Chapter 325: The Desperate Strike

"That is... Drake's mother!" Daolang, having finally regained consciousness, said as he stared at Weitian with an expression of intense anxiety.

Hearing those words, Weitian's pupils constricted. She slowly turned her gaze toward the cataclysmic battle raging across the sky.

She vividly remembered demanding that Drake defeat that enemy.

It was a promise between them.

How could it be...? That monster was Drake's mother—meaning right now, he had to be going through unimaginable agony.

She couldn't even begin to fathom what it felt like to stake your life in a battle to the death against your own biological mother.

"Drake... you must be hurting so much right now..." Weitian crossed her hands over her chest, slowly closing her eyes.

Please, everyone... let us all make it through this safely!

The scene shifted.

BOOM!

Drake collided heavily with Im once again.

Disengaging instantly, Drake maintained a continuous mental link with the System.

"System, what do we do? What method can guarantee my mother's safety?"

"Do not allow her physical body to suffer catastrophic trauma. At the very least, you must achieve that."

Drake gritted his teeth. "Got it!"

Though he spoke with conviction, the System knew how impossibly difficult that requirement was.

However, Drake's spatial mastery made achieving such a feat within the realm of possibility.

Naturally, it was only a slim possibility.

Even the System didn't truly believe absolute success was guaranteed; all it could do was lay out the parameters for Drake.

BOOM!

The shockwaves of their ongoing exchange churned the ocean surface into rolling white foam.

"What's wrong? Is this face making you hesitate to strike?" Im teased with a wicked, alluring smile. She secretly congratulated herself on the brilliant decision to capture that woman years ago.

The only entity in this world capable of harming her happened to be bound to that very woman, rendering her virtually invincible.

Swallowing the surging fury that urged him to wipe that smile off her face, Drake's massive frame trembled slightly.

He knew that the closer they got to the climax, the more fatal a single lapse in composure would be. The tiniest miscalculation could unravel his entire strategy.

"Do it! Use that technique!" The System ground its tiny teeth. It had reached the absolute limit of its patience with Im's games.

She was utterly despicable.

Manipulating others' emotions was one thing, but carrying herself with such unbridled arrogance made her the textbook definition of a primordial villain.

"Is it safe? Can the Demon Warder... handle it? And what about the energy reserves..." Drake hesitated.

"It will hold, but you must cap the power output. Keep it restricted to around fifty or sixty percent. What worries me is whether your body can take the strain," the System replied gravely.

"Oh? Are you worried about me?" Drake forced a faint, tired smile.

"Tch! You heard wrong. I'd worry about a feral beast before I'd ever worry about you—don't flatter yourself."

"I'm merely considering the structural integrity of the Demon Warder," the System argued defensively.

"Hahaha... right, let's go with that."

"It's time..."

The System's expression grew solemn. This technique was a trump card Drake had unlocked only upon achieving the Unity of Man and Vessel.

It was a supreme maneuver executable solely under that integrated state. If any technique possessed the capability to subdue Im in the shortest possible window, this was the one.

Conversely, the physical load borne by both Drake and the Demon Warder would be pushed to absolute breaking points.

Energy depletion was another major bottleneck. Even with the fortune Weitian and the others had just "borrowed" from the Celestial Dragons, it was barely enough to fund a single strike.

Whether Drake retained the capacity to continue fighting after this blow remained a total unknown. To put it bluntly, this was a massive, all-or-nothing gamble.

That was precisely why the System had advised capping the output at fifty or sixty percent, leaving room for alternative contingencies.

HUMMM—!

Just as Im lunged forward to press the attack, a terrifying surge of kinetic energy erupted from the Demon Warder, blasting her backward in an instant.

It felt as though a bottomless, inexhaustible torrent of power was gushing forth from the vessel, instantly burning through the energy reserves they had just replenished.

With a flick of its paw, the System forced another rapid replenishment into the Demon Warder's core.

The fundamental principle of this technique was channeling the Demon Warder's raw energy reserves to amplify the destructive output of Drake's spatial mastery to its absolute maximum ceiling.

By now, Drake had closed his eyes, clearly perceiving the overwhelming tide of power flooding into his nervous system.

It felt limitless.

"This power... it's incredible!"

"Still... not enough!"

His objective was not merely to defeat Im, but to completely suppress her without inflicting permanent, fatal damage to her host body, neutralizing her combat capability entirely.

To achieve that, he needed an output that utterly eclipsed her strength, reducing her to absolute helplessness!

"Draw more!"

The System maintained a heavy silence. The situation remained within its calculated tolerances for now, but Drake was hurtling dangerously close to his physiological threshold.

Sixty percent power!

A massive influx of energy saturated Drake's veins. By his tactical calculations, this was the optimal, safest threshold.

"Push it to... seventy percent!" Drake's eyes hardened with ruthless resolve. Win or lose, this was the final throw of the dice.

He possessed neither the time nor the remaining fuel reserves to execute a second attempt.

He had to succeed on the first try.

"If you force any higher, your physical vessel will—"

"PUSH IT HIGHER!" Drake commanded with unyielding finality.

Another colossal wave of raw power flooded his system, drawing a sharp gasp from his throat. "Ugh..."

"That's it... If we hold this line, it should be enough!"

Im's eyes widened in sheer horror. The sheer, suffocating density of the energy radiating from the Demon Warder made her very soul shudder.

Unbelief gripped her core.

How could such a monstrous level of power exist in this world? This output far surpassed the natural boundary of this realm.

The primal terror gripping her soul caused her anxiety to skyrocket.

No... she couldn't possibly kill me!

How could someone like him possibly destroy me when I command the power of the entire world?! Im shrieked in furious denial, refusing to accept that mortality could touch her.

"Space... obey!" Inside the Demon Warder, Drake raised a trembling hand.

"Not good! If this keeps up, Drake's body is going to give out before hers does!" The System's eyes widened in genuine panic as its two tiny paws clenched tightly together.

It suddenly recalled the severe trauma and cumulative exhaustion Drake's body had already endured. Under these conditions, absorbing seventy percent of that output was sheer suicide.

"Congeal!"

The moment Drake spat out the command, the surrounding spatial grid locked into place as though struck by a binding curse.

Every living soul across the battlefield froze dead in their tracks, utterly immobilized—including Im herself.

"Ugh!" Drake coughed sharply, dropping to one knee as hot beads of sweat cascaded down his forehead, soaking his hair in seconds.

"Drake!" the System yelled urgently.

"I'm fine!" Drake growled, his voice laced with strain. Raising his head slowly, he fixed his gaze forward with an unwavering, unbreakable resolve.

"Gather!" With his second command, all the compressed, condensed spatial coordinates converged violently around Im, freeing the rest of the battlefield from the bind while leaving her entirely locked down.

"Sever!"

The final command was roared from the depths of Drake's lungs, accompanied by a violent arc of fresh blood spraying from his lips.

"Ain! I leave the rest to you!"

"Understood, Captain!" A flash of blue light streaked across the deck as Ain materialized beside the hull.

"Secret Art... Soul Seal!"