"Aaaah!!!"
A bone-deep wound appeared on Phantylia's body, formed by the divine miracle of Abundance. Phantylia believed she had fully understood the intensity of Takatsuki's attack this time. She thought that Takatsuki's Divine Departure was merely a pure energy attack, which was why she dared to recklessly take it head-on.
But she didn't know.
Part of the reason why Divine Departure's previous attacks were always energy attacks was due to the weapon's hindrance. Compared to direct weapon collision, the strikes caused by Haki entanglement were clearly stronger.
But Takatsuki's weapon was different now. Although Hephaestus's divine power was sealed, as a divine artisan, she had not forgotten any of the divine patterns that unleash divine power.
Furthermore, to make this weapon surpass the limits achievable by mortal craftsmen, Hestia made a great sacrifice, using her own divine blood to sharpen and enchant it.
This step truly elevated Hestia's Edge into a divine artifact.
Although it was a divine artifact, it had no excessive attributes, only the two characteristics of immortality and sharpness, and being bound to Takatsuki, capable of perfectly containing Takatsuki's power, with no other special effects.
But these alone were enough.
Immortality was not the common indestructibility found in Orario, but rather an upgrade from indestructibility due to Hestia's divinity.
Indestructibility was not truly unbreakable, but rather very difficult to break. However, even so, blades would dull, and sword bodies would weaken.
But immortality was different. Like the ever-burning sacred fire, Hestia's Edge could continuously self-repair as long as it received magic power from Takatsuki, thus achieving the effect of immortality.
And sharpness was even simpler and more brutal. Half of the divine patterns Hephaestus carved on one side of the blade served this attribute, making this sword capable of virtually ignoring most defenses.
So, with immense power, Hestia's Edge first tore Phantylia's fan, then effortlessly ripped through half of her body.
Unfortunately, Phantylia reacted the moment her fan was torn, but even so, half of her body was still ripped apart.
Phantylia, barely preserving half of her body, erupted with intense energy fluctuations. The imaginary energy Destruction and Abundance burst forth simultaneously, sending Takatsuki and Jing Yuan flying.
"Dan Heng!"
While being sent flying in the air, Jing Yuan suddenly shouted.
"Cloud chant… Roar!"
Behind the two, Dan Heng suddenly leaped high, accumulating a vast water dragon around him, and smashed it towards Phantylia.
Phantylia, whose previous injuries had not yet recovered, was instantly wounded again by the vast water dragon.
"The scion of Permanence!?"
Not only the power of Abundance, but also the power of Destruction fully erupted.
"You've angered me! Ants!"
Phantylia also seemed to have realized that under the power of Abundance, her connection with the Ambrosial Arbor still existed. As long as the connection remained, a continuous stream of Abundance energy would repair her body.
So, she simply unleashed her power of Destruction: "To destroy ants, nothing is more fitting than bringing down a star."
Ignoring her injuries, Phantylia directly gestured upwards. High in the sky, a giant meteor, or rather, a relatively small planet, smashed down towards everyone. The surrounding air even vibrated continuously due to the wind pressure of the falling meteor.
March 7th was so scared that she jumped.
"Let me handle it!"
Jing Yuan immediately stepped forward, preparing to summon the Lightning-Lord to shatter the meteorite, but he was stopped by Takatsuki.
"Leave this meteor to me."
Looking at the meteor descending from the sky, Takatsuki showed a strange expression.
The power of a meteor descending from the sky was indeed considerable, but the premise was that it actually hit.
But for Takatsuki, compared to energy bursts, this kind of move…
…was more like a freebie…
Because one of the abilities of the Moon Demon was to manipulate gravity!
With just a raise of his hand, the high-speed descent from the sky, which had even caused air vibrations, instantly stopped.
"What?! What did you do?!"
Phantylia didn't expect the star she had pulled down to be blocked so easily. It was not an easy feat for her to pull down a star with her power.
"To attack me with a star, you're really overthinking it."
Takatsuki waved his hand, and the star descending from the sky immediately returned whence it came.
"…"
Looking at the departing star, everyone below was speechless. It was all thunder and no rain.
"Hahaha, Phantylia, you view us as ants, but to be forced to such a state by ants, you can be considered the very first among the Lords Ravager."
Jing Yuan mocked Phantylia at the opportune moment. Even if he couldn't match her in terms of display, Jing Yuan never gave up in a war of words.
As the power of Destruction erupted from Phantylia, the surrounding Abundance Abominations turned into black lotuses, continuously releasing black qi capable of devouring life.
"Glorious divine power, obey my command, execute without mercy!"
The Lightning-Lord, which had already been poised to strike, suddenly manifested, following Jing Yuan's blade to completely pulverize all the dark lotuses that had just been forced into bloom.
However, this strike was blocked by Phantylia.
But this had already achieved Jing Yuan's initial desired effect.
In just this short period of rest, Phantylia's original injuries had actually recovered.
"Try to break free from this cage."
Using the power of the Ambrosial Arbor, numerous tree roots quickly emerged from the ground beneath everyone's feet, coiling around them.
The tree roots beside Takatsuki were burned away by the surging Demon Flame before they could even touch his body, but others were not so lucky.
However, Takatsuki had no time to support others at this moment, as Phantylia's new attack had arrived. A massive sphere of dangerous energy, composed of the Void Energy of both Destruction and Abundance, converged in her palm.
"Divine Departure!"
Facing the attack brought forth by the authority of Destruction, Divine Departure, wrapped in Demon Flame, collided with it.
But unlike before, Phantylia was more adept at using the authority of Destruction than the power of Abundance.
Moreover, compared to the endlessly regenerating Abundance, the power of Destruction is more suitable for combat.
Phantylia's body also changed color as the two powers completely merged, turning an orange hue as if scorched by flames, which was a manifestation of the combination of Destruction and Abundance.
As the energy ball in Phantylia's hand collided with the energy of Divine Evasion, this time, it was Takatsuki who was sent flying.
"The sword in your hand is indeed very threatening, but your own strength is completely unworthy of this sword."
Phantylia exposed Takatsuki's weakness with a single sentence: as long as he couldn't get close, the power of Hestia's Edge couldn't be brought to bear.
However, Phantylia's attempt to press her advantage was blocked by the water dragon formed by Dan Heng's water manipulation.
"Hmph, mere parlor tricks."
Phantylia reached out and grabbed the water dragon; despite its immense size, it was pinched like a small snake in her hand and then exploded.
"It's time to end all of this!"
Phantylia waved her hand, and several Ruin Abundance Abominations, formed from the intertwined powers of Abundance and Destruction, bloomed.
"Little March, Stelle! We'll cover them, deal with these flowers!"
Welt immediately shouted to the two girls beside him when he saw the Abundance Abominations appear.
"Okay! Leave it to me, Uncle Yang!"
March 7th aimed her longbow at the sky, firing an arrow, and countless ice arrows rained down, but they didn't have a significant effect on the Abundance Abominations, though they did coat them with a layer of extremely cold Six-Phased Ice.
"The spear tip has ignited..."
The Preservation spear in Stelle's right hand let out a crisp sound, and its amber-colored tip burned with raging flames.
"Flame Spear, Charge!"
Using the flames injection from the Flame Spear as propulsion, Stelle's body instantly shot out, leaving countless blast sounds in her wake, and a massive pillar of fire soared into the sky.
The Abundance Abominations that had just been frozen instantly shattered.
However, while the Flame Spear's move looked powerful, its inherent flame temperature wasn't high enough; it was sufficient for clearing minor enemies, but useless against foes like Phantylia.
"Ordinary flames... are not enough."
After expelling the Destruction energy left by Phantylia in his body with the power of the Horse Talisman, Takatsuki witnessed Stelle's attack and realized the same applied to his own flames.
Although the LV7 Demon Flame, as rated by the system, seemed powerful, it was actually insufficient to cause significant damage to Phantylia; the LV7 Demon Flame could melt steel, but its temperature was only around three thousand degrees.
Conqueror's Haki could not be upgraded by the system; this was something Takatsuki had confirmed during his training, so if he wanted to quickly increase his strength now, only Armament Haki and Demon Flame were most suitable.
The effect of Nen in terms of attack was not high, as Takatsuki's Nen was not an offensive ability.
Opening the system panel, Takatsuki quickly upgraded the LV7 Demon Flame to LV9, and instantly felt the extent of the Demon Flame's enhancement.
The Demon Flame, which originally had a limit of just over three thousand degrees, instantly surged to nearly ten thousand degrees.
Even the flames on the blade turned white.
"Not enough."
The reward for neutralizing a Stellaron was invested just like that, but Takatsuki was still not satisfied, and upgrading from LV9 to LV10 required 4000 Stellar Jade.
Although he could afford it now, after a moment of hesitation, he gave up, because he still wanted to save five thousand Stellar Jade to guarantee support from an SSS-rank character.
He gripped Hestia's Edge with both hands.
"If it's you, it must be fine."
Simply increasing the temperature wasn't enough; Phantylia's energy far surpassed Takatsuki's, and he could only rely on surprise tactics, so this strike had to succeed.
For a flaming sword weapon, Takatsuki's first thought wasn't anything else, but Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni from Bleach, whose Bankai, Zanka no Tachi, even Yhwach had to avoid.
Although the temperature of Takatsuki's flames was still worlds apart from his Bankai, he could still reference the opponent's moves.
"..."
Dan Heng, floating in the air, noticed Takatsuki standing behind him, gripping his sword with both hands; he said nothing, but instead proactively used water to obscure his figure.
Although he didn't know what Takatsuki was doing, his trust in his comrades led him to choose to provide cover.
What Dan Heng did was not noticed by Takatsuki; he was merely relying on the effects of the Dog Talisman and Horse Talisman to prepare to withstand Phantylia's attack, his mind completely drawn to the sword in his hand at this moment.
"If it's a sword forged from the divine blood of Hestia, who presides over the sacred fire, then this amount of flame should be no problem at all."
The flames on Takatsuki's body grew fewer, but this was not a sign of weakening power; on the contrary, his aura became more terrifying, and the temperature soared, and although no flames were visible, the surrounding air warped from the intense heat of his body.
Phantylia did not notice the disappearing Takatsuki; on one hand, she was confident enough, and on the other hand, Yang, who had just been clearing the Abundance Abominations, handed the Abundance Abominations to Stelle and March 7th, and actively joined the battlefield against Phantylia.
Yang, who had been observing the entire battlefield, naturally wouldn't have failed to notice Takatsuki's state.
"Star of Eden!"
With a gentle push of his staff, a ten-thousand-fold gravity sphere instantly appeared on Phantylia's body.
"Hmph, merely ten thousand times gravity."
Although it was a ten-thousand-fold gravity capable of swallowing even light, it was nothing in front of Phantylia, who possessed immense energy.
"Strike... without mercy!"
Jing Yuan unleashed his trump card, as the illusory Lightning-Lord, which possessed virtually the same body size as Phantylia, swung its array-glaive down toward her.
"Heh, does an Emanator of The Hunt possess only this much power?"
Yet even the power of the Lightning-Lord was resisted without any obstruction, and Dan Heng's attack took advantage of this opportunity to strike Phantylia's body, but it failed to produce any significant effect.
"No matter, the deathbed struggle of ants appears exceptionally tragic and beautiful."
After taking an attack head-on, Phantylia wasn't afraid either, because the attacks of the remaining people basically couldn't wound her; the only person who could wound her was likely heavily injured in that previous clash.
"In the next act, I shall fashion you all into Void Rangers."
Phantylia wore an expression of having room to spare: "Let the power of Destruction corrode your flesh and blood, casting you into Lord Nanook's pawns!"
"It's decided, let's begin with this arrogant and conceited Xianzhou General."
Phantylia summoned a destructive prana lotus, scattering the attacks of the others with a single palm strike, and pressed the destructive prana lotus brimming with the power of Destruction toward Jing Yuan's body.
"Jing Yuan!"
Seeing that Jing Yuan was completely unable to avoid this virtually certain-death attack, Dan Heng gathered all the waters of the ancient sea around his body and crashed toward Phantylia.
"A dying struggle. Don't be impatient, you're next."
A destructive prana lotus blocked in front of Dan Heng's water dragon. Phantylia did not intend to directly kill Jing Yuan like this; after Jing Yuan was bound by the destructive prana lotus, she utilized the power of Abundance to constrain him, preparing to inject the power of Destruction into his body, just like what she had previously done to those deceased Mara-struck of the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus.
But suddenly, her expression changed.
"Who is it!?"
Phantylia's anomalous behavior left everyone somewhat baffled, but this didn't stop the others from seizing this opportunity to attack in an attempt to rescue Jing Yuan.
However, Phantylia's power did not seem to have weakened in any way.
"Hmph, to think you all actually possessed such a backup plan; clearly an enemy of Yaoshi, yet possessing the power to control the Ambrosial Arbor?"
No, there were still some changes; Phantylia, who originally directly ignored attacks that weren't very strong, actively mobilized her own power to resist those attacks now.
Furthermore, the continuously regenerating prana lotuses in the surroundings did not seem to be increasing anymore either.
"Haha, have you grown flustered merely from having your connection with the Ambrosial Arbor severed? A Lord Ravager is nothing more than this."
Even with his body constrained, Jing Yuan still spared no effort to mock Phantylia.
"It really was your doing! No matter, even with only this much power, it is enough to resolve you all."
Phantylia was like a person with obsessive-compulsive disorder; the aesthetic of Destruction she advocated was the collapse from within an entity, so compared to directly killing Jing Yuan, she wanted to convert Jing Yuan into a Voidranger to plunge the Xianzhou into panic.
But just as her palm containing the power of Destruction closed toward Jing Yuan, a white flower blocked in front of her.
A white flower completely different from the prana lotuses Phantylia summoned—a pure, flawless, and innocent blossom.
Yet the power of Abundance that burst forth after it bloomed completely blocked Phantylia's power of Destruction.
"What!"
Phantylia's expression blanked for a moment, and subsequently revealed a somewhat mocking expression: "How ridiculous. Clearly the Xianzhou Alliance that sets itself as an enemy of Yaoshi, yet actively utilizing the power of Abundance? What, do you still feel the power of Abundance is stronger than The Hunt?"
"..."
Jing Yuan did not speak. He had originally merely inferred that Phantylia's connection with the Ambrosial Arbor had been severed based on the changes in the surroundings; her not daring to be injured carelessly and the prana lotuses no longer increasing were the best proof. But he didn't know who had done this thing; originally, he thought it was Takatsuki, who had been disconnected all this time.
But after seeing the white flower, he wasn't certain anymore. The person who did this thing clearly could control the power of Abundance, and a white flower... no matter how one looked at it, it didn't match that Takatsuki who continuously burned fiercely, fought with wide-open maneuvers, and caused countless destruction.
Then who exactly was it?
Although Jing Yuan remained puzzled, he didn't show it.
But in the next second, he knew whose handiwork this was.
"The branches of life, entwine here..."
A gentle voice echoed, but contrasting with the gentleness of the voice, countless white flowers and root systems spread out from that white flower toward Phantylia, enveloping Phantylia in a mere instant, just like how Phantylia had previously used the roots to constrain the others.
Simultaneously, a massive white scythe fell from the sky, landing heavily upon the head of the constrained Phantylia.
Looking at the figure that suddenly appeared, everyone's eyes widened.