AN: Sorry for the late post! Had to work on this one a little more, but its worth two chapters at about 5600 words so dont fault me completely!
Also funny note, I recently noticed that the last like four or six chapters have occurred across the span of a single day in the story. I don't know if anybody has felt like things are as chaotic as I have, but I hope I'm pacing this well, as sudden as a lot of these happenings might've felt.
Either way, hope you enjoy this one! Please don't hate me later either.
October 21st, 629
A helicopter ride to a Whetted City teleporter, then a plane ride to Wonderland. When I landed, I jumped out with my Desert Eagles and was met with one of my project managers in charge of a facility that didn’t take as long as others to clear out. He was done with his job and could give me a rundown.
The most important physical devices and machines were already out. Anything else was either too low a classification level to be given priority or could be easily destroyed, like those gadgets where the enchanting was their most important feature. That wasn’t even mentioning that most things had some level of enchanted encryption on them, which meant that even if Wonderland were to be taken over, hardly anything would be gained from items where nothing could be comprehended.
The biggest vulnerability was the Nodenet, but my security measures there weren’t something that anybody on this world could beat yet, let alone on such short notice. That was especially so after the Beacon system was deployed, creating its own level of network far above the Nodenet that, currently, I was the sole administrator of. It held a master copy of literally everything that I deigned to keep stored with physical storages in my estate, on the Island of Continuance, and in several locations across the continent that only I knew about, including a few safehouses and a few caves in the middle of nowhere.
It was safe to say that nothing would be leaking from this place. We even had Mana Erasers going off in various parts of the facility, scrambling the ambient mana signatures. That would prevent anyone from deducing anything by observing the local magical atmosphere, like in those places tempering with teleportation and spatial tech.
Nothing would be left behind for enemies or allies, and all those involved, including researchers from this facility and Sawn Industries, were being moved to Continuance for both safety and for their continued effort. While stunted, development wouldn’t stop even for this.
However, if all I were worried about was simply keeping data from falling into the wrong hands, I didn’t need to be in this place. Wonderland would be almost completely evacuated by the time anybody could show up, let alone in force. I had nothing to worry about.
No, I wasn’t here because of worry. I might’ve come here to “help” but that didn’t mean I was feeling any amount of concern.
I was just here because of what I knew would happen.
After the project manager gave his rundown, I dismissed him and left to go find Polly. The others were sent off to go assist sector 4 with patrolling the area. Everyone was on high alert, and some extra eyes couldn’t hurt.
I only kept Umara with me as we arrived in Polly’s office. She was busy, as expected, speaking with some people on her Aerial and giving last orders before hanging up.
She nodded to me, looking a decade older than the last time I saw her.
“John. I’d entertain you but I don’t really have the time.”
“You gotta learn to delegate. I figured out that trick months ago.”
“Yeah, except I’M the one you delegated to! Even I figured out how to decentralize command, but this shitshow you kicked off isn’t something to be hands off on.”
“Well, shit happens. Hi Jasmine!”
“Hi John!”
I waved at the overworked assistant over yonder, Jasmine waving back with a smile, looking surprisingly in her element.
“You seem to be doing better than your boss.”
“Well I thought I’d be stressed out too, but honestly, everything falling apart is making me feel a lot better than before. If I’m being extra honest though, you probably should’ve done this months ago. You know, before the Scourge started flooding the land bridge with armies in preparation for what was supposed to be your final battle for ownership of its exit. We’ve got a million moving across and millions more on the way, and with Iron Legion backing off…”
“Yes, the Church is going to hate me for a while. It’s a good thing I’m getting everything I can out of them now before reality sets in. Maybe my gift will appease them as well.”
“Speaking of your gift.”
Polly suddenly spoke, snapping her fingers and bringing up a map on the nearby wall. The map was covered in active battles and activated teleporters, many of which were tripped early even without a recovery team there to grab the loot.
As Nobles got wind of what I had done, they all started moving their personal guards, storming their own vaults and finding what we had left behind. In order to prevent them from destroying the teleporters, we simply activated them, exposing the loot to open air. Massive Paragon corpses weren’t so easily moved, so even if they were perfectly aware of the situation, it still gave our teams time to fly over and fight for it.
Most of the time though, it depended on the value. Other agents were assigning both Sector 4 and Church teams to handpicked vaults. The most valuable ones had already been taken by this point, so that left those with either the most amount of loot, or the few good ones where treasures other than corpses were located.
It seemed Polly had been calculating projections as well. It looked like, in the end, we had rigged 92% of the vaults we knew about across the Kingdom. Of those vaults, we were going to recover the contents of 60% on the low end, and 75% on the high end.
If it was being calculated in terms of pure monetary value, however, we had already recovered about 78%. That number was expected to rise at least another 10% over the next day.
In blanket terms, Iron Legion and the Church were about to steal approximately 90% of the Kingdom’s hidden and hoarded assets, leaving mere scraps of the platter.
The numbers made me smile. I let myself revel in the joy of that knowledge for a few minutes. Then I returned to mind everything that was about to be taken away in exchange, and the smile disappeared.
I sighed.
“Well, looking good so far. I’ve already checked on my deal with the Pope and he’s fulfilled his end in full. I’m not sure how he managed to give me everything I wanted so quickly, but I don’t need to worry about it anymore. This is to say, don’t be greedy and focus on doing as much damage to the Kingdom as possible. I don’t care if the Church gets more than we initially promised.”
“I’ll let our agents know. Also, I’ve been combing through our more covert data and facilities. Graves knew a lot, but I can’t recall everything he might’ve been exposed to, so I’ve put most of our outposts on high alert. Several have already been emptied. Easy enough, since they’re required to be ready to do so at a moments notice.”
“I appreciate the proactivity. That should save us from any more damage they might try and do. Most of it is going to come later, though. Have you given the orders to evacuate the Glass Desert? And the Line?”
“Yes. They’ll take some time since nobody wants to leave them behind. Most of our logistics are occupied with Wonderland and our retreating Brigades as well so we don’t have the room for mass migrations, not even mentioning the fact that they don’t know where to go. It’ll be done, though. Regretfully, of course. I’m not sure if most of our troops actually realize that we’re being completely serious. The current General of the Line laughed when I told him he needed to ready for evacuation.”
“If it were a month ago, I would’ve too. Just keep them updated. I wouldn’t say to do away with the information lock completely, but at this point, revealing more will preserve us more than damage us. There isn’t much to keep secret about anymore, beyond what hasn’t been exposed already.”
“Mm.”
She nodded, sending out messages as fast as her mind would allow. Updates to protocol were sent out which would hopefully increase efficiency across the board.
It pained me every time I thought about what had to happen, which was happening more often than I’d like. My mood had already been ruined, but it only continued to get worse over time as things devolved with every hour.
For my Iron Legion, chaos hadn’t come. It was as calm as could be for them, the chaos being thrust onto the backs of my many Pale Horsemen of Sector 4. All hands were on deck and Polly, the head of it all, was scrambling to make sure things progressed rather than froze in a panic.
And here I was, just waiting.
After conversing a bit more, I left Polly to her work, heading to my private residence within Wonderland with Umara. It was a relatively small house, about the size of a single room in my estate depending on which room one picked.
I grabbed a chair at the table and dropped into it, the MONARCH detaching from my body.
“Cooper, when will you form the contract for marriage?”
“Can it, Charon. Now’s not the time.”
The suit went quiet, digital reluctance coming over our connection as it moved itself to stand elsewhere.
I just massaged my temples, taking out a cigar and giving it a thorough light.
A long puff made a cloud of smoke, Umara sitting on the table next to me. She propped her feet up on my lap and stared at the smoke, the two of us sitting in silence.
After a minute or so of thought, I sent a quick message to Polly, telling her to send Ironheart back to the Whetted City. At about the same time, finally saw some proper movement coming from the surrounding areas.
Thousands of vehicles from cities nearby and the Capital itself flooded out onto the roads. Every last one of them were pointed toward Wonderland.
They wouldn’t take too long to arrive, at most six hours. Until then, I just had to wait.
My pet project would be here by then as well.
I ran my hand up Umara’s calf, giving her a light massage.
“You should get some sleep.”
“Can’t say I’m particularly tired.”
“We have some time. They’ll arrive after the sun has risen, and we have nothing to do.”
“Then let’s just do nothing.”
My eyes fell on her as she used sneaky magic to take my cigar, taking some long drags out of it.
I just smiled at her, seeing the relaxation coming over her body as potent medicine infused into her blood. With a nod, I agreed to do nothing, but I picked her up and brought us to the couch to get comfortable.
Sure enough, it wasn’t long after that when she started drifting off to sleep anyway. I just kept quiet and massaged her legs, letting my thoughts simmer, Charon standing silent guard nearby.
……
…
……
“Well, I guess it’s all fucked.”
Blackblood muttered as the morning sun rose over the nearby hills, bringing greater exposure to the literal army that was gathering on the perimeter of Wonderland.
Glancing to his side, he saw Katta and Ponteck muttering to each other. They, along with a few hundred other Sector 4 agents, were all gathered at the gates of Wonderland and surrounded by vehicles and ordnance. Still, they looked miniscule compared to the nearby army, waving flags of the Royal Guard and armed with the King’s Crest.
Curious, he barked.
“Hey, what are you two psychos being all secret about?”
Katta’s head whipped around toward him, making his skin crawl a bit. The girl was always a loose cannon, as crazy as she could be strong. She was already at Authority 10 strength since Wonderland had started helping her refine her serums. Even now, he could see the injection ports on her armor, already armed with a variety of serums and waiting to be shot into her bones and blood, because there was in fact a difference between the two injection methods. He hadn’t even known you could inject something into bone before she showed everyone in vivid detail.
He had seen that needle. Her psychosis had been cemented in his mind ever since then, but Ponteck? The only thing that sight had gotten out of him was a comment about efficiency.
Freaks.
“Ponteck was wondering how many of those people we could take out with an Authority Eleven Mana Bomb. I was arguing all of them, but he wants to get all conceptual about it.”
“Aren’t Authority Eleven Conceptual Crystals impossible to make?”
“Well yeah, but that’s not the argument. Dumbass.”
“Fuck off.”
Blackblood rolled his eyes. Everyone had been wondering if an Authority 12 Crystal would ever be fielded, and besides the fact that nobody had ever gotten wind of Wonderland getting their hands on one, even the Authority 11 White Crystals gave them trouble based on the few words they heard about it.
The issue was, in fact, a conceptual one like Ponteck had been arguing. The Crystals werent merely filled with the power of the monster they came from, but the Concepts they ruled over. Without the ability to wield that Concept, the White Crystal couldn’t be resonated with and therefore couldn’t be turned into a Magic Crystal.
So far, only Authority 11 Crystals without a Concept had been successfully transformed, but those weren’t nearly as powerful as those with Concepts, even if they could be used as ordnance in more… extreme circumstances.
Either way, there was no doubt in anyone’s mind that an Authority 12 Crystal would be able to level an entire city at the minimum, and that was just with raw power. If it was armed with proper spells? Nobody was sure what the limits could be.
An Authority 11 Crystal without a Concept could probably do great damage to the army at their doorstep, but with how high their average Authority was, it would still be limited.
Blackblood continued to ponder until everyone suddenly turned around. He noticed and flicked his head around, seeing John walking over with his wife. He was dressed in that weird armor of his, the ridiculous one that allowed him to fist fight knights around his level.
John walked past them, Umara splitting off and linking with Tana and Feiden. The three muttered quietly, but the others were able to hear anyway.
“Does he have a plan for this? The entire facility is already evacuated. There’s really no reason to fight here…”
“Honestly, I’m not sure. I only woke up half an hour ago.”
“...You were sleeping?”
“Well, it’s not like I wanted to. But he made a very convincing argument…”
Umara shrunk back into her huge hat shamefully, the others looking at her with flat faces. Thoughts went both ways as to what she meant by that until they all saw movement from the army.
A trio of people rode out from the main army on huge armored warhorses. They stopped between the army and Wonderland, a clear signal for meeting.
John just continued speaking to Polly, who sat on top of a Superheavy Tank, one of three they had with them.
Several minutes went past, and John returned, Umara asking him the question on everyone’s mind.
“So what’s the plan?”
“I don’t have one. We’re purely reactionary at this point. There’s only one issue. That army numbers about ten thousand, and is apparently entirely human.”
Umara’s eyes widened, her gaze falling on those in the distance.
The army was a combination of multiple units. A couple thousand were from the Royal Guard while the rest were from the private guards and armies of various nobles.
The fact that every single one of them were human though was of great shock. It was difficult to find any group nowadays that didn’t have at least some Nephilim.
Of course, it was impossible that those nobles didn’t have any Nephilim in their ranks. Same with the Royal Guard. That only left one possibility then.
Tana was the first to blurt out their conclusion.
“They’re expecting a fight. They want to kill off the humans in their ranks and use us to do it.”
“Yep.”
John nodded, Umara chiming with a different concern.
“Wait, but if we kill any of them, that’s basically declaring war with both the nobility and the Crown.”
“Yep.”
“We would be finished…”
Umara went quiet for a few seconds, staring at John.
Finally, some of the things he said in the past started to make sense. It should’ve been obvious too. They knew about Wonderland now, and they would certainly do something about Iron Legions most secret research facility.
This army was just their best way of cornering them. But their plan would only work if they actually fought.
Umara was sure that the army would try and force a fight by marching on Wonderland with the threat of stealing technology, but they didn’t know that every facility had already been completely sterilized. There was nothing left, and all the researchers were already on planes headed toward the Island of Continuance.
Wonderland was an empty husk, so there was no reason for John to fight.
But then, there was also no reason for him to raid all those Nephilim villages and towns, accelerating their spread into the cities all that time ago.
John was silent, his face covered in that expressionless helmet.
Another few moments passed, and he turned, walking away from the group.
“It’s time to meet them. Umara, Feiden, Tana, on me. Then rest of you, keep your faces hidden and your Beacons active. We wouldn’t want what’s about to happen to extend toward your families.”
“...What’s about to happen?”
Blackblood asked, receiving a smack from Katta that threatened to dent his helmet.
Taking out their Vipercraft, those that John called started making their way toward the center. Tana disappeared along the way, leaving Feiden and Umara to flank John on approach.
On arrival, they stepped off their Vipercraft and sent them away, walking up to the warhorses that towered over them. They were easily 10 feet tall on all fours, made even bulkier by their armor and giving their riders a heavy disposition.
With a healthy distance between them, John stopped, the leader of the opposing group stepping forward, his warhorse radiating malice. He was covered in opulent ceremonial armor, the King’s Crest emboldened on his chestplate in gold and his helmet sporting a large tail of bright red feathers.
His words came out with a chuckle behind his helmet.
“John Cooper! I am Paron Forgarch, Fourth Captain of the Royal Guard under direct orders of the Crown. Your research facilities are to be opened for us and searched, and you are to turn over any and all knowledge relating to its operations. Failure to comply may result in some rather unfavorable declarations.”
“...I’m so sick of this shit.”
John groaned, causing Umara to smirk.
The fact that they sent the “Fourth Captain” was insult enough. John may not have a noble title but he was no commoner. An event this big would demand the Commander of the Royal Guard at the minimum.
Though, they at least sent someone of status. Glancing to Paron’s side, Umara saw the Fourth Princess, Felvia Alphon. Her red eyes from her draconic Crown peeked out from the slits on her helmet. Umara remembered that this was the girl who delivered the decree back then telling John to pony up his payment of Crystals to the Crown.
It seemed she was still human, which John acknowledged, ignoring Paron.
“We meet again, Princess. Seems like they haven’t deigned to turn you. Always a little tool in someone’s pocket, huh?”
“No more than you are a pawn in our game.”
“Is that what they told you I was? It makes me wonder how many people actually know that I had the universe by the balls just yesterday. Either way, I knew this day was coming years ago.”
“Yet you were able to do nothing about it.”
“Do something about it? You dumb bitch, this whole shitshow isn’t a fate that I’ve been fighting against, but the climax I’ve been working toward!”
Umara’s smile slipped as John started laughing again, Paron eventually chiming.
“John Cooper, let’s skip the theatrics, shall we? I was told what to expect, but will you let us pass, or will you insist on resisting the Crown’s authority?”
“You already know the answer to that. You will gain nothing from this facility. As for resistance, well, you’d need a lot more than just this rabble to qualify as a force to be resisted.”
“Qualify? We number ten thousand, half of which have achieved Authority Six, a tenth of which have achieved Authority Eight. The princess here has just recently achieved Authority 10, an Authority I’ve sat at for five years. We have fourty attack helicopters and sixty planes in the airspace, all of them filled with Mana Bombs until they could fit no more. We could kill you where you stand, let alone siege your facilities. Yet you dare speak as if you could kill us with a wave of the hand?”
“Pfft…”
Umara stamped down her laugh. Then, with a sigh John let his helmet retract, taking out a cigar and lighting it.
He let out a plume of smoke with a frown, then pointed at Paron’s wrist.
“The Aerial on your arm.”
“What about it?”
Paron questioned, before John’s finger shifted, pointing at the army behind them.
“Armored vehicles, Stallion-B models for troop transport and Turtle models for heavy defensive combat. Attack helicopters, Blue Hawk models for close air support. Duel propeller bomber planes, Big Bessy models, and single propeller interceptor planes, Vulture models, as escort.”
Paron’s face turned down into a frown, finally understanding why John was naming everything off.
“Yes, you’ve invented all of these. But so what? You may have those huge tanks over there, but do you think they can survive an endless volley of Mana Bombs? Do you think your meager soldiers can survive outside of them as your helicopters rain down with their turrets?”
“Yes, I do. But I think the more important question to ask is, why do you think I wouldn’t have anything better than what’s been given to the Kingdom? In all my intelligence, do you really think I haven’t prepared for you to use my own inventions against me? It’s an insult, really, that you’d underprepare like this. This really is going to be nothing but a show.”
“And I continue to hear nothing but blind arrogance! So what if these are your inventions? So what if you have something slightly better?!”
“Slightly?”
John’s face went flat.
“What do you think this place was for? You guys didn’t know this facility existed just a day ago. Do you think I’ve been putting in all this work to develop things only slightly better than what the Kingdom and its public can purchase from Sawn Industries?”
“I don’t know nor care about what you’ve been developing. That’s for my superiors to worry about after I’ve captured this place. What I do know is, if you can’t be convinced by words, then perhaps I’ll just have to show you what Royal wealth can buy.”
“Uh huh. Then, I’ll have to show you my new toy as well. I’ve been working on it for a while. Its handlers have been quite eager to let it run amok.”
“Hah! Then clearly, nothing here can be negotiated. I’ll give you the grace of retreating to your formation, John Cooper, before we annihilate you all. Some of the facility may be destroyed, but I’ve been allowed room for collateral.”
John sighed again, letting out another puff of smoke.
“Well, I can’t go back after you’ve said some shit like that. Tana, his head, please.”
There was silence, the Princess staring at John with a wary gaze. Then, she saw something appear in his hand.
The head of Paron Forgarch, no longer inside its helmet, rested in his grip by the hair. Still smiling, eyes still open, frozen in death.
Her heart ran cold, her head flicking to the side to see the headless body still sitting upon its warhorse.
John nodded, walking around toward the Princess. His mobility system activated, vectors of silent, controlled flame raising him up into the air, allowing him to place the Captain’s head into her lap. She simply watched, frozen, as he returned to his side.
“There, all better. Now, here’s what’s going to happen, Princess. You’ve been sent here to die like the good little tool you are, as have every last one of the poor soldiers here. So, you’ll go back, report to the actual commander of this ragtag bunch, and let things unfold. Play your part, and rejoice. Your death will be far more bearable than whatever else they may have planned for you. Instant, if you get hit by an attack in the right way.”
She was silent, staring at the bleeding head in her lap. When she finally gathered herself, she spoke with a shudder.
“You would really kill ten thousand humans? There’s not a single Nephilim among them, they’ve made sure of it. You are killing normal guards and soldiers who have families. You’ll make an enemy out of the only side that still thinks you’re fighting for them.”
“Maybe I will. But then, I never was the one who was supposed to come out of this the hero. Either way, it’s beyond your station to worry about those things. You’ve sold your soul already, so just do what you were ordered, and let’s get this over with.”
“D-Did you think I asked for this?”
She shot back, Umara feeling something in her stir when she heard the Princess’s voice.
John’s voice went low.
“Don’t. Just shut up and go.”
“I didn’t ask to be born into a palace of demons, John Cooper. I didn’t asked to be tainted and marked every time I rejected the corruption!”
“Spare me your sob story, Princess! I don’t care if you rejected the corruption! I know people think things changed after the Nephilim appeared, but it doesn’t take corruption or mutation to submit to evil! So shut up and return to your army!”
“I never wanted to submit to anything! I did what I had to so I could survive! If you know so much, then you know exactly what they’d do to me if I didn’t! Have you ever seen them eat someone alive?! Have you ever taken a bite of someone’s flesh while they could still draw breath to scream?! Have you ever lived knowing that you could be tied to that table as well?!”
“I know more than you, Princess! Don’t lecture me about knowledge and awareness of evil!”
“Have you ever lived without the support of the world you lived in?! Tell me, John Cooper, you all-knowing and all-prideful bastard! Have you ever lived without the grace of God, within the confines of cursed walls and the threats of the kind of pain that could replace your soul with their infested spirits?!”
“Do not speak to me about pride while atop that damned horse!”
John moved, his arm extending with a blade that sliced the head off the horse above him. The body collapsed, the Princess falling with it until John grabbed her chestplate and slammed her to the floor.
Grabbing her helmet so hard that it warped under his fingers, he ripped it off and exposed her face, contorted in indignation.
“I don’t need lecturing from the likes of you, Princess Alphon. Do you think I asked to come to this fucked up world?! Do you think I wanted to devote my life to eradicating the physical manifestation of evil?! You think they wouldn’t do the same things to me if they got their hands on their worst enemy?!”
“You were given the grace and power to keep yourself out of their reach! I didn’t have-!”
“I told you to shut up!”
His fist crashed down on her chest, denting her armor enough to cause blood to erupt from her mouth.
Umara felt herself step forward, held back at the last moment by every ounce of her self control.
“Look at what I’ve done! I built the world’s greatest fighting force! I’ve slaughtered millions of Scourge! I’ve placed myself in direct opposition to the antithesis of life itself! There is not a single person in this world that has done more for the eradication of evil than myself, and I accomplished all of that because I have shown not a single shred of mercy to those who have given themselves to them! So lecture me no more, Princess! Both of us are TOO FAR GONE!”
With that last scream, he spoke no more, nothing but his heavy breathing between them.
Tears fell from the Princess’s eyes, her words coming out with streams of blood.
“Yeah… If anybody would be right about that, it would be you.”
“...You’re not allowed to say that. That’s not something you’re allowed to put on me.”
“You said it yourself. You know more than me. I sold my soul, right? It didn’t matter that I refused the corruption, right? It’s over for me. My body is already tainted beyond redemption. They’ve taken every innocence I ever had. So just do me a favor and kill me now.”
“You wouldn’t change anything even if I let you live.”
“Yeah, probably.”
John didn’t respond, simply taking out a pistol and pointing it at her forehead.
Umara reached out.
“John-!”
The explosion cracked through the air, Umara’s body frozen, staring.
Sending the pistol away, John grabbed her body and pushed it against Feiden. He shifted to carry her.
“Bring her back.”
“...Alright.”
Feiden turned, bringing out and jumping on his Vipercraft, driving back to Wonderland.
Then, John took out a grenade, arming it and dropping it where the Princess’s body was. It started ticking away.
He waved.
“Let’s go.”
Umara and Tana silently followed his lead. After boarding their own Vipercraft. John tossed his cigar away and brought out his pistol again, shooting the other warhorse, letting it slump to the ground as the grenade went off, engulfing the area and corpses in dense flames.
They left them behind, and a war horn sounded from the army. Acting as the signal, their planes started approaching the airspace, their propellers buzzing with the oncoming promise of destruction.
John ignored it until he reached the formation, Feiden running off with his cargo.
Turning to face his enemy, John spoke into his Aerial.
“The skies are owned by Iron Legion.”
He received his response.
“Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.”
Umara glanced at him, not recognizing the voice or the tag that popped up in her visor.
Instead, they heard it.
A a deep, overwhelming droning noise flooded the battlefield, drowning out all other sounds and making everyone’s lungs shake with the frequency. Feeling like it was difficult to breathe, all heads upturned to the sky at the source.
Umara felt her body slump a bit, unbelieving of what she was seeing.
“No fucking way…”
It was the thing he had spoken about. The thing that was more of a question than an answer, a project meant to push limits rather than establish them.
And it was bigger than she thought it would’ve gotten.
Seven hundred yards from wing tip to wing tip and eight massive fire breathing engines around a huge metal cylinder with windows that looked like pinholes against the huge bulk of its size. The sheer amount of noise it produced while it was no longer affected by active stealth vibrated the very atmosphere even from thirty thousand feet in the sky.
The morning sun graced its form with an ethereal glow and highlighted all of its armament below it. Underneath wings sat dozens of aircraft that it could deploy like missiles, and around the belly of its fuselage were massive barrels pointed at their enemy.
Its very presence demanded that it was the king of the sky, and not long after appearing, five jets detached from underneath the wings dropping before accelerating forward.
They sped up so fast that onlookers from the Kingdom couldn’t believe that something could go even faster than their propeller planes. Then, they released their own missiles, dozens of them that shot forward at triple the speed of the jets, snapping across the battlefield and annihilating the oncoming propeller planes with explosions of fire.
The jets then buzzed the army, the guards and soldiers of the Royal Family and nobility stumbling around and falling underneath the scream of air superiority, the pieces of their aircraft falling all around them.
More jets were released as they panicked, and more of their aircraft, both plane and helicopter alike, were blown to fragments before any of them could react.
All the while, the colossal king of the sky continued to approach, bringing with it incredible pressure.
The Kingdom’s soldiers had never faced the might of anything other than mindless monsters. Now, confronted with the might of superior technology far beyond imagination, Sector 4 and its elite agents watched as humans just like them began to falter and devolve.
Finally, with the surrounding airspace once again within the iron grip of the Legion, John stepped forward.
And he called upon a spirit, Charon quivering in digital glee.