In the middle of all of the chaos in the battlefield, our monsters were winning. Anamorsia was the first one who made me almost forget I was supposed to be monitoring the entire battlefield.
Her Sixth Enlightenment opponent was monstrous. Its body constantly kept rearranging itself through nanomachines in response to every threat. Against almost anyone else, it would have been a disaster.
Against her, it looked insulted to be fighting.
Her massive white wings spread wider with its feathers glowing white-gold as Soul Energy poured through them in blinding streams. Each beat of those wings sent shockwaves rolling across the battlefield. Pressure waves alone were knocking nearby robots from the air.
A white-gold streak split the battlefield the moment she vanished. She appeared above it and drove both heels into its chest. Before it hit the ground, she was already beneath it. She swung one wing and the robot was launched upwards again. Another flap caused another sonic rupture.
"Come on, I thought Sixth Enlightenment was supposed to mean something."
The robot adapted instantly by using its arms to multiply into blades. It flew at her with terrifying speed. She leaned through the first strike dodged past the second, deflected the third, parried the fourth on a wing then drove her elbow into its face.
I almost pitied the thing. Almost.
It shifted tactics and tried to overwhelm her with brute force but that was a mistake.
"Oh? You want strength?"
Her Soul Energy shook the battlefield. Even soldiers in distant formations looked up. She summoned a beam of pure Soul Energy. The robot tried to evade but it was too late. The beam punched through its torso, dragged it across kilometers of sky and pinned it against a shattered ridge. Before the nanomachines could begin repairs, she folded her wings once. Thousands of radiant feathers struck it. The machine ruptured from within until nothing was left. She hovered there calmly afterwards as though she had just completed an exercise.
Meanwhile Leon fought in a way completely opposite to her. Where Anamorsia overwhelmed, Leon was brutal which was somehow scarier. His Fifth Enlightenment robot was trading blows with him and Leon looked relaxed. Every time he touched the robot, I could feel him planting Soul Energy. The machine never noticed.
"You really should pay attention."
He snapped his fingers and in an instant, the robot's chest caved inwards then exploded outwards. Nanomachines surged to repair it but was countered by dozens of implosions and explosions. The machine was being destroyed internally and externally at once.
Its regeneration began losing the race. Leon placed a hand on its chest and sighed.
"Sorry."
Another implosion squeezed the robot from the inside, destroying it. Leon dusted his hands off.
"Well, that worked."
Leones somehow looked even more terrifying because she wasn't fighting alone.
The robots she'd already dominated moved around her. Her enemy charged and she merely pointed. However, she was using her mind to control them. It was like watching a queen move pieces on a board while the other side realized too late the match was already lost. The enemy robot fought viciously. Even though it was stronger than most of hers individually, it didn't matter. The machine was torn apart by their own kind.
And then there was Milliania and honestly, she terrified me. She looked harmless. A woman was floating with a staff while a Fifth Enlightenment monster tried to kill her. Dozens of debuffs flooded over the machine. Its speed was reduced. Its durability weakened. Its regeneration was destabilized. After putting a hundred debuffs on it, she fought it herself using her staff.
Every time it adapted to its situation, she gave it more debuffs.
"That is horrifying."
No wonder she could rival Veneri and Anamorsia. She could make monsters weak. That was worse than simply being stronger.
When her enemy finally fell, she didn't pause. She began casting buffs on the Richinaria Divines.
Anamorsia and Veneri's strategy was working beyond expectation. Barrier Divinity warriors were below, energy Divinity mages were above with healing support from Alexis Sarphie's formations and Nanorune armored soldiers fighting with perfect coordination.
Something got close to my scanners. Every fragment of mine trembled.
My warning came out before thought.
"WATCH OUT!"
A crimson beam tore through the heavens.
It hit the arrays and erased them. Divines were thrown screaming from shattered arrays. Only Veneri's Protection Divinity and the Nanorune Armor kept the array mages from instant death. Even then, the injuries were too severe.
I felt my own fragments vanish. I barely turned incorporeal in time. Alexis was still standing somehow with blood running down her face as she forced emergency Healing circles into existence. Sylveira was injured but she could manage.
Smoke covered the battlefield. Even the enemy robots stopped. We all looked at the crater and saw someone standing right in front of us. Every step she took made the air feel denser, She released her Divine Presence and everyone dropped.
Thousands of Divines were forced to their knees at once. Leon hit one knee hard enough to crack stone. Milliania tried to rise and failed. Leones' controlled robots all froze. Even Anamorsia couldn't stand. That terrified me more than anything because Anamorsia not standing usually meant that whoever made her kneel is stronger than a Seventh Enlightenment Divine.
Only Veneri remained upright. Her Divine Presence simply ignored him. I stayed incorporeal so it didn't affect me either.The Presence was crushing enough to pin everyone but not enough to injure and only then did it fully hit me.
She's a Major Deity.
The corporeal object that signified the presence of a Major Deity was floating behind her neck and head was a silver halo unlike anything I've ever seen. It was crystalline in structure. Smaller silver crystals orbited it in with each giving off an eerie glow. I've seen halos before. Veneri had one and Narisva too but this was different.
Veneri stared at her for a long second before speaking.
"Who are you?"
The woman giggled.
"Oh, you're adorable."
She gave a little bow with theatrical flair.
"I am the Reniatsus of Technographia, Letia the Eighteenth. I'm the eighteenth wielder of Universal Crystal Rank Two, Letian Diamond."
Veneri's expression changed. She looked pleased by that.
"Yes, yes, I know. Very dramatic title. And yes, I'm the creator of all the robots in this realm. Though I must admit, I was curious. I wanted to know which delightful little invaders were killing my creations."
Her silver eyes narrowed with interest.
"And it turns out they are a bunch of Royal Aeterium."
She actually clapped once.
"Who knew Master Vasreveilder would have a descendant with a bloodline even more outrageous than his?"
That made Veneri's eyes widen.
"Oh, don't look so suspicious."
She waved dismissively and then looked over the battlefield littered with destroyed robots. When she raised her hand, every destroyed robot turned to a pale silver liquid. Thousands of wrecks melted into flowing metallic streams and rose from the battlefield. The silver streams gathered over her palm and condensed until a floating sphere of pale liquid metal hovered above her hand.
"I spent years on those Sixth Enlightenment prototypes."
She sounded almost offended before she shrugged.
"Thankfully, they were just prototypes."
Adelasta whispered under her breath.
"That was a prototype?"
Even I felt insulted.
"Are you here for revenge?"
She stared at Veneri and laughed hard enough to even hold her stomach.
"Revenge? Oh by the Primordials, no. I'm not petty enough to seek revenge because someone destroyed my toys. But if those had been my true creations, I would've killed you. But they weren't. Also, I sent scouts to attack your floating island and your Dynasty destroyed a good number of my soldiers. That seems even, doesn't it?"
Veneri said nothing which honestly was the smart thing to do.
"You're all so tense."
The Divine Presence vanished. Everyone inhaled as they managed to get up. Adelasta, Leones, Anamorsia, Milliania and Leon moved immediately towards Veneri. Letia watched this with visible delight.
"Oh, how cute."
Leones narrowed her eyes.
"You call crushing us cute?"
"Yes?"
"I dislike her."
"I heard that."
Adelasta stepped beside Veneri. Her flames were faintly rising.
"If you're not here to fight then why are you here?"
She looked toward the distant cities of Technographia.
"I want to welcome you to my real home."
Even Veneri looked caught off guard.
"You're inviting us?"
"Obviously. I don't want a fight, especially with the Overlord Ravagers beginning their attack."
Anamorsia frowned. She looked almost embarrassed.
"The what?"
"Oh. You haven't seen them yet. That means they're earlier than I expected."
"What are Overlord Ravagers?"
Her silver eyes turned strangely grim.
"For your sake, I hope we start walking before you meet one."