Disclaimer, I don't own Honkai Star Rail or Warhammer, Mihoyo and Games Workshop does, I only own my OCs and my ideas. Reviews, suggestions, and critiques are welcome but flames are to be extinguished.

Chapter 1: Invaders from Above

As the underground area of Jarilo-VI snowed within the wintery territories of one Svarog. An ancient machine reactivated from ancient times was where the Astral Express, Wildfire Representative, and Underworld Guide were supposed to meet, so they can be brought to the surface to finally end the dark times plaguing Belobog.

All but one managed to meet at the heart of the Robot Settlement so they could have a few words with Svarog before impatience started setting in when their less-than-trustworthy guide still hadn't shown up even after they had talked to the Guardian of the Furnace Core. The pink-haired member of the group all but decided that they had been stood up before a very loud rumbling sound could be heard.

What should've been a simple journey to reach the surface turned south so quickly as the very ground of the Underworld shook as foreign machinery crashed through Belobog's crust, punching multiple holes through the surface into the underground with a deafening sound. The machines fell into the Underworld, one crashing into Svarog's territory before it released its content as dark mechanical figures emerged from the troop transport.

A heavily damaged cybernetic soldier stumbled out of the vehicle, its body grabbed by a massive mechanical claw before hurling it at them. A horrifying, spider-like mechanical creature exited the transport, the origin of the claw that stuck out of her mechanical body.

As if scanning the new environment, she checked her inbuilt scanners to detect the two Stellaron readings. The Dark Mechanicum, a vile technologically advanced arm of the Eight Star Pact that had a staunch rivalry with those that follow Destruction had found here on this ball of ice and snow. One of them was right there, curiously embedded within a human being who doesn't seem to be suffering obvious effects from such a powerful object dubbed as the Cancer of all Worlds.

"I come in the name of Mars and the Fabricator General. Relinquish your Stellarons and I will guarantee that you all will expire painlessly."

"Target not recognized…Access denied. Providing "Stellaron" to unknown hostile entities: Forbidden."

"Your precious organics will ensure your immediate destruction." Scanning the machine that was a tall, dark blue mech with a glowing pink cyclopean eye, which wears black pants and shoes as well as a fur jacket with multiple openings that expose his shoulders. Sota-Nul sent out a non-verbal binaric order to her Dark Skitarii clad in cloaks dark as night and eyes neon green, cybernetic footsoldiers of the fell organization, to open fire on this frozen planet's primitive inhabitants while advancing on the carrier of a Stellaron with the mechanical legs of a spider.

Several of the Skitarii, Infiltrators unleashed a disorienting wave of white noise and photonic strobing that filled all audiovisual spectra with static that rendered the Caelus, Dan Heng, March, and Seele helpless to oncoming fire if not for Svarog shielding the recently allied humans with his sturdy mechanical form. Svarog, unaffected by such machinery due to his non-human nature, drove his fist into one of the cyborgs before crushing the head of another, trying to drive its Taser Goad into Seele, recovering after Svarog bought them time. Caelus and his companions fought back, fighting defensively behind Svarog against the incoming cybernetic assault.

The hail of laser fire from the Skitarii Lasguns, a laser rifle of the basic variety, had little effect on the cyclopean mech's durable hull. Allowing Caelus and the others to smash the few that tried to flank him up close, Sota-Nul, losing her patience, leaped into the fray and scattered the unaugmented with her metal frame. Forcing March and Dan Heng to scatter as she focused her many neon green eyes on Caelus, who flattened a Skitarii Hypaspist's head with an overhead swing of his bat.

She deemed her current token forces insufficient for victory and grabbed the Trailblazer with her large mechanical arm, much to the horror of his companions. Rather than beg for mercy, Caelus swung his Destruction-infused bat into the head of the corrupted Adept of Mars.

CRACK

Feeling several of her optical sensors shatter and flicker, Sota-Nul let out an inhuman growl. Clamped onto the Trailblazer's arm with one of her mechadendrites and broke it. Making him scream out in pain, dropping his weapon as the Adept fled the Robot Settlement and left her Skitarii entourage to get annihilated by Svarog and his newly found human allies.

"NO! CAELUS!"

The snowy grey views of the Robot Settlement soon turned into the dingy rust of Rivet Town, the unconscious Caelus. Knocked out by his abductor by having his head bashed against the walls of Belobog's underground, the Trailblazer only came to when he heard the screams of captured vagrants echo in a makeshift camp.

"W-where am i….." Muttered Caelus as he found himself strapped to a metal device holding him up in a makeshift camp holding out against the town's Fragmentum creations with ease as it served as one of many rallying points for the scattered Dark Mechanicum forces. He felt sore, cold, and tired as the only he saw was the freakish spider figure of his abductor than any member of Wildfire or the Astral Express not helping in the least.

"W-who…W-what are you doing to me?!" Questioned the grey-haired Trailblazer angrily when he saw his body surgically opened to reveal a Stellaron, its golden glow shining brightly in the dank camp as all matter of foreign devices beeped as the Dark Mechanicum's mechanical lackeys performed invasive research on his body.

Fully sealed masks and foul breathing sounds were the only answers he received from the spider machine's servants. She saw the unique human stir and moved to communicate with the primitive and unenhanced lifeform.

"Silence. You may only speak if queried. If not obeyed, then…" Caelus felt cold sweat when he witnessed the Adept grab a massive two-handed axe dangerously close to his leg and make a slight severing motion. He didn't bother making a snarky response and quietly nodded his head, not wanting to lose any of his limbs to some demented tin can.

"How did you receive this Stellaron? All existing data suggest such procedures are risky and perfect bonding, leading to non-existent debilitating effects?"

"I-I don't know, when I realized that I have one within me. I couldn't remember what happened before that."

Sota-Nul said nothing, allowing her lesser Heretek subordinates to confirm that his words were not touched by deceit. She hid her annoyance and merely gave out another question. Then another and another, both inane and mundane. He didn't dare ignore any of her queries, no matter how utterly trivial they were.

The Adept inputted every single answer into their database, compiling Caelus' with those of their other specimens. Detaching her mechanical arms, Sota-Nul allowed her colleagues to attach her five mechadendrites marked with malevolent symbols that ooze with foulness.

"Abandon your Path and all that you are. Tread on the Path of Innovation and that of the Aeon Vashtorr or…" Caelus didn't know whether it's a statement or supposed to be a question. The only thing he does know is that this thing is out of her mind. Unlike what the crew of the Astral Express gave him, the only thing he sees from these cold and unfeeling types is a pained existence as their lab rat. He'd rather stay with Herta for a dozen lifetimes.

Any thoughts of self-preservation flew through the window when he looked at the symbols that shimmered at the very edges of those metal claws attached to her back. It felt wrong. It felt evil.

"So be it. You could've been a willing ally, but it seems your pitiful, narrow mind has betrayed you." Caelus tried to struggle with what little he could as the spider machine approached him with a cold stride. He could hear the screams from outside this little research centre die down. Sota-Nul clamped onto the modified golden Stellaron with all five mechanical parts, intent on twisting it to the cause of the Eight Star Pact and the Aeons that form it.

Dozens of colours clashed in the seed of disaster, fell energies of multiple Aeons flowing through the claws into the Stellaron, which seemed to resist the corruption. The sensors of the lesser Hereteks overloaded as they beheld this experimental act, all prior experiments performed to twist the Stellaron's Destruction to one of the Five. Never all at once.

Caelus could feel searing pain wrack across his body, overwhelming the anesthetics applied to him. The other Hereteks counseled caution to Sota-Nul, who ignored their warnings to proceed, the energies growing wilder as the Cancer of All Words she tinkered with pulsed violently. The Hereteks saw their equipment overloaded before fleeing the structure.

Sota-Nul felt the Stellaron suddenly drain the energies she had within her mechanical frame before exploding. Sending her crashing through multiple buildings of the makeshift camp into Rivet Town proper.

The experiment agitated the Fragmentum, making the local phenomenon much more aggressive as it spewed out vast numbers of monsters to assail the camp. The Dark Mechanicum defenders held their ground and utilized their already depleted and diminished resources lost during the attacks from the followers of the Aeon of Change, Tzeentch and the scattering of the fleet tasked to collect more and more Stellarons for their experiments.

The Trailblazer groaned, feeling his head aching as if someone smashed two hammers into it before his vision focused. Allowing him to see a mechanical individual walk into the emptied research station and silently stand guard after receiving new orders from his data tether linked to his superior.

Looking down to see his chest surgically opened and held apart by sharp hooks to reveal his red insides with only the power of the arcane keeping him from keeling over, Caelus can only groggily stare at it in horror as his ability to feel pain was dulled due to the chemicals these machine people gave him.

The only reaction he had from the black cloaked cyborg Marshal commanded to guard him, was the slight movement of its neon green eyes towards his direction, ignorant or uncaring of his discomfort. The troop control rod and dangerous-looking firearm held in its advanced hands intimidated him greatly, the chrome gear helmet and mechanical arms sticking out of its side loom menacingly.

It barely registered the noise outside as the Caelus could hear the trading sounds of gunfire, lasers, and explosions, for it died down. He could feel his breath hitch in his throat as he saw one of the Underworld's Vagrants stumble into view of the entrance, changed utterly into something completely inhuman.

'W-what did they do to you?' Thought Caelus fearfully as it shambled mindlessly around with a large claw as an arm and an upgraded other arm that held a large flamethrower. He could hear it ramble something incorrigible before mentioning the Robot Settlement and Boulder Town in random sentences together with several ones and zeroes before shambling to the front lines of the camp.

It felt like looking at Pascal again, but this time there was no Clara to save and repair him before it was too late. The sight made him sick to his stomach more than he already was after experiencing the tender mercies of the Dark Mechanicum Adepts. He had no idea what or who they were. Only that they're here for the Stellarons on Jarilo VI, including the one in him that they've done Aeon knows what with when he's out other than what the spider robot thing did.

His attempts to get the Marshal's attention were ignored as it stayed still like a statue even as the sound of battle erupted and returned to silence, eventually a certain voice could be heard speaking with the few Adepts that remained in the camp before a familiar rogue showed up.

'Sampo Koski…Why am I not surprised to see you here….' Thought Caelus as a blue-haired smooth-talking salesman entered the research station as if he owned the place, his red coat and sharp shoulder pad looking worlds apart from the cyborgs. He mentioned to the Skitarii that things were getting heated outside and that he'd be better off reinforcing the frontline than watching a powerless and incapacitated prisoner who couldn't escape even if he wanted to.

"Accessing local Noosphere…Negative. Enemy presence had been successfully neutralized. This unit will remain on Guard Mode." Sampo scratched his head when the Marshal communicated through its local network to communicate with its fellow cyborgs and Tech-Priest masters without even stepping out of the building.

'Well, there goes that idea. Time for the backup plan.' Smiling with the experience of a talented merchant. Sampo prepared a little something he has for nicking valuable machines, or at least bypassing them for one reason or another.

"Yo, working hard or hardly working? Your cogheaded superiors think you're doing a good job and wanted me to give you a little something, something." He took out a small box which earned him an actual reaction as the Marshal's head turned to scan its contents, registering no threat from this unaugmented primitive.

"Don't worry about it, bro. Can I call you bro? I saw the guy that told me to give it to you get scrapped by a bunch of Fragmentum monsters out there." It checked the Noosphere network and verified that several Tech Priests had indeed gone offline. It moved its mechanical arms, expressing the programmed desire to receive an upgrade to its systems to grab the small box.

"What are you waiting for? Come on, this slick upgrade of yours won't be going anywhere." Goaded Sampo as it grabbed the box and opened it, revealing an ancient device. The Skitarii commander held it in its mechanical hands only for it to release an electromagnetic pulse upon making contact with a metal object.

Sampo watched with a grin as the Marshal's systems suddenly shut down and disconnected it from the network, collapsing in a heap before he revealed his twin purple daggers. Even the old stuff is pretty potent even compared to the fancy high-tech gizmos these cyborgs are packing, Sampo thought to himself as he dismantled the soldier before it could reactivate itself with the hands of a true scavenger.

Noticing that what little parts of humanity are left within the Skitarii are heavily mutated with red pulsating masses, if he didn't know any better, then these things could be considered as monsters built in a factory if it was taken over by the Fragmentum but considering he actually knows better.

Their foreign, almost alien technology would indicate that they've come from beyond Jarilo VI's borders. He had never seen anything like this is his life and that brings an opportunity for profit, trading these babies to the locals for a price of his own choosing.

"Ooh, not looking so hot there, pal. Let Sampo Koski help you down from there for free. Consider it a token of our friendship." Caelus could only groan as he could feel the anesthetic start to wear off, bringing with it a world of indescribable pain.

"Now this is valuable stuff. How much would think these are worth on the market?"

"G-guh…Don't….even think about it Sampo….Ghhh…"

"Alright, alright, I'm just kidding. Not even sure how I'd even take it out of you if I wanted to." Sampo's eyes were drawn to the golden glow of a Stellaron in the Trailblazer's exposed chest, tempting him to put the bat swinger out of his misery so that he could claim it for himself, but obviously, he was better than that.

Carefully removing the hooks keeping his chest open when he saw movement in the very edges of his open stomach, Sampo stopped himself from using any type of medical supplies when he saw in bewildered surprise that the golden shine pulsed green several times before sealing itself up on its own, regenerating unnaturally without any additional help. Whistling, completely impressed as it seemed, Caelus got better on his own even without needing him to haul him all over to Natasha's place.

"Easy does it, your old pal Sampo's got you covered." Keeping him from collapsing on the underground floor, Sampo helped him up and allowed him to regain the movement of his limbs after wobbling around like jelly.

"Here, take this, nicked it from one of the dead tinheads. An important-looking fella to boot. Plus, a few freebies as a sign of our budding friendship." Caelus caught the odd blade-less hilt weapon from his rescuer and examined it closely.

Even if it wasn't his trusty bat, it would do if he managed to find out how it works. The other items look more like junk and parts ripped off of those soldiers than anything, including some rounded-looking chrome skull attached to an indigo ball with spiked parts on top of it. To him, it's like some nutjob's version of a cannonball.

CLICK

ROAR

Fumbling with the fancy device for nearly two minutes, Caelus almost jumped when a roaring column of blue-white fire about the length of a meter. The blade of fiery light sliced through one of the research structure's pillars like a hot knife through butter before he tested this advanced weapon on the incapacitated Marshal, chopping it up into ribbons before he shut it off with the same spot he pressed to turn it on.

It seemed extremely powerful, but by Aeon, it was loud. The salesman poked his head out to see if anyone heard it, only to see the camp is practically deserted outside of a couple of those shambling monstrosities that were the current form of abducted Vagrants and other poor souls that these cyborgs kidnapped.

When the Trailblazer wanted to finish them off to put them out of their misery, Sampo suggested that they just escape instead and just make a large enough opening for the Fragmentum monsters to wander in and do their job for them. Who knows when the extra-terrestrials will return and he'd rather not be caught freeing their research subject, considering all the effort he had put in to make it possible for him to cultivate a business relationship with them in the future.

They wander around Rivet Town, hiding in every nook and cranny whenever they see the Dark Mechanicum clash with the Fragmentum monsters. The only thing Caelus has in his mind is finding his friends while Sampo's memorizing every corpse and dropped weapon's location so that he can collect them later with some extra hands.

The mostly abandoned streets of Rivet seemed like an unfamiliar labyrinth as the duo had to avoid the many skirmishes and newly collapsed town section riddled with troop transports, as well as subterranean drilling machinery.

Shushing the grey-haired youth, Sampo urged him to not blindly intervene when they ran into Sota-Nul, swinging her large two-handed axe into another wave of Fragmentum monsters that had overwhelmed the Skitarii squad that rallied to her. She unleashed mighty sweeping blows against the Shadewalkers and Space Elementals. Her current ranged weaponry is either too damaged to use or out of ammunition unless replaced outside her current pair of exotic weaponry.

When the last monster had been cut down, a dozen Vagrants came out of a nearby house. Demanding that their friends and families be released, Sota-Nul scoffed at the emotional response of the unaugmented before proceeding to rip out a number of ranged weaponry from her fallen mechanical troops.

"Let go of the others, you robospider bitch!"

"My projections show your clear expiry, pitiful fleshling." The Vagrants cowered in the face of the Martian who was utterly undaunted in the face of their numbers, the female cyborg simply took aim with the two Volkite weapons that she ripped from the hands of the dead, and held the two in the grip of her myriad mechanical arms and fired into the Vagrants, intent on crushing them completely.

The intense beams of intense heat disintegrated many of the Vagrants in a single shot, completely deflagrating them into piles of ashes before the corrupted Tech Priest simply walked to the demoralized survivors.

Splitting them in half with a single swing before Sota-Nul checked the Noosphere to seek out her colleagues and cybernetic soldiers to rally around with as many of them as possible in this planet's underground.

She preferred to have support from the superhumans that they were attached to in the search for the Stellarons that ignored her words and preferred a full frontal assault to this frozen planet's surface to claim the second Stellaron on their own. Though with native opposition of this caliber, she may not even require the aid of the hazard-striped Aeonites of Innovation and crimson Aeonites of Battle to suppress all resistance and threats of losing their already claimed Stellaron.

Caelus and Sampo watched the Tech Priest disappear in the direction of the camp they came from after the Volkite weaponry's remaining ammo was spent. The two of them quietly made their way through the gruesome sight within the streets of the town that had returned to silence and closed the dead eyes of the Vagrants that weren't piles of ashes.

Similar scenes littered the area ahead of them with large amounts of fallen cyborg soldiers, combat leftovers with Fragmentum monsters, and a few Wildfire members scattered here and there who did their best to take advantage of the chaos to protect their home.

They went through the Abandoned Market until they reached where Caelus knew Pascal would be. There they were, Clara huddling behind Pascal in his Grizzly Automaton Shell after he helped her allow several replacements a while ago that were amongst a small army of Svarog's Robots and Wildfire members as they clashed with Fragmentum Monsters and Dark Skitarii alike as they were caught in the crossfire.

"Big Brother Caelus!" yelled out Clara the Bloody Rabbit happily when she saw him and Sampo show up after Natasha bombed the last squad of Skitarii that tried to rush them. The small, long white-haired girl clad in red that wore no foot coverings, a testament to her resilience to the cold patched up the damage suffered by the Grizzly in the act of protecting her and the other humans.

"Caelus, Clara, Wildfire, Rivet Town, resident! Friend! Pascal, must protect!"

"So, still in one piece after that spiderbot took you? Not bad, you're way tougher than you look," Said Seele as her eyes caught sight of Caelus showing up with Sampo. Natasha looks pleased at the Trailblazer's safe return and asks Sampo about why there were no other people with them. His answer made her cover her mouth in horror.

"Oh, Aeons…How horrible…" Whispered the leader of Wildfire, shaking her head at the news of the other people these mysterious invaders took being reduced to lobotomized robot slaves, shambling at the behest of their cybernetic overlords. Sampo bowed, stating that the debt to Wildfire was paid before making himself scarce, as if unwilling to fight whatever comes next in this little part of town.

The first member of the two Wildfire ladies, that Caelus knew, was a young woman with long purple hair and light purple eyes. She wears a purple scarf with red and white details, as well as a white, black, and purple outfit with black shorts. On her left arm is a red band tied together with a purple sleeve, and on her right a fingerless glove that goes up to her elbow. She also wears a pair of black and blue boots of different lengths. She gave Caelus a tired nod as she rested against the wall with her scythe stabbed into the ground, ready for another wave until Pascal's patched up and they could retreat to a more secure location.

The second was their lovely leader. Natasha is a middle-aged woman with purple eyes and a fair complexion. She has bob-like blue-gray hair in front with two symmetric strands reaching her shoulders; the back tied in a ponytail and a white nurse cap-like bow. She has a mole under her lip on her left side that makes her look even more fetching.

The outfit she wears is a white layered dress which resembles a doctor's coat, with a blue-gray layer and crimson lining while not very intimidating belies her surprising strength and accuracy. She also wears high leather boots with blue-gray details. Her left arm is bare, while her right arm is covered in a leather elbow-length glove with a torn crimson band tied to her right shoulder on her belt Natasha carries a plush bear, as well as a small leather bag, a glass tube with mushrooms, and a flask of green liquid in it. She also wears a similar pear-shaped flask as a necklace.

"Caelus, you're alright!" Chirped March happily with Dan Heng sharing a similar positive sentiment as he sat on a nearby roof as a lookout with his fellow Astral Express member. The younger of the two, March 7th, has light pink hair and pink and blue eyes and wore a white top with gold buttons that clip to a black choker, as well as a loose pink and blue overcoat. She also wears a blue and white pleated skirt with a black vest around her waist, her camera attached at the hip, as well as black and blue boots and an archery glove on her right hand.

Her not-so-energetic and quirky counterpart within the express was the polar opposite in personality. Dan Heng is a tall, slender young man with blue eyes, fair skin, and black hair that wears a black turtleneck along with a white and green-colored coat, with gold and smoke-styled accents along with a piece of jade armor on his left shoulder. He wears gray pants and black high-top shoes with white soles, as well as an oriental-styled jade tassel earring with a lace connected to his other ear in the Xianzhou style.

"They're coming again!" yelled out Dan Heng, causing Seele to get up and Natasha to finish loading up her grenade launcher ammunition. March squinted her eyes when she saw something way bigger than everything that came before and verbally sounded the alarm. Dan Heng tossed a bat down at Caelus after calling his name, earning his thanks.

The large mechanical monstrosity and its accompanying entourage plowed through the Fragmentum Monsters, fighting through them with a less-than-pleased Sota-Nul beside a beast of metal. She barely reacted when her foul Skitarii were sacrificed to ensure the Daemon Engine reached the humans to reclaim the Stellaron.

As if let loose from its leash, the Maulerfiend. A fiery four-legged crime against creation roared, spreading flames from its head and arms wildly before charging at the humans. Its wicked eyes glow with balefire as ectoplasmic drool drizzles down through its great fanged maw, its primary limbs ending in prehensile with enough power to crush heavily armored soldiers and even vehicles.

Taking several grenades and no slight amount of firepower to the face, the brass creature roared as it tore into robots protecting Wildfire. Its machine form, powered by a servant of the Aeon of Battle, Khorne, raged against its opponent.

"Pascal, must protect Clara!" Getting up much to the horror of its human companion, Pascal rose up and together with another Grizzly assigned to her protection blunted the charge of the monstrosity together with their large bodies. The Direwolf Automatons revved up their chainsaw arms and hacked at the machine.

A line of Beetle Automatons lined up and activated their force fields, providing a barrier against the Maulerfiend's flames and approaching Skitarii troopers that immediately fired their lasguns so their human allies could retaliate without getting eviscerated by ranged fire.

Seele, Dan Heng, and Caelus worked together with the robots, using their defensive bodies as melee Skitarii charged with mauls and tasers in order to flank the cyborgs from their size using their superior speed. Using the power of Destruction, Caelus smashed several of them aside with mighty swings as his fellow crewmate skewered the ones hiding in the back before zipping behind the barriers when the enemy unleashed another hail of laser fire.

Seele did her best, chopping up any foe that tried to break the robot's formation with her Quantum might as the Grizzlies held the Daemon Engine down for their chainsawed brethren to slice through its unnaturally tough hull.

Natasha provided covering fire with her rapidly depleting number of grenades as March provided her own alongside some frigid protection to parts of the defense line that seemed to falter. Even with the Grizzlies keeping the fiend's Power Fists down, the same cannot be said for the Magma Cutters which protruded from its torso sending a stream of white-hot flames built to melt through fortress walls scorching the robots that were barely able to do any damage even together.

Segmented Lasher tendrils that whip out from its thorax wrapped around the two Grizzlies, trying to crush and melt their mighty hulls. Just when it seemed about to saw through the fiend's hull even slightly, Sota-Nul hurled her axe at one of the Grizzlies, making it stumble as the axe pierced its chest. Allowing the Maulerfiend to overpower Pascal, send him reeling to the Wildfire members firing behind until it shut down before it smashed its fists into the scorched Grizzly over and over until its nothing but burnt scrap metal.

Seizing its newfound freedom, the Maulerfiend wrapped its Lashers around the Direwolves think torsos, crushing four of them in two. Caelus, seeing the robot line about to collapse. Readied his newfound weapon and received March's protection with the Power of Cuteness to help his offensive.

"With me out here, how can you lose~" Thanking March for her aid, Caelus charged into the searing flames of the Daemon Engine and activated the Sollex-Aegis Energy Blade that Sampo gave him, cutting right into the hull with ease. Severing one of its arms, the machine roared with infernal hatred before Pascal who was reactivated by a distraught Clara, summoned several Spider Automatons to prime themselves and detonate in its face as the remaining Direwolves hacked off Skitarii limbs with the help of a certain Quantum user and went back to hacking against the hull of the siege monster.

Razor-sharp lashers slashed against the protection given to Caelus. He swung at them with his laser sword. Earning him several loud shrieks in return before the Maulerfiend went berserk, spinning around with its remaining weapons. Turning the Direwolves and Beetles into slag, which Seele barely managed to save herself from joining.

Slicing off the remaining tendrils with his blade when the Maulerfiend slowed down after its rampage all but annihilated the robot's defensive line. Caelus gave both Dan Heng and Seele the opening to strike its head with no Lashers to worry about, roaring in pain as the Wind sheared and the Quantum element entangled directly onto its head. Its movement was vastly reduced as it sustained more and more critical damage.

Caelus saw the frustrated Sota-Nul give binaric commands to all present Skitarii to charge before the defenders managed to slay the Daemon Engine against all her calculations and took the chance to leap into the air with the last of March's protection on him protecting his body from incoming laser blasts before swinging the energy blade downwards with the power of Destruction. Splitting the Maulerfiend in two, exposing the horned daemon of flames locked within its hull which stared at Caelus with a bloody grin as it could smell the touch of Battle within him before it suffered a lethal blow, banishing it back to whence it came.

"Everyone get back!" Heeding Natasha's words, Caelus and the other two melee combatants fell back as the Maulerfiend's body started to smoke while the remaining robots formed a smaller line to keep the Skitarii from reaching Wildfire as they threw all caution to the wind at the behest of their overlord.

Sota-Nul could hear the snarky remarks from the other Adepts that were heading to her location with all remaining forces from within the Noosphere and promptly ignored them before she personally charged despite her damaged body. Intending to make sure her calculations prove correct and that these unaugmented primitives only survive this long out of sheer chance. She won't be proven the fool for rushing the attack before rushing a creation of another Daemon Engine.

Claiming the ranged weaponry of her fallen Skitarii for her own, Sota-Nul increased her speed of locomotion through her spider legs and reclaimed her axe as she charged into the remaining robots and humans. Firing the lasguns at the most vulnerable and helpless of the organics until it overloaded, she scored multiple direct kills, forcing a frantic Natasha to fire, releasing her remaining grenades before she smashed her axe into several Beetles and crashed into what's left of the Direwolves that struggled to hold her back with their chainsaws before they were blasted apart from the sides and bisected from the waist.

Injecting several chemicals into herself to heighten her already upgraded reflexes, Sota-Nul moved even faster than even Seele and Dan Heng could react, grabbing the corpses of several Skitarii as she scanned to ensure the next move would cause maximum damage to the defenders to create a chain reaction that will result in immediate victory.

Her optical sensors that yet remained actively focused on a shaking Clara who had remained protected at Pascal's side before she chose her target. Hurling the bodies of several heavy cyborgs at the secondary targets, Caelus pointed the energy blade towards the charging Tech Priest before staring at it in disbelief as it promptly ran out of fuel and fizzled out at such a pivotal moment.

March's arrows did little to scratch the Dark Mechanicum Adept as she sent both tired Dan Heng and Seele reeling with well-aimed throws of metal corpses before moving her now free mechadendrites to grab a dumbfounded Caelus. Raise the Stellaron vessel up high and send him crashing down onto Natasha before she could fire her last grenade.

"C-clara…M…ust…protect….."

"My calculations are flawless," Sota-Nul stated with finality as she raised her Omnisian Axe to chop Clara in two after kicking aside the wave of Spider Automatons sent by Pascal with her own legs that detonated right below March, shaking the building she was on until she almost fell.

"HELP ME, MR. SVAROG!" Upon those words being uttered, a one-eyed machine considered the Godfather of Belobog's underground robots appeared in a puff of smoke, firing a massive purple beam out of his left hand. Blasting a clean hole through Sota-Nul's chest before unleashing a salvo of missiles into the wide-eyed Adept in a mighty Oversaturated Bombardment.

"Commencing Annihilation."

Blasting the Dark Mechanicum Tech Priest with dozens of missiles, Svarog left Clara and Pascal's side only to give this maximum threat enemy a rocket-powered uppercut, shattering her remaining optical sensors and sending her body crashing into the incoming Heretek reinforcements.

Awestruck by the sight of such overwhelming mechanical might, the remaining Adepts calculated that their current chance of victory was now zero and digitally called for a complete retreat through their network.

Their Skitarii dragging a thoroughly annihilated and still smoldering Sota-Nul with them back to where they came from. Giving Wildfire their hard-fought victory.

Author's Note: I know it isn't wise to have multiple fanfics going on at the same time but I've got some ideas too tempting not to write into words before Genshin would be completed. Similar to how the polls for Genshin work, there will eventually be polls put up soon to decide which characters will become Caelus' harem members and possibly join the Astral Express crew. Some are already guaranteed, others would need a miracle and some like the children will not be considered.