bookpower Chapter 218: The Azure Armada, Leaving Orbit
Chapter 218: The Azure Armada, Leaving Orbit
Chapter 218: The Azure Armada, Leaving Orbit "We are not taking a commercial flight, Seraphina," Alvian replied, his fingers flying across the holographic keyboard as he finalized the dreadnought’s trajectory. "We are effectively firing the entire city out of a cannon. It will be a very short trip."
Valeria walked up to the console, her golden [Aegis of Terra] strapped securely to her back. She looked out the massive observation windows, her grey eyes wide as she took in the sight of the Earth below them. The red, corrupted clouds of the Convergence were rapidly parting, revealing the horrifying, shifting shapes of the Outer Gods’ armada hovering just beyond the atmosphere.
"The Vanguard is secured," Valeria reported, her voice steady despite the sheer absurdity of their situation. "General Winters has the terrestrial fighter squadrons primed for launch the moment we breach the exosphere. Magnus and Kaelen are manning the primary turret batteries. Everyone is ready, Alvian."
Alvian paused his typing. He looked at Valeria, offering a small, reassuring nod. The cold, mechanical administrator persona he had worn in the Dimensional Gap was tucked away. Right now, he was just a guy trying to make sure his friends didn’t get vaporized by cosmic horrors.
"Good," Alvian said softly. He turned back to the console and rested his hand on the [Heart of Azureus]. "Hold onto your stomachs."
He pushed the administrative cube down into the terminal.
"System. Initiate Ascension Protocol. Full thrust."
Azureus did not gently float upward. The city shot into the sky with a concussive boom that shattered the remaining sound barrier.
The G-forces were astronomical. Even with the internal inertial dampeners working at maximum capacity, the sheer vertical acceleration pinned everyone to the floor. Seraphina let out a highly undignified squeak as her face was pressed against the polished marble. Valeria gritted her teeth, her [Titan’s Bloodline] flaring to absorb the crushing pressure, her hand reaching out to grip Alvian’s ankle just to stay anchored.
Alvian alone remained standing, his [Chaos Body] effortlessly ignoring the physical limitations of the launch. He watched through the observation window as the blue sky rapidly deepened into a bruised purple, and then, violently, into the pitch-black void of space.
"Atmosphere breached," Alvian announced, his voice perfectly calm over the groaning of the city’s foundations. "Engaging localized gravity and life-support fields."
The crushing pressure vanished instantly. Seraphina gasped, pushing herself up from the floor and rubbing her nose. "Ow. Remind me to leave a terrible review for this airline."
"Look," Valeria breathed, pushing herself up and walking to the glass.
The space above Earth had been transformed into a sci-fi fantasy war zone. The armada of the Outer Gods hovered in the void—massive, floating coral reefs forged from obsidian and rotting, grey flesh. They were grotesque, biological dreadnoughts covered in unblinking, city-sized eyeballs that darted around in frantic, chaotic rhythms.
And Azureus had just parked right in the middle of them.
"Open fire," Alvian commanded simply.
The city of Azureus erupted into a blinding display of violence. The [Void Sentinel] turrets lining the adamantine battlements spun to life, firing localized gravity wells that slammed into the fleshy hulls of the cosmic ships. The impact didn’t cause fiery explosions; instead, massive chunks of the Outer Gods’ vessels simply crumpled inward, crushed into dense marbles of scrap and gore by the sheer gravitational force.
From the lower hangars of the floating city, swarms of human fighter jets shot out into the vacuum. They were retrofitted with mana-drives, their engines trailing bright blue magical exhaust. They flew in tight formations alongside heavily armored Wyvern-riders, a bizarre but terrifyingly effective joint strike force.
A massive, fleshy meteor with tentacles—a smaller frigate of the Outer Gods—drifted toward one of the fighter squadrons.
"Splash it!" General Winters’ voice barked over the open comms.
The jets didn’t fire standard missiles. They unleashed a volley of [Void Sever] enchanted armor-piercing rounds. The bullets tore through the vacuum, completely ignoring the cosmic beast’s magical resistance, and shredded the entity into a cloud of harmless, grey dust.
"It’s working," Valeria said, a fierce, triumphant grin breaking across her face. "We’re actually holding our own in a space battle."
"The city is a distraction," Alvian corrected, turning away from the window. "We are in a target-rich environment, but attrition still favors the enemy. They don’t need supply lines. They feed on the void. We have to cut the head off the snake."
He walked toward a specialized deployment bay at the rear of the command deck. Sitting on the launch pad was a small, sleek vessel. It looked like a cross between a deep-sea submersible and a stealth bomber, painted in matte black and devoid of any glowing mana lines.
"The stealth-skiff," Seraphina said, jogging to catch up with him. She eyed the tiny craft with deep suspicion. "Alvian, that thing was designed to sneak past blind sea turtles in the Silent Trough. It is not designed for the vacuum of space. It doesn’t even have a pressurized cabin! We’ll freeze, boil, and suffocate simultaneously."
"Physics are optional today," Alvian said, stepping into the cramped cockpit of the skiff. He looked back at Valeria and Seraphina. "Get in."
Valeria didn’t hesitate, squeezing her heavy golden armor into the co-pilot seat. Seraphina sighed, muttering a prayer to whatever gods were currently not trying to eat them, and squeezed into the back.
Alvian placed his hands on the skiff’s control console. He didn’t use the standard ignition. He let his violet [Void Sovereign] aura bleed out of his body, washing over the metal hull of the small ship.
"System. Extend [Void Shell] passive to localized vehicle parameters," Alvian commanded. "Maintain internal atmosphere, pressure, and thermal nullification."
A thin, dark violet bubble shimmered into existence around the skiff. Inside, the air instantly felt perfectly normal. The biting cold of the high-altitude bay vanished.
"Okay, I admit, having a walking cheat code for a captain is convenient," Seraphina noted, buckling her crash harness.
"Target is the Null-Ship," Alvian said, his eyes locking onto the largest, most horrifying vessel in the enemy fleet. It was a sprawling, non-Euclidean nightmare of jagged black glass and writhing grey flesh that hung at the very back of the armada. "Hold on. We are bypassing the traffic."
The bay doors opened. Alvian slammed the thrusters forward.
The stealth-skiff shot out of Azureus and plunged into the chaotic crossfire of the cosmic battlefield.
———
The flight through the void was a masterclass in heart-stopping near-misses.
Alvian piloted the stealth-skiff with the cold, calculated precision of a machine. He didn’t fly in a straight line. He wove through the silent, deadly vacuum of space, dodging stray plasma blasts from human fighter jets and sweeping, city-sized tentacles from the Outer Gods’ frigates.
"Incoming on the left!" Valeria shouted, bracing her hands against the dashboard as a massive, green beam of anti-reality sheared through the space just inches from their port side.
"Calculated," Alvian replied, not even blinking as he violently pitched the skiff into a barrel roll, sliding through the narrow gap between two colliding, burning Wyverns.
Thanks to the [Mistress of Whispers] cloaking field Seraphina was actively projecting from the backseat, the enemy’s sensory arrays were entirely blind to their approach. To the cosmic horrors, the skiff simply didn’t exist. They were a shadow riding the chaos.
The Null-Ship loomed ahead.
It was staggeringly huge, a dreadnought that defied every known rule of architecture. It wasn’t built; it looked as though it had grown like a cancerous tumor in the fabric of space. Jagged spires of black, reflective glass jutted out at impossible angles from a central mass of pulsating, grey flesh. There were no visible thrusters, no weapon ports, and definitely no landing bays.
"Where exactly are we supposed to park?" Seraphina asked, peering nervously over Alvian’s shoulder. "I don’t see a valet."
"We don’t park," Alvian said, accelerating. "We breach."
He didn’t slow down. He aimed the nose of the fragile stealth-skiff directly at a massive, fleshy section of the dreadnought’s hull.
"Alvian, brace for impact!" Valeria yelled, instinctively trying to summon her [Aegis of Terra] within the cramped cabin.
"Hold tight," Alvian commanded.
The skiff slammed into the Null-Ship.
There was no fiery explosion, but the sickening, wet sound of metal plunging deep into cosmic blubber echoed through the cabin. The skiff groaned, the hull buckling slightly under the pressure, but Alvian’s [Void Shell] held the cabin integrity intact. They lodged themselves roughly twenty feet deep into the meaty exterior of the dreadnought, the windshield completely covered in dark, viscous fluid.
"Flawless parallel parking," Seraphina groaned, rubbing her neck from the whiplash.
"We are in," Alvian said, unbuckling his harness. He kicked the side door of the skiff open. It hissed, the pressurized air of their bubble meeting the strange, dense atmosphere of the ship’s hull.
Alvian stepped out onto the spongy, quivering flesh of the dreadnought’s interior. Valeria and Seraphina followed closely, weapons drawn. They were standing in a dark, fleshy tunnel created by their own crash landing.
"Dead end," Valeria noted, tapping the solid wall of grey meat blocking their path forward.