Someone Has to Kill It

No one knew how Daie had located this place, for Azure Headquarters was not entirely open to the outside world. Yet upon reflection, since it could speak, none of it seemed difficult to understand after all. Looking back from this perspective, the press conference and the questions asked moments earlier had truly been foolish to the extreme. When the entire world fell into panic over Daie's frequent appearances, Azure had lost its composure as well. The reassurance and explanations they had striven to deliver would now undoubtedly bring about an even greater panic—even despair. ...Unless Azure could slay this Daie in front of everyone. Yet now, it stood directly above humanity's head, hovering over the sky of Azure Alliance Headquarters, the vessel of humanity's hope. Apart from the thousands of troops gathering on the ground, the reinforcements rushing to the scene, and the more than twenty source energy airships lurking in the surroundings, ready at any moment to launch a desperate assault to cover a retreat, Azure could do nothing. On the scene, there were even council members who, just like the journalists from the civilian world, could not stop their bodies from trembling and their legs from going weak. Chairman Kemore knew what this sight would bring about. His eyes dimmed for a moment before turning resolute, and he took a step forward, preparing to walk out from the crowd. "No, Mr. Chairman." A hand reached out and tugged at him. Then Mayne let go, brushed past Kemore, walked out of the crowd, stopped, and looked up at Daie in the sky. *Say something... Say what?* Faced with such circumstances, it felt as though he ought to say something, but Mayne thought about it and could not think of anything he could say. With his background as a journalist, he was skilled with words, but in the current situation, meaningless bluster and bravado would only make things worse. So for the moment, he simply stood there. *Whoosh!* A sudden, sharp whistling sound pierced the air. The blue column sword flew from Daie's hand in midair, shooting like a streak of lightning toward this man who had stepped out of the crowd like a leader. Great Spikes possessed none of humanity's strange pre-battle habits. Its earlier global guerrilla tour hadn't involved much fighting simply because it had not felt like striking. Now that it wished to kill, it struck directly, without granting the slightest buffer of time. Instantly, blue light surged, and screams of terror erupted from the press corps. Ashleia and Ian abandoned all thought of soothing them and anxiously spun their heads to look... At the front of the crowd, Mayne did not cry out. His jaw, covered in white stubble, was clamped shut tight, not trembling in the least. His hands were clenched into tight fists at his sides. He stood his ground without retreating, staring straight at that ray of blue light... At this moment, he had to provide such a stance. He had to trust those warriors. *Whoosh!* Dropping low, the blue light carved an arc through the air, shooting straight at Mayne. *Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom...* Five consecutive figures from the warriors below erupted into action. With five slashes, they barely managed to intercept the column sword. Then, Christine appeared atop the roof, her blade across her back. Daie was already very familiar with her. Throughout this recent period, Christine had been rushing across the globe to reinforce various fronts. In Daie's memory, her appearance often meant that more than one top human powerhouse was present on the field... Following a brief standoff, Daie curled its fingers with a whoosh and recalled the parried column sword. It did not press the attack, nor did it choose to land. "Very well, that will do for now. To borrow a phrase of yours, I suddenly find this amusing. It feels as though I am a god governing a world, while you insects known as humans can only wait in despair for ruin to fall..." Daie said. The venue was utterly silent. "If you've got the guts, get the fuck down here! Dare you? If you don't dare, stop putting on an act in front of your daddy!" Red-haired Pegmont stepped out and stood beside Christine, pointing up at the sky and cursing. He was bluffing. In truth, if Daie really came down, both he and Christine might very well die. Of course, even if it weren't a bluff, he would have done the exact same thing. Pegmont could never curb that instinct of his, and he genuinely was ready to fight Daie to the death. Down below, a portion of the council members instantly grew tense and furious. Fortunately, perhaps due to the gulf between their species, Daie was unaffected by the provocation. It cast a calm, deeply meaningful glance at Pegmont. "You are not yet qualified, pink human." "..." Half an hour later, Daie left. After circling once above the sky of Azure Alliance Headquarters, it calmly returned to its airship and flew away. Because of this, Azure Alliance Headquarters would need to relocate and go into hiding. Not until that alien airship vanished into the horizon did the five warriors who had just struck begin to cough up blood, collapsing to the ground one after another as their strength failed them. The crowd on the scene dispersed in silence, enveloped in a dejected atmosphere. "Issue an announcement revoking Elliott's council seat," Kemore said to the secretary beside him as he walked away, his voice laden with fatigue and suppressed fury. "Huh?" The secretary was stunned, for that was completely outside proper procedure. "He just pissed his pants." Kemore struggled to keep his emotions in check. If Elliott were merely an ordinary civilian, wetting his pants before Daie would have been understandable. But he was an Azure council member! Even if his background was merely that of a sociologist without great combat power, he was still an Azure council member. With that, Kemore turned and walked alone toward his office, his slender frame swaying faintly with each step. ... Seven days later. "Daie didn't kill anyone?" In the cave, Han Qingyu—still acting as a barbecue stall vendor—asked. "No," Wen Jifei said, sitting at the cave entrance. "But the situation is still terrible." "Because word got out?" "Naturally. There were five hundred reporters on the scene," Wen Jifei said. "On top of that, people from Snow Lotus, Pure Purgatory, and several newly emerged doomsday cults have been spreading news everywhere to stir up chaos. They've hijacked a number of radio stations and broadcast channels..." "Newly emerged doomsday cults?" He Tangtang interjected from the side in surprise. Wen Jifei nodded. "Yeah." "What are they trying to do?" "All sorts of things. Some even worship the Great Spikes as gods, believing that will bring them salvation. Others loudly proclaim that Azure is deceiving the public, urging people to revolt and demand the distribution of source energy and dead iron. In some regions, doomsday groups have already incited mobs to attack Azure squads. Even among some front army units, signs of battle avoidance and small-scale desertions have begun to crop up..." Wen Jifei spoke plainly and simply, yet none of the people present found it hard to imagine just how dreadful the state of the world—and Azure's predicament—truly was. "Speaking of which, Azure ought to have stockpiled plenty of source energy and dead iron by now. Why haven't they started a draft yet?" Yang Qingbai set down a mutton rib, his mouth greasy as he spoke. Arming more people with source energy and dead iron, seeking out more warriors with formidable potential, and nurturing them... That was the choice humanity inevitably had to make next, but it had to be led by Azure. "How could they draft anyone now?" Wen Jifei gave a bitter smile. "Indeed. Azure is no longer in a position to conduct a full-scale conscription," Zhe Qiuhong helped explain. "Because the window has closed. Azure has already lost its image of being dependable and powerful, while humanity is losing its faith. If people were selected in a draft, half of them might simply take the resources and flee to save their own skins..." "Yeah. And figuring out how to appease those who aren't chosen and get them to accept it is another problem," Wen Jifei sighed softly. "Some people have already stopped believing they will be protected..." "So, someone has to kill it." Han Qingyu's voice drifted out from the cave once more. He had been silent for quite a while. 'It,' of course, meant that Daie. "No kidding. And it would be best done before the eyes of the entire world," He Tangtang said. "Except the bastard won't come down. That dog probably knows its own advantage by now. Terrified of getting swarmed, it stays as crafty as a rat all day long," Yang Qingbai said. "And our airships can't possibly keep up with it." "Unless it's killed in a single strike," Wen Jifei said. As long as Daie remained in the air, the opportunity to slay it would perhaps come down to a single strike. That was not something Bochen, Christine, and the others could accomplish through a coordinated siege. And as far as they knew, there was only one person capable of pulling it off.