“Narud! We must do something! Our forces are being wiped out!”

At the heat of the moment, Artanis has forgotten about talking to Narud with respect. He was brainwashed to be loyal to Amon. In other words, Narud and Artanis were technically colleagues. When it was obvious Narud was failing in the mission Amon gave him, Artanis no longer bothered to be respectful.

“What….Alarak! How dare he?” Narud was nearly beyond belief? Really? He, a millennia old god, was tricked by some random Tal’darim underling? Narud was experienced in being a commander, but he was under the impression that the Tal’darim were always loyal to Amon. Even if one of them happened to be turned, there should be some of those that kept their loyalty. He wasn’t wrong in that regard, but he didn't know all those who kept their loyalty were dead.

“It doesn’t matter!” Artanis growled. With every second that passed, several carriers fell. He didn't have the forces to burn just because Narud was in shock. “We should retreat! Live to fight another day!”

Unlike the common Daelaam zealots, Artanis didn't want to dive head first into battle and die meaninglessly in the process. His objective was to complete Amon’s mission. If Amon ordered him to die, he would comply, but if death wouldn’t help with completing the mission, he would keep himself alive so the mission wasn’t completely lost.

But Narud thought differently.

“It’s too late. We are fully surrounded. Our ships are isolated. We can’t get enough ships out.” Narud knew even if he got out, he wouldn’t have the chance to challenge the Alliance again. In that case, why not stand and fight? “We will make our stand here.”

“We will be wiped out without fulfilling Amon’s expectations!”

“If we flee, we will lose most of our ships in the retreat. We won’t accomplish anything. If we stand and fight, then we can inflict maximum damage on our god’s enemies. At least our god might forgive us if we cripple his enemies enough to keep them from entering the void!”

Another thing that differed Narud and Artanis was the consequence of their defeat. Artanis could just die after being defeated, and all would be over. Narud, on the other hand, would be returned to the void after his body was destroyed. There, he would have to face the wrath of Amon. Amon already had a grudge against him for losing the Moebius. If he returned in defeat, Amon might just decide to end him once and for all.

If Narud could tell Amon that, despite the losses, he was able to soften the resistance of the material world for his next attack, he might just get to live.

Artanis looked out the window. Carrier after carrier fell. One of the Purifier motherships was leading the charge into the soft belly of the Golden Armada. It was the Purifier flagship.

It was too late to jump away now.

“Then we will fight.”

The Golden Armada immediately transitioned to a defensive stance. Carriers turned around and formed a wall. Zealots and templar ceased trying to board enemy ships and instead remained on their own vessels and waited for enemy boarding parties. The few Daelaam motherships created multiple time warp fields in front of the Swarm before suddenly charging toward the incoming Purifier Fleet.

Narud might be taken by surprise by the turn of events, but his tactical mindset recovered quickly. There were two major fleets that took little damage in this engagement and might therefore threaten Amon in the void. The Swarm and the Purifiers. Trying to do damage on the Swarm was dumb. Take out half the Swarm, and the rest could replenish the losses easily. The Purifiers, on the other hand, were expensive. Their vessels take a while to assemble. Maim the Purifier fleet, and the Alliance would be stuck in the material world for quite a while.

By the time the Purifier fleet is ready for combat again, Amon would have enough time to get ready to defend the void.

Yes. Narud realized the situation has gotten bad enough that they might have to defend the void from an attack from the Alliance. Throughout his journey in the material world, he has realized that Amon’s operation was specifically targeted by an entity. This entity had control over the Purifier fleet, and likely had influence over the Umojans, the Tal’darim, and the Dominion Crown Prince Valerian Mengsk. Unfortunately, even now, Narud still didn't know who this entity was, but he did know this entity was onto Amon. It was safe to assume destroying Amon’s forces in the material world wasn’t enough to satisfy the entity. If it brought the war into the void, Amon would need some time to get ready.

True. The void was the homefront of the Xel’naga and anyone trying to attack there would be suicide. But given how things turned out...Narud was no longer sure of anything.

He could only do his best.

The Golden Armada made a move on the Purifier fleet, and the Purifiers weren’t afraid to retaliate. Once again, motherships met with motherships, carriers met with carriers, and mirages met with phoenixes. In countless ships from both sides, zealots clashed with sentinels and legionnaires.

In her flagship, Delta checked the arsenal on her shell once again. Behind her was legions of legionnaires and instigators.

Her mothership sped forward. A squad of scouts dove down on her ship and was immediately wiped out by a few swipes from the ship’s purifier beams. Another phoenix crashed into the mothership’s plasma shield on purpose, but the shield barely budged.

“It’s coming for us.” Artanis realized as the mothership got closer and closer.

“Let them come.” Narud growled. Still in the form of a hybrid, he scratched his claws on the bridge’s floor and smirked at the unpleasant noise. Honestly, all the planning has made him annoyed, especially when the fighting resulted with him being in a disadvantage. He would gladly settle those feelings with a good old slaughter. Plus, if they could launch a counterattack on the opposing mothership...even for the Purifiers, losing a mothership would be costly.

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The Purifier flagship approached the Daelaam flagship. Both sides exchanged lasers, but neither side broke through the shields. Finally, the Purifiers started warping in.

A thousand light beams dropped down inside the main hall of the Daelaam mothership. In those exact halls stood Narud, Artanis, Selendis, and over three thousand zealots and templar, elitist of what was left of the Golden Armada. Twenty hybrids added to the fun.

Seeing the warping enemies, Narud toyed with the idea of jumping on them while they were defenseless, but the rapid warping system the Purifiers developed made sure the warping process was done within just seconds.

Delta was among the first Purifiers in line.

“Forward! Purify!” She screamed.

“Death to Amon’s foes!” Artanis and Selendis weren’t any less zealous.

Immediately, almost symmetrically, both sides started charging. Within just seconds, legionnaires and zealots smashed into each other in the middle of the field. Legionnaires were mechanical zealots with standard AIs that were much taller than normal zealots. Their enormous Purifier psi blades could cut a zealot in half with a single strike. But their enemies weren’t regular zealots either. All of them were obviously soaked in terrazine. Void energy poured out of their eyes. They struck zealously and aggressively, without any thoughts of self-preservation.

Following the initial contact, two dozen bodies hit the floor on each side.

Delta blasted away a zealot’s plasma shield with a single shot from her modified particle disruptor before igniting her blade and punching a gaping hole through the zealot’s chest. Even when impaled, the zealot still screamed and slashed his blade down, which landed on Delta’s yellow plasma shield. The Purifier executor tossed the body toward the opposing zealots before taking out something from a storage space in her shell. She tossed it into the middle of the enemy zealots.

The grenade exploded and emitted an EMP that weakened the shield of over thirty Daelaam zealots. Courtesy of Jean. Who said protoss can’t use EMP?

But Delta’s contribution to the battlefield was hardly a match for the Daelaam heroic units. Artanis unloaded psionic storm after psionic storm on the legionnaires. A single storm, the legionnaires could shrug off with their enhanced shields. But with someone like Artanis, unleashing psionic storms was like breathing and eating for human beings. Eventually, the storms stacked up and brought dozens of legionnaires to the ground.

Narud and the hybrids were much more brutal. They simply charged into the sea of legionnaires. Legionnaires were giant compared to marines and normal zealots, but they still weren’t a match for hybrids, who were able to toss them around like toys. Nonetheless, with the endless wave of legionnaires, the hybrids started to bleed.

The fighting was deadly. Neither side really cared about casualties. Within minutes, out of the one thousand legionnaires that were first warped in onto the ship, less than half were still standing. The Daelaam didn't have it any better either. Four hundred zealots fulfilled their desire to die for Amon.

That was when reinforcement arrived.

Another one thousand Purifiers were warped in. This time, there were three hundred instigators. Unfortunately for Delta, this was a bad idea. While legionnaires could survive a while in this deadly environment, the instigators lacked the armament and the shield to do so. Their only advantage, the ability to blink, wasn’t exactly helpful when the enemies literally filled up every inch of space on the battlefield. The instigators fell in an inefficient trade.

Delta and her legionnaires were starting to get pushed back. Every legionnaire killed at least one zealot before they died, but the Daelaam still outnumbered them significantly.

A zealot charged onto Delta, who disposed of him with a swift cut across the neck. Just as the Purifier transformed her arm to the particle disruptor and finished him off with one final blast, two red blades came out from the side. Delta took a step back, saw her shield flicker, and ignited her weapons.

Her database identified the attacker as Selendis.

Both Delta and Jean has met Selendis. Jean met Selendis when the protoss executor tried to purify the infested colonists at Haven. At that time, Jean challenged Selendis to a dual, where her Warden marines dealt with Selendis’ zealots with clever tricks. Selendis kept to her promise and allowed the Raiders to deal with the infested.

Delta met with Selendis not long ago, when she attempted to warn Artanis of Amon’s corruption of the Khala. Selendis called Delta a heretic and would’ve killed her if Artanis didn't intervene.

Now, all the past was gone. Amon’s corruption has turned Selendis into a mindless puppet, and now she was facing Delta in the field of battle.

Fair enough.

Neither side was the sentiment type. Selendis struck first. A psionic blast formed in her hands and was smashed onto Delta. Delta dodged swiftly to the side. The blast missed Delta and exploded on a legionnaire, reducing it to pieces. With the first shot missing, Selendis didn't hesitate to charge forward with her blades ready.

Delta transformed her right arm to a plasma blade but kept her left arm as a particle disruptor. As Selendis attacked, Delta continued to back off and used her blade to deflect the attacks and kept on firing her particle disruptor. At this close of a distance, all the shots were on target. Delta could see Selendis’s shields weakening.

If this kept on going, she could kite Selendis to death.

But a battlefield wasn’t a boxing mat. It wasn’t a place for fair one on one duals. Just as Selendis’s shields were nearly depleted, one of the Daelaam zealots suddenly charged onto Delta from behind. The charge was deflected by Delta’s plasma shield, but it was still enough to push her forward. At the same time, Selendis was waiting in front of Delta with her blades out.

It was a split second decision. After realizing there was no way to evade, Delta simply routed all power to her plasma blade.

The sound of blades going through shields echoed through the battlefield.

Delta looked down on her chest. Her mechanical eyes quickly spotted something and reached a conclusion.

Selendis’s psionic blade went through her shield and her power core. She was going down.

At the same time, Delta’s plasma blade went through Selendis’s chest. The female executor’s shields were too exhausted to deflect the attack that contained Delta’s full power.

Both executors collapsed. As Selendis closed her eyes and her body faded away, Delta’s body started to turn. Since destruction was imminent, it was important not to leave the enemies with anything important.

Moments later, Delta’s shell exploded and consumed a dozen protoss, legionnaires and zealots alike. Explosions don’t discriminate.

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In the Purifier mothership, a shell similar to the one that just exploded was brought online. It took a couple seconds to move its limbs around before making its way to the bridge.

To most people, even protoss, death was the end. To the Purifiers, death just meant relocating to a new shell.