The man's movements were so fast that even a high-speed camera could not have captured them.
It was as though someone had pressed the fast-forward button, turning Odin's figure into a blur.
The spear spun and transformed in his hand. Before Pardo even had time to close her eyes, the rust-covered spearhead had already become a beam of light that flashed past her temple.
Pardo still wore a blank expression when Gungnir suddenly curved in midflight and shot straight into the sky.
Rustle-rustle-rustle—
The spearhead transformed into an enormous withered tree trunk, spreading open like a colossal hand to meet the gigantic steel object falling from the heavens.
Legend held that the World Tree Yggdrasil was the heart of the world, its vast branches and leaves covering the entire world.
The towering ancient tree now rooted before Pardo had thick foliage that blotted out the sky and sun, while its trunk was sturdy and powerful. Yet its surface was covered in cracks and wounds, giving it an exceedingly ancient appearance.
Not only was the trunk withered and decayed, but crimson magma also seemed to be surging within it. The sight of a tree enclosing molten lava was nothing short of a marvel.
"What is this... Su, get ready for the impact. Don't get motion sickness... Oh, you're already out cold."
By this point, Vill-V had also followed Su's example and sprawled flat on the floor. She pressed the back of one hand to her forehead, her complexion miserable. "Ugh... I'm dizzy too."
Don't ask. The answer was simply that Vill-V suffered from motion sickness.
Ordinary travel was usually fine, but the moment violent jolting began, Vill-V's motion sickness would flare up for real.
Otherwise, Vill-V would have long since tried her hardest to regain control of Cosmic Juggernaut.
Clang-clang-clang.
The enormous Second Divine Key collided with the luxuriant branches, producing deafening impacts as though it intended to smash the entire tree to pieces.
Clang—
The surface of the Second Divine Key was scraped open by the rough bark, but thanks to the properties of soulium, it continuously repaired itself.
The tree was the same. Although it appeared withered and decayed, astonishing vitality lay hidden within. Branches sliced apart by the soulium regrew after only a short while.
Creak.
The thick trunk caught the Key of Eternal Calamity after it lost power, and the enormous locomotive slid down along the trunk until it reached the ground, stopping directly in front of Pardo and Odin.
...
Inside Cosmic Juggernaut's cockpit, the instruments on the detection panel spun continuously, each one warning Vill-V that there was far more to this tree than met the eye.
It even contained the authority of space.
Vill-V was secretly astonished. Sliding down this tree, I barely feel sick at all.
Pardo always managed to bring her unexpected surprises. This time, she had somehow found another ridiculously powerful fellow from who knew where, someone whose opening move was to grow a tree with an effect comparable to the Sixth Divine Key, Abyss Flower.
It might even surpass it.
This isn't even the late stages of the Honkai. MANTISes haven't been created yet, and powerful monsters like these are already popping up one after another.
I just exhausted every last bit of Su's strength to kill one troublesome artificial life-form, and now Pardo couldn't possibly have brought this region's final boss straight to me, could she?
Whoosh!
While Vill-V was thinking, the spear embedded in the giant tree reassembled itself into a steel eagle and dove down from the canopy.
The instant the spear left the tree, the entire tree dissolved and vanished.
Blue ghostly flames burned in Odin's left eye. Instead of looking at the enormous locomotive radiating raw power, he swept his gaze across the surroundings and said:
"Come out."
He knows I'm not inside Cosmic Juggernaut?
Indeed, Cosmic Juggernaut was simply too eye-catching. Staying inside it would be no different from openly revealing her hand.
But Vill-V's skinny arms and legs were hardly suited for fighting someone head-on. Until she had completely determined her opponent's strength, she would never act recklessly.
While Cosmic Juggernaut drew everyone's attention, Vill-V had already slipped away beneath the natural cover of the branches and leaves, reversing the positions of light and shadow and concealing herself in the darkness.
Odin, however, seemed to have seen through this.
Odin gestured, and the enormous steel eagle seized Pardo like a hawk snatching up a chick.
Pardo nearly felt her soul leave her body. She had just watched this eagle crush a burly man wearing armor, and she had also seen the spearhead it transformed into reduce that terrifying white monster to dust.
And now... it was her turn.
"Help! Vill-V, I don't want to die yet! Save me! I'm still salvageable!"
It was obvious that Pardo's desire to survive remained extremely strong.
Even so, Vill-V showed no intention of coming out.
I'm completely unprepared right now. Am I supposed to smash my head against the final boss?
Vill-V did not want to come into contact with anyone possessing Herrscher-level combat power, especially when her opponent had come prepared while she had made no preparations at all.
Even Expert could not understand the mysteries behind that tree-growing move just now. She needed time to analyze it.
Besides, refusing to follow the opponent's rhythm would actually make it easier to save Pardo.
And Vill-V had always placed considerable faith in Pardo's luck.
After all, she was a legitimate Flame-Chaser of the Previous Era, unlike Vill-V herself, who did not even know whether her position as a substitute counterfeit still counted.
"Pardo, I believe you'll survive. Do your best." |OMO)
At least let me put on Azure Empyrea's clothes first. The fog of war is gone, so I need to keep this disguise on properly.
Seeing that Vill-V still had not appeared, Odin remained in no hurry.
He simply rubbed out a sheet of lightning and gently pressed it against Pardo.
He did not even give Vill-V enough time to finish putting on her disguise.
"Now that the person has been brought here, you are no longer of any use."
Before Pardo even had time to feel pain, she sensed her body being torn apart in every direction.
Then Pardo's petite, delicate body burst apart like shattered glass.
"..."
Only after seeing Pardo turn to ash just as she had in the original plot did Magician, now wearing her Azure Empyrea disguise, leap out from behind a rock.
Magician held down her magician's hat, the final piece of equipment she had not yet managed to replace.
And it was precisely this brief delay that had allowed Pardo to die right before her eyes.
She extended her palm and gently caught the fragments of Pardo drifting away on the wind.
"Hehe, my name's Pardofelis. You can call me Pardo, or you can call me Felis... What? Why am I introducing myself again? Because becoming friends without introducing yourself first would be pretty weird, wouldn't it?"
"Vill-V, I heard someone's opening treasure chests over on Dusk Street again. Let's go take a look together."
"Vill-V, can I touch your chest?" (Meaning she intended to swipe the shiny brooch.)
Scenes of Pardo flashed one after another through Vill-V's mind.
Pardo's fragments melted away against Vill-V's fingertips like snow, still carrying a trace of her body heat.
"How could this be... The greatest magician of this century has never once failed."
Then, beneath Odin's gaze, Vill-V removed her magician's hat, her face twisted in grief as she burst into tears.
Vill-V cried for a while before slowly calming down.
She raised her head... with a smile on her face:
"Of course, this time won't be an exception either! Watch closely—the miraculous resurrection of Pardo!"
She tapped the top of her hat against the utterly ordinary stone cat beside her, which was just as utterly ordinary as Pardo herself.
The cat-shaped stone coffin released steam and slowly opened toward both sides. Lying inside, eyes wide and still shaken to the core, was none other than Pardofelis!
Pardo had never turned to ash in the first place.
Of course she hadn't.
Vill-V naturally would never allow the rare creature known as Pardo to run around the dangerous city of Dusk Street without protection. Pardo had always carried an escape device jointly created by Expert and Pure Evil.
Although Vill-V constantly said that Pardo was blessed by the goddess of luck and called her the immortal Pardo, those remarks were ultimately nothing more than jokes. This world was not some game. It was extremely, painfully real, something Vill-V understood better than most.
Pardo was only an ordinary girl. No matter how lucky someone might be, there would always be times when luck failed them. The eternal law of balancing good and bad pulls would forever watch over the HoYoverse.