Alteran Seraphimian Aliance

by anothokuro

An action to free Arceus will bring an ancient alliance back to life. The hunt for the stars has begun. Voldemort will soon find out what true power means. And Dumbledore runs against a wall with his manipulations, as Harry frees himself from his grip and starts his true inheritance. Begins in the Pokemon universe and then changes over. Translation of the Original Story.

9. Chapter 9 - Welcome to Zi and assassins

Chapter 9 - Welcome to Zi and other problems.

Disclaimer: I own neither Pokémon nor Stargate or Harry Potter or High School DxD or any other copyrighted works used here. This story I write here only for my personal pleasure, written without any profit.

"Bla" speeches

Bla thinking

# Bla # Seraphim language

'Bla' telepathy

$ Bla $ Discussions with the shadow layer

/ Bla / Old Draconian

Ϩ Bla Ϩ Parsons tongue

₱ Bla ₱ Translated Pokémon language

[Bla] Pokédex entries

" Bla " Bijuu and other beings

Bla Bijuu talk to their host

"[Bla]" Zoids

"b̶̧̺̟̞̭̘̒̈̊̐l̡̙͕͚̭̠͙̼͌̐̽̽͘͜͝a̘͙͓̩͉͚̰̭̔͊͛̇͛̋̌͘" distorted voice

,

,

Word anticipation.

I will not describe the Zoid in their looks unless it is necessary. Who does not know what they look like:

Google: Zoids Wikia com

,

about 43,500 words

,

,

Anoth did not know exactly what had happened. He knew he was going through the portal and then ...

An error?

The fact was, he was alone in this dimension at the moment. He could only hope that his students had landed where they should go.

He also found out that his body had somehow changed into something mechanical and that at the moment he was not able to change his form.

Probably an aftereffect of the unexpected visit here which should settle over time.

Still, Anoth was curious what a form he had assumed.

It was mechanical. And it was big. Those were the things he could say for sure at the moment. Because most of the systems were offline.

And they must have been for a very long time.

How long was he effectively unconscious here?

Gradually, the systems came back online and Anoth used one of the outside cameras to look around.

It was night outside.

Seconds later Anoth changed his vision mode and had to correct his previous assessment.

It was not night. He was in a massive underground cavern.

"Where the heck did I land?" Anoth wondered herself.

Anoth could feel the internal fusion reactors starting and the maintenance sub-systems making it possible for him to move slowly.

It took scarcely two more hours before all systems reported that they were online.

"Time to go." said Anoth, who had appeared in the CIC deep inside his mechanical form as a hologram. Before him were dozens of consoles. All unoccupied. he did not need a team at the moment. After all, he was the machine himself.

What Anoth knew was that something on the surface was going on. Judging from the shockwaves, a fight had broken out there. Parallel, he could feel something that his instinct told him should have died a long time ago.

But how did he know that?

The answer was simple as he thought about it.

He has merged with this Zoid. Therefore, he now had his memories.

It was not long before cracks formed in the ceiling through which daylight was shining down. It was the first daylight that illuminated this cavern for thousands of years. As soon as the crack was big enough, Anoth send out a probe. Barely bigger than a basketball, it looked around at the top. Then he saw what was being fought, which prompted Anoth to make a system diagnosis.

"What the-...?" Either he had grown enormously in all that time or the Death Saurer had shrunk massively. The Death Saurer he knew from his databases was over 1,000 meter tall. This one came to just under 80 meters.

And was there a person on his shoulders?

On closer analysis it was clear that none of his suspicions were true. This was not the Death Saurer who had practically wiped out the old Zoidians.

It was a pretty bad copy.

But where there is one copy, there are usually more of them.

That did not bode well.

Anyway.

This cheap copy was about to disassemble a city. He would not allow that to happen. This thing had to be destroyed. No matter how.

His reactors powered up to maximum power and with the help of the now active impulse engines Anoth slowly broke through the good 100 meters of soil and rock above him.

,

On the surface

,

The fighting had come to a standstill as more and more earthquakes shook the area.

Then something broke out of the ground. Only a few hundred meters from the city, the ground broke open and the head of a giant Zoid came out of the ground. The head alone was bigger than the Death Saurer copy in the city.

Then the complete Zoid came to light. It was a mighty dragon with equally massive wings and an arsenal on its back where none of those present wanted to stand at the wrong end.

Van stared at the data his Blade Liger provided.

This dragon was huge and armed with weapons, most of which he had never heard before. Among them were 10 Charged Particle Cannons (CPCs). But judging by the equipment they were not even the primary weapons.

Dr. D, meanwhile, almost had a heart attack when he saw the giant dragon Zoid. His first thought was : Hopefully we do not have to fight this monster . But then he remembered something he had found in one of his excavations. It was just a mural. Not more. But this one showed a vague portrayal of the Death Saurer and a dragon in combat. Below was, even if it was barely legible, Project Guardian.

There were also reports from other archaeologists who had stumbled upon scripts mentioning the Guardian project. However, there was never a precise description of the project.

But there was a legend.

In fact, this legend has even been made into a movie before.

Although the content of the film was probably highly divergent from the content of the true Guardian project.

"A Guardian of long lost time, returned to defeat an evil that seems invincible." muttered Dr. D. "Can that be? Is this the real project Guardian?"

"Guardian, but that's just-" Irvine's protest was interrupted as the Death Saurer began to speak.

"[Guardian!]" The voice of the Death Saurer was filled with hate.

"[So you can talk, Death Saurer wannabe!]" The voice of the dragon drove everyone through and through. A voice filled with tremendous power. "[I do not know how it would be a good idea to raise a Zoid responsible for the Zoidians' near-genocide, even though this is not much more than a cheap and faint copy of the original.]" The Zoids of both Sides, from the Guylos Empire and the Helic Republic saw that they avoided this giant as he slowly approached the burning city. "[And who's that on your shoulders, your master? I thought the Death Saurer would not be so easy to command from a mere human not even an Zoidian.]"

The answer Anoth got was the particle cannon from the Death Saurer. Anoth did not even thought about taking steps to avoid it or taking countermeasures. The why became quickly very clear as the particle beam washed over the dragon Zoid without causing any damage at all.

"[A simple class 12 CPC. That's all you have to offer?]"

In response, the Death Saurer began firing his laser gun at Anoth, who at the moment was giving the impression that he was more bored than impressed by the Death Saurer. The Death Saurer also fired missiles from his tail, which exploded in the air and shot down metal bars. These, however, bounced harmlessly off Anoth's massive armor.

"[Well, you had your chance, now it's my turn.]"

Anoth's answer was loud and clear. The eight heavy guns that he carried on back fired almost simultaneously. Eight heavy antimatter artillery shells crashed into the Death Saurer, tearing large holes in its armor. The charged particle cannon from the Death Saurer was destroyed. Also, the Death Saurer had to say goodbye to a part of his tail and most of the other weapons he owned.

"[As I said, just a cheap copy.]" Anoth's eyes went to Vans Blade Liger. "[I'll leave the rest to you.]"

With that, Anoths started his engines and took off, setting course for one of Zi's moons.

It did not take long for the combined forces of both sides to destroy the badly battered Death Saurer. In the end it was Van who destroyed the core of the Death Saurer with one of his Blade Ligers blades. Whereupon the whole Zoid exploded.

Anoth thought she had heard a long "why?!" just before the Zoid abdicated. Must be his imagination.

,

One year later

,

Only a few months after the destruction of the Death Saurer copy, a new group was formed. The Guardian Force.

Anoth observed them for the following months, when the plan for the group slowly but surely took shape.

Then suddenly another Zoid appeared.

The so-called Death Stinger.

The interesting thing about this Zoid was that its core had very similar energy patterns to the original Death Saurer.

Similar. Not equal.

Then came the day where he could no longer only watch.

The Death Stinger had begun to run rampant and destroy everything that ran across his path.

Entire cities were wiped out by the thing.

At first, Anoth considered the whole thing to be another outbreak of a new war. But as he began to analyze the evidence, it was clear that only one man was responsible.

Hiltz.

It was time he got involved again.

Anoth did not have to search too long to find the Death Stinger. It was moving to a former lake at the bottom of which lay an oversized Ultrasaurus.

An inactive Ultrasaurus.

Simplified it meant: A target practice for the Death Stinger.

Anoth had broken through the atmosphere of Zi with increased speed and crashed at the exact time next to the Ultrasaurus to catch the particle beam from the Death Stinger before it could reach his target.

The Death Stinger disappeared into the ground as soon as Hiltz spotted the Guardian over the still inactive Ultrasaurus. Hiltz knew he could never win a direct fight against that.

"Guardian" the pleased call came not only from the Ultrasaurus but also from Van and Irvine who sat in their Zoids.

"[Looks like I just arrived in time.]" Anoth's voice sounded. This time at far not as powerful as the first time. However, everyone knew how powerful this Zoid really was. He had practically maimed the Death Saurer copy with just one salvo. "[Problems?]"

"What about the Helcats?" Irvine asked, surprised that on the one hand all Helcat had stopped firing and were visible and began to gather around Anoth.

"[Their pilots now recover in the prison cells aboard the Ultrasaurus, I hope you do not mind?]"

"You're saying?" The question came from the Ultrasaurus Command Center.

"[That I teleported them aboard the Ultrasaurus. Or should I dump them into the Orbit? Back to the question: Problems with the Ultrasaurus?]"

It was Moonbay sitting at the control panel of the Ultrasaurus who answered him. "It does not start, we've rewired the cores, but that did not help much."

"[Well, let's take a look.]" From the neck of the mighty dragon Zoid several cables came out that connected with the Ultrasaurus. "[Starting system and performance check.]" He had the result a few seconds later. "[There's a limiter installed on the seventh generator where it does not belong, otherwise all systems seam operational.]" The limiter problem was quickly resolved. It was left behind and forgotten when the Zoid was constructed. "[All hold on. We start.]" With that Anoth carried out the emergency start sequence. The seventh generator who had previously made problems reacted instantly and jump started. "[All Generators Online, Zoidcore Online, Congratulations, your giant baby is awake.]"

Herman, who, after Krueger fell and injured his head, was in command of the Ultrasaurus, could not resist a grin. Giant baby. Yes somehow that fit.

Only this giant baby was not fully armed. The Ultrasaurus had at the moment a number of depth charges, anti-aircraft guns and torpedo defense weapons. That was it.

The main weapon was somewhere else, and that's exactly where they had to get on their way.

"Will you accompany us?" Van asked from his Blade Liger.

"[Otherwise, I would hardly have come. Back with you into the Ultra. As soon as I have stowed my new Helcats I come to you]."

"Can you find us after that?"

"[Do you seriously think you could escape me with that?]"

Van had to give up. The Ultrasaurus was definitely not a record breaker in terms of speed.

,

Several hours later.

,

Hiltz had a hell of a lot of the Helcats. Anoth had found more and more of them. Their pilots, however, he send on a free flight into space.

He was now at 136 Helcats.

136 female Helcats.

Anoth's skull hit the floor with full force. Why can he get a back mixed group?

At the moment, the 136 Helcats, now all shadows, scurried through his Zoid body in the form of domestic cats. How did they find away to transform into this form so quickly? Anoth strongly suspected that one of his other shadows was responsible for that. Probably an Eevee. They were always available for some jokes.

Maybe he should go to the next town first and buy a load of catnip. That should at least keep them in one place.

On the other hand ...

136 Helcats on drugs was probably not such a good idea.

A few rolling stones told him that he had not yet caught everyone. Some were still sneaking around here.

It was not long before he found them. A small group of Helcats had hidden in a cave. However, these were different once.

They were wild Zoids. Two adults and six little ones.

Wild Zoids could multiply in one of two ways.

Young wild Zoids emerge from small cores that grow within the mother Zoid. These are either released by the death of the parent after that they then search for a safe place where they then evolved into new Zoids or they were, as soon as the core had developed far enough, laid like an egg from the mother Zoid.

The latter happened here. And judging by their behavior to they were clearly afraid.

Wild Zoids did not look as mechanical as their produced counterparts. They were biomechanical and their physique was far more distinct to an animal than a machine. Anoth's new Helcats would over time also shed their much more edgy mechanical form and switch to a much more organic one.

These eight, however, had nothing to fear from Anoth.

That didn't stop Anoth from making a few photos of them.

But it was now time that he came to the Ultrasaurus before the Death Stinger tried his luck again.

,

On the sea

,

The Ultrasaurus was now on the high seas. Fiona stood by a dome-like construct in the command center of the Ultrasaurus which indicated the surroundings when she noticed a huge shadow approaching them quickly.

"Something is approaching us." Fiona reported.

"Torpedoes?"

"No bigger, it's the Guardian." Fiona reported. "He turns up on port."

And indeed. To the left of the Ultrasaurus, the water lifted, then the enormous head of the Zoid broke out of the water. Closely followed by a whole part of his body. Now they could also take a look at his armament. Mobile fortress was a very good description.

Dozens of guns were distributed to him. The largest were the antimatter artillery guns with a massive caliber of 400cm.

The firepower of these guns was now well known far and wide. A full salvo of the guns had almost completely dismantled the 80-meter Death Saurer back then.

Now this massive Zoid was swimming next to them. His total length of 1,460 meters from the tip of the nose to tail end made him about 30% larger than the Ultrasaurus. Who came to scarce 1,100 meters total length.

"[Did you miss me?]" Anoth asked as he adjusted his speed to that of the Ultrasaurus.

"Thank you for your help - you just came at the right time."

"[No cause, Colonel Herman.]" Answered Anoth. "[However, I fear that the Death Stinger is just the tip of the iceberg, which we currently see.]"

"Can you explain that?"

"[The energy patterns of the Death Stinger are very similar to those of the Death Saurer.]"

"He was not a pro-." Herman was interrupted when Anoth finished his sentence.

"[The Original Death Saurer.]" Anoths finished his sentence. "[The Death Saurer who has almost wiped out the Zoidians in a multi-year conflict, single-handedly.]"

None of them liked what Anoth told them. And they hoped he was wrong.

A short time later, Colonel Herman held a meeting inside the Ultrasaurus to explain what they were about to do. Anoth himself followed this meeting via a surveillance camera in the room.

"Ladies and gentlemen, if we're all here, I'd like to start this meeting now, and get straight to the point." Herman started. A massive screen in the bottom of the room showed the Ultrasaurus as he was talking. "The Ultrasaurus is the largest Zoid ever constructed, with the exception of the Guardian, but the guardian is many times older than this Zoid, unfortunately the Ultrasaurus is virtually unarmed with the exception of Basic Defense Weapons. This vulnerability is a matter of great concern. Because we are being pursued by the enemy and it is closing in on us much faster than we expected. "

"Unarmed?!" That was Moonbay who spoke up. "What was the idea to leave my Ultrasaurus defenseless?"

It was Irvine who could not leave that uncommented. "What do you mean by your Ultrasaurus?" Judging by Monnbay's reaction, that was probably an issue they had already a few times.

"Let's stay with the topic." Herman started again. "We are on our way to a secret Imperial weapons storage to equip the Ultrasaurus with a new weapon."

"What kind of new weapon is that?" asked Van.

"And why is it a secret?" another asked.

"Colonel, if you please." while Herman looked at Schubaltz, who now took over the explanation. At the same time, the image on the ground changed and showed a huge cannon.

"Lady and gentleman you are looking at the primary armament, the gravity cannon." started Schubaltz. "The largest cannon ever built, with a 800 meter long barrel and a width of 160 meters, Dr. D personally overlooks the construction of this gigantic cannon."

"Once this weapon is installed, the Ultrasaurus will truly be an invulnerable fortress for us." Herman finished the performance while the picture on the ground showed the complete Zoid with the primary weapon installed.

Now President Camford stepped forward. Thank you for your help, the Ultrasaurus is our last hope, our last hope for peace, peace for both, the brothers of the Republic and the Empire. " said the president. "We have absolute confidence in you."

The rest of the day stayed calm. But everyone knew that it would not stay that way.

,

The next day.

,

A hammerhead Zoid drove ahead of them as a scout. It was in full dive mode right now when Anoth contacted him.

"[Attention, you are approaching a highly unstable methane-hydrate field. Change course immediately.]"

"Confirmed." came from the pilot. Not a second too early. just seconds later, a massive methane bubble broke out of the field. Had the Hammerhead been in it then the Zoid would have been history. "That was close, thanks for the warning."

A short time later, Herman found himself in another room again to teach Van and Co., what methane hydrate is. He had a piece of methane hydrate in a Petri dish on the table.

"Under high pressure, methane gas can combine with water, forming a substance called methane hydrate."

"Is it that the icy substance on the seabed?" Fiona asked.

"That is correct. And my sensors tell me there are several hundred million tons of that stuff down there." Anoth's voice sounded from a speaker.

O'Connel, standing next to Fiona, went on to explain. "The substance is also referred to as fire ice." right after that he took out a stick lighter, turned it on, and held it to the ice. Right enough. The ice began to burn on the spot.

"Had the Guardian not warned the Hammerhead we would have lost it." Van said as he looked at the burning ice.

"[Methane hydrate is very unstable to environmental influences.]" It was Anoth who explained it. "[And when methane hydrate dissolves, it releases large amounts of methane gas. Which was the reason for the loss of hundreds of ships through various reasons who sank into the depths of the ocean, so it's better to avoid those fields.]"

"The Abyss of the Devil." Irvine said.

"The seabed is like a huge munitions dump, it would be catastrophic if we were attacked there." Van added. Meanwhile, the ice was burned out and the Petri dish shattered directly after.

Of course, Moonbay could not keep it silent. And started again with her Ultrasaurus. Which caused only a sigh from Irvine and was completely ignored by the others. Anoth had the impression that Moonbay was doing that extra to annoy Irvine a bit. However, he denied himself a comment.

"Since we do not know the full capabilities of the Ultrasaurus, the methane hydrate field and the associated danger could be too much, so we decided on a path that will take us around the fields, even if it means we lose time." Herman explained.

Other versions were interrupted when the alarm went off.

"[All Stations Red Alert.]" Anoth's voice sounded. "[Enemy flying units are approaching us from several directions. Battle stations! Battle stations! This is not an exercise! This is not an exercise!]"

No sooner had Fiona sprinted to the command deck, she gave the order that all pilots should go to their Zoids and then go to the flight deck. Out the window you could see Anoth activating his weapons.

"[Enemy units are approaching at 3, 6, and 9 o'clock, count a total of 240 units in three groups, all of them Sinker Zoids.]" They must have approached us submerged. Otherwise they would have been discovered much earlier.

"[Launching all Sinkipira drones.]" At Anoth's side, four openings opened, from which 100 Sinkipira drones were shot out within seconds.

The Sinkipira drones were thick disc-shaped drones of five meters in diameter and 3 meters in length. They were armed with eight plasma rapid-fire cannons in four double cannons; four micro photon torpedo launchers and four light phaser banks and 16 Alteran mini drones.

A short time later, the sinkers were within range of Anoth's anti-aircraft guns. And Anoth did not hesitate for a second and sent the approaching sinker Zoids into a massive wall of flying death. Within seconds, more than 30 of them crashed burning into the sea.

Anoth's heavy artillery also fired. The fired shells were programmed to explode in mid air. The massive explosions of these shells destroyed more enemy Zoids and even vaporized a few of them.

With the coordinated fire and the strong defensive fire by Anoth, the number of attackers quickly dwindled to below 20. But that was just the first wave. In this wave alone, Anoth had lost 21 of his 100 Sinkipira drones. Either because they were shot down or damaged so badly that they triggered their self-destruct sequence.

"[Go into dive mode now!]" Anoth commanded the Ultrasaurus. "[There are three more waves approaching, consisting of more Sinker Zoids and Redler, if you stay on the surface you will be destroyed.]"

No sooner had Anoth said that it was confirmed by Colonel Herman in the command centre. Immediately after he gave the order that all Zoids should go back under deck and all hatches are to be closed and to immediately dive.

During the day at sea Anoth had given the Ultrasaurus yet another gimmick. A cloaking device. And that's exactly what they activated as they were under water. So they could make sure they were not being followed.

In the meantime, Anoth had turned and presented his broadside to the approaching flight units. A easy target. Should one think so. However, this target had activated its multi-layer shields and ablative generators, it would turn out to be a damn hard nut to crack.

The fight began when Anoth opened his rocket pods that were installed in one of his tails and released all the ground-to-air missiles he had on the approaching Zoids. In total, there were 320 missiles against nearly 600 aircrafts.

A good quarter of the Zoids were hit and crashed. The missiles aimed at the others were either shot down, missed their target or several missiles hit the same target, which was then literally atomized.

Then Anoth's air defense opened fire again. Only the enemy Zoids reacted differently now. They knew they had no chance with their weapons. And so more than 100 unmanned Redlers accelerated to their maximum speed. They climbed high into the sky, only to swerve and dive directly at Anoth, only to collide with Anoth's shields.

A single one of them did not do anything to Anoth's shields. However, 200 of them crashed into it at full throttle with more than eight times the speed of sound, that made sure that the first of three shields collapsed and the second crashed down to 34%. Not to mention that Anoth was shaken vigorously.

Also, the damage that bled through the shields caused the failure of multiple turrets. However, due to the active ablative generators surrounding Anoth with another armored shell, there was no break in the armor.

Anoth knew he was giving them a far too easy target when he stayed in the water. So he unfolded his massive wings, brought the impulse engines to full power and rose into the air. In the air, he was significantly more agile and could fight so much more direct these annoying mosquitoes.

At the same time Anoth activated his energy weapons. It was time to show that he was not joking.

Only seconds later, all ten of Anoth's CPC fired their beam of subatomic charged particles into the swarm of enemy Zoids. As a result, several dozen of them simply ceased to exist.

Pulse-phaser batteries and phaser banks also went online and fired at the enemy Zoids very accurately. All his turrets, which had previously fired conventional ammunition, now fired energy weapons. The turrets were constructed so that they could fire conventional weapons or energy weapons.

Shortly thereafter, Anoth's attackers were on the run. But he would none of them get away.

As Anoth's weapons now began 360 ° Around firing they brought dozens of attackers down.

A phaser hit a Redler on the wing and vaporized it. The Zoid went out of control and crashed. Another took several plasma hits and crashed, taking his colleague under him with him as they collided in mid air with each other.

It was a few minutes later. Only a few had escaped and fled. The rest was destroyed. And Anoth activated his own cloak and resumed the old course. Only with the difference that he was now in the air and not in the water.

It took a while before he had found the Ultrasaurus and so a short time later they swam again side by side.

Moonbay looked from her seat at the control over to the Guardian. Just like practically everyone else did.

Anoth had slight damage to the side. Some of the turrets were damaged and three were missing. Otherwise the damages were not very big. And they also saw that the self-repair systems were already repairing or replacing the lost and damaged turrets.

"Can you give a report Guardian?" Herman finally asked.

"[It was 840 air units, including the first wave. The damned bastards attacked Kamikaze style.]"

"Kamikaze?"

"[Suicide attacks by their Redlers. They rose as high as they could into the air and then came down at multiple speeds of sound and collided with my shields, with a collision force of about 80 tons of TNT per collision, over 200 of them. The first shield generator failed but the second one held. I am now improving my shield generators. This will not be happening again.] "

"200 - that would have destroyed the Ultrasaurus." How strong are his shields that he has suffered so little damage?

"[That's why you should dive. You have no shields that could intercept such things, or rather no shields at all.]"

,

An hour later

,

Van and Irvine had gone over to Anoth with Fiona and were now in one of his hangars after Anoth had asked them to come over.

"How many Helcats are there?" Irvine asked as he saw four rows of Helcats in front of him.

"[136 pieces.]" Came the reply from Anoth. "[They were also the ones you fought against.]"

"136?" Irvine's eyes had grown quite large. His Lightning Saix and also Vans Bladeliger could easily finish a dozen of them. But over 100. That was a few too many.

However, these 136 Helcats had already begun to change. Their lines became more organic. And he sensed that they had become a lot stronger.

He did not want to mess with these Helcats. Because he sensed that these could rightly were the title "hell cat".

A few minutes later, they were standing in the CIC of Anoth.

Their position was clearly visible on the massive screen in the CIC. As well as their surroundings in a radius of over 200km. With the help of satellites, he was able to increase this range significantly.

"We will reach the base in about eight hours." They knew this voice. It did not have the power as if the Zoid itself was speaking. But it clearly belonged to the Guardian.

"Guardian?" Van asked as he saw the person standing in the middle of the room.

"Yes." the person replied. "That's me, even though this is just a hologram."

"You are not a normal Zoid or?" Fiona finally asked.

"That I am surely not." was Anoth's answer. "This is not even my true shape, I woke up in an underground facility less than a year ago, I did not really want to visit this dimension at all, but now I know why I ended up here." Anoth came over to them. "My real name is Anoth, and I am something that is widely known as a Worldlord."

"It's you two who called me here." Anoth said after a short break, pointing to Fiona and Zeke. Van's Organoid. The two named looked more than a bit surprised. "You subconsciously called for help when you saw the Death Saurer, you subconsciously knew what the original of the Death Saurer did, and for some reason that drew me here and forced me into that body."

"What exactly is a Worldlord?" asked Van.

This time it was Fiona who answered after she had managed to collect her jaw again.

"Beings with tremendous power who monitor and travel the dimensions." she answered. "During the war against the original Death Saurer, there were groups who asked for help from the Worldlords, but they never came."

"The reason was that for many millennia this world was stuck in a highly unstable quantum storm that made it impossible to travel into this dimension, even for us, this storm has been slowing down lately, and somehow it pulled me here. The exact mechanics behind it does not matter, one thing is for sure, this time I'm going to make sure the Death Saurer is destroyed."

"The original Death Saurer, how dangerous is he?" Irvine asked.

"Let's put it this way, the Death Stinger is little more than a mosquito to the Death Saurer." Anoth explained. "The old Zoidians created it as the Ultimate weapon, but for some reason they lost control of the Zoid altogether, what followed was a war for many years that nearly wiped out the Zoidians. Ironically the war ended in the same place where it had started, in the valley of Rare Hertz. "

"The valley of Rare Hertz?"

"Have you never wondered where Rare Hertz radiation comes from?" They just blinked at him with obvious question marks over their heads. "The Rare Hertz valley is not just the place where the ancient Zoidians opposed the original Death Saurer and his four companions in the final battle, it is also the place where the Zoid Eve was sealed. The radiation is the one thing that stops the Zoid Eve from fully using her power. "

"The Death Saurer is one of the few Zoids, no, the only Zoid to have a direct energy connection with Zoid Eve, and is even dependent on her energy, the other Zoids today can still benefit from Zoid Eve, but they no longer need the energy to survive. The long time that Zoid Eve was virtually shut down has provided for this development, but I digress: The old Zoidians defeated the Death Saurer by separating the five from the direct energy connection with Zoid Eve, three of the small ones were completely destroyed. The last two - a smaller Death Saurer copy of about 190 meters and the original were sealed - they could not remove the core of the original but without the energy of Zoid Eve he could effectively do nothing. And so the original was sealed in a mountain. The smaller copy was sealed in a huge block of concrete and the Zoid core was removed or stolen. No one really knows."

"And this Zoid core is now in the Death Stinger?" advised Van.

"After what my sensors say, yes." confirmed Anoth. "And I'm afraid that Hiltz is not alone. When the Death Saurer was destroyed a year ago, my sensors received very strange energy waves from the explosion, it took quite a while before I could assign them, but the wave pattern is quite similar to what happens when two Zoid cores are merged with each other. Then the pattern suddenly disappeared through something whose wave pattern closely resembled that of a transporter, and the Death Saurer exploded right after. " Anoth pointed to the main monitor. "I've been able to locate the transporter signal by now."

"Let me guess, the Rare Hertz Valley." said Irvine, who had a bad feeling by now.

"Correct." confirmed Anoth. The monitor now showed the Rare Hertz valley, with the two wave patterns. "When the core of the Death Stinger is combined with the core of the cloned Death Saurer, the smaller Death Saurer is then no longer dependent on the energy from Zoid Eve. It wakes up, and immediately he will make sure that the energy dampener that controls the energy from the Zoid Eve is shut down. And with the full energy of the Zoid Eve ... "

"... the original Death Saurer comes to life again to complete his work." Fiona finished in a shaky voice.

"The Death Stinger must not reach this valley." Van said determined.

,

A few hours later

,

Moonbay had managed to dock the Ultrasaurus safely while Anoth took sentry post and started to improve his own defense. The shield generator was destroyed because the shield grid was completely misconfigured. This made the shields much more vulnerable for kinetic attacks than they should have been.

Anoth shoved the reason why he had not noticed this wrong configuration to that he was still too new to this body. There were mistakes not to be excluded. Besides, the merge was still not complete.

Anoth had also made and installed a cloaking field generator. It was not big, but it had enough power to make an area with a radius of about 3km appear as if there were only nature there. That should give a little protection from prying eyes.

Meanwhile, Dr. D was busy describing the operation of the gravity cannon.

The ground on which they stood showed the Ultrasaurus from above. On one side of the Zoid would the cannon be installed and on the other side the massive generators that the cannon needed. The fire control for the cannon was also located in that module.

So far so unspectacular. Apart from the size, it was just a huge cannon.

The secret was in the fired projectile.

Like Dr. D said the projectile was made of an ultra-dense material called Planetelecit. A material that is so dense that it creates its own gravitational field, and when ignited, this point is amplified many times over.

The projectile effectively produced a temporary singularity. Also known as black hole.

As Dr. D had finished with his explanation, however, he had to realize that the people present had understood almost nothing of it. And although he had given them a very simplistic version.

In the end it was Herman who broke the silence. He just said that it was not important at all to understand Dr. D's explanations or not. her job is to shoot the projectile where it should go. And for that purpose he handed the control of the cannon over to Schubaltz.

However, Dr. D announced that they were able to produce only three projectiles. And one of them would be consumed while testing the cannon. So only two remained for the current fight.

Now it was Anoth who spoke up. He had followed the discussion on the cameras. "[I can produce more of these projectiles - I have a fairly powerful production facility on board, but I need the plans for it.]"

"How many would you be possible to produce?" Herman asked in the room.

"[First I need the plans.]" He had them just under a minute later. "[Due to the extremely high weight of the Planetelecit I can make about one projectile per hour. Not more.] "

"That's still better than the two we have." said Herman. "Start with production."

"[I already have, the first projectile is completed in 57 minutes and 34 seconds.]"

"So much for our ammunition problem, let's start assembling the cannon, I want to get out of here as soon as possible." Herman ordered. "Once it's installed, we'll start testing right away."

"[We will be back at sea in a few hours, if you want time to rest, now you'll have the opportunity to do that, because once we get back on sea none of us will probably get any more sleep.] "

A suggestion that many of the present were only too happy to follow.

,

Three hours later

,

The installation of the gravity cannon was completed and Anoth had donated three more bullets, which were now loaded in the cannon ammo storage. This gave the Ultrasaurus a total of six missiles available for the gravity cannon.

They were now at the firing position for the test shot of the cannon.

"[All ready for the test.]" Reported Anoth, who had aligned all his sensors on the target and the results also transferred to the Ultrasaurus, while they also recorded with their own sensors. There was only one difference. Anoth's sensors were more accurate. RED ALERT! AS SOON AS WE'RE FIRE OUR ENEMY KNOWS WHERE WE ARE! GET READY FOR UNINVITED GUESTS!] "

Immediately after, the mighty cannon was charged with energy. The huge cannon was a mass accelerator and needed energy to launch the projectile.

Seconds later, the cannon fired and started to emit huge amounts of steam as the cooling system started working immediately.

Anoth traced the trajectory and found a slight drift of about 0.1 °. A little thing that could be easily corrected for the next shot.

"[5,000 meters to ignition.]"

"[4,000 ... 3,000 ... 2,000 ... 1,000 ... ignition!]"

Then the ignition took place over the target area.

Anoth could follow closely on the cameras of his Sinkipira Drones, as it looked from the outside. He also followed closely through his sensors how the extreme gravitational field built up below the projectile, forcing the water to the side. Even the seabed was crushed. A truly remarkable weapon. Everything that was below the bullet was literally crushed into a pancake.

"[All values within expected parameters. Slight drift of 0.1123 ° to north-northwest. Test was a complete success.]"

"Confirm. Test completed successfully." the confirmation came back. That made for joy, but not for long.

"[WARNING! ENEMY UNITS APPROACHING!"] Anoth reported. "[I cannot shoot with the Ultra in the way, you have to take it. Shield is up and the field is upgraded to include the Ultrasaurus.]"

It was just a small group on Sinker Zoids. Van, Irvine and Co. had no problem dealing with them. The last of the sinkers, however, managed to launch his rockets just before it was destroyed. This sinker had meanwhile come too close to catch the rockets before. In the end, it made no difference when they exploded harmlessly on the shield and did no harm except an involuntary shower of water for the Zoids.

,

Later

,

Now, they were no longer at sea but now on the mainland. Apparently, Van, Irvine, and Thomas, along with Dr. D developed a tactic to hold the Death Stinger in one place. At least long enough for the gravity cannon to fire at him.

In the test run of this tactic, Van put himself in his Blade Liger, Irvine in his Lightning Saix and Thomas in his Dibison a Gojulas was there enemy replacement for the Death Stinger. This Gojulas fired with live ammunition on the three. The reason behind it was simple. If they could not beat a Gojulas they would not have a chance against the Death Stinger.

For Anoth, however, the training was interrupted when a message came in that Hiltz had attacked and destroyed the Sand Colony and was now moving to Mount Iselina.

Anoth promptly lit his engines and took off. He took a direct course to Mount Iselina in the hope that he arrived there in time. And he was not alone. Rosso and Viola in their Storm Sworder Zoids accompanied him. Luckily they were quite close to Mount Iselina. Therefore, the flight with supersonic did not last too long.

A few minutes later they arrived.

The Death Stinker had just thrown aside a Gogos who had tried in vain to stop him with its ram when it was suddenly grabbed from the air and thrown out of the village.

The Death Stinger had just enough time to get back on his feet when he was thrown back several meters by two very powerful hits. The third hit, hit the particle cannon at the tail end of the scorpion-like Zoid and destroyed it. A fourth crashed into the ground behind the Zoid, leaving behind a crater several tens of meters wide. The projectile had missed the Death Stinger only because it had buried underground.

Hiltz was even luckier than he knew himself. Because the fourth shot was aimed at the cockpit of the Death Stinger.

The result of four of the twelve MAC guns that Anoth possessed, firing at only a fraction of their strength. (4x 40kg projectiles, which hit at a speed of almost 100 km / s (impact force 47.8 tons each TNT)). If he fired with maximum firepower he would surely destroy the Death Stinger. But everything else within a radius of several kilometers with it. Even so, the four impacts were still noticeable within a radius of a few hundred meters.

And without the charged particle cannon, the danger of the Death Stinger had dropped significantly. Though Anoth guessed that would not last.

Nevertheless, Anoth was angry.

"[Damn! He's gone!]" Growled Anoth. And reported this to the Ultrasaurus. "[He moves to the Gurrill Plateau. He has lost his main weapon, though probably only temporarily.]"

"Thank you for pointing it out to us immediately. What about you?"

"[There are hundreds of injured people here in the village, and I have the only infirmary. In addition, all of the village's transport Zoids have been destroyed, I'm sorry, but you're on your own for a while.]"

"Roger that."

,

Sometime later

,

Hiltz had in fact ignored the jail and headed for the Gurrill Plateau. This gave him some time to at least partially repair the badly damaged CPC of his Zoid. Thanks to the self-repair option of the Death Stinger. However, he could not fire it with full force.

This gave Van and Co. a small advantage.

An advantage that they knew how to use.

Because Hiltz was only able to fire his CPC in short bursts.

And the first of these shots, the three easily avoided before they were in positions around the Death Stinger and activated the shields of their Zoids to hold the Death Stinger in position. That was the "Delta Formation".

The problem was that they were not conducting enough energy into the formation and the associated force field. This allowed the Death Stinger to break free from the field and fire a burst from his CPC before the shot fired from the gravity cannon could hit it.

The following explosion threw Van and Co. aside and left them briefly unconscious. However, they recovered quickly and tried it again. This time, however, they directed far more energy into the shield.

And this time it worked.

As the Death Stinger tried to break through the shield it was stopped. The Death Stinger was stuck.

And Van and Co. took the fastest way out of the area. Shortly thereafter, the gravitational bullet exploded over the Death Stinger and flattened it. The Death Stinger tried to use his CPC once more. but it exploded before the Death Stinger could fire because of the damage the CPC had already suffered.

So they could watch from a safe distance as the Zoid was crushed.

,

An hour later.

,

It was well another hour before Anoth joined them again. The arrival of vehicles from another village had made him free to go and able to join them again.

From a distance he could see the crushed Death Stinger petrifying. An effect that only occurred when a Zoid died.

Then, however, suddenly a bright light appeared. An organoid had merged with the Death Stinger and had resurrected him. Van and Irvine jumped in their Zoids and tried to attack the Death Stinger, but the Death Stinger used his weapons to create a cloud of dust and debris and then used this cover to dig underground but not until the Death Stinger fired a shot at the Dibison, which paralyzed its rear leg.

No sooner was the Death Stinger under the ground, it took direct course to the Ultrasaurus that was parked in the distance.

The Ultrasaurus fired a few missiles in an attempt to ward it off. But since the Death Stinger was below the surface of the earth, they were as good as useless.

No sooner was the Death Stinger under the Ultrasaurus it started to undermine one side within seconds. The heavy Ultrasaurus broke in and sank partly into the ground while the Death Stinger made ran off.

Van, Irvine and Thomas immediately took up the chase.

Less than three minutes later Anoth floated directly over the Ultrasaurus.

"[Are you alright?]" Anoth asked.

"Yes, but we cannot let out any Zoids, all our lifts and flaps are blocked, and we're stuck here, we're not getting free." came the report from Herman. "Can you help?"

"[I think so.]" Answered Anoth. "[Let's see if I can get your 100,000 tons of ass out of the ground.]" 80,000 tons weighed the Zoid. 20,000 the complete equipment of the gravity cannon.

Anoth positioned himself over the broken Ultrasaurus, which was exactly centered below him. Then use his Powerful Tractor Beams to pull the thousands of tons of Zoid out of the ground. Anoth's pulse engines had to work overtime.

It took several minutes, but eventually the Ultrasaurus moved out of its hole and a short time later the monster stood on its feet again.

Anoth was directly forced to land because several of his engines had become so hot that they threatened to explode. His real space engines were many times stronger than the pulse engines. Unfortunately, he could not use these here, as they pointed in the wrong direction. They just pushed him forward. Not upright but what was needed here.

In addition, the soil had not given up its "prey" so easily. Which in turn ensured that Anoth had to temporarily lift the multiple of the weight of the Ultrasaurus. The peak came shortly to the 362,000 tons.

(By comparison, an Nimitz-class aircraft carrier weighs about 100,000 tons.)

The ground, which was directly under the engines, was melted into glass by the tremendous heat. A testament to how much power the engines had to muster.

"[Done. The peak was 361,896 tons.]"

It was Moonbay, who answered. "Did not you say we would weigh around 100.00?"

"[Have you ever rammed a rod into the ground, as deep as you could, and then tried to pull it out again?]"

"Good point."

A few minutes later, Anoth's head shot up.

"What's happening?"

"[The teleporter has just been activated.]" Answered Anoth. "[And now again.]"

Herman knew exactly what Anoth was talking about. Van had told him everything Anoth had told them. And if that's true, what he just thought was happening, then they had a problem.

Anoth contacted Van. "[What's going on with you? My sensors told me the transporter was up and running again.] "

"The Death Stinger and Fiona have disappeared." Van's answer came back. "Zeke seems to know where they have been transported to."

"[Not just him, they're in the Rare Hertz valley, our time is up.]" That ended the connection.

Suddenly, Anoth's sensors reported dozens of contacts approaching quickly. "[I have no time for you idiots!]," Growled Anoth, charging his own CPC. Of those he had a total of eight and he could fire all at the same time.

That's exactly what he did now, wiping out all ground units in one fell swoop. The charged particle cannon was very effective against ground targets. Not so much against air targets. Only against the larger air targets, like the Whale Kings, was the weapon useful. The smaller flying Zoids could avoid it mostly. But that was probably part of the pilot's job.

"[This Hiltz is really getting on my nerves. Enemy air units approaching!]"

Anoth's shield generators powered up and erected a shield around him and around the Ultrasaurus beside him. Meanwhile, Herman had ordered every pilot to visit his Zoids and fend off the approaching wave.

Right after that, Anoth's anti-aircraft weapons and the point-defense phaser were the first to open the fire. Closely followed by the weapons of the Ultrasaurus.

The next few minutes they were busy fending off a flock of oversized mosquitoes. Anoth's shields could intercept anything they threw at them. And Kamikaze attacks were no longer as effective as they had been before he improved the Shield Matrix.

Even if they were little more than annoying, yet they cost them a resource that was fast running out. Time.

Time they did not have.

No sooner were the idiots removed than Anoth launched his engines. The Ultrasaurus was far too slow. At current speed, they would need 8 hours before they arrived. They just did not have that much time.

"[I hope you do not mind if I take you with me.]"

"What? You want to fly us there?" Herman asked in surprise. "Are not your engines damaged?"

"[They were overheated, not damaged, and I do not have to pull you out of the ground, which makes things a lot easier.]"

Shortly thereafter, Anoth had the Ultrasaurus safely with his tractor beams and clipped and was in the air.

A few minutes later, the rare Hertz valley was in sight. However, there was something there that should not be there. There was a city there.

"What is this place?" asked Moonbay, who had also discovered the city.

"[This is the old Zoidian capital of Evopolis.]" Anoth explained. "[Home of Zoid Eve and the place where both Death Saurer have been sealed, one in a massive concrete block, the other in the nearby mountain, and actually the entire city should be buried, at least that's what my databases say.]" Then Anoth opened a light. "[Fiona, he must have used her to bring the city back to the surface.]"

Shortly afterwards they had reached a plain a few miles from the edge of Evopolis.

"This level over there." said Herman. "Can you drop us off there?"

"[Trifle.]" A short time later, Anoth safely dropped the 100,000 tons of Zoid on the plane, whirling up a huge cloud of dust. As soon as the wind had blown away the cloud of dust both could observe how the Zoidcore freed itself from the also present Death Stinger, took in another core only to disappear then into the enclosed in the concrete Death Saurer.

"[Shit.]" Anoth cursed as the smaller Death Saurer freed himself from his jail. At the same time, the nearby mountain started to quake. "[Come on, he also used Fiona to get Zoid Eve back up and running?]"

"[Mind if I take the big one?]" Anoth asked as the original Death Saurer broke free of his mountain.

"No back talk." sounded from the Ultrasaurus. And even the Ultrasaurus shook his head.

"[Good.]" Anoth, who was still hovering over the Ultrasaurus at the moment, headed straight for the now-freed original Death Saurer.

Anoth opened the fight by firing his eight CPC on maximum load on the Death Saurer. As expected with very little effect. The Death Saurer had activated a full-body shield which simply guided the energy of the CPC around him.

Immediately Anoth fired his Thanix guns. These weapons burned molten metal accelerated to extreme speeds. He aimed mainly at the weapon systems of the Death Saurer. They were also called magneto hydrodynamic cannons. Eight pieces of these monsters had Anoth. And they were all firing at the moment on the main weapon of the Death Saurer. His CPC, whose firing point was in the head.

The first six shots were stopped by the shield of the Death Saurer. The other two broke through and missed the cannon by a few meters, as the Death Saurer tilted his head slightly to the side and instead tore a massive hole in the armor. The CPC had nevertheless been affected, because the beam had severed one of the main lines to the CPC. This reduced the power of the CPC by a good 50%. Since it now only had one main line left that powered the cannon.

Immediately Anoth was forced to dodge as the Death Saurer fired his particle cannon. He narrowly missed Anoth and instead tore a ditch into the ground. Anoth responded with his salvo of rockets shot from his tail.

The resulting cloud of smoke used Anoth to get close enough to the Death Saurer and fire another salvo of Thanix guns.

This time, the Death Saurer activated its upgraded shields that could intercept the attack. His standard shield had been destroyed during the first attack. Immediately Anoth was hit by the CPC and hurled back several hundred meters, with Anoth tearing down several of the city's old buildings.

When Anoth was back on his feet, the Ultrasaurus fired his gravitational cannon. Only to find that the smaller Death Saurer withstood the massive gravitational forces. Not only that. A ring came out of the ground, causing the gravitational field to shrink.

Anoth recognized the ring.

It was a beam distributor for the CPC.

With this ring he could attack targets anywhere on the planet.

The original Death Saurer also had such a ring. However, it was destroyed during the Final Battle against the Zoidians. And the ring, which now was used by the smaller Zoid once belonged to another Death Saurer, which was also destroyed at the time.

"[Oh, no. You can forget that right now!]" Growled Anoth and fired one of his mass driver weapons to the ring and destroyed it at the precise moment as the Death Saurer fired. Without the ring, the CPC beam went harmless into space.

The Fired Projectile, after destroying the ring, chased through the atmosphere and finally hit one of Zi's moons, leaving an impressive crater. Anoth had fired the 40kg projectile with full force. This was the reason why the projectile hit the moon at a good 20,000 km/s. The resulting detonation was in the range of 1.91 megaton TNT.

That crater would later be known as the "Guardian Crater" and it would be the same crater in that Anoth would sleep a very long time.

"[Oops.]" Anoth muttered when he saw that. "[Well, better a crater there than in the planet.]" Anoth turned back to his opponent. "[All my other weapons are too weak, let's see how he likes it. Spaceship caliber weapons.] "

From that point, Anoth's attacks became many times stronger. Although he had to limit the firepower of the weapons to inflict no permanent damage to the planet. Still, those were huge attacks that forced the original Death Saurer on the defensive.

Meanwhile, Van and his former arch rival Raven had teamed up to fight the smaller Death Saurer. Only to find that their attacks did not work.

However, when Hiltz and his Death Saurer tried to suck in Van and Raven to fuse them with the core, Fiona interrupted him by using the powers of Zoid Eve to free Van and Raven from the sucking power of the Death Saurer.

The following "conversation" may as well be described as follows: Fiona tried to persuade Hiltz to understand himself while Hiltz demonstrated that he had gone completely crazy and wanted to eradicate all life on the planet.

Hiltz was beyond salvation.

The enormous power of the two Death Saurer now made sure that Fiona turned to Zeke. The silver organoid was right behind her. Shortly thereafter, the two joined in the Zeke his two pectorals opened out of which dozens of thick cables shot out, which in turn wrapped around Fiona.

The light of Zoid Eve decreased shortly afterwards. Fiona was beginning to shut down Zoid Eve.

This produced a clear reaction from Hiltz. He scrammed to Fiona that if they destroyed Zoid Eve they would wipe out all Zoids.

"[You know that's not true Hiltz. The Zoids from today don't need Zoid Eve any longer. Only the Two Death Saurer do.]" Anoth intervened, who was standing next to the very battered Ultrasaurus, who had captured a very heavy hit from the original Death Saurer. "[ Besides, she does not even have to destroy Zoid Eve, just shut it down, so you lose a lot of your power and we can kill both of you at the same time.]"

Shortly thereafter Van came up with the idea of shooting his Blade Liger from the gravity cannon. In the hope of breaking through the armor of the smaller Death Saurer and destroying its Zoidcore and thus also Hiltz.

Meanwhile, Hiltz had gone completely mad and started overloading the Zoidcore of his Death Saurer. If this overloaded Zoidcore went up it would destroy half of Zi with it.

Raven could not allow this to happen and fired the CPC of his Geno Breaker Zoid against the Death Saurer. Only to find that Hiltz had set up a protective shield. However, after several attempts and with the help of his Organoid Shadow, Raven managed to break the shield and in parallel prevented overcharging. However, immediately afterwards his Zoid collapsed due to total exhaustion.

Meanwhile, Anoth loaded his mightiest weapon. By losing the energy of Zoid Eve, the original Death Saurer did not have enough energy to move around and was just a statue at the moment.

Anoth had his wings completely spread out. He held them flat like an airplane. As soon as they were completely unfolded he split them. He revealed that his wings were not just a pair of wings but five wings that interlocked and unfolded like a huge fan of more than three kilometers in diameter. Even his tails spread out behind him like a fan.

As soon as this happened, energy beams shot from his tail up to the tips of his wings, only to converge on his wide open mouth.

Shortly thereafter, a beam shot out of Anoth's mouth, which he directed exactly to the center of the Death Saurer.

The Ultrasaurus fired first. Directly followed by Anoth, who shot a massive ball of energy along the beam at the Death Saurer.

The massive explosion completely broke through the Death Saurer, tearing a huge hole of more than 150m in diameter into the Zoid. This destroyed the core of the original Death Saurer. Secondary explosions began to tear the Zoid from the inside out until the Zoid fell to the ground in parts. Not worth much more than scrap.

While Van also broke through the other Death Saurer in his Blade Liger, destroying the Zoid Core and thus Hiltz. Shortly thereafter, this tipped over easily. Never to get up again.

Immediately afterwards, Zeke and Fiona merged with Vans Blade Liger, who looked clearly battered. And then they could see that the city was beginning to sinking back into the ground.

Thus the danger of the Death Saurer was forever banished.

Unfortunately, the Ultrasaurus had been so badly damaged during the fighting that its Zoidcore stopped functioning shortly after the fight. With that, the Ultrasaurus was effectively dead.

Anoth too had not got off without injury. But all his damage was repairable.

,

,

Many centuries later

,

,

Almost 1,000 years had passed since Anoth was last seen on Zi. After all, he had retreated to one of the moons. Ironically, he had chosen exactly the same crater he had fabricated himself.

The quantum storm had finally begun to lose power and would soon be gone. However, he was still stuck here until then. Even if only a few years at the most.

The merge had been completed during this time. Which had caused Anoth to increase in size. In fact, his dimensions had more than doubled. He was now a good 300 meter high on the shoulder. Had a total body length of 2,840 meters and a wingspan of 6,720 meters. A real giant. Anoth doubted he would get any bigger. At least if he wanted to land on a planet. In Space his form could get even bigger.

Anoth's attention was drawn to the planet. or better, an object in its orbit. A satellite that was the size of a space station.

"They have to be new." commented Anoth in his holographic figure standing in the CIC evaluating the sensor data. The satellite was a good 200m long; 400m if you count the solar panels; and it possessed some rays of weapons. None of them could be dangerous to Anoth. "I'll take a closer look."

With that, Anoth left his lunar crater and headed straight for the nearest satellites.

A few minutes later, he hovered right beside one of the satellites, peering in through one of the windows.

The crew aboard the satellite did not notice his presence until one of them looked out the window just to discover a gigantic mechanical eye.

That caused quite a panic on board the satellite.

This was amplified as Anoth hacked into the satellite's computer to find out what they were and what they were for.

It was not long before he found out that the satellites belonged to the Zoid Battle Commission. As he rummaged deeper to find out what the ZBC was, it turned out that the Zoid battles had become a kind of sport. With clear rules and regulations.

These satellites served as storerooms for the Judge capsules, which could be launched from the satellites to any point on Zi and they would return to the satellite after the battle was over.

When Anoth threw a look at the team data, he was contacted.

The president of the ZBC himself wanted to speak to Anoth. They had now found out who he was. The ancient legends of bygone days were still known it seems.

Some traces of the fight in the rare Hertz valley were still visible. Such as the long-petrified wreck of the Ultrasaurus and the mountain from which the Death Saurer had freed itself. As well as parts of the Death Saurer itself which were also petrified.

"ZBC President calls the Guardian, can you understand us?" the president asked over the radio.

"[I understand you, and can I assume that this satellite is one of yours here?]"

The following conversation brought Anoth some clarity about who the ZBC was and what they were doing. Also, they came to an agreement. Anoth was able to register with them. Not as a combat Zoid. That would be unfair to the other teams. But as a Transportzoid. The team he could choose for himself.

In return, Anoth would start chasing the Backdraft Group. A group of unscrupulous businessmen who fought illegal Zoid battles and were not afraid to go over dead bodies. These were criminals than anything else.

,

Several years later

,

Anoth had been back on the planet for a good six years, watching the Zoid teams. So far there was no team that caught his eye.

At the moment, Anoth was in a desert area. He had dropped off several smaller Zoids that mined a nearby resource deposit. Mainly metals. A few of his Helcat dismantled the metals and three heavy seven-axle Mammoth articulated trucks returned the mined material to Anoth's internal refinery. The pure material was then stored and could then be used up for all sorts of things. Armor, spare parts or ammunition.

Anoth's Zoids had also grown. He now had 164 Helcats who had changed their appearance significantly. Their appearance was now far more biological than mechanical. There were also two larger Destroyer Wolf Zoids.

These were base crackers. They were not really intended for the direct fight against other Zoids. Even if they were able to defend themselves if necessary. They were designed to quickly and effectively disable a base's defenses so that others could advance into it. They were a good 60 meters long and a good 27 meters high. They were armed with a rapid fire CPC and two double-barreled particle guns and a heavy rocket launcher. Added to this was a shock cannon and 4x Strike Laser Claw. Then of course there was a much smaller version of the gravity cannon.

Then he had a total of 8 Gustav Zoids with various trailers as well as 12 Mammoth Trucks plus two Hover Cargo.

As for air units, he had his 100 Sinkipira Drones and 12 Phoenix Liger. These Ligers he found in an old abandoned plant. Namely as Zoidcores, which he had let grown in the aboard Zoid tanks. So far, they had only had their Laser Fangs and their Strike Laser Claws. As for the other weapons, there he was undecided as of now.

Nevertheless, he collected the necessary materials for the construction of further Zoids and their armament. Including the rare material Planetelecit. Maybe he could make it into something like gravity bullets. Here was a little experimenting needed.

And how could it be different?

All Zoids were female.

Maybe he should just give up hope of getting male shadows again.

Anyway.

The desert was an ideal test site for the downsized gravity cannon.

And he was busy with just such a test.

The Destroyer Wolf stood in the open area and was ready to fire. Anoth had scanned the entire area and except for a lot of sand and rocks there was nothing here. The test target was an abandoned military facility they had searched before they level it. The facility was empty. There was nothing left except a few half destroyed concrete buildings.

"[All ready for the test.]" Reported the destroyer Wolf.

"[All sensors aligned, I'm ready, you can fire as soon as ready, Mysti.]"

"[Fire in three ... two ... one ... FIRE!]" As soon as she said that, the gun fired on her back. The bullet she fired was significantly smaller than the monster the Ultrasaurus had fired, but was supposed to completely level the base.

If Anoth had calculated it correctly.

Then the bullet that was just fired was above the base. And it turned out that Anoth was a bit wrong with his calculations. The effect of the bullet was a good 10% stronger than expected.

The effect on the old base was devastating. The buildings that were still standing were simply grounded to dust by the enormous gravitational forces. In fact, even the bunker below the base was crushed. The weapon had completely passed the test. It had finished even better than he expected.

Shortly afterwards, they were on their way again. Nearby, another Zoid Battle should be held. Between the Blitz Team, a beginner team, and the Tigers team. A team notorious for pretty brutal tactics.

A few minutes later, he landed at the coordinates assigned by the ZBC for the teams.

Bit Cloud was there at the same time. He was a scrap dealer who was scouring old Zoid battlefields for useful parts, which he then collected and repaired to resell them. At the moment he was sleeping in his truck. This truck was also his home at the same time.

He was awakened when a nearby alarm sounded and shortly thereafter he heard several very powerful engines. As he looked up, he saw Zi's biggest Zoid flying right over his truck to finally land at a distance of several miles. Bit could feel the giant landing as the ground shook under his feet. First to land on the ground were the back paws and then the ground shook once again as the front paws touched down on the ground. This Zoid had to weigh several hundred thousand tons.

"The Guardian, what is he looking for here?" Bit wondered. His question was answered when a Judge capsule hit the ground just a few hundred yards away. "So, he wants to watch the fight, I can do that too. " He activated the cloaking device of his truck.

Then he saw which teams would fight each other. Or better their Zoids. On one side stood three Zaber Fang. All three with a yellow paint job. On the other side stood a Dibison, a Command Wolf, and a Shield Liger.

Then the judge sounded over the battlefield.

"The area within a 30 mile radius is now declared a Zoid battlefield! The area is now a restricted area! Only challengers and personnel have access! Danger! All others have to leave the area immediately!"

Thirty miles sounded like a lot. However, one had to keep in mind that the ammunition that was shot and missed their intended target had to somewhere thunder back to the ground at some point. (Assuming they were no energy weapons.) And then you better not are there where they hit.

"Attention, this fight is under Guardian supervision!"

,

Hover Cargo from the Blitz Team

,

In the Blitz Team's Hover Cargo, near the battlefield, a young man named Jamie stared in disbelief at the massive Zoid who had lain down just a few miles from them. Almost 3km long and several 100,000 tons heavy it was by far the largest Zoid on all of Zi. And also the most dangerous.

"Doc, look at this!"

Said Doc was Dr. Steve Toros. The boss of the lightning team. "The Guardian, the Death Saurer's Destroyer." he muttered.

"I do not believe it." said Jamie, who had called the registration from the Guardian. If only out of pure curiosity. "He's registered as a Transport Zoid, but without a team."

"He is registered with ZBC but he has the right to choose his own team."

"Do you think we have a chance?"

"Honestly, I do not know, nobody knows what he's looking for."

,

battle zone

,

After a short break, the judge continued.

"Area scant. Battlefield set up. The Blitz Team versus the Tigers Team. Battlemode 0982. Ready ... " The judge raised his arms and crossed them in front of him. At the same time, a gong was heard. "FIGHT!"

And that started the League fight.

From the beginning Anoth could see that the Blitz team lacked experience. Also, a team feeling was not really there.

The Tigers team behaved exactly as Anoth expected. First of all, they attacked the Dibison. It was the heaviest and heaviest-armed Zoid in the group. The 18-shot Megalomax cannon could put the Zaber Fangs down pretty fast.

And since the Blitz team had split up, they could not rush their comrades quickly enough to help.

The Dibison was out before they could react.

Then they stormed the Command Wolf. Although he was able to fire a few shots at the enemy team, they were more after the slogan "Spray and Pray". Barely a minute later, the Command Wolf was out.

Now everything was hanging on the Shield Liger.

He was in a pretty stupid situation right now. The three Zaber Fang had circled him. Now the Shield Liger showed why he was called Shield Liger. The Shield Liger activated his shield and broke right through the three Zaber Fang. He sent one of them out of the game.

Then, however, the bad luck struck. The Shield Liger tripped right over Bit's camouflaged truck and tripped it over. Anoth had seen the truck as he approached and as he landed, but had paid little attention to it.

He also knew that it had been there shortly before the start. But he had assumed that when the fight was started, it had left the area.

That was obviously not the case.

Unfortunately that was not all. The Shield Liger stumbled at the same time as the rest of Zaber Fang fired several missiles. And one hit the overturned truck while the driver was still in the vehicle.

Now, Anoth made use of one of his intervention options granted to him by the ZBC. In case of an emergency, he could stop a fight immediately.

"[BATTLE CANCELED! BATTLE CANCELED! CIVILIST ON THE BATTLEFIELD! REPEAT! CIVILIST ON THE BATTLEFIELD! PILOTS: SECURE YOUR WEAPONS!]"

The two combatable Zaber Fang pilots immediately reacted and pulled the lever that shut down their weapons. It was rare that the Guardian himself interfered in the fighting. If he did, there was always a very good reason for it.

"Approved." the confirmation came from the judge just seconds later. "This fight is invalidated."

Meanwhile, two fire-fighting drones were launched by Anoth and a hammerhead, which was provided by the ZBC. The associated staff was made out of some of Anoth's shadows in their human forms. This hammerhead was not a Zoid for a fight, which showed the paint job and the lack of weapon systems. This hammerhead was painted white with a red stripe in the middle and several highly visible red crosses. It was a medical hammerhead. And it was exactly for such emergencies.

Meanwhile, the pilots closest to each other were already at the burning wreck, trying to get the driver out while the drones extinguished the fire. The other team had tried that first with small hand extinguishers but they were just not big enough for this fire. The drones had a much better fire extinguishing system on board.

A short time later, the pilot was out of the wreckage and aboard the Hammerhead who immediately returned to Anoth. His infirmary was the only one within a radius of nearly 1,000 km.

,

A few days later

,

Due to the damage both teams had gotten from the fight the ZBC had set the date for a rematch to the next week.

Meanwhile, Bit was on his feet again and got a new truck from Anoth after his old one had been destroyed.

During that time, Anoth had completed two new prototype Zoids. One was a real monster. 80m high and a good 170m long, the Zoid was larger than the Death Saurer that Prozen had commanded so long ago.

It was not a league type Zoid because it was meant to fight far more dangerous opponents than they had on Zi. He would probably need it in another world, though. Anoth described the new Zoid as a Liger Crusher.

It was armed with 16 high caliber cannons and a heavy plasma rifle in the mouth. But it still had room to accommodate more weapon systems. It also wore the Strike Laser Claws on each of his paws.

The second one was much smaller. Just under 1.7m high and a good 4m long and took the form of a mechanical panther. this Zoid was created as a pure infiltrator. It should invade unnoticed in hostile bases or ships, connect to the computer network and then monitor their activities.

Accordingly, it was armed and equipped. A stealth and transformation system to stay undetected for a long time. A light machine gun and laser combination in the tail. Plus a light double-barreled plasma rapid-fire weapon in a moving tower on the back. Added to this was the ability to release tiny robots that could connect to other computers on board.

The only heavy weapon was a Class 1 CPC. The weakest model possible.

Bit stared at the huge Zoid in front of him. He could not even look over the claws so huge was the thing. He did not want to meet such a Zoid on the battlefield.

Then his eyes fell on the much smaller Zoid. It was right in the middle of Bit's brand new truck and slept. He had named her Susi. She had been following him the hole time until Anoth had simply handed her over to him.

Said Zoid had changed her standard form and now looked more like a slightly larger completely black Kavat. But she had the standard armament of the prototype.

Bits looked back a lot on the giant Zoid. This Zoid had a class 20 CPC installed. A weapon of mass destruction.

Most of the Zoids had a CPC that went at the most to a class 10.

The power that could such a CPC emit was calculated as follows. A class 1 CPC was 1,000GJ. Class 2 was 2,000GJ; Class 3 at 4,000GJ; Class 4 at 8,000 GJ. In short, with each class, the power of the previous one has been doubled. That brought the power of class 20 somewhere at 524,000,000GJ when fully loaded.

That meant a destructive power of 125 megatons TNT per shot.

Anoth's own CPC was even stronger. It was a class 25 CPC. That meant he could the energy of 4 gigatons of TNT per shot. And he had 10 of it!

Susi also had a CPC. However, only one and a class 1. That was still enough to destroy everything in an area with a diameter of about 300m.

Not to mention Anoth's main weapon. His strongest weapon was equivalent to nearly 10 terra tons of TNT. (About one-fourteenth of the energy freed by the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs.)

He preferred never to see this weapon in action.

,

A few minutes later

,

Bit had left Anoth's vehicle bay and was traveling with his truck while Susi still sat on the roof and enjoyed the wind.

Bits Target was the home base of the Blitz team. It was his fault they had to repeat the fight. Therefore, perhaps an apology was appropriate. But also a thank you for rescuing him out of his destroyed truck so fast.

The Guardian had lifted off shortly after his departure and was now who knows where.

Just under three hours later he reached the base and parked the truck outside the base. As a search for a bell was unsuccessful he went into the open hangar.

The Shield Liger, Dibison, and Command Wolf were all here and apparently repaired for the most part. However, his eyes fell on another Zoid. It was also a Liger type Zoid but had nothing in common with the Blade Liger or Shield Liger.

This Zoid was a little different. Susi also looked curiously at the Zoid. Somehow Bit felt a connection with the Zoid. He did not know why.

Bit stepped closer to the Zoid and the Zoid lowered his head in surprise and gave a low roar. It was by no means vicious rather curious. Susi came closer. She stood on her hind legs and put her forelegs on the muzzle of the much larger Zoid and seemed to communicate with him.

By now, the light in the hangar was on, but none of the three paid any attention to it as the Liger opened his cockpit and Susi climbed in first and made herself comfortable in the space behind the pilot's seat.

"You want me as your pilot?" Bit asked in disbelief, whereupon the Liger made a sound that was not unlike purring. Shortly afterwards, Bit sat in the pilot's seat. He was not fully restored yet, so the Liger did not just run away. Bits injury would take offense to that. But a little bit of walking was possible. Maybe a sprint but not wild maneuvers. At least not for now.

So the Zoid straightened up and started to walk up and down the hangar before going out and doing a few laps for a few minutes and afterwards went back to the hangar.

There he was already expected by the assembled Blitz team. The Liger came to a halt in front of them, then he lowered his head so Bit could get out and opened the cockpit.

Dr. Toros was the first to break the silence.

"Do you want to become a Zoid Pilot of the Blitz Team?"

,

Five minutes later

,

They had all withdrawn inside the base. Bit was sitting on the couch and Susi had laid down next to him on the floor and rolled a ball with her paws back and forth.

Dr. Toros was very interested in her and started to examine her from all sides. However, when Susi had enough of it she revealed her CPC. He then left.

"Spirited the lady." Toros said shortly afterwards.

"Only if she does not like something." came bits answer. "Should I join your team as another pilot?"

"Well ..." Leena Toros tried to explain. "You're the only pilot Liger Zero has allowed."

"What does this mean?"

"There were several other pilots who tried to control Liger Zero, but he went crazy every time."

"And he let me drive."

"I agree."

"Actually, I came here to apologize for the incident a few days ago and to thank you for your help, I always wanted to have my own Zoid, so I was out there on the field Wrecks looking to sell them and saving me enough to own a Zoid, and now I get that offer, Mr. Toros, I would like to join your team. "

Only seconds later they heard powerful engines just above the base. Closely followed by two distinct quakes. A look out of the window revealed what Bit already suspected.

"It's the Guardian, he just landed right over our base." he announced. Immediately afterwards, a person materialized himself in the room. Everyone could see that it was a hologram.

"If the Blitz team does not mind, the Guardian would like to provide its services to the Blitz team."

*THUMP!*

"DR. TOROS!"

,

A few minutes later

,

After Dr. Toros regained consciousness and recovered from his shock, he immediately set about registering both of them.

Bit was enlisted as Zoid Pilot for Liger Zero and Anoth took the position of a massive transport Zoid for the Blitz Team. At the same time, this also allowed a glimpse of Anoth's official league data, which was only available to the team in which he was registered.

And they were remarkable.

,

Zoid data:

Name : Guardian

Type : Very Heavy Dragon Zoid / Transportzoid (Registration with the Zoid Battle Commission ZBC)

Dimensions : 300m shoulder height; 2,840m long; 6,720m wingspan

Length of the runways: 2x 700m (Hardlight constructs)

Width of the runways: 2x 40m

Max. Crew: 200; Minimal crew: 1

Passengers: 4,000

Freight capacity: 50,000 metric tons

Supplies: 4 months

Weight : approx. 900,000 metric tons (by molecular-weighted armor)

Maximum speed :

130 knots (in ship mode) (240.76 km / h)

200 knots (in hydrofoil mode) (370.4 km / h)

90 knots fully dipped

20 light years the second in space operation.

250 km / h on land

Mach 20 in the air

Machine performance :

N / A (sea operation)

N / A in space operation.

Drive type :

Underwater impulse (similar to the spaceships designed only to use in water. This drive type allows extreme maneuvers, which would otherwise not possible with a ship of this size.) It is therefore also suitable for space flight.

Hyperspace drive for the flight in space.

Energy supply :

Fusion generators: 12 pieces

two omega particle reactors

1x Wave Motion Machine (usually offline)

Draft : between 6 and 24 m (draft reducer and stabilizers)

Shields : Hard-light shields as well as phase variance shields

Camouflage device : Available

Ablative Generator Armor : Available

Armor :

Heavy multilayer armor consisting of a Secret Alloy and buildup

Polarized armor plates (makes an enemy CPC worthless)

Sensor Systems :

surface radar

radar

Infrared

Ultraviolet

Spaceship class sensors

Other systems :

Inertia damper

Draft reducers

Stabilizers

Satellite launch system

Simulator System (Produces training scenarios using hard-light projections, can also be used to distract the opponent.)

transporter

Manufacture of ammunition and Zoid parts

Zoid tanks

Ore refinery

Weapons :

All projectile weapons can also fire energy weapons.

64 drone launchers Distributed in 4 blocks each with 16 launchers. (4x4) installed in the tail.

Main weapons :

1x Wave Motion Cannon (up to 14 Teratons TNT)

2x high energy plasma pulse beam weapon. (City Destroyers, Independence Day) Sitting in the mouth. Mounted behind heavy armor plates that are driven to fire to fire.) (Up to 250 gigatonnes TNT)

10x class 25 CPC (about 4 gigatonnes TNT)

24x MAB cannon. (80kg projectile with up to 60,000 km / s) (about 34 megaton TNT)

Turrets :

(all Railgun multi-guns that can fire not only normal ammunition of various calibers but also energy weapons)

Primary :

2x triple towers 80cm caliber range: 125 km

+ 2x double heat radiator (World War Two Tripod weapon) mounted on the main towers. Range 5km.

The triple towers can also fire various energy monsters. Range of 150,000 km to three light seconds (about 900,000 km)

Secondary :

4x triple towers (each two right and left) 65cm caliber (12 barrels) range: 110 km

16x magneto hydrodynamic cannons (Thanix) range up to 50,000 km

Tertiary :

12x quadruple towers 46cm caliber (6 per side) (48 barrels) Range: 100 km

Quaternary :

34x twin towers 20cm caliber (17 per side, spread over the complete length of the Zoids) Range: 65km

Quintet :

128x light weight gun in 64 double towers 120mm (Similar to the Mark 45 only it's not one but two runs per tower) Range: 70km (Cadence: 60 rounds per minute)

close defense

40x 4x 25mm Rapid Fire Gun (Air Defense and Close Range) Cadence: 2,500 rounds / min.

20x 20mm Gattling gun (air defense and close range) cadence: 12,000 rounds / min.

20x Pulsphaser - Microquantentorpedo Combi (air defense and close range)

,

Artillery guns (long haul)

12x single guns; Mavor Antimatter Artillery / Caliber 400 cm / Range: 4,000 km (Also usable as anti-orbit gun)

12x Heavy Artillery (five each in front of and behind the Mavor in a line) Type: Heavy Duke / Caliber 200cm / Range: 2,500 km (Also usable as Anti-Orbit gun)

36 light artillery pieces (9 each on the right and left of the Mavor Artillery guns) / Antimatter Artillery / Caliber 100 cm / Range: 1,200 km (Also usable as an anti-orbit gun)

,

air defense

64x drone launcher

Phaser stripes (16 pieces)

Plasma pulse ejector (48 pieces.)

High-speed Gattling weapons. (84 pieces). (cadence 60,000 rounds a minute)

Railgun Gattling Guns (40 pieces) 125mm caliber (cadence 6,000 rounds per minute)

40x 4x 25mm Rapid Fire Gun (Air Defense and Close Range) Cadence: 2,500 rounds / min.

20x 20mm Gattling gun (air defense and close range) cadence: 12,000 rounds / min.

20x Pulsphaser - Microquantentorpedo Combi (air defense and close range)

,

Rockets (all spread to the tails)

Anti-Zoid ground rockets (distributed on 20 pods of 32 pieces each) 640 pieces

Anti-air missiles (distributed on 20 pods of 16 each) 320 pieces

Long range rockets (range up to 12,000 km) (distributed on 12 pods of 4 pieces each) 48 pieces

Air-to-air missiles (distributed on 16 pods of 16 each) 256 pieces

,

Anti submarine

6x torpedo launcher, each with 15 launchers (90 pieces) (against ship and submarine)

12x Hellgiver (Hedgehog-like system) (Equipped with antimatter warheads)

120x Underwater Plasma Pulse Weapons (Distributed along the fuselage in twin towers (60 towers in total))

Torpedoes :

Stanley

(Very fast, does not capture a target, just goes straight ahead.)

Explosive Force: 10,000 MJ Kinetic (equal to 2.4 tons TNT)

Speed: 500 km / h

Maneuverability: None. (Unguided)

Hammerhead

(Very fast and very agile, decoys are ineffective.)

Explosive force: 15,000 MJ kinetic (equal to 3,6 tons TNT)

Speed: 324 km / h

Maneuverability: Very good.

Leech

(EMP torpedo, very fast and very agile, decoys are ineffective.)

Explosive force: 1,000 MJ Kinetic; 10,000 MJ EMP

Speed: 360 km / h

Maneuverability: very good

Big Bang I

(slow torpedoes for destroying bases or slow moving targets.) Decoy Ineffective.)

Explosive force: 50,000 MJ kinetic (equal to 12 tons of TNT)

Speed: 90 km / h

Maneuverability: Bad

Big Bang II

(slow torpedoes for destroying bases or slow-moving targets, decoys ineffective, more explosive than the Big Bang I.)

Explosive force: 80,000 MJ kinetic (equal to 19.1 tons of TNT)

Speed: 54 km / h

Maneuverability: Bad

Giant bang

(slow torpedoes destroying bases or slow-moving targets.) Decoy Ineffective, has more explosive power than the Big Bang II.)

Antimatter warhead

Explosive force: 250,000 MJ kinetic (equal to 59,8 tons TNT)

Speed: 65 km / h

Maneuverability: miserable

(By comparison, an average World War II water bomb contained about 0.13 tons of TNT (130 kg))

,

Others

10x Explosive Pegs Thrower (21 Explosive Pegs Per Thrower) (Battleship Movie)

4x shredder thrower (Battleship Movie)

2x Mine Layers

4x Smart Charge Torpedo Defense (Distributed along the fuselage)

4x Sonic Blast Generator (Can briefly numb targets with a very strong sound wave)

30x missile defense system type N / A (A Hartlicht Gattling gun)

20x missile defense system type N / A (point defense phaser)

6x micro torpedo launcher for photon and quantum torpedoes

2x sound cannon (range 500m)

,

Noteworthy ammunition

200 long-range torpedoes (range 1500 km)

Nuclear missiles (Naquadria and Naquada reinforced.)

Nuclear torpedoes

Seismic bombs

Antimatter bombs

Thalarone bombs

+ Top Secret Ordinance

hangars

Up to 200 aircraft in different types. From long-distance bombers to fighters, there is room for everything.

Plus 100 Sinkipira drones.

5 hangars each holding up to 320 Zoids (1,600 Zoids)

,

,

"You're either suicidal or drugged if you want to mess with him." Dr. Toros after reading the list.

A piece of equipment, however, aroused his attention even more.

"A simulator system with hard-light projection?"

"A system for confuse the enemy or for training sessions." Anoth's explanation came while he stood just behind Dr. Toros.

"Can we use the system?" Anoth's grin was answer enough.

,

The next day.

0800 clock.

,

Anoth had installed the necessary simulation software in all the Zoids and they were now on the fourth attempt. All the previous ones they had lost.

Anoth's attention, however, was currently focused on the Command Wolf. Something was wrong with the weapon. At the last round the gun should have hit its target. Instead, it missed more than anything else.

There was no different with this try.

In fact it was getting worse.

"Brad, come to the maintenance deck." ordered Anoth. Brad had been there before when Anoth had installed the Simulator system. He arrived with his Command Wolf a few minutes later.

Leena with her Dibison and Leon in the Shield Liger joined shortly afterwards.

Shortly thereafter, Anoth had removed the gun from the Command Wolf and sat in the camp of the weapon, where he suspected the mistake.

"Now I know why you can't hit a barn door with that weapon." came shortly afterwards from the back of the Command Wolf. "The mount of the gun is knocked out and has several cracks, and some of the gun's recoil dampers are in the bucket, not to mention that the mounting itself belongs to an older Command Wolf and is not sustainable enough for this version."

"How long does the exchange take?" Brad asked, sitting in the open cockpit.

"Not long, an hour at most."

,

An hour later.

,

Brad was outside again. Ready for the fifth simulation. Brad surprised himself when he fired the weapon at a test firing at moving dummy targets. He scored all targets with no miss.

Meanwhile, they had also revised their tactics. They had tried it several times as they did on their first attempt against the Tigers team. Every time they were defeated. It was time to rethink.

Leon loved this simulation system. The damage to their Zoids were simulated and if they had enough simulated damage sustained the system of the Zoid went to an simulated Frozen status. In addition, each simulation was slightly different than the previous one. That made it a significant challenge. For Zoids and pilots.

Anoth did not make it easy for them.

Leena fared a bit like Leon. Anoth had optimized the loading speed of her Megalomax, meaning that she was now ready to launch in about half the time. While he had improved the emitters of Leon Shield Liger. Less energy intake and yet a shield that is about 50% stronger. For that he had made the Tigers much more aggressive.

Oh well. They wanted to get into the S class. No one had said that would be easy.

Meanwhile, Bit was in Anoth's infirmary, getting an experimental treatment that would cure his wounds much faster. Experimentally, it might have been here on Zi. But elsewhere the Medigel had more than showed its worth.

So it came that Bit was a few hours later with the rest of the Team when the simulated Tigers team Suddenly that turned up had not only three members but also two mercenaries with them. That was a possibility, according to the rules of the ZBC.

,

Late evening.

2100 hours

,

After a long day of training, not only the pilots but also the Zoids dragged themselves aboard Anoth. Brad's Command Wolf was barely strong enough to get up the ramp so it was helped with the tractor beams.

The pilots stumbled out of their Zoids and were a short time later in their rooms and slept. For dinner they were too exhausted.

The next day was relaxation. The day after they would face the Tigers team. Then they had to show what they had learned.

Bit used the time to install a three-barrel shock cannon on the Liger Zero and then test it. Bit had had her built by Anoth's Zoid Parts manufacturing plant while he was being treated at the infirmary. It was not the strongest weapon but still another weapon in addition to the installed Strike Laser Claw and the AZ 108mm laser cannon at the tail end.

The day passed much too slow for the team, then finally it was time.

,

Zoid battlefield

Coordinates: WOAX22

,

The Tigers team was already there.

"Where are they?" Kirkland asked the leader of the Tigers team.

"Maybe they are scared." replies one of his team members.

Just then, a huge shadow flew over them, made a 180 ° turn and finally landed barely three kilometers away.

"But that is-"

"The Guardian" another team member finished Kirkland's started sentence.

No sooner had he landed than two hatches opened at his side from which first the Command Wolf and then the Shield Liger were catapulted out in quick succession. The hatches immediately closed again. Since the Dibison was too heavy for this type of launch, it ran down a lowered ramp.

Then they faced the Tigers team.

Brad sat in the cockpit of his Command Wolf. Right next to him, Leena was in her Dibison and next to her was Leon in his Shield Liger. Opposite them stood the three Zaber Fang from the last time.

They were just waiting for the judge.

Just two minutes later, it hit the ground a few hundred meters away in its Judge capsule.

"The area within a 30 mile radius is now declared a Zoid battlefield! The area is now a restricted area! Only challengers and personnel have access! Danger! All others have to leave the area immediately!"

"Area scant. Battlefield set up. The Blitz Team versus the Tigers Team. Repeat after an invalidated battle. Battlemode 0982. Ready ... " The judge raised his arms and crossed them in front of him. At the same time, a gong was heard. "FIGHT!"

"Show me that you have learned something." muttered Anoth, who had made himself comfortable in his chair in his CIC and looked very similar to the illusive man from Mass Effect.

No sooner did the gong ring Brad and Leon split up. The Zaber Fangs concentrated on the Dibison just like the first time. Only to find that Leena was ready this time. She activated her energy shield which she had recently discovered on her Zoid. She would have used the shield earlier if she had the necessary driver software. The emitters were installed but without a driver, the shield simply did not work. And it was exactly this lack of driver that Anoth had fixed at the inspection of the Zoids.

Just at this moment a projectile struck Leena's shield. However, none of the Zaber Fang had fired.

"What the hell?" Toros.

Anoth immediately expanded his scan radius and quickly discovered the source of the shot.

"I see them." it came from Jamie. "It's a Gun Sniper and a Cannon Tortoise, located on the northwestern edge."

"Judge?" Anoth asked. Said robot appeared seconds later on the main screen.

"The Tigers team has hired two mercenaries for this fight."

"Thank you." With that the judge ended the connection.

That was all they needed to know.

"Bit, Jamie, it's your turn." said Dr. Toros.

Both nodded and ran down to the hangar. Susi, however, could not spare a little comment. She held a holographic sign saying "Finally Action!" high and then scurried after Bit.

"Where did you pick her up?" asked Dr. Toros.

"I bred her myself." Anoth answered.

,

In the hangar.

,

Jamie scurried to his Pteras bomber and jumped into the cockpit as Bit ran over to Liger Zero, who had already lowered his head and opened the cockpit. Seconds later, Susi took her place behind him.

"Jamie on Launcher 1 and Bit goes on Ramp 3. " ordered Anoth. Both ramps were right next to each other. The numbered launchers were on the left side of Anoth. The even numbered on the right.

The ramps were therefore assigned by Anoth because he had to adjust them for each start accordingly. Jamie's Pteras, for example, weighed just under 22 tons. The Liger Zero, however, almost four times as much. If he fired the Pteras with the configuration for the Zero, the G powers might tear the Zoid apart at launch.

"Wild Eagle ready for takeoff." It came from Jaime, who was particularly abused by Anoth during the last days. With complete success as Anoth noted.

"Liger Zero ready for takeoff." it came from Bit.

"Start in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ... Start! " The two catapults triggered simultaneously and already both Zoids were outside.

As soon as Jamie was in the air he climbed steeply and Bit started the engines of his Zoid and accelerated the Zero to top speed.

"I take over, the turtle." announced Jamie.

"Then I take over the camper." confirmed bit.

Meanwhile, Brad, Leena and Leon were annoyed with the three Tigers. or rather two Tigers. Brad had taken one of them out by targeted shots. The gun sniper was about to fire again when his radar reported that an object was approaching very fast. He was still trying to aim at the approaching object, since the object was already practically over him. A second later, the Gun Sniper was missing a leg through Bits Strike Laser Claw. That was the first Merc out.

The second was suddenly flipped upside down as Jamie dropped two bombs right beside his Cannon Tortoise. This was the second Merc out.

Meanwhile, Leena had literally picked one of the other tigers on the horns and the last one got a dose from the Shield Ligers' rocket launchers.

"Battle over! Battle over! The winner is ... the Blitz Team!" the judge announced.

"We won!" Leena was happy.

"Done!" rejoiced Jamie.

"Congratulations on your victory, goodbye, until the next fight." The Judge capsule closed back up and started the engines and took off.

"Very well done people, come back." Anoth came over the radio. "Dr. Toros is going crazy here."

A short time later, the Zoids marched over a ramp and Jamie landed his Pteras on one of Anoth's activated hard-light airstrips. At the beginning, Jamie had not trusted the construct of light. But after several landings on the hard light construct that was no longer a problem. The two lanes were located on the right and left sides of Anoth and ended in a hangar door. As soon as Jamie disappeared into the hangar, Anoth deactivated the tracks again.

,

A few days later

,

Training. Training. And more training.

That was the motto for the last four days.

It would not be long before the ZBC would tell them their next opponent.

In fact, they were contacted by the ZBC only a few hours later.

Shortly thereafter, the whole team found themselves in one of the conference rooms. including Bit, who wore a bandage on his chin. The story behind it caused a lot of laughter. Apparently, the Liger Zero had allowed a little joke and Bit hacked the guard under his chin. At least Anoth understood it that way.

Dr. Toros entered the room and announced the next opponent.

It was the Fluegel team. Anoth called directly on the data from the team. He was not really impressed. Apparently, Naomi Fluegel had chosen two complete newcomers to fill the vacancies in her team. The only real danger came from Naomi herself.

She was also known as the Red Comet.

Besides, Anoth had met her before. And in circumstances that Naomi hopefully will not have to go through again.

A hitherto undefeated Zoid pilot and first-class sniper who had not let any enemy Zoid closer than 1,000m.

They will test this claim.

The interesting thing, though, was the mode of fighting.

0988

That meant everyone had only six shots.

That should be interesting.

Bit wanted to be part of this fight. However, the Liger Zero had no other weapons besides the shock cannon and the 108mm at the tail end. He needed something more powerful.

He could not use Anoth's own production facilities because they were already busy with something else at the moment. There was probably a tour to the parts dealer needed. Because the fight was already tomorrow.

Anoth had given Bit one of his Gustavs. They simply had the better cargo capacity than Bit's small truck. And the gun he was looking for was not exactly a lightweight. And since these Gustav were part of Anoth himself, Anoth was on board. If only as a hologram. Of course Susi could not be left alone.

Just over an hour and a half drive later and they had arrived at a restaurant / fast food - Zoid parts dealer combo shop.

Bit and Susi went together to the parts dealer part of the store and Anoth marched into the restaurant part. He needed a few supplies, which were also offered here. Anoth bought up the supplies they had there and ordered more. Enough for a full crew. Anoth expected the arrival of a whole unit of the ZBC in the next few days.

One of Anoth's spies had tracked down a Backdraft operations base, which was about to be razed in the next few days. Therefore, the ZBC sent their units. And Anoth provided the main firepower and mobile base for this operation.

The ordered supplies (mainly food and the like) would be delivered directly to Anoth the next day. The bill for the whole was for the ZBC to pay.

Anoth had already spotted two guys looking for trouble. They were still quiet when he entered the store. However, when he wanted to go out, that changed and when the table was overturned, Anoth asked the owner a little question.

"Should I throw them out?" who was meant with that question, was obvious.

He eyed Anoth in his suit. but then he shrugged. "The two are constantly trouble makers here. " he got back in response.

"Understand." Anoth sauntered over to the two guys who were bothering Naomi of the Fluegel Team and tapped them on the shoulder. Seconds later, they both felt like they had their heads in a vise. "You two unicellulars are no longer welcome here." Anoth growled, grabbing them both by their faces. Only a few seconds later, both of them flew out of the restaurant in high arches.

The two quickly got up again. However, when they saw the 2.2m big giant in the door, they decided that it would be better for their health if they disappeared now.

When he turned around, he was greeted by a red comet that jumped into his arms.

"Guardian" Naomi was happy.

"Nice to see you again, young lady, as I read, you managed to set up your own Zoid team, how is Kira?"

Anoth remembered very well how he found the 16 year old at the time.

,

flashback

4 years ago

,

Anoth had been investigating a report from the local police department. Apparently, bandits had raided a small village, kidnapped all the children and extorted ransom.

Anoth already knew who had kidnapped them. And bandits they were not.

It was a cult.

One of Zi's most dangerous and classified as a terrorist organization. Which also meant that he did not need to hold back to fight them. Prisoners were optional.

They called themselves the Cult of the Death Saurer.

Apparently they had recovered parts of the then destroyed Death Saurer and worshiped them.

Nutcases. All of them.

The original Death Saurer and his smaller friend had been destroyed. So was Prozens clone of the Death Saurer. There were no more copies of the original Death Saurer. Only a few replicas, but they did not came anywhere close to the power level of the clone. In addition, they were much smaller and very rare. Overall, there were only six replicas. That was it.

And they had all been destroyed over the years. Petrified remains of them were in museums all over Zi.

Anoth had stopped out of sight of the old military base from long bygone days. However, the base was within range of his weapons.

Anoth projected out of his Zoid shape and took the form of a Lightning Saix. He immediately activated his camouflage and headed for the base at full speed. Before he could even think about razing the base to the ground, he first had to find the abducted children.

Minutes later, he stood on a ridge just a few hundred yards from the base and had begun to scan it. Also, several dozen of his Helcats had gone into position and waited for the order for the attack. The two Destroyer Wolf were also standing by behind a hill and out of sight of the base, because they had no camouflage.

Anoth could not scan the buildings. The concrete had been provided with a material that distorted its scanners. However, he had discovered in one of the building increased heat signatures, which could well have come from a group of people.

He hoped that these were the wanted hostages and not the kidnappers.

Anoth changed form and carefully crept into the base as a human. Apparently, the cultists had long since tried to repair most of the security systems of the base. But here and there Anoth noticed an active surveillance camera.

That made things a bit more difficult because now he had to find the security center or headquarters.

He discovered it barely fifteen minutes later in a container in one of the old hangar.

The problem was that he could not get to it from the ground. The cultists had littered the hangar with mines. The container itself stood on stilts and could only be reached via a bridge suspended from the ceiling. And access to this bridge was better guarded than Fort Knox. Multiple cameras, motion detectors, infrared sensors and automatic guns. Of which some were below the ceiling of the hangar.

"If I do not come from below, then from above, I have to go to the roof, and wait for the night." With that Anoth crept into a nearby ventilation shaft and waited.

,

Six hours later.

Midnight.

,

Only parts of the lighting of the base worked. As a result, many parts of the base were in the dark and were not monitored by other means. This made it easy for Anoth to climb the roof of the hangar and get in through a window into the hangar, where he was now hanging from the ceiling. And exactly over the container.

Anoth, as soon as he was sure that there was no guard under him, used one of the ropes which held the bridge above the ground and let himself glide down the rope unto the bridge. As soon as he was on the bridge, he was exactly below it and now he was hanging on the bottom side of container.

It was easy to scurry under the container and pull himself up against the side of it where he had already seen from the ceiling that a window was open there. Seconds later he was in the container and the guard inside the container was dead and stowed in the closet.

Then Anoth hacked into the security system and had to grin over the password. It read: 123abc. What idiots.

The "password" for the second terminal was not a bit better: 123456.

"At least they're smart enough to count to six." Anoth muttered. "Incompetent idiots."

the third terminal that monitored the access to the containers ... Did they even have a brain? 654321

The fourth and last terminal, which controlled the outside base security, had a much better password. However, someone had noted this on a sticky note and stuck it to the terminal.

"Without words."

The security systems were offline shortly afterwards. With them conveniently also the minefield in the hangar. Anoth made a quick change to the passwords, so they could not easily reboot the security systems.

Coming out of the hangar with the security system off was a breeze. Minutes later and four guards killed, he was at the building with the heat signature.

He had taken the access card from one of the guards and recorded his personal code. So it was easy to get into the building. Inside were two guards who were dead on the ground before they understood what was going on. Throwing knives. Silent and deadly.

A short time later he had reached the cells. Apparently the two were the only guards here in the building. However, he now had a new problem. 12 missing children were reported. Here were only eight. Four were missing.

At the moment it did not matter. He had this eight now. The other four could not be far. To bring them out, they only had to leave the building. Then the transporter systems of his main body took over the rest.

And now another problem was added. Someone had closed and locked the heavy steel door Anoth had passed to get to the cells. Not that that could stop him for a long time.

Getting the children out of their cells was not difficult and now they were standing in front of the locked steel door. And Anoth started to grin.

"Huhuuu! If you like your nice door you open it, we want to get out of here!"

The answer was laughter from the other side.

"Good as you want, we'll go now."

Anoth destroyed the door with one hand and crushed a guard just below it. The others were also eliminated within seconds. Soon after, the children were safe within Anoth's Zoid shape.

So. Where were the missing four?

He got the answer by a note on the desk of the guard of the building. They were taken to another building and from there to the ... painted caves? It was as good as unreadable.

At least they were in a cave that meant below the base.

Or should the word mean something else?

Maybe harbor?

Luckily he had not killed all the guards. Time to ask a few questions.

,

A "questioning" later

,

It was neither caves nor harbor but in Squadron Building Six.

A short time later, he had found the said building. Actually it was more of a hangar than anything else. Entering the building was easy. As with the other hangar, a window was open and Anoth was inside.

What he discovered inside was not exactly what he expected.

Apparently, the cultists held a kind of fair. Several hundred cultists knelt on the ground in front of something that looked very much like the fossilized head of the original Death Saurer. The whole room was lit by torches and in front of the fossilized head were four altars. Luckily, nobody was there yet. So where were they?

Probably in one of the side rooms.

Anoth weaseled down to one of the doors and scurried through. It did not take long to find them. Especially because someone protested loudly.

A short time later he was standing in front of the door behind which the protest came from. Seconds later, this door crashed violently into the room. Seconds later, the completely surprised guards were lying unconscious on the ground.

"Easy, I'm here to get you out." Anoth said as he spotted the children he sought, who were startled by his sudden entry into the room. "What do you think you four, if we disappear from here?"

Four grinning girls were Anoth's answer. Apparently, Naomi, that was the name the girl who protested so loudly, made sure that she did not lose her courage. Anoth was glad they did not know what the cultists were up to.

Barely a minute later, they too had arrived safely in Anoth's Zoid form. Anoth was in the CIC again. What surprised him was that all 12 children suddenly came to the CIC, where Anoth had made himself comfortable in his seat in the middle of the room.

"Are you the Guardian?" it burst out of the 12 year old redheads.

Anoth had to laugh. "Yes, that's me, and right now you're twelve in the middle of me, this whole Zoid is me." Anoth's figure dissolved into the seat and his grinning face appeared in the monitors in the room. Seconds later, he was back in the seat. "We're going to attack this base now, so if you want to watch, you're welcome to stay here."

"These bastards murdered my parents." the red-haired girl growled. "Get it done."

The others reported something similar.

"I do not have to take prisoners." confirmed Anoth. "Start the attack, let me have the two Whale King floating above the base."

Meanwhile, the sun was slowly rising outside, when the two Destroyer wolfs, who until recently had been hiding behind the hill, marched into the firing position.

At the same time as the two Destroyer Wolf were firing their CPC and destroying the base's communications, Anoth fired all of his Explosive Peg launchers. All 10 launcher fired at the same time. 210 explosive pegs flew through the air. In each case 105 of them drilled themselves into the side of the Whale King. Seconds later, they exploded and both Whale King fell to the ground, burning.

At the same time as the ruined Whale Kings hit the ground, the two Destroyer wolf fired again, destroying the wall of the base, clearing the way for the Helcats, who immediately broke through the gaping hole and began with disassembling the base from within ,

In parallel, Anoth had fired one of his heavy artillery pieces. The projectile hit the building where the fossilized head of the Death Saurer was. Seconds later, the entire building exploded.

Some of the cultists had managed to reach their Zoids. It brought them nothing. Within seconds, they were destroyed by concentrated fire from dozens of Helcats. Not infrequently they destroyed the cockpit of the enemy Zoid and killed the Pilot with it.

Apparently there leader had managed to reach his Zoid. It was an Elephander that was coming out of the hall.

"YOU WILL PAY YOU BASTARD!" the angry man yelled into his microphone. "THE DEATH SAURER IS REPRODUCED AND EVERYTHING DESTROYED HAHAHAHAHA!"

"[I hardly believe that.]" Anoth answered calmly.

He fired a few times at Anoth, whose shields easily swallowed the hits. Anoth answered with one of his own CPC, which simply vaporized the Zoid and pilot.

The last thing that was heard from the cultist leader was a long drawn out "NO!" when he saw the beam of the CPC approaching him.

About 20 minutes later it was over. The cult of the Death Saurer was history.

However, the base still contained a surprise for Anoth. There were two capsules in a bunker whose entrance Anoth had opened when he had destroyed the building in which the cultists had prayed. In these capsules were two not yet mature Organoids. A review of the DNA of the two revealed that they were twins.

It would take years before they "hatch". But that did not matter. Anoth had that time. A short time later, both capsules were housed in a room on board of him.

And that was not all. Apparently, several Zoid cores were also within the base. According to the labels there were six cores. None of the cores were mature enough for a growing tank and every one of them were Koenig Wolf Zoids. They too came aboard. And just like the two Organoids, years would go by before he could use them.

But there was something else. A mature Zoidcore. The core of a gun sniper. And it was the little redhead who immediately demanded that this would become her Zoid.

So Naomi got her gun sniper.

She already had a Name for it.

Kira.

,

Flashback end

,

"Kira is fine, she's standing in front of the store." Naomi replied. "She is the best Zoid I could wish for."

"I am glad to hear that." Anoth answered. "And who are the two?"

"This is Jessica and Kathrin, they are new to Zoid battles, both of them have also Gun Snipers." Naomi explained.

"Nice to meet you both." Anoth said and nodded to them. The two are obviously not the bravest.

That was also exactly the same time that Bit came back with a part of a weapon on his arm and he was followed by Susi, who pulled a small trailer behind her with a whole part of the weapon.

Second, the guys came back from earlier. This time with reinforcement.

"There are people who do not know when to quit." Anoth muttered.

As the group approached, they shouted something about that he had taken from them the women that was theirs and some other nonsense. Anoth ignored the bleating. They were apparently not only on riot mode but also completely drunk.

Then suddenly one of them drew a knife and attacked Anoth. Seconds later, this attacker was unconscious on the ground and his knife was destroyed. Right after, the others attacked, only to share the same fate as their buddy. In the end, five unconscious idiots lay at Anoth's feet and the owner of the restaurant called the police.

"What was that?" Bit asked as he came over.

"A few brain dead monkeys who did not know when to stop." was Anoth's answer. Susi behind Bit stood her head crooked and started to poke one of the so called idiots while he was lying on the ground with her claws. "Susi stop that."

"Merow!" she protested and continued.

Bit walked over to her and whispered something in the cat's ear. Whereupon the Kavat acted as if she had never done anything.

Only three minutes later, the police was present. After a short statement, they gathered the five and set off again. They knew how to contact the Blitz and Fluegel team. And the Video material of the cameras spoke for itself.

,

A few hours later.

,

The weapon Bit bought had belonged to a Heldigunner. It was therefore not very well suited for the Liger Zero. Assembling the weapon was not very difficult with Susi's help, and Anoth sent Bit right after it out for an hour to calibrate the weapon. No matter how good a weapon, if it could not hit its target it was worthless.

The next morning it was time.

Bit with his Liger Zero with Susi on board were together with Leena and her Dibison and Brad with his Command Wolf waiting for it to start.

Opposite them were three gun snipers. Two white and one red.

The only one missing was the judge.

Anoth had landed in the distance. You could see his huge form from the battlefield. It was also seen that Anoth was busy unloading more Zoids, but they took a different path and set off to a near resource of resources. A few minutes later, two Whale King landed, the crew immediately transferred to Anoth. These were the units of the ZBC that Anoth had already expected.

While Anoth waited for the troops to be loaded plus the return of his resource collectors, Anoth turned worked to complete Dr. Toro's design. The installation in the Hover Cargo was already done. The only thing missing was the right programming. The whole device was tuned to the Liger Zero. And since such a system did not exist before, Anoth's programming art was in demand to get it working properly. And as with any new system, there were a few bugs here and there.

This will probably take a few days until it worked properly.

And even if the system worked now, there were still some parts missing. The first had to be agreed with Bit.

At the moment it was all simulated via hard light holograms. Not perfect but for testing that was enough.

Anoth's attention was drawn back to the battlefield when his sensors reported that the Judge capsule was approaching and would hit the ground in a few seconds.

Moments later, the capsule hit the ground. And a moment later it rose so high that the judge could look over the rim of the crater.

"The area within a three-mile radius is now a declared Zoid battlefield! The area is now a restricted area! Only challengers and personnel have access! Danger! All others have to leave the area immediately!"

After a short break, the judge continued.

"Field scanned, Battlefield set up, The Blitz Team against the Fluegel Team, Battle Mode 0988. Ready ..." The Judge raised his arms and crossed them in front of him. At the same time, a gong was heard. "FIGHT!"

The three Gun Snipers were the first to move. The two white ones scurried into the forest while Naomi ran into her red gun sniper to the nearby mountain and jumped with her thrusters on this.

Brad and Leena rushed after the two beginners while Bit aimed at the cliff. The structural scanner upgrade from Liger Zero made it easy to see where he had to shoot to achieve the desired effect.

Naomi commented on the six shots in the cliff that she had already seen bad shooters. But never such a bad one. She had no idea that Bit had hit all targets.

Since Bit had spent all of his six shots and Liger Zero also expressed her displeasure over the heavy weapon she was wearing, Bit abruptly vented the now useless weapon from the back of the Liger, which Liger Zero greatly appreciated, and now ran at full speed to the mountain. He was careful not to run a straight line so that Naomi could not hit them so easily.

Naomi, meanwhile, had put her Zoid in sniper mode and aimed into the forest. The first sorrowful one was Leena again. A shot and the Dibison was out. The next shot hit Brad, who had just come into a clearing after knocking out the two other Gun Snipers. This was Brads Command Wolf out. Now everything was on the duel Naomi against Bit.

Meanwhile, Bit was almost at the foot of the mountain and his maneuvers made it very difficult for Naomi to catch him. And as the course took Bit steadily nearer to Naomi, it forced Naomi to change her Zoids point of view to get a even a chance to hit him. That was exactly what was missing.

The shock caused by Naomi's Zoid as he changed his point of view was enough to bring the severely damaged cliff to collapse. So Naomi rushed with tons of rocks down the cliff exactly in Bit's direction. Bit had already charged the Strike Laser Claw and was keeping close to Naomi.

Naomi fired another shot but Liger Zero jumped over it with the help of his thrusters and hit Naomi's Zoid with the Strike Laser Claw. That was the end of the fight.

"Fight over! Fight over! The winner is .. the Blitz team!" the judge announced, ending the fight.

,

An hour later.

,

All five of the disabled Zoids were currently in Anoth's on-board workshop. Naomi stood side by side with Jessica and Kathrin, watching as the Zoids of the ZBC were stowed away.

Whatever the ZBC intended, they expected hard resistance.

It was a small army that Anoth was picking up right now.

"When does the operation begin?" they heard from behind them. That was the voice of the ZBC General. General Markus.

"As soon as the loading of the Zoids and the crew has finished and my resource collectors have returned. In about two hours." was Anoth's answer, who was studying the layout of the Backdraft base they were about to attack.

Unfortunately, it was the only base they had found so far.

The base was massive and consisted of more than 20 hangar buildings in which the Backdraft Group housed their stolen Zoids. But that was not all. The facility also housed a massive training facility for militia in the Backdraft Group. Therefore, Anoth had taken the units of the ZBC. Because he expected at least 500 enemy Zoids. Probably even more.

For the reports of some of his scouts showed that there was a lot going on in the base. Apparently the Backdraft Group had hired mercenaries to reinforce the base. And even now, more mercenaries were arriving there.

"What about us?" asked Bit.

"You are not involved in these battles." Anoth answered. "The battles coming now are not Zoid League battles, there will be wounded and dead, so you will stay on board during the fight."

Relief was heard from Dr. Toros. Naomi was also relieved. Neither of them felt like being drawn into a war zone.

,

Two hours later

,

Anoth was in the air under the influence of his own camouflage system. As a result, he was invisible to virtually all sensors. To stay undetected, Anoth kept his speed below that of the sound. Still, they would be near the base in a few minutes.

He landed at a distance and then approached the base on the ground. In parallel, the ZBC units in him positioned themselves so that they could get out as soon as possible once they got the green light.

A few minutes later it was time. Anoth dropped his cover and the two Destroyer Wolf, who had already been let out, opened the fire with the base defense and communications systems. In parallel, ZBC Zoids were catapulted out in rapid succession over Anoth's 24 catapults.

All of the Stationary Guns fire from the base or that from the enemy Zoids was stopped by Anoth's heavy shields.

The Blitz and the Fluegel team were able to watch everything through the monitors and the vibrations as Anoth's guns fired were clearly felt by them.

They could see how all the explosive-peg throwers fired at the same time. In parallel, hundreds of rockets rose into the air. Then Anoth's own CPC fired. The firepower of these weapons puts everything in the shadows they've ever seen. Anoth's first volley made the outer heavily fortified defenses completely flat. What the CPC did not destroy was then destroyed either by the fire of the mass accelerator guns or by the Thanix.

Such as two bunkers built to survive a CPC hit. However, the Thanix beam, which was accelerated to enormous speeds and made of liquid metal, it could not offer any real resistance. The beam broke through the bunker armor and both bunkers exploded directly afterwards.

Immediately afterwards, the fired Rockets and Explosive pegs hit the base's energy generators and destroyed them. With the destruction of the generators the fixed defensive installations failed.

Now the units of the ZBC advanced into the base.

So far, everything went according to plan. They had completely surprised the base.

Anoth, however, had the uneasy feeling that there was something else in this base.

Something vicious.

Something against which the old Zoidians had already fought back then and only just won.

Something that was awakened by the Backdraft Group.

Anoth just hoped he was wrong.

"Release for the Rainbow Team!" The General announced immediately after Anoth had informed him that they had a clear path to the main building.

Immediately afterwards, one of Anoth's catapults shot out a APC carrying the said team. To land safely, the pilot ignited the brake nozzles of the vehicle, which slowed them down before they touched the ground. Immediately after, they headed straight for the main building.

,

With the Rainbow Team.

,

"Okay, people, listen. Our job is to retrieve data from the servers of the facility and bring them back to base, the people inside will not greet us in a friendly way, so as soon as we get there, and the APC removes the front door we make our way to the main server room, right? "

"Yes, sir!"

"Arriving in 20 seconds. Expect considerable resistance." Anoth's voice came from the speakers.

Seconds later, the car stopped right outside the door to the complex and the soldiers ran out. The cannon on the vehicle swung over to the door and fired. The door was completely blown away and the six soldiers threw in stun grenades. As soon as they exploded they stormed in.

The two with the shields ran ahead, the others behind and sought cover. And as Anoth had said, they ran into considerable resistance.

It took several minutes before they had destroyed the resistance inside the foyer. After that they practically only needed to follow the signs to the server room, which was in the same direction as the labs.

On the way there were mercenaries in the way, which were hardly a challenge for the team. Badly trained and under-resourced as the mercenaries were.

Then they reached the labs they had to cross to get to the server room. However, they should never arrive there.

There was an explosion somewhere in front of them in one of the laboratories shortly thereafter they met creatures that could easily be described as zombies.

"What is that?!" exclaimed one of the soldiers in disbelief.

"ALL UNITS! IMMEDIATE RETREAT! CLASS THREE BIO HAZARD DISCOVERED! RETREAT IMMEDIATELY!" The mighty voice of the Zoid was still clearly audible inside the building. At the same time the dull noise of a siren could be heard.

"You've heard him, we're leaving!" called the commander of the team. The team turned on the spot and ran back to the exit. The zombie-like creatures were hot on their heels.

They all knew what the biohazard index looked like. And nobody wanted to see a bio hazard of class three or above. The lower the class number, the more dangerous it was. Class 1-3 posed a threat to the entire galaxy and was destroyed at any cost. Even a war was an acceptable outcome if they destroyed such a biohazard.

They ran through the corridors, always dodging mutant or mutated creatures that were once probably human. Luckily, the creatures were not very fast. But there were many of them.

Finally they reached the entrance and raced inside the waiting APC who was busy shooting at their pursuers. As soon as they were inside, the APC raced off, taking a direct course towards Anoth's Zoid form. Seconds later, after a rather bumpy ride, they raced up the ramp and into the interior.

,

Recently.

,

Unfortunately, Anoth's feeling was right, as he only found out a few minutes later. An explosion occurred in a building on the other side of the base. Directly afterwards there were strange radio messages from the pilots of the ZBC.

"Oh my God, what is that ?!"

"Something takes control of our Zoids!"

"I have no control anymore. I have - AAAAHH!"

Immediately after, in Anoth's CIC sounded an alarm that he hoped he would not hear.

"They could not have been so stupid, or could they?" Anoth murmured as he pointed his sensors to the spot, hoping it was not what he thought was there. Unfortunately, Anoth's hope was dashed when the bio-hazard alarm went off. "Holy shit!"

"What's happening?" the general asked.

"Those idiots of Backdraft have reawakened the Kombuso parasite!"

"Kombuso parasite?"

"The parasite nearly wiped out the old Zoidians long ago, taking over the Zoids and their pilots, then infecting more Zoids and mutating, combining and becoming bigger and bigger creatures. My bio-hazard index classifies him as Class 3 Bio-hazard. " was Anoth's brief explanation. "[ALL UNITS! IMMEDIATE RETREAT! CLASS THREE BIO HAZARD DISCOVERED! RETREAT IMMEDIATELY!]"

Anoth's siren started howling as well. A siren that could be heard for several kilometers.

"What?"

"If the population of Zi wants to survive, then I have to disinfect this area immediately."

"That means?"

"That your air units should piss off as soon as possible, or they will be destroyed. All land units will be retrieved via emergency teleportation. I cannot wait, and if that escapes, we'll soon face a catastrophe we may not be able stop. " Anoth's answer was clear.

"All units ready for immediate emergency transport." sounded a new voice in the CIC.

"May I introduce you, Ahri, one of my shadows." said Anoth. "Initiate clearance for Thalarone extinction weapons."

"Ahri, leader of the Fox Shadows, Thalarone weapons authorized, Zero-Zero-Strike-Red-Zero."

The code was confirmed on the main monitor, which now showed the weapon and where now one of four points next to it lit up.

"Serina, Dragon Shadow Leader, Thalarone Guns Authorized, Retro Nine Blue Strike Five Nine Five."

That was the voice of Serina, who was the leader of the dragons. The code was confirmed by the flashing of the second green dot and the corresponding tone. This tone was brighter than the previous one.

"Kalvina, Leader of the Cat Shadow, Arming Thalarone Weapons, Execution Code: Nine Five Over, Seven Blue Five, Armed."

That was the voice of Kalvina. A skyfire cat. In her human form, she looked similar to Kuroka, except that her hair resembled that of burning fire. This illuminated the third point.

"Ready for End Code." said Kalvina. That was Anoth's code.

"Guardian Anoth. End Code to Execute Thalarone Weapons Authorization Ten Break Alpha. Strike, Strike, Strike. "

This lit up the fourth and last green dot. Immediately after, they heard firing guns take position under Anoth's wings.

By now it was clear that Anoth was serious.

"All uninfected units are on board." confirmed Ahri.

"What is a Thalarone weapon?" asked Bit, who had walked over to Kalvina.

"A weapon that has the potential to kill all life on the Planet with one shot." Kalvina explained. "It retains the technology, which is why the weapon needs multiple actuation codes to fire it."

"Artificial Gravity Generators Online." came the message from Ahri. "Thalarone Intermix at 65%, two minutes to launch, starting Wave Motion Generator."

Anoth's engines started and Anoth took off shortly after to take a position above the base at a height of ten kilometers. Then he changed his position so that he looked down vertically. Without the artificial gravitation they would not be able to stand in this position.

Anoth's wings unfurled and began to glow green as the Thalarone radiation moved through the wings.

"Thalarone Intermix at 85%. One minute to launch Wave Motion Generator at 100% power." reported Ahri.

Now you could see how the energy from the wave generator was also directed into the wings, whose wing edge now began to shine in a blue light.

"Thalarone Intermix at 100% Wave Motion Generator at 120%. Wave Motion Containment Ready. Ready to Fire."

The Wave Motion energy was mainly known as a very powerful weapon, the Wave Motion Cannon. However, the seraphim, over a very long time of research, had developed a method of using the energy itself as a containment method. they exploited the nature of the energy themselves.

This made it especially useful to contain radiations that were virtually impossible to contain.

A simple force field was not enough to contain Thalarone radiation. The containment of the Wave Motion energy was the only one hundred percent sure method to limit the Thalarone radiation to a specific area. The radiation that passed through the Wave Motion shield was completely disassembled and rendered harmless by it.

By now, the parasite had fused under them to a size about half the size of the original Death Saurer. It could only be described as a grotesque organic-mechanical thing.

"What an ugly creature." Naomi said. The other's expression said that they agreed with Naomi.

"Fire."

The energy of the Wave Motion Generator was first fired, forming an inverted multi-kilometer funnel of blue-white energy. Immediately afterwards the Thalarone weapons were fired. A beam of green energy shot down and hit the base right in the middle. A few meters next to the parasites. Which did not make any difference. As long as it was in the area. Then there was a powerful green explosion and the whole dome of energy was flooded with the radiation and became very, very green.

Only a few seconds later, the energy disappeared and the Thalarone radiation dissolved.

The parasite just seemed to be standing motionless. Then they could see how the parasite began to petrify and then decay to dust. Everything else living, no matter whether Zoids or humans, fell into dust.

Anoth stayed there for quite a while, scanning the area. A few minutes later Anoth could give the all clear. The parasite was completely extinguished.

"Wave generator shuts down, Thalarone generator disabled, weapons secured." came Ahris message.

"Parasite completely extinguished." confirmed Anoth. "I just hope they do not have more of these parasites. " Anoth's eyes went to the general. "How many have we lost?"

"21 pilots, including their Zoids. Plus seven infected Zoids." the general reported.

"Could have been worse." was Anoth's opinion. And the general knew he was right.

"Yes, but our mission was a failure." said the general.

"It cannot be changed."

,

Two days later.

,

Anoth's revelation that he had shadows also gave out that the Guardian was in fact a Worldlord. Not a simple oversized Zoid. At the same time, he also showed that you could talk to him.

The attack on the Backdraft base still hung many in the bones. They had never experienced anything like these parasites. Everyone just hoped they would not see it again.

Everyone present had signed confidentiality agreements. It had been decided that the events there would better not get to the public. Otherwise it would cause a panic that nobody needed.

At the same time, Anoth had launched orbiting satellites in search of more of these parasites. They had not found anything yet. and Anoth hoped that it would stay that way.

As for the public, they were told that the Backdraft Group had destroyed their own base when they realized that they would lose the fight.

Anoth now had a theory of where the Backdraft Group had the parasite. Petrified remains. Somehow, they must have extracted the DNA from them and then cloned the parasite.

Anyway. The parasite was gone. And it did not seem like there was any more of it.

Also the ZBC troops had left again.

At the moment the Blitz team was about to defeat another team.

The Strike Laser Claw ended the fight as the leg and gun of the red Zaber Fang Zoids dropped and the Zoid collapsed. The other two Zoids of the team had been two also red Helcats, who were taken out of the fight by Brad and Leena with ease.

Right after the fight, Bit talked to the pilot of the Zaber Fang. He was apparently not satisfied with the performance of his Zoids.

Anoth had walked to them as a hologram in his human form and could hear the cursing of the Zaber Fang pilot sitting in the open cockpit.

"Dirty Zoid! Mistding! I should never have bought you!"

"If you do not want to keep it, I'll gladly buy it from you!" Anoth called up to him.

"I give it to you!" the pilot exclaimed angrily. "And you can have the two Helcats too!"

With these words he jumped out of his Zoid and ran to the transport Zoid of his team parked at a distance.

"Why are you interested in this Zoid?" Leena asked, standing next to Anoth. Together with Bit and also Dr. Toros.

"It's not a he. It's a she, and she's pregnant, I can feel several young Zoid cores in her."

"She is pregnant?" asked Dr. Toros surprised. "I thought that would not be possible with an industrial produced Zoid."

"It's a nice myth, but that's all there is to it." was Anoth's answer. "I do not know who made that statement, but I know that that one was an idiot."

,

Sometime later

Base of the Blitz Team

,

Anoth's Zoid form lay on your cliff above the base and seemed to be sleeping. The rest of the team, after a long time on tour with Anoth was back inside their own base.

But Anoth was not idle during the time. The two organoid sisters he had found years ago were now ready to be released from their capsules. A few years earlier than he expected. Also, the cores of the Koenig Wolfs were ready for the growth tanks.

The core needs the longest time to develop. The actual growth of the Zoids itself took place within a few hours. A thumb rule was 10 tons per hour. A Koenig Wolf weighed about 90 tons. That meant about 9 hours.

But then came out only the naked Zoid. The weapons were designed separately and then assembled accordingly.

He turned to the two Organoids.

He went to their capsules and examined the two in it. Yes, they were mature. They looked quite similar to Raven's Organoid Shadow. Only that they were white colored.

Time to get them out.

With a few touches of the holographic screen ride next to the tanks the liquid flowed out of the capsules and they opened shortly thereafter. The two Organoids tumbled awkwardly out of their capsules and took a while to get up.

When they looked up and saw Anoth in his holographic hardlight form, their first instinct was to attack him. but that changed almost instantly when they sensed that he was just a depiction of the personality of the Zoid they were in right now.

"Lord Guardian!" one of them exclaimed in surprise.

"I'm sorry we wanted to attack you." the second apologized.

"It's okay, nothing happened." Anoth answered completely calmly. "What's your name?"

"I am Kilina."

"Kalina." was the concise answer of the other.

"Nice to meet you both."

"We are at your service Guardian of the Worlds."

"Fine, I can use your help."

"In which?"

"At the birth of several young Zaber Tigers."

,

A short time later

Within the Blitz Team base.

,

Actually, a Zoid released only his little ones when it dies. The exception are some wild Zoid species, which had developed methods to deposit the little Zoid cores like eggs. This was not possible with the Zoids produced on the production line. From them, the younger cores needed to be operated out.

And that's exactly what they were busy right now. Even if Dr. Toros was buzzing around them.

It took a good two hours before they had all the small Zoid cores out of the mother Zoid. There were a total of six pieces. They were all immediately taken to tanks aboard Anoth. They were already well developed, which meant Anoths could bring them right after the Koenig Wolf into the growth tanks.

At the same time, it also meant that they had done that just in time, otherwise the mother Zoid would not have lived much longer. Then the fully grown cores would have sought their way out by force. However, a short time later, a completely resurrected Zaber Fang was standing in one of Anoth's hangars waiting for her to welcome her "little ones".

That did not mean that everything went smoothly in between.

At some point, Anoth and Jamie, were about to reassemble the Zaber Fang again and repair her in parallel, where Anoth could teach Jamie one thing or the other about the tech behind the Zoid, someone came into the hangar.

Someone who knew Leena.

Someone who had his eye on Leena.

However, Leena did not want to see so much of that person.

Because she was flirting right now with Bit. Then this strange Bird of Paradise came into the hall and tried to attack Bit. Just to see how Bit took a step backwards and he landed very hard on his knees and began to squirm in pain on the ground.

This caused some attention. Not only by the people in the hangar, but also by the Zoids in the hangar, which all directed a camera at what was happening.

"Is that Leena's stalker?" asked Anoth Leon, who had taken a seat behind him in his Shield Liger. He had discussed with his father, that he wanted to leave the Tam and go alone for a time. He was just about to make the final preparations for his departure.

Leon sighed. "That's Harry Champ." he started. "He sees himself someone destined to become king." here Leon was huffing. "A rich rascal, who for some reason is obsessed with Leena, he wants to have her as his queen." Leon shook his head. "He's also the boss of the Champ Team, which is made up of him and his two robotic assistants, however that may be, I'm on my way now."

"Well then, good luck Leon. Maybe we'll meet again."

"For sure we will meet again, at least when I have my own team." Leon set off with it.

Later that day, it was clear that Harry Champ had challenged the Blitz team to a fight in blind mode. Mode 0973. Which meant that the battlefield will be an old abandoned ruined city.

This meant limited visibility through many tall buildings and limited maneuvering space for the Zoids. Not exactly a light battlefield.

But fighting in urban areas has always been difficult.

Two days later it was time.

As a battleground, an old ruined city had been selected. The city itself was abandoned as the land around the city became a desert, making it virtually impossible to supply the city. It was surrounded by high walls and in the center stood an old tower where Anoth wondered how long it would still be standing there.

There were traces of ancient Zoid battles everywhere in the ruins. It was clear that these ruins were not used for the first time for such a fight.

The Champ Team had already arrived. They had landed their Whale King almost directly in front of the old gates of the city.

Anoth grinned when he saw how pale Harry Champ was when he landed on the other side of the city. After all, Anoth was many times bigger than a simple Whale King.

As soon as Bit landed with his Liger Zero, Brad with his Command Wolf and Leena with her Dibison outside, they were waiting for the Judge to arrive.

This time Anoth used to scan their opponents and provide the data to the three.

Harry Champ sat in his Darkhorn. A very heavily armed Darkhorn. Equipped with a heavy Gattling cannon and a high energy pulse weapon. Under the Zoid there was a thruster set to increase the maneuverability. However, the Zoid had a significant weakness. Harry had forgotten to reinforce its legs. If too often the load is on only one side they would buckle.

Then there was a stealth viper piloted by Benjamin. It only had the standard equipment and was not modified. At least at first glance. However, when he looked more closely it was clear that the Zoid was much larger than normal and equipped with other weapons. A CP-13 Wild Weasel Unit had been mounted as well as a CP-05 heavy beam cannon. And apparently also the tail guns of a Dibison had been mounted.

The last one was Sebastian's Zoid. A modified Heldigunner. It had been equipped with two heavy guns. If Anoth were not mistaken, they were CP10 were cannons. They actually belonged to a Gojulas. These, however, were much smaller.

All in all no bad Zoids. The question was, how good were the pilots?

The Judge capsule arrived a few minutes later and crashed into the middle of the city.

"Area scant. Battlefield set up. The Blitz Team versus the Champ Team. Battlefield 0973. Ready ... " The judge raised his arms and crossed them in front of him. At the same time, a gong was heard. "FIGHT!"

With this, both teams disappeared into the ruins of the city.

"Well, now it's up to them." Anoth could see exactly where each was on his sensor image. The same was not true for the pilots of the Zoids. Due to the Battle Mode Anoth was not allowed to connect his sensors with the pilots. Also, no help from outside could be given. The pilots were on their own.

Susi also had to stay aboard too. Very much to her displeasure.

The first to meet each other were Bit and Harry. What followed was an interesting chase across the ruins where Bit took only left turns, followed by the pursuing Harry with his Darkhorn. He did not even notice that he did exactly what Bit wanted him to do.

Leena, on the other hand, had it probably the easiest. She ran across the path of Benjamin in his stealth viper. A single jump and the Stealth Viper was crushed under the 230-ton Dibison.

Brad, however, met Sebastian. It all boiled down to whose Zoid was the more agile one. In the end, Brad was ahead, destroying the Heldigunner with a few well aimed shots from behind.

Meanwhile, Bit had literally guided Harry around for a long time. At the next turn it was time. The legs on one side of the Darkhorn gave way to the constant overload. After that Bit only needed to shoot at the Darkhorn so long with the shock cannon until the systems of the Darkhorn crashed.

"Battle over! Battle over! The winner is ... the Blitz Team!" the judge announced.

That was easier than expected.

Anoth could not help but to grin as he thought about how Leena had defeated her opponent. A simple jump on the enemy Zoid and the fight was over.

Meanwhile, Anoth finally finished programming the CAS system in Hover Cargo. The system had caused much more problems than Anoth had expected at the beginning.

Before all the right adjustment, if the Zoid was not standing exactly right, had made the most problems.

But now the system worked as it should.

And that was the time to unveil the armor systems that Dr. Toros had let produce.

There were three units. Against two of them Anoth hardly had anything to oppose. The third was something else.

The first was the system Jaeger. A high-speed system. Equipped with two massive engines.

The second was the Schneider system. Specializing in direct melee combat with seven blades mounted at different points.

The third, however, made problems by its sheer weight alone. The Panzer system. The Liger Zero weighed scarcely 75 tons without its standard armor. This system alone weighed in at just over 145 tons. That brought the total weight to 220 tons. Only ten tons lighter than the Dibison. For such a weight, the Zoid was not really designed.

But the Panzer system was basically still a prototype. Anoth was sure that with a different choice of material and better structure of the armor, the weight could be at least halved without losing protection.

Anyway. At the moment, fighting with this monster was out of the question. But here came the fact into play that the Liger Zero was an Ultimate X and therefore had an Organoid system.

It was probably time, the Blitz team learns this fact. Because the Organoid system allowed the Zoid to be trained by himself. So Liger Zero would be able to learn to operate with the Panzer system and become stronger in order to use the system even more effectively.

"I think it's time we talk." Anoth said after asking them all to the conference room. "There are a few things you do not know about Liger Zero yet, and that she's no ordinary Zoid should be clear to everyone by now. And now it's time I'll show you why."

Anoth let a hologram appear in the middle of the table. It was a silver ball with several outgrowths on the sides.

"That's a Zoid core." Anoth explained. "It comes in a variety of sizes and colors, but the basic layout is always the same - it's not like that with the Liger Zero, it's an Ultimate X. A Zoid with an integrated organoid system, that's what the Zoid core from the Liger looks like."

The hologram changed. Also this time was a ball with outgrowths to see but there was something on the ball. It looked like a skull that had bitten into the ball. Some of the excesses even went through it.

"That's the essence of an Ultimate X Zoids, a core that is permanently fused with an organoid, which has the same effect on a Zoid as one that is temporarily fused with an organoid. Increased power, increased stamina, increased speed, increased efficiency, and even increased intelligence. You've certainly noticed that, Bit, for example, that Liger Zero suggests weapons to you. "

"Yes, on the first session, she showed me the Strike Laser Claw." confirmed bit.

"That's exactly what I mean, which is why such a Zoid can only be controlled by certain pilots, and a pilot who the Zoid does not want will immediately be rejected by them." Anoth continued. "At the same time, however, the Organoid system allows something that most Zoids do not have, they get stronger over time if trained properly. And at the moment, our Zoid lady can do little more with the Panzer Unit than walking with it. At the moment we can totally forget about firing the weapons at all, but over time she will get used to it and be able to use it much better. "

"How many of these Ultimate X Zoids are there?" asked Dr. Toros.

"There are only two known to me at the moment, Liger Zero and the Berserk Fury, except that the Berserk Fury disappeared a long time ago, the last reports I read being that the Berserk Fury had been loaded onto a ship. But, this ship never reached its destination, it sank somewhere on the line, and nobody knows where it is. "

There were some more details discussed. Including the training regiment for Liger Zero with the Panzer unit.

,

A few days later

,

Bit had Liger Zero out and about time and time again with the assembled Panzer unit. Even though there was little going on at the moment like walking slowly, he could feel that every time he did it, it was getting better and better.

Bit was always accompanied by several of Anoth's Helcats as well as some Liger Phoenix, who kept watch from the air. Anoth knew the Backdraft Group would do anything to get an Ultimate X and Anoth was not ready to take any unnecessary risks.

They were assisted by two of Anoth's Koenig Wolf, who took up positions in the distance, covering the area as sniper units. Also four Murasame Liger and two Liger X were present under full alert. He had bought them from a dealer as Zoidcores and allowed them to grow out aboard.

The first two days did nothing of note happen. Except that Anoth could add two Lightning Saix to his Zoids. Purchased from a team that did not want the two Zoids any longer.

The Zoids were starting to joke that Anoth might be a bit too paranoid. On the fourth day, however, Anoth's paranoia turned out to be well founded.

A group of mercenaries attacked them. There were a good 20 people who mainly drove Molgas and Rev Raptors. In total there were 12 Molgas and 8 Rev Raptor who came to them. Anoth's Zoids knew they might have hidden some snipers somewhere, too. That's why they linked their own sensors to those of Anoth and right enough. On a hill not far from them stood a Snipe Master. And a little further away, two Gun Snipers. Anoth bet that the leader of the gang was in the Snipe Master.

The three enemy snipers were a trifle for the two King Wolf. Most of all, because Anoth had some of his shadows as pilots on the controls, who were already very good snipers. Master snipers in fact.

The Snipe Master managed to fire one more shot, but one of the Liger X intercepted the shot intended for the Liger Zero, causing the bullet to bounce harmlessly off the shield of the Liger X.

No sooner had this happened than the waiting seven Zaber Fang and the remaining four Koenig Wolf met the others, who had now begun to fight the Molga and Rev Raptors.

Bit mixed also with. Although he could not use the main weapons of the Panzer unit, but the projectile weapons and rocket launcher were possible.

The ensuing slaughter (you can hardly call it anything else) took less than five minutes.

The end result was that four of the twelve Molga's cores had been shot. Also, three Rev Raptor had been completely destroyed. Simply vaporized as one of the Koenig Wolf had used them as a test target for his newly installed phaser. The pilot went with it.

That left five heavily damaged Rev Raptor, eight Molga-also badly damaged-two Gun Snipers and a Snipe Master.

Actually, Anoth did not need any of this Zoids. Although he had the authority to take the Zoids from mercenaries. However, he did not want to be the owner of Zoids who still had to be evaluated by the police. Who knows for what these backyard thugs used their Zoids for.

When the police finally arrived, they were astonished. Six Koenig Wolf, seven Zaber Fang, two Lightning Saix, four Murasame Liger, six Liger Phoenix and eight Helcats greeted them. And they all wore the same sign on their shoulders. That made it more than clear to who these Zoids belonged to. The fact that the Zoids were able to talk was underpinned once more.

Meanwhile, Bit with Liger Zero had returned to base.

In the middle sat 22 bound mercenaries. Some with injuries others without. But everyone was staring at the mouth of a massive cannon from one of the King Wolf that was aimed exactly at them.

Needless to say, the mercenaries were retrieved without resistance.

As for the few who were vaporized. The police considered it suicide. Whoever was stupid enough to attack the forces of the Guardian, or even the Guardian himself, committed nothing but that.

,

One day later

,

The next morning, Van was on the road with the Jeep, grazing a nearby old Zoid battlefield. The loot, however, was little. Only a few still usable smaller parts that he could find.

Anoth had made himself comfortable halfway across the base and seemed to be dozing. Therefore, he was also awake, as Bit left the base with the Jeep at full throttle and was followed by Jamie's Pteras. Just that it was not Jamie at the wheel, but Leena, who wanted to punish Bit for going to the bathroom while she was in there.

Since this had happened twice in similar fashion, just with Jamie and Brad as victims, Anoth ignored it.

But when Bit came back in the evening and there was no sign of Leena, Anoth had the dull feeling that something was wrong.

This feeling was confirmed when the Blitz Team was contacted by the leader of the Gold Team of the Backdraft Group.

They showed in their video transmission that they had the Pteras in their hangar and that Leena was also in their power. Obviously, they also sedated her.

The challenge was clear. Three against three. When the Blitz team won, they got Leena back.

As soon as the transmission was over, Anoth contacted the Blitz Team base.

"What idiots." Anoth started. "He has no idea who he pissed off, well, he wants to play, then we play, but according to my rules."

With that, Anoth began to explain his plan to them. The Backdraft Group had no idea what to expect.

,

The next morning

,

The Blitz team approached the Battlefield with their hover cargo. Anoth himself was not far away. However, he approached from the other direction and with active camouflage. So the Backdraft Group would not know where he was at all.

For the Backdraft Group only the Hover Cargo was present.

And so it was not long before the Whale King of Team Gold landed just a few miles from Anoth.

Bit came out of the Hover Cargo with its Liger Zero, Jamie driving Leenas Dibison, and Brad, with his Command Wolf. Brad had said his mercenary nature over a week ago goodbye, especially since Anoth had conjured up a certain team spirit in the team. He also wanted to have Leena back and he was curious how that big-lank Backdraft thug will react when he realizes he missed a very tiny detail from the Blitz team.

This tiny detail was only a good three kilometers long and had a wing span of only seven kilometers.

Yes, you really needed a microscope to see that.

Brad could not resist a certain grin.

As Anoth had said.

Never stop your enemy while he makes a mistake.

"Attention, I link your sensors to mine. The Backdraft Group has several Stealth Zoids in the combat area, and these red things seem to surround the area with a force field. " came the warning from Anoth. Shortly thereafter, they saw the three opponents on their radar. Also, a picture was projected into the cockpit, which allowed the Blitz team to see the enemy Zoids as if they had no camouflage at all.

Looked like three Helcats armed with Miniguns waiting for them.

"How can you see them?" Brad asked curiously.

"I have over 100 Helcats with me, who only use their stealth to do jokes, of course I have methods that allow me to make this stealth useless." That was the official reason. The truth was that Anoth had already contact with many enemies who used camouflage in some form. Of course, he developed systems to override these.

It was not long before the Judge of the Backdraft Group hit the ground with his black capsule.

"BATTLEFIELD SET UP. THE GOLD TEAM AGAINST THE BLITZ TEAM! FIGHTING MODE: NONE."

None of the Blitz team was surprised. Anoth had informed them all about the default modus operandi of the Backdraft Group.

"READY ... FIGHT!"

Bit was the first to react and made a huge leap forward that would doom one of the enemy's Helcats. Brad also fired before the Helcats could fire and scuttled the second one while Jamie stormed through the third Helcat's fire and literally picked it up on the horns.

All in all, the first three opponents had been eliminated in just as many seconds.

The leader of the Gold Team, a certain Major Polta, was anything but pleased and gave the order to make his own Zaber Fang clear for use.

In the meantime, they shot out a kind of ball that had its own drive. A so-called Battlejack. This Battlejack, right after it was fired from the nose of the Whale King, headed straight for Jamie in his Dibison.

Jaime was ready to dodge. However, he never needed it. Because only seconds before the ball could reach him, he saw a green flash of light fly across the battlefield and immediately after the ball ceased to exist in a massive explosion.

When Jamie looked from where it came from he saw how Anoth was moving. His camouflage was now shut off and he easily broke through the Backdraft Group's force field barrier. The resulting overload in the force field exploded two of the force field anchors and the remaining two switched off.

Major Polta, as soon as he saw the Guardian, gave the order to withdraw immediately. The Whale King managed to lift not even a meter of the ground before the over 220m long whale-shaped red Zoid was pressed by a huge paw back to the ground.

"[We do not want to go yet, do we?]" Heard Major Polta, who was sitting in his Zaber but had not come to the start, and had to swallow. "[You have two things that are not yours, I think Polta already knows what I mean, or not.]"

Major Polta knew that he was in deep shit. This was confirmed by Anoth's next sentence.

"[Then you certainly do not mind IF I WILL TAKE IT NOW FROM YOU!]" No sooner had he said that countless flashes of light were seen in the hangar and they all left something behind. In Polta's case, eight Helcats, all of them wearing heavily modified weapons, which Polta did not even want to know what they could do with it, and all were aimed at him and his Zoid.

Also three more figures appeared on the entry area for his Zoid.

"Open your cockpit!" ordered the leader of the three who had pointed their weapons at him. Apparently he was not fast enough, because she fired a shot at the cockpit. The shot broke through one side of the cockpit and came out on the other side again. "I will not repeat myself!"

Only then did Polta activate the switch that opened the cockpit. Hardly was it open, he was very rudely pulled out by the other two from his seat and barely out was arrested on the spot.

Similar scenes took place throughout the Whale King. But it also came to a fight, in which the soldiers learned very quickly that Anoth's people were highly superior to them.

So Anoth's people made short work of the small groups trying to stop them. Then finally they reached the cell block. The door, a heavy steel door, was quickly complemented out of the way by the use of two plasma blades.

The room was pitch-black. So they had to shine in with their lamps to see anything. However, this cell was empty.

It was the fourth cell they were looking for.

Leena lay naked on the bed. When Laraya came over to her, she could also see that she was unconscious. She had some wounds. Many of the injuries they were able to attribute to the crash. some others were probably added when they tried to sedate her. The Kyuubi Bijuu in her Human form sighed with relief that they had not done more with her.

"Laraya to Anoth, I have the parcel ready for direct transport to the infirmary."

Anoth's answer was not verbal but the beaming out of the cell block. Meanwhile, Laraya's sister Lereya was beating a troop of Backdraft soldiers green and blue by all the rules of the art.

Meanwhile, Anoth was as a hardlight hologram also aboard the Whale King, beating his way through the defenders. His destination was the main server room of the Whale King.

He had the opportunity to get the positions of other Backdraft Group bases. Something he will not miss.

As expected the way there had been blocked with soldiers. Not that that could stop him for a long time. And so he stood a few minutes later at the door to the main server room. Behind the door several soldiers had entrenched themselves. Not for long.

With a tremendous kick from Anoth, the door, which weighed several hundred kilograms, flew into the room and crushed two of the soldiers below it. The other two were dead on the ground before they understood what had just happened.

Immediately after, Anoth connected a small device to the server and began skimming the data. He would evaluate it afterwards.

Meanwhile, the Judge of the Backdraft Group outside was busy complaining that they could not do that, etc.

Bit countered it very effectively by reminding the judge that he himself had said that there would be no rules in this fight. As a result, they could also have no offense.

That effectively silenced him.

In the end, the judge had to concede victory to the Blitz team. He had been played out according to his own rules.

It was not long before the police and representatives of the ZBC arrived to take the surviving Backdraft members into captivity.

,

A few days later.

,

Anoth had evaluated the data, stumbling over something someone would definitely like. For this reason, Anoth was currently in a café in which very often mercenaries met each other. including the one Anoth wanted to meet. An old acquaintance whom he had met a few years ago and who had asked him for help then.

And right enough. He was there too.

Anoth watched him drop one client because he offered him too little and another because he did not pass his luck test.

"I see your filter has not changed, Jack." Anoth said, slightly amused.

"You could say that." was Jack's answer.

"I have something here that will interest you." Anoth said, handing a tablet computer to Jack.

Jack studied the data on the tablet computer for several minutes before turning to Anoth. "So you finally found him?"

"Yes, by chance." Anoth answers and sits down at the table. "His base is very well hidden so much I have to give him."

"I understand, you're already scouting it out."

"Of course, I want to know what exactly I'll get to do with it."

Exactly at that moment they were interrupted.

And by no one other than Harry Champ.

"You must be Jack Cisco, may I introduce myself? My name is Harry Champ. I am a man who is destined to be king."

However, that only earned Harry a raised eyebrow from Jack and Anoth. "So?" Jack asked.

Then Harry heaved a massive sack on the table. "This money is yours if you help me beat a certain team."

"Take a card and then guess what kind of shape it is." Jack demanded.

Harry did this. "Simple, a heart." He turned the card around, showing that he was right.

"I see you have customers, Jack." Anoth said and stood up. "On the tablet are all the necessary contact information. We hear from each other." With that Anoth said goodbye and went out of the café.

"For sure." was Jack's answer before Anoth was out of earshot.

Meanwhile, Anoth had arrived outside and boarded his Koenig Wolf. Next to them were two newly acquired Blade Liger and two of the very rare Gun Tiger.

The relatively small Gun Tiger were interesting for Anoth, because they were small enough to go through an Astria Porta (Stargate). That's why he was looking for these smaller models. Unfortunately, they were very hard to find. These were the first ones he had ever found in all these years. That it were two was more than a little luck.

His Helcats could theoretically go through a Stargate as well, but he found that they tended to get stuck in the gate. Therefore, they were not very suitable for it.

The Gun Tiger was with 5.5 meters a good 50cm larger than the Helcat. But that was only valid if he exported his antennas. Without them, he did not even reach four meters. In addition, the Zoid weighed only barely 12.5 tons. The two were quite lightweight for Zoid standards.

Then there was a real gem added. Two completely black Brastle Tiger. Found as wrecks and brought back to life with the help of his Organoids. A really rare find. There were just a handful of them built.

However, these Zoids had a significant weakness. After firing their main weapon, they had to shut down for a while due to overheating. Since the weapon was thermal, heat based, it was clear that Anoth had to install a much better cooling system before he could really use that Zoid.

Without an update of the cooling system, the Zoid while it was offline was little more than a big target.

Also, he had found in the database of the Brastle Tigers hints on the stay of some Gul Tiger Zoids. However, whether they were still there after such a long time was a completely different question.

To find out, Anoth had sent several scouts to the area. It was an old battlefield. Who fought against whom Anoth did not know and he did not even want to know. Because after almost 1,000 years nobody really cared about it anyway.

Less than an hour later he got the news that they were still there. However, buried under almost a dozen meters of sand. They were in the middle of what was a desert today.

If he wanted it, he had no choice but to dig it out.

And that was not all they found.

Among the sand-buried wrecks were two Gil Vader. These were over 300 -ton heavy and heavily armed dragon Zoids.

And another surprise they found there.

The reason for the fight from a long time ago.

The remnants of an old Zoidian project in a desperate attempt to stop the Death Saurer. The remains of two defeated Royal Ancient Wolf. These Wolf Zoids were enormous. 135m tall and over 8,000 tons heavy. Unfortunately, Anoth did not know anything about their armament. Only that they existed and the Death Saurer had destroyed them.

It would certainly be worth digging there.

,

A few hours later

,

Anoth had returned to the base, sending several of his Zoids in to rescue the Zoids they had been able to locate on the old battlefield.

Meanwhile, Anoth was already busy planning the new cooling system of the Brastle Tiger.

Bit was in the hall on one of the balconies and played around with Susi by letting her chase a red dot, which he projected onto the ground with a laser pointer. As a result, Susi was also not particularly pleased when a very specific Darkhorn Zoid suddenly appeared in the middle of the hall.

That was also responsible for the fact that Susi had climbed the Darkhorn and was now snarling in its cockpit. It was also the reason why Harry Champ decided that it was wiser at the moment not to open his cockpit. He quickly wrote a note to himself with two points.

First, avoid the hangar of the Blitz Team. And secondly to put on clean pants once he was back in his own base.

"Susi! That's enough!" called Bit. Which caused Susi to hop down from the Darkhorn and jump up to Bit on the balcony.

Harry now dared to open his cockpit. As soon as it was open, he openly declared that he had challenged the Blitz team to a Zoidbattle. Bit, however, refused. Whereupon Harry accused him of being afraid of losing the Leena in the fight. Harry's bad luck was that Leena had noticed and now Harry had a dirty rag stuck on his face.

Immediately afterwards, Leena, who had arrived there with Brad, called him to stop talking about people as if they were possessions. Whereupon Harry apologized in a hurry.

Shortly thereafter, Harry revealed that he had hired mercenary Jack Cisco for the fight. That pretty much surprised the three members of the Blitz team. And so, after a brief discussion, they agreed to accept the challenge.

And so they found each other the next day on the designated battlefield. A desert. Ideal for high speed battles.

Anoth landed at the assigned spot. There he sent out Leena with her Dibison, Brad with his Command Wolf, and Bit with his Liger Zero. He also sent out one of the Hover Cargo. Namely the one in which the parts for the Liger Zero were stored and the CAS system was installed.

Also, Anoth sent out his two Destroyer Wolf as well as his seven Zaber Fang and some Helcats. Their job was to make sure that nothing happened to the Hover Cargo should anyone want to interfere. Like the Backdraft Group. In the actual Zoidbattle they would not get involved and they would stay with the Hover Cargo all the time.

"The area within a 30 mile radius is now declared a Zoid battlefield! The area is now a restricted area! Only challengers and personnel have access! Danger! All others have to leave the area immediately!"

After a short break, the judge continued.

"Area scant. Battlefield set up. Battlemode 0982. Ready ... " The judge raised his arms and crossed them in front of him. At the same time, a gong was heard. "FIGHT!"

"Your opponent is 24 kilometers away from you. ATTENTION! Two Cannon Tortoise located with heavy artillery. " Anoth reported. "Be careful."

"Roger that." it came from the three.

"Jack is coming right to you." Anoth reported seconds later.

"Confirmed." it came from Bit. "I see him."

A short time later, Jack Cisco halted his Lightning Saix just a few hundred meters from them.

"Artillery fire located!" Anoth warned.

Right after that Bit, Leena and Brad were pinned down with heavy explosions. The resulting dust cloud used Jack to cover them from all sides with fire.

"You have to get out of the dust if you want to get him, Jack uses it as cover." reported Jamie.

"Bit, get your ass into the Hover Cargo, you need the Jaeger System if you want to defeat him." ordered Anoth.

After Bit had delivered a short race against Jacks Lightning Saix and lost it, Bit came to the Hover Cargo. No sooner had he arrived on the maintenance deck than on both sides of the Liger Zero chambers opened and arms drove out and dismantled the standard armor from the Zero. No sooner had that happened than the arms went back to their chamber, which now also contained the standard armor. then the chambers turned into a large, rotating, chambered disk located on both sides of the Liger Zero.

As soon as the two windows had reached the correct position, the chambers opened again and mounted the dark blue armor of the Jaeger system on the Liger Zero. Seconds later they were done and the Liger Zero Jaeger was ready to start. What happened a short time later over the Hover Cargo catapult.

One of the Zaber Fang standing in front of the Hover Cargo moved a bit to clear the space for the Liger Zero Jaeger, who landed seconds later where the Zaber Fang had been standing only moments before. As soon as the Liger Zero was gone the Zaber Fang took back her old place.

Right after that Bit picked up on the pursuit of Jack and with the new Jaeger system he was able to catch up with him. As a result, the two now delivered a short but fierce high-speed race. This was ended as both swung to the right and left to then make a final punch on each other.

In the end it was the Lightning Saix that collapsed on it due to a damaged front leg.

Immediately after, Brad and Leena came to Bit, who enjoyed his victory over Jack, only to be reminded seconds later that there were two more opponents. However, these were no challenge for Bit and were defeated very quickly.

"Battle over! Battle over! The winner is ... the Blitz Team!" the judge announced.

This time, there was no interference from the Backdraft Group. That was probably just a matter of time when they would show up again.

,

A few minutes earlier.

,

The fight between the Blitz and the Champ Team was broadcast live on TV. The focus of many Zoid specialists on the two Destroyer Wolf Anoth now quite openly showed.

They were massive. 27m high and weighted a good 1,150 tons. And very heavily armed and armored.

Anoth had only released a few data from the Zoid. But those he announced everyone said it was wiser not to fight against such a Zoid.

It was also a warning to the Backdraft Group.

Keep your hands off of us.

However, Anoth expected that they won't stick to it.

Anyway. After this fight, he would first take care of what he had promised Cisco back then.

,

################################################## #################

,

To Harry and the others

,

################################################## #################

,

When Harry came to, he knew immediately that something had gone wrong with the portal. He could feel the presence of almost everyone. Only Anoth was not there.

When the others came to, it was not long before they found out what had gone wrong. They had flown through the spur of a quantum storm raging between the dimensions.

Which meant that Anoth had landed in some other dimension.

That also raised the question of where they had landed.

At the moment they only knew that they had landed in some forest.

Only two days later they found a road and started following it. There was nothing paved here and the cleanness of the air told them they were either far from a city or not in a technologically advanced world.

"Where did we land? Is that the right dimension?" Kuroka asked.

Harry could not provide an answer. That had simply not been planned.

It was some time later than Harry's group stopped when they smelled something in the air. For a human, the smell may not be noticeable. However, her seraphim nature had a much finer sense of smell. And they did not like what they smelled.

Decaying meat.

More specifically, rotting human flesh. As well as human blood.

It seemed to come from a nearby forest.

For a short time, the group exchanged looks, then left the street and followed the smell.

This led them to the wall of a property, which apparently had been built planlessly through a forest. And was in a pretty bad condition. The smell, however, was clearly getting stronger.

In addition, guards patrolled the property.

Either someone wanted his privacy or, and after the smell that was far more likely, they wanted to hide something no one from the outside should see.

It was a breeze to get around the guards. And so, just minutes later, they found themselves in front of a wooden-built warehouse.

The smell was clearly coming from there.

The lock on the door was little more than a joke. Tonks cracked it in under three seconds.

So far, they had left no traces. But what they found in it should change that.

As soon as the doors were open, they noticed two things.

First, they had an incredible stench.

And second, they heard a soft whimper.

"What's that? A private horror cabinet?" Harry asked incredulously.

"More like a private torture chamber." Hermione answered in disgust.

"Someone is still alive here." said Luna. "I feel two signs of life, both are pretty weak."

"Can you locate their exact location?" Neville asked.

"All I can say is that they are here in the building." was Luna's answer.

"Then we should find them quickly." said Kuroka. That was the sign they all split up to search the warehouse as quickly as possible.

The reason Luna could not locate them was a certain magical presence within the storeroom. It was found in almost every body. Although the presence per corpse was low, the strength increased significantly by their sheer number. In fact, 400 bodies had to be in this warehouse. And all of them had been tortured before they died.

It was not long before they found the two.

One of them was locked in a cell. The second one was tied up from the ceiling. Seconds later both were released and they started to care for their injuries. They also discovered that both had been infected by something.

The bodies of the two were covered with red spots. And they gave off the same slight magical aura as the corpses did.

So they had little choice but to put the two in stasis. They had to be treated to a place where they could pinpoint the aura. Before that, they did not even try to remove the injected stuff.

Meanwhile, Naruto, Yugito and Fuu had sneaked into the mansion, which was not far from the forest. The task they got from Harry was easy. Find out to what extent the owners of the property are in contact with the find in the warehouse.

Avoiding the occupants and the guards was a light morning exercise for the three of them.

It was Yugito who first found it. She had sneaked into the parents' bedroom and discovered a diary hidden in a secret compartment behind a picture. This diary was written by the mistress of the house and described exactly the methods she used for her "guests".

Naruto also found something. In a double bottom of a drawer, he found papers that indicated they were doing everything they did here on behalf of the government. They were apparently looking for better torture methods or the like. The order had been given by a certain Honest.

Fuu found something too. She was in the daughter's room of the house and found a diary under the mattress of her bed. Apparently the parents sent her out to pick up new arrivals in the capital and bring them here on the pretext that they would give them food and a bed for the night. only then to end as new victims for the experiments. And not only that. She also had a lot of fun torturing others to death.

It was clear to all three that none of the members of the family was innocent.

They reported their findings also immediately to Harry who had taken control of the group.

Harry was not enthusiastic but not really surprised.

The question was, what did they do now?

Harry's thoughts were interrupted when several of the guards spotted him.

"INTRU-" the two guards did not get to finish as they were already dead on the ground and Harry wiped his claws on their uniform.

With that, Harry had made his decision. 'Kill all the guards. Do not let any of them live! And bring the family here. Alive.' the telepathic order had been heard by all. Right after that they started hunting for the guards and the three family members. What Harry meant by "living" was clear. So far, intact, that he could interrogate them. And to be able to talk, arms or legs were not essential.

Harry himself eliminated four guards posted in the clearing. The first two literally lost their heads before they understood what was going on. The third was thrown against a tree by a telekinetic throw, which broke every single bone, and by the fourth he simply broke his neck.

They only needed a short time before they had killed off all the guards. Then Naruto came to meet them. Or rather it was three of them. One pulled the wife of the house by her hair. The second dragged the man at his ankle behind him and the third had their daughter just thrown over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

A fourth and fifth Naruto brought out someone whom they had picked up recently. he had been disarmed and was being held by the two Narutos.

A short time later, they unloaded their load right in front of Harry's feet.

"Nice, that you have decided to come to our little... party." Harry growled.

"What are you doing with them ?!" demanded the one they had found. He apparently wanted to protect them. He had no idea what they wanted to do with him.

"Hold them accountable." was Naruto's answer. The real Naruto who had come to them now. "Show him the warehouse, let him see it for himself."

Hardly said the two shadow clones brought the boy to the warehouse. Meanwhile, Harry interrogated his "guests." He was not exactly timid.

"I want to know from you what you filth have instilled in them and where it is." He pulled the woman very uncomfortable on her hair and when she did not answer. When she still did not answer the Crucio was used. They have been kind to the their "guests". Now they got the same kindness back. "Where is it?"

She did not answer Verbal but thought about it. That was enough for Harry. He relayed the data to Kuroka, who immediately ran to the villa and ran down to the basement. She found the stuff in a hidden chest, which was behind an old cabinet hinged to hinges. In it she found several ampoules containing the substance. She grabbed her and ran back.

Harry took the vials from her and analyzed them with a few spells. It was a kind of poison. The label read "Lubora". Harry did not know what that was. Whatever this Lubora was, apparently had been instilled into both survivors. And according to his spells, it was undoubtedly lethal. And it had remarkable similarities in its effect with rat poison. The victims died of internal bleeding.

Now he knew what to do with this o so noble family.

"You love torturing others so much for your own pleasure." He passed on two of the ampoules to Daphne and Hermione. "Let's see if you like it, if it's you who suffers." Harry nodded once and Neville, Tonks and Luna tied them to one of the nearby trees. Immediately afterwards, Harry, Hermione and Daphne instilled them their own ampoules. "Now you will learn what it's like to have this stuff in you. Have fun with it, because it is nothing else that worthless scum like you deserve."

"They will find us and then they will kill you!" the man called. "I am a personal friend of the Prime Minister!"

The look Harry now directed them did not please them. "Nobody will find you here, anyone who comes here will only see a tree under which a very ugly thorn bush grows, they will not notice you at all, and even if you cry no one will hear you." Harry's grin was downright devilish. "Like I said, have fun dying."

He simply left them behind. Harry knew an antidote. However, this society did not. With that the three were dying. Their screams were ignored by everyone. In three days at the latest, they will be dead.

A short time later they were with the two survivors and immediately began to give the antidote to their poisoning. And the use of healing magic in combination with it quickly struck.

Tatsumi, the one they found in the villa, was very happy to hear that his two friends, Ieyasu and Sayo, will survive.

'We are being watched.' Kuroka reported via telepathy. 'Assassins.'

That made sure they all drew their weapons and put themselves around the two lying on the ground Ieyasu and Sayo.

"Get out there, hiding does not help you, we know you're there!" called Neville into the forest.

If one would later ask Akame if it had been a wise idea to simply attack the group, she would answer that she had never been so quickly defeated. Because one moment she stormed with her sword drawn at the group only to find herself a second later disarmed and tied up on the ground.

Their companions were hardly better off. Even Bulat in the fully active Incursio was apparently nailed to the ground completely effortlessly. Leone also could not move. She was pinned down by Harry.

All members of Night Raid present were now at the mercy of Harry's group.

"I hope for you that this is not your standard approach when you meet someone strange." Harry growled in Leone's right cat ear, which she got when she activated her Teigu Lionelle. His voice was not only powerful, it also made sure that Leone was very excited. Something the person who held her pinned noticed because he started to sniff. "That seems to please you, huh?" he whispered in her ear, whereupon Leone became more than a little red. This was the first time anyone had managed to harness their power and arrest them. Even Lionelle did not mind. Ideal breeding material, she whispered to her instinct.

It took a while before Leone had gathered herself enough to be coherent again.

"We were commissioned to eliminate this family and we mistakenly considered you agents of the Empire protecting this family."

"You can effectively cancel your mission, the three have been poisoned by Lubora and will be dead within a few days."

At the same moment a portal opened and Ophis came through.

"Hello Harry, nice that I found you." said Ophis. "I see you have been busy."

"Oh, just a few youngsters who did not know who they were up against." Harry answered as if that was nothing new. "What brings you here, Ophis?"

"A message from my father."

"So what happened to Anoth?"

"An offshoot of a quantum storm has moved into your path, just as Anoth was right in the middle of it, right now he's stuck in another world, but the quantum storm that surrounds it is slowly getting weaker and it should disappear in a few weeks time. Since Anoth is not there right now, Mitara will be joining you shortly. "

"Mitara comes to us, thank you Ophis."

"Remember to tame the kitten." commented Ophis whereupon Leone snarled like a cat.

"I'll remember." Harry answered with a grin. With that, Ophis was gone again.

"Mitara?" Kuroka asked.

"One of Anoth's wives, they are almost as old as he is, and there is not much power difference between them."

"He had mentioned it but had not gone very far. "

"Or you slept through it." Daphne said.

"Or that." gave Kuroka completely without shame and winked in the direction of Daphne. Oh, they knew exactly who Mitara was. This conversation was nothing more than a show for their "guests". "How old was Anoth again?"

"Are you really that forgetful?"

"I do not have it with numbers like that." Kuroka answered with a shrug and grabbed a bit harder when Sheele under her tried to free herself. Her weapon, which had the shape of a very big scissor, lay several feet from her. As soon as she felt it Sheele relaxed again.

"I notice that." was Daphne's answer. "If you do not have it with numbers, why do you always measure your ball of yarn before you play it?"

"I want to make sure it's the right size and you have not answered my question. "

"Over 40 billion years." was Harry's answer.

"Over 46 billion years to be exact." corrected Daphne.

"And Mitara is almost the same age?"

"Only a few years difference."

Bulat, who had been pinned to the ground by Daphne, listened attentively. His Teigu Incursio had warned him very clearly that the lady over him is far more dangerous than she looked. In fact, if she had wanted to kill him, he would be dead now. Because what Incursio told him was that any fight against her could end in only one way. In his defeat.

He also knew that they were just giving them information without really telling who they were. One thing was already clear, if they could convince them to help them, then the corrupt bastards of the Empire had a very huge problem.

"Tell me, what do you think about this Empire, Naruto?" Yugito asked.

"From what I have seen so far and seen from the files of the villa, they have a massive problem." Naruto replied. "It seems that corruption is even worse here than at home, and that means something."

"Yes, with your now-destroyed Civil Council, that really means something."

"What struck me as strange when I disarmed the lady here," Kuroka pointed to Sheele beneath her, "that this pompous scissors communicated with me, is called a Teigu whose name is Extase. Very strange . "

"That's what I've found too, with the sword whose name is Murasame, how is that possible?" Hermione asked, holding Akame pinned.

"I noticed that too, this armor is called Incursio, it's very weird." Daphne added.

Even the two of them holding on to Mine and Lubbock were able to confirm that. Mine had the Teigu Pumpkin and Lubbock had Cross Tail.

"And I'm holding Lionelle here." Harry paused for a moment. "Lionelle, Lionelle, wait a minute, did not Anoth mention that one of his ships disappeared with these things on board some time ago?"

"You mean that's Seraphim Tech?" Kuroka asked in disbelief.

"No, not technology, more magic." corrected Hermione. "Did not Anoth mention that one of his children disappeared with the ship?"

"That's right." Answered another voice. It was Mitara who had just arrived. "My youngest daughter, Lisina, and yes, she was aboard the SMSV Sashira when she disappeared, but just before the disappearance, she had sent an emergency call that she had stumbled upon a rift in space time." With that, Mitara picked up Murasame from the ground and stared at the blade of the katana-shaped sword. As she guided her magic into the sword, the blade began to glow greenish and on the blade itself Seraphimian scripture became visible. That proved it. This sword was a Seraphimian sword.

When she dropped some blood on the blade and then swung it to the ground, the writing burned into the ground. It was the sword of the SMSV Sashira . The same procedure she repeated with Extase. With the same result.

For the words that had been burnt into the ground by the two Teigu were the names of those who had led the Teigu in their history. And at the top of the list was Lisina's name. And not only that. Besides the names, the number of years was also recorded, how long they were in their possession.

That totaled more than a thousand years. Which also meant that neither Sheele nor Akame could know from where their Teigu really came from.

Mitara walked over to Akame, nailed to the floor by Hermione, squatted in front of her and held the flat side of Murasame under her chin. Which made sure that Akame looked up at Mitara and stared into the middle of her active planetary eyes.

"Who exactly are you?" asked Mitara Akame.

The first thing Akame did was to swallow. She knew she was being testing her. If she could not convince her, she was as good as dead. And she knew that Mitara sitting in front of her was reading her mind. With that, Akame thought of everything Night Raid did, why they did it, and she did not hold back her own past with the Empire. Because if she kept something from her, then, so said her gut feeling, Mitara would notice.

For several minutes, they stared at each other silently and without blinking in the eyes. then Mitara lowered the sword again.

She repeated the same with Sheele. She did not hide anything from Mitara either. She did the same with Lubbock, who was held by Neville and also Bulat, it was the same. And Akame knew exactly what she was doing. She checked what she had learned from her. Even Leone and Mine, who was nailed down by Luna, took Mitaras test and they held nothing back as well as the others nothing.

Then she finally lowered the sword. "Let them get up."

When the members of Night Raid realized that those who had held them were descending from them, they slowly started to get up. Each of them knew that if they wanted to see them dead then they would be dead by now. Without asking questions.

"So you fight out of the shadows against this corrupt regime." noted Mitara. "Looks like you got help now."

All Night Raid members starred at Mitara. Then they could not resist a grin.

"With you on our side, we will soon have defeated the tyranny." Leone exclaimed joyfully. Harry could not control himself anymore and started scratching Leone behind her cat ears, which soon afterwards led Leone purr like a kitten.

Mitara just shook her head and then turned to Hermione and Daphne. "Burn down everything here."

"With pleasure." the two answered.

With that the Night Raid members got to see how the two turned and each took the form of two big black dragons. Hermione turned to the warehouse while Daphne walked over to the villa.

"Is that a Teigu?" Mine asked.

"No, I do not think so." was Bulat's answer. "I think that's part of their abilities."

The big dragons with a shoulder height of 10 meters in each case brought the earth to shake with their footsteps. The attention of Night Raid was currently mainly on Hermione, because Daphne had disappeared in the woods and was out of sight for them.

"The Danger Beast, which I have killed on the way to the capital, is a joke against that." muttered Tatsumi. "I would not want to mess with that."

Hermione now stood right in front of the entrance to the warehouse and took a deep breath. everyone could see her belly lighting up as the flames built inside her. then a massive white and very hot stream of fire rushed from her mouth into the warehouse. The violence of the flames tore the roof from the building and blew out every single window.

When Hermione finally stopped spitting fire after a few seconds everyone could see that the doors to the warehouse were gone. As well as a part of the masonry, which had simply melted away in the great heat.

Dense black clouds of smoke rose into the sky, which were amplified only seconds later as the residential building and all outer buildings went up in flames too.

"Time to disappear." Mitara said as Daphne landed in the clearing after a very short flight. "Get up on our backs."

Seconds later, they were in the air. With activated camouflage no one saw how three dragons (Mitara had also transformed and transported the two battered Sayo and Ieyasu as well as Tatsumi .The remainder had generously distributed to all three dragons.) flew away from the now completely in flames property.

,

Sometime later

,

Through the memories of the Night Raid members, they knew exactly where their base of operations was. However, they landed on a meadow less than three kilometers away. No one was around to see them, out here in the middle of nowhere.

They will have to walk the last few miles. on the way to the base someone else came to them. Konoko. Apparently her place behind a desk in the Alliance had become a little too boring. Or Kumiko had been going on her nerves again with her questioning when she could blow something up again.

Konoko wondered if she would go to bed with explosives if Anoth or security allowed it.

She would probably do that.

"I do not know how you and Kagami manage to keep Kumiko under control." Konoko started. Which prompted Mitara to conclude that Kumiko had done something again.

"What did she do this time?" Mitara asked with a sigh. "Did she glue another explosive charge under your table?"

The last time Kumiko did that, she had placed a small charge under Konoko's table which was filled with paint in several different colors. Kumiko's reasoning was that Konoko could use a little more color in her office. It does not need words to say that Konoko was anything but excited about it when she was splashed in the colors of a rainbow in Kumiko's office/crafting corner.

When Harry and the others heard that, they could barely stifle a grin. Naruto had to remember the good days when he had done similar things in the ANBU HQ.

"No, not this time, this time she put a rocket under my chair and shot me through the roof."

"And how did she justify that?"

"That I needed some fresh air." Konoko growled. "Well, she had another missile left, I nailed it on her ass and shot her out of the window, and she came back and yelled" again! ", So I decided that I really needed some fresh air However, not without first informing Kagami of Kumiko's "test series"."

"There was more."

"Harvild Inc. and Larkan Shopping Ltd." that made Mitara sigh. The two companies loved to argue about every little shit and then bring it to them. She has often toyed with the idea of sanctioning and penalizing both of them.

"What have they done this time?"

"They were arguing about whether the price for a ton of grain should rise from 15 credits to 15 credits and 1 cent." This caused Mitara to face palm. "I was allowed to listen to their argument for a whopping four hours."

"Tell me, please, that you threw them out."

"Oh, I did. I kicked them out on their asses and threatened to sue them for abusing the system, they could not get away fast enough." Konoko said with a grin. "After that, I needed a vacation first."

"By helping to bring down a tyrant?"

"Yes, that's exactly the kind of holiday I need."

"Do you know that Lisina could be here?" Konoko looked at Mitara in disbelief.

"You mean that the Sashira could have crashed here?"

"I'm pretty sure she crashed here, because we found two of the weapons that were aboard the Sashira at exactly the time she disappeared."

"And where is she then? For a simple research vessel, the Sashira with its almost 10 kilometers was not exactly small."

"I do not know, but the crash is here over 1,000 years ago."

"More than a thousand years, that's a lot of time to hide the wreck." Konoko said thoughtfully. "Have we received any signals from the ship? Each of our ships is equipped with emergency position transmitters."

"I suppose that their power supply has long ago stopped or it is so weak that we can only receive the signal when we are almost on the wreck itself."

"Or someone turned it off."

"Would be an option too." Mitara shrugs. "The fact is we do not know it."

They walked the rest of the way in silence.

The members of Night Raid had exchanged glances. Whoever they were and where they came from, they belonged to the highest classes there. But they did not behave as one would expect from a noblemen.

,

An hour later

,

They had reached the hiding place. It seemed as if it had been built directly under a ledge or was chiseled directly into the mountain.

At the moment Mitara, Konoko, Harry, Daphne, Hermione, Neville, Luna, Tonks, Naruto, Yugito, Fuu and Kuroka sat near a roaring fire over which Akame was barbecuing a captured Evil Bird. These Evil Birds were not exactly small and came to a good 4 feet tall and were full of meat.

Sayo and Ieyasu had been housed in the headquarters of Night Raid where Sheele took care of their further care. They would be back on their feet in a few days.

At the moment Mitara once again had Murasame in her hand and tried a little ritual. However, she did not promise that it would succeed. And as expected, it did not work. The ritual was called master location. It was an attempt to find the master of the weapon.

"That was nothing." muttered Mitara. She put the sword back in its sheath and threw Murasame back to Akame, who caught her sword effortlessly and put it next to her.

"What did you expect." Konoko asked, firing the fire in her dragon shape for the moment. "That might have worked while it was only a few years, but here it was over 1,000 years."

"Still, it was worth a try."

Konoko just shrugged and blew another stream of fire into the flames before resuming her Human form. "It will not be easy to find Lisina again."

Some minutes later someone came to them. It was Najenda. The boss of Night Raid.

She was a little suspicious of Mitara and Konoko, who greeted her, but when she learned from Akame how quickly they had defeated them and that they had decided to fight on the side of resistance, she was more than surprised.

They could definitely use fighters of their strength.

Further discussions were interrupted when Leone and Tatsumi joined them. Apparently, Leone was just about to show Tatsumi everything. Something that would Mitara and her group do later, if at all. They knew almost everything that Night Raid knew because of Mitara reviewing their memories and sharing her find with the others.

"Oh hello boss!" Leone greeted her boss very happily. "Did you bring anything good?"

"Now, why would I do that? What interests me more, Leone ..." Najenda raised her arm prosthesis, which was also her weapon. "... about one of your recent assignments. You completed it three days overdue, you've been wasting a lot of time, I've heard."

That made sure Leone was in a hurry to get away. Only to be caught by Najendas mechanical hand that she shot after her and dragged her back again.

"It's not good to over-enjoy the fight against strong opponents, so get back out of the game soon."

"Alright, I'll do it, just stop it." answered Leone, who was pulled back across the floor by Najenda just before Najenda released her.

"Who is he? How do you know the boy?" Najenda asked as her eyes fell on Tatsumi.

"Oh right, boss. I recommend him." Leone answered as she put a hand on Tatsumi's shoulder.

Tatsumi was not very enthusiastic. "Do not choose for me."

"Does he have what it takes?"

"Yes, he has." answered Leone Najendas question.

"Well." Najenda finally said. "Akame, gather everyone, I want to know what happened while I was away."

,

A few minutes later

At the headquarters of Night Raid.

,

"Who are you exactly?" Najenda asked Mitara.

"I am the leader of this group, my name is Mitara and it would be better to ask what we are." answered Mitara. "Konoko can take on a dragon form you have already seen, but this applies to all of us and we can take on many more forms as shape shifters we are not tied to one form."

"I've seen the symbol on your shoulder before." Najenda said. As she did so she got up and went to the bookshelf on a wall and pulled a very old-looking book off the shelf.

When she finally found the symbol and read what it was exactly, she dropped the book in fright and stood there with trembling hands.

"Najenda?" Mitara asked, noticing that Najenda was completely frozen. When, shortly after, she still did not react, and instead her trembling got worse, Mitara glanced into the book. One look was enough to know why she was so scared and what Mitara had to do. #Calm down. Calm down. We will not hurt you.# She whispered in her ear, and Najenda slowly calmed down, while Mitara led her to a chair so Najenda could sit down.

"What's up with the boss?" Leone asked, reaching for the book. A little later she too had to sit down. "No wonder we were defeated so fast, the eleven are effectively gods."

"Actually, we prefer it if you do not call us that." Mitara said on his lap at the moment Najenda was sitting. "Unfortunately, that happens too often, and yes, we are ancient and very powerful."

"How old are you?" Mine asked carefully.

"Over 40 billion years, and yes, you have not misheard."

"This is older than the imperial city." Tatsumi said admiringly.

"Rather older than this entire planet." The jaws of all Night Raid members were now to be found somewhere in the planet core. "Yes, very old." Meanwhile, Najenda blushed completely as she felt Mitara's hand around her stomach. "We call ourselves Worldlords."

Shortly thereafter, the attention turns to Tatsumi. They offered him membership in Night Raid. Tatsumi suggested that if he refused they would surely kill him, which Najenda denied. However, he would not be able to walk easily. He would then perform other services. "So you stay?"

"Should I stay?" Tatsumi wondered himself, clenching his fists. "I just wanted to make a career in the imperial city and help our suffering village."

"Ever thought that the suffering of your village is only caused by the corruption in the imperial city?" Mitara asked him.

Bulat agreed with Mitara. "Just because the imperial city is so corrupt, the country is suffering from poverty, you do not want to eliminate the root of the evil once and for all, like a man?"

Now Najenda intervened again, nestling a little more into Mitara's grasp. "Bulat was a talented soldier of the imperial city with opportunities for advancement, but when he learned of the grievances there, he became one of us."

"Our job is to wipe out the bad guys in the imperial city." Bulat continued. "And we will too - that's a thousand times better than working for these bastards."

"Might be." answers Tatsumi. "But killing bad people will not change much, so it will not save places like my village, it will stay the same, the misery will continue to grow and people will starve to death."

"Yes, that is probably not too much to start with." Konoko agreed. "But I've helped revolutions many times myself, and I've learned a lot from all of them, sometimes it helps to heal wounds, but sometimes it also helps by eliminating dangerous individuals, both of which help in their own way."

"As Konoko said." took over Mitara. "Much will not change in the beginning, and yet, with the death of high-ranking members of the government, the Empire is destabilized rather quickly, and we are basically just preparing the way for the revolutionary army to do the rest."

"Revolutionary Army?"

"Yes, deep in the south of the imperial city is a well-laid-out hideaway of an anti-imperial city army." Najenda took over again.

"Revolutionary?"

"The once very small army has grown and become a huge organization, and this has given rise to a small group specializing in information gathering and assassinations, each member is well trained, and that is us, Night Raid Vultures of this city, but when the army is complete and ready, we rebel, and will be the root of all evil to kill the minister with these hands. "

That had Tatsumi convinced. Although the others admonished him, murder remains murder. No matter for what reasons it was carried out.

,

A few days later

,

It should take several days until the first order arrived. It was Leone who knew the exact dates. And so they met one evening for dinner. however, Bulat, Mine, Sheele and Lubbock were not present because they were doing another job.

"This was paid by her for the job." Leone lifted a well-filled bag of coins onto the table.

"She has saved a considerable sum." Tatsumi said. Only to be notified by Leone that she had got the money by offering herself as a whore. That alone said a lot.

"Are they guilty?" Najenda asked.

"Yes, I've checked it with my own eyes and ears, they're guilty." Leone was very sure about that and you could hear that too.

"Good, then we'll take the job to Night Raid." confirm Najenda. "We do not need new scum in our new land, let's bring the punishment of the heavens over them."

"What are the targets?" asked Mitara.

Gamal, for one thing, will not be a real challenge, but Ogre will be a challenge, even criminals fear the sword of Ogre the devil and usually he has a lot of people and is very rarely found alone, he is very careful and even if he gets his bribe he lets the dealer Gamal come in. Even on his days off he drinks only on the main street near the Imperial Palace so we have to be well prepared otherwise we will not be successful."

"So we have the best chance when he's not on duty." Harry said.

"Yes, but with Akame, whose profiles are already hanging everywhere, that would be far too dangerous." confirmed Najenda whereupon Leone jumped up from her chair.

"But I. I do not have a profile yet."

"Can you do it?"

"The stronger the opponent the better for me."

"Why don't we wait for the others to come back?" Akame interjected.

"But we do not know when they'll be back." Tatsumi said. "But we can do it, wait what, we can do it on our own."

"You think you can beat Ogre with your own hands?"

"I'm a well-trained swordsman, I can do that."

"Well." Mitara said. "Akame and Leone take care of Gamal, Tatsumi takes over Ogre, and we take Ogre's base apart."

Najenda agreed, and that was decided.

"When are you going to strike?"

"We will attack the base at midnight."

Akame had a few admonishing words to Tatsumi. If he is too sure, he would die. Mitara also gave him another word of advice. Never underestimate your enemy.

A wisdom shared by all Night Raid members.

,

A forest

Not far from the imperial city

,

Here was the base of Ogre. In a valley. Only a few kilometers from the capital. Here Ogre brought those he especially "interrogated". All the information that the Seraphim had, however, spoke of slave trade, prostitution, and a few other unsavory things. In addition, diary entries from Aria's family quite clearly indicate Ogre. Apparently they got some of their drugs from here and then tried them on their "test persons".

It was almost midnight and they got ready for the attack. Then the clock hit midnight. In the dark of the night, it was easy for the eleven to sneak up the wall and climb over the walls while some of them killed off the sentries in the towers.

So they moved quickly and fatally through the military installation. Their destination was the area where they held the slaves.

It was not long before they were in the building. The few guards who took over the night shift were killed in no time. Now magic came to the train.

Harry took something out of his trouser pocket that looked like a miniature chest at first glance. He places it on the ground and let it grow to its original size and went inside. Meanwhile, the others were busy with knocking out the slaves with a stasis spell and levitating them to the chest, where they were received by Harry who then distributed them on the beds inside the chest.

As soon as all the slaves were safely stored away, Harry came out of the trunk, shrank it and put it back in his pocket. Now the fun part could start.

As soon as they were back outside, they all formed their dragon forms and began to destroy the base completely and level it to the ground.

Mitara now in her dragon form approached the barracks with intentionally exaggerated pounding steps. One of the soldiers woke up and looked out the window. Right in Mitara's wide-open mouth, which was only two feet away from the window and where you could already see the first flames.

"Oh Shit-" he did not get any further, as a huge stream of flames rushed into the building. Seconds later, the hole building was on fire.

Meanwhile, Harry tore down the prison block with several hefty tail strokes. Only to spit fire over the remains.

Naruto, Fuu and Yugito took the second barracks building, which only a short time later also was completely set aflame.

Daphne, Hermione, Tonks, Luna and Konoko took the administration building while Neville toasted the soldiers who had awakened and charged him trying to attack him. Some shot at him only to find that the bullets simply ricocheted off the heavy scales without doing anything. Even their swords and spears brought them nothing. So they were all ashes in no time.

It took almost an hour before they had reviewed all the files. They also packed a whole lot of them to evaluate later. But they pointed to a fairly extensive network within the imperial city.

When they were finished, this building also went up in flames.

Meanwhile, reinforcements had arrived from the imperial city. They must have noticed the fires. For the six dragons that were out there, they were hardly a challenge.

As soon as they were done, they all took off and headed back to the Night Raid base. The freed slaves would then be taken to several Night Raid doctors the next day to look after them.

The night they spent in a nearby forest. The Danger Beasts left them alone. None of them was stupid enough to mess with the dragons. Nevertheless, Konoko would expect a surprise the next morning.

,

The next morning

,

When Konoko woke up she noticed that she had snuggled deep into the fur of an animal. The others had not awakened by its presence, which meant only that this animal posed no danger to anyone present.

As she looked closer at the animal, she recognized it as a horned lion called a Jackaleo. It was a class two Danger Beast. But why was she now cuddling it?

Konoko was suddenly clear why the Jackaleo was here. She was the mistress of the cats. That's why the Jackaleo was here. He wanted to come to her. She had now a new Shadowbeast.

As she looked around she realized that the Jackaleo was not alone. There were not one but two Jackaleo present and three land tigers. Five new Shadowbeasts. The night was definitely worth it.

A few minutes later, the five Danger Beasts were now part of Konoko's shadows. Konoko could not resist a grin. She had one male and one female Jackaleo as well as two female and one male Land Tiger. Anoth only ever got girls.

Sometime later they were back at headquarters.

It was not long before they learned from the others how their orders had worked out.

Akame and Leone had no problem whatsoever with Gamal and Tatsumi defeated Ogre with minor problems.

Then Najenda told them that the Imperial City believed that several Class 1 Danger Beasts were responsible for the destruction of Ogres base. Something that made the room laugh out loud. They had no idea at all.

Najenda was also very interested in the documents they had brought. They had effectively filled an entire room with files and books. They all came from Ogres base.

A treasure trove of information.

It would take days or even weeks to evaluate everything.

,

Two days later

,

An alarm made the whole base startle. Several people had just passed the border and moved towards the base.

It was soon clear that these people were assassins that the Empire had set on Night Raid.

That made them irrevocably enemies that needed to be dealt with.

And that's exactly what they did.

They hunted these unwelcome guests down.

Harry ran into a nearby cave with Lubbock. Lubbock had noticed that someone was trapped there in one of his traps.

"I was wondering why the threads did not feel so heavy, so a girl." said Lubbock, tensing the threads that held the girl a little firmer. said girl hung in the air in the threads, some of which had already cut into her flesh. A few inches from the ground.

"Oh please, please spare me." she whimpered. "I do everything you want."

"No rather not."

"Wait." said Harry, stopping Lubbock.

"Why?"

"I think I know who that is." Harry walked over to the hovering girls and looked into her eyes. Lubbock understood immediately what he was doing there. "She has nothing to do with the assassins."

"No?"

"I do not know what you mean, but I'm a healer from a nearby village and looking for mushrooms in this cave." the girl confirmed. When Harry nodded, confirming that she was telling the truth, Lubbock dropped her off to where Harry caught her. Shortly thereafter, Lubbock went deeper into the cave and found a basket filled with various medicinal plants and mushrooms from the cave.

She had actually told the truth.

A healer could definitely become very useful.

As they left the cave, they were welcomed by several members of the assassins they were looking for. Harry and Lubbock made short work of them. Assassins? The only thing that these guys were was one disappointment. Not more.

On the whole, they were all amateurs. Not a single member of Night Raid was impressed by them and the Seraphim were even less.

It took less than 10 minutes and all the wannabe assassins were eliminated.

When they were back in the base Sheele took over the ailing healer. However, Lubbock did not leave her side.

,

The next morning

,

The next day started with an explosion. In this case literally. Apparently, Tatsumi had tried to wake Mine and caught her in her undergarments. The reward was a closer acquaintance with her Teigu Pumpkin. Which had shot a two-meter hole in the wall to their rooms and left a considerable crater at some distance.

In the end, Tatsumi had to be ready to serve Mine a full day. No ifs and buts. Which finally ended in a shopping tour in the capital where he was allowed to play the pack donkey.

Unfortunately, they came to the city exactly at the time when a public execution via crucifixion and subsequent burning took place. Mine said this was the Minister's work. That he could do and leave what he wanted, because he played the young emperor like a fiddle.

Mitaras group meanwhile had another job. They sneaked into Iokal's villa, a close relative of the Prime Minister.

Iokal was a really great asshole. He was part of Ogres slave trading ring and bought women who he then tormented, tortured, raped and who knows what else was going on with them.

Iokal himself was not in the mansion at the moment and was not expected back until evening. The reason they were already in the mansion, several hours before the assassination would took place, was that they were exploring the grounds and preparing everything for the liberation of the many girls inside the mansion. After that they just had to wait. And for the Seraphim, it was easy for to stay undetected from human senses.

The best time to get them out was when Iokal went for a walk with them. He was always accompanied by all of his girls. So they all hid in the yard, where he regularly went for a walk.

,

A few hours later

,

The darkness had fallen and Mine and Tatsumi had taken positions on a nearby mountain cliff. From this point they could see the Complete Court. Just like the stairs the Iokal always took to get there.

Then it was time Iokal came out, accompanied by several dozen girls, probably to the three dozen, all dressed the same, down the stairs. Iokal himself wore a military-like uniform. For the Seraphim, however, that made him look like a joke.

Just seconds later, Mine shot Iokal right between the eyes. And that from a distance of over a kilometer and without sighting in any way. An impressive shot.

Now it was Mitara's group's turn.

There were several guards in the courtyard, frozen by the sudden death of their boss. This was exploited by the seraphim who came out of the shadows behind them and killed them all at the same time.

Mitara had meanwhile used the time and spoke a calming charm on the girls. As well as a spell that made it easier for her to convince them. Both spells would only take effect for a few minutes. But that was all they needed.

They had to do that, because next to Iokal's estate was a military barracks and they'd certainly heard the shot. Pumpkin was not exactly quiet or subtle.

That meant they had only three minutes, at the very highest, to get the girls out of the mansion before the soldiers arrived to look what was going on.

"We're here to get you out." persuaded Mitara reassuringly on the frightened girls. That she mixed her voice a bit with her own magic calmed her in addition. She did not need a panic at the moment. Because for all of them the time was now ticking because from the neighboring base the Seraphim could already hear the calls of the officers.

"I need to know if all of you are here or if any are missing." Mitara continued.

"Th-three of us are still in the dungeons." One of the girls answered hesitantly after exchanging glances.

"Understood, Harry over there will open a portal that will take you directly to one of our pre-set medical camps." Harry opened a portal on a nearby wall at these words. Through the portal could the torch-lit camp be seen, which they had built for the treatment of the girls. Protection spells prevented the Danger Beasts from entering the camp.

"Is that safe?" one of the girls asked.

"Yes, as if you were going through an open door."

One of them tentatively approached the portal and carefully reached out a hand. when she felt no pain, and her arm came out still intact she nodded to herself and shortly thereafter she walked completely through. "Come on, it's just as she says."

That was the stumbling block, and soon everyone was through the portal. Hermione, Daphne, Yugito and Fuu followed them and then closed the portal so that the newly arriving soldiers could not follow them. As soon as they found the others, they would be able to easily open a new portal.

The soldiers stormed into the yard and without hesitation attacked when they saw the Iokal lying dead on the ground. Thus, they classified the present immediately as members of the Resistance or Night Raid.

What followed was not really a fight.

It was a carnage.

The soldiers had no idea who they really were dealing with.

Mitara's sword severed limbs and heads in quick succession.

Harry covered his enemies with combat magic from afar. Fireballs set soldiers on fire and caused heavy explosions in their ranks.

,

Outside the villa

,

Mine sat with Tatsumi still where she had shot and could now see numerous explosions in the courtyard. There was a fierce fight going on.

A particularly violent explosion sent burning soldiers out of the complex in a high arc.

"There is really something going on." the next explosion caused part of the villa to collapse.

"At any rate, they are not holding back. " commented on Mine when she saw a huge hammer formed by hundreds of Narutos who was just pounding another building wing from where gun fire was coming.

"An ... Interesting way to tear down a building." Tatsumi said watching the whole thing through his binoculars.

"We should go."

"Yes."

,

The Villa

,

In the meantime, the soldiers who were sent by the neighboring barracks had been wiped out. So they set out to find the hidden dungeons of the facility.

In the still standing side building of the palace like complex they finally found the entrance. It was in an old fireplace. The bust to the right of the log fire was mobile. If you turned it by 45 ° you heard a click from the wall in the fireplace which you could then turn 90 °. Behind it was another small room and a staircase that led downstairs.

From up here, the smell of blood, excrements, and decay could be smelled.

With each step down deeper the stench was getting stronger. When they finally arrived, it was clear why.

There were several dozen decaying corpses scattered in several cells. Nobody could help them anymore.

But there were three who were still alive. One had been strapped to a rack, a second hung from the ceiling so her feet did not touch the floor, and number three sat tied to a chair.

Within a short time they had freed all three of their shackles and brought them through a newly opened portal to the camp where the others were already waiting for them. Only Mitara and Konoko stayed a little longer. If only to leave a message. Then they followed the rest.

,

10 minutes later

,

Another group of soldiers stormed into the villa. They were greeted by dead silence.

Not a bird could be heard and the villa was almost completely destroyed. But what attracted their attention was right in the center of the yard.

Iokal was there.

His body had been crucified and said cross stood in the middle of the yard. He was naked and a message had been engraved in his flesh.

That was just the beginning!

Your time is up, Honest!

You and your Puppet Emperor will soon be falling!

Below were two symbols that had been cut into the flesh. One was from Night Raid. The second was unknown.

And it was also the second symbol which worried them the most. It showed a fire-breathing dragon with six pairs of wings.

Only seconds later, the time-controlled incendiary bombs that had been distributed by Mitara and Konoko in the ruins exploded and set fire to the Complete Mansion.

When the news finally reached Honest, he ordered General Esdeath to come straight back to the Imperial City.

,

Sometime later on the Night Raid base.

,

"Did you want to try a new haircut, Tatsumi?" Konoko asked grinning as she saw that Tatsumi had literally burned off a portion of his hair.

"Very funny." grumbled Tatsumi.

Who has the damage does not need to worry about the ridicule. It comes by itself.

,

The next morning

,

It was a quiet day. The Seraphim had been fishing and had immediately pulled several large fish weighing almost 160kg each out of the lake. Exactly this was for breakfast. Prepared by Harry, it was a real feast. Even the best cooks just could not keep up with Harry's culinary art.

Even a glutton like Akame learned to enjoy eating. And Leone was really happy about the fish. Just typical cat.

In addition, she enjoyed activating her Teigu, if only to be crawled by Harry behind her ears.

After that, training was announced.

Tatsumi practiced swordplay with Bulat while Mitara and Konoko fought swordfights against each other. There fight was observed by Akame and also Leone. They could barely follow it. They were just to fast.

Meanwhile, Harry and the others were busy bringing the liberated girls to doctors who had the confidence of the revolutionaries.

It was not until the evening that Najenda, who until then had not been in the HQ, but got in touch with an informer of the revolutionary army, came back. And she brought another order.

Apparently Zanku was making trouble in the imperial city.

Zanku was, until recently, chief executor in one of the largest, if not the largest, prison of the empire. And after Honest sent more and more convicts to execution, he had somehow lost his mind.

Now he moved through the streets of the capital and murdered anyone who ran across his path at night.

Not enough, he had also stolen the Teigu of the prison governor.

Unfortunately, they did not know what kind of Teigu he had stolen.

Here Tatsumi spoke up with the question or what was a Teigu or imperial arm.

"Something like this." answered Akame, who had drawn her sword and now held it before Tatsumi.

Najenda seized the opportunity. "The appropriate opportunity to explain it in more detail.

"About 1,000 years ago, the first emperor gave the order to create weapons to protect his empire forever Legendary monsters of the highest levels were used as material, rare metals such as Orihalkon were used, the very best craftsmen in the world were summoned to make these imperial weapons. The authority and wealth of the First Emperor helped create 48 weapons that would be unimaginable these days, for this reason they are called Teigu or imperial arms.

"Each of them is unimaginably strong, some of which can kill a thousand men in one fell swoop, are incredibly precise or offer a variety of hitherto unknown uses.

"However, half of them disappeared during the great civil wars of 500 years ago, and nobody knows where they will reappear."

"So this is one of the mighty Imperial weapons?" Tatsumi asked while looking at Akame's sword.

"Dead in one fell swoop: Murasame, when hit by this magic sword, a cursed poison gets into the wound, killing the victim instantly, there is no antidote."

Now Mitara spoke up. "The poison on this sword resembles our own poison, even though it's not that strong. Ours is in its purest form is able to liquefy an enemy's body in seconds, the poison on Murasame is a necromantic poison. There is no antidote. And as Akame meanwhile knows, it does not come from the forges of the first emperor, or only partially The sword was property of Lisina It must have been broken then and was reforged by the first emperor.

Now Najenda took over again. "The transformation into the king of the beasts: Lionelle - A belted Imperial weapon - you become a beast and the wearer's own physical powers multiply, and your senses are strengthened so you can track down enemies."

"Even more." Mitara took over again. "Also, the wearer gets very strong regeneration abilities, wounds that would otherwise kill would heal in seconds, I'm pretty sure they used the blood of Lisina to make this weapon, because Lionelle also mimics our own abilities even in a weakened form, no human would stand the full power, the body would be torn apart by the forces. "

"Then there's the Romantic Fortress: Pumpkin. It is a gun that converts spiritual energy into a projectile, and if the owner is in trouble it increases the firepower and the weapon grows stronger."

"It is a heavily modified aura cannon." Mitara explained and brought out her own weapon. Which certain similarities with Pumpkin possessed. "Only that it uses spiritual Energy sated aura of energy."

"The Demon Armor: Incursio. This Imperial Weapon that is an armor that protects like a steel wall, and because it would heavily burden its wearer, an ordinary human being should die. "

"Incursio has pretty much in the same shape as the armor worn by one of our special task forces, but it was also significantly modified, losing some of its protection, but using one of the local Danger Beasts it got a remarkable adaptability. It is remarkable that they were able to do that at the time, and it may be that Lisina helped the first Emperor to develop it, and I think the same can apply to Pumpkin too if not all of the Imperial weapons. "

"Thousand forms: Crosstail An Imperial Weapon made of sturdy threads that you can spin or use as a trap or barrier, you can tie or even cut off limbs, as the name implies, taking on a thousand forms."

"This is definitely Lisina's craft, because it's her hair that was used to create the threads."

"The Cleaver: Extase, an Imperial Weapon in the form of a giant pair of scissors that can split anything, and can be used as armor depending on its degree of hardness."

"Here I am sure they used parts of Lisina herself to manufacture it. Namely the cutting surface of our scorpion claws when we assume our actual beast form."

"There are also Imperial weapons with a hidden ability, for example Incursio can make his bearer invisible."

Mitara then also made herself invisible for a short time. "I think it's safe to say that Lisina must have helped manufacture those weapons back then."

That was interesting. However, they had no trace of Lisina at the moment. At the time back then she must have helped the first emperor. But where was she now? She would never have allowed her to abuse her weapons like that. Had they somehow imprisoned her?

They had no idea how soon they would get an answer to that.

"These imperial weapons have always followed an iron principle: when two bearers of imperial weapons meet each other on the battlefield, only one leaves the field alive."

"I would not call it an incontrovertible rule, because it does not necessarily end like this, but I can well imagine that the wearers when they are fighting are going into a certain bloodlust, and that's where this" rule" comes from." Konoko said. "After all, these imperial weapons are just one thing - tools - their carriers ultimately decide how to use them."

"Still, our target carries an Imperial Weapon, so be careful. "

"Now that you know our abilities, you must share the same fate with us." said Lubbock, who allowed himself a little fun with Tatsumi. "Are you really ready to take that risk?"

"Y-yes." replied Tatsumi.

"Do not worry, Tatsumi." Leone joined in now. "The boss really has great confidence in you and believes in you."

"We at Night Raid are only a small band." said Najenda. "But we are well trained and extremely strong for that, and together with the Seraphim, we are at the heart of the revolution."

"B-Boss, what about me?" asked Tatsumi.

"What should be with you?" asked Mitara.

"Is there a Imperial weapon for me?"

"For you?!" Mine asked in surprise.

"Well, we can make one." answered Mitara.

"That would be possible?"

"Naturally." confirmed Mitara. "However, that will probably take a few days and of course we should know what kind of weapon you want."

"Like Bulat."

"So an armor?"

"Yes."

"Are you sure?"

Tatsumi nodded joyfully.

"Well, good, but let's stop this Zanku first."

"Let's go!" called Tatsumi.

,

Sometime later

,

Kuroka was traveling with Leone. They were shadowing Tatsumi and Akame. Both were concealed in a way that they fit exactly in Zankus prey scheme. It was a calculated risk. But they had to behave as naturally as possible if they wanted to catch him. Only then would Zanku come out of hiding.

It took a while. Finally, Akame and Tatsumi stopped at a small sidewalk cafe. then it happened. Tatsumi had to pee and at exactly this time Zanku struck.

He created an illusion of Sayo, tempting Tatsumi away. However, he did not know that now Akame, Mitara and Leone followed him at a safe distance. And that Tatsumi knew that the real Sayo was back in the base of Night Raid.

Finally they came to a stop in a wide open space lined with colonnades.

And exactly these colonnades offered an ideal hiding place. In the light of night it was pitch black among them. No one could see them as they moved into position below the covered colonnade.

They did that mainly to find out what kind of Teigu or Imperial Weapon Zanku possessed.

Then they saw it. it was a kind of third eye that was sitting on his forehead. This allowed him to create illusions and to predict the attacks of his opponent.

They watched Tatsumi's fight against Zanku for a while, then Mitara and Konoko, who had arrived shortly after, decided to jump out of the shadows.

Zanku just barely managed to jump backwards. If he had not done so, there would have been two Zankus by now. Two halves of Zanku to be exact. For where he had previously stood was now a nearly four-meter deep hole. Triggered by Konoko who had landed there.

"Hello Zanku." Konoko sounded completely calm. In fact, her tone would not be out of place when discussing the weather. "You are back to your ... head heavy activities as I see."

"Who are you?" Zanku demanded.

"Who I am is irrelevant to you." was Konoko's answer.

"You will not live long enough to tell anyone about meeting us anyway." Mitara continued, leaning quite calmly against one of the pillars of the colonnade.

"You're right." confirmed Akame who had now also stepped out of the shadows.

"Do you hear them too?" Zanku asked, his attention on all of them.

"What?"

"The voices of those you killed, those you hear when you're silent yourself, they curse me and give you no rest, they demand that I get to hell with them as fast as possible, I've heard them when I was working in jail back then but in recent times they are becoming increasingly unbearable, and I do not talk much about them myself, and what do you do about them? "

"I do not hear voices." Akame interrupted. "I do not hear anything, I do not know what you're talking about."

"I thought a killer like you had the same problem and we could talk a little bit about it now AHHH How absolutely sad! " He activated his Teigu again and tried to trap all three in an illusion.

Mitara and Konoko broke through it without problem. Mitara, realizing that Akame was stuck in the illusion, sent a light lightning strike to Akame. The Sudden Pain broke her out of the illusion exactly at the right time for her to block Zanku's attack.

Now Konoko attacked. Zanku may foresee their attacks by his Teigu. But he was not as fast as her by far. And so Konoko landed a hit in Zanku's belly which send him flying through the air.

Then Mitara attacked and after a brief exchange Zankus arm blades broke under Mitaras huge blows. Right after that, Akame ended the fight with Murasame as she hit Zanku on the neck.

In the end, Zanku thanked Akame. Because now the voices finally fell silent, which he had heard for so long. He finally found peace. The one thing he wanted above all else.

Akame took the Teigu from Zanku's corpse and immediately after that they made their way back to the HQ. This mission was less an assassination but more a service to the public. Zanku had to be stopped.

On the way back, Mitara and Konoko separated from Akame and Tatsumi and took a different route. That was when they ran over Esdeath.

She leaned against a wall and held her breast. When she saw Mitara and Konoko it was clear to see that she was happy.

"Lady Mitara, Lady Konoko, nice to see you both in person." No sooner had she said that, she almost collapsed as severe pain drove through her body. But she kept upright by leaning heavily against the wall.

"And who are you?" Konoko asked. "You seem to know us."

"My name is Esdeath, I am a shadow of Lisina." Esdeath began. This time, the pain was so strong that Mitara and Konoko had to keep her upright. "My oath ..."

"Hm?"

"I was fooled when I took my oath." Esdeath explained. "I did not know that swearing for a shadow is something completely different to a human being, Lisina never came to tell me, my vow is up to my death."

"You want me to kill you so that the oath will release you and then take you as my own shadow?"

"Yes." confirmed Esdeath. "We've been trying to free Lisina for almost 600 years, but she's unsuccessful, I know where she is, but I cannot help her because of the oath, but Lisina told me that this is the way I can free myself from my oath and help her. " The pain became almost unbearable. If she fainted, the oath would see to it that she would forget everything here and continue to blindly serve the Empire. Esdeath did not want to allow that, and so it was due to her own stubbornness that she was still conscious.

"As you wish." Then everything went very fast. Seconds later, Esdeath found himself relieved in Mitara's Shadow Plain. The hole in her chest where Mitara had rammed her sword in would be gone within minutes. And as strange as it sounded, the sword wound hurt much less than the pain from earlier.

$ How is it Esdeath? $

$ Much better. $ Was Esdeath's answer. Her wound was almost gone. $ The oath is not working anymore. $

Sometime later, they were sitting in a nearby park on the bank of the pond there. Esdeath had changed her look as a precaution and now looked like a blonde with glasses. A wallflower that likes to be overseen.

"You know where Lisina is?" Konoko asked.

"Yes." confirmed Esdeath. "Below the Grand Imperial Palace is a Teigu, the largest ever created, its name is: Imperial Guardian: Shikoutazer. Lisina is serving this Teigu as an energy source."

"How is that possible?"

"That was over 500 years ago." Esdeath began. "Another Emperor was in power, he wanted to create new Teigu that would surpass the old ones, he failed, they are now known as the Shingu, but he had one more project, Shikoutazer was already finished and ready to go, but he wanted to make it even stronger. In some ways he managed to trick Lisina and sealed her in the heart of the Teigu. " Esdeath explained. "We have since tried to free her from the Teigu. Unfortunately unsuccessful."

"Now we at least know where she is, how many shadows are there?"

"Two, including me, the second is Mez." replied Esdeath. "She should be here right about ...now."

Just then another blonde came around the corner and skidded to a halt next to Esdeath. Or rather she tried to. The light gravel on the ground ensured that her attempt to slow down ended in the lake.

"Your clumsiness seems to come through again Mez." said Esdeath.

"I noticed." Mez said as she emerged from the flood. Then her eyes fell on Esdeath. "Nice to see that you are yourself again."

"Yes, my oath no longer forces me to unconditional loyalty to this worthless bastard Honest."

"And you're?" asked Mitara.

"Oh, sorry, Lady Mitara and Lady Konoko, I'm Mez. A shadow in the service of Lisina, and I am more than 900 years old." she introduced herself with a bow. "Esdeath asked me to come here, what did she tell you?"

A short update later.

"Yes, that's right, she sits as an energy source within Shikoutazer." confirmed Mez. "We do still not know what the emperor did back then, we were on a mission when it happened, and the main reason why we have not released her is the location of the Teigu. The Teigu is just below the palace in the ground. In a highly restricted zone where only the highest officials can enter. The other is, we have no idea how to get her out of it, even if we get to the Teigu. "

"That's why we're here now." said Kagami. "We'll get her out of it, and if we too don't know how, Lord Anoth will come to us in the next few months and he'll surely knows a way."

"The big boss himself?"

"Yes."

"Honest is as good as dead. He just does not know it yet."

"I have to go back to my troupes." said Esdeath. "So I can send you information without Honest knowing of it."

"Understood." said Mitara. "Take care of yourself."

Esdeath nodded, then disappeared into the darkness.

A few minutes later and Mez was now a shadow of Mitara for the time being. If only to facilitate the exchange of information.

"I keep my eyes and ears open and get in touch as soon as something strikes me, but now I have to go, otherwise the others suspect something is up." Right after that, Mez disappeared again.

"That was very enlightening." Konoko said. "So she's below the palace, and not voluntarily."

"Yes." Both heard marching footsteps. Soldiers. No doubt. "We should disappear, too."

"No back talk."

Mitara and Konoko disappeared into the darkness of the night.

,

A few hours later

,

They were back in the HQ and they shared the information with Najenda. Above all, about the Teigu Shikoutazer that was under the palace. And that they abused Mitara's daughter as an additional source of energy for it.

That made her job even more urgent.

The faster they brought this regime down, the better.

The next few days were quiet. for most definitely.

Konoko and Mitara were instead active in the forge and tinkering with Tatsumi's new Teigu. A project where others watched with curiosity. Even if they did not understand whole parts of the process. Which was probably the reason why nobody could imitate these weapons.

Tatsumi, however, had tried the conquered Teigu from Zanku. However, he was rejected by the Teigu.

And Esdeath had new information, too. Apparently, Honest ordered General Budo north. Honest thought that the new group, which was also responsible for the death of his relative Iokal, came from there.

Apparently he had burned all the books that spoke of myths and legends, and thus also of the symbol of the Seraphim because he thought they were irrelevant trash that did not fit into his worldview. Now he regretted having given this order.

It was nearly a week later before Konoko and Mitara finished their work. Meanwhile, Esdeath had been ordered to form a group to hunt down Night Raid. The order came from Honest himself.

That did not mean anything good.

Najenda was surprised when she heard from whom the news came. However, when she learned the background, she also knew that Esdeath was forced to fight for the Empire. Now, however, she had the chance to overthrow the empire, whose corruption had been getting worse over the last few centuries. And to free her true mistress again.

In this discussion, Najenda also asked if they would be able to replace her mechanical arm with a kind of Teigu. So Mitara made a complete new Teigu for Tatsumi while Konoko worked on Najendas Teigu.

They really needed a different name for the weapons they created.

Because imperial weapons these were not.

It was Lubbock who finally got a name.

Lord weapons.

Not exactly original. But the others agreed.

Then the time came.

Najenda received her new arm.

It was the first thing because Tatsumi's armor needed a few finishing touches.

Najenda's new arm looked much more like it was her real arm. But the skills were something completely different. Several hidden blades, a built-in cannon with similar capabilities as Pumpkin and a portal cannon. She could create two portals on any flat surface. The arm also sent out a field that allowed its user to survive even crashes from a great height unscathed to exploit the opportunities of the portals properly.

Then it was Tatsumi's turn. His new weapon was almost identical to Incursio, except that Tatsumi could grow wings for himself, with razor-sharp tips. And just like Extase, these blades could cut through just about anything. In addition, the armor significantly increased the speed and power of the wearer and also gave him the ability to heal wounds very quickly. Even if it was not actively used. A cloaking device was part of the overall package, of course.

One thing they both had in common. Only they would be able to use them. No one else. If they fall in battle, the weapons will be destroyed with them.

Both of them immediately began training with their new toys.

Only one day later new orders came. The Seraphim would only do the escort with these two. Because both goals were pretty soft. One was a drug baron protected by just under a dozen thugs. Tatsumi and Leone would eat them for breakfast.

The second was a corrupt dealer. Sheele and Mine should not have any problems with that.

Harry and Neville escorted Leone and Tatsumi. While Mitara and Konoko were traveling with Sheele and Mine.

However, those who followed them in the shadows knew nothing about it. And they would intervene only if it was clear they had no chance against their current opponent.

The drug baron was not a problem at all. Leone and Tatsumi struck as soon as the last guard patrol was out of earshot and were out in less than five minutes. Job done.

Even the job with the merchant was not a real problem. Even though he was much more careful. Mine's shot was still successful. Job done.

It was on the way back where the problems for Sheele and Mine began.

Someone who had met Tatsumi the day before in the streets had jumped out of the trees. It was Seryu Ubiquitous. Ogres former apprentice. And she was a complete nutcase.

Mitara and Konoko hid under the trees by the side of the road. They were not visible in the dark of the night. So Seryu thought that she only had two opponents to deal with.

At first the fight did not seem to go so well. Because Seryu was by far not a weak enemy. And her Teigu: Magic Beast Transformation: Hekatonkheires, which took the form of a rather thick bipedal over two-meter-tall dog when activated, was a living Teigu. No matter how much damage you did, if you did not destroy the core, this Teigu will regenerate from every wound.

A loud whistle while Seryus Teigu, now armed with arms, was barking at Sheeles Teigu Extase, alerted other guards from the Empire who would arrive here within minutes.

That was not a real problem. The regular guards were little more than cannon fodder.

Mine jumped into the air and fired at Hekatonkheires again. This time on the head. And although her attack had become stronger due to the danger in which both floated, the inflated dog regenerated within seconds.

Now, Sheele attacked Seryu directly while Mine kept Seryus Teigu busy. She had the right idea. An Imperial weapon is nothing more than a tool. Without the one who leads it, it would not do anything. However, she had to realize that it was not so easy. Seryu was able to block any of their attacks. She used two quite strange-looking devices in her hands that apparently also served as submachine guns.

The fight led them into the trees and very close to Konoko, who quickly changed her position. A few seconds later Seryu fell over a rock and Sheele seized the opportunity and separated Seryu's arms. Just to be surprised when Seryu made a weapon out of her stump. Seconds later Seryu shot but Sheele was fast enough to stop the shot with Extase. Directly afterwards Seryu's arms were a few inches shorter.

Without weapons and arms Seryu had only one option left. She had Koro, that's what she called her Teigu, switch to Berserker mode. This ensured that the size of Hekatonkheires more than doubled and the coat changed from very light, almost white, to a dark red. Also, the muscle strength increased enormously.

When Koro roared, it was so loud that Mine and Sheele froze. At the same time Konoko and Mitara made themselves ready to intervene at any time.

No sooner had the roar gone silent than Koro grabbed Mine with his huge fist. However, before Koro managed to inflict serious damage on her, Sheele was on hand and severed the arm that held Mine.

Then something happened that forced Konoko and Mitara to intervene immediately.

While Sheele was still happy that she had managed to rescue Mine, she was suddenly shot from behind in the back. The origin was Seryu from whose mouth now stood out the barrel of a weapon.

Koro just wanted to grab the paralyzed Sheele and put her in his mouth which now had three rows of very long and sharp teeth, to mangle her, he was stopped because Koro had been grabbed. And from a much larger mouth. It was Mitara who had assumed her seraphim form.

"A Danger Beast? Here ?!" Seryu exclaimed, completely surprised.

Directly afterwards, Konoko crashed through the trees and uprooted several of them. Then she opened her mouth and Mine could have sworn that she saw in the middle of the mouth two long teeth that were dripping with venom.

Immediately, these teeth hit the other end of Koro. The injected poison caused the color of Koro to change from red to a dark gray. Seconds later, both Seraphim Koro tore apart in the middle of the air. Mitara caught the falling core with her scorpion claws that had shot out from under her wings.

With an eye on Seryu, who had recognized by her expression what she was holding in her shears, she crushed the core, destroying the Teigu. Immediately after, both of them swallowed the respective halves of Koro they had in their mouths. Konoko also treated herself to the severed arm.

Seryu was too shocked to react when Mitara's stomach began to glow. Immediately, she and the onrushing guards were bathed in a huge burst of flames and were burned to ashes.

Seryu was dead.

Hekatonkheires / Koro was destroyed.

Now they had to see that they bring the two injured as soon as possible back to the base. To do that, they put Sheele in stasis. Because she was clearly much more serious injured as Mine. Who had suffered only a broken arm.

As far as their tracks are concerned.

A small spell removed them and restored everything. Only the burned bodies remained. Otherwise, it looked like there had never been a fight here.

The guards, who appeared in the area shortly after Konoko and Mitara had left, could not figure out what they found.

The whole incident was to remain a mystery for some time.