Location: The Skies Above the Capital
Time: T-Plus 30 Seconds
The ground fell away.
The Naglfar did not fly like a bird or a plane. It flew like a curse.
The massive bone-ship, powered by the Samsara Drive, didn't use thrusters that burned fuel. It used Graveyard Propulsion. The green exhaust pouring from the rear wasn't fire; it was a stream of high-density spiritual pressure that pushed against the world's atmosphere.
Inside the cockpit, Aris was crushed into his seat.
[Velocity: Mach 5.]
[Altitude: 10,000 Meters.]
[Hull Temperature: 1,500°C (Stable).]
Aris gripped the control spheres. His mind was plugged directly into the ship's nerve center via the System Interface. He didn't see the cockpit walls; he was the ship. He felt the wind tearing at his "skin" (the Tiger-Steel plating). He felt the heat in his "heart" (the Reactor).
"Stabilize," Aris gritted his teeth. "Nox, how are you holding up?"
Nox, strapped into the co-pilot seat with magnetic webbing, let out a garbled whine. The Eclipse Hound's tongue was lolling out sideways due to the G-force.
The Breach
They punched through the cloud layer. The violet sky turned a dark, bruised indigo.
"Approaching the Kármán Line," Aris noted. "The edge of the domain."
The ship began to shake violently. This was the barrier between the Planet's Qi field and the Vacuum.
RATTLE. GROAN.
The Leviathan Ribs making up the chassis creaked. They were deep-sea bones, used to pressure pushing in. Now, the pressure was pulling out.
"Hold together," Aris whispered, feeding his own mana into the structural runes.
POP.
The vibration stopped instantly. The roar of the wind vanished.
Silence.
The indigo sky turned absolute black, speckled with the cold, unblinking eyes of distant stars.
[Location: Low Earth Orbit.]
[Environment: Vacuum.]
[External Temperature: -270°C.]
Aris looked out through the sensory array. The planet curved below him—a massive sphere of blue and white, fragile and beautiful.
But looking up, he saw the monster.
The Pagoda-Ship 'Beast-Tamer' hung in the high orbit like a golden parasite. It was fully repaired. Its runes were glowing a menacing crimson.
The Welcome Party
[Warning: Radar Contact.]
[Enemy Launch Detected.]
The golden ship didn't fire its main cannon. It opened its hangar bays.
A cloud of debris spewed out. But as Aris zoomed in, he saw it wasn't debris.
It was Statues.
Thousands of Terracotta Soldiers made of bronzed star-metal, flying on stone discs. They held spears that crackled with lightning.
[Enemy Unit: The Immortal Guard (Automaton Type).]
[Level: 45.]
[Quantity: 5,000.]
"They aren't sending beasts this time," Aris realized. "Beasts need air. They're sending robots."
The swarm of 5,000 bronzed soldiers turned toward the Naglfar. They moved in perfect synchronization, like a school of fish.
"They want to board us," Aris analyzed. "They want to drill through the hull and kill the pilot."
He looked at his weapon controls.
[Main Weapon: Singularity Driver (Charging - 98%).]
[Secondary Weapons: None.]
"We really should have installed point-defense turrets," Aris sighed.
He grabbed the ship's intercom.
"All hands," Aris's voice echoed through the hollow bones of the ship. "Repel boarders."
The Skeleton Crew
On the outer hull of the Naglfar, airlock hatches popped open.
The Undead Laborers—the skeletons Aris had brought from the drydock—crawled out onto the skin of the ship.
They didn't have space suits. They didn't breathe. The vacuum of space meant nothing to them.
They were magnetized to the Tiger-Steel hull. In their hands, they held Abyssal Rifles—crude weapons Aris had mass-produced using Spirit-Crystals and pipes.
"Fire," Aris commanded mentally.
The skeletons opened fire.
PEW. PEW. PEW.
Violet bolts of void energy streaked through the silence. There was no sound of gunfire, only the visual chaos of light.
The Terracotta Soldiers returned fire with lightning spears.
The Dogfight
The Naglfar plowed into the swarm.
Aris didn't try to dodge. The ship was a tank.
CLANG. CLANG. CLANG.
The bronze soldiers smashed into the hull. The Tiger-Steel plating flared white.
[Passive Effect: Killing Aura Reflection.]
When a soldier struck the hull, the "Intent" of the White Tiger reflected the damage back. The bronze statues vibrated and shattered into scrap metal upon impact.
"Ramming speed!" Aris shouted.
He pushed the throttle to max.
The Samsara Engine roared green fire. The Naglfar accelerated to Mach 20.
It tore a hole through the formation of statues. The sheer kinetic force turned hundreds of automatons into dust.
But they were like ants. They crawled over the ship.
Aris saw a group of ten soldiers land on the cockpit glass (sensor array). They raised their spears to smash the sensors.
"Get them off!"
Nox unbuckled his seatbelt.
"Woof!"
The Eclipse Hound phased through the cockpit wall (using Shadow-Walk). He appeared on the hull, in the vacuum.
Nox grew to his massive size. He didn't need to breathe either—he was a creature of the Void.
Nox bit the head off a Terracotta Soldier. He swiped three more off the hull with his claws. He was a shadow-wolf fighting statues on the back of a bone-ship in orbit.
The Lock
Aris cleared the swarm.
He pulled the Naglfar up, aiming the nose directly at the golden Pagoda-Ship.
The enemy ship was huge. It filled his entire vision.
[Target Locked: The Beast-Tamer Bridge.]
[Distance: 50 Kilometers.]
[Main Weapon: Ready.]
Aris's finger hovered over the trigger.
"This is for the extinction event," Aris whispered.
But before he could fire, the Pagoda-Ship reacted.
It didn't fire a laser.
A massive Gravity Well generator on the underside of the Pagoda activated.
[Warning: Gravitational Anomaly Detected.]
[G-Force increasing to 50G.]
The Naglfar lurched. The nose was dragged down. Aris felt his vision go red. The ship was being pulled violently toward the underside of the enemy vessel—not to be destroyed, but to be crushed.
"They have a tractor beam?" Aris gasped, fighting to keep his hands on the controls. "Of course they have a tractor beam."
The Naglfar was dragged into the shadow of the golden ship.
[Hull Stress: 80%.]
[Engine Output: Failing.]
"We can't aim!" Aris realized. "The gravity is twisting the ship! If I fire the Black Hole now, it will miss the core and hit their shield at an angle!"
He needed to break the hold.
"Nox! Get back inside!"
Nox phased back into the cockpit, shivering from the cold of space.
Aris looked at the approaching docking bay of the Pagoda-Ship. It was a massive maw lined with grinding gears. They were trying to eat his ship.
"Fine," Aris snarled, his eyes glowing with madness. "You want to eat us?"
He didn't fight the gravity. He gunned the engines with it.
"Open wide."
He flew the Naglfar straight into the enemy hangar bay.