The declaration exploded like thunder in everyone's ears!
The members of the AST Unit were completely plunged into confusion and shock. Origami looked at the endless mechanical torrent, then at Ellen in the air and Tohka on the ground, and for the first time, hesitation appeared in her gun-holding hand.
Ellen's expression became extremely grim, and her attacks grew even more ferocious. She had to immediately subdue this Spirit and define his words as utter nonsense!
(No! I can't keep taking hits passively! I must... I must think of another way! I have to run! This persona can't be maintained any longer!)
Welt's brain raced, searching for even the slightest possibility of breaking the situation.
Just as Koushi drew all the firepower and the spatial lockdown completely failed due to the Titan's attack...
Because Tohka's Reiryoku consumption reached a critical point, her body slowly dissipated into particles of light, finally allowing her to lost and return to the Neighboring World.
Almost simultaneously, a beam of teleportation light from the Fraxinus precisely enveloped Shido, who had been stunned by Tohka's disappearance, rapidly transporting him away.
(Now is the time!)
An unprecedented, extremely dazzling yet clearly unstable torrent of azure blue data erupted around him!
The massive energy reaction instantly caused all detectors to shriek!
Several gigantic, structurally complex, pseudo-Honkai Energy fusion cores, emitting devastating energy fluctuations, were instantly constructed by him and suspended around him, looking as if they would detonate the next second!
"Wh—?!" Ellen's pupils contracted, and her pursuit movement abruptly stopped!
Even she could not ignore this seemingly suicidal, insane action and the exaggerated energy reaction!
She subconsciously held her light blade horizontally in front of her, switching to a defensive stance, and rapidly calculated the possibility of interception or evasion.
All AST Unit members were even more on high alert, almost instinctively aiming their weapons at those massive "bombs," deploying their defensive Territory at full power!
However, just at the moment when everyone's attention was drawn by this earth-shattering declaration of self-destruction—
Welt's true killing move had already been launched!
His will had long since connected, like invisible tentacles, to the DEM sealing devices that had been reduced to smoking wreckage by the Titans!
(Understanding tampering! Command overwrite! Driven by residual energy—Simulate maximum power phase interference! Explode for me!)
Buzz—Boom!!!
It was not an explosion, but a dull yet extremely widespread energy hum!
The remnants of the DEM devices lit up with a final flash, like a dying flame, and an incredibly intense, abnormally distorted spatial fluctuation spread out violently like a tsunami centered on them!
This artificially created, intense phase interference, mimicking a Spirit's "Lost," instantly swept across the entire battlefield!
The screens of all detectors instantly turned to static, Reiryoku readings jumped wildly, and target lock was lost!
Visually, the air seemed to turn into a funhouse mirror; light was severely distorted, and even the figures of Welt and the "bombs" he constructed began to blur and flicker!
"Interference?! Is this a 'Lost' reaction? No! This is..."
Ellen instantly realized she had been tricked, but her senses and instruments fell into temporary disarray under the intense interference!
Now is the time!
A blue light flashed in Welt's eyes!
All pseudo-Honkai Energy fusion cores instantly vanished without a trace, like popped balloons, as if they had never existed.
He pushed his own power to the limit!
"Optical Camouflage: Full-Spectrum Masking! Reiryoku Fluctuation: Silent Mode!"
His figure, like a drop of ink dissolving in water, instantly became transparent and ethereal under the cover of the spatial interference, finally disappearing completely from the spot, leaving no trace of energy.
During his descent, he used his last bit of strength to construct a small, bio-mimetic mechanical bird emitting a faint Reiryoku signal, making it chirp and quickly fly toward the opposite end of the city from his home.
Having done all this, he, like a puppet whose strings were cut, contained all light and sound, following the thick shadowed side of the bridge.
He silently and soundlessly plunged into the cold, murky river water below, without splashing a single drop.
A few seconds later, the spatial interference gradually subsided.
Ellen hovered in mid-air, her face terrifyingly pale. Her detector had lost all signals from that strange Spirit.
The bridge below was intact, with only a gentle breeze sweeping over the river surface. In the distance, the faint signal of the mechanical bird was rapidly moving away.
"..." Her cold gaze swept over the empty space beneath the bridge, then looked at the direction the mechanical bird was fleeing.
"You monitor that signal. I will pursue."
She issued the command to the remaining DEM units almost through gritted teeth, and her white figure turned into a stream of light and sped away. She knew she might have been fooled, but that faint signal was the only clue she had right now.
The AST Unit, meanwhile, fell into greater confusion, beginning to descend, check the scene, and attempt to restore communications and detection.
And beneath the unnoticed river surface, a Welt in a tattered suit.
He was struggling miserably, dragging his soaked body and his nearly falling-apart "disguise," crawling laboriously along the pipes beneath the riverbed toward the direction of his home.
(I... I succeeded... Damn it... That crazy woman Ellen... She's really strong...)
(This suit... it weighs a ton... Aha... I'm not done with you...)
(Next time... next time I absolutely have to build a submarine...)
His escape plan was finally completed without major incident, amid extremely high risk and immense shame. The name "Welt of Anti-Entropy," along with the countless questions he raised, had been deeply etched into the hearts of all witnesses.
However, the battle against the Spirit was over, but the questions were not. Every single question Koushi had raised earlier was like a carefully calculated heavy hammer.
Not only did they pound on the hearts of the AST Unit members, but they also viciously smashed against the high wall of lies that DEM had desperately tried to maintain!
Especially Origami! Her pupils severely contracted. These core-piercing questions resonated strongly with the doubts she harbored deep down about the AST Unit and DEM!
And the sheer volume of information revealed in this Spirit's words—"thirty years," "we Spirits"—made her feel an unprecedented shock!