"What Xytrallia said... about the fallen titan..." Thryaxia began speaking slowly, and for a brief mont, the room turned completely silent. "It is not so hallucination or distorted data from a corrupted mind node."
She paused and looked at each of them in turn, her eyes remaining steady.
"I saw it myself."
A chill swept through the chamber.
The War Matron, who had lived since the ti of the titans, who had fought in the First Swarm Expansion, who had stared down the armadas of ancient empires... she had seen the black titan with her own eyes.
And if she had seen it...
Then the galaxy was truly on the brink of sothing catastrophic.
"If… what Thryaxia said is true… then we must… gather the entire swarm… shall we?" Krilthea's words ca out slowly, yet they carried a weight that cut through the air like a blade.
Even spoken at such a asured pace, her voice had the clarity of a war drum in the distance. And what she proposed was no small thing; it was the call to awaken an army so vast and terrible that its movent would be rembered as one of the rare occasions when every swarm in existence was roused to march, a living tide of claws and wings.
"There is no need to bring forth the entire swarm," Thryaxia replied, with her tone being almost dismissive.
"With three of us sisters together, even a fallen titan could be brought to its knees." Her words stopped suddenly. A shadow crossed her expression as a thought surfaced, a thought of sothing she could not ignore.
"Unless…" Her voice trailed away, and for a heartbeat the chamber felt colder. But then she shook her head, as though brushing away a dangerous dream. "No… that is impossible. It cannot be."
She straightened her posture, her presence radiating authority and raw power. "Very well, sisters. As the one closest to claiming the throne of the swarm's empress, I will make the choice."
"Two among you shall follow to hunt down and destroy this fallen titan. The other two will remain behind to safeguard our territories. We will not leave them undefended."
While the Khryssari prepared their swarms for war, another battle was already twisting itself into chaos far away. On the necrotech world, the situation had taken a grim turn.
The Tier Four infected had begun appearing more often, their monstrous forms pushing into the heart of the battlefield with relentless hunger. Their numbers forced Cleo to abandon her carefully laid plans to ambush both the rcenaries and the lizardn.
The battlefield no longer had room for clever traps; it was now a war of attrition. The enemy had been forced to the sa decision. Whatever sches they had were cast aside, their forces focusing entirely on the fight for control of the skies.
High above the planet, the Cleopatra Fortress stood like a steel titan in orbit, yet it was under siege. The lizardn fleet circled it with the precision of predators, striking hard and then vanishing in flashes of warped light. They would leap back into the fight only to retreat once their ships shields fell below a dangerous twenty percent.
But the fortress was no passive target. It was a war machine in its own right. Cleo unleashed her counterattack with precision, firing EMP-cloaked missiles that detonated close to the Collector fleet.
The bursts of invisible energy rippled through the void. Small enemy vessels went dark instantly, their systems collapsing into silence, while the larger ships fared little better; their warp drives sputtered and shut down if they were close enough to the blast.
And repairing such delicate systems in the midst of battle was nearly impossible, forcing many of those ships to drift helplessly while the war raged around them.
For now, the balance of power in orbit remained steady. Neither side could break the other's hold. Yet on the planet's surface, that balance was monts from shattering.
The infected sward endlessly, materializing as if the air itself had given birth to them. Their advance was unstoppable, and in the chaos one of them appeared right in front of Rex without warning.
The creature's massive fist slamd into him before he could react; the blow sent him hurtling from the sky like a stone, crashing violently into the ground below.
"Where in the hell did that big bastard co from?!" Rex shouted while twisting his body midair as the creature's massive fist slamd down. The blow shattered the paved street where he had been standing only seconds ago, making chunks of stone explode outward like shrapnel.
He landed lightly on a rooftop while narrowing his eyes. "Well, it doesn't matter. Your luck ran out the mont you found , stinking freak."
At his command, tallic shards unfolded from his armor into the air around him, assembling into a swarm of spike drones. They darted into formation, encircling the infected in a tight net.
Thin beams of concentrated light lanced out, searing through its flesh. The sll of scorched at filled the air, but Rex's satisfaction faded quickly since the wounds were knitting shut almost as fast as they were made.
"...Well, that's just great. Cleo, are you seeing what I'm seeing?" Rex's voice carried through the comms as he zipped around the hulking monster, keeping his drones firing to slow it down.
"Affirmative," Cleo's calm voice replied, her awareness extending through thousands of bird-shaped drones sweeping across the battlefield. "The infected is receiving an unknown form of energy from an unidentified source. This energy is accelerating its regeneration and evolution in real ti."
Rex's brow furrowed. "So you're telling that any of those mobs down there could suddenly turn into one of these giant freaks in seconds?" He crafted another wave of drones with a flick of his wrist, sending them into the fray.
"Affirmative," Cleo confird his suspicions. "Before, it was only a working theory. But considering one appeared in front of you re minutes ago, the theory is now fact." Her tone remained perfectly even, even as she adjusted the targeting systems of the frigates hovering above.
Rex clicked his tongue. "Fantastic. This fight just went from bad to catastrophic at light speed…" He summoned his golden circle, nanomaterial swirled into shape for a devastating attack, when Cleo's voice cut through sharply.
"Do not waste nanomaterial on this enemy. I have already locked on. Maintain a safe distance."
"Copy that, ma'am." Rex vaulted backward, putting space between himself and the Tier Four infected. A heartbeat later, the frigates opened fire. From this range, their weapons tore through the creature without rcy.
The infected let out a guttural roar that was cut short as its body was ripped apart in a storm of kinetic rounds and energy bursts. When the barrage ended, nothing remained but smoking, foul-slling chunks scattered across the street.
Rex stepped forward and nudged one with his boot. "Damn. Good thing I've got my helt on. That sll could probably kill anyone." He kicked the charred piece aside, watching it roll into the gutter.
"Mmm. Strong, but soft. Like a glass cannon." He crouched, picking up a slab of decaying flesh, its surface still steaming. "Want to send you a sample?"
"There's no need," Cleo replied instantly. "Collection drones are already en route. Instead, I recomnd you pull back to the defensive line. Your priority should be breaking through to Tier Five since you are only a few steps away."
Rex tossed the at aside and stood, the hum of his drones forming a halo above him. "Tier Five, huh? Guess it's ti to make that push."
Becoming a Tier Five Planetary Champion was, on paper, surprisingly easy. Many called it the simplest step in the grand ladder of power. But in truth, it was also the point where countless warriors, rcenaries, and adventurers found themselves stuck for life. Why? The answer was simple, yet rciless.
The first stage was straightforward; anyone could do it. You drew planetary energy into your body, letting it flow through your veins like molten sunlight, saturating your flesh and bones. This alone gave you the raw power and endurance needed to stand among the strongest fighters on a single world.
But then ca the second stage, the one that broke almost everyone. It was not enough to simply hold planetary energy inside you. To truly beco Tier Five, you had to claim it as your own, bend it to your will, fuse it into your soul, and let it rewrite what you were at the most fundantal level.
In short, your soul had to be remade, shaped into sothing born of planetary energy itself.
And that was where the price beca fatal. Most who attempted it were torn apart from within, their bodies rejecting the transformation in a violent and final way. Others, feeling the first ripples of pain deep within their spirit, simply stopped, unwilling to gamble their lives for the next step.
No one blad them, since a Tier Four warrior was already a force to be reckoned with, capable of earning millions of credits a year working as a rcenary, a gacorp enforcer, or a private army captain. For many, that was enough. Power, wealth, and a long life... so why risk it all?
But Rex's path had been… different. The first ti he tried to cross the threshold into Tier Five, his soul had been taken quite literally by the mysterious Lady in White, who carried him to her own distant world for reasons she never fully explained.
And now, once again, his journey toward Tier Five would not follow the normal path. Fate, or sothing even stranger, had other plans for him.
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