Ten seconds

  That was the time left until the resonance projector and the dissonance disruptor were completed. Altair had heard it; looking over their situation, it was not exactly favorable at the current moment. There were still two Giant Stygians dashing in front of them, and another one incapacitated just slightly below the Ironside that was squirming like a worm.

  He should have been relieved that the weapons would be soon deployed, which meant they would have another thirty seconds to fight an all-out fight or the entire Ironside would run out of energy to continue fighting. However, deep inside, he felt a very ominous lingering emotion that he did not know where it came from.

  Despite all of that, he pushed forward. He hovered his hands over the console of controls. With a swipe and pull of his hands and fingers, the Ironside realigned both the assembly of blades and the pneumatic driver into a proper defensible position.

  For the meantime he ignored the squirming incapacitated Giant Stygian that was slightly below the Ironside, as if he finished it off now, he might get caught off guard at a very unexpected situation that he did not want to be in at any point in the future.

  "Just ten seconds left…" Altair whispered under the silent cockpit that was occasionally disrupted by the flickering glow of red light over one of the consoles where the integrity of the hull was displayed.

  While Altair prepared for the upcoming battle, Mira and her party were now practically out in the open, as dozens upon hundreds of Stygians were now starting to surround them.

  Lyria, with tears streaming down her cheeks, was now being drenched in the corruption of the black rain. Thankfully, they all had their resonators with them, thus she made sure her resonator was closely attached to one of her belts. She could only wonder what would happen to her if she suffered corruption, or how from what she heard from those ancient stories, that if they died because of the corruption, then their souls would be damned to fight alongside the denizens of Babel for eternity.

  Brennan, still seeing that Lyria was still struggling with her mistake, forced himself to soften his own expression. While still gripping his axe tightly he moved slightly back and comforted Lyria.

  "We all make mistakes. Don't punish yourself too much, we still have a battle to fight." He said with a whisper that she could only hear. "Only the living could make amendments for their own mistakes and sins." He continued, albeit his expression now turned forlorn, as if he remembered something from far back in his own past.

  "I have to keep the group together from collapsing." He whispered to his own heart. "I cannot repeat the mistakes of the past." He continued, "No, it must never be repeated!" He declared with intent as he narrowed down his eyes.

  He moved forward again, this time much farther from Mira and Lyria. He was taking the most frontline position.

  He did not look over at Mira, but he spoke loud enough for her to hear it.

  "In the end, you got what you wanted, huh." He chuckled for a moment before his expression turned into something serious. "However, if you continued acting that way in the future, you'd get yourself killed." His expression softened as if being filled with regret. "Or worse." He looked over at Lyria and back at Mira, which both of them noticed. "You'd get somebody else important to you killed." He looked down and faced forward.

  Once he was done speaking his mind, his entire body glowed with a bright crimson color. His muscles bulged outward as the energy spread out throughout his body and gradually encased his axe. This was then followed by lines forming along his body and his eyes turning bloodstreaked red.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  Mira, who was just slightly behind, gripped her bow tightly in frustration. She felt as if the entire world were stopping her, as if she was being punished. However, deep inside, she knew that she took a big risk and in turn brought peril into her own group. Yet, despite that, she still believed and followed what she felt was right, despite nearly damning everybody else.

  Her heart trembled with great intensity, her emotions flaring up, a deep cold chill running through her bones as the touch of the pitter-patter of the black rain flooded over her pristine skin. In response, she bit her lips hard and gripped her bow tightly. As Brennan was taking the lead, she readied her bow by tugging along the string, to which mana gathered and a silver arrow appeared.

  "I will support you from behind." Mira said with a bitter voice, yet loud enough that it could be heard by Brennan.

  Lyria, still unable to speak due to overwhelming guilt, merely started speaking as she cast a spell that surrounded them. Brennan's body felt lighter and his muscles tighter as if he could take the entire world in a single fight. While Mira felt a tremendous amount of mana flooding through her, and her vision getting sharper and clearer. Lyria meanwhile, despite casting the spell, remained quiet as she took to heart what Brennan had said to her a while ago, and also due to her focusing on casting more spells that would help the group in the long run.

  As the party prepared for the confrontation, more Stygians came surrounding them. Brennan, realizing that he could not possibly defend every direction, directed the group with a clear and firm voice to move into a more defensible position.

  "Mira, Lyria, let's relocate and reposition ourselves with our backs behind the Ironside." He said.

  Mira seemed to want to argue; however, knowing for a fact that she caused this problem in the first place weighed heavily on her too. Thus, despite her reservations about it, she remained quiet. While Lyria merely nodded, as she knew that Brennan had more experience under his belt.

  However, even Brennan had reservations about placing their backs on the Ironside. Currently, it was fighting a Nightmare, and the structure of the Ironside, just looking from their position, he immediately knew that it would be risky and even dangerous if the Ironside failed.

  Yet he or they had no choice. Kaelen the traitor was not here with them to cover another direction; it was just him, a single melee fighter, with two range units. Before he died, Mira and Lyria would die first. Thus, all in all they had no other choice but to move in haste.

  They immediately regrouped and moved as quickly as they could before their position could be attacked or overrun by the dozens, if not hundreds, of Stygians hungrily trying to reach them.

  As the party was moving, Altair was preparing for the eventual confrontation. Deep within his mind, he was counting the remaining seconds left until the weapon completion.

  Three seconds

  In just that moment, as his eyes hovered back onto the screen, the Giant Stygians moved in a strange way. The first one moved in front of the other, and immediately stopped and kneeled.

  "What are they doing?" Vigil asked cautiously.

  Then, with a growing ominous feeling, the kneeling Giant Stygian faced the other one, and with both of its arms and hands made a position of giving the other one a leg up.

  "!!!" Altair panicked as he realized that the Ironside could not move. "Vigil, use the autocannons to focus fire toward the kneeling one!"

  "Affirmative, Lieutenant!" Vigil immediately responded with a slight hiccup in his voice.

  The sentry platforms immediately moved and were repositioned, to which then the autocannons rose back up and started peppering the kneeling Giant Stygian. However, there was no effect, and they could not use a missile as it was already empty.

  The Giant Stygian who was now running even faster, in a display of flexibility and haste, used the hands by the kneeling Giant Stygian as it was given a leg up, and so it jumped even further and higher into the sky.

  While in the middle of the sky, the Giant Stygian started to morph its arms into a blade-like structure, while the one on the ground, after helping the other, immediately stood back up and dashed forward.

  Altair, with a loud beating heart, was unable to do anything against the unique pincer attack that the Giant Stygians just did, and so with all his remaining hope, he readied the assembly of blades, brought out a sword-like blade, and moved his eyes across the console.

  One and a half seconds.