Does the mechanical girl dream of the Messiah?

Ashetherin herself has a stronger regenerative ability than Lunicia. The injuries she just suffered from the "Rest" have now basically recovered completely. It seems that her ability to move has not been affected at all, which makes Lunicia breathe a sigh of relief.

"Then we'll just rush in through the door and follow the original plan..."

"Wait a minute, Luna."

"Ugh?"

"It's not over yet."

It's not over yet - the mechanical girl's eyes were fixed on the center of the dust fog. Ella and Lunicia could only feel the oppressive feeling around them. In this situation, Asheselin, who could judge the surroundings purely by the flow and temperature of the prayer words, could feel the existence more easily - of course, this was only before, and there were indeed some changes now.

Plop, plop.

I can hear the sound of my heart beating, the echo of my blood surging, they seem to be right beside my ears. The overly vigorous vitality is as bright and dazzling as the sun. Ah, yes, that's right, it's just like a blazing sun blooming on the earth. Even the mortal flesh that can hardly see through the dust and fog with the naked eye can feel it now, that existence, "her" existence - after all, the pressure now is more than ten times or a hundred times different from just now? The air in my lungs seems to have been squeezed out, my legs can't help but want to bend, I want to kneel on the ground, and carve a deep dent in the ground with my knees. My blood seems to be boiling, and my bones and muscles are wailing because of the huge load, turning into a plea for mercy that is different from language, begging for the other party's forgiveness. It seems that my eyes can see illusions, the illusion that the air is burning.

Not only here, but also in this wide round hall.

"..."

In silence, Sandria stretched out his right hand, as if sensing something. The silver-white rapier leaped out of the rubble, turned into an illusion, and then solidified in his palm again, allowing him to hold the hilt. The brilliant golden light condensed into the holy emblem of the scales and clock, covering the entire altar and isolating the raging pressure. He knew that there was no need for the sword to remain in the antechamber.

The sounds of weapons clashing, explosions, gunshots, shouts, and the commander's roars, no matter what kind of sound, all stopped for a while from the long corridor leading to the underground, and even the breathing became low. Some people couldn't help but kneel on the ground, cold sweat pouring out from their foreheads like water, and some people simply fell to the ground without a sound and fell into a coma. The two sides of the war were forced to cease fire. Even those professionals who could barely keep their bodies stable were also in doubt under the suffocating pressure, not knowing what was going on.

The dormitory area of ​​Alexandria Cathedral was in chaos. The priests who chose to stay here tonight, as well as the managers who were persuaded by the four major families, were running around in confusion and panic, trying to activate the cathedral's own defense mechanism. No one could have imagined that the "threat" came from under their feet, from far underground.

The whole city fell silent, silent because of the trembling from the bottom of the heart, as if in the face of that pressure, both fighting and duty seemed funny, childish and ridiculous.

"what is that……"

Lunicia thought she knew enough, and she had been surprised enough today - but at this moment, she still felt that her knowledge was so pale and short-sighted that she couldn't even understand what she had seen.

A vortex formed within the dust and fog, but she knew nothing about "that" at the center of the vortex.

She only knew that it might have been something that could once have been called "Rose".

call--------

Strong winds were blowing through the underground hall, making it impossible for people to stand steadily even if they tried their best. They could only stagger around awkwardly and stick their weapons into the ground to barely maintain their stability. They used violence to prevent themselves from being blown away by the wind and becoming broken into pieces like the stone columns.

Similarly, the strong wind also cleared away the dust and sand, allowing people to see the center of the storm.

The right horn and right shoulder were broken by the Holy Slash, but it didn't matter. In the blink of an eye, they returned to their original shape like a puzzle being put back together, growing upwards and becoming longer. The armor on the back was torn apart, and the skin was burned by the particle flow, but it didn't matter. In just a moment, the useless armor fell off, and the skin was as smooth as before, with scales as beautiful as gems. The girl's palms and toes were replaced by claws and dragon scales, and the skirt armor was replaced by a slender red tail. The abdomen was covered with soft white leather, and the long-unused red wings stretched out from the back. The dragon scales climbed up the neck and cheeks, but finally stopped there, as if to leave this familiar face for someone - something called "Rose" opened its eyes again.

Those eyes were like gemstones bubbling with blood, the girl's narrow and sharp eyes.

"——That is, a dragon."

Ashlee came to this conclusion.

Not a flying dragon, not a false dragon, not a decaying corpse, not a corrupted undead, not a fading dracolich, not a dragon turtle, not a half-dragon, not a dinosaur, not a hydra, not a dragonborn—

That is a real dragon.

The sky king named Rose Fa Alarie.

Chapter 64 Day 3: Sin

Humans, or rather, the intelligent races today, do not know more about the so-called "dragons" than they do about the dark kings, the gods, and the history before the Fourth Calendar. It is said that before humans first set foot on the earth and began to write their own long history, dragons and giants were once the rulers of this world, until later, they disappeared from the world for unknown reasons, and the few that remained eventually died in the Fourth and Fifth Calendars, in the Dark Ages and the Golden Ages, becoming part of the myth.

From time to time, things related to dragons enter the vision of today's intelligent races, such as dragonborn, flying dragons, and half-dragons, creatures that are said to have dragon blood; such as dragon scales, dragon bones, and dragon leather, which are excavated from all over the world like ores, and often become extremely precious materials, used for forging or making medicine; for example, corpse dragons and dragon liches, perhaps they were once dragons, but now they are just horrible dead things, mindless corpses, hated, feared, and avoided by the world, and become synonymous with disaster.

But no one had ever seen a "dragon", a real, living "dragon", those mythical creatures that in legend only needed to grow normally to step into legend, or even approach the gods.

"dragon……"

Lunicia murmured in confusion, but instinctively raised the giant sword in her hand.

The strongest existence she had ever seen, apart from the twelve gods who had never shown their bodies, was probably one of the dark kings, the "blasphemous twins" Nago and Yebu, who she had seen once in the waterwheel canal. That existence also did not fully reveal its true appearance to itself, but only flowed out a stream of power in response to the request of the ghoul priest. Today, this cognition should perhaps be written down. Even a trace of the divine power of the "blasphemous twins" is far from the existence in front of her.

At least, even the dark green light cast from the sky did not make her hands tremble instinctively, so that she could hardly hold the hilt of the sword, right?

It was not until now that Lunicia finally understood what the submission that seemed to exist naturally among the inferiors to the superiors was, an ancient tradition that was deeply rooted in the blood and unknown to the public. No one would feel submission and fear towards a dragonborn, but if the other party was a real "dragon", it would be another matter.

Lunisia could almost hear the wailing of all things around her under the pressure. The air, the earth, the water, the life, the blood, whether alive or dead, were all worshipping Rose. She believed in Ashetherin's judgment and was very sure that it was not an ordinary dragon.

So what to do, Lunicia?

How do you face an angry dragon, Lunicia?

"Ashe, rush in with Ella and interrupt the ceremony as planned."

"What should we do, Lady Luna?"

"I tried to hold her back as long as I could, probably..."

Probably - it's impossible to accomplish. Just facing that slender figure, I was already trembling all over, cold sweat rolling down my body and forehead. Whether holding the sword with both hands or standing on the ground, just maintaining this most basic vigilance already requires all my strength. In this situation, how can I fight?

"Is Ella still going to drive the preparations inside? So Ella will rush in first--"

Lunicia thought about it and forced a gentle smile towards Ella.

"——Don't worry, I'll be fine."

"but……"

The words were not given the opportunity to be fully told.

Before that, the girl's right arm, the arm holding the long purple blade, disappeared from sight.

"Hey?"

What happened? Before she could figure out what was going on, before the pain from the broken shoulder reached her brain, the violent airflow had already blown Ella's body away, smashing it into the pile of rocks formed by the collapsed columns. The dragon's roar replaced the girl's words. She did not lose her mind because of the change in the direction of the dragon, but the anger and bloodthirstiness swept through her brain. Compared to playing with her prey, she now wanted to understand these enemies, these troublemakers who were talking nonsense, as quickly as possible.

"Ella!"

At the same time, anxiety and anger also dispelled the trembling instinct in Lunisia's body, prompting - even forcing her to raise her arms again, spread her legs, and strike back at the dragon with the white giant blade.

Ashethelyn also reacted. She seemed to want to say something, but the current situation did not allow her to do so. She could only condense her strength in her wrist and choose the most effective weapon at the moment - not a crossbow, not a sniper rifle, not a half-baked weapon, not the Conqueror Marduk. There was only one effective choice.

However, before their actions could be carried out—

Following the urging of her battle consciousness and the call of all things, Lunicia had to change the trajectory of her giant sword midway through her swing, quickly changing from a "slashing" posture to a "deflecting" posture. What happened? It seemed even more incredible than the "last" experience. She clearly saw her opponent, but she couldn't see his actions at all. It was as if Rose's figure disappeared for a moment, and in the next moment, her right arm, along with her right shoulder, turned into a blood mist that scattered all over the sky.

——Ah, I see.

Lunicia understood. It wasn't that something incomprehensible had happened, nor that the other party had used some incredible ability. What had just happened was that the other party had swung a claw at her with all her strength, and then she successfully blocked it. That was all. Using the "deflection" technique to deviate her huge force from the original track and slide to the side with a slight gap, she had indeed successfully "blocked" Rose's attack. It was different from the first round of fighting. That time, she had indeed underestimated the other party and chose an inappropriate defense method, so that she had received all of Rose's force head-on, causing her hands to be temporarily fractured. This time, she had indeed chosen the best way to deal with it.

Or perhaps, if the opponent is not a dragon, this can be called the "best way to deal with it."

The force, which was countless times greater than before, tore open the curtain of divine power, passed through the obstruction of the "Avenger", and directly shattered the arm used to deflect the force into a red mist composed of blood, bones, nerves, and flesh. It seemed that even the surrounding muscles were torn off, and the bones cracked.

On the other side, Ashlee's body flew to the side - only the part above the ribs and below the hips was missing. This made it clear what happened: Rose swung her claws to attack Lunicia, while casually swinging her tail, and then penetrated Lunicia's defense and knocked Ashlee away.

"...!!!"

The excruciating pain from her right shoulder and even most of her body as if being torn apart went straight into her brain, but this did not make Lunicia give up. The burning pain messed up her consciousness, but she still used her left hand to directly use the hilt of the giant sword, lowered her body, and while Rose had not yet completely gathered the remaining strength from the previous blow, she twisted the blade from the lower right to the upper left, wrapping the tip of the sword with thunder and almost completely orange-red holy power, and swung it with all her strength.

Boom——! ! !

The sound of thunder spread out, and a column of orange-red light shot straight up into the dome, illuminating the surroundings into a field of light.

It contained all the power accumulated by Lunisia and the power like a thunderous explosion. Even the Gog Giant could not be spared by this sword. Even if they made a perfect defense, they would be transformed into scattered glass of light under the direct impact.

...But, for a dragon, it's still not enough.

The giant sword slashed at the dragon's wrist, bypassing the scales, splitting the dragon's hide, and tearing the dragon's muscles, but it could not go any deeper - that was the dragon's bone, as indestructible as the dragon's pride. To cut it off, not only did you need an extraordinary weapon, but you also needed extraordinary strength. That's why the Holy Slash that cut off the dragon's horn before was a miracle. The dragon did not move at all under the dual impact of the holy power and thunder, and the fact that the legendary existence raised his hand to defend did not bring any joy to Lunicia. She had already seen Rose's outstretched right hand.

puff--!

Before that, the two sword blades had already pierced Rose's arms, one on the left and one on the right.

One was a pitch-black sword, and the other was a silver sword that looked very familiar and shaped like a needle.

Ashlee and Ella, one flew over at full speed from behind, while the other teleported here with a cruel spell the moment she regained consciousness, and together they stopped Rose's actions.

The dragon growled softly.

She flapped her wings gently, and Ella and Ashlee were blown to the sides. The newly repaired body of the machine was instantly covered with fine cracks, and the silver imitation shattered into dazzling dust. Ella's body slammed heavily against the wall, and she couldn't help vomiting a large mouthful of blood mixed with terrible internal organs. The black sword almost slipped out of her hand.

The feeling of being hit by Rose's wings is like being hit by a high-speed moving wall of force. For mechanical creations that can continuously repair themselves, there may be room for self-repair - but what about Ella Hepper?

For the half-elf spellswordsman, whose physical fitness was not that strong, all the bones in her body were shattered, her internal organs were damaged, and the condition inside her body was not much better than being dead. How could she hold on?

——Angry?

The invisible girl leaned over the girl's ear and whispered softly.

——Are you angry?

I can't hear her voice, see her figure, or feel her breath. I just "know" her words.

——Anger at the harm done to one’s friends, anger at the obstruction of the road, anger at the disaster that is bound to come…

She was murmuring, whispering, and in the moment of silence, she was saying words that she could not understand at all.

——That is what is called "righteous indignation".

puff----

Maybe it was difficult to succeed because of some minor incidents just now, but for Rose, this was not even an obstacle. The quickly regenerated muscles stuck to the white blade. She only needed to use a little force with her right arm, and the young girl paladin fell forward awkwardly, unable to keep her balance. Then, she stabbed upwards with her left hand -

The blood will gush out like a fountain.

"Big sister's heart is very beautiful."

Beautiful, eh?

Lunicia didn't understand why Rose would express such a feeling.

—Do not go gentle into that good night.

The object that was beating in front of him was not so much a heart as a piece of strange flesh and blood stitched together by black iron. Even if it was pulled out of the body, it was still beating and undulating, maintaining the process of blood and life circulating. Is it a beautiful thing? Perhaps it does have its own beauty, such as the tenacious functional beauty, but when it stops beating, the so-called functional beauty will disappear from it.

——When the day ends, the old man should burn and scream.

"Gu...well..."

Blood flowed out of her mouth, and her vision and consciousness became blurred. She couldn't see her own heart, but she could see everything clearly. Ashlee tried to repair her body and get up again. Ella was lying among the rubble, her chest barely rising and falling, and she was in urgent need of help.

——Roar.

The girl's voice whispered faster and louder, as if she felt some kind of weird pleasure.

She seemed to have opened her arms, gently embraced the girl's broken shoulders, put her arms around her chest, and together with the dragon, held the heart. The heart that beat tenaciously even after being stripped away was like a candle protecting the girl's life.

Then, the girl's hands closed together with the dragon's claws.

——Roar towards the fading of light!!!

The orange flame burned, swayed, and jumped.

It's like a pool of blood and tears that will never stop flowing.

……

"……Well…………"

The girl's silence was long and painful.

She could endure pain, as if her body was born to endure suffering that ordinary people could not endure, or perhaps, it was because she had experienced suffering that ordinary people could not endure that she had the ability to endure it.

Bruise all over her body, broken bones, damaged and dislocated internal organs, these pains could not make her give up struggling, give up struggling as a sacrifice. There seemed to be some voice coming from her hazy consciousness, making her anxious, making her bored, urging herself, whipping herself, making her raise her head and look into the distance.

"...Savior...Sir...?"

It seemed to be the sound of flames roaring, it seemed to be a call, it seemed to be a whisper, it seemed to be a roar, it seemed to be a cry, a sound that was so complex and complicated that it could not be ignored.

The figure wrapped in orange-red flames, it is hard to tell whether it is wearing flaming armor or turning into a burning monster. The figure of the girl is burning, waving a white blade in her hand that is almost as big as her body. It is contradictory and weird. It is difficult to give an accurate definition to that figure, calling it a holy servant or a demon of destruction.

My blurry vision could barely keep up with the pace of the two figures.

Lacking skills and beauty, the dragons and fire demons wreaked havoc here with pure power. They were like two evil spirits crawling out of mythology, biting and beating each other, fighting instinctively - from this perspective, Rose was inevitably inferior. After all, she would be cautious when she attacked, unable to vent her power wantonly, lest she really cause the collapse of this ritual site. Even though she could make the entire city tremble with her might and easily turn the peaks of Canserle into plains, she also needed to restrain her own power.

This hall is blessed by the gods, but the gods are not watching over this place after all. If people go too far in making trouble, it will inevitably collapse.

Her opponent did not have so many concerns, or rather, she did not have the mind to "concern" at all. She just roared and howled, letting the temperatureless and massless rage burn. Now, she was more like a mad beast than other opponents, a reckless monster, an "angry" monster.

boom--!

Explosions were heard, and the monsters charged at the dragon for who knows what. Her figure merely brushed past, causing the ground to collapse and crack, and the god's barrier to shake violently. Each previous charge had been effective, breaking the dragon's arms, breaking off its horns, tearing off its wings, and pulling off its tail, leaving her scarred time and time again, and recovering from her injuries again, defending the door behind her at the risk of her life.

Only this time, Rose finally caught the rhythm.

boom! ! !

The shock waves collided with each other, creating terrifying waves that shook the entire building with their collision. Rose grabbed the wrists made of orange anger and slammed them to the ground.