Flesh Spears

As the war along the defense lines grew ever more intense, in the vacuum where the Blood of Machinery's former headquarters had been, Lu Yuan had achieved total suppression over the Flesh King.

The high mobility of Spatial Rift, the terrifying reaction speed from time acceleration, the powerful amplifications of Cosmic Body, Heart of Light, and Life Spirit, the interference curses of Scythe of Death, the combat precognition of Wheel of Fate, and the supplementary boost from Fantasy Manifestation — Lu Yuan was now powerful in virtually every conceivable dimension, with no exploitable weaknesses.

Though the Flesh King roughly matched him in raw strength and other attributes — even wounding Lu Yuan in direct exchanges and holding a slight edge in brute force — Lu Yuan's abilities were simply too comprehensive. He had ultimately achieved complete dominance.

Sword light swept through the vacuum. In the span of a single heartbeat, thousands of slashes carved into the Flesh King's body.

The Flesh King snarled ceaselessly. Unable to break free from Lu Yuan's pressure, he immediately shifted to defense. His arms and legs curled inward in a grotesque fashion, wrapping around his entire body until he had compressed into something close to a sphere. Beyond that sphere, streams of green luminescence circled and condensed into a shield.

The shield shattered again and again under the barrage of sword light. Powerful blade energy fell upon the Flesh King's body, carving gruesome wound after gruesome wound. Yet even so, Lu Yuan couldn't sever the creature's body. Green blood gushed continuously from the wounds across the spherical form — a ghastly sight — but the Flesh King was far from dead. His vitality was draining at an agonizingly slow pace.

Observing that formidable defense, Lu Yuan's expression remained impassive. His figure continued flickering around the creature, moving so fast that afterimages crowded the space on all sides.

He kept up the relentless pressure.

Then his crystalline amber eyes flashed, and the corner of his mouth curved upward.

*Almost time.*

Behind him, the hundreds of Divine Grade Mechanical Apotheosis Spirit Cannons each glowed with bronze-colored orbs of Spirit Power swirling at their muzzles. They had been charging since the battle began.

Knowing full well how monstrous the Flesh King's defenses and vitality were, Lu Yuan had deliberately held them back, letting the cannons charge all the way to their absolute overload limit.

The Mechanical Apotheosis Spirit Cannons at maximum overload represented the most destructive weapon in Lu Yuan's entire arsenal — enough, he believed, to inflict fatal damage on the Flesh King.

*And if one volley isn't enough, I'll fire two.*

He had been suppressing the Flesh King this entire time, and now the charge was finally complete.

*Fire!*

Lu Yuan gave the command, and every Spirit Cannon discharged simultaneously.

**BOOM!!**

The cannons unleashed a Spirit Power shockwave of terrifying magnitude. Concentric ripples radiated outward through the vacuum, shattering space itself wherever they passed. The bronze-colored beams carried fluctuations of power beyond comprehension.

A single one of those blasts could annihilate an entire star system with ease.

In the distance, Kro, Garton, and the remaining Blood of Machinery members felt the horrifying power contained within those beams and froze where they stood, bodies locked in place. The sheer magnitude was overwhelming — its pressure alone pinned them, their very thoughts sluggish and half-frozen under that terrible weight. They couldn't even react, let alone communicate.

Every Blood of Machinery member watched as the bronze streaks of hundreds of Spirit Cannon beams — reflected in their eyes — slammed into the blood-drenched, battered form of the Flesh King.

The Flesh King had been weathering Lu Yuan's storm-like assault, so when the attacks suddenly ceased, he faltered for a split second. Then the Spirit Cannons fired, and his expression twisted in horror.

Through the gaps in his curled limbs, his eyes caught the sight of those terrible bronze beams streaking toward him. Dread flickered in those abyssal depths.

"No!!"

He tried to dodge, but the unrelenting torrent of bronze light swallowed him whole.

Bronze radiance blazed. With the Flesh King at its epicenter, space crumbled inch by inch. Horrific Spirit Power fluctuations spilled from the fractured void, and the ring-shaped shockwave — carrying violent cosmic winds — swept in every direction.

The Blood of Machinery members, still frozen in place, were caught directly in the aftershock. Those at the Battle Emperor level were torn to shreds on the spot. The Battle Saints were sent hurtling backward, sparks crackling across their frames as the flesh in their joints ripped apart and green blood sprayed from the seams.

Only Garton and Kro, both War God-level powerhouses, fared somewhat better — though even they felt as if their entire bodies were being torn apart as the blast flung them through the void.

Only then, carried by the shockwave, did they finally break free from the oppressive aura of the cannons' discharge and regain the ability to move.

Garton and Kro stared at the roiling bronze light in the distance, at the torn fabric of space and the waves of cosmic storms still radiating outward, horror etched across their faces.

Garton shook his head slowly, disbelief plain in his voice.

"No! No! No! This is impossible!! My Lord cannot lose! Something must have gone wrong!"

Beside him, Kro trembled, fists clenched tight. Spirit Power fluctuations rippled across his black metallic shell.

His mind had gone blank.

The Blood of Machinery headquarters and its pocket dimension had been destroyed. If their Lord died too, they would have no protection whatsoever in the Mechanical Kingdom. It was one thing if the Kingdom hadn't yet reclaimed the breach — but the moment it did, they would be the first to be hunted down.

*This is too dangerous. I have to find a way out!*

Kro turned to look at the Human Race monster floating in the distance, and despair surfaced in his eyes. He knew that even though that monster wasn't watching him, the instant he made any suspicious move, he wouldn't be spared. Given the power that Human had displayed, Kro had absolutely no doubt — escape was impossible.

*What do I do?*

A fierce survival instinct set his mind racing.

Compared to the two War Gods, the Mechanical Battle Saints had it far worse. Watching the Flesh King consumed by that surging tide of Spirit Power, their faith seemed to shatter. They stood rigid, dazed, as if their minds had simply stopped working.

"How is this possible...?!"

"How can the Human Race produce someone this powerful?! Not even the King under our master's command can defeat him?!"

"My Lord actually lost?! What are we supposed to do?!"

Despairing whispers rippled through their ranks.

On another side, Adra was hiding among a field of asteroid debris, watching the distant battle.

Even at his great distance, the aura of the Spirit Cannon barrage had sent a spike of pure dread through his heart.

His mechanical eyes flickered rapidly, terror written across his face, and he couldn't help muttering to himself.

"...Those are Spirit Cannons?! What's going on? How can they be this terrifying?"

As a member of the Mechanical Race, his own equipment was naturally mechanical armament, and he was no stranger to Spirit Cannons. Setting aside his own Saint-level weaponry, he had even witnessed the Spirit Cannons wielded by Mechanical War Gods like Mados.

But none of them came close to this. Not even close — not even a tenth of this power.

This was destructive force on an entirely different plane of existence.

But quickly, elation broke across Adra's face.

"With power like that, even that Aberrant Beast monstrosity shouldn't be able to withstand it, right?"

The thought of that creature lurking within the Mechanical Kingdom had weighed on him like a stone. Now that it was about to die, the weight lifted, and relief washed over him.

Just then, the Spirit Power aftershock — carrying cosmic storms with it — swept through at blinding speed, tearing across the asteroid field where Adra was hiding. The already-fragmented asteroids disintegrated entirely under the wave, reduced to tiny chunks of rubble. Even Adra, sheltered behind them, was caught by the shockwave. He grunted, feeling damage spread through his entire body, and shock flooded his mind.

*I'm injured from this far away?!*

His understanding of those Spirit Cannons' power deepened considerably.

Back at the battlefield, Lu Yuan floated in the vacuum, crystalline amber eyes gazing calmly at the zone still pulsing with bronze light.

With a sweep of his left hand, every Spirit Cannon began charging again.

The Flesh King's defensive and regenerative capabilities were both horrifying. Even after being bombarded by hundreds of Apotheosis-enhanced Spirit Cannons, Lu Yuan wasn't fully confident the creature had been killed. As long as there was any chance it still lived, he intended to give it a few more volleys.

Spirit Power surged as the bronze radiance gradually began to dissipate. Every cannon blast had detonated, and the entire region of space had been thrown into violent disarray by the horrific forces, teetering on the verge of spawning Spatial Rifts that could connect to other areas.

Lu Yuan noted the instability with a glance but didn't dwell on it. It wasn't a serious concern — once the Flesh King was dead, he could easily restore this destabilized region of space.

Just as he was watching the fading bronze glow intently, flesh-wrought spears materialized from the void without warning — sixteen of them, each etched with eerie patterns formed from green veins. They lanced toward him in an instant.

By the time Lu Yuan sensed the lethal threat, the flesh spears were already upon him.

His eyes went wide. Without time to think, he activated Spatial Rift instantly, deploying Worlds Apart as a barrier while simultaneously attempting to teleport away.

But the green-veined markings on those flesh spears pulsed with sinister energy, piercing through the spatial gap of Worlds Apart almost instantaneously and continuing straight for him.

He couldn't complete the teleport in time. Reacting on instinct, Lu Yuan poured spatial and temporal power into deflecting or slowing the spears while Spirit Power erupted across his body in a devastating Power Burst. His greatsword swept in wide arcs, parrying the nearest flesh spears even as he twisted to dodge the rest.

With a series of wet, tearing sounds, several flesh spears punched through Lu Yuan's battle armor and body, pinning him where he floated.