"This is impossible..."
Seeing Stelle take up the flaming lance and seeing the will of Preservation descend once more, Cocolia fell into a daze.
Bronya raised her head and looked firmly at her half-human, half-demonic mother. "The will of Preservation has already made its choice..."
But in the end, Cocolia still failed to turn back.
Just as Stelle had said before, at this very moment, what was driving Cocolia's decisions was no longer Preservation or despair.
What truly pushed her now was nothing more than the seductive whispers of the Stellaron and her own arrogance that looked down on everything else.
"You know nothing about this world's suffering... nothing about the ending that awaits it!"
The Mother of Deception roared at everyone, her voice piercing eardrums like the cries of countless banshees.
Bronya responded with firm resolve. "Even if we are destined to walk toward destruction, we will still hold hands and bravely step into that darkness together..."
March laughed and said, "No. With us here, that kind of ending will never happen!"
Stelle took a deep breath. Now, Bronya's will was clear and unwavering, and Cocolia had also made her choice.
The flaming lance in her hand burned fiercely as Stelle stepped forward and charged ahead.
Blazing flames scorched the land, melting wind and snow.
Everyone surged forward together, charging at the Mother of Deception.
The Mother of Deception spread her arms, power surging, and the cold wind instantly grew fiercer. Countless ice spears formed out of thin air and shot toward the group.
Stelle planted the flaming lance in front of her. Flames roared along the shaft.
Waves of Preservation spread out invisibly, as if forming a barrier.
The barrier kept expanding, enveloping everyone within it, driving away all cold and intercepting the ice spears hurled by the Mother of Deception.
In the next instant, Seele's figure suddenly appeared behind the Mother of Deception, the girl's eyes completely crimson.
Countless flashes of sharp light fell in an instant. Seele constantly shifted between the real and the unreal, her scythe blades slicing across the Mother of Deception's body, leaving deep scratches across the solid ice.
Stelle thrust the burning spear tip into the ground, and flames spread deep into the earth. In the next moment, scorching heat erupted beneath the Mother of Deception's feet.
Bronya and March kept firing, clearing nearby rift monsters while also sending interference toward the Mother of Deception.
Dan Heng seized this opening and rushed forward, the cold light of Cloud-Piercer flashing as his long spear thrust straight through.
The tip of Cloud-Piercer struck the solid ice on the Mother of Deception's body and pierced straight in, shattering the ice.
This long spear, forged by a master craftsman of the former Xianzhou Alliance, displayed extraordinary hardness and sharpness.
"Get lost!"
The Mother of Deception shouted.
In the next moment, a massive ice blade descended from the sky and cut into the ground.
The resulting shockwave instantly knocked Seele and Dan Heng back.
Then, the Spear of Endless Winter spread a terrifying polar storm outward.
Stelle raised the flaming lance again. The shield formed by Preservation expanded, barely holding back the impact of the Spear of Endless Winter.
Above, when the freezing storm swept toward Mr. Yang, a dark red energy shield opened in front of him, blocking all attacks.
Stelle clenched her teeth, lifted the flaming lance, and began to activate the Engine of Creation.
The majestic mechanical construct moved slowly, raising its massive right fist.
The colossal machine swung its fist down onto the ground. The pitch-black iron fist fell like a mountain dropping from the sky, crashing down and shattering the earth.
The Spear of Endless Winter was smashed into fragments in an instant.
The Mother of Deception was also struck by the boundless fury of this construct of Preservation.
Though she hurriedly dodged, she was still blasted away by the shockwave and slammed into a distant low peak.
The Mother of Deception soon climbed back up from the wind and snow.
Even more terrifying energy fluctuations spread from her body.
She flew into the air as dreadful Imaginary energy began to gather around her.
"The power of the Stellaron is with me!"
The Mother of Deception shouted loudly.
"You are nothing more than the dying struggle of the old world before its collapse!"
"A great new world, forged by my own hands!"
She raised her arms high as an Imaginary stone monument formed in her hands.
At this moment, heaven and earth grew dark, with only the final echo of creation shining brightly, stirring the winds and clouds.
She hurled it downward, tearing through the air as it fell toward the ground, like a celestial star falling from beyond the firmament. A massive meteor crashed down. This was a strike meant to send everything into destruction.
After this, the entire world would be destroyed in the impact.
Facing the devastating blow thrown by the Mother of Deception, no one showed fear.
Still, they had to find a way to survive this attack first.
The defense of Preservation expanded again, but this time, that paper-thin shield looked utterly insignificant before the final echo of creation.
Everyone seemed as tiny as insects beneath a mountain.
Watching this scene, Mr. Yang slowly tightened his grip on his cane.
Since it had come to this point, he would help the children block this strike.
"Star of Eden, zeroth rated powe... huh?"
Mr. Yang sensed something and lifted his head.
A pitch-black sword edge cut through the sky and arrived at the battlefield like a meteor.
Power surged violently.
"Life is but a grain of dust, a fleeting instant of existence. Stars are twisted dry, and heaven spills a single ray."
The youth murmured softly, spinning in midair as three forces tangled, merged, and swelled.
He swung the heavy black sword with one hand.
Sword energy split the sky.
Like a hidden dragon rising from the abyss, piercing clouds and soaring into the heavens, heaven and earth changed color.
The Imaginary construct took the brunt of it, split cleanly in two by the invisible sword energy, shattered like rotten wood. The remaining energy could no longer stay stable and dissipated in the raging wind.
Next came the Mother of Deception. The sword energy moved at incredible speed, sweeping past her. In that instant, cracks of collapse appeared across the body forged from Stellaron power.
With no other choice, she hurriedly retreated backward.
The sword energy did not stop. It shot straight into the sky, instantly tearing open the heavens and ripping a long crack in the thick clouds.
Then, a ray of daylight shone through the gap in the dense clouds.
After seven hundred years of cold tides, this planet finally parted the clouds once more and received the light of its star.
Like cutting through eternal night to welcome the dawn.
———
Everyone looked at the suddenly appearing figure and broke into smiles of surprise.
The youth's long hair flowed freely. He held a heavy sword and stood between heaven and earth.
"Nero is here! Haha!" March cried out excitedly. "He looks just like a sword immortal from myth!"
Dan Heng nodded lightly, but then frowned.
He did not know if it was just his imagination, but something felt off. Nero's state seemed different from usual.
The others also smiled.
"Y-you are...!?"
The Mother of Deception stared at Nero standing in midair before her and only then realized that one outsider was missing.
But Nero did not reply. He only cast a cold glance, then swung his sword again at blinding speed.
BOOM!
There was no time to react. By the time she snapped out of her shock, half of the Mother of Deception's body had already been cut away.
Behind her, the frozen land and mountain ranges stretching for thousands of miles were split clean in two, the crack opening like a bottomless abyss.
Fortunately, the power of the Stellaron surged, allowing her limbs to regrow.
But before she could launch a counterattack at Nero, the others had already rushed in.
At the same time, on a distant snowy peak, Argenti slightly widened his eyes.
He saw the daylight descend and locked onto the enemy's position.
The Pure Beauty Knight raised his arm, gripped his long spear, and the radiance of Pure Beauty descended together with the daylight.
He recited devoutly, "All for... Idrila. Pure Beauty forever!"
In the next instant, Argenti gathered all his strength and hurled the spear in his hand.
BOOM!
Airwaves rolled, the ground churned.
Cracks spread across the mountain peak, collapsing downward.
Martin was terrified, nearly peeing himself.
He did not know how much strength Argenti had used, but he saw the mountain behind him shatter in an instant, like it had been blasted by some high-powered anti-planet weapon.
He really wanted to say to Argenti, Bro! Be careful. If you break this mountain apart, we're both done for.
But at that moment, from sheer shock, he could not make a sound even if he opened his mouth.
The Mother of Deception began dealing with attacks from the others, intercepting March's ice arrows and Bronya's bullets, then forcing back Dan Heng and Seele with Imaginary energy spears.
Right after that came Stelle charging in with the flaming lance. The scorching flames had already set the wind and snow ablaze.
With Nero nearby, the Mother of Deception also had to spare attention to track his movements.
She gathered Imaginary energy, preparing to block Stelle's charge with a spear.
But outside her peripheral vision, a streak of red light rushed in at extreme speed, instantly piercing through her waist and passing straight through.
Her movements were interrupted, and Stelle arrived right in front of her with the flaming lance.
Flames burned fiercely as the lance stabbed into the Mother of Deception's abdomen. In the next instant, Stelle drove her forward, smashing her into the distance and leaving behind countless scorched marks from fiery explosions along the way.
After crashing through two low peaks, Stelle thrust the flaming lance forward with all her strength, sending the Mother of Deception flying.
At the same time, the Engine of Creation moved again. Its iron fist, like a massive hammer, returned and advanced along the ground.
Mountains shattered, the land was plowed apart. The furious iron fist of the construct of Preservation finally slammed into the Mother of Deception, punching her through several mountains and blasting her away.
At this moment, Nero was breathing heavily, waiting for the right timing.
"Twist the stars dry, heaven spills a single ray" was not a sword technique. The effect of this skill was to put the user into a state where the minimum attack output was 100 percent, with no upper limit.
So it was quite exhausting to use.
And then adding in the power of Aha and Lan... the attack power in this state was a bit too high.
That was why he was waiting. When his companions charged in, he did not dare attack recklessly. Next time, he should warn everyone first.
Now, after the Mother of Deception was blasted away by the Engine of Creation, Nero seized the opportunity and slashed out several more strikes.
Sword energy crisscrossed, splitting the land for thousands of miles.
The Mother of Deception climbed back up from beneath the collapsed mountains, about to return to the battlefield, when she was struck head-on by incoming sword energy.
The body condensed from Stellaron power was instantly torn apart.