Thirty figures stood around a giant bonfire. They were just similar to the Carrion that became another victim of Jean Turner, except they were obviously stronger and a little more relaxed. No surprise, considering confidence come with power. 

Their hangar and factory doors were shut. Layers of flat alloy plating covered where artillery guns could be deployed. 

They were like transformers, if transformers were as large as carriers. 

“DJA02 better not be slacking off!” One of the figures made a loud mechanical sound. He was twice the height of his peers. Two chain swords half his height extended out of his metal arms. His red glaring eyes scanned through his comrades coldly.

Suddenly, red energy condensed right next to him, forming into a familiar shape. It was another Carrion, one who was still being formed by this world. Its weapons were barely in place. It’s eyes still opening. Give it a while, and it could grow into another member of the Carrion Squadron. 

Suddenly, the Carrion leader reached out and grabbed onto the newborn. The newborn struggled. Two gun barrels popped out of its arms and unloaded a few incendiary rounds at the Carrion leader. Unfortunately, his struggles were nullified as the incendiary rounds barely left dents on the giant metal creature. Even the fireballs they exploded into seemed pathetic. 

The dozen or so fighters that ejected out of the newborn’s back circled around the Carrion leader like buzzing mosquitoes. They did what they could, but once again, their guns were useless. 

The Carrion leader snapped the newborn’s head with a single move before pushing its body against his own. Slowly, the smaller shell merged into the Carrion leader. It would soon be broken down by nanobots. Its components used as spares. 

The other Carrions didn't say a word. There was nothing about this that deserved to be mentioned. This was the Chaos Domain. There was no rules or laws. The only reason there were hordes or flocks or, in their case, squadrons was because the Chaos Descendants deemed it was easier to survive with the numbers. That was it. 

“He won’t dare.” Another Carrion noted. “He is the weakest among us. He knows if he fails at his job, we will strip him down alive and divide him among us.” 

“Yeah! A weakling like him should know his place!”

“I happen to be in need of another gear!”

Suddenly, the Carrion leader looked up into the sky. His expression changed.  

A ship jumped in over the Carrion camp. Even when compared to the Carrions, the ship looked like a Behemoth. 100 kilometers in length. 20 kilometers in width. Height? Another 5 kilo. 

Its surface radiated with a mighty green energy that made the Carrions frown. 

Worldship. A vessel powered by a green crystal with the ability to simulate a dimension. CAS? 1,300. 

Across the field, armies emerged. Hundreds of thousands of Purifier Swordguards and Warden Striders had the dozens of Carrions completely surrounded. 70 Warden battlecruisers and 40 Purifier Capitalguards circled around. Tens of thousands of Cruiseguards and Warden Fighters filled the gaps in between. 

At this point, if it was a normal army here, they might as well start writing their will. It was all they could do. Then again, no normal army would be like the Carrions and just sit in the open without anything resembling sentries. 

But these weren’t normal fighters. These were Carrions, and every single one of them was a mechanized army and a starfleet at the same time. 

There were no negotiations. There were no demands for surrender. All 30 Carrions snapped at once. Guns barrels popped out of platings. Hangar doors opened, unloading countless fighters. Tanks started rolling out into the open, firing in the process. 

Funny thing. Most of the Carrions ejected fighters and deployed tanks that corresponded to what Earth had in the initial 21st century, but the lead Carrion had units that were obviously superior. Starfighters with photon torpedoes and laser blasters. Tanks with soundwave weapons. These were units from a civilization that has reached the stars. 

“Open fire!” At the same time, Delta gave the kill order. 

Countless projectiles landed on every single one of the Carrions, but these beings stood their ground. The thing with Chaos Descendants was that they grew up practically in hell. Like the Voyagers, ever since they were forged, the Chaos Descendants were tossed into danger whether they liked it or not. Those that survived till now were the best of the best. 

Three runed crossbows pinned one Carrion down by the arm. Acceleration runes and fortitude runes made sure the bolts went deep into the ground. With that Carrion losing its mobility, one of the B-2s casually fired three nuclear missiles. 

To be frank, the environment of the Chaos Domain was worse than any sort of nuclear wasteland. The radiation from the nukes, well, they were all nice and fun. But it was the heat of the explosions that mattered. Even the Carrions couldn’t survive a direct hit. 

That single Carrion reacted quickly. If he was a fortress, he would have no choice but to reinforce his armors and tank the hit, but as a living being, he had better options. Suddenly, his entire left arm imploded at a single command. The freed Carrion turned and ran to safety against waves of rune-reinforced bullets and rune cannons. As he moved, millions of nanobots moved to the fractures and started piecing back the arm. Every second, thousands of them perished from the storm of fire, but these mindless little things pushed on. Within seconds, a new arm materialized. 

The ground was covered in the corpses of destroyed bots.

The nukes were trained on the Carrion. When the Carrion moved, they altered their angles and followed. The Carrion saw this. With the few seconds he bought, he turned back around. Two hundred artillery guns slid into place across his chest armor and opened fire at the nukes. 

It was like a thunderstorm. If this happened in the Greek times, the people would think they have done something to piss off the gods. 

The missiles did their best, but their fortitude runes had their restrictions. In the end, the AI in charge had to ignite the nukes early. There was still quite a blast, but in the end, the Carrion emerged the victor. 

But most of the Carrion minions didn't share the same level of success. Back on Earth, the Romans massacred the U.S.N.A. forces, and the Wardens and Purifiers defeated them. Here, most of the fighters and tanks were wiped out in the first ten seconds of engagement. 

The starfighters and more advanced tanks last a little longer, but the Wardens and Purifiers came from a world where every faction involved have gone to the stars a long time ago, and even in that world the Wardens and Purifiers reigned as victors. Before long, only the Carrions themselves were left. 

In the sky, the Worldship joined the battle. It was designed to model after how dimensions work. Perhaps it couldn’t make life, but it could craft pretty much anything else, and as for now, this anything else was lightning. 

Lots, and lots of lightning. 

In the sky, a purple dragon roared before diving down on one unfortunate Carrion. 

Sensing the threat, that Carrion growled and deployed whatever units he managed to produce in his factories since the battle started. Squads of fighters and bombers charged at the lightning dragon, firing all its guns as they moved. Their goal was simple: stop the attack with their lives. But it was useless. The dragon went through the fighters with a speed faster than any human mind could possibly comprehend and crashed into the Carrion. 

Millions of volts of electricity flowed through the Chaos Descendant’s metal body again and again until everything inside, from its minions to its body to its conscious, was fried. 

Whatever ships on the battlefield that belonged to that Carrion dropped dead right then and there. 

But the battle went on. The Worldship needed time to fire shots like that, and the Chaos Descendants used this chance to charge forward. 

The leading Carrion was quite the menace. Runed bolts bounced off his body. A CAS 700 Capitalguard unloaded everything it had on him, but against all the bombardment, the Carrion reached out and literally grabbed onto the Capitalguard. Rune shields formed around the hulls and did their best to repel the uninvited touching, but the shields that have worked so well against hostile projectiles did next to nothing in this case. They simply weren’t designed to deflect a physical grip. 

Crack…

Just like that, the lead Carrion snapped a kilometer long Capitalguard in half with its bare hands. 

That was a sight enough to break the will of most fleets, but that was the benefit of machines. Morale simply wasn’t among their list of attributes. 

“Press the attack.” Delta simply commanded. 

The Worldship fired again. This time, the dragon of lightning came down straight at the Carrion leader. The Carrion leader wasn’t as weak as its underling. He swung his chain sword and cut the dragon in half from the middle as it charged down on him.

Countless strands of lightning deviated down to the side before disappearing. 

Delta frowned inside the Worldship. That wasn’t even a real dragon! It was lightning that took the form of a dragon! How do you even cut lightning in half?

“That doesn’t obey the laws of physics.”

Delta wasn’t the only one that saw this. This sight was recorded by countless Purifier observers and was delivered to the steps of the Purifier Research Corps. Countless brilliant minds who were captured and extracted by Jean and the Purifiers analyzed the situation and gave out the best answer possible. 

“The Carrion unit’s chain sword is composed of an alloy that is a powerful insulator.”

“A metal insulator.” Delta quickly decided she should stop applying the laws of physics to the Chaos Domain. Then again, the Chaos Domain couldn’t construct new materials. All it did was take the form of some creations in the Infinite Realms. In other words, such alloy exists. 

Back to the battlefield. 

Deflecting the attack with absolute ease, the Carrion pushed forward. His chain sword landed on another B-2 and sliced its front half clean off. The rest of the ship quickly lost its power and took a nose dive to the ground. 

The explosion that followed was spectacular. 

But his valor wasn’t enough to change the tide of battle. Under the overwhelming firepower, Carrion after Carrion bit the dust until in the end only one remained. The lead Carrion made no effort to protect his peers. Why? The same reason a Voyager wouldn’t help a fellow Voyager when they were both under heat.

Despite being alone, the leading Carrion took down ship after ship. His chain swords were unstoppable. He was like a fierce assassin. Nothing could stand in its way. 

Finally, these intruders seem to be retreating. The Carrion made no effort to go after the random foot soldiers. Instead, he went straight for the throne. His scanners could see the Worldship slowly moving away. Its lightning strikes not only failed to kill him, but they also exhausted the ship’s energy. Now, the Carrion was certain the vessel was ripe for the reaping. 

He charged forward, dragging his weapon behind. Every step from him was followed by the distinct sound of metal being grinded down into dust. 

The Worldship fled, and the Carrion pursued. The cat and mouth game continued until the Worldship suddenly came to a halt. 

The Carrion stopped as well. He smirked and raised his chain sword. 

“Ready to die, intruder? Don’t worry, I will make this quick!” 

And then he realized he could no longer move. 

Twenty Gravitational Fields exploded all around him, pulling him toward twenty different locations. It was a trick Jean learned from the Alphians. This was how they ambushed the Aggressor avatar, and after seeing how well it worked, Jean got some of this Gravitational Field technology from Alpha-Sierra. 

The Carrion screamed, but the Gravitational Fields only grew stronger and stronger until a point where he couldn’t move an inch of his body, much less strike down with his blade. 

For a moment, he was trapped. 

The Wardens and Purifiers who have routed before came back once again. Three squads of S-3s set up their guns and started blowing a hole through the entrances at the Carrion’s feet where the tanks and armored vehicles came out. The Carrion struggled. It could’ve crushed all the G-3s with a single stomp, but he was held dead in place. His leg alone was pulled three different ways. 

Eventually, a hole was opened up, and armies marched into the Carrion’s body. 

The Carrion was a badass. His CAS was at least in the 1,000. If it was a conventional firefight, ten times the ground forces couldn’t seal the deal, but most of its power lay in its exterior armaments. Once the enemies were inside… 

The Carrion’s interior defenses bought him ten more minutes. For ten minutes, what was left of his legions of tanks and fleets of ships battled the Purifiers and the Wardens, but the minions of the Chaos Descendants were insufficient against the army that Jean Turner built up with the resources and technologies of the Infinite Realms. Eventually, the Wardens and Purifiers gained control of every inch of the Carrion’s body. 

And then, it was time for science. 

“I want him stripped down to his every piece of plating.” Delta commanded. “Dissect his body! Gain access to his brain! Do whatever you need. Jean wants to see her own Carrions deployed as soon as possible!” 

Jean’s Worldship was good, right? It picked off Carrions one by one. But the thing was, the Worldship ran on green crystals, and for now, green crystals could only be gained through coins. These coins happen to be the same ones Jean could use to enhance herself. 

Jean didn't want to trade her own growth in exchange for powerful minions. She wanted both. Ideally, her minions only needed materials that she could find across the Infinite Realms. It just so happened that the Carrions had that ability. They didn't need a super expensive crystal to be all-powerful. All they required was some conventional metal and energy sources. 

The Purifier scientists have already made an estimation. Supposedly, picking apart the Carrion leader should be enough to inspire the creation of units at peak Tier 2 power level. 

It was well worth all the casualties encountered during this brief yet deadly engagement. 

The Purifiers and Wardens lost nine ships in total, along with tens of thousands of ground units. The losses would’ve been a lot less if Jean was here. Sure, the Carrions didn't have souls and were immune to wraiths, but the Power of Death still meant Jean could disable the lead Carrion much easier. 

But Jean wasn’t here at the moment. 

She had something to do. 

More specifically, she had someone to save.