"Jiemie, is it?"
"The Flame-Chasers are quite a bit faster than I imagined."
Looking down at the Earth, which now looked like it had its hair parted down the middle, the Emperor offered his praise without reservation.
However!
It was all within his calculations.
Wielding the Jiemie's heavenly fire was not as simple as it sounded.
Completely incinerating three meteors had caused a significant drop in Kevin's aura.
For him, who had just completed the Chimera gene fusion, the physical burden was beyond imagination. Although Kevin was not yet exhausted, his body could no longer support a second use of "Jiemie."
"Savior."
Six arms moved slowly.
The remaining nine meteors floating in outer space, behind the Emperor who had almost merged with the deep void, arranged themselves into an irregular nine-star alignment.
"If this is your hope..."
Swoosh!
A ring of spacetime lit up before the Emperor.
Leaping arcs of electricity converged madly, solidifying in the deep void into orbits of an exaggerated scale, loading the remaining meteors into them as if they were cannon barrels.
"Then cling to it—"
CRACKLE!!
A brilliant flash, a streak of light leapt forth!
The meteors, super-accelerated by a magnetic field, shot directly into the spacetime gate and vanished!
"—and drown!"
BOOM!!!
On the surface.
Griseo and Kosma simultaneously stopped what they were doing.
The moment the meteors appeared in the sky, they were already tightly gripping the drug provided by Mobius... They had long been prepared for this.
However.
"Kevin succeeded."
Looking at the figure in the sky—his face so familiar, yet his aura so utterly foreign—Griseo spoke slowly.
"Yeah, the Captain succeeded."
Although everyone had been hoping, no one could guarantee that a miracle would actually happen.
Now, seeing this scene unfold before their very eyes, the shock it delivered was naturally unparalleled.
"?"
"Brother Griseo, what is it?"
Griseo's sudden action of looking all around them prompted Kosma to ask.
"The Honkai Beasts..."
"The Honkai Beasts are retreating."
Among the Fusion Warriors, Griseo's perception was definitely considered sharp. Although he couldn't discern things with the precision of [Super Perception], his general sense was rarely wrong.
The aura of the Honkai Beast legion surrounding their army was weakening at an incredible rate. No humans were launching a counter-attack at this moment, so the only possibility was that the Honkai Beasts were in a large-scale retreat... and they were moving very fast!
"Looks like it."
"The Honkai Beasts can feel fear too."
Kosma's expression shifted from bewilderment to a smile.
"...No!"
Griseo had relaxed for a moment, just like Kosma.
But that smile only lasted for a fleeting half-second on his face.
A premonition! An extremely terrifying premonition made him tremble all over!
"They are indeed evading, but it's not because of Kev—"
"It's here!!!"
High in the blue sky, at the center of the clouds parted by Jiemie.
An unprecedented amount of spatial energy began to oscillate wildly. Its intensity was so exaggerated that the Deliberation Committee's observation devices exploded directly from exceeding their threshold!
And within that turmoil.
Flames, lightning, and storms!
Meteors wrapped in the power of ruin descended from the heavens with unparalleled momentum!
The number...
A full nine of them!!
But what prevented people from even having time to feel despair was the location where the meteors appeared—
At a distance from humanity of...
Only ten thousand meters!!!
The meteors, accelerated by a magnetic field.
They gave Kevin less than a second of reaction time.
Let alone the fact that Kevin's body no longer permitted him to use Jiemie, even if he wanted to risk his life, there wasn't nearly enough time for him to charge it. The strike that had just annihilated the meteors was the culmination of him focusing all his spirit, essence, and energy to their absolute peak.
As for now...
[Heavenly Fire Unsheathed]
That's right, the Judgement of Shamash had reverted to its normal greatsword form, and the only skill it could now use was "Zeroth Power: Heavenly Fire Unsheathed."
The problem was.
No, the speed of the meteors' descent gave humanity no time to think, let alone weigh the consequences. The power of Heavenly Fire Unsheathed was insufficient to annihilate the meteors; at best, it would merely slice them in two.
And the meteors, split into two pieces... aside from ensuring that he and the Eye of the Abyss wouldn't suffer a direct impact, everything else in the surroundings would likely be turned to ash within seconds of him unleashing that slash.
"..."
Not just one slash.
Kevin needed to deliver nine consecutive slashes in the little over half-second he had left. Only then could he truly eliminate the threat of the meteors.
No thought.
He emptied his mind of everything.
All Kevin could do was swing the greatsword in his hands...
That was all.
A prairie fire of flames soared into the sky!
A crimson edge tore through the clouds!
"Heavenly Fire—!"
Towards the doomsday descending from the heavens—
"—Unsheathed!!"
CLANG!!!
Dust and smoke filled the air.
Flames shot towards the sky.
Time itself seemed to stop in the face of this tragedy.
The sundered meteors fell towards the ground with only slightly diminished speed. The Fusion Warriors charging towards the sky, the hypersonic missiles that had just been launched... all resistance, one couldn't say it was entirely futile, but the final result was merely...
Amidst an earth-shattering, heaven-rending explosion, they managed to protect a small patch at the center of the Mu Continent, a meager 1% of its original area.
All that remained—
Was dust.
BOOOOMM!!!!!
"Kevin!"
Griseo and Kosma simultaneously charged towards the Eye of the Abyss!
Their condition was by no means good; in fact, it had become quite terrible. The two of them had each crashed into half of one of the foremost falling meteors. Although they didn't cause much damage, they at least "slightly" altered the meteor's trajectory.
It was because of this.
That the Eye of the Abyss was not completely flattened like the surrounding land.
And the price...
The only reason they weren't blown to smithereens was their now completely inhuman appearance.
At the last moment.
Kosma and Griseo had, in unspoken agreement, used Mobius's drug, transforming into "monsters" of artificial eruption, just like Kevin.
"Kevin!"
Kosma stopped mid-stride.
Kevin's figure slowly emerged from the dense smoke. The fact that he could still float in mid-air meant he hadn't completely exhausted his strength.
This was probably the only good news now...
"!?"
There was no good news.
Beside Kevin's floating body, an even larger black shadow precipitated out of the smoke.
What supported Kevin was not his own persistent will, but...
A giant hand.
That's right.
Kevin's body was being "held" in mid-air by a gigantic creature, like an ant.
"Black..."
"Black Emperor!!!"
Ignoring Kosma's roar.
The sole purpose of Lu Xing's main body appearing in person was to ensure Kevin's true death.
The meteor bombardment just now had consumed a great deal of energy, but thanks to replenishment from the Imaginary Space, he still had more than enough for two more ultimate moves.
No need to charge up on the spot.
[Atomic Breath] and [Proton Scream]—these two attacks had been readied long before Lu Xing teleported here.
"Goodbye—"
A multicolored halo quietly bloomed behind him.
A brilliant stream of light swept across the ravaged land.
"—Savior."
VMMMMMM!!!!!