Chapter 288: The Final Move of a Blessing
The overwhelming advantage Lumine and Stelle had seized was a potent stimulant, spreading like wildfire across the battlefield. It traveled on the wind, rode the rays of light, and echoed in the triumphant shouts of the warriors, reaching every corner of Natlan.
"Did you see that?! The Titan has won!"
"The Abyssal creature has fallen!"
"For Natlan! The time for a counterattack is now!"
In an instant, the morale of the Natlan warriors surged to its absolute peak. They unleashed deafening battle cries, their renewed vigor like a bursting dam as they launched a final, furious charge against the dwindling enemy forces.
The tide of the entire war turned at a visible pace. The remaining pockets of abyssal energy were swiftly and systematically purged from the land.
Even Mavuika, suspended high in the sky as she gathered the fighting spirit and faith of her entire nation, felt the decisive reversal of the ground battle. The power converging upon her grew purer, more magnificent. The sun totem blazing behind her burned with an even fiercer intensity, its light finally beginning to suppress the writhing mass of the Abyssal Entity above.
She could feel the accumulated power nearing its critical point. Perhaps in the next moment, she could unleash that one, decisive blow—the final strike that would utterly expel the source of this calamity from Natlan's sky.
At the heart of the battlefield, Lumine and Stelle stood before the prostrate form of Bakunawa, appearing like two ancient Titans examining their spoils. Their next objective was painfully clear: destroy the Abyssal Core, the ultimate source of undeath nestled within its carapace.
Without a word, Stelle hefted her colossal star-bat. Golden light condensed around the weapon as she brought it crashing down upon Bakunawa's closed, rhomboid shell.
Clang—!
Sparks flew like a firework display, but the impact left only a shallow white mark on the carapace. Even that faded from view in seconds, the damage already repaired.
Lumine swung next, her own blade wreathed in the solid power of Geo. The result was the same. A few fragments of the shell chipped away, only for an even denser wave of abyssal energy to instantly seal the breach, restoring it to its original state.
They attacked in turns. A thrust from a lance of pure flame, a gale of Anemo-infused slashes, a bombardment from a spear of crackling Electro… they exhausted every method in their arsenal, but the hardness and regenerative speed of that carapace far surpassed any other part of the beast. To protect itself, the Abyssal Core had clearly diverted the vast majority of its power into reinforcing and repairing this final barrier.
The damage they inflicted simply couldn't outpace its recovery.
"This turtle shell… is way too tough!" Stelle panted, a hint of breathlessness in her voice.
Lumine's brow furrowed. She could feel the power within her, and while still vast, it was not infinite. A frustrating sense of powerlessness began to creep into her heart. After all this, were they truly going to be stopped by one last, stubborn shell?
This feeling of frustration, however, did not last long.
As if sensing their fervent desire for victory, their unwavering refusal to give up, the light of hope that continuously converged from all across Natlan suddenly swelled, becoming more intense, more scorching.
The light was no longer merely replenishing their spent energy. It seemed to possess a will of its own, actively surging into their limbs and bones, flowing into their very hearts and igniting a deeper level of power, a deep resonance.
An insight flashed through Stelle's mind. A mysterious, deep feeling washed over her, as if an ancient and majestic voice was whispering deep within her soul, guiding her to circulate and condense her power in a very specific way.
She involuntarily glanced at Lumine, and at that exact moment, Lumine looked up as if she had sensed the same thing.
Their gazes met. Without a single word, they instantly understood the identical realization that had just bloomed in each other's minds.
They could feel it, carried within the light of hope itself… the battle memories.
The ultimate technique of the "Light Titan."
"Now!" Stelle roared, all hesitation vanishing.
She clasped her hands together. The vast power of Preservation within her, intertwined with the fervent Pyro energy of this world, was frantically drawn out, compressed, and converged in a way she had never attempted before.
This was no longer an attack channeled through a weapon, but a pure, unadulterated release of energy. A massive fireball, as dazzling as a miniature sun and radiating destructive heat, rapidly formed and expanded between her palms. Inside the orb, crimson-gold energy surged and roared like molten lava. This was the Dilladium Ray.
At the same time, Lumine followed the guidance welling up from within. She dismissed her sword, crossed her enormous hands before her in a stretching motion, then drew them back, placing her right palm over her left at her waist in a peculiar, focused posture.
The five elemental powers surging within her, especially the swift and violent force of Electro, were highly compressed and purified. Every ounce of power converged upon her right hand.
Crackle!
Purple lightning condensed with a sharp, tearing sound, forming a constantly rotating, blue-violet projectile of pure energy. It pulsed with a terrifying penetrative power. This was the Rampart Ray.
There was no need for communication; their synchronization was instinctual.
"Hoo—!" Stelle bellowed, fiercely thrusting the "sun" in her hands forward.
"Yaaah—!" Lumine let out a sharp cry, punching out with her right hand. The blue-violet lightning projectile shot forth like a comet tearing through the night sky.
One crimson-gold, one blue-violet.
One, a scorching torrent that incinerated all things; the other, a lightning-swift arrow that pierced through everything.
Two colossal beams of light, twin finishing blows representing hope and finality, trailed dazzling wakes of energy as they streaked across the dust-choked sky. As if guided by fate itself, they struck the very center of Bakunawa's indestructible carapace at the exact same instant.
BOOM—!!!!!!!!!!
An unmatched, terrifying explosion erupted, as if witnessing the very creation of the heavens and earth.
The intense light instantly swallowed everything. Sound itself seemed to be stripped away, leaving only the pure, roaring will of destruction.
The golden pillars of light from the Mountain-Suppressing Soul-Locking Array flickered violently under the extreme impact, like fragile glass. Then, with a series of unbearable shattering sounds, they completely disintegrated and dissipated into nothing.
The shockwave of the explosion raged outwards like a stampede of a billion wild horses, slamming furiously into the majestic Geo barrier Lumine had erected—the final wall encircling the battlefield.
Crack… crackle-crackle…
The thick barrier, strong enough to withstand the stomps of giant beasts and their energy breaths, was now covered in a dense web of rapidly spreading cracks. Rubble and dust rained from its surface, as if it would completely collapse in the next second.
When the blinding light and swirling dust slowly began to recede, revealing the scene at the center of the blast, even Lumine and Stelle couldn't help but hold their breath.
The central area of Bakunawa's unbreakable carapace was simply gone, completely vaporized. It left behind a huge, grotesque crater whose edges glowed with the tell-tale signs of melted crystallization.
Through the gaping hole, they could clearly see the Abyssal Core within. It pulsed violently like a blackened heart, emitting an endless stream of malice and ominous energy.
Exposed to the open air, its surface seemed to flow with a viscous darkness. It let out a silent, psychic scream, exuding a wave of dense mental pollution that washed over them.
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