Chapter 160: Lila, Vice
Breathe in… Breathe… out…
Lila felt an absurd amount of power flowing into her body like a raging torrent, but despite that, it felt warm, like lying under the afternoon sun.
What happened after she activated the artefact was almost a blur, as the Stellaruge Vice lted down the people attacking her so fast. Despite its large size, it was fast as well; for only a few monts it left Lila’s side to consu a few humans, but it always returned quickly. Official source is novel⦿fire
Stellaruge Vice… Ceella ntioned the na before, but Lila didn’t understand the full scope of what that was before today. I don’t know how I am going to pay back Ceella for this one.
Ceella would say no payback needed for a gift, but this gift felt a little heavy. It was a gigantic monster that was way stronger than Lila herself. She was also beginning to realise why Craftalot–Ceella had told her the person who had been coming up to her the past few days was him, which made her worried if she said sothing rude–was so interested in the artefact, as apparently she had just made it.
Showing it to him after the mission sounded alright in her head, but she couldn’t say she thought that Ceella might’ve created the monster. Despite the similarities between her and its powers, many wouldn’t automatically assu that, since people cannot create monsters, it was simple logic. The fact that Ceella had given Lu to lla, which the latter had told about briefly, made Lila believe Ceella at least had the power to create her own monsters, at least in a limited capacity. Creating multiple creatures like Vice would be terrifying, and she didn’t think Lu–from how lla described her–was that powerful. To that, she was right but also very wrong–Lu was weaker, but had the potential to grow beyond Vice.
Compared to what Lila had heard about summoned creatures from artefacts like this, the Stellaruge Vice didn’t exactly fit any of the expected results. Usually, they did whatever they wanted or were a mindless construct that followed orders. The Stellaruge could be the latter; Lila wasn’t sure if it had feelings or a mind since the only thing it seed to be doing was protecting her, but through the connection, the creature at least felt alive.
What did you even give ? Lila sighed with a bloody grin. The power was certainly getting to her; well, it was a little more than that, the Stellaruge Vice was an angry beast. Crafted with the thoughts of destroying her enemies in mind, the monster was influenced by Ceella to destroy through deep anger, and that power was going into Lila.
Ceella did neglect to tell Lila about that fact, mostly because she didn’t realise how bad it would be; she honestly figured it would just be a case of Lila knowing the creature was angry, not that Lila herself would be feeling anger and the joy of that anger being fulfilled. The issue partly stemd from the fact that they were emotions Lila was feeling, just on a way lesser level than anything Ceella felt.
[“Lila, are you okay? Can you respond?”]
What…? Wait! Fuck! Lila shook her head, breaking free of the little killjoy spiral she was falling into.
“Yes, Sir! Enemies… umm, mostly dispatched?”
[“Are you okay?”]
“Sorry, I'm just a little confused myself.”
[“Must’ve been.”]
[“You were causing quite a disturbance. Happy that you are still safe.”]
[“Rember to be careful. Trump cards won’t always save you!”]
A few mbers of the team added their thoughts.
The commander finished. [“Prisoners of this mine have been rescued. They are being escorted to the rendezvous point.”]
Not all of the fleet had flown towards the planets; so had stayed back and flown off to a space point. These ships were carrying extra supplies and, more importantly, were going to be used to house all the prisoners rescued.
That’s good… “Understood, thank you for the update. Anything else you wish to do?”
[et us at the coordinates I’m sending you… And depending on how long you can keep that monster out, feel free to cause so destruction.]
“Ah… okay…” Lila winced slightly at that comnt; it seed the commander also didn’t realise how effective Lila was going to be with the artefact, based on his tone.
The Stellaruge Vice still had an instinctual anger emitting from it.
…I don’t think it would be best to put this… Is it a boy or a girl? Does it have a gender? Wait, stop, wrong thoughts. It's best to let it release the anger.
Lila at least knew the anger was directed at her enemies, so it would be best if she kept it in that direction. She couldn’t use it to help people since it was very much lting and heating up their surroundings.
“Um, Vice? Let’s go!” Lila commanded, and the two of them went charging the long way to the coordinates that would cause her to crash right into another enemy unit.
For her enemies, her arrival wasn’t unexpected, since a large monster was hard not to notice. Lila allowed the Vice to jump into combat first and just did her best not to get caught up in the danger. The beast charged in, its claws lting through the ground and flesh.
The Dominous Hood grunts thought that they could predict and dodge out of the way of its strikes; however, its body bent unnaturally–as its body was simply made of heat, mana and starlight–and stabbed right through the cocky ones who stayed too close.
Despite the large threat, the Dominous squad weren’t unaware of what they assud to be the culprit riding the monster. Shooting at her seed to be ineffective; she was protected by so barrier that was blocking ranged attacks.
Flying around the side, evading the fight bolts launching like missiles from the monster’s back, one got close to Lila, attempting to stab her with an energy blade. Lila noticed the man coming and released a massive shockwave of lightning, which he tanked to close the distance.
Lila slid down the back of Vice, which allowed the wings of the creature to turn, grab and lt the man. However, at that mont, another one closed the distance, but Lila’s reaction had been heightened beyond its normal limits. She ducked out of the way and swung a massive hamr she summoned of red lightning that cracked the person’s armour, but they stayed on the back of the beast within grabbing distance.
Take that!
Her body coursed with lightning, granting additional strength as she tore the arm off the grunt in front of her. With their flesh exposed, lightning jumped like snakes and targeted their vulnerable insides.
Lila and Vice kept fighting against the squad of soldiers and very slowly cleared the wave. Lila may have overestimated her ability with Vice. The monster was doing great, but this new wave of enemies was a lot better at dealing with it than the first. More precise with their dodging, besides the few that were caught quickly, and they were able to close in on Lila herself.
Ha… Her lightning construct storage went down faster than she planned. “I should move to the zone quicker…”
Riding the monster, she began moving towards the area the coordinates the commander had provided, but there was sothing pulling itself out of the ground, which brought great concern.
…What is that…
The machinery monstrosity looked horrific. Like nurous machines and robots were just… smashed together like a children's toy, but it was functioning, like sothing out of a horror film.
She wasn’t far from the creature, but the beast didn’t move towards her; instead, it moved in a straight line to the largest extraction point. Unit A and a bunch of other teams working for different people found a prison with over a hundred people inside. From what she heard over comms, it was a holding area/residence.
…Bastards… “Vice! Let’s burn it!”
“SEIIIIIIIIIIIIII!” Vice screeched, and Lila rode along by holding onto one of its wings.
Once she got close enough, the chanical monster turned to register her as a threat. The chanical components screeched against each other as they turned towards the starlight monster. Vice ran straight into the monster, its body lting the tal upon contact, but that wasn’t even close enough to take the monster down.
Nurous tal claws made up of bots erged from the body to latch and grab Vice, glowing an ominous red; it began a wrestling match as the lting greatly slowed as it resisted the heat.
They were fighting over one of the Dominous Hood outposts, and she was sure the machine erged from here, but she couldn’t see where from. Lila only hoped there wasn’t more of this thing.
Dammit… Lila hung on tight, and the machine shook them and began to attack from all angles. She summoned her large hamr again, and from above, small bots popped off the main body to strike her. Get away!
Playing bloody baseball, she slamd the bots as hard as she could in an effort to break them or smash them into the body of Vice, who lted them. The detached bots lost the heat resistance that the main chiric body possessed.
Vice howled as a large tal claw dug deep into its side. More machines were climbing to the chimaera, fusing into it, repairing prior damage and increasing its strength.
Lila used her skills and artefact to boost her height into the air. [Lightning Anchor Bolt] [Lightning Strike] [Concentrate Lightning]! A large construct of lightning that crackled with energy was ford with a flash, and lightning ca crashing down, tearing through the machinery monster.
Ha… Lila felt a wave of exhaustion imdiately rush through as a consequence, which caused her flight to falter.
Lightning surrounded her body instinctually to protect herself as the tal arm slamd down, knocking Lila into the ground, breaking through the surface layer of the mine beneath them.
Lila’s body was sent flying down the large cylinder, crashing into the bottom.
[“Lila!”]
I’m. “I’m alright.” Lila shoved the machinery off her body that had fallen with her. “Could be better, in a mineshaft? Hard to say, very far down.”
She was acting, but that fall hurt. The shaft was so deep in the ground, and the tal that had fallen with her made it impossible to catch herself; she was practically stunned from the first hit.
I guess I know where the machine ca from…
She could still feel the Stellaruge Vice fighting at the top, sohow angrier and more violent; she could feel the heat emanate into the whole area.
Once this is done… I am going to retire from fighting… That was the plan from the beginning, but she felt the need to reiterate it in her mind.
Her body ached, but she knew it was not the ti to stop now.
Energy from Vice, despite the distance, was still filling her body; she assud it was due to the artefact.
[Crimson Bolt]... Lightning ford around her body and shifted to a deep red. Haaa… She let out a long exhale, and then, in a flash of lightning, she cracked to the top of the mine, tearing a chunk off the machine with the lightning scorching everything around her.
Every second, Vice was giving her body more and more power.
“Drop dead already, you stupid machine!” A mix of her own and Vice’s rage scread out of her lungs.
“SIIII!!” Vice joined in on the roar, and the two imdiately destructive auras that devastated everything in their wake went in for round two.
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