Chapter 1 All Soldiers Trembled

The instant the massive “Gorgon Lord,” resembling an airborne aircraft carrier, appeared above the forest, all the soldiers trembled uncontrollably.

An intense, almost tangible malice and earth-shattering pressure swept across the woodland. A low, bizarre sound, like a hurricane blowing through a valley, emanated from the metal monstrosity. Merely gazing at the enemy enshrouded in thunderclouds filled Charlemagne and his ordinary human soldiers with the undeniable conviction that they could never stand against it.

It wasn't a matter of lacking courage; the monster in the sky was simply beyond their capacity to fight.

Hao Ren realized this the moment he saw the “Gorgon Lord” open its maw and launch an air-to-ground missile.

This was nothing like the world view they’d agreed on!

"Leah, shield!" Without hesitation, Hao Ren summoned an air-to-air missile from his dimensional pocket and launched it towards the Gorgon Lord soaring in the sky. Simultaneously, he shouted at Leah, who instantly recognized that the ordinary soldiers of flesh and blood couldn't possibly survive in such a battlefield. She raised her hand, creating a hemispherical protective force field, encompassing Charlemagne, his sister, and all the soldiers within.

The Gorgon Lord in the sky emitted a series of mechanical roars. A dark red crevice opened on its front end, and several more missiles, dragging trails of fire, shot out of the opening, homing in on the first air-to-ground missile as they headed for the enemies on the ground.

Kaim's eyes filled with platinum-colored lightning in that instant. He held his lightsword horizontally, his left hand open and facing the missiles, roaring, "Repulsion field!"

An invisible force field formed in front of him, deflecting the incoming missiles. Two of them flew into the distant forest, exploding into small mushroom clouds. The remaining missiles inevitably exploded near the crowd, but thanks to the divine shield erected by Leah, the shockwaves had no effect on those sheltered within.

The air-to-air missile summoned by Hao Ren, after a brief, intense acceleration, slammed into the so-called "Gorgon Lord," and a grand burst of flame erupted on the giant metal monster's head, only to reveal a rippling shield.

That this thing had a shield wasn't surprising, considering the Lakhrynian airships all had them. But the shield's strength, effortlessly blocking a graviton missile, was astonishing—causing Hao Ren to immediately reassess the target's threat level significantly.

Just as the alloy “Manta Ray” in the sky opened layer upon layer of weapon ports, releasing more missiles and heavy aerial bombs, another tremendous roar suddenly came from the opposite direction in the dense forest.

Everyone involuntarily looked in that direction, and saw a second Gorgon Lord rising from the forest, wreathed in smoke and hot clouds. It had a round, worm-like body and numerous floating gun platforms surrounding it. Its seemingly bloated body also displayed a network of intersecting "tendons," like the first Lord, it was metal, yet possessed biological-like structural features.

That was the Gorgon Lord that Kaim and his comrades had encountered.

"Everyone, be careful! Its beam cannons are extremely powerful!"

Kaim warned loudly, and as his voice fell, the Gorgon Lord carrying a massive number of floating gun platforms emitted a low roar. Its entire body suddenly lit up with countless lines, and the floating gun platforms around it were also activated. Hundreds of laser beams ignited the air, dragging bright lines of fire as they bombarded the area where Hao Ren and his group were standing.

However, Leah's shield effortlessly blocked all these attacks, without even a tremor.

Kaim stared in astonishment at Leah, seemingly finally realizing the "little girl's" illogical strength.

But the two Gorgon Lords in the sky seemed enraged. The two giant metal monsters roared even louder, and then a dozen openings appeared on their respective abdomens. A large number of bizarre Riftsprites poured out, rushing towards the small, stubbornly resistant group of "humans" on the ground.

Kaim roared, the lightsword in his hand buzzing and becoming brighter. The sword saint was enveloped by a layer of blurry phantom images, and he bravely charged towards the Riftsprites that resembled metal insects or alloy beasts, bisecting every enemy. The laser beams and missiles that attacked him passed through his body as if striking a phantom.

However, he clearly couldn't maintain this valiant offensive forever. The Gorgon Lords flying in the sky, serving as motherships, were the real deadly threat. If they couldn't be destroyed, the Brokenblade Knight would eventually be exhausted—Kaim's previous companions had obviously fallen that way.

"Sigh, I thought it would be easy," Leah sighed, seeing the situation developing in an unplanned direction, and prepared to personally intervene. But Hao Ren called out from behind before she could act: "Leah, you deal with the one with all the floating guns, leave the rest to us—try to leave them intact!"

"Got it, got it," Leah waved her hand dismissively, while walking towards the sky and exclaiming, "Even if I only have a shadow here, I'm still very powerful, you don't need to tell me. Oh right, Charlemagne and Awenna, you and the people you brought better not leave the barrier I left behind, with your physical strength, you'll definitely die if you go out..."

Before she finished speaking, Leah's small figure had disappeared into the air. No one saw her trajectory, but Hao Ren noticed that the Gorgon Lord with a large number of floating gun platforms suddenly slowed down.

He relaxed slightly, turning his gaze towards the “Manta Ray,” which was frantically launching missiles and heavy aerial bombs. The latter seemed to notice its real enemy—just as Stand users are always attracted to each other, two bombers will also feel something when face to face. Hao Ren felt himself locked on by multiple observation and aiming devices in an instant. He was sure that if there was a third-person perspective at this moment, he would see at least twenty lock-on boxes on his body.

The massive, aircraft carrier-like alloy "Manta Ray's" head emitted a bright red light, and then two main gun beams erupted from below its "mandibles," blasting the ground beside Hao Ren with shocking heat, causing a series of explosions.

Behind the shield erected by Leah, Hao Ren turned to look at Vivian and Lily: "You guys help distract that thing from a distance."

Then he tapped the data terminal's shell: "Send me onto that thing's back."

"You got it--hold on tight!"

As the data terminal’s cheap words fell, Hao Ren felt a sudden sense of weightlessness. The next second, the scene before his eyes was the sky dyed red with gunpowder smoke, and the Gorgon Lord’s silver-white alloy body.

He stood on the wide, deck-like back of the alloy "Manta Ray," with bright and dense electric arcs constantly erupting around him. The electric arcs formed from the lightning field surrounding the Gorgon Lord, which undoubtedly served to prevent enemies from getting close.

If Hao Ren wasn't holding up a shield that could withstand such an electric field for a long time, this all-round defense measure would really be a pain.

Hao Ren was completely sure that ordinary soldiers like those from the Imperial Legion or Charlemagne’s personal guard would be turned into charcoal in the electric field in less than half a second.

The Gorgon Lord quickly sensed the uninvited guest on its back. A sound of metal friction came from not far away, and Hao Ren saw a gap suddenly open in the metal armor dozens of meters away from him. Then four gun emplacements rose from within, and with a series of dense roars, these close-range anti-aircraft guns spewed a fierce torrent of metal projectiles at him.

"Damn--"

Hao Ren cursed softly, but his hands didn't stop moving. He had already let the data terminal roughly scan the situation below, and at this moment he directly drew the Godslaying Sword and slashed under his feet, cutting a large hole in the alloy armor. He fell into the hole.

But still several shells hit him.

Looking at the slightly decreased shield capacity, Hao Ren breathed a sigh of relief: Fortunately, the power of this close-range anti-aircraft gun was not very strong as expected. If it were the Gorgon Lord's main gun, he might not be able to withstand it even if he used his face to block it.

Then he began to observe the surrounding situation.

This was a narrow passage, although it could accommodate one person, it was clearly not a normal personnel corridor, but more like a spare passage left for equipment maintenance. On both sides of the passage, a large number of metal components and pipelines were directly exposed, as if there was no intention of encapsulation from the beginning. At the end of the line of sight, there was a half-open metal gate: it seemed to have encountered a mechanical failure and could not be completely closed.

The battle outside was still continuing, and the inside of the metal "Manta Ray" was also extremely unstable, with vibrations and strange noises constantly coming from all directions. Various warning lights in the passage were also flashing non-stop, but other than that, he had not yet seen anything like internal guard robots jumping out to make trouble.

The data terminal floated into the air, sensed the surrounding situation, and then projected a series of continuous arrows into Hao Ren's vision: "The area with the most frequent information exchange is ahead. If I'm not mistaken, that should be the control area."

Hao Ren nodded, and held the two Cosmos Fragments swords tightly in his hands as he walked forward - in this narrow place, two one-handed swords were obviously more suitable weapons.

Although he had asked Leah to leave intact corpses as much as possible, it would obviously be best if he could preserve both "Gorgon Lords."

This thing had seriously exceeded the Lakhrynian current civilization level, but it was also different from the illusions that appeared in the Black Pine Forest. It looked more like a product of a third-party civilization. On this small planet, more than three kinds of civilization products could appear - or exist at the same time, which made Hao Ren have to think of the repeated destruction and rebirth of this world, and its special attribute as the "only fragment of the universe."

It seems that this journey... was really the right one.