Chapter 710
Chapter 710
"Dane! Hurry!" Jack roared while firing his energy rifle, his left arm hanging limply by his side, clearly badly injured from the earlier impact.
"Found it! The node is right below where Heart Eater was standing! Inside the platform structure!" Dane's voice was filled with excitement and urgency, "Interfere with it! We need a strong energy blast or to destroy that area's structure!"
At that moment, I had already rushed to the edge of the suspended platform!
"Control Spirit Crystal, you're asking for death!" Heart Eater struggled out from a dent in the wall, a corner of his metal mask shattered, revealing half of a pale face covered in twisted veins underneath. The coldness in his eyes was replaced by a crazed, venomous hatred.
Ignoring the blood at the corner of his mouth, he thrust both hands forward! It wasn't an energy orb this time, but two dark red mental spikes, sharp and solid, shrieking as they aimed straight for my forehead!
This was a pure mental attack, moving at blinding speed, meant to destroy my consciousness outright!
My pupils contracted! The purifying shield of the Control Spirit Crystal instantly condensed to its fullest at my forehead!
The dark red mental spikes slammed into the pure blue shield!
There was no earth-shaking explosion, only a teeth-grinding corrosive sound!
My brain felt like it was being pierced by a red-hot iron rod! Intense pain swept through my entire body! The light of the Control Spirit Crystal flickered wildly as its purifying power clashed fiercely with Heart Eater's chaotic Spiritual Energy, annihilating each other!
My forward momentum was abruptly halted, my body swaying in midair, faint traces of blood seeping from my eyes, ears, nose, and mouth!
Heart Eater's enraged strike was terrifyingly powerful!
"James!" Sabrina's scream rang out. She raised her sniper rifle again but didn't dare shoot due to how close I was and the chaotic Spiritual Energy field.
"Uri!" I gritted my teeth, forcing a roar from my throat while resisting the soul-tearing pain, "The platform... structure! Shatter it!"
Uri, below me, instantly understood my intent!
Despite the dizziness from overusing her Spiritual Energy, she forced herself to form hand seals again, her silver eyes locked onto the platform area beneath Heart Eater, which had already been torn apart by a spatial shockwave anchor!
The spatial structure of that area, like a mirror struck by a heavy hammer, was instantly covered in dense, deeper cracks!
Then, with a piercing sound, as if space itself was wailing, the alloy platform under Heart Eater, along with its complex internal pipelines, collapsed and shattered with a deafening crash!
"What?" Heart Eater's footing vanished, and his body plummeted downward! The mental spikes he was maintaining were instantly disrupted! His own Spiritual Energy field also revealed a massive vulnerability!
"Now's the time!"
Ignoring the excruciating pain and dizziness in my mind, I unleashed the power of the Control Spirit Crystal in an unprecedented, ferocious burst!
I stopped defending and focused all my energy into my right index finger. A blue beam, purer and more concentrated than ever before, shining like the light of a star's birth, pierced through space like a spear of judgment. In the split second when Heart Eater was dazed from his fall and his Spiritual Energy field was broken, it struck his forehead with pinpoint accuracy!
There was no massive explosion.
Heart Eater's face, half-covered by the metal mask, froze instantly. The cold, venomous light in his chaotic eyes quickly dimmed and extinguished.
At his forehead was a small hole emitting a pure blue glow.
All of his Spiritual Energy, his terrifying power as the "Mind Shepherd," melted away like ice and snow under the piercing light of ultimate purification.
His falling body crashed into the debris of a cultivation pod below with a dull thud, motionless. The "Mind Shepherd" of the New World Alliance had fallen!
With Heart Eater's death, the oppressive, chilling mental pressure that had enveloped the entire lab receded like a tide.
The frenzied puppet warriors' red eyes suddenly went dark, their movements stiffening as they collapsed like marionettes with cut strings. The berserk BOW prototypes let out confused roars, their attacks losing unified command and coordination, becoming chaotic and instinctual.
"Heart Eater is dead?" Ronnie panted, staring at the lifeless body below, hardly believing it.
"The node interference is gone!" Dane shouted with joy, "The platform's shield energy is dropping fast!"
The high-intensity energy shield around the central core platform was rapidly thinning and turning transparent!
"Quick! Grab the stuff and get out of here!"
Jack yelled, forcing himself to stay on his feet.
Even though Heart Eater was dead and the puppets were down, the out-of-control BOWs were still a threat, and who knew if there were other traps in this place!
I landed from midair, stumbling a bit, my face pale as paper. The extreme outburst and mental clash had drained me heavily. Sabrina rushed over to support me.
"I'm fine, go get the stuff!" I pushed her away, my gaze fixed firmly on the failing core platform.
Ronnie, Jack, and the few still-mobile members of the Blade team charged toward the core platform like tigers descending a mountain.
With the shield gone, they quickly climbed onto the platform.
Jack deftly pried open the metal crates locked by force fields, scanning them rapidly.
"It's them! The original data disks! And the samples!" Jack's voice trembled with barely contained excitement, "Retreat! Move out now!"
"Awakened Legion, those who can move, cover us! Bring the wounded!" Ronnie bellowed. His massive Spiritual Energy arm transformed into a chainsaw again, slashing fiercely at a few BOWs trying to get close.
The retreat signal sounded.
The survivors of the strike team, carrying their gravely injured comrades and the core data and samples paid for with blood and lives, charged through the chaotic roars of the BOWs and the piercing lab alarms, along the bloody path they came from, toward the light above the ruins in one final push.
Behind us were shattered cultivation pods, fallen bodies, failed experiments still stirring in the dark, and the cold corpse of the "Mind Shepherd" who perished in his own lair.
"Retreat! Move out now!"
Jack's roar echoed through the shrill alarms and the chaotic growls of the BOWs.
Ronnie swung his roaring chainsaw like a meat grinder, tearing apart several scythe-limbed BOWs that lunged at us.
The Awakener members of the Blade team followed closely, their abilities flashing in the dim corridor—ice walls blocking paths, flames scorching enemies, telekinetic blasts pushing back the frenzied failed experiments surging from the shadows on all sides, now even more erratic without unified command.
"Rock Squad! Keep up! Bring the wounded!"
Sophia's voice was clearly weak, the emerald glow of her life-link ability flickering like a candle in the wind, stubbornly sustaining the last bit of life in the critically injured team members.
The still-mobile Rock Squad members paired up, gritting their teeth as they carried unconscious or severely wounded comrades, struggling along the relatively safe retreat path Uri had barely managed to create with her last shred of spatial power.
Every step landed on sticky blood and shattered cultivation pod debris.
Sabrina and Lily covered the rear, their precise shots ringing out continuously.
Each boom of Sabrina's sniper rifle took down a BOW trying to ambush the team from behind or the sides, their vital spots pierced and bursting with foul-smelling fluid.
Lily's magnetic blast arrows targeted joints and energy cores, disabling the most dangerous threats.
I was supported by Dane and another teammate. I could feel my face was still pale, a burning pain lingering at my forehead from the mental spike attack. The light of the Control Spirit Crystal flowed slowly within me, repairing the dual damage to my mind and body.
But my eyes remained sharp, scanning every shadowy corner of the corridor for potential dangers.
"Boss, the data disks and samples are all here!"