God-Made God—Above the King's City.
The Mask with numerous heads doesn't require long periods of sleep. Or rather, by staggering the rest times of each head, it can maintain alertness for extended durations.
Therefore, the instant the Eye Guard detected an anomaly, it received an alert.
"The enemy is coming," King's emotionless consciousness echoed. "From the night."
There was no doubt that those insects wanted to use the darkness to evade the scouting of the Terror Beasts. But what could so few Iron Birds accomplish? Did they believe that it would remain unprepared?
"I'm rousing those Bogger idiots, but it'll take a bit!" Wu Wang's reaction was noticeably slower, though compared to other pitiful creatures with only one head, it could be considered quite vigilant.
"A little later is fine," Nassopeler produced a miniature core. "I've said it before; I've thoroughly researched the Iron Birds' combat methods. Honored King, allow me to deal with these irritating insects."
Under its magical control, crystal "branches" extended from the black stone walls constituting the King's City's dome. These were originally part of the Primordial Symbiotes, but after its special modifications, they no longer fired crystal needles. Instead, they launched a different type of microscopic symbiote.
After several encounters, it had identified a significant flaw in the Iron Birds—what humans called Skyfire and Sky Wrath, mechanical constructs. While their speed was faster than Bogger Wyverns, they couldn't change direction as agilely. This was especially apparent at higher speeds, with their flight path resembling a smooth arc. During dives, they couldn't even roll, meaning that at a specific point in time, they would inevitably pass through a particular location.
In other words, by predetermining the fragmentation altitude of the needles, the probability of the symbiotes hitting the Iron Birds could be significantly increased. Of course, crystal needles themselves couldn't achieve this. But if the projectiles were replaced with symbiotes capable of independently assessing the situation, everything would become much easier.
These "needle-like objects" would automatically explode upon approaching the Iron Birds, transforming into a swarm of temporarily floating symbiotes. Once they landed on an Iron Bird, they would act like parasites, tearing and devouring the target's fragile shell.
The Mask believed that this defense system would leave a deep impression on the attackers.
However, through the Eye Guard, the subsequent reaction of the humans took it by surprise.
The mechanical Iron Birds didn't seize the opportunity to attack the God-Made God while the Terror Beasts were still grounded. Instead, they collectively turned south, as if deliberately avoiding the King's City.
What did this mean?
Were the insects planning to abandon the attack?
"Heh, they ran. Looks like your little gadgets are useless," Wu Wang scoffed. "Ultimately, I'll have to pursue the humans."
No… it shouldn't be like this.
Nassopeler frowned. Although it called them insects, several encounters had proven that these magic-less beings weren't lacking in courage. Since they risked planning this night flight, why would they suddenly become timid and retreat before the battle?
The current source of the Eye Guard's vision was singular, indicating that most insects still hadn't "seen" the God-Made God. The night restricted them, but also indirectly weakened the Eye Guard's perception.
Could it be… that this group of Iron Birds wasn't the humans' main offensive force?
A flash of inspiration struck its mind. It then controlled all Eye Guards to look towards the airspace surrounding the God-Made God. This time, the Eye Guards used not magic, but the visual capacity of thousands of eyes.
"What are you doing?" Wu Wang immediately protested in dissatisfaction.
The Mask didn't have time to explain. All of its heads were currently interfaced with the Eye Guards. After a long while, it finally detected a slight anomaly in the vast night sky.
An inconspicuous piece of black metal was flying towards the God-Made God. Its volume was far smaller than the Iron Birds, making it almost impossible to distinguish from the deep blue background.
This cylindrical object immediately reminded the Mask of the explosives previously dropped by the Sky Wrath… but, did humans launch such a grand operation for just this one thing?
Even so, Nassopeler still issued an order to its subordinates to activate the magic barrier.
At that moment, an extremely bright flash of light suddenly erupted in the sky!
This was the last sight it saw through the Eye Guard.
The light lasted for less than the blink of an eye. All Eye Guards disconnected from it, and what remained in its mind was an extremely burning sensation and a field of white.
It couldn't help but growl!
However, this was not the end.
The God-Made God felt as if it had been violently shoved. The internal city trembled violently amidst rumbling, the dome let out a sharp wail, and the ground collapsed. Nassopeler only felt its feet sink, as if its body were floating.
……
Tilly didn't see the moment of the explosion.
Although she had prepared black sunglasses in advance, capturing that explosive device dropped from an altitude of seven thousand meters with the naked eye was a slim chance. What's more, wearing sunglasses would make the already poor vision become a mass of darkness. After trying a few times, she gave up the plan.
Therefore, Tilly realized what happened when the world was lit up.
At that time, she was facing away from the God-Made God. In an instant, the wings were shining brightly, and even the rivets on them were clearly visible; the parts protruding from the aircraft even cast distinct shadows!
In the past, only the dawn could illuminate the outlines of all things in the night, causing the darkness to shrink behind it.
Tilly took a deep breath and turned her head to look—
A huge fireball appeared hundreds of meters above the God-Made God. Although its brightness was rapidly decreasing, it still easily illuminated the floating fortress completely.
Billowing green smoke rose from the magnificent black stone outer wall, as if swept by the airflow. But Tilly knew that it was not airflow, but a degree of illumination so strong that it could produce an impact force like a tangible object and ignite flammable objects.
At the same time, the outer edge of the fireball was distorted, and a ripple spread outwards rapidly. If it weren't for the God-Made God as a backdrop, she wouldn't have seen this shocking scene at all.
The ripple first collided with the floating fortress below, like a giant palm slapping a dusty wooden table. A large amount of dust was instantly stirred up, almost covering the entire surface of the cone. Next came the other parts of the God-Made God, and finally the ground. From the order in which the smoke rose, it could be seen that this ripple was not an illusion, but a real thing.
It continued to expand after hitting the ground, and rushed towards the aircraft fleet all the way!
"Prepare for impact!" Tilly shouted into the radio microphone.
"Boom——————————!"
The earth-shattering explosion also reached her ears at this time.
The silent night was finally broken. Accompanied by the rolling roar, the plane shook violently. At the same time, under the influence of the air waves, the fuselage fell downwards as if out of control, and it took several seconds to regain its posture.
This loud noise was like a clock ringing at the beginning of the world, announcing the arrival of dawn. A ray of morning light crossed the ridge and projected onto the earth.
At this moment, the fireball had turned into a column of yellow-brown smoke, its roots deeply plunged into the God-Made God, and its top continued to rise, merging with the patches of clouds.
Tilly issued another turn command.
By the time the fleet flew to the east, she had finally seen the God-Made God shrouded in smoke and dust.
Overall, it was hardly affected. Compared to the trees that were leaning upside down below, it still hovered steadily in mid-air.
But the previous explosion was not unscathed—a huge gap appeared on the top of the obsidian pyramid, which was looming in the dust and mist!