... Is that what I think it is?

  {M-Maybe?}

  I had spent the last twenty minutes running into invisible barriers as I tried to find the dampener buildings thanks to the fact that I couldn't fly anymore after I left the spaceship. Something was hitting me with massive physical rounds from somewhere inside the city, but even Luna couldn't figure out where it was coming from. All of the rounds seemed to zigzag randomly, so finding their source was next to impossible.

  Luna and I only figured out what was happening after I landed and began to run into barriers that were showing mirages or illusions all around us. It might have been the most aggravating moment of my entire life. Punching through them took too long, and the moment I dropped my invisibility I'd be shot at from random directions again, so that wasn't the best option either.

  Eventually though, I exited into an area with a vehicle that was almost one-quarter the size of the Leviathan. I could see ten thousand or more Velashar on or around the vehicle. They weren't doing anything in particular either, just sitting around and waiting for something to happen apparently.

  Although, after looking at the way the 'Vehicle' was designed, I had a pretty good idea of what they were waiting for. And it was made all the more obvious when I saw the vehicle and everything around it slowly begin to light up. When I had first arrived, the area had zero active lighting. I could only see them because of the light from Mother.

  ~Yulong POV~

  "Another breach on the port side! Storage B is being infiltrated by thousands of Daemons!!" One of the Scanners yelled out.

  Yulong (along with everyone else) wasn't sure how, but the Machines and Daemons were able to bypass the Leviathan's barrier, which was like most barriers, in that it would deflect anything that wasn't flagged as a friendly. The Machines getting in was less of a surprise than the Daemons thanks to them having souls, but all around none of it made any sense and was quickly becoming a massive issue.

  "Seal it up just like we did with Cultivation Sector C!" The Second Officer replied, but someone else quickly shot back with, "That didn't work sir! They weren't able to breach the door, but the walls fell a few seconds ago!"

  Over the next couple of minutes a few dozen more breaches were reported. The situation was getting out of hand, and fast.

  "Funnel them all into this section here! And have Squads seventeen through twenty one return to the Leviathan. We're going to need their help." Yulong yelled, highlighting a large corridor that lead to one of the major engine bays - which is exactly where all of the enemies forces were heading. Reinforced doors and walls were pointless against them thanks to a specific type of Daemon that was able to ram through them after only a few minutes.

  They couldn't afford to lose people out in the field right now, but even more so they couldn't afford to lose the engines. Not moving wouldn't be much of an issue right now, but losing the barriers would be catastrophic. They were barely holding up as it was against the overwhelming amount of ranged attacks hitting them at the moment.

  As Yulong was checking in on the location of the invaders, a thin white beam began to hit the Leviathan's barrier from directly in front of it. One of the Sensor team members enhanced a video feed of it, but all they could see is that it was blasting through the Velashar's buildings. And with each passing second, Clover confirmed that it was growing in size and strength.

  The Velashar's portal, and nearly all of the surrounding buildings went completely dark. No more enemies were coming out of the portal, which meant that the portal had been completely deactivated.

  There was only one person out there who could do that.

  "Did Reimia do that?"

  "Negative. My best estimate is that the vehicle attacking us is responsible. It must take an enormous amount of energy to power that weapon." Clover continued, "I believe it goes without saying, but if we don't destroy that weapon soon, then you will all need to equip your Power Armors to survive the vacuum of space. The already stressed barrier is now at most, seven minutes away from breaking."

  In other words, the Leviathan is less than seven minutes away from being destroyed...

  There was still three A-2W's left, but without Rei there was no way they were going to reach their target, and even with her it was highly unlikely they'd succeed at such a long distance. While most of the electronics out there requiring power were turned off - the ones still active were the red tracker lights scanning the sky. The spaceship wasn't scanning the sky anymore (or firing), which meant that Rei must have succeeded on her end, but as far as the A-2W's were concerned it didn't matter, since the enemy had over three times more scanners scattered throughout the city.

  Yulong put a visual marker on the area estimated to be where the attacking vehicle was thought to be.

  Clover immediately knew what that meant and began to move power from all over the Leviathan to its engines. "'All or nothing'. Normally not a wise decision, however, in this situation that was also the only advisable action I would have been able to suggest. Outside of abandoning the Leviathan of course."

  But Clover knew nobody was going to do that unless they literally had no other choice.

  The Leviathan lurched forward, picking up speed as it swerved around the portal. They had considered just ramming it earlier, but if the dampeners were powerful enough to even block an attack like that, then the Leviathan would've been screwed in that new position. Fortunately, the Machine God had proved earlier that most of their buildings weren't connected to the dampeners. Odds are the generators and the portal were the only ones protected by them.

  Since the Leviathan was leaving, that left the Titan exposed, but there was no way around it. The remaining group would need to 'All or nothing' the portal as well if they wanted to survive. Luckily for them, the portal was currently inoperable, which meant that the Velashar's constant source of reinforcements were now gone.

  "Generator Alpha has been lost." Clover reported in his usual monotone.

  Contrary to how he said that, everyone else felt like the walls were closing in around them. The fusion core made up a large percentage of the energy powering the Leviathan, but with every generator lost, the energy it put out had to be downsized by a sizable amount. They couldn't convert the energy to be usable without them, and in the worse case scenario, the core would explode; taking most of the passengers with it if they produced too much unusable energy.

  Basically, it would turn the Leviathan into a mobile A-2W.

  ~Reimia POV~

  How about this?

  I used the heat-blade to obliterate another important looking piece of machinery, but the inside of the vehicle was just as loud as before. Which meant that it was probably still firing.

  {Nope~! Go chop that one next!}

  Luna highlighted a Velashar that had just charged into the room. I looked over at it and inwardly sighed. It clearly wasn't a warrior type. It was barely five feet tall and not wearing any Power Armor. This one was in some rough-looking worker clothes that had a lot of brown liquid dropping off of it.

  It took one look at me and began yelling in an alien language toward a large glass ball in one of the ceiling's corners.

  Ahh, that's the weird brown liquid that blasted out of the machine in the last room. He was probably trying to repair it before coming here. How very diligent of him to try and root out the cause of all his extra work. However...

  I dashed forward and cut the worker in two from left to right at the waist. I then leaped back to avoid the visceral spray that was heated up to molten temperatures thanks to the heat-blade.

  I quickly sealed up the room and destroyed the camera before spending about half a minute cutting a circle in the floor. Even with the heat-blade's extreme temperatures it was still hard to damage the vehicle's floors, walls, and ceilings. Thick armored plating was everywhere, but that also made it much easier to avoid the Velashar trying to stop me. In every single room we'd close the door after destroying the consoles on both sides, which resulted in the enemy having to override or destroy the door - something that had taken them around a minute each time.

  The only exclusion was the last room. I had turned invisible and ran to an entirely different part of the ship after cutting a hole in the ceiling. The hope was to kill some over-eager Velashar who might attack me as they arrived, but they were far more disciplined than I had expected.

  {I could see them waiting outside the door after you cut that Engineer down, and they had one of those floating chair-guys with them. I don't like them... They're always scanning us while trying to apply curses.}

  Even with my full veil up I could tell that those specific Velashar were still able to vaguely sense me.

  It was pretty clear from the fight back in their spaceship that those Velashar weren't to be trifled with. A single one of them almost took down a group of fully armed Warriors with two Casters backing them up.

  With a new hole in the floor opened up, I dropped down inside while stealing a quick glance at the room. It was a large lounge area with a surprisingly normal looking wall-mounted TV.

  I heard something crash above me, which meant that they had probably finished cutting a hole in the door, so I ran over to this room's door and opened it up, but it was open for no more than a second before I had to leap back. There was a shimmer in the air approaching me, and this new enemy was swiping some sort of energy blade at me. I could tell because it both lit-up as it arced through the air at my face and made a very loud high-pitch vibration sound as it approached.

  The shimmer chased after me, but Luna grabbed it with an ethereal fist, which had disrupted whatever was causing the enemy to cloak itself. I didn't get much time to look at the new enemy, as I could see two more shimmers speeding through the door.

  Not wanting to waste any time on this, I brought my right foot up and slammed it down, releasing the channeled 'Shockwave' spell I had been channeling into it for several minutes now (just in case I would ever need it). A large white wave appeared around my ankle, shooting out in every direction at high speed. Everything in the lounge was blasted all over the place as the two extra shimmers feet were swept out from underneath them.

  Their cloaks were lost for a few seconds, allowing me to see them. One managed to catch himself and do a quick roll to get back on his feet, but the other one's face smashed into the ground, breaking its breathing apparatus in the process. There was oxygen in the room, so I figured it'd be fine, but it quickly grabbed its throat and began gasping.

  A few moments later a bubble appeared over its head, allowing the creature to breathe, which meant that I needed to get out of there, because I could sense that the 'Bubble' was a spell that came from above me. I really didn't want to engage one of those floating chair casters in a tight space when it had so many allies around it.

  I ran forward, crushing the skull of the Velashar still in Luna's grip with my fist as I passed by it. As I turned left in the hallway I felt a ping on my soul from Malafir - he was asking for assistance.

  I closed one eye and peered through the vision of one of the Scouts I sent over there. It was on the ground in the prone position, watching Malafir fight a swarm of Crotian Skeletons. Far behind him I could see Naza'shier building her base at the foot of her tower. Only one generator had been built so far, but considering how much time she had to do that, it was pretty clear that we needed to deal with her now before she became a much bigger threat.

  I ordered the Scouts to help Malafir before swapping over to the vision of my units attacking the portal. Surprisingly, they were gaining a lot of ground. I figured out why pretty quickly though when I saw that everything was unpowered.

  The Leviathan must've killed the dampeners and the generators on their own! Nothing over there has power, so now all we need to do is destroy this damn vehicle and we'll be in a much better position.

  I checked my console to make sure everything was fine over there, but that's when I saw that I was disconnected from the network.

  {Interference! You were almost cut off from your own units too when you entered this vehicle, but I'm routing it all through me now.}

  ... When Lunaria originally gave her to me, I thought of her as a temporary convenience and nothing more. I assumed Lunaria would take her back soon after that, and it almost played out that way, but damn am I glad she didn't.

  After that, I ran through the lower decks destroying everything I could, over and over again, and yet no matter how much I destroyed, the vehicle continued operating as if everything was fine.

  {Maybe we're only stopping it from moving...? This could all be, uh, pro-pulshin?}

  Hmm... You might be right.

  I thought back to what I saw outside the vehicle. I couldn't remember seeing a single window, so just like the Elves equipment, that was reverse engineered from the Velashar's own technology, there probably wasn't going to be a cockpit or command bridge with a massive window. So I did the only other thing I could think of - I estimated how far up the base of the laser was and started cutting through the ceiling above me.

  Very loud alarms began blaring when I reached I crawled through the roof to the fifth floor. The lighting also immediately turned into a dimmed environment with small red lights keeping some of the rooms slightly lit.

  {Why now??? Did something else board them?}

  Maybe... But I think it's much simpler than that, and it proves that you were right back there.

  {Huh?}

  The sound of boots slamming onto the metal flooring was vastly louder this time. It wasn't a dozen or less anymore. No, it was much more than that.

  They didn't care in the least that we were destroying things down below, but now that we're ascending...

  I could already feel at least five different Velashar probing me, which meant that trying to advance from here invisible would be highly risky. Under normal circumstances I'd of tried anyway, but there wasn't any time for moving around slowly at this point. Malafir needed my help, but before I could even help him I needed to retrieve the core ASAP, so it was even more imperative that I finished up here within the next five minutes.

  The enemy was coming from the hallway in front of me and one of the doors behind me. I turned and ran through the door that had no sound coming out of it.

  {A bathroom... Maybe?}

  I wasn't sure either since there was some weird looking chairs in the room, but it was made pretty clear when I ripped one of the chairs out of the ground and water began spraying out of a broken pipe. I then jammed the 'Toilet' up against the door before applying a quick layer of black mesh to it and the wall.

  A whole twenty seconds passed until a hail of energy weapons ripped through the door. It was a rather basic door after all, so the only thing keeping them from storming the room was the webbed up toilet portion still in place.

  Some of them yelled at me as they fired over the toilet, but that approach apparently didn't work for the floating caster Velashar's, because the two enemies shooting at me were telekinetically picked up and thrown out of the way.

  A large armored hand reached into the room and crushed the toilet into the ground - ripping my webbing in the process. I barely caught sight of one of the floaters before entering the newly opened hole above me. The floaters would never fit through it unless they got rid of the apparatus they were sitting on, which for all I knew that might be something they'd happily do.

  I quickly scanned my new environment, and judging by the amount of shelves and boxes around me, I was inside of a storage room. The door wouldn't open so I had to cut through it, which didn't take much time, but I already had visitors behind me. It was a grunt shooting a two-handed beam weapon which hurt like hell when it hit me, probably because of its high intensity luminosity, but either way I wasn't planning on sticking around there any longer. I ran out into a large conference hall looking room that was currently empty and almost pitch black.

  If I'm right, we have another four levels to go... Although.

  I looked up. The 'Conference Hall' had a very high ceiling, which I was very grateful to see. I didn't want to stick around such an open room with the enemy right behind me and probably ahead of me soon enough, but if I managed to get through the ceiling here I might end up exactly where I needed to be.

  ~Solas POV~

  Silence.

  No explosions, no blasters, no... Anything.

  The communicator in my suit had broke a while ago... Or maybe only a minute ago. It was hard to tell now that every second felt like an eternity. I never knew just how frightening it would be being in the middle of a big battle hearing absolutely nothing but the sound of my own gasps for air.

  And it was only made worse when the Leviathan suddenly left. It was obviously because of the laser hitting them from somewhere off in the distance, but knowing why it left didn't help in the least. If anything, it made it worse. Now I knew it wasn't coming back, and the Titan was on its last legs already. The second the Leviathan left, the Titan was hit with a hail of attacks - which included two Praetorians that appeared behind it. They had snuck through the A2-W's void zone, which normally wouldn't be a huge issue since the Titan could just pull some of us back to defend it, but we were already struggling to survive as it was.

  Reimia's remaining Skeletons turned around and ran toward one of the Praetorians. Seeing that, all of the Soldier Mechs must've signaled the Titan to pull them back, because they appeared at the base of the Titan a moment later, where they proceeded to attack the Praetorian from behind (it had turned to engage the approaching Skeletons).

  All we could do was leave it to them. Or at least, that's what I assumed the plan was. No one else was being pulled back, so I pushed forward through the soundless hellscape.

  One of the floating casters finished channeling onto a translucent purple sphere, but by the time any of us even realized it was coming our way, it had already 'Exploded'. There was no immediate damage, however, a warning popped up on my display to inform me that my barrier had been destroyed. I looked around and saw all of the units in a circle around me being pulled back to the Titan. There was just one problem... I was the only one to be hit by the casters spell that was still here.

  "Clover, why isn't the Titan retrieving me?!"

  A line of text appeared in front of me, 'You are no longer connected to the network.'

  It was an automatic response, which meant that the audio functions being broken were the least of my problems.

  Now all of the energy spheres flying around the field in front of me felt far more frightening. Everything was going in slow motion as I pushed forward, dodging left and right as I charged the floating caster ahead of me. You could never tell what they were doing - as their hands were always resting in their laps or on the sides of the chair. All of the weapons attached to the chair seemed to always be firing in different directions, as if the damned abomination was able to focus on dozens of targets at once.

  However, as I approached the creature, it turned to look at me, and that's when all ten of its guns turned in my direction. Three of them were fast moving laser attacks that I had very little hope of evading, so I used what mana I had left to form a deflecting barrier in front of me. It was aimed at the ground, so the lasers were hitting it and then smashing into the granite surface.

  The other weapons this one had were the real problem, and it was a major reason I needed to kill this thing here and now. I know I should've been running for the Titan to save myself, but no one else was in a position to end this annoying son of a bitch, and at this point I didn't actually expect to survive out here for much longer.

  The remaining seven guns aimed up a little and let loose a volley of small white and blue spheres. My suit did its best to plot a course to evade them, but as usual they were spread out in a way that made dodging them next to impossible.

  I would know. They're the reason my suit was half-broken to begin with. When the spheres land they let out an electromagnetic blast that highly damages barriers, and disrupts the suits functions. The first couple forced my suit to reset itself, but one of the next hits had broken parts of it entirely.

  How it was using electric attacks in space I had no idea. In fact I had very little understanding of space in general - as did most of the people in Caedrus. No one was insane enough to go into the dead zone after all, so it's not like we needed to prepare for situations like these.

  Someone grabbed me from behind and leaped far to the right. There was very little chance it was an enemy, especially since it was taking me out of the area where the spheres were going to explode, so I just let it happen.

  At the apex of my saviors jump I whipped my head to the right as something caught my eye. Something that had caused everyone to look in that direction. The Velashar's spaceship had exploded. There was no shockwave or large fireball etc., but a massive amount of debris was now heading our way, and fast.

  The second we hit the ground, whoever had picked me up turned me away from the incoming debris and covered me with their own Power Armor the best they could. They knew that if a single part of that debris pierced my Armor, that was it for me. Barely anyone in Caedrus knew spells that would allow them to survive in space, and I wasn't in that small list of people who did.

  I looked to the right, seeing the Velashar do their best to form directional barriers. The floaters were casting them, while a good amount of the grunts had deployable directional barriers apparently. I could see them being activated now, which made me wonder why they hadn't used them until now, but the answer was obvious. They didn't need them. They knew they'd win if they just continued as is. Or at least, that's what they thought anyway.

  As the debris smashed through everyone here, I could see Belfos and his Lords appear from within the field, smashing, crushing, and cutting up any Velashar they could. The Velashar for the most part had no choice but to put up with it, because they couldn't move away from the barriers without taking massive damage, but it's not like the debris field lasted forever. It persisted for maybe fifteen seconds, and in that time they had managed to kill a hefty amount of forces.

  The Velashar tried to engage their new foe upon the debris field disappearing, but Belfos and his Lords were already running at full speed (which was shockingly fast considering where we were) past all of us. And it wasn't long after that before they swung around the void zone and continued running off into the distance.

  They're going to attack Atraxu now?

  It must've been determined that Atraxu and Naza'shier needed to be dealt with now. Otherwise, it made far more sense for Belfos to help us here. Unless he believed we were fine as is, but...

  I looked back at the Praetorian and the three Deathbringers attacking the Titan and everyone around it. One of the Praetorians had been killed, so the Skeletons and Soldier Mechs had succeeded there at least, but now they were being ravaged by the three Deathbringers.

  We had our own battle to deal with though. Before power was restored, we needed to bring that portal down. There was no way of knowing how long Asmodeous could keep the Machine God occupied, and if it happened before we dealt with the Velashar threat, then there was a one hundred percent chance we were all going to die. Of that, I was positive.

  ~Reimia POV~

  I watched as hundreds of Velashar were sucked out into space. Half of them were in Power Armor so their helmets appeared the moment I cut a hole in the wall, but the other half were going to die if there weren't any Floaters down below to save them.

  I then ran back into the hallway before pivoting to another nearby room, where I spent another minute cutting a hole in the wall. The workers in the room attempted to flee in horror the moment I jammed the heat-blade into the wall, but just like the last three rooms, the vacuum ramped up quickly and made it impossible for them to exit the room in time.

  One of the workers landed perfectly along the gash I had opened up, which completely halted the vacuum for a moment. It was so unexpected I actually stopped moving the blade for a moment to look at him in confusion. Likewise, all of the workers who were flying through the air had landed on the ground and looked at him in surprise as well.

  But the reprieve didn't last long. I heard another hail of boots slamming on the floor out in the hallway. I quickly continued my work of cutting a hole in the wall, and only a few seconds later was the hole big enough to start sucking the people in the room toward it again.

  {How are they running and making sound in the hallway??}

  What...?

  My mind was so focused on the task and waiting for the sound of the door being opened, that I didn't fully understand her simple question. I understood it, it just didn't make sense, until I remembered that I had cut a massive hole in the hallway about one hundred feet in the direction we came from.

  The door opened up as I finished carving yet another hole in the hull of the vehicle. I stuck myself to the wall and watched as the workers were sucked out into space, but this time, the Velashar in the hallway closed the door before it pulled them out as well.

  They must've plugged the hole and added air to the hallway again... That's the only way.

  It should've been obvious that a space-faring highly technological race would be able to plug up holes with ease, but I had expected it to be a little more difficult than that for them.

  We were unable to enter the room where the laser was being operated, so we went with plan b. Which was killing everyone while destroying everything in sight on the same level. A few of the rooms had large machines that once destroyed, had caused the lights to flicker and the rumbling from the laser to disappear for a few moments, so whatever we were doing was definitely having an impact.

  I really would have preferred to destroy the laser itself though damnit...

  Nothing could be done about that though. The room was massive and filled with Floaters and those armored giants I met in the spaceship. Once they realized I was ascending, they had apparently decided to put all of their most powerful units in that room and that room only. Obviously that meant if I could get in there I'd be able to shut the laser down with ease, but there was no way in hell I'd live long enough to take all of those monsters on.

  The door to the room opened for only a second, allowing the Velashar to toss in a dozen or so small blue spheres. They landed on the ground and then proceeded to roll to different parts of the room.

  The moment they started rolling I jumped through the hole and shimmied to the next room over. Along the way the wall to the area I was in before blasted outwards, propelling a bunch of metal into space.

  I was about ten feet to the left of the now massive hole in the vehicle, and when I looked inside I could see that everything had been completely eviscerated.

  {Good thing you fled... I don't know if I would've been able to protect you against that.}

  I jammed the heat-blade into the wall, slowly cutting another hole in it. It was clear that the room had been abandoned the moment I started cutting in it - or maybe even before then. Which was made all the more obvious when I finished cutting the hole and yanked the circular metal piece out of the way. The room was empty of workers. The only thing waiting in there was a couple of behemoths charging at me from the doorway.

  Unlike most people and enemies I had seen in Power Armor, the behemoths weren't affected by zero gravity. They ran as if they were still in a regular planetary environment.

  I flipped a switch on the heat-blade I was told to avoid using, but I couldn't afford to waste any more time over here. Malafir could see Naza'shier herself approaching him, so it was now or never. Either destroying this room was enough, or it wasn't. The Leviathan would have to figure it out on their own after this.

  With the switch flipped, there was a small turnable dial now opened up on the side, that I quickly turned before throwing the heat-blade into the room. One of the behemoths tried to grab it but missed, which lead to it pivoting and attempting to dive on the blade.

  That was a smart play on its part, but the moment it failed to catch the blade it was over. I flew up into the air as the room exploded much in the same way the previous room had from the Velashar's bombs. I could see the lights and the laser on the vehicle flicker out of existence for a moment, but they quickly re-appeared. However, before they could ramp up in intensity again, a hail of beam attacks from the Leviathan ripped into the vehicle. They were mostly centered on the laser, and while the re-energizing barrier did its best to block them, I could see it shatter under their weight almost immediately.

  Whatever joy I had felt at the sight of the vehicle exploding from within was completely wiped away when I saw the state of the Leviathan. It wasn't moving and it had a ridiculous amount of holes in it. I could see a frontal barrier on it flicker for a moment before it turned ethereal. Just as it did that though I saw the barrier wrap around the entire Leviathan again.

  Oh shit, they must've been forced to focus their barrier in front of them, leaving the rest of the Leviathan defenseless...

  As much as I wanted to go see how everyone was doing, I had to retrieve the Blue Radiant I left behind and then immediately leave to help Malafir. There just wasn't enough time for anything else.

  I flew down toward the Leviathan, watching as it and most of its manned weapons fired at the group of Velashar by the re-activated portal. They were hitting it from behind now, and thus were eviscerating all of the Velashar appearing out of the portal the very second they appeared.

  There were a few people in regular maintenance suits repairing a massive hole in the Leviathan around the area I left the Blue Radiant. One of them glanced at me for a moment before returning to his duties.

  It's just now hitting me, but where are the Harbingers?

  {When we were in the spaceship I felt their energy disappear. So uh, they probably went to help Asmodeous?}

  The whole point of bringing them was for the push toward the portal, so if they went to help him instead then things must be pretty dire in there.

  {Those Xerath in Power Armor are gone too, but I know where they are. They're running in Malafir's direction.}

  Oh good, as if we weren't going to have enough problems over there as is.

  I flew up a bit before turning toward where I felt Malafir's energy; giving the A2-W's void zone a wide berth.

  It took around eight minutes for me to finally catch sight of the tower. There was hordes of skeletal Crotians scaling the walls, and I knew why since I had seen through my Scouts eyes that they and Malafir were fighting in the tower's observation room. When Naze'shier began to walk toward him he fled to the tower, hoping to bottleneck her and the Crotians in the doorway, but that didn't last long, since the Crotians had scaled the tower and begun to attack him from behind.

  He then ascended the tower and has been fighting them off with the Scouts in a corner of the room, which has been working, but it's mostly because Naza'shier had left him alone. The reason was obvious when I saw her building an Armory. She just wanted to get Malafir out of there so she could go back to building her base.

  She looked up at me as I neared the base, I could feel her lock onto my soul as if it was an extension of herself, but after that nothing happened.

  {I-I can't break that connection, Rei! This isn't like the normal ones! It's like you're a part of her, so...}

  It's not too far off, but if she can do something with the connection, then she's choosing not to? We'll find out later either way. For now, I need to find Evette and Atraxu.

  All of this is for nothing if we can't get our hands on the core.

  {Then you need to go... There. But are you sure? I don't like that plan, just saying...}

  I don't like it either, but we have to.

  I flew toward the fifteen foot tall portal in the distance. It wasn't too far away from Naza'shier's base, and the light purple theme it was giving off stuck out quite a bit in the desolate environment, so it was really easy to see.

  Wasting no time, I flew right into the portal and immediately found myself in a very familiar environment.

  Just like I thought...

  It was a desert. A desert with an annoyingly repressive aura pushing down on my soul. Although, I was much more powerful this time, so it was a lot easier to ignore.

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  Luna?

  {... There? I think.}

  There was a massive sand storm in the area, but in the direction of her white light I could make out a couple of blackened trees pulling wagons full of skeletal remains.

  Ahh, seeing these things is really making me nostalgic...

  I flew toward the tree in the front and punched it in the middle of its trunk. It cracked as it flew backward, flying into the wagon and rolling along the sand until it was out of view. The other tree responded by attempting to run, but it quickly fell over and smashed into the ground, causing a large amount of sand to shoot up into the air.

  I smashed the wagon as best as I could before flying toward the white light in the distance. It wasn't much, but any amount I could slow them down was good enough for now, especially since she was almost done building the Armory.

  About a minute into the flight I could feel another familiar aura appear off to my left. One that I really didn't want to deal with again.

  ... Luna, do you know if that fucker is channeling a spell?

  {He's casting many spells, but they're all aimed somewhere else? There's a bunch of weird mana auras down here... I can feel a whole army of Humans in that direction too. But um, they're being enclosed by another legion of auras I don't recognize.}

  Humans?? But how would... Oh!

  That's when I remembered Viktor's declaration. He must have finally breached the Abyss, and that's who the Caster God was currently fighting.

  Out of nowhere I exited into an area that wasn't impacted by the dust storm. I could see perfectly again, and at a glance I saw that the storm was still raging on behind me and in both directions. When I flew forward a bit more I could see why. At the center of the 'Eye of the storm' was Atraxu, waiting for me with his arms held out at the side, just like he did back when I first saw him in the Abyss.

  {Ignore him, she's over there!}

  I looked to my right as I continued to approach Atraxu. Luna was highlighting a massive temple building. The one I had seen before was pretty big, but this one was beyond huge. It was so tall that it disappeared into the dusty skies above.

  {... Rei?} Luna said as I landed twenty feet away from Atraxu.

  "Give me the core back and I'll let you live. Considering how long you've been gone, I imagine it takes you ages to create another splinter. It'd be a shame if you were to disappear during such a pivotal age for this universe..."

  The smile on Atraxu's face widened as his singular eye rolled upwards. He then leaned his head back and began to shake up and down as if he was laughing.

  You don't see it, Luna? There's a transparent wall of some sort between us and the temple. My core is screaming at me to avoid it... We can't go there yet. So please, scan the area and figure out what it is.

  {Oh! So that's why you... Okay, give me a minute! I don't sense anything, but if you say it's there, I believe you.}

  Atraxu brought his head back up enough to look down at me, "???? ???? ?? ????????, ?????????? ????? ?? ????'?????... ???? ???? ??? ???? ??? ??? ??? ??? ????? ?? ????."

  {W-What did he say...?}

  'Very full of yourself, rebellious spawn of Naza'shier... This will not play out the way you think it will.'

  So he thinks I'm a spawn of Naza'shier? I didn't know she could create spawn, and odds are she can't, which means he...

  "Naza'shier didn't create me. I'm pretty sure you did. You, Baal, and that Eldritch you were with."

  The smile disappeared from Atraxu's face as he froze for a moment.

  Anything, Luna? I don't like my odds if I actually have to fight this monster.

  {... It's a mirage, or a window to somewhere else? It feels fake, but at the same time there is something far more dreadful than Atraxu over there. I can feel it when I push my mana in that direction. I still can't see the veil you're talking about, or sense it normally. I need to actually push my mana into it... I've never had to do that before.}

  Atraxu crossed his arms and looked off toward the left where the veil was, "??? ?? ????? ??? ??????? ???? ?? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??????"

  'Was it Jakir who altered you? Or did you eat the fruit?'

  Jakir must be the name of the Eldritch he was working with? I've never heard that name before now, so it must be.

  "The fruit you left in the Xerath's realm. In that underground cave."

  "??? ??????! ??? ??? ??? ??? ????????! ????? ????? ???????'? ???? ????!"

  'The fruit?! But how did you survive?! Every other subject's soul died!'

  Atraxu's single eye flitted back and forth over my body, only coming to a stop once it focused on my ears.

  {Rei, we need to leave! I only got a quick glance at it, but there's something powerful on the other side of that veil watching us. I think I saw it in your memories back in Telebron. Black smoke for a head, covered in eyes---Ah, I can feel it piercing the veil now! Quick, that way!}

  "????? ????, ?????, ??? ???? ???? ???????? ???, ??????? ?? ??... ????~, ????? ??? ??????'?! ??????? ??????? ??, ???? ? ??? ???????? ???? ?? ?????!"

  'Those eyes, wings, and halo look familiar too, reminds me of... Ahhh~, those are Khemir's! Blessed blessed me, such a gem straight into my grasp!'

  I flew off toward the left at max speed, the last thing I saw was Atraxu's face twist into a large grin.

  "??? ???? ???, ?? ??????!!"

  'You will not, my thrall!!'

  Two things happened at once. First; the zone we were in disappeared. I was immediately engulfed by the sandstorm again. And worse was the fact that I felt the other Minor God break through the veil.

  I could see but also not see a horde of eyes all around me in the storm. For the first time ever I could feel my vision wavering, as if everything was cloudy and unknown. There was an unknown veil over my eyes that I couldn't get off, and Luna's screams for me to go somewhere sounded unbelievably distant.

  For a split second I saw something approaching me from above and to my right. There was no time to avoid it so I tried punching it down toward the ground, and it actually worked. Whatever it was exploded as it hit the ground, causing the storm around me take on the element of fire.

  But at the same time that I knocked away the attack, another one hit me from the left side, smashing me into the now on fire sand at an angle. I slid along the sand for probably one hundred feet before kicking the ground hard so I flew back into the air.

  "??? ???????? ????????? ????...? ??? ??? ??????? ??????? ?????? ? ???? ??? ?? ? ???? ?? ????... ???'? ??????? ? ???????? ?????? ??."

  'You actually deflected that...? Who can deflect ancient magic? I sent two as a just in case... Can't believe I actually needed it.'

  In the event I actually had to fight Atraxu, I had been saving it as a means of weakening him and hopefully finishing him off, but there was no other way around it, I needed to use it now, because I finally realized why Luna was yelling at me about going in a different direction even though I was following the white light. There was white lights all over around me. I couldn't tell which one was real and which ones were mirages, but thanks to the new God influencing my soul to that degree, I also knew exactly where he was. It was impossible for him to use illusions to protect himself, not after he had covered me in so much of his own ether.

  I flew down toward the ground, which was somewhat visible thanks to all of the fire for some reason. The second I landed I pulled the Blue Radiant off my back and charged it up while pointing it at the ground. I could hear Atraxu mocking me, saying something about the impossibility of a single gun taking him down, but I ignored him.

  Once the gun was fully charged I quickly turned and fired it behind me and upwards toward the sky. It hit the God directly, causing the veil to slip for a moment. I took that chance to fly up and punch it straight through its chest. Dark purple blood shot out of its back as the entire God's body turned into a vaporous cloud.

  There was no time for celebration though, because only a second later I felt another veil wrapping around me, and it was coming from the direction of the mirage I had seen earlier.

  {It's sending slivers of itself over to us, he might have an endless amount of them! Here, here! This one, go here---} Luna said quickly before I lost the ability to understand her again. But this time, I made sure I knew which white dot to fly toward.

  Of course, I had no way of knowing if that God had managed to fool my senses along the way - causing me to fly off in some random direction. But it's not like I had a whole lot of other options at the moment.

  Something akin to a massive rock hit me from above, slamming me into the ground. I kicked off the sand the moment I landed, rolling along the ground, keeping my eye on the direction I thought I needed to go, before flying off again.

  At some point during my hellish journey, the sandstorm settled a little, probably because I was no longer in only their domain. Off to the left I could see tens of thousands of people assaulting a temple. They had a horde of Eldritch and their spawn with them as well, but it wasn't looking too good for them. At least half of them were already dead, and there were black tentacles coming out of the temple, firing all sorts of different spells at them. And to make matters worse, there was a horde of other enemies blasting them with spells from within and around the temple, including the Caster God.

  The last thing I saw before refocusing on the white dot in the distance (at this point I could only see one again), was a massive snake being beheaded. Half melted corpses fell out of it as a spray of acid covered Viktor's nearby forces. Barriers went up all around, protecting most of them, but some weren't so lucky.

  When I was far enough away from the battlefield, I could feel both Atraxu and the other God's influence over me and the adjacent area come back in full. But by now I was pretty sure I was almost to my destination, because I could see the white dot moving away from me. Whoever it was, probably whatever took over Evette, was now on the run.

  A wave of energy appeared from below me. I dodged the best I could while trying to deflect it with my left hand and leg, which went about as well as could have been expected. The armor on both limbs were completely shattered on contact, and I had lost partial control of them both.

  "??? ??????? ??? ???????? ?? ????... ??? ????? ?? ???????? ??????? ??? ?? ???? ???? ???? ????????, ??? ???? ?? ??????????. ???? ?? ?? ????????? ?????? ???? ??????? ????? ???????."

  'And somehow you continue to live... The point of creating hybrids was to make them more powerful, but this is ridiculous. None of my creations should have reached these heights.'

  Another 'Eye of the storm' appeared around me as I passed through a thin veil of energy, but this one was vastly different from where I was before.

  About three hundred meters above the ground was a ceiling full of black smoke filled with eyes, and the ground level was mostly made up of clay or limestone, I wasn't quite sure what it was. The single-story brick homes littered throughout the area were made of the same material as well.

  It wasn't as dark as one would expect. Instead, the area was clearly visible but slightly dim, with the exception being the 'Walls' which was the sandstorm raging around this enclosed area. The sand was extremely dark, which contrasted the city where I could see quite easily, even though I couldn't figure out where the light was even coming from.

  Down below I saw a dog-like creature with four legs and two arms blazing through the streets, zigzagging through all of the citizens who were on their knees, looking up at the sky with their eyes closed. As usual, the 'Citizens' were entirely Crotians and Shin'dorai.

  I flew forward, keeping my eye on the creature, while also trying to pay attention to the aura gaining ground on me from behind. Atraxu had just broken through the veil and it was clear that he was done going at this half-heartedly.

  {Um, Rei, we're in a domain of that one God, but the sliver of his that was chasing us disappeared the moment you broke through the veil. Whatever was blocking me from talking to you is gone now... I don't get it?}

  I don't either. None of those eyes are looking at us, so maybe we lucked out and entered during a ritual of some sort? Either way, this is a chance for us apparently, so lets take the core back and try to get the hell out of here alive.

  The dog tried jumping into a home as I flew down toward it, but it wasn't quite fast enough. I landed right on its back, crushing it into the street below. The core it was carrying flew out of its hands and bounced off the home's outer walls, making it easy for me to merely step forward and catch it before flying off toward the sky.

  I was about thirty feet into the area when suddenly I found myself flying toward the ground instead. I tried stopping, but that just made me speed up, leading to me smashing into the ground face first.

  Atraxu landed near me and began to channel a new spell. I tried rolling over to escape behind the house, but yet again, I for some reason ended up going in the opposite direction, landing just below Atraxu's feet. That's when I finally realized what was going on, but even after knowing what Atraxu had done to me, it was still really hard to adjust to my new sense of direction he had given me.

  From an outside perspective, I would have looked really pathetic. I was practically flopping around like a fish in a panic trying to get the hell away from him, and the rage from my inability to adjust wasn't helping either. You'd think swapping from left to right and up to down would be easy once you knew what to do, but in the heat of the moment with death looking down at you, it was shockingly difficult.

  {GOT IT!!}

  As soon as Luna said that I could feel the curse he slipped on me disappear, but instead of rolling away I flipped to the side, dug into the ground with my fingers, and began to kick over and over into Atraxu's left shin.

  He was using both hands to channel the sphere in front of him, which was packed with enough ether to kill a Tengu Lord, so he couldn't use his hands to defend himself, but even as I broke through the defenses on his shin and began to literally break the lower half of his leg, he just continued channeling onto the sphere.

  It was strange, especially since he could've just attacked me after the curse instead of standing there channeling a magic attack, so once I completely shattered his leg I immediately picked up the core and flew off into the sky. About halfway toward the creepy eye-filled sky, I turned and flew back the way I had originally entered the area.

  {No... No no, we can't escape that!}

  Luna said that as soon as he launched the sphere, and I had the same exact thought as her, because the sphere's ether signature was ramping up in intensity while the sphere itself was slowly moving faster and faster. It was a spell I was already very familiar with.

  I flew back a little and touched the sphere with the heel of my right foot. I was hoping it was still weak enough to just eat the damage, but when part of my heel disintegrated the second it touched the sphere, I knew that wasn't an option.

  So we have to stop this here and now... In that case.

  I looked over at Atraxu. He was standing there with his arms crossed, watching us emotionlessly. He knew his job was done with this. There was no way I was going to reach the exit before that sphere caught up to me.

  Luna, just wondering before I go for a last resort attack, do you know if is there a way to trick an attack like that? It's following my soul right? Is there a way to create a decoy that'd take the attack for us?

  {Maybe...? But do you know a spell or ability like that? It'd need to be something similar to what Miss Shana could do. And before you ask; I don't have any abilities like that.}

  ... Oh well, was worth a shot. But there's only one other thing I can try at this point.

  I flew a little away from the sphere and landed on the ground before turning invisible. As I ran to the right, the sphere chased me, meaning that even my full veil wasn't enough to disrupt its tracking ability.

  Fine then. So be it.

  I brought back my halo and flew over to the very edge of the city, waiting for the sphere to come close, and once it did, I flew around it to the other side of the city, where I quickly hid the core in a nearby home before going outside to wait for the sphere again.

  'What are you doing, fool?' I heard Atraxu say from off in the distance.

  After that I did two more laps before the sphere began to move faster than me, which meant it was time.

  {... Good knowing you, Rei. I'm sorry I couldn't protect you until we were back home.}

  Don't worry, we'll be back.

  I wasn't entirely certain of that, but Atraxu had to bring Naza'shier back here to resurrect her, which meant there was a good chance I'd resurrect here as well. The problem was that I didn't know how big the Abyss was, and if we revived thousands of miles away from Atraxu's portal then we'd never make it back in time. And then there was the problem of his portal even remaining active if I managed to kill his sliver here, but there was nothing I could do about that except hope for the best.

  I flew toward the ground and then turned to face Atraxu, when one last probably useless idea came to me.

  I swerved around a Crotian, and a few seconds later the sphere vaporized him. It went straight through him like he wasn't even there, which is about what I expected, but it was still worth trying to get it to explode.

  Atraxu shook his head and summoned a dozen wooden pedestals around the area. He looked completely disinterested as he molted into a mass of branches that were sucked into the pedestal, re-appearing far away on another pedestal a second later.

  ... Shit.

  I took the Blue Radiant off my back and charged it up as I flew at him. Yet again, he shook his head, looking completely exasperated. To him I was just wasting his time at this point, but I wasn't about to give up until it was truly over.

  As I neared him he molted into the pedestal again, and I immediately aimed the gun in the other direction, waiting for the first sign of him to appear. It was the longest second ever as I waited for the mass of wood to erupt from another pedestal, and the second it appeared, I blasted the pedestal.

  Odds are his pedestals had enough strength to defend against normal attacks, but this gun was far from normal. It ripped through the wood, destroying the middle part that I had aimed at while causing the surrounding wood to erupt into flames.

  I wasn't entirely certain of what was going to happen to Atraxu if I destroyed his pedestal mid-relocate, with the best case scenario being that he'd have trouble re-forming himself. However, what really happened is that he was forcibly launched back to the previous pedestal, and it was apparently not something that he could just shrug off. His body hastily formed itself, but he was keeled over, struggling to stand.

  For the first time yet, he looked at me with a face full of rage. He began to yell something at me but stopped himself when he realized he had to move now or it'd be too late for him.

  I assume he tried to relocate again, since I could see some parts of him trying to molt, but whatever he was doing, it wasn't working. He stayed frozen in place, shaking, as he tried over and over to molt.

  I swung around him, and as a last ditch effort he tried to at least run out of the way, but even that wasn't possible. He seemed rather confused by the blowback from his relocation skill being, so it must've been the first time that it had ever happened to him.

  I intended on hitting him into the sphere, but there was no need for that, so I instead chose to back up a little more in case the sphere exploded for real this time.

  The sphere smashed into Atraxu's back, causing him to jolt into an upright position. That's when I realized that despite the fact that he was clearly being pushed forward with extreme force, he still wasn't moving. He could avoid most of the damage by simply moving, but apparently his half-assed attempts at relocating earlier had glued him to the pedestal.

  I bent down, digging my left hand into the ground while putting my feet into a ready position.

  Luna, remember that speed boost spell you were telling me about back on Mother? Use that on me when I attack him.

  {Eh? You mean the dash? It's a high mana cost spell to move you a few feet in one direction or the other in emergencies. Are you sure? You'll probably miss your attack... It's really fast. Deathbringer fast.}

  Yes, that's the one, and please do it. Speed is additive to the amount of damage you can do, I want to see if I can shatter this freak's face. Just make sure to ping my soul exactly one second before you cast it, like you do with other spells.

  {Okay I will... I really think you're going to miss though.}

  Atraxu's defenses were holding up well considering what was hitting him, but slowly over time I could see cracks forming along his wooden body.

  As the sphere began to wane, I noticed that all of the citizens were staring at us. And not just them - the sky was staring at us too.

  {R-Rei!!}

  I know. I can feel him probing you inside my soul, but do your best to ignore him and focus on the task ahead. One problem at a time, okay?

  That's when Atraxu's upper body began to fall forward. I felt a ping on my soul, and one second later I was swinging for what I thought was the center of his face, but as I blasted past him and slid to a stop, I quickly realized that I had blown off the left side of his face. The area near his mouth.

  "ENOUGH!!!" He shouted in the common tongue, ripping his feet out of the mass of wood holding him down. To sphere had either broken it up enough for him to move, or the blowback had subsided enough for him to break free.

  His left foot that I shattered is back. It wasn't there when he began relocating through those warp points. Luna, how long ago was that?

  {Three minutes, twenty seven seconds.}

  That's it? Then I need to shatter him beyond repair in the next three minutes. Preferably two.

  I dashed forward, throwing a long uppercut at his chin. He snarled and raised his right hand into the air, wrapping it in a purple aura filled with electricity, while raising his left hand toward my right in an attempt to grab it.

  About halfway through my attack I stopped and kicked hard into his right shin, causing him to buckle far more than both of us had expected. He leaned forward, stumbling a little as he tried to right himself, giving me time to finish my uppercut which was originally only meant to be a feint.

  My fist hit his chin, sending his head flying backward as chips of wood flew everywhere. Two small splints of wood shot out of his back into the ground, stopping his fall and pushing him back up, but the next thing he knew he was flying into the ground, shattering both of those splints as his entire body smashed into the ground.

  I had flown up and kicked him in the chest with both of my feet as he had began to pull himself up - he didn't even have the time to defend himself. It was an odd way of preventing his fall after all. He gave me way too much time to follow up with another attack. This was clearly not the type of battle he was used to engaging in, and the more I thought back on it, the more I realized he was designed entirely for magic battles. Melee was something he wasn't accustomed too, which meant that he truly had chosen the wrong opponent.

  I landed with my two knees pinning his arms down, punching into his face over and over. I got at least a dozen fast hits off before spikes shot out of body, causing me to fly off him toward his feet, where I proceeded to grab his feet and whip him behind me into the ground face first. I slammed him back and forth, sending wood chips everywhere at least seven times before a green explosion erupted out of him. Both of my hands were blown off before I could leap away from him.

  The ground around me erupted into extremely green grass, mushrooms, flowers, and all sorts of other flora. They were releasing something into the air too, which normally wouldn't have worried me, but I could see the remains of my armor liquefying.

  Luna summoned a bunch of small barriers all over my body, blocking any and all entrances that would allow the gases to reach my insides. The armor was made from my blood, so if it was melting, there was a good chance it'd melt my insides too. I really didn't want to experience that twice in one day. One was already too much.

  Atraxu slowly pulled himself to his feet, "USELESS, INCONSEQUENTIAL HYBRID!! I WOULD HAVE CHOSEN YOU TO ASCEND, BUT NOT ANYMORE! NOT---"

  I flew over and kicked him sideways in the face, sending him spinning around, and when his head was aimed the other way I kicked him in the back of the head, sending him flying into the ground, where he proceeded to slide into the middle of a group of Crotia and Shin'dorai. They and the eyes in the sky just stared at him emotionlessly. Despite the other Gods clear intentions to assist Atraxu earlier, so far he was fine being nothing more than a spectator.

  Atraxu grabbed the ground and used it to vault himself to a nearby pedestal, where he proceeded to relocate far away from me. The moment he vaulted toward the pedestal I began to fly at full speed toward the pedestals furthest away from me, so I was prepared, but he was still really far away from me.

  He looked up, raising his hands out to his sides as a large bright almost neon colored tree rose out of the ground, "I was one of the first... The Great One wanted representatives of this universe, and he wanted change. A God who would help us persevere as the invaders from another universe approached. Thus, I was born. ME! NOT YOU! NOT ANYONE ELSE!!"

  The tree had already fully grown before I was even halfway to him. And not only that, I could see it beginning to project a massive green barrier onto him. It was starting off at low strength, and quickly ramping up to something that I had no hopes of breaking through at this point.

  Ahh, he really is one hell of a caster...

  Buds grew on the tree, expanding in size at a tremendous rate with each passing second.

  "This disrespect will end... I was not stuck in limbo for almost a thousand years just to be pummeled like a common creat---"

  His new barrier exploded as the Blue Radiant's last round blasted right through his chest, causing the area around it to erupt into flames. However, it wasn't powerful enough to pierce the tree, and I watched as the buds opened up, revealing large monstrosities of all types begin to awaken from within.

  Atraxu had dropped to one knee with his hands on his stomach in disbelief. He saw me coming and tried to relocate, but the only thing he felt was another punch to his face with the stump that now formed my right hand.

  This one hit his forehead, and the only thing slowing it down was the barrier the tree was desperately trying to form around him. His own defenses were gone, which is why the top of his head easily shattered into nothing.

  I then spent the next twenty seconds crushing him into pieces with my feet, and when the tree tried to retrieve his soul, I quickly grabbed it with my mouth and gobbled it down. Even if it was only a sliver, this was still something just as powerful as Rai'ga, and I wasn't about to let it disappear. Plus, this guaranteed he'd have to create another sliver now that this one was gone. I didn't know how long that would take, but whether it was one day or one hundred years, it was still going to enrage Atraxu either way, which made it all worth it.

  The first of the monstrosities were born soon after that. They were on the smaller side, only ten meters tall, and they were all shaped like flowers with ten little feet below them. All six of them opened their petals and shot out a vine at me, but they were all aimed at the same spot, my chest, which made avoiding them really easy if I ignored just how annoyingly fast they were.

  I flew over and picked up the core as the flowers billowed green fumes at me. They hit a Shin'dorai who was in the way, and as I flew away I could see him slowly transform into some type of hybrid between him and the flowers. I was rather doubtful that it would affect me the same way, but I was also more than happy to avoid testing that theory.

  On the way toward the edge of the 'City', I kept an eye on the sky above me. Most of the eyes were half open, still looking at Atraxu's last location. Some of the others were watching me as I left, but as of yet it hadn't attempted to corrupt me again.

  We breached through the veil, and re-entered the sandstorm. Almost immediately a white light appeared in my vision.

  {I left a mark when we came in, but uh, are you sure his portal will still be there?}

  The tree remained after his death, so lets hope the portal is the same way. In that it has its own mana supply it can run on without his support for a while. Otherwise... Yeah, I don't know. We'll probably have to find that one temple and take the portal to Xethra or whatever the hell the name of that town was. Assuming it's even still there.

  Viktor was apparently trying to attack the Abyss through Veca. So if he had a direct portal to the Abyss, that would be a very strange strategic choice. Which meant that the portal was probably gone.

  ... Let's just hope Atraxu's is still there.

  {Oooh it's still there!!}

  Thank god for that... Although I don't know which one. Atraxu in this case I guess.

  {Ugh...}

  I took a moment to check my hands. We had repaired them as I flew, which made it way harder to focus, but from what I could see they were mostly fine.

  {They're at about ninety percent. Want to wait and finish growing them?}

  We've already spent too much time here. That Power Armor meant for Atraxu looked really powerful, but even so, he can only do so much alone. So we don't have much of a choice here. Just keep repairing my hands for me, it'll be fine.

  I flew through the portal and immediately landed. Naza'shier was twenty meters away from me, waiting with her hands on a massive greatsword plunged into the ground.

  Behind her I could see the remnants of my army, which was mostly Casters at this point, firing at a legion of Crotian Skeletons that were descending upon them. They were up on a hill with two Arcane Soldier Mechs that looked like they were about to fall apart any second now.

  And even further behind them was the Machine God ripping open the backside of the Leviathan. It wasn't doing that unimpeded though. I could see an uncountable amount of weapons and spells hitting it. But it was hard to tell if that was actually deterring it.

  {There!}

  Behind the tower, Malafir, Belfos, and a small contingent of Warrior Skeletons were fighting the Xerath in Power Armor. Only one of the Xerath were dead, and it looked like Belfos had taken on more of a caster role. His sword arm had been destroyed and parts of his legs were missing.

  They're stronger than I expected... Although, it's most likely the heat-blades doing the heavy lifting.

  A Crotian ran up to Naza'shier from behind, raising a longsword into the air by her side. She then let go of the greatsword with her left hand and grabbed the longsword, promptly throwing it in my direction. It bounced several times before it slid into my bare feet.

  ... What is this? A duel?

  I picked the sword up and Naze'shier immediately raised the greatsword into a ready position above her right shoulder.

  I hadn't noticed it beforehand, but Belfos' lords were all dead behind her, and I could tell that a large slashing weapon was the weapon that had killed them.

  Naza'shier leaped through the air, bringing her sword down on top of me. I rolled to the side and was immediately kicked in the back mid-roll. I rolled several times before stopping myself on a rock, and the first thing I saw was Naza'shier descending onto me.

  I rolled to the side faster this time, while also kicking away at the end of the roll. I just barely avoided a punch to the back of my head, but yet again she was on top of me instantly. I parried her first blow, and by the time I had finished I was already milliseconds away from being cleaved in two.

  Through some ungodly miracle I was able to prevent her from killing me until I leaped backwards and threw away the sword, causing Naza'shier to stop her attack. I prayed that's what would happen, because it was clear I wasn't going to win or survive with a sword. I didn't dislike swords exactly, they just weren't what I specialized in.

  My hands felt like they were fully healed now, if I excluded the parts that had ruptured from merely deflecting Naza'shier's attacks. I then took that blood and pumped more out over my hands until I had created two ultra-heavy gauntlets. They weren't very high in quality, which is why I made them so thick, but even though Naza'shier was thankfully waiting for me, I doubted that she would wait an extra thirty minutes while I made a better pair of gauntlets.

  Once they were finished I went to enter a ready stance, but Naza'shier had dashed at me the second I began to move. The sword was pointed near the ground on her right side, and as she neared me she swung it at an arc toward my face. I leaned back and quickly jabbed the sword before leaping backward. The sword didn't move from the jab, but it wasn't much of a surprise. It was just a test.

  Ahh, this feels much better...

  Naza'shier halted for a moment before raising the sword high above her head. I waited for her to leap toward me, but she didn't move at all as she swung it down in my direction. I rolled to the left long before I sensed the aura approaching me.

  After a quick glance back I could see a large chunk break off from one of Belfos' dead Lords. And the moment I looked back at Naza'shier she quickly did one swing after another. An overhead, leading to a sweep attack, and then back to another overhead. All of the attacks were aimed at different areas and heights, so I couldn't just step to the side to avoid all of the overhead attacks. It was like playing a memory game (at hyper speed) where one wrong move would cut me in two.

  By the sixth swing I realized that we had entered another phase. She wasn't going to approach me anymore. Instead, she wanted me to approach her. And I couldn't see a single one of the damned attacks coming at me.

  With the way she was treating the battle it began to feel more like a test than a duel, so with the little time I had left I tried to sense the attacks by focusing on her aura that was so similar to mine. It worked, but it didn't feel like it helped me much. That is, until Luna lit up the beams for me.

  I sidestepped the first beam, then ducked under the next, and repeated that many times, to a point where it felt endless, until I was finally close enough to dash past her. The second I was at her right side I tried punching into her right leg but she brought her knee up and blocked it while swinging her sword down at me with only her left hand. Her right hand was reaching out, waiting to grab me if I were to leap back or to the left.

  I put my fists together and swung to the side, deflecting the sword with enough force that caused her to lose control for a split second, and in that moment I grabbed her leg that was still raised up in front of my face.

  But before I could even attempt to throw her, she jumped up with her left foot and kicked hard into my right shoulder, sending me flying off to the left, except I was still holding on tight to her leg. She must have thought the hit would dislodge me, but it didn't, so it took her by surprise when I used the momentum to throw her over me, slamming her into the ground.

  Except, yet again, she managed to block the damage by slamming her fists into the ground just before she landed.

  I let go of her and jumped onto her upper chest, where she greeted me with a sword stab attack from her left hand and a grab attempt with her right. I brought my fist up in preparation to bring it down on her face (that I still couldn't see beneath her hood), but when the sword and her hand were about to reach me, I pulled back and dropped down under her left hand, kicking her thumb with both of my feet.

  Monsters, and by nature most Gods don't take much damage until you deplete a certain amount of their mana. Not unless the attack is overpowering, so I hadn't expected the attack to actually work, but I felt part of her bony thumb crack, causing her to fumble for a second as she attempted to pass the sword over to the other hand before dropping it.

  Instinctually, maybe because our souls had been connected for so long, or I just knew how she should be after learning so much about her and fighting her like that, but either way, I knew she should have been armored under her cloak.

  Except... She wasn't.

  Her Armory had definitely been completed. The Crotians were lightly armored and using weapons, while she herself was using a rather well-made greatsword created from it. And yet, she chose to fight me unarmored. That's when I became certain that she really was just testing me. It made no sense otherwise. I wasn't sure why she was testing me, but I was more than happy to battle her in a test, rather than a fully armored Naza'shier destroying me in my armorless worn out state.

  I grabbed the hilt of the sword before she could, flipping around and driving it down her face. It was just about to pierce her when she grabbed the sword's ricasso area. I then reached out and grabbed the cloth around her wrist, pulling it back hard so there was no slack before kicking into her wrist multiple times.

  I felt the side of her wrist shatter just as she punched me with her left hand. I went tumbling along the ground, eventually sliding to a stop just in time to see Naza'shier stand up. The sword was sticking out of the lightless area where her face should be, which made me feel like cheering, since I was certain that I had been knocked away before I had managed to stab her, but that clearly wasn't the case.

  Naza'shier pulled the sword out and looked at it, flipping it around a few times before staring at me for a bit. She eventually looked off to her left, where the Crotian Skeletons were finishing off my Casters. The Mechs had been felled, but from what I could see, they were merely disabled. The cockpits were left intact.

  That's when I finally realized that what I saw here was only a small sample of what she had created. Far away in the Velashar's city I could see it swarming with her units. They were hunting down every Velashar they could, while also destroying the portal. She had done this before, so she must've known about the dampeners and already dealt with them.

  There wasn't a single Skeleton attacking the Leviathan, the Titan, or Malafir and Belfos.

  Naza'shier tossed the greatsword onto the ground and turned around. She began to walk toward the portal, and with no fanfare whatsoever, she walked through it, cutting off the connection between the two of us.

  {What was that...? She's just leaving? Or no wait, is she going to get more help?!}

  No... She's not. We don't need to worry about her anymore. But there's no time, so I'll explain later.

  I turned and ran toward the seven remaining Xeraths. It was honestly impressive and a little worrying seeing how Malafir was still alive despite the onslaught against him. Belfos was constantly trapping and slowing the Xerath, which was easy for them to deal with, but even those short moments of immobility were priceless.

  On the way I saw one of the heat-blades chop off a large portion of Malafir's shoulder armor, and within seconds it repaired itself.

  ... They were going to give that to Atraxu? I can't imagine a single scenario where I would've survived against him in that Armor.

  Especially since he was a Caster with far more ether at his disposal.

  I connected to Malafir, and it wasn't much of a surprise when I saw that his ether reserves were nearing zero. My generators on the Leviathan had already been destroyed apparently, and it wasn't possible for us to tap into Naza'shier's without her approval.

  Three of the Xerath spun around quickly. Their suits had probably warned them that I was coming, but even so, I was still surprised at their intelligence. Xerath Gods I found were sometimes very intelligent, but this was my first time dealing with a lesser being that was able to train and use a highly technological piece of equipment.

  The two on the left and right spread out, circling around me. While the one in the middle charged right at me with the heat-blade held out at the side. It was about halfway to me when it stopped and looked to the right. He noticed it at the same time I did.

  The Crotian Skeletons that were killing my Casters had finished the job, and were now heading this way. They swarmed around the Xerath on my left and the one in front of me, leaving the right one for me to deal with.

  I turned and sprinted toward the Xerath which was now in a defensive stance. It was looking back and forth between me and the swarm of Crotian behind me, clearly unsure of what the best course of action would be, but I didn't plan on giving it time to think.

  When I was about ten meters from the creature, I stopped and channeled the earthen wall spell into the ground directly in front of the Xerath. This wall was much smaller in scale than the one I had used against the Daemons. I just wanted to see if what I had planned would work.

  {Careful, Rei! You're very low on mana. I've been regaining mine but after keeping you safe in that sandstorm and repairing your hand, I'm kind of low too.}

  Do you have enough for that push attack of yours? And can it work in space? Channel it if so.

  {Okay...?}

  One I was finished channeling I moved forward until the Xerath lunged at me. Its suit must've warned him about the mana below him as it stepped on the area I had been channeling into, but before he could respond I summoned the pillar using as much mana as possible to raise it at maximum speed. It vaulted the Xerath high into the sky above.

  Now, Luna! I said to her as I jumped onto the earthen pillar. She immediately casted the requested spell, launching the Xerath far far away. It turned into nothing more than a dot shooting off toward Mother in a matter of seconds.

  {That actually worked?? Wait, hang on, why is the gravity so weak here? Mom said gravity has nothing to do with the atmosphere...}

  It doesn't? Oh right, the gravity was normal in the dead zone of Caedrus... Then I don't know why. You should ask Shizue later, she'll know.

  While talking to her I had been running toward the Xerath circling around the right side of Malafir. Or at least, that's what it was trying to do. Belfos kept erupting vines from the ground, forcing the Xerath to cut its feet free over and over.

  When it saw me approaching it turned and began running in my direction. Belfos immediately swapped to a more important target now that I was dealing with the one that was attempting to hit Malafir from behind.

  As scary as the battles with Atraxu and Naza'shier were, seeing a heat-blade coming at me almost felt worse in some ways. After using it extensively earlier, the last thing I wanted was to be on the receiving end of one of them. Especially since most of my armor was gone.

  The Xerath swung wide from right to left, and as I leaped back it followed after me, swinging yet again in a wide arc. I was halfway through my next leap when it brought up its left gauntlet and fired a blast attack of some sort at my knees, knocking them out from underneath me. My upper-half swung down toward the ground, so I punched my right hand into the rocky earth and then propelled myself toward the right.

  I flew for a bit before rolling a few times. The Xerath had tried cutting me down after the blast attack, but despite its surprising intelligence, its moves so far were still rather easy to understand.

  It swung at me again, this time from above its right shoulder at a downward angle. I ducked low to the left and punched its arm as the blade passed by me, but all that did was knock the Armor back a little bit, barely stunning the Xerath for one second before it swung at me again.

  {You're too low on mana to be taking something like this on. Your generators are gone and the remaining Skeletons of yours are draining most of your regen. Just let the Crotians finish them off... You've done enough.}

  She was right, of course, but I still wanted to try a little more. I had never actually fought anyone in Power Armor up until now, so I wanted to get a feel for it. I doubted it was going to be the last time after all.

  I ducked under the next attack, head butting the Xerath's transparent helmet before punching it in the chest. Again, the damage appeared to be very minimal, forcing me to leap back from yet another quick slash.

  Off to the left I could see that the three Harbingers had literally climbed on top of the Machine God at some point and were punching it now. I wasn't sure of what I could actually do over there, but at the very least it was true that I'd be able to do more for them than I could do here. I just didn't have the mana to properly damage the Xerath's Armor at the moment.

  Yeah... You're right. I think it's time to call it quits here. I'll see if there are people in the Leviathan or near the Titan that I can help.

  I thought about grabbing Naza'shier's greatsword, but again, I'd still need enough mana to empower it.

  The Xerath brought its left gauntlet up again and I dodged to the left as it fired at me. It followed up with another slash attack that I ducked under before upper cutting the hand holding the heat-blade again, but as expected, it didn't knock the blade free. Which meant that it was time to call the curtain on this fight.

  I turned and ran past the dozen or so Crotian Skeletons barreling down the Xerath I was just fighting. I kept going past Naza'shier's tower, and that's when I finally got a chance to take a good long look at where the battle ahead ended up.

  The Leviathan looked like it was done for, and it didn't look like the Titan was faring much better. The Leviathan was full of holes, and its tail end had literally been ripped off. While the Titan didn't look too damaged, it was leaning against the Leviathan. If it couldn't even stand up anymore, then it's unlikely that it wasn't severely damaged on its lower half that I couldn't see on this side.

  Asmodeous and the rest of the Demons on his floating rock were rapidly launching fireballs at the Machine God. There were so many that I couldn't count them, but it was definitely above one hundred a second.

  For its part, the Machine God also looked like it had begun to take some real damage a while ago. Its defenses were probably around the level of where Atraxu was when I finished him, so even those regular fireballs were slowly wearing it down. And then there was the Harbingers punching into it, which was probably doing more damage than the fireballs were.

  Down below I could see skirmishes between Machine and Daemons versus our forces, but there weren't many on either side at this point. The only deadly looking Machine left was one Praetorian and it was literally immobile. It was in one of its healing auras, trying to repair itself, but my remaining Warriors and a couple of Power Armors were slicing it up faster than it could repair, so it was likely done for.

  I was a third of the way back when an invisible blast emanated from the Machine God, sending the Harbingers on it flying off, and even more surprising was seeing the Leviathan flip over.

  The Machine God then sucked in all of the remaining Machines and Daemons before slowly flying off into space. It fired different spheres of magic at everyone below it as it ascended, until it was so far away that it had decided it no longer needed to deal with us.

  At first I thought it was merely flying towards Mother, but the more I traced its route, I began to realize that it was heading for the strip of Light erupting out of her northern pole. It was leaving our universe and heading to Gaia.

  If it really is random where you end up in Gaia after entering it, then I couldn't help but feel bad for whoever had the unfortunate luck of living in whatever realm the Machine God ended up in. Severely damaged or not, most nations would still be doomed if that thing showed up on their doorstep out of nowhere.

  One moment he’s dying in a warzone — next, he’s naked on a moon full of real cultivators.

  Jake Sullivan just woke up in the wrong body, on a moon called Verdis, inside a cultivation academy where failure means getting culled back to Earth to live as a powerless mortal—and probably die uselessly in the upcoming alien invasion.

  His memories are mostly gone, but his spirit’s intact. His classmates? Rich kids with qi crystals and family techniques. The school? Doesn’t give a damn. Let the strong survive. With enemy agents already on campus, Jake will need to out-cultivate, outfight, and outsmart everyone around him. He has only one year to become a real cultivator.

  No dying this time!

  Dark humor. Sharp dialogue. Flower picking, teeth flying. A fresh blend of sci-fi, xianxia, and LitRPG.