Imperial Legacy

Cold silence filled the air. It was deathly, yet eerily peaceful as if waiting for something to happen. In Zone 0's Primary Control Hub, a massive space that could contain up to 15 Beta-2s in there at once, a Juvenile Space Sea Lord fed on the corpses of several of them.

Unlike Space Sea Lord Younglings, Juveniles far surpassed 20 feet, and were greyish-green beasts, similar in appearance to wyverns, with the exception that they had hundreds of tendrils all over their bodies and eight large octopus tentacles from their backs instead of wings.

It roared, producing a sound that made the entire room tremble, and, moments afterwards, Serpentine entered, before seemingly bowing to the Space Sea Lords.

Surprisingly enough, the Serpentine was discovered to be an entirely subservient species to the Space Sea Lords, which was not ever recorded in nature beforehand. Some theories suggested it was because of the All-Consuming Whirlpool's power, which they might have felt in the bodies of the Space Sea Lord. How Serpentine Planetoids chose their Warheads, their leaders, was through absorbing the All-Consuming Whirlpool's remnant power, after all.

But, the Juvenile Space Sea Lord didn't think of them as anything more than just scurrying snakes that followed its every whim. That was why it constantly snarled and tore them apart, demanding that they retrieve the Psychic Stone for it right this instant through its gruesome bellows, as it needed to recover from its lack of Aether Energy and the wounds all over its body.

Even if the Psychic Stone came from the body of one of its brethren, the drive that all species native to space had to become stronger far surpassed any feeling of sorrow that the beasts would normally feel.

But, the Juvenile Space Sea Lord suddenly stopped its rampage, as it discerned the arrival of a group, who were detected through the faint smell of Cipherrium that was slowly becoming clearer. This familiar scent made it abruptly remember the ferocious Mecha Knight it battled against before, who was the reason why one of its eight tentacles was cleaved clean off, with tons of other injuries, both external and internal, across its body.

It was at that moment that a wave of Aether Energy surged out from its body, giving notice to most of the Serpentine on the ship that there was danger that approached it.

All the while, the group entered, prepared to take back Zone 0 from the immense beast in front of them.

[Nathan, a target with a high threat level is within view. Even high-tier models like you cannot have a 100% chance of defeating it without specialised Mechas. Warning: be careful.]

Nathan nodded, before staring up at the gigantic beast, that drooled in anticipation and fury.

I have defeated one of these things recently before, but that was only possible because I got my hands on one of the spaceship's Mechas, and I suspect that the injuries I was inflicted with when I woke up were caused by it as well. There is a clear limit to what cyborg models can do…

"…But, even then, we won't die here." Nathan asserted.

"…Everyone, watch out! Since it cannot use its tentacles because of the wounds inflicted on it last time, it will use its abilities!" Akar boomed, fully grasping the Blaster Greatsword, "Like all species with the Gods of the Cosmos as their origin, Juvenile Space Sea Lords can use Aether Energy to create far-reaching attacks!"

Following his words, the Juvenile Space Sea Lord unleashed yellowish lightning from its mouth, and poured it out across the ground beneath it, almost striking them, before Akar, Nathan and Velvet performed a threefold attack in return.

Nathan rushed forward behind Velvet, as her hypersensitivity alerted her of the attack a moment before and she attacked first, puncturing its body with her specially crafted Cunite Whip.

Then, Nathan sliced through the side of its head three times over, leaving it to Akar to shoot his Blaster Greatsword at the wound to weaken the enormous beast. However, it only grew furious, and it drew a great breath, before summoning huge orbs of condensed yellowish lightning.

"I'll block this one!" Akar yelled, before using tremendous force to swing the Blaster Greatsword, eliminating the attacks and inflicting some damage on the Juvenile instead.

The commotion brought along a considerable horde of Beta-1s, and soon, Serpentine followed afterwards. But fortunately, the Royal Knights stopped the beasts in their tracks as the massive battle went on.

The Juvenile roared, summoning yellowish lightning all around in the form of a barrier, before spewing more yellowish lightning around.

What made things worse was the fact that Beta-1s were slowly starting to appear through Ether Distortions, and these Ether Distortions were slowly starting to be affected by the Aether Energy in the yellowish lightning, creating the widely-known phenomenon known as [[Spatial Withering]], which mainly affected planets of a lower bracket.

Spatial Withering was categorized as the same type of phenomenon as a Dimensional Fracture, which is what would materialize if the All-Consuming Whirlpool's remnant power struck the Psychic Stone.

[[Distortion Phenomena]].

The Spatial Withering endlessly corrupted and corroded the floor around the Juvenile and made it quite nearly unapproachable.

"We need another way to attack it! Before it uses its full capabilities to obliterate this place!" Akar shouted as he dodged another strike of yellowish lightning, "We need…"

Velvet directed her eyes to the floor underneath the Juvenile Space Sea Lord and realised something. It was deteriorating at a quickening pace, and because of the great weight of the Juvenile, the floor was caving in too.

Then, simultaneously, they all got the same idea at the same time.

While the Juvenile Space Sea Lord spewed out lightning bolts from its body to the point that it was raining sparks, they targeted its legs to try and make it stomp them, and succeeded.

Its wrathful rage made it ceaselessly throw orbs of condensed lightning at the three of them, eradicating some of the Beta-1s that had invaded and further affecting the Ether Distortions, and the Spatial Withering got to a point where the floor under the colossal monster could not hold it up for any longer.

"Now! Attack it now!" Akar yelled.

Akar, Nathan and Velvet came together to obliterate its leg through a single, simultaneous attack, making it fall through the floor with a tremendous echoing shriek. But, they could not just stop there.

Akar, with a massive swing of his Blaster Greatsword, finished it off with a giant explosion of flames just before it fell, that reduced the Juvenile Space Sea Lord to nothing but a corpse by the time it reached the bottom of the floor below.

"…"

"…Finally," Akar muttered, before he shut down from mental exhaustion, sending him headfirst into a deep sleep.

"…Huh. He looks vulnerable when he's asleep." Velvet said, staring at him, "Anyway, I better go help my unit fight off the Serpentine, so you'll be the one carrying him back!"

"…Wait, what…?" Nathan asked, just before she ran off.

It was impressive how she was still able to run around so freely, as Aether Energy places a lot of pressure on the mind and creates an abundance of mental fatigue. This was why large-scale battles, especially wars, had a lot of risk to normal battle models, and why Mecha Knights were so necessary due to their lack of mental fatigue after battles and their cutting-edge technology.

"But, in his case…" Nathan said, referring to Akar, who was in a deep sleep, "I guess, since a Blaster Knight builds up the most mental fatigue after battles, upgrading to a Mecha Knight after wouldn't help quite so much."

"Well, even still, he's done a lot in the battle, so carrying him back would be the least I could do."