Iron 27 didn't say goodbye. He just looked at Lithium 15 deeply and then took Adam and flew towards the sky.
Lithium 15 didn't say anything to them either. He punched hard, then his arm and half of his body turned into a cannon, sticking firmly to the parental body's defense field. He said to the Metal Eaters with disdain, "Kill the Titans? Quit daydreaming, you have never killed anyone of us. One spark goes out, and countless others will light up elsewhere. Titans never die!"
***Boom!***
The explosion and Lithium 15's roar sounded together:
"Die!"
Retreating was much simpler than sneaking in. Now, without needing to carry Lithium 15 or head to a specific target, Iron 27, as a transcendent-level being, was unstoppable by ordinary Metal Eaters. Only the parental body could stop him, but it likely didn't have the time now.
Adam looked back. The parental body's defense field, along with the surrounding space, shattered into pieces in a microsecond.
Adam saw that this nearly transcendent Metal Eater was partially energy-based. Only a small part of its body was flesh, the rest was like a steady burning flame.
"That's its real form? Unbelievable," Adam blurted out in surprise.
Iron 27 said nothing, gripping Adam's arm a bit tighter. He sped up again.
Lithium 15 spread his arms and embraced the parental body. No matter how it tried to dodge, it couldn't escape Lithium 15's lock.
"Got you!" Lithium 15 shouted.
The parental body panicked. It struggled furiously in Lithium 15's grasp, roaring continuously, but Adam couldn't understand whether it was begging or threatening.
The huge nest disintegrated inch by inch, turning into pure energy and dissipating. Lithium 15 firmly trapped the parental body, unaffected by its struggles that shook the ground and mountains.
Lithium 15 laughed loudly. His body collapsed inward with the laughter, transforming into an unknown substance that turned his silver-gray body pure white. Previously, Adam struggled to shrink him to thirty-nine meters, but now he was breaking that limit. When Iron 27 and Adam were twenty kilometers away, Lithium 15 had shrunk to five meters. He was bathed in flames, letting the fire lick him without stopping his laughter.
Lithium 15 was like a sun, dimming the world around him.
Strangely, when the collapse reached its limit, the first thing Adam saw wasn't energy. Lithium 15's crumbling body burned particle by particle in the sparks, his last smile clearly visible.
Then came the release and the explosion.
There were no flames, and Adam couldn't calculate how high the core temperature was. His dynamic vision slowed the moment down a thousand times. He saw everything flammable around him, along with the lower Metal Eaters, ignite instantly.
Without a medium to carry it, the sound of the explosion went muted. Sand turned into magma, and minerals melted. They evaporated quickly and were completely turned into gas within seconds.
The parental body struggled for a few more seconds before disappearing along with the surrounding matter.
A blue-white flame shot up into the sky, and the energy shockwave spread in all directions. The blue-white mushroom cloud rose more than a hundred kilometers high.
Air from the outside rushed into this vacuum crazily. The huge atmospheric pressure created thousands of tornadoes reaching from the ground to the sky, but they didn't stir up any impurities.
Finally, the sound of the explosion reached them—a deafening blast.
Seconds later, the 'sun' fell.
…
Adam and Iron 27 stood a thousand kilometers away. Iron 27's body easily stopped the massive shockwave, and they stood quietly.
"Do you remember the Transcendent Strike, master? Even though I know the power of a Titan's self-destruction can't be as strong as the Transcendent Strike, why do I feel..." The voice of the devil was unusually gentle. He thought for a long time but couldn't find the right adjective, so he sighed instead.
Thousands of nests and tens of thousands of Metal Eaters were gone in an instant. Although there were still countless monsters in the vast border area, none dared to come near here at this time.
Iron 27 watched silently for a long time. Later, the mushroom cloud disappeared, and the tornadoes stopped, with only the shockwaves and energy storms still raging. 27 then spoke, "Let's go."
Titans could live very long. Iron 27 had lived long enough to see more than one self-destruction. No Titan had ever had the chance to leave even a trace of life after that. Iron 27 couldn't see through the energy storm, but he felt Lithium 15 wouldn't be an exception.
But Adam was different. The violent electromagnetic disturbances in the explosion zone couldn't block his perception. "Lithium 15 might not be dead," Adam said.
Iron 27 was slightly shocked, and before he could say anything, Adam continued, "No, he's dead, but his spark hasn't completely disappeared."
Iron 27 couldn't believe it. "You mean, he succeeded in passing on his Flame?!"
Adam flew forward. The chaotic magnetic fields and energy straightened out as they passed by him. He said to Iron 27, "I'm not sure. The spark is very weak and very dangerous."
Iron 27 sped up fiercely. He forcefully suppressed the raging energy around him and then shot towards the center of the explosion like an arrow.
This place was still a forbidden zone for life. Seeing Iron 27's body start to melt but still trying to break through the high temperature, Adam had to stop him and then said, "The spark seems to be absorbing special energy. I think I have the right to know some things, right?"
Iron 27 spoke gravely, "Of course, about the Royals within the Metal Eaters, you would have had enough authority to learn about this after the mission."
"You should know the origin of the Metal Eaters. They were creatures created by some Intelligent. Besides smelting metals, they could also serve as external Flames to enhance the Titans' ability to absorb energy during combat. However, they rebelled, and this ability, instead of being utilized by the Titans, became their own talent. The potential of a mere newborn Metal Eater alone is not that high; a newborn Metal Eater can only evolve by devouring other newborns."
Adam understood; this was another tragedy caused by dabbling in forbidden knowledge beyond one's control. The Titans were fortunate; although they lost a lot of territory and the ability to cross planes, at least their race continued and their civilization was carrying on. They were much luckier compared to the species on Cthulhu.
Although it might seem selfish for Adam to think this way, a state of Titania like this was more suitable for him to make connections. If the Titans' research had succeeded and thereby gained stronger powers, perhaps after Adam left Titania, there would have been an endless war between Titans and Mages.
The two both had their own thoughts, and they stopped talking.
It took three days and nights for the temperature to drop to a level Iron 27 could withstand. After Adam returned from clearing several groups of returning Metal Eaters, he saw Iron 27 crouching, creating a small space in the high-temperature zone—he was protecting a tiny flame beneath him. His hands reached out again and again, but he dared not move for fear of extinguishing the flame.
