Tarma watched in utter astonishment as what looked like personal fighters nimbly jinked around creatures three times their size that were nothing but tentacles, fangs, and spikes. The Terran fighters burned scorched lines across the sickly yellow flesh of the beasts as they danced through the swarm. This scene was repeated thousands of times across the battle. Somehow, the fighters were dancing around the Azarians amidst a literal hail of bullets and lasers from the massive ships that were bunching together and slowly focusing their fire into the center of the horde.

The small fighters would perform maneuvers that would leave most organic beings as nothing more than a puddle through the sheer G forces as they weaved their way through the battlefield, leaving smoking remains everywhere they passed. Within seconds there were thousands of smoldering or blasted corpses hovering in space. However, for every Azarian they killed another five seemed to flood out of the ever-widening rift.

The fighters suddenly moved out of the center of the swarm and concentrated on keeping them contained around the edges of the rift while the Azarians surged through the center. Just as it looked like the Azarians were going to spill over the encirclement the Capital ships unleashed their spinal railguns.

The guns fired a projectile the size of a bus that trail foot-thick Basillian steel wires which would spin at 99.99% the speed of light into a warp tunnel that brought them directly to the fight. Twenty separate rounds were fired into the mass of Azarians at once reducing the horde to a bloody mist as they shot into the swarm.

The perfect grid pattern of the slugs cleared the entire horde outside of the rift, but just before they could wreak havoc on the other side, a wall of pale-green flames sprung up before the slugs and reduced them to dust.

Those of the Galactic Compact on board rubbed at their eyes in disbelief as the flames cleared up and massive golden-armored tentacles that looked like they could wrap around a moon slowly extended their way into the void of space. Dozens of these tentacles which were each miles thick lashed out at the nearby fighters. These fighters that were dodging and weaving through objects at near lightspeed and even lasers with relative ease seemed to be incapable of dodging the myriad tentacles as hundreds of them exploded against the mass of flesh.

Tarma looked up to Basillius, "How is that possible? They could clearly detect and dodge objects moving at lightspeed before, why are they unable to dodge such a huge limb?"

Basillius let out a low growl as he watched the fighters go down. "They can't dodge it for several reasons... First, the weapons we have are part of the tactical net. Their A.I. assistant knows exactly when and where our own fire is coming from. On top of that, our weapons are almost all limited by the speed of light in some way, shape, or form. Second, the Azarians are demigods under Mael. They are part of the veil and as such, they aren't perfectly limited by this universe's laws of physics. Those arms are swinging at several times the speed of light. Though, their bodies are still squishy enough to eat shit when hit by a capital ship's main gun."

Tarma gawked at him skeptically, "But... That's... What? No no no, that can't be right. Wait no... Did you call them demigods? Demigods under Mael? Why does that name sound so familiar...?"

Basillius sighed and gave him a shrug. "That's just what Maleficus told me. Honestly when I was trapped in the veil for all that time I pretty much just beat the shit out of everything that moved the entire time. Didn't have much time to think about any of it until I met her. Essentially all of my knowledge on the beings from the veil and the inner workings are all hearsay."

Before Tarma could ask him anything more Aurelius chimed in, "Lord Basillius... There appear to be around a dozen Warlords and several Priests. We may need you to step into the battle at this rate."

Basillius snapped his gaze back to the screen and saw that the fighters had already retreated as the massive Warlords finished crawling through the rift, followed by a group of Priests behind. Their resplendent armor shined with a golden luster that signifies their gods' authority over time. "That's an entire invasion force! Just those Warlords alone are enough to contend with our fleet for a while, let alone with the support of the Priests..."

Just as he said that, five Priests dragged themselves into his universe and immediately created a flaming wall that blocked the incoming Terran fire. Through the flickering veil-fire, they could see that a new swarm of immature Azarians was pouring out into the void.

Basillius tapped into his neural interface, "Fleet command, prepare the Stellar Annihilation Cannon. Ready firing solution on the Priests. Try to line up as many of them as you can in the skewer. I will move out and engage the hordes in the meantime while you provide covering fire."

The Terrans all had looks of relief and excitement upon hearing Basillius's words while the Atteni and Tarma's crew both looked perplexed. As Basillius started walking towards the quantum portal he spotted Catherine. She looked like she was on the verge of tears so he waved at her and gave her a reassuring smile, "I'll be back in a minute Cath. Just going for an evening stroll. I'll pick up some take-out while I'm out there."

She smiled weakly and nodded her head at him solemnly. With that done, he continued on his way. Once he got into the teleporter he marked an area that had a railgun nearby. Seconds later he was walking down the grey hallway leading to one of the main railguns. He spotted the operator and tapped into his neural net to get his name and rank. "SGT Johnson? I need to borrow your gun."

The man turned around with a questioning look that immediately turned into a devilish grin as soon as he saw that the speaker was Basillius, "Why if it isn't the Emperor himself! Shit, you can have the gun!"

Basillius smirked at him, "I only need to use it once. Specifically, I need you to use it. I'm just the ammo."

Johnson stared at him blankly for a few seconds before an even wider grin broke out. "Well now... I'll get you set up in a jiff!"

He nodded to Johnson and walked over to the railgun. A perfectly sized hole fell away in the barrel that Basillius stepped into, but before he laid down in the barrel he noticed Johnson creating something with the nanites. "...What's that?"

Johnson simply smiled at him as he placed a freshly minted plaque on the wall next to the gun.

Imperial YEET cannon

For use by Emperor Basillius only

Any other persons attempting to Yeet in the emperor's stead will be shot...

Basillius has to try his best not to laugh at the 1200-year-old joke. As he lay down in the chamber Johnson handed him another plaque. Basillius looked at it and busted up laughing before the chamber had shut. The soldier just put a cigar in his mouth, lit it, and saluted before hitting the trigger and saying aloud what was written on the plaque he gave Basillius. "For a brick, he flew pretty good! - SGT Johnson."

Basillius was now flying through the vast expanse of space at near light speed. He used a small amount of veil energy to shield himself from micro asteroids as he stared towards the wall of fire the Priests had erected to protect the swarm. Having a couple of minutes before he'd be in the thick of it he began preparations for his attack.

Maleficus haksha demo grekta ved mortia!

Pale-green runes burned themselves into his body as he spoke. He pooled as much of the veil energy he could muster into the spell causing his armor to singe with flames. When the chant finished the energies of the veil trailed out of his body like wisps of smoke before coalescing into the form of a greatsword. Through the flickering flames, anguished faces would occasionally be visible. Yet it was otherwise just a rod of pure energy that was holding the form of a sword.

The Priests took note of the incoming surge in veil energy. Their alarms raised, the four not holding the spell for the shield began their own chant in unison.

Mael haksha ah talo trensda malkana feldent!

Their voices rang out through the void of space, audible to even those within the fleet. The power in their spell made the fabric of this reality bend and warp as a massive crescent blade of golden light the size of our own moon formed above them.

Basillius's eyes widened slightly as he stared at their massive spell. Just as he had made up his mind on how to confront it he heard them chant once more.

Two called out, "Sella!" followed by the other two finishing it off with, "Machta!"

Basillius cursed under his breath as the single moon-sized blade split into thousands of smaller blades the size of an Imperial Cruiser. Then as the final word rang out their glow which had dimmed from being split returned to the resplendent golden it was.

The golden glow of the blades that inspired fear in a myriad of universes was met with a solemn and resolute glare from Basillius as he readied his own blade. The blades shot out like streaks of light as they both struck out at him and flanked behind him, creating a web of blades that could entrap him and kill him with even a minor slip up.

Suddenly flashes of light erupted around him as the fleet started indiscriminately firing into the blades trying to circle him. The blades could shrug off most of the lasers, only gaining a slight orange glow where they were struck. The slugs were able to throw the blades back or even crack them if they hit one that was still warm from the lasers.

He pointed his sword towards the closest cluster of golden blades and channeled the energies within. The blade let out a low thrum and a flash of pale-green flames erupted like a volcano consuming over a hundred of the blades and turning them to ash. The sword dimmed significantly, but a hole was opened in the wall of blades.

He quickly channeled some power just below his feet, detonating it for a rapid boost to his speed. His legs cracked in a few places, but the nanites in his body quickly got to work repairing the damage. The immature Azarians immediately began swarming towards him from the front as the blades streaked towards him from behind.

He sighed heavily as he looked around. He took his blade into one hand and then threw it as hard as he could towards the huge mass of golden blades behind him. The second it was engulfed by the storm of gold a green light exploded taking a chunk of the blades out.

He frowned as he saw that there were still more than half of the blades left and gaining on him. "I was at least hoping I was strong enough to remove half or more of the damn things... Well, I guess it makes sense. I don't have unlimited use of veil energies in this universe so contending with the combined efforts of four Priests is beyond my ability... I'll have to hope that a supernova is enough to fry up the squids."