Intergalactic conquest with an AI

In seconds, the vehicle was ripped apart like paper, and the soldier was dragged out violently, coughing blood. "Cough—cough! AH! NO! PLEASE!" he screamed, desperately reaching for his fallen handgun, just out of reach. He clawed the ground with his fingers, brushing the weapon...but it was too late.

His fate had been sealed the moment they landed on this cursed battlefield.

A monstrous figure loomed above him; it was towering, grotesque, and otherworldly. Tentacles writhed from its back like living shadows. Its armor was fused with flesh, pulsing with eerie green bioluminescence. The creature's mouth opened slowly, revealing rows of serrated, blood-slicked teeth.

Without hesitation, it pulled the soldier toward its maw and, in one swift, horrifying motion, bit his head clean off.

Blood splattered the ground. The lifeless body slumped in the creature's grip.

This was a Khryssari Void Warrior, a nightmare given form. Normally reserved for boarding enemy ships, these beasts were rarely deployed on open battlefields.

But Ys had a taste for fear....

She didn't just want to win. She wanted the enemy to feel true horror. And Void Warriors were terror made flesh.

[Eastern Battlefield – Human Side]

Meanwhile, on the other side of the warfront, Lilla's brother, known by all as the Lord Inquisitor, made a bold decision.

He ordered all his forces to pull back and regroup inside the eastern fortress they had recently captured. Now, instead of attacking, they were the ones holding the walls, preparing for a long and brutal siege.

Standing atop the inner ramparts of the damaged fortress, the Lord Inquisitor stared through a massive gap in the outer wall; it was the hole they had blasted open days earlier to break into the city.

"Is the shield ready yet?" he asked, his voice sharp and commanding as he turned to one of his elite paladins, clad head-to-toe in heavy black armor.

The paladin knelt before him with a bow of respect. "Not yet, my Lord. The enemy hasn't stopped bombarding that area. It's a constant barrage. Getting close is nearly impossible."

The Inquisitor narrowed his eyes, deep in thought. His gloved hand rose to his chin, stroking it slowly.

"Hmmm... if they keep hammering that section nonstop, then they likely won't be able to breach it themselves either," he muttered, half to himself. "So why waste so much firepower there?"

He turned slightly, his sharp gaze fixed on the battlefield beyond the walls. His mind worked quickly, considering possibilities.

{There can only be two reasons for this kind of tactic...} he thought silently. {Either they are stalling... trying to buy time for something else or they're planning to hit a different part of the wall. But where? And how?}

He glanced toward the sky, then shook his head.

{No… they can't attack from the air. All their transport ships were either shot down or retreated. So what could they be planning? Are they trying to dig tunnels underneath? Or maybe… a hidden weapon?}

Before he could think further, a sudden, deafening explosion tore through the air, louder than thunder, sharper than a scream. It was so powerful that it shook the ground beneath his feet and yanked him out of his thoughts.

In the blink of an eye, an entire section of the fortress wall, far from the previously damaged area, was ripped apart in a blinding flash.

Massive stone blocks and steel reinforcements were hurled into the air like pebbles, crashing down upon tanks, vehicles, and unfortunate soldiers, crushing them without mercy. A dense cloud of smoke and dust instantly filled the area.

"What in the name of the Goddess was that?!" the Lord Inquisitor shouted out as he struggled to his feet, having been knocked down by the force of the shockwave.

Coughing through the smoke, he looked around, his visor's HUD flickering as it tried to adjust to the chaos.

But all he could see were falling ashes, broken metal, and the silhouettes of soldiers stumbling through the thick gray fog. The fortress was under attack and the real siege had just begun.

As the Lord Inquisitor stood amidst the smoke and swirling dust, his ears still rang from the explosion. The sound was distant and muffled, like he was underwater.

He squinted through the gray haze, the world around him dim and distorted. His visor flickered as it tried to filter out the debris cloud, but visibility was almost nonexistent.

Then he saw them... shapes, moving shadows slithering between the dust clouds. They were smaller than the usual enemies he had faced before, like the towering human rebels and the octopus Nexum soldiers.

These new figures were quick, low to the ground, creeping, and circling like predators in a storm.

Narrowing his eyes, the Inquisitor instinctively drew his spear, its shaft crackling with energy as he activated his Electrokinesis. Lightning sparked across his armor like a living net of electricity.

"System," he commanded sharply, "begin sonar pulse sweeps. I want a readout of everything moving within twenty meters."

His power armor obeyed instantly, releasing invisible waves through the smoke. The system began feeding data into his HUD, shapes outlined in flickering blue light. Some were friendly. Many were not.

He began to move cautiously through the battlefield, each step heavy with purpose. The dizziness in his head was finally starting to fade, though the ringing in his ears lingered like a whisper in the back of his mind.

As his senses cleared, the true horror of the scene unfolded before him.

His soldiers were still fighting, although barely. Scattered and disoriented, they battled against things hidden in the smoke. The thunder of Nexum artillery roared in the distance, shaking the ground again and again.

Explosions flashed like lightning strikes within a storm cloud, giving brief glimpses of soldiers, metal, and blood.

Then, without warning, something emerged from behind him.

A massive beast charged through the dust, a hulking creature that looked like a twisted version of a wolf, its fur matted with dark armor-like plating while its eyes glowed a cruel red. Its mouth opened, showing rows of jagged teeth.

The Inquisitor didn't hesitate. As the beast lunged, his Electrokinesis flared to life. A trap of lightning surrounded him, a defensive storm he had mastered through years of battle.

The moment the war beast crossed the electric perimeter, it triggered a surge. A spear of lightning exploded outward, blasting the creature midair. It collapsed in a heap of scorched flesh and metal, lifeless before it even hit the ground.

The Inquisitor pointed the tip of his spear at the smoldering corpse, inspecting the strange creature. "What in the blighted hells is this thing...?"

He didn't have time to wonder since more of the beasts began to emerge from the dust, snarling and howling, launching themselves at him from all directions.

"Foul beasts! Know your place!" he roared, his voice echoing like thunder as he spun his spear with deadly grace.

He fought like a storm given form, a blur of lightning and steel. Every strike of his spear was followed by a pulse of electric power, vaporizing flesh and bone, leaving only burning husks behind.

Time seemed to slow. His movements were precise and efficient, each kill a work of brutal artistry. But even he was beginning to feel the weight of endless waves.

Then, just as another pack of beasts lunged, salvation came from above.

Bright red lasers rained from the sky, tearing through the dust and striking the creatures with pinpoint accuracy. Several beasts collapsed, sizzling where they stood. A squad of soldiers emerged from the smoke that was battle-worn but still fighting.

"My Lord! Thank the stars you're alive!" a voice shouted.

It was the paladin who had stood beside him before the wall exploded. He limped forward, supported by two other soldiers, his armor dented and his body bloodied. He looked relieved just to see the Inquisitor still standing.

"I've been searching for you since the blast," the paladin gasped, clearly wounded but refusing to rest.

The Inquisitor stabbed another war beast through the head and hurled the twitching corpse into a nearby group, triggering a lightning burst that blasted the others apart in a crackling wave. He turned to the paladin without missing a beat.

"Report. I want the full status. Now."

The paladin took a breath while steadying himself. "From what I've gathered from surviving squads… the Nexum launched a coordinated strike with some kind of new siege weapon. Three more holes were blasted into the fortress wall. It's barely a wall now... more like a collection of rubble trying to remember its purpose."

He tried to smile but winced in pain while sweat and blood ran down his face.

The Inquisitor's gaze dropped to the paladin's side and narrowed.

"…And these cursed beasts? What of them? Has the Nexum breached our final line of defense?"

The paladin hesitated, his expression turning grim. The Inquisitor followed his gaze down to the stump where the paladin's arm should have been. Blood had been hastily sealed with cauterized metal, but the pain in his eyes said everything.

"We don't know where the beasts came from, my Lord," he said at last. "But… they're not natural. They don't move like anything we've fought before. The Nexum soldiers are still outside, but these things... these things are already inside the walls."

The Lord Inquisitor looked back into the dust storm, where howls echoed and flashes of gunfire lit up shadows in the smoke. His grip on the spear tightened.

"So," he muttered, voice low and dangerous, "they've unleashed monsters upon us to soften the blow… very well."

His eyes glowed faintly as arcs of lightning danced across his armor once more.