Chapter 159: Bloodline Eruption, Mutual Destruction?

Qi had not expected the Supreme Authority to be so troublesome and massive. He had been startled upon first seeing it, but as long as Meiling was around, it could not stir up any major trouble.

However, Meiling had vanished without a reason. This unexpected turn of events completely shattered his plans, forcing him to shift from a direct assault to a guerrilla-style engagement. In the end, the enemy resorted to a mutually destructive tactic, completely ignoring their own vulnerability in order to target the other members of Night Raid.

Through their time spent together, Qi had long since forged deep bonds of friendship with them. Several of them even harbored secret feelings for him; even if he could not reciprocate, it did not mean he was willing to watch them come to harm.

At this critical moment of crisis, after being killed several times—

His boiling blood churned violently. A silver radiance pierced through his left eyeball, resembling a burning silver flame.

The very next instant after he shouted for them to stop, the pillar of energy halted. Susanoo, who was rushing to the rescue, halted. The members of Night Raid, desperate to dodge, halted as well. The world came to a standstill, and time froze.

There were no other thoughts in Qi's mind; right now, he only wanted to save the members of Night Raid. The moment time stopped, he flapped his wings with all his might, propelling himself toward the area engulfed by the energy pillar.

Because time had ceased, Qi had no way of knowing how much time had passed. Just as he positioned himself in front of the raging attack, the flow of time resumed in the world. His form wavered due to the immense exhaustion, and the next moment, he was swallowed by the gigantic pillar of light.

"Ashen Heavens!" A roar and a cry of fury echoed from within the pillar of light.

The gray orb was only about ten feet in size, yet the dozens-of-feet-wide pillar of destructive light was swallowed by it like light entering a black hole, twisting and proactively plunging inward.

"Little Qi! Qi!" The members of Night Raid shouted at the top of their lungs as they retreated.

"Damn it! Not even this can eliminate you? I refuse to believe how long you can last! Go to hell, you normie, you winner in life!" Gao Jizhai roared back in response.

Surrounded by so many beautiful maidens yet completely failing to cherish them—such a crime was unforgivable, deserving of a thousand deaths!

"He is not fighting alone." Susanoo, Tatsumi, and威尔 all charged simultaneously toward the vulnerability of the Supreme Authority, striking at the one place the enemy was forced to defend.

"Damn it! Do not get in my way! I am the Emperor of the Empire! Will, do you intend to betray the Empire? Tatsumi, do you no longer want your village to prosper?" Gao Jizhai shouted at the top of his lungs, sounding utterly hysterical.

"The decay of the Empire, the poverty of our village, the deaths of Sayo and the others—tracing it back to its root, weren't they all caused by you and the Prime Minister? Only with the destruction of the Empire can the village prosper, and only then will I have the face to return to my village," Tatsumi roared in reply.

"I am a soldier, and protecting the weak is my vocational duty. Right now, you are merely a tyrant inflicting violence upon ordinary civilians, and my conscience is clear." Will remained steadfast and unshaken, dodging a beam of light that scattered toward him.

Transformed, Susanoo moved at high speed using the Yasakani no Magatama, rapidly closing the distance to the weakness of the Supreme Authority. Any beams of light he could not dodge were reflected back by the Yata Mirror.

"No! I refuse to reconcile myself to this! I am neither the protagonist, so why drag me into this pit?"

"Ame no Murakumo no Tsurugi!" Susanoo's cold and stern gaze flashed, and his most formidable attack pierced unreservedly into the weakness of the Supreme Authority.

The destructive beam targeting the gray orb gradually shrank and extinguished. The Supreme Authority slowly tilted, its colossal body crashing forward.

Yet Tatsumi and Will noticed that six or seven hundred paces ahead, a crowd of injured civilians had gathered.

Seized by sudden panic, the two of them—one from the left and one from the right—attempted to prop up the five-hundred-foot giant, but their efforts yielded little effect.

"Big Brother, grant me strength!" Tatsumi roared toward the heavens, and his Imperial Arms, Incursio, began to undergo a transformation, growing even more powerful.

"Heh, do not assume I have exhausted all my spiritual energy. Someone as clever as I—how could I possibly keep falling into the same trap and be troubled until the very end?"

Qi braced the head of the Supreme Imperial Tool, pulled out a diamond-like pearl, tossed it into his mouth, and crunched it to pieces before swallowing it.

Although it stored less than ten percent of his spiritual energy and would not last long, it was more than enough for a desperate rescue in a crisis.

"Make it a bit lighter for me."

Qi generated an expanding sphere filled with hydrogen gas, intended to lighten the majestic five-hundred-foot frame of the Supreme Authority.

"And me, Yata Mirror!"

Through the combined efforts of the four of them, the Supreme Authority slid a hundred meters after hitting the ground before finally coming to a halt, resting nearly a hundred paces away from the civilians. The crisis was averted.

"Oh, we've won!"

"Ha, the Empire has finally fallen!"

"We did it!"

...

News of the ultimate victory had already spread far and wide. All the Revolutionary Army soldiers and ordinary civilians in the imperial capital shouted, laughed, and wept tears of joy.

As for the Imperial Palace guards and the Capital Guard, having already lost their will to fight, they threw down their arms and surrendered one after another.

"Big Brother Qi, we did it!" Tatsumi smiled happily. Ever since Sheele—no, since Braat's death, he had been working undercover, and he had waited for this day for a very long time.

"The Empire has fallen. Hopefully, the new empire can bring happiness to the people." Will looked somewhat forlorn. As a soldier of the Empire, he had fought alongside rebels in a war against the Empire, and he felt he had failed his master.

"It certainly will." Najenda approached with the other members of Night Raid, wearing a smile filled with gratification and emotion.

"After enduring such a long time, the decaying Empire has finally reached the end of its sinful existence. A Revolutionary Army that deeply understands the suffering of the common people will surely govern this country well. I guarantee it to you."

"Our mission is also complete; it is time for us to part ways," Akame said with a tinge of sorrow.

"Big Sister, we will always be together and never part again." Kurome was currently clinging very closely to Akame, afraid that if she looked away and then looked back, her sister would vanish from her sight.

"There is still one person we haven't caught—the true mastermind, the Prime Minister. I wonder where he ran off to?" Leone swung her fists in immense dissatisfaction. Having grown up in the capital, her hatred for the Prime Minister was the deepest among them all.

"Rest assured, how could a mere Prime Minister escape my grasp? I have already been keeping tabs on him. Sigh, right now I'm only worried whether Meiling might be in danger. She probably didn't leave of her own accord, and the only entities I know of who could spirit her away without a sound are..."

Qi's confident smile could not last long before it was replaced by worry and helplessness.

"She should be fine; perhaps she returned to Gensokyo. But Little Qi, what are your plans for the future? Will you wander the ends of the earth?" Chelshire offered a word of comfort before rolling her eyes and asking.

"I suppose so," Qi replied ambiguously. "What about you all? Najenda needs to manage the new nation, Akame and Kurome will likely travel across the continent, and Tatsumi is returning to his village. Leone, Mine, Sheele, and Chelshire—none of you really have anywhere to go back to, right?"

"I want to follow—"

"Hahahahaha! Go to hell with me, all of you! Taste the sensation of the Supreme Imperial Tool self-destructing! It can raze the entire imperial capital to the ground. Let's see where you can possibly run! Hahahahaha!"

Gao Jizhai was actually still able to manipulate the self-destruction of the Supreme Imperial Tool. This was completely unexpected, but the violently churning energy fluctuations genuinely told Qi that the situation had escalated to a level threatening everyone's survival.