132: Now... it's our turn to protect the Kraken...

She stared blankly downwards, at Su Chen's broken, withered, and cracked massive body, silently enveloped by the cold seawater, slowly sinking into the dark abyss.

"Big Guy..."

She murmured softly, her voice almost inaudible in the sea breeze,

"You did it... you really did it... you protected this country, protected this plane..."

"But... what about yourself...?"

Although they had only known each other for a little over ten days, having experienced life and death together at the foot of Mount Fuji, witnessing each other's struggles and perseverance, a friendship transcending race and difficult to describe had already taken root unknowingly.

Watching this "gluttonous" friend head towards destruction for the sake of protection, her heart felt as if it had been frozen by extreme cold.

"I... will see you off on your last journey."

She slowly descended, her toes lightly touching the sea surface, rippling outwards.

She extended a pale yet slender hand, with a hint of final farewell, gently pressing it onto Su Chen's carapace, which had lost all its luster and was like withered wood.

However—

The moment her fingertips touched the carapace!

Aria's delicate body trembled violently!

Her pair of dark purple beautiful eyes suddenly contracted to the extreme, bursting forth with an unbelievable light!

"This... this is... a Seed of Life?! There's still an extremely faint Seed of Life beating?!"

She could hardly believe her perception!

"How is this possible?! With his meager strength, forcefully burning his life essence to activate the eternal ice core... logically speaking... both his soul and physical body should have completely collapsed a hundred times over?! How could there still be a trace of life's spark?!"

The immense shock made her breathing suddenly quicken! She immediately bent down, her powerful mental energy like the most precise scanner, frantically searching within Su Chen's nearly shattered body!

"Found it! It's... it's Power Of Faith!!"

Aria's beautiful eyes suddenly burst with sparks of hope!

"It's the faith of those blue star human race in him! He has accumulated a lot of unconsumed faith energy in his body! At the last moment when his life essence was about to completely burn out... it was this pure Power Of Faith... that protected his most core bit of life essence from perishing!!!"

This discovery made her almost tremble with excitement!

"As long as a sufficiently vast and pure Power Of Faith is continuously infused... like nourishing a dying seed... this spark of life could potentially regain vitality... take root and sprout... making him... come back to life!!!"

Hope appeared like a sudden light in the darkness! Aria did not hesitate, with a wave of her right hand, her figure instantly blurred and disappeared above the sea surface... inside the front-line command room.

Grief, like a tangible dense fog, enveloped everyone.

Suppressed sobs and heavy sighs intertwined. No one spoke; everyone was immersed in the immense emptiness and sorrow of losing their guardian god.

Suddenly—

The space in the center of the command room twisted, and Aria's figure instantly appeared!

"World-Ending Spider Queen!!!"

"Enemy attack!!"

"Protect the commanders!!!"

The guards instantly tensed, their weapons uniformly pointed at the suddenly appearing Aria, the atmosphere fraught with tension!

"Stop!"

From the main seat, Qin Zheng shouted in a hoarse but exceptionally steady voice.

He raised his hand, signaling the guards to lower their weapons, and looked at Aria with complicated eyes.

"No need to be nervous... this Spider Queen is Kraken's... friend."

Although Su Chen had not explicitly said so, Qin Zheng had clearly seen Aria risking her life to appear on the battlefield and try to take Su Chen away.

Aria's cold gaze quickly swept across the room, passing over the Marshal's badges on Qin Zhenshan's and Lei Zhen's shoulders, finally settling on Qin Zheng, who, though having lost his power, still exuded a powerful aura.

"You... should be the ones in charge of this country."

Her voice was clear and cold, yet carried an undeniable urgency, "I ask you... do you want to save Big Guy?!"

Buzz—!

This sentence was like a clap of thunder, exploding in the deathly silent command room!

Everyone's gaze instantly focused on Aria! Qin Zhenshan lunged forward, his voice distorted by extreme excitement:

"You... you mean... His Highness Kraken... still... still has a chance to be saved?!"

"Yes!"

Aria nodded decisively, "I have a way! But... it requires the strength of your entire nation! I alone... cannot save him!"

"Save him! We will save him no matter what! As long as His Highness can be revived! We are willing to give everything!!!" Lei Zhen almost roared, his tiger eyes red.

"Don't be so quick to agree."

Aria took a deep breath, her tone becoming extremely solemn, "Listen to me completely, and weigh the pros and cons."

"Now, within Big Guy's body, under the protection of the Power Of Faith, a trace of life's spark has fortunately been preserved. To save him, it requires a massive number of people to sincerely believe in him, contributing the purest Power Of Faith, using this power to nourish the spark and bring it back to life."

"That's simple! I'll immediately have all the soldiers..." Lei Zhen was impatient.

"Not enough!"

Aria interrupted him directly, her voice cold,

"The faith of your tens of millions of troops is a drop in the bucket! Even if your Divine Summer mobilizes the strength of the entire nation... the success rate of saving him... is less than ten percent! He was too severely injured this time, affecting his life essence!"

A collective gasp of cold air immediately echoed in the command room.

Aria's gaze swept over their shocked and heavy faces, then she threw out the most cruel price:

"Moreover... contributing faith to Big Guy means revering him as your deity and establishing a faith connection."

"Once... I mean, once... the rescue fails, and Big Guy ultimately perishes... then, everyone who has established a faith connection with him... their cultivation will completely dissipate with the fall of the deity! Your entire Divine Summer... will become a mortal nation... without extraordinary power!"

"In this world full of crises... you should be very clear what losing power means."

"With such immense risk... such slim hope... do you... still want to save him?!"

Aria's words were like ice water, dousing everyone's hearts.

The cost was too heavy.

To gamble the future potential of an entire civilization on a hope of less than ten percent... However—

In this suffocating silence, Qin Zheng slowly stood up.

His body was no longer as upright, but it carried an undeniable determination.

His gaze swept over every general, his voice not loud, but clearly reaching everyone's ears, and through the still-open communication channels, transmitted to all who could hear:

"All this time, it has been His Highness Kraken protecting our Divine Summer. He blocked giant beasts for us, repelled foreign races, and even just now... used his life to shield us from annihilation!"

"Now, for our sake, he has fallen, his life hanging by a thread."

"He never gave up on us, not once!"

"Now... it's our turn!"