Chapter 1699 Annihilation

To completely destroy Amantir, this bridgehead of insane power, Hao Ren had already ordered the drone swarm to make ample preparations.

These included a massive, specially designed sensor array for monitoring the leakage of insane power, and a destructive super-cannon.

He had the drones dismantle the core research station’s main defensive cannon and connect it to the swarm’s fortress-class power station, assembling a superweapon powerful enough to completely obliterate Amantir.

For a long time, the core research station had functioned primarily as a scientific research base, but Hao Ren never forgot that it was essentially a comprehensive imperial outpost approved by Raven 12345—the "comprehensive" part being the key, meaning the station could meet all the mission requirements an inspector might encounter in an alien universe, including protecting good civilizations and reducing bad ones to mosaic tiles.

Of course, the core research station was not designed as an offensive weapon; its firepower was primarily designed to provide ample protection. Therefore, Hao Ren needed to modify it to make it useful. Fortunately, his career as an inspector had greatly expanded his imagination, and he quickly made the brilliant decision to have the drone swarm carry the core research station's turret and smash it into the battlefield...

"It actually fired," even the data terminal couldn't help but be a little surprised, watching the increasingly bright light in space. "Overloaded to 300%... Basically, the entire system will be scrap after this shot. It'll take at least half a month to repair the core research station's turret."

"One shot is enough," Hao Ren smiled slightly. "We've calculated Amantir's defenses. It was already heavily damaged and has a huge weak point in its planetary shield. Plus, we have Agdoor's End of Days Torrent as a backup. If the Annihilation Lance doesn't work, Agdoor can finish it off."

Being able to destroy an entire planet, and one armed as a super-battleship at that—such a weapon would put a strain on even the core research station's main cannon. Therefore, the so-called "Annihilation Lance" that Hao Ren hastily built had significant limitations. To power the entire system with the drone's fortress-class power station, the lance's energy network was quite unstable. To allow the crystals to unleash destructive power beyond their design values, the entire weapon operated in an overloaded state. Its launch would be a one-time affair. Given the damage to Amantir's defense systems, Hao Ren dared to execute this plan.

But despite its limitations, Hao Ren still believed that the temporary, hastily made "Annihilation Lance" would have great value: he would accumulate valuable experience from it. Perhaps in the near future, he could use the data collected today to create more practical, large-scale planet-destroying weapons, or comprehensively improve the drone swarm's combat capabilities against gigantic fortresses like Amantir.

Considering the depth of the Dream Plane and the deteriorating situation with the insane lord gradually breaking free, Hao Ren felt that he could never have too much power on hand.

As he pondered these future matters, the Annihilation Lance unleashed its magnificent and singular strike.

Words could hardly describe the spectacle and terror of that moment—at the center of the massive space structure formed by the drone swarm, a sphere of light, dazzling like a new sun, rose into the sky. The sphere's scale was almost comparable to a small planet. Then, the energy of the sphere was constrained by the crystal array, focused, compressed, enhanced, and finally transformed into a lance of light that pierced towards Amantir in the distance.

The trajectory of the light lance transcended the limitations of time and space. It crossed the battlefield with no delay, arriving the moment it was launched. Amantir's planetary shield vibrated violently, and all sorts of auxiliary defense systems automatically activated—but all of this only delayed the light lance for a few seconds.

The beam penetrated Amantir's interior, and the next second, the entire planet was illuminated.

"Illuminated" was the only word to describe this bizarre scene, because the entire physical planet had indeed transformed into a dazzling sphere of light at that moment. Its form became ethereal, all material structures disintegrated, the corrupted legions, nightmare nests, the insane power... all of these things were etherealized and, after a few brief seconds, extinguished completely along with the sphere of light.

Only a few scattered fragments remained in place. They were various stations that had once floated in Amantir's high orbit. Now that the planet's gravity had disappeared, these fragments scattered from their original orbits and gradually transformed into primordial dust in the universe.

The Annihilation Lance then erupted in a series of explosions. The drone facilities used to secure the crystal array were torn apart by severe overload and meltdown. The crystals from the core research station were also blasted away, scattered everywhere: truly a tragic, one-time weapon.

The only thing to be thankful for was that the crystals were exceptionally sturdy. Although damaged in the explosion, they had at least not completely melted.

Salaman stared blankly at the spectacular scene in space until all the explosions and light beams had disappeared.

The power of this attack even exceeded that of Agdoor's End of Days Torrent—and a weapon of such power had been temporarily assembled on the battlefield by a swarm of drones in just two or three days. Furthermore, Agdoor's doomsday weapon required several tens of minutes to charge each time it was fired, while that strange weapon had only undergone a few minutes of preheating before launch...

It was as if, on the battlefield of a doomsday war, two armies had been entrenched in a stalemate for centuries, only for a group of engineers to suddenly pass by, hammer, axe, pliers, wrench in hand, building a catapult on the spot and flattening one of them with a single *thump*...

Salaman felt that even if this thing was a one-time use weapon, the power it had demonstrated was enough to offset all its shortcomings.

The Petrified Great Tortoise returned to its own lines. After a brief rest, Hao Ren's group met Salaman on the bridge of the Er.

Vivian smiled, looking at the guardian giant with a complex expression: "The war is over, commander."

"It's... over..." Salaman's tone was a mix of laughter and tears as he sighed and said, "We've been fighting here for thousands of years, the Holy Land has been on the verge of collapse several times, and it just ended so suddenly. Amantir didn't even leave a speck of dust, it's really..."

"It doesn't feel real, does it?" Vivian smiled understandingly. "A chronic illness that's been plaguing you for thousands of years suddenly gets cured overnight. Anyone would be a little confused—I was the same way the day my amnesia and schizophrenia were cured. Relax, and believe in reality. This time, the war is really over."

Hao Ren looked at Salaman and the other guardian giants standing not far away, understanding the feelings of these warriors: "It seems like everyone needs to rest and adjust. My drone swarm also needs to count the battle damage and repair some critical equipment. How about this, we'll return to the Nexus first and let the soldiers rest well. As for this battlefield, we'll leave it to the drone logistics and engineering corps to handle. They don't get tired."

Salaman had no reason to refuse. Although he personally wanted to immediately begin the cleanup and reconstruction of the entire Holy Land star system, he knew that his soldiers needed rest more, so he agreed to Hao Ren's suggestion.

After leaving the drones to clean up the battlefield, the two legions warped back to the vicinity of the Nexus.

After a day of rest, everyone seemed much more refreshed, and the various post-war tasks gradually began and got on track.

The war was over, and the insane power that had threatened this Holy Land had been eradicated, but many troublesome follow-up tasks had only just begun.

The first was a thorough scan of the entire X Star Cluster: Hao Ren and Salaman were both worried that remnants of the insane spawn might have escaped from the previous doomsday battlefield, and due to the corrupting nature of the insane power, even a high-level aberrant monster with infectious capabilities could leave behind endless hidden dangers. To this end, Hao Ren ordered the drone swarm to set up highly sensitive sensor arrays in all controlled areas, and dispatched patrols carrying mobile scanning stations to conduct a carpet search of the X Star Cluster. At the same time, Salaman also began using the power network of this star region to search for information about insane spawn, striving to leave no one out.

Then there was the reconstruction of the Nexus and its surrounding facilities—Hao Ren didn't need to worry about this part. Salaman and his guardian legion were already working hard with full enthusiasm. Hao Ren simply sent them a batch of engineering drones to help.

After that was the handling of the Throne of the End and the End of Days Network. Now that the war was over and the Nexus was safe and sound, Salaman had to bring up the matter again: even if Vivian didn't sit on the throne, they should at least start the research and application project for this system.

Hao Ren gladly agreed, but before officially starting the research on the Throne of the End, he had two more pressing issues to deal with: the Amantir crystal he had just retrieved, and the fairies currently stored in the data terminal's hard drive.

The drones packed up and transported an advanced integrated laboratory that had originally been set up on the Agent's homeworld to the Nexus Star. Although this laboratory was not as fully equipped and high-performing as the core research station's science center, it was still sufficient to begin analyzing the three crystals. The Nakodar Crystal, the Agdoor Crystal, and the Amantir Crystal, which had just been acquired, were finally reunited and placed together in the center of the laboratory's main hall. Three independently operating zero-gravity platforms supported them, while a large number of autonomous machines and sample analyzers busily shuttled through the air, conducting various tests and inspections of the three crystals.

Looking at the Amantir crystal suspended on platform number three, Hao Ren couldn't help but sigh: "As you can see, the Dream Weaver's millennia of erosion has ultimately affected the Amantir crystal—although the Creator Goddess set up strong defenses for it, contamination still occurred."

Salaman didn't come in person (mainly because his massive size made it inconvenient for him to move around Hao Ren), but instead communicated through a holographic projection device floating in the air. His image also looked up at the Amantir crystal, his tone heavy: "...The contamination has reached the point where it is visible to the naked eye. The situation is worse than expected."

Hao Ren sighed: "It's better than I expected, at least the crystal itself is still there and wasn't used as fuel by those corrupted."