Slowly, I opened my eyes, and saw that the Renegade Praetor's massive frame had frozen in place, powered off. The red light that had powered it up was now completely gone, and after glancing to one side, I confirmed that the Exorcist too had returned to its normal, defensive form.

Realizing what had happened, I let out a deep sigh of relief, and with some effort, broke out of the chunk of the ceiling that had fell on me. I didn't need to be able to channel magic to do that—all I needed to do was use my enhanced vampiric and angelic physical strength, nothing more.

Not wasting any time, I circled around behind the Renegade Praetor's body, forcefully tore off the metal gate protecting its core, and pressed the tip of my gun against the blue light-bulb shaped orb inside. Then, without any hesitation, I pulled on the trigger—not once, but five continuous times.

Just to be sure, y'know. I didn't know how sturdy these things were, so to be completely safe, certain desperate measures needed to be taken.

Suddenly, a deep beeping noise came from the machine's heart, and I quickly backed away. That couldn't be good.

The beeping got louder and louder, and soon, it didn't take a genius to realize what was happening. Turning to the girls, I quickly dashed towards them, and put up a protective barrier. They noticed what was going on as well, of course, and Qing Yue supported me with her own magic.

BOOM!

A bright flash; a loud noise; an explosion big enough to shatter the entire cavern dawned upon us, but thanks to Qing Yue and I's combined efforts, the girls and I were completely unharmed. We had to all close our eyes to avoid getting blinded as well as cover our ears to avoid being deafened, but other than that, we were all good.

As the dust settled, I slowly disintegrated the barrier and gave a sigh.

"Well… that was an intense turn of events,

" I muttered before turning to the girls.

"You all fine?

"

"Yeah, more or less,

" Feng Mian said, brushing the dust off her clothes and coughing a bit.

"The air's still a bit… ahem… dusty, but other than that, it should be fine.

"

"Uh, hellooo~?

" Axilia waved.

"The obelisk? Don't forget~!

"

"Right…

"

I turned to where the obelisk should've been, but with the cavern falling apart, the chamber that once held it was now covered up by a bunch of debris. Having had enough explosions for one day, I opted to get rid of the rubble in a more… calm, less violent manner—Psychic Magic. Sure, the process was a bit slower, but honestly, it was a nice turn of events compared to the fast-paced intense fighting that had just occurred.

Sure enough, once the rubble was cleared, we found the obelisk still intact and giving off energy. The chamber all around it had long collapsed, but it still somehow stood straight without a scratch on it, like it was completely immune to damage or something.

"Wow… to think it withstood that explosion perfectly…

" Qing Yue murmured in surprise, tapping on her chin.

"Just what kind of material is it made out of…?

"

"I would assume something out of this world,

" Feng Mian said with a shrug.

"They are an alien species, after all. They must have resources in outer space that we don't on Xenith.

"

"Still, impressive,

" Axilia noted, spinning her scythe around.

"But I wonder… can it hold up?

"

With a smile on her face, she dashed forward and cleaved at the obelisk with her scythe, but it strangely made no mark at all.

"… Hmmm, not bad~

"

Then, she proceeded to slash at it a couple more dozen times, only to have the same result every time.

"O-Okay, that's enough, I think,

" I said, grabbing her by the wrist and pulling her back while being careful not to get decapitated by her myself.

"It's safe to say your scythe isn't going to do anything to it.

"

"Who knows? It could just be a matter of durability,

" Axilia said, but Feng Mian shook her head.

"It doesn't seem like it. With a weapon as powerful as yours, after so many slashes, it should at least leave some sort of mark or dent no matter how defensively strong something is. And yet… even with using Shadow Vision, I can't see a single sign of damage on this weird obelisk. It's quite strange.

"

"Perhaps it is just completely immune to any physical damage?

" Qing Yue proposed.

"Big Brother Xuan Kai, try hitting it with one of your ultra-super-duper-powerful spells.

"

I nodded, and motioned for the girls to fall back lest they get struck by recoil. They did as told, naturally, and waited for me to make my move.

I channeled energy throughout my body, preparing a powerful attack that I'd only ever used once before, and fairly recently at that. It wasn't just any normal magic attack, either. No—this was a Forbidden spell, forged of pure Chaos energy and Chaos energy alone. The most primordial of all elements, the origin of all things, and the ultimate devourer of the cosmos.

Forbidden Magic — Impulse Desire.

My right hand, which had been turned to a massive nightmarish claw of dark crimson skin that looked like it had been stained with blood, lashed forward and cut the air. Immediately, a wave of narrow but highly-concentrated Chaos energy shot out of my fingertips, cutting through everything in its way to reach its target: the Hex Obelisk.

The wave of energy was powerful, deadly. It didn't cut through materialistic things—it cut through the space itself that those things occupied, which theoretically should mean no matter how strong or immune something's defense is, it won't be able to guard against this.

And yet… to all of us's awe, as my attack clashed with the Hex Obelisk head-on, a powerful blue barrier in the shape of a dome appeared, and blocked the space-rending attack.

And it was then that I realized.

"That power… impossible…

"