The starry river, Amphoreus.
At the end where light burned out, a colossal entity was slowly rising.
Iron Tomb had no flesh, no shell, only a skeleton purely composed of black metal, each bone thicker than a starfaring battleship.
His skull was like a giant triangle, and in his hollow eye sockets, there was no soul fire, only an endless craving for "completeness."
He wanted to retrieve his "brain."
Erudition.
"This is... Iron Tomb..."
Aboard the Xianzhou flagship, General Feixiao gripped her blade-spear with one hand, feeling the excited hum from the shaft. Her upturned lips curved into a bloodthirsty arc.
"What a Lord Ravager. Today, I shall use you to temper The Hunt's spearhead!"
"Yaoqing Cloud Knights! Prepare for battle! This battle will surely be a great victory!"
"Great victory! Great victory! Great victory!"
The Yaoqing fleet erupted in earth-shattering cheers, their battle intent solidifying and making the stardust tremble.
"All Cloud Knights, heed my command! Engage the enemy!"
At this moment, a clear, resolute female voice, transmitted through the formation, spread across the communication channels of every battleship.
At the bow of the flagship, Marshal Hua, clad in crimson armor, her face as calm as an ice-bound lake, yet reflecting the entire burning Star-filled sky.
"Xianzhou Cloud Knights, heed my command!" General Jing Yuan's voice followed, carrying an unquestionable authority. "This battle is for the Xianzhou, for our allies, and for the survival of the universe!"
Before his words finished, General Jing Yuan raised his right hand, and countless talismans circulated around him.
"Glorious divine power, heed my decree!"
Behind the battleship.
A golden lightning bolt, piercing through heaven and earth, boomed!
The majestic Divine General, wielding a thunderous battle-saber, locked his gaze on the distant skeletal giant god. The immense pressure caused ripples in the surrounding space.
"Flying Aureus!"
Beside Feixiao, the azure divine spirit roared heavenward, the elegance of a fox perfectly blended with the ferocity of a wolf. In those blood-red pupils, battle intent already boiled!
The Xianzhou Alliance, the Galaxy Rangers, Herta Space Station, Interstellar Peace Corporation... the most formidable powers in the entire universe, at this moment, formed a resolute united front.
Iron Tomb moved.
He merely slowly raised his massive bony hand, and the void before him condensed in response, transforming into a boundless crimson spear.
The light flickering at the spear tip shimmered with a pure will of "destruction."
"Fire!"
Hua's command was given, her voice cold as iron.
Countless beams of light, like a countercurrent of stars, simultaneously blasted towards Iron Tomb from all directions.
The entire universe was completely illuminated by this brilliant barrage, enough to wipe out a galaxy.
However, when the light dispersed.
Iron Tomb still stood firm.
The torrent of energy, powerful enough to annihilate stars, struck his pitch-black bones, merely stirring an imperceptible ripple before being completely swallowed.
He raised his spear.
A crimson beam of light tore through the vacuum, ignoring distance, and instantly appeared before the Xianzhou's most elite Yaoqing fleet!
"Disperse!" Feixiao's roar exploded in the channel.
The next moment, she herself transformed into an azure lightning bolt, arriving later but reaching first, bravely appearing at the very forefront of that destructive beam.
She did not evade, but instead condensed The Hunt's authority into her right fist, and fiercely punched towards that crimson spear tip!
"Victory is assured!"
The moment the fist and spear tip collided, the two forces unleashed powerful winds.
Feixiao's punch frantically devoured the spear's destructive will, and the two engaged in a fierce struggle.
Iron Tomb's movements, surprisingly, paused for a moment because of this!
However, this was just the beginning.
Hundreds of thinner, yet equally deadly beams of light shot out from his skeleton, weaving a desperate web of death in the starry sky, enveloping all fleets!
Hua's figure leaped down from the flagship, a crimson stream of light like a phoenix weeping blood, actively meeting the deadly barrage.
Behind her, a phantom phoenix composed of raging flames—the Scarlet Phoenix—spread their wings, covering the sky and sun!
Hua and the Scarlet Phoenix became one, and her fists were the sharpest, most unreasonable weapons in this universe!
One punch.
A simple punch, yet it contained the power to shatter stars, directly striking Iron Tomb's sternum.
The terrifying force caused the starry sky around Iron Tomb to ripple like glass, and the indestructible black bones were actually slammed with a huge and distorted dent by this punch, which bypassed physical defense!
The next moment, Iron Tomb's crimson spear, with the might to tear the universe, turned their tip and thrust directly at Hua!
The Scarlet Phoenix's wings nimbly wrapped around Hua, and at the instant the spear tip touched her, it performed a spatial inversion, shifting this fatal blow into the endless void.
"Feixiao!" Hua's voice rang out.
"Understood!" Feixiao and Flying Aureus, like two azure lightning bolts, had already, in the interval of Iron Tomb's attack, expertly cut into the battlefield from left and right.
Claws and a great axe left deep marks on Iron Tomb's leg bones.
And seizing this fleeting weakness was General Jing Yuan's Divine General!
"No quarter!"
The Divine General raised his great saber, enveloped in thunder, descended from the sky, and heavily cleaved Iron Tomb's head!
Boom—!
Lightning flashed, divine punishment descended!
A clear crack finally appeared on Iron Tomb's skull.
The combined attack of the three Emissaries of The Hunt was so powerful that Iron Tomb's act of breaking out of his shell seemed excessively foolish.
Just then.
A calm mechanical voice echoed in the communication channels of Hua, Feixiao, and General Jing Yuan.
"Marshal Hua, General Feixiao, General General Jing Yuan, I am Screwllum. I have successfully decrypted some of his data. Logic: Destroying Iron Tomb's main body is not difficult; the core objective is to prevent Iron Tomb from merging with Erudition. A higher-dimensional variable has appeared within the Scepter."
"Conclusion: We need to restrain Iron Tomb to buy time for the variable to complete. The friends of the Astral Express have already departed! Please clear a path for them."
At that very moment.
A giant battleship, using the chaos of the battlefield as cover, quietly circled around to Iron Tomb's rear.
Inside the battleship.
Stelle, Dan Heng, March 7th, and Phainon (TC), all four gripped their respective weapons, staring intently at the utterly brutal battlefield outside the viewport.
Each time the aftershocks of an energy collision came, the ship's hull emitted an agonizing groan.
"Friends of the Express crew, are you ready?" Screwllum's rational voice sounded in the cockpit.
"The target is Iron Tomb's core control area." Stelle's voice was eerily calm.
She told herself in her heart: Phainon, you asked me to see the scenery of tomorrow for you, so today, I will personally forge "tomorrow."
Dan Heng said nothing, merely wiping the tip of his Cloud-Shattering Spear repeatedly with the corner of his battle robe.
The cold metal reflected his unruffled face; in the depths of his dragon pupils, the chill was more biting than the vacuum of space outside the window.
He seemed to see a fleeting phantom of that black-robed figure on the spear shaft, and his grip on the spear tightened suddenly.
"Don't worry!" March 7th took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing her tears, and raised the camera in her hand. "We will definitely succeed! For Phainon! I want to capture the moment of victory... the tomorrow where all of us are together, and show it to him!"
Phainon (TC) lowered her head, stroking Dawnmaker, and whispered:
"Phainon will eventually make the same choice. Amphoreus's tomorrow will be continued by me."
"Thank you kindly, everyone." Screwllum's voice sounded again. "Approaching the target area. Please put on your Time Anchors; we will descend with you."
The battleship, like a speck of dust carrying all hope, resolutely charged towards the back of the skeletal giant god, hidden by the towering waves stirred up by Hua, General Jing Yuan, and others on the front lines.
There was the eye of the storm, a vast, hollow space formed by data and energy.
The four manipulated the battleship, finally passing through the last barrier and docking on a silent platform.
The hatch opened.
The moment Stelle and the other three stepped out, they saw a familiar figure quietly waiting at the end of the platform.
He was no longer the masked Mechanoid, but reigned here in a pure data form. His "face" had no features, yet everyone clearly "saw" his cold and arrogant gaze, belonging to a victor, looking down.
He didn't even look at Stelle and the others, but instead "looked" in the direction they came from, his voice echoing through the entire space, with a hint of playful judgment.
"What a magnificent sacrifice, what a foolish elegy."
"You lit a firework that extinguished instantly. And the entire meaning of this firework was to... deliver the four of you... to me."
Zandar's "gaze" finally fell upon them, and the laughter in his voice could pierce the heart more sharply than the keenest blade.
Buzz—!
The Dawnmaker greatsword in Phainon (TC)'s hand let out a low mournful cry, their blade scorching hot, responding to that undefiled sacrifice.
Dan Heng's dragon pupils narrowed into a vertical slit, killing intent solidifying.
March 7th bit her lip, and countless jellyfish emerged from under her black umbrella.
Zandar's gaze finally precisely locked onto Stelle, and he said cruelly:
"Especially you, Trailblazer. When you last hugged him, did you feel that coldness? That is the only, real sensation he left you after burning through thirty million cycles."
These words exploded in her mind, bringing forth Phainon's final eyes, which had burned everything away, leaving only sorrow and exhaustion, and the desperate, never-to-be-warm bitter cold in her embrace.
A furious rage surged from the depths of her soul to the top of her head!
Zandar seemed to "see" her emotional fluctuations, emitting a delighted chuckle, and posed the ultimate question:
"Now, tell me, was his death... meaningful?"