The Noah Ark space, though appearing no larger than a mountain range, perhaps covering a few hundred square kilometers at most, must employ incredibly advanced spatial folding technology within. Space layered upon space, compounding upon itself; even the core engine's energy world alone was astonishing, which explained its tenacious vitality.

Frankly, if its opponent hadn't been an identical Noah Ark Space, designated 'C', Fang Senyan could hardly imagine anything capable of opposing it, let alone heavily damaging or destroying it.

Fang Senyan was currently situated at the core of Sea Base Station 1374. Upon arriving here, Eve clearly sensed they had entered a place of critical secrecy. Thrilled, she chose to manifest despite the depletion of her remaining energy. Under her guidance, despite the dense fortifications and utterly baffling traps, Fang Senyan navigated the heart of the facility with deceptive ease, emerging unscathed.

This place held no roar of machinery, no smell of gasoline or grime. Everything was utterly silent, save for the cheerful, liquid flow of vitalized life energy. The driving force behind this flow came from a colossal heart, bisected obliquely on its surface like polished diamond!

A metallic heart forged from countless components!

A monstrous metal heart towering over fifty meters high!

Upon seeing this heart, Eve let out a sigh of profound satisfaction. Her previously hazy form rapidly sharpened, though she resolved into a simplified, line-drawn digital silhouette. Then, she extended a hand; her fingers and palm quickly dissolved into streams of lines that shot out, adhering intimately to the metal heart’s surface. These lines then erupted like a geyser, vividly sketching themselves onto the heart’s metallic exterior.

Minutes stretched into hours for Fang Senyan, who felt every second drag, keenly aware that in the eyes of the Ark space, he was merely a useful pawn. Any misstep would undoubtedly see him discarded.

Fortunately, the process did not last long. The segments reformed back into the shape of Eve. She smiled kindly at Fang Senyan.

"Well done."

Immediately after, Eve raised her hand again, reverting to the digital persona, and extended her palm, once more dissociating into lines. This time, however, the lines began to accumulate on the floor, forming an indescribable mass. Initially, it resembled nothing more than a yarn ball crudely sketched with a pencil, but this ethereal structure, composed of intangible lines, began to rapidly solidify!

The moment this thing began to materialize, it looked utterly repulsive, like a mound of cow dung. Yet, upon first contact, Fang Senyan was struck by a chilling illusion—the feeling a toddler experiences when lost alone in absolute darkness. His formidable defense and bizarre talents were rendered utterly meaningless against this primal fear emanating from every cell of his being!

How could Fang Senyan not understand what was happening?! Eve, having completed her data theft, was clearly planning an internal detonation to cripple their opponent. They shouldn't forget the life-or-death battle raging outside!

The bomb she was simulating here possessed an incalculable destructive force! More importantly, what was the location? This was a temporary storage station for life energy, containing an immeasurable supply!

Eve’s action was akin to planting a super-bomb inside an oil depot. The resulting explosion wouldn't be additive; it would be geometrically exponential. If the stored energy’s destructive factor was 4, and Eve's materialized bomb was 5, the resulting power wouldn't be 4 + 5 = 9, or even 4 x 5 = 20, but 4 raised to the power of 5!

"Damn it! I've been sold out by that bitch!" Fang Senyan stared, dumbfounded, feeling utterly powerless, as if he could only wait passively for death!

And then,

The bomb detonated!

Being so close, Fang Senyan could not describe the sensation. It was as if his entire body was being violently ripped apart by countless searing, gigantic hands. Every red blood cell, white blood cell, platelet, **[Note: Retaining original characters/concept as per instructions, assuming this refers to a specific internal component/fluid], lymph fluid, and brain cell was being individually plucked out. The entire living being was being analyzed and broken down at the cellular level in an instant!

Time seemed to stretch into an eternity, yet simultaneously compressed into a single moment. Fang Senyan’s subjective experience was that his entire self ceased to exist, every cell dissociated and expanded like a cloud of smoke to the size of the Earth.

But at that precise moment, the few remaining lines of Eve skillfully encircled him, wrapping around Fang Senyan’s form in two or three S-shaped loops. Immediately, he felt his scattered cells contract back together. Only then did he realize he was still near the underwater base station, but a massive bloom of light had appeared there, collapsing inward as it rapidly consumed and spread outward, threatening to engulf everything!

The few lines still clinging to Fang Senyan’s body emitted an incredibly gentle radiance. It was this subtle light that protected him, propelling him away at high speed. The feeling was hard to articulate: the light surrounding Fang Senyan and the light of the explosion acted like repelling poles of a magnet, generating immense propulsive force. Although the blast was fierce and chaotic, it maintained a constant distance from Fang Senyan.

This phenomenon was like an eternally surging tide, where the crest of one wave always maintained separation from the next; or like magnets—even if one was over a hundred square meters and the other no bigger than a fingernail, the repulsive force remained steadfast, accompanied by an indefinable softness.

The more violent the explosion grew, the stronger the pushing force became! Fang Senyan felt like an incredibly lucky surfer riding the leading edge of a tidal wave of fire! One slight error and he would dissolve into dust, vanishing with a crisp hiss! His only consolation was that he appeared not to have been discarded; Noah Ark Space C seemed still to care about his survival.

Meanwhile, in the void of space, the two engaged Arks locked in combat suddenly shuddered. Following this, the Noah Ark E suffered an internal collapse, then rapidly swelled outward before rupturing, violently spewing forth a thick slurry of flesh and steel! The scale of this expulsion was breathtakingly extreme!

Ark E shrieked in despair, ceaselessly sprouting tentacles in a desperate attempt to mend its wounds, but Ark C allowed it no such reprieve, striking down viciously to sever every newly formed appendage.

When Ark E’s damage reached a critical threshold, the Creator’s immune layer and filter system coating its surface began to rapidly dim. The logic was simple: it was a case of drinking poison to quench thirst. When survival hinges on scarce resources, the limited provisions reserved for self-preservation would certainly be prioritized over feeding the attack dogs meant for protection...

Noah Ark C had finally waited for this moment, this long-awaited, carefully planned instant. It lunged forward. Five massive tentacles, each kilometers long, pierced directly through the opponent's body, then rapidly insinuated themselves like root hairs into the interior, spreading, enveloping, and binding the victim tightly.

Then, the body of Noah Ark E was slowly and forcefully torn open. The brutal scene of flesh and machinery being wrenched apart, organs spilling forth, was something few could ever forget.

Next, a tiny point of light flew out from within.

This speck of light was no larger than a human heart.

It was difficult to imagine that the Noah Ark space, with its countless superimposed sub-spaces, housed a soul core of such meager size!

Then, Eve's illusion reappeared. Smiling, she opened her mouth and inhaled, swallowing that point of light. Immediately, the two spaces began a violent fusion, their surfaces overlaid with an incredibly thick cocoon of bloody fibers, while violent churning occurred within!

All contractors affiliated with Noah Ark Space E were ejected, left drifting in the void, bewildered, like a disorganized swarm of disturbed ants. If not for the protective layer of their flesh-and-metal armor, they likely would have perished entirely in the vacuum of space.

But to an outside observer, the Noah Ark spaces were aircraft carriers, and the humans suspended in the air were fighter jets sustained by those carriers!

From the distant darkness, several behemoths of steel slowly emerged. In terms of sheer volume, these so-called 'stellar-class' warships were not much smaller than the Noah Ark space. However, when compared side-by-side, the difference was stark: dross versus refinement. The contrast between the two was like a rusty blade against a Terminator; both were weapons built by humanity, but the gap in their technological sophistication and destructive power could only be measured in light-years.

Noah Ark Space C's voice echoed in the minds of every contractor—every single one, including those from Ark E! Clearly, Eve had achieved complete administrative takeover of Space E.

"I require time to evolve. I will summon you all once evolution is complete; it will not take long. During this waiting period, utilize the vessels provided by the Empire for your training, or accept some missions from the Empire."

"Oh, and one more thing: all contractors who answered my call for this mobilization and participated in this battle will have their combat rating permanently elevated by one tier."