The towering monster born of the Starblight roared as it slowly lumbered onward. As tall as a skyscraper, every lumbering step forward shook the ground. In the distance, the Rakaila added its own heavy earth-quaking thud as it impacted into the ground from its hovering position in the air. A veritable wall of the giant monster’s lesser kin, ranging from as small as a normal person to those as big as a mobile frame itself, surged forward in a great tide, even despite the ceaseless barrage of dark red proto particle beams, bright blue kinetic projectiles, and missiles shooting through the air with yellowish white exhaust.

  The Starblight seemed endless. For every nightmare out of some dark dream, misshapened and disfigured in a great mish-mash of limbs, fang, and claw, another took its place. There was no rhyme or reason to the creatures of the Starblight. Even as great waves of the creatures were blown apart by the sheer firepower from mobile frames, Alsium’s two static defenses, the falling Rakaila, and whatever military units had scrambled together, the Starblight crept steadily forward.

  And that giant, lumbering monster itself seemed unstoppable. Ever so slowly, reality itself seemed to distort, as if it were assaulting the very fabric of existence around it. No amount of firepower concentrated on it seemed to dissuade or slow it down in the slightest. Any mobile frame that dared to try to get in its way was quickly struck down by a wickedly fast and sharp tendril that sliced anything that got into close range into pieces.

  The warship Rakaila, though it was struck down, continued to fight, sending as much fire as it could at the Starblight, even as it lost power. A good part of the warship had been vaporized, and the other parts of it had been damaged. With a great thud that shook the earth, it had landed on an upward-facing angle as the last of its power had gone out and its weapon systems had fallen offline.

  Aster grimaced as he glanced around with Selenia behind him. The other soldiers around had been shaken, their morale clearly fallen despite their vigorous efforts to defend the civilians in their midst. From their vantage point with Colonel Varsen and the other soldiers around, it was clear the Federation was losing even despite the still mobilizing forces of Alsium Two from its various bases and those still streaming from Alsium Two’s command center in the rear surging into the fray.

  The fighting around them intensified as more of the Starblight slipped through the heaviest of the fighting off in the distance. Squadrons of mobile frames had been pushed back to the city’s airspace overhead as the great humanoid machines dueled and fought a desperate struggle overhead. Several blew up as waves of sharp obsidian projectiles skewered them. More were hacked apart by fast moving creatures creatures with razor-sharp sickle limbs. And others yet were entangled with deadly dances as black shapes moved every which way, with bright blue thruster exhaust intermingled between them.

  A mobile frame landed nearby as one of the horrors impaled it, blowing it up in a great explosion that sent shockwaves around. The horror turned its head as several rockets from the nearby soldiers quickly responded, sending it falling to the ground.

  Another mobile frame landed as its arm was hacked off. The mobile frame responded by quickly hacking it apart with the particle saber in its other arm as it was quickly beset by other horrors.

  More mobile frames landed among the city’s buildings, using them as cover to prevent themselves from being encircled by more of the Starblight’s bigger monsters.

  Things weren’t looking good.

  “T-the Rakaila!” Selenia said, in shock. “It’s been sunk.”

  “It hasn’t. Not yet. I’ve known Rakaila since the heyday of the End War,” Varsen said. “She’s been through worse.” The colonel shook his head. “Forget what I said earlier.” He turned his head between the two of them. “We’re getting you and the moon princess out of Alsium Two as quickly as possible through the district’s command center to the neighboring ones. You and the other civilians.”

  A short way away, the transports of the Rakaila that had landed in the city’s square were quickly being loaded with civilians by the soldiers around them. Some had already taken off, heading straight for the rear, with newly arriving reinforcements putting up a stiff wall of resistance, creating a clear corridor for them to take off and move through.

  The Colonel nodded to several of his soldiers who prepared to escort the pair to one of the shuttles.

  Another roar in the far distance caught their attention. Just as before, dark energy gathered in the creature’s horrific, gaping maw, in a gathering ball of furious energy, before letting it loose straight forward in the distance to Alsium Two’s command center. It impacted the sheer cliff walls miles off in the distance, its reinforced and armored structure useless as the massive proto particle beam melted through, causing a great explosion that once again shook the entirety of the underground arcology.

  The great hub and port for controlling the flow of traffic in and out of Alsium Two had been destroyed more easily than Aster had believed possible. Alsium Two’s command center was the means of entry and exit from Alsium Two. It’s great hatches and doors that allowed even a massive warship like the Rakaila to enter and exit from Alsium Two via tunnel had been sealed off by countless tons of broken rock.

  There was no escape to be had that way.

  They were trapped.

  It was only now that the aged look showed itself through Colonel Varsen’s gruff figure. He was highly energetic, in a quantity that was far more characteristic of someone many years younger. He was silent at the sight, though the slightest hint of worry escaped from his stern face.

  Another great roar from the massive creature overtook the endless shrieks and screams of the other endless horrors around them, even as the soldiers around them fought desperately against its smaller kin all around with blade and rifle.

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  In the giant monster’s maw, more dark energy gathered. And ever so slowly, it turned its head their way, clearly intent on striking Tigata and them. Mobile frames that attempted to fire upon it were shot or struck nearly instantly.

  Aster gritted his teeth as Selenia clenched his arm tightly, a look of horror on her face. The Colonel, the other soldiers, and the civilians all around them had similar looks on their faces.

  As the energy in the monster’s maw reached criticality, a thunderous prismatic beam of light struck into the creature right in its center.

  Aster turned his head to its source.

  In the distance, along where it had been wedged on top of the ground, pointing straight at the monster, the Rakaila had split along its frontal section, unveiling some kind of energy array. The blinding beam of light was continuous, boring into the monster, melting it apart, bit by bit, as it screamed in pain, its attack disrupted.

  Multiple explosions rocked the Rakaila, causing its attack to splutter and die out.

  But the Rakaila had taken its retribution upon the monster.

  Half of the great monster had been vaporized, its still living half slowly falling as it let out its unfinished attack in a smaller continuous beam that sliced through the ground and the city, turning upwards into the artificial sky of the dome that covered the ceiling of Alsium Two, wreaking havoc. More explosions rocked the ceiling above.

  The artificial sky of Alisum Two flickered. Flashes of darkness interrupted the artificial light of day.

  The next moment, the artificial sky died. And darkness consumed everything.

  Only the light of the quickly growing fires around Alsium Two lit the darkness, together with the light of the mobile frame’s thrusters, the endless barrage of weapons’ fire from both the mobile frames and soldiers around, and whatever powered lighting still existed within the city’s buildings.

  The fires, ferocious red and orange, were spreading quickly, even despite Tigata’s heavy usage of brick and stone in its architecture, matching the firestorm building among the forests of Alsium Two. The flames cast an ominous glow on everything.

  But none of them had a chance to breathe a sigh of relief as more waves of the Starblight threatened to overrun them. The blocking positions and formations that the soldiers had put together were breaking down as the Starblight’s sheer numbers were threatening to overrun them entirely, though every soldier took down scores of the monsters with them as they fell.

  Their options were quickly dwindling, though they weren’t out of them yet.

  “Colonel Varsen,” Aster said, catching the Colonel’s attention, which had been directed towards their defences. “There’s still a way out of here through the subterranean cavern network in the nearby forests. There are a few that led straight towards the other districts if you can get to them.”

  “How dangerous?” Varsen asked.

  “Not enough to stay here,” Aster replied.

  The Colonel nodded. “Then it's the best option we have. Are you the only one who knows?”

  “No,” Aster shook his head. “Some of the other city folk should know too. Though it’s not something that people speak about normally. They should be able to guide through the proper paths.”

  In his youth, he had been shown by some of the kids when he and his sister Fia had lived within Alsium Two. Though it was something of an open secret that wasn’t talked about much, due to the risk of the less lenient portion of the Federation authorities cracking down on such activities.

  Colonel Varsen wasted no time in barking out orders to his subordinates, quickly redirecting traffic away from Alsium Two’s ruined and destroyed exit off to the rear, where Alsium Two’s command center had once been. As expected of the Rakaila’s soldiers, in mere moments, they had quickly adapted despite the circumstances, sending word to the rest of the nearby military units, which quickly shifted their positions and defences to account for the change in transport flight path.

  “Thanks, kid,” Varsen said, watching more of the transports take off with civilians loaded within their bellies. “Now let’s get you two—”

  Colonel Varsen tackled them both down as waves of sharp, thin obsidian spikes rained down like hail amidst the Tigata’s city square, killing scores of soldiers and civilians, along with blowing up several of the transports.

  Aster recovered quickly, checking on the Colonel along with several soldiers who quickly went to the aid of their commander. One of the soldiers called for a medic, who quickly arrived and began stabilizing the wounded officer.

  “Colonel!” Aster said, worried at the several spikes puncture straight through his body armor and uniform, through his gut and his heart.

  Colonel Varsen laughed as he held the spike in his heart. “It’ll take more than this to kill me!” In one swift motion, the man tore out the spike, tossing it aside as he coughed and hacked.

  The medic shook his head. “Colonel,” The medic said as he sprayed foam sealant in his chest wound. “You really need to stop doing that.”

  The Colonel waved the medic off as he got up to his feet with the help of the soldiers around him. “Forget about it.”

  A literal wave of the Starblight horrors crashed into the frontlines of the city’s defences, overrunning the lines of in-depth defence that had been set up. In mere moments, the horrors had spilled into the defences of the city square’s evacuation site, killing and slaughtering soldiers and civilians alike as the remaining transports took off in a hurry as quickly as they could.

  Everything devolved into a brutal melee as the fires grew in intensity all around them.

  “Get out of here kids!” Varsen said, going to work with both a bright blue Arcana blade that he formed in one hand and firing a pistol that he had taken out in his other hand. The wound he had taken in his heart had barely slowed him down as he deftly shot and hacked apart several misshapen monsters.

  The Colonel and the other soldiers around him fought a delaying action for the two of them, blocking the bulk of the creatures that had come their way. Aster hacked down several of the horrors with his own Arcana blade.

  The Colonel tossed Selenia his pistol, who grabbed it with both of her hands, terror in her eyes at everything unfolding so quickly around him. He nodded at the two of them. They nodded back.

  Aster took Selenia’s hand, speeding off with her away from the quickly deteriorating situation, cutting down the various disfigured monsters that got in their way.