168: Chapter 168 The Sound of Hope, The Giant of Light, Cero, is Resurrected

As soft as a lover's whisper, as light as a sigh of contentment.

But those four words were like a pebble dropped into a calm lake, stirring up unspeakable ripples in the hearts of everyone who heard them.

"Talent Skill—"

"Hope Dust Sound."

The moment the words fell, the wings of light behind Laya suddenly burst open.

The pair of snow-white wings transformed into countless feathers of light in an instant, like billions of fireflies taking flight at once, scattering in all directions.

Every feather of light carried holy light of the utmost purity.

Every feather of light left a graceful trail of light in the air.

These light trails intertwined, wound together, and converged, finally outlining a pair of massive phantom wings behind Laya that blotted out the sun—the phantom was several kilometers long, nearly shrouding the entire sky above Yanlong Base.

The phantom wings of light flapped gently.

Once.

Just once.

The entire world seemed to be fanned into another dimension by this single stroke.

---

The thousands of "stars" in the sky continued to pour down silver beams of light.

Aria's "Falling Stars" did not stop.

At this moment, those silver beams met the holy light blooming from Laya.

Silver moonlight and golden holy light intertwined and wound together in the night sky, like rivers of light of extreme brilliance. These rivers of light flowed, circled, and converged in the sky, seemingly forming a massive curtain of light that covered the entire battlefield.

At the center of the great curtain was Laya.

She floated in mid-air, her hands gently pressed together in front of her chest, her eyes tightly closed. Some silver beams fell upon her, only to be absorbed, transformed, and re-radiated by the holy light circulating around her.

Her long hair drifted in the light, each strand flowing with a faint golden glow.

Her dress danced lightly in the wind, every inch of fabric reflecting the brilliant Radiance.

Her entire being was like a statue descended from the heavens—solemn, holy, and inviolable.

And beneath her feet, the stone statue that was all that remained after Sailo's fall began to show a faint layer of light on its surface.

---

The effects of Hope Dust Sound officially began to manifest.

Hope Dust Sound was an S-rank talent, but its manifestation far exceeded other S-rank talents.

The activation mechanism of Hope Dust Sound was truly IMBA to the extreme. If Song of Light was a "rogue skill" that could loop infinitely as long as light elements weren't exhausted, then Hope Dust Sound was the synonym for "unreasonable."

It was a purely idealistic power.

It did not rely on light elements, nor did it follow the general law of conservation of energy.

Its core consisted of only eight words—

**As long as the dust sound persists, hope never ends.**

As long as there were friendly units within the skill's range who possessed "hope," Hope Dust Sound would continue to cycle and release continuously, without consuming extra power from Laya or relying on her to maintain it.

And hope, this thing...

As long as they are still alive, on what grounds can one say they have no hope?

So, theoretically, as long as a single friendly lifeform remained alive, as long as that lifeform still held a sliver of desire for life, faith in victory, or expectation for the future—

Hope Dust Sound would never stop.

And now, on the battlefield, were there more than just one person alive?

Over fifteen hundred Trial Trainees were each fighting a bloody battle.

One hundred thousand Primarchs were each fighting to the death.

Even the Zerg Bioweapons controlled by Olivia; though they were merely unintelligent weapons, as lifeforms themselves, they too possessed the desire for life.

The vessels of hope were too many.

So many that as soon as the effect of Hope Dust Sound unfolded, it reached a scene of unprecedented splendor.

---

Golden holy light gushed from the horizon like a tide.

That was no ordinary light.

That was the Radiance of the "Great Resurrection Spell."

What was the Great Resurrection Spell?

It wasn't like the skills in games where the dead are brought back with barely any health left. In games, a resurrected character has only a sliver of health, falling again with a mere touch, requiring immediate healing, teammate cover, and a cautious wait for skill cooldowns.

But the Great Resurrection Spell was not like that.

The Great Resurrection Spell directly restored the target to their "optimal state."

The dead? Resurrected directly, full health and mana, all injuries healed, and all statuses refreshed.

The living? Instantly healed, all wounds vanished, all exhaustion dispersed, and even their energy was completely topped up.

Even more, this was a time-aspected spell.

It worked just as well on mechanical equipment—a damaged turret smoking just a second ago would be restored to brand new in the next, its muzzle lighting up with charging energy once more; a drone teetering in the air a second ago would stabilize its posture in the next, rejoining the combat sequence.

This was no longer "healing."

This was "Time Retrogression."

This was "Causality Reversal."

This was "forcibly erasing the concept of 'death' from the destiny of friendly units."

---

The golden light took effect first on the stone statue at Laya's feet.

Sailo's stone statue.

Everyone knew the trait of the Light Giant Race—when their energy was completely exhausted, they would turn into a stone statue, waiting for the day they would be awakened by light.

But that "one day" was often calculated in units of "thousands or tens of thousands of years."

The stone statues of the Light Giant Race needed to go through a long period of naturally absorbing stellar light energy, being injected with a large amount of radiant essence by high-level warriors of the same race, or receiving the idealistic light of hope from believers like humans before they could slowly recover.

And before recovery, the stone statues were incredibly fragile. Once destroyed, they truly fell. Countless predecessors of the Light Giant Race did not fall at the hands of enemies, but rather during their long tenure as stone statues.

So when Sailo turned into a stone statue, everyone knew in their hearts—

This comrade-in-arms, who had just been challenging someone of a higher rank and stalling Queen Anserwe, would likely not be coming back.

But now, the golden holy light enveloped that stone statue.

The light permeated every crack on the surface of the statue, seeping into that last remaining sliver of faint light.

And then—

"Crack."

A new crack appeared on the surface of the statue. Piercing golden light shot out from the fissure.

This was not shattering, but... rebirth.

"Crack, crack, crack..."

The cracks grew more numerous and dense, eventually covering the entire surface of the statue.

In the next second—

"Bang!"

The stone statue burst open.

A brilliant pillar of golden light soared into the sky from the shattered statue!

Within the pillar of light, a massive figure slowly rose.

Sailo.

No, it was Sailo in his "Glittering Form."

While the six forms—Radiance, Feral, Corona, Miracle, Infinite, and Ultimate Armor—were being superimposed simultaneously—

It was Sailo, activating his Glittering Stance!