Chapter 157: I'm literally crying my eyes out! Feathered Spirit, give me back Master Tail!
When the door opened, Sushang peeked her head in with a teasing smile.
"Shangshang, are you trying to scare me to death so you can inherit my account?"
Gui Naifen patted her chest.
For a split second just now, she really thought the Ten-Lords Commission had come knocking on her door!
Sushang chuckled: "I happened to be watching your stream, so I thought I'd play a joke… Quick, quick, adjust your mindset, let's continue."
"This bad guy has finally shown her true colors!"
Gui Naifen pinched Sushang's cheek as revenge.
The plot continued.
At this moment, Cirrus let out a burst of triumphant, arrogant laughter.
"Hehehe, hahaha~"
"I must thank the honorable Judges for clearing the obstacles for me and gathering the heliobus shards."
"I told you I would leave your body, little pawn~"
Green flames erupted from Stelle's chest.
Below, all the escaping heliobi converged toward the sky.
Cirrus welcomed them all, not refusing any, unceremoniously devouring the power of these heliobi!
Soon, it transformed from a small ball of fire into a massive fireball looming in the sky. At the center of the flames was its singular evil, mocking eye.
"I feel…"
"Unprecedentedly—"
"Powerful!"
"Pawns, how about another round?"
The underworld soldiers lying on the ground began to move like marionettes. Ghostly fires floated around them, signifying they were completely under Cirrus's control.
[ Enter Battle ]
[ Cirrus cannot be targeted or attacked. When any other enemy unit is eliminated, Cirrus will lose a portion of its health. ]
Fighting against the endless stream of Netherworld Enforcers, Gui Naifen couldn't help but exclaim: "Wow!"
"This Cirrus's battle mechanic forces us to constantly deal with an AoE environment!"
"Oh no, I can't beat this~."
"I admit I was talking big before; we really need an Erudition Main DPS right now!"
…
"What a coincidence? I just finished [ A Knight's Stranger Dream ] and unlocked Argenti, and then I see this?"
"Is it possible that Feathered Spirit will design a peak-difficulty instance later that requires constant clearing of mobs?"
"Jing Yuan, Himeko: Please release this dungeon quickly, thank you!"
"Why can't we just hit Cirrus directly! This guy draws so much aggro!"
"I wish I could jump into the screen and punch it!"
"To be honest, if such a crisis really happened on the Luofu, everyone sitting here would definitely be a pawn in Cirrus's hand."
"What are you saying? With my stamina, I can barely make it to the fifth floor… If Cirrus dares to control me, I'll ruthlessly exhaust one unit of its energy."
"Tired of work, let Cirrus control me and do my job instead…"
…
In the garden, Houhou was nervously following the plot in the livestream.
Unlike the others, she was essentially on the front lines.
If the [ Creation Furnace ] really had an issue, this might very well be the situation she would face in the future.
Moreover, Houhou didn't want to see her in-game self defeated!
Tail remarked from the side: "Look, look!"
"I told you a long time ago, wouldn't it have been fine if this Great One just swallowed it in one gulp?"
"Now with this situation, it's hard to clean up."
"Little girl Houhou, I bet you're going to run away to find help next."
Houhou said nervously: "I… I guess so."
Her eyes were glued to the screen, not blinking once.
The current situation looked extremely dire. Perhaps… even escaping was no longer an option.
Sure enough!
The plot that followed made Houhou's mouth drop open in surprise.
Xueyi appeared to be heavily injured, her back hunched, one arm hanging limply at her side.
"This abomination… is troublesome…"
"That thing has aggregated too many heliobi…"
"If we try to weaken it bit by bit, we won't have a chance of winning even if we work ourselves to death."
Tail let out a disdainful laugh and spoke: "Not necessarily without a chance, puppet…"
"By its own words, when heliobi merge, they form a fragile balance."
"You understand what needs to be done, right, Houhou?"
Tail looked at Houhou.
"B-but…"
"What are you afraid of? If this old man is gone, won't you be able to live the life you want?" Tail said in an indifferent tone.
At this moment, outside the screen, Houhou was full of shock!
Shouldn't they be running away right now?
What did Tail's words… mean?
A bad premonition suddenly rose. She clenched her fists tightly, biting her lip. She wanted to keep watching, but was afraid of seeing something terrible…
Meanwhile, Tail narrowed its eyes. Even it hadn't expected this!
In this game, it would actually make such a choice!
Was this really itself?
Shouldn't it be standing in the back laughing at the little girl Houhou and that puppet Judge?
Why… did this Great One actually become so righteous?
"It must be… it must be because I'm annoyed by that Cirrus!"
"It's absolutely impossible that I'm thinking of self-sacrifice for the safety of this little coward!"
Cirrus's voice rang out: "Bored, so bored. These little pawns are too uninteresting. Why don't you join them as well?"
A burst of red light suddenly exploded from the giant pupil.
Green fire immediately emanated from Xueyi and Stelle.
The two clutched their heads, resisting this mind-controlling power. But their bodies were uncontrollably being sucked into the air.
Stelle managed to resist at first, but soon succumbed completely.
Xueyi gritted her teeth, a red aura exploding from her body!
Two dark shadows shot out from her side. Several rings of chains locked together, binding Stelle who was almost sucked to Cirrus's mouth.
On the other side, she used a three-edged spike to stab into the ground, anchoring herself in the middle and holding on firmly.
The bullet chat went wild!
…
"Xueyi is so cool!"
"Sister Xueyi gives such a sense of security, oooooh, I'll dedicate my life to repay this rescue~"
"Stellaron! Help out!"
"There's a Stellaron inside the MC, Cirrus, do you really dare to suck it in?"
"MC is down [ sad emoji ]"
…
At this point, Houhou was clutching her head and secretly wiping away tears.
Lord Tail was so angry its ears stood up.
"Useless thing, you…"
"Buck up for me!"
Houhou shook her head and said while crying: "Waaa, this guy just won't die…"
"We're definitely going to lose…"
By now, even Xueyi was about to give in to Cirrus's suction. The chains were dragged forward a large distance!
"Don't you still have… me?" Tail said, baring its teeth.
It transformed back into Houhou's tail.
Houhou saw the seal on the tail. In an instant, she summoned her courage and made a decision.
She tore off the seal on the tail!
Tail was free!
It let out a great laugh.
"Goodbye, Houhou!"
With that, it charged directly toward Cirrus! Like a cannonball, it crashed into Cirrus's form.
The previously aggressive Cirrus was suddenly struck as if by lightning! The red light in its eyes was replaced by blue light.
"You… bastard! What are you doing interfering! Get… out!"
[ Battle Starts ]
This time, when Cirrus acted to buff the pawns, the screen displayed [ Nothing Happened ]!
Cirrus screamed in rage: "You, aaaaaah… get out of me!"
Tail's laughter rang out: "Cirrus, why don't you try absorbing this Great One too?"
"Are you crazy? Why are you helping humans?!"
"Reason? Do I need a reason? If I must have one—"
"It's because I look down on an idiot like you who only knows how to play tricks!"
At this moment, a prompt appeared on the screen.
[ Houhou is also a Judge of the Ten-Lords Commission! I will use talismans to constantly support everyone! ]
"I-I can't let Tail's efforts go to waste!"
"S-Spirit Talisman, heed my command!"
"Spirit Talisman, Spirit Talisman, Spirit Talisman!"
Houhou finally stepped up! In the form of a support skill, she healed the three teammates and removed debuffs at regular intervals.
Little Gui clearly didn't expect that this battle against the heliobus would end up being so hot-blooded!
"Lord Tail… he really, I'm crying my eyes out!"
"Go Houhou!"
"I'm going to blow you up! Cirrus!"
Without the buffs applied by Cirrus, the controlled enemies returned to normal strength. After eliminating several waves, Cirrus's health bar at the top was finally emptied!
Cirrus screamed as it climbed into the air, its eye wide with extreme indignation!
Strong light exploded from its body.
"Boom!"
Streaks of fire fell. It seemed everything had come to a conclusion.
Houhou's tears wouldn't stop flowing.
"Tail…"
A line of subtitles appeared on the screen.
[ An unexpected heliobus calamity turned into a rain of fire across the sky. Cirrus took the opportunity to possess a Netherworld Enforcer and was promptly contained by the Ten-Lords Commission. However, Tail's whereabouts were nowhere to be found… ]
Gui Naifen was stunned.
"Wait, it really ends like this?"
"Lord Tail is gone?"
"Feathered Spirit, give me back Lord Tail!"
…
"This part was too cool!"
"To think, in the end, Lord Tail sacrificed himself to save us…"
"Actually, he has always been protecting Houhou."
"Now Houhou doesn't even have her flaming tail anymore."
"I'm really crying! Lord Tail, you really followed through with that 'sharp tongue but soft heart' personality to the very end."
"Help! Is Lord Tail really gone?"
"Noooooo [ crying emoji ][ crying emoji ] I liked him so much…"
"Wait, something's not right. I heard from a friend that this was a space comedy?".