Chapter 233: Beacon Annihilation

The death of an ancient god's descendant was like dripping cold water into a boiling oil pot, instantly breaking a certain subtle balance inside the "Fortress of Despair".

The originally rhythmic pulsing of the blood-flesh chamber began to contract and expand violently, spasmodically. The thick blood-vessel-like structures on the walls pulsed frenziedly, the energy they conveyed becoming violent and unstable, emitting a "gurgling" abnormal sound. The foul sweet stench permeating the air grew richer, mixed with a kind of... agitation and anger like a disturbed beehive.

"The fortress... the consciousness of its living part has awakened! It's rejecting us!" The Xingyuzhe Elder's face changed drastically; inside the crystal ball in his hand, the reading for life (albeit twisted) energy was spiking sharply and filled with aggression.

"Yan Xin! How much longer?" Li Qingxuan asked hoarsely, gritting his teeth against the annihilation-corrosion pain from his shoulder wound that felt like myriad ants gnawing. Huang Rong was using elf secret medicine and her own gentle inner force to help him suppress and purify it, but that annihilation energy was extremely stubborn, hard to eradicate in a short time.

"Seven minutes! At most seven minutes!" Yan Xin's forehead was drenched in cold sweat as his hands flew over the control panel, deciphering the complex protective runes and energy circuits inside the beacon. Several rune masters assisted nearby, constantly marking the analyzed nodes and weak points.

"Hold the entrance! No matter what, buy those seven minutes!" Xingren let out a low roar; the runes on his dark armor lit up one by one, his long sword held before him, and together with over a dozen Star Dust Guards he formed a solid line, firmly blocking the chamber's sole entrance.

Their premonition soon came true.

Outside the passage came dense, heavy footsteps and various inhuman howls with the hum of charging energy weapons! The patrol squads of the Realm Breaker Legion, as well as the fortress's own defense mechanism—those automatic defense units made of flesh and metal—were drawn over by the battle's energy fluctuations and the ancient god descendant's death.

"Fire!"

At Xingren's command, the beams of energy guns and the booming of dwarf firearms sounded instantly, weaving a dense fire net that blocked the enemies trying to rush into the chamber at the passage entrance. The few transformed soldiers and several flesh constructs like skinned hounds at the front were instantly turned into sieves.

However, the enemies' numbers far exceeded expectations! They surged like a tide from deep within the passage, fearlessly assaulting the line. Moreover, the chamber's own "living body" began to attack! Countless sharp bone spikes erupted from the walls and floor, the ceiling dripped highly corrosive mucus, and some blood vessels suddenly burst, spraying dark red blood containing annihilation energy.

The line instantly became perilous! A Star Dust Guard was unluckily pierced through the thigh by a bone spike, screaming as he fell, immediately dragged back by comrades. Another Dwarf Warrior's shield was corroded through by the mucus, his arm instantly blackened.

"Hold fast!" the Dwarf berserker sent by the Copperbeard Clan Chief roared, swinging his massive powered war axe, cleaving a spider-like metal construct attempting to break in half—but he himself was flung upward by the explosion's shockwave, vomiting blood.

The battle was extremely cruel! Every second a member was injured, and the line kept retreating.

Li Qingxuan watched this scene, anxious as fire. He tried to mobilize his power to join the fight, but as soon as he moved energy, his shoulder wound sent piercing pain, the annihilation energy like a bone-deep ulcer hindering his recovery and exertion.

"Don't move! Trust them!" Huang Rong pressed him down, eyes firm, continuously feeding pure inner force into his body to help suppress the annihilation energy, "Your task is to recover quickly; greater challenges lie ahead!"

Time slowly passed in the bloody slaughter.

Five minutes... six minutes...

The line had already been compressed to the inner side of the chamber entrance; the Star Dust Guards stood back-to-back, making a last stand, everyone wounded, ammunition and energy about to run out.

At this critical moment!

"Found it! Core energy circuit node!" Yan Xin let out an excited low call, his fingers like phantoms inputting the final decryption command on the control panel, "Shutdown procedure initiating! Countdown... ten, nine..."

Everyone's hearts rose to their throats.

"... three, two, one! Shut down!"

Yan Xin forcefully pressed the final rune button!

"Voom——!!"

The hovering dark-gold crystalline beacon suddenly burst with a final blinding light; immediately its internal complex rune chains, as if losing support, snapped apart segment by segment! The prism's own light swiftly dimmed, its surface covered in countless cracks, finally shattering with a low wail into numerous dim points of light that dissipated in the air.

The continuously outward-spreading coordinate signal abruptly ceased!

The beacon was successfully shut down!

"Success!" the surviving members burst into a cheer of having survived the ordeal.

However, before the cheer faded, an anomaly resurged!

The beacon's annihilation, as if completely enraging this "Blood and Flesh Furnace", or rather triggering its final, mutual-destruction-like defense mechanism!

The entire chamber—no, the whole "Fortress of Despair"—began to emit earth-shaking roars and vibrations like mountains collapsing and ground splitting! Large patches of the fleshy membrane on the walls necrotized and peeled off, exposing the frantically flickering and overloaded energy conduits beneath! Thick blood vessels ruptured one after another, dark red liquid flooding forth like a deluge from all directions! The enemy's assault outside the passage grew even more frenzied, as if they too had fallen into some final madness.

"The fortress... is self-destructing!" the Xingyuzhe Elder exclaimed, looking at the crystal ball's interior awash in chaotic crimson representing destruction.

"We must evacuate immediately!" Li Qingxuan forced himself to stand upright, his shoulder wound reopening from the violent motion, but he had no time to worry, "Return to the 'Fortress of Hope'! The original route back is impossible; find another exit!"

The main passage we came through is probably now completely blocked by violent energy and enemies.

"Over there!" Huang Rong's keen perception caught a faint spatial fluctuation distinct from destructive energy amid the chaos, pointing to a constantly collapsing flesh wall on the chamber's other side, "There are traces of spatial distortion! It might be an unstable backdoor left from previous dimensional jumps, or... a temporary crack produced by the fortress's structural collapse!"

This is the only path to survival!

"Everyone, follow me!" Li Qingxuan bellowed, charging first toward that direction. Huang Rong and Xingren guarded him left and right, while Yan Xin and the Xingyuzhe were protected in the middle by the Star Dust Guards.

They bore the constantly falling necrotic tissue and energy shards, stepping through the surging viscous fluid, as if fleeing inside the body of a beast collapsing in the apocalypse.

Behind them, the chamber entrance was completely blocked by the swarming enemies and collapsing flesh chunks. Ahead, that flesh wall tore open in the violent shaking into a constantly twisting slit flashing with chaotic light! Beyond the slit lay violent spatial turbulence.

No time to hesitate!

"Charge out!"

Li Qingxuan exerted all his remaining strength, extending the power of the "Weird Divine Realm" forward to try to slightly stabilize that extremely unstable spatial rift, then leapt first into it!

Huang Rong, Xingren, and the others closely followed!

In the instant after the last Star Dust Guard's silhouette vanished into the rift, the entire chamber together with its surrounding passages, in a earth-shaking explosion, were completely reduced to cosmic dust!

The secondary chamber housing the "Fortress of Hope" assault ship also could not escape, instantly engulfed and disintegrated by the sweeping energy storm.

The expeditionary force lost their mount, forced to leap into an unknown, peril-filled spatial rift, their life or death uncertain.

Meanwhile, outside the "Fortress of Despair", the massive war beast made of carcasses and flesh, from within, kept undergoing violent explosions, large chunks of tissue sloughing off and disintegrating, as if it had reached the end of its life.

Near the "Rift Seven" node, the Realm Breaker Legion's advance stalled, countless warships and monsters blankly gazing at the fortress as it collapsed.

The beacon's annihilation and the fortress's self-destruction undoubtedly dealt a heavy blow to the False Emperor's plans.

But no one knows whether that tiny squad, which gave their all to complete the mission, can still find a sliver of survival from this succession of desperate straits.

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