Chapter 648: Bombardment

His gaze drifted involuntarily toward the distance, passing over the collapsed ruins, and then settled on that thing.

The Giant Fox.

It was too large.

So large that Jing Yuan, standing here, even at that great distance, could still see it clearly.

Its Tail unfurled in the night sky, black‑gold Flame burning on the Tail, tinting the whole sky with that chilling hue.

Its body swelled in those Flames, a ring larger than before, its shoulder outline broadened, its back curve deepened, and its limbs pressing the ground crushed the rubble even finer.

Those eyes shone under the dim sky, like two lit ghost lights, burning cold and bright.

His brows furrowed.

What on earth is Huo Huo doing?

That Giant Fox was summoned by Huo Huo, and he was certain of that.

He had seen Huo Huo summon a Giant Fox before, but that Fox was lapis‑colored, large yet not to this extent, and its Flame, though vigorous, was not this intense.

The current Giant Fox no longer resembled a fox; it was more like a mass molded into a fox shape, a monster.

He worried about Huo Huo.

Not because she was his enemy.

Huo Huo is a good child, just took the wrong path; he does not want her to go so far on this road that she cannot turn back.

The Giant Fox in the distance suddenly moved.

Its head plunged down sharply, smashing toward the ground.

The Giant Fox's head hit the ground, exploding a cloud of shattered stones and dust, then it kept its head buried, digging into the earth.

Its front paws scraped the ground, each swipe leaving a deep trench that radiated outward from its feet like furrows plowed in a field.

Jing Yuan was stunned for a moment.

What is it doing?

His gaze unintentionally followed the Giant Fox's movements, and the uneasy feeling in his heart grew stronger.

Before the question was finished, Gilgamesh vanished.

The Golden Chain wrapped around Jing Yuan also disappeared.

Jing Yuan moved his wrist in midair.

He went over there.

Jing Yuan's gaze turned to the tiny figure that suddenly appeared above the Giant Fox.

The Giant Fox's head remained buried, the black‑gold Flames still burning on it, warping the surrounding air.

Then the sky suddenly erupted.

Black‑red ripples surged outward, spreading from the sky behind Gilgamesh to a small half of the heavens, as if someone splashed a large bucket of ink onto the dim firmament.

When the Noble Phantasm struck down, the whole sky seemed to be flipped over.

The first golden spear burst from the black‑red ripples with a sharp whine, like a sheet of metal being torn apart.

It slammed into the Giant Fox's back, detonating a dazzling golden‑red orb; a ring of shockwave burst from that light, lifting the shattered tiles and paper ash from the ruins into the air, a hazy plume rising.

The second Black Greatsword followed, its dark‑red veins flashing as it fell; it struck the Giant Fox's shoulder, a muffled boom audible for kilometers, and the black‑gold Flames on its back were knocked aside, revealing a deeper black layer beneath.

The third, fourth, and fifth—those Noble Phantasms surged from the ripples like a wasp nest that had been stabbed.

Swords, axes, bows, halberds, spears, hammers—some as big as doors, some as thin as chopsticks; some trailing long luminous tails, some emitting shrill whines, some silent like falling leaves, yet each one that fell detonated a burst of golden‑red fire on the Giant Fox's back.

The flames merged into a sheet, enveloping the Giant Fox's entire back in explosive light; from afar it looked as if someone had set an entire city ablaze beneath that dim sky.

The Giant Fox's spine dipped slightly in that bombardment.

The sensation was not like a heavy blow, but more like an adult being tapped on the shoulder by a child, the body instinctively sinking a bit, without bending or stumbling.

Its head rose from the earth, moving neither fast nor slow, even a bit lazily.

Shattered stones and soil tumbled from its head and neck; some fell on its back, turned to ash by the Flame, some hit the ground, raising a plume of gray mist that flickered in the firelight, like cooking smoke blown apart.

It lifted its head and glanced at the tiny black dot in the sky.

The Giant Fox's mouth opened.

Waves of sound radiated from the Giant Fox's mouth, pushing outward in concentric circles, like someone flinging a millstone onto a Calm lake.

The batch of Noble Phantasms closest to the Giant Fox suffered first.

A golden spear abruptly halted in midair, a crack splitting its shaft from tip to tail; the spear shattered like broken glass, splintering into a dozen pieces with a whoosh.

The fragments scattered in the dim sky, some still reflecting the black‑red light; then a Black Battle Axe followed, its blade cracking in half, each half breaking into smaller shards that tumbled down, striking the Giant Fox's back, swallowed by the black‑gold Flames without a sound.

Then the third, fourth, and fifth—those Noble Phantasms in that ring of sound shattered like paper upon impact, fluttering down under the dark‑red sky like a colorful snow.

But the Noble Phantasms from the sky were endless.

The black‑red ripples kept churning, a batch breaking then spitting out another, breaking and spitting endlessly, like a mouth that never ceases chewing.

The Noble Phantasms kept striking the Giant Fox, swallowed by the black‑gold Flames, making no sound at all.

Its back was riddled with craters and cracks left by the explosions, yet those dents and fissures healed rapidly in the Flame.

The Giant Fox's body didn't even sway; its nine Tails swayed slowly behind, unhurried and even a bit bored, like nine snakes gliding in the deep sea, too indifferent to even glance at the things striking it.

Jing Yuan hovered in midair, watching the scene, his brows twisted into a knot.

Then his back suddenly went cold.

Those eyes were staring at him.

In the distance, the Giant Fox's head had turned at some unknown moment; its black‑gold eyes, through the ruins and the descending Noble Phantasms, fixed on him unmoving.

Jing Yuan's fingers clenched sharply.

The spear shaft emitted a faint creak in his palm.

The surrounding explosions seemed suddenly distant, as if separated by a thick blanket of cotton.

Jing Yuan's lips moved, the corner of his mouth pulling into a curve that was neither a smile nor bitterness.

"Oh ho."

When those two characters slipped out of his mouth, the voice was as light as a sigh.