{W-Wait! You forgot your weapons!}

  I ignored her for the time being and flew down towards the Leviathan. Nestled in between two buildings on top of it was my Heat-Blade and Blue Radiant.

  {Oh... You left them here??}

  I didn't know what was waiting for us on the other side of the gate after all. It would've been devastating if they were destroyed before I was able to use them.

  And they might have been broken in some way by that green flame too. So I'm glad Shizue told me to leave them here just in case.

  For now, I left the Heat-Blade (its an enormous weapon and not something to carry around until you know you need it) and picked up the Blue Radiant. After that, I went back to waiting for the Titan to appear.

  {How is the Leviathan taking this much damage...?}

  It was almost impossible to see anything past the front and right side of the Leviathan because of the light show taking place in those directions. Any physical ammunition resulting in explosions obviously wouldn't erupt in a ball of fire as usual, thanks to us being in space, but all of the magic and energy weapons pelting the Leviathan's barrier were a different story.

  It looked devastating, but the others were certain that the Leviathan could handle this much for a little while. All that mattered was that we needed to stop them from focusing the Leviathan as soon as possible.

  Belfos and his Lords came through the portal and quickly made a mad dash toward the right. A few moments later the thing I had been waiting for had finally arrived as well.

  There's the Titan, get ready---

  {Mother, wait. They want you in the munitions bay now.}

  Already?! What changed?

  The initial plan had been to delay it as long as possible, since we weren't sure if the Velashar had anything that could sense me through my veil, so we were going to use the A-2W's when the enemy was being hit on every front, not when they could all take aim at the bomb and me - which would result in me being eviscerated. It wasn't even a question in my mind that if the bomb went off while I was riding it, that I would die before I even realized what happened.

  {The Machine God and its minions are swinging around toward the left side. They began moving like that the moment the Titan appeared.}

  ... Wonderful, so we don't have a choice then. It's now or never if we don't want to lose the Titan.

  I put the Blue Radiant down and flew toward the front of the Leviathan. When I was nearing the cockpit I dropped down on its left side until I found the opening I had practiced flying through so many times the past month.

  I reached the end of the 'Tube' just as the twelve people inside the room had finished priming one of the A-2W's.

  "Whenever you're ready, Captain." Clover said over the intercoms.

  I hopped up onto the back of the A-2W and made part of my armor stick to it. We had practiced this part many times, and I was definitely ready to do it, but it was quite possibly the most unease I had ever felt. If I were still in a living body, I would've been shaking all over.

  "Hit it." I nodded to the group of people staring at me from a control panel thirty feet to my right. The man at the front nodded back and pushed up a lever on the panel. Four of the others then took up positions near different small buttons and placed their palms over them as Clover counted down from ten.

  I looked through one of my skeleton's eyes (a Scout I placed at the front-left side of the Leviathan). The Machine God was just passing by the portal. Below him, there was three Praetorians and over thirty Deathbringers. The only Daemons in sight were firing at the Leviathan from far off to the right, but their numbers were obviously lacking. Most of them were probably inside of the God's pauldrons.

  "3... 2... 1..."

  There wasn't really any need, but I grabbed onto the missile's 'Wings' on each side as Clover said 'One'. The four Missile Bay operators then pushed the four buttons simultaneously, and immediately the A-2W launched into the tube. I removed my halo and covered the the missile and I in my aura.

  There was no 'Light' through the missile's flight systems, so I wasn't in danger of taking extreme damage from covering it with my aura.

  We exited the tube and the A-2W made a hard turn toward the right while ascending toward the starlit sky. On the way I could see the Machine God hovering over the ground, heading toward the left at a far greater speed than I was able to move while flying earlier. And apparently it didn't care about anything that was in its way, because it was knocking over Velashar tanks and outright destroying buildings as it went. Whatever was in its path was fair game.

  As the A-2W reached the height it needed, circular directed blue lights appeared from the Velashar's ship. There was dozens of them and they were wildly moving to and fro all around us. It proved that our fears of a Velashar scanner piercing my veil weren't unfounded, but from the way the lights were moving, it was clear that they only had a vague sense that something was amiss.

  The A-2W's maneuverability wasn't the best, but Clover was doing a good job of avoiding the lights. For a time he was anyway. One of the lights eventually hit the A-2W and immediately all of the lights turned and locked onto us. They weren't powerful lights, so they weren't harming me by themselves. No, their real purpose was made clear less than a second after they had locked onto us.

  'Targeting system' I saw Clover say on the console as a quarter (the laser systems) of the ship's weapons turned away from the Leviathan toward us instead.

  Luna!!

  She cast a barrier over both the A-2W and I as one long-range laser after another slammed into us. I considered dropping the aura since the gig was up, but we were halfway to the Machine God, and apparently whatever the Velashar were attacking was of no interest to him. Perhaps they didn't know another one of those world-ending bombs was heading their way, or they straight up didn't care, because the Praetorians weren't looking up at us either.

  The Machine God and his forces had turned in our direction while the Velashar were trying to locate us, making the distance between us and them shrink much faster. But at the same time, that meant they were well-away from the portal and a large portion of the Velashar's base now. It was a shame we couldn't hit both at the same time, but stopping the Machine God from destroying the Titan was all that mattered right now.

  The light on the console lit up just as I was bringing back my veil and activating my halo. Clover clearly agreed that this was as far as I could go without risking certain death.

  The Machine God and all of the Praetorians looked up at the A-2W. The God slid to a halt and raised his right hand, charging an unknown spell at the bomb that we could only see the vague outline of at this point, but whatever it was, it was half as big as the God itself.

  ... It's too late, Mr. Machine God. I idly thought to myself as I flew at an angle toward the ground as fast as I could. It was never going to be possible for me to return to the Leviathan in time, and even though we could anchor the Titan to my soul, it was impossible for it to pull me back, so there was only one thing I could do. Create some distance, hit the ground, and hope it was enough.

  The Machine God's spell finished charging, and the result was a wall of plasma flying through space at a speed and size that Clover could and would never be able to avoid.

  The objective was clear; it intended to melt the bomb with a blast so large the bomb couldn't avoid it, and that's exactly what it did. The A-2W was melted the moment it contacted the wall of plasma, but unfortunately for the God, that's when the whole area turned a bright white.

  This time I had managed to punch out a hole in the ground big enough for me to fit into as everything turned white. It wasn't necessary for the shockwave, as there wouldn't be one in space, but I was close enough to get hit by the explosion itself, which was evident by the massive amount of damage I incurred from above. I was curled into a ball face down, and I could feel most of the back of my armor breaking apart. It wasn't entirely gone, but it was far from reliable now.

  Malafir! How long would it take to repair the shattered armor on my back side if I went back to Caedrus right now?!

  {Ten minutes... Maybe fifteen.}

  Shit... That's way too slow. I'll just have to make sure I don't take any fatal hits from behind. Easier said than done in this environment though.

  I jumped out of the hole and landed in a pit of darkness. And here it is again... Luna, can you tell if the A-2W's fallout zone extends all the way over to the Velashar's ship?

  {It doesn't, but it's very close to it. Why? I thought we were destroying the portal? Err, I mean, finding the buildings that protect the portal?}

  That was before I saw just how many weapons their ship has. Obviously Yulong and the others expected them to have some powerful weapons, but that's far too much devastation hitting the Leviathan.

  I leaped backwards as my instincts screamed at me to dodge. As I landed, Luna summoned several spherical lights around the area, which highlighted a Praetorian creating a white sphere in front of it.

  Something smashed into me from ahead as I was preparing to dash forward in an attempt to stop the Praetorian from freezing the area. Whatever it was, I had only sensed it as it hit me, so I hadn't been prepared for it at all.

  Despite being in low gravity, I hit the ground behind me hard. It was the kind of hit that would knock any living being out instantly, which thankfully was unrelated to me, as I was still fully aware when Luna's light spheres lit up my assailant. It was a Deathbringer missing half of its torso and its left arm.

  I hadn't forgotten how fast those abominations were. It's more that it was nearly impossible to avoid them when I couldn't see them. Senses alone weren't enough.

  The Deathbringer disappeared off to the left as I saw another Deathbringer's silhouette dash past the Praetorian toward the right.

  {R-Rei...!} Luna weakly said as the fallout hit us. All sound vanished as Luna's light spheres whisked out for a moment. She had to forcibly power them up enough to overpower the fallout, which left her weakened combat wise. But it was necessary, sadly.

  Ahh... So this is how it feels.

  {Huh?}

  She was clearly confused, but I didn't enlighten her. I was too busy relishing the weird scene playing out in front of me. Being on the receiving end of an invisible enemy that could hit you from anywhere at any time, made for a very unique experience.

  But the moment didn't last for very long. Powerful beams of light appeared from behind me, lighting up the Machine God and his army that was descending upon the Leviathan. Although, the God itself was doing no such thing. It was on one knee with its right palm placed over its upper-left torso - which was almost entirely gone.

  Whoa... The A-2W really damaged him that much?

  Even if it had been heavily damaged, it appeared it wasn't going to last for long. Its torso was healing fast. And strangely enough, that weird void in its pauldrons that it used to suck up all of its Daemons was still there even though the pauldron housing it had been destroyed. Daemons were pouring out of it and slowly falling toward the ground as they took pot shots at the Leviathan (which I still couldn't see).

  Wait, I still can't see it? Why isn't the Levia---

  The world turned a bright white again as another A-2W exploded above the Machine God. The two Deathbringers had just dashed toward me from both sides, but the explosion forced them and me to hit the ground and guard ourselves.

  Through the Titan's lights I could see more of the Machine God disintegrate. Its head, part of its right pauldron, and most of its torso vanished almost instantly. But it didn't fall down or change its current action. It just sat there and continued to heal itself. In fact, by the time the two Deathbringers had jumped up and prepared to attack me again, I could see the Machine God's recently destroyed right pauldron already well on its way to being fully repaired.

  I flew up past the Titan's light beams, high into the pitch blackness until I could see a starry sky again. The Machine God was far beyond my capabilities, and it was the others job to handle the Machines and the Daemons anyway. I was needed elsewhere.

  I flew just above the pitch black dome that was blocking out everything from below. Once I exited the dome, I couldn't see any of the lights inside of it anymore, so there would be no way of knowing who was winning or losing without re-entering it later.

  As I flew, I watched through Malafir's eyes as he and Belfos made a mad dash for the Velashar's ship. They had wrapped around it, and strangely enough, it wasn't firing at them. In fact, it was pitch black and silent until they were nearly on top of the thing. Lights went up all around it as laser weapons finally began to fire on them, but it was only a few at first, and before it even slightly became a problem they were already at the base of the ship.

  Belfos' channeled into his three Lords, increasing their speed and power by a tremendous amount right before they smashed into the ship. And just like what I remembered seeing at that Xerath's hive back in Termia, they smashed right through its outer wall as if it was paper. There was a quick suction of air as whatever oxygen was in that part of the ship escaped (sending a few Velashar - without their suits on - tumbling through space).

  As I was nearing the end of the black dome, something grabbed my ankle and threw me down with an extreme amount of force. I tried my best to slow down, but in the end I still smashed into the ground on the right side of the Leviathan, which meant that I lost a massive chunk of mana thanks to my missing back armor.

  I tried refilling it through the ether generators on the Leviathan, but that's when I discovered they were completely maxed out. The Velashar were gathering up most of the ether in the area through their buildings, and mine were just barely pulling in enough to keep my army afloat.

  I flipped over and dodged forward, avoiding the one-armed Deathbringer as it smashed into the ground I was laying in moments before. The Machine was surrounded by a strange aura, but the ether emanating off of it was clear. It was Praetorian ether.

  One of those fuckers must've cast something on this Deathbringer. That's why it was able to grab me all the way up there...

  I had noticed it earlier as well, but the eyes on its armor were still present, which meant that it was keeping them inside its armor instead of letting them out to curse those around it.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  They had finally learned to not use them with me around.

  The Deathbringer 'Dashed' at me, but from my point of view it looked like it was twenty feet away and then the next thing I knew it was in front of me. I leaned back, avoiding its attack while flying up into the air and kicking its left shin with both feet. The Machine buckled for a moment, and as its head came down I smashed it hard with my right fist, sending it tumbling over the ground until I lost sight of it in the pitch blackness.

  {How did you see that?! I didn't even see it move!}

  ... Me either, I think.

  Truly, I didn't know how I did that either, but now that it was away from me I flew up onto the Leviathan and quickly found my heat-blade. Even though I wasn't in battle yet I still turned it on right away, since it needed about a minute to 'Rev-up', or so Shizue had said.

  The light show playing out around the Leviathan and the complete lack of sound was jarring no matter how many times I saw it. The Leviathan was still taking heavy fire from outside the dome as it fired continuously into the Machine God. For its part, it was still trying to heal, but since the Leviathan was focusing it now, it wasn't making much headway. However, the Leviathan wasn't able to finish it either, and Clover had told us that firing more than two A-2W's in a single area would result in all of our deaths (something about breaking causality), so this was all it could do for now until Asmodeous was ready.

  I was getting ready to fly toward the ship again when an aura hit me. It was far off to the left of the battlefield, but it was a very familiar aura. One that shouldn't exist.

  {... Mother.}

  ........

  {What? What?!}

  Malafir was inside some type of warehouse (where they broke into the spaceship) with Belfos, slowly making his way forward as hordes of Velashar fired upon them. The Skeleton Giants that were in the underbelly of Belfos' Lords were at the forefront with hulking tower shields. For the time being, they were holding up, but cracks were beginning to form so it was only a matter of time before the slow advance turned into a full on charge.

  Ahh, now I know why Atraxu is over there... Malafir, we're going to destroy as much of the ship as possible and then go take of Atraxu and his new 'Friend'. We need to stop her before she starts building.

  {Agreed.}

  I flew up into the pitch blackness yet again. On the way, I saw Asmodeous' barrage of spells begin to decimate the Machine God. Multiple casts of Hellfire, the land was turning to lava, and about a dozen other spells were being chain cast. He said that they were storing spells on that floating rock of his, but I had no idea of what to expect until I actually saw it.

  The worst one appeared to be a fiery bright orange ball that was floating above the God. It was so hot, that it was fighting back the God's regeneration all by itself. And I could even see the Leviathan's barrier flaring up despite being a good distance away from it, which is probably why they were turning away from the God now. Looks like it was time for them to attack the Velashar and their portal.

  I exited the dark zone and kept going up until I had enough distance between it and I that I'd be able to see a Deathbringer coming at me (or at least I hoped I would).

  Through the dark zone I could feel all of my forces on this side waiting at the edge of the zone. Both them and all of the Elven forces (Power Armor and Mech units) were waiting for the Leviathan to appear on the other side, and once they did, the full assault would finally begin. We never really hoped to kill the Machine God first after all. The plan was to keep it busy until he and whatever was left of his forces were all that was left, and then we'd have the time required to melt that abomination.

  Almost none of the Velashar were looking at me as I flew over them. However, the Xerath in power armor near the portal were all staring at me. It was obvious that their orders from Atraxu had designated me as enemy number one.

  The Velashar's ship began firing again as I neared it. A took a quick glance back and saw my forces and the Leviathan emerging from the dark void.

  I found it interesting that none of the ships fifty or so side weapons were firing at me. Either Atraxu didn't tell them about me, or they just didn't care.

  I flew down toward the ship and landed on the top side of it. One punch from me only cracked the top of the armor, and while the heat-blade was struggling to get through it too, it was also a constant form of damage. So all I had to do was hold it against the hull and eventually everything began to crack. All in all, it took me about thirty seconds to form a hole in the top layer of the hull. After that I had to cut through several more layers, but they were easy to get through.

  I had to wait for the oxygen to get fully sucked out of whatever area I had just cut into, but once that was done I jumped down and was immediately hit with six streaks of constant red-colored electricity. I looked to my right and there was six seven-foot tall aliens there in strange-looking Power Armor. Their 'Helmets' had no front, so the lack of oxygen either didn't affect them, or the front visor was invisible to the naked eye. Either way, I could see their disgusting lipless mouths twisted in rage as they fired upon me.

  I ignored them and their electric attacks as I scanned the room. It appeared to be a mess hall of some sort. It was hard to tell with how the room was full of vats and cords, but I saw a bunch of bowls and a creamy liquid of some sort strewn all over the place, so that was my best guess.

  Luna, the largest array of weapons that were firing, can you direct me to them?

  A white light appeared in my vision and as I was turning toward it something 'Exploded' near my right leg, causing the armor to break apart in some areas.

  I fully intended on ignoring the electric-weapon wielders since I had far more pressing matters, but if they had explosives on hand that could damage my armor, then I had to see them as a far greater threat.

  I turned and flew toward the group of Velashar who appeared to be priming a new smaller weapon (five of them were channeling into them while the sixth took aim at me), which I assumed to be where that explosion had come from.

  An ethereal fist shot out of me and grabbed the Velashar on the far right who had already primed his weapon. He then turned and shot his weapon into the Velashar in the middle of the pack. The one who was directly hit had his face smashed in by his helmet, while the others were flown across the room in different directions.

  I took a quick glance down at the dead Velashar, noting that the face-area of their helmets did exist, as this ones was now visible, it's just that they appeared to be see-through until they were broken.

  They had all dropped their small weapons, so after picking one up I flew off into the wide hallway behind me.

  The whole ship was kind of well-lit. They had the same alarm-type lights that we used, which was the three-sixty lights that spun in circles during emergencies. So I could see everything, but I'm sure there were plenty of dark spots for the average person.

  I turned into something shaped like an elevator shaft, except it didn't have an elevator, which made it easier for me to fly down to the level I needed to reach.

  The whole ship shook as the engine's fuel tanks exploded. Belfos had split off from the others and found the engine room a few minutes ago, and after making quick work of the ten Velashar there, he began to cut everything and anything he could see.

  There's barely any Velashar inside the ship, but I saw thousands, maybe even tens of thousands of them out there... Did they think we wouldn't infiltrate their ship?

  I reached the level I was aiming for at turned to exit when I saw a gun barrel half the size of my body aiming at me. I dodged below it just as it fired, creating a gigantic hole in the wall behind me.

  I grabbed the weapon and yanked the ten foot behemoth (in the heaviest looking Power Armor I had seen to date) toward me before kicking into its knee with both of my feet, just like I had done to the Deathbringer earlier. The armor on its knee shattered, but the behemoth's leg barely moved as it attempted to grab me.

  There was another Velashar here as well, which began firing some type of automatic green energy weapon at me from the floating disc (with a chair in the middle) it was sitting on. I took a few hits as I dodged the behemoth's grab attack and while flying away toward the white light in the distance. I kept an eye behind me, moving back and forth to avoid the annoyingly-fast firing energy weapon and the one large round the Behemoth fired at me before I lost sight of them. As I flew, I began channeling a gravity spell (inspired by Atraxu's spell he hit us with in the docking bay) I learned while we drove over the bridge last month. I expected a lot of resistance in the next area, so it was the perfect time to try it out.

  I turned right into the room where the white light was, finding a group of fifty or more enemies waiting for me. All three of the Velashar types I had encountered so far were present, with four more I hadn't seen yet. And most surprising of all, was that there were two overgrown scaly and horned reptilian monsters channeling something in their mouths as they glared at me.

  Or at least, I thought it was a channel at first glance. However, they only 'channeled' for a few seconds before exhaling a massive wave of fire at me. That's when I realized that the room was full of oxygen, which also explained why I felt like I had flown through something as I entered the room. There was some type of transparent film covering the room - protecting it from the vacuum of space in the hallway behind me.

  Luna placed a barrier over me as I flew straight into the flames. Avoiding them would've been easy, but I could see all of the Velashar aiming at different points, waiting to see which direction I'd flee to. These were unknown monsters to me, so I wasn't entirely certain if this was the best course of action, but if it worked out I'd be closing the gap between me and them while under the cover of 'Fire'.

  The flames washed over me, and immediately I realized it was a mistake. First; the flames went right through Luna's barrier. There were plenty of spells and physical occurrences that could cancel or highly damage a barrier, but this was the first time I had seen something pass through a barrier as if it wasn't even there.

  And the other thing that happened was quite possibly the most dangerous interaction I had ever encountered. Large portions of the flames went straight through my nose and began to burn up my insides. My blackened blood wasn't weak to fire or ice, but it definitely wasn't resilient to it either. I could feel large portions of my insides breaking apart at an alarming rate as both they and Luna tried to repair them. Pretty much the only organ I had (aside from my two cores) was the one that produced my blood, and I had never lost it before now, so I wasn't even sure of what was going to happen if the fire completely destroyed it.

  I broke through the fire and punched the gravity spell into the surprised-looking Velashar in front of me. He flew backwards, slamming into one of the lizard monsters, and almost immediately the gravity spell activated, sucking everything within a forty yard radius toward him - including me.

  I raised the heat-blade into the air as I flew toward the group of Velashar smashing into the one with the gravity mark on it. The only ones that were able to resist it, were the hulking heavy plated ones, and the types floating on disc-shaped objects (some were literally just on floating chairs with guns attached to them).

  Three Skeleton Giants and a small horde of Soldiers flooded into the room, attacking the seven Velashar that were unaffected by my gravity spell. The Giants grabbed onto the behemoths arms, stopping them from raising their weapons, while the Soldiers chased after the floaters shooting at them as they moved backwards.

  When I reached the group I slashed diagonally through them, tearing through the three on the outer left side (lightly armored five foot tall Velashar) as parts of their armor and bodies bubbled until they exploded, showering everyone near by in super-heated vitriol. But the blade needed time to get through the Velashar I had encountered in the mess hall earlier. Time I didn't have.

  Luna was running low on her own mana at this point and had to borrow mine as she grabbed the Velashar on the far right side that was beginning to steady himself. Borrowing mana was a difficult process, even for her, so she didn't have enough to force him to shoot at his allies, but it was enough to hold him still, making the other Velashar trying to get up kind of stuck between him and the lizard behind them.

  The one at the front tried moving forward so I kicked him back, but he was quickly pushed forward again by his allies stuck behind him. It resulted in a quick back and forth as we continued pushing and kicking him in both directions, but as I cut through the tenth Velashar they must have realized that time wasn't on their side, so the one behind him opened fire on his back. His armor was eating all of the bullets for a bit, but eventually they pierced through and began to hit me as well.

  At this point, I was dangerously low on mana. The fire had done severe damage to my insides and I was struggling to take in more mana. Without Malafir, I would've lost all of my units (Belfos aside) there and then.

  I finally cut through the last of the Velashar as my mana hit rock bottom. The last ones made the same wretched-looking face as the others when the blade melted their insides.

  That's when I finally realized that the lizards hadn't done a single thing to help their masters. I looked up and saw that the lizard was deathly silent with blood and other visceral liquids pouring out of its mouth. The other had the same appearance as well, which made sense when I noticed that the oxygen in the room had disappeared.

  Two Casters of mine were over by the door melting a long electrical panel. Or at least I thought it was an electrical panel.

  I removed my halo and turned invisible before running over to a corner of the room away from the fighting still going on. Once there, I saw down and began to meditate.

  Luna went into stasis as she assisted in the healing process, and I could feel Malafir nearby soon after that. He poured mana into me directly while aiding in the repairs. The core in my head was mostly fine, but the one in my chest was barely holding on, and the conduit that created my blood had shut off completely.

  Which as it turns out, is far more vital than I imagined. I couldn't regenerate mana, I couldn't receive mana injections from a distance through Malafir (or anyone probably), and repairing anything took much much longer without a steady stream of blood.

  Fortunately, Malafir was able to inject his own into my body, which sped up the healing process. It was better if he injected the blood straight into the broken organ though, so he had to puncture a hole through my armor and chest, but it was a small price to pay. And my armor was mostly destroyed at this point anyway.

  The battle in the room was concluding while that was going on. The Giants kept the Behemoths locked down as the Soldiers broke through the floaters barriers. Although, it was far from a clean victory in the end. Despite the fact that my Soldiers were wearing armor that was only one step down from mine, and that they outnumbered the Velashar by sixty to three, over fifty of them died before finally killing the last Velashar. And if the Casters weren't there to support them, they would have all died before even bringing down one of them.

  Malafir had to stop assisting me so he could go kill the Behemoths. The remaining Soldiers and two Casters were having a really hard time breaking through their Power Armor. He picked up my heat-blade and held it against the Behemoth's helmets until it eventually burned all the way through.

  While healing, I stole a quick glance through the eyes of my Skeletons outside, or what was left of them anyway. I sent most of my army toward the ship with Belfos, so there were only a few hundred out there, but to say they were faring horribly would be an understatement.

  The push toward the portal was still ongoing, and the Velashar must've called for reinforcements, because there was an endless stream of vehicles and units pouring out of the portal.

  That wasn't much of a concern though. It should have been, but when you have the Leviathan on your side and its focusing most of its attacks on the portal then practically nothing coming out of it was surviving the onslaught.

  The portal itself held strong through it all, but Clover said we should expect as much. The Velashar had 'Damage absorption' buildings linked to the others through a network of underground connections, so unless we hit the portal with a ungodly amount of damage, the only other way to bring it down was to find the buildings absorbing the damage. Or to destroy them up close with persistent damaging weapons like the heat-blades, but that was easier said than done.

  With the Leviathan focusing on the portal, it was everyone else's job to push forward and destroy those buildings, and while they were pushing, it was nowhere near as fast as we needed it to be.

  The Praetorians were bad enough before, but having an entire army of Machines and Velashar firing at the Titan was a completely different beast, and not one that it could handle. It was forced to hide behind the Leviathan, which meant that its barrier replenishing aura wasn't really being used, and that it had to assist everyone through medium-range teleportations. Those ate up way more energy, and it took our units out of the battle for far too long.

  This situation really made me understand what the others had been saying before about the Titan. Apparently, it wasn't even finished. This was a prototype version. The finished product was meant to have a system that would drain or deflect any long ranged attacks used against it. This was so it could actually serve its purpose as a towering support mech that would continuously push forward, while forcing the enemy to engage it up close if they wanted to destroy it. The fact that anything could attack it from any range was severely limiting what we could do with it, and it showed. If it was finished, the battle for the portal would be going very differently right there.

  The ship had been vibrating all over the place as Belfos, his Lords, and my units ripped through it, but I was still taken by surprise when everything began to fall down toward my right side. I looked through Belfos' eyes real quick and saw that he had given up looking for 'Important parts' of the ship, and just decided to cut away at the hull everywhere he could. He was slicing through it as his Lords rammed through different parts of the hull over and over. And their work was paying off, as this side of the ship was falling apart now that it had lost so much of its support.

  {It appears we are unneeded here, Mother. This is a good thing, but now we must decide wisely. Are we to attack the portal, or Atraxu?}

  {Atraxu!!!} Luna shouted before I could respond, genuinely surprising me.

  I want to kill him too, even though it's just a splinter, but is there a specific reason you want to go after him right now instead of helping at the portal?

  {That uh, Naza... Nazasheer? Her aura is expanding very very very fast over there! I think she's already made those generators of yours, and like, other things...?}

  She's moving much faster than I had hoped for... And from what I learned through Yulong, she could only be revived in the Abyss. Which means that Atraxu opened a portal there somehow.

  Luna, do you sense any other auras? Anything different from Atraxu or Naza'shier?

  {No.}

  So it was either a warp that only those two took, or there really is a portal over there and only those two came back through it so far. Hopefully it's the first, but regardless, we need to investigate and stop Naza'shier before she becomes a major problem.

  Malafir, send the three Scouts we have on standby in the Leviathan over toward Atraxu. And you start heading over there as well, but avoid the battlefield, obviously.

  {What are we doing??}

  The part of the ship we were in was about to hit the ground, so I dove out and ran a good distance away from the ship before sitting down to finish healing myself.

  I know you don't want to, but we're going to try and find the buildings preventing the portal from being destroyed. Shizue said they use an enormous amount of energy, which they were hoping would help them pinpoint their locations with the Leviathan's radar systems, but if they knew where they were, the Leviathan would be firing directly at them instead of the portal.

  Or the ground units would be aiming for somewhere other than the portal. Either way, it's clear that they don't know where they are.

  I ordered the two Scouts inside the Velashar's ship to begin running toward the city. With them and I there was a decent chance we could find at least one of the buildings fast enough to make an impact on the battle.

  Assuming the Velashar weren't able to detect us, that is.

  And it was sadly already proven during the A-2W launch that they had technology that could pierce my veil. So now it was more of a question about whether the city they repaired had the same level of soul-scanning tech that the ship had.