Chapter 199: Final Battle!

The moment the formation locked into place, the ocean itself seemed to recoil. Each War Machine shifted with mechanical precision, their engines humming in perfect synchronicity as they surrounded the wounded Titan.

The beast’s tendrils writhed, each movement generating violent currents that spiraled outward like underwater tornadoes. The students’ bubbles were thrown back again, drifting like leaves shaken from a branch.

Albedo braced his hands against the translucent interior, keeping himself steady as the world vibrated around them, “How is it not dead yet,” he muttered as he looked at the Titan Class Beast being bombarded with immensely powerful attacks.

“Far from it, no Titan dies easily,” Kaen said, scanning the battlefield with narrowed eyes, “But they’ve cornered it. Keep watching. This is what true aquatic war looks like, what Abyssal warfare demands.”

Lilian swallowed hard, “You say that like it’s supposed to make me feel better.”

Before Kaen could respond, the Titan twisted violently, its long armored frame coiling like a serpent preparing to strike.

Runes ignited across its body, shifting from sickly purple to a deep, malignant crimson. The water trembled as if the beast had awakened something much worse inside itself.

“Elara,” Lilian whispered, “why is it glowing like that?”

Elara pressed a hand to her lips, her face draining of color, “It’s activating a core furnace. That’s… that’s the precursor to a catastrophic mana surge.”

“Meaning?” Lilian croaked.

“Meaning if it finishes that,” Albedo said grimly, noticing what was going on with his Source Code, “the blast will evaporate kilometers of ocean. We’ll be gone before we can blink.”

A low hum vibrated through the bubbles as the Titan’s carapace split along glowing seams, exposing inner layers of churning abyssal energy. The roar it released was less a sound and more a physical shock that slammed into the War Machines like a siege ram.

The manta-like War Machine reacted first, wings folding inward before unleashing another barrage of searing beams. They struck the Titan’s exposed core, but the creature’s glowing armor regenerated with frightening speed, absorbing the damage and reforming almost instantly.

The leviathan-machine surged forward then, carving through the water with earthshaking momentum. Its plated tail whipped around, glowing with heated runes before it slammed directly into the Titan’s flank.

The impact echoed like thunder underwater.

The Titan lurched sideways, its crimson glow flickering. The leviathan-machine followed with another Abyss-Breaker Shockwave, this one enhanced, a crushing wall of pressure that rippled across the battlefield, flattening smaller abyssal creatures that still hovered nearby.

But the Titan did not falter long. It retaliated with a swipe of massive tendrils, each tipped with serrated bone-like blades.

The tendrils carved through the ocean with the speed of ballista bolts. One slammed into the leviathan-machine’s armored neck, sending sparks across its plating as it struggled to hold position.

The nautilus-machine responded instantly, spinning its rings into overdrive as it charged a gravitational pulse. The water twisted, the battlefield bending toward the machine as space distorted.

Albedo’s breath caught as he recognized what was going on immediately, “It’s going to pull the Titan in.”

“Or tear it apart trying,” Elara murmured, unable to look away from the battle.

The gravitational field expanded outward in a crackling dome. The Titan’s movements slowed, its colossal body dragged sideways as if caught in a giant invisible hand. Its tendrils flailed, carving trenches into the water, but the momentum wasn’t enough to escape.

Then the fortress-class War Machine, still glowing faintly gold from its last discharge, shifted its cannons again. The runes around its central weapon flared, brighter than before, illuminating the battlefield like a rising star.

Kaen inhaled sharply. “It’s charging the God-Spear again.”

“But won’t that destabilize the gravity field around us, another attack that big would wreck too much havoc surely,” Lilian hissed and Kaen didn’t answer, just allowing them to continue watching.

The Titan must have sensed danger. Its tendrils curled inward, and its core flared with blinding crimson light. The water around it boiled, bubbles rising like furious geysers.

“It’s going to detonate!” Elara yelled. “It’s trying to trigger a chain implosion!”

The manta-machine dove forward at lightning speed, wings cutting the water in a single fierce stroke. It unleashed a volley of rapid-fire beams that peppered the Titan’s exposed flesh, buying precious seconds as the leviathan-machine recharged another shockwave.

But the Titan was relentless.

It snapped one massive tendril outward, striking the manta-machine with devastating force. The impact shook the entire ocean, sending a spiraling vortex outward. The machine’s runes flickered, dimming momentarily.

The Titan coiled again, preparing another crimson surge.

Then, the leviathan-machine released its charged shockwave. The blast hit the Titan head on, its crushing force slamming the beast backward and fracturing the glowing armor around its core. Cracks radiated across its body, dimming the red glow.

The nautilus-machine synchronized, its rings shining like suns as it unleashed a gravitational spike directly into the Titan’s exposed wound.

The creature shrieked. Its body folded unnaturally, pulled inward as gravity twisted its internal organs.

And then the fortress-machine fired.

The God-Spear Cannon unleashed a beam of golden annihilation that split the ocean in two. The light illuminated the entire battlefield, blinding in its brilliance. The students shielded their eyes as the beam pierced the Titan’s core, ripping through every layer of its enormous body.

The crimson glow shattered like broken glass.

The Titan convulsed violently, its entire form cracking apart, black flesh splitting into shards of smoking abyssal matter. The gravitational field crushed the fragments inward, compressing the entire wounded mass toward a single point.

Then the Titan exploded, violently and completely.

A shockwave rippled through the ocean, but it was contained almost instantly by the manta-machine, which spread its wings wide to absorb and disperse the force. The water stilled, the echoes fading.

The Titan-Class Abyssal was gone.

Lilian exhaled shakily. “I… I think I’m in love with those things.”

But the battle was not fully over even after that. More abyssal creatures swam in from the edges of the battlefield, lesser compared to the Titan but still massive.

The war machines did not hesitate. They split formation, moving with deadly efficiency as they purged the remaining beasts.

The manta-machine sliced through serpents and leviathans with rapid-fire beams, each shot a precise execution. The leviathan-machine plowed through swarms of monsters, its plated body crushing lesser creatures under its mass.

The nautilus-machine hurled gravitational pulses that compressed enemies into dense, imploding knots of matter.

And the fortress-machine fired smaller artillery rounds, each detonation erupting like underwater suns.

The students watched in stunned silence as the battlefield transformed into a graveyard of abyssal bodies, drifting downward like dark snow.

Eventually, the last screech faded. The final ripple of pressure ebbed away. And all that remained was the low, steady hum of the War Machines as they repositioned.

Kaen finally broke the silence.

“It’s done. They cleared the zone.”

Lilian sagged inside her bubble, “Finally,”

The manta-machine drifted forward, lowering itself until a row of glowing runes aligned with the students’ bubbles. A soft vibration pulsed through the water as the bubbles began moving on their own, drawn toward the machine’s underside with gentle precision.

Elara pressed a palm against the membrane, “They’re… they’re collecting us.”

“Extraction protocol,” Kaen said. “Just stay calm. They know what they’re doing.”

The bubbles glided smoothly toward the opening that expanded beneath the manta-machine, like a hatch in a colossal whale. Rows of dim lantern-like lights illuminated the path inward.

One by one, the students disappeared into the machine’s internal chamber.

Albedo’s bubble drifted last.

He looked around once more, at the battlefield where a Titan had died, at the towering silhouettes of the War Machines guarding them like ancient titans of metal and spellcraft.

He let out a slow, steady breath.

“We made it,” he whispered.

And then his bubble drifted into the light.

The moment Albedo’s bubble passed through the shimmering hatch, the membrane dissolved with a soft hiss, releasing him into a wide chamber filled with warm, breathable air.

Dozens of students were already there, some sitting, some sprawled out, others simply staring upward in stunned silence as the War Machine’s interior hummed around them like the inside of a colossal living engine.

Elara and Lilian ran to him the instant his boots touched the floor. Both looked exhausted, pale, but alive.

Across the chamber, Kaen was already coordinating with the machine’s internal operators, armored Aquatic Division soldiers whose visors glowed with faint runic light.

They moved with swift efficiency, checking vitals, handing out heated blankets, restoring mana circulation with stabilizing potions.

“Stay together,” one officer instructed. “Extraction route is clear. Southern Military Outpost is expecting us back soon.”

The manta-machine’s engines shifted pitch, and the entire chamber vibrated as it began moving, fast. Through the reinforced glass lining the walls, the dark ocean blurred past in streaks of blue and black.

Within minutes, the gloom gave way to glowing perimeter lights, towering mana-lamps rising from a sprawling undersea fortress. Runes flared along armored walls, illuminating the vast dome-shaped shield of Southern Military Outpost where they had came from.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep