At this very moment, the Eye of Twilight could barely see even the slightest glimmer of light.
After completely losing control, the elevator did not fall. Instead, it shot straight toward Aquila!
Stelle, Dan Heng, Phainon, Hyacine, and even Mem…
All of them were pressed down onto the elevator platform by that immense upward force, unable to move!
Boom!
A tremendous force, accompanied by a deafening roar, smashed into the platform, causing it to slow down violently.
Everyone who had been firmly pinned down was suddenly thrown into the air by the platform's abrupt deceleration, before crashing awkwardly to the ground one after another.
Stelle landed face-first, dazed and disoriented.
Through the haze, she saw the smoke in front of her dissipate, revealing a massive figure stretching within it.
"That is…!" Stelle's eyes widened in horror.
She knew it was Aquila, the enormous Aquila before her.
But the scene before her was still far too shocking.
Aquila, who should have been melted down by the Golden Pool, was not only completely unharmed, but the eyeball at the junction between its abdomen and neck, the one that should have been split in two by Phainon, had somehow already recovered.
The only obvious injury that could be seen was its neck, which had been chopped in half. Yet bursts of lightning flickered around Aquila's neck.
Right before everyone's eyes, its neck, which already resembled a skeletal frame, had now split open, and red and blue lines could even be seen within the bones…
Before, at least, one could still see something sacred and Titan-like about Aquila.
But now, the feeling it gave Stelle was nothing but sinister and unnatural.
And the eyeball caught between the two necks suddenly flared open! An eyeball wreathed in purple light, its gaze constantly shifting, slowly emerged from within!
Two tentacle-like heads twisted and danced wildly in the sky. Together with the terrifying eyeball in the middle, its entire body exuded the aura of a Black Tide creation!
"!!!"Aquila let out a shriek.
The music and choral chanting in the background also became even more distorted with that shriek.
The audience was completely stunned.
…
: Holy crap… this is so shocking!
: An electronic dragon?
: How did they even come up with this design?! It's insane!!
: Its Coreflame was dug out, and it can still move. It's like a zombie-style.
: This form looks ridiculously strong, doesn't it?!
: Blackened means three times stronger?!
: Damn, I'm convinced! As expected of a boss with three phases!
: Ever since they went into the sky, both the story and battles have been full of surprises…
: Now Aquila's battle is really going to become the true peak.
: The combat and music keep getting stronger every time!
: I've got goosebumps all over! miHoYo is way too amazing!
…
The shock brought by the visuals and story sent the audience into complete frenzy.
The comments flooded the screen like crazy.
Meanwhile, on screen, everyone prepared for battle, gritting their teeth as they got up and faced the terrifying, twisted monster before them.
"That twisted form..."
"Did the black tide bring them back to life?"
Phainon stared at Aquila's distorted body.
"The Coreflame has been taken, yet they still move..." Hyacine also murmured in disbelief.
Suddenly, she thought of someone.
Her expression immediately became especially shocked.
"Lady Seliose, is that you?"
Aquila and Seliose had merged into one. They had originally thought that defeating Aquila also meant defeating Seliose.
But only now, after Aquila had risen from the dead, did Hyacine realize that perhaps Seliose had been hidden inside Aquila all along, never coming out to directly control the battle.
But this twisted monster did not answer Hyacine. It only continued shrieking madly. The subtitle beneath it immediately struck the audience's eyes.
[Decimator, Karma of Daythunder, Eye of Twilight]
This was indeed Seliose! The audience's jaws dropped once again.
They had not expected that a Titan controlled by Seliose would present such a terrifying image!
The shrieking finally ended. The eye between the two necks stared fixedly at everyone. Everyone could feel the sense of scrutiny coming from that gaze.
Suddenly, one of Aquila's necks weakly lifted, swaying as it pointed toward the distant sky.
The sky, already covered by dark clouds, was instantly swallowed by an indescribably nauseating crimson color.
Those crimson clouds gathered together, gradually twisting into a vortex. Several meteors, summoned from who knew where, actually manifested from within the twisted vortex and came crashing straight toward the ground!
Their speed was terrifyingly fast! For a moment, everyone could only scatter and flee.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
The meteors struck the ground and exploded like artillery shells, blasting open clusters of purple-red flowers.
Amid the explosions, what sounded in everyone's ears was no longer the chant of the Titans, but the clearly audible voice of a strong woman.
"I hear it, the echo of the apocalypse..."
"Stop, Lady Seliose!"
Phainon barely managed to dodge the explosion. Even so, he was left somewhat battered by the shockwave.
Not only that, the exposed skin that had been caught in the blast still throbbed faintly with pain.
This kind of attack, was something he had only ever experienced from the Flame Reaver!
"Everyone, be careful! Its methods have become even more bizarre!" Phainon shouted in warning.
Everyone looked solemn and readied themselves.
But before them, Aquila, having just finished releasing its attack, gave off an even stranger feeling.
Its two necks were the same as before: the halves closer to its body stood high upright, but further up, they lay collapsed on the ground like powerless mollusks.
The two wings on either side of its body were also sprawled against the ground. This feeling… how could it be described?
The same thought flashed through everyone's minds at once.
A corpse… A manipulated corpse.
The only thing that still carried the aura of a living being was that eye staring at them.
Thus, from the very beginning, the battle fell into a deadlock.
Just like when Stelle faced the dead dragon, they had no way to deal with a Titan that was already dead!
If they wanted to truly destroy this thing, they had to find a way to attack the eye that represented Seliose!
But when the Titan had still been alive, it had relied on its battle instincts, felt pain, and exposed weaknesses.
Now, no matter how everyone attacked, Aquila's body would block them with the feeling that it was ready to explode together with them.
"We'll go left and right! Attack together!"
After several exchanges, this was the first time everyone had suffered a setback before the Titan.
Phainon held Dawnmaker and reorganized another offensive. He took the center, while Stelle and Dan Heng split to either side, charging toward Aquila in unison.
And at that moment, that eye flickered, locking onto the three of them. A sigh came from Aquila's body.
The wings on both sides almost instantly, without the slightest hesitation, spread out and blocked the space before it.
At the same time, the head on its left side lashed straight toward Phainon like a whip.
The head on the right side was the same as before, suddenly raising itself and summoning meteors from the twisted vortex.
Stelle and Dan Heng dodged, barely avoiding the incoming wings.
But Phainon had nowhere to evade. He could only grip his sword and forcefully meet the whipping neck head-on.
Bang!
The sword edge collided with the wing! A tremendous force traveled through Dawnmaker into Phainon's body.
He let out a muffled groan, but did not retreat in the slightest. Instead, he raised his longsword and charged forward, forcing against the neck.
But the meteors had already arrived. These meteors covered more than half the field, covering even Aquila's own wings and body within their range.
It was an indiscriminate strike!
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Under the saturated bombardment, the three who had finally managed to get close to the monster could only miserably pull back again, looking rather despairingly at Aquila's body before them, which was as battered and wounded as they were.
But the other side felt no pain. It was a corpse to begin with. So it did not care at all.
"Damn it!" Phainon clenched his fist tightly. The texture in his eyes had already become difficult to maintain.
The Flame-Chasing Journey was clearly about to be completed. And now this monster had suddenly stuck it's foot in out of nowhere.
He could also sense that the gaze carried a hint of mockery.
"We can't keep forcing our way in..." Dan Heng said gravely from the side, his tone slightly hurried.
His condition was not good.
Every charge, every attempt to approach Seliose, would be repelled by the other side with that same kind of offensive.
And now, Aquila's attacks already carried the power of the Black Tide. The injuries they had sustained were still lingering within their bodies even now, spreading deeper.
....
: Holy crap! Isn't this way too cheap?!
: No way, did the devs just balance the numbers with their feet?!
: After Aquila died, he actually got even stronger, damn it!
: Seliose: It's not my body anyway. I'll use it however I want!
: This mechanic is comparable to the Dead Dragon, and the numbers are even more ridiculous!
: Dead Dragon mechanics with Nikador's stats, huh?
: Back when they fought the Dead Dragon, Stelle at least still had a way. But now everyone's really at their wits' end!
: Sure enough, blackening makes you three times stronger. After being contaminated by the Black Tide, Aquila's achievements even come with permanent additional damage...
: How are they supposed to fight this...
....
The comments swept past.
The audience was getting anxious too. This was very clearly the hardest fight so far.
It was completely different from a brute-force clash against a powerhouse like Nikador....
"No good... I can't... I can't cleanse it at all." Behind everyone, Hyacine was gripping her medical staff, already drenched in sweat.
The moment her healing power entered their bodies, it would be swallowed by that black mass.
"Mem! Is there any way?!"
Stelle was truly helpless as well.
After fighting through this bitter battle, whether it was the flaming lance or the bat, Stelle did not think that giving Phainon and the others buffs right now would let them beat this dead Aquila.
That being the case, they could only place their hopes on Mem.
"I-I'll try! But there are no ruins here whose time can be restored..."
"And I can't make the power of time manifest on Aquila's body either."
Mem anxiously stomped its feet. It could only try to think of a way!
"Charge one more time! Otherwise, we'll all be worn down to death here!"
Phainon immediately nodded.
"Got it!" Stelle shouldered the flaming lance once more.
Dan Heng picked up Cloud-Piercer and silently made his preparations.
Almost at the same moment, the three rushed toward Aquila.
Just like before, Aquila's body once again ignored life and death, lunging at them all at once.
Only this time, Mem suddenly had a flash of inspiration.
At the critical moment, it desperately activated the divine power of time.
It actually rewound the platform beneath everyone's feet by a short period of time!
In other words, it returned it to the state where it was about to arrive here, but had not yet arrived.
The platform suddenly dropped slightly. And the defensive route the dragon had predicted instantly revealed a huge opening!
"There it is!" Joy appeared on Phainon's face.
Even with Aquila's neck chasing after him from behind like a whip, he paid it no mind.
His sword drove a fierce arc through the air, cleaving straight toward that eye.
Bang!!
The heavy, powerful sword energy smashed into the eye. Aquila's defensive assault also froze for a moment.
But the neck that had been following Phainon still carried the force of its momentum and lashed against Phainon's back, sending him flying violently.
However, Stelle took this opportunity to leap into the air, aiming at the eye that was reeling in pain.
As long as this strike landed, she would be able to completely defeat Seliose!
Time seemed to slow at this moment. And the audience could also see the reaction of the core within the core, the eye.
The wound carved out by Phainon's sword energy was healing rapidly. At the same time, the eye's pupil twitched, then turned to stare at Stelle.
Yet it did not dodge her attack at all.
Because Aquila had already raised its chest and abdomen, turning them into a wall that blocked their line of sight.
Stelle watched in despair as the eye was covered by Aquila's chest and abdomen, disappearing from her view.
The bat's strike landed on Aquila's body.
The attack failed.
After this attack, which had almost succeeded thanks to Mem's sudden stroke of cleverness, failed, Seliose gave them no further chance to catch their breath.
The heads on both sides quickly withdrew, circling around the eye that represented Seliose.
Aquila's body also rapidly curled inward, huddling into a ball.
Under some unknown mighty power, this enormous Titan body slowly floated into the sky.
Behind it, the deep crimson clouds had already become thick and viscous, like a sea of blood.
An ultimate attack was about to descend!