Chapter 277

The interior of the pyramid facility.

Magnus and Leon led the Honor Guard through the entrance to a place with an aesthetic easily understood by humans, its architectural style square and orderly, a spacious hall.

The light of the artificial star shone in after multiple reflections, combined with the cyan glow leaking from the neat seams, making this place even brighter.

However, at this moment the hall, except the top still retaining its original state, the lower level and surroundings were almost completely contaminated by the Flood.

At the joints of the metal walls and floor, sticky, fungus-like 'living' plants spread, constantly twisting and wriggling, and spraying turbid gas through tiny holes.

However, the most numerous inside the hall were the dense clusters of infectious spores, as well as countless combat-form Flood.

The arc-shaped spiritual energy barrier created by Magnus made them like a lone boat sailing upstream on an ocean of corpse-colored decay.

"Hiss! Hiss!"

"Crackle!!"

"Ri~ swoosh!"

The Honor Guard used explosive bolts, spiritual energy, and mounted plasma cannons to clear a path, advancing toward the upper levels of the pyramid.

Many holy knights raised their right hands, took down the powered greatswords on their backs, gripped them firmly, and, using the Terminator's reactor for power, generated a cyan-green energy field that wrapped the blades.

Even their OriginalBody Leon drew the 'Lion King Heavy Sword', nearly three and a half meters long, its blade flashing with a cold light.

As Sui Bian's gunner, Leon had a Cassius gun attached to the rear of his powered armor for emergencies.

Gazing at the seemingly endless Flood.

Again, they saw the barrier frequently appearing with cracks.

Under their helmets, Magnus and Leon wore solemn expressions, especially Magnus, who needed to constantly release spiritual energy to maintain the barrier.

After actual combat, the two OriginalBodies discovered that the Flood had extremely strong resistance to spiritual energy and could even suppress Spiritual Users' use of it.

Based on these traits, the Flood is indeed like a weapon specifically targeting Spiritual Users, or perhaps targeting beings from other dimensions.

Although substantive Spiritual Energy attacks, such as the Spiritual Energy lightning released by the Sekemait, could still scorch combat bodies, their power was far less than before.

Moreover, Magnus, in order to thoroughly confirm that the Flood was a weapon targeting Spiritual Energy, immediately released a Spiritual Energy pulse, attempting to make the infection spores and combat bodies "self-destruct".

However, after the pulse, the Flood tide remained unharmed, indicating that the two OriginalBodies' speculation was correct.

Immediately after.

Magnus, while maintaining the barrier, raised his clenched right hand forward and said in a low voice: "Since I can't make you lot self-destruct, then I'll engulf you in a sea of fire."

He said.

Magnus's right hand fingers suddenly spread, causing a ring of blazing flames to ignite spontaneously around the barrier's periphery.

A "whoosh—" sound.

Then, just as he had said, the flames swept across the sky and earth, engulfing the surroundings; wherever they reached, living fungi, infection spores, and all forms of the Flood turned to ash.

In merely the span of two breaths, the "sea of fire" successfully cleared the spacious hall, and even the Flood gathered in the pyramid's lower region.

Even though the Flood diminishes the effectiveness of substantive Spiritual Energy attacks, this "sea of fire" was released by an OriginalBody, not by a Sekemait's lightning.

Huu…

Seeing the Flood tide temporarily cleared, Magnus drew a light breath, alleviating some of his fatigue.

With no obstacles, everyone quickened their pace to leave the hall, silently passing through a Z-shaped corridor, gradually approaching the pyramid's middle level, and finally reaching an aerial walkway wide enough to span the region.

Upon arriving here.

This immediately caused the two OriginalBodies to wistfully recall their childhood spent learning and living within the hive.

Because looking downward from the corridor, there were neatly arranged cylindrical cultivation tanks, very similar to those the hive used to produce Tyrants or Hunters.

But the most obvious difference is that the hive's tanks have transparent walls, whereas these down below are non‑transparent.

Thus, it appears the Ghost-faced Beast is using the Flood sealed in the cultivation tanks as a weapon to help them utterly destroy the Elite fleet, or even the entire Elite species.

As the point of origin for the Flood leak, the area beneath the aerial walkway has already become the most suitable habitat for the Flood.

Damp, warm, and rotting.

However, aside from the infection spores spread between the cultivation tanks and the various forms of the Flood, the most alarming thing…

is an indescribable "tumor".

Its stature is unmatched, as if the flesh of Elites and Ghost-faced Beasts were spliced and glued together to form a chaotic "tumor".

Its height is level with the aerial walkway.

Suddenly!

"Gurgle… gurgle…"

As the viscous body stirred, the "tumor" atop suddenly opened a dense array of eyes—varying in size and color, numbering as many as a thousand—fixedly staring at the people on the aerial walkway.

"…"

Witnessing a sight that ordinary people could hardly look at without distress, even causing outright collapse, the two OriginalBodies and the Honor Guard showed not a hint of surprise or fear.

However, Magnus discovered that if he wished to keep maintaining the barrier, the Spiritual Energy consumption would be several times that before.

"It turns out… humans…"

At that moment, he and everyone nearby again heard a thickly nasal, slightly stuttering yet rather "sincere" utterance:

"Destroy… the alternate space… making our goals…… consistent; if you are willing to cooperate, cease fire, then we can… accomplish the goal as soon as possible."

"Before this, I too… can help… humanity… resolve the Covenant Empire, resolve any…… hostile species, achieve mutual victory……"

While this "tumor" was speaking, it was actually continuously emitting a certain wave that could interfere with the normal thinking of intelligent life.

Such distorted appearance, plus the emission of a mind‑clouding wave, are sufficient to prove that this "tumor" is a Corpse Brain Beast representing the Flood's departure from its wild state, preparing to lead the Flood in continued evolution.

As for the stutter, it is because the Corpse Brain Beast is still in an early stage, equivalent to not yet fully formed.

"…"

However, the Honor Guard, who had remained silent all along, paid no heed to the Corpse Brain Beast's talk of "cooperation" or "mutual victory".

All that could be seen was that they had already raised their gun barrels, aiming at the unsettling eyes.

Bang! Bang!

Psshh! Psshh!

The instant the barrel released a fire snake, a thousand eyes were consecutively "pierced and exploded".

Since Spiritual Energy was continuously suppressed, the Sakemites stopped releasing Spiritual Energy lightning and instead switched to the parallel blast‑arrow gun's firepower output.

Moreover, four holy knights equipped with left‑arm plasma cannons fired four blue‑light cannon clusters at the Brain Corpse Beast.

Finally, the Brain Corpse Beast directly "burst".

Wha—!

The dark‑green blood exuding a rotting aura fell around like rain.

Yet the Brain Corpse Beast never let out a single wail from start to finish, as if its body being destroyed was no big deal.

Because Leon and Magnus knew that destroying the Brain Corpse Beast's body could only buy a little time; before long, the Flood could "accumulate" another body for the Brain Corpse Beast to use.

They watched the disturbed infection spores and combat units surge toward the aerial corridor they occupied.

To settle the matter once and for all, and with the Brain Corpse Beast gone and the Spiritual Energy suppression weakened, Magnus released the "Sea of Fire" once more.

After the flames dissipated, completing the high‑temperature "purification", the group did not linger and continued forward out of the corridor.

Soon.

They arrived before a gate in the pyramid's uppermost area.

The gate, walls, and floor bore the marks left by plasma cannon clusters, along with dried purple and red bloodstains, all indicating that fierce combat once erupted here.

After a brief observation.

Leon then noticed a terminal‑style device on the right side of the gate.

Seeing this.

Leon, sword in his right hand, stepped out of the Spiritual Energy shield, approached the terminal, and extended his left hand.

Sensing a "human" approach, the terminal activated successfully, generating a blue light sphere the size of a soccer ball.

The instant Leon's left hand touched the sphere, the long‑sealed gate finally reopened, allowing the group to proceed to the pyramid's highest, most central zone.

When the group entered.

Leon then operated the terminal on this side to close the gate, ensuring the investigation would not be disturbed by the Flood.

When he turned around to look around.

Leon discovered that in this dimly lit, spotless, spacious room, only a semi‑transparent crystal sphere, just a little larger than a golf ball with two rings, floated in the center.

The Honor Guard dispersed, staying on guard, while Magnus deactivated the energy shield and walked with Leon to a spot not far from the sphere.

At that moment.

Before any OriginalBody could reach out, the two of them seemed to step into the sphere's sensing range, and the sphere instantly emitted a pale cyan glow on its own.

Then, more and more "light points" surged from the room's corners, floating past the blocking Honor Guard toward the sphere.

The "light points" centered on the sphere gradually coalesced into a well‑proportioned "human" body with limbs, torso, and head.

After another flash of dazzling light.

A "human" about 2.5 meters tall appeared within the Honor Guard's view, standing before the two OriginalBodies.

Upon closer inspection of its appearance.

"She" possessed obvious human female features, with black medium‑length wavy hair, dressed in a pristine white dress.

Even her facial features were delicately refined to human aesthetic standards; the only difference was her height, far surpassing ordinary humans, comparable to the transcendent Astate.

"Very advanced holographic technology," Leon remarked.

"But that's not the point, brother," Magnus said to Leon beside him. "If the hologram depicts the Forerunners, don't you think its appearance is far too close to us humans?"

"Hmm, a bit," Leon nodded lightly.

He scanned the room expressionlessly, then slightly looked up at the two OriginalBodies before "her", and in a somewhat awkward accent, with a cold tone, spoke in human language:

"Scanning complete, identity verified as Recycler, please issue commands."

Recycler?

The two OriginalBodies exchanged glances, then Magnus spoke: "May we have control permission over the entire facility?"

"Yes."

"May I be understood as artificial intelligence?"

"No."

This time, the counterpart gave a negative answer and continued:

"I am the memory storage of Shield World 0314 Administrator, lacking autonomous thought. Moreover, according to the latest Codex Amendment 145, all artificial intelligences must be forcibly destroyed and may not be used again."

Hearing this seemingly AI but actually memory storage's words confirmed that this was indeed Shield World and revealed the 'Administrator's attitude toward artificial intelligence.

That's a lot of information.

However, now was not the best time to probe its past, so Leon, focused on completing the mission, said to it:

"Since we are Recycler, we need to retrieve all data stored in this Shield World."

Upon hearing that,

The memory storage first faded, revealing the floating sphere, and replied: "Here stores everything known to the Shield World 0314 Administrator."

After speaking, "she" re‑coalesced into her previous form, silently awaiting the next command.

Satisfied with the answer, Leon asked the final question: "Can we overload the artificial star to completely destroy the entire Shield World, and do you have permission to control the overload?"

"Yes, we have permission."

Having received all answers, Leon said no more, stepped forward, extended his left hand toward the memory storage's core, forcing it to dissipate its image, and successfully grasped the sphere that stored everything.

…

Leon's rude, disrespectful gesture toward his brother only made Magnus shrug, as if he were already accustomed to it.

Lai Ang gripped the sphere, turned around and returned to Magnus's side, saying, "Let's go."

"Fine." Magnus naturally had no objection.

Next.

Everyone left the spacious room, Magnus also redeployed the Spiritual Energy barrier, and they withdrew from the pyramid along the original route.

Along the way, Lai Ang informed the flight squadron hovering on standby in the upper air to prepare for a swift withdrawal, and also notified the Teutonic Knight to prepare the highest-standard disinfection measures.

After dealing with wave after wave of Flood surges, everyone finally broke out of the pyramid.

The flight squadron had also timed it right; just as they were about to break out of the pyramid, four Viking fighters immediately carried out a "ground sweep" action, and together with the third Spiritual Energy flame sea released by Magnus, they successfully cleared a "green" landing zone.

The large transport ship, with its rear hatch opened, took the opportunity to lower its altitude, maintaining a certain distance from the ground, allowing Lai Ang, Magnus, and the others to board the cabin.

After confirming that everyone had boarded, the crew immediately sealed the hatch and piloted the transport ship away from the ground.

At that moment, the landing zone had already been engulfed by the Flood, but they could only gaze upward with their mutated, distorted faces, trailing after the gradually disappearing flight squadron.

Likewise, they returned along the same route.

The flight squadron passed through the dark, gloomy channel, smoothly exited the inner world, and without losing any speed, shot out of the atmosphere, heading toward the awaiting Teutonic Knight.

———————

…

Soon after.

Inside the hangar where the technicians had completed the disinfection.

Lai Ang, with his helmet unfolded, spread his left hand, facing the memory storage device still emitting a faint cyan light on its own, and said in a cold tone:

"Execute the overload program for the artificial star."

"Yes, please stay as far away from Shield World 0314 as possible, maintaining a sufficient safety distance."

(End of chapter)