Chapter 426 - 377: Koller’s Doubt, Critical Moment

Meanwhile.

A slender hand, encased in silver metal, silently tore through the Ashen Battle Armor and Power Armor, violently piercing Nelom’s chest from behind.

Crimson blood ran down the length of the arm.

Nelom’s expression was filled with disbelief. He widened his eyes in agony, but the piercing wound in his right lung and the arm still lodged in his chest cavity prevented him from making any sound.

The power of Magic, like thousands of steel needles, ravaged him from within his chest.

"The weak should kneel, accept the humiliation of the strong, and await death in tears, not provoke them and make death a luxury, Imperial Knight."

Nikos’s voice had a cold, metallic quality, yet was exceptionally pleasant to the ear.

Had these been a lover’s whispers, Nelom might have found them quite stimulating. As it was, the stimulation was clearly a bit much.

He had fought countless campaigns in his life, battling to the death with numerous powerful enemies.

He had been confident that his combat experience and methods were enough to deal with this heretic who desecrated the noble bloodline of humanity.

But even as the Witchcraft Power reduced his internal organs to mush, he still couldn’t understand how this damn woman had avoided his Sea of Burning Ashes and snuck up on him.

In just two short seconds.

Nelom’s eyes went dim, and he collapsed heavily into a pool of blood.

Even his Extraordinary Armor, the Ashen Battle Armor, gradually cooled, turning into a pile of burnt-out dust that scattered across the floor.

After killing Nelom, the heretic—whose skin had been replaced by the Furnace Cast Relic, the Crown of the Faceless—seemed to thoroughly enjoy the thrill of the kill. She let out a perverted moan, then turned her head to look at Reinhardt.

"You’re the first person my master has ever valued so highly. But if I were to kill everyone on this ship, one by one, right in front of you... would you get angry?"

As Nikos recklessly provoked Reinhardt, the other three also began to make their move.

The black-robed figure holding the Crow Skeleton Scepter ignored Reinhardt’s threat and turned his head. Beneath his dark hood, his eyes glowed with a cold, spectral blue light.

He looked at Technician Priest Pavlo, who was clinging to life on the verge of death, his head cradled by a Battle Sister.

"Still alive... Interesting."

Normally, after he attacked the ship’s Energy Shield, a pilot who was merely a Mortal should have had absolutely no chance of survival.

He looked up at Koller, who stood on the second-floor command platform, and seemed to guess the reason. Sneering inwardly, he raised the left hand hidden in his sleeve.

His left hand, withered like an eagle’s talon, was covered in dense, arcane Runes. Each Rune pulsed with powerful Witchcraft Energy, and a black metal wire ran from his neck down to each of his fingers.

A cold, grim voice, wrapped in the Wizard’s Power, suddenly rang out.

"Surge."

The instant the word was spoken, Koller’s expression turned cold. With a thought, he wove his Spiritual Power into a dark purple shield, enveloping Lu Jia and the others.

BOOM—!

Like a tidal wave crashing against a reef, a violent surge rippled across the surface of the Spiritual Shield protecting Lu Jia and the others.

The overflowing Witchcraft Energy erupted in a concussive blast, bending metal, shattering instruments, and slamming into the floor and hull, causing the entire bridge to tremble!

At that moment, a drop of cold sweat slid down Lu Jia’s forehead.

But all she could do was tightly grip the hilt of her sword and stand firm before Technician Priest Pavlo.

Caught in a battle between the top powerhouses of the Ash Soil Star Zone, she was not strong enough to withstand even the aftershocks.

Koller looked down from his high vantage point and blasted a stream of Spiritual Power straight at the black-robed man. The man flipped over his left hand, and streams of spectral blue energy flowed rapidly between his fingertips.

"Disintegrate."

The moment it struck the black-robed man, the Spiritual Power dissolved into uncontrolled arcs of electricity that scattered in all directions.

As the two exchanged blows, one of the figures standing behind the black-robed man unslung a massive rifle from his back. In one smooth motion, he dropped into a stance, chambered a round, and aimed the muzzle at Technician Priest Pavlo.

Koller realized that the weapon in the heretic’s hands was very likely an Ancient Armament from the Wizard Civilization.

Koller knew this was bad.

His combat experience told him that the gun-wielding heretic knew he had protected the Technician Priest and the entire control system with a Spiritual Shield, yet remained unfazed.

In other words, the Extraordinary Armament in this heretic’s hands was likely similar to the weapon wielded by Seventy-Six.

The Avenger Flagship was still tens of thousands of kilometers from the mining site coordinates of the Giant Beacon. If the Technician Priest died, finding the precise location on an unfamiliar planet awash with a Spiritual Tide would be utterly impossible by manual means.

In a flash, he threw everything he had into stopping them, but his spiritual techniques were unable to bypass the black-robed man’s interference in time!

And for the gun-wielding enemy, that was more than enough time to pull the trigger.

Koller’s adrenaline surged. His pupils trembled with rage as he took out the Scepter that had killed the first wave of boarders in a single strike, focusing all of his perceptive power on the Spiritual Shield.

But even so, he could only watch helplessly as the enemy pulled the trigger.

Time seemed to stop in that second.

Koller perceived with utter clarity the immense Witchcraft Energy flowing through the weapon. A devastatingly powerful bullet flew from the muzzle—a black hole in his senses, completely blocking his Spiritual Perception.

’It’s over.’

Perhaps it was because Koller had served in the Imperial Legion for so, so long. So long that almost no Imperial Knight could call themselves a veteran in his presence. So long that the Battle Group Commanders of Dusk had been replaced again and again. So long that even the Editors of the Eldest Son of the Emperor’s Legion library had to consult him to verify historical records.

Although he acknowledged Reinhardt’s strength and political standing, from the very beginning, he had always seen Reinhardt as a rookie Knight who needed his guidance and support.

If he saw even Reinhardt that way, what hope did anyone else have?

In Koller’s eyes, the twenty-four-year-old Lu Jia and her Battle Sisters were nothing more than a group of toddlers, still weaning and babbling their first words.

The situation had suddenly spiraled out of control.

In his despair, Koller had already accepted that all their efforts and resistance had ultimately ended in failure.

A situation he had neither foreseen nor had the means to counter was, by definition, a dead end.

But just as he sank into despair, at this critical moment that would decide the fate of the entire operation—and perhaps the entire rebellion war—

CLANG—!

Lu Jia, bathed in the Elemental Power of the Punishing Fire, used the strength of a mere Four-star Official Knight to precisely strike the incoming bullet aside with her sword!

In the next moment.

Reinhardt, who had remained silent in the face of the taunts, appeared before the gunman without any warning, to the utter disbelief of everyone present.