Chapter 1082: Chapter 1082: Escape
“That’s not a real Angel,” Alaya looked at the distant enemy and resolutely repeated, “These are all Thought Bodies!”
Alaya’s words made everyone stunned. I lowered my head, silently contemplating whether I should make a quip about the term “Thought Body,” but it seed that a quipping session wasn’t quite appropriate given the current situation…
“So they’re projections?” Lin Xue furrowed her brows, “That explains why I always encounter interference when predicting their weaknesses. They’re a bunch of shadows with no past or future… My goodness, are even the projections this formidable? Are the mysterious side of the Old Empire all monsters? At what level would such entities stand within the mysterious side of the Old Empire?”
“Mid-level Commanders, there are three almost Leader Level,” Alaya said while waving her hand to summon a massive Holy Light Hamr, directly smashing an enemy released by Qianqian into a cloud of dispersed light mist. Our strategy was this: Qianqian suppressed the entire enemy force, she would release a few each ti, and the rest of us concentrated fire to eliminate these extrely tenacious Xyrin Angels. During this, Sandora and Big Sister continuously maintained area skills to suppress all enemies’ spiritual power and luck. The division of labor was clear and the cooperation flawless—after all, there were quite a few non-combatant girls to protect in the team—and this wasn’t our first collaboration mission. As for non-combatants like Lin Xue, their job was to serve as background support in the center of the team and hold Xiao Xue still when she pulled out two big flower bouquets, hopping around shouting encouragent.
Upon learning that what stood before us were not actual Angel Envoys, everyone fought without reservations. We already had an undeniable upper hand in combat strength (even though we had to protect several non-combatants among us), and the enemy’s only threat lay in their ho field advantage. Thus, when we fought unleashed, the number of Xyrin Angels quickly dwindled. However, their survival ability was indeed exceptionally strong; Holy Light Power—true to its nature—excelled in producing “protection” and “redemption” effects. When those enemies were in full defensive mode, it took quite an effort to take them down swiftly: after all, there were so nearly Leader Level ones among them. What does it an to be nearly Leader Level? It’s akin to the old 300 Commander level; imagine how hard it is to instantly kill three Sicaros, and you’ll get the idea.
Nevertheless, it was just unexpected survival ability; this battle had no suspense. In fact, once the enemy numbers were halved, even the still-unripe Little Crow, divh, was trusted by Big Sister to join the battlefield—this silly bird aid to “help Master fight the bad guys,” her exact words.
Despite her mindlessness, divh’s combat capability wasn’t exactly weak. Though still quite young, she couldn’t resist after devouring a True God’s essence of power—sotis, I felt this bird probably had so protagonist’s halo. Otherwise, how could she casually dig around in the dirt and find elixirs, boosting her strength by tens of thousands of years? A hundred-ter-tall Giant Bird charging into battle had massive impact. Even if she couldn’t fully concentrate her power to achieve that high-crested lethality and couldn’t inflict much effective damage on the enemy, a gigantic Energy Ball enveloped with storm, arcane, shadow, and magma causing chaos in their lines was certainly unpleasant for the Angels. Their once uniform formation was quickly disrupted by the extraordinarily loud and enormous silly bird. Silly bird’s fighting style was particularly unrestrained: desperately unleashing every skill she could muster, rolling and rampaging in the enemy’s ranks, scratching and shouting, then rushing back to pant with tongue lolling, only to charge out again for another round… Anyway, she was invulnerable at the mont—her human half was left within our protection zone, making her now essentially invincible.
So, Little Crow isn’t that dumb after all.
“Thought Bodies shouldn’t originally have such strong power,” Alaya explained to us via Spiritual Connection during the battle, “but this tower has amplified them. The enemy is using the tower’s magic power to replenish themselves, and this peculiar space can also suppress intruders to so extent, making these Thought Bodies almost as tough to deal with as their originals. The old Empire’s mysterious side had many unbelievable thods. Compared to the more quantifiable and qualitative Technology Side, the mysterious side’s warriors are full of variables and can easily adjust the combat power between allies and foes through flexible ans. In short… dealing with them is quite troubleso.”
Despite saying it’s troubleso, the enemy numbers had now dwindled significantly. I felt that these Angels branded as “Thought Bodies” didn’t seem to possess complete intelligence—although there were signs they communicated with each other, they appeared quite rigid in combat, which, from the beginning of the battle until now, was a major reason why they couldn’t inflict any real substantial damage on us. Perhaps it was because they weren’t the original entities.
Under the shelling of Pandora and Visca, and the violent onslaught of the Tiaozi Five, even the last remaining six or seven groups of opposing Angels finally lost their combat capabilities, dissipating into countless light specks scattered across the air. This inexplicable encounter, with its crooked process, ended in a rather satisfactory conclusion.
“Caw! Caw!” The loud crowing echoed everywhere. The silly bird, feeling like she accomplished a great deed, began flapping her wings and ran madly around, creating her usual colossal racket. She finally cald down after a minute of running, standing before us and playfully rubbing her enormous beak against my face. I’ve now given up trying to get her to tell ducks apart from crows, just tapping approvingly against her beak.
…Hard as a warship’s armor plate—two unlucky enemies were pecked to death by this silly bird earlier…
The chaotic energy around us quickly dissipated, and the distorted space returned to its original state at a visible speed. Soon, we were back on the first floor of the Phantom Tower. The vast, empty hall was as it always was, with no traces of battle, as if the fight just now never happened. The only change was that the ever-present thin mist had disappeared.
“Looks like we’ve got ourselves a war prisoner,” ca the soft hum of the Holy Light from behind. Sandora glanced back with a peculiar smile. “Even though it’s just a… thought body. Alaya, why hasn’t this enemy vanished?”
The prisoner Sandora referred to was the foreign angel that Little Baobao had clumsily “captured” earlier. I’ll just call this enemy Angel A for now. After all the enemies outside the defensive line were obliterated, this captured enemy was the last one remaining. Strangely, as the surrounding energy field dissipated, this pure energy creature was still alive and seed in good spirits—he or she was trying to negotiate with Little Baobao to retrieve their longsword and arcane magic ball, while the latter was babbling on, trying to bargain for more shiny toys. Their interaction was a ss.
Alaya and Lin Xue went to check if there were any abnormal energies left in the hall, to ensure that no more defense chanisms would be triggered the next ti we act. anwhile, I watched the prisoner, who was awkwardly extending an arm toward Little Baobao and seed sowhat intellectually challenged. The prisoner had a bit of free movent but was still mostly restrained. Qianqian’s eyes never left this guy, while Sandora was beside them grinding her claws. My sister was already doodling the Olympic rings in her little notebook…
If this prisoner posed any unforeseen threat, they would certainly die in a myriad of ways.
“Why not just kill it? Looks like we can’t communicate,” Qianqian concluded after a brief thought. I looked up and noticed her expression was as cold as ice; she was still in her personality switch mode. To her, the enemy was rely a “useful/useless” object, to be disposed of without any psychological burden if it proved inconvenient.
“The hostility seems completely gone; what’s going on?” Sandora poked Angel A’s face with her claw. The latter instinctively flinched but otherwise seed to ignore everyone around them, still reaching out stubbornly towards Little Baobao. I instructed Sandora and Qianqian to lessen their suppression, but the strange enemy showed no intention to counterattack.
More importantly, even an expert like Sandora couldn’t sense any aggressive intent from them—she had imprinted a soul mark on the latter, which would trigger a spiritual attack if there was even a hint of hostility. Yet, the mark elicited no response.
“Could it be that since the defense system is offline, they’re left without a target?” My sister slipped a note with the Olympic rings into the enemy’s clothes. “Alright, lift the suppression. They can’t fight anymore.”
Qianqian snorted, and together with Sandora, stopped using their powers. She imdiately reverted to her cheerful, curious self, delightedly poking Angel A with a stick: “Ah Jun, this guy feels like jelly, all soft and squishy!”
I hastily stopped her reckless action: “Ahem, Shadows have their rights too, you know. Don’t do that.” Then, I crouched down to observe the prisoner. Even after the restraints were lifted, as Sandora said, there was no inclination to fight—not even to stand up. They maintained their previous posture, lying on the floor, stubbornly reaching a hand toward Little Baobao: it seed the stolen Holy Light Longsword and Arcane Magic Ball had beco their greatest resentnt. I’d noticed sothing peculiar about this enemy: they didn’t appear to have a fully solid form, more like an indistinct shadow. However, they did possess a tangible body and wings, which, upon cursory inspection, looked almost identical to Alaya or other angels. It was just… their face remained obscured, as if shrouded in a dense fog, making their features indistinct. I was sure they had a face, but I simply couldn’t make it out.
Additionally, their physique was quite androgynous and equally vague, dressed in attire devoid of gender distinctions (looking sowhat like a modified military uniform), making it impossible to determine whether they were male or female. Since Alaya is the angel I’m most familiar with, I instinctively felt this might be a female… she seed quite slender.
“Ah Jun, do you think this is a male or female?” Qianqian, surprisingly, had the sa thought as (how terrifying is that, having the sa idea as this peculiar girl!), coming over to curiously inquire, even poking the chest while musing: “Hmm, quite ambiguous, feels like there’s sothing but also like there’s nothing…”
I broke into a cold sweat and quickly shoved her aside, instinctively glancing at Ji Shanshan: “You can’t judge that from the chest.”
Ji Shanshan was coaxing Little Baobao to return things to their owner, but suddenly her whole body involuntarily stiffened, turning her head to shout at : “Rude! Pervert! Filthy! Had I not died early, I could have grown more!”
I silently glanced at the Pandora Sisters: “Growth… depends on physique…”
The two of them, standing a ter twenty tall, each headbutted once.
“For energy beings who forget who they are, gender and appearance do not exist, they are aningless,” Alaya explained to us after circling around and conducting a check from afar, “The Thought Body is a special phenonon produced by High Order Mysterious System Apostles like . Since we can transform into pure energy beings, High Order Mysterious Side Apostles are very adept at controlling energy. We use this talent to create pure energy avatars that are almost identical to our true forms. Unlike mass projections or mirages, these avatars have quite strong combat capabilities and can be as powerful as the original body under special circumstances, like inside this tower. The original bodies of these angels were likely the builders of the Sky Tower. They integrated their Thought Bodies into the tower’s defense system, becoming the Eternal Guards here, effectively turning part of their bodies into components of the Sky Tower. Now that their original bodies may no longer exist, this has caused all the Thought Bodies to go out of control. The out-of-control Thought Bodies have lost most of their mories and intelligence, acting only on initial commands and reflexes. Since a pure energy being’s body is determined by consciousness, losing mory ans they forget what they look like, maintaining only a vague silhouette — like the angel Lord Brother sees now. The defense system is down, the original bodies are missing, and the combat commands have been interrupted, turning them into confused instinct-driven creatures that are no longer a threat.”
Sandora seed to understand so of this knowledge as well. After Alaya’s explanation, she quickly grasped the situation of these guards and looked at : “Although loss of identity results in the loss of appearance and precise body, the Thought Body can maintain eighty to ninety percent of the original physique characteristics. From my observations, this angel should originally have been female, so — Ah Jun if you keep squeezing here and there, I’m going to be jealous!”
“Uh, what?” I quickly let go, looking around innocently, “… That’s … that’s not my fault!”
Everyone expressed that they knew nothing, and Bingdisi started suggesting Sandora prepare a nail board at ho.
“The security level of the tower seems to have increased.” Alaya suddenly spoke again, saving my life. The slightly out-of-touch Angel Sister seed unaware of the change in the atmosphere around her, still dutifully reporting her findings, “Apart from the mirrored entrance, all areas above the Phantom Tower’s five hundredth floor are locked down, and the Crystal Cluster doesn’t display any teleport options to those floors at all.”
“Damn, what a hassle,” Bingdisi swung her arms, appearing as though the previous battle made her hands a bit sore, “Did you guys build this thing just to ss with others — Oh, now I rember, you don’t know what happened to this place either… Oh damn! What’s going on!”
Sister Bing’s muttering abruptly stopped, and she suddenly yelled out in surprise, drawing all eyes to her.
“Why the hell are you screaming!” Sandora glared at the female hooligan, who was trying to communicate with the captured angel in hopes of stirring so mory or similar, but Sister Bing’s sudden scream interrupted her efforts, much to her annoyance.
“I suggest we leave this damned place imdiately,” Bingdisi waved a claw in front of and Sandora, “a heartfelt suggestion: look at your own body.”
“Body?” I glanced down, not seeing anything unusual, “Nothing’s wrong, right?”
“Damn, you’re the only one who’s fine!” Bingdisi suddenly pulled Sandora closer, pointing at her clothes, “Look at yourself! Her clothes are fading in color!”
It was only then I realized that the sky-blue dress Sandora was wearing had turned gray-blue, and the color was still changing at a visibly rapid pace.
“All the colors are fading,” Monina’s eyes swiftly surveyed everyone, her blood-red pupils now taking on a black-gray hue, “not sure when it started, but everyone’s color is turning black and white…”
“The tower is assimilating the invaders! Get out quickly!” Lin Xue suddenly shouted urgently. As she said this, her clothes had almost entirely lost their color, appearing like a photograph from the last century. She then yanked on Alaya, “Stop dawdling, quickly teleport everyone in front of that mirror!”
Even the slowest group realized that this was no place to linger, and dashed towards the activating Crystal Cluster. Bingdisi, while running, pulled out a little mirror to check herself and happily tugged on my arm: “Hey, Chen, look at my eyes. They’re just like yours now! Black! Pure black!”
Sandora nearly slipped: “How did I end up knowing such a weirdo like you!”
Bingdisi laughed heartily, pointing to Sandora’s hair: “Your hair’s turned white too! Now we both have the sa hair! Oh my, Chen, your angel has beco a pure white silhouette! Not a single transition color left! Where’s Little Baobao? She’s disappeared again… oh, she’s hanging on Alaya, I couldn’t see her…”
Cold sweat covered my face, sparking a feeling that eliminating this character would earn an instant promotion…
And what crushed even more was that Qianqian also realized what was happening, joyfully cupping her face: “Ah Jun, Ah Jun, have I turned white?”
Sweetheart, you were already very fair! Please don’t add to the chaos at a ti like this!
As this eerie “black-and-white assimilation” quickly activated, the Crystal Clusters for teleportation seed to be suppressed too. Despite emitting sharp screeches, the teleportation refused to start, until finally, Bingdisi couldn’t hold back. She swung her Holy Bible adorned with chains and a battering ram fiercely at the Crystal Cluster: “Let recharge you! Secret Technique: Forty-five Degree Impact Repair thod!”
The Holy Bible exploded with a blinding (probably originally golden) Holy Light, and just when I thought this odd hooligan had destroyed the teleportation system, we were all teleported to the mirror hall — that actually worked!
In a nick of ti, we finally escaped this dangerous, bizarre Phantom Tower. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welco to visit Qidian (qidian) to vote for recomndations, monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation.)
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