Intergalactic conquest with an AI-Chapter 351: Night glow. {7} losing it all.
Then, like the toll of a funeral bell, it came... the high, crystalline shriek of shattering mirrors. The barrier exploded inward in a glittering hail, and the warbeast's snarling maw filled his vision.
"Push them back while we retreat to the second defensive line! Prepare the explosives NOW!"
The mercenary captain's voice roared over the cacophony of battle, his laser sword humming as it cleaved through the air, splitting the skull of a smaller warbeast in two with a searing hiss.
The creature's bisected head fell to the ground, its lifeless eyes still twitching with residual instinct. But his momentary triumph was met with brutal retribution.
Before he could react, the warbeast's clawed limb, a grotesque, sinewy appendage lined with serrated talons, lashed out in a death spasm.
The captain's arm, unprotected by even basic armor since it was a luxury far beyond the budget of low-tier mercs like them, offered no resistance. The flesh parted like wet parchment, his limb severed cleanly at the elbow. Blood sprayed in a crimson arc, painting the dirt beneath his boots.
"Old man!"
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Aron's scream tore through the chaos as he charged forward, his rifle discarded in his desperation to reach the wounded captain. But in his haste, he left his back exposed... and that turned out to be a fatal mistake.
One of the warbeasts, its whip-like tail glistening with fresh blood, struck like a scorpion's sting.
The barbed tip punched through Aron's chest with a sickening crunch, erupting from his sternum in a shower of gore. His body stiffened, eyes wide with shock, before collapsing into the mud like a broken marionette.
"N-NOOO!"
The captain's grief erupted into blind fury.... he emptied his magazine into the warbeast's hide, but the copper-jacketed rounds merely sparked against its thick, scaly skin.
This was no ordinary beast; it was Tier 2, a predator that laughed at small-arms fire. The creature turned its grotesque, almost-humanoid face toward him, its maw splitting into a jagged grin of needle-like teeth. It delighted in his despair.
But suddenly a thunderous barrage of high-caliber rounds rained down from above, shredding the warbeast's flesh and severing its tail mid-lash. The beast howled, more annoyed than pained, before retreating into the writhing tide of its kin.
"Old man! What the hell are you doing?! Aron's gone! MOVE!"
Rick's voice was a lifeline. Perched atop their armored transport, he manned the mounted heavy machine gun, its barrel still smoking from the burst that had driven the beast back.
The captain's gaze flickered between Rick and Aron's corpse… his glassy eyes, the gaping ruin of his chest....
"Y-yes… You're right, Rick. Let's get out of—"
But before he could finish speaking, a searing lance of energy brighter than the sun erased the transport in an instant.
The shockwave rippled outward, flattening half the village in a firestorm of molten metal and shattered stone. When the captain's vision cleared, there was no sign of Rick... only smoldering wreckage.
"R-Rick…?"
His knees hit the ground. The world narrowed to the charred remains of the vehicle, the stench of burning fuel and flesh clogging his throat. Then, a shadow fell over him.
Looming above the devastation stood a monster, a seven-meter-tall abomination, its armored hide bristling with organic weaponry. The air around its maw shimmered with residual heat, the telltale sign of another charged laser blast.
"...FUCKING BEASTS!"
The captain staggered upright with his teeth clenched while he drew his sidearm. One-handed, he fired... each round pinging harmlessly off the warbeast's hide.
It was less than a mosquito bite to the beast, but enough to draw its attention. The creature's maw yawned open, energy coalescing into a killing light.
{Ha… What the hell am I doing? A merc's first rule is survival... not playing hero. But… they killed my boys. My family... Fine. Kiddos… Save me a drink in hell.}
He closed his eyes and in the next instant the world turned white.
{Mmm? This is taking too long... Hasn't the beast eaten its breakfast today or what?}
The old captain cracked open a single eye, half-expecting to see nothing but the blinding embrace of death. Instead, his vision was filled with a searing, crackling beam of energy that was frozen mid-air, mere inches from his face.
Since a barrier was just inches away from his face... Not just any barrier, but a shimmering, honeycomb-like dome of pure white energy, its hexagonal segments pulsing with an otherworldly glow.
The warbeast's laser strained against it, distorting the air like heat haze, yet failing to pierce through. "W-what the hell is happening...?" the captain asked with his voice hoarse from smoke and exhaustion.
His gaze darted around. The barrier encased what little remained of the village, its translucent walls humming with latent power. Inside, the surviving mercs still fought... desperate, bloodied, but now with renewed hope as the tide turned in their favor.
Then he saw them... flying Swords....
Dozens... no, hundreds of gleaming blades, hovering mid-air like a storm of silver. They moved with lethal precision, carving through the warbeast's flesh as if it were parchment.
Limbs were severed, torsos split, and monstrous heads rolled across the ground before their owners even realized they were dead.
And then... light.... a brilliance so pure it hurt to look at.
The captain's eyes lifted, squinting against the radiance... and there, hovering above the battlefield like a vengeful seraph, was a winged figure.
Clad in armor so pristine it seemed forged from moonlight itself, the being's massive wings, feathered in blinding white, spread wide, casting an ethereal glow over the carnage below.
Golden filigree traced the edges of his pauldrons and greaves, pulsing with an inner fire. If this wasn't divine intervention, then nothing in this damned world was sacred.
As the last warbeast inside the barrier collapsed into a twitching heap, the floating swords returned, orbiting the celestial warrior like a halo of steel.
{Reporting! All hostiles within the barrier have been eliminated, Boss!}
The voice was high-pitched, almost playful... yet it came from a tiny, armored figure perched atop one of the swords. A miniature knight, no taller than a bird, her visor tipped up to reveal a grinning face.
The winged warrior merely nodded.
"Mmm. Good work." His voice was calm, yet it carried the weight of a man who had long since grown accustomed to war. "Now then... I suppose it's time for a proper cleanup. Mini Cleo, prepare the materials for the Emperor's Sword."
His gaze swept over the endless sea of warbeasts beyond the barrier. Thousands. Tens of thousands. A tide of fangs and claws, their roars shaking the earth.
But before he could act....
"There's no need for that, Young Emperor."
A new figure emerged from the rift in space beside him, her fire-red hair cascading over shoulders clad in battle armor. Her voice was serene, yet beneath it thrummed the quiet confidence of a warrior who had danced with gods.
"After our battle with the Blood Clan's Tier 6, I took the liberty of crafting it... and storing it within the spatial rift for moments such as this."
A smirk tugged at the corner of Rex's mouth.
"Well then," he said while folding his arms as the air around them began to tremble with gathering power. "Let's do that."
The winged warrior raised his colossal sword, its blade humming with restrained power. With a single, deliberate motion, he pointed it toward the writhing tide of warbeasts like a silent command.
Then, the sky split open.
A deafening roar echoed from the heavens as a monstrous silhouette descended, wreathed in crimson energy. Its massive form blotted out the sun, its scales glowing like molten lava.
two wings, each lined with jagged spines, spread wide as it hovered midair, radiating primal dominance.
"BE CAREFUL! LOOK TO THE SKY!" The old captain's voice was raw with panic. He stumbled back, certain the winged savior hadn't noticed the new threat.
But then...he felt it.... a gaze.
Even through the helmet's impassive visor, the captain knew the warrior was looking at him, not in alarm, but with eerie calm. As if to say: "Watch."
The crimson beast halted its descent, suspended effortlessly. Its maw yawned open, revealing rows of serrated fangs and then it roared.
The shockwave of the roar shattered the ground. Dust and debris erupted like geysers as the very earth trembled.
And then hell rained down....
Thousands of searing lasers erupted from the beast's body, lancing through the warbeast tide like divine wrath. Flesh vaporized. Bones turned to ash. The stench of charred meat filled the air as the beams carved through the horde with surgical precision.
But the horror wasn't over.
The beast's maw glowed white-hot with a plasma beam, thicker than an ancient tree, erupting forth. It swept across the battlefield, annihilating the largest warbeasts in an instant.
The Tier 2 monstrosities, once unstoppable, were reduced to screaming silhouettes before dissolving into nothingness.
The assault lasted only minutes.
When the light faded, less than a hundred warbeasts remained... crippled, limbless, their bodies smoldering. The survivors writhed, their agonized screeches a grim chorus.
"Young Emperor," Zynaria murmured while bowing slightly. "The warbeasts have been eliminated. The remnants will perish within minutes."
"Well done, Little Red." His voice was affectionate.
Then, his helmet tilted upward, scanning the empty sky.
"Now... I wonder if our friends will bother showing themselves... or if they'd rather hide like rats."
His words were sharp and deliberate. Every survivor froze, their eyes darting skyward. And the heavens answered.
A sound like shattering glass filled the air as six rifts tore open across the horizon. From each stepped a figure clad in blood-red armor, their auras suffocating those weaker than them.
"T-THE FUCKING BLOOD CLAN! WAS IT THEM WHO DID THIS?!" a mercenary screamed, his voice cracking with rage and terror.
