Chapter 588: Battle at the Edge: Eight-Armed Serpent Demons Unleashed

The moment the link and binding was completed, a horde of Heavenly Serpent warships, outnumbering their fleet several times over, surged into the Song Family ranks. The clash erupted in an instant.

Meanwhile, the Morningstar Family’s first fleet of eleven million ships was also locked in a fierce melee with twenty million Heavenly Serpent warships.

Compared to the Song and Morningstar Families, the Joint Fleet—led by the Gold Horn Lu Family and the Dusk Family and originally at the very front—had already been embroiled in brutal combat for fifteen minutes. Their fleet was closing in on a million casualties, with a loss rate far exceeding those of the Song and Morningstar clans.

……

If they were fighting only against the Heavenly Serpent warship groups, such heavy casualties would be impossible. The main edge of these warships actually came from their unique petrification control main cannon—otherwise, their performance was just slightly better than the standard nuclear-powered ships of the Torch Human Civilization. They definitely didn’t compare to Torch warships of the same class.

The real reason for the sky-high losses was that many Heavenly Serpent warships came loaded with one or even several Eight-Armed Serpent Demons of the same tier.

Once battle commenced, these warships seized every chance to open their hatches and unleash those demons from within upon the enemy.

Naturally, this ramped up the pressure on the Torch human fleets.

The Eight-Armed Serpent Demons were already infamous for their monstrous physical prowess. In a large-scale skirmish like this, their destructive power was simply terrifying.

Somewhere on the Song Family’s battlefield.

Two Zhulu-class cruisers were struggling to hold off five fourth-tier Eight-Armed Serpent Demons.

“Yichuan, cover me for five seconds! I need to charge the main cannon!”

The warship cloaked in a silver energy shield began activating a component at its bow as dazzling white light started to condense.

Hearing this, the neighboring Zhulu-class cruiser immediately responded.

Creak, creak, creak!

A sharp screech of metal rang out as, in a matter of moments, the red supercannon at its prow slid away—replaced by a gleaming alloy ramming prow that flashed with cold steel.

Its engines thundered to life, driving the cruiser headlong toward the fourth-tier Eight-Armed Serpent Demon that was hurtling in from ahead.

Bang!

Ship and demon collided in a thunderous blow. Just as expected, the fourth-tier Eight-Armed Serpent Demon was sent flying by the impact.

Compared to the demon, Yichuan’s command ship, the Longji Chuanliu, took far less damage. Beyond its hull being protected by a reinforced sixth-tier red armor, it also benefited from a 43% armor boost granted by the Darkstar Mystic Turtle Armor.

Yichuan, however, didn’t slack off for a moment. After driving back the first serpent demon, he instantly activated the Longji Chuanliu’s Water Serpent Whip component.

“Water Serpent Whip: Water Serpent Constriction activated!”

Meanwhile, another fourth-tier serpent demon tried to sneak up on Minglong, but was swiftly ensnared by a law-forged water serpent that appeared out of thin air.

So the Longji Chuanliu did everything it could to shield Song Yiming’s Minglong.

A moment later, the condensed white light at Minglong’s bow reached its peak.

With a piercing intensity, a beam of grey-white light blasted out. Strangely, it started as a single beam, but upon exiting the supercannon, it split into two streams.

In the blink of an eye, both beams—crackling with annihilating power—struck two of the fourth-tier serpent demons dead-on. These were also the ones most battered during the earlier scuffle.

With that, the two fourth-tier Eight-Armed Serpent Demons were each destroyed.

Looking at the three remaining demons, Yichuan—aboard the Longji Chuanliu—couldn’t help but feel a surge of relief.

“Hey, bro, did you upgrade that silver Deep Space Oblivion Cannon again? That double annihilation shot just wiped out two fourth-tier serpent demons in one hit!”

A reply from Song Yiming came quickly over the magwave group comms.

“Yeah, it’s strengthened up to Level 69 now. Still, we can’t give all the credit to the Deep Space Oblivion Cannon. The heavy injuries we dealt earlier were just as important!”

As they chatted, both men eyed the three remaining fourth-tier demons in front of them.

Two against three—between their flagship firepower, it was more than enough to handle the rest.

Just as they prepared to confront the last three serpent demons, an overwhelming pressure crashed down onto their ships.

“Warning: High-level lifeform energy detected! Current warship shield integrity at 68%. Please initiate repairs immediately!”

The onboard semi-automated AI chimed in. Both brothers felt a chill, but reacted without missing a beat.

Their voices sounded essentially at the same time over the magwave channel, warning each other.

“A sixth-tier serpent demon locked onto us—stay sharp!”

“Quick, activate the hull armor’s defensive protocols!”

Just as they’d guessed, a Sixth-Tier Eight-Armed Serpent Demon—spanning more than 100,000 meters—charged into their sector, all eight muscular arms swinging wildly as it targeted the two Zhulu-class ships.

Clang! Clang!

The demon’s eight arms each wielded a unique, odd weapon, hacking and smashing down on the ship’s hulls. Even with their armor’s special defenses engaged, the sustained onslaught was still brutally damaging.

“Alert: Hull armor 34% damaged! Immediate repairs required!”

“Alert: Hull armor 50% damaged! Hull integrity at 82%! Immediate repairs required!”

“Warning: Hull armor 69% damaged! Hull integrity at 62%! Repair immediately!”

……

At sixth tier, the Eight-Armed Serpent Demon’s physical strength was monstrous. With all eight arms wielding unique weapons, its destructive potential was off the charts.

“Brother, what do we do now?”

“There are too many of these demons. The Prime Ancestor and the others can’t cover everything—we’ll have to find our own way out of this.”

Just as the situation turned dire, a jet-black Dreadnought-class ship shrouded in energy shields suddenly leaped out of the void.

This intimidating dreadnought didn’t broadcast any name. Judging by its design, it hadn’t been seen among their fleet before.

But in the brothers’ eyes, its combat prowess was immediately apparent.

One second its supercannon at the bow was still charging, the next a devastating beam of annihilation was unleashed.

In just a breath, the terrifying sixth-tier serpent demon they struggled with was obliterated.

After finishing the job, the black dreadnought wasted no time. It sped off to assist at another embattled sector.

“Bro, who is that?”

“Never seen them before. Probably one of our family’s hidden elders.”

……

Elsewhere on the battlefield, the Heavenly Ruin was single-handedly fending off four sixth-tier Eight-Armed Serpent Demons.

Inside the ship’s control room, Song Chi kept his cool, calmly matching the attacks of four serpent demons even as he split off part of his mind to remotely control the mirrored warship generated by Mirror Image Split.

That’s right—the mysterious black warship that saved Yiming and Yichuan had been none other than a mirror image of the Heavenly Ruin.

Originally, his intention was just to secretly protect talented clan juniors, but to his surprise, slaying the sixth-tier demon with the Heavenly Ruin’s mirror image triggered an unexpected bonus.

Right at that moment, the Soul-Devourer Sacrificial Altar on his warship showed an increase in soul-absorption progress.

Meaning, even enemy kills by the mirror image ship counted toward the altar’s soul harvest.

With this, the Soul-Devourer Sacrificial Altar’s rate of accumulation would accelerate.

Sensing that their assault was having little effect on the Heavenly Ruin, all four demons suddenly activated their inherited divine arts at once.

Two of them shot gray beams from the vertical pupils of their snakelike eyes.

This was the race’s signature skill: the Petrifying Ray.

Both beams struck the Heavenly Ruin at blinding speed. Any other dreadnought would have been paralyzed in place for at least a few seconds—but the Heavenly Ruin was different.

Having an eight-tier Blood War Stele, the warship was nearly immune to control and debilitation effects.

So before the other two serpent demons’ heavy attacks could land, the Heavenly Ruin was already moving to counter.

With a sudden shift, the warship’s streamlined hull transformed into a titanic 160,000-meter mythical mech. The giant raised its right arm, clutching the Immortal Spear—its tip burning with the Void-Return Ray forged from perfected spatial laws.

Swish!

The colossal mech’s mechanical arm shot out, thrusting the Immortal Spear deep into the vertical pupil of a sixth-tier serpent demon.

Roaring!

The blinding agony sent the serpent demon howling, but the Void-Return Ray exploded within its skull, annihilating its head and ending its life on the spot.

It wasn’t over—after dispatching the first demon, Song Chi locked onto a second.

The giant’s left arm came up, a pitch-black cannon forming in its palm.

Boosted by the Zen Seal · Internal · Time Acceleration, a mighty blood-red spear gathered in an instant.

The second demon tried to dodge, but two exotic chains shot from the void and held it fast.

Under the judgment of the blood spear, the second demon was slain as well.

In mere seconds, two sixth-tier Eight-Armed Serpent Demons had fallen. The sudden reversal left the remaining pair reeling in shock.

No longer holding anything back, both survivors instantly activated their strongest inherited divine art.

Serpent Prison!

This was one of the most powerful inherited skills of the serpent demon race—a field-type domain.

It was like the rules field unique to Star-Annihilator-class Captains among the Torch Human Civilization. Inside this Serpent Prison, the demon gained massive power-ups while its enemies suffered harsh suppression.

Sure enough, as soon as he realized he’d been trapped by a twofold domain, Song Chi activated both of Heavenly Ruin’s engines at full power.

He tried to break free with brute force, but inside this Serpent Prison, even the warship’s massive thrust couldn’t let the mech move an inch faster.

“No way I’m letting it end here!”

In the mech’s cockpit, Song Chi triggered the Space-skipping Pearl, attempting to teleport free of the double-layered prison.

But his heart soon sank. The pearl’s last-remaining use had been triggered, yet the Heavenly Ruin hadn’t budged, still stuck in place.

“What’s going on… Has the entire space been sealed?”

There was no time to think—an immense force smashed down on the Heavenly Ruin from above.

One of the sixth-tier serpent demons, enshrouded by its own shadowy avatar, swung an arm and sent the mech flying for hundreds of thousands of meters.

“Warning: Warship under heavy attack! Hull armor 14% damaged! Please repair immediately!”

That single strike left a sizeable dent—14% of the armor gone. It didn’t sound huge, but considering this was eighth-tier Neutron-Star Core Armor, it meant the demon’s attacks now broke straight through what was previously impenetrable defense.

Then the second demon struck from behind. Song Chi reacted quickly, but with the Serpent Prison’s restrictions, he couldn’t dodge effectively.

Boom!

Again the colossal mech was battered aside—the damage to its armor was worsening by the moment.

“These attacks use the demon’s true spirit avatar—they should count as energy attacks. So why are they bypassing the warship’s dual energy shields and smashing through the armor directly?”

Song Chi kept his cool, racing through tactics in his head.

He’d already studied the Serpent Prison technique back at the Yaoguang Star Tower. Each demon’s domain came with unique properties—space lock, slow, wither, true damage, shield break—with all of them posing different threats.

He’d already determined the two demons trapping him had at least the space lock and slow effects.

Now, apparently, shield break was in play as well.

His mind raced—and in that moment, an idea struck.

“Looks like I’ve only got one option left.”

A surge of temporal power erupted from the Heavenly Ruin’s hull.

In a flash, a new layer—a temporal domain—spread inside both Serpent Prisons.

According to records from Yaoguang Star Tower, the best way to bust out of Serpent Prison was to overwhelm it from within using an even stronger domain.

Song Chi activated exactly that: the Pusa Zen Seal’s ‘Samsara Time Domain’ ability.

This golden, time-type domain, powered up to tier eight, seemed more than capable of crushing the two Serpent Prisons.

But he’d underestimated the Serpent Prison’s pedigree. Created by a ninth-tier serpent demon, its limit was even higher than that of the Samsara Time Domain.

These were only sixth-tier users, true, but the double-layered imprisonment made up the gap, rendering the time domain ineffective.

So in the end, the Samsara Time Domain couldn’t break the dual Serpent Prisons. Worse, the field’s normal time-slowing effects were dampened by more than half under the full might of the Serpent Prisons.