The flames spread, and Punk Record gradually merged into the sea of fire, everything was exactly the same as Punk Hazard back then.
"Madman, you're just a madman! Those are the crystallizations of human science! The treasures of the world!!"
"You still have things you worry about. How does it feel to watch all this, yet be powerless? Not nice to see what you cherish being destroyed, right? But we've gone through so much more; our experiences are far more unfortunate than yours!"
No matter what Vegapunk said, Shaina's actions did not stall at all. The Wind Blade, accompanied by flames, completely destroyed Punk Record.
Some guard robots inside Punk Record sensed the danger, activated, and launched an attack on Shaina, but it was all in vain. Their efforts only added more metal fragments to the ground.
"You're wasting treasures. Your Captain wouldn't agree to this. People like you don't understand its value at all!"
"Angry? Good, it's your calm expression that makes me uncomfortable, but no need for you to worry about such things. I'll bear the consequences of destroying this place. Even if there are penalties, it will be my own business."
Shaina knew her behavior was extreme. Many of the technologies here could have fulfilled their value. Under normal circumstances, no matter which force occupied this place, they wouldn't waste this gain.
This was also the reason for Vegapunk's calmness.
He wasn't going to live much longer, had come to terms with death, just wanted future generations to continue researching his technology, allowing Vegapunk's technology to be passed down forever.
His abilities were indeed top-notch. Even without the Brain-Brain Fruit, he was still a top scientist.
The Brain-Brain Fruit brought vast brain capacity, allowing his abilities to be at ease, to immerse in his research. The years of accumulated research were the treasures he valued.
Revolutionary Army, World Government, Navy, Pirates, no matter which force, wouldn't ignore these things, but he happened to encounter the remnants of the Lunarians.
If there was no invention of the Blazing Angels, then everything would be negotiable; they would at most take the Plate, not do anything unnecessary.
But Vegapunk misjudged the intruding personnel and exposed the existence of the Blazing Angels.
Shaina's decision at this moment wasn't the most beneficial, but it was what she wanted most. She wasn't a robot; she had her own emotions. Even if it was King who came, the decision wouldn't be much different.
The man with the world's greatest brain, said to have matchless scientific capabilities even 500 years in the future, but Shaina didn't care about any of this. She just wanted this guy, who used her race's genes for research, to disappear in despair and sorrow.
"I just remembered something, the endurance experiment of Punk Hazard, the manufacture of Blazing Angels must also require these data, right? So how long can you last under my flames? 10 minutes, 1 minute, or... 1 second?"
Just right, let me conduct an experiment too, to see who, you, me, or this machine, has a higher resistance to temperature!"
...
The temperature inside Punk Record started rising continuously. The temperature measuring tools had long been scrapped, and at this moment, the entire Punk Record had become precarious.
As Shaina charged in, the bubble created by S-Bear outside Punk Record had already shattered completely, and what was keeping Punk Record flying in the sky was its flying device.
The kinetic energy Vegapunk researched was mostly based on flames, and his dream included creating an artificial sun to obtain endless heat.
The flying device was no exception; ordinary flames should not affect it.
But now, the flames created by Shaina had exceeded the tolerance limit of the propulsion device. With a series of detonations, Punk Record began to fall towards the sea.
"Do you feel it? The feeling of hope extinguished but powerless."
It was called a temperature experiment, but Shaina was controlling the power of the flames; otherwise, Vegapunk would have been the first to turn into ashes. She wanted Vegapunk to see his ideals turn to bubble.
But under the influence of high temperatures, Vegapunk had lost the power to refute, with only unwillingness in his eyes.
With Vegapunk's death, the robots in Punk Record also fell one after another.
Amidst a series of detonations, Shaina couldn't feel any signs of life anymore. Punk Record, a conglomeration of massive technology, crashed into an unknown sea, with much wreckage sinking into the water, and only a few things still floating on the surface.
Shaina lingered in the sky above the sea for a long time, until all the wreckage was swallowed by The Sea, before leaving this sea area.
And in the depths of the sea, a remnant of a robot began to reboot; its face had been consumed by fire, leaving only a mechanical skeleton, the lower body was gone, only one arm was left on the upper body, but its machine had not been scrapped.
The mechanical mouth corners lifted, as if this was what it hoped for.
The intact arm grabbed the metal debris beside it and started a new round of assembly. Soon, these remnants formed a very rugged mechanical body.
"The main body died, this is just great."
On the Punk Record, besides the clones of Edison and Atlas that Shaina had thoroughly dealt with, there was another clone—York, the 06 representative of desire, and she was also the most special among Vegapunk's clones.
She held no grudge towards the death of her original body and even wanted to personally eliminate it.
As the clone representing "desire," York appeared lazy and gluttonous, and her daily tasks were merely substituting for other clones in eating, excreting, and sleeping.
However, desire can swell; her laziness and gluttony were just superficial. In reality, York was selfish and full of schemes.
Since her visit to Holy Land Mary Geoise, driven by desire, York wanted to enjoy wealth and endless power, eventually developing the ambition to become a Heavenly Celestial Dragon and replace the original as the only Vegapunk.
She was very cunning and low-key in her actions, to the point that even Vegapunk hadn't noticed it.
She cared little for the life and death of others and would stop at nothing to achieve her goals. She could even appropriately sacrifice herself as long as it didn't endanger her life.
In the original timeline, York secretly contacted the Five Elders, informing the government that Vegapunk was researching that segment of history.
This report was hard for the Five Elders to believe. To verify its authenticity, the World Government sent CP5 to investigate Aeghede but could not find evidence.
To achieve her own goals, York secretly kidnapped CP5 and locked them in an underground old laboratory. Later, she gradually kidnapped CP7 and CP8 sent by the government.
Once the Five Elders confirmed that Vegapunk had committed treason, they decided to implement a plan to assassinate Vegapunk.
From the moment Shaina caught up, York started executing her plan, wanting to use Shaina's hand to achieve her goals.
The previous electric current in the Punk Record, the paralyzed robots, were all her work, aiming to incite Shaina's fury and have her completely destroy the place.
After all, York had Vegapunk's memories and knew that Shaina did not understand the specific situation of Vegapunk's clones.
York was well aware that this might affect her, so before taking action, she tore off her mimicry skin and critically damaged her body to make herself look exactly like a broken robot.
Finally, to conceal her presence, she shut down until rebooting after sinking into the sea.
If she had tried to protect the original body like the other clones, she would surely have been destroyed as well. For her goals, she took this gamble.
The cost was significant, but she succeeded.
The original Vegapunk was killed, the heavily recorded Punk Record was destroyed, but she remained. If the World Government still wanted Vegapunk's technology, they would have to rely on her or Lilith.
They were both clones, but with the same capabilities as Vegapunk. Although the loss of the Punk Record meant a significant technological loss, with the vast data under the World Government's control, York and Lilith could still replicate many things.
"Very well, now I am the only Vegapunk... No, I still need to get rid of Lilith. As long as she's also gone, I will be the sole one. Being the only option makes for better trades."
Looking at her broken body, York decided to find a place to repair herself first, as for the issue with Lilith...
Without Punk Record, they couldn't share memories; as long as she found a way to locate Lilith, she could restart her scheming.
Meanwhile, at the original site of Aeghede, the battle continued.
"Heavenly Domain Yatagarasu!"
In the sky, radiant lasers pierced through the dark clouds, continuous lasers cutting across the entire battlefield like light blades, yet amidst the clouds, Zeraora broke through under the storm of lightning to reach Kizaru.
"Plasma Blade!"
Zeraora's exclusive move, a variant of the Plasma Lightning Fist, plasma current adhered to the claw blade, and with the swing of Zeraora's arm, the external electric blade turned into an invisible shredder, chewing Kizaru into skybound sparks.
Marks of charred black dotted Zeraora's fur, Kizaru's suit also became tattered, compared to the battle at the top, this was a significant injury.
"Scarier by the moment; you weren't this terrifying back then."
"Same to you, you weren't this serious before. Next time we meet, it won't be this intense."
"Next time?"
Kizaru's attention returned to Aeghede, which had long become a land of ice and snow.
The Blazing Angels were tough to deal with, but ultimately they were just a group of children who hadn't matured. As an old Admiral, having known their weaknesses, Kuzan still managed to find strategies to deal with the Blazing Angels.
Moreover, in this thunderous snow weather, he could evade the indiscriminate attacks of lightning and lasers through elementalization, but the Blazing Angels could not. Under the AOE (area of effect) impact of Zeraora and Kizaru, they eventually became ice sculptures in Kuzan's cold wave...