Volume 16 Tower of Babel Chapter 1017: Final Battle (IV)
"Who... are you?" the Hound asked in astonishment. The other party seemed to be on his side, but the Hound had no idea that there was such a character in his camp.
"He is Thirty-Three." Ivan answered the Hound's question in the communication channel. "Thirty-Three's ability to manipulate Nino Alloy comes from an EsGod. It just so happens that the ownerless energy that Ke Lan brought out from the Tower of Babel contains some of the same energy as this EsGod... With the idea of giving it a try, I injected a very small amount of EsGod's energy into Thirty-Three's body."
“And then it became like this?”
"No, his body was directly destroyed by the intense energy conflict... but for some reason, his consciousness was preserved. His current body was reshaped by himself using Nino alloy after he controlled the energy of the alien god." Ivan said.
Another group of monsters rushed up, but the next second, the decks under their feet suddenly began to change - these decks seemed to come alive, surging up, wrapping up the monsters that stepped on them, and then suddenly contracted inward, directly crushing the monsters' bodies.
"The entire outer deck of the Yaguna Kotor is made of Nino alloy. This is the main battlefield of the Thirty-Three." Ivan said, "With him here, our chances of winning will be greatly improved."
"Then Thirty-three looks like this now...is he dead or alive?" The hound glanced at the two captivating flames in the skeleton's eye sockets and subconsciously looked away.
Even though he knew that the consciousness inside this body was Thirty-three, and even though he knew that he was on his side, he still felt a palpitating feeling when he looked directly into the skeleton's eyes. The invisible oppressive force did not come from Thirty-three himself, but from the powerful alien god who was separated from here by countless time and space.
"It is difficult for humans to control the energy of the alien god... I don't know how Thirty-Three did it, but his current state is very unstable, and his remaining consciousness is being constantly consumed by this power... His activity time is limited, and when his self-consciousness completely disappears..." Ivan paused and whispered, "You can think of him as... a disposable consumable."
"No hope of salvation?"
"There's no hope..." Ivan sighed, "If I don't do this, his consciousness will continue to sink into the illusion... until it is completely extinguished. Now, at least he is awake."
"...I understand." The Hound silently glanced at Thirty-Three in this state, "But there is one more thing... On Alpha, using the power of the EsGod will not attract the attention of that being? I remember Ke Lan told me that after he merged with that 'body', he must be extremely careful when using the power of the body. If he is not careful, he will be discovered by that being and suffer a catastrophic disaster."
"No, compared with Ke Lan, the power of the Alien God that Thirty-Three possesses is nothing... What's more, the mark of the Alien God has long been neutralized and erased, so it will not attract the attention of that existence. I have discussed this with Ke Lan a long time ago." Ivan said.
"Does Ke Lan know about this, too?"
"I know... He wants to save Thirty-three more than any of us, but there is no way..." Ivan said, and then sighed, "In fact, this is Thirty-three's own choice. If he wants to live, he can just not reshape his body and stay as a consciousness... He can live for at least several decades in pure consciousness form, which is about the same as the lifespan of a normal human. But once he uses the energy of the alien god to reshape his body, his consciousness will be eroded and impacted by this energy all the time... Decades of time will be shortened to dozens of hours. I advised him, but he still chose to reshape his body."
"Can he talk now?" the Hound asked again.
"No, the new body has no vocal organs. If you want to communicate with it, you can only use sign language or other methods." Ivan said, "In order to extend the activity time of this body as much as possible, Thirty-Three omitted all unnecessary body structures and organs."
While the Hound was still communicating with Ivan, the "reborn" Thirty-Three had already rushed forward. He simply waved his hand, and the outer armor of the deck of the Yaguna Tor was all blown away, smashing towards the enemy like a tidal wave.
In less than a minute, Thirty-Three killed more than a thousand independent entities that had split from the wreckage of the battleship... This record was indeed brilliant, but compared with the total number of enemies, it was not enough to reverse the entire battle situation.
In a battle of this scale, being able to turn the tide of the battle by one's own strength is not something that can be done by individual combat power alone... Even Ke Lan can't do it, unless he uses those dangerous powers.
"Push forward! Everyone, push forward! Block the gap! Surround these monsters and attack them! We still have thirty seconds! The next batch of monsters will be released in thirty seconds , and we must eliminate all the monsters on the deck before then!" Ivan replaced the seriously injured Hound in command. In his left arm, he held a Type 01 rifle that had been modified to be airtight for combat in space environments, and his right arm turned into countless thick and long tentacles. Every time it swung, it could sweep away a blank area on the battlefield. Ivan did not tell the Hound that before injecting the energy of the alien god into Thirty-Three, he used himself as a test subject.
The energy of the alien god erased the mark of "that existence" in the cells of the Seed of Corrosion, and forcibly assimilated the remaining cells of the Seed of Corrosion lurking in Ivan's body... and Ivan was able to take this power for himself - this kind of experiment is irreversible to the destruction of the body. When this crystal-like syringe was inserted into his body, Ivan's remaining life had already entered the countdown...
According to his own estimation, in no more than five years, this power will completely wipe out his self-consciousness and turn him into a true zombie - of course, there is a way to remedy the situation, as long as the consciousness can be separated from the body, Ivan still has a chance to survive.
The craziest scientists will regard themselves as the most critical experimental material in the most important experiments... Any data obtained from observations is not as accurate as the feelings you have personally experienced.
In Ivan's opinion, he should have died in the exile camp a few years ago, or merged with the Seed of Corrosion and eventually been killed by the Security Bureau agents... As a person who died once, he valued his own life and looked at death very calmly ... He always felt that he owed a life to others. Perhaps now was the best time to repay the debt.
Hundreds of tentacles spread out in all directions with Ivan as the center. These tentacles cling to the deck of the Yaguna Tor and slide silently until they reach the feet of the prey. Then they suddenly explode, either tightly wrapping around the prey and crushing it to pieces, or directly drilling into the gaps in the structure and wreaking havoc inside the prey's body.
Ivan's achievements were less than those of Thirty-Three, but not by much.
After these two people who had received the energy of the alien god joined the battlefield, the pressure on the survivor alliance was suddenly reduced a lot, and the originally compressed battle line began to slowly push back - but the speed of eliminating monsters did not increase much. The increasing number of wounded and scrapped weapons and equipment caused the firepower of the survivor alliance to drop by more than one level. The addition of Ivan and Thirty-three only made up for this gap.
"There are still ten seconds... No, I can buy you twenty seconds at most. After twenty seconds, I will have to open the energy shield again. The enemies that will be let in this time will be more than the previous two batches combined!" Layton's anxious voice echoed in the communication channel. "According to the statistics of the control console, there are only 37% of the enemies left on the outer deck. If these guys are allowed to join the third batch of enemies rushing in, your defense line will be broken in an instant!"
"Big guy, listen to me carefully. If our defense line shows signs of collapse, you must close the space channel immediately. Don't let these monsters enter the interior of Yagunakotor... This ship is the hope for the future of mankind, and it must not be sunk here!" The Hound leaned on a dilapidated artillery pedestal, panting and saying to Layton.
"No, if you shut down the space channel, you won't be able to come back?!"
"We are not important! Don't worry about us! Just do as I say!" The Hound shouted angrily, "Besides, once the defense line is breached, can the people on the deck still be able to retreat back to the ship alive?"
"I...I understand!" Layton gritted his teeth and said, "There are five seconds left, and the energy shield will soon reach its limit. Get ready!"
"Everything is ready." Chi Hanfeng replied. His engineering mecha had joined the battle at some point. Two empty mechanical arms picked up two abandoned mecha-specific rifles and kept shooting at the enemy. The other mechanical arms kept refilling fuel and ammunition into the returning supply mechas.
"Let them in." Valentina said calmly. The external armor of the Blasphemer mecha she was driving had been completely removed, revealing the original appearance of the Blasphemer. The heavy armor-piercing sword as big as a door panel had long been severely deformed, and the energy shield covering the blade had become extremely unstable, flickering from time to time.
The "Undead Army" charged the most fiercely, and the entire army was trapped in the area where the enemy was most concentrated, weaving in and out, fighting... Although they achieved the most results, they also suffered the greatest losses - in just a few minutes, of the more than eighty black machines, only less than ten were still standing.
"The last gasp... Now it's really the last gasp." Zhuo Ligetu sighed and took out the empty shotgun drum. But when he reached his hand to his waist, he found that the one that had just been emptied was the last drum.
"I'm out of ammunition." Zhuo Ligetu turned his head and said to the hound. The hound coughed up two mouthfuls of blood foam and operated the mechanical arm to throw a heavy assault rifle to him.
"This gun only has one magazine left, so use it sparingly." Hound said, "Everyone's situation is similar... The last wave of enemies will come soon. If we kill them all, we will win."
"Fortunately, I still have my axe." Zhuoligetu touched the battle axe hanging behind him, "I remember an elder of mine told me that when the battle is the most difficult, weapons that do not require ammunition, fuel, or energy are the most reliable weapons."
"It's a pity that we are neither in the Amazon jungle nor on the prairie of your hometown... The enemies we face are not beasts with only teeth and claws." The hound sighed, "Don't die so easily. Ke Lan must be waiting for us to win and then return to celebrate."
After the Hound finished speaking, he looked up and saw the energy shield, which had dimmed to the extreme, quietly go out, and dense monsters surged over like a tide.
This time, these monsters actually turned into the appearance of creatures on Earth, wolves, leopards, mastiffs, tigers... These wild beasts that most modern people have only seen in biology textbooks and documentaries were perfectly simulated by these independent individuals - except for the strange pale color of their bodies, many details were exactly the same as these creatures that had become extinct thousands of years ago.
"Ha, ha." The hound laughed dryly twice and patted Zhuoligetu's shoulder speechlessly. "You got slapped in the face really quickly. It seems that your axe will come in handy this time."
"That's good." A hint of excitement flashed in Zhuo Ligetu's eyes. He hung the rifle back on his waist, took off the tomahawk and weighed it in his hand for a few times. Then he let out a Mongolian war cry, pushed the backpack to full power, and rushed towards the herd of beasts.
"Fuck, even if I die here today, I'll kill for fun!" The Hound injected the last few potions into his body and rushed forward. The ammunition had been used up long ago, and the weapons held by the four mechanical arms had all turned into swords made of Nino alloy, which looked like a giant mechanical spider with its fangs and claws bared.
Before Zhuoligetu and the hound could engage in close combat with the beasts, a ray of cold light swept across the front line of the beasts before them. Wherever the cold light passed, these carnivorous beasts that were so ferocious a second ago instantly turned into irregular corpses and scattered, floating away in all directions in the gravity-free environment.
"What a fast... knife?" The Hound was stunned for a moment, then looked to the side, "It was that kid Asano Akira... Damn it, when we were at the glacier ruins, I really misjudged him at first."
"This is not the first time you've made a mistake," Layton complained in the communication channel. "Hold on, these are just the vanguard's minions, the big guys are still behind!"
