Traitors!

Under his helmet, Horium's three dark green pupils fixated on the vegetation, creatures, and crystals surrounding him.

Unlike feeling wonder at such a beautiful landscape, he experienced repulsion, as it reminded him of his original world with its bioluminescent vegetation—a place he himself erased over a thousand years ago by military orders.

The story wasn't complicated; the Astrylites from his native world initiated a revolution because they felt they weren't enjoying enough benefits compared to the main planets of their race.

For Horium, this choice seemed completely absurd!

To prevent his parents and sister from being killed by getting involved in this conflict, he was forced to return to his world and sow destruction among those he once called neighbors, friends, and even a partner. A decision he remembered not with sadness or remorse, but with pure contempt...

Hundreds of millions fell that day, and his attempts to plead for mercy only fueled his thirst for killing.

After all, these fools dared to defy the emperor, living comfortably under his regime. Yet, they believed they could achieve something better by rebelling!

If that wasn't stupidity, then what was?

Horium's bloodlust grew as he recalled those useless individuals. He felt a strong desire to unleash his rage on the humble bastard causing so many problems for Major Zarok.

Veins stood out all over his body, pulsating with growing fury.

It might seem like mere anger, but when he entered this state, his logical reasoning disappeared; all that mattered was killing and killing.

This was the main reason he ended up in Zarok's army. No one wanted someone who wouldn't follow orders and only focused on killing. But the Major was different; from the start, he appreciated his bloody nature and allowed him to unleash his violence without criticizing him.

For this, he would give his all to carry out his orders and repay his kindness.

Zaaaap! Zaaaap!

Finally, the platform descended onto the crystalline ground, and his gaze quickly focused on a figure skillfully dodging dozens of lasers.

The ease with which it dodged them was as if it knew exactly where they were going to land.

"...An android?" Horium said confused, but upon remembering the charred remains of hundreds of thousands of androids on the island he had recently visited, he quickly concluded: this was his enemy!

Swooosh!

Without hesitation, he lunged at the android, his plasma greatsword at its peak.

From his perspective, defeating this automaton under attack by mining robots was as easy as making a simple vertical cut.

"Eh?"

But who would have imagined that when he was just a swing of his arms away from defeating this enemy, one of the mining robots got in his way and hit the android, sending it flying several dozen meters!

Horium felt annoyed by this but ignored it and lunged once again at the automaton.

"Die!" the pink lines on his armor gleamed; this strike was charged with triple the force. He had no doubt that this annoying piece of metal was going to be turned into molten metal, following the same fate as its brethren on that devastated island.

"!?"

Zzziinng!

Unfortunately, his plans didn't unfold as expected.

It all happened in less than a second; the plasma blade was just half a meter away from cutting that android, but a damn mining robot intercepted the attack!

As expected, his greatsword split the mining robot in two...

[Idiot!]

Horium felt his mind clouding; this android dared to insult him!

Swoosh!

He leaned slightly, and like a bullet, shot off at such speed that in a blink of an eye, the automaton was split in half with a horizontal cut.

"So fragile, and you dare to insult me. Pathetic!"

As he eliminated his target, a wide smile of satisfaction appeared on his face, but it faded upon hearing that bastard speak again while its two halves lay on the ground: [Yes, you are truly so stupid.]

"?"

Clang! Clang!

Not understanding what it meant, he felt two strong blows on his broad back!

"What...?" he glanced sideways only to see two mining robots colliding with him. Normally, something like this wouldn't have bothered him, but he was just inches away from the barrier leading to the outside of the tower.

He tried with all his might to maintain his balance, with his helmet pressed against the barrier.

Clang!

"Damn traitorous AIs!" he shouted as he felt two more mining robots hit his back. Unable to do anything, he was expelled from the barrier; instantly, his armor began to report on the terrifying pressure and high temperatures hitting him at all times.

Even so, even in this extreme environment, his armor held up perfectly!

Vroom!

With a fierce expression, he activated the thrusters on his back, eager to return inside the mining tower and tear those robots into countless pieces.

But it was as if every time he tried to do something, someone always got in his way...

Zzziinng! Zzziinng!

Two black robots emerged from the barrier and instantly activated a hologram around them, taking on the appearance of imposing bioluminescent creatures. They fired laser beams from their mouths, drawing the attention of the real marine creatures in the surroundings.

"..."

Horium scanned the surroundings, his eyes locking onto dozens and dozens of marine creatures, their intense and bright gazes.

"Weak, but annoying..." he murmured, looking at the robots.

His armor withstood the two red laser beams; the sergeant simply scorned them, as the power of that attack couldn't even make a minimal dent in his golden armor.

"Shit!"

However, the large number of marine beasts posed a real threat. These creatures, born from the Verdantia crystals, were notoriously powerful, and he seriously doubted his ability to face one of them with just his plasma greatsword.

Horium tried to return inside the barrier, but the annoying robots prevented him.

Vrrrrooom!

At some point, what started as two androids multiplied to eight. The vein on the sergeant's forehead pulsed with fury as he assumed a peculiar stance. He activated the thruster on his back and began spinning towards the robots, his sword held horizontally.

Fwwwsh! Crash!

From a distance, the scene was like a tornado of light that, in the blink of an eye, shredded all those robots, as if they were made of paper!

The glow of the plasma blade illuminated the surroundings, and the metallic remains of the automatons scattered in all directions, suspended in the surrounding water.

"Sigh..."

Without wasting another second, he entered the barrier, releasing a sigh of relief. It had only been a moment, but he could feel the intense and murderous intent of those creatures. If he had delayed even a few more seconds, he would have had to face the coordinated attacks of nearly a hundred of those eternal monsters.

"Huh?"

Just as he relaxed and looked ahead, he noticed the presence of a robot next to the pedestal holding a blue triangular crystal, the very heart of the barrier!

Zzaaap!

Craaaack!

Before Horium could articulate a word, he could only watch helplessly as the robot's laser beam hit the crystal!

In a matter of milliseconds, everything descended into chaos.

Splaash!

As the barrier disappeared, water flooded everything like a hungry beast that sees food after days without eating. The platforms were dragged in various directions, trembling violently until they crumpled and turned into scraps of metal.

On the other hand, unlike the platforms that couldn't withstand the terrifying pressure because they weren't designed for that purpose, the tube through which the platforms ascended was instantly invaded by water but suffered no apparent damage. It only allowed the water to rise at an alarming rate, and the most terrifying part was that, amidst the rising water, bioluminescent figures could be distinguished emerging as well...

"Ahhhhhh!"

Horium roared in anger as his greatsword attacked the mining robot, which had taken the form of a creature.

Zzap! Zzap! Zzap!

When the plasma blade was about to cut the robot, dozens of marine creatures began to glow intensely, shooting terrifying light pulses that hit his armor all over.

Crack...

Unlike the lasers from the robots, the pure energy inside the Verdantia crystals was so fearsome that his armor began to crack instantly. Aware that he was in a life-or-death moment, Horium quickly configured his plasma greatsword to overload, making it glow even more intensely, blinding even creatures accustomed to constant light, ignorant of darkness.

Vroooom!

Taking advantage of this brief moment, he maximized his thrusters and entered the interior of the mining tower, moving at the same pace as the water rushing in.

Swooosh! Swooosh!

Upon regaining their sight, the bioluminescent creatures didn't hesitate and chased after him.

...

On the other hand, the Astrylite soldiers were scrutinizing the surroundings with attention; one of them was getting closer and closer to Kraynnor's ship's location.

Two soldiers were inspecting a group of repair drones that had descended from the top of the tower to fix the hole caused by Horium.

Once their task was finished, the soldiers took the opportunity to examine the information collected in the last few hours in the database of these drones. After all, they didn't have other surveillance systems, as no one considered them necessary.

The only available system reported on the damage to the mining tower to the headquarters.

Ruuumble!

"?"

Suddenly, a thunderous noise echoed from inside the tower, followed by a tremor increasing in intensity with each passing second. Everyone was stunned, not understanding what was happening, until they noticed that the platforms going up and down were launched to the top of the tower along with a powerful bubbling stream of water!

Before they could react, they watched in amazement as a huge bioluminescent creature of several meters followed the same path as the platforms.

It took no more than a couple of seconds until they saw another one pass and another...

"What the hell happened down there?" a confused Astrylite soldier asked, trying to look down the tower to see if more creatures were emerging.

"..."

Hearing no one speak, he turned to look at the other soldiers, only to see them staring upward in silence. He also looked up, but saw nothing. He used his helmet's zoom and, like the others, fell silent seeing how the top of the mining tower shook and cracked until inevitably exploding like a volcano erupting!

From there emerged those terrifying creatures that, upon falling into the water, first thing they did was swim into the depths.

Right where they were...