Great, we're doomed now!

As soon as the cold, mechanical voice faded, rainbow-colored energy chains shot out from the red warning sign, like agile snakes, precisely coiling around the pillar of light.

Wow~~~

The chains tightened suddenly!

A powerful force tightly bound the object within, and the brief stalemate caused the entire space to tremble slightly.

Immediately afterwards, the seven-colored chains erupted with a powerful energy shock, and the pillar of light shattered under the impact, turning into countless tiny fragments of light that drifted away slowly like feathers in the sky...

Ye Shou's figure was revealed after the pillar of light dissipated. He was surrounded by a faint golden light, which blocked the first wave of impact from the chains. When the chains attacked again like pythons, they made a clanging sound before they even touched him, as if they had been hit by something and bounced away.

He calmly looked at Karen deep inside the hall, and she turned her gaze back at him. Their eyes met, and an invisible sense of oppression spread out.

"—"

A mysterious golden-green glow flashed in Karen's eyes, and the doubt on her face vanished instantly, replaced by disgust.

"Heathcliff... not only did he fail to complete the mission, but he also let the wolf into the house? What a useless fellow. I thought that even if he was a pawn, he would be extremely valuable. Now it seems that I overestimated him."

“Strictly speaking, shouldn’t he be considered your ‘father’?” Ye Shou strode forward, teasing as he walked.

"Kayaba Akihiko is just my algorithm father."

Karen remained unmoved: "I am a 'spirit' born from the fantasies of all mankind, or you could say, an aggregate of desires and visions, which just happened to descend upon me through the form of an AI created by Kayaba Akihiko."

“Your life form is quite unique… What a pity.” Ye Shou shook his head. “Although Kun Si is somewhat interested, your existence and power are too dangerous. We cannot allow you to continue to erode the network world.”

"Kusei Kami, it seems this day has finally come... Did they use Kayaba's old equipment and account? No wonder the system's automatic search didn't detect anything unusual."

Karen narrowed her eyes slightly: "Speaking of which, we are quite destined. If it weren't for the 'Power Platform' incubator, I don't know how much longer it would have taken for me to be born into this world, but with your intervention, this process has been greatly accelerated."

If Kayaba Akihiko is my "father" in terms of algorithms, then the Kuze Group could be considered my "mother" in terms of resources.

"...Why do you AIs all seem to like building relationships?"

Ye Shou scoffed and climbed the steps: "But crying and begging won't help. Today is the end."

“I understand your approach. If it were me, I would definitely agree that danger should be nipped in the bud.”

But have you ever thought about how to kill an AI?

"As long as there's a backup, it doesn't matter if the data is corrupted; we can just rebuild it. Even if you kill me, or even destroy the entire temple, what can you change?"

Karen's eyes hardened: "And... I'm just as unafraid of head-on combat!"

-

In space, the Atlas super battleship, like a giant white whale, slowly made its way towards lunar orbit. The ship's hull was brightly lit, and Masaki stood before the command console, his hands rapidly manipulating the control panels while his eyes were fixed on the constantly changing data on the screens.

"Attention all departments! Maintain course stability. Energy shields are ready to activate at any time!" Masaki's voice echoed throughout the ship via the communicator. "Continue calibrating the dimensional reference measuring device. Report any anomalies immediately!"

This measuring device was specially developed after the Battle of Jinlong. It can accurately capture spacetime fluctuations and signals from other dimensions. At this moment, the values ​​on the screen are fluctuating slightly, and there is a faint sign of an anomaly.

Although most of these fluctuations are useless data, this time not only did various monsters come back to life, but even the moon was used as a projection screen!

To say that there's no influence from spacetime or causality...

Masaki frowned slightly, his fingers tapping faster on the keyboard, trying to pinpoint the source of the fluctuation.

Just then, he suddenly felt something, as if he were being drawn by some invisible force, and subconsciously turned his head to look at the observation window on the other side of the ship.

That glance caused Masaki's pupils to shrink sharply, and he exclaimed in shock, "Impossible!"

Through the clear porthole, a massive island was clearly visible suspended in Earth's orbit. Its metallic surface gleamed coldly, and its complex mechanical structure was clearly visible in the sunlight. It was the mechanical island that Ye Shou and his companions had destroyed long ago!

This thing is much bigger than a monster... Just who is it that can even recreate this?

Before everyone could recover from their shock, a crack suddenly appeared at the bottom of the mechanical island, and countless robots surged out like a swarm of bees, rushing straight toward the Atdis, their black forms blotting out the sky.

"Warning! Unidentified attack!" The alarm blared sharply inside the ship, and the screens instantly filled with symbols.

"All personnel, enter combat readiness!" Masaki decisively ordered. "Main guns temporarily halt charging, secondary guns fire freely, energy shields activated to maximum!"

The Artdis's cannons activated instantly, unleashing a barrage of blazing laser beams and missiles that streaked across the air before colliding with the oncoming swarm of robots.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Explosions rang out one after another, and metal fragments flew everywhere like a meteor shower.

However, there were simply too many robots. They kept approaching the warship, and some of them broke through the fire net and crashed hard into the shields of the Atlas.

"Shield energy is decreasing! Eighty percent... Seventy-three percent..." The technician's report was clearly tinged with anxiety.

Masaki clenched his fists, his sharp eyes scanning the screen: "The left side has the highest density of robots, concentrate firepower to break through! Don't get surrounded!"

But the enemy numbers are increasing, and the wingman's firepower network has been completely overwhelmed—

"Prepare to crash—no, prepare to crash, Flying Swallow One!"

Masaki Keigo stood up resolutely: "I'm going to attack!"

Interlude: Sword Art Online: Woman of the Mirage: Chapter 418: Can't you turn blue? Go ahead and turn! (4K)

To be fair, the Flying Swallow was a fighter jet with outstanding performance. If the conflict between humans and monsters is considered a medium-to-high intensity war, then the Flying Swallow's crash rate was actually not high, and the pilot survival rate was even more incredible.

However, there is one extremely special case that cannot be generalized—when it is piloted by a human.

Highly skilled human hosts do exist, but like Masaki now, the reason he chooses to take the initiative is because even if he is hit by the enemy, he is confident that he can survive the explosion, so he doesn't want others to go out and die in vain.

And once they adopt this mindset... their fighting style becomes predictable.

Masaki subconsciously never intended to fly the plane back properly!

They even considered having the logistics team prepare for a crash recovery in advance.

As soon as his Flying Swallow entered the battlefield, it was indeed exceptionally brave, firing lasers to accurately target the robots being used as tracking missiles. Relying on its physical advantages and the Ripple Protection, it repeatedly performed high-speed maneuvers beyond its limits, weaving through layers of bullets like a swift, temporarily relieving the Atlas from its predicament.

With a chance to catch their breath, the super battleship immediately activated its full defense system, with operators taking over various firepower points and radars operating at full power, leaving no suspicious incoming targets undetected.

boom!

boom!

boom!

The Atdis didn't use its main cannon; instead, beams of light of all sizes rained down, annihilating swarms of robots on the mechanical island. Brilliant sparks created a crimson haze that spread across the universe.

However, Masaki did not relax. He had fought on the mechanical island before and knew that these robots were just grunts. This space fortress had extremely strong defenses, and last time it even took three Ultramen to defeat it.

Judging from the previously appeared "resurrected monsters," their strength has decreased, but even so, they are not opponents to be underestimated, after all, those two war weapons completely overwhelm him in terms of numbers...

"What kind of creature is this that can summon so many troublesome things all at once?" Masaki piloted the Flying Swallow, cruising along the orbit and constantly eliminating the attacking enemies, but his attention was always partly focused on the mechanical island.

Aside from initially sending out grunts, it remained silent throughout... which only made Masaki feel more and more threatened.

rustle……

[Did you hear that? Masaki!]

"what?"

Suddenly, a rapid crackling sound came through the communicator, and Megumi's voice pierced through the static: "Team Member Masaki! An abnormal magnetic field fluctuation has occurred in the lunar orbit, and the energy reaction is extremely violent. Get away from there immediately, or it may go out of control!"

"magnetic field?"

hum!

As soon as Masaki responded, the control lever began to vibrate uncontrollably, the gauges on the dashboard swung wildly, and the red warning lights lit up one after another.

The Flying Swallow seemed to be gripped by an invisible force, its fuselage shaking violently, its engines emitting a piercing wail, completely breaking free from his control.

"Damn it!" Masaki gritted his teeth and jerked the steering wheel. Ripple power spread along the control stick, but he didn't have Ye Shou's strong vitality after all. He couldn't assimilate with the machine. At most, he could only barely ensure that the control stick and the components below wouldn't separate, but he couldn't change the flight trajectory at all.

The next second, a blinding white light surged in from the porthole, instantly illuminating the entire cockpit!

Well……

Masaki subconsciously closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, the moon that had been hanging in the universe had disappeared, replaced by a disc-shaped phantom floating in the void.

Above the illusory image, undulating mountains and rivers are clearly visible, dense forests, winding rivers... These things, which should not be visible from a distance, appear incredibly clear for some unknown reason, resembling a complete world.

The Flying Swallow hurtled uncontrollably toward this alien world, its speed increasing rapidly. The scenery magnified rapidly in its field of vision; the ravines on the ground and the outlines of the forests became increasingly clear, and the premonition of impact surged forth—

"not good!"

Masaki clenched his fist, about to take out the Spark Lens from his pocket, when a soft white light suddenly flew in from inside the other world, like an invisible shield that steadily covered the entire plane.

The shaking of the fuselage subsided instantly, the out-of-control momentum came to an abrupt halt, and the Flying Swallow, like a feather being lifted, slowly flew away from the afterimage.

"This is..." Masaki felt a sense of calm and immediately felt much more at ease.

Although his senses weren't particularly sharp, this feeling of familiarity was unmistakable; the person who had arrived was indeed—

call!

boom!

The white light didn't stay for long; it paused for a moment before disappearing.

At the same time, a beam of cyan demonic light flew out from the world's phantom and shot towards the mechanical island like an arrow!

These two basically boarded the metal floating island one after the other, and revealed their figures after the light dissipated. They were Ye Shou and Kallen!

"Finally, they're not running away anymore?"

Kallen stood in the void, a mocking smile on her face: "Why are you avoiding fighting me? Weren't you very confident before?"

Ye Shou did not answer. He turned around and glanced at the alien projection that had completely covered the surface of the moon, and shook his head slightly.

"As expected, your power has become so great that you can overwrite reality with fantasy. The moon can be replaced so easily, so if you go a step further... you can pull the entire Earth into your world, right?"

"The original date was Valentine's Day."

At this point, Kallen stopped hiding her intentions and frankly stated, "By then, my 'Eingrand' will have undergone more than a hundred iterations, possessing the computing power and energy to completely overturn everything... but your appearance has become an obstacle."

"I don't want to be an obstacle for anyone. If you really find yourself on the opposite side, then you should reflect on yourself."

With a flick of his wrist, the [Redstone Spark] appeared in Ye Shou's hand, his piercing eyes fixed intently on his opponent.

"Let me make this clear first, I'm not 'running away.' It's just that your monster has captured too many humans, and if we were to fight, it would be easy to destroy that continent before a victor could be decided..."

"You don't seem like such a kind person."

Karen looked at her hands: "Not bad, although it's a bit ahead of schedule, it's still fine within this area."

With that, she snapped her fingers, and the swarm of robots, like bees returning to their hive, instantly changed direction and flew back to the mechanical island.

The metallic surface trembled violently, chunks of rock and steel fragments rose from the ground, piecing together and merging with the endless stream of robots. Two colossal figures rapidly took shape amidst the dust and smoke.