The representative of the Interastral Peace Corporation was, at that moment, sweating bullets.
Especially because of the Galaxy Rangers.
After centuries of mulling it over, they'd actually managed to crack Harmony??
Damn it all.
A whole lot of those cosmic drifters had their names on the IPC's wanted list.
Why in the world would the Aeon of Harmony bother responding to those guys?
They were already sticking their noses into everyone's business across the universe. With a new trick up their sleeves now, they were bound to get even bolder!
All he could say was, thank goodness for that sudden whim that made him apply to follow along with the fleet under the guise of 'humanitarian aid.'
If he hadn't come today, this news would probably still be kept under wraps by those factions.
After all, the Abundance Wars had mostly targeted the Xianzhou Alliance.
Plus, centuries ago, that flashy Emanator of Abundance had bought it on the Luofu.
That single event had drastically reduced the perceived threat level of the Abundance.
So, for the past few hundred years, the major powers of the universe hadn't paid much attention to those second-string Abundance players.
Who knew that after festering for centuries, the Abundance would explode and cough up something like this?
The IPC honcho's voice was a bit dry: "General Yueyu... the Xianzhou Alliance truly has some skill, hiding a card like this so deep."
Something this big, and the Corporation hadn't caught a single whisper of it.
Their intelligence game? Seriously impressive.
Yueyu was just as stunned at that moment.
Since when did their Xianzhou Alliance even have something like this?
But facing the IPC bigwig, she had no time for chit-chat.
"We'll discuss this after the battle."
Surprised as she was, since they'd come, they couldn't just stand by and watch.
So Yueyu immediately shot out of her starskiff.
Summoning the Flying Aureus, she transformed into a shooting star, reaching the battlefield in an instant.
At lightning speed, she wove through the chaos.
But just as the Yaoqing's reinforcements joined the fray, before they could even link up with the other forces, all they got was a bizarre heads-up from the Pearlkeepers: 'If you see bugs crawling out of your head, please don't panic...'
And then, the twisted bugs started sprouting from their minds.
"Aaaah!! What the hell is this?!"
"Bugs! Bugs are coming out?!"
IPC soldiers screamed in agony over the comms.
After all, having bugs burrow out of your own body was a bit too grotesque for words.
Thankfully, the bugs didn't actually tear them open.
But even so, it threw their ranks into considerable chaos.
'Jingliu' stood atop the Starcrusher Swarm King's head, directing the swarm to expand its territory.
Wherever the swarm passed, even stars were devoured, reduced to cosmic dust.
And just then, sensing another massive surge of newly spawned bugs, 'Jingliu' finally turned and spotted the Yaoqing fleet, with a mix of IPC ships tagging along.
No idea what had gotten into the IPC, suddenly jumping into this mess.
And in that split second of distraction...
BOOM——!!!
A beam of light slammed down towards the Swarm King.
Even though the black Lightning Lord dodged and swung its blade in time, the spreading residual force still erupted with a roar and shockwave, blasting the area around 'Jingliu' into a vacuum.
As the aftermath faded, the one who launched the attack was none other than Celenova, still locked in her dance with the Rangers.
But compared to her initial state, Celenova wasn't looking too hot.
Phantylia's power wasn't weak, at least a standard Lord Ravager's worth of Imaginary energy reaction.
But she was channeling most of her strength into bolstering the Legion, preventing 'Jingliu' fr=om exploiting them, while using Heliobi flames to try and burn the enemy, manipulating them into embracing Destruction.
This meant Phantylia couldn't give Celenova enough support.
The golden Lightning Lord and the black Lightning Lord, one ahead, one behind, drew their blades almost simultaneously, slashing down at Celenova.
The Legion's power coalesced, precisely meeting the blades of the two Lightning Lord.
Celenova herself raised her claws, swatting aside the Rangers' attacks with one swing.
Hellfire roared skyward, transforming into boundless malice, trying to disrupt the Rangers' focus and mess with the minds of Jing Yuan and the others.
However...
That attack of Celenova's, seemingly designed to grab 'Jingliu's' attention, naturally made the latter, who'd been focused on the Abundance and Legion, raise her own longsword and point her killing intent squarely at Celenova.
Celenova, who'd only barely been holding her own, now, with Yueyu joining the fray and 'Jingliu' having a moment to spare, found herself facing 'Jingliu' suddenly rising, stepping across the void, her sword so cold it could freeze everything.
For some unknown reason, a bizarre smile flickered across Celenova's face.
A hasty block was clearly no match for 'Jingliu's' blade.
The enormous sword pierced clean through Celenova's chest.
Golden blood slid down the cold steel.
The power she'd concentrated began to dissipate.
Her colossal form rapidly shrank.
"Cough..."
Celenova coughed dryly, golden blood spurting from her lips.
Yet a smile lingered on her face.
Suddenly, she lunged forward, grabbing 'Jingliu's' sword-hand wrist.
"I know this isn't your real body, so normal methods probably won't kill you."
"...You did this on purpose?"
'Jingliu's' brow furrowed.
She stared into Celenova's eyes, clearly not expecting her to pull a 'suicide' move.
"Yeah. Compared to those annoying Rangers, you're much more pleasing to the eye. Let me bring you Destruction!"
Celenova grinned, baring her teeth.
Then, the flowing golden blood suddenly erupted in blinding golden flames.
The flames instantly consumed Celenova's form.
Amidst the light and heat, a power, uniquely Celenova's yet saturated with the essence of Harmony, surged like a broken dam, violently flooding into 'Jingliu's' mind!
"Unh—?!"
The sudden torrent of information made 'Jingliu's' vision swim.
A deluge of Celenova's voices and images crashed into her consciousness.
It wasn't a mental attack in the traditional sense.
But calling it Harmony's tolerance and coordination felt... crude and extreme.
Countless scenes, imbued with a will to Destroy, clamored, trying to force their way into 'Jingliu's' mind.
It felt more like Celenova was taking all the negative will of her own 'death,' wrapped in the intent of Destruction, and 'sharing' it via the power of Harmony.
Celenova didn't expect to kill 'Jingliu.'
She aimed to twist her sense of self, to leave the shadow of 'Celenova' in her mind, fill her head with thoughts of Celenova and Destruction, and thus slowly nudge her towards falling into Destruction.
Watching 'Jingliu' wince in pain, Celenova, her body almost completely burned away, knew she wouldn't live to see the result.
But even so, seeing Bai Ming suffer at her hands, left disheveled by her attack, was enough to make Celenova cackle with excitement.
Then, the golden flames completely incinerated Celenova's form, leaving only her laughter echoing in the air.
But with Celenova's disappearance, 'Jingliu' shook off the effect of that self-immolating Destruction-Harmony attack.
This System, as always, only filtered out direct negative influences.
It didn't completely block the experience itself.
The lingering memories and will of Celenova left 'Jingliu' momentarily dazed.
But Celenova's goal had clearly failed.
Not to mention 'Jingliu' was already adept at manipulating memories, even without the benefits from the Cyrene character card.
Relying on the System's power, she wouldn't easily be swayed by the will of Destruction.
More than that.
What bothered 'Jingliu' was:
Was Celenova really dead?
Not doubting whether she'd actually burned up just now.
But rather, Celenova inherently had the ability to create clones. And with Harmony's power, there was also the precedent of Gopher Wood, who could house his consciousness across multiple bodies.
Though that had been brief back then, and 'Jingliu' hadn't tried it herself.
But if Celenova had used those two traits as insurance for her own life, then her self-immolation just now might have cost her a lot, but it probably wouldn't be the end of Celenova.
The main thing was...
Given her personality, Celenova didn't strike her as the type to just blow herself up at the drop of a hat.
Accepting that Celenova had committed suicide?
That was a bit of a stretch.
"Celenova... you gotta be hiding out there somewhere, alive!"
Just as 'Jingliu' was thinking this, the Legion, now leaderless, fell into chaos.
Their perfectly synchronized movements completely collapsed.
What had just been holding its own against The Swarm, the Legion instantly lost all power to resist.
And Phantylia...
As a Heliobus, she could technically take direct control of the Legion.
But the problem was, she didn't have Celenova's tactical genius.
Put her in charge, and all she could do was throw the Legion into the meat grinder.
She couldn't bridge the gap between the Legion and the swarm.
And since they already had a contingency plan for failure, Phantylia just... gave up.
Mainly, she couldn't figure out what the hell had gotten into Celenova. Sure, they were at a disadvantage, but it wasn't unwinnable!
What was the point of just charging in to die like that?
--+--
T/N: If you want advance chapters, you can find it at [email protected]/AspenTL