"Cursed inferiors... Why do you always have to fail at the very last moment?"

The entire situation had gotten out of hand: the very fact that everything had strayed too far from his original plan was infuriating the draconian to no end.

The original plan was for the princess to slay the ancient one, to get rid of one of the only threats that could threaten their second invasion upon the realm of earth once more. Unfortunately, not only did the warrior-princess fail such an important, monumental task, but the ancient one had also managed to retreat to the safety of her home before she could finally be finished off.

He had pulled many strings to make the events turn out how they were happening right now: he had pretended to be a human for several years and had even fully mimicked their inferior magick, all for the sake of fulfilling the mission he had been given to by the elders... all of that effort done and made, only for his schemes to come crumbling down into waste at the very last, saddening minute.

Fine, if everything was going to go about and fail uselessly, the mighty draconian had finally decided to take matters into his own hands.

But first...

"Head Mage Albion, is there truly no way to bring back the princess?"

It was his human assistant: Valtuin, a young man whom he had taken in as his disciple during his stay back in the Neugomian Empire's magick academy. Truthfully though, the poor lad mattered not to Albion, as he was merely a tool he used in order to safeguard the ruse he had been keeping up for so long.

"..."

Valtuin, noticing the increasingly displeased expression on his master's face, would try to ask him a question once more. "... Head mage? Are you alright? You seem to be unwell... It's also becoming incredibly hot here for some reason... Did you just cast a spe-"

[Maximum Hellfire.]

[Reverse Polymorphy.]

Red flames then scattered about, instantly scorching everything within the false human's vicinity as his body grew and morphed into something abnormally massive. It was a hellish sight, as the searing flames he had unleashed instantly slew everyone who was within the vicinity of his spell, including the assistant who had served him for 2 whole years already.

The draconian had now shed his false identity- his body instantly morphed into his original form, which was a massive, crimson-scaled beast whose size dwarfed even that of the largest bastions in the port. As soon as his transformation had completely succeeded, the red draconian had already instantly killed thousands of soldiers with his transformation alone: now, he was going to raze the entire port by himself in furious rage for the failures he was witnessing right now.

"Run for your lives! There's a dragon that appeared! We can't defeat it!"

Within a single hour, the great draconian would easily lay waste to the entire port in his fury, leaving not a single witness to survive from the carnage he inflicted upon the now-desolated place. He soared throughout the skies, setting flames to everything he could see with his sharp vision, sparing not even a single soldier throughout the deadliness of his rampage.

Eventually though, his unbridled wrath would finally come to an end, and by that point in time, the entire port had already been rendered into a smoldering wreck of ash and melted stone.

"... How bothersome..."

His eyes were then set towards the clear blue oceans in front of him as the moonlight's weak glow reflected upon the water's waves. If these humans were only going to keep failing and failing, then he would have to do everything by himself.

... Well, it's not like he had a problem with it in the first place- after all, years of being forced to pretend as one of these loathsome, inferior creatures had also simultaneously prevented him from using his full powers... And by now, he was itching very much to utilize the full extent of his draconian prowess once more.

"Prepare yourself, ancient one... I'll be burning you into crisps when I get my claws on you..."

________________________________________

It had been countless centuries since that time, and even until now, she remembered that day as clear as the finest of crystalline formations...

it was a tragic day when they had all perished without any means to recover using all of the advanced sciences they had accumulated: even now, even a faint reminder of the death of her creators would leave her completely disconsolate.

The appearance of the dragon known as Astaroth during the great war she served in, where she had been an experimental weapon that had been fundamental to the side of the humans amidst the terrible conflict: whenever she remembered that monstrosity's face, she would always feel a great sense of hate forming within her every time.

That dragon... It was a creature that heralded the very concept of death, as with one touch of the black mist it spread everywhere he went, it could erode every form of life that had been unfortunate enough to make contact with such a deadly smog. While such a deadly weapon had no effect on a deathless, artificial being such as herself, the same could not be said for the ones who had made and raised her with great care.

The memories of the bodies of the ones she saw as family: the men and women of science who had cared for her when she had just been born into existence and was slowly understanding her newfound sentience. Now, these people were mere naked cadavers lifelessly resting upon cold, silver tables, as Thurien looked dejectingly with her beautiful eyes at the motionless bodies before her, unable to do anything to help them.

The terrible dragon had struck the very facility that allowed Thurien's conception, with his terrible death magick destroying even the very souls of all the humans within the infrastructures, leaving no hope for their resurrection even with the help of the Realm of Sleep, which could store souls and allow life to be reborn once more.

For an untold amount of time, the pitiful, sentient android would wallow in her grief, shutting herself out from the outside world for more than a thousand years: her only form of friendship, if she could even call it one due to how brief and rare her visits were, was when that other sentient creation of the same humans who created her, a woman named Anastasia, an artificial, uniquely magickless dragon, came by to her home to check up on her condition.

She remembered those days when they conversed quite eagerly like the best of friends they had once been: they were such happy moments that a loner such as Thurien had always been fond of even until now... If only she could bring those times back...

However, that too would not even last as well: Thurien had heard that her friend had fallen in love with a human, a ruler of a nation at that, and Thurien felt a semblance of happiness for her friend when she first heard of such wonderful news. However, as their marriage suddenly fell into disarray, with the man turning into a vicious tyrant of his own nation as he betrayed Anastasia with careless apathy, everything would begin falling apart. Thurien would no longer be able to contact nor speak with her for the remaining centuries that passed by: she could understand though, as she had already experienced a suffering that was just as great as the one her friend underwent in such a cruel unfairness.

And now, fasting forward to the present...

"... Why did those humans invade my home, anyway...?"

She thought back to it for a moment, as the ridiculousness of the events that had transpired still confused her even until now: she had remained in peace at the center of the sea for so long, not even bothering to mingle with the affairs of the humans and the outside world as she remained silent in her own home...and yet, why did trouble come looking for her so suddenly?

When she first met those humans on their primitive wooden ships, she had actually been incredibly glad- though they had regressed somewhat due to the war, she was still happy that the descendants of her creators had at least managed to survive. However, as they soon attempted to assault her home, only for them to get defeated with ease by her creations, a sense of wonder and confusion began to form in her mind: for what reason could they have even attacked her, when she had never even laid her hands upon any of them in the first place?

When she probed into the minds of the invaders that her creations had captured, she only felt an even greater sense of bewilderment- these fools, they had come here to slay her for a reason that was not even true in the first place. They believed that she had been the cause of the deadly storms that hailed from the seas, and that she was some sort of demon that needed to be vanquished in order to quell such natural disasters: how ridiculous, she thought, but her love for humans still burned greatly without weakening.

What was even more shocking to her however, was how horrible the world of the humans had become ever since the great war had finally concluded hundreds of years ago- from what she saw within their thoughts, the world had devolved into such a primitive age of barbarity: they were living in such fetid states of squalor with no idea of the marvels of science that they once possessed, living like savages who used the same forces that their ancient enemies used against them, as they were now all being beset at all sides by countless threats that lurked throughout the continent, some of whom were already thought to have been defeated long ago during the great conflict...

And that was when she had chosen to come out into the world once more- with this desire though, she had also now decided to save all of the humans in this world, as the painful reminder of the deaths of her creators still ran fresh within her thoughts, which was now the primary motivation that was driving her to save the humans she cherished: and of course, in her warped sense of logic that had been twisted due to her centuries of loneliness, she believed that sending them forcefully into the Realm of Sleep was the best course of action to save them all: after all, there would no longer be any death, pain, hunger, or illness that would plague them in such a peaceful realm, and they would never again have to grieve for the deaths of their loved ones in such a tranquil place where death did not exist.

For her first step, she had twice assaulted the port that had sent that murderous fleet that had attempted to lay siege to her home: it was a port named Port Tallius, a place where she was supposed take the first step of her grand plan in order to set it in motion. She would stop any form of resistance using her creations, and after that, she would send all the humans at that very place into the Realm of Sleep, saving them from the firm grasps of suffering and death and bestowing upon them an eternal happiness that would never die.

... Unfortunately, her goal had been momentarily stopped by the defeat she had suffered just recently.

Now, she was tending to the grievous wound that had been inflicted upon her, as she carefully drew and crafted plans in order to better achieve her desire to save humanity, as well as to never suffer such a dangerous loss ever again...

________________________________________

Thurien was currently in a white room as her body laid down on a special chair that bent her at a slightly diagonal level, which eased the operations of the several, dutiful mechanical androids that were operating on the massive chest wound that still firmly remained on her abdomen despite all the attempts of repairing that they already made.

"... I probably won't be able to walk for a while... Hahaha..."

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It was an irksome form of injury that had been dealt to her- despite the spear not possessing any magick, it had left some unknown form of phenomena that was making any attempt of healing her incredibly difficult. How uniquely terrifying, Thurien pondered silently within her thoughts... If such an attack had hit her on the head, then she most likely would have died permanently, with no way of being able to recover from it, even with all the advanced technologies she had access to.

"... I definitely don't want to meet her again..."

Well, at least it was healing: the effect wasn't outright preventing her wound from being fixed. Rather, it was only greatly slowing down any effort that was being made to heal such a terrifying injury, and it was doing so rather effectively at that.

[Warning: Several Unknown Sources approaching the castle...]

[Source Type: Airborne... Speed: 200 kilometers per hour and above... Distance... Est. 211 kilometers... Source Quantity: Numerous... Identity: Unknown...]

[Deploy Fortress' Automatic Defences?: Y/N]

A warning would suddenly appear before her very eyes: a holographic display presented to her by one of her mindless, yet loyal creations- it was nearly the same warning that she had seen when those human ships had come back then... Could they be launching another attack once more? What a bother, she thought... They just had to attack when she was down at an incredibly low point...

"... Can we get a closer look at them?"

[Executing task... Parsing...]

Thurien's eyes remained fixated upon the screen as the holographic display took time to load. Eventually though, as the buffering finally produced results, the display would reveal several zoomed shots made by advanced optic detection systems that could practically take pictures of any target even if they were hundreds of miles away: from the feed of the display, the image of the incoming invaders had finally come into view, and it became clear that these were threats that Thurien had never seen before.

Winged, grey creatures in massed swarms, their eyes glowing with a dangerous crimson glow as they slowly approached the castle's vicinity with their teeming numbers- it was such a weird sight, and what made it even more odd was that there was a dragon-like creature that flew just within the vicinity of these creatures.

This had immediately roused Thurien's suspicion: perhaps the dragon had been the reason why these creatures had appeared in the first place? What could its goal be by performing such a sudden assault?

A lot of questions ran through the android's mind, as the situation slowly started to turn into a bizarre one for her: fortunately though, the medicae android already knew just what to do with sudden dangers like these.

While these newfound threats were, for some reason, so greatly dangerous with the numbers they were swarming with, Thurien could confidently tell that the defenses of her home would easily be able to deal with them without issue: in the past, they've already dealt with quite worse things after all.

The only real danger was that dragon who had suddenly appeared within the range of the fortress' detection systems- while it was unclear just why exactly such a creature had suddenly appeared at quite a close distance to her home, Thurien had quickly decided that it was a threat that needed to be eliminated as soon as possible.

"... Well, it's not like I can do anything myself... I'm quite injured right now anyway... "

Thurien had decided that she would leave the defense to the castle's automatic systems. After all, they had worked in the previous attack quite effectively, and there was nothing stopping them from achieving the same results once more.

"Alright then... Just do what you've already done previously... My children..."

What Thurien didn't know, however, was that the threats that had suddenly appeared were mere preludes to a disaster that was about to arrive... Incredibly dangerous ones that were easily about to threaten her very life...

________________________________________

He had seen how effective the defenses that the ancient one's fortress had- using his observation magick and several other scrying spells, he had seen the fate that had befallen the failed crusading fleet that was supposed to have taken his enemy out.

Those long range weapons that the fortress could deploy, and not to mention those metallic sea creatures that guarded the castle's proximity: they were all dangerous tools of war indeed, and while he was certain that they would not be able to injure him too heavily, he would still prefer to remain safe, as he couldn't risk acting reckless right now because the entire thing might end up failing due to overconfidence.

[Summon Flame Gargoyles.]

And with that, his temporary ruse had been set: several magick circles formed in the open space in front of him, and from these constructs of light emerged winged, creatures whose bodies were made of impressively durable stone as orange, undying flames wrapped their bodies with their everlastingly scorching heat. He didn't even need to issue any direct commands to them, as the moment they had formed, they quickly understood what task they needed to fulfill and immediately began flying towards the target they were meant to distract.

ROOAARRR!

The small, flying army the draconian had summoned numbered a thousands worth of flying creatures: in truth, however, a superior being like him didn't care if any of these insects would survive or fail in this sacrificial mission. After all, their goal was merely to evaluate how effective the ancient one's defenses of her fortress would be, as well as to distract his enemy with a false ruse as he prepared for the great, terrible spell he was about to unleash.

"Die well, my unworthy pawns... This the least that you short-lived inferiors can do for your master after all..."

...

[Multiple Hostile Targets: Marked...]

The automated systems hidden with the vast interiors of the castle would finally activate themselves as soon as the command had been given: entire turrets began appearing as they protruded from various unsealed hatches where they were once sealed from, power rapidly beginning to energize their internal systems as their targets steadily moved closer from beyond the horizon.

[Hostiles Count: 1000 and above. Preparing long-ranged weapons...]

[N/... Hypersonic Cruise Missiles ready for launch... Parsing... T-Minus: 10 Seconds]

From several gradually opening sections of the defense complex, multiple, small silos would begin unsealing their metal hatches, as iron rods would suddenly reveal themselves from their small openings in all their splendid glory, with half of their sleek, metal bodies beginning to point out towards the skies beyond. While their total numbers were few when compared to their targets, both their firepower and their explosive yields would easily allow them to wipe out the flying stone creatures that were still at a quite far away distance.

[Launching Payload...]

[... Batteries I-100 to I-299 have performed launch sequences...]

[... Batteries I-300 to I-499 have performed launch sequences...]

[... Batteries I-500 to I-699 have performed launch sequences...]

It was like a chaotic symphony of fire and steel- the rear end of the missiles began belching out smoke and fire, as powerful forces immediately propelled them into the skies beyond. As the now unleashed weapons began soaring into the air at a speed that was faster than sound itself, their internal systems would then begin to accurately guide their trajectories toward the position of their numerous enemies, making sure that each and every single one of them would take at least 5 enemies down after conducting a precise and successful hit.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Despite the vast distance they had to traverse through in order to reach their targets, the missiles had already reached them at an incredibly close range in just a couple of minutes. As soon as some of them had hit their marks, a continuous series of explosions in the sky would immediately begin, with each sudden impact and expansion of energy easily taking out several of the creatures out as both metal bits and body parts began raining down towards the surface of the ocean.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

They stood no chance against the metal arrows of light, even despite their incredible numbers- even so, their purpose had been nothing more to distract the enemy, and they were succeeding quite well with the one job they were supposed to fulfill.

3 seconds...

It had only been a few minutes, and yet there were only 70 or so left among the gargoyles he had summoned; fortunately though, the spell's chanting was already about to finish in the remaining timeframe it had left, and all he had to do now was to focus his efforts and say the few remaining words.

2 seconds...

More of the missiles hit their targets, leaving only a handful of the once overwhelming swarm of flying stone creatures. By now, they were so few in number, that Albion could easily count them using only his fingers as basis: even so, the spell's chanting would still be continued, even despite the slight sense of fear that was rising within his heart.

1 second...

He had won now: though there were none of them left, the enemy had been distracted successfully, and now, the ultimate spell that the draconian had been chanting for a while could finally come into a horrifying fruition.

[Meteor Fall.]

Something abnormally massive would then slowly appear beyond the horizon's highest edge, as its view gradually got closer the more distance it successfully descended into.

...

...

[Notice: All Targets eliminated from aerospace.]

A sigh of relief emerged from Thurien's mouth as she looked at the live feed of the decimation of the monsters at the hands of the cruise missiles she had launched: a major threat she wouldn't have been able to directly deal with had been removed, and now, all she had to do left was to neutralize the dragon who was, for some reason, patiently hovering in the sky without moving even a single inch towards the castle's direction.

How weird... Why was he remaining still like that? Could the fell, magickal creature be casting a spell? No, she couldn't let that happen- once more, Thurien's right hand would move as it began to just slightly hover above the controls of the holographic display, readying to activate more of the defense weapons in order to unleash everything they had in order to take the last, remaining threat down once and for all.

However, as expected, her guess had proven itself to be completely true in the next few seconds that came- the dragon had indeed cast a spell, and so massive and fear-instilling was its appearance, that Thurien could feel both a sense of admiration as well as fear for the massive attack that the dragon had just unleashed.

[Warning: Threat Level - Extreme... Massive object detected in the sky... Notice: Object is descending at a rapid rate... Location of Eventual Destination of Crash:... Calculating...]

"..." She could feel the anxiety rapidly building up within her as she patiently waited for those words to be completed.

[... Parsing complete... Estimated Crash Location= 'Current Coordinates' ... Likelihood= Very high (70-90%) ...]

Now it had become a major problem: she wasn't sure if the energy shields that surrounded her home would be sufficient enough to endure the massive meteorite that was about to crash at the very location she was in. Still though, there were ways to reduce the power of this massive threat, enough to at least allow the shields to weather through its catastrophic landing.

[Launching Payload...] [... Batteries I-1 to I-99 have performed launch sequences...] The remaining missiles were launched into the air: this time though, these warheads had been preloaded with a powerful function that would allow them to severely hamper the meteor's impact.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

These special, sleek, metal rockets hadn't been launched against the wiped-out swarm for a reason, as they were special weapons that were present in even more limited numbers- while their explosive yields were somewhat weaker than their usual counterparts, each of them stored dormant, yet potent clusters of nanites within their containers; small, efficient little machines that could rapidly eat away at any material within seconds, converting the mass they consumed into energy fuel that they would use to replicate their numbers, which would thus cause a deadly cycle of consumption and destruction which could practically turn entire cities into vast, empty pockets of space.

It was, after all, highly impractical to use the normal missiles against such a massively descending body of rock: the explosions would spread its fragmented pieces over multiple impacts, which would thus only cause further destruction when its broken bits eventually land and wreak havoc.

In short, the nanite warheads were the better, if not the most suitable weapon, for dealing with a problem as massive as this one.

However, the biggest problems of the matter were quite problematic as well- it was descending too fast, and the meteorite that had been summoned was incredibly large...

BOOOMMMMM!

Thankfully, the nanites had managed to sufficiently reduce its mass before its moment of impact: the vast, stone meteorite had approximately been reduced to 40% of its total, once impressive mass, as its massive body then thunderously collided with the shield's surface, momentarily stopping with its nigh-unstoppable descent thanks to the barrier, allowing just enough time for the nanites to gradually disintegrate its body before their kill switches were activated to end their rampage.

"..."

While the meteorite would finally be neutralized a few moments after its disastrous impact, the shield's defensive capabilities had been completely strained to its limits: its dome like structure then suddenly faded into nothingness, leaving the entire castle unprotected, and allowing the draconian a greater opportunity for him to attack further..

However... An unforeseen factor would prevent him from doing so all of a sudden...

________________________________________

The sleek, metal aircraft skimmed through the air in a soundless venture, with the outer coating of its vessel casting an imperceptible state on its body, allowing it to remain completely undetected as it speeded through the skies undisturbed.

1 week of preparation had led to its creation: the perfect stealth craft that could launch itself into enemy territories without ever being detected, allowing it avoid being assaulted by unknown forces as the aircraft made its dangerous journey into the unknown.

Now however, it was finally about to reach its destination.

"... How are you 2 faring back there?"

Novus was in the cockpit alone, seamlessly piloting the aircraft with ease despite the seemingly terrible complexity of its controls. It would have been impossible had any other men been put into this task, but for a soldier who already had many important life experiences like him, driving a plane was nothing more than an easy job for someone like Novus.

Of course, however, he had not come alone in this journey: Whitlea, as well as their new companion, were at the very back, relaxing in their seats and doing what they could to alleviate their boredom as they patiently waited for the end of their little flight trip.

"Yes, dear... I'm surprised though.. How are you even able to fly this thing? If I had been the pilot, I wouldn't have even been able to make this metal hunk take off from the very beginning..."

"Hehe, that's because our creator is a genius, sister..."

Beside Whitlea was the newly activated combat maid, a parting gift that Anastasia was supposed to have given to her son back when he had been planning to leave the castle in a few months: her name was Speranza, a white haired, biosynthetic beauty with crimson-iris eyes, whose combat prowess matched, and could perhaps greatly exceed that of her older sister, Whitlea.

"... I learned it from some books... Anyway..." he lied as naturally as he breathed. "... You know what to do... Just be wary of those powers your target has over fire..."

They had all been watching how the battle had been going, taking the time to observe what his opponent was capable of before he would take action- after seeing the monsters wrapped in fire that the draconian summoned, as well as the fiery destruction he unleashed upon the Neugomian port when they passed by the desolated place during their flight, they could tell that this creature had a potent affinity for manipulating the concept of flames.

Dragons, or so they were called even by the ancient people of old who Novus once existed with- each of them had a certain power over a certain concept, and depending on that power, they could lay waste to entire countries with just a flick of their fingers, and perhaps destroy the entire planet if their concept was potent enough.

In the case of his 'mother', despite being an artificial draconian who had been built with the power of science and technology, her ability was comparatively the strongest even when compared to the terribly powerful dragons that had assaulted earth: her concept had been based on the very idea of existence itself, and a such, her ultimate power was the ability to influence reality with just a single word from her mouth, which was an ability that served as one of the greatest factors that allowed mankind to win the war against the invaders.

In the case of the dragon that was within their vicinity however, his power was exceedingly obvious, and also quite weak at that: his ability was to control fire and anything related to exceedingly high temperatures. It would seem to be powerful had he been at any other place, but the very environment he was in could easily neutralize the very powers he was using.

The sea, a body of water that could easily neutralize his flames: in short, it was the perfect hazard to use against him in order to weaken, and perhaps even eliminate him without incurring unnecessary casualties.

"Go outside and test out the new upgrades I gave you both."

Grins of excitement would form on their faces as they replied with a positive and immediate 'of course': after all, it was the best moment for them to test out the new combat features they had developed due to the 1 week's worth of preparation they made before they made their departure.

"Don't worry about us, my creator."

"Alright then, I'll assume you 2 are ready..." Novus would then press on one of the important buttons in the flight deck, and simultaneously, the large, iron backdoor located in the aircraft's rear would begin slowly opening in a downwards motion.

"What about you though, dear? You're going alone to that place then?"

Novus would move one of his arms to make a thumbs-raised expression in affirmation. "Yeah.. Don't worry, I can handle my own... Just be sure to get rid of that damn lizard as quickly as possible... Don't let it get near the castle, or everything we've done will go to waste."

"Of course... But... Be safe, alright? Try not to get into too much trouble again..." Whitlea would reply with a bit of concern in her voice.

"I got you... Now go out there and get that son of a bitch."

"Alright dear."

"Right away, my creator."

The 2 combat maids would then jump into the open air, the harsh winds blowing upon them as they made a free-fall towards the surface of the seas...