Death… And Me

Chapter 4381: Might Work

As Rean retreated with the airplane, Kentucky and Celis focused all of their attention on the strange guardian behind them. Kentucky relied on his extraordinary eyesight while Celis observed the fluctuations of its Godly Energy as carefully as possible, each gathering different pieces of information.

"It has recovered in size," Kentucky was the first to report. "However, it still isn’t as big as when it first appeared to attack Harksha."

"The same goes for the energy," Celis added a moment later. "I can clearly tell it has recovered a considerable amount, but the concentration still hasn’t returned to what it was during our first encounter."

"That’s good enough." Rean immediately increased the airplane’s speed even further, making sure to put as much distance between themselves and the barrier as possible before the guardian could begin another barrage of lasers. By the time the strange being reached the barrier’s edge, the airplane was already far outside its effective range. The guardian remained there for a brief moment before simply turning around.

"There is another thing we wanted to confirm," Roan pointed out while watching the radar. "Whether it would come out if it didn’t spend any energy."

Fortunately, the answer came almost immediately. Since there was no longer anyone attacking the barrier, the guardian merely lingered there for a short while before calmly returning inside. It showed no intention of pursuing them any further.

Only after they had retreated to what Rean considered a safe distance did he land the airplane again. Everyone gathered around while he projected the recorded readings from the encounter.

"Alright," Rean began. "We confirmed that once it expends a significant amount of energy, it requires a long time to recover. That part is good news. I still have enough materials to reinforce the airplane’s Light-Bending Arrays, so forcing it to waste its energy shouldn’t be impossible."

That had become the core of their plan. If they could repeatedly force the guardian to exhaust its reserves, they might eventually weaken it enough to destroy it and recover the mysterious core at its center.

Once they had that core, Rean intended to use the airplane’s separation system to extract its Godly Pressure while isolating the Godly Energy, just as his arrays already did with Godly Crystals. If everything worked as expected, they could then use that Godly Pressure as the disguise source instead of ordinary Godly Beast Crystals.

"However," Rean warned everyone before anyone became overly optimistic, "all of you already know the current limitation of my disguise arrays. Right now, they only work reliably with Godly Beast-level crystals. That thing gives off Godly Pressure comparable to a Godly Predator. There is a very real possibility that my arrays simply won’t be capable of processing something of that level."

"It is still worth trying," Harksha replied after thinking about it for a moment. "As long as we obtain that core, you can test everything somewhere safe before we push forward. If the disguise doesn’t work, then we simply change our plans... or admit defeat and return. At least we won’t be risking our lives just to discover your arrays have reached their limit."

"Very well." Rean nodded. His objective had simply been to make sure everyone understood the risks involved before committing to the idea. "That leaves us with another problem. We first need to get close enough to destroy that guardian and recover its core. Without it, there won’t be any disguise to test in the first place."

Celis considered the barrier surrounding the ruins before offering a suggestion. "How about we circle the entire barrier and look for an entrance? Ancient cultivators lived inside those ruins. They had to come and go somehow, so there should be at least one proper passage leading in."

Roan, however, immediately frowned.

"It is precisely because there must be an entrance that I don’t like your idea," he replied. "If there is a route capable of bypassing the barrier, then whoever built this place would naturally protect it much more heavily than every other location. We can still search for it if necessary, but I would rather treat it as the most dangerous point instead of the safest."

Kentucky tilted his head before shrugging. "Well... I guess that means we should first find the entrance and see whether Roan is right."

Before anyone could continue debating, Rean suddenly snapped his fingers.

"Actually..." A grin spread across his face. "I think we might already have the perfect way to cross that barrier. However, it would also come with some extra... risks..."

The others immediately turned toward him, curiosity replacing their previous discussion.

---

The airplane remained stationary for the rest of that day.

While Rean stayed inside making modifications to the Light-Bending Arrays, Harksha joined Roan, Senkiyu, Kentucky, Celis, and the others outside to keep watch over the surrounding area. Since Rean had chosen the landing spot purely for convenience and far enough from the barrier, a few wandering Godly Beasts eventually noticed their presence.

Fortunately, none of them posed much of a threat with Harksha present. Each battle ended quickly, leaving behind only additional Godly Crystals and materials for the group to collect.

By the following day, Rean finally emerged from the airplane carrying a rather bulky metallic device.

Besides reinforcing and actually modifying the arrays already installed inside Mark, he had also used the spare runes stored in his Spatial Ring to construct something entirely new. Judging from its appearance, it looked more like an oversized shield than an ordinary array plate.

Once everything had been checked one last time, the airplane returned to the barrier.

Just as before, Harksha stepped outside while everyone else remained safely inside the aircraft.

She extended one finger toward the invisible wall.

’Heaven-Piercing Finger!’

*Kabrum!*

The familiar bolt of lightning struck the barrier, causing the enormous web of electricity to spread across its invisible surface before fading away.

Inside the airplane, Rean barely glanced at the radar before speaking.

"It’s coming."

Harksha inhaled deeply and steadied herself.

She already knew every step of the plan, but knowing it and actually standing there waiting for that terrifying guardian were two very different things. She had experienced firsthand just how overwhelming that being truly was.

Less than a minute later, the enormous concentration of Godly Energy and swirling runes gathered once again beyond the barrier.

"Rean," Kentucky reported while keeping his eyes fixed on it, "it has recovered at least seventy percent of its previous size."

"I can confirm that," Celis added after examining the energy fluctuations himself. "The same goes for the amount of energy it has."

Outside, Rean’s voice echoed from the airplane’s directional speakers.

"Do as we agreed."

Harksha never took her eyes off the guardian.

This time, it didn’t bother testing her with a single laser.

The instant it appeared, hundreds of tiny golden lights materialized before it, each representing an enormous concentration of compressed Godly Energy. The guardian was clearly treating Harksha as a genuine threat now. Rather than probing her defenses again, it immediately chose overwhelming force.

Then the barrage began.

*Ziu! Ziu! Ziu! Ziu! Ziu!*

Hundreds of lasers shot toward her, each fired at carefully staggered intervals that eliminated nearly every possible escape route.

Harksha remained exactly where she was.

The instant the first wave was about to fire, she pulled a large metallic plate from behind her back and raised it with both her remaining arm and her Godly Energy.

It was the device Rean had spent the entire previous day constructing.

Unlike the Light-Bending Arrays installed throughout the airplane, this plate had only one purpose. Every array engraved onto it had been optimized exclusively for bending concentrated light. There were no concealment functions, no camouflage, and no attempt to make its user invisible. In fact, the distorted refraction surrounding the plate made Harksha even easier to notice than before.

The airplane’s system only needed enough precision to bend ordinary light and fool the naked eye. This device was completely different.

Its sole objective was to force extremely concentrated beams of light away from itself, regardless of where those beams ended up afterward. Concealment mattered not to it.

*Ziu! Ziu! Ziu!*

*Zash! Zash! Zash!*

*Bang! Bang! Bang!*

Hundreds of deadly lasers slammed into the plate.

One after another, they curved violently away from its surface before shooting harmlessly into the sky, the mountains, and the distant forest. Not a single beam continued toward either Harksha or the invisible airplane positioned behind her.

Even so, Harksha felt cold sweat running down her back.

She knew perfectly well how much trust she was placing in Rean’s invention. If the guardian possessed even one attack that wasn’t based on those lasers, the plate would become completely useless, and she would likely die before she even realized what had happened.

Her entire Celestial Sense remained locked onto the guardian. The slightest abnormal fluctuation, any movement that suggested a different technique, and she was prepared to abandon the plan without a second thought.

Fortunately, nothing changed.

The guardian continued relying exclusively on its terrifying laser barrage, pouring more and more energy into the attack without ever altering its method.

Harksha slowly released the breath she had been unconsciously holding.

"This... might actually work," she murmured to herself.