Surprise Attack

"What's happening outside?"

In the meeting room of the fortress, the high-ranking members of the Revolutionary Army looked out at the suddenly brightened sky with confusion. "Is there a fire...?"

"Hm?"

The leader of the Revolutionary Army, seated on the throne in the hall, suddenly paused.

"Why do I feel...a sense of dread?"

"What is this... something's about to destroy everything?!" The Imperial Arm user who had just finished the divination spoke with a grave expression.

At that moment, his temples and brow throbbed uncontrollably, as if warning of an imminent danger!

"Something's coming—something terrifying!"

This moment felt exceptionally long. Tim's heart began to race uncontrollably. As the head of intelligence for the Revolutionary Army, his sixth sense was particularly sharp, and this feeling...

It was something he had only experienced before when he had faced Budo in the capital, teetering on the brink of death!

Overwhelmed by the intense sense of crisis, Tim couldn't hold back any longer and shouted: "Enemy attack!!"

The moment his words echoed through the hall—

"Immovable Fortress·[Defender]!"

Clang!

As Tim shouted, the small metal gauntlets on his arms suddenly expanded, disassembling and reconfiguring into a massive protective barrier that enveloped the entire meeting room.

The next second—

A brilliant flash of light erupted.

A purple light, so intense it defied description, seemed to engulf the entire sky and earth.

In that instant, everything—matter, sound, images, even space and time—seemed to vanish!

BOOM!

The earth-shaking roar and explosion finally reverberated through the air.

A devastating shockwave, accompanied by heat and a fierce wind, slammed into the vast fortress, instantly destroying most of the upper structures.

The central courtyard and upper buildings of the fortress were almost completely leveled, with mangled bodies and shattered architecture mixed together in a chaotic mess.

It was nothing short of a war-torn wasteland...

"Phew—" Standing in the sky, Selene blew away the residual heat from her fingertips. "Not bad..."

She shook her head slightly as she looked at the Revolutionary Army soldiers who had survived at the edge of the explosion. Selene began to descend slowly. "Although reducing the power of strong nuclear forces lowers their destructive impact, it also reduces the restrictions on their use."

"And even small sparks have their charm..."

The dust settled.

Trees, buildings, stones, and even chunks of flesh, organs, heads, and limbs were scattered across the ruins, indistinguishable from one another, as they had merged completely with the land.

Except...

For that one dark shield.

"As expected... to have survived the Empire's relentless pursuit for this long, you cockroaches do have some strength."

"A turtle shell... is it an Imperial Arm user? Fine... I'll play with you for a bit."

Hovering just above the ground, Selene observed the black metal shield in the center of the fortress's ruins with interest. She raised her right hand, clenched her fist, and swung it forward. The force was so immense that even the air seemed to shatter, producing a deep, thunderous boom.

Imaginary Number Manipulation · Honkai Arrow!

With a slight clench of her hand, four quadrangular prisms formed from imaginary number energy shot out from space with a loud bang, piercing through the dark metal shield, leaving streaks of blood behind.

"Still not coming out? Trying to escape through a tunnel?"

Selene then pulled her right hand back, as if drawing a bow out of thin air, forming three square frames from four Honkai energy pillars each.

The closer they were to her body, the smaller and wider the frames became. The second-to-last geometric shape was composed of two twisted quadrangular prisms, while the one closest to her hand was a perfect polyhedron.

BOOM!

As she released her grip, one of the quadrangular prisms shot forward.

Like a stone thrown into calm waters, the quadrangular prism, traveling at supersonic speed, generated a massive sonic boom.

CLANG!

Under Selene's control, the quadrangular prism slammed into the embedded black shield, and the moment it pierced through, the stabilized Honkai particles went out of control.

BOOM!!

The massive explosion rocked the remnants of the fortress's courtyard, triggering a secondary explosion that sent a searing wave of heat outward. The blinding light made it impossible to keep one's eyes open.

With a flick of her fingers, Selene casually brushed aside the debris propelled by the shockwave. Her expression remained cold as she stared at the epicenter of the explosion.

Although the courtyard was now nothing but rubble, Selene could still sense the life forces within it.

"Damn... not even that much power can take down these cockroaches?" Selene thought to herself.

Crunch...

Selene landed gently on the ground, her boots cracking the charred stone beneath her feet.

That sound—

It was like a switch, stirring something into action.

"ROAR—!"

In front of her, the entire fortress began to shake violently. The walls and courtyard floor cracked, with fissures spreading like tree roots, crisscrossing and expanding.

CRACK—!

With a loud rupture, a massive crevice suddenly opened.

The stone slabs that formed the foundation of the fortress shattered and slid apart.

"ROAR—!!!"

A deafening roar echoed as a massive claw burst from the crevice, slamming into the ground. The next moment, a terrifying, monstrous head emerged from the fissure.

The colossal shadow blocked out the sky, towering over a hundred meters tall, its body covered in thick, armored scales, with its eyes gleaming menacingly as it glared at Selene.

Standing atop the giant danger beast's head was a Revolutionary Army Imperial Arm user, who shouted down at Selene with fury: "Imperial dog! The Revolutionary Army will never bow to you!"

Selene's expression remained unchanged, as if the giant danger beast before her was nothing more than a pet. "An Imperial Arm that summons land danger beasts, huh?"

Sensing its master's anger, the giant danger beast opened its mouth to roar once more, attempting to display its fury.

But suddenly—

Imaginary Number Claw!

Selene's right hand erupted with an immense amount of imaginary number energy, forming a giant claw that expanded to several hundred meters wide in an instant.

"What kind of power is this?!"

The beast handler's eyes filled with terror as the giant claw enveloped them both, crushing them as if they were mere insects.

With a sickening crunch, the sound of bones breaking echoed, and blood and flesh splattered as the Imperial Arm user and his summoned creature were fused into a single mangled mass of meat.

"Weaklings."