In no time, with the massive effort of Kael—who was continuously pouring his energy into making the highly destructive condensed plasma even stronger—he was able to push the Minotaur Star Fortress star destroyer cannon plasma beam attack back to its origin.

Back on the Star Fortress, Captain Chap—who for so long had held a superior attitude inherited from being a mech pilot (a special kind of cultivation method that, though it has great power, comes with even greater disadvantages)—turned and gawked. He watched as the most powerful attack the fortress he commanded could produce was being pushed back by an attack from a mech.

A mech of a hundred-meter size, fighting an attack produced by a behemoth like a Star Fortress of over 30 km in overall diameter.

He never thought this was even possible… but he didn’t have time for that. He quickly overcame his daze and hastily shouted with a cracked voice, “Qui—quickly! Raise up the six-layered unified shield right now!”

As time passed, Chap’s orders came quickly, continuously barking at the officers below. He did this not because he had lost control of himself, or because he was a weak-minded fellow like the rest of his race; after all, if he were anything like that, he would not have threatened Mimosa of all people, when Mimosa could most definitely silence him.

That bravery was ingrained in every mech pilot. Though he wasn’t a pilot now and could no longer sit in the cockpit of a mech, it didn’t mean he had lost the power he’d gained through evolution.

But the fear that made him shout like that was the fear he felt coming from the attack hurtling toward him. He knew he couldn’t let it directly slam into his Star Fortress. If he did, it would lead to consequences he would much rather avoid.

“Ye—yes, Captain!” the Minotaur officer below deck quickly replied. He hastily had the unified shield raised.

In less than a second, a six-layered shield surrounded the Star Fortress from all sides.

Even with the shields up, Chap’s expression remained just as dark. “No, this isn’t enough… Focus all the shield strength forward! Ignore the other sides! Do it now!”

He ordered them quickly, his plan being to focus all the shielding strength in one place. This way, he could potentially have the shield absorb most of the damage produced by the Void Humans’ mech. The officers below didn’t utter a single word; they did as they were told, focusing every ounce of shielding strength to the front of the space fortress.

To the naked eye, one could see the front shielding thicken. Each layer became denser as highly ionized plasma and magnetic forces were combined by photons—a quasi-Tier 1 technology—to cover the ship.

(Note: A true Tier 1 shielding system works on the principle of hard light or a quantum field. It uses high-frequency gravitons or “dark energy”—also known as Mana—to create a localized area of space and time where the Pauli Exclusion Principle is enforced at a macro scale. In simpler terms, this tech makes the empty space around the user solid, providing a far stronger defense than plasma or kinetic shielding.)

Only then did Chap calm down a bit. In a low voice, unheard by the crew, he muttered, “This… this should be able to withstand the coming attack.”

He turned back to the deck. “Make an immediate announcement! Have everyone within the fortress prepare for impact! Ensure our warp drive suffers no damage or malfunction. We cannot deviate from the course. When the fortress stabilizes, I want you folks not to even blink—jump directly into warp space! Is that understood?”

Chap fired off the multiple orders immediately. The Minotaur officers only nodded their heads in agreement. “We understand, Captain Chap.”

“Good!” Chap nodded. “Get to work.”

While speaking, he held tightly onto his command seat, his eyes locked onto the attack as it finally slammed into the ship’s shields.

While speaking, he held tightly onto his command seat, his eyes locked onto the attack as it finally slammed into the ship’s shields.

BOOOOOOOM!!

Immediately, a deafening sound thundered within the fortress, and the entire structure began to shake crazily. Alarms blared from the command seat as a status panel displaying shield integrity blinked continuously.

(Shield integrity at 60 percent…)

Like a rapid countdown, the shield strength began to plummet. In a mere ten seconds, the shield integrity was brought down to 0 percent.

A cracking sound echoed throughout the fortress. The few officers on the command bridge watched as the shields cracked and shattered. Inside the shielding room, the generators—sixteen in total—crackled with unstable energy before detonating in small-scale internal explosions.

The technicians there didn’t even have a chance to do anything or escape. The very generators they were supposed to maintain in real-time to provide that extra bit of integrity died in the blasts. Soon enough, the entire shielding generation room was turned into a fiery hell.

Meanwhile, outside, the attack launched by Kael’s dark blade weapon—the Bova Magnus Arch Rifle—had not disappeared. The destructive plasma beam still held a fraction of its strength and struck directly into the star cannon located at the mouth of the bull-shaped Star Fortress.

The blast dispersed an intense wave of heat that melted much of the material around the core of the star cannon and several nearby compartments. Along with it, a powerful electrical surge spread through the surrounding systems, causing many mechanical circuits to short-circuit.

There was also a mana-disruptive wave, but since there was no arc-tech present within the Minotaur ship, it had no effect on its systems.

Any systems or structures that were unable to withstand these waves were struck by the kinetic force of the arch plasma beam. Many of them burst into flames almost instantly.

The blast, working in tandem with the extreme heat and electrical surges carried by the dispersing plasma beam, caused even greater internal damage before the highly destructive beam finally faded away.

As a result, the entire Star Battle Fortress shook for several moments as intense internal explosions erupted within one of the main compartments. The full extent of the damage remained unclear. However, the fortress’s internal safety systems reacted quickly, isolating the affected rooms and depressurizing them to extinguish the fires.

The Minotaur officers, remembering their orders and seeing that no vital damage had been done to the Star Fortress or its warp drive, pushed the thrusters to the limit. The space fortress quickly entered warp space, disappearing from the area, never to be seen again from that point on.

Kael was preparing to launch another round of attacks to completely destroy this hateful Star Fortress once and for all. But before he had the chance, he watched, stunned, as the space fortress accelerated exaggeratedly and jumped into warp, entering light-speed travel and vanishing from his sight.

Because of his surprise, he was once again unable to act in time. He watched the fortress escape right in front of his face. He felt anger boiling in his chest, but this time, it was a bit less than before. Since this had happened once already, a second escape was more acceptable to him.

Not caring much more about it, he turned toward his fleet, which had departed in six parts toward six habitable planets in this massive star system of twenty celestial bodies—a system rich in various resources.

There, he saw one of his fleets being chased by the remaining thousand or so Minotaur ships that had been left behind and abandoned by their mother fleet. They hadn’t given up and were continuously attacking his ships. Though they were trying to harass his divided fleet, they were being destroyed at an extremely fast rate despite all of their countermeasures.

He sighed heavily before charging at the remaining Minotaur ships. In just a couple of minutes, he dealt with all of them individually. He watched as they exploded one by one, launching a relentless barrage of plasma fire that tore through their hulls with ease.

…

Name: Nova-Magnus Arc RifleClassification: Super Tier-1 Arcane-Technological WeaponLength: ~100 metersPrimary Energy: Superior Origin Mana Stone CoreWeapon Type: Plasmalized Mana Expansion Cannon

The Nova Magnus Arch Rifle (Miniature Nova form) is a colossal weapon created by the combination of two pinnacle-level schools of thought: advanced engineering and ancient runic enchantments.

This weapon is built to rival the scale of a small-scale Tier 1 warship. If certain conditions are met, it can even output a fraction of the power rivaling a true Nova Cannon. The weapon can either be mounted on a mech’s back or held in its arms—provided the pilot can withstand the massive recoil forces.

At the heart of this weapon is its power source: a Primordial Origin Mana Stone. It is said to contain power rivaling a small dwarf star, storing immense quantities of primordial mana. It is capable of resonating with all elements in existence,allowing it to harmonize with every being, regardless of their elemental affinity.

Internal Structure: Nova Magnus Arc Rifle

R

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep