Please don't hate me. I just know you are all going to hate me for the way i wrote this chapter. Feel free to rage though, it's always welcome on the comments section. This is the last chapter for this arc, with only the epilogue left. I will take a short break, then decide whether to continue writing, or start a new fiction.
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“War? What war? What is going on down there Kiefer?” Palmer queried worriedly.
“It’s a long story, but all you need to know is that what is happening is not some mere earthquake. The entire continent is moving because that whole continent is part of a colossal Titan named Gondor. All in all, I didn’t expect him to start moving so quickly, but if we don’t destroy him fast, you can forget about landing on the planet, much less survive long enough to prevent the extinction of the human race.” Kiefer explained it as quickly as he could.
Palmer hesitated. He had just arrived at this planet and now he is already going to war with one of its inhabitants? Can he even trust what Kiefer was saying in the first place? While “Kiefer had seemed trustworthy, he had just met the man a day ago. People can be sly and crafty, pretending to be your friend until they got what they wanted from you.
“You don’t have to join the fight if you don’t want to. It’s ok to say no. I’m just asking for your help since it’ll be easier with some support.” Kiefer shrugged, not wanting to put Palmer in a difficult position.
Seeing Kiefer’s attitude helped Palmer make up his mind faster. Determined to help Kiefer and grab a hold of the future of humanity, Palmer looked Kiefer straight in the eyes with a determined look and asked,” What do you need?”
Kiefer smiled appreciatively, glad that he had Palmer’s support on this matter that totally, completely did not concern the man. Thinking quickly, Kiefer weighed his options, between what he needed Palmer to do and what he thought Palmer would be willing to do, or sacrifice to help him. Making up his mind, he decided that it’s best not to put Palmer’s men at risk by requesting they provide humanitarian support on the ground. Instead, he would ask for any sort of artillery support from space that the space craft could put out.
“What kind of planetary bombardment weaponry do you have? I need 2 different kinds for different purposes. Ideally, one should be a rapid fire type that you don’t need to conserve ammunition for. It doesn’t need to do much damage, just as along as it can serve as a distraction, that’ll be fine. As for the second, I want something powerful. Possibly a weapon of mass destruction. It will serve as a backup in case I fail to kill Gondor.” Kiefer explained.
“Rowanda, make a stocklist of all our weapons and ammunitions now.” Palmer ordered the AI. Within moments, an entire list of ship weaponry was displayed on the screen for everyone on the bridge to see. Palmer quickly glanced through the long list, scrolling through as fast as he could until he finally came to a stop.
“This. We still have 5 bays of nukes left. Although we use it for propulsion, I’m sure our engineers can re-equip it into missile warheads. I’m not sure which of the 2 categories this falls under, but it is the only type of weapon we have plenty of ammunition to spare.” Palmer said, pointing at the screen.
Kiefer considered it for a while, then decided against it. “No. I can’t risk exposing this world to the effects of a nuclear fallout. I have no idea how the radiation from the nukes will interact with mana, but I don’t want to find out under non-controlled conditions. What about these?” Kiefer asked, pointing at the Magnetic accelerator Cannon.
“We only have 25 rounds left, and at the speed the projectiles travel, they will burn up in the atmosphere before reaching the ground. Plus, with our current charging capacity, we can only fire the MAC once every 30 minutes.” Palmer explained, setting Kiefer into deep thoughts again.
“What are the projectiles made of?” Kiefer asked curiously, wondering if he could solve the issues with this weapon. If he could, it would make the perfect form of distraction.
“They are 3m long and 50cm diameter steel cores encased in 3cm thick titanium. This is only used to divert incoming comets that we cannot outmanoeuvre in space. They will melt from the heat created by air resistance if fired into the atmosphere.” Palmer described in details so that Kiefer would understand.
“And what kind of charging mechanism are you using to power the electromagnetic rails?” (Kiefer)
“Solar power.” Palmer answered crisply.
“What? Why?! I saw you have an antimatter generator in your propulsions engine room. Why not use antimatter instead?” Kiefer asked, bewildered that their weapons were being powered by something as unreliable as Solar power.
[The anti mater generator itself is powered by solar power. Using solar power to run the generator, it creates individual ‘cells’ of charged antimatter housed in powerful electromagnetic fields. We only use that generator as a means to store excess solar energy that we harness. To use the cells to power the MAC would be more inefficient than using solar power directly since there is energy loss in the conversion from solar to antimatter.]
“Thank you Rowanda.” Palmer expressed his gratitude, to which Rowanda had no reaction.
“I see. What would you say if I could adjust some parameters and from there, enable you to make full use of the MAC for atmospheric assault? I can coat the steel cores in tungsten carbide, followed by Orihalcom which has an incredibly high melting point. I can also utilise the mana around to enhance the charging speed of the cannons, essentially bringing the charging time down to maybe a little over 5 minutes.” Kiefer suggested.
“Well, that would be fine and all in teory, but the reality is, we don’t have enough tungsten carbide, and I’m not exactly willing to burn through my entire stock of MAC rounds in 2 hours.” Palmer argued.
“Just leave those problems to me. Besides, you won’t need the MAC rounds in space anymore since you have already decided to settle on this planet,” Kiefer rebutted, pausing before continuing. “And even if you need them later on, I can just get you the raw materials from the surface.”
“Ok, so what will you be using for the 1st type of weapon? The one to annoy your opponent with?” Palmer asked, as I accepting Kiefer’s suggestion.
“Oh, no. You misunderstand. The MAC will be taking that role. You can fire continuously to keep Gondor distracted for 2 hours. As for the weapon of mass destruction, I want to re-wire your missile warheads wit Antimatter cells. How much antimatter is in each cell?” Kiefer asked, surprising Palmer with his greed and audacity. To think he would actually request for their most precious energy source to be used as disposable bombs.
[That will be 10kg of anti-proton per cell, yielding a total energy output of 9 x 10^17 J per cell. Each cell is a composite structure with all the required mechanisms to harness the energy produced by reacting with the 10kg of protons that is included in each cell. The energy is slowly consumed to power the electromagnetic coils that are used to hold the anti-protons in vacuum.]
Palmer sighed in defeat. There was just no remorse in Kiefer’s heart, asking for anything and everything he wanted as if he owned the place. The worst thing is that in his heart, Palmer knew that there was no point in refusing since the man could just take anything he wanted without even asking. Therefore, he resigned himself to merely going along with Kiefer’s antics, knowing that it’s better for him to agree to Kiefer’s demands than refuse and make an enemy out of Kiefer.
“Thank you Rowanda.” Kiefer smiled, looking at the defeated Palmer who was slumped back into the chair after his relentless demands. “Rowanda, could you please reset the voltages in the ship back to the previous setting where you took into consideration the effects of the radiation?” kiefer asked the orange coloured lady.
[Sorry. You do not have the authorisation to make any changes within this vessel. Please request for permission from Captain Palmer.]
“Haaah…” Palmer let out yet another big sigh. Now Kiefer has moved from making demands to making changes to his ship. It’s as if he had just lost all dignity as the captain. “Rowanda, from now on, Kiefer has clearance to make any and all changes until I say otherwise. Effective immediately, Kiefer’s authority is second only to mine. Also, return the power levels to previous setting.” Palmer ordered not sure what Kiefer had in mind.
[Yes sir. Changes to the personal clearance levels have been made. Returning power levels to radiation exposure setting.]
The lights quickly dimmed and then shut off. As Kiefer undid the void space spell, the power quickly returned and once again a flickering Rowanda appeared on her holographic projector stand.
“Rowanda, set Kiefer’s clearance level to the highest. At the same time, drop the clearance level for everyone else on board to the lowest.” (Feir)
[Yes Sir. Changes to the personal clearance levels have been made.]
Everybody’s eyes turned to the voice that gave out that last command. There standing at the table with the other titans was another Captain Palmer, with his exact looks, uniform and voice. As everyone stared at the doppelganger, the original Palmer’s eyes were the widest, as if he was trying to discern any differences between the fake and him. Quickly, he recovered and realised what had been done. Turning frantically to the holographic image of Rowanda, he blurted out in panic.
“Rowanda! Belay the previous order! Return all clearance levels to previous levels!”
[Sorry. You do not have the authorisation to make any changes within this vessel. Please request for permission from Kiefer.]
Watching everyone’s faces filled with shock, the realisation that their ship had just been hijacked dawning upon them, Kiefer decided to take action. But first, he sauntered over the other table where Feir was still in Palmer form and smacked him really hard on the back of the head.
“Stop messing around Feir!” Kiefer scolded as Feir returned to his small dog form. “And since when did you learn to speak English!?”
“Just now master. When I copied the man, I learnt all his abilities while in his physical form. I can’t use his abilities once I transform back.” Feir replied with a little whine when Kiefer hit him.
“I’m sorry about that. He’s just curious and a little mischievous that’s all.” Kiefer explained to the deck. “Rowanda, belay that last order from Palmer, Return all clearance levels to before that order.” Kiefer ordered the AI.
[Yes Sir. Changes to the personal clearance levels have been made.]
Everybody heaved a sigh of relief, some even chuckled a little as the serious mood in the bridge lightened considerably. Captain Palmer sighed the loudest of them all, glad to have control of his ship back, but at the same time worrying when the little dog might pull the same trick again.
“Well then, as thanks for letting me use your resources, I have a little present for you that you might have mixed feelings about.” Kiefer announced, getting ready to make preparations for battle. “Right here, there is a lake and a waterfall. Behind the waterfall is a cavern. And within the cavern happens to be the wormhole through which I came here from earth. After the battle is over, I’ll be happy to open it up for anyone interested in returning to Earth. Humans managed to live on after the cataclysm, and they are living on fleets spread within the vast oceans.”
Yet another bombshell dropped on all the crew within the bridge. They’d think they had gotten used to Kiefer’s surprises and tendency to show complete disregard for common sense, but once again, they have been dumbfounded.
“Thank you for that information Kiefer. I’m not sure what I’ll do with that, but we can discuss it in more detail after the battle. For now, you can have my engineers to help you with the remodelling of the weaponry on this ship.” Palmer replied calmly, shaking Kiefer’s hands.
Kiefer spent the next 2 hours designing the charging system for the MAC. It was convenient that the ship’s radiation shield had already been integrated with mithril or as Palmer and his team calls it, Ag-110. Redirecting the mana absorbed by the radiation shield through means of a simple rune carved onto each piece of shield that has mithril in it, Kiefer easily converted the mana into electrical energy which then supplemented the charging station in parallel to the solar panels.
While the teams and drones worked on transporting and refitting the missiles with Antimatter warheads, Kiefer proceeded to pull out orihalcom from his PD to coat the MAC ammunition. He first had to borrow a large amount of tungsten carbide which was stored in the drone repair bays. The tungsten carbide was used primarily to make tools for the drones, but with all 25 MAC rounds coated, there was but dust left.
Kiefer laid out an attack plan that uses only those present since he could not afford to go and get the Avians to help. His best bet would be a surprise attack on Gondor followed by constant assault in an attempt to wear down the titan. There was no way of confirming it, but from his fight with Drigor, he knew that there had to be a core somewhere within the chunk of dirt which had to be destroyed to kill Gondor off entirely.
With preparations done and all weapons loaded, Kiefer bid farewell to Palmer, who saluted Kiefer as he left through the airlock. Teleporting straight to Rashael's mansion, Kiefer surprised the avian titan with his abrupt arrival. After a quick exchange of words, Kiefer, together with Rashael, Isana, Sher and Feir were on the coastline near Mutatis, preparing for their assault. Opening his PD, Kiefer smiled at Rashael as he pulled out the mega-carrier he had acquired from Earth, along with all of his harrier jets.
"So, I guess i'll be running support and distraction then?" Rashael commented, his eyes sparkling at his new toy that he had gotten accustomed to while on earth. His hands were rubbing each other greedily while he had the tiniest hint of drool collecting the the edges of his wide grin.
"You think you can handle it? I've got some help from other friends too, so you wont be alone." Kiefer asked, chasing after the bird who was already flying towards his present.
"Yea! just leave it to me!" Rashael yelled back as the harriers began to take off one after another, forming an arrowhead formation in the sky. Residents of mutatis stared into the phenomenon with awe as one odd thing after another kept happening to them this week.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Transforming into his dragon form, Kiefer departed from the bay, with Isana, Sher and Feir following closely behind, followed by the fleet of jets equipped with titan lasers. Taking out a tansponder from his pocket, Kiefer looked up to the sky, then to the moving continent just at the edge of the horizon and muttered a single word into the device. "GO!"
And so the battle began, with the initial strike on the moving continent hammering down onto Gondor's back at Mach40. The impact blew out a shockwave that instantly ripped the back of Gondor of any plant life that still stubbornly clung onto for their dear life. The seawater was blown away to reveal a massive body with no signs of the legs, only proving to Kiefer just how massive this titan was.
Entire mountains were leveled and a giant crater of hot molten lava was left at impact point. This caught Gondor’s attention as Kiefer saw the familiar giant head with red gleaming eyes rise out of the water. It was like dejavu, seeing a repeat of the memories from Drigor and Wanda. Without warning, Isana suddenly turned her neck and bit Kiefer on his shoulder, her icy teeth creaking as they tried desperately to pierce his tough black scales.
Having already expected the mind control attack, Kiefer cast void space around himself, enveloping Isana for a moment and instantly breaking the mind control. Isana shook her head in confusion, trying to rid herself of the intruder inside her mind. With a quick sorry, her nostrils flared up and quickly breathed out a thick blanket of snow and ice crystals, melding into the chilling mist. Kiefer and Feir’s job now was to buy time for Isana to finish her spell to split into 6 dragons. They were also counting on Rashael and Sher to distract the colossal titan with the continuous streams of red beams that tickled the surface of Gondor's massive body.
Not wasting time, Gondor’s back swelled up and regenerated the crater caused by the first strike, his neck extending and firing a red beam from his mouth at Kiefer. As the red beam entered Kiefer’s void space, it dissipated quickly, turning into a small and bright light show of red sparkles. Gondor roared with fury as his magical attacks did not work on Kiefer, only to have his back assaulted once again by another projectile slamming down from the heavens.
His regenerative powers were frightening, even more so that Fiora’s or Drigor’s. The crater seemed to regenerate without the need for supplement from the ground like Drigor. It seemed like he was materialising dirt and rock from magic, healing the wound within a second.
Feir meanwhile had left Kiefer’s void space and began firing red beams of his own, trying to chip in as much damage as he could. He only served to distract the titan and have Gondor divide his attention to healing himself. As he tried copying Gondor’s mind control skill, he realised something and yelled out to Kiefer.
“Master! The mind control only works once on each target. After that it has no more effect on the same target!” Feir exclaimed as he barely dodged yet another Rail shot from Hope’s MAC.
They were barely doing any damage at all, with Gondor’s regenerative ability far outstripping their combined damage output. Kiefer decided to just go all out, revealing his first trump card. A single black dot the size of a grain of sand appeared near the middle of Gondor’s body, and it grew rapidly to the size of a pea as it ripped away at Gondor’s body. What followed was a searing hot orange/yellow beam that burned away at Gondors body, the beam originating from Icarus.
The blackhole was doing its job, absorbing anything and everything around it, only to be matched by Gondor’s regeneration. Any new soil that Gondor replaced was instantly lost beyond the event horizon, the singularity shearing away layer after layer of newly formed rocks and soil. The noticeably slowed down his regeneration at other parts of his body as 6 Isana’s were now swarming around his body and neck, freezing the entire ocean to limit his movement.
Burns from Feir, Sher and Icarus were taking longer to heal as yet another blast exploded right on the back of Gondor’s outstretched neck. The molten lava slowly dripped onto the ice, melting it briefly before solidifying into a glass like surface. The crumbling rocks on his neck were regenerating, albeit a little slower than earlier. Nonetheless, their attack was still insufficient.
Gondor’s physical body was relentlessly stubborn, refusing to stay damaged. For as long as he had mana, he could continue regenerating his body indefinitely, making Kiefer’s job to search for the titan core ever so much harder. Moving the blackhole around the continent didn’t yield any results since the body was so immensely large, they didn’t know how deep it goes.
With yet another deafening roar, numerous mountains on Gondor’s back erupted, spewing not molten lava or smoky sulphur ridden gasses, but entire pillars of green smoke. The plumes of green smoke very quickly dispersed and covered the battlefield, engulfing all the titans in the poisonous neurotoxin. While it was deadly to normal living things, for titans, the toxic fumes merely had a slowing effect, which was lethal nonetheless in an intense situation.
Another projectile cut through the green smoke, striking into one of the erupted mountains and eliciting a howl from Gondor. What Kiefer found weird was that no matter how much they injured him, Gondor never spoke a single word. Casting his mana flare ability seemed to help deal with the regeneration issue as the blue silver flame torched away everything that had mana.
With a quick sudden jerk of the neck, Gondor broke the ice near the base and quickly devoured one of Isana’s clones. Just 5 left and Isana was getting annoyed by the low visibility caused by the toxic fumes. With the 5 ice dragons working in symphony, Isana riddled the ocean with tornados that ravaged the seas while swirling the green fumes into numerous twisting and convoluting pillars.
Kiefer manipulated his mana flare, eating away at Gondor’s body as well as the mana infused toxic smoke, clearing the entire battlefield of the fumes. Trying out a random idea he got, Kiefer expanded his void space after telepathically instructing Isana to leave, hoping that the lack of mana would stop the regeneration of Gondor’s body.
Unfortunately, Kiefer found out that the ability only worked with mana that was outside of titan’s bodies, which meant that it had no effect whatsoever on the regenerative ability of Gondor. Another explosion rang out as yet another crater the size of a city formed from the MAC projectile fired from Hope.
“FUCK!!” Kiefer exclaimed as a red beam shot past him from afar. Had he not dodged in the last second, he could have lost a limb or a wing, having just removed his void space spell. As a precaution, Kiefer quickly cast his void space around himself once again, before turning to see Sher charging at him, her 6 white feathers already in place to start the hexagram spell. Behind her was a wingless black snake following, grinning as similar green plumes of smoke trailed from the corners of his mouth.
“Feir! Handle Sher! She’s being controlled by the Serpent behind her! Copy my void space and use it on both of them. If the other serpent is still not on our side after that, you and Sher will be in charge of holding him at off while I handle Gondor with Isana.” Kiefer yelled as Feir quickly surrounded the 2 snakes with 10 copies of himself, casting void space to trap the 2 of them within.
“Kii! There is too much to look for in the body! Start with the head first, then we will slowly expand our search for the crystal from there!” Isana suggested telepathically as 5 giant ice meteors started shooting towards the head.
Kiefer agreed instantly, creating acceleration runes in front of the meteors, causing them to crash into Gondor’s tortoise head at even greater velocities. The consecutive impact from 5 accelerated meteors chipped away a considerable size of Gondor’s head as Kiefer moved his blackhole and mana flare to the head and neck regions to stop the regeneration.
As another shriek approached from beyond the clouds, Kiefer took the opportunity to redirect the MAC round aimed at the body to hit the head instead. Opening his PD in the path of the speeding rail and another PD right above the impact crater caused by the ice meteors, Kiefer laid additional acceleration runes at the exit portal.
The Projectile descending from the clouds instantly disappeared mid-air and came out faster than ever, slamming into Gondor’s head and breaking the snout off completely, revealing one side of a shimmering rust brown crystal the size of a football field.
As Kiefer was about to direct everyone’s attention to the crystal’s location, Gondor suddenly shot up towards the sky, the neck, half a head and the rest of the continental body lifting out of the water on 4 thick sturdy legs. With a single word, he froze everyone in their places momentarily. No one had heard him speak since the beginning and his first word had that much more of an impact.
“DIE.” Gondor spoke. It was not a yell of anguish or complacency. It was deathly monotonous, as if all that Kiefer and the titans had been doing up to this point was merely annoying him. The deep baritone voice echoed through the clouds, as mountains from his back shot into the sky and exploded, creating compound shockwaves and a hail of Adamantium shrapnel.
As the first of the adamantium shards pierced holes in his wings, and tore through his scales, Kiefer quickly set up his dome shield to protect himself, proceeding to teleport constantly to avoid the shrapnels. The Isanas were scooting around, using their tempests to fling the shrapnel off target while dodging them nimbly. Countless explosions rang out as miniature nuclear detonations occurred from the nuclear powered jets that were destroyed by the hail of adamantium. The swarm of jets was dwindling quickly, but Kiefer was relieved that at least Rashael was at a safe distance.
Feir and Sher were still engaged in a battle against Desir, ignoring the shrapnel as Sher’s hexagram blocked most of it. Kiefer cursed at their current stalemate situation. It was 4 against 2, but Gondor himself was powerful enough to handle Kiefer, Isana and Hope on his own. Kiefer knew that while Gondor would refrain from killing one of the titans when he is outmatched and fighting an unknown force, they could still get nowhere with whittling down his body mass to get to the core crystal.
“Found you. I’ll deal with you first, and then use you to get rid of the annoying pests once you are under my control.” Gondor thought as his body rose beyond the cloud line. His head was still slowly regenerating despite the relentless attacks from Kiefer and Isana. He finally detected what had been attacking him all this time. thought to be invisible, Gondor detected the faintest signs of life from a great deal of distance up in the sky. they were really far away, but their numbers were so huge, he could sense them without much problem. Abandoning his attempts to attack the group of titans, Gondor reached his mind out high above him.
“Rowanda, fire the antimatter missile now at these coordinates.” Palmer ordered as he spoke with a blank expression on his face, his eyes dull and muddy.
[Initiating launch sequence. Missile fired Sir.]
As the missile accelerated towards the surface of Aioa, a second projectile sped past it, heading straight for Kiefer. Blinking to random spots in space to distract Gondor, Kiefer’s blackhole was gradually increasing in size as its mass increased and ate away at the head with an increasing pace. Finally, within the next minute, Kiefer noticed that his rate of destruction finally balanced out Gondor’s regeneration, giving him the smallest sliver of hope that he might turn the tide around.
Screeching through the air, the MAC round landing in the open water, far from Gondor’s main body. Kiefer had been too distracted to redirect the round, making hi wonder why Palmer and Rowanda had missed such a big target. The sea exploded in a torrent of steam and water upon contact with the MAC round, which Isana hurriedly froze with her breath to clear up the visibility.
“Kii! Watch out!” Isana screamed in fear as another red beam extended from Gondor’s half eaten head, radiating from the core crystal. Kiefer paid her no mind as his void space nullified the magical attack, only to realise that Isana was not warning him about the beam attack, but the antimatter cell that was hurtling towards his direction.
“FUCK! What is he doing!?” Kiefer bellowed as he saw one of Isana’s clones rushing towards him while the others were shooting straight for the missile in an attempt to slam it off course, away from her beloved.
A giant fireball appeared in the sky as the vacuum housing of the antimatter cell cracked, letting air in to reach with the anti-protons. Given its proximity, Kiefer knew there was almost no chance to avoid it. Isana’s clones were already caught up in the rapidly expanding fireball, leaving only her true body that was now heading straight for Kiefer, hoping to push him out of range.
“Sorry Isana.” Kiefer solemnly spoke to her through their minds. “I love you.”
Isana’s fear stricken dragon face and here tearing beautiful emerald eye were burned into his memory as he opened a PD in her path and another back in the snowy lands of her own province. Then he did the same with Desir, Sher and Feir, transporting them to Fiora’s volcano, hoping that after the agonising skill transfer ends, Sher and Feir would be able to defeat Desir with the help of Fiora.
While he could simply teleport away to the north where he sent Isana, Kiefer made the split second decision to use this opportunity to end Gondor. The runes on his back lit up instantly and momentarily, with mana ropes extending and restricting Gondor’s neck. He knew Gondor had underestimated the power of the Hope’s weaponry, seeing as he was frantically trying to get away from the fireball that was now half the size of the continent on his back.
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[[In the northern region of the main continent.]]
“Kii!? Oh no… nonononono… What have you done Kii.. Why did you send me here!?” Isana sscreamed in agony, her heart shattering into millions of ice shards.
“Nnggg.. NNNGGGGG!!! Kii… AAAHHHH!!” Isana yelled out as the skill transfer began, memories of her time with Kiefer flashing in her head as the excruciating pain overtook her, with the image of Kiefer’s face being the only thing keeping her from going insane. Meanwhile all other 6 titans collapsed as well, writhing in pain at the phenomenon that was unique to the death of a Titan.
“Master…” Sher and Feir cried out pitifully, having guessed what just happened. No one could verify which of the 2 titans perished. They were preoccupied with coping with the feeling of their flesh being torn apart, their bones being crushed and their minds being burnt.
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