Chapter 48: The Mysterious Ally

As Lin Yu led the assault team forward, their tactical boots crushing the charred alloy fragments scattered across the floor, the space station’s energy field suddenly convulsed like a tidal wave. Along the edges of the spacetime rift, which had been settling into stability, a silver-blue halo churned like liquid mercury, as though colossal hands from beyond the dimensions were slowly slicing apart reality’s veil with blades of stardust. The air began to warp, emitting a sharp hiss, as if space itself were resisting the arrival of this force.

In the next instant, countless energy arrows wrapped in dark-violet arcs of electricity tore through the void and drove precisely into the enemy fortifications. The resulting shockwaves hurled the black-robed figures toward the ceiling, while the brittle cracking of shattered bones mingled with their screams and echoed through the corridor. Some were blasted straight through the walls, vanishing into the dark void beyond, leaving behind only scraps of torn black robes.

“Reverse-tracing the energy trajectory—not a hostile faction!” Lin Yu’s roar was shredded by the alarm blaring through his tactical visor. Streams of frantic data flickered across the lenses, reflected in his suddenly constricted pupils. His breathing was rapid and heavy, his heart pounding wildly as though it might burst through his chest. The communications channel erupted in garbled cries of alarm. Su Yao’s shock dagger spat sparks across her palm, while the muscles of her taut neck stood out sharply.

“Spatial-jump reaction! A third-party force!”

There was a trace of fear in her voice that she could not conceal, but vigilance born of battle was stronger still. Before the words had fully left her mouth, a streak of light trailing nebulae pierced the ceiling. A figure clad in liquid-silver armor hovered in midair. As twelve energy wings unfurled behind it, fragments of ancient star charts were projected into the air, their mysterious radiance flickering as though recounting tales from a forgotten age. Wherever the energy blade passed, metal twisted into deep furrows like butter melting beneath searing heat. Molten droplets splashed onto the floor with a sizzling hiss, sending up clouds of white steam.

Inside the control room, the metal chair Old Zhou had knocked over scraped across the floor with a piercing screech.

“Warning! Quantum-entangled energy fluctuations detected!”

He clung desperately to the control console as it flashed wildly, his knuckles blanched from the strain and the veins on the back of his hand standing high.

“Their weapons systems... can rewrite the entropy value of matter!”

His voice was filled with shock and disbelief. On the holographic screens, the diamond-shaped energy constructs released by the mysterious force split into thousands of firefly-like motes the instant they touched their targets. The motes seeped through the seams of the equipment and triggered chain reactions of annihilation within. Each explosion sent a bizarre violet mushroom cloud billowing upward. The moment the clouds rose, the immense blast waves hammered against the control room’s reinforced glass, producing heavy thuds as though the panes might shatter at any moment.

The armor-piercing squad led by Ken was preparing to breach the energy core sector when seven azure energy barriers suddenly condensed into shields before them, intercepting the enemy particle cannon’s lethal barrage with pinpoint precision. A deep voice, distorted through electronic modulation, thundered across every channel.

“Establish a temporary pact. Eliminate the remnants.”

Before the final word had faded, the barriers suddenly contracted like venus flytraps, trapping dozens of black-robed figures within an energy cocoon. The violent collapse triggered an explosion that sent wave-like distortions rippling across the metal walls of the entire corridor. One member of the armor-piercing squad was knocked to the ground by the blast’s aftershock. He struggled to his feet, wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, tightened his grip on his weapon, and threw himself back into the fight.

After a brief moment of astonishment, the assault team swiftly adjusted its formation, tactical hand signals passing rapidly through the smoke. Yet every soldier’s nerves were drawn taut like fully stretched bowstrings. An encrypted command came through Lin Yu’s throat microphone:

“Maintain a three-grid energy interval. Raise the enemy’s regenerative-factor monitoring priority to Class S.”

Su Yao’s tactical visor began flashing error after error as it scanned the mysterious armor. Fluid runes moved across its metallic surface like living things, their energy fluctuations exceeding even the equipment’s detection threshold. She frowned, filled with suspicion and unease. Where had these mysterious beings come from? And what exactly did they want?

As the battle progressed, the mysterious force displayed a battlefield command that sent chills down the spine. Ten seconds before enemy reinforcements arrived, they would always mark the optimal ambush points with energy. When Lin Yu attempted to tap into their communications frequency, he received only a repeated Morse-code message:

“Fulfill the mission. Ask not from whence you came.”

More disturbing still, whenever one of the mysterious warriors was pierced through by an energy beam, tiny golden motes would illuminate the wound. The damaged tissue then reassembled at a speed visible to the naked eye, while the air filled with a peculiar odor reminiscent of ozone. During the battle, one mysterious warrior was struck in the chest by an energy beam. Under the veil of golden specks, the enormous wound rapidly closed, as though the injury had never existed. The sight left the members of the assault team staring in stunned disbelief, their wariness deepening further.

The spacetime rift contracted at a visible rate beneath the violent clash of the two forces, yet the gazes beneath the assault team’s tactical visors grew ever more vigilant. These mysterious beings possessed transdimensional technology and knew the enemy stronghold as if they had mapped every inch of it. Were they a turning point delivered by fate—or a trap wrapped in sugar?

Within the constantly trembling space station, the soldiers used the unexpected assistance to widen their gains while secretly recalibrating their weapon parameters and switching their reserve energy modules into a state ready to unleash at a moment’s notice. They prepared for whatever upheaval might descend without warning. Lin Yu gripped his weapon tightly, his gaze fixed and resolute as he stared ahead. He knew that on this battlefield of uncertainty, a single moment of negligence could bring fatal consequences.