At this, Darwin General turned to Camilla: "Shadow Vein is very complicated. How many enemies can your spirit clone penetrate?"
Camilla General slowly opened her eyes. A strange spirit figure flickered in the depths of her pupils. "About 40% of the chanical Shadow Beasts still have a biological control center. I can try to get through. The other 60% are pure machines. They need to be destroyed physically."
Timo General heard this and grinned: "Breaking machines? My Abyssal Behemoth is better at that."
Suddenly, an alarm rang out.
Darwin General imdiately activated a hologram.
In the image, a dark mass of Shadow Beasts ca like a flood.
Their shells had a tallic shine. Their joints showed shadow energy patterns and nano runes intertwined. Their limbs were modified into tal claws, and their backs were equipped with Energy Cannons.
These chanical Shadow Beasts had red crystal eyes. When they scanned, they left afterimages in the air.
Before the Generals could speak, the beasts opened their massive chanical mouths and fired missiles.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The first wave of fire exploded against the fortress’s shield.
Darwin General raised his hand, and the nanobot storage in the command center opened.
Billions of nanobots rushed out like a silver flood, forming an electromagnetic interference net in the air.
Darwin General looked at Philip General and nodded: "Philip, go out and fight."
"Understood!" Philip General’s familiar space unfolded behind him, and [Hayya·Bakaz] rose up, flying into the sky.
Its exosuit arms spread out, and energy blades popped out from its wrists. It charged at the Shadow Beast swarm.
In an instant, a sound of tal tearing and energy explosions filled the air.
Since Philip General ca back to life, he had beco even more skilled with [Hayya·Bakaz]. He ran through the enemies like no one was there.
But he quickly found the problem — the damaged parts of the chanical Shadow Beasts were automatically repaired by nanomaterials in three seconds.
The cut tal parts spewed silver fluid, quickly rebuilding new joints.
The inside of the broken body wasn’t chanical parts — it was wriggling shadow energy cores and nanorepair units.
"Darwin, they can heal themselves!" Philip General said calmly.
"Got it!" Darwin General quickly analyzed the data. His pupils flashed with a string of numbers: "The healing energy cos from Shadow Vein. The source is endless, so they’re almost immortal. But the healing process will expose the resonance frequency of the nano runes. That’s their weakness."
At this mont, Camilla General’s spirit clone stood up and made a hand sign.
Her ntal power took the form of countless semi-transparent tentacles. They entered the battlefield and precisely found the Shadow Beasts that still had biological control centers.
The tentacles pierced the heads and forced the control instructions.
"I found it!" Camilla General’s forehead rippled: "The control center has a remote link frequency from the Shadow projection. I’m trying to crack it, but her ntal defense is too strong — like a black wall."
As she finished speaking, three pure chanical Shadow Beasts broke through the defense and rushed toward the command center.
Timo General snorted and crushed a deep rune in his hand.
Suddenly, the ground cracked open, and six Abyssal Behemoths crawled out. They crashed into the chanical Shadow Beasts.
At the sa ti, Darwin General’s nanobot interference net started to shrink.
The silver grid covered the whole battlefield, and electromagnetic pulses washed over the Shadow Beast mass.
The nano runes of Order Reorganization Protocol showed abnormal frequency fluctuations under the pulse interference. The enemy machines began to act confused.
Darwin General’s core processor worked at full speed, compressing billions of resonance data into a 3D coordinate model for analysis.
"Frequency locked... fifty percent... seventy percent... ninety-five percent..."
On the other side, Camilla General forced a link through her spirit and managed to take control of two Shadow Beasts, turning them against their own. The battlefield exploded into chaos.
But soon, the two Shadow Beasts started roaring and violently beating their heads.
Camilla General groaned, her eyes flashing wildly. "Shadow’s ntal defense is fighting back. I can’t reach the mind coordinates anymore."
"You don’t need to read everything!" Darwin General’s voice ca through. "I used the resonance frequency of the nano runes to reverse-engineer the anchor point coordinates."
"Three signal sources. One is exactly where your real body is heading — Diablo’s coordinates are confird, but there’s so difference from what we expected. The other two are under the Temple City’s underground altar and the Federation Central Bank vault."
Three red dots lit up on the holographic map.
Darwin compressed the coordinate data and sent it through the highest-level encrypted channel to Logan.
"Mission complete. Now, pull out."
"Pull out?" Philip General cut down a Shadow Beast with his ch and frowned. "What about these monsters? They’re still coming!"
Darwin General’s voice stayed calm. "The steel fortress’s self-destruct sequence has been activated. Sixty seconds to go."
"Everyone, get out of here right now. Camilla, cut the link to your spirit clone. Your real body needs to focus on the battle with the Tribunal."
Camilla’s spirit clone nodded, her form slowly fading. "Coordinates have been synced with Solon and Dominic. Good luck, comrades!"
After Camilla left, Timo General and Philip General both climbed onto their flying familiars and flew away.
They knew this was Darwin’s bait — a military fortress traded for exact coordinates of three anchor points.
In Darwin’s tactical logic, it was a fair deal.
Outside the fortress, the mass of chanical Shadow Beasts sensed the energy shift and rushed toward the command center.
But they hit an invisible spatial barrier — a containnt field Darwin had set up in advance. It slowed them down for ten seconds.
The countdown hit zero.
The steel fortress’s core reactor overloaded, and the annihilation protocol started.
A blinding white light burst from deep underground, swallowing everything around it.
The shockwave swept for kiloters, turning the chanical Shadow Beasts into vapor in the heat. The nano runes were completely destroyed — no scraps left.
The light lasted for ten full seconds, turning the night sky into daylight.
Far away, Timo General sat on [Hayya·Bakaz], sighing. "Good thing you two are ch masters. That speed must be at least 10 Maches, right?"
"Hold on, you idiot! Don’t forget your seatbelt!" Darwin General didn’t even bother replying.
He pulled up the surveillance footage of Twilight City. There were still scattered fights in the central business district. The Supervisory Council was clearing out the last of the Shadow puppets.
Then he switched to Temple City’s battle. The dragon line was barely holding. Michelangelo’s Golden Holy Dragon had lost most of its scales. Astrid’s Earth Elent Giant was down to three. Eugenia’s knight corps was in a brutal fight with heavy losses updating every minute.
"Ti finally got us," Darwin sighed.
Shadow’s projection was still struggling in the volcano, and the main force of the Shadow Army was stuck in Temple City.
Now Logan had a three-hour window to take out the first anchor point.
He looked toward Saint Heart City and muttered, "Logan, Temple City can hold for three hours. Now it’s up to you."
Philip General frowned. "What about the second and third ones? Can Solon and Corleone get there in ti?"
"Solon already left with Camilla’s real body and Dominic." Darwin shut off the hologram and sighed. "Old Corleone has Fischl and Vincent helping. Evelynna also brought in the Corleone family’s private soldiers. Theoretically, there’s enough ti. But on the battlefield, nothing is certain."
Philip lit a cigarette and exhaled a smoke ring. "I see... we’re old now. We have to leave our fate in soone else’s hands."
"Hmph, you just got it now? Be grateful. The one carrying the weight of our fates is the most reliable human there is." Timo General rolled his eyes at the two of them and lay back on the engine hood of [Hayya·Bakaz], closing his eyes to rest.
...
Starfall City, Corleone Family Underground Intelligence Center
Old Corleone sat at the head of the long table, his fingers tracing the edge of an old bronze pocket watch.
Elena worked quickly on a holographic rune model in front of her.
Rex just walked in, his armor still stained with still-wet black blood. "The isolation of the 7th district is done."
He removed his helt, his voice carrying exhaustion. "Three thousand people controlled by Shadow Beings have been moved to the underground containnt facility. But the black markings are still spreading inside them. Every extra hour we delay, one percent of the controlled could turn into puppets."
Corleone didn’t look up, but he opened the watch and glanced at it. "Panic index?"
Elena imdiately pulled up surveillance footage and data. "Noble district: 40%. Comrcial district: 65%. The commoner district: a shocking 85%. The spread of rumors is three tis faster than we can suppress them."
"Expected." Corleone closed the watch and turned to Grayson. "How’s the Adventurer Guild doing?"
Grayson stopped wiping his axe. "We’re short on manpower. Shadow Beings puppets are infiltrating as common citizens and launching ambushes. In the past two hours, we’ve lost seven people."
Sangra City Lord’s voice rasped through the comms. "The city guard now has only a third of its forces still fit for battle. Mr. Corleone, we need clear orders, not just waiting around like this."
"Waiting is the order." Corleone looked at Sangra City Lord. "We’re buying ti for [Operation Cut Anchor]. Shadow is using these attacks and uprisings to distract us. We can’t fall for it."
At that mont, Elena’s brow furrowed. "The rune monitoring network picked up an abnormal energy fluctuation. Source is in the western noble district, coordinate G7."
She zood in on the surveillance feed.
In the footage, the servants of a noble estate stood frozen in place, their eyes glowing with unnatural black light.
The estate’s master stood on the balcony, slicing open his wrist with a dagger, letting the black blood drip onto the ground, forming a strange rune array.
"It’s direct mind control," ca Camilla’s voice through the comms. Her real body had already left, but the [Echo Spirit] she left behind was still active.
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