Chapter 1717: Inside
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
As the massive carrier-type Gorgon Lord appeared in the skies above the forest, every soldier shook visibly.
A almost perceptible malice and destructive aura swept through the entire forest, as a low howl thundered from a metallic monster, and just by looking at the foe inside the thunder clouds, Charlemagne and his guards were overwhelmed by a sense of despair, a despair of facing something that was impossible to fight against.
This was not due to the lack of resolve and courage, but the monster in the sky was clearly something beyond their capabilities.
And the moment Hao Ren saw the Gorgon Lord spat out a air-to-surface missile he realized something all too clearly.
THIS IS TOO DIFFERENT FROM THIS WORLD’S SETTING!
“Rheia, deploy shields!” Hao Ren reflexively summoned an anti-air missile from his pocket and launched it towards the Gorgon Lord, and yelled at Rheia at the same time. The latter too had realized that the mortal soldiers could never survive in this hellish battlefield, she immediately created a hemispherical protective field, and covering Charlemagne, his sister and their guards within it.
The Gorgon Lord in the air let out a few mechanical roars as a blood-red crack opened in its front as a few blazing missiles shot out from the crack, following another air-to-surface missile from the tail against the enemies on the ground.
Graeme’s eye lit up in white lightning at that very moment as he placed his light saber by his side, while his left hand pointed towards the oncoming missiles with a savage yell, “DEFLECTION FIELD!”
A formless energy field formed before him as the incoming missiles were all deflected away mid flight as two flew towards the forest in the distance, with two mushroom clouds formed after a powerful explosion, while the rest of the missiles inevitably landed near the group, and thankfully for Rheia’s divine barrier, the explosion and resulting shock wave of the missiles did not affect everyone within the barrier’s protection.
The anti-air missile that Hao Ren had launched crashed against the Gorgon Lord after a short burst of speed as a massive fireball exploded near the metallic monster’s head, but what followed were mere ripples of an energy shield.
The fact that this monster had shields did not surprise Hao Ren, as even the L’Haronnean skyships had barriers, it was the fact the shield could so easily block a graviton missile was surprising, and that led Hao Ren to immediately adjust the target’s threat level up by a few notches.
But just as the alloy ‘manta ray’ in the sky deployed another series of weapon launch bays, and blasted out many more missiles and heavy aerial bombs, another roar thundered from the other side of the dense forest.
Everyone could not help but turn to the source of the sound, and saw a second Gorgon Lord rising from the forest with smoke and superheated clouds around it, it had the shape of a gigantic insect and many floating bits surrounded it. And within its bloated body were many ‘muscles’ that criss-crossed all over the body, and like the first Gorgon Lord, it was made all out of metal, but still had the structural trait of a biological being.
This was the Gorgon Lord that Graeme and his comrades had encountered earlier.
“Watch out! His laser beam is very powerful!”
Graeme yelled out to warn the others, but just as his voice trailed off, the Gorgon Lord with a torrent of bits around it let out a droning roar, as its entire body lit up, and the bits around it followed. Following that, hundreds of laser beam ripped through the air, as the barrage shrieked towards where Hao Ren and the rest were standing.
But Rheia’s shield easily blocked all the attacks, and did not even waver under the barrage.
Graeme look in shock at the expressionless Rheia, finally realizing the ‘young lady’s’ unusual powers.
The two Gorgon Lords in the air seemed to have been enraged as they let out an even louder roar as dozens of cracks opened up in each of their abdomens, as a surge of bizarre splits blasted out from the crevices and charged towards the stubborn ‘humans’ on the ground.
Graeme let out a battle cry as his light saber glowed a few notches brighter, and following that the knight was covered by a blurry shadow as he courageously charged towards the swarm of splits, and be it metallic insects or metallic beasts, all were cleaved into two with every strike, while the incoming lasers and missiles simply passed through him as if his body was ethereal.
But he clearly could not maintain this sort of godlike-form for eternity, and the Gorgon Lords, acting as a carrier were the real threat, and if they are not destroyed, even the Broken Blades would be worn out no matter how powerful he was, and clearly this was how his comrades had fallen.
“Aih, I thought I wouldn’t be busy,” Rheia sighed when she saw the situation was going south of the original plan and stepped forward to take things into her own hands, but before she acted Hao Ren called out to her, “Rheia, you take on the one with the floating bits, leave the rest to us. Try to leave it intact!”
“I know, I know.” Rheia waved dismissively as she mumbled as she went, “Even if I’m just a shadow here I’m still very strong alright, I don’t need you to mollycoddle me. Oh right, Charlemagne and Awenna, stay with your men under my barrier, with your body, you’d die the moment you step outside…”
As she finished, Rheia’s diminutive form disappeared into the air. No one caught sight of her movement by Hao Ren noticed the Gorgon Lord with a boat load of bits were suddenly becoming sluggish.
With a slight relief, he turned towards the ‘manta ray’ that was madly unleashing salvos upon salvos of missiles and bombs, and the latter seemed to have noticed its true enemy, like how doppelgangers attract each other, two crazy demolitionists would know each other the moment they meet. Hao Ren felt like he was locked on by countless of observation devices, and he was sure, if this was a third person view, he would see at least two dozens lock-on markers on him.
The carrier-like metal ‘manta ray’s’ head glowed red, as beams blasted out from the two primary cannons in its mouth as it screeched towards the patch of land Hao Ren was standing with in an extreme temperature, and everywhere the beam touched, a series of explosions followed.
As he took cover behind Rheia’s barrier, Hao Ren turned towards Vivian and Lily, “Hold the guy at range.”
He then knocked MDT’s casing, “Send me to the back of that b*stard.”
“Alrighty, hang on tight!”
As the MDT’s curt voice faded away, Hao Ren suddenly felt a sudden lost of gravity, and the next second he saw the smoke-redden sky, and the argent alloy body of the Gorgon Lord.
He had stepped on the ‘manta ray’s’ vast deck-like back, and around it were bright, concentrated lightning arcs, and this arcs were generated by the electricity field around the Gorgon Lord, and without a doubt, it was meant to keep any attackers from approaching it.
And if now for Hao Ren’s shield, he could stay on this electricity field for quite a while, but this sort of defense mechanism that does not have a blind spot is troublesome to say the least.
Hao Ren believed that if an imperial army or normal soldiers like Charlemagne’s guards were to board it, they would be fried into crisps within half a second by the electricity field.
The Gorgon Lord soon detected that it has an uninvited guest on its back, with a few clanking of metals later, Hao Ren saw the armor about ten meters away from him suddenly opening up, and following that four turrets rose up from the gaps, and a shriek later, the CIWS started spewing metallic death at him.
“F*ck!”
Hao Ren cursed under his breath but he did not dally, he had already gotten the MDT to scan the structure underneath him, and he immediately pulled out the Godslayer and carved a giant hole on the alloy armor before falling into the gap.
But a few of the cannon shells still hit him.
As he looked at the slightly reduced shield capacity, Hao Ren heaved a sigh of relief. Thankfully the CIWS weak firepower was as expected. If it was the Gorgon Lord’s main cannon, he would not be able to tank the hit with his face.
He then started inspecting his surroundings.
It was a narrow passage, and while it could fit a person, this was clearly not a normal personnel passage, rather it was more like a secondary passage meant for maintenance works. By the side of the passage, there were many metallic assemblies and cables exposed, and it seemed like they were not sealed to begin with, and at the end of his sight, it was a half-opened metal door. It seemed like it had suffered a mechanical breakdown, and could not fully close.
The combat was still ongoing outside, as such the metal manta ray’s interior was very unstable as shaking and weird noises kept coming from all directions as all sorts of alarms in the passage blared incessantly, but those aside, there were no sights of any internal patrols or robots appearing to cause trouble.
The MDT floated in the air as it scanned the surrounding, before projecting a series of arrows in Hao Ren’s vision, “The busiest area for information transfer is right ahead, if I’m not wrong that must be the control center.”
Hao Ren nodded and gripped the two Blades of Cosmic Shards tightly in his hands. In this narrow, foreboding place, two one-handed swords were clearly the better choice of weapon.
And while he had asked Rheia to try to leave the one she was engaging intact, it would be better if they could salvage two intact Gorgon Lords.
This thingamajig were clearly way beyond L’Haronne’s civilization level, and were totally different from the phantoms within the Black Forest, and more like an object of another civilization altogether. For a tiny planet to have objects from three different civilizations at the same time, Hao Ren could not help but connect it to the cycle of destruction and rebirth this world had undergone, and its unique property as the only ‘fragment of the universe’.
It seems like this journey… was the right one.