Chapter 214: Reinforcements from the Sky and the Shattered Siege

Gerona's rough, bold roar, thick with the orcs' distinctive accent, tore through the darkness like a thunderclap, piercing the rumble of orbital bombardment and the groaning of the fracturing Ark, and exploded clearly in every mind! This sudden declaration of reinforcements was like a sturdy rope thrown before a drowning man, instantly igniting the last spark of hope in their desperate situation!

Lin Mo snapped his head up. Through the massive breach in the dome, he saw the broadside of the Doctor's main warship—still brazenly conducting orbital bombardment—erupt in a brilliant, deadly bloom of mixed energy fire! The emerald magical radiance of the elves sliced through the warship's shields like a precise scalpel; the orcs' ferocious blood-colored battle aura energy hammered against the armor like a heavy mace; and woven between them were searing cyber-styled plasma streams—clearly the fruit of Zero's fusion of technology and otherworldly power!

It's Gerona! It really is her! She didn't just come—she brought a fleet fused with the strength of multiple races!

"Ha! It's Big Sis Gerona!" Xiang Lingna was so excited she nearly leaped to her feet. The pain in her shoulder seemed to ease a fraction, and a flush of excitement rose on her pale face.

Even Sister Ai Li, whose face had been cold all along, showed a flicker of imperceptible movement in her ice-blue eyes, and the fingers gripping her short blade loosened just slightly.

The Doctor's main warship clearly hadn't anticipated this sudden, fierce flanking assault. After its engine section exploded, the entire vessel tilted violently, and the orbital bombardment fire instantly became scattered and feeble—most shots went wide, with only a few stray energy beams still striking the Ark's wreckage, triggering localized explosions and tremors.

The pressure dropped sharply!

However, the crisis inside the cavern was not resolved!

Although the raging tide of annihilation energy Lin Mo had drawn out was temporarily blocked by the collapsed rubble, it had not fully dissipated. It still battered against the obstacles like a caged beast, emitting heart-chilling hisses and the sound of corrosion. Worse still, the black corrosive mass at the root of that nearly extinguished milky-white crystal tree had been thoroughly enraged by the violent external energy shifts and the dense aura of annihilation!

It was no longer content with slow erosion—it suddenly swelled! Like thick splashed asphalt, or like a waking black python, it spread madly upward along the crystal tree's roots. Wherever it passed, the pure crystal visibly dimmed, cracked, and lost all its luster in the blink of an eye! At the same time, countless pitch-black, viscous tendrils split off from this swelling black mass, lunging toward Priestess Liyana—the nearest target with the most anomalous energy fluctuation—like piranhas scenting blood! They sensed the annihilation aura of the same origin yet purer, and wanted to devour and fuse with it!

"Not good!" Lin Mo endured his exhaustion and internal injuries, struggling to rise and block, but stumbled and nearly fell.

Sister Ai Li reacted lightning-fast. Her figure flashed, and her alloy short blade sliced toward those black tendrils with a sound of tearing air! But this time, the ever-effective short blade struck the tendrils and was like chopping at incredibly tough rubber—it could only cut halfway in before being firmly clamped! And the black substance began winding up the blade toward Sister Ai Li's arm, the cold, corrosive aura flaring up instantly!

Sister Ai Li grunted, decisively dropped her blade and retreated. The black patterns on her arm, just barely suppressed moments ago, flared to life again—and even grew deeper!

These tendrils were far harder to deal with than the Shadow Stalkers before! They were extensions of the Devouring Realm's Throat itself!

"Zero!" Lin Mo barked urgently.

Zero's console immediately fired several high-energy beams, precisely striking those tendrils and sending black smoke billowing from them. They shrank back temporarily, but soon even more tendrils surged from the black mass, as if endless!

And Priestess Liyana, under this extreme stimulus of internal and external crises, trembled violently once more. The dark purple crystal on her brow erupted with unprecedented, blinding radiance, and those pale purple eyes snapped wide open! This time, the struggling expression that belonged to her was nearly gone, leaving only a pure, icy, all-creatures-are-insignificant indifference! An annihilation pressure far more terrifying than before radiated from her petite frame!

She slowly raised her hand. What coiled around her fingertips was no longer wisps of energy, but substantive, leaping dark purple lightning! The target was no longer any specific individual, but indiscriminately pointed at every living being in the cavern—Lin Mo, Sister Ai Li, Xiang Lingna, even those crystal clusters huddled in the corners!

Just at this critical juncture, with the internal crisis on the verge of full eruption—

BOOM!!!

Through the breach overhead, an assault boat painted with wild orc totems—rough in style yet fused with the elves' flowing lines and a cyber-tech feel—descended like a divine weapon. With superb piloting, it narrowly dodged falling debris and stray cannon fire, executed a beautiful hard stop and tail-slide, and hovered above the breach! The hatch slammed open!

A tall figure appeared in the hatchway—clad in heavy composite power armor, red-skinned, shouldering a massive double-bladed battleaxe. It was Gerona! Her eyes, burning with battle intent, quickly swept across the devastated cavern and instantly locked onto the most critical situation—Priestess Liyana and that swelling black corrosive mass!

"Bah! What the hell is that thing! How dare it touch one of mine!" Gerona roared. She couldn't even wait for the assault boat to fully stabilize, and leaped straight down from the several-meter-high hatch! Her heavy power armor slammed into the ground with a dull, massive crash!

The moment she landed she didn't pause. Her giant battleaxe whistled through the air as it swung like a whirlwind! Her target was not Priestess Liyana, but those black tendrils lunging at the others!

Slish! Slish!

Gerona's strength was wildly ferocious, and her battleaxe seemed to carry some kind of anti-magic enchantment (clearly the elves' handiwork). Those tough black tendrils were sliced apart before her like dry grass, with dark purple foul blood splattering everywhere! At the same time, the shotgun on her power armor's shoulder—seemingly dwarven in style—thundered away, blasting the writhing, still-attacking severed chunks of tendril into smithereens!

"What are you standing around for! Get that little girl out of here! Leave this black muck to me!" Gerona roared at Lin Mo while clearing tendrils like a war god. Her fighting style was bold and sweeping, brimming with power, and instantly curbed the black tendrils' offensive.

Lin Mo and Sister Ai Li reacted at once. Lin Mo forced out a breath and once again gathered his faint stardust power, shaping it into a binding halo that he cast over Priestess Liyana, whose eyes were icy and who was gathering terrifying energy. Sister Ai Li, ignoring her wounds, burst forth with speed again and lunged forward, trying to drag Priestess Liyana away from that area.

Xiang Lingna also endured the searing pain, focused her spirit, and channeled the emerald glow from her right arm onto Priestess Liyana. Though it couldn't suppress her, it could interfere somewhat.

Inside the cavern, a fragile balance had temporarily formed: Gerona fought the black corrosive mass alone; Lin Mo and the other two tried to restrain Priestess Liyana; Zero devoted itself to calculations and analysis, trying to find a solution; overhead, the assault boat continuously used precise fire to clear dangerous falling debris and traded fire with the Doctor's small drones that occasionally broke through Gerona's fleet's defensive line.

But everyone knew this balance was incredibly fragile. The energy inside Priestess Liyana grew more and more unstable, and the black corrosive mass, as if alive, was adapting to Gerona's attack patterns. And the battle in outer space had not ended either.

"Gerona! How did you find this place?" Lin Mo shouted while struggling to bind the resisting Priestess Liyana.

"Of course it was the broken, intermittent distress signal Zero sent out desperately earlier! Once I had the fleet assembled, I followed the trail straight here! These white-coat bastards actually have quite a fleet—fighting them feels damn good!" Gerona laughed wildly as she split a large swath of tendrils with one axe swing, but a hint of gravity lurked deep in her eyes. "But boss, we gotta hurry! Outside we only have them pinned temporarily—the Doctor bastard definitely has more tricks up his sleeve! This damn place isn't safe either!"

Her gaze swept over the eroded crystal tree and the surrounding environment, and she spat: "What kind of shithole is this? The energy's a mess, like a pot of congee!"

Just then, Zero's console suddenly issued a new alert—not aimed at the external threat or Priestess Liyana, but pointing deep into the cavern, behind that eroded crystal tree!

"High-intensity, pure leyline energy reaction detected! Source: rock wall behind the crystal tree! Energy signature matches Ark core records at 92%! A massive cavity exists behind the rock wall!"

Leyline energy? Could it be…

"Gardener! Analyze!" Lin Mo immediately queried through Zero.

【Energy signature comparison… confirmed as a leak point from a leyline energy well branch…】 The Gardener's weak voice came through in broken fragments. 【Behind the rock wall is suspected to be… an entrance to a… secondary circulation conduit of the energy well… possibly exposed by the Ark's crash impact or the earlier explosion…】

The entrance to the leyline energy well?! Right here?!