Chapter 24: Clash of Titans

"Queen, Queen, what's your status now?"

"Queen, Queen..."

In the midst of an intense computational interference, Atai couldn't confirm the final resolution and continued to call out through the encrypted channel.

"Stop howling, you idiot! What do you think could happen to your Queen?"

"That's good to hear, that's good!"

Hearing the familiar voice of the Queen, Atai let out a sigh of relief, but his relief was short-lived as the Queen's roar echoed through the comms again.

"Damn it, Atai, you fool! What's going on? Where are Black One and Black Two? I can't detect them! Did you not transport them?"

Atai's head started to throb with the rising tension.

"Queen, I'm sorry, the Demon One was interfered by an abnormal computational force. It seems only you, Xueyi, and Ato's wormholes were completed. Black One and Black Two's wormholes were interrupted. Although it was just a moment, that moment was enough for the nuke to hit..."

"Damn it, Atai, send us back now! I'm going to kill them!"

A massive mushroom cloud appeared in the distance, a spectacular sight, but Ethan had no mood to admire it.

Suddenly, a burst of dark energy emerged, recreating the post-explosion dust cloud, and Mony, Xueyi, and Ato appeared, but Black One and Black Two were missing.

"Damn you!"

Mony cursed the moment she appeared, and with a wave of her hand, the Demon Claw lunged towards Ethan.

In her fury, Mony's attack was unmatched by any third-generation gods. Even in the known universe, she was the poorest main god, but a main god nonetheless. And a royal one at that!

The Demon Claw, moving with unparalleled speed, was almost upon Ethan's face in a blink.

Ethan's heart pounded, "So fast!"

"Move aside!"

Ethan shouted, his figure retreating rapidly. It seemed Mony's sole target was Ethan. Angel Yan and the others quickly dispersed and attacked the demons.

"Aiden, do not cease the attack on other demons. Wait for my signal here!"

"Understood, Boss!"

Ethan, retreating swiftly, issued the command to Aiden while raising his left hand. His battle armor restructured at the molecular level, forming a high-energy plasma beam emitter. The plasma beam shot straight at the Demon Claw, attempting to halt its advance.

But the plasma beam only sparked against the Demon Claw, barely slowing it down.

"No, the high-energy plasma beam is too weak. I need to fire a micro-nuke to stop it!"

Without hesitation, Ethan activated the micro-nuke stored in his Nova armor, launching it at the Demon Claw.

The micro-nuke hit the Demon Claw in an instant. The resulting explosion, while smaller than the previous one, was powerful enough to obliterate the Demon Claw's momentum. The Claw was blasted away by the shockwave, disappearing into the distance.

Ethan, though not close enough to the explosion to be harmed, was still affected by the shockwave. Thankfully, his Nova armor absorbed and stored the energy, leaving him unscathed and even recharged.

"Aiden, launch a high-energy electromagnetic railgun barrage at Mony, followed by a thirty-times-standard-yield nuke!"

Having given the order to Aiden, Ethan immediately contacted Angel Yan and her team.

"Angel Yan, Angel Leng, Angel Chase, cease combat and move away from Mony immediately! Move away now!"

Angel Yan, Angel Leng, and Angel Chase were perplexed by Ethan's sudden command. They were in the midst of intense combat.

"Yan, what should we do?" Angel Chase asked, looking to Angel Yan for guidance, always following her lead.

"Let's follow Ethan's instructions. He might be using another high-yield nuke!" Angel Yan speculated, her inherent trust in Ethan compelling her to agree.

Angel Leng, though reluctant, nodded in agreement. The three quickly disengaged from their opponents and moved away from Mony.

"Damn it, these lunatics use nukes like they're free! If I had this kind of firepower back then, I wouldn't have been defeated by Keisha..." Mony cursed, still angry and frustrated.

She had planned to capture Ethan and inject him with demon genes, turning him into a powerful third-generation demon. But Ethan's micro-nuke shattered her dream, leaving her fuming.

"Warning, high-energy reaction detected..."

"Warning, high-energy..."

In her rage, Mony didn't expect another attack. The sudden alert caught her off guard, and a projectile from the electromagnetic railgun struck her.

"Damn it, Atai, where's my warning? My chest just got smashed!"

Meanwhile, in a hidden location on Nova, Angel Moy was using her genetic engine to connect to a dark information jammer, leveraging the Nova's quantum supercomputer's power to combat Demon One.

Initially, Moy and Demon One were evenly matched, as Demon One hadn't allocated much computational power to search Nova's dark data. Moy felt confident she could hold out until Queen Keisha's arrival.

However, when Demon Atai requested additional computational power for the search, the balance shifted dramatically.

"Damn it, Demon One suddenly increased its computational power. I need to increase mine too, or we'll be breached soon!"

Angel Moy was taken aback by the sudden increase in Demon One's power, her face turning pale as she frantically pondered her next move.

"No, if we get breached, millions will perish. I must delay them as long as possible!"

With that thought, Angel Moy's tense expression turned calm as she issued commands to her genetic engine.

"Activate overclock mode."

"Warning, overclock mode will significantly increase energy consumption. Confirm activation?"

"Confirm."

"Overclock mode activated. Duration: five minutes."