183: The Storm is Coming, the Lament of the Iron Leviathan

In the cosmic scale, time is a cold and ethereal concept.

But within the Bridge of the Natural Selection, time was compressed into a death countdown, precise to the millisecond.

Three minutes.

This was the boundary between life and death.

The twelve water droplets, fired at sub-light speed, barely registered any flight process in human perception.

Their existence served only to connect the concepts of "launch" and "impact."

There was no tail flame, no roar.

They were twelve assassins from the laws of physics themselves, the ultimate judgment of absolute mass upon a magnificent structure.

Leviathan Headquarters, this steel behemoth entrenched in lawless territory, striking fear into countless civilizations, was still immersed in its ancient arrogance.

The energy shield emitted a dense, eerie blue light, strong enough to withstand the saturated attack of a full-strength main fleet.

The long-range warning systems, like countless vigilant compound eyes, scanned every inch of the surrounding space.

They found nothing.

Until the first water droplet hit its target.

The point of impact was a heavy anti-matter cannon array on the outermost perimeter of the Leviathan fortress.

There was no explosion.

No brilliant flash.

The scene at that instant was utterly bizarre.

The cannon platform, several times larger than the Natural Selection, instantly failed in its sturdy superalloy structure the moment it came into contact with the water droplet.

The tip of the water droplet, condensed with the mass of a white dwarf, directly pierced the energy shield.

That shield, touted to resist attacks based on physical laws, did not even stir a ripple in the face of pure, extreme kinetic energy; it simply vanished into thin air, wiped from reality by an invisible hand.

Immediately after, the water droplet plunged into the cannon platform's armor.

Time was slowed down countless times by an invisible force.

Centered on the point of impact, the cannon platform's metal structure began a chain-like, incomprehensible disintegration.

It wasn't blown apart, nor was it melted.

It was squeezed, torn, and penetrated from the most fundamental material level by an irresistible force.

The sturdy alloy armor curled inward, shattered, and transformed into billions of silent metallic streams, wildly splashing towards the interior of the fortress.

The water droplet, dragging a path of destruction composed of metal debris, energy pipelines, and flesh, shot straight into the depths of the fortress.

One second later.

The other eleven water droplets, from different angles and with equally undeniable force, struck their respective targets.

A main energy relay station was pierced, and the massive amount of internal energy, losing its restraint, detonated with a roar, forming a huge energy void that devoured everything from within.

A spatial stabilization anchor was severed, causing the spatial structure of a large surrounding area to violently twist; several patrol ships were swept into the spatial turbulence and torn to shreds before they could even issue an alarm.

A command center responsible for coordinating defense, along with thousands of operators within it, was "deleted" from three-dimensional space… If the Leviathan fortress before was a steel behemoth armed to the teeth.

Then at this moment, it was like being simultaneously pierced through the heart, brain, and all nerve centers by twelve venomous needles.

Twelve bottomless, continuously collapsing holes appeared on its massive body.

The steady energy flow instantly became chaotic, gushing plasma and uncontrolled storms like a water pipe riddled with countless holes.

Inside the fortress, it was already hell on earth.

The shrill alarm, delayed for a full three seconds, finally shrieked through every corner.

Countless guild members, in violent tremors and weightlessness, crashed into each other like headless flies, their faces filled with bewilderment and disbelief.

"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!!"

"How is this possible?! Where are the shields? Where are our shields?!"

"Report! G-7 sector is offline! No! The entire G sector has vanished!"

"Who is it?! Who did this?!"

Panic, like a plague, spread wildly among the survivors.

Their proudly named "Never-Falling City" was riddled with holes within seconds.

They hadn't even seen the shadow of the enemy.

This unknown brought boundless despair.

Inside the Bridge, Lin Mo calmly watched the main screen.

The once invincible fortress now resembled a tattered honeycomb, billowing smoke and flashing dangerous red lights.

Leviathan's defense system had collapsed by ninety-three percent.

"Third step."

Lin Mo's voice sealed the final judgment on this trial.

"Reap."

A cold arc formed on Gu Zhixia's lips.

She had waited too long.

"thunder dragon mecha, sortie!"

The Hangar hatch slid open.

The thunder dragon mecha, a demonic machine fused with three laws of thunder, vibrated the golden, blue, and purple light wings on its back, transforming into a streak of light that tore through the darkness, rushing towards the wailing steel hell.

This time, there was no longer any obstruction.

The thunder dragon mecha was like a red-hot scalpel, precisely cutting into the beast's wound.

Wherever it passed, all patrol ships and mecha squads attempting to counterattack were instantly engulfed by the thunder light.

A destroyer tried to launch missiles, but a golden bolt of lightning descended from the sky, melting it and its missiles into molten iron.

A mecha squadron tried to gather, but a blue electric net appeared out of thin air, enveloping them. All mechas instantly lost control, colliding with each other under the effect of conductive lightning, and detonated into a grand chain reaction of fireworks.

Those ace pilots, considered trump cards by the Leviathan high command, couldn't last a single exchange against the thunder dragon mecha.

An ace pilot, commanding a ferocious black mecha, had just roared, "Loyalty to the Guild Master!"

A tiny, dark purple electric arc gently brushed past.

The next second, his mecha, along with himself, vanished into thin air.

There was no explosion.

No wreckage.

As if he had never existed in this universe.

This was Annihilation.