The robot soldiers followed their orders, advancing according to their pre-programmed protocols to attack the resistance fighters in the town.
The resistance members were never professional soldiers to begin with, and with empty stomachs and exhausted bodies, they didn't even manage a proper early warning before the enemy force was already upon them.
The melee erupted instantly. Most of the ordinary people in the resistance wielded weapons scavenged from gun shops, mostly small-caliber firearms.
Those bullets struck the robot soldiers with terribly poor effect.
However, when the robot soldiers' bullets landed on ordinary humans, every single round drew blood.
Especially since these robot soldiers were equipped with intelligent targeting systems, every single one of them was a marksman. A single volley mowed down hundreds of ordinary people in the resistance.
The disparity in combat power was simply too vast. The front line composed of ordinary resistance members collapsed quickly, forcing the Ascendants to step up.
Compared to ordinary people, Ascendants possessed far superior physical constitutions. With the aid of Mind Power items and abilities, they could at least put up a fight against the robot legion.
One Ascendant wielding a warhammer charged into the robot legion, and with just a few swings, he knocked over a dozen machines, displaying terrifying strength.
There was also an Ascendant who could manipulate water flow, using the blood spilling from the corpses to form arrow after arrow of blood projectiles that pierced into the gaps between the robots' structural plating, causing internal electrical shorts and system collapse.
These military-grade robots, given their human-like proportions and sheer numbers, couldn't possibly be waterproof in every crevice, which gave this Ascendant his opening.
The other Ascendants also activated their abilities and items one after another, holding back the robot legion's advance.
For a moment, it seemed the resistance had gained the upper hand, yet every single member's face was extremely grim.
Because those four massive war mechs, along with that squad of dozens of modified Ascendants, had yet to join the battle, seemingly just watching.
It was at that moment that a figure suddenly rose into mid-air from within the crowd.
"Stop resisting, or I will eliminate you all."
The resistance's Ascendants looked up and their faces filled with shock.
"It's her?!"
"Isn't that the one exposed online..."
"Bruce's son? The one who stole Adam's daughter's body!"
Guan Tong's earlier massive exposé had made Bruce's deeds known to the entire world.
Even if the general public had never seen what Adam's daughter looked like, the only one who could appear on this battlefield representing Suroma in battle was Gaelid, who had taken over her body.
"You bastard who stole someone else's body! You deserve to die just like your bastard father!"
The resistance Ascendant wielding the warhammer roared, spinning his body twice before hurling the hammer, sending it straight at Gaelid in the air.
Gaelid furrowed his brow and raised his palm.
The incoming hammer stopped dead in front of him.
"Daddy said resisters must be eliminated."
The repulsive force activated, and the hammer shot back at ten times its incoming speed, slamming viciously into that Ascendant.
The irony was that it was his own exclusive item, immune to damage from its owner, but the moment before impact, the Ascendant felt the air around him become thick and sluggish, his entire body stiffening.
"Pfft!"
His body exploded, dead on the spot.
Gaelid unclenched his fist and turned his gaze to the others.
"I'll fight you to the death!"
The water-manipulating Ascendant, seeing his comrade fall, lost all reason and channeled every ounce of Mind Power into condensing over a thousand water arrows, shooting them at Gaelid from every direction.
Yet those water arrows, upon reaching about a meter from his body, were all dissolved by an invisible force field, utterly incapable of causing any harm.
"Eliminate the resisters."
Gaelid said, then used the gravity field to crush the water-controlling Ascendant.
The other resistance Ascendants watching mostly had their morale shattered. Those two were among the stronger members of their group, yet both had been killed in a single move by Gaelid.
A gap of that magnitude completely destroyed their will to fight. Continuing would be pure suicide!
"Run!"
Someone took the lead, and the rest turned and fled.
The front line that had barely managed to suppress the robot legion was on the verge of collapsing.
"EVERYONE, STAND YOUR GODDAMN GROUND!!!"
A powerful, full-bodied roar thundered across the battlefield. Roy charged in from behind with a large group of people.
"We've got nowhere left to run! We have to fight to the bitter end right here!" Roy shouted as he sprinted to the very front of the formation. He swung his hands up and down, and an electric guitar materialized out of thin air. That was his exclusive Mind Power item.
His right hand plucked the strings violently, and a resounding "TWANG" echoed across the entire field.
Humans heard nothing particularly special in the sound, but those robot soldiers, and even the modified Ascendants, found it extremely uncomfortable.
"Chencheng!"
Roy kept strumming, and with continuous waves of electric distortion, sparks began flying from multiple robot soldiers, some even suddenly self-detonating.
The modified Ascendants also clutched their ears, feeling intensely nauseated.
This sight made many of the resistance Ascendants who had been about to flee light up with hope, thinking there might just be a turning point.
"Lord Gaelid, that guy's guitar sound is interfering with the electronic equipment on our bodies! Please kill him immediately!"
A modified Ascendant shouted through the discomfort. Gaelid turned his gaze toward Roy, who was frantically playing in the center of the battlefield.
He raised his palm, but before he could even exert his power, he saw a red-haired woman step in front of Roy, looking up at him with a challenging glare.
"You spineless piece of shit who stole someone else's body! Pah! I think you and your father are a perfect pair of shameless bastards, filthy mongrels!"
Verin's curses were especially piercing. Gaelid was instantly enraged. "Don't you dare insult my father!"
He clenched both fists, condensing a spear from his force field and launching it, intending to skewer Verin clean through.
After cursing, Verin took a deep breath, then turned her head to exchange a glance with Roy behind her.
"Go get 'em, girl!" Roy laughed. "Let's show them our band's soprano!"
Verin nodded, then opened her mouth wide, aimed directly at Gaelid, and screamed: "AHHHHH!!!!"
The ear-splitting cry was beyond imagination. Even those around her who weren't in the direct line of the sonic wave were knocked flat on the ground, seeing stars.
And the force field spear Gaelid had launched was met mid-air by Verin's sonic wave, the two canceling each other out.
Gaelid froze for a moment. This was the first time he'd ever missed.
"How's that, you little brat? Your momma's sonic waves aren't any worse than your force field!" Verin said with bravado, but the twitching at the corner of her eye betrayed her inner anxiety.
Her ability was sonic waves. She could both perceive enemy attacks through sonic wave fluctuations and condense those waves into sonic projectiles to strike back.
That was how she could perceive attacks as invisible to the naked eye as force fields, and counter them.
But that single exchange just now had drained seventy percent of her Mind Power, and all it accomplished was canceling out a single force field spear from Gaelid.
If he fired another one...
Verin gritted her teeth and quickly sprinted to the side, cursing as she ran: "Bruce is an animal, and you, his son, are a little animal!"
Gaelid's memories had been tampered with by Heisen at Bruce's orders. Not only were his past hatreds erased, but a thought-brand of "absolute loyalty to Father" had been implanted.
Verin's loud cursing of Bruce infuriated Gaelid to no end. He swung his hands again and again, manipulating his force field to kill her.
Hold on... Verin, hold on!
Roy, still frantically playing his electric guitar, glanced at Verin fleeing like a fox on the run. He knew she was buying him time.
He had to seize this window, working together with the other resistance Ascendants to deal with those robot soldiers and modified Ascendants. Only then would any of them stand a chance of survival!
"Goddammit, what are you all staring at?! Get in there!" Roy bellowed at the resistance Ascendants. The group snapped back to their senses, inspired by the two of them, and surged forward as one.
The two sides clashed. Roy kept glancing toward Verin, worried about her condition.
Just hold on for three minutes, no, one minute...
"AHH!!!"
Roy realized he'd been far too optimistic. In less than ten seconds, he heard Verin's scream of agony.
He looked up, and his eyes nearly split apart with rage.
A massive bloody hole had appeared in Verin's left thigh, as if a spike had punched clean through it. She collapsed to the ground, losing all mobility, unable to keep drawing Gaelid's attention.
"Verin!"
Roy roared, charging over to save her, catching a glimpse in his peripheral vision of Gaelid clenching his fist.
Verin twisted around, her pale, bloodless face still holding a smile. Facing the gravity field descending upon her, she raised both hands and gave Gaelid two middle fingers.
"You pathetic waste who stole someone else's body and power! Even in death, I'll still look down on you!"
Just as the gravity field was about to take effect and crush her into paste, a pitch-black figure suddenly appeared beside her and swung its arm.
"BOOM!"
Violent Mind Power erupted outward along with a surge of shadow, forcibly shattering the crushing gravity field.
Verin and Roy, who had been sprinting toward her, both froze.
That figure that had suddenly appeared on the battlefield, completely shrouded in shadow, with three pairs of black wings sprouting from its back... could it be... Shadow?!
"RUMBLE..."
Almost the instant Guan Tong appeared, those four war mechs that had been standing idle all this time roared to life, beginning to activate.
Guan Tong didn't even glance at the mechs. His gaze was fixed entirely on the girl floating in mid-air.
"...Ai Ya, I never expected you to show up here. This really is a pleasant surprise."
Gaelid eyed Guan Tong warily. His instincts told him this was a formidable enemy, a very formidable enemy.
"I promised your father I would save you," Guan Tong said. "Just wait. I'll soon take away the one who stole your body and your abilities."
"DIE!!!"
Gaelid had no idea what Guan Tong was talking about. He felt an instinctive wave of terror and hurled his force field at Guan Tong.
But the next moment, he was shocked to discover that Guan Tong's six wings swept back as his body shot toward him at terrifying speed. His force field couldn't stop him at all, every layer scattered by the latter's Mind Power.
"This is impossible...!"
Gaelid couldn't believe that his force field ability was useless against this shadowy figure. His mind went blank, completely at a loss.
"Protect Lord Gaelid!"
The modified Ascendants had been panicking the moment Guan Tong appeared. They had no idea why "Shadow" was here, intervening in this war.
But if anything happened to Gaelid, they were all dead. They had to go all in no matter what.
"SWISH SWISH SWISH SWISH SWISH SWISH!"
Before the modified Ascendants could even get close, countless shadow spikes erupting from the ground pierced straight through their bodies, killing them under the enhanced Thorn Shadow Kill Array.
The resistance members were all dumbstruck, unable to believe that these powerful enemies were reduced to ants before Guan Tong, crushed underfoot with casual ease.
By this time, Guan Tong had already flown right up to Gaelid.
He stared directly into the other's eyes, his pupils turning blood-red in an instant, and in that very moment, dragged Gaelid's consciousness into the world of Scarlet Fear created by the Cradle of Sorrows ability.