“It won’t work,” Jacob said with a shake of his head. It was an emergency meeting regarding our planned assault on the sphere. “I can’t upscale a portal enough to go through the lower layer. Which means, we have to go directly, and see if anything is happening with the sphere and the lower layer on site.”

“Is it a cost issue?” I asked and Jacob shook his head.

“Quadratic. I figured the energy costs would be exponential, but this is far beyond that. No good measurement systems at small scale, and when I upscaled things it didn’t work. If I had a hundred more days, then maybe but it is a research problem once more, not an engineering problem,” he said with a sigh.

“Where does that leave us?” I asked, since that was the primary method of moving the airship and the super weapon into position to support me.

“I can make sure five people make it with the local energy absorbers, but the problem then becomes the energy storage on the airship and the engines. The sphere’s energy will interfere, like putting diesel into a gas car. It will just gunk everything up,” Jacob explained.

I wouldn’t need one of those since my stats were high enough to resist the sphere’s energy, but no one else would be able to go on stats alone. There would also be a time limit based on energy density.

“So, Michael has to go alone?” Clarissa asked with a frown.

“Thankfully no. I can break the airship’s engines once we have velocity. But to keep the lift and the airship in the air, it won’t be able to slow down or turn unless it crashes, or the super weapon is used. And Captain Francis can speak more to the max velocity the airship can still have while aiming, in addition, there is a time limit for my energy absorbers,” Jacob said.

“We will need to go in fairly slow and take position at medium range. Then unleash everything. But the bigger concern are the smaller golems around the entire perimeter. Since they attacked Michael when he retreated, we will be shredded on the approach,” Captain Francis explained. It was a one-way trip.

Michelle would be covering the airship and myself. I would be conserving my energy for the boss fight as well. So, I couldn’t contribute to the airship getting in close. “Good news, is that the super weapon should be set up to annihilate against the sphere’s energy. Managed to get around 60% annihilation rate with small scale tests.

“We can load up the air ship with bombs. Fly in, use the super weapon, the summons cover the approach, and load it up with bombs to devastate the nearby terrain. We can then retreat to a fortified position,” Clarissa said.

“I suggest we work out the force of the super weapon on the airship and come to a stop if at all possible. The equipment I need to attempt to figure out what the sphere is doing, isn’t something I can carry,” Jacob said. “Unless we don’t want to try and find out?”

Now that was an incredibly tough question. One that was tricky to answer. “You want to try and launch attacks in the lower layer?” I asked.

“I just know the sphere is doing something there. Whatever it is, can’t be good. Also, where it is probably drawing power from unless it is consuming the System’s energy, which doesn’t appear to be the case, since they are in conflict. We throw in a hundred annihilation bombs through the portal, it will impact the sphere. How much, no idea,” he said.

“I can maintain monsters at a close range, but the tests I have done in the sphere’s area of energy have shown that the tethers and monsters will break apart if they get too far,” Michelle said.

“The airship won’t be able to tank any serious fire power. Summons will be needed,” Captain Francis said.

“Can we use other summoners?” I asked.

“No. Not unless they have as many stats and my talent,” Michelle answered.

“And the super weapon?” I asked Doctor Katz.

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“It is finished, but the last bit of installation is still ongoing. It will be ready by tomorrow morning,” the good doctor answered. There was silence at the table as we all knew that it could be the last night we were alive.

I had to give credit to the entire team, even Jacob. They were all willing to risk their lives on this assault. But it really was do or die. With the discovery of the height ceiling there was no chance of escape. While some of these people might have thought about staying behind, Jacob, it was all or nothing now. We either had to win or everything would be lost.

“Well, we have a decent plan. And I have a lot of confidence, I will be able to do damage, if I can get a big enough opening,” I said. There were nods at that. The ability to pick super skill points to pick one upgrade path, being able to change it, was a huge boost to my damage output.

I could dump 20,000 energy into a single attack to destroy, or heavily damage the sphere. That was the limit that was safe for me to risk. I had been doing tests while grinding level 7 monsters and level 8 bosses, to see what worked best in combat.

A shame that I couldn’t reuse another super skill point. Once I had gotten one, like other skill points, I couldn’t reuse it unless I gave the skill up along with all the upgrades. It was slightly frustrating, but not unexpected.

“We leave around ten in the morning, unless anyone has objections?” Clarissa asked. No one spoke up. “And six people then,” she said.

“Yes. Since Michael can survive without an energy absorber. I will be going,” Jacob said.

“We need to bring the Avatar and I can support with my skills. Also firing the super weapon,” Doctor Katz said. That was three people.

“Do or die, so we better do,” Michelle said quietly, which made four.

“I will be piloting and having a gunner and back up,” Captain Francis said.

“I will also be going along,” Clarissa added and everyone looked at her in surprise. “As it has been made clear it is do or die. There is nowhere to run that is safe long term. If this attack fails, then I don’t want to be waiting around,” she said.

“Then that makes six,” I said calmly, silencing anyone’s comments about Clarissa coming along as well. It hadn’t been easy for her to make that choice, but I respected it.

“Samantha will handle things in my absence, but if we don’t return, it is all over anyways,” Clarissa said.

“Or we all die, but still succeed,” Jacob morbidly replied.

“The level 8 summons are possible and will be prepped. So I wouldn’t give up hope just yet,” Michelle added.

“Our homebrewed cannons, well we will either blow up, or it is going to do a tremendous amount. We will have to go over the timing tomorrow morning,” Doctor Katz said to Captain Francis.

“In the morning first thing. After flying Emperor Michael around for so long and the headaches we have had, it is time to really put everything to the test,” Captain Francis said. Looking around at this group of people, I couldn’t have asked for better friends.

There was a very good chance that some or all of us might not make it back. Clarissa was still concealing her stats, but I had no doubt she had quite a lot. You didn’t manage my entire Empire and not get yourself a lot of stats. It was foolish that she was risking her life, but I couldn’t refuse her.

Just like I was having a crisis of reality, she was having a crisis of living in dread. Or being in control in some way. It was hard to say exactly. And unlike her, it wasn’t something I could realistically shock her out of. I knew I could order her to stay behind, but it would break her spirit. She didn’t have it in her, to run a government in exile a second time. It wasn’t looking for suicide, but wanting to know if she should even bother with the hassle.

As for the Avatar, she was coming along regardless. I planned to strap her to the front of the airship as a figurehead, like the ancient sailing ships of old. There was the backup plan, that if the airship needed to crash, to crash towards the sphere, sending the Avatar into its disintegration shield, with the hope that the Almighty System would wake up and doing something to the sphere if she was vaporized.

Either way, if there was a high chance of all of us dying, she was going with us. I refused to let her live while other people, good people, died. I didn’t want to go or send anyone. Looking around the table, us five were it. The people with the highest stats and skills to resolve this crisis. The loss of anyone of us would be a massive loss.

We had to succeed no matter what. I clenched my hands, making fists, vowing that I would go all out against this latest threat. It wasn’t enough to win, we needed to crush it. I looked over at Jacob. While the only one not required for combat, any insight he could gain, or alternative means of attack would be quite useful. The super weapon Doctor Katz would manage, would hopefully deliver a critical alpha strike on the sphere. Michelle would cover the airship while Captain Francis and Clarissa flew it in, while not being able to turn or slow down.

It really was an all or nothing plan. While I had hope they would all contribute, I knew it would come down to me. I needed to take it out and stop it from changing the energy and environment. There would be no attempt at communication in round two. We would go in full blast right away. I had already done the scouting.

The biggest risk was that we would be shot out of the sky right away, but that was one we had to take. There were countless unknowns, but time was running out.

“I am glad all of you have my back,” I said and unclenched my hands.