Chu Xi's attacks were savage and brutal, like a wild beast unleashed. Each strike carried a suicidal ferocity, as if she were willing to take them both down.
She even resorted to desperate measures, using her body as a weapon—headbutting, biting, tearing at her opponent with primal savagery.
The battlefield shifted rapidly between underground caverns, the surface, and the skies above. The watching Gods struggled to contain the destructive shockwaves radiating from their battle.
Their energy levels were so immense that, without intervention, the spreading shockwaves would have pulverized Natlan's architecture and its people.
In contrast to Chu Xi's chaotic frenzy, Umbral Scion's fighting style was coldly efficient.
With minimal movement, she precisely blocked or evaded most of Chu Xi's attacks, then unleashed even more lethal counterstrikes.
Her energy seemed more refined, more profound, and her control over dark forces far surpassed Chu Xi's instinctive, feral combat.
This much was clear to all the onlookers—each of them seasoned veterans with keen eyes.
Lumine: "Chu Xi seems to be fighting on instinct alone. If she's being controlled by Forbidden Knowledge, why is she acting like this?"
Rukkhadevata: "If Forbidden Knowledge were truly in control of her body, her actions would mirror that creature's. But the outcome is clear: she's fighting against it."
Lumine: "So, it's because Chu Xi is struggling against Forbidden Knowledge for control that she's behaving this way?"
Rukkhadevata nodded slightly. "Most likely. That's why she was able to come here and confront that creature."
Lumine swiftly turned to Chu Xi. "Then we have to help her!"
Rukkhadevata: "No. The aftershocks of their battle are immensely powerful. Even a God-level combatant might not fare well getting too close. Chu Xi hasn't regained consciousness yet—to her, anyone entering her field of vision is an enemy..."
While Lumine and Rukkhadevata were talking, below them:
After a fierce exchange of blows, the Umbral Scion seized the brief moment of Chu Xi's energy recoil following her relentless assault. Raising its pitch-black, razor-sharp claws...
The Umbral Scion's claws, as sharp as the keenest blades, crackled with highly concentrated black-purple energy as they instantly pierced through Chu Xi's defenses and plunged deep into her mechanical chest.
Hiss—!
A piercing corrosive sound filled the air.
A gaping hole was instantly burned through the armored plate of Chu Xi's chest, exposing the intricate machinery within, which sparked erratically.
The Umbral Scion tore out the Energy Core from her chest and crushed it, then kicked Chu Xi in the abdomen.
Bang!
Chu Xi let out a tortured scream, flying backward like a kite with a severed string. She slammed violently into the distant, crumbling mountain rocks, sending debris flying.
Uncontrollable black energy erupted from the gaping hole in her chest, and her head lolled to the side, her Life extinguished.
"Chu Xi!"
Lumine could bear it no longer. Wielding her Unrelenting Will, she charged through the barrier erected by the Gods to shield against the aftershocks. The barrier offered no resistance, allowing her to pass through effortlessly.
Morax followed her through the barrier as well.
After entering the barrier, the pair advanced only a few hundred meters before being stopped by what seemed to be an invisible wall of air.
Soon, the air wall slowly materialized, revealing a circular barrier enveloping Umbral Scion and Chu Xi. The Black Fog within the barrier was noticeably denser than outside. Lumine tried attacking with Elemental Energy and slashing with her sword, but neither had any effect.
Morax also attempted to smash the barrier with Geo Spears, but they only penetrated half a meter before stopping.
Inside the barrier, Umbral Scion flashed to Chu Xi's side.
She dug deep into the rock, pried out the unresponsive Chu Xi, and dragged her mechanical legs all the way to a spot visible to the group.
Then, under Lumine's furious gaze—her eyes practically spitting fire—the Umbral Scion yanked Chu Xi's head clean off her mechanical body.
The Black Fog covering the headless mechanical body rapidly dissipated. Stripped of the fog's reinforcement, the body reverted to its original material's hardness. With a single stomp, the Umbral Scion crushed it into fragments.
"No! She's trying to reassemble her head! If she succeeds, her power will surge dramatically, and no one will be able to stop her!" Rukhadevata exclaimed urgently.
Barbatos desperately wanted to retort that even without her head, no one could stop her anyway, but the situation was too dire for sarcasm.
He immediately drew his longbow and fired an arrow at the barrier. The others unleashed their strongest attacks, bombarding the barrier with all their might.
Brilliant but futile flashes of Elemental Energy erupted, causing violent ripples across the barrier's surface. Yet it remained stubbornly resilient, completely sealing out all the attacks.
Inside the barrier, Umbral Scion ignored the relentless bombardment.
With cold detachment, she lifted Chu Xi's head, its expression frozen in shock and pain, and then, in an eerily surreal act, twisted off her own head.
"Damn it!" Lumine screamed, her mind racing with dark premonitions as she stared at Chu Xi's head. She hacked frantically at the barrier, her grip splitting open again, blood staining the sword hilt crimson.
Umbral Scion placed Chu Xi's head onto her own neck—
Click.
A soft yet bone-chilling click echoed through the chamber.
Chu Xi's head seamlessly connected with the Umbral Scion's neck. A ring of purplish-black light flared briefly at the interface before vanishing. The skin and mechanical edges began to writhe and fuse seamlessly, as if they had never been separated.
BOOM—!!!
An energy surge far more terrifying and suffocating than before erupted from the Umbral Scion's body like a tidal wave.
The purplish-black energy coiling around her instantly deepened and thickened, coalescing into an almost tangible black liquid that flowed across her skin.
On her pitch-black, scale-covered body, crimson patterns glowed with a searing intensity, pulsating rhythmically like breathing.
The Umbral Scion slowly raised her head, and Chu Xi's eyes gradually opened—but they no longer held chaos or madness. Instead, they radiated an icy, absolute indifference, looking down on mortal existence with utter disdain.
It was as if a being from a higher dimension were peering through those eyes, scrutinizing the insignificant mortals below.
The overwhelming pressure even pierced the barrier, sending shivers down the spines of the Gods outside and momentarily halting their attacks.
Barbatos's hand, gripping his bow, trembled slightly, his face paling.
It's over.
A flicker of despair flashed in Rukkhadevata's eyes. With the Umbral Scion's head reattached, its power level had transcended their understanding.
I have no choice but to let her act!
Rukkhadevata's eyes narrowed as she prepared to intervene, but the situation on the battlefield shifted once again.
Just as the overwhelming pressure reached its peak—the Umbral Scion suddenly began to tremble violently!
Her previously cold, detached eyes abruptly filled with excruciating pain and struggle. Two diametrically opposed expressions flashed wildly in her gaze!
One was absolute coldness and order, the other was maddening agony and... a fleeting, flickering trace of humanity.
"Ugh... AAAAAAAAHHHHH—!!!"
Clutching her head, she let out a heartrending shriek, her voice distorted and twisted, a cacophony of abyssal howls and human agony.
The energy surrounding her became wildly unstable, sometimes erupting outward in violent explosions that blasted deep craters into the ground, sometimes imploding inward as if collapsing into a black hole.