Xuefei sat suspended in midair, her little skirt fluttering in the wind and accentuating her petite figure. Glimpses of the tantalizing strip of bare thigh between her skirt and stockings teased the eye, while she grinned with utter arrogance. Cute bracelets adorned her arms, her fair little hands appeared utterly harmless—even the white lotus flower perched atop her head served to highlight Xuefei’s adorable charm.
The Divine Soldiers knew better, though. They understood just how powerful she truly was. That cute exterior was nothing more than a facade concealing the evil within.
Suddenly, two wings sprouted from the back of one Divine Soldier. They were white like those of the Heavenly Wing Clan, but entirely different—composed of gleaming metal fragments that formed a mechanical wing-like structure, reinforced by a translucent golden glow.
It gave a light leap and rocketed up to Xuefei’s altitude in an instant.
“Gods? With this bizarre method of combat, where exactly are you puppeteering from, and what data are you hoping to harvest?” Xuefei’s expression shifted from bored mischief to deadly seriousness.
If these things truly unleashed their full power, countless members of the Demon Race would fall to their treasured swords.
They were formidable. The most horrifying aspect was that they were almost certainly remotely controlled puppets of the enemy.
All those so-called intelligent AIs and combat machines turned into laughingstocks before the Divine Soldiers. Xuefei never would have imagined the Gods delving ever deeper into science. From any perspective, it bordered on the absurd. She hoped that if they ever invaded the Divine Realm someday, she wouldn’t find a fleet of sanctimonious deities, but an armada of laser-spewing gunships.
Of course, since these entities known as Divine Soldiers could be manufactured, then battleships on a cosmic scale—straight out of imagination—were entirely plausible too. Still, rather than such weapons, they seemed far more enthusiastic about crafting humanoid constructs. Like super class Divine Soldiers capable of annihilating entire worlds.
“…”
“Cease your resistance, girl of Dark Filth. It will only prolong your suffering.”
“Indeed. You cannot defeat us.”
These things had been wary of her just moments ago. So why the sudden fearlessness?
From the corner of her eye, Xuefei spotted the source of their confidence on Setra’s battlefield against another Divine Soldier.
The badly damaged Divine Soldier was bathed in a burst of golden light that spread across its armor’s surface like a planar wave. In moments, every crack had mended completely, restoring it to peak condition.
“Fighting us will only exhaust you further until you collapse. Abandon your struggle.”
“Our cores remain intact. We cannot die.”
Xuefei’s gaze drifted to the gap in the domain, her mind deep in thought.
Without the domain’s restrictions holding them back, they likely wouldn’t possess such overwhelming combat prowess. To deal with them for good, she would need to target the barrier’s integrity first.
At the same moment, golden light enveloped Xuefei without launching an assault. Instead, it coiled around her, forming a colossal birdcage that imprisoned her inside.
“Light Prison Cage! Any Dark Filth ensnared within faces eternal confinement unto death!”
Xuefei’s focus, however, strayed from the birdcage to the adjacent battlefield.
What happened next left even Xuefei stunned.
Sophia plummeted from the sky, her massive scythe arcing toward the Divine Soldier’s neck while it was caught off guard. It evaded with superhuman reflexes once more, but the blade suddenly extended under a surge of magic, its curved edge snagging the Divine Soldier’s neck. Sophia leveraged her body weight and strength to drive it downward, cratering the ground in a pit several meters deep. The seamless flow of her movements showcased nerves honed to perfection in battle.
“Useless. You cannot destroy us.”
The Divine Soldier spoke in a flat, emotionless tone. At the same time, it reached for the hilt of its greatsword.
Sophia tsked in frustration as the blade sent her flying several meters, dumping her unceremoniously onto the sand with her scythe skidding even farther away.
But right then, as the Divine Soldier coiled to spring up and press its advantage—demonstrating its thunderbolt speed to Sophia—it realized its neck was unscathed, yet both arms were pinned to the earth by blood-red chains, forcing it into a half-kneel.
“These are the chains that sealed the legendary Sabom Titan. Not even Soul Tier Layer 6 can break them easily.”
“Crack—!”
Before Sophia could finish, the chain binding one arm snapped with a sharp report, disintegrating into motes of scarlet particles that drifted into the air. The ground shattered anew under the immense strain, splitting into a bottomless fissure like a newborn canyon.
“Exaggerated much?” Sophia gave a wry smile.
“I told you. Useless.” The Divine Soldier strained with its full might. The lone remaining chain groaned under the colossal tension, on the verge of snapping, while the earth itself let out an agonized rumble.
“What about this one?”
“What?!”
Another hand was shackled to the ground by chains, but in about one second, Setra burst from the shadows and thrust her blade at the Divine Soldier’s back. At the same time, the sparks she ignited rivaled fireworks rockets. The Divine Soldier didn’t stop struggling to break free just because of the sword clashing against its back. Cracks spiderwebbed across the chains, a sign that it would escape all restraints in less than two seconds.
Thus, it let out a cold sneer.
“I’ve told you—this is useless.”
“Is that so? Take another look, then~”
Glistening crimson blood flickered along the purple treasured sword, continuously giving off white smoke. The blade gleamed even more brilliantly, like a sword in a high-temperature forge gradually spreading its heat.
Clearly, the white smoke rising wasn’t condensed water vapor at all, but a harbinger of the armor melting down.
“Impossible. Impossible. You can’t…”
“Bang!”
The Divine Soldier’s answer was a violent explosion. Crimson blood kept surging inward through the gaps in its armor, gathering inside its body into a high-energy sphere.
That was the source of the blast.
“As expected of my blood…” Sophia chuckled deliriously as she struggled to her feet from the ground. Coating Setra’s sword with her blood had been quite the ordeal for this former Blood Clan Queen—it had nearly made her pass out.
But that was largely due to Setra’s own strength, which now bordered on Soul Tier Layer 5. Watching the young general’s growth brought a motherly, gratified smile to Sophia’s face.
The battle that followed, however, had nothing more to do with them.
The Demon Clan army hadn’t withdrawn from the battlefield. They hovered in the sky, relentlessly providing ample firepower support to the three lords on the front lines.
Shattered armor lay scattered across the ground, belching yellowish-brown smoke. Under the barrage of magic arrows, the wreckage was a total mess, mocking the two Divine Soldiers who stood nearby in stunned silence.
“Is this the core you were talking about?”
Xuefei, still utterly composed inside the golden birdcage, let out a chuckle at how fragile the Divine Soldiers had proven.
When one Divine Soldier saw its companion fall, it hurried to its side. The remaining fragments adsorbed onto its body and fused with its surface, transforming it into a stronger entity. What’s more, another Divine Soldier swiftly appeared beside the one that had absorbed its comrade’s remains. The new arrival’s entire suit of armor broke down into countless tiny components, merging with the debris to fuel the Divine Soldier’s power.
At this point, all the Divine Soldiers had merged into one.
“Absorb. Companion. Convert to power.”
Already boasting Soul Tier Layer 5 strength, the Divine Soldier fused and evolved once more. Its armor’s outer surface even warped the space around it, like some otherworldly superbeing beyond this realm’s limits. That distortion stemmed from the sheer magnitude of its energy bleeding into reality.
“True body stands undefeated. Demon Clan—die.”
Just then, black Terminus Fire roared to life across the golden birdcage that had been plaguing Xuefei. At the same moment, a shaft of golden light shot from the rift in the Evil Dragon Domain and arrived instantly behind the Divine Soldier.
With a thunderous boom, a pair of pale hands burst through the Divine Soldier’s chest.
In that instant, a voice as clear as a mountain spring rang out across the barren wasteland at her feet:
“Mission accomplished? Then die, you pathetic creature.”
