Chapter 1561 - The Curtain Call Battle (2/2)

Within everyone’s stunned gaze, the massive fortress was slowly descending to the edge of the horizon and was coming apart in the process. The First Born tentacles would of course not sit idle and it took the ‘slow’ falling objects to be another close-range bombardment and saw a massive ‘ridge’ broke through the ground as a black-greenish tentacle bolted out of it, and following that, an invisible energy field and high-powered beams started blasting out of the tentacle violently towards the fortress in the sky.

Hao Ren had a rough idea of the fortress’ intentions and he gently knocked on the control dais. “Protect it. Deploy the droids as well.”

The high-powered laser beams struck against the fortress, already damaged by the atmospheric entry came out even worse. The remaining reflector shields flickered for a moments before going dead, and its outer ring walls even broke into three parts as entire servers fell from the main body towards the planet’s lush lands.

The spoke-shaped main beam too was slowly coming apart but it still managed to unleash its last counterattack: Countless of cannons installed on the fortress walls roared and with the presets these patiently stockpiled weapons spat out every last bit of lead and power towards the Devourer’s tentacles, and massive explosions shook a good part of the continent.

The counterattack seemed to have ‘enraged’ the tentacles on the planets surface as many more sub-tentacles appeared from the rift and hammered the fortress with an intense anti-air barrage.

At the very same moment, the covering fire from Petrachelys and the droid swarm struck.

The overwhelming firepower temporarily blunted the First Born’s counterattack as the fortress slowly fall in its set trajectory. About ten percent of the First Born’s anti-air barrage broke through the droid swarm’s cordon and stubbornly attacked the fortress. The latter by now had no other ways to counterattack or to defend itself and could only use its powerful frame to withstand the merciless barrage.

Countless of debris fell off its outer layer as the thick armor and buffer structures stalwartly protected the core of the Inevitable Palace.

Finally, the last of the structure failed, and the fortress could no longer be called one, it was now a ball of inferno dragging a smoking husk with metal debris falling of it.

However, within the burnt-out husk, a flash of light darted out and a twisted metal cabin – it was originally a circular hall – blasted out from the center and Hao Ren clearly saw a translucent glass container being shot out of the husk.

The test-tube like container was miraculously intact and only exploded about a few hundred meters from the surface as globs of flesh-like cells rained across the land.

From this altitude, it was impossible for the First Born to intercept it, and these exiles who had left their homeworld for thousands of years had finally fulfilled the dying wish of their people. They were home.

At the very end, the Cortex Prime had finally completed its mission.

Hao Ren sat quietly on the bridge as he looked at ancient and stubborn A.I used this sort of method to complete its swan song, its curtain call. The droid swarm had disengaged as ordered and as the last piece of the fortress was taken out by the tentacles, the heavens and earth turned quiet again.

Only the charred land and the parched sky was proof of this ever happening.

“MDT, record this. Civilization of the Plane of Dreams, you set the serial number. In the New Imperial Calendar year 10090 day 312. Subject replacement completed. The original humans are now extinct, and the civilization is inherited by their descendants, the Executors. Civilization to be marked as continuing.

“Record complete.”

“Boss, I have found the best insertion point.” Nolan’s voice rang across the bridge. “We have reached the skies above on of the massive rifts. The battle earlier caused some extreme movement activity and a new tear was formed, plus many tentacles were destroyed during the fight, and this is where the defense is the weakest.”

A holographic projection showed the scan data of the area as a massive rift valley was marked on it. It was not too far from where the last piece of the fortress had fallen.

Hao Ren nodded. “Let the droid swarm lead the way. We’ll make our entry there.”