"Pfft—cough, cough…"
Zephyro had never fought two Emanators who worked together this well.
Emanators usually acted on their own. Even on the Xianzhou, where they had ties to one another, most stayed in their own territories. How often would any of them even get the chance to practice fighting side by side?
Sylvia and Mei were each strong enough to match Zephyro on paper. Now they were coordinating so well it might as well have been cheating, and Zephyro had been beaten so badly that he'd lost any chance to fight back.
Sylvia's Cloudhymn Arts could produce all kinds of strange effects, with most of them focused on utility. If an ordinary High Elder used them, they'd look like little more than flashy tricks. But in Sylvia's hands, those flashy tricks became an absurdly complete toolkit.
Add Mei's pure, overwhelming offensive power, and it simply wasn't something Zephyro could withstand.
Earlier, when he'd been facing that swarm aligned with Harmony, Zephyro hadn't thought about running. They'd still lacked the decisive firepower needed to finish him off, so he'd had room to fight.
But now…the swarm had been replaced by Mei.
Only then did Zephyro realize just how bad the situation had become. They now had more than enough firepower, paired with coordination that bordered on cheating. At this point, even escaping had become difficult.
Zephyro struggled to hold on, but he was already searching for a chance to flee.
He'd truly screwed up today.
Who would've thought some backwater corner of Penacony would draw every monster and freak in the galaxy?
It was ridiculous.
But before Zephyro could find an opening, it happened.
For the briefest instant, the corrosion of Nihility created a gap in his defense.
Mei's blade and Sylvia's claws struck at the same time!
BOOM—!!!
The soundless impact seemed strong enough to overturn the stars themselves. There was no sound in the void, yet everyone could almost hear the thunderous roar of stars shattering beside their ears.
Brilliant white claws, hard as steel, crossed with a pitch-black blade. Both carried unstoppable force as they slammed straight into Zephyro's core.
Neither of them held anything back.
Caught without time to defend himself, Zephyro took the full force of both attacks while almost completely exposed.
Crack. Crack—
The sound of something breaking traveled up their arms.
Zephyro's body suddenly began to writhe in an unnatural way. Blinding heat and light surged out of control in a deeply unsettling pattern.
Sylvia's eyes widened.
'You've got to be kidding me. Don't tell me you're going to blow yourself up now?!'
Even Phantylia hadn't done that!
There was no time to think.
Sylvia and Mei immediately pulled back. As Sylvia retreated, she cast another Cloudhymn Art without missing a beat.
Water dragons rushed in from every direction and intertwined into a massive prison, sealing the barely living Zephyro behind layer after layer of restraints.
The spell had only just taken shape when an immense eruption of light and heat followed.
The radiance was so fierce it seemed ready to set the entire star system ablaze. The burst of light alone injured large numbers of Galaxy Rangers and members of the Antimatter Legion who hadn't reacted in time.
Then came the raw heat and the indiscriminate force of Destruction.
The prison Sylvia had created expanded in an instant, swelling until it was almost on the verge of collapse. She couldn't tell whether Zephyro had deliberately self-destructed or whether her and Mei's attacks had triggered some innate trait of his species.
Either way, the explosion was overwhelming.
Sylvia's spell lasted less than a second before it shattered.
If that force truly escaped, the Galaxy Rangers wouldn't be the only ones in danger. Across all of Penacony, perhaps only a few Emanators would have any chance of surviving.
Fortunately, Sylvia had reacted fast enough, and Mei followed her lead perfectly.
A flash of blade-light swept across the void, and even the erupting flames seemed to freeze in place. Sylvia seized the chance to gather her power again, rebuild the seal, and keep grinding away at the indiscriminate blast.
But wearing down the self-destruction of a veteran Emanator wasn't going to be easy.
Sylvia's thoughts raced as she searched for a solution.
Mei's power could suppress it, but suppression was all it could do. There was no realistic way for one slash to erase every last trace of the blast.
Sylvia glanced at Mei, who was also struggling to keep it contained.
After turning the problem over in her mind, she came back to sealing it.
Maybe that really was the answer.
Sylvia thought of the empty Herrscher of the Void Core she still hadn't stored anything inside. She'd originally planned to copy the structure of the accretion disk and use it to contain a Stellaron.
Now she could try sealing the power Zephyro had left behind instead.
Of course, this chaotic energy wasn't like a Heliobus. It didn't naturally gather itself together, so there was little chance of putting it to practical use.
The seal would only be temporary. Once this whole incident was over, Sylvia could slowly release the energy somewhere safe.
"Don't do anything stupid!"
The idea had barely formed before Mei shouted at her in alarm.
If Mei hadn't been busy wearing down the force from Zephyro's explosion, she would've gone over and smacked Sylvia on the head.
Trying to use the method for sealing a Stellaron on the remains of an Emanator?
You'd have to be out of your mind to even think of it.
Those two things weren't even on the same scale.
'It's not that reckless.'
Sylvia shook her head and answered Mei directly through their mental link.
With Constance and Black Swan's help, the model she'd built was meant, in theory, to contain violent forms of energy. That applied to the power of a Stellaron, and it should also apply to what remained of Zephyro's self-destruction.
The only difference was that the latter contained far more energy than an ordinary person could ever control.
But Sylvia wasn't exactly ordinary anymore. With the Path of Permanence and the Ambrosial Arbor on top of that, she was already absurdly hard to destroy.
It was worth trying.
"I'll test it first."
Sylvia made her decision.
Mei wanted to stop her, but Sylvia had created the entire sealing formation. If Sylvia wanted to draw the energy into her own body, there was no way Mei could react fast enough to stop her.
"Urgh—!!"
The instant the raging power entered her body, it tried to tear her apart.
Violent. Frenzied. Purely destructive.
To Sylvia, this power felt even purer than what she'd sensed from Phantylia.
But in the end, it was still masterless energy.
Sylvia endured the pain tearing through her body. She raised barriers with her own power and guided the raging flames toward the Herrscher of the Void Core.
Then three powers—Abundance, Permanence, and Propagation—converged.
They surged into the core as well, trying to create an environment dense enough to stabilize what was inside.
At first, Sylvia had been worried that one core wouldn't be able to endure such a chaotic mixture of powers. But as more energy poured in, she realized the core was unbelievably stable. It showed no sign of reaching its limit.
So Sylvia focused on forming the accretion disk within it.
An accretion disk needed enough gravitational pull to form.
Normally, that meant relying on an extremely dense celestial body to create a black hole. But the one around Penacony had formed because there was some kind of void at its center that led who knew where, causing Memoria to leak out and indirectly creating the disk.
Sylvia couldn't compress the power of Paths.
She'd never even heard of anyone doing that.
So naturally, her only choice was to imitate Penacony's version.
Two cores, with Sylvia's own body serving as the bridge between them.
In theory, it should work perfectly, though in practice, the process was unbelievably difficult.
Sylvia had to control the energy inside the core with extreme care while also maintaining the external seal.
Everything was moving in the right direction, but the strain on her body kept increasing.
Until the accretion disk fully formed, all the energy piling up inside would remain a burden.
Gradually…
The violent turbulence inside the seal began to settle.
Mei immediately stopped what she was doing and rushed over to Sylvia.
"I'm fine…almost done…"
Sylvia forced out the words with what little concentration she could spare.
Seventy percent—nearly eighty percent—of the energy within the seal had already disappeared.
Most of it had been drawn into Sylvia's body.
As the amount inside the core rose, so did the pressure. Sylvia began trying to make the energy circulate.
But the resulting torrent was even more violent than she'd expected. Worse, the bridge the energy needed to travel through was Sylvia's own body.
And at that very moment, her body was still taking in energy from Zephyro's self-destruction.
If nothing unexpected happened, the strain would be enormous, but the process should continue normally.
She only needed to hold on a little longer. Once she'd drawn all the remaining energy inside herself, she could focus entirely on building the internal energy cycle.
Then the pressure would vanish on its own.
But…
At that exact moment, Sylvia's mind blurred.
A strange premonition appeared in her thoughts, followed by an image.
The flutter of a candy-colored skirt.
A surgical knife reached into the void and plucked at invisible threads of fate.
The woman's hidden face suddenly turned toward Sylvia.
She looked surprised.
Then understanding dawned, and her lips curled into a knowing smile.
"Heh~"
That soft laugh snapped Sylvia awake.
'Crap. It's that meddling Lord of Silence!'
The sudden appearance of Polka Kakamond startled Sylvia.
And at the exact instant her attention slipped, the energy flow that had been balancing on a razor's edge suffered a tiny mishap caused by nothing more than "bad luck."
That was enough.
The entire structure collapsed.
Like floodwaters bursting through a dam, the energy smashed through Sylvia's defenses in an instant.
The power that should've continued pouring steadily into the core suddenly broke loose and erupted inside her body. With the pressure no longer being increased, the core that should've released its burden through that pressure began losing it instead.
That single moment of instability wiped out nearly all of Sylvia's progress.
Worse, the power she'd already absorbed began running wild.
BOOM—!
Flames of Destruction erupted uncontrollably from Sylvia's body.
"Agh!!"
The power of Destruction rampaged through her, bringing a kind of pain completely different from Nihility.
Sylvia endured it and immediately cut off the absorption.
At the same time, she fought to keep the seal intact.
"Sylvia?!"
Mei instantly realized something had gone wrong with the energy Sylvia had absorbed.
Her hand moved toward her blade on instinct.
One slash would be enough. Sylvia's body could survive it, and the energy raging inside her would definitely be weakened.
But if Mei actually struck her… Sylvia might lose control of the seal.
And even the remaining energy was still enough to destroy all of Penacony.
"D-Don't…"
Sylvia knew exactly what Mei was thinking. She quickly raised one claw, telling her to stay calm.
"But you—"
"Just think of it as training…hah… It only hurts. It's not going to kill me."
"…"
Mei ignored her completely.
How could she even say something that ridiculous with a straight face?
Mei glanced toward Penacony.
Things over there seemed to have ended.
She needed help.
At the very least, someone else had to stabilize the last remaining portion of the explosion. Even though only a small fraction remained, it was still enough to destroy Penacony.
Just then, the Astral Express surged out into space and arrived in front of Sylvia and Mei.
The crew had just finished their own battle when they noticed something was wrong with Sylvia above them. They'd hurriedly gathered everyone and rushed over to see whether they could help.
Mei gave them a brief explanation.
Dan Heng looked at the enormous formation.
"Bailu and I will maintain the seal."
They were the only two people present who could use Cloudhymn Arts.
That meant the job had to fall to them.
"Huh? Me?!"
Bailu stared wide-eyed at Dan Heng.
She hadn't learned a spell this complicated yet!
"You carry the inheritance of a High Elder within you. You can do it."
Dan Heng wasted no more time.
He summoned a water dragon, wrapped Bailu in it, and shot into the sky.
Seeing how determined Dan Heng was to take over, Sylvia nodded and released her control of the spell.
The entire formation immediately began to tremble.
It was nowhere near as stable as it had been under Sylvia's control, but at least it held together instead of collapsing outright.
"Ahem. Leave the leaking energy to this old man."
General Huaiyan straightened his back and stepped out of the Express.
He rose into the air and used some unknown technique. All the energy leaking from Sylvia's body began flowing toward General Huaiyan instead.
With both problems taken over by someone else, Mei finally let out a breath of relief.
Then her burning gaze settled on Sylvia, who was still enduring the turmoil inside her.
Her hand was already gripping the hilt of her blade.
"Good. Now I can cut you without worrying."
"N-No, wait… You're actually serious?!"
"Stop talking. Go to sleep. You'll feel better when you wake up."
Mei didn't give Sylvia another chance to argue.
A crimson flash appeared once more.
With enough force to look as though she intended to split Sylvia in half, Mei brought her blade straight down toward Sylvia's head!
Sylvia's eyes nearly popped out.
'Damn it!'
'I knew you were waiting for a chance to get back at me!'
'There's definitely some personal grudge mixed into this slash!'
"You—gwaah!"
Sylvia had barely started complaining when the power of Nihility dropped over her head like a sack.
The force that reduced everything to nothing even erased the pain caused by Destruction along with it.
So while Sylvia felt deeply uncomfortable, she also somehow felt…relieved.
There was only one problem.
A single slash wasn't enough to erase all the runaway energy inside her.
The power of Nihility was quickly worn away.
Sylvia's eyes snapped open.
And she saw Mei already raising her sword for a second strike!
"Gah—"
Sylvia didn't even get a chance to breathe.
Her neck tilted to the side, and down she went again.
--+--
Aboard the Astral Express.
"Pfft… Ah, sorry!"
It should've been a terrifyingly dangerous scene.
But March 7th had no idea why she found it so funny.
Especially whenever Sylvia opened her eyes.
The wounded resentment in her expression was almost overflowing, while Miss Acheron looked like a merciless automatic slashing machine that wouldn't even let Sylvia get a complaint out.
One chop to the head, and Sylvia went straight back to sleep like a baby.
"…"
The rest of the Express crew were also holding back laughter, but they all turned to glare at March 7th in perfect unison.
"Sorry…"
March 7th covered her mouth and quickly shook her head.
But then another ridiculous laugh rang through the Express.
"Aha~"
"March…"
"That wasn't me this time!!"
"Then who was it?"
Everyone looked around.
Every single person shook their head.
Then the laugh came again.
"Aha~"
This time, the mocking laughter reached everyone at once.
Out in space, a clown's mask emerged from the void.
The mask laughed as it looked down at Sylvia, who was still being repeatedly knocked down and waking back up.
--+--
T/N: If you want advance chapters, you can find it at [email protected]/AspenTL