As Andrew activated his Anima the sounds of lightning bleeding from the outside began to overtake the sounds of gunfire and fighting. Then a collum of electricity crashed through the room striking Andrew directly. It was one of the superbolts from the approaching storm. The explosion nearly sent me flying from the force. When I could see again, I'd seen Andrew now clad in white armor. While it seemed like heavy plate armor its design was reminiscent of the ancient warriors of the Susumu Empire's past. The helm itself looked like a devilish wolf's head with horns.

A well of power began to envelop Andrew's body and he began to slowly raise his sword above his head. "I hope you all can endure this..."

Noticing what he was doing, Seraph conjured a tower shield and quickly moved Edwin and me behind it. The mercenaries began to charge Andrew fighting whatever guns they held. The bullets stopped just before hitting his body like insects getting caught in a bug zapper.

"Raigeki..." He chanted. Then from above, another superbolt came crashing down through the roof striking the first wave of mercenaries. They were completely atomized by the attack leaving only body-sized burn marks.

"Ugh... Get this bastard already!" bellowed another Merc. The rest of the line seemed to hesitate for a moment but they somehow got the courage to press forward. They started the charge once again this time trying to flank us. Seraph dismissed the shield and I drew Ninth Light so I could try and give Andrew some backup.

"Don't let him interfere Seraph..." Andrew ordered. "These guys are mine."

"Oh ho boya..." Seraph smiled. "You're getting awfully cocky giving me orders."

Seraph pulled me back and summoned a phalanx of shields to protect us again. In the cracks of the phalanx, I could see the mercs start their volley of gunfire. Andrew held his sword as if he still could sheathe it and his visage began to distort as blue arcs cleaved every bullet and beam in two.

"You guys are morons," Andrew spat. Then he disappeared and reappeared in the middle of their line. I could only see the moment he tugged on the hilt of his sword, after that his body blurred as his speed of reflexes activated. The heads of two more mercenaries dropped followed by a third and fourth. Once they realized what he was doing the mercs turned their attention to him drawing their melee weapons. With two beam swords being swung horizontally at Andrew I thought they were going to strike. But Andrew was already ducking down before any of us even noticed. Swinging in a large horizontal arc he bifurcated the two trying to go for him.

Another merc managed to get the drop on Andrew kicking upward knocking Kaminari-Caliber from the latter's hand. "I've got you now!" The merc shouted, planting his foot on the ground, and swinging a battle ax at Andrew.

"There's a reason it's called Kaminari-Caliber..." Andrew said, then in his other hand a ghostly longsword took form. Using the force he'd exerted with the swing from Kaminari, Andrew swung back in the opposite direction with Caliber looping off the merc's head as he did. He then pulled on a phantom chain linking the two swords and Kaminari returned to his hand. The phantom Caliber disappeared and Andrew readied himself for further hostilities.

"Dammit... this guy is insane," shrieked one of the merc leaders. "Bring in the Ghosts!"

Two Revenants descended from the hole in the roof and aimed their rifles right down toward us. There was a third coming down but it was shot out of the sky by a beam from an unknown distance.

"Sorry I let one by me," said Claudia over the coms. "You think you can take them?"

There was no way, they were mechs. We'd need our Eidolons at this point. Plus where in the world did Claudia come from?"

"Yeah I can take them," Andrew confirmed.

Holding his sword with two hands he took the hanging right guard stance. Taking another deep breath he began to allow the Ether his body radiated to violently erupt from his body. "Enryu School third technique... Ame-no-Habakiri."

From his stance, Andrew swung the sword in a complete arc upwards unleashing a wave of lightning toward the first Revenant. The lightning pierced right through the machine causing it to explode. Then using the same motion, he fired off another wave cleaving the second machine in two.

The power Andrew displayed was unreal. It'd been just like seeing Seraph in action. The mercs however didn't see this as a wonderful display of might like we did. Many of them started running as soon as they saw their buddies in the Revenants get cut down.

"Forget this! Arjun isn't paying us enough!" One of them shrieked. Then one by one they began to run out of the throne room. Andrew turned to the door and stared at it for a moment. He seemed to want to follow them. I wasn't against the idea but it would probably be in bad taste to kill retreating enemies. Seraph dropped the phalanx and went over to Andrew who'd still been in a daze. Placing a hand on his shoulder, she snapped him out of it.

"You did well my pupil... You can sheathe your blade now."

Kaminari disappeared and the armor that protected Andrew's body followed soon after. He turned back seeing us safe from all the chaos that just happened in the room. "Ugh... That's good... I'm kind of tired now." Seraph caught him before collapsing and threw him over her shoulder.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

"Rest up little Pendragon," Seraph whispered. You'll need it."

"Let us take our leave now," Edwin suggested. "Once they see the Pendragon boy is unconscious they'll come after us again."

Seraph and I nodded and with haste, the three of us made our way out of the palace with Andrew in tow. On our way, we saw the bodies of dead mercs and a couple of Centauri soldiers. The closer we got to the exit the more difficult it became to hold in my lunch. When we reached the entrance we found ourselves in a bit of a pickle.

Outside, dozens of mercenaries were standing there with a few Revenants floating in the skies. Once they saw us they turned their weapons toward the door. Turning around we took cover near the walls as a hail of bullets and beam fire came down on us.

"Alright Soran, that backup would be good right now," shouted Edwin.

"Claudia can you lay down some more cover fire," I asked over the com.

"Negative... not without causing further damage to the palace."

Great, getting blown up by murder-crazy mercenaries was going to be how this ended. Not the end I wanted but something I should've considered.

"Relax little Xenthos... I got ya."

Peaking out of the door, I saw another machine approach us. It was the Multi-Armed Eidolon and it stopped right in the middle of the Revenant's formation.

"Aw sick, we got one of the generals on our side!" One of the mercenaries shouted.

"Bonus if we kill'em right!" Another Cackled.

The Multi-Armed Eidolon drew two beam swords and its arms detached from its body. The other two manipulators emitted beam blades from the palms then all four spun around rapidly slicing the two Revenants into pieces.

"W-What the hell!? What're you doing!?

"Disappear Merc scum," Haumea hissed. The arms linked back up with her Eidolon and she drew two beam cannons. The four manipulators separated once again with the two empty-handed manipulators turning into cannons on their own. They zipped about firing on the other revenants, blowing them out of the sky.

Drawing Zero Dark I started firing into the confused crowd of mercenaries taking a few of them out. The survivors started retreating from the palace once they noticed their forces were completely overwhelmed. Several enemy drop ships were beginning to depart from near the base of the mountain.

"Commander... If we let them escape here then they will just become reinforcements for the second assault," Claudia stated.

I knew what she was implying but for some reason, I'd hesitated to give the order. Then I remembered what Andrew told me. I wasn't much of a hero at all. I was the guy who got things done.

"Make sure as few of them get off the planet as possible," I ordered.

"Consider it done," Claudia responded. Within pink beams began to cut through the sky piercing through each drop ship. Haumea's machine began to mobilize, launching the manipulators to seek out the other drop ships Claudia didn't get. Using beam weaponry allowed us to destroy any debris that happened to fall to the planet. It wasn't pretty but it was necessary.

"This is only the beginning Soran," spoke Edwin. "Arjun isn't the kind of person to retreat unless he knows he's being beaten."

"Yeah... I know..."

For a moment, I took in the scene of carnage before me. The craters created by explosives, the burns of plasma, and the bodies left in their wake. All there was to do now was to keep moving forward.

As we boarded our transport, Centauri reinforcements began to touch down around the palace. Dozens of soldiers moved to secure the grounds, searching for any enemy mercenaries or survivors in the process. By the size of the enemy force, it seems Haumea's intel was right on the money. Though that was the scarier part, by the way, she made it sound like it was just going to be a small force. If these many mercenaries were small by Arjun's standards then the invasion force headed for Neo Arcadia was much larger in comparison.

After lift-off, I'd gotten a transmission request from an enemy craft. It was Haumea who flew right alongside us to ensure we had cover. "You handled yourself well, I didn't think you'd take on that many mercs in such a short time."

"Easy for you to say. They weren't shooting at you"

"Relax, I knew you could handle it. Besides this isn't even going to be the hard part."

In all honesty, I wished this was the hard part. But there was no time for regrets now. All we'd have to do is trust that Arjun was a bigger idiot than I thought.

Before we could talk further another request popped up in my line of sight. It was the Asterism's Bridge.

"Soran you there?" Alice called.

"Yeah... What's the situation?"

"We've found one of the enemy vessels and they've begun mobilizing enemy craft. We've got several Ghosts and fighters approaching at combat speed," she reported."

"Alright... I'll mobilize in Ragnarok and begin combat as soon as I get there."

"Negative, Talia said she's finished with a little project she's been working on. You'll need to return to the ship at once."

Little project? What could be so important that would bar me from going out on a sortie? No time to think of that now, we needed a new plan.

"Do not worry young Xenthos," said Edwin as he stood from his seat. "Seraph and I will take care of the enemy in space. You and the Pendragon boy must return to the ship and rearm."

I didn't want to leave things to Edwin and Seraph like this, but by the way, Edwin glared at me as the thought crossed my mind. I wasn't going to get the choice. "Alright... I'll leave things to you guys."

He smiled, then opened the hatch to our transport. Strapping myself and Andrew in I gave Edwin and Seraph a quick salute before the two of them jumped off the back of the transport. As far as I knew, Tomoe had been in the secondary transport, but I hadn't the slightest clue why Edwin was leaving. That was until I looked out of the window to see a black Eidolon with the head of a jackal coming up beside us. Another transmission came through over the ship's com, it was from Edwin himself.

"Your mechanic is quite something Soran. Although her alterations were minor, Rudra seems much more powerful now," said Edwin. "She might surpass Mercurius Cadmon the previous holder of the Hermit."

"Mercurius Cadmon?"

"The inventor of the Animus. A Genius that even surpassed Solomon..."

The Edwin, Seraph, and Haumea blasted off ahead through the atmosphere toward the fight. For now, there was nothing more to do than to return to the ship. Though now would've been the best time to get some rest, my brain was processing the next steps of the plan. Which now hinged on my Uncle.

"S-Soran," Andrew groaned, beginning to wake from his short coma.

"Yo... You alright?" I asked.

"My body feels like it's buzzing too much... But otherwise, I'm fine. Where are we headed?"

"Back to the Asterism. Seraph and Edwin went on ahead in their machines to fend off some of the enemies."

Andrew took a second to scope out his surroundings. He then sunk back into his chair and closed his eyes once more.

"Then you'd best get some rest," he suggested. "We won't be able to once the fighting back home starts."