Chapter 431: The Ashes of Ge La Mo (III)

The Steel Alchemist.

"…They have never even seen the Empress with their own eyes, yet they must pledge loyalty to a vague shadow and give their lives."

LuoYiMaSiTan's mouth tightened. Although Liuying and the other children look sixteen or seventeen, the ones who just emerged from the incubation pods are no different from newborns just dropped to the ground. Isn't this sending infants rushing onto the battlefield to die?

Even LuoYiMaSiTan, who has witnessed countless carnage scenes, couldn't help but feel heavy‑hearted.

Li Sha Huo Ke Ai, Lieutenant, stood by his side, clutching a stack of documents, keenly noticing a trace of compassion in LuoYiMaSiTan's eyes: "Are you sympathizing with these cloned soldiers?"

"No," LuoYiMaSiTan shook his head. "What I sympathize with are all souls hijacked by the word 'loyalty.'"

"But they have been Ge La Mo Empire's weapons from the beginning; weapons are not worthy of souls," Li Sha Huo Ke Ai said calmly.

LuoYiMaSiTan sighed: "That is why I find it tragic; perhaps only when this empire is utterly destroyed will these children finally awaken from the great dream."

——

"Why… die…?"

"Why… live…?"

The roar swept across the hall like a tsunami.

Hundreds upon thousands of young throats burst out identical syllables; they strained their voices, raised both hands, all to have the Empress witness their loyalty.

"—For Ge La Mo! For Her Majesty the Empress!"

…

"But…"

The girl's tears trembled in her eyes as she lifted her head, gazing at the gray‑white sky where her homeland, long unreachable, lay.

"Ge La Mo… has long ceased to exist…"

Sunlight pierced the clouds, coating the scattered wreckage with a cold bluish‑white sheen. Liuying, tears streaming, stood on this battlefield forged of steel and flesh, while a familiar hum rose again from the distant horizon.

The sound of the swarm's wings clashed like a million serrated blades, like rolling storm clouds that obscured the faint morning light.

——

Saint Fighter Xing Ya.

"Hey! Girl, why are you still standing still?! Run already!"

Jinniuzooaludiba couldn't help but shout, but Liuying in the sky showed no intention of fleeing; she stood alone in the center of the battlefield, motionless.

"Ge La Mo has already perished; why does she remain here? She no longer bears any shackles—Empress, loyalty, mission… all of those are gone!"

"She won't escape," Ya Bo Fei Ka said, gazing at the corpses littering the ground and sighing regretfully: "Ge La Mo is already annihilated; perhaps there are few iron riders like her left. Now all comrades have fallen, and perhaps even she herself doesn't know which path to take forward."

Ya Bo Fei Ka knew the girl in the sky had had her "core" removed.

As a Golden Saint Fighter of the Twelve Constellations, he understood the importance of the "core." His core was to protect Athena and oppose the Underworld Warriors. If one day he lost his Golden Saint Fighter status and the mission he had upheld for decades… he would, like the girl, be at a loss.

…just as a blade that has lost its wielder yet has been given a soul, anyone would feel lost and helpless, right?

However, one thing truly puzzled him: how could a lone girl survive amid this swarming horde of insects?

After all, in their world the notion of a sudden "small universe" burst doesn't exist, and even if it did, the disparity between the girl and the insect swarm couldn't be erased by one or two such eruptions.

Yet she later went to Pinokangni and spent a wonderful day with Xing; that can't possibly be false, right?

"Could Ka Fu Ka also be here? Or Yin Lang?" Shi Ang crossed his arms, frowning. "With so many insects, Ka Fu Ka's blade alone can't save her; if it were Yin Lang's ether edit… that kind of unfathomable technique might be possible."

——

"I dreamed of a scorched earth…"

"A new bud breaking through the soil…"

"It blossomed toward the sunrise…"

"Whispering softly to me…"

The girl's crystal‑clear tears sank into the scorched earth; after a moment of silence—a faint cracking sound rose from deep within the soil.

A verdant sprout pierced the darkness, unfurling at a speed visible to the naked eye. It stood upright amid smoke and ash, enveloping Liuying with lush green, vines climbing upward, eventually growing into a thriving tree of life.

"Flying Liuying darts into flame… reborn through death."

Liuying lifted her head; the mech once again cloaked her body, but this time a pair of massive light wings unfurled behind her. With a gentle beat, she transformed into a green meteor streaking toward the swarm.

In the absolute silence of deep space, a bright point suddenly appeared on a planet's surface.

Immediately, a ring of white shockwave radiated from the point, lifting the entire continental plate as if a deity's massive hand were stirring the earth. A green blade of light sliced in from afar, its brilliance cleaving the continent in two.

But it was merely a fissure.

Then the second and third fissures followed, interlacing and shattering the planet's surface into countless irregular fragments. Blinding green light seeped from the cracks, eventually turning the whole planet into a fragmented luminous body, and when this collapse reached its critical point—

Silent destruction.

——

Hm???

Burst Star???

Jinniuzooaludiba was stunned.

What is this?

Just a second ago they painstakingly killed a mother insect, and the next second the entire planet exploded? The disparity in power is absurd!

In his subjective impression, only a commander seems capable of wielding Burst Star power.

"This can no longer be explained by a small‑universe burst…"

"Small universe?" Shi Ang chuckled lightly, shaking his head. "Don't plaster gold on your face; who can destroy a planet by a small‑universe burst? Clearly she has stepped onto a destiny path—though we don't know which, only the power of destiny can grant such energy."

"A fate‑walker… but stars are also fate‑walkers, even observed by several star gods; yet she cannot reach the level of a Burst Star, right?" Tong Hu was somewhat puzzled.

"Hmm, but that's the strange part of destiny. Do you recall the Universal Locust Disaster? The Breeding Star God rose from the last insect of the order Coleoptera to ascend as a star god; no one knows how it transitioned in that instant… many aspects remain inexplicable," Shi Ang said.

"What puzzles me is… Liuying's strength should be limited by this mech. Is Burst Star a capability inherent to the mech itself, or does the infusion of destiny power silently raise the mech's ceiling?"