Ling Ling’s crimson eyes were locked onto the self-repairing carrier before her. The nanomachines writhed with lifelike speed, the wounds carved by flames healing in less than half a second.
And it was learning.
With every exchange, the carrier’s attack patterns changed, as if specifically tailored to counter the two of them. The combat AI it carried possessed real-time analytical capabilities, growing stronger with each clash.
“Xiao Jiu.” Ling Ling’s voice was low. “Its core is in the center of its chest. Right when the flames exploded earlier, I saw a crystal glowing there.”
“A Divine Relic?”
“Probably.”
Lin Jiu tilted her head. Her azure eyes flashed with a dangerous glint.
“So all we have to do is tear open its chest?”
“…In theory, yes.”
“Got it.”
Lin Jiu flexed her fingers. The joints in her ten knuckles let out a soft crack. She bent her knees slightly, sinking her center of gravity, her entire body like a drawn bowstring.
“Sister, buy me thirty seconds.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Make a cage.”
The moment the words left her mouth, Lin Jiu pressed both hands to the ground.
Matter Reconstruction activated.
With the ability’s activation, the concrete floor began to shake violently. Countless steel rebars burst from beneath the earth, rising one by one around the carrier in precise formations.
The carrier’s AI quickly began analyzing the situation and calculating countermeasures.
It raised its right hand and swept the flame sword forward.
The sweeping fire melted the nearest rebars into molten iron, but Lin Jiu’s Matter Reconstruction reconstructed faster than it could melt. For every rebar it severed, several more grew in its place.
Moreover, each newly generated rebar was covered in a faint black light.
Ability Silence.
Lin Jiu was using both Matter Reconstruction and Ability Silence simultaneously. She used Matter Reconstruction to create the rebars, while coating their surfaces with Ability Silence. This forced the carrier to expend far more energy than normal every time it tried to melt the rebars with its flames.
Because Ability Silence was constantly neutralizing its flames.
“Warning. Energy consumption exceeding projections. Warning. Remaining energy: 73%.”
The carrier reported its status.
But Ling Ling sensed something was off.
She didn’t wait any longer. Taking advantage of the gap created by Lin Jiu’s steel cage, she cut in from the side.
Her right hand gathered a ball of flame—it was the Scorch she had copied after adapting to the carrier’s flames earlier. It wasn’t as strong as the real Surtr’s fire, but it was enough to deal with a biomimetic body.
In her left hand, she condensed an A-rank Flame.
Ling Ling pressed her palms together.
The two flames fused in her grip.
It wasn’t a simple superposition. Using Ability Adaptation as a medium, she pushed both flames’ characteristics to their extremes. Flame was originally an ability focused on large-scale fire spread, but when overlaid with Scorch, which could burn everything to ashes, the fused flame became far more terrifying.
“Warning. Ability type: Unidentifiable. Threat level—”
The carrier didn’t finish.
Ling Ling’s right fist had already slammed into the center of its chest.
The fused flame exploded at the point of impact, like a small sun detonating on B3. The high temperatures ignited the very air, illuminating the entire space in a flash of blinding light.
The carrier’s chest plate was blown open, revealing a large hole. The nanomachines writhed frantically, trying to repair the damage, but Scorch‘s burning-all-things property prevented them from fully healing. In the cracks of the armor, the core was exposed—
A fist-sized diamond-shaped crystal.
It was a black so deep it defied description, with constantly flickering colors on its surface.
It was the Divine Relic!
Ling Ling reached out and grabbed the crystal.
The crystal seemed to sense something in her palm, pulsing like a heartbeat.
Was the Divine Relic reacting to something?
“Not good, sister!” Lin Jiu’s voice dragged her back to reality. “The real Surtr is coming!”
Hearing her sister’s words, Ling Ling activated the sensory ability granted by her Ability Adaptation. She detected two extremely powerful energy fluctuations approaching their location. One felt like scorching flames, and the other like hardened steel.
It was Surtr and Artyom. The real S-ranks were coming.
“Xiao Jiu.” Ling Ling stuffed the Divine Relic crystal into a special container at her waist. “Retreat.”
“Sister, where to?”
Ling Ling scanned the area. B3 had three exits: the stairwell they came from, the stairwell opposite, and a side door marked “Emergency Exit.”
But the two S-rank energy fluctuations were approaching from both stairwells simultaneously.
“The emergency exit.”
“Got it.”
They both sprinted toward the side door.
But just as they were less than ten meters away—
The side door was blown open from the outside.
It wasn’t the flames they had expected, but pure physical force. The metal door flew off its hinges like a piece of paper, bouncing twice on the concrete floor with a shrill metallic screech.
Behind the door stood a huge man, two meters tall.
He had short ash-grey hair and deep, rugged features, with an old scar on his chin. His grey-blue eyes gleamed coldly in the dim light.
It was Iron Wall, Artyom Volkov.
His voice was low, like a growling grizzly, as he shouted at Ling Ling: “White Night! Hand over the Divine Relic now!”
Ling Ling stopped in her tracks.
She didn’t turn around, because she knew the other S-rank must have already blocked their escape route.
Sure enough.
“Two little mice, you run pretty fast, don’t you?”
Surtr‘s voice came from behind. The golden-red flames scattered the shadows of B3, revealing her stern silhouette. Her amber eyes were fixed on the slightly bulging container at Ling Ling’s waist.
“My Divine Relic is not something you two can touch.”
Iron Wall ahead, Surtr behind.
Two S-ranks had them cornered on B3.
Ling Ling was silent for a few seconds.
Then she did something no one expected.
She smiled.
Under her mask, the face that normally showed no emotion no matter what happened began to twist into a look of pleasure.
She smiled.
It wasn’t a loud laugh, but in the empty underground mall, it sounded especially eerie.
“Interesting.”
Hearing her sister speak, Lin Jiu’s face began to contort into a deranged grin.
She knew her sister well. Whenever her sister said “interesting” in a crisis, it usually meant she was about to do something crazy.
But even so, as her sister, she would always follow her to the end.
Seeing the two sisters’ inexplicable behavior, both Surtr and Artyom frowned.
Even though they were only A-ranks, both of them felt a faint threat to their lives.