Chapter 621: Entanglement

Ilya curled up behind the half‑collapsed wall, her whole body folded into a tiny ball.

The pink dress, smeared with ash, was almost indistinguishable in the dim light, reduced to a dull, repeatedly rubbed‑out hue.

Her fingers clenched a ruby in her chest, knuckles whitening, and the limp Magic Staff bent even more in her grip.

In the distance, the two figures were still entangled.

Saber's silhouette darted through the ruins like a black lightning, as if an endless storm.

She twisted aside to evade the Light Sword Berserker swung at her, her body almost brushing the blade as she turned; the Light Sword sliced off beside her ear, struck the ground, instantly cracking a bottomless gorge, with shards and earth surging out like plowed waves. The gorge stretched from Saber's feet to the corner of a ruined building dozens of meters away; the building shuddered, half its outer wall silently slid down, crashing to the ground and raising clouds of dust.

Saber ignored the gorge, even the Light Sword that had nearly sliced off half her head; the moment her foot hit the ground she pushed off, launching like a compressed spring toward Berserker's side. The black‑red great sword flipped in her hand, its tip precisely piercing the barely visible gap between Berserker's shoulder and chest armor.

The metallic screech was so sharp it made teeth ache; even from dozens of meters away Ilya felt the sound like a steel needle stabbing her ear, swirling through her mind and exiting the other ear.

Saber gripped the hilt with both hands, and black‑red energy erupted from the blade; in that instant Ilya saw Saber's entire arm enveloped by the eerie black‑red light, which crawled up from the hilt like veins along her forearm to her shoulder, rendering her skin a near‑transparent pallor.

The great sword, already lodged in the gap, thrust forward violently, ripping a larger opening between Berserker's shoulder and chest plates; black‑red energy spewed from the wound like magma from a volcanic fissure, blasting Berserker entirely away.

The massive Mecha rolled several times in midair, tearing through a ruined building's outer wall, emerging on the opposite side, and finally landing on a pile of broken tiles, shattering them outward.

Saber did not stop.

She didn't even wait for Berserker to hit the ground; as she raised the great sword, the black‑red light on its blade began to frenzy, contracting from the tip toward the hilt, the light being drawn into the blade until the once‑ink‑black steel burned to a blinding white‑hot hue, then exploded at the tip!

An absurdly thick black‑red Light Pillar erupted from the sword's tip, like a released dragon flinging its gaping maw at prey.

The Light Pillar stretched at least dozens of meters, from Saber's standing spot to the wreckage where Berserker fell; the ground along its path was gouged into a deep trench, the edge stones melted into a fluid by the heat, slowly flowing down the sides with a sizzle, then cooling into a glossy black crust.

When Berserker rose from the rubble, the Magic Cannon was already before it.

Ilya thought this strike, even if it couldn't crush Berserker outright, would at least wound it, but she was wrong.

The Lapis Light Sword in Berserker's hand spun once in its palm, then it grasped the hilt with both hands and, like swinging a baseball bat, lifted the sword upward, the blade slashing into the black‑red Light Pillar and tearing it cleanly in half.

The split Light Pillar streamed past Berserker's sides, crashing into the ruins behind, blasting two larger pits into the already barren ground.

Ilya's mouth hung open, forgotten to close.

As Berserker split the Magic Cannon, it lunged forward; the Lapis Light Sword dragged a long light tail behind it like a comet's tail across the night sky, moving so fast Ilya only saw a lapis‑colored streak stretching from the ruin's center to Saber's front.

That sword came down toward Saber's head, whistling with wind, its blade carving a shallow dent in the ground before it even touched.

Saber's pupils contracted for an instant.

Ilya saw it—despite the distance and the fleeting moment, she saw a flash of astonishment in Saber's eyes.

But Saber still evaded.

She slipped past with her body almost touching the Light Sword's blade, the edge grazing her shoulder and slicing off a small piece of thin armor; the fragment flew off, spun a few times in the air, and landed on the stones at her feet with a crisp sound.

As Saber turned, the black‑red great sword counter‑attacked, slashing Berserker's waist; the metallic clash rang, a shockwave radiated outward, scattering the already shattered debris into a chaotic tumble.

The two swords met, black‑red energy and Lapis Flame tearing at each other at the point of contact, neither yielding.

The ground beneath Saber began to crack, fissures spreading from her feet outward like a dense spiderweb.

The ground under Berserker also cracked, but it was far heavier than Saber; the tattered Mecha plus the Lapis Flame filling the fissures made it like a welded iron tower, immovable by Saber, and it could not move Saber either.

Then Saber suddenly vanished.

It wasn't true disappearance, just speed too fast for the eyes to follow.

She only saw Saber's silhouette flicker in the colliding light, then appear behind Berserker.

Berserker's sword sliced the air, striking where Saber had just stood; the ground split into a deeper, longer trench than before, extending from Berserker's feet to the foundation of a half‑collapsed building dozens of meters away, cleaving the exposed rebar within.

Saber stood behind Berserker, raising the black‑red great sword.