Chapter 144 - Beginning of The End Part 2
After a successful rescue operation, the Iron Blood remnants rescued by Bismarck follow the reinforcement sent by Nagato toward the submerged Orbital Fortress which made it look like an odd petal shaped floating naval base.
When Bismarck entered the command room and personally met Nagato, she thanked her for her assistance but Nagato shook her head and said it's not entirely her wish that made the reinforcement possible.
"We owe you no gratitude. My assistance was simply an order by the Lord Admiral. Nothing more, nothing less. If you want to thank someone, it's the Lord Admiral you owe." Nagato replied with a neutral tone to Bismarck who looked confused about this 'Lord Admiral' but also understood what Nagato meant about she was apologizing to the wrong person.
Then suddenly on the large display, the image of a white haired and blue eyed man appeared along with the leaders of each faction.
Bismarck sort of understands that the Lord Admiral is this man and she is surprised how he united almost all of the KANSEN factions under his banner.
"Lord Admiral, the reinforcement I sent out had successfully rescued the Iron Blood survivors. However, their numbers were only around a dozen." Nagato reported with a little nervousness, seemingly afraid of incurring this 'Lord Admiral' disappointment.
Bismarck becomes curious and wonders how this man replied to Nagato's reply and the apparent low number of survivors from her faction.
"It's alright. We will proceed as scheduled. The rescued Iron Blood shipgirls will be integrated into your fleet as planned." The man answered before he moved on to the next topic.
What confused Bismarck is how he sounded like he could already predict everything in advance. Atago, who is nearby, acting as her escort, sees Bismarck's confusion and explains to her.
"Well, the Lord Admiral isn't exactly your average human." Atago explained from her experience and recounted some incredible feat he once did. One of them is from Nagato's story during her rescue that he fought against those Steel Leviathan with his bare fist and won.
Understandably, Bismarck is in disbelief until something on the display screen suddenly interests her.
"Nagato, lift your Orbital Fortress up. We are departing very soon. Everyone else gets into position." Adam said as the display showed the reddish portal that the Steel Leviathan used to breach into this reality turned blue thanks to Observer Zero next to Adam who hacked the portal and widened it.
Then, when the Orbital Fortress she is on board in finally reached the Earth's orbit, she finally understands what the 'Orbital Fortress' were and there are a total of twelves of them hovering above the portal.
"Follow after me." Adam said as the gravitational field barrier popped alive and coat his Orbital Fortress before its thruster turned on and plunged straight at the portals.
When it's Nagato's turn.
"Rutherford Field at 100% integrity. Sublight propulsion Antimatter Engine at 10% capacity. ETA in 50 seconds." The shipgirls working as staff reported and Nagato hummed before she ordered, "Brace for the turbulence of the… Imaginary Space."
To be honest, none of them understand how it works but this portal is a path through space and time like a water channel to go over the rivers which are rivers of time of different timelines and their goal is the Origin Timeline, the furthest one away from them.
Immediately when they fell into the space-time tunnel, the scenery outside turned into total pitch black darkness before lights return and they all saw beautiful purplish red and blue space around them as they continue to travel at FTL speed that everything turns into blurs.
"Beautiful…" Majority of the people seeing the scenery like the space cloud formation that resembles an eye exclaimed but many were also unaware of the hidden danger lurking in the Imaginary Space like the eye that just blinked. Let's just say, it is very similar to the Warp Space in nature and they are all shielded only by Adam's spiritual or psychic energy that scares those immaterial creatures away.
Unlike the Immaterium of Warhammer Verse, the Immaterium here is still in its nascent stage and it's a very peaceful place. But simply because it's peaceful doesn't mean it isn't dangerous.
Around roughly 40 minutes into the Warp Space, a terrible psychic shockwaves hit the fleet of Orbital Fortresses and caused most weak minded one to lose consciousness and only a few of Adam's close companions remain awake while the Orbital Fortresses continue on its auto-pilot as programmed if all crew members suddenly become incapacitated.
"Are you going to take care of this yourself too, Boss?" Harribel asked while Unohana and Nelliel Tu, the conscious ones, looked at him as if he did something wrong.
"While I admire that you wish to ensure everything went perfectly. But to shoulder all the burden on your own is suicidal. Even the Captain Commander has his right-hand man and subordinates to help him run Soul Society." Unohana gave an example before making her point. "What I am trying to say is, to waste all your energy on miscellaneous things will leave you drained when you need it the most."
"Yeah! Leave this weird fish thing to us." The mature Nel Tu, Nelliel Tu said with an excited fist pump before all three of them teleported away to the outside of the Orbital Fortress to fight that creature.
Adam sighed and realized that he was so tense that he didn't even realize it until they reminded him.
"Normally those creatures are uninterested in us and neither are the shipgirls. However, they seem to be interested in your companions." Observer Zero suddenly appeared, apparently had recovered faster than the others. Then she points at the purplish and blackish silver oarfish that blends in with the surrounding as it moves but it's visible enough like a chameleon disguise as it chases after the Orbital Fortress he is on specifically and not the other. Aside from its unusual color and size, it's no different than a normal Oarfish.
Harribel, Unohana and Nelliel Tu made quick work of the creature that bleeds ink-like black blood that is pitch black, leaving a trail as it travels. Unohana leave thousands of slashes across its head and body while Harribel a d Nelliel tag team to shoot Nel's Cero Doble and powerful Gran Rey Cero to leave multiple potshots on the monster's body until they weaken it enough for Harribel to directly decapitate the creature which rapidly fell apart and dissolved into motes of energy that fades into nothingness. However, this is merely a start as before it died, it made a shrill howl which carried immense psychic power like its first shockwaves.
Not long after the initial battle ended, those who are awake can hear a cry that resembles one of a whale. But this sounded more haunting and sinister. At first, no one noticed. But soon someone realized a pitch black hole is rapidly expanding towards them from the back and once looked cared, it's not a hole but a massive jaw of a massive creature.
"We cannot fight. It was too big. All their previous attacks will feel just like pin pricks." Observer Zero advised with a stern expression as if she is familiar with that creature.
Adam didn't ask more. He brings the three in before remotely controlling the entire fleet to increase the warp drive engine to double its maximum working capacity, temporarily activating the afterburner to rapidly increase speed to outrun the creature.
After a few nervous minutes of waiting, the pitch black hole did shrink which means they are outrunning it. Then Adam once again tries to obscure their psychic wavelengths before the fleet resumes its peaceful journey.
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While the fleet is cruising through the space-time tunnel, Angie decides to repeat the briefing of the plan once again just to be extra careful especially with the addition of a dozen Iron Blood shipgirls.
After that, everyone gets to rest as the moment they breach back to real space, there's no rest till the job is done. Which means potentially days of non-stop battle.
While he did tell them to relax in preparation for the battle. It's not a total relaxation either since they need to be ready for any unexpected situations. Most just sleep or do whatever their hobbies are.
Unexpectedly, today. While Adam was free and decided to meditate to recover his energy that is constantly being spent to keep their psychic wavelengths obscured. Sirin pops up at his meditation room but doesn't dare to disturb him and instead waits nervously while Bella is staring at her mistress's behavior with a confused look.
"Is there anything I can do for you?" Adam abruptly ends his meditation and addresses the lost looking girl.
"It's about the participation…" She said and looked at the floor as if it was interesting.
"What about the participation? I exempted you since I had no intention of forcing you to participate or anyone really."
"I know… But, I just feel like… I wanted to join and help."
"You? Want to help?" Adam mutters while rubbing his chin. He didn't make it sound like he was in disbelief or surprised. It's just his neutral expression and a little curiosity.
He sort of knew why she wanted to help. In the short span of time, Sirin befriended Tina, Alices and Nel. Besides, unlike in Babylon Lab where people wanted to use and sacrifice her to their goal. Here, everyone is kind and loving to her especially Jeanne who interacted the most with Sirin aside from the earlier three. Jeanne is definitely the perfect person to make Sirin open up and she did due to the kindness and care the people around her had shown to her that she felt a sense of belonging. Of course, he is guilty of manipulating and arranging this to happen as according to plan.
However, what he didn't like is that she still sees herself as a destroyer. A Herrscher that destroys and cull civilization on the behest of her God and Adam merely replaces the position of her God instead of making her truly feel like part of the group as his companions.
In short, she didn't really see herself as a part of the group and merely an outsider that is leeching on his kindness and the kindness of others. That's why she wanted to participate. To repay that kindness. However, most of the time in such cases they or she will get reckless in battle in order to prove herself. Which is something he wanted to avoid.
Something he realized a little too late about himself. He gathered too many people who he would consider precious companions, comrades and allies. However, in a war, death and sacrifices are unavoidable no matter how much he tries. He once entertained the thoughts of sending everyone back to the RWBY world and hypnotized them using Kyoka Suigetsu before he went off to fight alone. But Kyoka Suigetsu obviously wouldn't take part in his suicide attempt to the extent of threatening to shatter herself.
Sirin looked a little worried and nervous when Adam didn't give her an answer after a while and kept making frowns and other faces silently. But, Adam soon opened his eyes and sighed.
"Alright. But before that. Would you look at this?" Adam summoned Kyoka Suigetsu into his hand and unsheathed it.
Sirin looked at it and fell into a daze before Adam implanted a fail-safe into her head and dismissed Kyoka Suigetsu. He looked at her with a fake smile that he unconsciously made but felt very natural.
"Of course, I would be delighted to have an extra helping hand. But promise me to not force yourself and return home safely." He said and lift himself up to give the confused and muddled Sirin a headpat which caught her off guard and blushed but didn't resist and simply lowered her face to hide it from him. "After all, everyone and I will be sad without you." He added and gave Sirin a warm hug before he let her go.
"Al… Al-Alright!" She answered before she excused herself and quickly turned around and ran away while holding her restless heart.
The smile on Adam's face instantly turned back to neutral after Sirin left. He touches his face, feeling like he is becoming increasingly not himself. It's a weird sense of dissociation, as if he was looking through his own eyes but his body is controlled by another person.
"You are not wrong, Master." Kyoka Suigetsu, who had summoned herself a while ago, said along with Muramasa who nodded in agreement.
"We both are in your soul and we can feel that the symptoms are becoming increasingly severe especially of late since your mind is constantly distracted and tired from the strain of using The Almighty." She said with a worried tone as she approached Adam and gave him a hug to soothe his mind and body.
"Even so, I cannot stop. Not yet. I just need to bear it a little bit longer." He sighed and resigned to resting his head on her kimono clad lap that smelled of a soft and soothing floral fragrance like that of a lavender.
None of the two objects to his wishes. Muramasa was loyal to fault and would obey without question. As for Kyoka Suigetsu, she felt guilty as Adam's declining mental health was because of her. In order to wield her with better efficiency, he needs to synchronize with Aizen's core memories and personality that lead to the creation of Kyoka Suigetsu. Zanpakuto are tailored to each Shinigami for a reason and only the one that created them can wield them with the greatest effectiveness. With Kyoka Suigetsu being his main trump card, he must bear with it for now even if at the risk of injuring his own soul.
After that, he will take a long and indefinite vacation that he deserves to spend time with his family. No more risky missions like this. Instead, he will spend his time peacefully away from all danger and trouble.
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