The Balladeer's broken body twitched slightly in Sangonomiya Kokomi's arms.
Delicate gears and conduits were exposed at the fractured joints, and a pale purple fluid continuously leaked from the wounds—he was losing the energy required for him to move.
"Damn it..."
The Balladeer's remaining left hand grasped futilely at the air.
Not far away, the Hydro Hilichurl Ranger carelessly tossed his right arm like trash into the Burning ruins.
"Lady Sangonomiya! Run!"
Gorou's roar suddenly rang out.
Before Kokomi could turn her head, she heard a sickening crunch—beneath the Hilichurl Chieftain's spike-covered battle boot, those always energetic dog ears stopped twitching forever.
"Gorou—!!"
Kokomi's scream tore through the clamor of the battlefield.
The Balladeer, held in her arms, clearly saw something utterly shatter in the eyes of the usually composed Strategist.
Beidou's enraged roar exploded like thunder: "Damn it! I'll fight you all to the death!"
She swung her greatsword, splitting open three Heavy-armored Mitachurls, ignoring the fact that the blade was already warped.
But just as she prepared to charge towards Gorou's body—
"Clang! Clang!"
A chain fitted with barbs suddenly wrapped around her ankle.
The instant Beidou stumbled and fell, she saw the other end of the chain connected to a winch on the Blazing Axe Mitachurl's waist.
Following the "clack clack" sound of the machinery running, she was dragged towards the chilling, dense spear formation.
"Big Sister!"
Kazuha wanted to rush over, but his injuries stopped him.
When the first spear pierced Beidou's shoulder, she was still able to roar and snap the shaft.
When the second pierced her thigh, she spat out a mouthful of bloody foam.
When the seventh and eighth simultaneously pierced her chest and abdomen, this Queen of the Sea who dominated Liyue finally collapsed to her knees.
"Cough... Haa..."
Beidou looked at the spear tips protruding from her body and suddenly grinned.
Her bloodied teeth were especially glaring in the firelight: "The Crux... never..."
The latter half of the sentence remained forever stuck in her throat.
The Hilichurls mechanically withdrew their spears, letting the riddled body fall into the pool of blood.
Kazuha's pupils contracted to the size of needle points.
The masterless Vision on his waist suddenly burst forth with purple light, but before he could act, Kokomi's cool hand pressed down on him.
"Don't move... you're too badly hurt..."
Looking at Kazuha's battered body, Kokomi held him back.
She knew that if Kazuha rushed forward, he would instantly be sliced into pieces by that strange Hilichurl Ranger.
The battlefield suddenly fell silent.
The hundred or so surviving warriors were forced back to the final reef area.
Surrounding them, tens of thousands of Abyss Hilichurlss were slowly tightening the encirclement.
The Heavy-armored Mitachurls in the front row slammed their Tower Shields heavily into the ground, forming a wall of steel; the spearmen in the middle row rested their weapons in the gaps between the shields; the crossbowmen in the back rows neatly drew their strings, and poisoned arrows gleamed a faint blue in the firelight.
The Hydro Hilichurl Ranger strolled to the front of the formation and casually kicked Gorou's head to Kokomi's feet.
It tilted its head, and the eyes beneath its mask shone with mockery.
"Get ready..."
Kazuha heard the trembling sound of bows being drawn behind him.
"...for one last stand..."
Just then, the Balladeer suddenly grabbed Kokomi's collar with his remaining hand: "Idiot... throw me... over there..."
Kokomi froze for a second, then immediately understood.
She watched the Balladeer tremblingly pull out a fragment overflowing with Electro light from his embrace—it was a piece of the Delusion that the Balladeer had previously torn apart.
By the time the Hydro Hilichurl Ranger realized something was wrong, it was too late.
Kokomi used all her strength to throw the Balladeer into the air, and the Puppet stretched out his body mid-air, slamming the Delusion fragment fiercely into his own chest:
"Using this body as the catalyst—"
Blinding Electro light engulfed the entire battlefield.
(In front of the chessboard, the quartet simultaneously drew a sharp breath.
The chess piece in Zane's hand dropped onto the table with a "patta": "Holy crap... The Balladeer self-destructed?")
The deafening explosion echoed over Nazuchi Beach for a long time.
The Electro Storm generated by the Balladeer's self-destruction was like the wrath of a celestial god, and the blinding purple light illuminated the surrounding area for several miles as if it were daytime.
"Boom—!!!"
The furious Electro element precisely detonated all the Pyro Slime ammunition within the Hilichurl formation, and the resulting chain explosion generated a shockwave that lifted three-meter high waves of sand across the entire beach.
Sangonomiya Kokomi's Hydro element shield trembled violently under the impact, and fine water droplets continuously shook off the barrier.
When the Mushroom Cloud slowly rose, an eerie silence fell over the battlefield.
After the smoke and dust cleared, the survivors were presented with a scene like purgatory:
The upper half of the Hydro Hilichurl Ranger was skewered diagonally into the scorched sand, and the single eye exposed by its shattered mask still held an expression of disbelief;
The Heavy-armored Moe Churl King's armor was Melted into molten iron, which solidified with its master's flesh and blood into a twisted sculpture;
Further away, thousands of Hilichurl remains were scattered radially around the kilometer-wide blast crater, like a field of wheat trampled by a giant.
"Did we... win?"
A Shogunate samurai tremblingly released the broken katana in his hand.
The left side of his armor was completely gone, exposing the burnt flesh beneath.
Sangonomiya Kokomi's lips had lost all color.
She looked at her trembling hands—in order to maintain the shield, even her nail beds were bleeding.
"We won..."
The words were so soft, as if afraid of waking something up.
"Ah ah ah ah ah!"
A young resistance soldier suddenly fell to his knees.
His wailing tore through the brief tranquility.
"Lord Gorou! Captain Beidou! Did you see it! We won!"
This cry was like opening a floodgate.
Survivors slumped to the ground one after another; some laughed maniacally, some tore at their hair, and most just stared blankly at the wreckage everywhere—the remains of enemies, and of comrades.
Kaedehara Kazuha dragged his broken leg, leaning on his sword, and hobbled over to Beidou's corpse.
"Big Sister..."
Kazuha took off his tattered coat and gently covered Beidou's face.
"...I will carry the banner of The Crux for you."
Sangonomiya Kokomi staggered toward the spot where Gorou had fallen.
She knelt down and carefully picked up half of the bloodied head from the sand.
The moment her fingertips touched the head, large, heavy tears finally splashed onto the scorched earth.
"Lady Sangonomiya..."
A few heavily wounded Miko gathered around.
"What should we... do now..."
Kokomi suddenly looked up, the tear stains in her eyes not yet dry, but already alight with startling resolve: "Count the survivors, treat the wounded."
Her voice was hoarse but firm.
"And then... go tell the Raiden Shogun..."
"There is no need for that."
"There is no need for that."
A low, mechanical voice rolled across the battlefield like muffled thunder.
When the twenty-meter tall silver-white Mecha slammed down, the resulting shockwave created a sandstorm that obscured half the sky.
Sangonomiya Kokomi stumbled back two steps, her pupils contracting violently.
Through the gradually dispersing sand curtain, she clearly saw—standing on the shoulder armor of that war machine were the figures of four Hilichurls.
"Did we... still not win?"
Her voice was as soft as a sigh.