Chapter 403: Break the Formation

Before One’s descent, Lysette had delivered the strongest single strike against the barrier. Even she had only driven it inward by a few dozen meters. Ordinary Legendary fighters could do little more than drain its energy.

The shield had already lost much of its strength, but this new impact was still beyond belief.

Yet the Five Elements Cycle Array deserved its reputation.

The moment it detected One, the formation had begun calculating her path. More than forty percent of its current energy flowed toward the summit, gathering at the predicted point of impact. The earth-yellow light there grew denser than ever.

It held.

The five Elemental Root Lords trembled beneath the enormous depression. Only the warning they had received a few seconds before the collision had kept them from losing control of their spells.

"What in the world was that?" Ilyse asked shakily.

Oren’s face was pale.

"Cassian never runs out of tricks. That much force... Was it some kind of orbital cannon?"

Evander’s voice reached them at once.

"Stay calm! The danger has passed!"

Premium-grade Aether Crystals burned as he spoke. Pure energy poured into the formation. He had long since lost the luxury of counting the cost.

But his relief came too soon.

Lysette had been watching the timing.

"Lifeburn."

Power surged through her body. Her speed increased by another fifty percent, turning her into a streak of light. Just one second after One struck the summit, Lysette’s fist hit another section of the barrier.

The formation had drawn so much power upward that this already weakened stretch was now dangerously thin.

With a sharp crack, she punched through.

She was inside.

Lysette accelerated again without the slightest pause, driving straight toward a huge flying ship nearby.

Most of the Covenant’s Lords had not even understood what had happened when Evander shouted.

"She means to destroy the formation! Kill her!"

The order came too late.

Layers of defensive runes lit across the Legendary ship. Each tried to hold her back long enough for help to arrive.

She smashed through them all.

Her fist struck the hull.

Metal screamed. Cracks raced outward from the impact, spreading across the ship like a web. Its bow and stern folded toward the center, bending inward by more than ten degrees under the tremendous force.

There was no explosion. There did not need to be one.

The ship was out of the fight.

Each vessel served as a node in the Five Elements Cycle Array. Destroying them from within was the most direct way to weaken it.

[Warning: Five Elements Cycle Array damaged. Repair immediately.]

Losing a single ship would not collapse the formation. But its power had diminished.

Evander’s face twisted.

"Kill her! Kill her now!"

Two Ascendants and hundreds of Legendary troops closed around Lysette.

Lifeburn was still pouring strength through her limbs.

She flashed across the encirclement. Several Legendary fighters burst into bloody mist, including a Legendary Nine-Star Disciple. Before the others could close the gap, she broke through and reached another ship.

This one was Epic, a hundred meters long.

Two thunderous impacts followed almost together.

The first split the ship through the middle. Both broken halves plunged toward the sea.

The second sent a violent shudder through the defensive barrier.

Once again, it came from the summit.

Evander barely knew where to look.

Only seconds earlier, he had been certain that the mid-grade Crystals would stabilize the formation despite the Crystal Maidens’ arrival. Now the situation had turned against him with terrifying speed.

The attack from above had drawn away enough power to let that monstrous physical fighter slip inside.

He looked up and finally saw what was striking the barrier.

"Another Crystal Maiden? Why is she so large?"

A ten-meter Maiden. In all his decades as a Lord, he had never heard of such a thing.

Her fist fell for the third time.

She no longer had the momentum of that immense plunge behind her, yet the shield shook violently beneath the blow.

[Warning: Five Elements Cycle Array damaged. Energy at 48%. Repair and replenish energy immediately.]

"At least two and a half million Physique. Perhaps close to three million..."

Real alarm entered Evander’s voice.

"Even a Mythic Extreme troop at Level 95 shouldn’t have attributes like that. Is she Mythic Four-Star? Higher?"

He watched her strike again. And again.

A dozen punches passed with no sign of her weakening. This was not a brief burst of power that would conveniently burn itself out.

[Warning: Five Elements Cycle Array damaged. Energy at 45%. Repair and replenish energy immediately.]

Less than a minute had passed. Even premium-grade Crystals could not make up the loss quickly enough.

Much of that was Lysette’s work.

Burning her life for strength, she had wrecked dozens of ships in a single minute. Broken nodes slowed the flow of energy through the entire formation.

At last, Lifeburn exhausted her remaining vitality. Three Ascendants and more than a thousand Legendary troops brought their attacks down together.

Lysette died inside the barrier.

"Finally!"

Evander seized the chance.

"Disconnect the damaged ships! Reroute the energy circuits and repair the formation!"

Outside the shield, Aurelia raised her hand.

Lysette’s life-state had been recorded in one of her six Life-Echo slots before the assault. The Brand was still there, and Aurelia had kept enough power to use it.

"Life-Echo Brand."

Light streamed from her hand. The restoration drew deeply on her own reserves, making her sway for an instant. Her one restoration for the day was spent.

Within the barrier, energy gathered into a familiar figure.

Lysette stepped back into the air.

The Covenant’s Lords stared.

She examined her uninjured body with an expression of frank wonder.

"My body has returned to the state the Brand recorded. Cloning and an uploaded memory could explain that much. But I remember everything up to my death. Even the pain at the end."

She flexed her fingers.

"So I’m still me."

Whatever lay behind the Dawnwings’ life-echo art, it was remarkable. When this battle was over, she would have to ask Aurelia about it properly.

Then Lysette looked around at the stunned troops.

"Well? Come on. Chase me some more."

Her gaze shifted past them, toward the barrier.

She tilted her head and smiled.

"Though I think you’re about to be too busy."

A blade several kilometers long struck the formation’s weakest point.

Heaven’s Judgment.

Its force at a single point did not match Lysette’s explosive punch. The total energy held within it was another matter entirely. The Dawnwings had spent more than ten minutes recovering and preparing this attack while the battle raged around them.

Now their gathered power pressed against the Five Elements defense.

Sacred light and elemental energy ground together, throwing a furious storm across the shield’s surface.

Every Dawnwing gave everything she had. Heaven’s Battle Array blazed like a second sun, driving the enormous sword steadily forward.

Harriet had chosen the point of attack carefully.

Several ships that supplied this stretch had already been destroyed by Lysette. Their broken connections slowed the energy flow. The barrier could not replenish the force being ground away beneath the blade.

A sharp tearing sound cut through the roar.

A sword tip hundreds of meters long emerged inside the barrier.