Clash of titans

Reinforced steel beams snapped under the weight of the collapsing roof, clouds of dust and debris filled the rooms of base SR1 and screams for help were heard everywhere around him.

Delvin could do nothing to ease the situation because the hallway behind his back caved in from the pressure and earthquakes. 'Move you idiot!'

He sprinted along the halls of the base, in hopes of reaching the control room before the entire structure collapsed. His body was starting to sport multiple cuts and bruises from the the falling chunks of rock and steel, Del barely reached his goal when an explosive force launched him headfirst onto the floor of the room. The blast came at a price though, the heat from the explosion scorched his back badly and it took everything he had to not wail out in pain.

[Greetings Delvin, we don't have much time for explanations so just do as I say if you want to make it out of here alive] MERI's cold voice resounded throughout the control room.

"Where is my sister?! Are Dean and Maya safe, you better answer me, I know you can sense their vitals signs." Delvin asked, the burning pain seemingly disappearing as he steeled his mind on the well being of his friends and sister.

[Chrissy was near the port-gate, she was pushed into the gate by Upalj in a show of sacrifice. Dean has been crushed by debris and is currently on the verge of dying, Maya was swallowed by the earth and is now some 5 km underneath the base.] MERI answered before immediately continuing, not giving Del a moment to absorb the words it just said.

[The only way to save them is to trust me, there are some thing I can not explain to you now but you have to place your hands on the main control panel and close your eyes.]

Delvin bolted to the main computers without thought, much like a heartless robot would. Ever since returning from the abyss he had trusted his instincts. The same instincts that were now telling him to follow everything the supercomputer instructed to a tee.

His hands reached two metallic panels that had crevices in them, shaped like a human's hand. This was where some of the other scientists tried to operate and/or control the supercomputer.

Still too shocked to fully accept the words uttered earlier by MERI, Del turned his head to one of the many wall-mounted monitors used for operating the main control panel of MERI.

The one closest to him displayed satellite footage of Noth, and the sight he saw on the screen truly shook Delvin to his core.

Slicing through most of the sky over the northern hemisphere of Noth, Del saw a gigantic, expanding crack. Its shadow covered half the planet, and flowing out of it were massive crimson-purple tentacles which were descending on the planet with such force that entire cities and valleys were being destroyed.

In the very center of the ever-spreading crack stood a 10 meter high figure, clad in purple-grey armour with some kind of malformed violet wings.

Delvin noticed it's muscles glowed in varying shades of crimson, the same glow could be seen in the monstrosity's eyes and armour. The figure had no weapons, but Delvin was sure a punch from those arms would blow apart mountains, and those leg-

A blinding, verdant green light suddenly shone through all of the monitoring screens, blinding Del momentarily. His eyes burned almost as much as his back did, but he managed to refocus his vision back to the screen shortly after; and the scene he saw once again shocked him.

Standing directly opposite of the purple monstrosity was a floating woman whose beauty took Del's breath away.

Her white hair had spots of green leaves and flowers. She wore no armour, but a green-white dress with a leaf-bed acting as shoulder guards which served to highlight her round face and small pointy nose.

Floating around her was some small tree, it's branches curving upwards and coiling around some bright golden light. But it was her voice that took Del's breath away

"You're in restricted airspace asshole, I don't know whose dog you are but this is protected land. Go back through that disgusting nether crack you came out of." The small humanoid female's voice had hints of anger and arrogance in it.

"OOOOOOOOOOH, if it isn't the *REDACTED* If I knew someone from **REDACTED**…"

"Hey, MERI what happened to the audio, who are these peo-" Del had no idea why he couldn't make out certain words and he suspected Meri interfered somehow, but a jolt of pain coming from his arms prevented it. He looked down and saw 2 spikes protruding straight through his palms.

[You don't need to bother yourself with what's happening outside. Focus your energy on sensing the connection I'm trying to achieve with you, this is the only way!] MERI tried explaining.

"What the fuck are these spikes, why can't I remove my hands?! And who are these beings on the screen?! Aren't all the gods dead??" Del was now actively fighting the pain coursing through his entire body, his mind was fading from pain and he was just barely keeping himself from losing consciousness.

[These ones are not your so-called gods anymore than I am. They are enemies whose clash over tax, property and lands will result in this planet's total destruction. We have around two minutes until their overwhelming amount of Essence shreds Noth's planetary core to bits and pieces.] MERI answered, with a rather bleak tone.

Del had no time to respond as he was bombarded with notifications. He could no longer fight the pain and feel to his knees while summoning every inch of willpower he still had to try to read through the blinking boxes.

[Foreign entity is initiating a symbiosis request]

[Foreign entity identified as: related to the Host]

[Symbiosis achieved]

[Host is entering symbiotic state with MERI core No.1]

"WAIT! We have to get the save the rest o-" Del tried to stop whatever Meri had in mind but the pain was too great at this point and the control room started getting darker and darker.

"AAAAAAAAHH! MERI what the fuck are you doing, wh-" Del fell unconscious and his head hit the panels with a *thud* sound.

[Host has shut down due to successful symbiosis]

And so Delvin was once again shut down by his own system.

If one could see Delvin right now, they would witness a mind-bending spectacle of a person's body visually shrinking in on itself, as if there was a black hole in the center of their body.

In seconds the only part left of Delvin Mayes was a small metallic hourglass with no visible marking or details, the small hourglass floated into a sphere-like object that appeared above where Del's hands were inserted shortly before.

The hourglass entered a small opening on the side of the sphere whilst loud cracking sounds were heard all around.

---

High above the skies of Noth, Chrissy's tear-filled eyes could see two people fighting at unimaginable speeds.

A woman clad in green and a huge crimson-purple monstrosity clashed dozens of times per second and the resulting shockwaves decimated the planet's surface.

Chrissy remembered what Upalj said before pushing her through the port gate.

"Save as many as you can Chrissy." His voice was uncharacteristically soft and mellow, as if he were talking to baby; then again he did always treat her like a younger sister, even more-so than Del.

Chrissy gathered her courage and rose to her feet quickly and looked around to get a grasp on the situation.

Her comrades and colleagues lay dead and injured all around her and their cries of fear and anguish were only silenced by the ongoing cataclysm.

"Everyone, we need to get to Evac spot 2 up the hill, we have three shuttles that can transport us to a spatial outpost, we have to move!" Her voice reached deaf ears as everyone around her was too terrified to move.

She tried thinking of some other way to help them but was interrupted by loud cracking sounds.

The ground started opening up from underneath her and she had to use her hover boots to escape to safety.

Turning around she saw a hole leading more than 3 kilometers into the ground wherein she saw something inexplicable, their fucking base! 'Several kilometeres of solid earth... engineered into a gigantic hangar-like opening.'

An orb-like object suddenly flew upwards from the hole and into the sky, dipping and diving to avoid aftershocks and explosions happening everywhere.

Chrissy tried following the orb thinking it to be some kind of last-ditch effort to salvage the situation but in a few short moments she lost sight of the orb as it rose past the rumbling clouds being beckoned at the call of the purple monster.

The monstrosity was yelling and weaving magical signs the sizes of buildings; he finished the chant by vomiting his own blood and slurping it back up. When the monster finished its feast a soul-crushing pressure descended on the entire planet. The monster was doubling in height and muscle-mass as it pointed towards the white-haired sorceress.

"NO MORE WENCH! I'VE LOST MY MARK BECAUSE OF YOU, WHO KNOWS HOW MUCH TILL I RECEIVE ONE AGAIN!!! THE BLIGHT OF EVERMOON WILL REMEMBER THIS GREEN HAIRED BITCH WHO WOULD DO HIM SUCH FOLLY" It's voice echoed everywhere causing Chrissy to start feeling doomed; her body frozen in shock at the gargantuan size of the purple abomination.

"You would release your limiter on this weak stage 3 world?! Stop this madness or you will know damnation." The green-haired female replied before doing some hand gestures around the orb which circled her, evoking a myriad of trees and plant life to start rapidly forming and growing around her.

"Hrast Sanctuary!"

"FULL POWER RELEASE!"

The titans clashed again, the resulting shockwave from this impact was the last thing Chrissy saw before being blown to smithereens alongside a quarter of Noth.

Just before closing her eyes she heard a familiarly cold voice.

[Del will survive, in time we will come back for you]

[Rest easy in knowing that one day our return will herald the return of your civilization]

And so Chrissy closed her eyes and let herself be absorbed by the darkness.

---

Some time later the green-haired goddess looked down at the once-prosperous planet of Noth; now turned to floating debris in space with nothing to show for it's millennia-long history apart from ruination.

'What in the cosmos could have drawn an 8th Tier powerhouse to this backwater planet, Leeloo has been governing this piece of space for decades and has never noticed anything particularly useful or valuable... just what was that mark he mentioned?' She pondered to herself.

"But that was the truly strange part," she said, remembering a small egg-like object which emerged briefly before shooting up towards the crack in space." The small egg connected with my mana signature for the briefest of moments..." It was this short lapse in attention when she connected with the egg that allowed that wretched being to unleash his Nova-level spell

"The mark and the egg; both with unknown origins and locations...yeesh I just can't catch a break!" The woman pushed both her hands forwards and opened her palms before saying "Perfected Plant Port".

ZHWOOOOSSH

The next moment she was eaten up by the ground; despite floating in space.

From where the she disappeared one could see gigantic vines spreading through-out the solar system Noth was located in, acting as make-shift stiches which covered the cracks in the fabric of space.