"Phaethon is just like us, just like everyone on the earth below—an 'ordinary person' who simply desires to live and is willing to fight for it."
Solabis and Lunabis fell into a long silence, their soul auras flickering unsteadily.
A moment later, they finally let out a long, deep sigh.
"Perhaps..." Solabis's voice was hoarse and complex, "The judgment Seliose passed down in her despair back then... was truly... mistaken. What she failed to see... was perhaps this very possibility born from ordinary mortals—their tenacious, unyielding potential."
Their soul auras solidified once more, becoming firm and resolute as they turned to Phaethon and Hyacine:
"Listen well, heroes." Lunabis's voice regained its solemnity. "We will expend our final strength to help you force Aquila out from its hiding place in the firmament!"
"What comes next..." Solabis continued, its gaze turning toward the highest point in the sky, "... is up to you. Go and end all of this, in the name of... mortals!"
"This time, we will not be overwhelmed by the darker aspects of human nature! Face us, Titan of the Sky!" Hyacine's declaration, clear and absolute like a trumpet of judgment, pierced through the howling winds beneath the shattered Fortress.
Following her words, the soul auras of Solabis and Lunabis erupted in a final burst of radiance! They no longer maintained their forms as colossal beasts, but transformed into two streams of pure golden light!
These two streams, like living chains, intertwined and spiraled, shooting at a speed beyond sight deep into the fissure in the Celestial Mural. They tightly wound around and linked with that single, coldly gazing eye on the final, stubbornly functioning Celestial Mural!
"Now!" Phainon and Phaethon exchanged a glance, no words needed. They leaped simultaneously, gripping the ends of the brilliantly golden chain with perfect precision. Using the momentum of their descent, they roared and pulled outward with all their might!
*CRACK—BOOM!!!*
A sound of shattering, clearer and louder than any before, exploded!
That final, stubbornly operational screen of the Celestial Mural shattered like crystal torn apart from within by immense force, instantly bursting into countless shards of scattering energy fragments!
The entity hidden behind the screen finally revealed its form completely!
It was a bizarre monster bearing enormous golden wings! Its main body was a twisted, grotesque giant eyeball.
The astonishing wingspan behind it was composed entirely of flowing liquid gold, exuding a suffocating aura of divine majesty and madness!
"Does the light blooming from this blade suit your taste, Aquila?!" Phainon and Phaethon spoke in unison, their voices icy and filled with fighting spirit, as if merged into one.
At the same time, the divine weapons in their hands—Dawnmaker and Judgment of Shamash—as if responding to their masters' call, suddenly erupted with an unprecedented, dazzling brilliance! Dawnmaker's silver light was piercingly cold! Judgment of Shamash's flames incinerated all!
"Since you favor the sun and its radiance—we'll oblige you! Taste the blaze of Dawnmaker (Judgment of Shamash)!"
Before the words faded, the brothers shot forward like lightning, left and right, transforming into two streams of distinctly different light, leading the charge against the two madly flapping, golden-flame-churning colossal wings of Aquila!
Aquila seemed completely unprepared for such decisive and swift aggression! Before it could even comprehend the situation, it felt a heart-rending, excruciating pain at the roots where its wings connected to its body!
A deafening roar of agony tore from its maw!
*SHIIIING—!*
Silver and dark red light interwove and flashed past!
Its seemingly indestructible golden wings were brutally hacked, leaving two deep, bone-exposing gashes! The greatswords Dawnmaker and Judgment of Shamash were buried halfway into the wing roots! Sacred, scalding blood, like molten gold, sprayed out!
In the moment Aquila roared in agony from its grievously wounded wings, leaving its defenses wide open—
A glint flashed in Phaethon's eyes!
An Infinity Gate silently unfolded directly in front of Aquila's massive form!
Immediately after, the already-prepared [Heavenly Fire 096] shot out from the gate with a terrifying velocity of Mach 10, violently and precisely impacting Aquila's core!
"ROOOAAARR—!!!"
Aquila let out an even more piercing, wretched shriek! Its wings instinctively flapped violently, attempting to flee from more deadly consecutive strikes, its colossal form staggering awkwardly as it struggled to fly higher into the upper airspace.
But this series of flawlessly coordinated chain attacks had utterly shattered its first layer of defense.
The powerful "first phase" of the Sky Titan, this formidable boss, was smashed outright under the unreasonable, combined assault of the brothers.
As expected, after Aquila struggled to rise, a massive wound roughly two to three meters in diameter had been brutally torn through the center of its colossal form by the [Heavenly Fire 096]!
The edges of the wound showed horrifying signs of high-temperature melting and violent tearing.
Golden, instantly vaporized divine blood first billowed out from the terrifying wound like steam.
Then, more of the molten-gold-like golden blood gushed forth, raining a shower of golden blood down upon the sea of clouds below.
As for Phainon and Phaethon, the moment Phaethon launched the [Heavenly Fire 096], they had already actively dropped back down toward the platform below, perfectly avoiding the terrifying shockwave and blast radius caused by the projectile breaking the sound barrier.
As for why Phaethon didn't employ a higher-speed, more destructive delivery of the Heavenly Fire, like he did against Nikador before?
The answer was obvious.
Cyrene and Hyacine were still on the platform below! Using an attack with enough power to instantly vaporize mountains and tear the earth now is just too much…
Forget whether the severely wounded Aquila could withstand it—Cyrene, Hyacine, and even Phainon would be the first to be reduced to ashes by the destructive aftermath!
Of course, there was an even more important reason—this was happening at an altitude of over ten thousand meters!
If he truly acted without regard, firing an ultra-high-speed Heavenly Fire that completely obliterated Aquila along with the 'Sky' Coreflame within it.
Who knew which corner of the world the crucial Coreflame would be blasted to by the explosion's shockwave? Would they then have to painstakingly search the entire world for a needle in a haystack?
Rather than causing uncontrollable consequences with extreme destructive power, it was better to proceed as they were now—steadily and surely, controlling the force.
Although it might seem slower, every step was within the plan. The total time spent would undoubtedly be far less than aimlessly searching the world for a Coreflame whose location was unknown!
After all, what Phaethon always pursued was solving problems efficiently and cost-effectively.
Besides, he wasn't some brainless protagonist who mindlessly pursued destructive power, screwed things up, and could only apologize afterward. Well... at least not now. Rationality, precision, efficiency—that was his style.