Chapter 296: Ultimate Clash Between Warriors, Go All-Out!

-----

An enormous blade of pure ki, spirit energy, mana, and more condensed into a blindingly bright white edge nearly ten meters tall. The massive construct swung once and cut cleanly through one of the enemy machine’s arms.

SLAAASH!

The severed limb spun away trailing sparks and black fluid. Warning protocols flared across the machine’s systems. Emergency thrusters on its back ignited at full force as it tried to lift clear of the danger, but Vladimir was already there. He locked both arms around the machine’s torso and drove it back down with every ounce of his draconic strength. Metal groaned under the pressure.

Riven shifted at the same time, black and red scales spreading across his body until he stood as a full Dragonoid. He roared and slammed both enormous scaled fists into the machine’s chest while breathing a continuous stream of fire across its frame. Explosions bloomed one after another, each blast rocking the construct and peeling away outer plating.

BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM!

Vladimir kept punching through the flames, fists cracking armor plates and driving fragments deeper into the machine’s core. For a few seconds the overload seemed to work. Systems failed in sequence and pieces of the machine began falling away. Then the nanomachines activated. Black ichor poured from every crack, racing across the damaged sections and knitting them back together almost as fast as they were destroyed.

"That damn regeneration!" Vladimir shouted, blood running from a cut above his eye. "So annoying!"

"Don’t stop the momentum, Vladimir! We have to go all-out, together!" Riven answered, voice rough from the constant fire breath.

"TSK!" Vladimir spat blood and forced more power into his arms. "FUCK!"

Call of the Beast and Wild Berserker triggered for both of them at the same moment. Their auras flared outward in overlapping waves of red and black energy. Muscles swelled under the sudden surplus of strength until every movement carried enough force to shake the ground. They drove upward together, fists meeting beneath the machine’s midsection in a single combined strike.

"RAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

Riven triggered his trump card without hesitation. Explosive Mad Charge activated first, followed immediately by Abyssal Assault and Spirit Axe Ascension stacked three times in rapid succession. He then combined everything with the full force of his Draconic Bloodline and unleashed the Purgatory Express.

For a brief moment an enormous train made of roaring fire formed in the air and slammed into the machine with crushing force. The impact was so violent that half of the entire mana reactor vanished in a single second as the spirit construct exploded outward.

BOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!

Everything turned pure white for several long moments. The entire mana reactor shook violently from the blast. Warning sirens blared from the machine while Riven and Vladimir groaned in pain, their bodies thrown hard against the warped metal flooring.

They slowly forced their eyes open and found themselves lying at the bottom of a gigantic crater that had not existed moments before. Smoke and molten debris still rained down around them.

"HAHAHAHA...! YOU’VE TRULY DONE IT NOW. MY PRECIOUS REACTOR IS GOING TO EXPLODE...!" Willheim’s voice laughed through the speakers of the damaged machine, sounding more annoyed than panicked by what was happening. "Ah well, we can always build new ones. Everywhere, in fact! It really doesn’t matter in the long run, does it?"

Riven did not bother answering. He simply roared and charged again using Explosive Mad Charge. This time he layered Divine Cleave with Horizon Cross, sending dozens of ascending and then horizontal strikes crashing into the machine one after another. Each blow drove it farther backward until it smashed straight through the mana reactor core and blew apart the massive containment tube where Genesis-BRAIN was housed.

CRAAAASH!

The giant brain was knocked free and plummeted downward, crashing into the boiling mana below. It screamed in agony as its form began to mutate. Thick tentacles burst outward in every direction; some tipped with sharp bony protrusions that speared toward both the machine and Riven. The two of them were forced to back away quickly while Willheim’s laughter only grew louder.

"HAHAHAHA! YOU NEVER CEASE TO AMAZE ME!"

As the mad scientist continued laughing, Riven gathered his remaining strength. Ki condensed tightly into all five fingers of his right hand and combined into a massive sphere of rotating energy. This was an evolved form of an earlier technique—Blooming Crimson Lotus—now larger and more refined. Its outer petals were edged with freezing blood essence and abyssal shadow. The sphere warped the space around him and even reversed local gravity for a moment, copying some of the psionic abilities he had seen from Aetherion-01.

"OHO?!"

Willheim’s voice rose with genuine fascination. The machine responded by dropping every remaining piece of outer armor at once, revealing hundreds of cannons lined along its frame. Each barrel charged with purple psionic energy and then fired in a continuous rain of beams. Riven’s combined assault met the barrage head-on in the center of the chamber.

BOOOMMM!!! BOOOMMM!!! BOOOMMM!!!

BOOOMMM!!! BOOOMMM!!! BOOOMMM!!!

BOOOMMM!!! BOOOMMM!!! BOOOMMM!!!

BOOOMMM!!! BOOOMMM!!! BOOOMMM!!!

For three full seconds the reactor chamber became a pure white void of clashing energies. Everything in the path of the colliding forces disintegrated instantly. Genesis-BRAIN groaned under the pressure and hastily forged a defensive barrier around itself while it began crawling away across the ruined floor, dragging its newly grown tentacles behind it.

When the blinding light finally faded, half of whatever remained of the laboratory was simply gone—vaporized into a perfect spherical crater. The Aetherion machine staggered on its damaged legs. Armor plates hung in molten tatters. One of its drills had been reduced to a sparking stump. The chest core was cracked wide open and leaking thick indigo fluid. Neural cables dangled like exposed entrails. Its regeneration systems had clearly reached their limit; the machine could no longer repair itself.

Willheim’s voice, however, remained calm and almost serene. "Magnificent. Data collection at ninety-four percent. Final phase authorized. Aetherion, my child, it is time to show them the true power of human technology."

"?!"

Riven and Vladimir both tense as the damaged machine began to change once more, the remaining systems lighting up with fresh, dangerous energy.

Just what was Professor Willheim planning now?

-----