Herta looked toward the center of the explosion and immediately saw that Phantylia's chakra-material body had been destroyed by more than half. As for the spiritual form of the heliobus flame, it had not suffered the slightest damage.
Phantylia herself also noticed this and let out a cold laugh. "A mere insect and an aging Xianzhou general want to kill me? Dream on! I am Phantylia, a Lord Ravager. How could I possibly die so easily?"
After saying that, Phantylia turned her gaze toward Herta and sneered. "Now that I think about it, I should thank you. Your divine tree may not grant me the power of the Path of Abundance, but its immortality is indeed extraordinary. Thank you, Herta.
"When I move to assassinate you later, I'll make it quick. I won't let you feel too much pain!"
Herta did not grow angry. She merely said calmly, "So it was the God Tree that saved your life? But you just said it yourself—the God Tree belongs to me. I am the developer of chakra, the Progenitor of Chakra. The authority of control lies with me!"
The instant her words fell, Herta raised her magic wand high and invoked the authority of the Progenitor of Chakra.
In that moment, Phantylia—who had fused with the God Tree, or rather, the Ten-Tails that had become a plant-like being—felt her body swelling. More precisely, it felt as though something was about to burst out.
What is happening? My body is out of control—Herta really does have a way to control this new body of mine?!
Phantylia's expression changed drastically. She immediately used her Emanator powers, attempting to seize control of her newly acquired body.
However, she failed completely. In the next instant, parts of her body swelled grotesquely, bulging into nine massive lumps. In the end, those boils tore through her skin and shot toward Herta, circling around her and forming nine strange chakra lifeforms of differing shapes.
At the same time, Phantylia felt her immortality greatly weakened. If Jing Yuan and the Starcrusher Swarm King were to land another ruthless strike under these circumstances, she would truly be finished.
Tch.
In that instant, Phantylia made her choice. Instead of performing a spatial jump, she transformed into a streak of light and charged toward the place where the Antimatter Legion had descended—the location of the star rail.
She intended to withdraw from this battlefield.
"Phantylia, do not flee!"
Seeing this, Jing Yuan immediately drove the Spiritus in pursuit.
"Go," Ruan Mei said lightly.
The colossal Starcrusher Swarm King lunged toward Phantylia.
When Silver Wolf saw this, she also prepared to strike, intending to annihilate Phantylia completely.
Herta was no exception. She raised her magic wand and, using the power of space-time genes, prevented Phantylia from utilizing the spatial transfer ability inherent to Emanators. At the same time, she began condensing an Emanator-level Herta Magic Cannon.
All of this was witnessed by Jade of the Strategic Investment Department of the Interastral Peace Corporation. Brilliant light flickered in her eyes.
Two genius-level Emanators, one suspected to be an Emanator of Elation or Finality, plus a Xianzhou general—five Emanators joining forces to kill Phantylia.
Perhaps today would be the day of Phantylia's fall. After Zulo, would a second Lord Ravager perish?
If that were the case, the IPC must also contribute its strength!
Having reached this conclusion, Jade took out her Jade of Credit. The gemstone immediately began to glow, and she spoke:
"I come to pay homage. I come to pour wine. I come to claim. I bestow poisoned nectar as sweet dew. Spring sows, autumn reaps—quietly awaiting the withered fruit that fills the branches.
"All for... the Amber Lord!"
As Jade's voice fell, a massive projection of a Preservation warhammer appeared in the starry sky and smashed down toward Phantylia.
Meanwhile, aboard a ship from Penacony, Mikhail removed his hat. His clouded eyes began to shine.
Back then, my good friend—the Galaxy Ranger Tiernan—disappeared on the battlefield against the Lord Ravager Zulo.
He may well have died at that Lord Ravager's hands.
And now, I finally have a chance to kill a Lord Ravager and avenge my friend Tiernan.
With that thought, Mikhail did not hesitate. He threw his hat and invoked the power of the old generation of the Path of Trailblaze—the Nameless.
It's over!
In that moment, Phantylia was filled with despair. She believed she would meet the same fate as Zulo and be utterly slain.
After all, the lineup surrounding and hunting her in the Yongmei Star System far surpassed the forces that had once killed Zulo.
Back then, Zulo only had to face the encirclement of Galaxy Rangers.
As for her, she now faced the combined assault of the IPC, the Xianzhou general, Elation, geniuses, and multiple other factions. If no unforeseen change occurred, her end would be far more miserable than Zulo's.
However, at the very instant the attacks were about to land upon Phantylia, a woman with a halo above her head and an aura of both Destruction and divinity descended.
She was Celenova, commander of the Antimatter Legion.
Sensing this, Phantylia was overjoyed. "Celenova, you're so good to me—you even came in person. As expected of a Lord Ravager created by the Lord after the Incarnation of Harmony turned to ashes. You're truly considerate to your own!"
Upon hearing this, even Celenova's stunning face twitched slightly. "I am the mortal enemy of Harmony. Nor do I cherish comrades like you. Your existence concerns the Lord's grand plan. For that plan to continue, you cannot be destroyed—at least not now."
"..." Phantylia fell silent, then quickly realized something. "But what use is it for you to come alone? The Emanators we face now number more than two."
"I never said I came alone. The moment I arrived in the Yongmei Star System, my symphony of Destruction resonated across the cosmos. The other Lord Ravagers have already arrived."
As Celenova's words fell, the star rail trembled. A group of beings exuding the aura of Destruction descended.
One wore a hat and a suit, yet his head was a die—Lord Ravager Asat Pramad.
And another—a man with a pure white head and a blade in hand. The strongest among the Lord Ravagers—Zephyro.
Thus, the number of Destruction Emanators within the Yongmei Star System reached four. No... if one included the virus of Irontomb, then five.
In an instant, the balance of war returned to equilibrium.
Phantylia's seemingly inevitable demise had gained new variables.
Jing Yuan, Herta, Ruan Mei... and everyone else frowned at the same thought.
Earlier, Celenova had said her Destruction symphony had spread throughout the cosmos. That was why Zephyro and Asat Pramad had come.
But were those truly the only two?
Could the other Lord Ravagers—Luxbane and Archforger—already be observing the battlefield from the shadows?
And if they truly clashed against so many Lord Ravagers, that would mean declaring war against the Destruction faction itself.
Once war with Destruction began, whether they won or lost, the outcome would not be a good one.
If they won, it was highly possible that Nanook of Destruction would personally descend. At that point, they might have to face an Aeon of Destruction.
If they lost, they would likely be slaughtered by the monsters of the Antimatter Legion. Even their physical matter might be thrown into the Warforge and reforged into new Antimatter Legion creatures.
Troublesome.
Far too troublesome.
Only one person on the battlefield did not find the sudden increase in bosses troublesome at all. Instead, she grew even more excited—Silver Wolf. At this very moment, she was still thinking about unleashing a galactic attack to kill these Lord Ravagers.
She believed that in her Invincible Player · Magical Girl form, she possessed that level of power.
At that instant, the consciousness of αWolf residing within the Soul Gem communicated with her mentally. "Silver Wolf, don't act rashly. The newly arrived enemies are very strong."
Silver Wolf frowned. "Very strong? Stronger than my level 999?"
αWolf fell silent for a moment before replying, "Hard to say... but there's a possibility. Especially Zephyro, the one known as the strongest Lord Ravager. He may have methods capable of breaking the 999 Emanator limit..."
"Does that mean Zephyro has power on the level of an Aeon?"
"No... I only mean his power might break the upper limit. That doesn't necessarily mean he can reach the realm of an Aeon. If Aeon-level power were converted into levels, it definitely wouldn't be level one thousand or even several thousand. It would be far higher."
αWolf said seriously, "Ten thousand... perhaps even a hundred thousand, or a million. That is the true level of an Aeon."
"Ten thousand? A hundred thousand? A million?!"
Silver Wolf was stunned.
After that shock, she profoundly understood the terror and might of Aeons. At the same time, she grew even more wary of Zephyro—the Lord Ravager who might break the 999 ceiling and possess power above the Emanator level, perhaps level 1000 or beyond.
Meanwhile, the Stellaron Hunter Elio saw the arrival of two additional Lord Ravagers on the battlefield of the Yongmei Star System and was startled.
Phantylia, Celenova, Zephyro, and Asat Pramad—more than half of the Lord Ravagers in the cosmos had descended upon this battlefield. One misstep, and the War of Aeons could begin ahead of schedule.
If that truly happened, matters would become extremely troublesome.
Once a War of Aeons began, the universe would slide toward the abyss. The Aeons were simply too powerful. The consequences of them clashing were something even the universe itself could not bear.
More crucially, at this very moment, through the eyes of the avatar of Terminus' divine domain, Elio could already see that multiple Aeons' gazes were now fixed upon the this ill-fated galaxy.
Yes—this war in the Yongmei Star System had already caused several Aeons to enter a state of alert.
...
On the other side, Herta—the genius who had brought the Blood of Abundance into the Yongmei Star System and even triggered this war—realized at this moment that the conflict could not continue.
If it went on, it would escalate endlessly. The forces entering the fray would grow increasingly high-level. It was not impossible that Aeons themselves might descend.
At that point, her newly attained Emanator-level strength would amount to nothing more than cannon fodder in a War of Aeons.
Herta took a deep breath and prepared herself mentally to negotiate a ceasefire.
Likewise, Jing Yuan, who had summoned the Spiritus, also believed the war must end. The Xianzhou Alliance was not prepared for a full-scale war against the Destruction faction.
Jade of the IPC felt the same. The IPC desired trade and commerce, not total war with Destruction.
If full-scale war truly erupted, the cancers of countless worlds would likely explode at once. At the same time, the Antimatter Legion would launch even more frenzied assaults upon the IPC's core worlds and supply chains.
If the trade routes that the IPC had operated for a lifetime were destroyed, how could they continue making money?
As for Screwllum, after careful analysis, he concluded that continuing the battle would only lower their chances of victory and escalate the conflict. That was not a good outcome.
Ruan Mei's thoughts were the same as Herta's and Screwllum's. A ceasefire would be better. The only thing she regretted was failing to capture Phantylia before Zephyro and Asat Pramad arrived.
What a pity. An experimental specimen at the level of a Lord Ravager had slipped away just like that.
She sighed inwardly.
At the same time, on the side of Destruction, the Lord Ravagers also had no intention of continuing the battle.
Too many experts had gathered in the Yongmei Star System. The factions involved were too diverse. More importantly, behind each of them stood an Aeon.
To declare full-scale war in one stroke against the Xianzhou Alliance, the IPC, the Genius Society... it was simply not a good idea.
Asat Pramad thought so. In his view, destruction should be plotted step by step—executed gradually. That was the most perfect form of destruction.
Celenova believed that destruction was best achieved by dispatching the Antimatter Legion in endless waves. In her view, all resistance could be crushed beneath an unstoppable tide of overwhelming force.
As for Phantylia, she believed that the art of destruction lay in stirring chaos within civilizations, not fighting head-on on a battlefield.
This time, she had been tempted by what seemed like a miracle of Abundance—the God Tree—and had confronted a genius head-on to seize it. In the end, the genius' technology had stripped her of all spoils. She had overturned spectacularly and nearly perished.
Having learned this lesson, she planned to return to her old profession: sowing discord between civilizations, plunging them into endless internal strife. Only when they had exhausted themselves would she step in to reap everything.
As for direct warfare? Frontal confrontation?
Whoever wanted it could go.
Among the Lord Ravagers, nearly every one of them believed this war must stop.
Very quickly, through internal communication, they reached a unanimous agreement: the war had to end.
"I think we can continue fighting. There are currently six Lord Ravagers present. Luxbane and Archforger have already arrived—they're simply hidden in the shadows."
Zephyro communicated seriously with the other Lord Ravagers through their mental link. "In terms of high-end combat power, it's six against five. Without question, the advantage lies with Destruction."
However, at that very moment, the star rail connecting the worlds trembled once more. Another figure arrived at the scene.
It was Diamond, the head of the Strategic Investment Department of the Interastral Peace Corporation. He was also one of the two publicly known Emanators of Preservation within the IPC.
When he saw the four Lord Ravagers in the Yongmei Star System confronting the five Emanators led by Herta, his eyelids twitched.
Wasn't Jade's intelligence report that only Phantylia had descended here, and that Celenova was merely directing the Antimatter Legion from behind the scenes?
Why was he now seeing Phantylia, Celenova, Asat Pramad, and Zephyro all present?!
More importantly, his exceptionally keen Preservation-sensing ability allowed him to detect, hidden in the shadows, auras utterly incompatible with Preservation—two additional Destruction-aligned Lord Ravagers.
If nothing unexpected had occurred, those would be Archforger and Luxbane.