"Wark!"
The little ball of yellow fluff took off from Lira's head full of long hair, and raced to hover around Kharusha before landing on one of his broad shoulders and nuzzling its head into his obsidian-colored cheek. The skin looked like it was made of a dark alloy, yet it gave way slightly when the little fuzzball rubbed against it.
This SS-class Asura looked just as Echo had described.
His skin was as dark as a starless night, with the exception of the brightly glowing lines of white flowing this way and that across his body—though you couldn't really see them right now. His body was mostly covered by an intricately crafted light combat suit designed with his power and physique in mind, made to enhance his psychic output.
Shiny white armor plates covered a muscled, black undersuit, the undersuit barely visible at Kharusha's joints. Small lines ran between the white armor, but the plates always seemed to mesh together in a way that followed Kharusha's bodylines and musculature.
White cylinders of varying lengths were strapped to his back and the utility belt around his waist. On the reverse side of the white plates, countless magical formations and inscriptions could be seen—ranging from enhancement and ability boosts to several potent protection runes.
Glowing runes like these were also present on the visible part of Kharusha's neck, he had many high level runes tattooed on him.
Kharusha placed one of his four extra hands on his head, using small wisps of psychic energy as a comb to slick back his long, black hair. Another hand gently stroked Flynn, scratching that typically itchy spot beneath his beak, causing Flynn to coo.
"Wark!"
After smiling at the bird for a few seconds, Kharusha raised his eyes to scan the room, narrowing them briefly at Jet in annoyance before turning to Lira and saying, "I completed the process of mental conditioning for all of the Meta Beasts—except those spiders with the ability to grow... Mental activity doesn't stick for some reason. I've never seen anything like it before. Aside from that, we are good to go. Princess, what would you like me to do with them? They're your creations, after all."
Before Lira could answer, Aetherion spoke deeply, "I'll take them in... Do they still have their impressive reproduction capabilities as well?"
Both Lira and Kharusha raised an eyebrow in the armorers' direction, with Lira asking, "Oh? And what could you possibly want biological creatures for? Isn't your mechanical army enough?"
"Who needs thoughts or a soul when nanobots and A.I. will do what I want them to? And you, you kept many of the smart, sentient creations of yours to yourself, making a nation of beast men to eventually fight for the Elfin, especially the apes... We really aren't so different. "
"Ugh, going to make another abomination, then? That's gross. I thought you were a proper man of science... We both know there's a difference between rearing a vasal civilization and a nation of war. Wouldn't you rather play around with that space/time wormhole research you always talk about anyways?"
Lira wrinkled her nose, thinking about some of the strange creations she had seen Aetherion release on the battlefield. He had a strange habit of capturing strong enemies and turning them into cybernetic soldiers loyal to him. Aetherion had even captured an entire A.I. civilization that had once tried to prey on one of the Atlas Civilization's colonial worlds.
He had caught them trying to make bodies for themselves using a spacecraft manufacturing yard and only became aware of their actions because he happened to be touring that area of the Atlas territory. The local apex-grade caretaker was a meta with the ability of ice control, obviously, he and his people had been struggling to mitigate the damage caused by the machines. All of the A.I. had been trapped and contained by Aetherion quite quickly, after a small struggle when he arrived.
He then bent their will to follow his own—after destroying any physical bodies they had managed to create and sealing them away. No one knew what Aetherion ultimately did with the billions of A.I. lifeforms.
Magus stepped forward and waved his hand at Lira, saying, "Just let him have them. It's better than wasting them... The Atlas Central Science Department could use a few specimens, too. Let's get to work. We have plenty to do."
After a little more small talk, everyone headed toward the much larger secondary section of the ship—the cargo hold—which separated and slowly descended toward the planet.
Magus had Flynn and Sylvanthia head toward the surface with the cargo hold, gesturing for the rest to leave the ship. They would be more than capable of starting to set up for their plan on the surface, despite their small, cute and somewhat helpless appearances.
As it descended, the five powerhouses looked at each other floating in space. Aetherion produced five tiny, bead-sized objects and threw them out. They opened, and the objects that emerged started expanding as the group backed away, forming much larger structures.
At a certain level, armorers could start to use electromagnetic and dimensional energy, along with digitalization and gravitational technology to store massive machines and objects inside tiny containers. The gravitational technology made the small beads nearly weightless, accounting for the overall mass, while the electromagnetic, dimensional, and digitalization factors made the target machines many times smaller in size while being pulled into the containers.
This was still nothing compared to what they could do when using secondary dimensions for storage. Aetherion was no stranger to any method available for storing his machines, personal equipment and forces.
Five massive, metallic spheres—each about a hundred feet in diameter, with several sets of rotating rings—appeared where Aetherion had thrown the beads. Their rings were even larger.
Each super dragged the devices to their intended locations of orbit around the planet they were modifying and then Aetherion activated them.
The rings began slowly rotating, and as they did, the five Supers started releasing energy like mad, which was readily absorbed into the devices. The rings spun faster and faster as the energy was absorbed, causing them to move apart.
They were creating several variants of a special type of man-made star, with controllable gravity and energy output, they would be powered by and output the same energy along with the personal buffs provided by the five as they unleashed their various powers into the devices.
...
The video on the screen fast-forwarded as dust and other matter were added into the energy stars, giving them more fuel to mix with the energy the Supers released. This scene went on for a long time until Echo snapped his fingers and the record returned to normal speed.
"Why slow it down? Is something spicy gonna happen?" Norvin looked toward Echo, who was already raising a finger to his lips under the mask of Kamen Rider Decade.
"Ssshhh... Yes, just watch. There are more powerful things out there that we might need to face, and this is a good example..."
Both turned back to stare at the screen.
All five powerhouses focused intensely, unleashing incredible surges of energy. Magus hovered in the air, his robe whipping wildly as magic power surged through him, unleashed from his outstretched hands.
Multicolored magic rings and formations encircled his arms as various books, staffs, and a glowing orb hovered around him, all unleashing a torrent of magical energy toward the device Aetherion had entrusted to him.
Far away, Lira's wings of energy stretched out from her back—each an immense kilometer long, shimmering with countless shifting energy types. Her eyes glowed with the same fluctuation of energies as she unleashed a relentless torrent of power at her target, her hair streaming back from the force, giving her the appearance of a fierce, cosmic angel.
Aetherion had released millions of mechanical soldiers through a dimensional rift opened by his electromagnetic energy. High-level armorers—ranked A Grade and above—frequently used their mechanical expertise and electromagnetic abilities to command vast armies of automatons supported by advanced A.I. systems they created and enhanced with their technological talents.
Apart from mages who used summoning magic, armorers were arguably the most troublesome super class to face in a group fight.
At Aetherion's command, the machines converged toward him, with Aetherion at the center. Brilliant, seemingly endless bolts of electromagnetic energy arced from him, weaving back and forth between the machines until they all combined into a massive space station. The station began to rotate and unleashed a powerful beam at the device designed to construct the star.
Jet and Kharusha glared at each other from thousands of kilometers away, competing as they poured vast amounts of pugilist and psychic energy into their star devices. Kharusha held a finger of each of his six hands to his forehead, releasing a staggering amount of mental power.
Jet did not fall behind; he had grown several times his normal size, his armor stretching with him. He had cupped his hands together at first, rallying his energy into a single point between his palms before calling out the name of one of his personal fighting techniques and letting the bright red energy beam collide with the star creation device's collection panel.
All five had been releasing energy like this for hours, which made Norvin wonder why Echo slowed down the recording before they were finished.
His question was answered when several ripples in space near three of the star creation devices suddenly appeared, instantly drawing the attention of the five supers working tirelessly, causing them to frown.
Fortunately, the stars were already capable of sustaining themselves at this point, so the five cut off their energy flows and turned their attention to the anomalies occurring in space around them.
"It's a group of Primordial Spectra! They must have felt the disturbance—probably caused by Magus's plan!" Aetherion announced to everyone over the psychic channel. Kharusha had kept the channel open, giving everyone a chance to chat now and then while they unleashed their energies.
"Just try to count it as a blessing. You know how hard it is to hunt down a Primordial Spectra—especially when they hide in secondary dimensions all the time... I wonder what kind they are?"
As Jet voiced the sentence over the psychic channel, seven massive rifts in space tore open, each revealing a glowing cluster of energy with a strange backdrop—a glimpse into the secondary dimensions from which each of the twelve attacking Primordial Spectra had traveled through to get to them.