Volume 48 - Clash of Thunder and Steel

== Chapter 565 - Venusian Cartography ==
Venus had been one of the first worlds colonized by humanity, dotted with floating cities in the upper atmosphere as Huscil robots harvested material from below, special plants created to slowly make the normal atmosphere breathable.
People often came to Venus for tourism, and came to appreciate how hospitable it really was compared to other worlds that had been settled in the past two hundred years. Dances were often preformed in ballrooms at the center of each city, and numerous farmers, human, machine and alien, saw plentiful work on this world, helping to make it truly Earth's twin.
Atlas, however, could not care less about this world. Not beyond what lied beneath its surface.
He walked across the Hellish surface, rain of sulfiric acid being deflected away from him by his Psychic Weapons, which appeared to take the form of a shield, as he was using a scanner made by Saparbek to look for an artificial structure beneath the crust of the planet.
While at first it seemed fruitless, much to his suspicion, eventually, the scanner beeped, a magenta dot in the center of the screen, as the Socqreath Prince smirks in a sinister manner, and points his hand at the ground.
A moment later, the very terrain seems to give way, dissipating into dust and plasma as he descended downward.
As he cleared away the lava, he found himself staring directly at a massive structure near the core of the planet, no doubt built back when Venus was just a cloud of asteroids and stardust, yet the structure was nearly unscathed, and covered in numerous runes that, even to Atlas, were alien.
He understood most of the language, but had only cared to learn enough to discover the path to his objective. This structure was but a stepping stone in that pathway, and as he walked towards it, he went to tear the doors out.
They didn't budge, however, and he sighs for a moment, before placing Saparbek's scanner inside it to hack its systems.
This, too, didn't work, as the scanner was hacked in turn by the firewalls of the building, and fried. Atlas, shaking his head with a small smile, then decides to go towards the lock, and begin using his Psychic Weapons to fool it into thinking he was its creator. Finally, the doors opened, and he walked inside, seeing holographic runes all across the walls, floor and ceiling as he went.
At the center of this building, would be the location of the ultimate weapon, and his key to defeating Andromeda and earning his right to rule the universe. Inside here, would be what ancient scholars called...
...the Infinity Machine.
== Chapter 566 - Warriors of the Future ==
As Proto readied itself to leap down, it detected a missile flying directly towards it from an airship, and sliced the missile in half with one of its swords, dodging the two halves and leaping at the airship, using the explosion behind to propel itself.
Two soldiers on either side of the bow fired at the robot with machine guns, but it deflected all the bullets, even using some as footholds to keep running, then slicing one of the soldier's heads off and deflecting more bullets from the other soldier. The soldier barely has time to scream before he is split in half down the middle, Proto turning around.
More soldiers, along with some Olympian Hoplites, run out of the hangar bay to fire at Proto, Proto dodging these bullets as well and letting the lasers reflect off its Huscil armor plating before stabbing one of the soldiers in the face and slicing another's head off, flipping over another volley of bullets while kicking a soldier's skull in.
It slices two Hoplites diagonally in half before landing on its feet, as it whirls around to slice multiple soldiers and Hoplites' legs off before cutting their juggulars and juggular equivalents. The last soldier and Hoplite try to stab Proto from behind with knives, only for their arms to be cut off at the shoulders as their chests are slashed open.
Proto then leaps onto one of the airship's thrusters, and slashes into it, causing it to explode and in turn causing the airship to begin falling to the ground.
The robot itself lands on top of a soldier, crushing his ribcage instantly with that landing stomp, before spinning its swords to deflect a storm of bullets. One of the tanks fires a massive explosive round at Proto, who detects and leaps over before slashing the tank's barrel and hatch off, stabbing the personel inside before any of them could blink, then tossing one of the bodies at another tank's barrel to clog it and make that tank explode.
Jack and Andromeda arrived on the scene in a GDF airship, as it seemed dozens of tanks and hundreds of soldiers, organic and robotic, went down each second.
"That thing survived?!" Jack demands, as Andromeda gritted her teeth at the sight of Proto. "We have to stop it!"
"You two need to guard Buchardt." One of the soldiers near them says. "He's the one leading this defense, and he has a plan to wear down that robot."
"I don't think it's working..." Andromeda mutters, watching one half of a tank narrowly miss them.
"Let's just help however we can." Jack replies, worried and frightened.
Proto pulled its right-hand sword out of the chest cavity of a Hoplite, before suddenly spinning its left-hand sword to block a barrage of large, armor-piercing bullets. When the barrage stopped, it fully turned to see Rakgu, Lev, Serena and hundreds of soldiers from the Nightmare Division.
"You must be that robot who brought down Hilbert..." Serena remarks, Proto not responding as her glare and almost-wicked smile could be seen in the reflection of its screen face. "...let's see if that explosion made you rusty."
== Chapter 567 - The Terminator ==
Proto is instantly upon Serena, slashing at her throat. She manages to block that slash with her own sword, before leaping back from the next and barely sidestepping the next after that, slashing Proto in its midsection.
However, it only left a small scuff where the sword hit, sparks flying as Proto whirled its upper torso around to slash again. Serena had both dodged and blocked at the same time, leaping back as a bleeding cut appears on her cheek.
It slashes again, but is elbowed into the remains of a tank by Rakgu, and fired upon by Nightmare Division soldiers...using Fulke's Huscil-Piercing Bullets!
Proto deflects the bullets from the soldiers, but Rakgu had fired at it from the side, as some of the bullets were actually beginning to leave dents in its armor. Before it can be shredded by the onslaught, however, it leaps behind the tank, and kicks it at the soldiers, who yelp and leap out of the way to dodge it.
Rakgu had barely had time to process that action before Proto slashes him in the knee and stomach, though he only grunted in pain before whacking the robot into the remains of the airship it brought down with his machine gun and firing again. Proto deflects these bullets too, along with Lev's lasers.
As Proto was busy deflecting, Serena slashes it in the back of its neck. This once again does little to damage it, as she quickly blocks another slash from it before leaping back, Proto leaping after her and going for two more slashes.
She manages to block both of these, as well as horizontal and vertical spinning slashes, but each of Proto's attacks was pushing her back more and more, and it wasn't long before it managed to slash her in the wrist and disarm her.
She doesn't even grunt in pain, grabbing its wrist and taking a stab to the stomach from its other sword before headbutting it!
Proto kicked her back, turning towards her as a small crack appeared on its screen. She started to get back up, blood running from her wrist, stomach, mouth and forehead, before picking up her sword with her still-working hand.
Proto slashed yet again with both blades, and though she managed to block the slash, it began to push her into the top of the airship with its weight and strength, and she was feeling her own bones start to give way.
Before it could crush her, however, Rakgu tackles it from behind, Lev shooting it in the chest with a Huscil-Piercing pistol before sidestepping it.
Proto tumbled for a moment, but dug its swords into the hull to right itself, standing back upright as the bullet was lodged in the armor plating, but had not fully gone through.
"...Are you kidding me...?" Lev breathes.
"Huh? What's wrong, Lev?" Rakgu asks.
"The bullet should have gone through..." Lev replies. "...that's not just armor. It's entire body is made of Huscil!"
"...Well, we're gonna need more bullets then..." Rakgu responds, as the three of them all prepare to face down Proto once again.
== Chapter 568 - First Casualty of Battle ==
Buchardt was observing the battle below from inside his own airship, drones circling the four to show him more of it.
"He who lacks foresight and underestimates his enemy will be captured by them..." He remarks, as he hears screaming from outside, and turns to see the door open, Indra standing there as the corpses of the guards lay slumped behind him. "...ah, welcome. You must be eager to die, to come to me directly."
"Do not hype yourself up, human." Indra retorts coldly, walking towards him. "You are nothing more than a pawn in Atlas' plan. The most insignificant, most disposable, of all pieces."
"Pawns aren't usually considered pieces, Socqreath." Buchardt replies mockingly. "You're doing a bad job at making yourself sound intellectually superior when you can't even get the rules of Chess right in the first place."
Rather than continue to speak, Indra instead creates a Psychic Weapon that crackled with golden electricity, and slashed at Buchardt. However, Buchardt had drawn his own sword just before Indra slashed, and thus managed to block. Indra notices this right when he hears the bang of a gun, and feels a bullet enter his stomach. He grunts, and leaps back.
"Do you still think humans are the monkeys of the galaxy?" Buchardt asks, pointing his Luger at Indra...right as said Luger is dismantled, and the Socqreath is immediately upon him.
"Yes." Indra answers. "I do."
And at that, Indra erupts lightning at Buchardt, who tries to use his sword as a means to redirect the lightning, but is only partially successful, and blasted back nonetheless.
Before he can even begin to right himself, Indra had already slashed him in the elbow and stomach, stomping on his face to shatter his glasses and force his head against the metal floor with a sickening CRACK!
"You should have worn the armor they did." Indra taunts, ignoring Buchardt's groans of pain as he raised both his sword and Buchardt's own into the air. "It was honestly significantly more difficult killing them than you, and you were supposed to be their leader."
"Of course...I am..." Buchardt manages. "...I far outclass them...in experience."
"That explains it." Indra responds. "In our culture, it is the power of your Psychic Weapons that determines your standing, and only the strongest families are allowed to lead and rule. No wonder your species is weak, especially since you have no natural powers..."
Before Indra could bring the swords down, Buchardt's was fired out of his hand, and he blocked the next few bullets, turning to see Jack and Andromeda standing there, ready to fight.
"Right on schedule..." Indra remarks, turning fully to face them.
"And what's your reason for working with Atlas?" Jack demands.
"You don't need to know that." Indra retorts, beginning to walk towards them as Buchardt started to crawl towards a console. "All that you need to know is that this battle, with that human over there thought he could control, was all to bring her here, for her last bit of training."
Andromeda's eyes narrowed, as she prepared to attack.
== Chapter 569 - Electrocution ==
Andromeda had just barely managed to block Indra's slashes, as Jack rolls out of the way to fire at him from behind. Indra is quick to deflect the gunfire and send an electric blast at him from his sword, Jack just barely, narrowly, managing to dodge, but not quick enough, as the lightning forked to hit his jacket, and send him flying across the bridge.
"Argh!" Jack shouts, Andromeda looking on in shock for a moment before the shock turned to fury, and she started rapidly slashing at Indra with both her Psychic Weapons and her sword.
Indra blocks all of her slashes, and disarms her of her blade, then blasting her as well. She tries to block the blast, but the lightning surges through her Psychic Weapons, and then, through her!
She screams in agony, her Psychic Weapons vanishing from the stress, as Indra slashes again. She barely managed to dodge, and tried to form her Psychic Weapons again, but had to roll out of the way of another of Indra's slashes, Indra pointing a finger at her to unleash a beam of electricity from his fingertip. She is hit square in the stomach, sent crashing through numerous chairs and across numerous consoles.
Indra weaves out of the way of more bullets from Jack, who had been mostly protected from the lightning by the Huscil woven into his jacket, and fires a beam of lightning at him from the same finger he pointed at Andromeda. Jack, thinking as quickly as possible, fired directly at the lightning beam, causing it to hit the bullet and travel with it at Indra's finger.
Indra slightly grits his teeth, as he notices Jack swinging a kick at his head and blocks with his forearm, but Jack's other foot stomped his face and sent him stumbling back. Before Indra could reorient himself, he was swept right off his feet. Indra manages to roll out of the way of being shot in the horns, and blasts Jack into a wall. Jack barely had time to grunt in pain before Indra had pinned him there with one hand, ready to blast again from his sword.
However, right then, Indra is stabbed in the back by a thrown Kunai, grunting and tossing Jack to the ground, turning to see Tsunoi Eizan there, wearing a cloak.
"Hello again, Jack." Tsunoi says with a smile.
== Chapter 570 - Heart of the Milky Way ==
Atlas looked upon Saggitarus A* with a crueler smile than usual, his space pod nearing what looked like a rusted metal planet covered in ruins, ice and fossils. That planet he was staring at was a world so old that he knew not how to pronounce its name, a world far older than even the humans' parent star.
The pod landed, as Atlas walked out, using that same forcefield-like power to create a pocket of air all around his body, and making his way towards a much older set of doors. From the looks of things, this was the capital of whatever empire once controlled the galaxy, potentially, the entire universe at large.
How fitting. He would soon carry on that legacy, with their greatest invention, and the one that supposedly led to their complete extinction.
These doors gave way much easier than the ones on Venus, as the computer systems inside didn't seem to work, and the material was decayed with time. It had rune-like symbols all across its surface as well, but these were different, carved instead of projected, and of different shape and content overall.
As he walked through the enormous halls, he made his way towards where he knew the center would be from his journey through the building on Venus. When he made it there, he saw a magnetic elevator, and got on, seeming to use his Psychic Weapons to force it down to the center of this ancient planet.
These halls seemed much better-preserved, and much more in line with the technology level of the ones on Venus, perhaps this was a bunker they made. He didn't dwell on it too much, instead merely walking through these halls as well, fully aware of the bulbous, organic eye-like structures watching him from each and every vent.
As he made his way to the end of the hallway, he once again tricked the doors into letting him in, and walked inside, where he saw it.
The tiny metal orb, covered in glowing purple rings, those rings connected by glowing purple lines, floating between two pedastals, one above and one below, surrounded by a massive growth of plants.
Suddenly, one of the thorny, flower-covered vines tried to wrap around Atlas, but his Psychic Weapons seemed to kill the cells in that vine with radiation poisoning, as it backed off, shriveling up.
Then, he saw a massive being, made from hundreds of bark-covered vines, each of those vines sprouting more smaller versions of said being, rise up to meet him, its face very, very vaguely reminscient of the animal kingdom, most closely resembling a deformed flytrap, or the equivalent on the Socqreath's own homeworld. This creature was clearly as old as the structure, uplifted by the structure's creators, most likely.
"Outsiders are not welcome here." The creature and its clones speak in unison, all seeming to glare at Atlas with their eye-like organs. "Leave now, and tell no one of this place."
"There is no need for alarm, ancient one." Atlas replies, slightly raising his arms. "I am native to this very galaxy, just like you, and thus am a descendant of your great masters. I have come here to rebuild their empire, with the aid of their most powerful supercomputer."
"What species are you?" The creatures demand. "Our seeds cannot read your genetic code."
"I am a Socqreath, their future King, in fact." Atlas answers.
"Socqreath..." The creatures remark. "...we have no record of Socqreath. What world did you emerge from?"
"I believe your masters knew it as Iglijeoft Quintus." Atlas explains. "We know it as Zulevis."
"Iglijeoft Quintus..." The cresatures ponder. "...you are the parasitic virus that infected other species' genetic code."
"From what your world's databanks say, you'd be right." Atlas continues. "And look how far we've come, able to think so quickly, tap into the Aether that humankind dismissed due to its inherently psionic nature, and most importantly, know which species to and not to infect."
"Your kind was established on that world as an experiment." The creatures say. "You were meant to be a new method to terraform worlds, a Green Goo."
"Then why should we not inheret our collective creators' technology?" Atlas asks. "We are their children, more directly than any other species in the universe, and we could use Zeldron Supercomputer 4516-5721 to reclaim our birthright."
The creatures are silent.
"We stand on the cusp of infinity, my friend." Atlas gestures. "All you need do is grant me that supercomputer, and together, our shared intellect, my Psychic Weapons and its evolutionary capabilities, can put us back on the apex of greatness."
Atlas turns one side to face the creature, and extends his hand in a friendly gesture. For a moment, the living forest does not respond, but then, it slowly turns off the defenses around the Infinity Machine, picks it up, and places it in Atlas' hand, shaking it with that same vine.
Though Atlas kept his expression the same to throw the creatures off his scent, inside, he felt like laughing maniacally. At long last, he had obtained the very device Kiyomasu warned him against. And now he would use it to defeat Andromeda, and conquer the universe!
== Chapter 571 - Created to Kill ==
Another scuff mark across Proto's chest marked another successful slash from Serena, as one of its shoulders was dented from Rakgu's attacks, and a bullet rested in its abdomen from Lev, but even with all that, it seemed to barely slow down, having slashed Serena and Lev's arms off, as well as having sliced apart Rakgu's machine gun and cut him across the chest.
All three of them were on their knees, trying desperately to stand back up, as Proto walked towards them, the sun setting further behind it, almost twilight now. Serena was about to draw her gun, as Proto rushed to slash her head off...
...but it was blocked by Erzomaur.
"Huh...?" Rakgu asks dizzily, as Proto seemed to scan Erzomaur.
"It's been a long time since we last met..." Erzomaur remarks. "...I should have dismantled you back then, and avoided all this pain. I should never have obeyed Zahsakar."
If Proto was scanning, it had finished, as it pulls its arms back to slash at the Shazarak's knees. Erzomaur leaps over the slash, and in turn slashes at Proto's back, Proto merely moving its arms back to block all the slashes. It turned towards Erzomaur, rushing to slash at the new chinks in his hands, Erzomaur leaping back to dodge once again, but feeling a slash had cut slightly across his chest.
"Miss me, Jack?" Tsunoi asks. "I'm afraid I can't let anyone else but me kill you."
"Yet another reason you humans are foolish..." Indra retorts. "...join forces with me if you want him dead."
Tsunoi didn't respond for a moment, as if thinking of what to say next, before Indra rushed to slash at him. Darkstar's former second-in-command managed to block with his own blade though, throwing shurikens at Indra with his other hand. Indra leaps back to avoid them, slightly faltering for a moment from the bullet in his side before Tsunoi stabs the pressure points in his sword arm, making it go limp.
Right as Tsunoi slashed at Indra's horn, his forearm was grabbed by Indra's left arm, as Indra forces his right arm to move by strengthing the nerve signals running through it, slashing Tsunoi's arm off.
"Argh!" Tsunoi roars, kicking Indra in the side as the two stumble away from each other.
"...You're pathetic." Indra hisses. "I can see it in your expression...you're trying to redeem yourself now that you lost your safety net. Are all humans this selfish?"
"No more selfish than you are..." Tsunoi grunts back, Andromeda getting up and hearing all this, as did Jack.
Then, Tsunoi throws off his tattered cloak.
His torso was covered in wires, and servos seemed to be connected to his arm joints, as he formed a Yari, cracked his neck with a smile, and swung it at the One-Horned Socqreath.
Indra ducks beneath the Yari before leaping to the side to avoid being stabbed by it, then swinging his sword to send an arc of electricity at him. Tsunoi leaps out of the way of the arc to let it fry numerous consoles, as he then forms a chain on the end of the Yari to swing it at Indra.
Indra leaps over the slash and then onto the Yari, running across it to kick Tsunoi in the forehead and send him flying, dissipating his Psychic Weapons.
"Agh..." Tsunoi grunts, as he tosses a bomb at Indra. The bomb, however, is sliced through, as Tsunoi himself is stabbed through the heart. "GUH!!!"
Jack and Andromeda look on in shock, as Tsunoi tried to say something, but Indra slit his throat before he could. As Indra pulled his sword out, he noticed a bomb attached to one of Tsunoi's servos, Tsunoi smiling one last time before the bomb detonated.
Indra leaps back, using his sword to block the explosion and grunting, as he is shot from behind by Jack, shot right in the spine in fact!
"Gh!" Indra growls, as he collapses under his own weight, Jack pointing his gun down at his forehead.
"Where's Atlas?" Jack demands. "What is he planning, exactly?!"
"You'll know soon enough." Indra retorts.
Then, Jack is slashed across the knee, and forced down, as Indra blasts him back and, once again through strengthened nerve impulses, forces himself back up to his feet, his singular horn growing as his eyes glowed bright white.
"Wh...what...?" Jack breathes. "You shouldn't even be able to move!"
"If you wanted to stop my moving, you should have shot out my horn." Indra replies coldly, grabbing Jack by the neck before he could react and pointing his sword at his chest.
"NO!!!" Andromeda roars, slashing at Indra, who levitated himself above her and charged up another beam of lightning.
"This human was only necessary to get you this far..." Indra remarks. "...but now, you have no more need for this anchor. Not to such a worthless species."
In a surge of bright light, Andromeda couldn't help but look on in horror, as Jack screamed and convulsed from the electricity, covered in lightning scars.
"JACK!!!!!!!!!!!!" She screams. "NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Indra, callous as ever, just tosses Jack aside, as Andromeda stumbles over to him, holding him gently while trembling with fear and despair. She teared up, trying, and failing, to keep herself from sobbing, as she tried once again to call his name.
He didn't respond.
No matter what she did, he didn't respond.
Only the occasional twitch showed he was still alive, but those were rapidly becoming less frequent.
The rumbling of natural thunder meant that a storm had started. The sun had fully set, the moon obscured by the clouds, so only lightning and city lights illuminated everyone.
She had first met Jack under the rain, when he saved her from drowning in the swamp. He, Kiyomasu, they were the first humans who had ever showed her kindness, and now Jack was dying.
He was dying because of her.
She had pushed everyone else away...and now the person she loved the most...was going to die.
Indra walked towards her, his wounds regenerating as he pulled out the bullet, raising his sword.
Her trembling of fear, turned into trembling of rage.
"...Enough..." She whispered, her horns growing as Indra readied to bring down the blade. "...I...have had...ENOUGH!!!!!!!!!!"
Indra barely had time to react when he was blasted straight out of the airship, the airship itself violently ripped apart as Andromeda's screams could be heard over even the thunder. Erzomaur, Serena, Rakgu, Lev and Proto all looked in her direction, as did any surviving soldiers, as did Candice, Kasper, Shunsuke, Kiyomasu, Dione, Reuben and Falqo.
"...no..." Kiyomasu breathed.
Buchardt was clinging for his life to one of the consoles, glaring at Andromeda as the rain mixed with his own blood, while Andromeda, still holding Jack close to her, glared more viciously at Indra than she had at anyone else her entire life.
Indra only stared coldly back, forming wings and lances of lightning.
"When I am done with you..." Andromeda growls. "...THERE WON'T BE ANYTHING LEFT ON THIS DAMN PLANET!!!!!!"
== Chapter 572 - The End of the World ==
Andromeda tore buildings off their foundations, soldiers still inside as she did so, and flung them at Indra, who swung one of his lances to slash the buildings in half with another, much larger arc of lightning.
This is right when she had tackled him, poised to strike him again, as he flipped her over and kicked her in the face to send her crashing through numerous skyscrapers at once, causing all of those skyscrapers to collapse.
As Andromeda righted herself, she had what was essentially a massive blade slash at Indra, bifurcating hundreds more skyscrapers, but Indra had flown right over that slash.
Andromeda forms more Psychic Weapons, now massive tendrils with blades, spike and hooks, and has them attack Indra, as well as, in the crossfire, hundreds of thousands of soldiers.
More buildings were pulverized by these attacks, as Indra weaved around them until one struck true, sending him tumbling across one building before he digs his hand, now coated in a claw of electricty, into the side of the building to stop his movement, then leaping off it with enough force to shatter that side and send half the building toppling over.
Indra points one of the lances at Andromeda, unleashing a massive beam of lightning at her that partially parted the clouds. She punts herself over it, grabbing numerous more buildings to slam at him. He dodges most of these as well, batting one aside as he then sends a large ball of lightning at her.
She tries to block this, but is only shocked by it, gaining lightning scars of her own as she shrieked in agony. Indra grabbed her by the face and slammed her into the road, dragging her face across it before tossing her into a building. That building, too, collapses, as she emerges from it, glaring once more.
"I'LL KILL YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" She howls. "I'LL KILL YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
She then starts slicing up the center of Farfair, tearing the entire thing out of the ground with Proto, Rakgu, Lev, Serena and Erzomaur still on it!
"W-woah!" Rakgu shouts. "If she was like this back home, that big ol' lava snake wouldn't have been a problem!"
"Yes...she would have the been the problem instead." Lev replies weakly.
Serena just grits her teeth, in both pain and anger. But she was trembling, trembling with rage...trembling more in fear.
Indra pointed his finger at the center of Farfair, as Andromeda tossed it at him. He unleashed another massive beam of electricity at the chunk of land, as it was blasted through, then exploding violently. Andromeda crosses her arms to block, as she is hit by another arc of lightning, and batted across the city by Indra's lance fast enough to create a building-pulverizing sonic boom!
Jack was laying on the ground, his breathing increasingly labored as he was losing the strength even to twitch, as Candice, Kasper and Shunsuke ran over to him.
"We have to get him to to a hospital!" Candice yells.
"There's no time!" Shunsuke yells back, before looking on at Andromeda and Indra's battle in terror. "Besides...there's probably not going to be a hospital to get him to, soon."
Andromeda rips a mountain off its base, and throws it at Indra, who kicks it into the ocean, causing a massive tsunami.
He turns back towards her and dodges a punch from one of her Psychic Weapons, before he combines both his lances together and stretching that new lance out, the air shaking and cracking seemingly from its very presence.
"I will show you apes all how worthless you really are." Indra remarks, tossing the lance at her, which she manages to dodge.
The instant the lance hit the mountain range, the explosion vaporized it, beginning to utterly destroy the city from the shockwaves alone as the clouds were blasted miles away from the sheer force of the blast.
"GHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Shunsuke growls, trying to shield Candice, Kasper and Jack from the shockwaves from behind a parking complex.
Kiyomasu had put a forcefield around the airship he and the others were in just in time, but that did not stop the airship from being send back as well. Indra, standing there completely still despite the shockwave, forms another of the same kind of lance in one of his hands, as Lev looks on at this in utter horror.
"Is this...is this a joke..." He barely manages to whisper, as Nightmare Division Soldiers tried to apply first aid to him and the others.
Andromeda, only barely phased by the explosion insofar as she had been blasted into a mountain by it, rushes at Indra, who points his other hand at her to unleash another beam of electricity.
She dodges, as it cuts across the sky, destroying satellites and even hitting the base on the now-visible New Luna, shining brightly against the ruined city and landscape now that the electric explosion had ceased.
Indra throws the new lance at her, but she manages to dodge that too, ignoring pain from lightning that forked from it to hit her as it rushed into New Luna, eradicating the moon base there.
Andromeda grabs Indra by the wrists with her normal hands and headbutts him, then throwing him out to a nearby island, where he slammed into a the prison that once held Asaka Kazuyuki.
As he was getting up, he noticed a Psychic Weapon punching at him from above, and forms an orb of lightning around himself for protection. When the Psychic Weapon hit, it created a similarly-sized explosion to the one from his lances, as Andromeda prepared to send more of the same attack down at the island. Indra, however, flew out, and slashed Andromeda across the stomach with two normal lances.
"ARGH!!!!!" She roars, grabbing him by the throat and horn. He stabs one of the lances into her stomach, and, kicking her to send them both plummeting to the ground below, prepares to stab her in the head with the other.
But right as he drove the lance towards her skull, she managed to break off his own and, just as his Psychic Weapons dissipated, stab him in the throat with it.
== Chapter 573 - The End of the World (Pt. 2) ==
Moments later, they both hit the ground, surrounded by corpses and debris, as the moon continued to shine overhead. Andromeda was holding her stomach in pain, as though she was healing, she was still bleeding out.
She rolled onto her back, looking up at the moon, as Indra twitched for a moment. She would likely never know what his reasons were for joining up with Atlas, but honestly, it didn't matter at all to her.
Nothing mattered to her, not anymore.
Then, she managed to get back up, right as she heard metal footsteps from behind. She whirled around to see Proto standing there.
"...You again..." She growls. "...I'll kill you, just like I killed him!"
Proto's only response is to slash at her again, as she just barely manages to leap back from the slash and slam a punch down at it with a Psychic Weapon. The punch lands, and the explosion sends debris flying everywhere, as she looked on at the site in an almost-sadistic glee.
However, such glee was shortlived, as Proto leaps out of the explosion mostly unscathed, and slashes at her once again!
She dodges that as well, sending yet another Psychic Weapon at the robot. Proto leaps onto that Psychic Weapon and begins to run across it to get closer to her. She tries to crush it with a different Psychic Weapon, but Proto had leaped forward to avoid it, and slashed at her horns. She ducked beneath the slash and batted Proto into a bank, turning said bank to pebbles in the process, as Proto burst out and rushed at her again.
She growls in fury, and slams more Psychic Weapons down at it, the robot dodging the attacks and running through the explosions, using one as a boost to get to her.
She narrowly avoids a stab from it, then blocking a subsequent few slashes but sent tumbling through the air by a kick. Proto starts leaping from Psychic Weapon to Psychic Weapon to get to her, as she rights herself and claps her normal hands to clap her Psychic Weapons onto it, then flinging Atlas' robot into the air.
It is sent flying, but soon comes right back down, illuminated from behind and above by the moon as it did so.
She barely avoids its stabs, but is stomped on the stomach, and hits the ground hard enough to make a crater. As she tries to get back up, Proto slashes again, cutting her across the stomach. She grits her teeth and knocks it back, slamming a few nearby buildings onto it. Proto leaps out the top of the third skyscraper, spinning at Andromeda to deliver dozens of slashes per second.
She manages to leap back from the initial onslaught before blocking the next, but Proto then cuts her across the stomach again and kicks her onto a rooftop, landing on that same rooftop and immediately rushing at her yet again.
As it had rushed past her, she was missing an arm, and Proto was missing half the screen, revealing it to be a visor over its true robotic face, showing a glowing red eye and what looked like a speaker.
As she turned around, it slashed again, and though she tried to block these slashes as well, she was only partly successful, but still cut across her remaining arm as well as her torso, legs and face, a horn nearly being sliced off at one point.
Before she could notice all her injuries, she was kicked off the building, hitting the ground hard enough that she thought her spine broke, as Proto leaped off, and dived down to stab her in the chest.
But the stab never came.
Andromeda slowly, weakly, opened her eyes...and saw Shunsuke standing between her and Proto, its blades driven through his midsection.
Shunsuke coughs blood for a moment, preventing Proto from pulling out its blades by grabbing its wrists, before kicking it in the abdomen as hard as he possibly could, sending the robot into a wall as he himself stumbled back, and hit the ground, with Proto's forearms in his hands.
"No..." She manages, shaking her head weakly. "...no..."
"...It's...alright..." Shunsuke replies just as weakly. "...Candice...will heal us, soon...I'm sure...a-agh..."
Proto fell on its knees, leaking an oil-like substance as its eye flickered.
But before Andromeda could fully process what just happened, she noticed a missile heading right towards her, and just barely managed to block it from hitting her and Shunsuke, as she saw a fleet of airships in the sky, a fleet of ships in the sea, and a row of tanks on the ground.
"Stand down, Socqreath!" An armored general says with a megaphone. "We will not allow you to cause any more damage to this world!"
"...You ungrateful...pieces...of SHIT!!!!!!!!!" She screams in response, readying her Psychic Weapons again as Shunsuke looks on in despair.
== Chapter 574 - The End of the World (Pt. 3) ==
The tanks fired at Andromeda, as the airships readied more missiles and the sea ships readied lasers. She blocked the tank rounds, and slammed a Psychic Weapon at the tanks to destroy a large number of them and blast the rest everywhichway, rising into the air as she grabbed one of the missiles and threw it right back at the airship that fired it, destroying said airship as she saw soldiers parachuting from it, and swatted them out of the air.
Now grinning almost maliciously, she grabbed two of the ships out of the ocean and slammed them together, before slamming them into the rest of the fleet.
Jets fired at Andromeda from all around, as she glared at them and tossed one of the ships at three of the jets, that ship then hitting an airship and sending both crashing towards some of the remaining tanks.
She screamed in rage as she tore three more mountains out of the ground to throw at more of the army, as Kiyomasu looked on at the scene with a frown on his face, his hat obscuring his eyes from view.
"...THIS was your plan?!" Reuben roars. "We should have let the Galactic Defense Force execute her!"
"This wasn't my plan..." Kiyomasu replies, keeping his back turned to all of them as he continued to watch the massacre. "We need to get Jack and Shunsuke healed. Now."
Andromeda was now slamming her Psychic Weapons into everything she saw, creating massive explosion after massive explosion as the atmosphere began to heat up from all the carnage, winds massively picking up.
She tore the entirety of the prison island out of the ground, and began spinning it like a drill before slamming it into the fleet of airships, destroying them as well. She doesn't stop, turning around to slam the island into the fleet of seaships, and then rolling it across the city like a ball to crush the tanks and any remaining soldiers, even including the Nightmare Division soldiers.
"Dammit..." Serena mutters.
"...I don't think she's on our side, anymore..." Rakgu remarks.
Erzomaur watches in silence, as does Lev. Buchardt, barely alive by this point, glares in fury at the Socqreath princess.
"We should never have let your species in here..." He breathes harshly, holding his stomach in pain.
Shunsuke just kept looking on in despair at Andromeda's rampage, as Candice ran over to him to try and get him to a stretcher, soldiers helping her and restraining Proto.
"I think...she's a lost cause..." One of the soldiers remarks, as Candice looks at Andromeda, tearing up.
"...why..." She whimpers, as they get Shunsuke and Proto back up to the GDF airship.
Andromeda, almost laughing by now, continues to destroy the Sciarhiel army, ignoring that more and more of her body was starting to succumb to her power, suffering Necrosis and, from the intense heat, even melting and flaking off cells of all different kinds by now.
"YOU NEVER WANTED TO TAKE ME IN!!!!!!!!!!!!" She roared. "YOU ALWAYS CONSIDERED ME A FUCKING MONSTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
She is blasted into a skyscraper by a missile from the armored general, and quickly tears that building off its foundation to bat the soldier into the ground with.
"WELL, NOW I AM!!!!!!!" She screams. "HAPPY?!?!?!?!"
Then, she feels the pain, and notices that her body was melting and disintegrating!
"GHHHHH!!!!!!! FINE!!!!!!!!" She howls, sending hundreds of truly enormous Psychic Weapons beyond the atmosphere, destroying space stations and reinforcements in the process. "IF I'M DYING, I'M TAKING THIS ENTIRE GODDAMN WORLD WITH ME, YOU APES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Everyone looked on at the approaching Psychic Weapons.
"If those hit..." Falqo trails off.
"...They'll glass the entire planet..." Reuben breathes.
"DIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Andromeda shrieks, as the Psychic Weapons neared the ground...
...but vanished just before they could.
Andromeda looked on in shock for a moment, before turning around to see Candice standing there, holding out her hands and breathing heavily.
"Wh..." Andromeda starts.
"No..." Candice pleads. "...not after everything that's happened. We're not going to let you do this! WE'RE NOT GOING TO LET YOU GO BACK TO BEING A MONSTER!!!!!"
"I'VE ALWAYS BEEN A MONSTER!!!!!!" Andromeda roars back, trying to rush at Candice, but her arm fell limp. Without her Psychic Weapons, she was unable to move in her current state.
One of her horns was blasted off by Kiyomasu, who looked nothing but disappointed. All remaining soldiers surrounded her, pointing their guns at her, and she was powerless to resist.
"Don't kill her." Kiyomasu asks. "She's still necessary to stop Atlas."
"...Is that all...I am to you...?" She growls. "...A weapon...?"
"...No..." Kiyomasu replies, his voice cracking a small bit as he winced. "...I consider you my daughter, Andromeda."
Andromeda's eyes widened in some sort of emotion for a moment, but before she could say anything back, from her own perspective, everything faded to black.
== Chapter 575 - The Final Mockery ==
Andromeda's eyes slowly, weakly, opened, as she heard the beeping of a heart monitor, and could tell she was hooked up to a breathing apparatus and life support.
She struggled for a moment, but managed to sit up with a groan of pain, looking down at her heavily-bandaged arm, and could tell from what little was visible that she still had the lightning bolt scars from the battle with Indra.
She looked over at the rest of the room, and saw dozens of soldiers who had tried to stop her rampage earlier, dozens of soldiers who had been doing everything within their power to save their world from her.
Only dozens.
"Anne..." Jack said weakly, as she turned around and saw him laying in a bed beside her.
"Jack..." She replied.
"He'll live." Kiyomasu says, sounding relieved. "You'll all live, thanks to the efforts of Candice, myself, and the doctors here."
She noticed Scrap was helping people recover, and smiled a small bit, before the smile vanished upon remembering why the soldiers were here to begin with.
Then, she heard Reuben shouting about something, and pulled herself out of the bed, removing the life support.
"Wait! You're not fully healed!" Candice shouts, as Andromeda held her stomach and limped over to where Reuben was.
Once she was there, she could see that he was speaking to Proto, who had been disarmed of its remaining swords, probably just in case it had a means to use them beyond what they all knew.
"Kiyomasu told me about the Infinity Machine." Reuben says. "Just tell us where it is, and we may consider reprogramming you instead of just scrapping you for parts."
Proto doesn't respond.
"I asked you a damn question!" Reuben roars, as Proto turns and notices Andromeda, its red eye still flickering a bit.
Then, it speaks.
"Atlas, superior." Proto says. "Humankind, inferior."
Reuben grits his teeth in anger and prepared to draw his gun, but before he could, Proto's head had been sliced off by Andromeda, its oil-like substance staining the wall as its head rolled to the ground, the eye flickering one last time, and then fading out entirely.
Everyone is silent, the only noticeable sound being the sparks flying out of Proto's neck.
"...You caused more damage to humankind...than anyone else in our history." Reuben says as calmly as he could, trembling with fury as he slowly turned towards her. "Your rampage left New Earth inhospitable, so we've had to move the capital to Mars. I hope you're happy about your crowning achievement, wiping out an entire planet's biosphere aside from extremophiles in a bid for revenge against everyone who you think wronged you."
Andromeda looked out and saw that they were indeed in Musktopia, and further that Musktopia was at that moment extremely heavily-guarded.
"...I'm sorry..." She replies after a moment, tearing up. "...I'm so...so sorry..."
"Sorry isn't enough." Reuben retorts. "And it's never going to be enough."
Andromeda nods in response, holding herself back from sobbing. After everything, after having tried so hard to improve, she was worse than she had ever been back when she was under Darkstar's influence.
Without that chip, without Darkstar, she had wiped out an entire planet's population, all for revenge that, in the end, was completely unnecessary. Jack had lived. She had gone on a rampage against Indra to avenge him, and she didn't even need to.
"I...don't know what to say." Falqo remarks. "I really wanna support you here, but...honestly, Ruby here has a point. I'm not sure you can be trusted to keep yourself in check if it leads to an apocalypse with every tantrum."
She nods again. Hearing it from Reuben was one thing, hearing it from Falqo...she was sure they all had the same opinion. It would make sense, they all witnessed what she did.
Then, she sees Candice and Kasper, who were helping Shunsuke walk for the moment.
"Candice..." Andromeda starts. "...I'm sorry...for everything I ever did to you...to Kasper...to everyone..."
After a moment, Candice hugs her.
"Please...please don't scare us all like that again..." Candice whispers.
"I won't...I promise..." Andromeda replies weakly, hugging back, as Kasper smiled a bit, but also seemed a bit cautious about getting closer to them.
"I've...realized that keeping secrets isn't the best idea." Kiyomasu says. "Andromeda, there's something I need to tell you. Something that you need to know, about your Psychic Weapons...and what they can actually do."
== Chapter 576 - Martian Declaration ==
Atlas was seemingly standing in the air, inside the dome that surrounded Olympus Mons, looking down at Musktopia. How quaint, it appeared humankind was capable of less boxy architecture after all.
As he looked on at the city that he knew would soon be nothing but a pile of rubble, he noticed a jet spying on him, and, with a thought, shut down its batteries, causing it to crash into the statue of Xavier Musk and explode.
He heard the alarms immediately, and closed his eyes while keeping his smile. It wouldn't matter what these humans tried, none of them can surpass infinity itself.
As Atlas landed softly on the ground, one foot first, he was immediately fired upon by soldiers, Hoplites, airships, tanks, turrets and various other kinds of artillery. However, not a single shot had landed, all caught by his Psychic Weapons.
The soldiers look on in shock, and though one was preparing to draw a knife, she never got the chance. Atlas, without even moving, redirected all the projectiles right back at them, annihilating the small army in a near-instant and walking through the smoke and flames, stomping on one soldier's hand and kicking another soldier's head out of his way as he went.
The Socqreath Prince makes it inside the city, as more soldiers began to surround him. He turned towards a military truck, which Reuben stepped out of, clad in Huscil armor save for his head, and pointing his pulse pistol at him.
"You must be Atlas." Reuben declares.
"Why yes, I am." Atlas replies. "And you're Reuben Hammond, Grand Marshall of the Human Star Realm and Governor of Mars. I could list off all the things I know about you, but then we'd be here all day."
"Oh, we have all day, Atlas." Reuben retorts. "We have as long as a Socqreath like you can live inside a solitary confinement cell."
Atlas only chuckles.
"Do you really think your army will be able to stop me, General?" He mocks, before noticing Jack, Candice, Kasper, Shunsuke, Kiyomasu, Dione, Falqo, Bertram, Erzomaur, Serena, Lev, Rakgu, Buchardt, Fulke, Ares, Oketur, the Supersoldier, Gerald, Romuald and Friedrich all arrive on the scene.
"This isn't your average army." Reuben replies. "And I think you're going to find that humans are far more than you give us credit for."
"Oh, really?" Atlas taunts, raising his chin with a smug smirk. "If you're so sure you can do it, then why don't you all come at me at once?"
"That's the plan, buddy." Falqo butts in. "But you already knew that, didn't ya'?"
Atlas only grins slightly in response. As far as he was concerned, this was going to be rather fun.