Chapter 30: Mounted Duel

On their way to the ruins of the Arcane Castle, Void Archives spoke up: "Originally, I planned to use those weapons made by the aliens to clear the way for us, but now the Sky People have revoked my access to the weapons factory and weapons."

"They never trusted you from the beginning," Welt adjusted his glasses, "Similarly, you don't seem to trust them much either, right? Don't tell me you didn't have any backup plans."

"Haha..." Void Archives chuckled deeply, and a faint golden light shimmered, "Well, at least for now, the Sky People won't be able to manufacture those mechanical weapons again in the short term—I blew up the factory."

Bronia looked around vigilantly and asked, "Is there anything else?"

"Well, let me see... I closed some of the portals they set up, and some portals I set up without authorization were also discovered by them. There aren't many useful ones left..."

Void Archives checked his reserves, and after a brief flicker, he said, "I now have a relatively short route on hand. After passing through two portals, we can reach directly below the Arcane Castle. But we may encounter some alien weapons blocking the way..."

Raiden Mei stood on a high platform and looked into the distance. The city of Shengfandan was almost everywhere filled with explosions and flames caused by monster battles, and pillars of smoke rose straight into the sky.

Mei almost hesitated but made a decision: "Let's take the portal, Void Archives, I hope you keep your promise."

"Alright, alright, no need to hold grudges. My mission is to eliminate the Honkai, and now the portals of Cosmic Juggernaut are causing the collapse. I don't intend to quarrel with you in such a weakened state."

Void Archives floated up and condensed a faint golden line in front of everyone, leading them to the shortcut it mentioned— and this guiding line eventually disappeared into a manhole cover on a road.

"Is this... a sewer?"

Welt looked at the sign on the manhole cover, then raised the shortened steel rebar in his hand, and the black light climbed up to the manhole cover, causing it to float aside.

The crowd looked into the opening and saw some red collapsing crystals standing inside, with space rifts resembling shattered glass floating among the crystals, facing upwards.

"This is the entrance," Void Archives said.

"Let's go."

Raiden Mei took the lead and jumped down, followed by the others. They passed through the portal and arrived in another space.

This space looked extremely vast, with many cubic objects with mysterious patterns floating in the air, densely arranged into several huge walls.

Looking up, Luo Lin saw the suspended platform through the gap left in the middle of the wall, and farther away, a beam of light rose straight into the sky, seemingly indicating the direction of the end of this space.

[Stargate Challenge: Extreme Repentance]

[Defeat Single Carbide, ride monsters to overcome obstacles.]

Looking at the system panel that suddenly popped up in front of them, Welt, Raiden Mei, Carole, and those who hadn't played the "Ruin Challenge" were shocked.

"What... what is this?!" Carole reacted first, curiously poking the semi-transparent panel in front of her, "Why does it look like a game prompt box?"

"Perhaps it really is a game prompt box, after all, this place is influenced by a Bubble World in the Sea of Quanta. Maybe that Bubble World is a game?" Bronia shared her previous experience with others, then turned to ask the Golden Cube, "Void Archives, this space is obviously affected, can your portals still be used normally?"

"Of course... I confirmed it as soon as I came in. The spatial structure here has changed, but the positions and destinations of the portals have not been affected."

Void Archives also noticed the system prompt boxes that suddenly appeared in front of everyone. It tried to scan those things, but in Void Archives's field of view, besides "visual," no other detection method could confirm the existence of the panel.

"It's really interesting... the intersection between this Bubble World and St. Fontaine has great research value..."

"Now is not the time to consider research value!" Luo Lin reminded everyone, "Look over there! Something is flying towards us!"

The group looked up and saw a dozen or so flying mechanical monsters resembling giant birds, with wings similar to bats, flying over to the platform where they stood.

"Caw—!"

Bronia raised her gun and started shooting, a series of energy bullets swept through the sky, while Luo Lin and Lyle followed suit, shooting bullets into the distance.

Lyle fired special bullets that exploded into a spherical temporal deceleration field in the air, instantly causing the Single Carbide covered by the field to become as slow as a snail, and then was hit by Luo Lin's steel bullet barrage, making a clanging sound.

The Single Carbides unaffected by temporal deceleration continued their flight, launching attacks towards the humans standing on the platform. They swooped down, leaving deep marks on the platform with their claws.

However, the diving speed of the Single Carbides wasn't fast enough, and everyone present easily dodged the attacks. Raiden Mei, bold and skilled, even drew her knife as the flying monsters passed by, slashing at their wings.

As soon as she made her move, Mei sensed something was amiss. Her blade seemed to cut into a thick barrier, and although the blade made contact, it was halted by an invisible force.

So, she exerted more force, adjusting the angle of the blade. With a flash of blue electric light, the Single Carbide let out a cry of pain, tumbling awkwardly onto the platform.

However, this outcome did not satisfy Raiden Mei. She had intended to directly sever the wings of the flying monster, but now it had only crashed. She rushed towards the creature, preparing to deliver a finishing blow.

"Clang—!"

Raiden Mei looked in astonishment as her blade was knocked away. She felt a sense of confusion. The wound she had just inflicted on the Single Carbide's back was still visible, but now her attacks seemed to have no effect.

—It was as if they were "invincible"!

The same situation occurred with the other Single Carbides. The attacks of the group seemed to hit a thick shield. After this shield was depleted, the Single Carbides lost their combat effectiveness and crashed onto the platform with a clatter.

Subsequent attacks were like hitting a wall of air, producing only dull sounds.

After two minutes of futile attacks, everyone stopped and looked puzzled at these mechanical monsters with little stars spinning above their heads.

Seeing the perplexed looks of the others, Luo Lin spoke up, "Is there a possibility that, according to the instructions on the previous panel, we need to ride on these monsters?"

All eyes turned to her, making Luo Lin feel a bit uneasy.

Bronia looked back at the distant beam of light, the vast distance between them too great. The auxiliary movement function of the Moon Ring was helpless in this situation.

"How about... you give it a try?"

A few minutes later, with a look of astonishment on her face, Luo Lin controlled a mechanical monster and flew it up, circling around the platform where everyone stood.

With one hand holding onto something resembling a handle on the back of the Single Carbide, and the other hand helping to stabilize her body, she only needed to manipulate the handle to control the mechanical monster's flight, making it a foolproof operation.

Even Void Archives couldn't help but comment, "I've seen this type of mechanical creation in the Sky People' weapons factory, but there was nothing like that on its back?!"

Sorry, I don't understand the thought process of miHoYo designers either!

Luo Lin's success encouraged the others to try it themselves, and they all turned their gaze to the other Single Carbides lying on the platform.

"Let's go! Take off!"

Carole exclaimed excitedly. Behind her, Timido held onto the girl's waist tightly while carefully observing the scenery beside them.

Adam and Lyle shared one, slightly crowded behind the Single Carbide's back, but eventually took off successfully.

Bronia took Seele and sat on a mechanical bird, placing Seele in front of her and holding her in her arms. Seele felt herself being jostled around blushing and lowering her head.

Mei, Himeko, and Welt each rode a Single Carbide separately, flying around the platform for a while to familiarize themselves with the controls.

Amidst the screams of the mechanical monsters and the flapping of wings, the group advanced along the path formed by the floating cubic structures.

Before long, another group of Single Carbides emerged from the shadows of the floating cubes, attacking towards the group!

"Are we going to have an aerial combat segment as well?! This journey has all the elements of a commercial movie!"

Lyle shouted, one hand supporting Adam's waist, while the other pulled out his sniper rifle, aiming at the Single Carbides preparing to attack.

"Steady, buddy!"

"Got it!"

"Rat-a-tat-tat!"

This time, it was Luo Lin who fired first. The Exuvia weapon, a standard rifle given to her by Void Archives, indeed had its unique features, with a straight trajectory and excellent maneuverability.

Moreover, the Soulium bullets were already imbueded with the Edge of Taixuan, further enhanced by the Honkai engine built into the firearm.

This made the bullets fired by Luo Lin shine brightly, even comparable in momentum to Bronia's energy gun.

As for the power of the bullets, it was quite satisfying— one of the hostile Single Carbides was showered with bullets from Luo Lin, and the invisible shield was depleted within a dozen seconds, sending it plummeting into the endless void.

Although it still took some time, Luo Lin was certain that if she had used her previous ordinary firearms, she probably wouldn't have depleted even one-third of the shield in a dozen seconds.

Carole and Timi both lacked long-range means, so they had to control the Single Carbides to dart around. However, soon enough, the silver-haired girl found the exhilirating joy of this swift flight, her face breaking into a smile.

Behind her, Timi, who had been nervous to death was surprised to see Carole enjoying herself so much after flying for a while, which helped to relax the mood of the pink-haired girl.

Welt behaved like a traditional mage, occasionally firing off a few dark gravity balls. The flying monsters within the range of the gravity influence had their evasive movements disrupted, and were quickly dispatched by the combined efforts of Bronia and Luo Lin.

As for Raiden Mei, she actually engaged in close-quarters combat with the Single Carbides! Perhaps because among everyone present, only Mei had once ridden Kurikara to battle and had rich aerial combat experience.

Now, riding this flying mechanical monster, Raiden Mei recalled her distant memories. She skillfully maneuvered the Single Carbide into the enemy's ranks, slashing with her katana emitting electric flashes, forcing the mechanical giant birds within her attack range to repeatedly retreat.

Watching from afar, Luo Lin could see clearly. Raiden Mei even controlled the Single Carbide to perform a high-difficulty maneuver, using its wings and tail to knock down the enemies besieging her.

—It's like she's treating the Single Carbide as a little Kurikara!

The angle of attack, the flapping wings, the swinging tail and claws, it would be even better if it could spray lasers or something.

Then, following her instincts, Raiden Mei pressed the control lever, and the Single Carbide actually opened its mouth and spat out an energy ball, which exploded amidst the enemy group!

Mei looked closely and saw that all the monsters affected by the explosion had turned into stone, maintaining their previous posture and momentum, before falling down askew.

After her sudden explosion, the number of hostile units on the field sharply decreased, and the remaining few mechanical birds were quickly shot down and disappeared from everyone's sight like the other monsters.

"Well done, Carole, Adam!" Raiden Mei praised her teammates, also complimenting Lyle and Timi, "You did well too! When we get back, if you want to try out some aerial vehicles, I can arrange for you to learn."

Adam scratched his head, "This... let's forget about it. I think learning to operate ground vehicles was challenging enough. I'm more used to riding transport planes than flying planes myself."

"Exactly what my buddy said!" "What the senior said!"

Lyle and Carole echoed in unison, then glanced at each other, a feeling of mutual understanding rising between them.

Just then, Void Archives spoke up, "The exit is ahead."

The beam of light that seemed to mark the exit gradually disappeared as the group approached, revealing a huge floating platform ahead. Blood-red crystals grew in the center of the platform, and a space rift similar to the entrance rippled slightly, emitting a strong presence.

Everyone controlled their Single Carbides to land on the edge of the platform. A few seconds after they left the flying monsters, the mechanical creatures emitted strange screams, twisting and bursting into fragments, leaving behind a red radiation zone.

"This thing looks similar to the stellar core radiation, but I don't feel any effects on the human body..."

Void Archives wasn't even surprised anymore. There were just too many strange things happening here, and all one could do was accept them.

"Alright, from here, we can go straight to the ruins of the Arcane Castle... Let's make it clear, when I fled from there, the quantum shadows and the Honkai Beasts were in the midst of a fierce battle. Be careful after passing through the portal."

The golden cube flashed slightly, enlarging the portal until it was large enough for everyone to pass through together.

"Now, let's go together!"

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As you can see,I can't find lick of anything about it online except if I got the game or watch a long video which I don't have time.