He abandoned the idea of precisely targeting the decay point. At such close range and at such speed, that was unrealistic. What he needed to do now was rely on intuition and experience, to gamble at the moment the opponent launched its final attack, its energy output reaching its peak! He gambled that its defenses would have their weakest point during its all-out attack!
Five kilometers…three kilometers…
The polyhedron was almost upon him, its massive size nearly filling Kane's entire field of vision! A gravitational field powerful enough to distort space began to act on the Nightingale and Kane, the ship groaning under the strain, its anchoring cables taut to their limit!
"Annihilation!"
A roar of consciousness, a mixture of countless resentments and pure destructive desires, thundered like a great bell, directly striking the depths of Kane's soul! The polyhedron's core light instantly reached its peak, its entire form seemingly melting into a mass of pure destructive energy, crushing towards the Nightingale!
Now!
"Leah! All energy! Now!" Kane roared with all his might!
Almost simultaneously, he aimed the prototype not at a specific decay point, but directly at the most dazzling, most violent energy core! He didn't want interference, not neutralization, but the most extreme energy clash!
"Energy input! 100%!" Leah's execution was without the slightest delay!
Buzz————————————————!!!
The prototype let out a dying, tearing-through-the-void final roar! All its components instantly overloaded, melted, and vaporized! A final resonant wave, its indescribable color, distorting the surrounding light, condensing the last life energy of the "Nightingale," shot towards the source of destruction like a moth drawn to a flame!
No sound.
Only a clash of light.
A devastating, gray-white tidal wave collided with the twisted pillar of light—a culmination of human wisdom, courage, and last hope—less than a kilometer in front of the Nightingale!
Time seemed to freeze.
At the point of impact, space itself seemed to cave in, forming a brief, dark singularity! Then came an indescribable annihilation and explosion of energy!
A pure white flash, a million times more blinding than a star, erupted, instantly engulfing everything! Kane's optical sensors were instantly blinded, his vision reduced to a deathly white!
The powerful energy shockwave, like the Big Bang at the dawn of the universe, spread wildly in all directions!
The Nightingale was the first to be hit! The wrecked hull was flung away like paper under the impact, large sections of armor plating peeling off, the structure cracking with a deafening roar!
Kane felt as if he had been struck by a planet; his anchoring cables snapped instantly, and he was thrown into the air, tumbling helplessly in the void! The violent tremor instantly knocked him unconscious…
How long passed, he didn't know—perhaps just a moment, perhaps eternity.
Kane's consciousness slowly rose from the chaos. The first thing he saw upon regaining his sight was a chaotic starry sky and countless floating metal fragments. He was floating in space; the "Nightingale"… was gone, replaced by a vast, spreading band of cooling metal debris.
He was still alive? The life support system in his protective suit was still weakly functioning.
He struggled to turn his head, searching for the polyhedron.
Then, he saw it.
The spot where the polyhedron had stood was now empty. Only a thin, rapidly dissipating patch of grayish-white energy dust proved its existence.