novelraw Chapter 116 : Off-Season
Chapter 116 : Off-Season
The fire storm spread, The ice layer of the Polar World melted, the melted ice water was evaporated by the extremely high temperature, and dry wind swept across the ground, The ground cracked, and red-hot magma spurted out from within.
Zhu Jing Fu and Saint Laurent sensed something wrong the moment the energy changed. The Competition Committee and the Border Army received information from the competition mechs, immediately contacted the participating teams, And began remote rescue operations.
Several Commanders simultaneously began synchronizing viewpoints with the Star Ring Military Guard and the Competition Committee. The ground subsided, the exhibition hall collapsed, and metal ruins stretched across the land, People scattered.
Screams, wailing, panic, and roars were unceasing.
Many mechs at the scene were released. Students from the five academies who were originally around the exhibition hall gathered together under the guidance of the Competition Committee's synchronized map.
"Star Ring satellite monitoring reports that the disaster area is eight thousand square kilometers, centered on the Polar World, Rapidly spreading outward. The energy is primarily fire and wind attributes, the main energy body is unknown, the energy diffusion speed is extremely fast, Suspected to be a combination of multiple energy field descents."
The broadcast from the Competition Committee sounded. Magma flowed from the cracked map, The ice layer of the ground had completely disappeared, Replaced by a renovated black surface, with red soil turned outward, Steam rising, severely incompatible with the ice and snow plain ecology of the entire Crimson Snow Star.
"The disaster area is so large," a small exclamation came from within the Saint Laurent mech.
"Crimson Snow Star has recently held an exhibition, with dense crowds. The number of affected people is countless. We must quickly find the anchor points, guide and rescue people to evacuate. Otherwise, once the energy field is completely formed and the energy storm spreads, everyone will be exhausted inside."
The Xitisi Team Leader Song Yuan spoke, her expression resolute. Looking through the mech viewpoint at the completely transformed Polar World, her expression was somewhat worried.
"The Border Army is already on its way to rescue. Please, military academy students, begin searching the surrounding environment as much as possible, especially the collapsed ruins."
The notification from the Competition Committee once again entered the channel.
The Saint Laurent group had been following Zhu Jing Fu all along. Noya heard Chen Sui's words about 'space energy,' but at the moment, he obviously couldn't pay attention to these matters.
The red-hot magma, carrying intense high temperature and sky-full black dust, swept through. In an instant, the Polar World was reduced to ruins.
Chen Sui looked at the collapsed exhibition hall with people buried inside. The five academies had allocated rescue areas. Zhu Jing Fu remained near the exhibition hall. Chen Sui greeted her teammates behind her: "Let's go to the exhibition hall first. There are still many people inside who didn't have time to escape."
Star Alliance residents, especially those living on remote planets in distant Star Rings, had frequent drills for energy field descents in earlier years. They always carried mech rings, and in case of emergencies, they could immediately release their mechs to respond.
But this exhibition included not only residents of Crimson Snow Star but also people from near Star Rings and even outside the Star Alliance.
The black-gold mech nodded and advanced toward the ruins already raised by the ground.
The exhibition hall had completely collapsed. The arch-style ice sculpture gate had already shattered and melted into a puddle of water under the high-temperature burning.
The metal structure disintegrated, and most of the building was completely covered by the upturned ground.
Just as Zhu Jing Fu was digging through the underground boulders, following the small hole supported by the building structure to enter the interior of the exhibition hall, many magma flows surged from underground.
The fire-red magma spurted from inside the exhibition hall, like an erupting fountain. The moment it hit the ground, it began to gradually merge, becoming bundles of surging water flows, spreading and extending toward the distance.
The temperature in the exhibition hall instantly exploded.
Those magma flows, like living creatures, could entangle moving mechs, corrode the outer layer of metal, and consume the mech's driving energy.
Painful screams came from the pilots.
Chen Sui's ears twitched, and from the dry wind, she seemed to hear some unusual movement.
Xie Chunshi's expression was grave as he quickly recalled the exhibition hall layout, made a simple map, and followed the direction of the sound, gesturing to his teammates behind him: "Be careful of the energy fluctuations around you. Don't get entangled with energy bodies. Focus on rescuing people."
Chen Sui nodded: "Understood."
The group walked following the position where the sound came from. After just a few steps, they were met with surging magma.
The magma was like turbulent waves. The fire tongues in front licked the surrounding buildings. The energy storm completely melted and destroyed the metal, and the ground was carved with a black and deep trench.
Upon seeing the mechs ahead, the surrounding magma flows immediately converged, making explosive sounds as they collided.
Something seemed to be moving within the magma, bypassing the black-gold mech and joining with the surrounding magma flows. This scene was not unfamiliar to the Zhu Jing Fu team.
"This this this- isn't this that thing?!"
Zhou Chen, seeing a bulge form in the magma, exclaimed in shock.
"It's the magma beast!"
Chen Sui, seeing a bulging head emerge from the fire, immediately entered combat readiness.
Zhu Jing Fu was no stranger to magma beasts. The one in the cave of Sultry Red Forest had not been easy to resolve.
And now, looking at the layers of magma beast heads around them, constrained by the collapsed exhibition hall with limited internal space, the bodies formed by the magma beasts were not as large as in Sultry Red Forest, but the fire storm under this kind of aggregation was more fierce than the SSS-level energy body in Sultry Red Forest.
If they encountered so many magma beasts in a competition energy field, Zhu Jing Fu's team would be delighted with the large amount of points to be gained.
But in this newly formed energy field, with a large number of people trapped within, the appearance of magma beasts added considerable difficulty to the rescue.
"There are too many, making it difficult to break through, and also—there's more than just this area with high energy fluctuations in the exhibition hall. We can't be trapped here by them. We need to quickly go rescue people."
Chen Sui marked the energy fluctuations she sensed on the map Xie Chunshi had made. One area in the exhibition hall had very strange energy; even Chen Sui's perception had difficulty seeing it clearly.
"Puluo and I will draw away the magma beasts. You all go into the exhibition hall for rescue."
She looked at her teammates.
Puluo nodded heavily several times, swinging out an energy cannon from his hand. "Drawing monsters is something I'm good at!"
As a soldier, who understands better than he that his initial training was how to pull monsters? Later, he followed Chen Sui to learn various fighting techniques, but this skill wasn't left behind.
Xie Chunshi nodded, his gaze sweeping around scrutinizingly, quickly judging the surrounding retreat positions from the approaching magma beasts.
"Head southwest. There's a passage connecting to the surrounding exhibition hall. We'll meet at the exit."
Xie Chunshi looked at Chen Sui and Puluo, his tone somewhat serious as he said: "Be careful."
The two nodded. Puluo's cannon fired toward the southwest, the energy cannon exploded, and rich energy rushed in. The figures of the magma beasts flowed toward the position where the energy cannon exploded.
A green light flashed around Chen Sui's mech exterior. The black-gold mech flashed like a shadow, directly rushing into the energy smoke. When she burst open with energy light, the magma beasts suddenly seemed to be on stimulants, their speed suddenly accelerating as they charged toward Chen Sui's position.
The three mechs of Zhu Jing Fu about to leave paused. Chen Sui turned back to see this and hurriedly urged: "Don't just stand there, hurry up and go!"
"No, isn't this thing a bit unusual......"
How come Chen Sui's energy attractiveness was stronger than the energy cannon?!
Chen Sui was also somewhat puzzled internally, but the constantly returning energy perception told her that this energy field was somewhat bizarre.
The sudden appearance of the fracture brought a huge energy storm, but to be able to spawn so many high-level fire attribute energy bodies in the Crimson Snow Star environment, relying solely on energy body sacrifices wouldn't be this rapid.
This unusual situation raised Chen Sui's vigilance to an extreme. The magma beasts followed her energy trajectory, which even Puluo hadn't anticipated. He stood holding the energy cannon, stunned for a second.
Seeing Chen Sui speeding away, he finally reacted, following closely behind her. He extended his long staff and set up a shield umbrella behind the analyst. The magma spat out by the magma beasts surged forward, hitting the shield umbrella. The energy attack caused the metal shield umbrella to emit an unprecedented high temperature, instantly burning Puluo's palm.
Chen Sui glanced at him, wood attribute energy burst out, and the green light, like a bright ball, pushed rapidly toward the distance.
The metal in the exhibition hall was smelted by high temperature. Many structures that hadn't disintegrated initially began to collapse, and fragments fell from above, directly crashing into the ground.
The collapsed roof beams blocked the flowing magma, which was quickly surrounded by the rolling magma. It made a searing sound, white smoke rose, instantly corroding clean, and then continued to flow forward, chasing after the black-gold mech that was jumping and avoiding in mid-air.
"Puluo, give me the shield," Chen Sui called Puluo's name at the fork in the exhibition hall, her finger pointing to the other side. "The magma beasts have targeted me. You go meet up with them first. I'll come a bit later."
Puluo hesitated slightly, seeing Chen Sui leap away without hesitation from another fork in the road. Her tone was very serious, even carrying a kind of resoluteness. Puluo didn't quite understand what Chen Sui sensed, but instinctively followed her orders, immediately leaving from another entrance.
The magma rolled, and the pursuit of the magma beasts suddenly changed flavor when Chen Sui entered the southwest exhibition hall. Chen Sui intentionally slowed down but found that the magma beasts' speed also slowed.
The magma and the black-gold mech maintained a distance that was neither too far nor too close, as if not intending to devour Chen Sui, but more like—
Wanting to drive her in a certain direction!
The metal around the display cases was flattened by the collapsed ceiling structure, the outer layer of solid glass was broken, and the exhibits inside were scattered everywhere as the ground shook. The entire exhibition hall was a mess.
But when the black-gold mech crashed into what was previously a corridor of display cases stretching endlessly on both sides, her gaze fell directly on the farthest point.
A light was continuously flickering.
Waves were emanating from there, and the information feedback from energy perception was extremely similar to the fluctuation of the fracture outside the Polar World.
Both had an energy level so deep it couldn't be seen.
Chen Sui's heart jumped. The mech quickly leaped over collapsed buildings and rising ground, flashing rapidly across the rugged surface. Behind her, the magma surged like waves, directly rushing into the exhibition hall.
High temperature exploded in the relatively narrow corridor.
Chen Sui was surrounded by green energy. Her pupils reflected the floating fracture fragments, with red light streaming out from within the fragments.
A black shadow flickered in the triangular shadow of the corner.
Upon seeing Chen Sui, the figure didn't move until it saw the green light on her, then revealed a sinister expression.
A chill rose from behind Chen Sui. Instinctively, she drew out her long spear. A silver flash passed as the four-cornered blade at the spear's tip cut through a flowing light, extremely noticeable as it flickered in the red light illuminated by the fracture fragments.
"It's you—"
A human voice came from the broken, collapsed exhibition hall.
The voice was extremely hoarse and harsh, unpleasant to the ear, carrying a damp feeling like rainy weather.
The moment she heard this figure, Chen Sui immediately captured his position and looked up.
What first met her eyes was a black shadow in the corner. From within the shadow, countless tentacles extended, thrusting directly toward Chen Sui.
This scene fell on her pupils. Chen Sui's eyes widened slightly, but her thoughts suddenly shifted.
The exhibition hall ruins before her became blurred, and another image was continuously solidified.
The starry sea, a technologically advanced starship deck, blood everywhere, a broken spear—
And pierced eyes, and a chest penetrated by vines!
In the instant Chen Sui's mind scattered, the figure in the black shadow stepped forward.
It was just a tiny step, not even enough to leap out from the black shadow, but in Chen Sui's energy perception, that figure was already right in front of her, with tentacles rushing toward her mech.
"Get away—"
An angry roar came from the person in the black shadow.
The magma behind her rolled violently, and an energy storm burst out of nowhere, sweeping directly outward from the exhibition hall.
The collapsed buildings of the exhibition hall flew open toward the surroundings.
The entire exhibition hall instantly became open on all sides, with light from outside the exhibition hall shining through, and the red firelight casting shadows inside.
The magma was swept away by the energy storm, seemingly wary of the powerful energy of the black shadow. At the entrance, it pushed back and forth several times, with the body of the magma beast emerging and then sinking.
Finally, the indoor temperature suddenly dropped. Chen Sui felt the scorching high temperature get a moment's relief and knew the magma beast had left.
—High-position command.
She was absolutely certain internally.
Only high-level main energy body groups could perform high-position command on SSS-level magma beast groups.
She quickly thought in her mind as the tentacles before her were already at hand.
The black shadow crossed space in one step, then completely sealed all of Chen Sui's escape routes. She didn't need to jump to feel that above, below, left, and right, all directions were energy-sealed.
—Space attribute main energy body.
Chen Sui could almost confirm that this energy body was one of the main energy bodies from the God-Abandoned Domain.
"You're not dead yet. What a pity."
Accompanying the countless tentacles thrusting toward Chen Sui was the voice from within the black shadow.
Chen Sui gripped her spear tightly, the killing intent around her body completely exploding out without any concealment. That fierce aura turned her eye sockets crimson. The eye occupied by the mechanical prosthesis seemed to still remember the pain of being pierced, pulling Chen Sui back into the memory of loss.
Sealed space, complete energy suppression.
"You're not dead yet. I'm very happy," Chen Sui said coldly. Behind her, Wood-Born Flower burst out with the image of a giant tree, vines growing and spreading from within the giant tree. "Having the opportunity to kill you with my own hands is truly something to look forward to."
She murmured in a low voice.
In a patch of black mist, the monster with a human face revealed an enraged expression.
But it wasn't because of Chen Sui's provocative words, but rather, the moment it saw the giant tree of Wood-Born Flower, the black shadow completely went berserk.
The originally disordered tentacles began to coil around Chen Sui, trying to completely entangle the mech. However, the shared feeling between Wood-Born Flower and Chen Sui was not like before; almost at the instant the tentacles crossed space and approached the mech, vines entangled the tentacles.
Then a powerful wood attribute energy burst from the vines, directly piercing into the tentacles. Like wooden thorns inserted into human fingernails, the intense foreign sensation made the black shadow even angrier.
"You dare use your filthy energy to pollute the body of God!"
"You deserve to die—"
The black shadow let out an angry roar. The black mist around him suddenly became dense, vision was rendered by a layer of black, completely covering the red light from outside. Chen Sui's eyes couldn't see the scene in front of her.
Her energy perception constantly explored the outside world, but the energy fluctuations around her remained the same as at the beginning—able to sense abnormalities but unable to determine the source of the abnormal energy.
Chen Sui suddenly remembered that it seemed that when the black shadow appeared, her energy perception couldn't detect the existence of the other party.
—This was a space attribute energy body, and its energy strength was far beyond hers.
Despite this, the black-gold mech still gripped the spear in its hand. Her voice standing firm in the darkness was full of fearlessness and strength.
The powerful energy storm in the black mist constantly compressed the space. Chen Sui could feel herself struggling to move. The mech's shoulders suddenly bore a heavy weight, making her movement particularly difficult.
This energy body had fought with her before and was extremely familiar with her battle habits.
"What god?"
Chen Sui deliberately provoked.
"There are no gods in this world."
"If there is only one, it's you, God Sui!"
Her ears listened to the sounds around her. Just as she drove Wood-Born Flower to sway, a slightly heavy breathing sound suddenly came through.
Chen Sui's eyes flashed with a stern color. The spear swayed in her hand, hindered by the powerful air assistance around her. Her actions seemed to be played in slow motion, moving extremely slowly.
The black shadow, provoked by her, watching Chen Sui provocatively swaying Wood-Born Flower's giant tree, suddenly spoke in a deep voice: "God will not be extinguished, nor will he submit. You insects will only become nourishment for God's descent!"
"Is that so?"
Chen Sui's voice became slow, as if also affected by the space compression. "Your god is now dead!"
With an angry shout, a powerful green light burst from her hand. The spear swiftly pierced through the space in front of her, directly charging toward the black shadow.
A silent cracking sound, not spreading through the surroundings, but Chen Sui could sense that the enclosed space around her was directly shattered by this energy.
The vines of Wood-Born Flower followed closely behind the spear. As the black-gold mech quickly leaped out, they twisted and contorted in mid-air, directly entangling all the tentacles around the black shadow.
Chen Sui gripped her spear, cutting through the black mist in front of her, charging directly at the black shadow's body.
A black cloak wrapped around his body, vaguely outlining a human form. That face, hidden by the black hat brim, allowed Chen Sui to capture a head of black curly hair as he raised his head. Her pupils suddenly contracted. The human face in the black mist became extremely clear in her eyes.
That face was known to everyone in the Star Alliance six years ago.
It was clearly the face of the Star Alliance Council Chairman Xie Liuyun!
Chen Sui's spear did not hesitate at all because of that face.
The black shadow, upon seeing her approach, suddenly revealed a smile. An invisible air wall rose in front of him.
That was the spatial barrier created by his space energy.
The voice of the black shadow energy body came from behind the wall.
"I am human. Do you really want to slaughter your own kind?"
The black shadow's eyes widened, Xie Liuyun's handsome features were distorted into a ferocious expression.
Chen Sui's spear was blocked behind the air wall, with green light flickering at the spear tip. She only needed to drive the energy to pierce through that wall.
Chen Sui knew that energy bodies could read the deepest memories of humans after energy corrosion.
For an energy body like the black shadow, he might not even need her to be corroded by energy. Perhaps, on the starship, he had already read her memories.
He was gambling, betting that Chen Sui wouldn't kill humans.
But unfortunately—
Chen Sui's spear burst with a green light, shattering the air wall. The spear once again pierced through the barriers in front of him, and the vines of Wood-Born Flower tore apart all the tentacles in front of the black shadow.
"Squelch—"
Chen Sui's spear pierced the brow of the black shadow energy body, the spear penetrating his head.
But the energy body suddenly opened its arms, with a bizarre smile on its face, sighing as if in lamentation: "The divine will not abandon us. You are the ones abandoned by God."
Chen Sui didn't understand his cryptic words, but the scene in front of her the next second made her pupils contract violently.
The face of the black shadow energy body suddenly changed. The black mist exploded outward, merging into the air, as if paralyzing one's nerves, directly causing mental confusion.
Chen Sui was certain that what she was seeing in front of her was not the truth.
Otherwise, she wouldn't see the black shadow before her distorting into Gu Qinxue's face. The girl's cold face revealed a pained expression, her entire face smeared with blood, her white hair dyed red.
'Gu Qinxue' revealed a pleading expression, her typically ice-cold voice carrying some terror: "Little Sui—don't—"
"Don't kill me—"
Chen Sui's mind seemed to have plainly gained an extra segment of memory. She could recall how she had fought with Gu Qinxue and how she had pierced her forehead with the spear.
Everything seemed as clear as if she had personally experienced it.
All of it made her believe that the person in front of her was indeed Gu Qinxue.
Chen Sui's mind was being violently pulled by two thoughts—one voice telling her that all this was the work of the black shadow, and another saying that she had completely lost control and had killed her good friend.
"Little Sui, how did you become like this?"
Zhou Chen's voice was full of pain and anger.
Chen Sui instinctively looked back but saw countless faces in the black mist.
Xie Chunshi, Zhou Chen, Yan Mingyu, Puluo...and so on. They all looked at her with accusing and fearful gazes.
"It wasn't me—"
Chen Sui instinctively defended.
Her hand uncontrollably released the spear.
In the black mist, a black shadow watched her talking to herself in a trance to a patch of black mist and revealed a smile.
The force of the spear relaxed, and the black shadow slowly withdrew his forehead from the spear tip.
Its palm absorbed that broken fracture fragment, and the black mist regathered around his body.
Just as white light lit up around the black shadow and space energy burst open.
Chen Sui heard a voice.
"Little Sui—"
From the team channel, at first, they could clearly hear Chen Sui's words, but later it was all disordered self-talk. Chen Sui's voice rarely showed panic, even carrying some crying tones.
The separated Zhu Jing Fu team members kept calling her.
"Ah Sui—"
Chen Sui heard countless voices—accusation, anger, hatred, countless voices carrying full of guilt and remorse, completely surrounding her.
Just as the mech completely released the spear.
A burst of white light exploded from Chen Sui's body.
From the broken spear in the Rust-Red Sea of the God-Abandoned Domain, as if influenced by the owner's fluctuating emotions, it caused Chen Sui's necklace to shake violently.
A surge of energy burst from her mental domain.
Chen Sui's scattered gaze instantly focused. Her hand that was about to release gripped the spear tightly again. As the black mist energy body was about to burst energy and leave, the spear, carrying two intertwined energies, stabbed forward fiercely.
"Swoosh—"
The vibration of the space vortex was invaded by energy, and the spear directly entered through the black shadow's transmission.
The smile on the black shadow energy body's face froze at the corner of his mouth.
"What made you think that a bit of memory, a fantasy, could control me?"
Chen Sui's voice was filled with coldness, the blood-red color in her eyes not fading. The spear was inserted into the black shadow's chest, and then, while the white light energy had not yet dissipated, she kept withdrawing and thrusting the spear repeatedly.
The black shadow's body was covered with blood holes, blood flowing everywhere, instantly dyeing the entire exhibition hall red.
Chen Sui's hand applied force with a shock, causing intense vibrations as the spear pierced the black shadow's body.
"You—"
Blood trickled from the corner of the black shadow's mouth. The blood hole on his forehead had just healed not long ago, only to be stabbed with a body full of blood holes in an instant.
The spear's vibration spread instantly, causing his body to shake uncontrollably, and the fracture fragment held in his palm fell.
A burst of powerful green light exploded around Chen Sui.
That deep green was imprinted in the black shadow's pupils, and a bad premonition struck.
The black shadow energy body's eyes widened. "You use the power of God to attack her child. You will be punished by God!"
Space energy gathered around the black shadow, becoming increasingly dense. An invisible vortex continuously gathered behind the black shadow.
Chen Sui saw that he wanted to escape. The other energy on the spear was disappearing. Chen Sui knew she couldn't intercept, but just as he was enveloped by the space vortex, she directed all the green light from her body through the spear, directly crashing into the black shadow energy body's form.
"Not convinced?"
Before the black shadow left, he only heard the human in the black-gold mech say with extremely disdainful tone: "Then let your god call the police."
The black shadow didn't know what kind of mockery this sentence represented, only that Chen Sui's tone made it clear that this sentence carried not a bit of respect for the Wood God.
His anger had just risen when the place in his chest where the spear had last pierced suddenly burst with an extremely powerful energy explosion.
All this, Chen Sui obviously couldn't see.
The moment the space vortex enveloped the black shadow, the surrounding black mist and tentacles turned into smoke, merging into the air, leaving no trace.
Only pools of blood remained on the ground, along with the fracture fragment that had fallen into the blood pool.
The black-gold mech's hand picked up the fragment while responding to teammates: "I'm fine. Just encountered some unexpected situations."
The Zhu Jing Fu team members could hear through Chen Sui's channel her brief exchanges with the energy body. The killing intent in Chen Sui's words and that series of teary defenses made the mood of the Zhu Jing Fu team members somewhat heavy.
Even the usually carefree Zhou Chen couldn't crack a single joke.
Xie Chunshi was silent for a few seconds before composing himself: "The Border Army rescue has arrived. Get out of the exhibition hall quickly. The exhibition hall is about to serve as a high-level energy body expulsion point."
As an expulsion point for high-energy bodies, under the influence of powerful analytical instruments and energy dormancy waves from the research institute, they would fall into dormancy, buying time for the Border Army's rescue mission.
"Understood," Chen Sui's voice still carried some hoarseness, different from her usual raspy voice, but due to excessive vocalization.
She cleared her throat, looked back at the exhibition hall, collected all the fallen exhibits, and headed to the rendezvous point issued by Xie Chunshi, making her way to the outside of the Polar World.