The Heavenly Martial Empress Returns: An OP Xianxia Returnee LitRPG

Chapter 193: The Lost Rangers

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RUMBLE!

“Prepare yourselves, Dekai Gaorangers! Your end is nigh!”

The city of Tokyo trembled as explosions echoed through the entire Shibuya district. Buildings collapsed one after another as people screamed and ran away.

A gigantic battle between two massive behemoths occurred in this very instant as two massive monsters, one mechanical and the other made of flesh and bone, clashed.

“We will never give up, Demon King Zenith!”

“Our bonds give us strength!”

“The city of Tokyo, we must protect it!”

“More damage than this cannot be tolerated…!”

“Everyone! Don’t give up!”

The giant protecting the people, and the buildings was a massive mechanical behemoth, composed of several machines unified as one, each one resembling a mighty beast of a different color.

Unified, they became the mighty Brave Gaoyusha, a giant of over three hundred meters of height, tasked with the protection of Tokyo and all of Japan from the monstrous Xeno Beasts, powerful aliens that came to conquer Earth.

With the right harm of a blue dolphin with a sharp spear-like hand, the left arm of a green elephant with a long whip-like trunk, the left leg of a black panther and the right leg of a cheetah for the best mobility, a torso made out of the mighty red lion, and the head of a pink flamingo.

They create the ultimate warrior of humanity.

The Mighty Brave Gaoyusha!

“This world shall belong to the Xeno Beasts, you stupid fools! And there’s nothing you can do to stop us! Japan is only the beginning! The rest of Asia, Europe, Africa, and America! It’ll all be ours! Humans shall go extinct as we stomp them like ants!”

And the one fighting them was one of the Demon Kings that had arrived from outer space, the third in command of the Xeno Beasts, the powerful Demon King Zenith, conqueror of dozens of planets.

His gigantic humanoid body resembled a massively muscular man with six gigantic arms, gray skin covered on metallic black scales, a long tail with the head of a snake, and his head resembling a black lion.

Easily surpassing three hundred meters of height, Demon King Zenith possessed tremendous physical prowess, capable of destroying entire cities in his wake.

But that wasn’t everything…!

“Now perish!”

He pointed all six of his arms at the heroes within the machine, the Dekai Gaorangers, once normal humans that were chosen by Deus Ex Machina, the subconscious Divinity born from humanity’s belief in any god, to command the Deus Ex Beasts, relics of an ancient civilization that landed on Earth long ago and defend the planet.

TRUUUM!

A massive sphere of pure Void and Darkness materialized within Demon King Zenith’s claws, and as he fired it against the mighty Brave Gaoyusha, the Dekai Gaorangers readied themselves, infusing their will and belief into the machine, powering it up with their emotions.

“It won’t work, you evildoer!”

“Let’s go together!”

“As one!”

Their wills converged into a gigantic golden shield made from the Deus Ex Beasts, and with the head of a roaring lion, the beam clashed with immense might.

BOOOM!

The ruined city around them crumbled down, becoming nothing but ashes before the gigantic explosion. The shield resisted, but it quickly shattered into pieces. Brave Gaoyusha, meanwhile, collapsed into the ground.

“Uugh…!”

“We fell!”

“Dammit, get up, quickly!”

“Aarrgh…!”

“He’s coming!”

The Gaorangers panicked as they saw Zenith approach them rapidly; the mighty Brave Gaoyusha quickly stood up again.

“We need something stronger; his scales deflect all our attacks!” the yellow Gaoranger said.

“We should conjure the mighty Heroic Sword then!” said the red Gaoranger. “Everyone, unify your Emotions!”

Their powers converged, and as the Gaoyusha machine rose its hands, suddenly thunder from the skies descended, materializing into a gigantic golden sword.

RUMBLE!

“Hm?!”

Zenith glared at the scene, his six eyes squinting as his stoic, expressionless face changed into a slight surprise, his eyes revealing a hint of shock.

“That’s the… Heroic Sword?! How did you…?!” Zenith muttered. “That is the prize of my retainer, Fallen Knight Zenos!”

“Zenos succumbed to us long ago, Zenith!” the red Gaoranger said. “And we took his corrupted sword, bringing it back to the light it was originally born from!”

“Tch! You will give back that treasure to me!” Zenith rushed forward, his Aura erupting as darkness encompassed almost the entire city.

“{Shadow Meteors}!”

His massive fists reached Gaoyusha, unleashing tremendous explosive attack with each punch, resembling meteors falling from the sky made of shadows.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The mech barely resisted the blows, showing clear damage through its entire body, but it managed to swing the Heroic Sword as a beam made of pure light erupted from the swing, slashing through Zenith’s fists!

SLAAASH!

“Unnggh?!”

Zenith’s eyes widened as he saw the blade of light slice cleanly through his arms! His black blood was splattering into the ground, covering the city with miasma.

“Dammit! Accursed heroes! Taste the might of the Xeno Beasts Demon King Zenith!!!”

Zenith lost his mind as he opened his jaws, and his chest transformed into a gigantic crocodile-like mouth, opening as well, and to make things worse, even his snake-headed tail did the same.

From each jaw, a gigantic beam of darkness and void were unleashed, impacting the mech in front of him with immense force.

BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM!

Massive holes appeared across the Gaoyusha as its pieces and circuits started falling apart one after another. The Gaorangers held on, swinging the Heroic Sword once more while charging forward.

“Zenith! We will not let you defeat us!”

SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!

Three slashes reached Zenith, his gigantic body split apart into three, blood splattering everywhere as he screamed in agony!

“Uuauaaagghh! Curse you, Dokai Gaorangers!”

As Demon King Zenith agonized, the Gaorangers rushed to finish him off. Knowing full well of his regeneration abilities, they had to aim at his head and split it open to finish him off.

“Now, the last step! Everyone! We can… do this!”

The Red Gaoranger unleashed his Emotion, Courage, fueling the entire machine and giving his friends a last bit of Hope as they rushed forward.

Yet!

FLUOOOSH!

“Wha…?!”

“Hm?!”

The rangers and the demon king gasped in disbelief in the middle of their battle as they saw a gigantic gray portal materialize right between each other, making them fall through it.

“What is this?! Uuaaaggh!”

Zenith screamed as his pieces fell through the portal.

“Uuaaggh! Kenichi!”

“What’s going on?!”

“No, Gaoyusha is about to collapse!”

“T-This is a wormhole?!”

“Everyone! Grab anything you can!”

Meanwhile, Gaoyusha started being rapidly destroyed by the turbulence between space and time twisting and warping within the portal.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

BOOOM!

And then they only saw darkness…

…

The dryness of his mouth and throat slowly woke him up, as a young Japanese man coughed blood, mostly cogged on his chest, vomiting it over the dry, desertic floor.

“Ough…! Ack…! W-Wha…?”

He glanced around, his red hair waving by the wind as his blue eyes analyzed his surroundings. His Red Gaoranger suit was torn down, greatly damaged, but its powers had somehow kept him alive.

“E-Everyone…?”

He glanced around, noticing Gaoyusha completely torn to pieces; even his Mecha, the Crimson Lion, was barely alive, groaning.

“Crimson Lion! W-Where’s everyone else?!”

Kenichi reached his loyal steed, his companion and guardian. The lion groaned, growing weaker until it dissipated into particles of red light.

FLASH!

“Crimson Lion…” he sighed. “Rest for now…”

The Gaoranger powerful Machines could self-repair themselves by becoming spiritual and disappearing into another dimension for some time, which also allowed them to summon them at any time.

However, the same didn’t happen for the rest of the Gaoranger Beast Guardians; their bodies were torn to shreds; there was nothing that could save them.

Kenichi could no longer sense their life force at all…

They were dead.

“T-This can’t be happening…” The Red Gaoranger, the Herald of Courage, had fallen into despair.

He fell to his knees, tears streaming from his eyes. As he started hitting the dry ground, all five other Beast Guardians died, only leaving behind his lion, the largest and toughest, barely alive.

His friends too, where could they be?

“I have to find them…”

He gnashed his teeth, slowly standing up. He felt weak, barely capable of crawling, but Courage slowly started to spread through his body the more his heart was beating.

“Deus Ex Machina, do you copy? Are you there?”

He looked at the communicator device on his wrist, rapidly trying to call for the one that granted them these powers, their true leader and general, Deux Ex Machina.

Bbzzttt…

Yet the only thing he could hear was static noise; the guardian couldn’t respond.

“What… what is happening? Where am I? Where’s everyone else?!”

He looked around, feeling completely lost.

Ding! Ding! Ding!

“Ah!”

He noticed a sudden holographic window floating in front of him, showcasing… his stat sheet, as if he were some sort of videogame character.

“Huh? Is this a new function? What is this? Skills…? Class?”

He was confused, but he couldn’t really give it much attention to this, as Kenichi pressed a few buttons on his wrist device.

Suddenly, a projection showing the surroundings now mapped appeared, alongside several colorful dots with the other rangers, very far away from him.

Black Gaoranger, Yellow Gaoranger, Green Gaoranger, Blue Gaoranger, and Pink Ranger were rather far away from him.

For some reason they ended being thrown away very far, although closer with one another, almost a hundred kilometers from where he was!

“They’re alive! But barely…! I need to find them quickly!”

Kenichi instantly started sprinting through the desert, only to hear a voice whispering into his head.

“Red Gaoranger… Kenichi, was your name?”

“Huh?!”

He instantly recognized that voice!

“You…?!”

He glanced into the distance, noticing that right behind a pile of metallic rubble and cables, a large black scaled arm with red eyes across it was resting, bleeding miasma into the land around it.

“Zenith?!”

The Demon King Zenith had survived as well, somehow, his unique body composition and biology even allowing him to be alive within every part of his body.

“You…! You want to fight even now?! Just give it up already, Zenith! You’re just an arm!”

“My other body parts… have been scattered.”

“What?!”

“I cannot reach to them; something has taken over their neurobiological systems.”

“Eh?!”

“I suggest that, while swallowing our pride, we make a temporary… treaty of peace.”

“NANI?!”

“Stop overreacting, you stupid human!”

“A-Ah, my bad- Ahem! I mean, why would I ever do that?!”

“It’s obvious; you’re very weak; your robots are destroyed, and I am, as you said, just a gigantic arm.”

“So you’re suggesting we go together?”

“I can do much more than that, fool. If you infuse the power of Courage into my body, my cells will react to it and adapt, transforming into something… more suitable for this environment.”

“So that’s how you Xeno Beasts adapt and have grown so strong…!”

“Hmph, and it is how you pathetic humans will perish before our might… later, once I figure out where I am to begin with!”

“I don’t know, this sounds shady… How could I ever trust an evildoer such as you, Zenith? You’ve destroyed all of Shibuya and killed thousands!”

“Simple, you have no choice, kehahaha…”

“Tch…”

Kenichi remained in silence; as a Japanese man, honor was a very important thing.

To ally his deadly enemy, even if it was just to survive and find his friends…

Was that something he would be willing to swallow his pride and honor for?

“Your Stamina is very low; you won’t make it to your friends.”

“…”

“And that’s without even considering what my other fragments, overtaken by a mysterious being, could do to this world…”

“…”

“You will die before you make it, fool. And so will I stop being myself! This is something we both require; don’t be stupid.”

Kenichi recalled his friends, their smiling faces, the experiences they had together, the time they went camping out, that other time they visited the beach, and all the hot pots they’ve shared.

He had only met them a year ago, but they had already brought so much light and happiness to Kenichi’s formerly lonely, sad life.

He gripped his fists tightly.

“You promise you won’t try anything while we are together, Zenith? Crimson Lion is fine. If you dare do something, I will not hesitate to call him, and we’ll destroy what remains of you.”

“Hmph, fear not, hero. I shall honor my word as one of the three Demon Kings of the Xeno Beasts!”

“Very well…”

Kenichi nodded, walking towards Zenith.

Then he pointed his hand at him, his wrist device overflowing with the red, blazing power of Courage.

“Courage Heart Connection!”

FLUOSH!

The energy rushed into Zenith, making him overflow with new life and energy!

“Uuoooohhhh! So this is the power of Courage! Kehahahaha!”

Zenith’s arm started to transform, gaining red metallic scales that unified into giant plates, then his fingers became long tentacles covered in black and red metal.

Then, his eyes unified into two big, neon red eyes across his body; slowly, he stood up.

And it resembled…

“Huh? Is that a squid? No way! Hahahaha!”

Kenichi couldn’t help but laugh at what Zenith had become.

“Grr! Don’t you dare laugh at my new form, filthy human! Now hurry, we must find my parts… and your useless friends!”

Kenichi climbed on top of Zenith, the two mortal foes becoming temporary allies.

…

Meanwhile, far away, where the other Gaorangers had arrived, a man with long black hair, wearing ancient Chinese clothes with long robes of black and red colors, glanced at the colorful heroes on the floor before him.

His eyes squinted as he smiled like a true devil, his aura overflowing with power, as he pointed his hands at them, who were now defenseless.

“Such rich Fates you possess… Otherworldly visitors,” he laughed. “If you don’t mind, I will be taking it all for myself~”

FLUOSH!

Suddenly, he began to steal the very Fate of these Heroes, their Destinies and Fortune, absorbing them to gain tremendous power.

“Uuaaggh!”

“Aaargh!”

“Uuggh!”

“K-Keni… chi!”

“What is happening…?!”

The man laughed.

“Now, now, don’t wake up yet; please, sleep. You need to rest after all, heroes.”

He smiled with fascination as he noticed five powerful energies reaching him, completely alien to him, which brought tremendous power.

“Hahaha…! What is this? Incredible! Maybe with this… Killing Bing Xue will be easier than I imagined.”

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