SCC Chapter 32 Culmination(2)

This time, the shielding wasn't allowed any chance of disappearing back into a lull of transparency, though, Reed could see no visible changes upon it. No dimming, as was supposed to have occurred when there was a significant drain upon reserves. And the shattering when it became overwhelmed? That was far from happening in his eyes.

How much energy had that thing stored up? After all, everyone with a normal working mind could tell that it had been harvesting solar energy for years. Years!! How could they have managed to build a container for the solar essence without blowing themselves up in the process?

Upon reaching a certain distance from the unknown construct, the mothership came to stop, though the attacks didn't drop in intensity, owing to the massive reserves of energy supported by multiple artificial cores within the ship.

But then, came the question. Was this bizarre construct going to just keep defending, or was it capable of unleashing attacks, too? And Reed felt that this question was also the core reason as to why they hadn't gotten any closer.

That was when multiple thin objects were released from the construct, making it out of its shielding in mere seconds, all heading towards the mothership. Through his synced senses with the ship itself, Reed managed to capture what they were. Needle like ships, probably drones, the length and width of a normal person. What made him reach such a conclusion was the way they maneuvered within the void. It wasn't the way missiles were supposed to, yet, he couldn't entirely dismiss the fact that they could be weapons, entirely from his mind.

Then, in snyc, as if piloted by a singular mind, which was probably true, they fired thin beans of light, smaller than even the attacks released by the secondary canons, towards the mothership. Reed captured everything within his mindscape, like how the thin beams, upon making impact with the hull, caused catastrophic explosions that disoriented the senses.

The ship's AI system issued a warning before the entire vessel underwent a powerful shudder that threatened to throw him off his feet if he hadn't bonded them to the floor with his spiritual energy.

(Spiritual energy fission detected in multiple locations outside the hull! Defense integrity compromised by 41%!)

That brought a horrific expression on his features for a second before his mind kicked itself back into stoic mode. Fission? And integrity compromised by over 40%?!

(Each of you is going to be synced with a drone! Do your best to take down those small vessels!)

Then his entire focus was shifted from the mothership to envelop a small craft, shaped like a small airplane, those that were invented during the early stages of the Federation.

It was a sleek silvery sheen. And the moment his senses were linked with it, it was shot out of the mothership on rails, with him already having ignited the engines, that purred silently, like a spector in the night, yet the vessels they were about to face were even more bizarre in nature.

Within the span of a second, he spotted one and mentally issued a command, which correlated with the release of a powerful beam of light attribute spiritual energy, instantly severing the small craft in half. That got his racing mind back into perspective as it meant that the vessels weren't invulnerable to attacks.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

But the calm didn't last long as he felt himself being locked on, which made his brain work in hyperdrive such that his craft couldn't be decommissioned just at the start of the battle.

Nascent Soul cultivators had a speed of thought that could almost rival a quantum computer due to how their nascent souls interacted with their bodies, sometimes even bypassing the nervous system entirely, which gave them monstrous reflexes in extraordinary times.

That was why, when his tiny craft's sensors picked up an anomaly, he accelerated instantly, with an explosion going off the moment he left the space, rattling the craft, and almost making him lose control over it. Yet, he had also managed to gain some valuable data. Data which he sent back to the mothership such that it could be disseminated to the others, just as they were doing.

He carefully maneuvered the craft to start hunting down the others while also keeping his craft from being destroyed in outer space. It was a task that demanded intense focus, after all, just a slight mistake and it would be destroyed.

From what he had discovered, the thin beams of light released by those needle shaped crafts didn't directly target the hull of a ship, but the particles in the space close to it. The chaotic spiritual energy in the void had many attributes, with the most prevalent being solar essence. What the beam did was to induce a fission of a larger particle into its smaller constituents, which visually, caused the explosions. This was an awespiring technology. Spiritual energy fission had been just a theory within the Federation, yet here, it was being used practically!

Reed took stock of the situation after destroying multiple drones. They had all been in a hide and seek battle with the small crafts, around the mothership even as it continued to fire upon the shielding. And from what he could see, the shield and mothership were still holding on.

That was why, he decided that they needed more information about the shielding. His comrades were holding out well. Maybe, he could figure something out if his craft managed to capture how the attacks from the the mothership interacted with the shielding...?

So, he ran it by the president, who agreed right away. Then his craft's engine was cranked up, and the sleek vessel sped off, towards the alien construct.

-----

Silent fireworks bloomed within the void of space, beautiful, yet deadly at the same time. Particles, those of spiritual energy, whose wavelengths read different attributes, collided with a shield that was almost entirely transparent, only to be scattered, like how a stream of water fell upon rock.

Through the sensors synchronized with his very own senses, Reed was watching the entire spectacle playing about vividly, having escaped from the intense Battlefield behind him. It was worth noting that none of the needle shaped crafts had taken it upon themselves to follow him, making him wonder whether the AI, or cultivators controlling them had determined his lonce craft as harmless, or the Battlefield a more pressing matter.

But those thoughts were banished in favor of analyzing the readouts from the sensors, trying to see whether he could find a way to break the deadlock in outer space. He was certain that if it wasn't, deaths would follow. So far, no cultivator had been forced to step into the battle with their bodies, but that was a situation that wasn't bound to last long.

With only the passage of two seconds, he finally managed to pick up the anomaly, or in other words, nothing. Yes. Even with the visual sensors relaying the scattering of attacks upon their impact upon the shielding, his craft was picking up none of the scattered energy. And, after a moment of going through many possible reasons, he was finally certain of one. The scattering of the attacks was was a visual illusion. But that led to another question. What was happening to the attacks if they weren't being scattered?

That question made him think deeply while also making sure to analyze the readouts from the sensors, no matter how trivial they were. There were no fluctuations being released. If it had been a collision, then there might have been some fallout that the sensors could capture. But it was like all that energy was being absor-

“Right! Absorbed! Could the shield be devouring all the energy being thrown at it?" He exclaimed while also furrowing his brows, back within his cabin. Even Nascent Souls couldn't detect the trace particles broken down when the intent of devouring was in an active state.

While he was being tortured with that discovery, wondering how he could use it to help the mothership into breaking the shield, trace amounts of energy leaked out of the shield. And what alarmed him was the constituent of the energy waves. They were composed of an amalgam of elements that appeared to be highly unstable, breaking down in merely a matter of moments, a fraction of a second. Yet, he had managed to finally find a crux. The energy was all being gathered within the shield, which was acting doubly as an absorber, yet also as an illusion formation.

(Sir! The mothership could be in danger!)

Barely after his transmission, a massive multicolored sphere of energies exited the shield as if materializing from another dimension, speeding towards the mothership in the distance, surrounded by a thin layer of blue energy, that appeared to be trapping all the energies inside.

Instinctively, an emerald ward crystallized across his entire body, with the light spilling out into the entire room. There was a burning resolve within his eyes as he resolutely severed the connection with the drone. Right now, dividing his attention was an unnecessary risk!