Chapter 21: One last stand
In the middle of the night, a great mecha was slammed to the ground again after its energy shield was shattered by Di Tian. Elysium maneuvered the mecha to stand, but Di Tian kicked it, preventing it from standing.
[Warning! Energy output has exceeded expectations. The remaining energy is insufficient to continue the battle any further. The entire Domain in this area has fallen into enemy hands, and the recovery and charging of the main weapon is completely hampered.]
[Main weapon ready to fire, this is your last chance.]
"I know… I know. Just shut up, okay? The time will come soon." Elysium tried to stand but realized one of his exosuit legs had been destroyed.
He could only use the thrusters to stay afloat. His entire exosuit body had been damaged to a terrifying degree. He tried to hold on as long as possible using fortress tactics and bombarding Di Tian.
Somehow, everything was going smoothly until Xiong Jun actively joined the battle. Against two Ultimate Douluo, Elysium still believed he had a fairly good chance of winning.
But he slightly underestimated the power of the Limit Douluo in this world. They were truly at the pinnacle of Level 1 Gene Limit and had already broken through to Level 2 Gene Modification.
"It's quite amazing that your toy can beat us to this stage, but that's all. Under absolute power, all of your external things will be meaningless."
Di Tian and Xiong Jun watched Elysium struggle to maintain his position in the air, eventually falling to the ground and kneeling, trapped inside his mecha.
"This will all be over soon, boy. Do you have any last words?" Di Tian said, readying his Dragon God Claw, preparing to end this once and for all.
Elysium endured the pain of being toyed with by these damn lizards and bears. Looking at them ready to finish him off with their claws, he simply accepted it with a smile.
Losing means losing. There's no reason for the losers, and the winners have no reason to listen to the words of the losers.
"So this is game over?" Elysium breathed heavily as Di Tian raised his claw.
He wants to close his eyes and accept this ending, but for some reason, his eyes won't close. He muttered softly, "One last stand."
A strange soul ring formed and materialized from a spectrum of colors, both present and absent. A pattern engraved with engravings that were both understandable and incomprehensible.
A field opened like a book being opened from its cover. Suddenly, a crazed laughter filled with madness and chaos echoed throughout the coastline. Elysium echoed as he looked up at the sky, his eyes bleeding, his ears mangled, and half of his head severely distorted.
Suddenly, Di Tian froze, unsure of what he was doing. He looked at his hand, confused as to why he had drawn his dragon god claw. He looked at Xiong Jun, who was frozen like an idiot, staring at Elysium and screaming crazily.
"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!!!" Xiong Jun used his claws to cover his ears, but the whispers continued incessantly. Screams and curses, prayers and hopes, the known and the secret, all were whispered into his ears relentlessly.
"Ahhhh!!!" Xiong Jun raised his claws and crushed his ears. He also crushed both of his eyes, but none of this stopped. "Stop!!! Stop!!! Stop!!! Why can't you stop?! Why won't you turn it off!!!"
Xiong Jun fell to the ground, gritting his teeth.
Di Tian just stared from the side like an idiot. He had forgotten why he was here and what he was actually doing. Why was he still in human form when he was a soul beast, and what were these claws on his hands? Why did he have them?
One by one, Di Tian's knowledge was stripped away. He stood there and transformed into a golden-eyed black dragon, his true form in this place. He had wings, but he didn't know the concept of wings. He looked up at the sky, but his knowledge of flying and aviation had been stripped away.
When he looked again, he could see a human smiling with maniacal laughter as he drank or ate something. The soul rings behind his back disappeared, and in an instant, all that knowledge was restored.
"...!!!"
Di Tian was stunned for a moment, but a moment was what Elysium needed.
"FIRE!!!" Elysium shouted loudly and fired two laser cannons, his main weapon, a spaceship's main weapon.
A red laser emitting highly concentrated heat shot towards Di Tian in his true soul beast form. The red laser struck Di Tian, melting his scales and burning his flesh from the outside.
"Akhhhh!!! You fucking piece of shit!" Di Tian cursed under the excruciating pain. His entire body felt like it was being burned by the sun, and his precious scales were melting like tar.
This pain, its heat far surpassed that of ultimate fire. Di Tian forced the soul power within his body to block the laser that hit his chest, but to no avail, all his soul power evaporated without a trace.
In five seconds, he felt the excruciating torment before the laser disappeared.
Di Tian fell to the ground, his body returning to his human form. A horrific wound charred his body, blackened flesh falling off one by one, revealing bones that had even melted in the intense heat.
For the first time, Di Tian felt something he had long forgotten. An emotion he never wanted to show in this world.
Fear.
He looked at Elysium as a monster he feared more than the gods in the divine realm. He had never been injured this badly, and he had never felt such excruciating torment.
With his eyes trembling violently, Di Tian subconsciously wanted to move away from Elysium, whose Mecha had been shattered into worthless chunks of metal. The two cannons that fired it had been shattered and damaged beyond recognition.
"Di Tian!" Na'er shouted and immediately ran towards Di Tian, shocked to see the extent of his injuries. But before she could say anything, Di Tian grabbed the young lady and fled through the space cracks.
As for Xiong Jun, Di Tian didn't even care about the half-crazed Xiong Jun, who couldn't even think properly. He had already destroyed his body to the point where Bi Ji wouldn't be able to heal him.
More importantly, he needed to take the young lady away from this monster and never seek contact with him again.
"Is it all over?" Elysium took off his guidance glasses, which had cracks all over their frames.
"Haha... I'm still alive after facing the Ultimate Douluo..."
Elysium laughed heartily, his calm and cool emotions shattered with his laughter. Atop a pile of broken mecha, he held a black sword that was damaged beyond repair.
He just tossed it and soon forgot about all this trash. If something is broken beyond repair, just build a new one. Why bother becoming sentimental about the old.
"But I didn't expect Di Tian to survive that laser attack. It's somehow surprising. I'll need to make a new one later, but making a copy of the inscription really takes too long."
Just that laser cannon took Elysium a full year, setting up inscription arrays to replace the lost technology and necessary parts. He also had to create various new inscription arrays, requiring him to use his brain at full capacity.
So, that thing is truly a perfect replica of the red laser cannon widely used on ancient corvettes in the early days of the Federation's space voyages.
"But…" Elysium slowly got up while applying pressure to his wound and stopping the bleeding on his shoulder.
"I completely failed. This experiment simply cannot continue."
Looking at the ruins and the gradually returning silence, Elysium saw himself and a bear that appeared unconscious with its eyes open. He saw it unresponsive to anything despite its severe injuries.
"Surprisingly, he's still alive. Well, maybe this isn't all bad." Elysium grabbed Xiong Jun by the hair and dragged him away.