Smoke still hung over the ruins of Changletian, not yet dispersed.
March 7th knelt beside Huo Linfei's cold body. Her fingers curled unconsciously, clutching the dust-stained hem of her blue-and-white skirt.
His face was calm—like he was only sleeping. But those eyes that always seemed to sparkle were shut tight, and his chest no longer rose and fell. March's fingertips brushed his cheek—
The icy touch made her jerk her hand back as if she'd been burned.
Liar…
She remembered the first time she met him on the Space Station—how noisy he was, how he loved to show off, how he stumbled over his words when talking to her. Back when they fought the Doomsday Beast, he'd talked big and then immediately got flattened by her own power—so embarrassing.
But… the way he'd stood in front of her and Dan Heng had been genuinely cool.
After the Belobog Stellaron crisis, his body had shrunk into a child's. He'd speak in a babyish voice while insisting on acting mature. When she messed up his hair, all he could do was puff his cheeks and glare. And just the day before yesterday… yesterday…
She'd shamelessly used him as a cuddle pillow—pinched his cheeks, shared desserts, dragged him around to play. With him stuck in a kid's size, the concept of "personal space" had evaporated. She'd gotten used to having a loud, annoying, sometimes reliable guy right there beside her.
But now…
Cold reality stabbed straight through every memory.
"…"
A pain she couldn't describe detonated deep in March's heart. It wasn't just grief—more like a tightly bound link, rooted in the soul itself, being torn apart by force.
Her pink-and-blue eyes shuddered violently. An eerie, ominous red—like ink dropped into clear water—spread fast, blooming outward.
Her body trembled, not from crying, but because something vast, cold, and ancient—something that had slumbered for endless ages—was splitting open a crack—
Right as that red was about to swallow her pupils—
A warm hand gently wiped the tears from the corner of her eye.
"March," a familiar voice said with a smile—lazy, like someone who'd just woken from a nap. "I'm gone for a minute and you turn into a crybaby?"
March 7th froze.
The spreading red retreated like a tide. Her pink-blue eyes refocused—and she saw Huo Linfei's face, wearing that slightly mischievous grin.
Somehow, he was sitting up.
He shook his head like he was dizzy, and his gaze gradually cleared, as if the cold stillness from moments ago had been nothing but an illusion.
The shock of getting him back blanked March's mind. Her body moved before her thoughts caught up—
She lunged forward and wrapped both arms around his neck, not caring at all that his clothes were torn open and his upper body was exposed. Her muffled voice carried a choke of sobs and a deliberately fierce tone:
"I wasn't! Idiot!"
A brief pause. Her grip tightened again, and a whisper—so quiet it was almost inaudible—fell against him:
"Welcome back…"
Huo Linfei was completely baffled by her reaction.
'Wait… didn't the system say it's only been half an hour since I fell into the eternal loop? Why's March acting like I've been dead for centuries?'
[NOTICE: While the host was inside the Eternal Loop, the body was indeed in a dead state.]
[However, under this system's maintenance—even if your body started to stink, as long as your consciousness remained, I can fish you back from the underworld.]
'Then we're good. Thanks!'
Now that he understood, Huo Linfei gently patted March 7th's back.
"Alright. It's okay now." He eased her off, stood up, and rolled his wrist. The energy field around him began to pulse and ripple. "Take Bailu somewhere safe first."
"Where are you going?" March grabbed his ragged sleeve in a panic.
Huo Linfei turned back and smiled at her—absolute confidence in that grin.
"Going to help out… and settle an old debt." He pointed toward the Abyssal Frontierscape, where a heart-stopping surge of energy roiled. "Don't worry."
He paused. A summoning totem for the Illusion Kirin Beast lit up beneath his feet.
"Right now… I'm terrifyingly strong."
The battle against Phantylia had reached a stalemate—until a figure, wrapped in towering fury, tore through the air like a cannonball and slammed into the Abyssal Frontierscape.
It was Stelle.
She didn't even take a normal route. The baseball bat in her hands swept aside rubble and the spreading roots of the Ambrosial Arbor by sheer brute force. That seemingly ordinary bat was now flooded with blue light—the Stellaron's power fully ignited by boiling emotion.
"Careful! Those roots regenerate fast!" Jing Yuan shouted, blocking Phantylia's claw strike.
But before he even finished—
Stelle was already right in Phantylia's face.
The bat heated under continuous infusion of Stellaron power, blazing with blue-white radiance.
No tactics. No feints. No detours.
Only a pure, violent home run!!!
WHAM—!
The bat screamed through the air and smashed into Phantylia's face. The constructed bridge of her nose caved in.
"You—!"
Phantylia's voice came out heavily nasal. The damage might not have been high, but the humiliation was off the charts. She clamped a hand to her face to repair it—and in moments, that eerie beauty returned.
"Thrashing at death's door!" She swung a giant hand. Countless thorny vines, steeped in rot, coiled toward Stelle like venomous snakes.
But Stelle didn't dodge.
She meant to trade wounds for wounds.
"HAAH—!"
The bat whipped up a blue cyclone. Any vine that came close was pulverized into dust on contact—shredded by heat and brutal impact. She advanced step by step, never stopping even as she was grazed and cut. Each footfall scorched the ground; every swing carried a resolve that felt like it could smash stars.
Huo Linfei… the Astral Express crew… and all those people who suffered because of you…
On her way from Changletian, the Arbor's roots had wreaked catastrophic damage across the Luofu. It wasn't only the locals—outworlders who'd crossed the seas of stars to come here were caught in the disaster too. The Cloud Knights had evacuated the worst-hit zones, but bodies still lay everywhere—people who hadn't made it out, killed by the abominations. The Abundance spawn tried to block her—
But their bodies couldn't slow this Trailblazer by even a single step.
Bloodshot veins spread across Stelle's eyes. The Stellaron power surged through her body at an unprecedented scale. Fine cracks even appeared on her skin, leaking specks of golden light.
"It's all because of you—!"
Like a star on the brink of going supernova, burning itself to cinders.
The balance of the fight tilted instantly. Phantylia—who had intended to slowly torture everyone to death with Abundance—lost her composure, forced to divert her attention to this "brute" who'd bulldozed into the battlefield.
And while Stelle hammered Phantylia up close, Jing Yuan, Welt, and Dan Heng didn't waste the opening.
Welt's cane vanished—replaced by a strange black box that flashed above Phantylia's head.
"Star of Eden: Zeroth Power."
Another black sun.
When it touched the ornamental headpiece Phantylia had fabricated, it erased it like a whiteboard wiped clean—dragging the Arbor-formed material in, crushing it to nothing.
Jing Yuan drove the Lightning-Lord. The massive formation blade cleaved through the roots linking Phantylia's body to the Arbor—severing the connection in one strike.
Dan Heng, channeling Cloudhymn Arts in his hand, yanked back the Cloud-Piercer he'd thrown earlier, and surged in alongside Stelle.
They exchanged a glance—instant understanding.
Bat and spear crossed together at Phantylia's throat. Beneath their feet, a colossal water dragon formed by Cloudhymn Arts bore them upward.
"UP—!"
They heaved in unison.
The Arbor-body—now cut off from its anchor—was flung into the high-gravity field created by the Star of Eden, dragged fully into its crushing pull.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 90)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 95)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 80)
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter70)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter70)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter50)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter60)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 20
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 20
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