Bzzzz...
Boom!!—
At the very instant Unicron's true body descended, there was not a single unnecessary word.
The fleet, long prepared in the distant reaches of space, unleashed a ferocious volley of fire.
Tachyon Lances, focused arc beams, and all manner of high-energy weapons streaked across the heavens.
For a moment, the universe was illuminated by multicolored beams. From Cybertron, looking up, it seemed as though a rainbow stretching across the galaxy had appeared in the sky.
Even in the dead of night, the blazing radiance forced eyes shut.
Bang bang bang—
Following the first salvo from the axial main cannons came the Photoids, fired as kinetic weapons.
One hundred and twenty-eight Photoid launchers aboard the Eternal Snowfall locked onto the target. Mass points were accelerated to near-light speed in an instant, and under relativistic effects, struck that colossal entity with almost limitless energy.
"It's huge!!! It's even bigger than the Commander's hull!"
When conquering other worlds, the shipgirls would usually restrain their firepower, mindful of a starship's destructive capacity and careful not to shatter entire planets.
But now, facing Unicron, every vessel opened fire at full capacity, pouring ammunition toward that gigantic spherical monstrosity.
Boom boom boom!!—
Unicron hadn't even figured out what was happening.
It had been savoring the thought of the physical universe's delicacies, planning to devour Cybertron first, then move on to feast upon the solar system and other star systems.
And then the faster-than-light strike arrived.
The lances tore horrific wounds across the metallic structures on its surface.
After piercing the outer shell, they exposed the intricate mechanisms within.
The Photoids fell like rain, each carrying enough force to pierce a star, crackling as they slammed into Unicron's hull.
Some were intercepted by invisible energy fields. More followed the lances through the breached defenses, riddling the surface of the metallic planet with countless craters.
Unicron's true body was naturally not like a star that would explode and collapse upon being pierced. Still, under such saturated bombardment, it did not fare well.
In just a few breaths, its once sharp and aggressive exterior was battered beyond recognition.
It now resembled a planet long scarred by meteor impacts, its surface pitted with endless craters.
Some attacks were deflected by Unicron and hurled into the depths of space, pulverizing countless stars and planets into dust.
One by one, the stars in the night sky flared brilliantly, then dimmed within moments, finally vanishing from the universe forever.
"GOD..."
On Cybertron, the Autobots stared up at the colossal war unfolding above.
Megatron raised his arm and glanced at the fusion cannon mounted upon it, then looked toward the energy erupting from the starships' axial main cannons—each dozens of kilometers long.
He found himself speechless.
If, during their previous encounter, both sides had still been able to measure each other somewhat, then in his eyes the Starsea Empire had merely been a civilization slightly more advanced than Cybertron.
Now, the other party had become something he could no longer comprehend.
Planets annihilated in passing. Stars extinguished at will.
He had once thought Unicron capable of destroying Earth was already terrifying. Compared to this—what did that even amount to?
"Looks like we can only watch the show from here..."
Bumblebee scratched his head and, together with Optimus Prime, gave up the idea of joining the battle.
Forget helping. Even getting slightly closer and being brushed by the shockwaves would probably mean instant death.
"How dare you..."
The heavily damaged colossal sphere emitted a deep, resonant hum.
Unicron was furious. Someone had actually dared to scheme against it.
Across the countless epochs of its existence, through innumerable universes it had traversed, no one had ever committed such audacity.
Using the physical universe as bait and launching an attack the moment it descended?
It had indeed been deceived.
Boom!!!—
An indescribable pressure radiated outward from the sphere.
The Autobots on Cybertron immediately lost their footing, feeling the overwhelming might leaking from Unicron just as they had during previous cataclysms.
Then, before it, liquid metal coalesced into countless grotesque Terrorcons—scorpions, spiders, hounds, and other horrifying forms.
They lunged toward Cybertron and the fleet.
"Hey, hey, hey?!"
Seeing the descending Terrorcon army, the Autobots on Cybertron were stunned.
Whether Autobot or Decepticon, they hurriedly assembled to deal with the mechanical monstrosities dropping from orbit.
If their homeworld—just rebuilt by Setsuna—were ravaged by the Terrorcons again, how could that be tolerated?!
The Transformers drew their weapons to defend their homeland.
"Come on, don't you have any long-range attacks? This stuff doesn't work on us."
The nanorobot yawned.
Its main body split in midair. One nanite warship became two. Two became four. Four became eight.
Under geometric growth, the sky was soon filled with a vast gray goo fleet that blotted out the heavens.
Dark green beams interwove, shattering the Terrorcon army into fragments in a single exchange, while simultaneously tearing open new wounds across Unicron's main body.
It couldn't fight back.
Unicron had no idea where this bizarre, splitting fleet had come from, nor what kind of weapons they were using.
The moment it descended into the physical universe, it had been caught completely off guard.
All that remained within it was pure, unfiltered rage—to annihilate everything before it.
Boom!!!—
Invisible energy radiated outward from the metallic behemoth at its center.
Asteroids and minor planets along its path were crushed beneath its fury.
"Whoa—"
Even the Eternal Snowfall and the shipgirls in the distance felt the impact of that energy surge.
"That's it? That's it? That's it?!"
After remaining too long within the Dead Universe, Unicron's power had weakened to an extreme degree.
To everyone present, its methods of attack felt little more than a tickle.
"Powerless rage. It's panicking."
Boom!
Boom rumble!!—
The fleet responded with even more violent firepower.
The Starsea Empire was a faithful adherent of overwhelming firepower doctrine. They would never cease until the enemy was beaten into complete incapacitation.
After several more volleys, Unicron's hull was already in ruins.
Not only was its surface riddled with cavities carved by Tachyon Lances and Photoids, entire sections had been forcibly blasted away, exposing the dark radiance within.
"Uh, Commander... I have to admit, this thing's pretty tough."
Little Grey smacked her lips as she stared at the massive sphere.
"Not just an ordinary planetary warship—even a star would've been reduced to ashes by this barrage."
"And it can still more or less maintain its shape... Hm, as expected of Unicron?"
"We probably need something decisive to finish it off."
Setsuna's gaze fixed on the metallic construct slightly larger than the Eternal Snowfall.
It was not a starship, merely the manifested form Unicron assumed within the physical universe. As such, it possessed no reactors, no bridge, no main cannon.
It was a conceptual god symbolizing "destruction" and "chaos." Weapons of the material world could not erase an intangible concept.
But they could destroy the vessel that carried it.
The shipboard AI issued a timely notification:
[Fallen Star Lance, charge at 100%.]
[Overload at 100%. Target locked. Entering firing sequence.]
Boom!—
A massive dark crimson beam erupted from the axial main cannon, tearing through the cosmos.
The distant metallic planet was pierced by the torrent of energy, its outer shell shattering apart in an instant.
"All... spark!!!"
Within that energy, Unicron sensed a familiar power.
Before it, its body disintegrated like sand, collapsing in moments.
The Allspark—the creation-level energy source of the Transformers universe, the origin and final destination of all Transformers.
It roared at Setsuna, demanding to know how anyone could possibly wield the Allspark's power—and where it had come from.
"You... how could you?! You... come! Come here!!!"
Unicron's low voice thundered through space.
But Setsuna did not share the villain's bad habit of chatting during the final battle.
"Still not dead? Increase Fallen Star Lance overload to 150%. Boost energy input."
Bzzzz—
The starship's main cannon flared even brighter, punching straight through Unicron once more.
"Oooooohhh—"
"It's done for!!—"
Seeing Unicron battered beyond recognition and stripped of resistance, Little Grey was just about to summon the engineering division to strip it for parts.
"Wait."
Setsuna raised a hand to stop her.
A bold idea suddenly surfaced in his mind.
He piloted the Eternal Snowfall toward the drifting wreckage.
"Commander, what are you doing?"
The nanorobot and the shipgirls looked confused.
"This is the perfect opportunity to dismantle and study Unicron..."
"It is. But I want to try something else first."
Setsuna nodded.
Then they saw him step onto the bridge and gently reach out, placing a hand upon the remnants of Unicron.
A faint, shadowy black energy coiled along his arm and poured into the wreckage.
"That's... the authority of the Herrscher of Corruption?!"
Little Grey reacted instantly.
"Huh?!"
"Commander, are you planning to capture Unicron and turn it into a Starfury?"