Collapse, survive

"I like the concept of work-life balance. Useless Xier, you should rest now, hehehehe, I won't laugh at you."

Shuai Fang Jie Shuai wasn't too tired, even though he was constantly poisoned by Seele... Let's ignore that. He wasn't afraid of being low on health; the lower his health, the more ferocious he became.

He could still strike the heads of the rift monsters that were rushing in from all directions with streaks of lightning. The commotion here was getting a bit too big, and the life force was attracting them to destroy it.

Fortunately, most of them are small, weak fish, and they generally can't withstand a single cut.

If we can hold on.

"A big guy has arrived."

Seele's eyes suddenly sharpened, and she turned to grab the scythe she had abandoned with one hand. Despite her lack of restraint and exhaustion to the point where her legs were about to give way, Seele still wanted to fight?

"It should be the source of the rift in this area. If we eliminate it, we can live in peace for a long time."

Seele would not allow any evil thing to dare to ruin her garden, even if the flowers came from a tree, an ordinary, tenacious birch-like plant from seven hundred years ago.

Seele didn't recognize it; she'd just treat it as a flower. She didn't know many things.

Flowers, trees, sky, breeze, pebbles, sand, earth...

But she has already taken over the garden.

A sense of oppression emanates from the massive life energy reaction ahead!

Even faster came a storm of spiraling arrows!

It comes from the far edge of Rivet Town, deep into another rift region.

“Wuwuwu——!!!”

The howling wind, carrying ice and snow, cleaved a corner of the ruined Rivet Town in two. Arrows tore huge holes in the debris, as if a scene from a myth was being reenacted.

This is the elite of the antimatter legion, equivalent to the tramplers, the vanguard that sounded the horn of civilization's doom.

Fragments of the Twilight Beast were incorporated into the reforging process of the [War Forge], making it a fusion warrior that combines intelligence and strength.

Furthermore, it was eroded during the expansion of the rift, causing the origin of its power to become distorted, thus gaining a more flexible fighting style.

That's why Seele was nervous. Fang Jie was indeed efficient at killing the weaker enemies, but he had been doing it for so long and had also consumed a lot of energy with her...

"Release your blade! Release—"

A mysterious shadow, carrying an eerie glint, locked onto the target with unwavering purple eyes. Seele left trails of afterimages as her scythe slashed at the violent, destructive arrows with a thousand strikes in an instant, slicing them into nothingness.

Precise, elegant, high frequency, good flash, and very low destructive power.

Fang Jie sensed that she was truly exhausted.

This doesn't affect the mechanism; it's strange that she either swings the scythe first and then hits, or she determines the 'result' of the scythe or herself hitting the target before launching herself.

Launching it continuously would be a waste of energy; a better option would be to dodge—but she didn't want to dodge.

Fang Jie wasted no time observing further, and another slash fell, slicing through the extremely dense wind barrier on the surface of the Wind-Striker, which had no blind spots, as well as its force field that surpassed that of a common soldier, and even its flesh that was a mixture of ancient beasts...

but.

"That's too agile, you bastard."

Despite its enormous size, it is incredibly agile.

Before its vital core was severed, the Windbreaker roared, its sonic waves crashing against the surroundings. Its limbs, powerful enough to kick through the walls built by the City Builders, burst forth with light, and it charged away as if by teleportation.

That's essentially warp, breaking free from the current space and unleashing subspace speed.

This naturally negated the subsequent power of 'Severing the Four Souls'. Fang Jie wasn't extravagant enough to grant the power to tear through space with a single, rapid strike; he didn't have that kind of control, especially... he was actually already tired.

The Windbreaker is not one of those lowly soldiers. It will be instantly paralyzed by the 'mental shock' and then killed. If it can still struggle and resist, it will only be injured.

But what good are injuries to such a beast born for war?

The wound was visibly healing and did not affect the fight at all.

This is.

—The clarion call of civilization's demise.

Imagine a creature that is agile, unstoppable, and incredibly destructive, capable of single-target warp jumps and Mach sprints, with excellent regenerative abilities, and the ability to manipulate force fields and storms.

When these factors come together in an individual, it is no exaggeration to say that they sound the clarion call for the demise of a civilization.

But Seele had already gotten used to it.

"Hey, shouldn't you pull out that knife?"

She didn't want to sprint a long distance to desperately kill the Windbreaker; she was afraid she wouldn't be able to protect the garden, even if she could create another one later...

She doesn't want that.

Keep up the good work, Fang Jie.

Seele placed her trust in him and looked forward to his performance.

"Actually, they're all the same."

Fang Jie wasn't deliberately not drawing his sword to show off; on the contrary, it was his drawing of his sword that made him look 'cool'.

"This sword, Jizo Mitama, is also known as 'Ghoul' in some world. The materials used to forge it, besides Soul Steel and Corrosive Power, are a virus that corrodes everything."

As he explained, Fang Jie headed toward the one who was stirring up the wind.

By flying.

"boom--!!"

The ground shattered with a crash, like a volcano erupting or a thunderous roar. He propelled himself forward, flying close to the ground along the broken void of the town, leaving behind a lingering echo.

"Its attack method does not rely on drawing a sword and slashing. Each time it is used, it will erode more phenomena and integrate everything it erodes into me, the one who uses it."

The use of Divine Keys has significant side effects, with Heavenly Fire's self-destruction being particularly famous. Jizo's Soul is no exception. Don't be fooled by Fang Jie's easy unlocking of 'Mental Projection'; Jizo's Soul can automatically grow and exceed its limits.

If you keep using it to kill Honkai Beasts, Herrschers, and corrupt everything, who knows what the user will become?

It seems that either the path will collapse midway, or it will be unable to withstand the ever-increasing corruption and depravity of the 'evil spirits'.

Therefore, Fang Jie prefers to use it to unleash the power of the Herrscher of Thunder rather than to corrode itself. Not long ago, he swung his sword and devoured the contents of the automatons he had absorbed...

The Beloberg Ancient Martial Arts describes it as an expansion of life, but Fang Jie does not want to expand it onto the path of the 'Twilight Beast'.

Amidst the booming explosions, Fang Jie did not draw his sword. Instead, a dark green light swirled around his right hand, shaping it into a form that resembled a sword, an arrow, and a gun all at once.

The wind-maker moved at high speed, carrying with it howling winds and sound waves, causing destruction wherever it went, yet it saw light covering its location...

"Try mine."

He doesn't have Seele's abilities; all he has is...

It's probably a higher number than hers.

Even if it's tiring, it's still worth it!

The world stands still, all things turn black and white, a single thought breaks away from reality and enters the realm of the imaginary, space and time break apart, and lightning flashes.

Like Seele, it's hard to describe this state with speed, but that doesn't stop Fang Jie from having time to charge up and move as swiftly as a shooting star.

There are also pauses for commentary.

Without the wondrous principle of reversing cause from effect, and without omitting the process, the strike truly transforms the past into the present and propels us toward the future.

"Man, sword, god, ghost—the world flows like water. Ferry me across—"

It was not a single strike; multiple projections unfolded, endlessly and incessantly, locking onto not a single point. Countless bolts of lightning erupted, completely covering the area and annihilating countless beings!

"—A single thought can encompass countless eons!"

The high-density wind barrier shattered instantly. Even though its terrifying fluidity was enough to withstand 'Raikiri', it was still no match for this lightning beam. Its body and vital points were pierced hundreds of times in an instant, and the melting and disintegration around the wounds could be seen through the holes.

High attack and low defense are the characteristics of the Legion, and incorporating fragments of ancient beasts won't change much.

In response, the choice of those who stir up trouble is—

Legion features a built-in deathrattle.

"kill!!"

Suddenly, hundreds and thousands of rays of light burst forth in the air, like an all-pervasive wind, shooting out to tear the enemy to pieces.

Even more terrifying was the charge that followed, the very thing itself trampling down at warp speed.

The Tramper's strongest attack is this charging kick, and even though the source of its power has mutated into a more agile Windbreaker, it is still ingrained in its instincts.

If it hits, kicking a spaceship wouldn't be unusual.

Seele might be able to dodge; her speed is abnormal, it's not something that can be described as speed at all. It's just that her physical body is fragile, her attack method relies on a scythe, and she's uneducated and her imagination is severely limited by harsh reality.

Fang Jie... isn't as fast as her.

If the Star Core Spirit were here, it could probably still be swung at with a baseball bat and break its legs... Fang Jie doesn't have such a powerful artifact, and the Earthly Treasury Soul isn't known for its defensive capabilities.

Even if one wanted to predict it, the Windbreaker, which resembles a giant centaur, has an unusual physical structure, power generation habits, and combat reactions...

They were all unfamiliar.

So he flew backwards.

Ripples spread through the air, and to Seele's astonishment, Fang Jie flew backward in a blur, soaring high into the air at a perfect angle!

A series of muffled, solid sounds erupted all around, like thunderclaps. The storm-maker's forward momentum was instantly shattered; she would not crash directly into the garden, or rather, she would certainly come to stop her.

The scene was comparable to when Bia's heavy hammer met Rebecca, or when Afu beat Jackie Chan to a pulp.

Because there was no sky in the lower area, Fang Jie crashed into the 'roof'.

The violent tremors caused Seele's lips to twitch twice, and she was suddenly unable to move.

This feeling, this feeling...

She seemed to want to move, but ultimately she was too weak to move, panting heavily, unable to even speak.

very tired.

"mix……"

Before the curses could even be uttered, the lightning, even more ferocious than before, descended from the sky with perfect straightness, tracing a ninety-degree angle across the chaotic battlefield.

Three times the speed! He's at least three times faster than before!

If Seele had gone to school, she could give a quantifier—Mach 7, which is 30% of the first cosmic velocity of her homeland.

So, swish.

The earth turned to scorched earth, and even the cold air was ignited by the intense friction. The Windbreaker, whose 'antimatter engine' had already been pierced by the lightning spear, had its remaining life extinguished on the spot.

With a brutal posture of smashing its head and its body exploding into a deep crater in the earth.

—It fell from the sky and turned into fire.

In reality, it was a form of desecration.

However, it also suppressed subsequent self-destructions, even though the self-destruction of the Stormbringers after the source of power was distorted was not as good as that of the Void Soldier.

Along with the deathrattle, it was also destroyed, and even the surrounding air, compressed by Mach-level speed, was no longer a turbid milky white.

During this intense frictional heat generation process, the high-density air has turned into a scorching red color, transforming into flames!

Even steel that is not strong enough will inevitably turn red and soften when heated, let alone air.

But this level of attention is insignificant to Fang Jie.

He felt he could actually take a bath in lava.

After all, compared to his brutal flight, where mere contact and friction with the air could turn everything into scorched earth, magma was not as efficient.

In short, the scene was comparable to Bada's heavy hammer hitting Rebecca, or Afu beating up Jackie Chan.

"Boom--!"

The sound of something tearing through the air finally came, mixed with a whisper:

"Slipping is an unavoidable problem."

Although tired, Fang Jie, who still had some strength left, was somewhat melancholy.

This is why he always cuts without moving, because he is unfamiliar with the power generation and movement patterns in his flight state. He always feels like he is in mid-air with nowhere to get leverage, like a Fulina who has just obtained the Eye of God and is carefully practicing walking on water.

But if one habitually relies on others...

Fang Jie looked up and saw that the murky sky in the lower area suddenly had a large hole appear due to the high-speed penetration of an "object," which extended into a large pit, the edges of which emitted a scorching, glassy color!