The acute crystal disorder’s ineffectiveness against human soldiers came as a devastating blow to the Crystal Cult members.
These fanatics who didn’t fear death suddenly went half-mad, crying and screaming hysterically – how could they fight normally now?
The Bishop of Destruction clenched his teeth, his eyebrows twitching as if fighting against some terrifying and cruel entity.
Something deep in his soul seemed about to collapse. The Bishop of Destruction shuddered, and a treasonous thought suddenly arose in his mind.
He thought: Could there really be such a possibility that the crystal particles would fail?
Had he taken a wrong step somewhere, or had he never been right from the start?
A particle beam grazed past the starship, casting a bright light on the Bishop of Destruction’s tense face. After the intense light passed, he suddenly opened his eyes-
No, there was still one hidden piece. If the Lava Space Bandits were still in the Crystal Nest, if they could cause an acute crystal disorder among the empire’s million-strong army…
However, his thoughts stopped there. The non-crystal officer’s black eyes seemed to transform into the starry sky before him, gazing down at him in silence.
Su’s face turned pale, with blood pounding in his eardrums. The imperial army was clearly prepared for this battle. Then Jiang Jianming… or rather Aslan, could he really have made no preparations at all regarding the Lava Space Bandits?
The next moment, as if to confirm this hopeless speculation-
The Crystal Cult’s mechas scattered in defeat. Looking at the three-dimensional star map, their formation collapsed from the center line towards both sides, like the parting of the Red Sea.
Strangely enough, while the regular imperial army now used Base Bodies, they still tried to avoid the Crystal Cult members suffering from acute crystal disorder.
Only this group of “Moses” mecha soldiers charged in recklessly, with a fighting style completely different from the imperial army!
Within just a few minutes, this group charged straight towards the Bishop of Destruction’s starship.
Leading them was the blood-red L-Hephaestus, Red Dragon’s exclusive mecha!
The Crystal Cult members were terrified, and Su’s face changed dramatically. His communication device suddenly rang. The Bishop paused, taking several seconds before accepting the call.
“Bishop of Destruction, Mr. Su, hello?”
A sinister voice came from the other end. “This little gift is a return for that day, I came to deliver it personally, do you like it?”
It was Red Dragon’s tone, but it didn’t sound like Red Dragon’s voice.
At the front, L-Hephaestus’s armor plate dropped, revealing a youth sitting confidently in the cockpit – his face was about 70% similar to Red Dragon’s, but one could tell at a glance that it wasn’t the same person!
Su’s pupils contracted as he blurted out. “Base Body… you surrendered to the empire!?”
“Hahaha, surrender!?”
Red Dragon stood up laughing, then suddenly dropped his smile, murderous intent bursting from between his teeth, “You’re wrong, the Lava Bandits are competing with the imperial army for the Crystal Cult’s heads!!”
As he walked forward, a burly man controlling the mecha with crystal bones behind him revealed an equally fierce face.
That was “Old Black Sheep” Kenny Gao, but it wasn’t Old Black Sheep’s original body.
Then there could only be one answer.
The Bishop of Destruction couldn’t help but draw in a sharp breath.
He had figured it out.
When the empire’s large reinforcements arrived, Jiang Jianming had secretly returned to Black Shark Base with these Lava Space Bandits through the wormhole opened by the jump.
These space bandits had undergone mental consciousness projection at Black Shark Base, and now, like the imperial army, were fighting using Base Bodies!
Thus, the Bishop of Destruction realized that the original bodies of these space bandits, which could trigger acute crystal disorder at any time, must now be sealed in some laboratory deep within Black Shark Base, completely losing their strategic value to the Crystal Cult!
A bright explosion flashed before his eyes.
Old Black Sheep let out a thunderous roar, driving his mecha straight forward, breaking a Crystal Cult starship in half!
“The surprise isn’t over yet!” Red Dragon licked his lower lip, “Your Excellency the Bishop, what do you think this is?”
L-Hephaestus burst through the flames, and from the tip of its mechanical arm sprang a formidable long sword, its color deep like fresh blood, with heat rolling off it like real lava.
Some Crystal Cult member involuntarily called out the name of that sword.
“The… the Thief Slaughter!?”
It was Emperor Lin Ge’s sword, the Thief Slaughter!
It was the crystal bone weapon forged from crystal particles extracted from the corpse of the former Lava Space Bandits’ leader, that forbidden sword forged with blood, tears, and hatred!
An unusual light flickered in Red Dragon’s eyes, as if seeing again the scene from days ago when Jiang Jianming personally handed this crystal bone sword to him.
That evening, the disabled one gazed at him with calm eyes. “The hatred between the Empire and Lava Bandits cannot be said to be entirely a misunderstanding. But at least sixty percent of it is a historical legacy issue. Ultimately, this account should be settled with the crystal particles.”
If crystal particles hadn’t destroyed human civilization, Odin’s Holy Human Empire would never have been born.
If not for those extreme circumstances, large numbers of desperate people wouldn’t have become space bandits.
These people, even after the new empire was established, couldn’t shake off the shadow of being ruled and oppressed, remaining suspicious of the new regime.
Perhaps given more time, there might have been a turning point, but the tragedy of the First Holy War occurred in just the second year of the New Imperial Calendar.
Both sides ultimately walked further and further down the path of hostility.
Red Dragon suddenly sneered. “Your ‘ultimately’ is just rounding up?”
Jiang Jianming gave him a perfunctory smile. “From the current situation, rounding up is the best tactical choice. So naturally, I choose this.”
The disabled one’s palm was so pale and weak, yet it steadily held that significant sword, as if bearing something even weightier.
Darkness breeds darkness, hatred breeds hatred. But someday, someone must break this chain and walk towards a new future through the pain.
Jiang Jianming: “Today, on behalf of His Majesty and the Chief, I return this sword to you. It’s called the Thief Slaughter. You can decide for yourself who the real bandits are that deserve slaying, and what truly deserves hatred.”
Bang!—
The newly refined Thief Slaughter now struck at its rightful enemy.
The sword broke the enemy mecha’s mechanical arm, metal spinning through space, reflecting Red Dragon’s grinning mouth and bloodthirsty eyes.
“Let me tell you a secret.”
“All the chaotic crystal particles in me, in all of us surviving Lava Bandits…”
In an instant, the Lava Bandits’ mechas following L-Hephaestus all revealed various crystal bone weapons!
Red Dragon laughed loudly. “—have all been extracted!”
Their original bodies were now badly broken, barely maintaining life.
To fight one last satisfying battle, to avenge their fallen brothers and sisters, to make the Crystal Cult pay blood for blood…
These space bandits roared as they charged toward the Bishop of Destruction’s flagship.
Meanwhile, the Silver Big Dipper’s soldiers had long since formed ranks to encircle from both sides, gradually eliminating the Crystal Cult members in this space sector.
The Crystal Cult’s defeat was inevitable.
Just twenty minutes later, the starships that attempted their last-ditch effort together crashed towards the Black Shark Base, with most of them being destroyed halfway.
The Bishop of Destruction hastily escaped from the flagship in a mecha, but his flight was disrupted by the base’s newly upgraded defense system.
Finally, the mechanical claws mounted on the Black Shark Base’s outer wall suddenly extended and seized the Bishop’s mecha.
Since the S-class mecha was difficult to destroy, the mechanical claws simply retracted, firmly pinning it against the base’s outer wall!
Hephaestus hovered outside the Black Shark Base, and with a few slashes of its long blade, reduced Su’s mecha to ruins.
Mechanical arms, heavy cannons, alloy shell, engine… all were cut apart, leaving only a bare cockpit still pinned to the base’s exterior.
“Report to the Commander…uh no, Colonel Jiang, the jump wormhole can now be opened!”
Jiang Jianming: “Very well, open the wormhole.”
The cosmic space began to distort. Red Dragon stopped his attack, squinting his eyes and swaying his head. “Heh heh, I won’t kill you. Before you’re torn apart by spatial turbulence, you can watch with your own eyes how the Crystal Cult gets ‘destroyed’.”
“…”
The Bishop of Destruction sat in the mecha cockpit, feeling as if his entire body had plunged into an ice cave.
Without doubt, even if nothing else was done, as long as the Black Shark Base rushed into the wormhole while restraining him like this, he would be instantly torn into countless bits of flesh, and those bits would be further shattered into particles…
The base’s automatic door suddenly opened, and Jiang Jianming, wearing crystal-blocking armor, walked along the gravity walkway.
The translucent mask covered the lower half of his face, and his gaze first fell on Su before looking toward the distant battlefield.
Hmm, it had already entered the stage of cleaning up the aftermath.
Red Dragon had jumped out of his cockpit at some point and came to Jiang Jianming’s side, still wearing his playful smile. “Little treasure, did I do good or what?”
…This kid’s attitude adjusted quickly enough, just days ago he wanted nothing more than to eat him alive.
Jiang Jianming expressionlessly avoided Red Dragon’s arm trying to rest on his shoulder, and said coldly, “Trying to get close to me won’t help, after the war with the crystal particles ends, the Young Chief will still face military court.”
Red Dragon crossed his arms. “Dream on, the Empire wants to put me on trial? Let me tell you, I don’t plan on coming back alive from Crystal Nest. Cooperation is fine, but submission? Keep dreaming.”
Nearby, Su watched the two talking in bewilderment, finding it all incomprehensible.
Human love or hatred was all so incomprehensible.
He touched the crystal on his chest, wanting to end his life through crystal disorder.
Suddenly, Jiang Jianming turned to look at him and asked, “Did you ever regret killing Margaret?”
The Bishop of Destruction was slightly stunned. Before he could process the meaning of these words, Jiang Jianming was already walking toward him while speaking.
“On Alpha Alien Star,” Jiang Jianming said, “when you turned Margaret into a monster, did you feel even a moment’s, even the slightest hesitation?”
The gunfire in the distance had died down, with only the universe’s faint light spreading in this area, while the fluctuations from the opening wormhole grew stronger.
Jiang Jianming: “I remember how she preached in the imperial capital of Aslan, remember how she once spoke to me in the Glorious Cathedral. I asked her about the meaning of the three lines beneath the Crystal Nest deity statue, and she said His Excellency the Archbishop hadn’t taught her.”
“I don’t know the Bishop of Death, but she didn’t seem like a cruel and vicious person… Of course, perhaps that was just my misconception.”
Incomprehensible, the Bishop of Destruction thought secretly. What was the use of suddenly saying these foolish and sentimental words?
He gripped the crystal on his chest, watching Jiang Jianming’s footsteps. Just a little closer, if the distance was sufficient, he could take Jiang Jianming with him when triggering his crystal disorder.
While thinking this in his mind, his heart felt as if it were stuffed with strange weeds.
The image of a white-haired girl sitting on the ground, blankly gnawing on a real crystal ore, inappropriately surfaced in his mind.
Perhaps by some strange impulse, Destruction responded in a slightly hoarse voice.
“Death was a defective product of the old Empire’s human experiments. Her intelligence, emotions, and body all developed abnormally – she only knew how to obey His Excellency the Archbishop.”
Jiang Jianming asked again. “What about Gerhard Laurent?”
Jiang Jianming: “Laurent’s rebellion against the Empire was real, but he served as Prime Minister for so many years, and all his policies benefited the people. He could call poor children by name, remembered the fireworks banquet every New Year – why did he ultimately choose such a path?”
“…”
Darkness filled Destruction’s eyes as he said softly, “He was self-righteous, obsessed with so-called fairness, wanting all humans to be happy.”
“Ridiculous, that was something impossible to achieve from the start. Humans are beyond salvation… Even though he joined the Crystal Cult, his faith was never pure. Being abandoned by His Excellency the Archbishop was only natural.”
“I see.”
Jiang Jianming stood still. Across the cosmos, he gazed at the Bishop of Destruction’s face inside the broken cockpit, and suddenly said, “Then what about you?”
“Bishop of Destruction, your expression now…why does it look like that of an ordinary human reminiscing about old friends?”
