Chapter 14: Skyfall
The storm fortress arrived at the surrounded capital planet of the Draconians. Ilya and Layla already established a blockade to prevent them from going into space. "Wake up Vexis. We're here…" Naiki petted her head multiple times. She wakes up by jumping away from him while quickly and changes into her human form. "Huh? Not going in your 'normal' form?" Naiki speaks to her while sending alarms to the two that is still sleeping. "They need to know who we actually are." Vexis says with a smug. Lena and Kelsey arrived a few minutes later. "Stay on this ship and observe us from above and use the beacon teleporter room to directly go down there while the coast is clear. Don't worry, I will set the target landing spot on a safe location." Vexis ordered the two of them with Lena nodding. Naiki quickly send the queued command to the combined fleets. Ilya's forces are the first to drop on the quarter part of the planet in sync with Layla pinching from below using the old school drop pods; filling the skies with their drop pods. Their numbers alone shows that they can easily conquer a planet in just a short day. Vexis warped with Naiki to the ground near the capital where the draconians already fortified their positions. They sit atop one of the canyons. "Wow; that is a lot of military forces. They also have mechs and them dragons supporting from behind." Vexis noted it out to Naiki. A surprise long range laser shot beamed at Vexis; she turns away to the other side of the position while absorbing the beam. "Typical…" She says it while marking the position. Naiki stands firm at her side while directly glaring down the long-range artillery crew that fired on her; making them froze out of fear as the storm fortress fires at it in orbit.
The empress quickly senses danger from above and dodge it in high reaction speed. Naiki on the other hand takes it head on with his nanoparticle suit. It was a red dragon deadlock with him as he holds one of the flaming claws. "You are a fool to think us already beaten." The dragon speaks to him telepathically while trying to crush him. Tremors from wide range of area can be felt by the invading cybran forces. Spaceships speared out from the ground throughout the planet and fires at the invading force while trying to break the planet blockade. The cybran blockade slowly takes it time to dismantle the counterattacking warships. Vexis on the other hand is halted from joining Naiki by two other dragons that is in their demi-human form. "We won't let you near our master!" One of the dragons speaks up to her. The other one throws a dragon scale javelin at Vexis. Vexis planned to parry it but on the last second it grows to the size of a building. She narrowly dodges it with a shock in her face while looking at Naiki that fights on a defensive battle. She clenches her fist; wanting to change into her beast form with the appearance of her dark matter.
"Don't do it Vexis, let's play with them a bit before that. Let them think that we are weak." Naiki telepath his words to her while receiving blows from the red dragon while winking to her. Vexis stops and laughs while pointing her index finger at the dragon that is trying to protect its master. "I'll play with you!" Vexis screamed before bolting herself towards one of them, she punched the opposing dragon in the gut with the stored dark matter at her hand. The impact is enough to fling one of the demi-human back to the city and slammed into one of the skyscrapers. The other one quickly started a melee combat with Vexis. "Your girl fights much harder than you." The red dragon stops attacking Naiki while looking at Vexis, he also sees a part of his army marched out to counter the two invading force using the portals that they have set up early on. He directly looks at Naiki; viewing where he stands without guard and starts drinking from the materialized water canister that he stored decades ago. He growls looking at him not taking this battle seriously and pauses to question him. "Tell me human, what's the name of this foolish ruler that tries to invade my home planet. We are busy enough to fight the ones that is invading our sectors."
Naiki throws away the canister and answers him. "Huh? You did not know that it is my empire that marathon through your forces to here?" He snickers. "What do you mean?" The dragon changes his attack stance. "It is us; the Imperial Cybran Empire that invaded your territories in just 2 days, the same one that you so called the black ships. Too sad you did not receive any information about us from your satellite planets. Oh, looks like your fleet failed to punch through. This is just a small payback for you invading the Estcallians." Naiki mocks him while modifying his battle suit. The Dragon looks to the skies, seeing his royal fleet debris falls down to the planet. He looks back to him with anger and flies to strike him down. Naiki finally unconcealed his aura; it overflows out with his red glowing irises as the dragon halted halfway and backed away. Vexis on the other hand waited for the other dragon to finally return and lunges the demi-human away from his brother. She feels Naiki's flowing powers and immediately transforms into her mythical beast form while feeling the chilling weather from her left view. Ilya have arrived at that side of the capital and her forces started assaulting it after conquering a quarter of the planet in just a few hours. Few artilleries strike at the snow leopard by the hand gesture of the dragons.
"Ahh~ I feel alive!" Vexis shouted psionically, launching the eternal fire bombardment using the fire at her tail tips to the capital. Naiki laughed of her behavior and taunted the red dragon. "Now now, don't be shy. Hit me like you did before." The dragon spews out fire from his mouth, Naiki skip jumped into the air; able to see Ilya fight off the enemy using one of her brutal methods. Freezing off the body of them with her subzero temperature powers. She was also stopped by one of the elder dragons guarding the inner perimeter of the capital. As Naiki glided back down to the ground, he nearly gets snapped by the jaw of another dragon that is twice the size of the red dragon that awaits him. "Brother; that is enough. Go and help your companions." The golden dragon speaks to him using telepath. "Ertos, the ruler of the draconian nation. You name and rank human!" He says it to draw Naiki's attention from the red dragon. Naiki snaps his finger and the rift of his personal dimension opens up, his pet mech dragon Veles comes out of it and rammed the red dragon to the other side of the battlefield. Smiling evilly, he returns the answer while materializing a gauss rifle. "Emperor Naiki Russ of the Imperial Cybran Empire. So, you were the one that hungrily tries to rule over this side of the system?"
Ertos scoffs. "Not as bat shit insane as you that have screwed up everything in just 2 days." He says it while tries to change back to his human form. Naiki stops him. "Oh, you're going soft on me because you think I am just a normal human? Keep that form; you're going to need it." Ertos accepted his statement and begins the battle fairly. He throws the mounted spike weapon from his tail, Naiki dodges it but it exploded in front of his face. The burn mark on his face quickly healed with a look to Vexis who already defeated the two dragons even after they changes into their dragon forms. She wanted to help him next, Naiki only mouthed 'watch' to her, she changes into her normal form and observes. The emperor shoots out the gauss rifle at Ertos, he flies away to dodge it. Taking the bait, lightning arcs shoots out of Naiki's palms aiming at the dragon wings. It hits as the dragon growls in pain before impacting to the ground. Having the urge to kill him brutally, he overcharged the gauss rifle and shoots it at Ertos until the rifle malfunction. It did not pierce his skin as he stand back up and spewed acid to him before igniting it. The dragon watches at the exact place in high expectation; an unexpected quick slice beheaded the golden dragon that Naiki strikes far using the materialized phantom of the silence sword.
Before the red dragon even can react of his dead brother, he is also ripped apart by Veles limb by limb. "Vexis did you kill those two? I don't see any major injuries from them." Naiki walked his way to Vexis at the hill who watched Ilya Impaled the dragon obstructing her objective and uses area of effect to freeze everything that oppose them. "I did, they inhaled my dark matter and it is easy for me to block their nerves; making them suffocate." Naiki watches Layla forces that just arrived. "Someone late for the party…" Naiki speaks openly to Layla who just ran to him with her forces assisting Ilya. "Master, they put up heavy resistance on the other side of the planet. Even the civilians take up arms to fight us. I have no choice but to sweep and kill all of them." She dives head first to the ground seeking Naiki's forgiveness. "The hell are you doing? You did a great job." Vexis spanks her lightly. "Nyhmn…" Layla blurted out. "Take a break Layla. Our overwhelming force will fully control this planet in 2 hours." Naiki signals her to sit at his side with Vexis switches position to sit in front of him, waiting for Naiki to cuddle her. Naiki coldly rejected as always.
The battle ended after one hour with Ilya turning the capital into a cold space deathtrap and 90% of the planet have been taken over. She spotted the Emperor; He sits with the others on the canyon including Lena and Kelsey that just teleported down from the Storm Fortress. Ilya quickly joined them, throwing an ice spear with her might with projectile speed enhancements passing their position. It is linked to a chain as she braces the pull of the spear for launch. This surprises Kelsey as she watched the snow leopard flew into the air and landed perfectly with her gravitational boots. She gives a cold gaze to Kelsey before turning her attention to her emperor and gives out her report. "Emperor, the battle has ended. I believe there is some of them who did not want to surrender and tries to make a resistance after we occupied this planet. Except…" She scratches her head. Naiki asked her to continue. "One particular dragon that surrendered in the capital. She keeps saying she comply everything that we wanted to do to her even *cough* stuffs. Just for us to spare her and her historical codex that she writes including her research." Ilya cheeks turns red saying that statement. "Interesting…" Vexis eyed Naiki as he says that. "Ilya, take her and her stuffs back at your ship." Just as she wanted to do what the emperor told, Vexis fur stood up. All of them heard the growl from their back.
"You think it is that easy to defeat me by beheading me, to defeat us…" Ertos head stick back to his main body. Countless number of dragons assembled behind his back after remaining hidden, forming a last resistance against him. "Emperor, should we just ice this planet?" Ilya suggested. "Nah, we need to crack this world open." Vexis also gives her opinion. "Send all of our force back to their ships." Naiki says calmly. "But-" Layla is interrupted by him. "Now or never Ilya, Layla." Naiki give the last warning as the golden dragon gives a faint laugh, thinking the invaders have been defeated. They quickly tapped their coms signaling the order. With a quick swap, Naiki's main forces comes down nearby them. The once sentinels are now under his command with the megaliths supporting from behind. All of them quickly covered their ears except Naiki and Vexis by his orders. Veles and the megaliths give a deafening scream at the draconians as some of them falling down, rendered unconscious. All of them is prepared to fight the remaining draconians but Naiki steps forward. He materializes one of his experimental armors. "Naiki No!" Vexis shouted and bolted to stop him. He slams a summoned lightning lance to the ground making her paralyze for a brief second, she knew that armor is dangerous for him as the armor becomes active. "Even the empress is frightened by the Emperor?" Kelsey speaks out. "You have no idea how deadly is the Emperor." Layla noted her. Veles comes directly at Naiki doing a fly by, it ejected some of its parts to him and started to merge into his armor. The sudden sound of silence is no more with the start of battle rhythm from the sentinels drumming the ground with their weapons, making the start of a clockwork rhythm. Little by little, they know what it will form out of Naiki's armor. A demonic mechanized exoskeleton completed with a full spiked tail and multiple pulsar canon as its wings. The draconians coordinated to strike with his remaining forces. It only took Naiki 5 seconds to kill out the remaining draconians using his pulsar canon wings, sweeping them in quick succession.
Ertos screamed and clawed into him without a moment of pause. He even tries to bite and swallow him. Naiki pulls one of his teeth out and stabs him at the tongue. With a lot of struggle Ertos flies upward trying to outrange him. Naiki effortlessly stabs into her thick scale and pull him downward, he sliced the dragon wing using his photon sword while finishing off the dismembered parts with the pulsar canon. There is some of the draconians comes from the other side of the planet hearing the call of their ruler. The megaliths intercepted them using its infinity beam and pulse anti air weapons while the sentinels still doing the clockwork battle rhythm. Ertos spews acid directly atop of Naiki but no harm comes to him. Still pinning him down, the Emperor uses the energy sword from his palm and stabs it directly to the brain. In quick motion he also slices out the Ertos heart. It was a gruesome sight as he is once more drenched with blood. The dragon's heart is still beating even it was fully dismembered from its body; there was something wrapping it. "The roots of the eternal tree…" Kelsey says it aloud before vomiting to the ground.
Naiki drops the heart and crushes it with his combat boot. Even the golden dragon is dead, he disintegrated its body using the same method he uses against its wing. The sentinel stops the battle rhythm. As Naiki remains still in the pool of blood, Vexis bravely goes to him. Only a few meters away from him, Veles signals her as there is something wrong. She senses that Naiki's locked powers collided during Ertos biting him down. "Everyone, materialize your space suit on right now!" Vexis shouted while warping all of his toys back to the storm fortress including Veles; Kelsey was pulled back into Ilya's flagship without question. Naiki turned to her with soulless eyes and bolt punched Vexis's abdomen hard into the cold space and slammed her into one of the neighboring planet. "Naiki! Stop, I'm not your enemy! Snap out of it!" Vexis shouted and try her best to contain Naiki from damaging the planet further but it's all in vain. "Darling!" She shouted the last word before her head gets slammed into the ground by him, it is enough to crack a part the planet that they are on including its moon after he kicked her there. Vexis pulled him back to the draconian capital planet in force as she watches the chunk of planet broke apart. She caged him in dark matter, again it was meaningless. Ilya quickly supported Vexis before Naiki shoots out the dark bolt he summoned. She freezes half on his body. The snow leopard nearly gets cut in half by a lightning wave if it was not for Layla that tackled her down. Layla locked his body using her collected time abilities with the combination of Ilya freezing his whole body in a cube.
Vexis hastily tries to redirect the power collision in him directly by his spirit but it cannot be undone. Running out of options, she puts him into deep sleep with Ilya and Layla paralyzes his body directly at the nerve points. Even Lena uses her powers to make Naiki's heart stable and not turn into frenzy state. Ilya unfreezes his body and Vexis forcefully disassemble the armor. She holds him dearly even with her wounded body. Lena sees the wounds but no blood drops out from it. Before she can heal her, the wounds slowly healed with her dark matter powers but some remain as it is. "What should I do?" Vexis looked at the rest of them for answer with tears in her eyes while slowly sits at the ground, groaning in pain. "I will order the fleet back to our capital world and ask them to keep quiet of what happened here. The siege ships will continue to remain on the planets to assist the complying inhabitants for now." Ilya says what she is doing right now while barely holding her sad emotion. "Tell them to report that the emperor, empress and the regents have unfinished business on this side of the planet. If the guardians asked." Layla suggested to Ilya as she wipes her own tears, seeing what have become to the emperor without her able to foresight it beforehand. "Vexis, there must be someone that can help Naiki." Lena that thinks rationally; directly speaks to Vexis out of worry while seeing her grit in pain for the first time in all of their battles. She thinks quietly with the others holding Naiki's hands and Vexis wiping her tears. "Yes, there is. But he is very far; from another realm or on the other side of this galaxy." Vexis finally answers as she suppresses her feelings. The quick thinking also reminds her that his mobile fortress can travel between overlapping warps that Naiki explained beforehand. She warps them into the storm fortress. "I can find him; he always leaves a small trail of his aura anywhere he goes."
Knowing where to go, all of them manned the stations and sets it exactly what Vexis ordered to do since she cannot use the fortress as efficient as Naiki. Vexis puts him at the bed that they materialized at the bridge and the fleets parted ways from the storm fortress after transferring some of the provisions for them. Once more, the storm fortress travelled to the most unknown systems with its cloak on to prevent from others seeing it while in search for an acquaintance of Naiki.