I had repurposed the furred creature’s base as my own. Josh had shown up and I put him to work on manning the turrets to take out anything approaching, while I worked on trying to put togeather an escape vessel.
The corpses were left where they fell. Let the furred creatures rot in this hell for all I cared about them. I had three vessels to work on that had crashed and exploded. While the most critical components were ssed up, the rest of the vessels were still in working shape.
I was using the hull of one and slowly working out what needed to be replaced to make it move again. The furred creatures used so kind of energy patterns printed on fragile boards. It made it easy to disable their technology compared to arrays in tal. But I could also see how they would be made a lot more quickly.
With spare vessels, I was able to get a working navigation and communication system on one vessel. It helped that their layout was the sa. I was also able to work out high level functions of the various components due to my experience traveling about the Firmant. As long as the creatures using the vessels were humanoid shaped, then the design principles couldn’t vary that much.
You needed navigation, communication, spatial stabilizers, spatial compression, and so on. There was no other way to travel about the Firmant beyond spatial compression as far as I knew. Perhaps there was another thod, but spatial manipulation seed the preferred thod for everyone and everything.
While the primary spatial compressors were completely toast along with the energy source, the base had several turrets with energy sources. The furred creatures were kind enough to make everything cross compatible. A smart move from an industrialization perspective, but a poor move for soone trying to rebuild one of their vessels using the supplies and resources of an entire base.
Once I had worked out an understanding of how energy flowed, it was about connecting various parts togeather and rebuilding the exploded portions to function properly. This was a lot easier than trying to create a working formation to manage an entire escape vessel from scratch.
As I got another power core, I noticed Josh was rapidly firing the beam cannon. I put down the power core and rushed over to see what was going on. “Problem?” I asked.
“Drones, lots of drones. They are probing the outer limits, but we are going to get surrounded,” Josh said while pointing at the visual display. The furred creatures also labeled everything, which had been nice of them.
I had sealed off the passage into the citadel. I wasn’t too worried about an attack from that direction with the toughness of the citadel’s tal. “War machine has won in the end, or is making a major move in this direction,” I said as the turret continued to fire automatically. “We are leaving, let’s go.”
Josh didn’t ask more questions as we quickly left the turret control room. I grabbed the power core and raced over to the large vessel. There were still a lot of problems, but it could move. I hesitated, but raced back to the shield generator and grabbed the power core and shield emitter. The local gravity failed and the shield went down. My vessel would need a shield.
Rushing back, I could see thousands of drones advancing on the base even as the turrets kept firing endlessly. The other bases in the distance were also being sward. It really did look like that war machine was living up to its reputation as a replicator.
I entered the vessel, leaving the items I had collected in a hallway and raced to the bridge. Josh was looking over the controls. I gently pushed him out of the way and began hitting buttons. The vessel shuddered and began moving away from the citadel.
Another button hit and a holographic display of the surroundings was brought up. The drones were marked as red in the display and were rapidly closing in on the base as we began to lift off. “Fire the weapons?” Josh asked.
“Wouldn’t do enough and I am not sure about them. They were less important than other systems,” I answered. I didn’t know how to make us go faster. If the drones rushed at us, we would be in trouble. We weren’t going to make it. I just knew it. This place was cursed. The mont I tried to leave things always got worse.
“Co with ,” I told Josh as I turned away. Without weapons and defenses, I would have to take action myself. Pulling my sword out of my spatial storage, I gripped it tightly. We made our way to the outside of the vessel.
We both went on the bottom of the vessel. The bubble canceling out external forces was working to a degree. Allowing to use my flight to stick to the bottom of the vessel, looking up at the citadel and the base.
“There,” I pointed out several drones that were combining togeather to form a giant beam emplacent. The war machine was securing the surrounding space around the citadel. It was too far to attack and I could already see the shimr of a shield going up around it.
The drones slamd into the base, overwhelming the few defenses had left. They then began firing beam attacks upwards. Josh got busy shielding. The vessel was quite large, but the attacks were weak. A large group of drones flew at us.
I began to swing my blade, executing several sword slashes. They weren’t enough. There were too many drones swarming in our direction. I took a mont to think about what I needed to do. I stepped back and brought back my sword. I then jabbed out, projecting a massive stab of energy. I then transitioned into bringing my sword up. “One Swing To Accomplish Anything!” The slash flew out and hit the slower moving stab of energy, fracturing. Thousands of smaller sword slashes spread across the space, hitting the drones. I hadn’t been able to perfectly get one small slash to strike one drone, but I did fairly well.
This attack destroyed hundreds of these basic drones as they turned form a swarm of death to a cloud of debris. I noted their design had shifted over ti. The war machine was making constant iterations. More parts to fly instead of appendages for movents in corridors. They weren’t that strong, it was just that their strength was in numbers. The large beam cannon was finished being built and we were definitely in range. Thankfully it began targeting other vessels from other super organizations that were fighting to hold their positions on the citadel.
Josh shielded us and the vessel as beam attacks from the remaining drones lanced upwards towards us as we made our escape. My blade never stopped moving, as I released one small sword slash after another as the remaining drones spread out. They were no match for and my sword skills as countless drones exploded.
The massive beam cannon that had just been built on the surface of the citadel, began to turn face us. I wanted to sigh, but I knew this would be tough. I noted more drones swarming over the surface of the citadel. All the bases were now heavily besieged. The replicator had finally gained an upper hand and everyone was screwed.
While the war machine couldn’t use the beam emplacents that had been connected to the formations inside the citadel, it had built its own. No matter what, this was it. We had to get away, otherwise the replicator would swarm us to death.
“Shield with everything you got, I will split the attack, handle the backwash,” I told Josh as I took up a stance. We weren’t being targeted by other beam emplacents and were picking up more and more speed. There was too much energy, debris, and environntal effects to risk spatial compression. Also, that system needed a lot more attention, since it was arrays. I hadn’t been able to piece anything togeather, since the self-destruct had been focused on this system.
“Got it,” Josh said nervously. If you wanted to live, then you better go all out. I didn’t say anything more, since I needed to get my stance and focus perfect. My danger sense spike. The massive cannon fired.
I swung my sword downwards, splitting space. The attack parted to either side of the vessel but not far enough. My slash didn’t have enough strength or power to split it that much. Josh’s shield handled the rest. For a full second, I couldn’t see but blinding energy and light. The attack stopped. While the vessel was a bit scorched in so places, it hadn’t suffered a direct hit.
The war machine’s beam cannon was already moving to target another vessel in combination with other beam cannons. Finally, things were turning around, we weren’t being targeted. I quickly rushed back inside the vessel with Josh and adjusted our course.
There was a massive chunk of the barrier sphere in front of us. We needed to maneuver around it. There were more explosions as the war machine began firing more beam attacks at the fortifications that had been built around the citadel. The super organizations began firing back.
The course I set us on was where there was less fighting and no bases. Hopefully we wouldn’t be targeted. The entire vessel shook and a wave of force hit . I had thought too soon. “Keep us on track, you saw what I did, I need to work on the shield,” I told Josh before he could say anything. There was no ti to hold his hand. It was ti for him to earn his keep. He had done a decent job so far, but now was the ti for him to pull through or we were going to die.
Rushing back where I had tossed the base’s shield and power generator, I began hooking everything up togeather. I ripped out the gravitational field portion from the shield generator, since that would ss up with our flight out of here. The vessel shook a second ti. I managed to stay on my feet, but I didn’t want to think about the damage. We just had to get out of here without the arrays or other systems being too heavily damaged.
This was it, we were so close. I activated the shield generator. I let out a sigh of relief and rushed back to Josh who was manning the controls. “All the sensors went blank,” he said nervously. The shield blocked out everything except the systems that had been specifically designed to bypass it. The only thing that I knew of that did this were the turrets back at the base.
Now we were flying. At least the shield was strong. “Keep flying, use your mory and our montum. I will flicker the shield every thirty seconds,” I said. It would quickly wear down the components. They weren’t designed to be turned on and off, but there was no other choice. While we might be able to push past small pieces of debris, if we sit sothing big, the shield would pop like a bubble and be completely useless regardless of what I did.
While I would have preferred to do the flying, I was the only one who knew how to adjust the technology of the furred creatures. Josh had been keeping watch while I had been deciphering it all and rebuilding this vessel. I flickered the shields off for three seconds and then put them back up. I then raced back to Josh.
“How are we doing?” I asked nervously.
“Getting out of here, but without being able-“ there was a massive wave of energy and the shield broke. The entire vessel shook, and I barely kept myself in place as everything jerked to one side. Josh went flying into a wall. He shielded himself at the last mont, before crashing back down.
The shield was gone as well as the sensors. We were flying completely blind with no idea what was happening outside. Looking over at Josh he was bleeding from his head but still moving. He wouldn’t be any more help at the mont. I closed my eyes and focused on my senses. We were fine for now. That massive shockwave had probably been from a nearby explosion.
We were still moving in one direction, that was enough. I had the vessel being turning slowly in a spin. That way if were hit, the damage would hopefully be spread out, rather than compounding in one specific area. We just needed to keep heading in a singular direction in order to escape this hell. Josh had stopped moving and was still bleeding. His life was in his own hands. I made my way back outside.
Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!
It was madness.
I could feel massive waves of energy coming from where the citadel was. While we weren’t headed directly away anymore, we were still headed away. At least Josh had picked a direction that wasn’t headed towards any large chunks of debris. But that might change.
There were more massive explosions in the distance, stars were being created and ended every couple minutes. Everything was getting churned up. The citadel had several large cracks on the surface, and I felt a slight pressure on my energy. A foreign presence was trying to contaminate . It was Chaos.
I swung my sword while focusing. My energy surged, pushing back the hostile influence. I looked away. That was the war machine’s problem. I made my across the outside the vessel to the front and stood there, sword in hand. I was leaving this place, even if I had to cut a path through everything. No more detours or trying to skirt around disaster.
Multiple beams of energy lanced across the space as massive vessels left from the direction of the citadel and from the various operational centers out around the citadel. The war machine was fleeing and everyone was going to hem it in. We were ahead of the war machine’s fleet, but now traveling at an angle to avoid a massive at of floating tal.
A blob of red liquid was headed for us. A beam of energy grazed the vessel. My grip tightened on my sword. Escaping this place was almost as bad as getting to the center of the Gu Container. Another energy beam hit the vessel, but it was weakened. The surface tal lted and there was an explosion, damaging so of the interior. The entire vessel shifted its direction slightly.
There was nothing I could do. This was it, do or die. As we got closer to the blob of red liquid, I stabbed out with my blade. A shockwave spread forward, creating a tunnel through the red liquid. The vessel entered as more energy beams headed in our direction. The red liquid absorbed the energy and explosions, acting as a shield.
I had to stab out twice more to keep the path ahead of the vessel clear. While we were traveling at a decent speed and building up speed, it was too slow, the distances too vast. The war machines vessels were engaged with the super organizations entrenched positions as we erged from the red liquid, into the middle of the battle.
Standing on the front of the damaged vessel, I kept my sword at the ready as I looked upwards. I was standing on the front of the vessel, the very front to act as a defense and deterrent. While the grunts sent to attack the citadel might not realize the sight of an immortal cultivator, the higher ups surely did. Also, the war machine was trying to break through the defenses.
My vessel was clearly not part of war machine’s fleet and war machine was choosing to ignore , since I wasn’t attacking its vessels. Standing on the front as the vessel spun, with my sword at the ready, showed that whoever or whatever ca at was looking for death and I was willing to trade with them. There were no refunds offered.
An energy beam missed whatever it was aiming at and grazed the vessel, dealing more damage. That wasn’t serious enough for to act. I only had so much energy to draw upon to handle these powerful attacks.
Several of the war machine’s vessels exploded, lighting up the surroundings. A massive chunk of a vessel ca flying at my vessel. I adjusted my stance and focused. I swung. The piece of debris was sliced clean in two with the two pieces flying in opposite directions. The slice carried through the piece of debris and struck one of war machine’s vessels, which was partially bisected. There was no self-destruct explosion. But a follow up energy beam from a super organization struck it and blew it to scrap.
The war machine was losing in the area I was flying through. That was the perfect way to show the other forces I was friendly and trying to escape. Hopefully they wouldn’t give too hard of a ti. The war machine had bigger problems to worry about than .
That was when a monstrous surge of energy washed over everything. I felt I was being watched throughout my life. Eyes were starting to erge from the shadows in my mories. That was bad, very bad. My energy pushed back against the influence. Everything teetered on the brink for a mont, but my energy managed to reassert itself.
I let out a sigh of relief, that I hadn’t been consud by Chaos. A giant white glowing sphere ford behind where the citadel used to be. Soone or sothing was intervening. The massive glowing white barrier began to crack and my heart surged with fear. The fight intensified as everyone tried to escape from Chaos.
There were also several vessels that were breaking apart, turning to dust and then completely vanishing as if they had never existed. My fear spiked at that. One mont there, another they were erased from existence itself, even my mory of them was fading slightly. The power of Chaos was insane.
The massive white barrier began to shrink and space began to contract, dragging everything back to the center of this ss and closer togeather. I didn’t know if I should laugh or weep in despair.
“No!”
I was not going to be pulled backwards into hell. At this point it felt like a massive conspiracy to stop from escaping. I knew that it wasn’t, but this was the problem of being in the Firmant with no good way to travel quickly and safely.
Adjusting my stance once more, I swung, targeting the spatial effects dragging the vessel back. We slowed down compared to everything else that was getting pulled back. Debris rushed past and with several pieces striking my vessel.
The massive white barrier disappeared along with whatever Chaos creature it had contained, shrinking down to nothing or maybe going through layers. At least we hadn’t lost speed. The other vessels hadn’t built up as much speed as I had. Unfortunately the debris had beco a lot closer and the fighting had escalated in intensity.
A beam of energy grazed my vessel, lting and then exploding another chunk of it. I wasn’t stopping. Even if I had to fly away on my own power, I was leaving this hell area no matter what at this point. Everything around was just a distraction, trying to slow down and confuse .
That was when a beam of energy directly skewered my vessel. I could only leap upwards in desperation and swing downwards to deflect the massive explosion that threatened to engulf . Josh had died for sure in that blast as I went flying away. I kept pushing my speed to fly away, but it was nothing compared to an actual vessel.
Like a rickshaw compared to a fighter jet. While I was already going quite fast, I had lost all hope. I was unlike to be targeted as a small, fast moving, powerful being, but anything could happen as there were more explosions, waves of energy and the craziness kept going.
Looking in the direction I was heading, I adjusted my course to avoid a large piece of tal debris, but was then on course with a ruined vessel of the war machine. Perhaps I could salvage sothing. We were moving about the sa speed, and it had probably been blasted apart from the other side of this massive battlefield.
There was too much happening in the background to keep track of it all. Landing on the large piece of debris, hundreds of tiny spider drones rushed at . Each were about the size of my hand. It was always spiders for so reason. I swung my blade and split apart the sword slash. The tiny drones were cut apart.
More kept swarming towards and I kept swinging. Really war machine? Well, I had nothing better to do and if you were still active their might be sothing useful on board. I advanced constantly swinging my sword as more and more spider drones kept trying to attack .
Unfortunately, I was too strong and they were too weak. I also projected a wave of force from my body, keeping them back. It was basically the inverse of flying. Instead of using my energy to move , I was using energy to move the environnt around . This would do nothing except to very things, like the spider drones. A regular human with a club would be able to defeat one. For an immortal cultivator like myself they were nothing.
As I made my way through the ruined vessel, I felt a large source of energy. That had been concealed by the hull. I also noted the hull was this vessel was of unusually high quality. That would have a high chance of being sothing useful or sothing I could make useful. The ruined vessel I was on shook as sothing hit it. But I didn’t care.
Entering into a larger room, I noted a towering sphere made of red and gold tal, that was pulsing with energy. Giant rings rotated around the surface of the sphere. What was this?
That was when I noticed an immortal cultivator with a sword as well entering from another direction. They had probably jumped on this vessel to follow . “Immortal Yuan Zhou,” I introduced myself while I stepped to the side. The other cultivator was wearing a martial robe and was clean shaven like . They mirrored my movent and I frowned.
“Immortal Yang Jianyu.” They didn’t say anything else, nor offer to make a deal, or even ntion their super organization.
“Perhaps we should work togeather,” I said.
“Perhaps you should leave,” Yang Jianyu said at the sa ti. I frowned at this as he brought up his sword.
“I am only looking to leave this place. Whatever this is, you can keep it, I just am trying to get out of here to a free port,” I said as he stepped forward into a stance. I moved in a stance as well.
“I have spent a long ti looking for this. And the heavens have favored . If you will not depart, then I will kill you,” Yang Jianyu stated before swinging. I brought up blade and deflected the strike. It sword slash sheered into the surrounding tal walls quite deep and I was forced to take three steps back.
I didn’t send out a sword slash, but stepped forward, advancing and gathering montum. Yang Jianyu brought up his blade and we began to trade blows. He was skilled matching blow for blow. But no matter how skilled he was with the blade, I knew how to beat soone like this.
Making sure our blades were locked, I reached out and pulled out a gun from my spatial storage. Yang Jianyu did so as well. Our eyes went wide as we both weren’t expecting the other to use such a similar and shaless move. Yang Jianyu fired first, while I took a brief mont to adjust my aim. As I pulled the trigger I was hit in the chest and went flying backwards.
Yang Jianyu was hit in the head, doing critical damage, removing half his face. While he might be an immortal, continuing on without a body was no simple matter. His attack had damaged my soul. As I lay crumpled against the tal wall, I couldn’t believe I had made this far and was about to die.
My heart was struggling and my body was failing. It had been pushed too much and my energy was low at the mont. As long as this place wasn’t destroyed, I might live, but there was no guarantee. I didn’t want to fall unconscious. But the stress of everything was catching up with .
Looking across the large room, I noted Yang Jianyu’s body struggling to stand. That wouldn’t do. I swung out with my blade. The sword slash was fairly weak, but it was enough to finish the job. Yang Jianyu’s head was separated from his shoulders.
My sword rolled out of my grip. I was too weak to raise it again. Whatever gun he had used, sure packed a massive punch and had so powerful lingering effects. I looked at the giant sphere nearby and wondered what it was. Another mystery that I had found myself in. I couldn’t even shake my head or cry in despair. My body was refusing to move. Even my soul was shutting down and my mind with it.
“I refuse,” I gasped out, but saying sothing didn’t make it true unfortunately.
Another cultivator with a sword and a gun. I didn’t know if it was poetic or destined. My dark mirror had t with and we had killed each other. Or was I the dark mirror of that other cultivator. I had gone down the route of demonic cultivation. But it had been necessary, if I hadn’t, then I would have never made it this far. I would have died long ago.
Life was unfair. The very nature of this Gu Container was unfair. I had made it so close to escaping, surviving with countless others had fallen. And it was literally countless since Chaos had erased several beings from existence. Now I was about to die with so many questions left unanswered. So much left to struggle for.
The only thing cultivators truly traded in was death. Looking at the corpse I had just created, this was an inherent truth to cultivators. There was a reason it was the first truth I focused on. I forced myself mind to keep going, despite being on the verge of true death. My energy was quite low and my soul was damaged. If I blanked out and lost the hold on my energy, I would truly die in full.
The only thing cultivators truly valued was power. I didn’t have enough power to prevent my death. I didn’t have power for so many things. With power, this entire situation could be reversed in an instant. Immortality was just the first step in a long staircase to trying acquire more and more power to avoid being at the whims of others.
The only thing cultivators truly did was consu. Taking and using energy, it was an inherently selfish process. For one to advance, countless others were left behind. To be nothing but a footnote in my story. Even those who had truly supported had been consud by ambitions and left behind. My heart hurt, but it wasn’t from just the wound I had taken.
The only thing cultivators should fear is ntal instability. Since energy reacted to one’s will, being of sound mind was incredibly important. A single mistake would lead soone astray. Without a strong will tempered by hardship, a cultivator would not be able to advance. Those garden flower cultivators, would have never gotten this far. They would have died early on in the Gu Container.
The continued existence of a cultivator is solitary. This was more true than anything. I was going to die alone with nothing but a corpse and a weird giant gold and red sphere to keep company. In ti so being might co across this piece of debris and loot our corpses and take this item.
The journey of cultivation only ends when a cultivator is no longer a cultivator. My newest truth, that I had co to realize. The only one who could truly defeat was myself. That was why I clung to life so tightly. A cultivator struggled and only when they gave up on that struggle would they stop being a cultivator. My journey was not over. I refused.
The remnants of my energy failed to disperse as I continued to cling on to my life.
Just when I thought things couldn’t get worse, I noticed ten drone spiders moving towards . Their tal legs clinking against the tal floor of this ruined vessel. As they approached , I didn’t even have the strength to shed a single tear. I was going to die to sothing so weak, after struggling for so long.
I tried to glare the spider drones to death, but they didn’t seem to care as they approached . My eyes lost strength to keep them open and they shut in the face of approaching death. That was when I felt a wave of energy wash over .
“Oh, you are still alive. How interesting, how very interesting,” I heard a familiar voice. I could pinpoint it, I just knew it was a voice that annoyed in the past. As I tried to place it, I felt a hand touching my head and my chest wound.
“Heal. Sleep.” Energy surged through . Even as I felt my soul repair itself, I lost consciousness, slipping into darkness. I was unsure if I would work, but I could hope since I had been healed.
Reviews
All reviews (0)