I pulled out the hilt I had gotten before. I had recovered my energy from the earlier events, but I still felt sore, tired, and worn out. I channeled my energy into the hilt, which consumed it greedily. No response, no magical blade formed, nothing except losing energy. I put the hilt away once more with some difficulty.
It was a shame that the hilt wasn’t a secret super weapon of some kind. I floated away for a bit and grabbed a deformed plate. I took it back to the metal wall and made sure I had a good grip while also balancing out my movement, so I wasn’t flung away by the recoil.
I hit the deformed metal plate onto the wall. I felt my entire body vibrate, there was a dent in the metal wall and the plate had deformed much more. The dent quickly self-repaired. I didn’t think I was going to be defeated by a self-repairing wall of all things.
Finding a long piece of metal I banged it against the wall to slowly turn it into a sword like shape. An ugly, disfigured, blunt sword. While I might not be able to use my hands. I just needed something I could hold and visualize properly with.
While the blade itself might be trash, the metal was very high quality. I moved away from the wall back along the path I had came. I would have to go all out if I wanted to get through, just like I had gone all out to get into the inner citadel. I almost went back to the center, but stopped before then. I then turned around and rushed forward, applying more and more force.
My speed quickly picked up as I flew head first towards the metal wall. If I couldn’t escape, I was as good as dead, so there was no need to do this in a half hearted manner. “One Swing To Accomplish Anything!” I swung as I forced my energy into the trash piece of metal and stabbed forward.
The blade held, but that wasn’t surprising due to the incredibly high quality of the metal. My stab punctured open the wall and I went flying through, not slowing down, ready to face anything. The outside of the inner sphere was complete chaos, with a little ‘c’.
The flying golems were still active along with the defenses of the inner citadel. Many golems and beam cannons had been damaged or destroyed, there were more. The target was the horde of drones that were invading the area. The war machine lived, or at least carried on in its next iteration.
Something that was that powerful and smart, would use its main chassis as a decoy. I should have suspected something like that. Now there was a full fledged battle going on in the outer portions of the citadel as I went flying towards the outer citadel. I had no idea about my orientation to find the previous hole I had used, but that didn’t matter anymore.
The teleportation defense had stopped working due to the sheer amount of debris that was flying about. Energy beams flew around me, but the war machine’s drones seemed focused on the citadel’s defenses, which were in turn focused on the war machine’s drones. That might change if I attacked either side, but I was more focused on escaping. I was done getting what benefits I could. Now was the time to get the hell out of here before I caught up in more drama. One super powerful demonic cultivator was more than enough for me.
A large chunk of metal came flying at me. I swung my trash blade, while I kept flying directly towards the outer citadel. The shortest distance was a straight path and I planned to head straight out of the remains of the Gu Container into the wider Firmament. The two chunks of metal flew by me as several large explosions occurred in the distance.
Larger drones were entering this area between the inner and outer citadel. I definitely needed to get out of here. The war machine probably planned to use all this metal and resources to fuel a rapid expansion. It was a replicator after all, so it made sense that it would replicate.
My danger sense spiked, and I turned and slashed. The beam attack that was targeting something else was split. Thankfully that didn’t draw any attention from both sides as they fought. The outer citadel was coming up quickly and I would need to slow down.
I deflected a chunk of debris and then a second one. Some type of rotational rapid fire cannon was quickly being assembled in the distance. I counted six turrets that were being constructed on a rotating platform. The war machine was clearly looking to breach the inner citadel and take all that nice metal for itself. I wished it good fortune and to ignore me like it was currently doing.
Beating Ix required so many factors that it boggled my mind. I wasn’t about to gamble a second time by going up against the war machine since there was no point. I forced myself to slow down and then swung. The metal of the outer citadel split open. I had been looking for a place there might have been a trap door based on the pipes. Most of the pipes were completely broken, joining the massive debris cloud, which in turn was being pulled in my drones to make more attack drones.
I rushed through the gap I had made as I kept trying to slow myself down. I landed in a passage and finally managed to slow myself down enough I wasn’t out of control. I brought up my trash blade and blocked an energy beam. The metal held as a golem fired at me. I slashed out at it, doing minor damage and causing it to stumble back.
Right, I wasn’t some super powerful cultivator even if I had defeated Ix. The defenses he had left behind were top tier, even against someone of my power. I quickly flew away from the done, dodging the follow up energy blasts that scorched the walls of the metal corridor.
Adjusting course I began making my way for the outside. Thankfully I had a good understanding of the layout of the outer citadel. It was just very large. The corridors weren’t perfectly straight, forcing slight turns occasionally slowing me down.
“Starlight Lance!” I heard a shout and adjusted course. If there were other survivors, escaping as a group would increase the number of meat shields between me and trouble. I found Supreme Celestial Wizard Eternus Calamitus Dorus, fighting off a drone. It returned a beam of energy which he shielded himself from using his staff.
“One Swing To Separate Heaven And Earth!” I swung my trash blade, heavily damaging the humanoid golem.
“Starlight Lance!” The golem melted and collapsed to the side of the corridor.
“Thank you, Cultivator Yuan Zhou?” he asked, and I nodded. “We need to escape, the protections around this space have failed.”
“Yes, we can go our separate ways once we leave the area of the Gu Container,” I said, and the old man nodded. We set out again. Unfortunately, he was slower. Not an extreme amount, but he wasn’t able to fly as quickly as me. That meant we got bogged down in more fights instead of running past them, but that was fine.
A team of two was a much greater threat than a lone individual and would make anyone thinking of causing trouble. I didn’t like the slower speed, but I could abandon Eternus if I needed to, leaving him behind to take all the aggression. It wasn’t a nice or a good plan, but if he wanted to survive, he needed to be able to pull his own weight.
My trash blade was looking worse and worse. While the metal was solid it was just a long piece of metal that was kind of shaped like a blade. The energy I put into it, with each swing was enough to cause issues with the metal itself. There was more warping and it was breaking apart. The piece of metal was never designed as a sword.
While my trash blade worked as a blade, it struggled with the level of combat I was putting it through. The fact it held togeather for so long was a testament to its quality and durability. I needed a proper blade.
We then ran into a large battle between the drones and golems in the passages outside one of the formation rooms. The golems were much more durable, but the drones kept coming like a relentless horde. Getting around this section on a detour would add a lot of time to our trip. There was also no guarantee that we wouldn’t run into other problems somewhere else.
As we pulled back, Eternus and I looked at each other. We couldn’t go forward and going around was just as risky. Trying to cut through the metal of this place would take far too long and it wasn’t even on the table. I looked at my trash blade. If it had been my previous high quality immortal blade, then I might have been able to sneak by with a well time spatial slash, but it would incredibly risky if it was interrupted.
“I don’t have anything to help us get through,” I said.
“Me either. I need to ration my mana,” he replied. Truly, there were endless super organizations out there. I never thought I would run into a wizard who believed in mana. While it would be interesting to hold an exchange with this man, now wasn’t the time.
“Let’s go around, the sooner we start the sooner we will get past the battle,” I said. The entire outer citadel shook heavily. While we were floating in the air, since there was no gravity, I could feel the vibrations in the air.
We quickly set off once more. It was going to be a long detour. We began running into more drones and less golems. They didn’t attack us thankfully. The war machine had a clear plan in mind and trying to attack small, powerful, escaping beings was clearly not in its interest. If people wanted to run away while it claimed the vast majority of this place, then less fighting would only speed that process up.
There was sounds of fighting from up a head. We saw three golems defending a woman in a martial robe from a horde of drones. I noticed she was using array plates. She must have subverted the drones, but the war machine didn’t notice the exception or decided to attack her as a perceived inhabitant of this place.
I looked at Eternus and he nodded. Since he was committed to helping her then we would. Also, this battle was blocking our path. I didn’t want to take another detour if I could help it.
“Starlight Lance!”
“One Swing To Separate Heaven And Earth!”
The drones quickly began exploding one after another. The woman quickly rearranged the golems under her control, to offense instead of defense, clearing out the rest with a rapid barrage of energy beams.
“Cultivator Yuan Zhou,” I introduced myself.
“Supreme Celestial Wizard Eternus Calamitus Dorus,” the older man introduced himself right after me.
“Grandmaster Of Formations, Wan Ting. Are we escaping?” she asked.
“This spatial and temporal barriers around the edge of the Gu Container have been taken down and the demonic cultivator has vanished. Escape seems the priority at the moment, since the replicator is taking over everything,” I said, and she nodded.
“If I have the time, I could construct a teleportation formation,” she said.
“How much time?” I asked.
“A year,” she replied and I shook my head.
“We have days at best. The golems are losing ground and the inner citadel is likely being taken over right now by the replicator,” I replied.
“Grab the back of these golems. I have subverted their command and control formations. They will shield us going forward,” she replied, and we followed her suggestion. While our speed picked up, the level of resistance massively increased as drones kept trying to stop us as we tried to leave the inner citadel.
I unleashed a slash from behind one of the golems while Eternus kept firing his energy blasts. “Any help from the golems?” I asked.
“They can focus on defense or offense. Doing both at once degrades their functionality. That was why I got trapped earlier,” Wan Ting replied.
“These drones are endless,” I said while swinging my blade once more.
“Cover me. I will prepare a short term formation to clear our path,” Wan Ting replied. The golems formed a triangle formation around her in the middle of the passage. I took up the rear with just one of the golems while Eternus took the front with two of them.
She began whipping out small metal plates and using a metal rod to quickly inscribe various arrays at a rapid speed. This was what a true master of arrays and formations looked like. Not my child’s play. No wonder she had survived.
If I had to guess, she had snuck into the outer citadel and remained here while slowly trying to escape. Once the demonic cultivator was gone and everything was falling apart, she took control of some of the golems to help her escape. Unfortunately for her the war machine and the golems were engaged in final battle to the end, neither side willing to give in to the other.
There was a loud bang and I looked over my shoulder. A giant drone that looked like three millipedes welded back to back was approaching down the passage. It was the perfect drone for clearing these uniform passages. The front part began unleashing three beams at once. The front two golems created shields. Wan Ting also tossed an array plate over her shoulder, creating another shield.
Eternus began firing energy blasts at the massive drone. Unfortunately, he only scorched its metal and did minor damage. I spun around took careful aim while adjusting my stance in mid-air. I then swung. The sword slash quickly closed the distance and hit one of the weapon emplacements, destroying it.
“How much time left?” I asked Wan Ting.
“I need more time,” she said.
“We don’t have it. At best you have a minute,” I replied and swung again. Eternus was too busy firing away. Wan Ting glanced up at the battle with a frown. She waved her rod and the metal plates quickly reformed and began to reorient to face down the passage.
“Move,” she said and Eternus quickly moved out of the way as the two golems stepped aside. The attacks from the massive drone hit a shield she had created.
“Teleportation!” Wan Ting called out to help her focus just as the massive drone was about to crash into our group.
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A large chunk of the drone suddenly vanished. There were multiple explosions. I quickly brought up my trash blade to block the impact of metal shards from the destroyed drone. I got some minor cuts. Eternus had managed to survive since he was behind one of the golems. Wan Ting wasn’t so lucky, since she only had her arrays and formations to shield her.
While they might have been good against energy blasts and one off attacks, the massive amount of shrapnel shredded her body. Despite many pieces of metal being lodged in her body, with one in her eye, Wan Ting was still standing.
That was when the remains of the massive combined millipede drone burst apart, revealing a small worm drone and several smaller flying drones inside. I was forced to engage the flying drones with Eternus as the worm drone lunged for Wan Ting. She used several arrays to form barriers, but they weren’t strong enough, the worm drone smashed through them.
Wan Ting reoriented her body in the middle of the passage, so the worm drone didn’t get to her head first, it go to one of her legs. The multi-grinder mouth at the front of the worm drone was like a leaf or wood chipper, but concentrating everything into the center from multiple angles.
“AHHHHH!” she screamed as he leg was pulled into the drone. She even got out a sword and stabbed the drone, but it didn’t stop working its way up her body. Multiple arrays were tossed out and exploded, finally stopping the drone just as Eternus and I finished off the last of the flying drones.
Wan Ting was done for. The worm drone had ripped her body in half and had come to a stop somewhere in her gut. She was too durable as well, so her ripped and shredded flesh was lodged into the worm drone. There was no good point to separate her. If she had just been caught on her leg, then her leg could have been cut off. But the drone had chewed her up into her gut. Copious amounts of blood was flowing out of her body.
“Never…I will never…” she was trying to say and do something, but it was too late. The shrapnel and the shock of being ripped apart and broken her connection to her body. I noted that the metal of the worm drone had shredded her soul as well, killing the mind that was housed there for an immortal.
The term immortal felt more and more like a joke with how many I had seen die recently. As she shuddered and stopped moving, I floated over. I reached out and gripped the hilt of the sword she had pulled out of her spatial storage and freed it from the worm drone in one motion. Eternus hadn’t hesitated to come over and snatch her spatial storage. We gave each other a look but I just shrugged. No need to start a fight when we both might die. The first to grab the thing was the first to keep it.
He gave me a small smile as he pocked the ring. Clearly he was glad he got the best end of the looting without having to come into conflict with me. No wonder why he had survived this long and the rest of the beings he had been with had died. My guess was that he had some sort of backup super attack in reserve just in case he needed to escape or get out a sticky situation.
I would have to be a lot more careful regarding this Eternus going forward. At least I had a sword in hand now. It was a high quality blade, but not as good as the one I had gotten from Sword God Feng. We raced around the massive broken drone to continue on our way out of the outer citadel. The teleportation appeared to have failed mid-use, but it scrambled everything inside the massive drone, breaking it.
Everything shook again, and I could feel the air vibrate from whatever had struck the outer citadel. We came across more drones, but they didn’t ignore us anymore. I cursed for stopping to help Wan Ting. We were now registered as enemies to the war machine’s drones.
With a proper blade I easily cut my way through them and Eternus blasted them apart at a rapid base. We couldn’t get bogged down no matter what. Once that happened larger drones would show up to swarm us. We occasionally came across a golem battling the drones, but they were getting overwhelmed.
Resistance from the golems was quickly crumbling and we needed to get at out of here sooner rather than later. “Advance! Cut them down!” I paused and saw a group of around 20 immortal cultivators in the far distance in the passage we were headed down with swords. More and more drones were attacking them.
“An outside group?” I asked Eternus.
“Maybe, or they got pulled in right before everything fell apart. You know them?” he asked me.
“No. Can’t tell which super organization, they belong to,” I replied.
“Then we need to find another path. More and more drones are coming this way,” he said. I mentally cursed at this. Each time we started to make progress, we had to backtrack and find another way. There weren’t that many passages through the outer citadel. It was mostly solid metal, probably to resist attacks.
We turned around just as a giant millipede drone smashed into the cultivator group. There were screams as we quickly retreated. The battle was becoming more confusing as everyone fought over the remains of the Gu Container or tried to escape. The war machine had the absolute advantage, but it had a very strong strategic advantage compared to other combatants.
The drones might be fairly weak individually, but when they didn’t stop attacking, combined with a couple high quality ones in the mix, the battle became much harder. Even if I said I defeated Ix, that wouldn’t get me any credit but just make me a target as everyone would think I had some sort of hidden benefits on me.
I looked behind us when I heard sounds of fighting and three of the cultivators had survived and were following Eternus and myself. “We need to pick up the pace,” I told him and he glanced backwards. He spun his staff and the crystal at the end began glowing brighter, his speed picked up. I picked up my speed as well, not stopping or slowing down as I cut down the drones that appeared in our path.
A giant combined mechanical millipede appeared in front of us. “Around!” I called out and focused as I brought my sword back. The massive drone rushed towards us and I looked for the best moment. I pulled out a small, deformed piece of metal to block a beam attack.
I then swung and moved forward. I got halfway past the drone millepede but was now in between its legs and the nearby wall. I kept moving forward, while cutting through its legs. It tried to slam into the wall with its body, but I managed to clear its rear just in time. I heard sounds of fighting coming from the front. The three cultivators following us must have been caught up in the battle.
Eternus appeared in a flash of light breathing heavily and bleeding from a gash across his left shoulder. “I hate replicators,” he muttered.
“Let’s go,” I said, and he nodded. We set off leaving the cultivators to fight the large drone. Those things were too tough to quickly defeat. The war machine had created something that was durable and annoying enough to face an immortal. It was probably making even better drones from the metal of the inner citadel.
Everything suddenly shifted as a massive wave of force came from the inner citadel. I managed to mitigate the worst of the impact damage, but Eternus slammed into the wall hard. While my understanding of force might not have been that useful for a long time, with a proper technique and control of my energy, it was finally pulling its weight. That investment from so long ago was finally paying off in small moments like this.
“The inner citadel exploded, or something exploded there,” I said as Eternus recovered. I thought about taking him out, but he probably had some secret life saving measures. Now wasn’t the right time for him to contribute with some teamwork.
There was a load screeching sound. A massive tear through the metal of the outer citadel stopped a ways down the passage we were in. We were only about a third of the way through the outer citadel due to all the delays and backtracking. Things were definitely getting worse, not better.
With Ix gone, everyone was fighting each other. I looked at Eternus. “Our best bet is to make for the far edge. Less fighting and possibly a vessel,” he replied and I nodded at that, since his statement made sense. Nothing had changed, just the urgency which kept going up.
We flew down the passage, making good speed. Most likely Eternus didn’t want to tap into his energy reserves, so he had a backup, but now was not the time to be stingy. I felt waves of energy from various directions. Various super organizations were making their move, or the region around the Gu Container was already a war zone.
That wouldn’t surprise me, since the Gu Container had flown through a lot of super organizations, pulling everything it could in, disrupting and attacking everyone. These groups would send vessels and they clearly had been working on a wait to stop the Gu Container. Despite being a closed off Gu Container, there was still a lot of interference from the outside.
There was a massive beam of energy that suddenly cut through the citadel.
“SHIELD!” Eternus shouted desperately as the beam punched through the metal. A glowing yellow shield formed in front of him instantly. The edge of the massive energy beam hit his shield and a portion of the power bounced off, hitting a nearby wall. I had brought up my sword up, ready to protect myself.
The massive beam stopped and it took me a moment to work out that it had come from the direction of the inner citadel. The war machine had created a giant cannon and was using that to defend itself. The hole that had been made was already flooding this thousands of thrones. A means of attack and creating a direct path for its forces as well.
Eternus and I quickly began flying away, cutting through some drones that were converging on the newly made passage. Everything shook again. I mentally cursed. Ix was supposed to be the big boss, why was everyone making it so difficult to escape? It was incredibly frustrating. Just let us go, or at least me. Eternus could figure things out on his own.
I felt a massive sense of danger as we reached another corridor, that should be a more direct path to the outside. There was a massive amount of energy. Checking around the corner, I saw a flickering red barrier, with something black and unidentifiable moving behind the barrier. This was the Chaos creature that Ix had sealed before.
Somehow the barrier had been moved to this part of the Citadel? Perhaps that massive explosion and wave of force shifted everything, it was hard to say. Too many things were happening that I didn’t understand. I was no way equipped or strong enough for a battle of this scale. Eternus looked around the corner as well and he instantly brought his head back like me.
“We can’t go that way. The technique looks close to failing,” he replied as a another wave of energy washed over us.
“We go adjust, we have been moving mostly about on the same plane, we can go down,” I said. There was no gravity, so directions were a bit confusing, but Eternus understood what I was saying. We turned around once again and began looking for a way to the outer edge of the Citadel that wasn’t blocked or too dangerous.
“From a beachhead! Get those firing angles set up!” Checking around the side of the next passage a chunk of the outer citadel was completely missing. Humans in heavy armor and with other bits of technology were appearing off a teleportation platform. “Shoot anything and everything!” There went any idea of working with these people.
We picked another direction as the soldiers began pushing outwards. “Any idea who they were?” I asked Eternus.
“No. There are too many super organizations. The demonic cultivator really stirred things up. Now that they are gone and this place is ready to be claimed, none of the super organizations is willing to let anyone get all this valuable energy infused metal, especially the replicator. If that thing gets going near their super organizations, it will be worse than the Gu Container,” Eternus said.
He was probably right. Every group was coming here to stake their claim. The Gu Container had messed things up way too much and everyone needed to show their strength. Unfortunately, we were caught in the middle since everyone was acting quickly to gain a foot hold and the most advantages.
“I need a small break,” Eternus said as we came to an empty passage. He was breathing heavily and even my energy reserves were running low.
“Me too,” I replied. While the drones were simple to destroy, there had been way too many of them. We picked opposite sides of the passage, across from each other to rest. There were questions I wanted to ask, but now wasn’t the time.
While the basic drones were incredibly weak, I could easily deflect their beam attacks and even tank them to a certain extent, there were just too many. No matter how many I killed there were more. They were just strong enough that I couldn’t ignore them. The war machine had carefully scaled the difficulty of its drones to be annoying as possible.
In comparison Ix had just made the best golems. They were really strong and an elite force, but they weren’t enough to contain all the drones. It was just an endless horde. I guess that was the horror of a replicator based strategy in the Firmament.
“Keep moving?” I finally asked Eternus who let out a small groan.
“Yes. My old bones aren’t meant for this much excitement like you cultivators. Let’s see if can’t clear a path out of this place. I shudder to think of the huge mess outside,” he replied.
“All that molten metal and red liquid has probably been compressed and is surrounding this citadel. At least the battle should be less,” I said and Eternus shook his head.
“It will be worse. We are just seeing the forward recon units of various super organizations. If I find mine I would be willing to vouch for you if you do the same?” he asked me. I was nominally affiliated with the Xyon Front and the Heavenly Alliance, but I doubted either of them would be showing up. Or if they had shown up the chance of running into either one was incredibly small.
“Sure, I will say something if they show up, and we can get out of here,” I replied and Eternus gave me a nod. He might be a free spirit like me and trying to scam me with that question. Then we would be scamming each other.
“We might have to fight our way thought the next obstacle,” Eternus said, clearly trying to influence me into a certain course of action. Most likely he wanted me to be stuck fighting while he snuck away. That was what I had planned. He was trying to use teamwork on me.
“Each situation is unique,” I replied, basically telling him that I wasn’t going to pre-commit to anything. While I could have lied to try and convince him I would fight, that would just create a scene where both of us tried to run and were put in mad situations. Letting him know ensured he wouldn’t try to make a run for it unless he was sure he could get through and leave me behind.
“That is true, we need to be careful,” Eternus replied. That was him saying he was aware that I was aware of his schemes and that he was ready for any nonsense I might attempt. Basically we were sizing each other up. One moment of weakness and one person would be looting the other person’s corpse, similar to Wan Ting.
She might have been a grandmaster of arrays and formations, but she didn’t have good survival sense in combat. Her hiding and utility were quite high, but she hadn’t enough experience fighting to realize that she should have kept one golem near her at all times and used the other two as a mobile force. Even if she had to work a bit slower, she would have been much safer. That was the difference in combat experience. Once you made a critical mistake it was very hard to recover. I still wasn’t a fan of fighting. The risk was just insane.
“We need to go faster, just break through,” I replied and Eternus nodded. His staff lit up and I picked up speed as well as we flew down another passage. There was another tremor and a few more waves of energy. This place was turning into one massive battlefield.
The outer citadel was too well built and made of high quality metal infused with energy. It made it both valuable and a perfect staging ground. If I had enough strength I could just swing my blade and cut my way directly out of this place. But I was quite far from that level of strength.
We soon ran into more drones. I brought up my blade and began cutting them down while Eternus went back to blasting them. We advanced side by side, neither of us allowing the other to get behind us and put the other person at the front of this assault.
This time it was a grueling battle, over a hundred flying drones. They weren’t strong, but they just didn’t stop attacking and moving forward. Behind us there was a massive cloud of debris. As the last one in this patrol group was cut down, I let out a sigh of relief. I poked my left cheek a bit. A beam attack had hit and part of the skin was burnt away. It was healing, but it would take a few days to fully recover. Far more quickly than a normal person, but much slower compared to someone with a healing technique.
I was good at force, but something like flesh or healing would have been another useful Dao to have pursued. Unfortunately, it was too late. I could learn techniques, but I wouldn’t get a cheat code like I had for techniques that used force. That was why my cutting technique was so good, and my spatial slash was usable, but worse than someone who specialized in spatial energy.
There was something different in the thin air as we continued to fly along the passages. It seemed we had broken through a main drone contingent, since the passage to the outer edge of the outer citadel was surprisingly clear of any more interference.
After all the craziness from earlier it was relieving that the entire citadel hadn’t become engulfed in battle all the time. There was no way it could hold up, even with the thick, superior metal under that kind of assault from immortal level beings.
Still, even with the respite, I didn’t let my guard down. I would relax once I was completely away from this entire mess, leaving it far behind me. This area of the Firmament was sure to be in turmoil for a long period of time to come, even by the standards of the Firmament. The disrupt of this many super organizations and conflicts wouldn’t be easily settled.
There would be too many grudges and resources to let everything go easily or come to some kind of agreement with others. Asking for peace without overwhelming strength was just letting others know you were weak and no one wanted to display weakness. Unless the leader of the Xyon Front stepped in personally, I didn’t see how all this fighting could be resolved in the short term.
If the Forever City was nearby, the Heavenly Alliance would no doubt send all their factions here instead of fighting each other to grab benefits and fight against the other super organizations. It would also be a good way for them to reduce the number of immortals just doing nothing and passing the time however they wanted.
All super organizations would ramp up production of pod people or whatever they used for combat. The soldiers from earlier were likely grown in pods and would be fed into this area in even greater numbers.
I felt a sense of danger. It wasn’t massive, but I felt specifically targeted. This was concerning as I looked around. The passage had a couple of connections up ahead. If there was going to be an ambush that was where it would happen.
“Something is targeting us,” I said and Eternus nodded.