Chapter 73: Showdown of Beyonders
Arcturus was observing the Red Queen, who controlled the entire Obscurus as much as possible to act stealthily and approach the Mind Fleet Leviathan and their Flagship, where the Elder Brain was most probably located.
The Psion-Disruption Device was already prepared as Arcturus ordered the Red Queen to control everything several times, because they needed to be absolutely sure that everything was working as it should be.
If the Psion-Disruption Device couldn't work as it was supposed to, the results could be catastrophic for the Imperial Defense Forces, especially. Without the usage of the Psion-Disruption Device, they couldn't take out the Psionic Abilities of the Mind Flayers and greatly weaken their fleet.
Even right now, as they were heading towards the Flagship of the Mind Fleet Leviathan, Arcurus could see tens of starships of the Eternal Imperium of Asurya being destroyed in the exchanges between them and the Mind Fleet Leviathan.
Still, even the Mind Flayers were getting losses, most probably even higher than that of the Imperial Defense Forces, because the Imperials were not giving themselves out without taking several of the Mind Flayer starships with them down.
Yet, Arcturus knew that if this continued, then the Imperial Defense Force would most probably win, but they would sustain tremendous losses, because the Mind Fleet Leviathan was rather very powerful.
And for the Eternal Imperium, which already had very limited numbers, it was problematic because they couldn't afford such huge losses. If they did, then it would complicate the situation in the different regions of the Imperium, as it would cause trouble across all Imperial Territories.
The Imperial Defense Force in the Alaric Star Domain consisted of the Imperial Fleets collected across the entire Eternal Imperium of Asurya; if they were destroyed, then in those regions, it would cause instability.
Many of the Imperial Territories were in danger of being attacked by the Orks, some other Mind Flayers, or the Arachnids that were fiercely attacking the Imperial Territories every few years when they were facing overpopulation on their worlds.
<Approaching the Flagship of the Mind Fleet Leviathan. Requesting permission to activate the Psion-Disruption Device.>
Arcturus was woken up from his train of thoughts when he heard the voice of the Red Queen when they were already near the Flagship of the Mind Fleet Leviathan, and the Psion-Distruption Device could be activated from a relatively safe distance.
"Permission granted."
He said quietly as everything around him started moving, as he just sat down on the captain's chair to enjoy a good show. Once the Psion-Distruption Device was activated, then the true showdown between his master, Arsit Byrmellir and Elder Brain started.
***
Outside of the Obscurus, the battle between the Imperial Defense Forces and the Mind Fleet Leviathan was becoming more and more tense. Both sides were using all of their firepower to destroy each other, while they also released their Star Fighters from the Carriers in the fleet.
Everything in the Rylon Star System has turned into a sea of explosions, as every moment something exploded from taking too much punishment or from being overwhelmed by hostile firepower.
Imperial Defense Forces had more numbers on their side, but the Mind Flayers were technologically superior, and they had stronger firepower than that of the Phoenix Imperium due to several exotic technologies in their disposition and implementation of the Psionic Energy in their tech.
Suddenly as everyone was fighting and preoccupied with how to kill each other, an invisible wave suddenly erupted from the Obscuurs was the laying down, way beneath the position of the Mind Fleet Leviathan.
The invisible wave quickly penetrated the space, and as the Mind Fleet Leviathan was nearest to them, they were hit the strongest by the sudden eruption of the Psion-Disruption Domain.
In a split of a moment, hundreds of their smaller vessels practically exploded into small balls of fire that were burning in the cold outer space, as a similar fate was met to the Star Fighters of the Mind Flayers that were being destroyed in thousands and the Mind Flayers were essentially crippled when it came to the Star Fighters.
Star Fighters were similar to the Fighter Jets of the Earth of the 21st Century, and their usage was critical even in the large space theatres of war because one Star Fighter could bring down an entire Starship if they were armed with proper weapons and had a skilled pilot.
Though with the usage of the Psion-Disruption Device, the number of Star Fighters on the side of Mind Flayers that were still capable of combat was abysmal, as the Star Fighters couldn't withstand the sudden collapse of the Psionic Energy in their engines, which caused the collision of several exotic elements and without Psionic Barriers separating them, the engines exploded and together with them, all Mind Flayer Star Fighters were turned into an explosion.
On the Starships of the Mind Fleet, the situation was even worse because many Mind Flayers were effectively losing control over their abilities, and even the Starships themselves were weakened by a great degree, as approximately half of the Starship was biological in nature.
And the biological part of the Starship was heavily Psionic. Only due to the efforts of the Elder Brain, which was exerting a lot of power to calm down the situation and deal with the aftereffects of the sudden Psion-Disruption Wave, were they able to function rather normally after several minutes.
Still, even that already caused tremendous losses on the Mind Flayer's Mind Fleet Leviathan, not to mention that the Psion-Discurption Domain still worked, so their Starships were only fighting at half of their capacity.
A lot of their features were disabled, and many of them couldn't even use their main weapons due to the activated Psion-Disruption Domain, which nullified the usage of Psionic Energy.
Among the entire Mind Fleet Leviathan, only the Elder Brain and a few of the most powerful Mind Falyers could still use their abilities, though even the Mind Flayers that could use their Psionic Abilities were feeling rather uncomfortable during the time.
The Elder Brain immediately started searching for the source of this chaos, ordering all the ships to scan for the enemy under Stealth, and even the Elder Brain itself was using its own power of Psionics to search for the source.
Unfortunately for the Elder Brain, out of nowhere, the entire Flagship of the Mind Fleet Leviathan trembled as it was hit by Crimson-Black Energy, which destroyed a good chunk of it in one hit.
Of course, the attack didn't stop, as almost immediately, another ball made of the same kind of energy appeared above the Flagship of the Mind Fleet Leviathan and slammed itself onto the location where the command center of the entire spaceship was located.
Immediately, another part of the humongous Starship was caught in a fiery explosion, and because the explosions were so strong, they were also destroying several unlucky smaller vessels that were acting as escort vessels to the Flagship.
Afterward, above the Flagship of the Mind Fleet Leviathan, something that could be described as a huge Brain appeared. It looked grotesque for most of the part, the Brain was massive, like some small hill or whatever, rahtrer hard to describe.
From the front, it had several tens of long tentacles, and some tentacles were also growing from other sides of the Brain, as the rest of its body was pulsating with power. It was evident to even the stupidest person that this was the Elder Brain of the Mind Fleet Leviathan.
In front of the Elder Brain, there was another figure, floating in the coldness of the space, clad in pristine golden armor that was made from extinguished craftsmanship with intricate deals and runes inscribed on the armor itself.
Arcturus, who was watching the exchange, knew that it was his master who went to fight against the Elder Brain of Mind Fleet Leviathan. This was also the first time, when Arcturus seen the personal weapon of choice of his master, it was weird, golden runic sword, that was reminiscenting the longsword.
With the Grandmaster Arsit Byrmellir personally attacking the Flagship in two attacks that effectively destroyed the Flagship, the Elder Brain was forced to fight against the Highborne Asuryani for its very own survival.
The Elder Brain was also aware that if it managed to kill the Imperial Beyonder in front of him, then the rest of the Imperial Defense Forces could be slaughtered by it with ease. Nothing could stop it, as they would require another Beyonder to confront the Elder Brain.
So, this battle would also decide the ultimate fate of the entire Mind Fleet Leviathan and Alaric Star Domain as a whole.
"It has been very long since the last Elder Brain was killed... It seems that today, history would once again repeat itself."
Grandmaster Arsit Byrmellir stated quietly as he observed the Elder Brain, because indeed... it was very long since another Elder Brain was killed by someone. Such things rarely happened because the Elder Brains were very, very cunning and cautious and treasured their lives above everything else.