CHAPTER 198 — THE SECOND AWAKENING
The battlefield was no longer a battlefield.
It was a graveyard of broken mountains.
Miles of shattered terrain stretched beneath the burning sky. Emerald crystal veins had spread across the land like frozen lightning, turning rivers, hills, and even entire forests into jagged jade sculptures.
Smoke rolled across the horizon.
The sixth city still stood in the distance.
Barely.
And between that fragile line of civilization—
And total annihilation—
Stood The Nine.
But they were no longer untouched.
Dr. Elena Kovács lay in a crater half a kilometer away, blood staining the fractured ground beneath her. Several of her harmonic drones lay scattered around the crater like broken stars.
Her voice still echoed faintly in the comm channel.
"Still… operational…"
But even she knew the truth.
She was barely able to stand.
The Jade Dragon hovered above them.
Uninjured was no longer the right word.
It had been damaged.
