[Servant: Talulah][Class: Saber (Compatible Classes: Avenger, Berserker)][Parameters: Strength A+, Endurance A+, Agility A, Mana EX, Luck E, Noble Phantasm EX (Sealed)][Skills: Independent Action (A+), Anti-Originium (B), Eye of the Mind (False) (C), Black Serpent's Curse (C)][Noble Phantasm: ****** (EX · Sealed)]
No wonder she was one of Terra's top-tier monsters.
Just looking at that status sheet, Bai Ling could practically feel the weight of talent and hard-won effort.
Assuming a "Pale Guardian" even could sweat.
Eyjafjalla's stats weren't especially high, and yet with her Noble Phantasm fully released she'd still crushed a terrifying angel—one that normally would've required detonating an Originium "world-tree" to annihilate.
And Talulah's numbers…
They were honestly absurd.
Especially because with those insane parameters, she also had something borderline unfair:
[Independent Action (A+): A born tyrant stands here—never turning back, acting freely, unbound by restraint.]
The description was short, but the implication was huge.
Normally, a Servant's operational energy comes from their Master. With Independent Action, a Servant can choose not to draw from the Master at all—self-sustaining instead.
In other words: as long as Bai Ling stayed alive, Talulah could roam Talos-II on her own—completely free.
In front of Chen Qianyu, Talulah's every move was laid bare—no concealment, no withholding. It was swordplay fundamentally different from what Chen had learned and refined since childhood.
Grand, overwhelming, collapsing the enemy by sheer inevitability.
And reality proved it.
Even while copying Talulah's technique, the Pale Guardian remained utterly suppressed.
The Hyperdomain Rift's "buff" might as well not exist.
Or rather—before Talulah's inhuman numbers, it simply didn't matter.
BOOM—!
Another blow. The angel's forged blade shattered into fragments, and its arm was severed along with it. Scorching heat clung to the stump, destroying any possibility of "ordinary" regeneration.
The Pale Guardian didn't freeze. It tore off the remaining part of the arm immediately—
and in the next instant, replicated a new one.
The Rift hung directly above its head. Its energy supply was basically endless, and its abilities were still being reinforced.
Talulah paused.
Just for a moment.
And the Pale Guardian seized that opening—its form shot skyward again, its wings fully stained blood-red now.
Having learned that direct attacks on Talulah were pointless, it shifted tactics.
"Raise defenses! It's about to unleash a shockwave!"
Bai Ling's warning rang out. The five of them closed ranks instinctively.
Talulah glanced back at them, then moved two steps without comment—placing herself in front.
The Pale Guardian slammed down—
A blood-red shockwave erupted outward. The ground of the Proving Grounds became nothing but shattered rubble.
Dust exploded into the air.
Talulah tore the smoke apart with one hand. Her sword burned bright, her expression cold and calm.
Behind her, the others were completely unscathed.
"…Found you."
Since the beginning, she'd been searching for the one who'd ambushed her first—that was why she'd dragged the fight out this long.
The shockwave's disturbance shifted that target's position slightly.
Just that tiny displacement was enough.
She'd caught their movement.
The energy on them made her skin crawl.
If it disgusted her—
then she'd erase it.
Heat gathered.
As if the world itself was melting, with Talulah as the point of origin.
Across nearly the entire Energy Highlands, people could feel it—the crushing pressure spreading, the temperature rising. Even those outside the Proving Grounds, fighting Breakers, felt it.
"Is it getting… hotter?"
The little wolf cub stomped a Breaker to death and yanked at her red hood as if trying to cool off.
Beside her, Yvonne felt that sticky, unpleasant film of sweat clinging to her belly.
"…Not my imagination. Something's happening inside the Proving Grounds…"
A Wolfguard dropped a Breaker with a shot and stared toward the Rift site.
"This isn't the Rift's corrosion—there's no 'taint' sensation. The energy signature is skyrocketing. Pull back, now!"
Yvonne's voice snapped out immediately—her portable energy detector had already pegged out.
Even the Hyperdomain Rift itself could be measured.
But whatever was happening inside the Proving Grounds was beyond what her model could handle.
"The Administrator and the Endfield team are still in there!!"
Luoxi tried to push forward to drag people out—
but an unknown suppression spread through her chest, so absolute it was unbelievable.
Under that pressure, she couldn't even sustain the thought of forcing her way in.
And the Breakers—still fighting to the death moments ago—now threw everything aside and fled in panic.
"Unknown energy spike—rapid escalation!!! Evacuate first!!!"
A worker from the guild shouted. Unwilling but helpless, Luoxi retreated with the others, dragging Yvonne with her.
Only once they reached the temporary shelter perimeter did the heat ease slightly—though not much. The pressure remained.
Then—
The world flashed bright, like lightning splitting a storm.
Beneath the Hyperdomain Rift, from the Proving Grounds, a pillar of fire blasted into the sky like a raging dragon—instantly punching straight into the Rift itself.
The moment they touched, the world washed in crimson firelight.
The Rift tried to resist, to swallow the force.
"Burn to ash."
Talulah murmured, tightening her grip on the crimson blade. Terrifying heat rolled off her in waves—her presence even more oppressive than before.
Everything in the Proving Grounds, except the spot where Bai Ling's group stood, had already become a red-black ruin.
And the Pale Guardian—reduced to nothing but a head and the core beneath it—barely held together only because the Rift still fed it.
Then Talulah swung.
For an instant, the world lost all color.
Under that heat, everything blurred—shape and definition erased.
Only when Talulah gently settled the now-dimming blade onto charred stone did the world "remember" how to exist again.
The sky looked split clean in two.
And the Hyperdomain Rift with it.
At the severed edge, a vivid red glow shone—so bright it almost seemed the Rift hadn't even realized yet…
that it was about to collapse.
....
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