The Ark Organization had been prepared as soon as spies and satellite monitoring reported the massive gathering of Lightforms and other people within Taren. Recording them as so many of them took off, spaceships flying low and close to orbit, planes making their way to the headquarters.

After the first big battle a while ago, more players were outfitted with custom flight suits, and they were given stunning weaponry as they flew up into the sky above HQ, receiving a new mission to kickstart the war between the Ark and Larian.

The three players, the founders of The Amissa Lumina alongside Gareth and Ultima, were afforded some better equipment. Each one fully armored and carrying actual weapons, they held trust within The Ark by now, each one was more worried about how to incapacitate the opponent, but it was deemed their safety was important a little more. 

Due to the insistence of every one of them, they were at the frontlines with head communications connected to Gareth, who was commanding them from his hospital bed. He could be cleared for this, but the higher ups weren't risking losing him since he wasn't in top condition just yet. 

"You three have a job, protect your allies with your weapons, or your magic in the case of you Lapis. If things get too dicey, you ARE to retreat. We can't risk you dying and being left stranded out behind enemy lines somehow. Understood?" Gareth said, watching their views on a screen.

"Understood Sir!" each one raised their rifle, only Amber's had a strange looking scope on it, that automatically zoomed in when it was aimed at something vaguely human like.  Lapis didn't have a traditional rifle, his own having a large wooden and carved wand in place of a barrel.

They all moved out using flying equipment themselves, heading into the battlefield. All around The Ark, towns were being evacuated as aliens and other countries invaded. Using explosives and heavy weapons, so far civilian casualties were at an acceptable minimum, but that was only due to the interference of Lightforms on the front lines drawing attention. 

This was the real first time citizens saw Lightforms for themselves in The Ark, and it was quite a shocking introduction to them. Compared to the aliens who had varying dark armor or evil looking technology, the Lightforms of Larian still looked human in sleek flying armor as they flew overhead, firing with stunning rifles or throwing flashbangs. The citizens had hope about seeing them flying around, spurring them on to run more while silently cheering on the flying people.

"Never would I have imagined seeing so much experimental tech being used at once. Every single one of those suits is at risk of exploding, they aren't the best. The Lightforms don't seem to have any troubles interacting with them though" Arron said, watching as the three players joined the battles themselves alongside many others.

"They do really seem to hold some level of innate ability to be good with just about anything you give them" Gareth said, sighing. "We were worried about this battle? So far it seems the nations aren't coming fast enough to support these, War Lightforms they're called?" he observed.

"War Lightforms right, that's what ours have called them. A group of immortals who use their power to conquer and cause discord across entire planets. I wouldn't call it easy though yet" Arron said "We need to knock them out, it makes it harder to fight, and once other nations get involved it'll be harder to do that" he explained himself, sitting by Gareth.

"Yeah, so, how is he?" Gareth asked, looking to Arron with narrowed eyes.

Arron sighed "He, he isn't recovering as well as he was a couple days ago. I would even say he's getting worse. I mean, just yesterday he was able to give a speech to a Lightform who came to interview him. Now he is barely waking up" he said "I, don't think he'll be alive much longer. As much as I hate to say it" Arron balled up his hand, biting his lip.

"Yeah?" Gareth looked down "I don't know if it's loyalty or the hypnosis, but I feel like then the only way we can properly send him off is to win this battle for him. If he knows everyone was able to work against this threat, he may feel, happy about that. He has always seemed to like companionship" he said.

"Maybe, you're right Gareth" Arron said, looking at the soldier "Then, let's win this, yeah. Besides, if we lose, we are probably both gonna die" he chuckles gravely, sitting up.

Ultima laid in a quiet room, the light flickering with every small shake that he could feel. Still breathing, still conscious, but he couldn't open his eyes. 

He couldn't make a sound, he couldn't move, all he could hear was the faint sound of the notification, the system reading it out to him because right now all he could see was black. He didn't hesitate, steeling his resolve again against the wave of lethargy that threatened to wash over him.

The battle would be over, he would wait until it was, he would see this through to the end. Every single person on Larian, every single one that was not hostile to The Ark had his legacy. Even if his death wouldn't stop the ability from working, he would persist until the battle was over. He wanted to know, just how many stood with his faction in the end.

"He's rejected it again" one of the game directors said, sighing "But by this point it's already a matter of time" he rubbed his head, the others looking at the screen with him.

"He certainly lives up to his story value, but, we can't let him live. Like the boss said, we need to delete him from everything" Another said, adjusting his glasses and taking a deep breath. It was, difficult, to just outright kill an NPC. It had to be in a way that didn't go against the narrative, they could only manipulate it so much, but beyond them becoming players and breaking into The Ark itself to outright shoot him, this was all they could do. He wouldn't be doing anything more at least.

"You know, Steve did say by any means necessary, what if we just, delete him now?" One said, the same one who had to lie to the CEO's face about just how important he was to the systems generated story. 

"If we delete him before he's dead, well, that would just cause a whole lot more panic, and the system may flat out reject it since he's still alive" The first one said "It doesn't matter, most of his senses are gone, I put him in a log out state for the most part basically"  he said "We just need to wait for the end" he nodded.