Death… And Me

Chapter 4378: I’ll hold you to that!

Harksha didn’t have the luxury of mourning the loss of her life-saving treasure. Worse still, it had been the strongest defensive item in her entire collection. Compared to the pink lotus, every other treasure she carried was insignificant against attacks of this caliber.

There was no time to hesitate, however. Years of surviving one desperate battle after another had forged her instincts well. The moment she sensed something was wrong, she burst away from the remains of the shattered lotus, a decision that ended up saving her life once again.

*Ziu, ziu, ziu...*

*Bang, bang, bang, bang...*

The remaining lasers tore straight through the crumbling lotus, completely obliterating the last traces of the treasure before continuing into the distance. Had Harksha remained behind its protection for even a fraction of a second longer, every one of those attacks would have struck her directly.

The weird being had noticed that Harksha hadn’t actually dodged the first attacks, so it focused the rest of the lasers on the lotus flower.

She had barely managed to escape.

Unfortunately, the next sight before her almost made her lose all hope.

Hundreds!

Hundreds of tiny Godly Energy spheres began forming around the strange being, each one condensing at a slightly different speed. Harksha immediately understood the purpose behind such an arrangement. There would be no opening this time. Regardless of which direction she chose, another laser would already be waiting there.

Even so, she refused to surrender.

Clenching her teeth, she poured everything she had left into her movement technique and continued flying away at full speed, fully aware that it was probably meaningless.

As expected, the barrage began.

The first few lasers shot toward her, and just like before, Harksha anticipated their release by observing the condensation of Godly Energy rather than the attacks themselves. She narrowly avoided those opening shots, but the next waves were completely different. Laser after laser crossed one another until they formed a deadly web that sealed every possible escape route.

There was nowhere left to run.

Realizing that, Harksha gathered every remaining strand of Godly Energy around herself, creating the strongest defensive layer she could manage despite already knowing it wouldn’t be enough. Slowly, she closed her eyes.

Then...

*Ziu...*

*Ziu, ziu, ziu, ziu, ziu, ziu, ziu...*

Several moments passed.

No impact came.

Confused, Harksha opened her eyes again.

The countless lasers that should have pierced her body were curving away only a few dozen meters ahead of her. They bent around in every direction before continuing into the distance, leaving her completely untouched.

”This... how...?”

Before she could think any further, Rean’s voice echoed from the invisible airplane through its directional speaker arrays.

-Well, lasers will always be lasers. They’re basically concentrated light, and my Mark-Seven Autono—

*Pah!*

*-Ouch!-*

-Stop doing that!-

Roan’s cold voice immediately followed.

-Then stop using those ridiculous names.-

-Tch...- Rean complained before quickly continuing. -Fine! Mark! Happy now? Anyway, Mark bends light to become invisible, so I simply reconfigured the light-bending arrays to refract the incoming laser beams as well. Since they’re basically light, the same principle works.-

His tone quickly became serious.

-That said, these lasers are ridiculously powerful. They’re overheating the light-bending arrays much faster than I expected. We have to leave immediately. Senior, don’t move. I’m picking you up.-

Only then did Harksha expand her Celestial Sense instead of focusing solely on the enemy. Almost instantly, she noticed the invisible airplane rushing straight toward her at astonishing speed. A section near the front opened just enough for someone to reach outside, and Roan appeared at the opening.

*Grab!*

Without wasting even a moment, Roan seized Harksha by her remaining arm as the airplane flew past and pulled her into the cabin in one smooth motion. The instant the hatch sealed again, he gave Rean a simple nod.

”Go.”

”With pleasure.”

Rean shoved the control lever forward.

The Celestial Thrusters roared to life, immediately pushing Mark to its maximum speed.

Behind them, however, the attacks didn’t stop.

*Ziu, ziu, ziu, ziu, ziu...*

The strange creature continued unleashing laser after laser. Somehow, despite the airplane remaining completely invisible, it still knew exactly where it was.