Chapter 49: The Last Warrior, Section 7

“This…” Black Hair fell silent under the new questions from him and the eager gazes of Blood Eyes and the others. After a long while, he spoke with bitterness.
“I can’t tell you the specifics inside the ruins. Black Hair, because I haven’t experienced it myself either. As an outsider, they clearly don’t trust me much. So I could only do some unimportant auxiliary work. But it’s precisely because of this that I survived. Otherwise, I would have ended up like those who entered the ruins—left with no remains.”
“I see… Then what about that demon you mentioned? You’ve been calling it a demon all this time but refuse to tell us anything about it. I know it’s your nightmare. But if we don’t understand it, it will surely become a hindrance, even a threat, in our upcoming exploration.” After some thought, Black Hair decided to push UncleBuick a little.
Perhaps due to the severe shock, although UncleBuick and Black Hair had talked a lot in the past few days, he never mentioned anything specific about the demon. Whenever Black Hair tried to inquire, it would provoke a violent reaction from UncleBuick—shaking all over was the least of it; sometimes he even had convulsions.
So, for UncleBuick’s health, Black Hair had held back from asking. But now, with exploration approaching, he could no longer endure it. Otherwise, those in danger might be his direct subordinates, or even Blood Eyes and Monkey.
Thus, despite his reluctance, Black Hair had no choice but to reopen UncleBuick’s wounds.
Sure enough, as soon as he spoke, UncleBuick’s body began to tremble violently. His old eyes widened as if he had seen the most terrifying nightmare in the world. His mouth hung open wide, unaware even of drooling, as he only kept groaning.
“You mean… that demon…”
“Yes, that demon. Please tell everyone the truth about it.” Watching UncleBuick fall into extreme fear, Black Hair had to force himself to keep asking. Yet one hand gently rested on UncleBuick’s shoulder—a steady hand, like a source of comfort, which clearly eased UncleBuick somewhat.
His body trembled, and he showed signs of struggle. With his eyes tightly closed, after a long while, he finally let out a deep sigh, drenched in sweat, as if just pulled from water.
“It’s a demon… an iron ball.”

“Iron ball!?” The black-haired man, those blood-red eyes, and everyone in the cockpit exclaimed in unison in shock.
“How could it be an iron ball? Can an iron ball really be considered a demon?” Monkey joked even further.
“That’s exactly right. Or maybe you don’t think an iron ball can become a demon—only because you’ve never seen one with your own eyes. But I have. That demon—its form was nothing but an iron ball. A very, very huge iron ball.” DadBuick still insisted, casting a weak glance at Monkey.
Seeing his reaction, the black-haired man began to believe a little. After thinking for a moment, he spoke again. “Can you be more specific? I really can’t imagine how an iron ball could instantly kill so many advanced warriors.”
“More specific?” DadBuick’s gaze grew confused once more, his lips twitching slightly as his voice sounded like a dreamlike murmur.
“It was on the seventh day of excavating the ruins. We had already entered the excavation phase. That morning, the workers were at work when suddenly the ground began to shake violently, as if there was a bomb exploding underground. The thunderous noise could be heard clearly through the thick sand. Many people were thrown up by the shock. I was coming out of my Puppet Worm when I too was hit by the force and rolled under the vehicle.”
“You know, due to the construction work, the fully extended Puppet Worm has a very low chassis. So to avoid being buried in sand, I had to struggle to climb out. Just as I was about to get out, the shaking suddenly stopped. Then, right in the core area we were excavating, the desert seemed to boil like boiling water, and a huge iron ball rose from the ground. Oh, God, I swear—it was at least thirty meters tall. In front of us, it looked like a building.”
“Thirty meters? That big?” Hearing this, the black-haired man immediately frowned.
Modern magic technology was highly advanced, so mechs no longer relied on size to determine their combat power. Yet the old rules still applied. If a mech had a huge volume or limited mobility, its strength would still be immense. After all, just to sustain such a large size, its power source had to be extremely strong. It was like a 200-pound fat man—who might not be very agile, but whose strength alone was terrifying.
So, by this logic, if the Iron Ball was a mech and stood 30 meters tall, its strength must be terrifyingly great. At the very least, it was beyond comparison to ordinary Blood Moons.

The setting sun developed for close combat might work, but the assistance system would have to be enabled as well. At these words, the people present grew anxious and asked in unison, “What happened next?”
“What next?” OldBuick sighed bitterly. “Then I saw a bright light. Inside that light, the iron ball moved slightly, and all our guards were torn to pieces in an instant. Debris from the mechs was everywhere, and I fainted from shock. It’s funny— I didn’t even see how the iron ball attacked.”
“In other words, you didn’t actually see the iron ball attack. You’re just guessing,” Xue Tong exhaled softly, her expression relaxing slightly.
“That’s true,” OldBuick nodded honestly. He knew that these people were experts in combat, so he certainly wouldn’t dare interfere with their thoughts with his own subjective judgments. Since Xue Tong had raised doubts, he could only answer based on facts.
Influenced by Xue Tong’s perspective, the others also hesitated. Especially Baroka, who favored guns and missiles, carefully considered the matter before proposing a hypothesis.
“Xue Tong’s idea is indeed interesting. After all, OldBuick didn’t witness the iron ball’s attack firsthand. So we can think from another angle. If the iron ball isn’t a mech but a container or a system carrying weapons, equipped with enough arms, it could indeed eliminate hundreds of soldiers in an instant. But that requires one prerequisite: all soldiers must be unalert. Yet…”
“Is it possible for them to remain unalert when such a huge iron ball suddenly appears from the ground?” Monkey interjected before Baroka could finish speaking.
As soon as he spoke, the entire cabin fell silent. Everyone wore a serious expression.
It wasn’t that they suddenly became mute, but Monkey’s words hit the nail on the head. OldBuick had already mentioned that the iron ball emerged from the desert after a severe earthquake. That meant it had drawn everyone’s attention at the time. Whether soldiers or workers, no one could afford to be unalert.
And if it could still eliminate dozens of Silver Soldiers and hundreds of Bronze Soldiers with a single strike in such a situation, one could imagine just how terrifying that iron ball was.
“So, there really is a master out there. We just don’t know if they’re inside the iron ball or came out from somewhere else while everyone was distracted by it,” Hei Fa said after thinking for a moment.

“The possibility of it coming from elsewhere is much higher,” Baroka replied with a bitter smile. “Otherwise, we’re in trouble.”
Hearing this answer, Xue Tong and Monkey beside him also nodded silently, their expressions serious.
Because they all understood what Baroka really meant: if there really was a master who could instantly kill hundreds of warriors head-on here, they probably wouldn’t stand a chance either.
No, not just them—even Hei Fa, the leader of the Blood Wolves, and the strongest technician on Death Star, would have no chance!
The atmosphere in the cabin instantly became oppressive as everyone fell silent. The floor beneath their feet trembled slightly, and unbeknownst to them, the shuttle had already begun its fifteenth loop. Through the portholes, the yellowish sandstorm below was gradually subsiding, and the surface of the ground could now be faintly seen.
A huge sand vortex, dozens of kilometers in diameter, appeared before everyone.
“Alright,” Hei Fa clapped his hands and stood up. “Since we can’t reach a final conclusion, we need to be cautious about every possibility. The sandstorm below is already weakening. Let’s act immediately. If we’re lucky, we should be able to set up a base before the second sandstorm hits. For this operation, we must remain on high alert. The five hundred warriors will all be dropped at once, in one batch…”
“Understood,” Xue Tong and the others also stood up upon hearing Hei Fa’s words. The three of them pressed the buttons on the backs of their right hands simultaneously.
In the sky, the massive warship began to change slowly. Dozens of giant gates opened along its continent-sized hull. Then, one after another, huge figures emerged. Through the portholes, they were the Blood Moons and Setting Suns. But compared to their existence in space, they were now significantly larger. On the shoulders of each mech, there were two tube-like objects resembling missiles. As they leaped out of the warship, powerful air currents erupted from behind these objects.
Five hundred Blood Moons and Setting Suns, along with over a thousand engineering mechs, instantly filled half of the sky. They descended rapidly like celestial soldiers, leaving long trails as they passed through the atmosphere—resembling a thousand meteorites falling. The spectacle was truly astonishing.
OldBuick had never seen such a large-scale air drop before and was completely stunned.