61 Counteroffensive
(2 out of 3 chapters this week)
Three Daedalus-Class Airships were floating above Lilith, the Capital of the Devil Kind.
In the middle airship, the Icarus, Marcus was sitting on his throne; before him was the floor turned into a video screen thanks to the Realitus.
"The city is crawling with those things. How could Hades allow such a thing?" Artemis exclaimed with some disbelief. Did her uncle go utterly senile?
"Use your senses. There is nothing about your uncle in these things." Marcus said with a calculating look.
"...You are right. I don't sense any Greek divinity from these things. There are some Norse Divinity. But it's mostly just pure evil."
As he heard her explain, the Alchemist noticed one interesting thing. It's like Hades released all the crap he had in his basement and allowed it room.
It's like, 'You wanted to keep this shit in my domain? Well, no more! You can have it!'
"It appears your uncle decided to discard everything which was forced on him to be kept in his underworld, washing his hands away from the consequences." Marcus snorted with amusement as he said that. He can imagine all the godlings telling him to keep their villains in his basement.
"I don't think it works like that," Artemis said with a twitchy smile.
"It would work if he beats everything in his path." He shrugged casually. But Serafall's image, which Realitus created as she was aboard her airship, finally spoke.
"Can we start the counterattack already?"
"Hmm, right. Let's start, deploy the walkers." He motioned with his finger to get it to his crew.
"Deploying Walkers."
~~~
Underbelly hulls of Daedalus-Class opened, and metal objects similar to walnuts in shape started to fall into the city's ruins.
Upon landing, sounds of metallic transformation followed. The walnut opened up like a flower. It had eight legs, and it started to stand up. The sound of transformer change followed as twin barrels extended, followed by a pair of hands holding missile pods. It has six eyes, which allows it to have 360 views of its surroundings.
[Initiating Purge Protocols]
[Revolver System Online]
[Motion to Printing Systems Online]
[M.G.M.I. 'Walker' Online.]
[Loading De-Atomization Missiles]
Missile pods on the walker's hands, shoulders and back opened up as they were loaded and ready for launch.
[Firing]
Over twenty walkers shot their missiles at the aimlessly walking Wraiths. The missiles disintegrated them on the spot.
"It appears they can't see them." Atalanta looked at this with a slight frown. There was no reaction from these Wraiths.
"Maybe because they are not alive?" Enterprise commented as she saw this as well.
"That's fine. We are going to use this until these things adjust." Marcus smirked as he motioned for the walkers to switch to their primary weapon, the twin barrels.
"Start the purge."
The walkers on the ground closed the missile pods, and the small assembly lines built inside started reloading them.
At the same time, the walkers started to walk and gather energy. Once they got enough motion to mana, they were ready to shoot.
Since the barrels rotated upper, one shot from north to clockwise down. The lower barrel shot from south to north. The walker did a complete ring of destruction.
*Metallic Horn*
"..."
"War of The Worlds?"
Serafall asked as she heard the horn blaring through the city.
"Indeed. I considered making the Tripods, but the Daedalus airship is too small to store. I guess once we switch to starships, we can have them." Marcus lazily commented as he watched the handy work of the walkers.
The destruction capacity was just like they calculated.
But then the Wraiths started to react. It appears the enemy made adjustments to their foot soldiers.
"Aurora. Did you find the frequency?"
[Analysing magic used to control the wraiths.]
The percentage started to go up. At the same time, the wraiths began to attack the walkers.
From a distance, other enemies started to rush towards the walkers as well. Among them were Cerberuses, Frost Giants and other creatures from hell itself.
Seeing this, Marcus switched to second phase two.
"Deploy S.P.B.A."
"Deploying troops."
The main force proceeded to scramble as well. The gunships started to leave the airships.
"I would like to join the assault as well," Enterprise said from behind Marcus Throne.
"Very well."
After hearing all clear, the silver-haired girl walked towards the lift.
"Since this is the case, I would like to deploy my prototypes." Quinella, aboard her Axiom, said with a barely hidden competitive voice.
She won't allow a ship girl to get one on her! She will impress her creator more than that girl!
"Do it. I want to see what you cooked up in that limited time." Marcus easily allowed. He even looked giddy with such an opportunity.
~~~
"Deploy the Yaegers! Let's show what our mechs can do!" Quinella ordered her crew.
"Deploying Mechanised Infantry!"
Much broader and bigger gunships have left the hangars of the Airship Axiom. These gunships don't carry soldiers but large sealed boxes attached via magnets.
As the gunships got close to the ground, the gunship released the magnets, and the boxes dropped on the rubble ground.
Transformer sound spread through the area as the boxes started to change. Raptor-like legs slowly stood up, revealing humanoid medieval armour, a knight helmet with horns and a pair of hands; the hands, however, below the elbow were thin blades which were glowing black and red. These— mechs were standing above two metres.
[M.T.M Reactor Online]
[Inniating Purge Protocols]
[M.G.M.I 'Yeager' Online]
The mechs looked around, swiftly distinguishing enemies and jumping onto the battlefield.
Because of the style of these machines, they are fast-running mechs working as front-line wave mechs. They are cheap, easy to make and have no higher purpose but killing as many as possible before they blow up.
That's why they lunged forward into Wraiths, Frost Giants, and Cerberuses to blow up, if not slicing through enemies.
And Quinella has brought a lot of them. The gunships don't stop dropping the Yeager units.
When S.P.B.A left their Gunships, the Yeagers had made a frontline alongside the Walker Spiders.
"Go, go! Into positions!" Squads of Mandalorian-like soldiers rushed to take cover and opened fire on the screeching wraiths.
Back on Icarus, Serafall proposed the next course of action.
"We should retake the centre first and then spread out to all the sides."
As she said that, Realitus revealed a tactical map.
"The government building?" Marcus pondered as he looked at the map.
"We can discharge purifying lightning through the main cannons towards that direction, then send a squadron of Starcreams," Quinella suggested as she showed her plan via a simulation.
"Or I can spearhead the attack," Enterprise said as her Realitus clone appeared beside the map.
"I have my squadrons of fighters and bombers; they can clean a path, and then I can send my S.P.B.A to retake the government building." She said that while looking at Marcus, Enterprise completely ignored her 'competition'. In truth, she doesn't even see her as competition. She has her talents, and so does his A.I. Turned biological girl.
"Do so, Enterprise. I want to see you fight." The Alchemist quickly agreed as he saw the plan.
"I won't disappoint you."
After saying that, the Biological Combat Model disappeared. The maids and Serafall could see Quinella's dark look; they sweatdropped.
Their actions don't look like a part of a war; it's more like a game about who will get the most 'points' from their creator.
"Good, since Enterprise is getting the city centre, we must clean up the suburban areas.
Did we finish the scans of Azazel? His light energy?" Marcus pondered after seeing the composition of the Wraiths on one of the screens. He already started to get info after his S.P.B.A. engaged those things in close range.
"Yes, that power structure has been added to the Revolver system." One of the crew girls said to him.
"Then tell new deployments to switch to this ammo and load it to the batteries facing the ground."
"At once!"
Second later, the cannons which target the ground started raining down light energy, and the newest deployed S.P.B.A switched from De-Atomization rounds to Light Rounds. They even gave new cartridges to already deployed soldiers.
Slowly, the battlefield got a new colour, yellow; it looked like the angels themselves joined the fight.
The wave of the Wraiths slowly started to burn away, leaving other creatures to fight at the front lines like the Frost Giants
However, this is where walkers and the Yeagers come into play.
Before long, the fighting turned into urban style, as suburban areas shifted into taller buildings like skyscrapers.
The S.P.B.A. proceeded to check building after building, floor after floor.
~~~
"This is Epsilon squad D-9. The fifth floor is clear."
[Roger, Epsilon D-9, proceed to the sixth floor.]
After receiving the orders, the squad of five rushed upstairs. Their HUD quickly detected a lifeform.
The leader raised his hand and motioned to stop; he then, with his fingers, gave orders.
The heavy gunner's weapon transformed into a shotgun. Then, he got into his position.
The sniper of the team went to the back. He got ready with his heavy barrel rifle.
The leader counted down from three to zero; the next moment, the doors shattered from a heavy shotgun shot, and it broke whatever barrier was in place.
"Go, Go, Go!"
The squad rushed in. However, there was no resistance.
What they found was a hurt woman. She had a pair of horns and cherry-coloured hair. The woman raised her hands when she saw the group of soldiers.
The armoured men lowered their guns.
"You are a civilian? Identify yourself." The squad leader ordered her.
"Roygun Belphegor, from Extra Demon families, Head of Belphegor Family." She identified herself.
"Head of a Family? One moment, we shall confirm your identity." The Leader of the Squad turned to the side as he started communicating with someone; two remained to watch over her while the other two proceeded to explore the room.
A few short moments later, the leader finished with his communication and looked at her.
"With wartime exemptions, only visual confirmation is required. You may come with us; our Creator and Leader wishes to speak with you."
"...Very well."
One of the squad members did something to his gun before pointing it at her.
"!?"
Then he shot her. But instead of damage, what she received was accelerated healing!
"...Impressive." Roygun looked at her hands, feeling her energy returning and her wound rapidly recovering.
"First aid, you can see medical staff aboard Icarus."
"...Icarus?"
…
…
…
As Roygun left the building, what she saw in the distance, several buildings away, was the frontline.
A bunch of soldiers like the one with her were fighting the Cerberus, some hell monstrosities. But then a Frost giant walked over and was about to swing his massive club.
But that moment from building a literal robot, it jumped down with both hands for blades on the Frost Giant, stabbing in its back.
The Frost Giant roared from pain; before it could trash around, another robot rushed from the side and sliced the Giant's legs.
The cut Made it drop to the ground. Then, the third one rushed from the front and stabbed right into its head. The robot killed Frost Giant in the process.
"So this is Marcus Goldman's faction. Interesting—" As Roygun said that a gunship arrived for her.
As the side doors opened, several of the same types of soldiers came out.
"Come with us, Roygun Belphegor."
She didn't question and entered the gunship.
As the gunship started to rise, a metallic horn sounded as a beam of energy rushed where the fighting was happening. The devil lady saw a spider-like tank with two barrels entering the fight.
'Satan Leviathan has downplayed this Alchemist power— can he wage war like this? What does all of this mean?'
As she pondered, she could see the state of the Capital from the gunship's small entrances on the sides. Eventually, her eyes ended up on three massive airships floating towards the city centre.
'Those…airships?'
Honestly, she didn't believe much that something like a super super-advanced faction existed. Like, what's the point? There is magic which can do all that. But after seeing how these robots don't struggle against Frost Giants and those soldiers with strange weapons. Maybe that's what Devil Kind needs to survive this war.
As the gunship landed in the middle airship and opened up, she could see hundreds of men waiting for their turn to get some action.
'That's a lot of soldiers…'
The size of these 'reinforcements' is good to see, but—
"Come with us; We will take you to our Creator and Leader."
A pair of powerful-looking soldiers who had half capes and a bunch of ornaments with impressive-looking weapons greeted her.
"Of course."
She followed the pair to a wide-looking lift, which took her to the top.
Several short moments later, the double doors opened, and she saw a vast room with a window in the distance. This place was the bridge of the airship.
Computer consoles were around the bridge used by only female officers, with a throne in the middle; in front of the throne on the ground was a familiar city map.
"Satan Leviathan, it's good to see that you are alive," Roygun said with a relieved voice.
"Roygun Belphegor? Same to you. I am happy that there are some Ultimate Class devils still around." Serafall said with a relieved voice as well.
"I am considered lucky. I noticed that these Wraiths only see sources of Demonic energy and Heat. I was dumb luck after experiencing an injury. I hid myself in a skyscraper. Those things are not the smartest. After destroying several stairs, they couldn't get to higher levels.
However, your soldiers quickly passed such hurdles."
As she explained, her gaze eventually went to the throne where a man sat.
He looked pretty indifferent at everything which was happening.
Though, she ignored that; instead, she marvelled at his power and looks.
'This is Marcus Goldman. He is so young! Not going to lie, Lady Serafall has good taste!'
Marcus, in front of her, is hitting all those check marks without even trying!
"We expected heat vision. Which Wraiths already adjusted. However, demonic energy was something we haven't addressed." Marcus finally spoke; his voice made the Devil Lady tremble. It was almost hypnotic!
"Tell me, Miss Roygun, your story. Maybe we will pick something we have missed; after all, you are the first person we have found alive."
*Gulp*
Her eyes trembled when he said that! She is the only one!? But this is Lilith!!! The biggest city on this side of the world!
If this is true, then devil-kind numbers are critically low!
"As you wish, I will tell you about the invasion from my side." The devil lady proceeded to tell them.
~~~~~~Enterprise~~~~~~
The Silver-haired shipgirl landed on the roof of a five-floor building and looked towards the government castle-like building.
One thing for sure is that the devil-kind loves their castles. The carrier ship girl hasn't seen much to compare these, but one thing she is confident about is that such big castles are not around that much on Earth.
'I should ask Admiral for one of those 'dates' to take me around his country. I do wish to compare buildings on the land.'
As she pondered on that, her Neo Sacred Gear manifested in her hand. It was a bow made from blue crystalline metal; there was no bowstring. However, the moment she brought her hand closer, energy manifested around the bow.
With casual motion, she pulled the string and an energy arrow from pure purple-ish blue energy manifested. The ship girl casually released it, and the arrow rushed towards the Wraith
It nailed one, second, third, fourth, and lastly, fifth armoured ghost being. The arrow expanded before blowing up with the five enemies.
"...Hmm, the bow is strong, but it's meant for a single target, more or less. I suppose my Admiral prepared me for crowd control and one-on-one situations." As she whispered that to herself, the girl dismissed her bow as golden space behind her rippled.
Several barrels of cannons came out.
"I might not be a battleship, but I know how to fight! fire!"
Red and black beams started to rain from her position towards the Wraiths surrounding the castle-like building.
Her actions attracted the enemies as all sorts of beings started to rush towards her, from hell hounds to minotaur-like creatures.
"Oh? Do you guys think you have air superiority when you are this far from the Admiral's location? My, such arrogance…" The girl smirked as she slightly fixed her hand.
Slowly behind her, a massive ship emerged from another space. One after another, jet fighters began to take off from the runway one after another. These jets started to intercept enormous bats and demonic-looking birds.
Then, the carrier started to rain clusters of missiles at the enemies!
A few minutes later, when Enterprise stood in the streets, most battles around this area had stopped.
This power is the reason why her classification is a 'Pantheon-tier'.
She has an army of her own.
By the time she was in front of the government building, there were several hundred S.P.B.A soldiers around her. These were her Marines.
"Capture the building, flush the stranglers out. When my Admiral is here, I want him to know this place is under control."
"Yes! Commander!" The marines rushed inside, and the fighting continued as enemies waited in all sorts of hiding spots in the building.
'This is strange; I haven't noticed any sort of dead bodies yet.'
Enterprise looked around. Her HUD was scanning everything, looking for clues!
'Are they recycling them?'
Such realisation made her frown heavily. If this is true, then there is barely life left in the Underworld.
As she thought about that, she walked inside the government building.
~~~
In the destroyed Headquarters of the Fallen Angels, Angra Mainyu turned its head towards the direction of Devil-Kind civilisation.
"It appears he is here, my rival! Finally! Finally, this war can start! Ddraig! Albion! Let's test him! Go, you two; I want to see if he can match Heavenly Dragons reborn!"
A pair of draconic roars spread through the area as red and white dragons took to the skies.
Angra Mainyu is confident about his two dragons. After all, it buffed them to the point that they could use their signature moves and wield their deadly flames.
"Ah, and yes, my pets are dying too fast; it's time for an upgrade." The Evil incarnate lifted his hand and looked at King Piece of Evil Pieces.
"Ajuka, you were too soft. So what if they are dangerous? Just make them blow up when they have no use. Fufufuhahahaha."
~~~
Enterprise walked around the government building; she saw the four thrones, the council room and other ministries.
Eventually, she secured all of the building and contacted her Admiral via her HUD.
"Admiral, the building is secured; we can begin the counterattack from here." The ship girl said with crossed arms.
"Good. Before we do that, there are two incoming enemies with high-energy signatures. According to the data, they are Ddraig and Albion."
The silver-haired girl's eyes widened for a second. Those are Heavenly Dragons!
"But they should be dead?"
"We are dealing with Evil Gods; those beings have their means to resurrect beings. By all means, treat them as Evil Dragons instead of Heavenly Dragons."
"Understood. I will deal with them." Enterprise said with a severe tone. She will prove herself by disposing of the old generation!
"Fine, I will have Gu Yuena on standby."
"No need. I will use my ship in its true form."
"Very well."
After finishing the call, she left the building, floated to her ship's command tower, and waited for the enemies.
The beauty accessed her HUD and used the network to locate the incoming enemies.
Once, she saw a pair of high-energy sources with familiar signatures.
'There you are.'
Her carrier ship proceeded to fly towards the pair of dragons.
*Roar**Roar*
"It appears a scrap metal wants to fight us!"
"That's some arrogance."
The pair of dragons looked identical to the originals. Enterprise compared these two with the images provided by the Aurora Network.
"I needed to double-check. I don't want to kill the wrong dragons."
As she said that, her mana roared to life as she floated up into the sky.
Her carrier launched all of the bombers and jet fighters, and then it proceeded to change its position from horizontal to vertical.
Then transformer sounds followed as the carrier started to change into humanoid form. A familiar head with a 'V' shaped visor, reminiscent of a Samurai helmet, the bombers and jet fighters fused to form the machine's wings and a massive buster sword.
By the time the transformation was over, the machine was towering over the pair of Dragons.
"This is my Enterprise's true form, Destiny Gundam!" The mech grabbed the sword with both hands. The blade glowed sinister red, and the pair of wings on its back ignited with purple-pink particles.
Before it moved, the mech's green eyes glowed and disappeared with an array of after images.
The wings are not 'real thrusters'. They emit psionic particles, which warp space, allowing the machine to ignore gravity.
That's why it can move extremely fast, even with its size being over a hundred metres tall.
The machine appeared in front of Albion, who used its serpentine body to evade and swiftly counter with its poisonous flames.
But the mech spun out of its way and removed one of the hands from the blade; the hand's palm started to glow as it grabbed the dragon by the neck.
[DIVIDE]
[DIVIDE]
[DIVIDE]
However, the energy from the palm didn't shrink at all.
Instead, it glowed even before exploding the head in gory fashion.
"Impossible! Why did White One's power not work!"
"Because it's a machine and not a living being. Your friend tried to Divide wrong thing." Enterprise explained with an indifferent voice.
"You pair of dragons have been studied and figured out long ago." As she said that, the machine threw the body of Albion to the side, and a loud thud followed.
The S.P.B.A. will recover the body of the white dragon and will be studied further. Maybe Enterprise's Admiral will find something more interesting. But then again, he already has the 'Culmination of all of his Dragon studies' in the form of Gu Yuena and the Golden Dragon Neo-Sacred Gear.
*Roar*
[BOOST]
[BOOST]
[BOOST]
[BOOST]
[EXPLOSION]
The red dragon opened its mouth and released a torrent of scorching flames towards the machine.
But the mech ignited its wings again and took some distance before releasing a slash of purple-pink energy from its blade, cutting the flames and then rushing towards the dragon.
The dragon dodged the slash and then got close to the mech.
If it can't beat in long range, it might as well disassemble piece by piece.
The copy of Ddraig's mouth glowed as it used its other ability.
[PIERCE]
Before it can sink its teeth into the machine
The stomach area of Destiny Gundam glowed as it released a beam of black and red energies.
It was a built-in cannon in the stomach area.
At point black range, it was deadly to the Red Dragon, who didn't expect such a thing.
"Damn you…"
The dragon had a hole in its body and dropped to the city below.
"At least the Admiral will have your skull, which he can place on a wall."
Enterprise was pleased that the head of Red Dragon survived. She is sad that she couldn't do the same with the White One.
Once the fight had ended, her Gundam switched back to the Carrier ship. The Silver head landed on the command tower and contacted her Admiral.
"The Dragons have been taken care of."
"Wonderfully done. I am pleased with your performance, Enty."
When she heard that, her heart went, 'Doki, Doki'.
"Y-Yes! It was my pleasure! I shall return to guarding the government building! I mean time, I will send someone to collect the corpses of the clones of the Heavenly Dragons."
"Don't worry about those. I will send one of the airships to collect them."
"Understood!"
The shipgirl swiftly returned to her watch.
The fight between the Gundam and the dragons has been seen by whatever surviving Devils were over the city. It was hard to miss because of their sheer sizes.
~~~~~~Meantime~~~~~~
Quinella clenched her fist as she watched how Enterprise scored her two kills and succeeded in conquering the government building!
"How is the situation with my Integrity Knights?" She asked her second in command.
The girl next to her trembled for a second. She could sense pure anger radiating from the M.A.I. turned human.
"...Umm… only six are ready for combat."
"Six!?" The Platinum-haired girl exclaimed as she closed her eyes and used her interface to access the airship.
What she saw was precisely what her second-in-command had just said.
She opened her eyes and clicked her tongue. Her elites are nowhere near ready to impact the battlefield significantly.
Her 'Integrity Knights' are a mix of soldiers who have mechs. They can fight even when they lose the machines. These units are mixes of Marcus' current guard and the Starscream Jet fighters.
They have both a plane mode and a mech mode; once the mech is damaged, the knight can continue to fight without its 'mount'. That's what makes one a 'Knight'.
This idea came to her after watching Code Geass and their Round Tables.
As she pondered, the Realitus system came online, and Marcus manifested before her. Next to him was Serafall.
Seconds later, the map of the capital, Lilith, appeared.
The Alchemist proceeded to explain their next move.
"With Enterprise taking over the government building, we are spreading out to capture the whole city.
By the time we have the entire city, more airships will join us. By then, we could create a proper frontline."
"What about the Evil Gods? They haven't done anything. Apart from capturing Hel, we have no idea what happened to Loki, Baldur, and Thor." Quinella said with a frown. She needs to get her brownie points! Any of the gods are good for her!
"That's what we are doing. We are fighting someone who is just like me. A creator, as a creator, makes his creations fight us.
The only way we will make it appear is by crushing his toys. The rest of the Evil Gods will appear as we approach that godling's location."
Marcus said that as he crossed his hands.
"So, a game?" Serafall frowned heavily. She doesn't like this one bit.
"Precisely, however, I don't know if this God knows, but giving us time is the stupidest thing he could do. So, I am giving him a chance."
After saying that, the trio decided how they would spread their airships.
Quinella and Serafall were both eager to 'spread' their wings and started to expand in opposite directions while Marcus decided to make himself 'home' in Lilith's centre.
His Icarus was floating right above the government building.
Slowly, he started to drop Aurora bots, who began to work on the fortifications.
~~~
"You know. You can send me to hunt for more Gods for you." Gu Yuena said with crossed arms as she sat on the armrest of her creator's throne.
She wasn't sitting on his lap; nope, the Dragoness was waiting for him to do that! For him to pull her into his lap!
"No need. I am not rushing. Rushing would be the most stupid thing to do.
Angra Mainyu is giving me time. The Evil God is waiting for this. He waits for me to build my base before we can play proper 'war'." Marcus said quite casually as he was using his hand to lean his head on. He looked like he was ignoring Gu Yuena's advances on the other side.
Seeing this, the Dragoness pouted as she plopped on his lap either way.
By that point, she proceeded to snuggle. Atalanta, who was behind the throne, looked at this with narrowed eyes.
"So you intend to remain here? Master?" Artemis, who heard everything, spoke with a knowing voice.
"Precisely. We are doing what Romans were known for. They were always the third party when they were expanding the most.
Helping a friend in need is necessary."
The Goddess giggled for a second.
"You do know that I have another name?" The Goddess inquired.
"Diana? The Roman Goddess?" Marcus clarified he was sure of this.
"Indeed. I know Roman culture; what you are speaking of is the time between the Republic and the Empire. It was amusing, period. Because, at that time, Romans profited the most from helping their 'friends'." Artemis understood well what Marcus was saying.
"Then you know I won't leave this place anytime soon."
"Yes, I doubt anyone can raise their objection." The Goddess nonchalantly shrugged.
"By the time they even consider my S.P.B.A. will be crawling in every single corner." He said that while looking at the Realitus projection, more and more Aurora Bots are being transported from the gunship, followed by Walkers dropping from the Airship.
"Yes. Well, I don't think your devil friends will like that." Gu Yuena commented as she saw how the Leviathan and that horned Devil lady were emotionally attached to their kind.
"Sacrifices will be made. They want them 'saved'. It will cost them land and exciting things to research." Marcus finally hugged the Dragoness, who wanted his attention.
~~~
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