< You want me to send a high-priority information request to Galatreon about the Darkshroud Formic Lord? > Ayame inquired as to the VTOL she piloted leaving a bright trail of blue electric arcs. The speed of which the aircraft traveled through the air is slightly above Mach speed, but having the ability to reach this velocity consistently is an amazing feat for a rank 1 artifact. After all, Mach speed is typically only reachable by rank 2 cultivators.

Of course, the fuel consumption was intense since the captain, inside her armor, was strapped underneath the aircraft like an unwanted baggage. The thin layer of metal shielding provided a crucial defense against the abrasive forces of air friction. Without it, the aircraft's aerodynamics would have been compromised, causing a notable decrease in speed and subsequently amplifying the consumption of fuel resources.

< … > The captain did not repeat herself, but Ayame sighed. She typed into empty air, interacting with the AR interface to fulfill the captain’s request.

A few hours of boring flight later, Ayam’s voice broke through the tedium, relaying an update, < It’s approved, Galatreon High Command just sent me a bunch of research files. Here are the specifics. > She forwarded the requested data through a telepathic connection.

< Hmm. The information doesn't exactly match my expectations. These details pertain to the Darkshroud Formic Lord in the Land of Sand and Fire, not within this kingdom. > she mused, a hint of resignation in her tone, < Well, it’s better than nothing. >

< What do you want to do with them, captain? Don’t tell me you’re going to kill it? > Ayame’s concern edged her words as she contemplated a veto, < Doing so will cost us millions of crystal coins worth of resources, I‘d rather not. >

< Nope. > The captain paused, < I’m designing countermeasures. >

< Countermeasures against what? >

< Darkshroud. > The captain, as usual, did not fully elaborate on her action. However, this wasn’t because she’s acting aloof, but simply because she couldn’t waste telepathic thoughts.

‘The bloodline abilities of rank 2 beasts pose a significant threat to Official Hunters. Ayame might manage to partially pierce through the [Darkshroud] due to the extensive array of information-path artifacts she had, but the rest won’t be as fortunate. They’ll be fighting blindly, unable to regroup and mount up propper resistance…’

For the following hours, she immersed herself in finding the optimal method to counter the [Darkshroud]. Yet, an unsettling intuition gnawed at her, suggesting that the situation on the battlefield was taking a dire turn. She couldn't precisely articulate it, but her previous experiences in extraplanar expeditions had honed her sensitivity to the team's karmic luck, and now that luck seemed to be plummeting into the depths of negativity. Their lights were fading, much like the wavering flame of a candle being gradually extinguished in the midst of the darkest night.

< How far are we from point B12? >

Ayame’s eyes glimmered in prismatic color as the augmented reality interface provided an interactive digital map that she could easily read. Her AI Support Unit, callsign Aozora, even put up conjectures, deductions and all supporting infographics about their flight charts, automatically helping her with whatever she needed. It wasn’t just a tool, Aozora can be likened to an extension of her senses, seamlessly integrated into her decision-making process. < ETA fifteen minutes. >

The captain did not reply for ten whole minutes. The two went quiet until the location where point B12 is on the range of Ayame’s radar that they began to converse once more.

< Captain, bad news. My sensors couldn’t find anything resembling the convoy’s trace. They are most likely being ambushed by the Darkshroud Formic Lord. >

< We are rushing here under the assumption that they would be ambushed. It seems like we’ve missed them somewhere. Find them. >

Ayame nodded, her AI Support Unit worked itself to the bone. < Aozora found a spot with 79% chance of them being in that location! > she informed, her fingers deftly manipulating the controls. Without hesitation, the VTOL's trajectory adjusted as it sped toward the designated location. The sudden burst of acceleration left a scorching trail of electric flames in its wake, a display of power that was kept hidden beneath the veil of optical camouflage. If not for being invisible, this action would provoke the fliers that plagued Morgen World’s skies.

Circling the designated area, their vantage point from the skies granted them a sweeping view of a vast expanse enveloped in an eerie shroud of black mist. An expanse that spanned a broad territory, the dark-path and necro-path resource points were concealed within this inky veil.

This is a natural phenomenon that couldn’t be used as a point of reference or landmark. Considering the proximity and the relative size of both resource points, creatures from both sides could simply wage war and bring in their ‘domain’ to the opposing realm. With daylight illuminating the scene, dark-path entities would likely bide their time until powerful beings capable of masking their movements initiated their advance. Thus, the misty veil observed from above didn’t necessarily signify the precise battlefield they sought.

< I’m picking up [Darkshroud] signature from the black mist below, but the whole mountain seems saturated with it, I’m not sure if they’re here in the first place. > Ayame's voice sounded through the communication channel, conveying her findings after completing her second pass above the indicated area. Her sensors had briefly penetrated some areas, yet yielded no concrete results.

< Desperate times call for desperate measures. Send me into that location. > The captain’s telepathic message pointed towards a clearing on the dark-path mountain.

< You… > Ayame was shocked for a brief second, her mind refused to let the captain took suicidal move. The clearing is extremely close to an entrance towards the mountain’s interior, the ant’s hive. The concentration of rank 1 dark-path beasts would be off the charts. However, she knew that the captain wouldn’t be asking things without a deeper scheme in mind. She simply doesn’t like wasting time explaining every little thing.

She obliged to the captain’s strange request. The thin metal shielding that kept the VTOL aircraft structurally aerodynamic despite carrying the captain’s power armor began to retract, exposing her into the intense air friction at Mach speed. Due to the air resistance, the aircraft is quickly losing speed, but that doesn’t matter since the mechanical ‘claws’ that held the captain’s armor in place released its binding.

Like dropping a bomb, the captain’s power armor fell towards a certain spot on the dark-path mountain while Ayame’s aircraft regained altitude and speed after the three tons worth of baggage had been dropped.

As if her descending velocity were insufficient to fulfill her intentions, she began activating movement-type method, “Rank 1 sound-path killer move, [Monumental Sound Path]!” Boom! Boom! Boom! With every ‘step’ of the way, her power armor experienced an increment in speed, ultimately breaking the sound barrier. The ancillary effect of her killer move resembled the distant roar of an enraged lightning god. The resonating rumble, the sound of thunder piercing through the heavens doubled as a signal to her companions, heralding her imminent arrival.

The captain’s acceleration was unceasing, even as she almost reached the mountain. She persistently ‘stepped’ upon the ground, exploiting each motion to propel herself through the air even as she almost reached Mach 2. However, approximately a hundred meters from her intended destination, she kicked the air at a peculiar angle, leveraging the momentum acquired from her killer move to execute a mid-air flip.

“Rank 1 sound-path killer move, [Thousand Wave Terraquake]!”

Amidst a resounding explosion of sound, she defied common sense, landing not headfirst but on her feet, similar to a superhero landing. The impact resulting from a three-ton mass colliding with the terrain at that velocity was devastating. Yet, curiously, the power armor’s legs, aglow in a faint pale gray radiance, held firm. Meanwhile, the inky soil erupted, forming a sandy crater with a diameter exceeding 10 meters, yet a 2-meter-wide region of earth remained remarkably undisturbed at the core, like a resilient island amidst the chaotic seas.

This is a strange phenomena because an object that heavy should’ve dealt far more kinetic damage towards its surroundings when it landed. However, the captain’s methods were never simple in the first place. A delayed shockwave that expanded the black sandy crater could be seen, seemingly washing away the ‘shore’ of the crater with more of its black sand. Before this second ‘wave’ reached the edge of the crater, a third one manifested, so on and so forth. The result was an impression of kinetic damage diffusing gradually in waves, rather than an instantaneous release upon contact.

Gradually, the expanding waves would transform a sizable expanse of black soil into a field of fine, black sand- a process that would unfold over a lengthy duration. Regardless, her entrance had stirred the local ecosystem. Weaker beasts fled at the mere sight of her, while stronger ones found themselves stymied by the reverberating shockwaves, rendering their advance all the more difficult.

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< No response yet? > the captain inquired, her tone laced with a hint of impatience. Swiftly, she drew the heavy gunlance from its place on her back, her eyes scanning the approaching beasts being held back by the shockwaves of her killer move.

< Not yet… wait! I found a flare signature 300 kilometers from your position. It’s Shirogane’s! > Ayame reported as she headed there using super acceleration that allowed her to nearly reach Mach 10 for a brief period.

< Prepare defenses for saturation bombardment. > the captain commanded, her tone firm as she tapped the heavy gunlance, “Gunlance Configuration: Howitzer.” The weapon’s magic rune-engraved mechanical parts initiated a series of precisely orchestrated movements. The once-concealed long blade of the lance split open into symmetrical halves, revealing a sleek rail-like barrel beneath. As the mechanical shift continued, the gunlance underwent a significant transformation, elongating and reshaping itself. What was once a thick, pillar-like 2-meter-long gunlance now stretched into a sleek 4-meter-long cannon with a railgun barrel, ready for the impending assault.

With her two hands already occupied, she relied on her telepathic will to retrieve artillery shells from her dimensional storage. This telepathic ability extended beyond mere retrieval, encompassing the intricate process of reloading. It was as if multiple invisible pairs of [Mage Hands] worked in tandem with her, deftly managing the technical intricacies of the weapon’s operations.

< On it! > As Ayame’s VTOL drew closer to the bright silver flare, a determined glint lit up in her eyes. Her experienced fingers danced skillfully across the console, initiating a seamless shift maneuver from the VTOL’s original [Fighter Mode] to the advanced configuration known as [Sentinel Mode].

The aircraft released prismatic lightning wires in its wake, forming what appear to be pixelated web prisms that extended through the air. These wires are anchored to the sounding space, creating the illusion of piercing through the fabric of reality itself. The abrupt halt caused by this maneuver might typically jolt the senses of even the most seasoned pilot, yet Ayame’s advance cranial augmentations, consisting of a variety of technomagic artifacts, grants her immunity to the effect of motion sickness or sudden deceleration from G-forces, a result of having less than half the usual amount of biological matter in her skull compared to the average human.

With the cessation of its momentum, the aircraft underwent a significant metamorphosis in its form. Dispensing the need for traditional aerodynamics, this new mode remained firmly fixed in the skies, its structure tethered to the air by threads of pixelated lightning, cracking with energy. Adopting the appearance of an aerial weapon platform, this sophisticated amalgamation of arcane construct and cutting-edge technology bestowed upon Ayame an unprecedented level of stability. In this configuration, an array of sensors and railguns barrels emerged from the concealed compartments beneath the aircraft's previously hidden folds.

“Deploying [Electrosphere Shield Pylons]!”

Swoosh! In a split second, sixteen sword-like missiles, propelled by the four primary railgun barrels, raced towards different spots on the battlefield. They were like a rain of swords that swept the battlefield. From Ayame’s point of view, every single shield pylons that she put down would eat up an enormous amount of battery resources. War is a costly endeavor, but the captain doesn’t have the time or energy to bicker.

In any case, one such ‘shield pylons’ is the one that killed an ant threatening Shirogane.

“What a sight for sore eyes…” Sumire muttered as she kicked open the carriage door behind Shirogane, exposing herself to the dangers of the Darkshroud and the ants. “That’s Ayame’s shield pylon. The captain would probably end this battle with saturation bombardment.” She stepped down and helped Shirogane to stand up. Despite the sword-like ‘shield pylon’ not turning on yet, it doesn’t stop the hunters on the ground to heave a sigh of relief in its presence.

Just as Sumire had expected, the blade churned with electricity, spreading it onto the surrounding area. With a heavy hum, the shield pylon activated, producing a deep blue defensive force field onto a small area barely enough to protect the carriage and Shirogane. The soldier ants that were outside of the barrier could only scratch the barrier, while the weaker worker ants got electrocuted the moment they touched it.

Naturally, sixteen shield pylons aren’t enough to completely protect every hunter and apprentice from saturation bombardment. Ayame fired her second, third, up to her forth volley to provide more protection for the men underneath the [Darkshroud] mist. With the amount of sensors on her aircraft, she had no fear of friendly fire.

As more and more hunters and apprentices were being enveloped by energy shields, she stopped firing pylons but instead sniping any ants that were threatening the men down below.

Her killing speed is extremely fast, considering she had four main railguns, accurately sniping any Slayer Ants engaging with her allies. Nevertheless, the amount of soldier ants were too much for her to kill with her railguns. In the first place, the VTOL’s [Sentinel Mode] isn’t designed to destroy swarms of beasts.

It was the captain’s turn to act.

A sudden release of energy with a sharp, high pitched electrical discharge sound, similar to a powerful electrical arc could be heard from above the black mountain. The captain’s pseudo-howitzer launched multiple projectiles towards the sea of [Darkshroud] mist. Unlike Ayame, her power armor isn’t laced with information-path artifacts capable of piercing through the darkness. Thus, her first volley is actually a cluster projectile that spreads into multiple smaller projectiles.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! Multiple explosions of thunderbolt and lightning spread across the battlefield. Contrary to the expectations of the hunter in the battlefield, the first volley wasn’t intended to kill the ants. Instead, it was to charge the [Darkshroud] misty particles with electricity. Among the first volley, there aren’t only cluster bombs, but also some highly charged metal plates scattered around all over the battlefield. With the dark mist particles being charged with electricity, the charged plates would attract the charged airborne particles, thus cleaning the air out of Darkshroud.

This is her countermeasure against [Darkshroud], targeted electrostatic precipitation bombardment.

She took a deep look with her investigative killer moves to determine the situation on the battlefield. Now that she could see the battlefield 300-ish kilometers away, she could accurately aim and adjust which area required more assistance.

There, she saw that despite being covered by shield generators, the hunters are still having some difficulties. The ants that are already inside the shield are still alive, they need to be killed directly. However now that the [Darkshroud] mist is slowly being swept away, telepathic communication and visibility are returning, the situation isn’t as grim as it was before. The ragtag bunch of hunters could unite in their resistance, allowing them to effectively retaliate against the swarm.

Her lips revealed a faint smirk. There’s no actual need for a second volley since her countermeasures have been very much effective thanks to the data given by Ayame. However, she calculated that it should take the hunters far more time to clear the rest of the ants. Having visibility and telepathic communication back barely stabilize the hunters with the most combat resources, team Undying Forest.

Undying Forest’ captain can theoretically produce an infinite amount of Grass Soldiers as long as her resources and time allows it. However, she must’ve suffered from some level of damage thanks to the Slayer Ants hunting down the ‘head’ of the ‘snakes’. Enslavement-path cultivators are weak to assassins, after all. There’s a chance that they have been ‘killed’, forcing them to switch with their body doubles.

With that said, she started to take out more artillery shells from her dimensional storage. This time, it was the ones color-coded with bright white strips on them. They are held telepathically as each one slowly enters their designated chambers.

Once more, with a reverberating resonance that echoed through the very fabric of reality, the quasi-howitzer rekindled its symphonic overture. In the choreography of combat, her calculated artillery fire waltzed in synchronous rhythm with the symphony orchestrated by the shockwaves of [Thousand Wave Terraquake]. A symphony played out not only in the air but also in the trembling earth below.

As if the cannon itself were a maestro of destruction, it led its ensemble of explosive volleys with an artful finesse. The concerto of concussions interweaved with the harmonious tempests of terraquake, crafting an opus of calamity that resounded in waves of awe and trepidation. Each booming discharge from her weapon was a stanza, a movement, a note in this primal composition, and the battlefield was their grand stage.

The captain of Twin Helix is a maestro of destruction. She handles it with precision, decorum, and most importantly, impeccable artistry.

Down below, the captain’s explosive shells detonated above the ground, producing blinding white light while releasing toxic white fumes across the landscape. Faint acrid odor, like the stench of garlic or matches could be smelled from behind the safety umbrella of the shield pylons. Every hunter knew what to expect, as the white fumes is one of the Captain of Twin Helix’s signature killer moves, usually used in large-scale war.

[White Phosphorus Saturation Bombardment].

Heat and luminance bathed the battlefield in an eerie, deadly glow. The soldier ants and the countless number of worker ants, covered in their armored exoskeleton, were now caught within this infernal embrace.

Their initial effort to shrug away the white fumes were futile, as the white phosphorus particles clung tenaciously to their carapaces. The chemical seeped through miniscule openings, embarking on a relentless mission to ignite both formic flesh and chitin. High-pitched screeches of pain echoed across the battlefield, the agonized cries of insects reverberating through the air. Their hormone-based communication methods were disrupted, sowing chaos and discord all over the place. The very ground seemed to tremble under the force of their convulsions.

Their tough exoskeleton, once impenetrable under normal attack, now twisted and warped under the chemical weapon. The soldier ants were in a desperate bid to escape the torment, their attempts to scatter rendered futile as the white phosphorus had been saturated in a very large area. It is also modified specifically to clung persistently once it made contact with biological matter.

While some of the ants’ exoskeleton valiantly resisted the scorching heat of the white phosphorus, their innards proved to be their Achilles’ heel. The searing temperatures had caused the volatile fluids within their bodies to expand rapidly, exerting immense pressure on their already strained forms. The consequences were devastating, as ruptures and explosions occurred within their bodies, rupturing vital organs and releasing gasses that fueled the flames. This domino effect of internal chaos was an indirect, yet equally lethal, result of the bombardment.

The cries and following chaos lasted for quite some time, but it eventually ceased.

The noxious mist gradually dissipated as it was not designed to be long-lasting in the first place. Behind its wake, a haunting scene was unveiled. The soldier ants, once the primary combatant of the Darkshroud Formic Lord, now lay prone and still, their once-proud forms reduced to smoldering wreckage. The white phosphorus had stripped away their defenses, leaving only charred remnants, a somber reminder of the Captain of Twin Helix’s destructive power.