Xyrin Empire
Chapter 470 Heaven Descends...

Chapter 470: Chapter 470 Heaven Descends...

Silvery-white, the form-fitting battle robe with its metallic sheen and fabric texture fluttered gently in the breeze. On its large lapel, mysterious and splendid military rank badges and the Empire’s own badge reflected dazzling light from time to time. Slightly elevated on the chest, a ribbon decorated with two merit medals draped down along a graceful curve, resembling a long coat of the Imperial Military Uniform adorned with golden diamond patterns. The gold-coloured Lightning Eye mark on the collar emphasized the recent regular commission of its owner.

The silvery-white commander’s sword was raised high, its phase-shift blade’s unique azure halo shimmering in the direct sunlight.

Then, it slashed down like lightning.

The bright red color immediately splattered, the blade that could neatly split a heavy tank in two, made light work of a mere watermelon rind!

"Ha! A direct hit!" Removing the blindfold from her eyes, a girl in the Imperial Commander’s uniform, resting the commander’s sword by her side, showed a delighted expression on her face. She raised the commander’s sword again, and after a dozen strokes of silvery-white flash, the watermelon was evenly divided into pieces, "Everybody, come over and have some watermelon!"

"Ah, defeated completely..."

Removing the blindfold from her own eyes, Misaka Mikoto looked around and failed to find her intended target, the watermelon-kun. Looking over at the cheering black-haired girl, she couldn’t help but wail.

"The physical abilities of a Xyrin Apostle are just cheating!"

Casually taking a piece of watermelon from a low table, a girl with tea-colored pigtails grumbled, then immediately lunged at the approaching Misaka Mikoto, "Ah, Sister Big, such a forlorn expression truly pains my heart. How should Black mend this light sorrow? Could it be... could it be that today Black’s body will—Ah!"

"Oh, not only watermelon, but do we also have a barbecue today?"

The Flower Pot Girl who had just arrived late after buying cold drinks came to the low table and immediately sniffed, surprised. She then noticed a smoking mosaic at her feet.

"Ah! Bai Jing, what happened to you? Why this smell..."

"This helpless pervert should just be thrown on the beach to feed the crabs!" The residual rage flickered on Misaka Mikoto’s forehead as she looked up at a certain quirky girl who had just been using a standard military commander’s sword to slice watermelon on the beach.

Speaking of hopeless cases, it seemed her close friend wasn’t far off either, unofficially ranked eighth among Academy City’s superpower users, and even described in various reliable and unreliable urban legends as having combat strength comparable to the combined forces of all Group Armies worldwide, the human-like cosmic battleship, Supreme Lady Zuotian Tsuruya.

Definitely, she had spent too much time with that Brother, this girl – no, not only Tsuruya, everyone she knew including herself seemed to have shifted towards an unreliable direction.

Now, Tsuruya was no longer that ordinary girl, who despite being strong, had no power and could only hide behind her friends and silently endure everything. Whether it was a good or bad thing, the name "Zuotian Tsuruya" became well-known in Academy City. Much like those seven LEVEL5s, she was respectfully called "Lady Zuotian" by countless juniors full of admiration and even some seniors. Some adults, including teachers conducting security duties, showed a threefold reverence due to the girl’s special identity.

But behind all this, Zuotian Tsuruya, seemingly was still an incurable bundle of energy, always up to mischief - and speaking of which, using military-standard equipment to smash watermelons, wasn’t that really a violation of military discipline?

Is Zuotian Tsuruya currently considered a LEVEL 5 in Academy City?

This question is a bit troublesome. As one of the few in Academy City who understands Tsuruya’s true abilities, Misaka Mikoto could confirm that, just by combat capabilities alone, this girl in front of her was undoubtedly a superpower user. She possessed the Storm Commander’s battlefield control skills—an ultimate enhancement that could allow every ordinary soldier in an entire legion to dismantle a tank with their bare hands—and various bizarre command abilities that science couldn’t explain, which were beyond extraordinary. With the proper use of these, if you gave the current Tsuruya five ordinary people, she could sweep through all the forces in the entire Academy City—including all LEVEL 5s. Relying on what’s rumored to be very poor personal combat abilities among the Xyrin Apostles, Tsuruya could still easily defeat the bottom three of the seven LEVEL 5. To put it another way, Zuotian Tsuruya’s power could be seen as a combination of multiple LEVEL 5s and dozens of LEVEL 4s. Each of her abilities, even taken individually, should not be underestimated by any ordinary student, especially not her detection ability—a mass radar that could cover the entire city. If this were converted to a superpower, it would undoubtedly make her a superpower user, wouldn’t it?

Ah, mass radar—no wonder Tsuruya could hit the watermelon so easily earlier! She must have cheated, right?! I should have known, what use is blindfolding an Xyrin Apostle!

Hmm, it seems I’ve digressed just like Big Brother... Anyway, Tsuruya’s strength is indeed impressive, but she just can’t be recognized as LEVEL 5 by Academy City’s ability classification system, because... hers is not a "superpower."

The powerful and mysterious Xyrin Apostles—even ordinary soldiers among them have the power to obliterate humanity’s strongest armies—but this seemingly technological power system has been proven utterly incomprehensible and impossible to mimic at humanity’s current stage. Hence, it follows that Tsuruya’s abilities could not possibly be "superpowers," and that’s why to this day, there are still only seven recognized LEVEL 5s in Academy City, with Tsuruya always considered the unofficial eighth "superpower user." Honestly, it seems like Tsuruya herself has no concept of this at all.

The title of LEVEL 5, the merits that aided humanity through its greatest disasters, the looks of admiration and fear, or even hostility from those around, and other vain titles, are not what Tsuruya cares about.

She really is an enigmatic individual, and anyone familiar with her probably has to admit it.

Switching places with an ordinary person, if anyone were to undergo such unbelievable events, experience such a drastic change in life, they could hardly remain unphased, could they? They might become haughty, escape from reality, or even turn to extremes. Yet this girl, who suddenly became a powerhouse, became a spokesperson for other-dimensional ultimate force in human society, and even held military powers that made all of humanity tremble, is still...

Still this ridiculously carefree...

Indeed, it must be because she’s spent too much time around that enigmatic Big Brother. There’s no other explanation.

But even this carefree Zuotian Tsuruya sometimes struggles with issues stemming from her identity.

Misaka Mikoto suddenly thought about an incident that happened a while ago. Of course, it wasn’t that globally inconspicuous anomaly, but rather a rumor about Zuotian Tsuruya’s real identity, which made her almost burst out laughing.

The illegitimate daughter of a royal family from another dimension, banished to Earth due to royal disputes, now rediscovered by supported factions of the royalty, seeking to accumulate merits and prestige to return to her dimension and reclaim her own... Pfft, I can’t think about it anymore, the story is just too hilarious!

I wonder who the genius was who first spread this rumor! Tsuruya was almost scared silly by it at the time. I don’t know what would happen if I told this story to Brother Emperor, or that troublemaking Sister Lin Xue—it would probably be quite amusing!

"Mikoto? Mikoto?" A sudden voice near her ear interrupted her wildly running thoughts. Misaka was startled and turned around only to find the long-haired girl, who had just been the main character in her imagination, looking at her dissatisfied, "Huh—daydreaming isn’t polite at this time, Mikoto!"

"Uh oh~~~" Mikoto looked up and let out a laugh, using the typical Misaka act to gloss over, "I just suddenly remembered something... By the way, Tsuruya, you’re leaving tomorrow, right?"

The sudden mention of the topic indeed successfully diverted Tsuruya’s attention; the girl, who was just about to demand an explanation, immediately showed a slightly nervous expression and clasped her hands together, saying, "Uh...yes! We’re leaving tomorrow."

"An expedition to another world, huh," Chichun Shili, who had been busy trying to resuscitate the electrocuted Bai Jing Heizi, also came over and said, "Zuotian, are you really okay with this? It’s such a thing, we shouldn’t let a junior high student..."

"But this is the duty of a soldier, right?" Tsuruya chuckled and pointed to her badge on her chest, "And this time, I volunteered for it. I always feel like I’m just causing trouble for my brother, including during the interstellar war, so, this time I must put in my own effort! Besides, Sister Lin Xue also said that though this event is quite significant, in fact, each abnormal world isn’t dangerous, the Imperial Vassal Army has already formed dozens of expedition armies to carry out missions in various worlds. Even if the Leader-level Apostles do not engage, everything can be handled. When compared to the interstellar war, this operation is practically like going on a vacation."

"That’s right, the situation is not as bad as it sounds; it’s actually a fairly easy assignment."

On the eve of departure, I held Dingdang high, Dingdang held the lollipop high, and thus I confidently reassured Bai Jing Heizi and the others who came to see us off.

"And it seems you guys recently sneaked off to the front lines of the interstellar war, right?" Lin Xue glanced sideways at Chichun, who immediately looked down, embarrassed, "Didn’t you think it was dangerous then?"

How dare you say that! You’re always causing trouble, aren’t you?

"That’s different!" Heizi immediately protested loudly, "Last time we went just for fun, but this time Tsuruya is going to fight... um..."

Dare you continue with more confidence?

The extensive event impacting dozens of worlds had initially startled me when Lin Xue first mentioned it, but after a simple truth-detection by the Prophet, the situation turned out not to be very urgent; in fact, it was merely the aftermath of the World Fragment incident.

Information evaporated from the World Fragments (or old worlds) had contaminated more than one world, and this had been confirmed early on. Virtually all places in the Void similar to Earth’s plane had undergone various degrees of erosion. Most of them returned to normal after the World Fragments were resealed, but some worlds, due to their fragile structure or longer exposure to erosion, suffered from natural disasters and the resultant devastating wars. Disasters that could spell doomsday for humans were fairly easy for us to resolve, not even requiring the personal involvement of the Imperial Army—Sandora and I had already dispatched dozens of expedition forces to affected worlds, mostly from places like Azeroth’s Imperial Vassal Army and even a recently formed Human-Protos United Forces from the Kepulu Star Zone. Some remnants of technology from the Xyrin Empire significantly enhanced the combat effectiveness of the above forces. Now, their only lack was experience in combating with those support technologies, making this event an invaluable training opportunity, and I believe that these task forces comprising the elite of various races would also fulfill their assigned tasks by the Military Command perfectly.

But it seems that after this, the worldview of those worlds’ natives will probably be reshuffled—unless they can remain calm even after seeing Tauren Machine Gunners and Blood Elf Mages rolling past them.

"At the moment, the progress in all war zones is going very smoothly, Azeroth Salvation Army’s Eastern Kingdom Army has already quelled the fires in the landing area, and the Kalimdor Commander might lose his meal ticket for next month," Sivis delivered the latest battle report while giving a brief, "Poor Chief Kane really shouldn’t have chosen World Number Seven, which has turned into a giant desert planet due to mutations. Most of the native humans have survived relying on food reserves, but Kalimdor’s Shaman Priests and Dark Night Elves are deep in trouble attempting to curb the global desertification—it seems they will be the last to complete their mission. The Third Legion from the Vedis Empire mentioned that fighting alien invaders on Earth was a breeze for them, but their Fourth Legion wasn’t so lucky; they fell straight into the Red World Plane and are still lost. Reynolds’s Battlecruiser is currently having a fierce fight with Megatron, as Zeratul has messed up the Spark Source... uh, Commander, I might be overstepping, but we should really sort out the military discipline of those Irregular Armies..."

I scratched my head, "I think it’s okay... their missions are going smoothly, aren’t they?"

Well, at least now I admit that those Irregular Armies indeed need more training...

"Now let’s look at the world we are going to—much better than dealing with aliens and Transformers," Sandora decisively shifted the topic from the myriad problems with the Imperial Vassal Army, "On the surface, everything is normal here, no signs of external modification of the laws, and the World Barrier has not leaked."

"So, it’s worth a personal investigation by you all," Lin Xue said firmly, "That’s the place that suffered the longest from information pollution and is also a fragile low-magic, low-power world. I can’t believe it’s completely unblemished, but since my abilities are limited, the parts I can’t see will have to be verified by you—well, treat it like a picnic."

"But at least you gotta tell us what world it is, Prophet?"

Just as this thought crossed my mind, Lin Xue seemed to read it and said, "Anyway, it’s definitely going to be a surprise. Wouldn’t it spoil the fun if I told you?"

Ugh, this stingy Prophet.

The team for the operation was already set. Since it didn’t seem to be any major dangerous event, apart from Zuotian Tearful Child and me who eagerly signed up, there were only Pandora and the Visca sisters who were full of grudges because they were left at home last time, plus Sandora whom I insisted on bringing—because I really worried that if I left this girl at home, she’d greet me with some crazy new high-energy cooking when I got back.

A five-person squad, basically consisting of: DPS, DPS, DPS, DPS, and DPS...

It was clearly all about raiding and plundering.

"Avalon’s observation focus will follow you guys all the time," Sivis said before opening the space gate. "This is a good opportunity to test the projection system and the Leaving World Garden device. If you encounter any situation, just call for support and the Imperial Legion can join the battle in projection form."

"Hope we won’t need that thing."

I said sincerely, giving poor Earth-kun one last chance to breathe!

Under the quiet night, inside a very old large mansion, a fierce battle was ensuing.

Mysterious-material-forged weapons clashed violently with invisible sharp blades, creating shockwaves that blew soil and rocks for a dozen meters away. Each crossing of the two figures not only left deep crisscrossing scars on the ground but also brought about a sharp metallic screech and a series of collision sounds, making the sole spectator’s ears tingle—it was a combat level beyond human capabilities, where even just watching from the sidelines meant risking being shattered by the residual waves of the battle.

"Clang—" A long-lasting clash of weapons temporarily halted the intense confrontation. A blue figure quickly back-stepped twice after facing the strike and then cautiously held her red long spear across her chest.

The foe before her was tough to handle, and worse, her weapon was too weird.

Invisible—although it solidly existed, it was impossible to see, or even to guess its shape and size. Up to this point in the battle, apart from barely sensing that it was some sort of bladed weapon, she had no clue at all, leading to constraints in combat.

If only she could make her opponent reveal her weapon... But that seemed even less likely. Although she looked like a fragile girl, she was psychologically impeccable. Verbal provocations were useless, and even the skill she thought would be a sure kill had been dodged by the opponent. It seemed like continuing to fight was pointless.

What an embarrassing retreat, but...

"My master is a coward, so today just... Ahhh!"

And at this moment, history’s wheel decisively fell into a ditch. It all started with a certain unlucky gunman named Cu Chulainn getting smashed into the ground by a high-intensity landing pod falling from the sky... (To be continued, for more please visit www.qidian.com, with more Chapters and support for the author, support genuine reading!)