Chapter 2399: Reign of Monsters
The Unending One's full might was more terrible than Ves had ever imagined. Previously, he fought against the avatars of the tentacled whale. These projected vessels only contained a fraction of the dark god's strength, so overcoming them with the Larkinson Clan's existing means shouldn't be too challenging.
Yet how could Ves ever expect that the dark gods worshipped by the Hallowed Abyss Temple would ever condescend to arrive onto the battlefield with their real selves?
This was a catastrophe for the Larkinsons! The strength of these dark gods in the 'flesh' exceeded that of every entity on the side of the Larkinson Clan!
When the Inexorable One's true spirit descended upon her projection, the pinprick attacks inflicted by Venerable Tusa custom mech no longer managed to pierce her feather and hide.
Though fast and untouchable, the Blueshift's offensive capabilities were too weak! Light skirmishers were some of the worst mechs to employ against huge god-like creatures. Not even the exceptional nature of the Blueshift's Unending daggers changed the fact that they resembled pinpricks when compared to the enormous grey bird's bulk!
It didn't help that of the four expert candidates who underwent apotheosis, Venerable Tusa's breakthrough was weaker than the others. No spirit boosted his advance. Only his Blueshift supported him in his transformation, thereby leaving with precious little help in his attempts to hinder the hostile grey bird!
"Why are you so strong?! Why can't I hurt you anymore?!"
After adjusting to her new circumstances, the Inexorable One no longer bothered with the annoying fly that previously hindered her from displaying her might. Even as Venerable Tusa desperately directed his mech to stab the big grey bird in the eyes, his daggers barely sank into the spiritual body before stopping.
As a spiritual existence, the Inexorable One did not suffer any vision loss. To the dark god, such attacks were incredibly trivial, so much so that the grey bird already set her sights towards a worthier foe.
With a single powerful flap of her wings, the Inexorable One dashed forth with unimaginable speed!
The Blueshift, which kept stabbing its Unending daggers through the flesh and feathers of the grey bird in futility, tumbled away in an uncontrolled spin.
Venerable Tusa almost lost consciousness from the physical and spiritual forces assaulting his body and spirit. His force of will no longer empowered his mech as his debilitated state left him in no shape to fight any further! He vomited inside helmet, forcing his piloting suit to work overtime to remove the foul-smelling substances.
Nobody paid attention to the unfortunate expert pilot's plight as the Inexorable One rapidly reached her destination!
With her sharp talons stretching out, the Inexorable One attempted to slice and crush the Princely Jackal!
She would have succeeded if not for the timely reaction of Qilanxo. The giant lizard energy projection roared a warning at the Inexorable One as her talons tore through the space barrier hastily put up in her path.
Ves widened at the sight. Qilanxo's space barriers were usually powerful enough to negate any attack. Not even the main cannons of the Gravada Knarlax could overcome the barriers under normal conditions.
However, the difference in strength between the two god-like entities was too wide this time!
Though Jannzi managed to conjure Qilanxo's energy projection a second time, she was not sustaining it with perfect resonance at the moment. It was only because the imaginary and material realms were so close that Qilanxo was able to project her existence onto the battlefield to a degree.
She was no match against a genuine dark god in the flesh!
With a couple more strikes, the Inexorable One broke through all of the space barriers, allowing her to soar towards Qilanxo's energy projection!
With a mighty collision, the two great entities exchanged blows! Qilanxo roared in pain and jerked backwards, taking the Shield of Samar with her. Deep claw marks marred her reptilian head and shoulders as she gazed at the Inexorable One with deep respect and fear.
Despite the disparity in strength, Qilanxo had not thought about fleeing at all. Her intent resonated with Venerable Jannzi and the Shield of Samar. All three of them wanted to protect the Larkinsons in the fleet, and the only way to do so was to entangle this horrible bird as long as possible!
"We are the shield of the Larkinson Clan!" Venerable Jannzi stated her convictions. "No brother or sister of mine shall suffer at the hands of this beast!"
Qilanxo attempted to put up a good fight, but the Inexorable One was too fast and powerful for the sacred god to fight against. The ancient bird delighted in the torture she inflicted upon the lumbering lizard.
Further ahead, the Blinding One that had become entangled by Venerable Orfan's Banthar was glowing brighter and hotter.
The Blinding One's presence was a lot more dramatic than his fog avatar suggested. Even without doing anything, the crystals adorning his robe were already outputting huge amounts of energy. The energy formed a radiant shield over the Blinding One, causing the Banthar to sustain considerable damage just by straying close!
Whenever Commander Orfan drove her mech forward in an attempt to stab its spear into her opponent, the Blinding One's radiance shield threatened to melt her machine!
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In desperation, the Banthar drew its laser pistol and began to fire at the Blinding One, only for the radiant shield to absorb the laser beams!
"What the?!"
The Blinding One finally directed his attention at the impotent spearman mech that had stopped him from bombarding the Larkinson fleet with light beams. He lifted a single finger and pointed it at the Banthar. Just as he was about to launch a soul-searing piercing attack that Venerable Orfan instinctively felt would be fatal, a golden paw slapped the Blinding One's arm aside!
NYAAAAAAAAA!
Shortly afterwards, the Quint charged forth and pierced its lance through the Blinding One's radiance shield before penetrating his head!
The Blinding One's body automatically released a bright omnidirectional flash, causing both the Quint and the Banthar to be flung back while suffering considerable surface heat damage!
The giant Golden Cat was not as taken aback. She furiously clawed and bit at the Blinding One's radiance shield no matter how much it hurt to do so. Each of the dark gods were so powerful that they could each end the Larkinsons on the battlefield by themselves.
She could not allow the clansmen to die under watch!
Yet no matter how many times she struck the shield, the crystals on the Blinding One's robe kept transferring more power to it. The luminar god's protection was too strong!
After letting the Golden Cat understand how weak she truly was, the humanoid dark god raised his palm and unleashed a powerful light beam.
NYAAAAAAAA!
The ancestral spirit uttered a painful yowl as the light beam carved straight through her projection body!
At the same time, many Larkinsons paused and screamed at the same time as some of Goldie's suffering spread across the Larkinson Network!
Only Ves and a couple of other Larkinsons managed to resist the pain.
"These dark gods.. are too powerful!" Ves helplessly uttered as he had no cards left to play.
He realized he had partially enabled this awful turn of events. If he didn't flip the board and forced the imaginary realm to overlap with the material realm, the dark gods wouldn't have been able to descend so easily with their main spirits!
Though he deeply wanted to reverse this condition and make the unsubstantial vortex disappear from the material realm, he had no way to do so. The chaotic energies that had escaped the confines of the Highly Unstable Chaos Essence gems had taken a life of their own. They were completely out of his control!
Though two of the three dark gods briefly encountered hindrances, the Unending One had just finished devouring Nyxie. With no Larkinson-aligned entities left to hinder the tentacled whale, the cruel dark god slowly set his sights on the Scarlet Rose.
Ves hitched his breath. His heart almost seemed to stop as he felt the pure malice and desire to destroy from the powerful entity. The Unending One's hatred for the Larkinson Clan was inestimable, and somehow he knew exactly who was in charge.
The Unending One surged forward with surprising speed! Though he wasn't as fast as the Inexorable One, he swam through the ocean of space as if he belonged in it. The closer the tentacled whale approached, the more Ves and the Larkinsons aboard the Scarlet Rose sensed their imminent doom!
Goldie couldn't help. Qilanxo couldn't help. The other entities were simply too weak to put up a fight against an entity that was as powerful as the Unending One.
"Is this the end?" Ves whispered to himself.
"GET BACK, FOUL BEAST!"
Just as the dark god was about to ram into the Scarlet Rose with fatal momentum, a giant, slender and scaled hand stretched out from behind the mobile supply frigate and released a purple beam energy blast that caused the Unending One to halt and rear back!
"Who?!"
Ves looked around to see one of the most frightening sights in his life!
A terrible but majestic entity appeared beyond a shaky, psychedelic portal that had emerged behind his ship. The giant energy projection looked fuzzy and unstable, but Ves could distinguish plenty of details.
Wearing a ragged, ancient-looking robe that was encrusted by dead alien plant growth, the giant female humanoid entity hovered forward while staring down the dark god that sought to crush the Scarlet Rose.
The giant woman looked terrible. Though Ves recognized plenty of unquestionably human features in her appearance, the strange uneven aquamarine scales covering her body made her look like a mutated monstrosity!
She didn't appear to have eyes. Instead, her sockets glowed with ominous bright purple lights that made Ves dizzy when he attempted to stare at them. Disbelief filled his head as he took in what he saw.
"Is that.. the real Superior Mother?"
"It can't be!"
As the monstrous woman's form began to stabilize a little, her purple eyes deliberately turned towards Ves, causing him to feel very uncomfortable. He quickly commanded his Unending Regalia to fold his helmet over his head, providing him some relief against the hostile stare.
However, the isolation effect of his suit did not block the massive entity from transmitting a message solely to his mind.
"VES! YOU IDIOTIC CHILD! IS THIS YOUR HANDIWORK!?" The mutated woman's voice boomed!
The woman gestured her hand in the direction of the Scarlet Rose's vault. Even through the insulating effect of his Unending Regalia, Ves could sense the spiritual construct he had attempted to grow had finally reached maturity.
Unfortunately, it looked considerably different from the design that his mother had initially passed on. Not only did Ves employ an unconventional growth-based production method, much of the energy of the construct came from Nyxie, whose spiritual attributes were filled with all sorts of strange and alien attributes.
If that wasn't enough, the proliferation of chaotic energies on the battlefield affected the spiritual construct as well, causing it to mutate further and further beyond its original parameters!
Whether all of these changes were responsible for summoning a giant version of his mother as an eldritch horror, Ves wasn't sure. All he knew was that he had screwed up yet again!
"Uhm.. could you please help me out? My clan and I are under attack right now and we won't be able to hang on for long without your help!"
The mutated woman scowled, causing her to inadvertently reveal her pointed, carnivorous teeth.
"You brat! If you aren't my son, I would have turned away already!"
She looked away from Ves and turned to the Unending One. The dark god had grown incredibly furious as yet another enemy had appeared to stop him from taking revenge.
The giant whale opened his maw unleashed a challenging roar that rattled the spirits of everyone on the ship! Everyone aboard the Scarlet Rose aside from Ves lost consciousness!
For her part, his monstrous mother scowled deeper. She opened her frightening mouth and released a soul-rending shriek that made Ves feel as if his spirit was about to detach from his body!