"Clover, connect me to Yulong." I said, leaning back against the wall in the Observation Room. I hadn't moved from that spot in several days now as I watched my units dismantle one anti-air machine after another. Eventually they reached the end of the Tower's range, so I had to rely on Belfos to do the rest.

  "You find something?" Yulong said as the comm buzzed to life.

  "More like nothing. There isn't a single machine for over seventy miles to the west of me. I'm also checking to the north and east a little, but still nothing."

  "... Hmm. Give me some time to discuss this with the others." He said, promptly closing the connection.

  While I waited on them, I probed Luna's tiny soul so I could talk to her. She was in full concentration mode trying to fix the link to the Tengu for me.

  Anything? Or is it sealed for good?

  {No no, I can fix it, but uh... Are you really sure?}

  Yes. He's attacking Viktor all over the place, so odds are he'll know exactly where Viktor is most of the time, and since the Tengu clearly wants him dead, I'm pretty sure he won't disagree to helping me in my last attempt to kill Viktor.

  I tapped my leg as I stared out into the vast sea of pure white. I knew there was only two reasons why the machines would stop assaulting us, with one of them being that they were planning another massive ambush, but I highly suspected it was the other reason.

  Twenty minutes later the radio buzzed again, but this time it was Solas on the other end, "Rei, can you advance ahead of us?"

  "So you believe I won't run into any machines either huh..."

  "No... No, I'm afraid there's a good chance you won't. So the sooner you get your base built at the foot of the portal, the better. Although, it's probably for the best that you don't cross the bridge before we get there." Solas said.

  They came to the same conclusion then. Atraxu must have finished whatever he was using all of the transport vehicles for, but what could it possibly be?

  "Any ideas as to what Atraxu is building on the other end of that portal?"

  "Pfft, your guess is as good as ours. No one here, including Asmodeous and Shizue, have even the faintest clue as to what he's doing over there. The Velashar's base should be in ruins, so none of it makes any sense... And with that, our 'guess', is that the logs were wrong. Not on purpose of course, but maybe the whole base isn't beyond repair? But again, we don't know what building he'd be repairing and what he'd be using it for."

  As soon as he finished speaking, I was suddenly really worried. Because there was one specific building that had popped into my mind, and if I was right...

  "Solas, do you think Atraxu knows that The Velashar are on their way here again?"

  "Maybe? But what would---" I heard Solas catch his breath for a moment before he finally said, "... You think it's the portal? The Velashar's portal that they were using to bring a constant stream of reinforcements here long ago?"

  "It was just a guess, as you said before, and after reading the logs I can't imagine why either side would suddenly ally with one another... Right?"

  In the background I could hear Asmodeous ordering one contingent of his forces to begin running west immediately.

  "Give us some time again..." Solas said.

  "That's fine. I'm going to start heading west now as well---Oh, how much longer until the Titan is repaired?"

  "One week tops." He replied before closing the line.

  One week huh... And I'll be able to move faster than all of them since the Titan and Leviathan are slowing them down, so I should reach the bridge long before they do.

  I sent an order to Belfos to send one Lord (full of Mantis spawn) to make a beeline west, and when he's there, have it send all of the mantis into the portal, but keep a group of them by the portal on the other end. And if by some chance they manage to catch sight of what Atraxu is building, then they are to immediately retreat back to our side.

  Belfos affirmed as I felt him ping one of his Lords that was already sixty miles west of us.

  Malafir. I simply said internally, knowing he'd understand what I wanted by that alone.

  {Understood.}

  I stood up and began flying toward the west as most of my troops began to run in the same direction.

  Just as I finished another tower, I felt the mana drain from some of Belfos' units go up drastically.

  Belfos?

  An image of the Lord barreling through the snow entered my mind, but there was something off about the scene, and I quickly understood what it was since I had experienced it myself at one point. The Lord was moving in a weird manner, almost like it was far lighter than it should be. It would randomly leap a little bit into the air and skim across the snow for a long time.

  Oh shit, that's right... The lack of gravity and oxygen. That means you and your units will need to produce your own oxygen going west, won't you? And you'll need a barrier to protect you on the other side of the portal since there is quite literally no atmosphere. Your units will be crushed without one since we don't have Power Armors for the Mantis and definitely not one big enough for your Lords.

  Belfos informed me that I was half right. His Lords would be able to sustain themselves, but the Mantis would need barriers to survive. And lastly, he himself would need no assistance, as he was capable of surviving in deep space.

  {Rei, um... It's done, but I can't connect to him.}

  Is the Tengu refusing the connection?

  {No, it's more like there's nothing at the other end of the connection... Mom, err, her springs only blocked it at your end, so once I repaired it, it should've reconnected all on its own, but there's nothing on the other end now. Do you think he was...?}

  I have a really hard time believing that the Tengu is dead. Obviously any of these Gods can be killed, but for the Tengu of all Gods to be the one to die? I'll believe that when I see some evidence. And until that day comes, please tell me if anything changes with the connection.

  {R-Rodger!}

  I commanded another contingent of Skeletons to stay here and guard the tower, waiting only a moment check all of my scouts information before flying off toward the west again.

  Only two more to go before we reach the bridge... I've of course prepared to be ambushed, but I'm not even vaguely worried that it'll actually happen.

  Instead, I was more concerned with what was happening on the other end of the portal. For all I knew, there could be hundreds of thousands of Velashar waiting for us over there.

  Hmm?

  I stopped midair and looked around. Something about the area stuck out to me, but I couldn't quite figure out what it was.

  {What's wrong? An enemy?!}

  No no, it's just, well... I'm not sure? This area looks familiar for some reason...

  I continued scanning the environment, slowly lowering myself toward the ground until I finally realized why this area was so familiar.

  Ahh! This is where Victoria's mirror was! But...

  I flew over toward the spot where the facility was in the past, but there was absolutely nothing there now. Not even a scrap of metal remained.

  {Atraxu took that too huh? Weird guy.}

  I'm pretty sure he didn't take it because he has a strange personality quirk or something...

  Just then, Belfos informed me that his Lord had been ambushed at the other end of the bridge. It tried fleeing, but it was killed quite quickly. I then checked the images Belfos shared with me, finally getting a good look at the bridge I had only seen in maps up until now. It was a half-a-mile wide stone bridge that was surprisingly immaculate. It damn near looks brand new... And those were all machines firing at us, so no Velashar yet, thankfully.

  I focused on Belfos, Don't worry about it, we knew your units would never make it if they were defending the portal.

  So we're going in blind it seems.

  I brought the console up and typed into it 'Clover, tell the others that the other side of the bridge is guarded by a few thousand machines. They must still need a reason to delay us.'

  I had to type from here on out, sadly. There was no atmosphere on this side of Caedrus thanks to the Velashar.

  I typed a follow up as I remembered what I found the last time I was this far west, 'Just out of curiosity, did that research into repairing the atmosphere ever bear any fruit? The basement where I met the first Praetorian was overflowing with that moss they were working on.'

  Clover immediately responded with, 'Yes and no. It works, but it requires too much to maintain, and if the area isn't flooded with the Biogenic Greenery, then the latent particles from the Velashar's atmosphere destroyer will regain control and reverse everything. The researchers were sadly wiped out before they could figure out how long it would take to completely rid an area of those particles. My best calculations are bleak at best.'

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  So this area is most likely screwed indefinitely even if we do eliminate all remnants of Baal and Atraxu's influence here. It's not guaranteed, but I don't think anyone will waste their time repairing this land unless they were a crazy eccentric... Like Viktor.

  After that I flew toward the bridge while watching more of Belfos' mantis try to approach the portal from different directions. A few of them got close enough to see the portal, but they were also obliterated like the others before reaching it.

  Those blasts from the base of the portal weren't from the machine's weaponry... It's too damn dark to see much through the Mantis' eyes, but those bright orange energy spheres were definitely from the Daemons.

  I informed the others through Clover that the Daemons were at the portal as well, and we all agreed that I was better off waiting for them. It would've been nice to get a head start on a new base near the portal, but it was just too risky now.

  Malafir and I built a new tower about half a mile away from the bridge and quite literally did nothing while waiting for the others to catch up (aside from a few attempts to sneak some Skeleton Scouts to the portal, but there were observers everywhere, so they didn't get very far).

  About a week later I watched from the Observation deck as the Leviathan drove past me. I then informed the others that I had still seen no movement near the other side of the bridge. The machines and Daemons were more than happy to just wait for us to show up.

  The console's notification light lit up as I landed on top of one of the Leviathan's cannons, 'Asmodeous is healing on his flotilla, he's about an hour behind us.' Yulong said. I typed back, 'Healing???'.

  'One of the machine's orbital cannons hit him in the air. We warned him about them, but he said he'd be fine and not to worry about it. Well, it damn near killed him.'

  Orbital cannons... Oh shit, I think I know what he's talking about, but I had completely forgotten about those. I only saw a single cannonball obliterate my scouting bird that one time I was over here, and then it apparently slipped my mind.

  Hey, Belfos. Did you destroy anything that'd fit the description of 'Orbital Cannon' before we arrived?

  He sent back an affirmative. There were three giant structures designed entirely around a massive cannon along the path we took here, and he had his scouting parties dismantle them before we arrived. Whew... That could've gone really badly for me, especially if a single hit had nearly killed Asmodeous.

  It took another two weeks for us to near the end of the bridge. Honestly, it made for a beautiful experience. Most people would've been bored, and from the sounds of it, the stress of a potential attack had gotten to a lot of people, but for my part I was just relaxing on different parts of the Leviathan the entire time. I couldn't hear anything thanks to the lack of an atmosphere, but the hum of the Leviathan running through me as I absentmindedly looked at our serene surroundings made for a great memory.

  I knew it was coming to a close though when the backside of the Leviathan opened up and a couple hundred armored vehicles poured out of it. Half of them were being operated by my army, but I wasn't directing any of them. Malafir was.

  After that, the topside of the Leviathan went from only having me and maybe twenty people on it, to more than a few thousand in no time at all. It appeared that most of the personnel in Power Armor were going to be attacking from on top of the Leviathan, while only the armored vehicles and the Mechs were down on the ground level.

  The Leviathan's backside closed up and the Titan immediately pulled up behind is, planting itself firmly behind the Leviathan. Meanwhile, the Demons were apparently on defense duty. It became clear to everyone involved just how important the Titan was, and Asmodeous himself declared he'd defend it with his army, which was currently only able to survive over here thanks to the Titan anyways, so it was a two-way street.

  The Demons were on a floating red and black platform that I didn't recognize. It looked odd to me when I first saw it a few weeks back, so I enhanced my vision and saw that it was a well-sculpted 'Rock' (some type of ground material from the Demon realm) that was humming with energy. There were seats sculpted everywhere, and most of them were filled with Satyr and Succubi, while the Imps sat in a circle near Asmodeous' seat. There was a large rune under his seat that all of the Demons seated near him were channeling into.

  We had been calling it the 'Flotilla', only because Asmodeous never actually told us what its name was, and we hadn't communicated with him once since we entered the no-atmosphere areas. All we knew was that if the Titan's barrier over the Flotilla failed, Asmodeous said it could produce its own, but their spell power would drop by a large amount if they had to. So for now, at least for as long as they could, the Titan was taking care of that part for them.

  When I turned to look ahead of us, I saw a dazzling light show heading our way, but all of it was dissipiating before it reached the Leviathan.

  The Machine's and Daemon's weapons have far less reach in space, just like Clover said they would.

  {Look there. Some have turned into a completely different weapon.}

  Luna highlighted the area Malafir wanted me to see, and far in the back were some Daemons I vaguely remembered seeing on TV a month or two ago. While they also fired plasma weapons (although theirs would explode on contact), theirs were no longer firing explosive spheres. Instead, they were now firing off a large stream of fire, but the length kept contracting and expanding, as if the weapon itself was struggling to even manage that much.

  It's basically a flamethrower now? And it's having a hard time functioning as one of those too.

  Those Daemons had apparently not tested their weapons in this space before now, as I could see some of them beating their weapons in the hopes that they would fire properly after a good smacking, but that obviously wasn't working.

  Then, all at once, the Leviathan and everyone on it, began firing. I could feel the Leviathan vibrating far more now as hundreds of different weapon ports and manned turrets opened fire all at once (far more manned turrets).

  And while that was amazing and all, I was far more focused on the fact that literally every single enemy had turned and ran through the portal. Some died before they reached it, but the vast majority of them were able to escape.

  Talking through the console by typing was a pain in the ass, so I entered the Leviathan and held a short meeting with the others in the cockpit, which was somehow entirely see-through. Not literally, but it looked like the entire cockpit was made out of glass, even though it most definitely wasn't. I could see all sorts of HUD icons and other unknown things going on as the crew prepared to park in front of the portal.

  Solas spoke first, "If the point was to warn the others we had arrived, did they really need thousands of units for that? And for them to show us the Daemons too was pretty damned stupid. Now we know who else is waiting on the other side of that portal..."

  "Not necessarily." Jasper replied, "The Machine God may have left some of his forces with Atraxu and left for elsewhere. They are attacking Arcadia right now, and while he hasn't been spotted over there, there are Daemons mixed in with the Machines."

  Clover had warned me a few hours ago that the Daemons and Machines had begun attacking Arcadia from underground, but the place was far from unmanned. The core may be gone, but the production facility was operable, and the Succubi had done a fantastic job of creating a bunch of fanatical warriors out of the lackadaisical fools who inhabited Arcadia, so I wasn't all that worried. Although, if the Machine God really did show up there, then instead of worrying, I'd ask Asmodeous to transport us back there. I don't know if we could kill that thing with Arcadia's support, but I wouldn't just sit idly by as our ship... My ship, was destroyed. Especially since my cute little niece was still back there.

  "Hang on guys, I'm sending in a few Scouts right now." I closed my eyes and put my vision behind theirs. However, the moment they went through the portal I lost contact with them. I figured it'd happen, but I wanted to try and see if it'd stay for at least a few seconds anyways.

  Ten seconds later my Scouts returned and they immediately sent me images of what they saw.

  "Ahh shit... Looks like I was right."

  Solas sighed, "... Velashar?"

  "Shizue" Instead of replying, I called out for her and she instantly ran over to me and grabbed my hand. A few seconds later we were inside her soul realm, and after sharing my new memory with her, she pulled us out of her soul realm before 'Installing' that memory onto the Leviathan. The fake glass all around us then took on a new scenery, that of the images I had just shared with Shizue.

  "Oh good, the Machine God really is there too." Solas said, sarcastically.

  "You were right Rei, but it's far worse than that..." Shizue trailed off as she looked to and fro from the newly erected buildings.

  Atraxu hadn't only repaired the portal, or maybe that really is all that he repaired and the Velashar finished the rest. Either way, the entire Velashar base was as good as new, and the Velashar themselves? There were at least twenty thousand of them according to the Leviathan's projections, and that was only the ones we could currently see. Their ship in the background was lined with them, as large amounts of them were hard at work trying to repair it.

  "Do we really have time to wait around for me to build a base...? It won't take me all that long right now, especially since Malafir was about to ascend, or so he says. Even so, it will take at minimum a week if I include fully arming all of my new forces. And that's a long time when you look at that...

  I pointed toward the Velashar's portal in the static image in front of us. There was a new group of Velashar marching out of it with a massive vehicle behind them. I wasn't entirely certain of what it did, but the shape suggested it was probably their version of a 'Tank'.

  "Captain, do not forget that Asmodeous needs to create a portal between here and his fortress. This will also allow us to receive reinforcements if needed." Clover said.

  Ahh, right. I forgot about that... And while it'll be nice having a direction connection to Arcadia, it doesn't sound like they'll be able to help us all that much right now.

  "And there you have it, Rei. We need to wait. I don't like it any more than you do, but at least we'll have the Harbingers with us." Yulong said before returning to the Commander's chair.

  With every second counting, and the conversation pretty much wrapped up, I turned to leave but stopped when a certain world ending bomb popped into my head.

  "... Yulong. Those A2W bombs were created to kill Baal and Atraxu. Are you going to use them in the upcoming battle, and if so, how?"

  "Of course we are." He plainly responded before pointing at the Machine God, "We're firing half of them at him, and the rest will be split up evenly over the Velashar's base."

  At the Machine God's feet I could see two Praetorians casting something.

  "But they know about them now. Won't they have countermeasures ready? What happens if the missiles are shot down midair?"

  "That's where we were hoping you could help us." Yulong said before looking at Shizue, "Care to explain for her? This was your idea."

  Shizue looked at me uncomfortably, "Um, I-I was thinking, maybe you could turn them invisible?"

  "What? You want me to ride the missiles and extend my aura over them?"

  "Yes! We'll fight them normally for a while, because they'll probably expect the A2W's to be fired right away, right? And then you'll hide away in the missile chambers and ride them until they're about to explode. Then wham, bam, kaboom! It's over!" Shizue said with a big smile on her face, a complete contrast to the hesitant girl from mere seconds ago.

  {Ooh, it's genius!}

  ... Was Shizue really on the same wavelength as Luna? I feel like I should have noticed that far sooner.

  "Can your Scouts extend their aura too?" Solas asked.

  I shook my head, "No, only me. Or maybe they can later? I don't know... This is all very new to me."

  {It might be possible later? Each individual Skeleton can ascend, but it takes far longer than Liches. I know not what becomes of them later.}

  I decided not to tell them that since it could be years before a single Scout ascended.

  "Alright well, I get the 'Plan' which is basically scorched earth instead of a long drawn out battle, and the planet on the other side has long since been destroyed by the Velashar anyway, so... Okay, I'll try to cloak the missiles, but I can only do one at a time, so after one explodes you'll need to wait until I return to fire another."

  "That's the plan, but if something goes wrong, we can always wait for the fallout and then begin firing again." Yulong said as the Leviathan turned to the left. They were nearing the portal now and finally parking one last time before the final battle.

  There wasn't much else to discuss past that, so I went back outside and immediately began creating an Ether Generator with Malafir behind the Leviathan. At the same time, I could see Asmodeous settling in around one hundred yards south of me. His forces were still on the floating-rock-thing but it was on the ground now, and they were channeling into the area in front of them, which I assumed was for their new portal.

  To my right, Belfos and his Lords were digging a massive hole. They were creating an underground area where they could birth enough greenery to sustain their units while they waited. This way they wouldn't drain my mana and they'd have a good location to increase their power while they hibernated.

  In this soundless environment, all three groups worked tirelessly together, thinking only of the battle to come. I had a suspicion as to how my revive worked now, and if I was right, the last place I wanted to die was the planet our enemy was currently waiting on. So unlike my usual brazen self, I was going to make an even greater effort to not die in the upcoming battle. Otherwise, I had a feeling that this might be the last peaceful moment I'd ever be able to enjoy.

  https://www.scribblehub.com/series/1460102/the-arbiter/

  may talk about why this kept happening in the post-story author notes, I'm honestly not sure yet.

  AND LASTLY; I'm struggling hard to come up with a series name... I tried 'Sagas of Gaia' at the front of Shadowbane and The Arbiter(name is also a WIP), but it doesn't really fit :/. 'Shadowbane' is the title for Reimia's story now, as opposed to a series name like I originally planned.

  Both 'Shadowbane' and 'The Shadowbane Series' are series titles for a WIZARDS OF THE COAST book, and 90% of their company is lawyers now so I'm not even going to try and risk that (titles can't be copyrighted, but series is where things get flimsy). Plus, Shadowbane just fits Rei as an overall title instead of a series name anyways.