137: shell!

Brian's gaze swept past the chaotic battle before him, firmly locking onto the sand table.

That emerald core still pulsed steadily.

His fingertips lightly tapped the edge of the control panel.

Calculating the timing for his next move.

This game had only just entered its mid-game.

Just then!

The emerald core's pulsing suddenly accelerated.

Like an enraged heart, it violently pounded this living domain.

In the central area of the living labyrinth.

All the flesh walls, conduits, and fungal mats simultaneously emitted a dazzling emerald glow.

Energy surged wildly within them, producing a mountain-and-sea-like hum.

The entire labyrinth was no longer a cage.

It was transforming itself into a massive biological energy cannon!

At the labyrinth's dome, the interwoven conduits suddenly tore and reassembled.

An emerald energy vortex, over a thousand meters in diameter, rapidly formed.

Light twisted at the vortex's center.

Destructive energy compressed and condensed within it.

Emitting fluctuations that made one's soul tremble.

"Super-standard energy reaction detected! Intensity has exceeded measurement limits!"

Spirit Eye's warning and a piercing alarm simultaneously echoed through the main tower.

On the sand table, the area representing the labyrinth's core had turned into a dazzling, pale white.

The energy vortex was not targeting the legions on the ground.

But the three Mage Towers two thousand kilometers away!

It intended to unleash a decisive, fatal blow with all the power accumulated within the entire domain!

"Barrier overloaded!"

"Combined Defense Array, maximum power!"

Brian's commands were cold and swift.

The energy output of the three Mage Towers instantly pushed to their limits, and the runes on their bodies burned with unprecedented brightness.

Three layers of thick energy shields overlapped in front of the towers, their thickness dramatically increasing.

Like three colossal, translucent city walls, they spanned across the sky.

Around Eric's Lapis Lazuli Tower, the four great elemental spirits surged forth madly.

They no longer maintained individual forms but transformed into pure elemental torrents.

Fire, earth, water, and wind intertwined to form a brilliant yet dense elemental barrier.

Reinforcing the outermost layer of the combined shield.

Almost the very next second after the defenses formed—

Boom!!!!!!

A pillar of emerald light, undefinable in color and distorting everything.

Shot forth from the vortex at the labyrinth's center!

It pierced through heaven and earth, leaving black cracks in space wherever it passed.

Instantly devouring light and sound.

The next moment.

The light pillar violently slammed into the combined shield!

There was no explosion.

Only a sharp, ear-splitting shriek as energy annihilated!

The outermost elemental barrier instantly melted like snow in the sun!

Immediately after, the first combined shield flickered violently, supported for half a second, then shattered with a crash!

The second shield lasted for one second, then also disintegrated!

The light pillar's power was only weakened by thirty percent, slamming hard into the last, and thickest, third shield!

Destructive ripples spread across the shield's surface, its light flickering erratically, as if it could collapse at any moment.

The tower's body groaned, indicating its structural limits were being reached.

"Shield energy dropping rapidly! 67%... 42%... 19%...!"

Spirit Eye's report was intermittent amidst the noise of the energy storm.

Brian's pupils constricted slightly.

He saw it.

At the source of that destructive light pillar, in the labyrinth's core.

A gigantic, illusory emerald tree, composed entirely of life source essence crystals, was slowly rising.

Its roots were deeply embedded throughout the entire living domain.

That last attack had almost drained all the energy within the domain.

"It's exhausted," Brian's voice was firm and decisive. "Now's the time!"

Almost the instant his words fell—

The emerald light from the labyrinth's core visibly dimmed.

The destructive light pillar also rapidly weakened and dissipated.

The combined shield in the sky, though covered in cracks, ultimately did not break.

The three Mage Towers remained steadily suspended in place.

"Two hundred final judgments!"

Brian's voice was like ice hitting the ground.

"Target, the core giant tree's illusion."

"Divine Authority Judgment!"

"Volley!"

The long-accumulated fury transformed into thunder that tore through heaven and earth.

Two hundred final judgments unleashed their energy without reservation!

Beams of scorching white torrents, thicker, more condensed, and flowing with pure destructive factors than the previous labyrinth bombardment.

Like spears of judgment thrown by a god!

They descended with a roar upon the exhausted emerald giant tree!

This time.

It was its turn to endure the ultimate judgment from an alien civilization!

The spears of judgment pierced into the emerald core!

The scorching white and verdant green reached their peak intensity in an instant!

Then, the light imploded inward, forming a singularity that devoured everything.

All sounds ceased!

The next moment.

The singularity exploded!

The outline of the emerald giant tree melted like ice and snow in the pure white light.

Not shattering, but decomposing!

From macroscopic structure to microscopic particles, layer by layer, it peeled away, turning into nothingness.

Only a giant, mirror-smooth black pit remained in its place.

The silence of victory lasted only three seconds.

In the center of the black pit.

A faint emerald spark suddenly lit up; it wasn't an energy convergence point, but more like a... coordinate?

Hum—

A low resonance emanated from deep underground.

No, it emanated from the entire plane's 'Life Network'!

Using that spark as a guide, within a radius of several hundred kilometers, all remaining life source essence, biological tissue, and even the remnants of fallen bio-constructs, like soldiers receiving a supreme command, began a frantic sacrifice and reconstruction!

The collapsing labyrinth flesh walls no longer flowed backward but transformed into viscous fluid, surging towards the pit's center.

Scattered metal fragments were forcibly devoured and smelted by biological tissue.

Escaped energy was forcibly extracted and gathered by an invisible network.

This was not time reversal.

This was... the ultimate form of reconstruction, using all matter and energy from the entire battlefield as a sacrifice!

A colossal chrysalis, composed of countless biological tissues, metal remnants, and energy flows, frantically 'grew' in the pit's center at a visible speed!

On the chrysalis's surface, patterns like blood vessels and circuit boards pulsated, emitting a suffocating energy pressure.

Its intensity had actually reached the absolute limit of peak Level 6!

And it was still climbing, attempting to breach that insurmountable, invisible barrier of Level 7!

What was even more unsettling was—

The chrysalis's pulsation stirred the entire eastern ocean of life energy across the plane.

In the distance, more life source essence light streams, like a hundred rivers returning to the sea, crossed space and converged into the chrysalis.

It was transforming itself into a temporary manifestation of this plane's life force!

The three Mage Towers in the sky simultaneously emitted piercing alarms.

"Super-gigantic life signature is forming!"

"Energy level: peak Level 6! Still rising!"

"Planar environment exhibiting assimilation effect, external energy replenishment efficiency decreased by 20%!"

An iron oath guardian located at the edge of the reconstruction zone suddenly had its heavy armor covered by pale fungal hyphae surging from the ground.

The hyphae frantically secreted potent decomposing enzymes; the metal was visibly corroded and broken down, becoming nutrients for the chrysalis's growth.

This was an extremely overbearing and efficient biological matter plunder and conversion!

Around Eric's Lapis Lazuli Tower, the elemental spirits became restless.

"It's forcibly drawing all energy from this area!" Eric's voice was grave. "Including elemental energy! It's repelling all forces not of its system!"

Brian stood before the main screen.

The screen showed the pale chrysalis, pulsating like a heart and continuously expanding.

And on the chrysalis's surface, the gradually clearer, eerie green patterns, like countless eyes slowly opening.

He understood!

What they had destroyed was indeed just an outer shell, a core used for restraint and disguise.

Now, facing an existential crisis, the collective consciousness of this plane's life network, or the true body of some ancient existence, was sparing no expense, forcibly condensing all its power to manifest its strongest form allowed by this plane's rules.

This was the most extreme clash of power against power, beneath the ceiling of Level 6.