Without
so much as a moment’s notice Morcii lunged forward, crossing the ground between
himself and Hero Machina in the blink of an eye. Davídrius immediately reacted,
jumping to intercept the Nanocreature leader and block him with his swords,
only to have the weapons smashed under the force of Morcii’s fists. The
Introtechnic quickly followed up by snapping his right knee up into Morcii’s
gut, throwing off his trajectory as he flipped over and onto the ground. Kaoné
took advantage of the opening to transmute the atmosphere under the holes in
the ceiling to a steel ramp which Hero Machina used to flee from the room, with
Kaoné constantly forming a path toward the outer reaches of the facility as
Kevérin and Rebehka knocked away the metallic bugs with their powers.
“There
go the Drakkars…!” Kevérin scowled, glancing over as the two faction leaders
leaped through the ceiling holes and began fleeing from the scene on their own.
“We
need to make like them and get out of here!” Christeané exclaimed, glancing
over his shoulder at Davídrius as he attempted to fend off Morcii, “Contact the
Earthians already!”
“I’ve tried–!” the Pyrotechnic replied, but
found himself interrupted as Davídrius was suddenly flung into the group of
Chaotics, knocking them off of Kaoné’s mid-air platform and to the barren
ground below. The seven Chaotics landed scattered across the ground, left to
recover from the impact as Morciilanded in the midst of them himself.
“Don’t fool yourselves into thinking that
you can escape me,” he snorted, “I
am fully aware of your level of technology. There is nowhere on this planet you
can go to evade my forces, and there is no way for you to leave this planet
without your transport craft falling into my hands!”
“That’s
what you think…” Kevérin muttered as
he subtly activated his armor’s distress beacon.
“Such a beacon will serve you no purpose,”
Morcii taunted, revealing his ability to detect the signal. “If you simply hand me the Chaos Ayas, then
I will make your deaths quick and painless.”
“We’ve
been threatened a lot lately, yet here we still are,” Davídrius retorted,
drawing and brandishing his remaining two blades, “What’ve you got that those
Drakkar leaders didn’t, eh?”
Morcii’s
eye glinted. “I possess
the ability to back my words.”
“That’s
what they all say–!?” the Superspeed Introtechnic snapped his mouth shut as he
switched focus to blocking the Nanocreature leader’s sudden attack. Kievkenalis
immediately called out “Chaos Assist”
before launching several Chaos attacks at Morcii, forcing him to flip away from
Davídrius to evade the attacks. The Nanocreature spun around in the air,
spontaneously transforming his arms into laser cannons and returning fire,
immediately turning the tides on Kievkenalis and forcing him to duck away as
Kaoné attempted to block the lasers with a variety of different materials. The
moment Morcii touched the ground he transformed his cannons back into hands and
then summoned several smaller Nanocreatures from within the facility, their
metallic bodies zipping through the air until six of them hovered above
Morcii’s head. They then transformed into even more laser cannons, targeting
and relentlessly firing at the other members of Hero Machina as Morcii himself
lunged for Kievkenalis. The Chaostechnic quickly called out “Chaos Fortified Armor” but was too
slow to evade the Nanocreature leader as he smashed his fist into Kievkenalis’s
face, instantly dissolving the Chaos Energy aura that consisted of the armor.
While the Chaostechnic stumbled back from the attack Morcii slammed his other
fist into his chest, causing Kievkenalis’s powered armor’s shielding to flare
up. The Nanocreature leader paused for a moment before moving to punch
Kievkenalis again but was suddenly flipped backwards as a slab of ice formed
under him and snapped upward. Davídrius dashed by just as the laser cannon
targeting him fired, causing the laser to instead hit Morcii – only to cause no
damage at all. After flipping mid-air and landing on the ground again, Morcii leaned
forward and took off after Davídrius, only to be intercepted and knocked aside
by Christeané’s battlehammers. He rolled along the ground before stopping
himself and jumping to his feet, ignoring a fire blast as he set his eyes on
the nearest Chaotic: Siyuakén. She was still dealing with the floating laser
cannons and did not see Morcii coming until he was right on top of her, decking
her across the jaw and knocking her to the ground. He immediately jumped on top
of her and drew his fist back, prepared to smash it into her face before he
suddenly stopped… and then grinned sadistically.
“I see…”
he chuckled, “…so… you’re already one of mine…!”
Siyuakén’s
eyes widened in alarm before she let out a massive electrical blast, forcing
Morcii back and obliterating two of the floating laser cannons. The
Electrotechnic quickly jumped back to her feet and stumbled backwards away from
Morcii, panting heavily.
“Who…”
she muttered, “…What are you?!”
“I have already informed you, Aldredanoid!”
the Nanocreature leader replied condescendingly, pausing for a moment to extend
an arm to his right and knock away Davídrius, “I
am Morcii, commander of the Nanocreatures, leader of the force of nature you
know as the metallic infection.”
“That…
doesn’t even make sense,” Kevérin scowled, glancing at his glasses’ HUD. Still no sign of the Genesis… might as well try to buy some time…
“The infection is… well… an infection. You can’t lead that! Not to mention you
look nothing like anything metallic.”
“I will admit that you are not entirely
incorrect in classifying it as an infection…
though that alone indicates a surprising disconnection from the Priors in this
era. They would have assuredly referred to it as corruption.”
“Corruption?”
“Your organic brain may be inferior to the
likes of my own but I know that you are at least capable of deduction. Did I
not call my forces Nanocreatures? Do you not understand the concept of
nanomachines?”
“…You’re
made out of nanomachines?!”
“Correct!” Morcii smirked, “I’ll at least give you this, Aldredanoids;
I’m sure the Priors would be more than willing to divulge such information
anyway, should you find one – and I know you have. I, and all of my
forces, consist of nanomachines as our baseline components. These nanomachines
also enable me to corrupt and seize control of organic and inorganic beings
alike… the ‘metallic infection’ as you know it is
simply the preface to my appearance, the vanguard force, meant to collect
enough Chaos Ayas to support my appearance in this realm!"
“…I’m
not sure I follow?”
“Your attempt at buying time is pathetically
transparent, but I will nonetheless indulge you; even should you escape me
today, you will all fall into my
hands eventually…”
he glanced toward Siyuakén, “Sooner
or later… you will all belong to me.”
“That’s
a pretty bold claim to make,” Davídrius retorted, “I’d rather kill myself than
let you control me, much less anyone
else.”
“Then you’d best do so now, before I reveal
that it was, in fact, all thanks to you
that I was able to manifest in this form!”
The
Introtechnic scowled as he tightened his grip on his swords. “What?”
“I’m sure you remember the event well,”
Morcii smirked again, “An outbreak on
the planet you know as Kotak…”
“…Where
we lost the Ayas Hastryth to the metallic infection!” Kievkenalis finished,
realization dawning on his features.
“…What’s
that got to do with you, uh, manifesting?”
Davídrius questioned warily.
“My vanguard forces must collect three of
the Chaos Ayas before they can anchor my being to this realm of existence. They
were able to find two on their own, but the rest had been claimed by the
Drakkars or various Aldredanoid factions… without your utter inability to control
the nature of the Dark Ayas Hasthryth, without your flawed emotions causing you
to throw it away, leading to my forces successfully claiming it… I would not be here right now!”
“Bullshit!”
“It is the truth, and you know it,
Aldredanoid! I stand here because of your own incompetence; the return of the
Morikai and our revenge on this pitiful galaxy rests entirely in your hands!”
“You…
you fucking machine, I’ll destroy
you!” Davídrius roared, charging forward haphazardly and slashing at Morcii’s
position faster than the rest of Hero Machina could have reacted. The
Nanocreature leader took the slashes, two gashes appearing across his torso,
before he turned to retaliate and blew Davídrius away by launching his fists as
missiles at the Introtechnic. The Nanocreature quickly reached his arms up and
called two of the floating laser cannons back to him, where they attached to
his arm stumps and formed into a new set of hands before he leaped straight up
into the air just in time to avoid a simultaneous fire blast, ice pillar, and
electrical strike. Kaoné immediately transformed the air surrounding Morcii
into reinforced steel and attempted to smash the encasing into the ground, but
the Nanocreature leader simply tore his way out of the metal sarcophagus before
diving toward Kaoné, missing only because Kievkenalis jumped in the way and
shouted, “Chaos Deflection!!”
Flung
to the side, Morcii flipped through the air a couple times before slamming his
feet into the ground, stopping all of his momentum before he launched himself
forward at Christeané, who quickly began countering with his battlehammers.
Davídrius immediately joined and began attacking Morcii from the opposite side
as Christeané, but despite being beset by both Introtechnics the Nanocreature
leader easily countered all of their attacks before suddenly snapping his arms
out with enough speed to shatter one of Davídrius’s swords and sever one of
Christeané’s battlehammer tethers. Before he could attack again, Siyuakén fired
both of her grappling hooks at him, snagging him by his shoulders and then
forcing an immense current around the new circuit. Morcii was momentarily
stunned, long enough for Kievkenalis to hit him with a Chaos Impact right as
Siyuakén disengaged her grappling hooks, sending the Nanocreature leader
tumbling along the ground. He quickly stopped himself and leaped back to his
feet before lunging back at Hero Machina, but not before Kievkenalis jumped
toward him, shouting, “Chaos… BLAST!”
The
ensuing blast of energy created a fifty-foot crater that the Chaostechnic
promptly dropped into. He quickly began looking for any sign of Morcii
immediately after hitting the ground – only to be suddenly forced face-down
into the dirt as he felt a foot on his back.
“Your armor can protect you from direct
trauma…”
Morcii muttered as he reached down and grabbed Kievkenalis’s wrists, “but can it protect you… from this?”
The
Nanocreature leader suddenly yanked on the Chaostechnic’s arms, snapping them
out of his shoulder sockets before the armor shielding flared up and prevented
his arms from deforming further.
“GUAAAGH!” Kievkenalis screamed in pain,
instinctively attempting to curl away from Morcii as the Nanocreature’s grin
widened. He raised his foot, prepared to stomp the Chaostechnic’s back before
Davídrius bowled into him, knocking him away. Rebehka immediately followed up
by encasing Morcii in ice and then dropping a massive ice pillar on him as
Christeané rushed to Kievkenalis’s side.
“Arm… arms–!” the Chaostechnic muttered
through clenched teeth.
“I
know, I know, sit still–!” Christeané responded urgently before grasping Kievkenalis’s
left arm and shoulder and then snapping them back into place, eliciting another
painful yelp. The Superstrength Introtechnic quickly snapped the right arm back
into place as Kevérin rushed up behind him.
“Kevken!”
the Transfer Captain shouted, “You need to pull back–!”
“Chaos Heal…” Kievkenalis muttered,
pausing for a moment to take a deep breath before climbing back to his feet. He
looked down at his hands and moved his fingers, and then clenched his fists as
he glanced at the Ayas Arcán, stooping to pick it up after dropping it while
calling Chaos Blast. “No… no, we need to stop that… that thing. Here and now. We can’t afford to allow him to leave this
planet!”
“Easier
said than done…” Kevérin replied warily as he watched Kievkenalis and Christeané
dash off toward Morcii, “If this keeps up, he won’t be the one to lose…”
“Haaaaah!!”
Davídrius roared, kicking Morcii with enough force to completely obliterate his
left shoulder. The Nanocreature’s left arm collapsed to the ground but quickly
split into two parts that both transformed into levitating blades, both of
which began harassing the Superspeed Introtechnic and forced him to turn his
attention away from Morcii. The Nanocreature leader lunged for Davídrius but
instantly changed his course just in time to avoid being frozen in a chunk of
ice; in the blink of an eye he fired his right arm at Rebehka and
simultaneously opened his chest cavity, exposing a large laser cannon which he
used to sweep across the terrain and knock out the shields of Kaoné and
Christeané. The Materiatechnic quickly repaired the shield units, but doing so
distracted her from Morcii just long enough for him to leap at her and punch
her in the gut, flinging her backwards and knocking out her shields again. She
quickly retaliated by raising chunks of metal up and around Morcii’s legs,
stopping him just long enough for Kevérin to charge in and blast him with
high-temperature plumes of flame. Morcii simply took the attack, but the blasts
superheated the metal bindings that Kaoné had raised – Rebehka immediately
cooled the bindings and then rose thick ice pillars around them, anchoring
Morcii to the ground.
“…You fight a losing battle, Aldredanoids!” Morcii
taunted as he effortlessly deflected incoming attacks from Davídrius and Christeané,
“Your urgency betrays your inability.
The mere fact that you think you can bind me–“ he easily broke out of his binds,
shattering the pillars around his legs as he lunged toward Kievkenalis, “–is the surest sign that you grossly underestimate me–!”
“Overdrive:
Unrelenting Flame!!”
The
Nanocreature leader was suddenly blown back by three extremely hot streams of
fire, each fusing together the nanomachines at his elbow, left knee, and
stomach. Kevérin charged forward, bathing the entire atmosphere around Morcii
with searing flame before creating two fireballs in his hands and smashing them
into Morcii’s face, blasting him backward several meters.
“You–!” the Nanocreature’s voice crackled
as he stumbled back to his feet.
“…Ha,
that’s it – you aren’t like the Drakkars at all,” the Transfer Captain smirked
confidently, “You’re completely vulnerable. We can beat you!”
“…Y-y-y-you can-cannot-ot-ot-ot-ot possib-possibly-y-y…”
“Hah!
You villains are all words. So much for backin’ ‘em up eh?” Davídrius retorted.
Morcii
glared at Davídrius and Kevérin as he attempted to straighten himself up,
though was unable to do so as his knee was fused at a bad angle. “Al-al-al-al-aldreda-a-a-anoids…” he muttered, his voice
skipping like a broken record, “I-I
will wi-wi-wi-wipe you from the face o-o-o-of the galax-ax-ax-axy-y-y-y-!”
“C’mon,
Hero Machina, this is it! Get him while he’s down!” Kevérin shouted, issuing
forth another several streams of fire to fuse Morcii’s feet to the ground.
Rebehka immediately flash-froze the Nanocreature before Kaoné suddenly snapped
the ground under him upward, smashing into the frozen Nanocreature leader and
snapping his upper body off of his legs and flinging him up into the air.
Rebehka slammed another several pieces of ice into him, launching him further
upwards still as Kievkenalis fired several Chaos Strikes at him before uttering
“Chaos Charge!” The entire
battlefield became massively electrically charged, the ground itself cackling
with sparks as Siyuakén jumped directly under Morcii and pulled all of the
energy to herself, triggering a massive lightning strike between her and
Morcii, frying her armor but also dealing significant damage to the
Nanocreature leader. Morcii began to fall back toward the ground, stunned,
unable to counter as Kevérin rocketed up to him and then flipped through the
air, issuing a flame-powered punch to the Nanocreature’s back that launched him
back to the ground, where Kaoné quickly rose his tattered body to eye-level by
hanging it from a steel pillar.
“We’ve
got him now!” Davídrius smirked as he planted himself fifty meters from Morcii,
Christeané doing the same on the opposite side of the Nanocreature leader.
“Ready!”
“Set!”
the Superstrength Introtechnic shouted back as he began twirling his remaining
intact battlehammer at high speeds.
“Mark!!” they both shouted,
simultaneously launching themselves at the incapacitated Nanocreature leader,
weapons forward, prepared to deal the final blow and smash his body to
smithereens –
– When Morcii
suddenly took on his intact form in the blink of an eye, snapping his arms
outward to deflect and completely reverse the Introtechnics’ momentum before
either even realized what was happening.
“Wha–
what?!” Kevérin exclaimed, frozen in place as the Introtechnics tumbled along
the ground and failed to recover.
“Ahahaha!” Morcii turned to glare
haughtily at the rest of Hero Machina, “Watching
your hopes soar the moment you saw what you perceived as an opening… you are so predictable!” He launched himself forward,
reaching Kaoné in a split second and smashing his knee into her face, instantly
knocking her out. “Do you not
remember what I said earlier?” He appeared in front of Kievkenalis,
issuing a one-two punch to his shoulders, kneeing him in his gut, and then
grabbing his head before slamming him to the ground. “About how I was anchored
to this realm of existence?” He stooped over and grabbed the Ayas Arcán.
“Did it not occur to you to think
about what that could mean?” He opened his chest cavity and casually
placed the Ayas within it, after which the cavity closed and it disappeared
from sight. “Did it not occur to you that I am not of this
world?!” He sped over to Rebehka, grabbing her arm and yanking her to
the ground before stomping her left knee, snapping it out of place. “Your conventional battle tactics mean
nothing against me! You stumble around, thinking that you can control Chaos
Energy, bend it to your will, but you do not even engage the Chaos State
against me?!” He practically warped to Davídrius, slamming his palm into
the Introtechnic’s chest as he attempted to stand and throwing him over onto
his back. “I am faster than you!”
He lunged toward Christeané, slamming his fists down on the Introtechnic’s head
with enough force to shatter his ankles and half-bury him in the ground. “I am stronger
than you!” He turned toward Siyuakén, ignoring her electrical strikes
before returning them with far greater magnitude, completely shutting down her
armor and forcing her to her knees. “I
control you!” He then rested
his gaze on Kevérin, who stood frozen in place, unable to move an inch out of
pure fear. “You cannot grasp who I
am, even after I have told you!”
“I, I…
wha…” Kevérin spluttered, “What… what are…?”
“I am a god!”
Morcii suddenly appeared in front of the Transfer Captain, grabbing him by his
throat and hoisting him into the air. “Hear
my words and listen well, Aldredanoid! I am a god, unstoppable, capable of obliterating
all that you throw at me! But I am also a harbinger – the messenger, the cleaner
for those far stronger than I! I will conquer this galaxy and claim the Chaos
Ayas, clearing way for the Morikai, who will descend upon you pesky insects and cleanse the entire galaxy of
your presence!” He slammed Kevérin into the ground, almost knocking out
the Pyrotechnic. “Send this message
to your unworthy brethren, creature:
I. Am. Morcii! My defeat is impossible – my victory inevitable! For if you succeed
in driving me off now, I will merely manifest elsewhere, even stronger than
before! I am as immortal and timeless as the universe itself, and destroying me
is tantamount to destroying all that which you know! So, I will repeat myself
once more, so that perhaps this time
it will sink into your head: no one
in this galaxy,” he pressed Kevérin further into the ground, “or any
galaxy…” he
began choking the Pyrotechnic, despite the flaring shields that attempted to
prevent him from doing so, “can hope
to stop me!”
The
Nanocreature leader then completely closed his fist, only to find that he was
simply grasping at air. He backed away slowly, staring at the ground which
Kevérin had occupied a mere moment before and then inspected his environment,
discovering that the rest of Hero Machina was nowhere to be found. “…So the Aldredanoids have discovered their own beaming
technology… hah. This will be interesting, then, but
still… they hold no chance against me!...”
* * *
“…Captain!
Transfer Captain!”
“Nnngh…”
Kevérin blinked several times, his vision blurry; he was only able to discern
who was talking to him through the sound of their voice. “Captain… Krick…?”
“You’re
awake!” the Earthian Captain exclaimed.
“Where…
am I?”
“You’re
being wheeled to the ship’s infirmary. You and your entire team were in
terrible shape when we beamed you up… what the hell happened down there? Where’s the Ayas?”
“Where’s
the Ayas?...” Kevérin smirked and then chuckled deliriously as he closed his
eyes again, exhaustion overtaking him. “Hah, what happened… we got fucked,
that’s what… haaah… we’re all… fucked…”
* * * * *
==================== End of Chapter 49 ====================
* * * * *
Data Entry: {null}
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