The abominations dashed and rolled over onto the ground, their screams and screeches of nightmare assaulting the ears of all those who were nearby. Birds who were once singing now fell flat, lifeless, onto the ground; the unseen critters exploded as they flew into the air, trying to seek refuge from the nightmare.

  “Lieutenant, abnormal sound frequency detected!” The Adjutant whirred to life. “Data analysis shows that the unknown atmospheric energy seemed to have been amplified and molded by the strange abominations!”

  “So they weaponized the sounds?” Altair toughened his jaw and stared with laser-eye intensity.

  “Activate sound reflectors and execute a counter volume against the sound frequency.”

  Brennan covered his ears, confused along with the erratic movements of the ancient construct before him, as dust flew between his eyes, along with the terrifying buzzing sound emanating from the construct. However, it all dawned on him when he pivoted his head toward the front of the construct in pain.

  “S-Stygians!” He screamed at the top of his lungs, fear overtaking him, as he froze in place.

  Then it struck him; the Stygians moved with swarm-like assault. His eyes dilated as the swarm opened all their mouths. He knew full well what was about to happen. In a desperate attempt, he lowered his body, grabbed any sort of plug—be it soil, leaves, branches—and despite the pain, with a fistful of all these materials he slammed it toward his ears.

  Then it came; the Stygians let out a blood-curdling scream.

  He felt his ears get pierced by numerous blades, as if his eardrums were being torn apart, and slowly but surely the pain was climbing toward his mind. His heart started to beat faster as he shook in fear, unable to do anything. He closed his eyes as tears slid down.

  Then, like a gust of wind, the screams suddenly stopped, replaced by a pleasant sound that strangely vibrated through his ears.

  “Am I dead?” he muttered under the silent air.

  Slowly he opened his eyes, and with eyes wide he saw that the scenery hadn’t changed. The Stygians were still screaming, but strangely he could not hear it despite being a few hundred meters away from them.

  Then a forbidding feeling beat against his chest, and with a snap he gazed toward the ancient construct to find another spire rise from its cascading hull.

  Fear and awe dawned upon him as he gulped down a mouthful of saliva, trying to savor all the miracle he had seen.

  “Lieutenant, the counter frequency has been executed, along with the sound reflectors.” The Adjutant whirred in billowing excitement.

  Altair snapped his gaze from each and every interface screen present, his hands moving like a conductor in an orchestra, with his fingers delicately pressing, molding, and moving controls and buttons.

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  His eyes sharpened as he stared unblinking, and with a decisive action he maneuvered the Ironside much farther back, away from the incoming abominations.

  “Adjutant, open silos one to six and flatten and raze the view in front of us into the ground,” Altair ordered as his features hardened. “Furthermore, bring out the autocannons for interception.”

  “Affirmative, deleting that direction, Lieutenant!” The Adjutant hummed energetically as it faithfully followed the command. “Autocannons and the targeting systems are now operational.”

  The silos opened, and the warheads streaked through the sky like silent silver needles against a bruised twilight. They rose a few hundred meters into the sky and blossomed into an incandescent sun born of anger and hate. A sphere of white fire ballooned outward as vaporizing trails of ash were left mid-scream.

  Leaves and branches flashed to a plasma-like state; sap boiled and exploded. Followed by a searing wall of shockwave that pulsed in a concentric wave, walls of pressure flattened centuries-old giant trees like matchsticks.

  Bark peeled in flaming ribbons as millions of leaves ignited all at once while a cerulean flaming inferno roared skyward. Heat scorched the soil into intense glass; roots charred black almost instantly.

  The blasts roared, swallowed any frequency of sound, and replaced it with the crackle of a humongous pyre. When the dark cloud shaped like a mushroom climbed to the heavens, nothing remained—only a smoldering wasteland of twisted stumps and glowing embers, the entire part of the forest erased in a heartbeat. Its memory reduced to drifting cinders poisoned by billowing amounts of chemicals.

  Altair felt his chest tighten, his stomach churning, his mind assaulting him for making such a decision.

  “Must I do this?” he muttered under the silent air as he gazed back into the ruins that he had created. He stared with a downtrodden expression and began to think about the lives he had just snuffed out.

  From the far corner of his eye he saw a strangely familiar creature; a white dove flew across the battlefield, streaking across the sky. He opened his eyes wide but snapped out of it.

  “It must have been a delusion,” he gritted his teeth and firmly held the controls.

  “Adjutant, how’re the bio-signatures?” he said as he slightly relaxed over the controls while the smoke started to clear in an empty clearing.

  “There does not seem to be any thre—” The Adjutant was suddenly cut off as a change of tone suddenly came out. “Revising findings, Lieutenant; they burrowed deep into the ground and are now coming back up!”

  Altair clicked his tongue in frustration as he squinted his eyes, processing and finding a solution through his mind, when suddenly the interface flashed with numerous crimson glows.

  “Lieutenant, there is no time to explain!” The Adjutant whirred. “Bypassing authentication—taking manual control of the Ironside!”

  Altair buckled in his seat as the Ironside suddenly erupted into movement.

  “W-What!?” Altair’s deep voice reverberated with confusion.

  “Damn!” the Adjutant said with an ear-piercing tone, then continued with a forlorn voice, “I apologize, Lieuten—” The Adjutant was cut off as the Ironside dissolved at the bottom.

  “What?” Altair stared with a blank face before searing pain assaulted his lower body.

  “Agh!!!” He let out a spine-chilling scream.

  Brennan stared dumbfounded as the ancient construct dissolved into a fluid-like substance. His gaze remained fixed behind the construct where a giant hole had suddenly appeared a little while ago.

  Everything happened in a flash. His face contorted into that of confusion as he dropped to his knees.

  “Huh?” he silently muttered as a Stygian carapace pierced through his chest. Blood leaked out of all his orifices. He was losing energy fast as his mind and eyes were assaulted by the numerous distorted figures of the nightmares known as Stygians.

  With a final gasp he fell lifelessly, impaled on a carapace, later to be devoured by the Stygians.