Great, we're doomed now!

Its limbs are as thick as towering stone pillars, leaving deep indentations on the ground when it steps on them. A ridge that winds up and down its back resembles the main peak of a mountain range, with some crystals condensed at the top. Originally grayish, these crystals suddenly lit up as it awoke and began to migrate.

"Ang~"

On either side of its broad head are two pairs of short, coral-like horns that gleam with a faint gray light. Its head is somewhere between that of a turtle and a lizard, and it looks majestic from the front.

What's most striking is its left eye, with a pupil as deep as an abyss, its depths shimmering with a golden-red light, as if it contains an inextinguishable flame—it has heterochromia, while its right eye is just a normal brown pupil.

The monster slowly began to move, as if it sensed an unseen danger. It turned its huge head and slowly advanced towards the distant coastline, easily crushing the trees along the way and diverting the river.

Just as it reached the coastline and was about to step into the sea, three figures descended from the sky, hovering in mid-air and firmly blocking its path—it was Carmilla, Dagon, and Hitram!

"Finally found you, [Dragon Turtle]."

"Ooh~!"

The monster, known as the Dragon Turtle, suddenly opened its massive jaws and let out a deafening roar.

The sound waves swept outwards, instantly shattering the waves in front into countless white foams, with splashing water falling like a torrential rain.

The three giants were also hit by an extremely powerful impact, their bodies swayed slightly, and they felt a sharp pain in their ears.

"brute!"

"hateful!"

"Let's do it!"

Carmilla gave a cold order, and the three of them raised their hands at the same time. Beams of different colors shot out from their palms, but their targets were all the same, heading straight for the monster's huge body.

A violent explosion rang out, and flames shot into the sky. Large sections of the thick rock layer on the monster's body were blasted open, and flying debris revealed the hard, dark brown carapace beneath.

What's astonishing is that the shell's defensive capabilities are extremely strong; it didn't even leave a single crack under the bombardment of the beam!

Hitram let out a strange laugh: "Perfect material! Once we get our hands on the fragments and modify this guy, it will definitely be a strategic-level biological weapon."

He was about to make a move when Carmilla suddenly raised her hand to stop him.

“Wait a minute.” She said gravely, “The dragon turtle is not an ordinary beast; it is a divine beast worshipped by humans and possesses extraordinary wisdom… More importantly, fighting an opponent of this size head-on would be too exhausting. Let’s try to resolve the issue through communication first.”

"Huh?" Hitram deliberately dragged out the sound, clearly dissatisfied. "It's like this again... What's wrong with you, Carmilla? You've suddenly changed your ways. You used to be someone who would rather fight than talk."

After Carmilla used force to unify their internal opinions, the Dark Trio's operations became more efficient. During this time, they found many more clues and even collected one or two micro fragments.

Hitram harbored resentment, which Carmilla had cleared up, but as long as it didn't affect the overall situation, it didn't matter, since Hitram was quite capable.

In this case, it was his pet bird monster that discovered the "Dragon Turtle" and led the trio here.

Dragon Turtle is not the monster's real name, but rather the name given to it after it was revered as a guardian deity by the locals. It is a very powerful native monster with a gentle temperament and once shared a very close and beautiful time with humans.

But you can't guard against a thief forever. The Eternal Core attracted all sorts of evil forces from the universe. No matter how hard the native monsters and superhumans tried, they still managed to find a loophole and almost had the Eternal Core stolen, which even led to a major battle nearby...

As a result, Earth once again preserved its core, but due to the impact of the battle, the Eternal Core also broke into many fragments, the largest of which, the "trigger," has been kept by the Guardians.

The dragon turtle was a participant in the war on Earth at the time. It was hit in the eye by a fragment, which could be considered as protecting it in a way.

However, following the path of the guardian, the dragon turtle has never actively absorbed the energy inside; it was only affected by the radiation and slowly grew to its current size.

It knew all too well how dangerous the power of the Eternal Core was, and would not allow any fragments to fall into the hands of the Dark Giant.

Even though the giants are now considered humanity's "guardians," in a sense they are its descendants...

"You may be very wary of us."

Carmilla didn't care. She took half a step forward, causing ripples to appear in the air.

Her voice was transmitted through energy to the monster's ears: "But we have no intention of being your enemy, Dragon Turtle."

You must hand over the fragment of the Eternal Core within your left eye, and then you may leave on your own.

The monster's massive head swayed slightly, emitting a muffled response with unwavering resolve: "The [Eternal Core] exists to maintain the balance of this land and cannot be given to those with wicked intentions."

"Her intentions are not pure?" Carmilla's eyes flickered slightly, and her tone softened a bit. "I am also thinking of all mankind... After obtaining the Eternal Core, I will make good use of its power to build a world without conflict, drive out all cosmic monsters, and never use it for evil purposes. You can rest assured."

The monster fell silent, its golden-red pupil in its left eye flickering slightly... It could sense the firmness in Carmilla's words, but could not detect any malice, which made it suspicious.

Is this the truth?

The dragon turtle understood that it was indeed impossible to deal with three giants at the same time... and it was difficult to make a decision.

In that instant of stalemate, a ruthless glint flashed in Hitram's eyes:

Taking advantage of the monster's distraction, he raised his hand from a blind spot and gathered the energy he had been accumulating for a long time, unleashing a sharp blue arrow of light—

Whoosh!

The light arrow was extremely fast and accurately pierced the monster's left eye. Blood gushed from the wound instantly, staining a large area of ​​land red.

"Roar--!"

The monster let out a roar of extreme pain, its massive body trembled violently, and the surrounding waves were shaken up several meters high.

"core!!"

"Hitram!"

Carmilla's expression changed drastically, and she turned to glare at her companion: "How dare you disobey my orders!"

Hitram, however, didn't care. He raised his hand and waved, and a beam of energy swept up the core fragment that had fallen from the monster's left eye, holding it firmly in his hand.

He weighed the shards in his hand, his face full of smugness: "We've got the stuff! Why waste words dealing with such a stupid guy? Isn't this more efficient?"

"you……"

"You despicable scoundrels! Give me back the fragments! Roar!!!"

The excruciating pain in the dragon turtle's left eye transformed into bursts of fury. Its thick shell moved like a mountain collapsing, exuding an earth-shattering power. A thick dragon tail swept across the three dark giants with immense force!

Hitram smirked disdainfully. How could such a big move possibly hit him?

The blue giant gripped the fragment of the Eternal Core tightly, first teleporting away in an afterimage to avoid the powerful blow, then his fingertips glowed with a ghostly blue light as he frantically absorbed the fragment's energy.

How audacious!

—Carmilla and Dagon were both taken aback by this action.

It absorbed the energy of the [Eternal Core] without doing anything?

Carmilla had done something similar, but at that time the trigger had already been mostly activated, and the pillar of light was the result of the release of power. It looked incredibly grand, but it was actually more peaceful and stable than the previous state.

Even so, it will still cause great harm to the body...

Hitram's situation was like swallowing a grenade!

No matter how much they disliked him, they were still of the same race. When they saw him do this, Carmilla and Dagon's first reaction was to worry.

Surprisingly, Hitram did not suffer any backlash and successfully extracted those powerful abilities into his body.

"Oh, so this is the [Eternal Core]... Just as I thought!"

"Hmph, just a stupid beast, dares to retaliate against me?"

Before he finished speaking, he spread his arms, and countless blue light waves, imbued with dark power, appeared in the void, all coated with a layer of dark red ripples. Then, like a torrential rain, they poured down, densely striking the dragon turtle's body—

boom!

boom!

boom!

...Explosions continued one after another, the rocks and vegetation on the dragon turtle's back were blasted to pieces, and the ridge that was originally raised like a small mountain was almost completely flattened!

The dragon turtle let out a muffled roar of pain, its massive body trembling uncontrollably. It was clearly feeling the excruciating pain, yet it still did not back down, stubbornly charging towards Hitram, hoping to bring it into its attack range.

"Perfect!" Hitram grew increasingly fond of the fragment in his hand, a greedy glint in his eyes.

If a single fragment is this powerful, what about the "trigger"? Or the entire [Eternal Core] itself?

As long as he can make it his own, conquering the universe would be a piece of cake. He raised his hand and conjured a dark blue light sword, its blade shimmering with a sharp, cold light.

"Stop!" Carmilla shouted coldly, her light whip instantly wrapping around the lightsaber, preventing him from taking any further action.

"We've got the fragments, it's time for us to go."

"Are you teaching me what to do?"

Hitram's face darkened, and he turned to glare at Carmilla, his dark energy surging around him, clearly hesitating whether to turn against her.

Just then, a mocking voice came from mid-air: "You guys who only know how to ambush, getting the stuff isn't enough, do you also want to take someone's life?"

Who is it—?

call out!

Before he could finish speaking, a blazing golden arrow of light pierced the air and struck Hitram's right hand precisely.

He released his grip in pain, and the fragment of the Eternal Core detached, tracing a beautiful arc in the air—

"I'll do it!"

Carmilla reacted with lightning speed, lunging towards the shard in a flash. Just as her fingertips were about to touch it, an invisible psychic force suddenly bound the shard—

It's Ye Shou!

The two faced off across the distance, the air currents generated by the collision of their mental powers sweeping around them, causing the waves to roll and the wind to howl.

The fragments eventually floated in mid-air, and the two men's palms touched at the same time—

Carmilla looked up, and Ye Shou looked up as well. Their eyes met, and it seemed as if invisible sparks flew in the air, but neither of them broke the delicate balance.

But the stalemate lasted only a moment. Before the two could even speak, Hitram flew into a rage and unleashed a barrage of compressed light bullets at Ye Shou!

Ye Shou released his grip on the fragment. Carmila, like the other end of a tug-of-war, suddenly lost her balance and couldn't stop in time. Ye Shou then gently flipped his wrist and used the "Hook Hand" from the Flowing Water Rock-Shattering Fist, nimbly "picking" the fragment away like an eagle catching its prey.

He conjured a golden barrier with his backhand, deflecting Hitram's sneak attack with a fluid and effortless movement.

Carmilla's fingertips missed their mark, failing to hold onto the fragment. She looked at Ye Shou's retreating figure with a complex expression in her eyes.

Why would someone so carelessly expose their back?

Aren't you afraid she'll ambush you?

But she quickly shook her head, cutting off her distracting thoughts, and gathered dark golden energy in her palm, clearly unwilling to give up the fragment.

She was waiting for an opportunity.

Although her skills weren't as extraordinary as Ye Shou's, she possessed exceptional patience and insight.

Sure enough, the opportunity she had been waiting for soon arrived—