Whether it was Hao Ren's quick wit or his acumen as an inspector, whereby he could foresee circumstances that other laymen could not, everybody was safe thanks to him. When several dozen tons of rocks fell from the sky like a rainstorm, everyone including the soldiers who had just emerged on the other platforms managed to retreat into the corridor safely. Rocks were either raining down into the bottom of the cavern or rolling down the mountain. The young and brave werewolves used to carry the rocks down the peak by hand for thousands of years, however witnessing the rocks crumbling down the mountain in such a manner was totally beyond their imagination. Uruk watched on and there was a flash in his eyes. No one knew what was in his mind. Becky was next to him and she thought he was worried about his tribe, who was living around the Sacred Mountain. She consoled him by saying, "Don't worry, the werewolves are very alert and strong. I'm sure they must have evacuated safely."
"I'm not worried about that." Uruk shook his head. "The main peak of the Sacred Mountain has no tribal settlement. We all live on the two side peaks and in the mountains west of the Sacred Mountain. I just can't believe the Sacred Mountain is collapsing... You probably don't understand the significance of this mountain to us."
Y'zaks looked up at the ceiling of the corridor. As the mountain shook, sand fell through the gaps of the metal panels on the corridor's ceiling. However, the shaking was gradually reducing. Clearly, the greatest wave of falling rock had ended. The machinery inside the Sacred Mountain had also stopped running. Y'zaks turned to look at Uruk and said, "It's over. Don't worry. The mountain will not collapse entirely. It may have just changed its shape."
Uruk could only trust what he said.
At this time, Hao Ren's MDT suddenly vibrated. A panic-stricken voice was heard over the radio. "Hey, hello—Hard Man? Hard Man, can you hear me? Anyone there?"
Then, it crossed Hao Ren's mind that the alpha and other battle wolves were still on the slopes of the main peak of the Sacred Mountain. He quickly replied, "I hear you. What's the situation on your side? Is anyone hurt?"
"It scared me to death," the alpha wolf's voice sounded loud and clear, although a bit panicky. "What just happened? Rocks were floating around and raining down all at once... Thanks to our exceptional hearing ability, when we heard some strange noises, we quickly ran down the mountain and hid in a col. Oh, there was a hapless guy who got his leg broken by a falling rock. He's wailing in pain. He needs medical attention."
Knowing the alpha wolf was all right, Hao Ren and Uruk breathed a sigh of relief. The alpha wolf continued, "What's that flying thing? That thing's getting brighter; I feel a tickling sensation…"
"Getting brighter?" Hao Ren's heart missed a beat. Suddenly, the scenes in Eva's memory came to mind. He ran out of the corridor with his Steel Membrane Shield turned on, ignoring the still falling rocks. The platform that they were on before was half smashed. Hao Ren could only balance himself on a shaky steel beam. He looked up and saw that the black battleship hovering in the sky had seemingly stopped its ascension. An electric glow slowly appeared on the black crystal plates that were stacked on top of each other at the rear section of the battleship. It made it look like a weirdly huge firefly.
However, this "firefly" possessed a kind of destructive power. As the light lit up the sky, a strange energy, which almost felt like a static charge filled the Sacred Mountain and even the entirety of the Beinz Diocese. Everyone was feeling an itching sensation on their skin. The crystal ore in the crystal pit gradually emanated a fluorescent glow. Lily grabbed her tail, trying to rub down her fluffy fur. Rollie was stroking her tail frantically just like Lily. Nangong Wuyue and Ayesha looked at each other as an inexplicable fear rose from their cores, rendering them helpless.
Hao Ren had also felt the same fear, but this fear was not his, but a leftover memory from Eva. Ten thousand years ago, a black battleship realized its EMP energy and destroyed Io. The last scene of that memory was strikingly similar to the black battleship before them now.
Obviously, the brain monster had no intention to get away. It wanted to destroy the planet's ecosystem. It had been planning it for so long. Its ultimate goal remained unchanged: it wanted to reset the planet's ecosystem.
"Damn it! It's going to use its EMP weapon!" Hao Ren's blood ran cold as the situation suddenly got out of his control. "MDT, move the Petrachelys into orbit and get ready to strike."
"Are you sure you want to do that? Even if we can destroy that thing with one shot, the explosion could destroy the entire western part of the continent."
"That's better than a global destruction!" Blood veins almost burst out of his skin. He called Ophra. "Inform everyone to evacuate. Don't be stingy—use the portal! Run as far and as fast as you can. This thing—"
Before Hao Ren's voice trailed off, a sudden high-altitude explosion interrupted him.
Light was bursting out from the black battleship as an uncountable number of colorful flares and insect-like dots were shot from the eastern sky, hitting the black battleship. The explosions seemed to slow down the black battleship's energy charging. Hao Ren had no idea what was happening, but it did not take him long to figure it out—Hodeceus was firing at the monster.
Hollettans in the floating fortress were in shock. They had never seen such things before. They did not even know if that thing was a creation of the devil or a miracle from the goddess sent to destroy the devil. Only when they received intelligence from the frontline that they realized an evil weapon was threatening the existence of their world. So, they launched the attack without hesitation.
The master mages of Hodeceus were not worried about hitting the Sacred Mountain. They were training all their magic cannons on the black battleship, which was still in the midst of charging, thus unlikely to dodge their attacks. Thousands of magic cannons and fixed siege guns radiating in magical glow fired colorful magic bullets as well as specially crafted wind-magic arrowheads. They were tipped with the most powerful explosives Holletta had ever produced. Although these explosives looked like child's play in the eyes of the highly-advanced alien battleship, the indigenous people of this planet were not about to give up.
"Will that even work?" Ophra mumbled as she looked up at the light bursting on the black spaceship.
"It won't work, but they're brave enough," said Hao Ren, before he, the MDT and all his tenants disappeared in flash of light, leaving behind a voice still echoing in the air. "We'll solve this in space."
Uruk looked around. "Where are they? Have they fled?"
"No, they're solving the problem," said Ophra, turning to leave. "Everybody, evacuate! Quick!"
Hao Ren was prepping his main cannon and trying to draw the black spacecraft into space. He released some engineering drones to harass the enemy, and provocatively trained all radars on it. It was hard to say if these actions worked at all. He may have been a good diversion target as a person but clearly, his spacecraft was not. The radar trick just did not seem to work.
Meanwhile, Hodeceus had not stopped its attack. Though the Hollettans knew their firepower was no match for the monstrous battleship, they held on to their faith. Perhaps it was purely fanatical faith, but no soldier flinched. The main magic circle of Hodeceus was running at full power. The entire floating fortress was glowing in a golden light as the loud firing sounds of the magical cannons seemed to tear the sky apart. The black spaceship seemingly noticed the annoying piece of floating rock. An auxiliary cannon on its upper deck returned fire at Hodeceus. Flames erupted above Hodeceus as enemy fire hit its shield. The shield was on the verge of collapse.
"Keep firing!" said a magician who was commanding a giant gun. "Our mission is to shoot. Don't worry about anything else!"
Amid the explosion and rumbling, a beam of light suddenly rose from the center of Hodeceus.
Some monks turned their eyes on the light pillar in unison as if they shared the same mind. What they saw surprised them; the pope was in the pillar of light.
The pope, whose body was slightly stooped, squinted at the black battleship because the bright light from the battleship almost blinded his vision. A protective divine shield shrouded him while he clutched a scripture tightly in his hands. He whispered something and made a move that caught everyone by surprise.
He was stepping out and walking towards the black battleship.