Death… And Me

Chapter 4388: Priorities

*Ziu, ziu, ziu...*

*Vup, vup, puft!*

*Bang, bang, bang...*

The golden beams of light tore through the collapsing space, but just before they could reach Harksha, their trajectories twisted unnaturally. Each beam bent mid-flight as if striking an invisible curve in reality itself. One grazed her leg, leaving a burning line of pain, while the others veered away and slammed harmlessly into the surrounding ruins.

Only then did Harksha notice it. Directly in front of her, a Light Bending Array Plate had appeared out of nowhere... and it flew by as fast as it appeared.

Celis had thrown it with his roots at the last possible moment!

Back above the airplane, Celis’s roots were moving with frantic precision. He ripped apart the airplane’s Light Bending Array Plates one after another, rapidly infusing them with Celestial Energy to recharge their output before launching them outward.

Each plate streaked into the battlefield, intercepting incoming laser paths and forcing them to distort and scatter. The redirected beams, in turn, struck the very openings they had emerged from, accelerating the collapse of the tiny holes themselves.

”Focus! Keep attacking!” Roan’s voice cut through the noise, sharp and steady.

Harksha clenched her teeth, forcing herself to ignore the burning pain in her leg. The injury had nearly taken her mobility entirely, but she refused to slow down. There was no room for hesitation in a battlefield that was falling apart in real time.

Still, both she and Roan know it. That wasn’t a coincidence. She had been targeted, just to be saved in the last moment. The enemy wanted to take down their strongest cultivator from the get-go. Harksha was now even more focused on all the walls around to prevent something like that from happening again. ’Second time I have my ass saved by them... fuck!’

Her priority was to keep Rean safe, but the opposite was happening here instead.

The Light Bending Array Plates inside the airplane were numerous, but they were not endless. Even with Celis working at full speed, the supply dwindled rapidly. In just over half a minute, the last of the usable plates had already been deployed, leaving the airplane looking rather ugly without them.

And that was when things worsened.

*Bang!*

A section of the collapsed passage suddenly exploded outward. From the various small openings, several guardian cores forced their way into the enclosed space, pushing through the unstable terrain as if the collapsing environment meant nothing to them.

Many were crushed by the falling terrarin, but the guardian core cared about none of that.

’Red Death, Dragon Claws!’

’Red Death, Crimson Moon!’

’Yin Yang Sky Feather Blades!’

’Kawa’s Divine Thrust!’

Roan and Kentucky immediately surged forward to intercept them, their attacks exploding into motion without hesitation. For a brief moment, Harksha’s instincts screamed that it was reckless—charging directly into unknown cores in such chaos looked no different from suicide. Those things were as strong as powerful Godly Horrors, after all!

But then she saw it.

There was no swirling energy around those cores.

They had entered in a stripped-down state, as if forced to shed their power just to pass through the openings. Only once inside did they begin drawing energy from the surroundings again, slowly rebuilding their strength.

Understanding clicked into place. Until they were recharged, they were vulnerable.

That was the only window of opportunity.

And Roan and Kentucky were already exploiting it.

The guardian cores were not particularly durable in their weakened state. A single concentrated strike from any of the Aura Gods or anyone from the twins’ group members was enough to destroy one outright. The problem was not their resilience—it was their number. For every core destroyed, several more forced their way in, turning the battlefield into a constant exchange that could not be sustained indefinitely.

It was like trying to extinguish a wildfire with a cup of water.

More cores continued to pour into the enclosed space from every direction as various openings appeared everywhere. Outside, the laser openings kept firing relentlessly, maintaining pressure on the collapsing terrain. The entire area had become a tangled web of light and destruction, with no stable ground remaining.

Then, one of the newly arrived cores finally stabilized enough energy.

It hesitated for only a moment before releasing a small volley of lasers. Not a full barrage, its energy reserves were still limited, but it was enough.

*Ziu, ziu, ziu!*

The target was not the airplane, nor the group of cultivators.

Instead, the beams struck the structural pillars Celis had formed with his roots.

The intent was clear: collapse the entire enclosed space and bury everything at once. At the very least, force everyone to gather together.

*Bang, bang, bang!*

The reinforced supports shattered under the assault. Rock and debris immediately began to rain down from above, turning the battlefield even more unstable. Celis reacted instantly, extending new layers of roots to hold back the falling mass and prevent it from crushing the airplane. At the same time, Harksha and the others were forced to retreat closer to the aircraft, tightening their formation whether they wanted to or not.

That consolidation, however, came at a cost. The closer they were grouped, the easier it became for the cores to accumulate energy without interference.

Roan’s eyes narrowed sharply.

’Get ready. We may need to release Godly Pressure,’ he transmitted to Rean, Celis, and Kentucky through their soul connection.

It was a contingency plan, and a dangerous one. The idea was to pretend to be Godly Creatures, potentially causing hesitation among the guardians. It was not guaranteed to work, but it might create even a moment of confusion.

The real issue was exposure. If Harksha and the Aura Gods realized that Rean’s group could manipulate Godly Pressure, the consequences would be unpredictable. Worse still, they might mistake them for the same kind of puppet-like beings created from dead bodies back in the Besgol Region.

In essence, it was a last resort that only made sense because the situation was already beyond saving for everyone else. Roan was truly going to use Harksha and the others as decoys.

Around them, golden points of light began accumulating once more, forming dense clusters in the air like stars preparing to fall. The guardians were readying another coordinated release from every direction at once.

There was no longer any meaningful way to stop it.

And then—

Just as the first beam was about to fire,

*ZUUuuuuu...*

Everything stopped!

The golden lights dimmed almost simultaneously, as if a switch had been flipped across the entire battlefield. The energy buildup collapsed mid-formation, and the cores that had been preparing to fire suddenly went silent.

Some were buried beneath falling debris. Others remained intact within Celis’s root-structured safe zones. Yet none of them continued their attacks.

They simply... stalled.

Completely motionless.

Confusion spread instantly among the group.

”This...” Harksha muttered, unable to process the sudden change.

All eyes turned toward the airplane.

The arrays used for Godly Pressure Disguise were now active! The aircraft itself was clearly radiating Godly Pressure, and it had caused complete behavioral suppression in the guardians.

A moment later, Rean stepped out of the airplane.

He looked over the battlefield with a calm expression as if evaluating a minor inconvenience rather than a collapsing ruin filled with lethal energy. Then, he laughed. ”We really almost got fucked! Hahaha!”

Then his gaze landed on the airplane.

His expression changed instantly. Despair filled his face.

”AHHHH! My baby! What happened to you?!!!”

A weird silence followed.

Harksha’s eye twitched slightly. There has to be something wrong with Rean’s set of priorities...