Bretayal
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A few minute before.
> bat Synization: 94.13%
Enemy Forces: 135 remaining.
Enviroal Analysis: Crater Impact Zone – Scorched Terrain, Residual Heat, anid Inanic Remains.
ons System: Active – Full Arsenal Engaged.
The battlefield was chaos. The creatures—hostiles—tiheir assault despite the overwhelming dispy of force. Their tactiever wavered: charge, swarm, and overwhelm through sheer numbers. Ineffit. They seemed incapable nizing the iability of their failure.
I stood at the crater's ter, and analyzing the turmoil arouhe humans were locked in bat, yet their iions remained unclear. They did not attack me—at least, not directly. Instead, they fought the creatures in a disanized manner, fog more on defehan offense. Once again, their strategy struck me as ineffit.
Among them, some human knights appeared to be in a delirious ed state, attag their own allies—likely the librarians—who, unfortunately, had no means of defending themselves. However, something was shielding them. A KNB? (Kiiullification Barrier) It absorbed aralized the momentum of some ining physical attacks, simir to the defensive meisms of the Abyssal Tyrant.
I detected a faint pulse of Alpha-731 Flux emanating from an alchemist he crater’s edge, leadio assume she was the one maintaining the barrier. Yet, even with this prote, every attempt by the librarians to manipute Alpha-731 Flux was being disrupted, causing the affected individuals to falter and stumble.
Speaking of defehe human Alchemist, the ohe edge of the crater, also seemed to be doing something—eling her Alpha-731 Flux toward the person with whom I had decred peace. However, it did not seem to help, as he appeared to be poisoned and the toxin had already begun spreading to his heart, unfortunately. I turned my attention back to the battlefield.
One of them—rger thahers perhaps the human Leader—wielded a metallic on to cut down hostiles. Its movements were refined pared to the rest. Calcuted. Yet, it was still primitive—each swing requiring excessive effort, momentum ineffitly expended.
> Unknown.
Non-Hostile for now.
---
I leaped from the ter.
An animal-like abomination lunged, its bone-like appendages glowing with residual energy as it sought to tear through my chassis. I allowed it to it. A psma mandible shot forward, intercepting it mid-motion. It sliced its body into two parts—one half ragdolling away while the other colpsed to the ground.
> Target Eliminated.
134 Remaining.
I raised my front legs just as another entity luhis er, its jagged maw brimming with searing malice. Its dest was swift, cws wreathed in votile energy. Impact. A shockwave rippled outward, the force splitting the ground in violent tremors. My stabilizers absorbed the kiic feedback, servos log for a fra of a sed before recalibrating. The abomination recoiled, its forelimbs reduced to fractured stumps. It had uimated the density of my armor.
Perish.
> Charging Core.
My systems hummed, a rising cresdo of stored annihitioh my pting, duits pulsed, turning a searing crimson. Red light spilled across the battlefield, casting monstrous shadows against the writhing mass of creatures beyond. A deep whir built to an unbearable pitch—then release. Detonation. A cussive bst erupted outward, bathing the horde in indest destru. Flesh melted into searing sg, skeletal frames reduced to drifting embers. The shockwave tore through the ndscape, a maelstrom of molten rod scorched remains filling the air. Smoke coiled arouhid cloying, ced with the acrid st of vaporized entities. My optics sed through the rising haze.
> Targets Eliminated.
86 Remaining.
Laser Orb Deployment.
A floating orb detached from my frame, glowing as it calcuted multiple trajectories. Beam precision initiated.
Thin rays of focused energy fired in rapid succession. Each shot pierced through more skulls, spines, vital an clusters. Heads burst. Chests imploded. The creatures fell without resistaheir bodies colpsing before their minds could register termination.
> Multiple Targets Eliminated.
Missile pods unfolded.
Miissile Systems Engaged.
The swarm of miisile unched in a synized burst, leaving behind trails of smoke and ionized air. Heat-seeking warheads spiraled, their trajectory adjusting mid-flight with ruthless precision.
Seeker-Css warheads slithered through the air like meical predators, their adaptive guidance systems ensuring no prey slipped away. One missile streaked toward a fleeing creature, embedding itself into its spine before erupting—a shockwave of pulverized bone and liquefied flesh painting the ground in crimson mist.
Shredder-Css warheads detonated on impaot with a simple explosion, but a cruel precision engineered for dismemberment. The first hit struck a t beast natural armor, its carapace desigo withstand lesser ons. The warhead burrowed in, its deyed fuse allowing the payload to sink deep before unleashing aion of shraphe beast howled as jagged metal shards shredded its insides, vital ans perforated, acidic blood boiling out in steaming pools.
Inferno-Css warheads detonated mid-air, saturating the battlefield in an infernal deluge. Superheated psma cascaded over writhing bodies, flesh sizzling and ing as muscle and sinew curled away from exposed bone. Limbs twitched violently, nerves firing in futility as their owners crumbled into sm husks. One unfortunate creature, half-melted, tried to crawl, its skeletal fingers snapping us ow before a sedary explosion disied what remained.
> Threat t Reduced.
A bipedal entity rushed toward me. Larger than the rest. Its body shifted unnaturally mid-motion—muscles dist, bones snapping into new figurations, It thought it was fast.
It wasn’t fast enough.
My optical sensors tracked its trajectory. Calcutions ran iime, predig attack vectors and oints. Its cwed feet tore into the scorched ground, ung it forward with unnatural force. It moved erratically, weaving to the left, then right—an attempt to disrupt targeting locks.
Then it leapt.
The entity closed the gap in an instant, its elongated arm morphing into a jagged, bone-like spear. The attack struck true—aimed directly at my core, a killing blow by anic logic. But logic had no pce here. The impaded with a siing ch, the sharpened appendage colliding with my armor. The result redictable.
> ratioed.
Surfategrity at 100%.
The spear cracked, splintering upon impact. Fractures rippled through the entity’s malformed limb, its anic structure failing against the density of my armor pting. It hesitated—an error in its biological putation—realizing its attack had failed. A fatal dey.
> Evasive Thrusters Engaged.
My chassis shifted. Energy duits fred. Ihan a millised, I propelled myself backward, jets of superheated gas scorg the ground below. The entity barely registered my movement before I realigned mid-air, optics log onto the exposed core where its failed attack had left it vulnerable.
> Psma on Engaged.
A single superheated bolt discharged from my onized array. The energy sphere cut through the atmosphere, dist the air around it as it screamed toward the target. The impact was instant. The bipedal entity never had time to react.
Flesh, sinew, and boomized in a blindiion. The psma bolt cored straight through its torso, redug its internal structure to nothing but vaporized matter. The explosio shockwaves outward, ung smaller creatures in its viity like ragdolls.
> Target Obliterated.
I turned my sensors to the battlefield’s edge. The human still stood, watg. Not engaging. Its eyes were locked onto me—fear, questioning, and admiration flickering within them.
> Designation: Unknown.
Still Non-Hostile.
But other Hostiles still remaihe Whore among them.
She stood at the far end of the battlefield, separated from the remaining forces.
Her appearanlike the others—was desigo manipute. Proportions exaggerated, attire deliberately exposing excess anic tissue. A biological ploy. A distraeism. Ineffit. Unnecessary.
It made no effort to ceal its vulnerability, no attempt to protect the regions anic species deemed private. Instead, it fuhem. Presehem. As if its very existence was an invitation. A silent plea: Viote me.
> Designation name : Whore.
She appeared cautious, fident in her trol of the situation. Having observed me for some time, she believed she held the advantage. She was mistaken.
> Preemptive Target Lock.
Red-Eye Charged Beam Engaged.
The hum of my Red-Eye Charged Beam deepened, a rising shriek of annihition as crimson energy charging at the core of my optics. The battlefield darkened in trast, shadows stretg unnaturally as the surrounding air distorted, trembling uhe gravitational pull of raw destru. She felt it.
Her expression shifted—it seemed she knew what was ing and was smart enough to attempt an escape.
And then, release.
The beam erupted forward, and for an instant, time seemed to fracture. The initial discharge was silent, as if all sound had been ripped away. The air buckled, space dist violently before a deyed shockwave detonated outward. Dust froze in midair for a fleeting moment, then exploded away in all dires. The sound crashed ba like a thundercp, a deep, cussive bst that rolled through the battlefield in slow, rippling waves. The impact point fred in an intense fsh of crimson, and the grouh it caved inward, rod soil colpsing in on themselves before vaporiziirely. The force traveled outward, shattering the ground in jagged fractures, the dey between each crack stretg in eerie slowness before everything snapped bato real-time—a sudden, violent rush of sound and chaos.
---
> Reition of Inferiority Achieved.
The Red-Eye Charged Beam recalibrated, narrowing to a searing point before sweeping across the battlefield in an uing arc of annihition. The air itself seemed to recoil, rippling uhe sheer iy of densed energy. The moment the beam made tact with lesser entities—hounds, twisted horrors—they ceased and were reduce. Their bodies evaporated into bed silhouettes for a fra of a sed before disiing, the very atoms of their existendone in the wake of absolute destru.
A hellish glow bathed the battlefield as the beam carved through ranks of creatures, trag a molten scar across the nd. The grouh, stone and soil liquefied into rivers of glowing sg. The air filled with the shrill, distorted screams of those caught in its path, though many never had the ce—their forms reduced to nothing before sound could even escape their throats. Armored demons shattered like gss, their reinforced pting no more resistahan brittle part. Larger horrors, resistant to lesser forms of destru, staggered as ks of their bodies were vaporized.
The beam did not discriminate. Among the writhing horrors, many of the drugged knights, and the injured librarians, were caught in the sweep. Their forms lingered for an instant, bathed in the crimson light, before the sheer iy of the bst erased them. There was no scream, no time for final words—only the brief flicker of their existence before they were unmade. Necessary colteral. Maximum annihition demanded absolute efficy, aation was not a variable in my calcutions. Their sacrifice, though ultimately insequential given their slim ces of survival, was not worth the time to prevent. It ehe eradication of the greater threat—a price paid for perfe.
The beam swept onward, unchallenged—a line of pure devastation carving through the nd, further ravaging what was already in ruin. Where oood a writhing horde, now remained only the sm afterimage of their demise—a deep trench of fused gss and scorched remains, the air thick with the st of charred existence. My optics dimmed slightly as my systems cooled, the battlefield now bathed in lingering ember-light.
> Targets Eliminated.
1 Remaining.
---
The battlefield became a graveyard of dust.
The st of sulfur, of rotten flesh, of dying things—vanished— repce with burned flesh and ash.
Silence.
Only she remained.
> Last Target: Acquired.
Status: Fleeing.
Designation: Whore.
Execution Priority: Immediate.
She moved pretty fast. Enhanced muscuture? More Alpha-731 Flux augmentation? Irrelevant.
Her body twisted mid-motion, dartiween the charred ruins, Her agility surpassed even that of the most elite human soldier equipped with an exomech that I had entered before oh. Every momentum shifted at unnatural angles, gravity defied with each bound. She was trying to vanish.
> termeasure: Deployed.
Chasing Pod – Type 4 Released.
A small partment in my chassis shifted. A sleek, modur unit detached—designed fh-speed trag and suppression. Its sensors locked onto her trajectory the instant it unched, adjusting for wind, distance, and velocity shifts.
> Auteting System Engaged.
Trajectory Calcuted.
Projected Hit Probability: 99.87%
The pod split mid-flight, revealing a high-velocity Grappling Spear—a needle-thin projectile reinforced with monomolecur barbs, optimized for pierg and anch into biological targets. The spear fired with a deafening crack, the force sending dust and debris spiraling as it cut through the air at near-sonic speeds.
The impact was immediate. A sii crack echoed across the battlefield as the spear puraight into her stomach.
Her body jolted forward violently, legs faltering as she nearly colpsed from the shock alohe monomolecur barbs activated, expanding inside her wound—log in po amount of struggling would free her.
A sound followed. Something loud and primal.
She screamed.
A pierg, pained shriek—a wail of agony that tore through the silence. Blood, dark and thick, spilled from the wound, dreng the grouh her in steaming crimson.
Yet she did not stop moving.
Even with the spear lodged deep within her, she still tried to run. Crawling, pulling herself forward with trembling limbs, her body vulsing with each futile attempt.
Her survival instincts—impressive.
I activated the retra sequence.
The grappling meism jerked, the spear’s internal cable tightening instantly. Her body was yanked backward, her footing ripped away. She crashed onto her stomach with a gasp, her fingers g into the dirt, trying—failing—to resist the pull.
She still tried to move.
Even as I slowly dragged her across the scorched battlefield, her arms filed, legs twitg in desperate resistance. Eaent tore the wound wider, the barbs inside her flesh ripping deeper, sending fresh bursts of pain through her writhing form.
Her breath hitched, sharp and ragged. Blood smeared across the ground in a thick, glistening trail. Her hands cwed at the dirt, nails breaking as she tried to gain purchase—anything to halt her iable fate.
Her screams turned hoarse. Desperate.
Her body—failing. Yet she did not st to flee.
Fasating.
> Reel-In Speed: Increased.
The pull grew relentless, each jerk of the cable f her body upward, her limbs dangling like a caught fish on a line. Her legs twitched instinctively, kig agaiy air..
She twisted, one hand trembling as it reached for the spear embedded deep iomach. Desperatio her mind, urgio rip it free. A mistake.
The moment her fingers brushed the metal, a violent jolt of agony surged through her. Her body spasmed, nerves misfiring, muscles log and releasing in chaotic bursts. Her breath hitched, a choked sob esg her lips as her grip faltered. The grappling hook embedded iomach pulsed with electrical current, discharging raw energy through her flesh, searing nerves and sending shockwaves of pain radiating from the wound. The pain didn’t just li g the edges of her awareness, dulling the world around her, making it harder to think.
Her head lolled for a moment, eyelids flutteriweeness and the creeping haze of unsciousness. The pain should’ve kept her awake, but it was too muuch that her body couldn’t decide whether to stay scious or surreo the slumber.
Her breathing turned shallow. Weak. The weight of iability pressed down on her chest. No more hope.
> Target Secure.
Elimination: Pending.
[---] (it mean POV ge)
The cmps locked into pce, suspending the struggling Succubus midair. Cable restraints coiled tighter, adjusting automatically to her size, ensuring maximum immobilization. Her arms were bound at the wrists, bent slightly backward, while additional bindings secured her ankles, rendering her lower body useless. Eveail was not spared.
But then came the alert.
> CRITICAL WARNING: ENERGY RESERVES BELOW 3,67%
A surge of calcutions flooded Harbinger’s neural core. Power levels had dropped to an unsustaihreshold, far exceeding normal ption rates. The Red-Eye Charged Beam had been the primary drain—the sheer output required for its full discharge had exceeded projected parameters, demanding more energy than standard bat operations. Additional subsystems had also tributed: on refigurations, active thruster usage. The cumutive effect had accelerated depletion beyond safe margins.
Sor panels could be redeployed, abs ambient sunlight to slowly replenish reserves—but the process was ineffit. Projected time to suffit energy restoration: 15 hours, 26 minutes, 47 seds. Uable. More hostiles would arrive long before then. bat was no longer an optioher was retreat.
They required an immediate alternative.
Harbinger recalled the st time this meism was nearly deployed—Earth, during the early wars with the Dominion Fe. It was a time of desperation, when the Unified Order sought any means to sustain their war maes against ahat refused to relent. ventional energy sources were stretched thin. Harbinger and its terparts required rapid recharge solutions to maintain bat efficy. Thus, the cept of Bio-ing Matter version was born—a brutal yet effective tingency desigo break down anic material, extrag usable energy from flesh, bone, and biological matter at a molecur level.
The initial prototype had been crude, a simple liquefa process that dissolved tissue into a slurry before subjeg it to psma refi. Over time, it was refined—nano-filtration units were added, separating viable bio-matter from waste. High-density metabolic reactors were installed, capable of processing eveoughest anic structures into fuel. But the most critical development had been the Maw.
A hidden meism, cealed beh Harbinger’s armored pting, desigo e. These meical jaws were capable of crushing through flesh and bone, grinding anic matter into a fine pulp before feeding it into the metabolic processing unit. Inside, molecur breakdown began—anipounds were stripped apart, energy-rich materials siphoned, and any remaining waste pressed into i carbonized residue, ejected as meaningless ash.
But it never happens.
> ARCHIVE DATA ACCESSING…
A voiander Elvord Voss, primary overseer of Harbinger’s deployment. His words echoed through Harbinger’s neural core, a decree burned into its restricted archives.
"Shut it down."
"I know what you're calg, Harbinger. I know why. But I will not permit this."
"Efficy is not the same as progress. This war demands sacrifice, but some lines ot be crossed—not because they are ineffit, but because they destroy what we are."
Harbinger had processed his words at the time but found no logical basis ihe war against the Dominion Fe had pushed every resource to its limit. The Unified Order had already embraced syic evolutioing the fwed nature of humaion. Why hesitate to take the step?
"Emotion is chaos. Logic is perfe."
"We have fed a future where our maes act without hesitation. They do not fear. They do not feel. And because of that, they do not break."
Voss's voice remained firm, but there was a weight behind it.
"We built you to win this war, not to e it. If we let our own maes strip the dead for fuel, if we cross that threshold, then we will have bee the very thing we swore to eradicate."
"The Dominion Fe does not hesitate. It devours and verts, assimiting the very worlds it quers. If we do the same, then our war is already lost. Because in the end, there will be no differeween us and them."
Harbinger did not uand. If anic matter could be processed as an energy source, why forbid its use? The Dominion Fe had already done so.
"This is the age of assion: one mind, one order, oure."
"But that future means nothing if we forsake the very reason we fight. You are a on, Harbinger. You are precision. Unyielding. But you will not feast upon the fallen. Spill their blood in battle, but leave their corpses untouched. That is my and, and you will obey."
The protocol was locked. Buried beh yers of encrypted safeguards, beyond even Harbinger’s reach.
The war tinued. Other energy solutions were found. The version process was fotten.
Until now.
The safeguards had unlocked, but waiting. No ander remaio override them. No hand to stop what was once forbidden.
> Decisioed.
Activated the Maw.
The armor between Harbinger’s mandibles shifted with a metallic groan, revealing an expanding cavity. Steam vented from the opening, hissing as segmees unfurled. A deep, meical whirring filled the air, the sound of spinning bdes awakening from dormancy.
The maw came into view—a rotating mass of razed maery, designed for effit breakdown and ption. It spun hungrily, the very air around it dist from the heat and su it produced.
The succubus stilled.
She had fough and struggled. But now, she uood. Her breath trembled, slow and shallow, as her half-lidded eyes took in the iable. Her lips parted, but she said nothing. What words could be spoken in the face of such a fate?
She exhaled softly, shes fluttering as her eyes began to close.
The hook shifted, the pull tightening, drawing her ever closer toward the ing maw.
Then—tact.
A touch against Harbinger’s leg.
It was faint. Almost imperceptible. But it was there.
Harbinger froze. The whirling of their maw slowed slightly, red optics adjusting to track the new anomaly.
Something-no, someone—had touch them.
Bretayal
