Chapter 126: Supreme Guardian, Madou King
Belobog.
The sky was as dark as spilled ink, completely obscured by roiling black clouds. The dark, cloud-like masses resembled the writhing bodies of monsters. Scarlet lightning, crackling like a sinister grin, filled everyone with a sense of oppression, fear, and horror.
The shadow ninja soldiers, which had stopped spawning after Cocolia left Qlipoth Fort, once again began to emerge from the shadows of Belobog.
"Such powerful dark energy..."
The current Supreme Guardian, Bronya, the Silverwing, stood atop the slightly dilapidated castle, gazing towards the far north. With a calm voice, she issued a command to the Silvermane Guard beside her.
"Go, sound the horn."
"Yes!" The Silvermane Guard acknowledged the order with reverence.
Mwooooon~
The low, deep sound of the horn echoed from all corners of the city.
Bronya took a deep breath and spoke, her resolute and strong voice resounding throughout Belobog.
"People of Belobog! Over the past seven hundred years, we have endured countless hardships, but we have never yielded. We have constantly striven, constantly fought, and today is no different!"
"Through the efforts of the Silvermane Guards, the members of Wildfire, and every single person in the Overworld and Underworld, the traitor Cocolia has been driven out of Belobog, but the war is not yet over."
"However, though the road ahead is long, though the wind and snow rage, though the night is dark, we no longer need to fear or wander in confusion!"
"Because we already have hope!"
The crops that could grow and mature multiple times in the extreme cold—that was the hope for the people of Belobog.
"The long night will eventually break into dawn! The blizzard will eventually cease! The Fragmentum will eventually be eliminated, and the sun will rise again!"
"This is the final battle! The dawn that precedes the end of the long night!"
"As the darkness descends, for the sake of everyone welcoming tomorrow's sun together, for our future—Soldiers, take up your arms! Protect our people and our home!"
Standing atop the castle, the young woman's delicate, soft silver-gray curls swayed gently in the cold wind. Her silver eyes shone with determination.
"Belobog will never fall!"
The clear, resounding voice reached the ears of every guard and citizen. It was like a drumbeat striking their hearts, and the blood in their veins seemed to quicken, to burn. The guards, weary from the previous battle, straightened their backs. With unyielding will, they overcame their physical fatigue and shouted in unison, their faces alight with fervent passion.
"Belobog will never fall!"
Under her command, the Silvermane Guards dispersed to every district, becoming a wall of steel and bronze against the shadow soldiers. The citizens looked at the figures standing before them, as solid as a city wall, and when they looked up towards the Administrative District, they could see the shining silver, heroic figure standing at the highest point. Even though the sky was covered by an iron curtain of dark clouds and shadows shrouded the land, the fear and oppression in the citizens' hearts began to dissipate in this atmosphere.
"Lady Bronya!"
"Supreme Guardian!"
"Belobog will never fall!"
More and more voices joined the chorus. Many ordinary citizens, caught up in the fervor, even picked up anything nearby that could be used as a weapon and helped the guards fight the shadow soldiers.
[Amazing...!], the Little Duckling in the back of her mind couldn't help but feel a sense of admiration. Her parallel-world self, the Silverwing, was just too incredible! She had single-handedly controlled the impending chaos in the city with just a speech.
The Silverwing, standing alone at the top, just smiled. This is what a Masked Fool is, isn't it? The ignited fighting spirit and hope of the guards and the people—this was their "Elation." And to participate in the entire process as the "director" and "lead actor"—this was the Elation that belonged to the Silverwing... to Caelus!
[Trailblaze Mission: Become the Supreme Guardian of Belobog and take office in Belobog City! (Completed)]
The prompt that flashed in her mind made the Silverwing pause. "Completed?" She looked at the newly appeared "300 Crystals" in the top right corner of her system interface and checked it again. It can be judged as complete without going through the official coronation ceremony?
However, her doubt quickly vanished amidst the thunderous cheers of "Belobog will never fall!" and "Supreme Guardian!" that echoed to the heavens. ...Is this what it means to be acknowledged?
[But, Silverwing, is it really okay?]
[The situation over there looks really bad.]
Through the Silverwing's eyes, the Little Duckling could faintly see, at the far end of the northern sky, that the vast, bizarre Fragmentum was releasing an even denser darkness. That was the source of the shadows. The deathly-still dark clouds were forming a vortex, and a terrifying storm was brewing within.
Withdrawing her gaze from the far north, the Silverwing, holding the rifle that belonged to the Landau Duck, leaped from the top of Qlipoth Fort with a light and graceful motion.
"It's fine."
The wind roared in her ears. Glancing at the system shop, a faint smile touched the corners of the Silverwing's lips.
"The sun will rise as usual!"
The Silverwing ran in the direction of Serval. As one of the few Pathstriders in the Overworld, the latter had already joined the battle against the Shadowkhan.
The cold wind howled, whipping her golden hair. Dazzling electricity danced along Serval's slender fingers as they flew across the strings of her guitar, purple lightning piercing through several flying shadow soldiers. The excited notes of the guitar and Serval's soaring voice echoed through the clouds:
"The only fire exists in brave hea~rts!"
That was the song Caelus had sent to Serval on his phone not long ago, "Wildfire." The standard BGM for fighting Cocolia. Unfortunately, only Caelus himself could hear it, borrowing the Silverwing's body.
Everwinter Hill.
"Why did the sky suddenly get so dark? Is it... cloudy? Is it going to rain?"
March 7th looked up suddenly after freezing a shadow ninja with her Six-Phased Ice.
As if ink had been poured into already murky water, the darkness spread at a speed that defied the laws of nature, forming layers of dark clouds that blocked out what little sunlight there was.
"What is that?" Dan Heng frowned, looking up at the sky. He had noticed a meteor surrounded by red and black lightning. The strange situation and the oppressively dense dark power gave Dan Heng a strong sense of foreboding.
The other Seele and Bronya soon noticed the dark meteor radiating an ominous power, their expressions turning grave. Dan Heng's premonition came true the very next second.
Under the resonance and pull of the dark power, the black meteor flew straight towards the Engine of Creation, towards the right chest area that had been struck by Himeko's orbital cannon.
Bzzzt~!
Like a magnet attracting metal, the Tchang Zu summoner embedded itself into the Engine of Creation's right chest. A dark magic circle unfolded, and Tchang Zu—the main body of Shinkiryuu's mecha—slowly emerged from within, still in its un-deployed form. With a crackling sound of electricity, Shinkiryuu, wreathed in crimson lightning, and the dark power, like a black mist, spread throughout the giant mecha.
"That is!?"
After the dark power dissipated, the revealed sight made Bronya's pupils shrink. The appearance of the several-hundred-meter-tall ancient machine had changed drastically. Its upper body was now covered in a suit of heavy armor. The front of the armor displayed the form of a triceratops, its sharp, ancient horns glinting coldly. The right arm, which had been destroyed by the orbital cannon, was restored to its original state, but now it was replaced by a large, drill-shaped weapon. The lower body had no special changes, but the color of the metal was clearly different from before, changing from the color of old, cold iron to that of bright steel.
"Huh? Another robot? Did they combine?" Seeing the change in the Engine of Creation, March 7th rubbed her eyes in disbelief. What was going on?
CLANG!
The moment the newborn Engine of Slaughter stood up, a deafening sound was accompanied by a vicious bolt of lightning that tore across the sky, illuminating the entire snowfield. Cocolia floated up to the head of the Engine of Slaughter. A throne of ice materialized, and the Mother of Deception sat upon it, looking down on them all.
"Hah, humans. Weak, foolish, and overconfident. Allow me to grant you despair!" Through the resonance of the dark power, Cocolia could, to some extent, directly control the Engine of Slaughter with her consciousness, as if she were sitting at a control panel.
The terrifying mecha lifted its massive body. Its huge feet crushed the ice mountains of the tundra, sending countless shards of ice flying into the air, glinting with a cold light. The entire world seemed to shake under this immense force, like an earthquake.
"How... how are we supposed to fight this thing? Do we have another attack like the one just now?" Knowing that the laser beam from before was support from their friends from beyond the sky, the Star Rail Seele asked March 7th, who was closest to her.
"Oh, right! I'll ask Big Sis Himeko for orbital support!" March 7th quickly took out her phone and tried to contact Himeko.
The signal was extremely poor, but luckily, she barely managed to connect. "Sis Himeko! Requesting orbital support!"
"Static... March, what happened... detecting a strong unknown energy field... satellite... cannot lock on..."
"Sis Himeko! Sis Himeko!" March 7th was on the verge of tears. The communication was severely jammed. Without orbital weapon support, how were they going to fight this giant robot? It looked so much stronger than before!
They could feel the terrifying fluctuations of that dark power. Coupled with Cocolia, who had completely fused with the Stellaron, an enemy of this level was already beyond what the current trailblazing team could handle. And they couldn't even contact the Express to request orbital support.
"Hmph."
As if sighing, Dan Heng reached out and gripped the yin-yang orb embedded in the shaft of his Cloud-Piercer. The faint sound of crashing waves echoed from the void. Just as Dan Heng was about to unleash his hidden power to help his companions escape, his gaze was suddenly drawn to two gray-haired figures.
"Hmm, as per convention, after the villain's mecha appears, it's our turn as the protagonists to start our move," Caelus said, looking up at the sky-blotting Engine of Slaughter, which was framed against a backdrop of red lightning under the dark vortex of clouds.
"Hmph~ Caelus, hurry up! I can't wait any longer!" Before the apocalyptic scene, Stelle and Caelus stood side-by-side, their delicate gray hair blowing in the wind. Like Naruto and Sasuke facing Momoshiki, they stepped forward with a calm and easy, perfectly synchronized gait.
"Stelle!?"
"Caelus!?"
Dan Heng and March 7th looked on, bewildered.
"Dan Heng, catch!"
Dan Heng paused his motion of grabbing the orb. With a faint whoosh, a small object flew from Caelus's hand with a trail of afterimages. Dan Heng subconsciously caught it. Looking closely, his expression turned a little dumbfounded. "A top?" Why was he giving him a top at a time like this?
"March, catch!" At the same time, Stelle also threw something to March 7th.
"Huh?" March caught it with quick reflexes. Her eyes widened. It was a pale green longbow.
"Caelus, what is this?"
"Stelle, what is this?"
The two of them looked quizzically at the two gray-haired figures standing at the forefront.
"That's the Madou Bow and the Madou Top. You can also call them the Luminous Bow and the Luminous Top." A clear and cheerful young voice drifted over, leaving Dan Heng and March 7th even more confused.
"Madou Bow?"
"Madou Top?"
What were those? They had never heard of them.
"They're items that can summon something good. I'll show you how it's done first!"
At these strange words, March 7th and Dan Heng saw Caelus press his hand into the empty air. A silver gun and a red-bottomed, red-bordered pentagram appeared in his hand.
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