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Chapter 387: Ambush!!!
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[Simulated chance of Burst-Physical-Burst attack pattern is 35%. Angle and height of descent has been established… sending triangulated data for countermeasures to allied warships. Confirming all other scenarios… simulations completed, all data consolidated and stored.]
Cortana’s message would be masked as being sent from the Human Colony in the Misty Plains.
Menial calculative work and manpower allocations were divided to Maki and Cortana while Galatea is mainly focused on the operations of the Defense Matrix as well as the designated sky-positions the allied warships on their sides had to take. After all, warships take up too much size and the airspace in the capital is limited so the engineers and the officers in the control towers had to manage their possible reinforcements and prevent mishaps on the event of a hyper jump.
It was equal labor.
“Confirmed positions for our warships; readying of pylon markers complete. They’ll be close with each other after the jump.”
“Good job. Retain contact with the tower officers and tell them that we are readying reinforcements as we speak.”
“Done.”
Of the two surviving Human Warships, Odyssey is the only frontal attack-capable warship Humans has while SS-Pandora had been transformed into a mobile colony.
Although the latter’s firepower was stronger, it’s mainly used for last resorts so there was no need to take the risks of it being damaged for no good reason at all.
Besides, Siva had agreed to use his own pair of warships as frontline attackers so he had no other reason why he shouldn’t take this seriously.
In addition, Baal is one of the Generals that flung the attack to Mitra back then… he was also there when Terra’s Divinity’s physical body died as her consciousness went into the cycle to experience countless death and rebirth.
The fury in his heart hasn’t died despite him being able to recall everything that had happened and knowing the truth of the matter.
He can’t suppress his nature forever.
Siva knew he had to vent things up or he would be eaten by his own darkness, eventually falling to an irreversible state that might potentially harm even Baron.
How could he miss this chance to kill Baal? Now that he presented himself as if in a hurry instead of bidding his time to fully synchronize with his new host, this General who wasn’t even close to 10% of his peak strength would be nothing more than a meal for him to be relished.
“Why is the alarm not sounding yet?”
At the mention of it, Siva and company heard the long sounding cry of the siren and this caused the chaos in the city to die down as they looked up to see a bright light slowly gathering towards the tip of Baal’s lance. Panic churned as countless players and NPCs quickly went into hiding.
“Confirmed 20 fleets with five Supreme-grade Colossal Warships remaining in the mothership’s formation… they’ve broken off idle status and had begun initiation of hard descent!”
[Time remaining until contact, thirty seconds!]
“Intercity communications link established. System integrity at 97%.”
[Confirmed sightings of land-based enemy units in Sigma and Omega Sectors… sending allocated interference data to allied forces…]
“Mercenaries and Adventurer Units dispatched, a third of the initially scanned enemy sites will be dealt with by the contracted workers.”
[Energy Output spiking! Data sent to the Global Alliance data centers for immediate reinforcement actions!]
Siva was listening to Cortana’s reports while also gathering data on impacts of Maki’s and Galatea’s reports of the activities of Baal and its escort warships. What made him surprised are the land-based units that were attacking in tune with the sky invasion.
He suddenly recalled the Demon Commander he and Volt and Thorn encountered in The North.
‘And then there’s the attack in Paneme…’
For some reason, every action of the Blue Card Legion was always connected to the LAGRAM.
*****
AN: please don’t get confused… Terrans call the LAGRAM Alliance “Demons” while the Humans calls them the “LAGRAM Alliance”. I use the two interchangeably depending on the context. If it’s on the POV of the Humans, they’re called as such; if it’s of the Terrans’ POV, then they are the Demon Armada… all in all, they’re the same.
*****
“Detected high-energy concentration on all of the smaller warships! They’re going for concentrated blast fire!”
As the conference room shifted to a small-scaled, centralized control center, Galatea’s report made the people in the room wince at the content of it.
Siva turned to her, “If everything works fine, the last line of defense will be you. But still be aware to receive flexible commands depending on the situation. Things might actually change at the very last moments so be on the lookout. Try not to waste the durability of your defensive matrix. You only have one so use it wisely.”
Galatea naturally knew it but Siva still felt that he had to know her reply. Between the two of them, he was actually the one who’s feeling paranoid.
“Leave it to me.” She spoke seriously.
The sight of multiple bright lights gathering for an attack alarmed many people within the city.
“They’re going to weaken the barrier dome first before bombarding it with the mothership’s lance cannon.” Pistareen was feeling concerned.
“It’s typical of the Demons.” Siva said and then gave an advice, “There is a 50% chance that Baal will use a secondary burst weapon right after he fires the first so when that happens, conduct the hyper jump and ambush it, then enter the dome to be protected and jump away…. also… I have few more scenarios here in me so to increase our chances of winning this round, try to study it and integrate it on your capabilities then tell Cortana if you have suggestions and problems with them.”
Siva wasn’t stingy and provided them the earlier simulations by Cortana. It was better to be ready for unforeseen circumstances than regret it.
There were nine differing scenarios in total, with multiple variations on each. The ninth series of the scenarios he simulated was the worst of the worst-case-scenario.
He knew that there was still the hostility between them but Maki and Galatea knew what to prioritize so they definitely won’t make it hard for the both of them during the event of this invasion.
“Plasma Burst attack in T-minus ten seconds.”
Maki’s report broke all other thoughts to everyone inside the conference-slash-control room.
Eight…
Seven…
Six…
Five…
Four…
Three…
——it was at that moment.
“GWAAAAAAAARRR!!!”
Baal’s figure roared and it shifted its body as it threw the obelisk lance like a javelin towards the barrier dome of the city.
Its target was already determined to be the capital since the size of this city was an easy 300+km in diameter so when Baal hovered at 25km above its territory it was also screaming to the world that it was targeting Jeremiah.
The ear-shattering loud roar of the monster was enough to frighten the citizens and even Siva had his ears seeming to break by the sound of it.
Siva’s voice resounded in the room, “It’s scenario 8-C. We can use this to our advantage. Galatea, deploy the matrix to contact point! Everyone there is a possibility of breach. Prepare for a melee!”
*****
XIU!
XIU!!
XIU!!!
Three wind-slicing sounds pierced through their ears from inside the barrier as three ten-meter sized disc-looking weapons flew from three directions to meet the area where the lance was calculated to hit the barrier dome of the city.
PAHNG!!!
It was the dull sound of a javelin hitting solid wall.
What differed from that scenario is that the lance Baal threw didn’t bounce off the barrier dome nor did it lean on any direction.
It progressively sent its weight towards the barrier dome, intending to crush it, with the dome doing its best to resist, bending its form, spreading the damage of the attack.
The still parting clouds from the heavenly attack were a sight to behold in itself.
A single moment fluttered longer than it seemed, minds and souls were focused on that scene just above their heads.
The barrier dome was setup to anti-pierce attacks by the Council Head and so there was additional defensive attribute when meeting attacks that had piercing capabilities.
As if a rubber balloon being pierced through by an impaler, the dent made by the thrown lance caved in for a frightening 500m deep!
Until—
SHOOOOFFF!!!
[Initiating defensive measures]
[Plasma Matter detected]
[Pressure point calculated]
[Deploying countermeasures]
[Shield Matrix… activated]
In a matter of a second, the three disc-weapons of the Humans created a tri-angular formation that deployed a screen of white light at the shape of a net with openings on three sides.
Galatea, “Shield Matrix is active.”
Maki, “Plasma Burst in progress! Prepare for an impact!”
BOOM!!!
At the tip of the spear, bright orange light blasted forth with a tremendous pressure, pushing the three disc-weapons that received —no— directed the attack on three directions into a form of bright orange harmless particles that dissipated into thin air as if it was nothing.
To maximize the neutralization effect, the three disc-weapons rotated fast around a common orbit that in no time looked like a counter-tipped drill that pushed the lance upwards, dissolving the pressure the barrier dome was receiving.
“Matrix integrity at 86%... 83%... 79%...” Galatea’s reports felt like a stab of a dagger to Maki but if they wanted to win against a versatile opponent such as Baal, they have to be prepared to pay the price at least this much.
‘We can’t trust the military power of Jeremiah. It is only effective against human-sized opponents but against monsters with this size, even all of their warships combined would be rendered useless.’
These were Siva’s thoughts at the current status of the defense of the capital.
Almost every walled city in Terroa relied heavily to the plasma-neutralization effects of Light Towers so when you remove the limited range and that passive defensive measure away from it, all those towers become useless and mere landmarks in the face of the enemies.
‘Maki’s Defense Matrix is a genius move!’
In this regard, Siva had gained inspiration on the creation of better equipments that can deal with the troublesome high-damage output of plasma-tech weaponry.
The military power of Jeremiah is strong against enemies of its size so when you increase it, they turn to their warships and Light Towers. But when warships and Light Towers become obsolete, the massive holes in their defense come to be visible.
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And this is the reason why instead of passively waiting for the enemies to dig deeper into their defenses, Siva chose to use a surprise element to deliver a blow to an unsuspecting foe.
Fires of rage burns in his eyes. He remembers all that had happened in Ragnarok and even if he is now aware of Janus’ side… the fact remains that these devils are his nemeses!
‘I now all your weaknesses, you bastards! It’s your doom now that you met me…’
*****
“Matrix integrity at 64%!” Galatea intoned.
Siva assured the rest of them, “It will hold!”
It should be noted that the barrier dome and the Disc-Net shared the same surface that had made contact to the spear so all those excess energy from the blast was guided outside the barrier.
Six seconds.
Everyone were holding their breaths.
Time seemed to have stopped within Jeremiah as they saw an unbelievable sight where the caving barrier dome was repaired by those three disc-weapons.
And yet, Baal wouldn’t let this attack go to waste.
When the force of the plasma blast died down as the lance was pushed halfway through the caved barrier, Baal changed its posture as it seemed to invert itself; the sky its floor and the city its sky.
“It’s going to dive down…” Siva uttered. The two ascended AIs knew that this was part of Scenario 8-C. They were already ready for it. “Ready jump at my signal.”
The [Comm Lines] active on his vision blinked in affirmation from their respective captains.
GWAAAARRR!!!
Baal’s resounding roar rattled the wind; sending men and woman shaken down to their very core as they tumbled where they were standing.
Those who were in midair almost fell while those in the highest positions were either logged out or have been fainted by the shockwaves.
Thank goodness though, that Baal itself was yet to get into the 15km danger zone of the city so the safe zone effect was yet to be lifted by the world will, the network that maintained the balance of the in-game elements of the cities of the world.
Still, this ‘safe’ status lasted only until the next bit of moment when Baal bent its feet and jumped as it pushed the lance back towards the transparent barrier dome.
It was a frightening sight.
BANG!!!
The wind howled in agony, its cry piercing as it sent sonic booms one after another. The sheer size of Baal’s body and the speed of its descent broke the air barrier, parting the dark clouds, the wind, and even almost breaking space.
A deadly ripple blasted everything through the city’s sky dome, its might enough to render all of Jeremiah’s every inch into oblivion if not for the shield dome.
Gyoolu can be described as a gorilla; with its long arms, short legs, and muscular body.
But this [Baal] is an Evangelion; four long limbs, thin physique, a head with a single horn, and cold and savage look in its pair of yellow eyes. It was a 15km-large monstrosity, an embodiment of what can only be described as carnage and violence.
Perhaps only Siva —no— that “Mefisto” that appeared in Dragona’s own savageness could be compared to this giant mechanical being.
When it descended upon its spear, it carried with it weight and momentum. It cancelled the counter-force the three disc-weapons made and even did it with enough additional inertial energy to push it further back to a terrifying 800m deep!
Cracks appeared on the surface of the barrier, its frozen-lake surface-sound causing the operating Support Mages at the city’s defense core to cry out in agony.
As the ones responsible for reinforcing the anti-piercing effect of the dome, they were the first to receive the full brunt of Baal’s horrifying ability.
WOOOOOOOORRRRRGGGHHHH…
One thing is for sure. It has the same kind of roar as Gyoolu and thinking of the [Shout Cannon] it was yet to fire, many players began to fear that this city might become the second Alexandria.
“Matrix integrity at 44%!”
Galatea was becoming worried as well. Even her cold demeanor failed to retain itself in the face of that impact.
“Just a bit more.” Siva commanded.
When his momentum died down, Baal used its own hands to pry open the crack he made. When it did, however, Siva began to smile.
“Now.” Siva’s command sounded from the room.
BOOM!
~BOOOOM!!
——BOOOOOOM!!!
Within the next second, three foreign warships of differing make and standards appeared inside the city’s protected skies, their main cannons locked, loaded, and at the ready.
Cortana’s voice rung, [Target point confirmed.]
Siva coldly voiced, “Light him up!”
*****
B~B~B~BOOM~!!!
They didn’t waste time and targeted the humanoid Baal —a torrent of bright lights, of lasers and solid shell cannons, of the absolute firepower of fully loaded warships force through any defenses at a single point— directly at the chest of that massive mechanical monster.
It was a successive shot of focused firepower. It was frightening even to the beholders. It was true and utterly dumbfounding sight to see three large warships the size of an ant focused fire on just a single target in that giant monster’s body.
They’re intending to injure the mechanical body!
Baal was caught off guard and it wasn’t able to shield itself.
It was outside the barrier dome which prevented it from attacking the city directly but the warships are all inside, all protected, with their cannon fires still going straight towards its unprotected chest.
The position of Baal and the angle of fire are like a pair of perfectly matched earrings; one sent the damage and the other received the attack—
—without a speck of resistance.
The resulting wave of damage and the trembling of the body told those with discerning gazes that upon the first wave of attack, Baal was stunned; it was definitely shaken.
A slightly groaning-sound can be heard but aside from that, only the explosions continued to wring cruelly at the target’s chest.
Successive explosions rattled the air in Jeremiah, the sounds of the cannon fires tromping at every inch of skin on everyone’s chests.
In ten seconds, the flush of concentrated cannon fires opened a large gash on its chest, revealing the burning chamber that looked like a series of web connected to a central ‘figure’ not even close to 1% of its mechanical body’s size.
—the true Baal…!!
Siva, through Cortana’s help, upon seeing him, had his blood boiling in agitation.
For sure, even if that Devil General doesn’t die, he would be at least stunned, if not unconscious, if not injured, for being ambushed that viciously.
Siva, upon seeing this, smiled and spoke with an unconcealed malevolence on his voice.
“[Belphegor of the Sloth]’s real body is akin to that of a centaur… but also closely related to those satyrs who either had goat or horse legs. His real nature was to sleep and laze around, but they’re very smart and some of them even geniuses. Baal detested having to exhaust his own strength while doing jobs so it made many convenient weapons for its use that will do his jobs for him. Even this colossal body is nothing more than a mobile suit of armour. Its real body is that of an Archfiend from the Burning Apocalypse Dominion. He is but the cowardly Emperor of the Fireflame Beasts... in short, that creature in its chest is the real Baal.”
Siva’s voice was full of mockery while still not a bit least complacent on his attention to Baal’s condition.
Unfortunately, they couldn’t follow up any more attack because the guns and cannons of his pair of warships were already overheating from that single barrage of fire power earlier.
‘If I had more time to prepare… if I have more warships to spare…’
Regretfully, not one part of Terroa is safe right now and even the Asgard is facing two fleets of Demon Colossal Warships that should have been on its way to the Coastal City of Ingrid, southeast of Walled City Aarun.
As such, even if they asked for reinforcements to this plan of his, not one city would have rallied to deploy their support and risk their defense to his unreasonably unsure plan.
Furthermore, he also can’t deploy the warships of The Capital because there are still five Supreme Demon Commanders and their own fleets left with Baal here.
—in short, this was already the extent of his plan.
‘Cortana, how long before we can fire again?’
[Ten minutes minimum, sir.]
‘Alright.’
—fortunately, it’s not as if the attack didn’t deal it a massive amount of damage. There’s still this chance.
‘Cortana, begin second phase.’
[Hacking city-wide speakers…]
*****
When he declared his words to the listeners, he’d also deployed another command for the warships that ambushed the opponent.
Right now, the giant monster… stopped moving.
The time of the attack has ended and their only advantage already used, the warships retreated down closer to the city as Siva didn’t display any sort of courtesy and made an announcement to the rest of the capital:
[Listen up you miserable donkeys! The enemy is now weakened and its main body hiding in that giant suit of armor is now exposed. When you kill it, you will receive legendary equipment as well as a Black Ball that can grant at least twice the power as that of a Supreme Demon Commander. If you can’t kill it, Jeremiah will fall. I’ve already provided you your opening. It’s now up to you whether you will take it or not… oh and please don’t mind me for I will also join in on your game… that prey… is also my trophy. It’s boring without the challenge of you crowds of weak maggots! Hahahaha!!!]
—Mentally!
This message was sent mentally and the voice projected through the speakers of the city was a product of Cortana’s audio-signal synthesis.
Still, although the people in the conference room wasn’t able to hear Siva speak physically, the fact remains that it was his voice and that him not even denying it was enough to make these people look shocked and awed.
Impulsive! Truly impulsive!
Did he just announce to the world that he is here in Jeremiah? He’s obviously attracting trouble!
Volt, Thorn, and the rest already knew that Siva had a tendency to do things not on their original planning. But to actually insult the entire city while not even bothering to explain who he was… all to incite them to be cannon fodder to attack a giant monster… was definitely something close to his own personal plan.
Everyone had a weird light in their eyes as they thoughts of these possibilities.
—then what are those earlier build up?
Those who knew Siva knew that thinking over his reason for actions would only give them a serious complication of a headache.
Whether they knew that Siva had regained all of his memories or not, this is already part of his known personality.
Even Gaia, as astute as she should be, had her face twitching while holding a teacup midway to her beautiful mouth. This is indeed Siva-ish stunt.
“E-Ehem… please excuse me.” Siva cleared his throat as he looked at Scion, “It was… it was all part of the plan.”
“Your plan.” Volt corrected fearlessly and Gaia’s eyes darted to Siva as she feared for something bloody that didn’t come.
—Brother Janus was right. This is not that [Siva].
Everybody, except for her and the two AIs, began to laugh which the rest of his people in the room following suit, dispelling the dismal atmosphere.
Yeah, they were all too tense and no one realized it until they started laughing.
“Maki and Galatea knew the plan. There are many scenarios and there are many ways to react to all of them. This here is just one of the results. It is still all part of the plan.”
—he’s defending himself!!!
Sounds of further laughters being held beneath a few “pfft” was heard around him.
“Listen to me!” Still, he wasn’t lying.
Scenario 8-C was a critical scenario. It was a plan where, if they failed to deal damage to Baal’s suit of armour… Jeremiah will fall completely.
Even the announcement just now was part of it.
“Now comes the hard part.” Siva said and pointed at the sky, “That thing is now a floating dungeon. It is indeed still a warship in essence, only bigger, and carried smaller fleets inside it. There are also countless other demon units inside so it’s safe to say that what was on surface is just half of it. I’ve got enough reason to believe that those escorts around it will use their own warships to repair that piece of junk so unless we make it to Baal first and kill him, those Supreme Demon Commanders will be the least of our concerns.”
“How strong is the real Baal really?” asked Heller.
Siva paused, thinking how to answer that question but since everybody here trusted him, he spoke as if he was reading it from a book.
“Right now they are not on their peak and adding to that the still unknown suppression the planet is giving them, I’d say… he’s as strong as me right now, with all my aces and abilities simultaneously used and focused on a single opponent.”
Not to mention the “them” on his sentence, there was still a separated “he” from the “them” who gave them an impression that Siva was unilaterally speaking to the collective body he had once told them called the “Devil Generals” of the LAGRAM.
—their absolute leaders!
Actually, there are so many matters to point out in what Siva said; including the matter of the planet’s suppression on ‘them’ and him, knowing how they are in —and not— being on their peak strengths, even so much as to compare to him as a basis.
Still, the words he said don’t make it better. Siva was the comparison model.
Just the Killing Zone’s effect alone was enough to destroy those on the same level as him. And Siva actually used himself as a complete set to gauge the strength of the real Baal.
—in the end, with that giant thing still active, then the current Terroa will definitely fall.
Everybody then understood.
Disabling that giant mechanical armor is required if they wanted to survive this. Now, his words and provocation earlier do made their sense.
The part of his words about the rewards weren’t a lie in every bit. Only, with great rewards comes greater risks… are they strong enough to defeat five Supreme Demon Commanders and their own fleets on their own without mothership?
As such, the invitation of Siva now made sense.
“In short, this is a hunt, then?” Cramer rested his Godhammer on his shoulder. Everyone followed him, equipping their gears and pulling out all their priced new weapons courtesy of Siva.
Siva cleared his throat again, “The original plan is to protect Scion and that hasn’t changed. It’s just the location of the stage that had been switched, and even though the enemy is still stunned, that will only last for a couple of minutes. It’s better to use this chance now to deal the large mobile suit armour a deadly blow or even ultimately kill its pilot and owner… against the odds of those five Supreme Demon Commanders and their fleet.”
As he spoke to this part, the space in front of the group rippled. Lily, accompanied by a few more BM-Puppets, appeared around Scion while he himself changed into his Black Knight Set.
“The Demon Fleets are converging. They’re all transforming to repair the giant mothership.” Maki reported and Siva laughed, “See?”
Cramer laughed heartily, “So what are we waiting here for? Let’s go!”
He was the first to jump out of the window and flew into the sky followed by Heller.
“I’ll be waiting for you all up there.”
By now, there are no shortage of players and NPCs who believed Siva and are all flying into the humanoid mothership. They, too, understood by instincts and also by observing the converging colossal warships, that they will do their best to repair Baal’s mechanical body as fast as they can.
Siva said it; if they can’t kill Baal, Jeremiah will fall.
There are plenty of rewards for them in that large mothership and those who are both lucky and are strong enough will definitely stand above the rest.
Players are egotistical; would they allow others to step over their heads and gain the glory that should have been theirs?
Of course not!
As such, wave upon waves of people began to fly up the city with their direction the opening on the massive mechanical body’s chest.
“I have a feeling that…”
Siva laughed at Volt’s worries. “Aye. Of course. It is a huge mistake if they think that the demons that serve under Baal are the same Pawns that we see in the forests. This is a General we’re talking about here… how could his lackeys be weak?”
They looked at Siva, eyes narrowed, minds at one thought: this guy’s really a handful of somethings.
It was suffice to say that he was a rational bastard.
A bastard… with clear purpose and goal… with a few beautiful ladies beside him, a few people he can take opinions and ideas, advices, and even hang around with from, and a few personalities as his own personal underlings…
Such a bastard with a weird sense of humour and a fragile ego was their… eh? Just what is Siva to them anyways?
Employer?
Friend?
Boss?
Favour owner?
Team leader?
Nah, whatever… being with this bastard was fun and these guys didn’t mind any of it.
They were here for the ride.
Siva eyed the departing ‘few’ and then turned to Gaia and FlowerLord who stayed there with Scion and company.
Gaia and Scion knew that although Siva seems to smile and act a bit playful, deep down, there is a burning hate in his chest that wanted to settle a few scores with Baal in that mothership.
“Just come back to me. Please.” Scion softly said in a whisper, holding on to his cape like a shy girl.
“This time, he can’t resurrect when I kill him. But they came here not knowing about me so when I go there, there will surely be one or two Supreme Bosses going down here for their real objective.”
Gaia assured him, “I will protect her.”
“Make sure you do.”
Although he also left Lily and gave ‘her’ her first instructions on how to use the BM-Puppets, this group’s main defensive strength will still be Gaia, Eleanor, Kathleen Brew, and FlowerLord.
“Hmp. Such a fusspot. Just go.” FlowerLord is still in her character and she still hated Siva for all this mess he’d dragged Scion to.
With that, Siva jumped out of the window and flew his way up to join the fray.
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Pistareen is dumbfounded.
‘Just who is this Siva?’
How can he talk like that to Lady Oracle, even call her by name, and order her around like he was her master?
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Chaos will explode in Baal’s metal armour…!!
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Next Chapter: Characters will arrive to further blur the muddy waters…
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