Universe's End

As the Architect stared up into the sky, he couldn’t help but frown.

No. Not quite what I expected.

The neutral domain to neutralize the descending killing intent had been clever… It also hadn’t even been a real attack.

The sky was full of dragons, crashing down like falling stars; now that was an attack, each one a lance of lightning in the form of a Chinese dragon.

How the fuck?

It was probably a bad start to the battle for the Architect to be questioning how they were supposed to deal with all of that already.

Wait, obvious answer.

Striding forward, the ‘obvious’ answer lifted her hands upward as gravity seemed to distort, the Vanguard becoming the center of the universe for a moment, with the falling dragons all seeming to direct themselves toward her. The Spear was with her, pressing her hand against her back as their auras interlaced in a way that only those with decades, if not centuries, of partnership could.

Or were blood sisters.

They weren’t perfectly fused; that was impossible as far as the Architect knew, but it was damn close.

Fusing into a single descending dragon, it struck with the force of a falling meteor, a true planet-wiping meteor and not one of the Architect’s meteors that were barely a speck in comparison.

Between the Spear’s natural resistance to electricity, her armor’s Quicksilver Absorption, the Vanguard’s defensive durability, and her own promethium armor, which was quite effective against high temperatures such as a bolt of raging lightning, the attack passed a moment after the blinding flash had faded.

Like a go signal, the Architect-piloted SFAH took to the sky, followed by a man clad in dark shadows riding a similarly shadowed glider.

“Hatching a ride,” the sister pair called out as they boosted each other into the air, grabbing onto the SFAH before it gained too much altitude, and pulling themselves atop the flying fortress.

The Rogue, meanwhile, swept back around, reaching down and grabbing the Monk’s raised hand, pulling him aboard the small glider. Kneeling, the Rogue, armed with his shadow rifle, gave the Monk room to throw the slowing strikes from above his head.

Heavenly energy began to arc off of the Phosphorus’s body, his antlers framing his head, funneling excess energy together into oversized orbs of electrical blue energy that fired off moments after, the flying Founders veering out of the way to avoid the single-direction attacks, each one capable of killing even a Founder in a single hit, outside of the Spear and the Vanguard.

Thundering barks rang out, black tracer rounds slamming into a shimmering barrier that flickered into life around the Kaiser, never physically touching the heavenly dragon.

Figured as much.

“Architect to Rogue, ya hearing me alright?”A voice chimed from the glider as the Rogue glanced down.

“Crystal.”

“Golden. Remember how this guy is supposed to be a tier ten equivalent?”

“Of course.”

“It’s in its defenses. Attack power is ridiculous as well, but it can’t directly crush us like a real tier ten would have no problem doing.”

“So, we’ve got to damage something with the durability of a tier ten?”

“Negative,” The Architect said. “Its barriers are the things with all that energy. We smash through them; we can punch a much softer monster beneath. Still a freak of nature-”

“But one we can make bleed,” The Rogue smiled from his sniping position aboard the shadow glider. “Perfect. So, pound the ever-living fuck out of the shields until they break. Think you could nuke it again?”

The answer came shortly, when several magical circles appeared near the SFAH. A moment later, a missile appeared, only to vanish in a flash as Phosphorus roared, knocked through the air, and another of several barriers shattered.

“Without the peanut gallery, yes, but it still takes time to charge them up.”

“Got it,” The Rogue answered before looking over his shoulder. “You hear all that?”

“Crystal,” The Monk said, repeating the same words back to his reluctant friend.

Aboard the SFAH, the sister duo stood their ground, riding it as easily as if it were a bike.

“So… You think those shields prevent us from getting up close and personal?” The Vanguard asked.

“Are you asking, or are you suggesting?”

“I’m being coy. You, genius. You can probably bypass them, remember?”

Pointing at the armor her sister wore, the Spear’s eyes widened a fraction of an inch as she smiled.

“Ahh. Well… Worth a try?”

“Worth a try,” The Vanguard said with a grin before shouting downward.

“Fly us in close; we’ve got someone getting off.”

“Roger, roger,” The Architect shot back from inside the vehicle. He could have questioned the plan, but if there were one thing he’d come to learn, it was to trust in his fellow Founders.

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Pedal to the metaphorical metal, the SFAH shot forward at blistering speed, dodging lightning bolts as the hard-light cannons tore through a burst of scales from the flying serpent. Nearing the Kaiser, it suddenly shot upward, climbing in altitude far above even the Kaiser, who was momentarily distracted by the flying gnat duo of the Rogue and the Monk, the Rogue’s shadow rifle capable of inflicting enough damage that it could, given time, crack through one of the barriers on its own.

“Next stop, Kaiser!” The Architect called out as he flew them directly over the Kaiser, who was flying several miles below.

“That’s my stop,” The Spear said, sticking her fist out to her sister.

“Have fun,” The Vanguard answered back, bumping fists with her sister.

With a wolfish look on her face, the woman leaned back, falling off the side of the flying brick, twisting midair as she gained speed, acceleration gates opening. The Architect had made sure the melee fighters had the most modern sky blazer suits, like an athletic undersuit.

Shooting downward like an avenging angel, the barriers around the Kaiser momentarily flared to life, meant to block any attacks from making it through, but as her armor shimmered, she simply passed through; if cause and effect couldn’t hold her, then a measly barrier wouldn’t stop her.

Landing upon the mile-long serpent, the Spear began to sprint up and down, her spear slashing at its scales and stabbing between the ridges.

Or trying to, at least. While it didn’t have the true durability of a tier ten, which was specifically reserved for its barriers, the flesh and blood of Phosphorus was still the absolute pinnacle of durability a tier eight could achieve.

Veering to the side, the SFAH returned to a similar elevation as Phosphorus, who had begun physically chasing after the annoying gnat known as the Rogue, its giant maw opening as a glowing light began to build within its massive gullet.

“Get me in the way,” The Vanguard said.

The Kaiser was fast enough that dodging a massive beam blast would be difficult for the Rogue and Monk duo, especially if the beam was as fast as she expected it to be.

“Roger, roger,” The Architect repeated, the SFAH launching forward, directly in the path of the beam breath being prepared.

“Swapping places,” He quickly chimed over the interconnected comms between the SFAH and his glider, even with its fresh coat of shadows covering it.

“Have at it,” the Rogue responded, rolling to the side as the Monk kept himself ‘frozen’ to the glider despite its acrobatics. Rolling out of the way, the SFAH eclipsed the far smaller glider, a single armored woman standing atop the front of the flying fortress, just above the cockpit, her arms crossed.

“Here it comes,” The Architect called out.

“Bring it,” The Vanguard said, rolling her shoulder before drawing her fist back.

In an instant, a burst of light raced forward, large enough to erase a castle wall from existence.

Only to besplit in two as the Vanguard launched a punch forward, her fist fracturing the beam.

“Hey, careful with that,” The Architect shouted, noticing the instant dip in the SFAH’s defenses. Putting two and two together wasn’t hard; she’d, for a moment, reimagined the SFAH as her own armor and drawn its durability into herself.

“Oh, get over it, you baby, you know that was badass.”

It was, but he wasn’t about to tell her that.

Atop the raging dragon, a woman stood, her eyes closed as arcs of heavenly lightning seemed to fray, her armor spiriting away excess energy radiating from the oversized monster. Eyes snapping open, the speed she’d held overhead thrust down.

“Lightning Thrust!”

While the Spear couldn’t normally manipulate energies the way others could, as a result of several of her attributes having been sacrificed and fused into one, that didn’t mean she couldn’t ever take advantage of them.

Such as when her armor drank in a fuck ton of heavenly energy.

Using the combination of Quicksilver’s Absorption and Quicksilver’s Grace, the spear struck with lightning-fast speed, splitting an entire scale in two.

And that was it.

“Tsk,” The Spear muttered to herself. All that power, and she’d split a single scale.

Not that she could be too surprised. If the Kaiser were that much of a pushover, well, then that would have just been pure false advertising.

More and more scale fragments were being sent out by the Kaiser, like an automatic flak cannon that constantly threw out the shredding scale fragments. Even as fast as the shadow glider was, with its sheer abundance of scales, the Rogue would have been quickly torn apart.

Which was where the Monk with his slowing field came into effect, constantly striking, hands flowing like a master martial artist as he intercepted every one of the scales the moment they drew close within the slowing field.

The SFAH had no perfect defense, but what it did have was overwhelming durability, between the actual armor covering it and the systems within, and the Vanguard perched atop; her ability to taunt enemies worked even on the mindless scales that pinged off of her harmlessly, like a magnet pulling away too many of the scales from bombarding the SFAH.

Black paradox beams began to fire out from the SFAH, the Null Glitter Lances having finally charged up, striking in perfect succession, one after the other, as even the Rogue managed to pop off several rounds into the same spot.

It was classic shield theory. Hit a shield over and over in varying locations, and it could last forever. Stress a single spot, and it would be forced to expend far more energy to maintain its integrity. With the next Big Momma missile still priming, it was the next best thing they could do to tear down the Kaiser’s shield domes.

Ten consecutive Null Glitter Lances and nearly eight shots from the shadowy Primal Night rifle against even the strongest territory alpha would have left it a steaming pile of goop.

Against the Kaiser? Well, when the final ray faded, the fading barrier was, at the very least, showing a fairly large crack throughout.

The First really wasn’t joking about the Kaisers being analogous to tier tens.

The only saving grace was, once again, that the Kaiser couldn’t hit with the speed or raw power of a true tier ten.

Ignoring the opening salvo, at least.

At the very least, someone else found more success, as Phosphorus suddenly whirled his head, a burst of heavenly ichor spilling free as the Spear, which had been latched onto the oversized serpent like a burrowing tick, finally managed to inflict a wound that drew actual blood.

“Down the Skies Rage!” The heavenly dragon roared as the pressure of its immense aura slammed down upon the neutral domain that spanned thousands of miles.

And warbled the damn thing.

Fuckin Eon above, the Architect thought to himself, watching the established domain quivering for a moment. What God damn Wheaties was this fucker fed?

He had no idea what the hell ‘Down the Skies Rage’ did, but he knew he very much did not want to find out; the neutral domain had done its job of preventing Phosphorus’s aura from concentrating enough to do… well, anything for the most part.

At least the Architect had some good news: a sudden flash on the SFAH’s rather plain dashboard.

“Architect to Spear, hold on tight,” He called out, hand already moving to flip a switch and slam a button.

“Are you about to bomb it while I’m still on it?”

“Uhm... no?”

Disengaging from the call, the Architect slammed his palm down on the fire sequence, a second punch of the button confirming it as Phosphorus was suddenly rolling through the air from the sheer impact of the excessively powerful missile, shattering yet another barrier.

How many is that now?

Thankfully, with the damage they’d managed to inflict on their own, the magical equivalent of a super-nuke even caused damage to the next barrier.

Please, please don’t tell me it’s TEN.

That would be a problem, because the SFAH did not have the reserves to fire off ten Big Momma missiles, each one partially depleting its reserves, and once it was out of energy, the entire sky fortress would need at least half a year to return to operational power levels.

Whatever the case, there was a bigger problem than the barrier.

And that was the very annoyed voice that suddenly buzzed through.

“You fucker, you just bombed me!”

“No, I bombed Phosphorus. You were just…there.”

The comm cut off as the Architect sighed.

Well, no one ever said I’m good with women.