Forty-eight hours later
The hangar deck of the battlestation buzzed with tension that only war could bring. As engineers sprinted across the polished alloy floors, ammunition was being loaded into launch rails and armored personnel lined up in rows, doing last-minute checks. The atmosphere thrummed with urgency, but everyone present here were battlehardened to not let the tension affect them.
Arthur walked across the boarding bridge with Selene, Kael, and Lira in tow. The four of them passed beneath towering warships, each one of them were the top of the line models produced by the UFE. Some distance away from them were the three unmanned and modified Epsilon class battleships, each housing the unstable Second Space prototype.
Kane had said his final goodbye minutes earlier. "Stick to the plan," he'd reminded them. Arthur had smiled and nodded, knowing full well he probably wouldn't.
Selene glanced sideways as they boarded. "He definitely knows you're going to improvise."
Arthur shrugged. "Well by now he knows how I work, that is why he chose me for this mission."
Lira snorted, hearing Arthur, and Kael muttered as he shook his head in exasperation, "And this is the man I'm supposed to follow into battle…" but he was smiling despite saying that.
Inside, the ship's metal corridors glowed with warm-blue strip lights, and the distant rumble of the engines signaled their departure. The entire fleet began to detach from the battle-station in synchronized formations.
"Entering warp in T-minus ten seconds," the intercom announced.
Arthur felt the subtle shift, as space folded around the ship. Then, in the blink of an eye, they were gone, stretched into a luminous tunnel of blues and whites.
…
Three Hours into the journey.
Arthur had claimed an inclined chair in the corner of the briefing room, with his legs resting on top of the table in front of him, and a random magazine he picked from the table spread across his face covering it fully.
Across the room, Selene observed him with a soft exhale. "Are you actually sleeping?"
Arthur's voice came muffled from under the pages. "I'm attempting, but it doesn't seem like it's working."
Kael and Lira were at the far end running diagnostics on their gear, though honestly, with how far they'd progressed, the gear was more of a formality than necessity.
Warp space flickered quietly outside the curved observation windows. Arthur shifted, mumbling "Just ten more minutes."
But he didn't even get a minute more to rest.
WEE-OOO. WEE-OOO. WEE-OOO.
Piercing alarms blared, slicing through the calm atmosphere of the room. The floor vibrated as the ship came out of warp abruptly.
Arthur sat up, the magazine falling off his face. "I swear the universe hates me."
Selene stood motionless by the viewport, gazing at the view from there.
Arthur pushed himself to his feet and joined her.
The sight outside wiped whatever humor remained on his face. Their fleet had been forced out of warp. And directly ahead of the fleet was a massive Chimerian armada blocking their path, their ships were dark, jagged, and bristling with weapons.
The human fleet scrambled to reorganize themselves, shields flaring to full strength.
Selene said, "I feel a few strong lifeforces from there." As she pointed towards the Chimerian fleet and continued, "But there are definitely more than three."
Arthur nodded and checked his Map. There were nine Champion signatures, and even without his map he could feel their powerful lifeforces.
"Yeah," he muttered darkly. "Intel, my ass." He turned away from the window and continued. "It looks like the UFE's intel are severely lacking."
Selene looked at him and asked in a low voice. "What will you do?"
Arthur started to walk out of the room as he said, "I will be back in a moment."
Selene looked at Arthur's departing back, but she was not worried as she felt whatever the enemy had in store would not be enough to stop Arthur.
The tension in the air shifted—the kind that meant a decision had been made long before anyone asked the question.
…
Chaos erupted the moment the alarms triggered. Soldiers were racing towards launch tubes for the fighters, and engineers sprinted to their stations. Officers shouted over the intercom, relaying orders to brace for immediate engagement.
Arthur arrived in the middle of it all, calm as ever. He moved toward the energy barrier sealing the open deck. Space lay just beyond it cold, silent, and unforgiving.
He was seconds from stepping through when.
"ARTHUR!"
Kael's voice cracked across the hangar. He sprinted after Arthur, nearly tripping over a crate.
"Where the hell do you think you're going?! We're supposed to stick to the plan!"
At first Arthur thought about following Admiral Kane's order, but he felt there would be a lot of casualties if he followed the plan, so he decided the plan could go to hell, he was going to take out all the Champions himself.
He paused, turned, and grinned like a guy casually announcing he was going grocery shopping.
"I have a better plan… To just smash through them"
Kael stared, dread settling into his bones. "…That's not a plan, Arthur. That's…"
But Arthur was already gone, stepping through the barrier into the vacuum of space.
Kael clutched his hair. "HE JUST LEFT! WHY DOES HE ALWAYS JUST…"
Lira, who just arrived a bit later running, asked, "Where's Arthur?!"
Kael pointed helplessly toward space. "He went outside."
"…Ah."
"'Ah'? That's all you've got?!"
Lira shrugged. "What do you want me to say? We can't exactly leash him."
Kael groaned, staring at the ceiling. "I need a transfer, to anywhere else. Even supply management will do, I'll count crates happily, but I can't take this much stress."
But he still jogged after Lira to prepare for their own deployment. Because at the end of the day, no matter how insane Arthur was, he had the power to back it up.
…
The vacuum enveloped Arthur, plasma bolts from both fleets streaked across the open space like meteor showers. By now both the fleets had started firing at each other, and a Champion was even advancing towards them.
He had a hulking figure, nearly two times Arthur's size, charging through artillery fire like a juggernaut. His body glowed with a crimson energy, and his body was moving so fast that most ship's attacks couldn't even land on him.
He was minutes away from tearing into the human fleet.
Arthur snorted. "Not a chance." and vanished from his position.
The world folded like wet paper, as he used Warp to shorten the distance between them. And Arthur appeared directly in front of the Champion.
'Yo.'
Before the Champion could process the word, Arthur swung his arm casually…
Crack.
The Champion shot backward like a missile, tumbling in a twisting across space. His chest caved inward from the force, with his armor getting smashed and blood floating in small clouds before evaporating in the vacuum. As he was moving at an extremely fast speed towards the human fleet, getting swatted back with an immense force led to some severe injuries.
But each and every Champion were blessed by Typhon and had strong life force and regenerative ability. So, he was already healing when he came to a halt, he looked forward to find out what had hit him. 'What… what hit me? Is it the superweapon the humans brought?'
But as he stabilized his body and focused at the place where he was attacked, he saw a human at the exact position, he widened his eyes in disbelief.
He couldn't recognize the human as Arthur was wearing an Armour which covered his face, and he was confused, he had heard there was no one among humanity who was on par with even the weakest Champions other than the human who killed Krax but then disappeared more than a year ago.
Something deep in his memory clawed its way up. And his eyes almost popped out of its socket as he came to a haunting conclusion.
"…no… no, no way…"
Arthur raised a hand in greeting, and the Champion's face twisted with horror.
The Demon had returned.
…
Chimerian Command Battleship
Inside the darkened, jagged warship, eight Champions stood around a floating hologram while observing the battlefield outside.
Each Champion radiated power which was at least twice more powerful than the one outside. They had an entirely different plan for the supposed superweapon the humans had developed, they were not going to destroy it but seize it for themselves.
And one among them had volunteered to take out the human fleet, and he was the newest member joining their group, so they allowed him to have some fun before taking their prize.
Everything was going fine, until Olnu the one who volunteered to take out the human fleet was slammed back by something. The attack was so fast, even they didn't see it coming.
One of the Champions squinted his eyes at the figure of Arthur and said bewildered, "Who is that?"
But it was Thrax who was the dead Krax's brother who recognised Arthur, as he heard from his spies, there was only one person among humanity who could be this powerful, and it was the person he vowed to take revenge on. His expression contorted as he said. "…I know him."
He continued as he gritted his teeth and glared at Arthur's figure, "It must be that Demon fellow."
"What!?"
"Isn't he dead?"
Thrax replied, "He just vanished after killing my brother, it doesn't mean he died."
But then Thrax's lip curled into a savage grin, "But it's better he's alive. I will carve his skin and make a goblet out of his skull to offer my brother's soul the finest wine and appease him."
He didn't wait any longer and without another word left the chamber and launched himself toward the battlefield, tearing through the bay shield in a shockwave of red energy. The others also decided to fight alongside him as it was better to be on the side of caution and take down this anomaly together, as he had previously killed one Champion, even if he was one of the weaker ones.
So, eight Champions streaking into open space like a swarm towards Arthur.
***
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