foot not yet completely off the ground, when his peripheral vision suddenly narrowed.
Ultron's blue light shone.
It wasn't the flickering light before the power outage, but a sudden burst of blinding light, like a lamp wick being relit. The light shone from its tilted head, illuminating the hall in a ghastly white light, even turning the Ashes floating in the air into a metallic hue.
"... to... continue... in... my... place..."
The voice module continued to speak intermittently, but this time, each syllable was accompanied by high-frequency vibrations of data streams, like some kind of activation command.
Ye Mo's muscles tensed instantly.
He wanted to turn and run, but the lingering frost on his left leg caused his joint to catch for a moment, slowing his movement by half a beat. In that half second, purplish-black energy began to gather wildly from the crack in Ultron's chest, like a storm compressed to its limit, with ominous spiral patterns around its edges.
The target—his back.
"Damn it!" Ye Mo cursed under his breath, forcibly shifting his center of gravity and falling to the side.
However, his left leg was stiff, and his Steel Bone system had only recovered to 30%, so his explosive power couldn't keep up with his consciousness. His shoulder was still grazed.
"Sizzle--"
The sound of flesh scorching was crisp and terrifying; a hole was burned through his hoodie, and his shoulder blade burned as if it had been branded with a hot iron. He groaned and used the momentum of his roll to lunge forward two meters, finally avoiding being hit in a vital spot.
But he knew this was just the beginning.
As expected, Ultron slowly raised his head, and beneath his tattered mask, blue light coalesced into a straight line of gaze, locking onto him. The purplish-black spiral beam of light had reached its limit, and the gun-muzzle-like energy tip trembled slightly, ready to erupt at any moment.
Ye Mo lay on the ground, panting heavily.
His mind was buzzing, the Telepathy module was still cooling down, the Regeneration progress was stuck at 71%, and the Steel Bone system emitted a low warning tone, reminding him that the structural integrity was continuing to decline. He was now like an old mobile phone with missing parts and running out of power; tapping any app might shut it down immediately.
But the AI on the other side, even with only a head and half a body left, was still desperately trying to recharge.
"You fucking don't want to live anymore, do you?" Ye Mo gritted his teeth, trying to stand up by supporting himself on the ground, but his right hand trembled uncontrollably.
A sharp pain exploded in his shoulder, rushing up his arm and jolting his nerves, which ironically made him a little more alert.
Okay, that hurts better.
The pain makes me less sleepy.
He closed his eyes and went through all the abilities he could still summon: lightning, fire, ice, Steel Bone, Self-Healing... They were all lying in the seventh layer of the " Gene Spiral Tower," like a pile of loose parts, waiting for him to temporarily assemble them.
There's no time for trial and error now, and no opportunity for adjustments.
He had to stuff everything into one hand and then throw it out.
Win or we all explode.
Ye Mo took a deep breath, and his right arm jerked violently. Steel Bone instantly surged from under his skin, covering his arm and palm. The metal layer thickened and thickened, making a "crackling" sound as it was compressed. He compressed the lightning into his palm, and the current crackled and leaped between his metal fingers. His left hand quickly ignited flames, which wrapped around his right arm, and the flames spread along the Steel Bone. Then, frost poured in from his fingertips, intertwining with the flames to form a spiral shockwave that was a blend of crimson and dark blue.
The three energies resonated forcefully within him, like three signals of different frequencies being forcibly tuned to the same channel, making his teeth chatter and his eardrums ache.
"Just a little longer... just a little longer..." he murmured, as if comforting himself, or perhaps his body that was about to fall apart.
Ultron's beam of light moved.
Without warning or preparation, the purplish-black spiral energy beam, like a high-speed rotating drill, tore through the air and headed straight for his face.
Ye Mo roared, raised his right arm high, and poured in all the remaining X-Gene energy.
"Get--out-of-me-!"
A platinum spiral blade of light burst forth from his palm, like a giant sword forged from lightning, fire, and ice, fiercely colliding with Ultron's beam of light.
"Boom--!!!"
The moment the energies converged, the entire main hall seemed to be paused.
The next second, a circular shockwave exploded outwards from the two people, the walls peeled off layer by layer like paper, the ceiling was blown off, steel bars were exposed, and Mars flew everywhere. A deep trench was plowed into the ground, and rubble and metal fragments flew around like bullets.
Ye Mo's feet were firmly planted on the ground. The Steel Bone in his right arm had expanded to its limit, its surface covered with cracks, and black smoke was billowing out from the gaps. He could feel the energy backfiring, every nerve was screaming, his throat tasted sweet, and he almost choked on blood.
But he didn't let go.
The light blade is advancing little by little.
Ultron's purplish-black beam of light began to twist and disintegrate, its spiral structure being forcibly crushed and pushed back by the platinum-gold energy.
"No... it... is... possible..." Ultron's voice trailed off, the blue light flickering violently, like a screen with a poor signal.
But its struggles were futile.
The light blade slammed into its head.
"Bang!"
Its head exploded, the blue light core instantly extinguished, and fragments scattered like a handful of crushed glass beads. The remaining body went completely limp, emitting black smoke as it lay motionless on the spot, never to move again.
After the bright light, the main hall was plunged into a brief period of darkness.
Only the residual arc of electricity in Ye Mo's palm still flickered slightly, illuminating half of his face.
He stood there, his right arm hanging down, the Steel Bone beginning to degenerate, the metal layer shrinking back into his body like melted wax, revealing the charred skin beneath. The wound on his shoulder reopened, blood trickling down his arm and dripping onto the ground with a soft "drip-drip" sound.
He looked down at his hands.
It wasn't just blood seeping from between his fingers, but also a trace of silvery-gray molten metal, like the last remnants of the Steel Bone system.
"Structural integrity is below 10%." A system warning echoed in my mind, its voice hoarse like radio static.
He ignored it.
My left leg was still stiff, and my right leg was also not very responsive. My knee buckled, and I fell to one knee, only managing to stay upright by supporting myself with my right hand.
My breathing was heavy, each inhale felt like a bellows, my chest felt tight, and my vision blurred intermittently.
But he didn't fall.
He looked up at the remains of Ultron.
The pile of scrap metal lay silently three meters away, its head shattered, its core extinguished, without any energy fluctuations or traces of data transmission.
He died.
This time, he's really dead.
He grimaced, trying to smile, but the movement aggravated his wound, causing him to wince in pain.
"You said you wanted to balance the universe..." he gasped, his voice barely audible, "But you couldn't even balance yourself."
After he finished speaking, he finally dared to relax the nerve that had been taut all along.
His body swayed slightly, but he managed to hold on.
He remained seated, his position unchanged, his eyes half-open, staring in the direction of the exit.
The countdown is still going on.
00:21.
He was too weak to look.
But he knew the alarms were still ringing, the fire was still burning, and the base could collapse at any moment.
He cannot move.
Not at least not now.
The Steel Bone system warning sounded again, this time even more urgent.
He raised his hand and wiped his face, his fingertips stained with blood.
The exit direction remained deserted.