Chapter 168: Flesh, Steal, and Starlight
(“ Soone is having so fun ”)
I tore out a chunk of tal and flung it across the planet’s surface like a skipping stone. The ch was still moving; simply tearing apart the insides wasn’t enough to disable it.
Each arm could operate separately and so could the legs, but the self-destruction sequences fizzled out as I continued to tear out the material where they energy tried to concentrate at. I wasn’t letting this thing destroy itself its own way; its damned tal body only had one outco: that it was fuckin’ scrap tal.
Argh! Fuck, just angry built up after dealing with this thing.
I was still riding the bliss from my earlier murdering, but my anger had been building up again, and this stupid kindergartener-designed project just didn’t want to stay down. Calculating the energy it was pulling, it would’ve definitely blown up a part of the underground base and a good number of the assault fleet in the process. The fact that it was moving away could’ve been an attempt to control the radius so it didn’t break sothing important, but for the mont, I didn’t know.
But tearing it apart does pretty darn good.
“Craftybeard, do you have everything sorted here?”
“I an, you have been doing a fine–”
“If you don’t want to be here personally, that is fine, but that body is more than enough to handle the cleanup.” I barked back. I was completely confident that this was so fake body, which was why he hadn’t perford as well as I expected. Though perhaps even my original estimates were a little high, even if he was in the four-hundred range, he was still a crafter at the end of the day.
My mind went back to stupid ch.
Yeah, no, even if he is a crafter, he likely has a supply of stupid shit.
I didn’t disbelieve the fact that the majority of his creations were non-combat focused. That made sense; he was a bloody old man that liked to make things. Even looking at the list of items he presented for the auctions, there was one solely about food.
But he was also a fucker that lived for centuries; of course, he had so dangerous shit hidden. Heck, the sword was apparently nad by a relative of his and from my previous quick scan of the weapon before it attempted a disappearing act, it was old.
After making Swiss cheese out of the skyscraper ch's central body, I flew out and saw the state… of my armour.
“Fuck, I overdid it with my armour…” I observed my tattered shell of tal. Yeah… I did not do a good enough job at keeping it safe. Despite my protections, I did place over it. There were many attacks–when I was inside the ch–that either went through the shields and simply crushed everything. It was not an environnt that soone like Nina would’ve liked. Well, she would’ve done better than ; her shields were good, mine were only strong because they were dense.
“Any sign of exploding?” I asked.
“No.” Craftalot replied, “It appears your effort to make a playground out of a junkyard worked.”
“I don't think that statent even works, but anyway, any complaints?”
“No, I will handle the cleanup.” Craftalot snapped his fingers and his drone swarm got to work dismantling every single remaining turret along the arms that could be a threat.
The legs had slowed down to a halt. They were already slowing down when the charging began, but once the tower beca what it was now, they had sped up by a bit, but by no way did it catch up to its previous speed.
Let’s see what you can do.
I was fully ready to leave this ss to Craftalot after I had dealt with the major problem with Nina and his help. Nina’s ability was still up and running, and watching literally ch the ch down was a fun sight and a terrifying one, since, oh, in every beautiful golden star was it doing work. I believe the fact that the parts of the body were mana dense was the reason it was acting on it so fast. There had to be a reason why it was lting and not items that were casually laid around the base.
A few more cannon blasts ca down from space to deal with the limbs, and while that was occurring, I went down towards Nina’s hiding spot.
Taking a well-deserved breather, she finally deactivated the moon projection ability once I ca to visit her in the hole where the ch originally ca from.
“Feeling alright?” I asked, she really held her own in that fight, which wasn’t too surprising considering her abilities, but a ch monstrosity with over a thousand cannons that could damage large spaceships, and a bunch of other weapons, she held strong for one woman with simply the power of shields.
If my old self had to experience that, then it wouldn’t have been pretty. I would’ve had to activate Espr’s skills for enhanced strength and even then, my flight abilities would be so much worse–way harder to make minute adjustnts and costly. It would’ve been a situation of trying to keep as much of my body intake to regenerate. It would’ve been a death sentence for my bet with Espr as I would be raking up levels fast.
It really brought back the perspective of how much stronger I was. My max output was theoretically the sa, but now I could use that energy with much less worry since I had plenty coming in. Not to ntion actual flight was such a good ability, and since [Star Mapping] was just a part of , it wasn’t an energy drain to use while in combat.
…I am only going to grow from here, huh… Follow current novels on novelfire(.)net
A baby Spiritual Being with was considered a bad start since the world I consud was already dying. I felt absurdly powerful, but that really was really only the start… How strong are the other Spiritual Beings?
“I could be better…” She replied honestly. I couldn’t see her face, but I doubt it looked good underneath the armour.
It was sothing Espr didn’t really speak about since it was completely far from my current power, but the curiosity remained with .
(“ I know you are having a retrospective, but you were talking to soone ”)
I know I can do multiple things at once.
“...Do you have any plans of returning back to the assault team?” I asked, I was worried about that happening.
I knew she would want to since it was her nature to, but I didn’t think it would be the correct decision. The people on the assault team weren’t weak. Well, there certainly was a mixed bag, but the lowest level was 200–for the people who landed on Asta and Neo–there were still people nearing the 300 range and a few in that range who had been holding back. Both sides had been playing that ga, keeping their best cards back until the worst arrived, despite the casualties that had likely been caused, which was why Nina was so determined to protect people. It was like the level 200s were children; they were people with a lot of experience, but of course, a healer didn’t want them to die.
“...Sigh.” She let out a long sigh that carried more regret than she would’ve liked. “No, I would just burn through my small remaining mana if I did. I have been pushing my limits since I arrived, but they have caught up.” I could feel mana moving from so sort of storage in her armour to her person, recovering her supply. “Fighting during the resupply process will also be detrintal.”
“Anyway, to contact the team?”
“Yes, the comms are back online. Craftalot sent a ssage through them.”
“You good, Crafty?”
“Ye,s I am.”
“Going to turn ntal comms off?”
“No, good as backup.”
“Trying to spy on my thoughts.”
“Haha, that ain’t possible, you can be sure of it.”
“I know it's not, but that doesn’t an you didn’t try.”
(“ You really like ssing with that old man ”)
He enjoys it, his emotions glow like a damn light bulb when I give him shit and we get stuck in a back and forth.
(“ Ceella fond of old things, like the stars and old man ”)
Don’t even suggest those two things are even in the sa category.
A bloodthirsty aura might’ve been emitted by as Nina had to ask, “Is everything well?” In a very concerned voice.
“Multiple people knocking on my head comms. Don't worry.” I explained the situation clearly.
Nina just sighed and added, “Comms are currently working on the planet. Haven’t been able to communicate with the fleet or the teams on other planets.” There was a little bit of worry in her voice that I decided to fix.
“Your personal team is safe. Lila and the gang have rescued, I think it was a hundred and nine people? I stopped counting exactly during the ch situation.”
Before she said anything else. “Of course, I made sure I had eyes over there. I needed to make sure Lila was safe.”
“...Thank you.” Nina nodded and gave a genuine thanks. She trusted , whether that was because of my abilities or person, I did not know.
Sigh…
Not sure why I internally sighed; I just did.
“It’s alright, I will keep an eye out, but your team is skilled enough, and with how well they work together, they will be safe.”
I didn’t stay with Nina for much longer. I could see one of Craftalot’s drones nearby, so I knew Nina should be safe, but I did create another one of those Starlight mosquitoes. I attempted to reinforce it with more energy, which went alright, and reworked it a bit so that it would stick around for a bit longer.
Probably should help out the underground lot.
The people in the assault team were doing a few jobs. My spying effort was made easier since they had blown out every door they had co across. Soone that team must’ve had a vendetta against, and honestly, good on them. Everything was going mostly well; the formation had shifted since Nina wasn’t down there, and honestly, that might’ve been for the best. They were seemingly over-reliant on the shielding, not because they had to be, but because they could be.
Looks like more people are coming over… There are a few individuals coming down from the fleet, and stronger people are now leading the assault formation. Looks like our side is finally pushing out the ‘bigger guns’. Though I have to wonder how many of them would’ve even been useful against that ch.
That giant hunk of tal was very bullshit, but people with certain skills that could do wider-scale damage, or just a massive swarm of attacks after the shield was broken, could’ve made the fight easier.
Now I am just nitpicking. I decided to stop worrying about the loser who stayed behind and focused on the super losers who had been hooding in a fucking for years.
I moved through the tal jail of a base. Bloody stars I hated how this place looked and felt. I an, it wasn’t much different from normal space tal stuff and well, I didn’t like how that looked either, but sothing about it made hate it even more…. I an, it was probably just because Dominous Hood made it but eh. I still hated it.
Bullets began shooting towards , which I easily sidestepped, and punched the turrets that had popped out of the wall.
Still so turrets hidden?
They wouldn’t be a threat but I was surprised that they all hadn’t been destroyed but perhaps it was a case of so being able to repair or replace themselves.
My appearance was still covered in my armour, but the armour itself was stitched together with Starlight. Yeah… it got really damaged during the fight with the ch. Honestly, more of a sign of how tough my current body was and how fast it repaired itself.
…What is going on? I increased my speed as I accelerated towards where the assault team was. I felt a massive energy shake from within the best as sothing was changing.
Looking ahead with [Star Mapping], I saw the assault team begin to get overrun by a swarm of grey cyborgs–the simplest way I could describe them. They were human once, n and won, but their skin had beco a dark, muted grey, and chanical components were layered across their flesh. The mana within them was enhanced and they had intelligence, as each one was fighting with perfect form, reacting to the assault team.
“Craftalot, if you can still hear . Big danger is likely to co to the surface soon. Actually, ETA unknown, so sort of cyborgs; they do have so chanical components, but they aren't primarily tal. I think. Not near them for a proper can.”
Despite the initial shock, the assault team were defending themselves, but a few had gotten unlucky and lost so limbs, which included a head. Suddenly there were massive shifts in the base and large hatches began opening up from the bottom level towards the surface.
Dammit, why weren’t they found earlier? From the sound, it was likely they didn’t exist in such forms until this mont, but the swarm of cyborgs split, and so began moving towards the surface. [Star Mapping] showed this wasn’t the only location or planet this was happening; the other site on Asta had a swarm erge from the entrance, and it appeared that the smaller team which went that way was whipped out… The planet Neo also had these cyborgs appear, but they were the only threat to erge.
More Dominous Hood grunts and higher staff appeared, the latter with an assortnt of normal levels of dangerous-looking weaponry and artefacts, but quite a deal less than I would’ve thought. It was mostly built stuff, then Dungeon artefacts which they were sure to have a lot of.
Then I felt a large surge of mana and other mixtures of energy, as they were being empowered by sothing not from this realm.
Gears popped into existence and created massive hulking monstrosities around the size of normal G2 chs. Which caused many people to imdiately open fire.
I could feel the energy being pulled from deep within the base and could see the streams that lead down to it.
With the seals on the deepest depths of the Dominous Hood’s base opened, I could see through the light another stupid Dominous Hood idiot, a piece of shit, and likely the biggest scum of them all, attached to a throne of organic tal that pulsed with various artefacts implented into it, with thousands more connected via gross tal wires.
I understood the goal.
A faux Spiritual Being.
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