Aetherion's heads up display had already shown each and every breach into the main universe, he was well aware of the two sneaky Primordial Spectra that were headed down toward the surface of the planet too.
'Two are going after the plant and the bird...' Aetherion squinted at the data popping up holographically in front of him. He had much better tracking systems and information relaying technology, not to mention his own senses, yet he still loved to use the flashy, very outdated tech just for the aesthetics alone sometimes.
When the Primordial Spectra appeared, Aetherion calmly ordered the massive space station/energy generator to disassemble. Once it was broken apart into individual units, he directed his finger toward the mechanical soldiers nearest to his star device.
He instructed them to stay and guard it, while dispatching four other platoons to protect the remaining partially charged devices for Magus and the others, offering backup whenever possible.
Aetherion then called out a couple of his elite machines. Quickly, powerful and impressive looking combatants appeared—each a pinnacle of engineering and fighting prowess, but not his most powerful. They were quick, precise, and formidable enough for what he had in mind though.
Aetherion looked at his four creations and smiled, they were some of his favorites:
Prime - A towering seven-foot-tall humanoid, dressed in sleek, white, reinforced armor, gripping a standard energy blade that was currently activating in a reverse grip.
Vortex Swift - A sleek and fast shield generator that could split into many pieces, equipped with plasma blades, cannons, and micro thrusters for lightning-fast strikes and maneuverability, while still maintaining amazing defense.
Slade - Ghostly and elusive, capable of phasing through matter and deploying holographic illusions.
Obsidian Fury - Massive and destructive, armed with battleship energy cannons and seismic pile drivers.
Prime floated forward, his visor glowing brightly. "Your command, Lord?"
Aetherion's voice was calm yet firm. "Go save the fuzz ball and the weed. Make it quick."
Aetherion lifted his hand, channels of electromagnetic energy cracked and danced at his fingertips. With a commanding thought, he focused his energy, infusing some of it with a potent blend of other energies.
A surge of electromagnetic and psionic energy enveloped the four combatants, coursing through their frames—overclocking their systems to peak performance. Their bodies shimmered with a radiant, pulsating light as they absorbed this energy, their speed and strength and other stats skyrocketing.
In this enhanced state, they became streaks of blinding light, blazing through the atmosphere toward their targets, which had just engaged Flynn and Sylvanthia.
After sending four metal soldiers with Apex level combat ability and energy down to the planet, he ignored the situation further and turned to monitor what was happening elsewhere, already certain of the outcome on the planet down below him.
'Hhhmmm, should I have some fun too?' He eyed the two entities that were already engaged with his troops.
Aetherion quickly searched the database and got a match.
'Looks like it's the 'Void-Eater'... and an even more troublesome guy is with him. This other one's name is a mouthful, ha-ha. 'Conceptual Spectrum Harmony and Dissonance Spectra'... what a title!'
Aetherion checked out the specs and information on both of the Primordial Spectra, quickly coming up with counter measures for both of them.
While he gave his army orders, he looked in Jet's direction and focused. He just heard Kharusha kick Jet out of the chat, right after confirming that he had already captured two Primordial Spectra.
Aetherion did not doubt Kharusha's combat ability one bit, and was quite happy that the powerful psychic was participating in this crazy mission cooked up by Magus.
There were repeated messages going off in the helmet Aetherion was wearing, most of them reporting energy readings and other alarms caused by the brawls in space.
One of the energy signals dimmed out, Jet had just suppressed one of his opponents and was now engaged with a swirling vortex of shimmering, iridescent air and cloud currents, constantly shifting in shape.
It suddenly took the form of a tall, slender humanoid figure composed of swirling wind and mist, with streaks of light resembling lightning crackling within the vapor. Its eyes were glowing with a calm, piercing blue, reflecting the vastness of the space around it.
The contrast between personalities of the fierce Oni and the swift, cosmic, wind-like being was interesting to Aetherion, but he didn't look for too long, after looking at the data of the 'Galactic Wind Spectra' he knew it was only a short matter of time until Jet dominated it.
'Hhhmmm, maybe I should bypass Jet with my troops and send them right to the wizard, it looks like Jet is going to be done soon... Hey, Magus, how are things going?'
Aetherion sent a mental message to get a grasp on the situation on the other side of the planet's atmosphere, where Magus was battling three Spectra at once.
'I'm almost done, just dealing with that troublesome bastard, Electro Forge.'
Magus answered but before Aetherion could respond in kind, the mental shouts of the pissed off Electro Forge interjected and blasted their senses.
'Who are you calling a bastard?! Insolent morta-aaaaaaaa--noooo!'
Pop!
A glowing cork was placed into the neck of a transparent bottle, inside the bottle, a little silver alloy ball with blue sparks dancing all over it was smashing against the insides to no avail.
It was the freshly captured core of Electro Forge. He and his other Spectra friends were all inside their own similar, magical glass bottles.
'Ha-ha! Good to hear old friend! As expected of the great 'Magus of the Mysteries', so... I have a annoying thing over here that can effect feelings of calmness and aggression, its called the Harmony and Dissonance something or other... Anyways, it's the ugly, two-faced, giant-headed, abstract looking one. My soldiers are almost done dealing with the Void- Eater, I just want to hang out and shake this off...'
Magus gathered all his artifacts and magical tools, let out a sigh, and began moving toward Aetherion's two opponents. It appeared that one of the Primordial Spectra near Aetherion was causing the Super Armorer to grow lazy with its powers.
Lira suddenly piped up in the mental chat.
'Hey! Only one of them came for me! It was pretty impressive, but not that impressive... hey! Aetherion, save some of your Spectra for me!'
Lira wasn't satisfied with just beating down the 'Arcane Spirit King' that had appeared near her position alone. It had a mystical core of swirling, multicolored elemental energy—fire, water, earth, and air and Lira was currently playing with it, she had contained it in a shell of special energy.
Countering energies was her specialty.
The creature she had just faced typically appeared as a swirling vortex of elemental forces, constantly shifting forms—sometimes a storm, sometimes earth, a whirlwind, or ice, fire, lightning, and others. Interestingly, all the energy and elements it summoned were magical in nature.
It could summon and manipulate magical and elemental forces on a massive scale, creating localized elemental storms. When it condensed, it took the form of an old man wearing long, flowing mage robes.
The robes shifted and transformed with the elements, seamlessly aligning with their master as they alternated between lightning, dark matter, fire, water, and more.
The Arcane Spirit King had thrown some cocky insults and unleashed its powers on Lira, but it was countered at every turn. Any energy it tried to wield was immediately neutralized or restrained. Even now, its core was completely surrounded and crushed from all sides by Lira's overwhelming, superior energy, both in terms of output and quality.
Jet also utilized his energy at this point to lock down the pesky Galactic Wind Spectra, spreading out a blanket of Ki-like energy and pulling it tight like a spiderweb, capturing the swiftly moving, nearly intangible pest.
The Super Pugilist had defeated his last opponent using nothing but his sheer fighting spirit, you could say.
Void-Eater had fallen prey to some of the stronger machines sent out by Aetherion but many of the standard troops had been drained and scraped by it, Aetherion was going to have to spend a lot of time and money rebuilding his army after this adventure was over.
The dark, shapeless mass that appeared to absorb light had constantly shifted, drawing energy from weaker attacks around it. Occasionally, it would completely consume one of the attacking machines too, regaining some of its energy by pulling it into the darkness.
Its ability lay in consuming either energy or matter, creating zones of absolute darkness by dissolving or nullifying other energies with its dark matter—provided its energy was stronger than the opposing force... In this case it had not been.
Aetherion's elite units unleashed their energy, overwhelming the dark Primordial Spectra's energy regeneration cycle.
One of those same mechanical units carried a containment device now holding the Void-Eaters core; it was a round bauble with a black, swirling void inside, there was faint hints of distant galaxies within if you peered hard enough into it.
At this point, only three Primordial Spectra remained free. The weird one making Aetherion lethargic, and the two sneaky ones attacking Flynn and Sylvanthia right now.
Magus was already unleashing magic to protect his mind from the powerful debuffs and control effects the Conceptual Spectrum Harmony and Dissonance Spectra had. Since Magus was already prepared, it wouldn't take longer than a minute or two to wrap things up on this side.
Aetherion shook his head in satisfaction, his four troops would be arriving to guard each star machine soon; speaking of four, the four elite A Grade level aces he sent to assist the 'annoying twig' and the 'pigeon' should also be close to getting right in the thick of it by now.
...
Down near the ground in the clearing, two massive, fiery beasts were lighting fires around them while they rolled around and chased each other, torching the surrounding trees.
"Ouch! Hey, Flynn, that hurts a little!" Sylvanthia grimaced as she maintained control over the monstrous yet strikingly beautiful carnivorous plant looming above. Its entire stalk pulsed with energy, glowing in waves as if it were a throat swallowing something.
Every time the flames scorched the trees and plants, Sylvanthia could feel it herself, being connected to the root system of the entire forest at the moment.
Summoning and controlling this 'earth dragon' was no easy task, not while maintaining the barrier around the cargo.
As it absorbed more and more energy from the 'prey' it had captured, glowing buds and then petals bloomed around the 'neck' of the plant, making it look like a massive flower.
Flynn spun in the air as the Inferno Condenser rush towards him, dodging the fiery maw trying to snap at him. While the beast brushed past him, Flynn brought a powerful wing down and chopped the Spectra in the middle of his back, slamming him to the ground.
Flynn was on the upper most scale power wise in the Apex Grade, it wasn't too much for him to survive an battle with a Primordial Spectra, let alone win.
The bird was trying to keep the battle away from Sylvanthia, but it was hard to stop burning the forest without staying inside the clearing.
After a few more moments of watching the the dog and the phoenix clash, Sylvanthia face grew a bit strange.
"Hhhmmm?"
She could feel the earth dragons status and felt something had changed. It had suddenly diverted its attention and energy from growth and digestion to a desperate thought of repulsion.
Before it could open its mouth and spit out the Portal Walker Specter however, it fell apart into a mess of plant flesh and sticky green juices, with the petal detaching and falling to the ground with a thud.
"Eeek!" Sylvanthia cried out, pulling her hands out of the ground and clutching her head as the mental link to the plant shattered, leaving her reeling from the sudden internal collapse.
While the giant plant swayed back and forth, the Portal Walker Spectra floated above it, unharmed, with juices still dripping off the circular shield of violet colored energy it had surrounded itself with when it had been 'eaten'. It shot the energy of its shield outwards, dispelling the plant goo and looked down at Sylvanthia while tilting her head.
Her eyes narrowed slightly, and a small, unsettling smile curved on her lips. While the Spectra had been inside the plant's mouth, it had set up numerous teleportation gates, embedding them into the earth dragon's flesh. This displaced a significant amount of its matter, killing it from the inside out. The tiny bit of energy it had stolen from the Portal Walker Specter was insignificant to it.
Boom!
Boom!
As the giant, 'headless' plant finally finished its slow fall and hit the ground, Flynn slammed its rival on the ground as the Inferno Condenser's little fiery minions harmlessly assaulted Flynn from every angle.
Dust and flames shot everywhere while the ground shook as if an earthquake was happening.
Flynn turned his head to look back at the stunned Sylvanthia, watching as the Portal Walker Specter floated down towards his companion, not even bothering to use a gate to attack.
He was having a hard time choosing whether he should release the opponent he had pinned and rush to the other two, risking the Inferno Condenser following, or try to tear out the Inferno Condenser's core, which would eliminate him entirely... This would however guarantee Sylvanthia's opponent reaching her first.
While he was quickly thinking, the look on the Portal Walker Specter's face abruptly changed as it looked upwards and froze in place.
Four objects streaked towards them from the upper atmosphere with an extremely high speed, dragging trails of lights from their boosters behind them.
The elite machines sent by Aetherion had finally arrived.