Chapter 287: The Array Rises
Then, from within the closed, diamond-shaped carapace on the beast's back, the innermost abyssal core began to throb. It pulsed frantically, like a heart gone haywire, and with every beat, veins of dark purple light shot through the seams of its armor, casting a ghastly glow. It was like a dark sun on the verge of collapse.
Massive quantities of abyss energy were drawn from the core, expended with reckless abandon. At the mangled stumps of its left and right shoulders, the turbid power surged like boiling asphalt, rapidly condensing and taking shape.
On the left, an arm of pure, compressed Anemo coalesced—a churning vortex of dark green energy. Its edges blurred and flickered unstably, emitting a high-pitched screech that seemed to tear at the very fabric of space.
On the right, a limb of Cryo took form, radiating a deathly chill. The surface of this dark-blue appendage was covered in a frost of twisted ice spikes, exuding a cold so deep it felt like it could freeze the soul.
The two elemental arms materialized at a speed visible to the naked eye. Though they appeared solid, their structure was clearly a pale, unstable imitation of the original flesh and blood. The flow of energy within them was chaotic and clumsy. At the base of these mimicked limbs, new, even darker energy cores began to slowly condense, a desperate attempt to re-establish the beast's shattered power cycle.
"It can… still do that?!" Lumine's heart sank at the sight.
Stelle gave her slightly numb arm a shake, her eyes fixed on the two newborn appendages radiating their ominous auras. She bared her teeth in a grimace. "Tsk, this thing really doesn't know when to quit… But those fakes don't look nearly as slick as the real deal!"
Her assessment was dead-on. Although Baqunava had forcibly regenerated its limbs using the power of the abyssal core—its offensive power even amplified by the pure elemental nature of the arms, with wind blades now sharper and ice spikes more lethal—it wielded them with an utter lack of proficiency. Its movements were stiff, sluggish, and completely disorganized, like a novice clumsily trying to control a pair of newly fitted prosthetics.
In the eyes of seasoned warriors like Lumine and Stelle, it was no different from a child brandishing a razor-sharp sword—a threat, but one riddled with openings.
Consequently, Stelle's combat style grew even more ferocious. She abandoned all pretense of a measured defense, her lance becoming a blur of golden light. Each sharp strike targeted the volatile energy nodes connecting the mimicked arms to the torso. Every time the light flashed, the Anemo arm would twist violently, and the Cryo arm would fracture, shedding countless shards of ice.
When Baqunava tried to counter with a body slam or a sweep of its tail, Stelle's form would shift in an instant. The Flame Lance of the Preservation would appear, meeting the blow with an absolute defensive stance. The force of the parry was so immense that the shockwave traveled back into the beast, making its own internal structure groan in protest.
She switched freely between her two Paths, using the principles of "spear" and "shield" to their absolute limits. She was a golden storm of war, relentlessly tearing at and weakening the abyssal behemoth's defenses.
Having already shattered the genuine arm cores twice before, the two giants felt almost casual as they faced these superficial, unstable imitations.
Under their coordinated, storm-like assault, it took less than five minutes. The two elemental arms, which had radiated such an ominous light, wailed one last time before collapsing in a violent elemental chain reaction. They dissolved back into a chaotic flow of energy, which was promptly swept away by the miniature black hole Welt had simulated nearby.
Baqunava roared in fury, attempting to re-condense the cores and arms at the breaks. But just as the dense abyss energy began to gather, it was stonewalled by a measure Lumine had prepared in advance.
During a brief lull in the battle, Zhongli's steady voice had quietly echoed in Lumine's mind through their shared link.
"Lumine, this beast's regenerative power is astonishing. We must employ a formation to suppress its energy flow and sever its foundation. I shall teach you a simple method to lay the 'Mountain-Suppressing Spirit-Locking Array'..."
Understanding dawned on Lumine instantly. As the fight raged on, his massive fingers had been discreetly channeling the Geo energy flowing through the Ley Lines beneath them. He used no complex talismans; instead, he relied on his deep affinity for the Geo element and the precise control he possessed in his giant state. Following specific positions and rhythms, he injected pure Geo power deep into the earth, as if driving unseen celestial piles into the bedrock.
One by one, massive Stone Steles, humming with the power of suppression, were quietly buried at key nodes across the battlefield, their creation masked by his seemingly casual movements and attacks.
Now, as the last mimicked arm crumbled and Baqunava bellowed, trying to activate its abyssal core once more, Lumine's gaze sharpened. His huge right foot slammed down on the final, preset "Gate-Opening" position.
"Array, rise!" he commanded, his voice clear and resonant.
With his shout, all the previously buried Geo nodes activated in unison.
Thick pillars of golden light erupted from the ground, shooting into the sky. They connected in mid-air, weaving together to form a massive, majestic formation sigil that blanketed the entire core of the battlefield.
A dense Geo energy, as heavy and unyielding as the earth itself, saturated every inch of space within the array, creating a powerful field of sealing and suppression.
Caught within the Mountain-Suppressing Spirit-Locking Array, the boiling abyss energy around Baqunava seemed to be shackled by invisible chains. Its flow suddenly became sluggish and obscure. The light of the throbbing core on its back dimmed by several degrees. The power attempting to re-form its arms felt as if it had been plunged into an invisible quagmire, its rate of condensation slowing to a crawl.
"Great job, Lumine!" Stelle shouted, a thrill in her voice. She could feel it distinctly—the opponent's vaunted regeneration had been crippled.
Seizing the opportunity, Lumine and Stelle concentrated all their firepower on the third core, the one that pulsed like a dark heart in the center of Baqunava's chest.
Having lost the protection and interference of its arms, its energy recovery throttled by the formation, Baqunava could only rely on its hardened chest plate and massive body to endure the onslaught.
But under the unrestrained, full-power assault of the two giants of light, its resistance seemed utterly futile.
Stelle's Flame Lance, imbued with the will to pierce the very stars, bombarded the carapace around the core again and again, spiderwebbing it with cracks.
Lumine gathered the five elemental powers at his command, unleashing them in successive bombardments. The light of constant elemental reactions bloomed across Baqunava's chest like celebratory fireworks, and with each explosion, the light of the core flickered violently.
Finally, it came down to a combined, ultimate strike. Stelle unleashed her attack first, a final, decisive blow infused with all her power of Preservation—a "Restful Home Run." Immediately following it was Lumine's "Primordial Bloom," a cataclysmic fusion of five distinct elemental powers.
"BOOM—!!!!"
The thick armor on Baqunava's chest, along with the third core nestled beneath it, shattered on impact.
They disintegrated into a shower of dark purple light and energy debris, which scattered through the air only to be further purified and annihilated by the suppressive power of the array.
"Roar..."
A last, weak, and unwilling wail escaped the beast. The strength supporting its mountain-like body seemed to drain away in an instant. Its massive frame crashed to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust that blotted out the sun.
The carapace on its back still emitted a faint, stubborn glow, but the rest of its body had lost all signs of life, lying still like a stranded, desperate whale awaiting its final fate.
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