Chapter 045: Breaking Through the Steel Sky, Witnessing the True Sky Burning!

The metal sky was torn apart by the laser cannon of an Imperial warship.

Part of it was instantly vaporized, while the connected sections were affected not only by the pulling force generated by the cannon's attack (similar to how objects too close to a high-speed train can be pulled in), but also by the structural instability caused by the vaporized portion. Like a carefully arranged set of building blocks losing a crucial piece, it all collapsed.

The steel sky was disintegrating, falling.

Witnessing this scene, Ejie took a deep breath.

There was no escape.

His situation was like that of an ant at the corner of a building wall when the entire structure suddenly collapsed—there was simply no time to run beyond the range of the collapse.

In such moments, running outward would only lead to a quicker death.

At times like this, one should be like a carp leaping through the dragon's gate, swimming against the current.

From the corner of his eye, he saw another flash on the opposite side—a shell had penetrated that warship, causing it to nearly break in two. The bow and stern curved upward while the center caved in.

It was this shell strike, slightly faster than the warship's laser cannon, that had saved Ejie from certain death.

Oh, that wasn't quite right—his body would have been completely vaporized, because that laser beam had been slightly delayed, causing its angle to shift slightly, passing just over his head.

Otherwise, at its original angle, he would have been directly in the beam's path and undoubtedly vaporized.

BOOM—!

A tremendous sound erupted as his position shook like a magnitude 10 earthquake, violent enough to throw people into the air—this was no exaggeration.

He immediately jumped to a position he had calculated, where a huge metal plate on the ground had been uplifted, like the end of a seesaw rising when the other end is stepped on—in reality, it had been uplifted because one end was struck by falling debris.

He landed on the raised side, using its upward momentum to propel himself higher.

At this moment, he launched his grappling hook repeatedly through the falling metal debris, constantly propelling himself upward.

One small operational error, or if the falling object his grappling hook latched onto was too fragile to hold, he would instantly be engulfed in this rain of steel.

Now, his only path to survival was to keep moving upward, until he could fly beyond the floors affected by the laser cannon.

However, besides facing collapsing buildings, he also had to contend with falling people and those insect creatures.

The instinctive desire for survival would cause some people, like drowning victims, to lose their reason and lunge at him, trying to grab hold.

As for the insect creatures who spotted him, they would attack without hesitation, either tearing at him with their claws or firing their weapons at him.

This perilous situation was no less dangerous than being surrounded by daemons and the Chaos Astartes at the precipice in the lower hive.

BOOM—!

The threat of explosions added to his peril.

Metal fragments from the explosions flew in all directions, and he heard the sharp sound of metal scraping against his power armor.

Fortunately, it had merely grazed him.

All around him, the numerous falling humans and insects were caught in these massive explosions, turned into mists of blood by countless metal shards.

.....

In a dojo, a girl with deep purple hair sat quietly, as if meditating.

Upon closer inspection, her hands, which had been naturally resting on her legs, were gradually tightening their grip on her thighs.

Saeko Busujima hadn't seen the battle with the demons, nor the scenes inside the insect hatching nest.

When she logged in, the livestream showed a warship's beam tearing through the metal sky of the steel nest-like city.

The subsequent tragic scenes made her heart grow increasingly heavy.

As a human with emotions, seeing fellow humans from a parallel world enduring such circumstances naturally evoked sympathy.

So, witnessing such a devastating scene made Saeko Busujima's heart tighten.

She worried for the person in the livestream, anxious about his safety, fearing he might be struck by falling debris, torn apart by explosion fragments, or ambushed by the insect-like monsters.

Beyond this, seeing the massive loss of life—these were humans, after all—left Saeko Busujima feeling suffocated by the despair.

From the current viewpoint, the number of falling people, while uncountable, was at least in the tens of thousands.

From such a height, with such terrible destruction, it seemed impossible that anyone could survive.

Some of those who passed close by him—how should she describe them? They looked like people ravaged by disease, their bodies so frail it was somewhat terrifying.

Some were deformed, like victims born after a war where massive biochemical bombs had been dropped, causing pollution that led to twisted births.

Looking around, most appeared even more wretched than the homeless people she knew.

It seemed that these falling people were almost all from the lowest, most impoverished classes.

Suddenly, sensing something, he forcibly changed his trajectory.

The next instant, a heavy steel plate about four meters square beside him was split in two.

The straight cut and smooth surface clearly indicated it had been sliced by an unimaginable force.

What had cut it was captured by the god's-eye view and noticed by him—a creature resembling a mantis, its most distinctive feature being claws that looked very much like a mantis's forelegs.

In the next moment, it vanished, no longer visible, having hidden itself among the chaotic building fragments all around.

Soon after, he nearly got sliced again, causing Saeko Busujima's heart to race with anxiety.

The creature was insidious, immediately going into hiding after a failed strike, waiting for an opportunity to assassinate again.

But as he continued to leap higher, the space grew larger and falling debris became less dense, causing the creature to abandon its stealthy approach.

It leaped with terrifying speed, going for a direct assault.

Just as it was about to make its final pounce, something from the sky fell between them, blocking the monster.

It was a warplane over thirty meters long.

Not only did it come between them, but it also unfortunately struck the creature, carrying it down below.

So, the perilous crisis was finally—

No!

The viewpoint shifted toward the sky, finally revealing the true sky.

The sky was burning, set ablaze by the fires of war!

...

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