Steel steam and flame

The surface layer of pasty dust material has extremely high strength, and it did not turn into ashes instantly in the flowing fire. They absorbed energy and turned into a piece of light blue fluorescent material before they suddenly dissipated.

This short-term defense is enough for its internal materials to get close to Cassia. Several clouds of dust wrapped around each other also shrank at this moment into a solid shape no more than the size of a bullet. Most of them formed two rings, one ring around the wound caused by the trident, and the other around Cassia's entire neck. Circling in a circle; the other half seems to be committing a suicidal attack, directly throwing itself into the heart-shaped structure wrapped in uranium gold around the waist.

The flowing fire expanded, and the speed at which they circulated on the body surface suddenly increased. The dust material solidified into the bullet began to burn in large quantities, becoming sparks, and entering the circulation of the flowing fire. The next moment, there was no intense fire or fluctuation, and even the energy was not dissipated. Dozens of dust particles condensed into bullets exploded.

The circulating fire was suddenly blocked, causing violent fluctuations. At the center of Cassia's eyebrows, the black scales and flesh that had grown there exploded again. The wounds caused by the trident on the skull had not yet completely healed. Under the influence of the explosion, cracks spread across a palm-sized patch starting from it. The place. The scales on the neck were completely broken into pieces, half of the flesh and blood became fuel for the fire, the throat was broken, and the spine was even visible on the back of the neck.

The next moment, the fluctuations of the flowing fire were forcibly suppressed, and it became thicker, even covering Cassia's original form, and only a burning flame could be captured in sight and perception.

In the flowing fire, when countless tiny rays of light shine, huge energy gathers around the neck, accelerating the regrowth of the damaged tissue there. The thorn tail pulled the second-generation holy sword, and a sword light shone. Then the sword light gathered together and became a horizontal wave, cutting off the kinetic energy armor at the waist, and continued to rush towards Hillary, who was about to touch the trident.

At this moment, the large alloy plate ejected from the upper half of the body where the kinetic energy armor fell, revealing the cockpit inside. The captain of the Far Sea Commonwealth opened his eyes. His skin was white, but it was covered with cracks and cracks, and blood was flowing everywhere. Although his body was cut off from his chest, the powerful vitality of the fourth stage did not cause him to die immediately, and he could still make a final struggle.

Knowing what kind of ending he would face, the captain's eyes did not waver at all. He took out his right hand, which already held an ancient tunnel-fired pistol. With a simple aim and an easy press of the trigger, there was not even a sound of explosion. A bullet casing with a bright red ring was thrown away, the tunnel-fired pistol exploded into pieces, and the captain's hand was broken directly by the huge recoil. He and the upper half of the kinetic armor were thrown away, falling into a long silence after landing on the ground.

A bright red ballistic line no more than the thickness of a thumb appeared, with no way to avoid it, connecting the muzzle of the gun to the translucent heart-shaped structure on Cassia's waist. The huge force penetrated Cassia's body and pressed a long semicircular ravine on the ground behind him.

Dense cracks appeared in the heart structure invisibly, and there was no time for emergency repair. Even though these cracks were still expanding, it still beat violently and accelerated suddenly. The layer of flowing fire on Cassia's body also weakened at this moment, leaving only a weak layer to maintain circulation, and all the power gathered in front of the heart structure. The flowing fire was like a viscous liquid, forming barriers to block the silver-white warhead that seemed to be hovering in front of it. The material of the warhead is special, and even the flowing fire cannot melt it immediately, it can only gradually reduce it layer by layer.

The cracks on the heart-shaped structure continued to expand, light blue fluorescent material spurted out from some cracks, and the flowing fire on Cassia's body surface became disordered. At the same time, Thorny Tail pulled back the second-generation Holy Sword and slashed at the silver-white warhead. It was just that a translucent film predicted this move, appeared around him first, and then shrank, like forming a cocoon, completely confining him.

Although the cocoon burst in flames at the next moment, in this very short period of time, Hilary had already touched the trident and moved towards Chilman. The second-generation Holy Sword simultaneously chopped the silver-white bullet into pieces according to its original trajectory, and Cassia's well-repaired throat also fired a breath towards Hilary.

The expected huge claws blocked the trajectory, but unexpectedly, the claws directly crushed the breath and continued forward, completely clasping Cassia's entire head. The second generation holy sword was pulled upwards at an angle, but the smooth sword light did not appear and was blocked on the way.

The sword blade only cut off half of the swollen arm and got stuck inside. Among the cut muscle tissue, several cystic objects the size of a baby's fist could be seen. They had ruptured, and the sticky dust material spread out like vines climbing up the second-generation holy sword, covering the entire thorn tail in the blink of an eye. , forming a rough ultimate alloy film, completely solidifying the thorn tail.

As for Nonoska, the owner of the arm, with his left arm as the source, his skin all over his body also turned dark, with black scales sparsely appearing on various parts of his body. But there are not many cracks in this layer of dark skin, like a dry river bed, revealing the squirming flesh and blood tissue underneath.

"Kilman!" Nonoska's mouth tore open, and just as she roared, there was a dull heartbeat that made the air tremble. A layer of flowing fire composed of blue fluorescent material was vented from Cassia's waist, rebuilding the layer of defense circulation on the body surface.

The flowing fire began to erode his entire body along the thorn tail and Nonoska's huge claws. Even with the blessing of his own induction field, his dark skin and black scales are still unable to defend himself. They all become fuel, turning little by little into ashes. The next moment, a sharp claw with flowing fire appeared on his back. Cassia put her fingers together and penetrated his entire chest.

At this moment, Chilman had caught the trident, turned around and aimed at the unhealed hole in the center of Nonoska's claws, and threw it directly. But there was a beam of light-like flowing fire that sprayed out in advance, ablating the claws and blocking the progress of the trident.

Beside, Cross, who had been kneeling and sitting motionless, almost all the remaining blood vessels were cracked. There was not much blood left to shed, and the stiff body could no longer maintain balance and fell to the side.

At the same time, Cassia's movement of withdrawing her arm from Nonoska's chest, and her right hand holding the second-generation holy sword on the tail of the thorn, all stopped completely at this moment. Only the layer of flowing fire was not affected. , while maintaining circulation, it expanded several times in size in all directions, including Nonoska.

Hilary wanted to go over and pull Nonos out, but Chilman pulled it away with one hand. At this time, Nonoska turned her head and shook her head. He didn't say a word from beginning to end, and the fire had spread from his chest, and all his organs, including his heart, had been burned away.

Hilary took a step back, unwilling to look directly at this scene. This will surely become a painful memory that cannot be removed from my mind, just like the voyage that lasted more than thirty years. She wanted to speak, but her head had dropped and there was no more light in her eyes. Without the protection of its own induction force field, Nonoska's corpse was just a relatively strong substance that could no longer withstand the power of the flowing fire and turned into ashes almost in the blink of an eye.

Seeing this, Chilman could only roar, and immediately deployed the induction field, focusing on the trident, and barely managed to make the strange lines on it brighter again. Hilarelli then joined in, and the trident moved forward little by little. Its spiral spear tip broke through the flowing fire again and touched the black scales between Cassia's eyebrows.

At the same moment, in the same place, but in a different world, Cross opened his eyes. He seemed very calm. The first thing he did was to put his hand on his heart. After he could feel the strong beating, he started to observe his surroundings.

A piece of scorched earth swept by flames. The extremely high temperature flames turned all the gravel on the ground into glass-like glazed objects. The black ashes on the ground covered the foundation and blackened tree stumps, which barely showed that there had been humans here. live.

The wind was still blowing around, cool but without losing the warmth. Occasionally, a soft and delicate rain drifted through the air, which was a permeating light green, making the black land without any trace of life even more desolate and dead. . Even the most tenacious seeds were completely turned into ashes by the flames, and were then carried away by the strong wind.

"I didn't expect it to be like this..." Cross looked around, and finally looked up at the sky. There are strips of clouds floating around, looking solitary. Large rift valley-like cracks spread across the entire gray-blue sky, tearing it apart. Something penetrated these cracks, causing light green auroras to be projected into the air.

Cross recognized the direction and finally faced forward. The surrounding scene was as illusory as smoke. He just took a step and the scene around him changed instantly.

The scorched earth just turned into a blood-colored desert. The wind blew over it, and the gravel rolled and knocked against the large number of brass bullet cases mixed in it, making a "rustling" sound. There was nothing here that Kroos wanted, and he took the second step.

The bloody desert turned into a burning factory. The painted iron hood melted, the walls collapsed, and the compactly placed machines inside were swallowed up by the fire. The indicator lights were still flashing warning lights, and the alarm buzzer sounded harsh. Cross saw it. Take the third step immediately after one glance.

What appeared in front of him was a frozen world, the temperature was cold, and the freezing air on the ground filled the air up to his waist. Behind the thick layer of ice, one can see the ruins of a small city reflecting the green light in front of them. They were bombarded by artillery fire. Almost all high-rise buildings collapsed and were kneaded together, making it impossible to distinguish the specific appearance of the individual buildings.

Next step, there is a train driving on a wilderness covered with weeds. Cross stays in the first carriage and can see the bottom at a glance. The carriage was filled with all kinds of debris, as well as a trainload of corpses whose blood had dried. The fatal wounds were all on his head, which was blown to pieces by a single shot from a large-caliber firearm.

Without stopping for long, the scenes around Cross continued to change, from a decaying forest full of mold, to a lake filled with a layer of dead fish, to a dark underground cavity, to a huge volcano with flowing magma, all scenes were... There are no fixed elements, the only thing they have in common is that they all have no life. Even in the decaying forest full of mold, there is not a single green leaf. The mold covered with it is all mold that has lost its life. It can be seen as a layer of sticky ashes.

Cross took another step at this time, and the scene in front of him changed again, but he returned to the scorched earth. The cracks that covered the sky expanded a little, and green light was projected on the ground, spreading toward the distance one after another, with no end in sight.

Looking thoughtfully, Cross looked at the scorched earth in front of him that was still emitting white smoke under the drizzle, and felt something. He turned around at this time, and a shadow pressed over him.

In sight was a battleship broken in the middle. The wreckage was too huge, and the bright red light in the sky was blocked. The navy blue outer shell has experienced many years of natural erosion, and the huge gears, turning shafts, complete shells, and broken bodies scattered around are all covered with red rust.

Now they just stand quietly on this black scorched earth, dyed with a penetrating green light. They also have no language of life, only the lamentation of the wind blowing on them.

Cruise walked around the wreckage of the battleship. When the sound of steam came, the wreckage of the battleship seemed to be spinning on its own, leaving Cassia's figure sitting next to a broken analysis machine.

"So it's really like this." Cross walked about ten meters in front of Cassia and sat on a piece of rusty gear. "I have to sigh. As the goal of our mission, we have been on the road of wonder, and You have always allowed us to refresh our understanding of you."

"I always thought that Black Wolf's death was just because of your spiritual guidance. It seems that the details are not like this." Cross sighed, looked around, looking quite satisfied with the wreckage of the battleship, "But judging from the scenes just now, your The spiritual world is just a prototype, and we can't actively interfere with it yet. But it can have an influence. Maybe you can add more trees and other things, and small animals, too, there is no need to be so full of death."

Seeing that Cassia didn't answer and just looked at him quietly, Cross put away the seriousness on his face and showed a relaxed and smiling face: "Don't be so nervous, there is almost no concept of time here. , you must know it yourself. And look at the sky and the surroundings." Cross raised his head, then looked around and sighed. There were more cracks in the sky, and bottomless ravines appeared on the ground that was originally boundless. The same light spread and penetrated people.

"Originally I just wanted to fight for the control of your body and buy opportunities and time for others, but just like you didn't expect my ability and strength, I didn't expect to be pulled into the spiritual world by you. I will definitely return No more, without this strength, even if you want to let me go, I can't leave. This spiritual world is dissolving, and I will only perish with it, without any chance of survival. So you can rest assured .”

"Of course, I am relieved. Seeing such a spiritual world means that my initial guess was correct. Uranium gold puts a huge burden on you, and this burden is your own death. Yes. Before using it, you must have anticipated the results in this direction, right?"

Cassia finally moved, and then nodded: "I have been in contact before, and I still have a sense of luck. But the situation at that time was completely different from now. Thinking about it now, it should be the giant dragon that helped me offset the side effects in this regard. ?”

"Dragon?" Cross narrowed his eyes slightly, but he was immediately relieved, "So it turns out that it is because there is already a connection."

"It seems that it is the source of everything." Seeing Cross's unabashed expression, Cassia also answered a question in her heart, "Is there no way to suppress or eliminate it? I don't think the Theocracy has anything to do with it. Will the Nature Association follow the orders of this giant dragon without any guarantee of safety? A trade is also possible. But this trade is also full of dangers."

"I wanted to talk about some lighter topics." Cross laughed, but still answered, "I don't know, it completely involves the highest level areas of the two continents. It's just that... there should be, just like Just like what you said just now, I think the same way."

"But I can't wait until that time." Cassia looked disappointed. "I want to know your specific purpose? Is it really as simple as just killing me? I don't think I have that level of threat now."

Cross was startled and thought for a moment before speaking: "Just think of it as killing you. There is no point in discussing the purpose now. Only when I came here did I fully understand that even if we complete the task, no one involved will Anyone can survive. Not to mention the danger of the mission itself, even if you are still alive after we kill you, you will be liquidated later. The things involved are far from what I thought, and the higher-ups will not let anyone who knows about it live. .”