Inside the dilapidated fortress, distorted alien creatures filled the narrow passageway. A few unbroken indicator lights on the floor flickered at the end.
Why? Cold sweat slid down Jiang Jianming’s neck into his collar. These alien creatures were motionless, crowding the path ahead, as if lying in wait.
It was almost… as if they could collectively predict that they would come here!
But regardless of what had betrayed their movements, the reality was clear:
The alien creatures were deliberately surrounding them. The enemies would only gather in greater numbers, making every step forward increasingly difficult.
The crystal bone ring contained only one-tenth of Ryann’s crystal particles. It was enough to deal with one or two enemies, five or six depending on his condition, but more than a dozen would be very challenging…
But what if dozens or hundreds of alien creatures came to besiege them?
Ironically, Jiang Jianming’s mind was incredibly clear at this moment, and in this state of extreme rationality, the first thought that clearly surfaced was:
There was basically no chance of getting out alive. If chose to die together with Ryann now, it would still be in time and they would suffer much less pain.
If he wanted to leave a last message, he could use the crystal bone ring to carve words on the floor.
Thinking about his ill-fated twenty-plus years, he had nothing to be ashamed of, having come this far. Being dismembered by alien creatures was too miserable an end; he could consider dying more dignifiedly.
But while these thoughts raced through his mind, his body had already completed its actions:
Crystal bones extended from the ring, covering his entire right arm. Jiang Jianming turned and swept, breaking off the twisted door panel of the automatic door.
The already narrow path behind them was sealed off, at least temporarily preventing the alien creatures from entering.
The next second, at least a dozen alien creatures in front screamed and pounced towards them.
Jiang Jianming gritted his teeth, pushed Ryann behind him, and met the wave of monsters head-on.
Fight.
The golden blade slid between the alien creature’s bones, directly flipping off half its skull.
Viscous, foul blood poured down, its dense crystal particles almost making his knees buckle from pain.
Fight.
Stepping through blood, he broke the crystal bone claws striking from his diagonal right, the “clang” sending them flying to pierce another creature on the ceiling.
Fight.
He knew he couldn’t make a single mistake. Unlike new humans with armor-like crystal bones for defense, for a disabled human, injury meant imminent death.
But he also couldn’t dodge. If he let the alien creatures get behind him… Ryann was still there.
The battle stretched time into a long and arduous ordeal.
Jiang Jianming breathed rapidly, his pale face almost completely splattered with alien blood.
In fact, he had virtually no experience in close combat with cold weapons. Previously, no one… had thought a disabled human needed to learn these skills.
Perhaps his life was flashing before his eyes. He hazily recalled nights from many years ago, studying hard to pass supplementary exams, pushing himself to the point of fainting from exhaustion. Tang Zhen had rushed over, immediately cursing him for being an idiot before getting kicked out of the infirmary.
He remembered that night when the long rain had just stopped, and the moon shone like jade.
There was also an afternoon of fencing practice with Audrey at the Lance family’s fencing hall. When they came out drenched in sweat, Diana was smiling at them, holding red tea she had personally brewed.
He remembered the setting sun casting its last rays from the edge of the burning clouds, illuminating the girl’s cheeks and the hem of her skirt.
And his Little Highness.
“…!”
A sudden burning sensation pierced his side, then turned icy cold.
Jiang Jianming staggered forward two steps, his peripheral vision catching the blood-stained claws of an alien creature. It was his own blood.
His Little Highness…
The quiet library, the long streets they walked together. Sometimes he would reach out to ruffle the other’s hair, and the young Crown Prince would narrow his eyes, jade-like pupils gleaming with fine light.
Perhaps it wasn’t that many years ago, but remembering it now felt like a lifetime ago.
His Little Highness shouldn’t die with him in this filthy underground.
— But life has always been as brief as morning dew, and death never listens to pleas; it just arrives abruptly.
Excessive physical exertion made his arms shake, his breathing felt like it would burst his lungs.
Jiang Jianming lowered his head in the darkness, blood silently seeping from the corner of his lips as he was forced to retreat step by step.
He looked around with unfocused eyes.
If he could manage to collapse the ceiling at the end, dying together with these alien creatures, and use the crystal bone ring to protect Ryann’s body, he wondered how high the chances of rescue would be.
But there were no better options left.
When deciding to die, the black-haired youth’s face was pale and exhausted, yet still calm, not much different from when he had pushed down the main cannon’s firing lever earlier.
But in the next moment, suddenly—
The alien creatures in front froze for a few seconds, as if stunned by some sight.
Footsteps sounded, and a familiar presence approached from behind.
Jiang Jianming’s pupils constricted.
Another person’s weight pressed against his back.
“Your High—!?”
Labored breathing reached his ears, along with faint murmurs.
It seemed to say, don’t be afraid.
An icy hand tightly gripped his right hand.
Through the golden-red crystal bones.
****
Eastern Zone, First Fortress.
Dusk had fallen, hours after the intense light from the main cannon had dissipated into the clouds.
Yet silence still pervaded. The tragic brilliance of that beam of light seemed etched into every soldier’s eyes.
“Xie Yuduo, what do you mean by what you said? You lost both highnesses!?”
Jin Min was shouting through the communication, the usually serious and steady lieutenant general’s voice now cracking with urgency. “Explain clearly to me, whether alive or dead…What exactly is the situation now?!”
“…”
Xie Yuduo supported his head with one hand, his face gloomy and silent. A closer look revealed his eyes were red from exhaustion.
In the distance, Tang Zhen was crying and shouting about going to rescue them, “Damn it, don’t hold me back! I’ll go alone, it’s got nothing to do with you!”
Bei Man’er stood beside Tang Zhen, arguing heatedly with Zheng Yue about something. The whole area was chaotic with various voices overlapping.
Xie Yuduo sat hunched over, motionless.
“You’ve always been willful, the Commander-in-Chief dotes on you, and none of us can control you,” the lieutenant general’s voice was grief-stricken in the communication. “But Xiao Xie, no matter how crazy or wild you are, you should understand clearly in your heart…”
“Even if we sacrificed your life, my life, and the lives of everyone in the Silver Big Dipper, it wouldn’t compare to the weight of the two highnesses!”
“With the Empire’s Crown Prince gone, how… how are we to answer to Her Majesty the Emperor, to the people of the Empire?!”
Xie Yuduo said hoarsely, “I understand.”
“…..”
“As a general of the Silver Big Dipper,” he murmured, his eyes downcast, “to be helpless against a strong enemy, forcing our lord to risk his life, it’s all due to my incompetence.”
Jin Min fell silent.
Xie Yuduo was a young talent. Carefree and unrestrained in nature, yet loyal to the throne and patriotic, with numerous achievements, he had shouldered most of the Silver Big Dipper’s glory single-handedly.
The generals of the older generation either hated him as a thorn in their side or outwardly complained while indulging him without limits in their hearts.
Only Xie Yuduo could arrive late to military headquarters meetings with a grin, only Xie Yuduo could dispatch troops on expeditions without authorization and escape punishment…
With the tacit approval of the entire military, Major General Xie of the Silver Big Dipper’s First Army always carried a flamboyant light.
No one had ever seen Xie Yuduo so dejected and dispirited as he was now.
Seeing him like this, Jin Min could say no more, only shaking his head with a long sigh. “You, ah! Never mind, organize the search and rescue as soon as possible. As I said, whether alive or dead, we must…”
But Xie Yuduo continued. “—But I also understand clearly why the Crown Prince and the Little Excellency went to their deaths.”
“Given the situation now.”
Major General Xie slowly stood up, his eyes seeming to freeze over, filled with a piercing cold light, “Old Jin, I’ll take back the First Fortress even if it costs me my life.”
“So for the sake of ultimate victory… I absolutely won’t engage in meaningless search and rescue now, nor will I allow my soldiers to waver because of this.”
Jin Min was both shocked and angry. “You!”
Xie Yuduo gave a slight laugh, “Old Jin, if I die too, remember to take care of my wife and daughter for me.”
With that, he reached out and cut off the communication.
“Report!”
At this moment, a soldier came running hurriedly, his face pale. “Major General, the alien creatures are coming again, and the Crystal Cult’s starships in space have also started to advance.”
Xie Yuduo’s eyelid twitched.
The Crystal Cult actually intended to continue.
They had lost a bishop, so many cult members had died, and the outcome was clearly decided, yet they still wouldn’t retreat, still continuing this suicidal, frenzied attack—
What did this prove?
Xie Yuduo’s expression changed as he connected it to the truth His Highness had told them before the war began…
Could it be that this was really to accumulate energy for the Crystal Nest? As long as they created enough crystal disorder deaths, would the next wave of crystal disorder have a chance to erupt?
But what could be done? Xie Yuduo rubbed his temples, feeling a headache coming on.
Any general who had led troops knew that on the battlefield, what mattered was bravery. The more afraid of death one was, the easier it was to die.
If he, as the commanding officer, ordered the soldiers to prioritize their lives, would the Silver Big Dipper still have any morale left? Would the Empire’s silver spear still be as sharp as before?
Suddenly, a huge boom echoed from the distance.
As Xie Yuduo turned his head, he heard the soldiers’ exclamations of surprise!
The Major General himself almost cried out in the next moment, his eyes widening suddenly, reflecting a certain area in the central zone of the fortress—
It was crystal bones glowing with a golden-red light.
They had directly pierced through the black alloy outer wall, shining against the alien planet’s twilight sky, beautiful and majestic.
From afar, one could see that each tip was pierced through with the corpses of several alien creatures, as if it were the descent of divine punishment.
Within seconds, the army that had just been lifeless suddenly came alive with fervor, as if reborn!
However, Xie Yuduo stood dumbfounded before the broken wall of the fortress’s upper level, his whole body numb.
— This is impossible, the Major General thought with trepidation. Leaving aside the fact that His Highness was already in a wounded and backlashed state when confronting Margaret, just considering that main cannon shot…
He knew better than anyone the power of their own main cannon.
Even if their Crown Prince was superhuman, after taking that hit head-on, he absolutely couldn’t release such powerful crystal bones as seen now!
Xie Yuduo’s face tensed: So now, who…or what, had released that expanse of golden-red crystal bones!?
****
In the central area of the fortress, within the dilapidated ruins of a passageway.
As the golden-red crystal bones slowly retracted, muffled thuds continually sounded from the ceiling above — the sound of alien creature corpses falling one after another.
Ahead lay a sea of bodies and blood.
Those alien creatures that had gathered to surround the two were all impaled by the sharp crystal bones, piled up in disarray.
And those massive, golden crystal bones, like divine punishment descending, were unhurriedly withdrawing from the corpses.
The crystal bones retracted back into that small ring.
And the ring was on a slender ring finger.
Ryann had awakened at some unknown time.
He could barely stand, his entire being as weak as a thread as he slumped against Jiang Jianming’s back, his platinum curls drooping into the latter’s nape.
He still tightly gripped Jiang Jianming’s right hand wearing the ring.
Jiang Jianming’s face was deathly pale, his heart pounding like a drum. He supported Ryann as they staggered two steps forward before both collapsed to the ground, strength depleted.
The ground was covered in blood that had flowed over, its sweet and pungent smell assaulting their noses, stabbing pain into their brains.
Jiang Jianming was in a daze.
He stared blankly at the ring on his own ring finger.
“…Your Highness?”
He called out softly.
For a moment, the dizziness reached its peak.
For about two or three minutes, Jiang Jianming’s senses were in chaos, the world spinning around him.
He couldn’t see anything, only hearing sharp ringing and his own painful gasps.
“…Ryann?”
Jiang Jianming’s eyes were filled with vast darkness. He called out again.
The person in his arms responded with a faint “mm” and weakly squeezed his hand, indicating they had indeed woken up.
But this seemingly comforting gesture seemed to trigger some devil’s curse.
Suddenly, Jiang Jianming began to bend over and retch. He clutched at his chest as if suffocating, physiological tears streaming down his face, his pale hands shaking in the pool of blood.
He convulsed, abruptly straightening up and coughing out a large mouthful of foul blood. It mixed indistinguishably with the alien creature’s blood in front of him.
The blood before his eyes seemed to wobble, swaying.
Gradually, it distorted in shape.
It turned into that dark blood in the Crown of Golden Dawn.
Jiang Jianming breathed in despair.
He still didn’t know exactly what had happened.
He didn’t know why that crystal bone ring had suddenly erupted with power comparable to Ryann’s peak period.
It wasn’t just one-tenth, it was at least 70%… no, it might have reached 80%… or even higher…
He didn’t know, and he didn’t want to know how this was accomplished.
For the first time, Jiang Jianming’s entire body and heart were resisting, unwilling to face the truth.
It was laughable.
Where was that summer afternoon when he coldly walked out of the military headquarters? Where was that stormy night when he voluntarily contracted crystal disorder?
Where was that gentle morning breeze of Aslan that brushed his face before departure? Where was that vast starry sky he had seen from inside the mecha when he said he was angry?
All along this journey, his determination, his decisiveness, even his ruthlessness when he told His Highness “I don’t regret it” – where had they all gone!?
He didn’t want to know.
But there were things he did know.
For instance, he knew that crystal particles deeply integrated with humans, and forcibly extracting them was not only painful but also technically extremely difficult.
Twenty percent was the limit for a living person. If extraction reached fifty percent, a person’s flesh and bones would be torn apart.
For instance, he also knew about Ryann’s state of death in the Crystal Nest back then.
He had seen the images, seen that no longer handsome youth, that torn flesh, split-open abdomen, organs mangled into a pulp on one side, and shattered, displaced bones.
Moreover, even before all the changes occurred, he had incomprehensibly questioned the Little Highness.
Why go to the Crystal Nest alone? Such a reckless act was no different from suicide.
It was suicide.
It was being shattered to pieces.
It was stripping away almost all the crystal particles.
The crystal particles had always been dormant in his ring.
So, while he desperately didn’t want to know.
He actually already knew.
Jiang Jianming passed out.
