Chapter 24: Lone Wolf, Lone Slayer 1

I was lying on the floor in my quarters, staring at the ceiling. 

Actually, I wasn't really looking at the ceiling, but rather, at the screen that was displayed in my helmet.

| Species: Homo sapiens-sapiens
Race: Secundum Genus Humanum
Subject: Jun-Yeob / Squad Leader B213-84 / Ship-master of the Lance of Kar'goth

Stats :
Awareness: medium (peak)
Agility: medium
Intellect: high
Stamina: low (peak)
Strength: medium

Resistances :
Physical: medium
Psychic: medium (peak)
External control: none

Current modifiers :
positive: Red Mist effects improved by subordinates' loyalty
positive: Connection to the Lance of Kar'goth's crew (able to mentally communicate)
negative: Left-arm serious injury (permanent - unusable)

Skills :
Dark Armor (completed)
Dark Visor (completed)
Dark Blade (completed)
Dark Explosion (completed)
Dark Veil (17%)
Red Mist (85%)
Void Rift (45%)
Void Surge (19%)
Void Blade (23%)
Void Step (15%)

Dimensional Links :
Void (19%)
Singularity (13%)
Unknown ( ?? %)

Notable abilities:
High adaptability
Highly versatile genome
Extremely high psychic potential
Manipulation of void energy possible
Strategic mind
Expert of space battles

Entities :
Obscura Materia: good condition
Nihil Conscientia: good condition
Rifters: linked
Flagship: controlled

Rank: Unknown Lethality Vector
Estimated battle power: 120 - medium lethality vector (peak) |

After checking my status, I had mixed feelings.

I was happy to see that some of my stats improved. On the other hand, I was quite unhappy with how slow was my progress since I left Kar'goth.

I knew that it was mainly my fight against the giant ants that made my skills improve ; since then I hardly fought myself and I only stayed in the flagship.

Although I took part in a significant number of space battles, it has only improved my overall intelligence and awareness. None of my offensive stats have drastically changed, I only gained a bit more of agility and force due to the daily training I continued to do inside the flagship.

'Gladia, make a simulation of Douglas and Alice fighting me at their maximum power and tell me the result. Remove the Void energy factor, as if I couldn't use it.'

[You win, unscathed : 5% 
You win, lightly injured : 7%
You win, heavily injured : 12% 
You win, but die during the fight : 16%
You lose : 60% 

Taking into account the Void energy makes the simulation impossible, you can kill both of them in a single Void Surge as you can get shot by Douglas or stabbed by Alice before the fight even begins. It is a factor too unpredictable to be calculated.]

'So in the end, they improved so much that if I don't use my most powerful ability, I only have 40% of chance to win...'

[You shouldn't worry too much about it, Jun. Being able to survive against both of them would already be an exploit given how much they progressed since we left Kar'goth.]

'Maybe, but it is far from being enough. Imagine if we didn't free Alpha Zero ; after fighting the giant ants I would have been captured by Kat and Jerome without being able to defend myself.

I do not seek absolute power Gladia, but I have to at least be able to deal with enemies as strong as my squad members. Alice and Doug killed more than thirty Scyllas, I doubt I would have been able to get the same results without using the Void Energy.'

[Why are you so reluctant of using it when you trained so much to improve your link to the Void ? You are close to reaching 20% of mastery over the Void energy. This ability is what makes you so unpredictable, Jun.

While your squad members are superior to you in terms of pure combat stats, if you had to fight against the four of them I would still bet on your victory. You don't realize how rare it is to control the Void energy, even in my own species only a few of us were able to control it, and none of us ever reached more than 10% of mastery over it.]

I knew that Gladia wanted to motivate me, even if I had some difficulty accepting it, she was right. If I had an advantage over any other rifter, it would be my ability to control the Void energy. This is my biggest asset and I should use it as best as I can.

When I think about it, the situation is very strange. Every member of my squad is strong enough to kill me, but at the same time, I also have the means to kill them all. It is impossible to rank us in terms of lethality, as we all have the means to kill each other. Only Katarina stand out because of her field skill, but even then we would still be able to kill her.

I understand why it is so difficult for Gladia to predict a fight where I could use the Void energy.

Controlling such a powerful and special energy makes any simulation impossible ; it's probably the reason why despite my stats being lower than the other rifters the monolith rated me as an 'unknown lethality vector' instead of low or medium.

It is impossible to evaluate a being who can control a power able to break rules and logic such as the Void energy.

'You are right, Gladia... But I shouldn't concentrate all my effort on mastering the Void energy. If I am deprived of it or I can't use it for any reason, I want to be able to defend myself with other means.

For now, I'll focus on my Red Mist and my Singularity skills.'

[Although I don't entirely agree, this is also a good idea. Being more versatile will increase your survivability.]

'Exactly.'

With this objective in mind, I stood up and positioned myself on top of the platform floating in the corner of my quarters, on which the lifeless body of a Templar clone was laying.

'I'm ready.'

[Are you sure you want to go alone ? I don't appreciate that you forced me to stay in the flagship core. Even if you don't want me to help you, you could at least take some drones or reapers with you.]

'No, Gladia. It may be incomprehensible for you, but I feel like I need to be in trouble. To be in a dangerous situation. Staying safe sitting on the seat of a highly advanced ancient ship is not going to help me progress. 

The two battles that made me improve my skills the most were the most dangerous ones : the first one against the centipede, when I fought the surface monsters for several days, and when we defended the golden door against the giant ants.

Our scanners indicate that the scyllas have increased their numbers throughout their mega-structures, this is the perfect opportunity for me to gauge myself against them.'

[As you wish, but if the situation requires it I will not hesitate to send reinforcements.]

'Only if I'm not able to fight anymore. Enough talk, teleport me now.'

[Good luck, Jun.]

I closed my eyes, and felt my whole being getting transported through the dimension. No matter how much I used the flagship teleportation system, I still can't get used to it. 

When I opened them again, I was on the roof of a tall building, in the middle of a mega-structure.

Ever since Gladia charged the core of the flagship, she could transfer her consciousness into it. Although her soul remained inside me, without her consciousness it was as if she wasn't there with me.

I decided to complete the last phase of our plan on my own. This is not like my methodical and cautious nature, but I felt deep inside me that I needed to fight alone this time, without any external help or even Gladia inside my head to help me.

I got used to the feeling of having someone inside my mind, of the presence of Gladia. It was strange to me not to have her with me, but I had to deal with it.

'Come on Jun, no time to be distracted.'

I carried the Templar clone I had brought with me on my back and set off in the direction of the headquarters of this mega-structure.

It was a giant building so tall it was piercing the reddish sky, as if to remain to all the rifters on the mega-structure who are their true masters.

These clones that the Scyllas used to join the Singularity were made of an unknown plastic material as malleable as flesh.

They looked a lot like humans, except that they had four arms and instead of skin they were covered by solid armor plates made of exotic steel, the same material used to create the outside plating of those buildings.

These clones have numerous defense systems, and although they reduce the power of their owners the Scyllas by a large margin, they possess a lot of weapons to compensate for it.

They shouldn't be underestimated, the Scyllas in this form are still extremely dangerous beings no matter how much the Templar clones reduce their strength.

This clone I brought with me is a little gift I prepared for the Scyllas. My goal today is the same as for Doug and Alice's missions : to eliminate the commander and all the Scyllas present on the mega-structure quickly enough so that their reinforcements don't catch us.

However, I plan to give a little surprise to the Scyllas before leaving.

I moved stealthily between the oddly shaped buildings until I found a good place to hide. I crouched down and placed a tiny bit of Void energy inside the stone where the dead Scylla's soul was still present before moving again. 

While it was a good conductive to the Singularity energy and not the Void energy, it was still not an insulator for it apparently. This small amount of Void energy I injected inside the soul-stone would last a few hours at best, which is enough for what I planned.

Once this was done, I set myself in motion. I had to eliminate the Scylla commander and his henchmen without being detected, and I decided to use the Dark Veil skill that I learned from Alice.

This allowed my black armor to become completely invisible to the naked eye and hide my presence.

Although the skill is useful, I haven't mastered it as much as Alice did. If I'm not careful, I could be detected from several meters away by a Scylla. 

My skill is far from being as good as Alice's invisibility or the reapers dimensional cloak. Still, it's enough to take down a few uncautious foes without being detected.

On the way to the headquarters, I encountered several rifter squads. I eliminated the ones I thought were weak enough to be dealt with swiftly, and I ignored the ones with too many members or those I couldn't kill without alerting the surrounding.

I slowly advanced through the sector for an hour before reaching the headquarters.

Once near the central building, I placed the Templar clone I was still carrying nearby and I hid it carefully, before rushing into the building.

The interior of the building was strange. Although there were many rifters present, I couldn't detect any sign of Scyllas. After losing so many of their own, they probably decided to hide their commanders so that we could not take them down so easily anymore.

Security was greatly increased as well, I almost got spotted by rifters patrolling the area several times when scouting the area.

After exploring the corridors and rooms of the building for several minutes and realizing that I would not find any Scylla here, I decided to go out and search somewhere else.

Although I also upgraded my helmet visor as Douglas did, I was not yet at the point of being able to see through walls like him. I can still change my vision to thermal or X-ray vision, but the materials that Scyllas used to build their structures prevented me from seeing through : they don't let the radiations get through.

It made me respect Douglas even more, knowing that he could see through these same walls as easily as looking through a glass window.

Just when I was about to go out of the building, I met face to face a weirdly looking squad of rifters. I had never seen their race in the Scylla mother-ship.

I was still invisible, but as a precaution, I still decided to hide myself behind a pillar.

Unfortunately, my doubts were confirmed the moment those rifters gave the alarm : it seemed that these weird-looking rifters were able to see through the camouflage of my Dark Veil.

"INTRUDER DETECTED"

When I heard them giving the alarm, I wasted no time and instantly attacked them before they drew more enemies to my position.

I leapt out of my camouflage onto the rifter who detected me and pierced his chest with my Dark Blade, I wasn't sure where was located his heart so I just torn apart everything I could inside his body.

His teammates immediately reacted and pounced on me. 

I grabbed one of them in mid-air by his neck and I brutally ripped his head off his chest, forcing a part of his spine still stuck to his head to come out of his body.

Before his dead body touched the ground, the two remaining rifters attacked me with their Dark Blade at the same time. 

I dodged the first one and blocked the second one, while my left arm began to emit a dark-purple tinted light.

"Dark Explosion"

As I uttered these words, my black armor vibrated and caused an explosion of anti-matter around me obliterating the two nearby rifters, leaving nothing behind, not even ashes.

'I didn't except to be detected so soon, I need to find the Scylla commander's location fast.'

I didn't think that an ordinary rifter squad would be able to detect me so easily ; it seems that the Scyllas have modified some of their rifters and gave them a way to detect us under our Dark Veil.

Now that the alarm has been given and they know that I'm here, I need to quickly find their commander before their reinforcements arrive and find the flagship hiding in orbit.

'They already know where I am, there is no need for me to hold back anymore...'

Purple lines slowly emerged on my left arm, before covering my whole armor.

My left arm vibrated more and more, I was charging a great amount of Void energy. 

I raised my left arm as best as I could to aim at the center of the building. 

When I reached my limit, I unleashed my most powerful attack on the headquarters building, but this time I didn't control the explosion radius like I did on Kar'goth to not destroy the tunnel.

"Void Surge"

I released my attack and a heavy explosion sounded, followed by a huge flash of light that blinded everyone present in the sector. When they could see again, there was nothing left of their headquarters.

My Void Surge skill was extremely powerful when I was not restricting and controlling the explosion radius. The power of this skill is equal to a micro black hole appearing for a fraction of a second ; everything nearby the center of where I aim at gets instantly annihilated.

After getting detected, I chose to fight at my maximum.

My position was revealed the moment the weird-looking rifter detected me, so now I didn't have to hide anymore ; I needed to quickly find the Scylla Commander.

All the rifters in the mega-structure were heading on my position, and the Scyllas hiding from me had probably already alerted their superiors and called for reinforcements.

I had to be quick, even if it meant destroying everything on my path.

As I began to move away from the ruins of the headquarters, I detected a hyperspace signature in the mega-structure orbit.

'What, already??'

I didn't expect to see Scyllas ships arrive so soon. Fortunately, it was only a simple corvette-class vessel. It must have been a scout patrolling close by and rushing here when he received the distress beacon.

At the same time I looked up at the corvette in orbit, several rifters arrived at my position and I could see three scyllas among their ranks. 

It seems that the commander of this place took advantage of this corvette arrival to bring his forces out of the shadows and send them to fight me.

He must have realized that I was alone, and he did not hesitate to grab this opportunity to eliminate me.

I didn't wait for the rifters to get closer to engage them.

"Red Mist"

Crimson red lines appeared all over my body, intertwining with the fading purple line that represented the Void energy I stocked inside my arm and my body.

The crimson red lines glowed and a dense red fog started to spread from my armor. 

Under the effect of my skill, I charged straight at the three Scyllas.

When I was halfway there, the rifters took up positions in front of the scyllas to protect them while they chanted in their language to activate their special skills.

Although Doug and Alice were able to kill about thirty Scyllas previously, they always made sure to not let any of them chant, as their skills were formidable even in their Templar form. We wouldn't have been able to kill even just one of them if they kept their etheric body when they entered the Singularity dimension.

The first Scylla finished chanting before the others, and suddenly several sharp spikes made of an unknown ore appeared from the ground and converged on me. I jumped to avoid them, while trying to block and dodge the energy attacks from the nearby rifters shooting at me.

Before I could reach them, the second Scylla also finished its incantation, and this time a huge ball of incandescent fire appeared above my head and crashed into me before I could react.

'What the hell are those attacks??'

I was stunned by the Scyllas spells, this is the first time I see them chant and use their special skills in combat.

Even if the heat was high enough to melt the ground, I was able to get out of this torrent of flame without being hurt too much. When my body absorbed the black matter, I also obtained its defensive abilities and fire is not very useful against my Dark Armor.

However, the heat of these flames was so high that even with my black matter resistance, I got badly hurt. This fireball explosion was powerful enough to almost break my bones and its ardent flames left burning marks all around my armor, which was like my skin.

I felt my stamina diminish rapidly even before getting in range of attacking them, only after two Scylla spells.

Before the third Scylla could finish its incantation, I used my best mobility skill to close the distance and not let him end his spell. I didn't want to defend against another of those insane attacks.

"Void Step"

I disappeared from my position and instantly crossed more than 50m to arrive right in front of the three Scyllas. 

Before they could react, I stabbed the chest of the Scylla that hadn't finished his incantation with my Dark Blade, right at the place where his soul-stone was located.

His body fell to the ground, lifeless.

I took advantage of the confusion to directly attack the second Scylla standing just next to me. Unfortunately, my Dark Blade collided with his transparent shield.

Even after analyzing a few dozen of Templar clone corpses, even Gladia couldn't understand how their shield worked and how to bypass it. 

The only thing she was sure of after analyzing Douglas' and Alice's battle data was that the Scyllas can't keep that shield up indefinitely.

___

Q&A :

Q. (royal road) Why do the Scyllas use the Templar clones if they limit their abilities ?

A. Because they have no choice. The Scyllas can't enter the Singularity by themselves (it will be slowly explained why they can't through the story) because the Singularity dimension rejects their soul.
At first, they accepted it, until Primus One decided to find a way to bypass this 'soul rejection' when the Void Invasions started to intensify and the Scyllas were depleting their Rifters stock during the centuries. They had to find a way to bypass this rejection, and Primus One had the idea of using the same principle as when they capture Void natives in Netherites stones.
They use a material they called 'Soul-stone' to guard their soul and protect it from the Singularity rejection, so they can put this stone inside a clone and enter the Singularity. This was supposed to be used only if all the other options to protect the mother system didn't work, and that is what's happening rn with the Last Invasions.

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