"What? Right next to the train?"
Hearing this, the train crew members immediately became anxious.
Though the Astral Express wasn't without protective power, Pom-Pom was still inside. They couldn't let their headquarters fall into others' hands.
"No way! We're going back to help!"
Mind heating up, March 7th immediately turned back. Dan Heng and Welt Yang moved even faster than her.
For the train crew, the Astral Express was like home—absolutely couldn't have accidents.
At this time, Ryuga suddenly spoke.
"No rush, we're already here."
When he spoke the first sentence, everyone wanted to explain. But as spatial power swept the surroundings, before Ryuga's words had even landed, they'd already arrived beside the Astral Express, seeing the giant Doomsday Beast flying in the sky above.
"Spatial transfer of this range?"
Welt was surprised, looking at Ryuga again, once more shocked by his endless layers of power.
The Machina represented only the strength of Ryuga's subordinate forces. The strength Ryuga now displayed indeed matched his subordinate forces.
"If I'm not mistaken, Mr. Ryuga used Aether Editing, right?"
The well-traveled Himeko questioned.
"Correct, a skill just learned from the Stellaron Hunters. Just trying it out."
Ryuga nodded.
Simply editing divine authorities into universal programs and releasing them through Aether Editing—for him there was no difficulty, though response was slightly slower.
However, Aether Editing's advantage wasn't in release speed but in its iteratively optimizable characteristics. This price was acceptable.
"Just learned..."
Hearing this, even the normally reticent Dan Heng couldn't help but be stunned.
Just one encounter and able to comprehend the Stellaron Hunters' ultimate technique—this comprehension was rarely comparable even in the Xianzhou.
Worthy of being called the One True God. His true strength was probably not below the complete Dragon Lord.
While everyone was shocked, the Doomsday Beast also discovered the several life forms appearing on the deck.
It immediately dove toward them.
This was a war beast with massive size exceeding hundreds of meters, forged using fragments of Twilight Beasts as foundation and the万骸哀怨 of war furnaces as catalyst—a doomsday-level weapon. Just one could destroy an entire planet.
According to legend, its right hand could trigger disaster, its left hand could tear through dawn. Ordinary Path walkers were absolutely no match.
Its current diving posture looked like it would destroy both the people on deck and the space station together.
"Careful!"
Himeko warned vigilantly.
"The Doomsday Beast's core is a dark matter engine, with antimatter engines at the arm cores. Don't underestimate it!"
Antimatter engines could provide massive energy through matter-antimatter annihilation. Dark matter engines could obtain star-scale energy through dark matter and antimatter annihilation.
Just from energy scale alone, one could see the Doomsday Beast's strength was definitely not handleable by ordinary Path walkers.
Facing this monster—
"Father, be careful!"
The newly debuted grey-haired girl, as if unable to feel fear, directly raised her baseball bat and blocked in front of Ryuga.
Though she indeed loved making her dad drop gold coins, she also truly treated Ryuga as her father. She had at least minimal filial piety.
"Stelle, careful!"
Unlike her, though March 7th also wanted to protect Ryuga, she clearly understood Ryuga's strength didn't need her protection.
So she immediately gave Stelle a shield to prevent her from rushing too far forward and getting hurt by the Doomsday Beast.
Welt Yang activated his cane—a simulated black hole appeared. Dan Heng also gripped his spear, aiming at the Doomsday Beast's antimatter engine.
Just as everyone prepared to attack and focus fire to defeat the Doomsday Beast, a steel torrent collectively transferred before everyone. Over ten thousand Machina directly obscured the sky.
Then Ryuga's voice sounded.
"No need to worry, leave it to them!"
With these words, one thousand Machina landed on the ground, collectively extending hands to deploy techniques.
"Pseudo-Noble Phantasm: Avalon!"
Deploying a shield by replicating Artoria's Noble Phantasm, the barrier directly covered the entire space station and Astral Express.
After completing protective work, the remaining Machina launched probing attacks against the Doomsday Beast.
"Such a strong barrier—it can even defend against the Doomsday Beast's attacks?"
Though the battle happened right before them, it felt like being in another dimension—completely no pressure.
Himeko looked at the technique the Machina deployed in surprise. If she didn't know the Machina came from another world, she'd think they were Preservation believers.
"These Machina... seem not to be fighting seriously but analyzing data?"
As the former Herrscher of Reason, Welt Yang keenly saw that rather than fighting, these Machina were more like probing the Doomsday Beast's combat capabilities and power limits.
Generally this kind of probing was very dangerous, but these Machina all had multiple layers of protection. Even excessive energy attacks would only force them into phase transfer, not cause individual damage.
Plus half the forces hadn't joined the siege—just recording and rescuing on the side—greatly improving the Machina legion's safety.
Regarding this question, Ryuga had no intention to hide.
"I'm somewhat interested in the Doomsday Beast's antimatter and dark matter engines. If they can be fully analyzed, perhaps I can equip them too."
This was why Ryuga chose to have the Machina act rather than simply eliminate the Doomsday Beast himself.
In the Star Rail world, the enhancements the Machina could receive were very direct.
Unlike Aeon power which required researching Path mechanisms, technology's greatest advantage was universality and mass production capability.
Once the antimatter engine core and dark matter engine core were researched clearly, Ryuga could perform version 2.0 modifications on the Machina as before, transforming their cores into more powerful dark matter and antimatter engines.
If this was done, energy-wise the Machina would leap to stellar-level existences. Individual strength might even rise to fifth-order.
Anyway the Antimatter Legion was universally hated. Using their technology, no need to worry about copyright infringement.
Hearing Ryuga say this, Dan Heng beside them suddenly shivered.
If Ryuga really planned to do this, then the ten-thousand-plus Machina under his command would all evolve into existences comparable to Doomsday Beast-level strength.
Ten thousand Doomsday Beasts...
Good heavens, even Xianzhou Luofu, not counting Emanators, didn't have this level of foundation!
If all Xianzhou alliances combined, perhaps they'd have military force of this scale.
Others obviously also realized this. Welt Yang couldn't help reminding.
"Mr. Ryuga, the Doomsday Beast's structure contains fragments of Twilight Beasts—these are all hard-to-regenerate resources. Even knowing the principles, mass production would be difficult."
Here his words were rather euphemistic. Not just difficult—simply impossible.
He believed with the computational power the Machina displayed, they were sufficient to replicate dark matter and antimatter engines under laboratory conditions. But he also understood there was an insurmountable chasm between laboratory production and industrial mass production.
Otherwise gold wouldn't still be hard currency, and the Interastral Peace Corporation wouldn't be unable to replicate this weapon.
"Thanks for your advice, but regarding this point, I have my own methods."
Ryuga smiled slightly, his tone mysterious.
This point might be difficult for others, but for him alone, it required no cost to achieve.
Because he was the One True God of the No Game No Life world, holder of world sovereignty.
Through the Suniaster's authority, he could arbitrarily rewrite reality in the No Game No Life world—could transform planets into golden stars, could freely manufacture any material he could understand.
So no matter how special the dark matter engine materials were, as long as he could understand them, he could mass produce them.
"I see, looks like I was overthinking."
Hearing Ryuga say this, Welt was slightly stunned and stopped advising.
At this time, the battlefield overhead finally reached its conclusion.
"Analysis complete, beginning annihilation operation!"
Schwi as commander issued orders to the Machina legion.
Then all Machina rose together into the air, no longer observing and analyzing data. They collectively deployed weapons, aiming muzzles at the Doomsday Beast before them.
Massive data streams flowed through the Machina legion's eyes.
"After analysis and judgment, adopting final technique for execution!"
After the central individuals reached consensus, the Machina simultaneously deployed one of their currently strongest techniques.
Massive energy converged into an extremely thin line.
Though in energy scale unable to compare with the Doomsday Beast, in damage per unit area it was sufficient to break through the Doomsday Beast's core defenses.
Facing the threat before it, the Doomsday Beast's engines began high-speed operation, wanting to destroy these intelligences before their attack.
The next second.
"Quintessence Overclocking Deployed, True Noble Phantasm: Godslayer!"
Creation-like radiance appeared. Intense high temperature and supernova explosion-level light intensity covered the entire interstellar space.
The explosion's aftershocks could even be felt on the surface of Azure Star. The dazzling brightness temporarily exceeded the sun.
Not until several minutes later did the explosion's aftershocks finally cease, leaving only the Doomsday Beast's ash-like remains and the unscathed space station.
The Doomsday Beast was hereby officially subjugated.
"Yay!"
Seeing the battle victory, March 7th just cheered when she suddenly sensed an indescribable fluctuation.
Everyone raised their heads, sensing something unusual was about to happen.
Even Ryuga looked up toward the battlefield direction.
Just then, the explosion aftershocks' light and fire seemed summoned by some invisible force, rising in space like aurora to construct a blurry mechanical phantom.
For those who didn't understand what this phantom represented, it was just a mechanically-made big eyeball.
But for those who understood this phantom, this phenomenon was enough to shock the universe.
Even the well-traveled Himeko and Asta as a wealthy young lady couldn't help trembling.
They almost instantly understood this existence's identity.
"The Aeon of Erudition... Nous the Erudition?!"
To be continued…