Imperial Legacy

"Jeez… this place is even darker than the last area," Aston murmured, quietening his breath.

Zone 4's cafeteria was cold, quiet, and seriously dark. Blood stained the walls and the floor, and bodies laid upon bodies like small hills in a meadow. Unfortunately, since cyborg models were already fully equipped with huge metal components, this made inbuilt flashlights and such quite impractical to wield, though there was a night vision mode available for battle models.

"What are you even looking for in a place like this?" Nathan asked, after asking Zoom to turn on his Night Vision.

"…[[Ether Distortions]]."

"…What? What even is that? Does it have something to do with Aether Energy?"

"Well, I guess you can call them… temporary interdimensional rifts left behind by Xenobeasts. If we can find one that can lead us to the Psychic Stone quickly, that'll help us massively." Aston replied, "And also, Aether and Ether are quite different."

Nathan nodded before Zoom alerted him of danger.

[Warning: abnormality detected nearby. From the energy signals originating from it, the abnormality may be a Beta-2.]

"A Beta-2?" Nathan whispered, in an incredibly hushed voice, "It's somewhere around here?"

[In your current state, it will be hard to fight against a Beta-2, as it is in its most optimal environment in the dark.]

Nathan stopped Aston in his tracks, as he tried to sense where the Beta-2 was. It would be very hard for him to defeat a Beta-2 in the dark while protecting somebody else, and, would still be quite hard to achieve, even if he had a cyborg model suited for monster-hunting or one-on-one battles.

Unlike a Beta-1, it was larger yet far more agile and silent and could camouflage. Thankfully, he had his internal systems online so he could access most of his utility, or else this would have been impossible. But even then, although the Mecha Knight Model also could do far-ranged and widespread attacks, in an area like this, it would do more harm than good.

This was, by far, the most optimal circumstance for a Beta-2 to hunt in.

"…This is bad," Nathan told Aston, "It will discover us as soon as we come too close. The reason being that it's a freak of nature."

"What? Wait, is there something with us right now?" Aston questioned. His eyes widened, as he quickly realised the situation.

"I'll search for its current location. If I blast it, get lucky, and hit a weak point, then the huge risk of the current situation will be greatly reduced."

Aston nodded, holding his breath. Meanwhile, Nathan looked around, searching for it. His internal systems were not fully active, so, unfortunately, he couldn't just detect it with the snap of his fingers.

But thankfully, after about two minutes, Zoom barely identified the target, which had camouflaged itself in the darkness and was asleep.

"…Phew…" Nathan said, "Zoom, activate the plasma cannon, left arm."

Zoom did as it was told, and Nathan quickly aimed at the Beta-2 and slowly walked towards it, which was starting to irritate it from its sleep. He knew that its only weak point was its underbelly, and although he tried his best to identify that part, he had no choice but to fully believe that what he aimed at was its underbelly.

It charged for a few seconds, and then a sonic boom ruptured the entire cafeteria, as well as rending a hole through the Xenobeast's underbelly, which made it roar in pain instantly. Fortunately, however, no Beta-1s came to its aid fast enough, before he blew another hole through it with the plasma cannon.

It fell from the cafeteria's ceiling, creating quite a ruckus with its size as it was over fifteen feet tall, and also divulging that it was blotting out the only light in the entire place that worked.

"Ha… thank… thank you so much, Sir Nathan!" Aston said, breathing in and out heavily, "I thought that we were about to die!"

Nathan shook his head.

"I can't let that happen, since I'm sure we both still have things to accomplish. Though, I can just say that we're also lucky that it didn't react fast enough to avoid the second blast."

"Yeah, really lucky…! But, isn't it strange how there are still no Beta-1s around here? They're all scattered around the spaceship, sure, but at least ten of them should've arrived here by now…"

Nathan looked around.

"…Isn't it because of that?"

In front of them was the Ether Distortion, a glowing purple rift that kept itself stable with the Power of [[Ether]]. It was roughly the size of the Beta-2 that Nathan had killed.

Ether was a powerful energy that came in the form of invisible waves, that could not exactly be used as an energy source, per se, but allowed for [[Psychic Enhancement]] to happen, giving only a select few the ability to use [[True Abilities]].

It was also the very same type of energy that gave all humans the strange marking on the forehead, which some call, [[Psychic Marks]]. Somehow, for reasons inexplicable, Ether was formed or brought by the radiation born from the nuclear war.

"The Ether Distortion…" Aston murmured, walking towards it, "The Beta-1s in this area must've all gone inside."

"Hm. Then what are we waiting for? Let's head in." Nathan said.

<>

Asteroids floated constantly around the Stardrifter, which had a Serpentine Planetoid stuck within its side.

This was a semi-living, fleshy planet barely bigger than the size of a small island, produced with the corpses of old generations upon old generations of serpentine, which were these sneaky, monstrouslike creatures that resembled both serpents and bats.

"…What a mess. Those serpents are just simply filthy. Moving around on the blood and guts of their kin." A woman muttered, while lying on one of the floating asteroids, "Thankfully, there is no need for me to interfere with anything. I only need to observe for now."

This woman was Void Hunter: [[Black Ghost]], who was most recognisable with her neatly-tied hair in a bun and her all-black attire.

"Hm… but I wonder if I'll be able to see a Mecha Knight in action? The Serpentine Planetoid can only be handled by those of their calibre after all. And even then, the amount of damage output they can exert against a group of enemies is truly unbelievable."

"Even I, a Void Hunter, equipped with the power of a True Ability, cannot match that sort of capabilities that easily."

"…Hm?"

A sudden glint of abnormal purple light flashed from the corner of her eye, and she glimpsed two men coming out of a relatively small rift near a Nest of Beta-1s.

And then, again, a few hours afterwards, they had entered back into the spaceship through another rift, after exploring most of the area outside the spaceship.

"…They're quickly starting to gain the guts to face the Serpentine Planetoid. They've probably also confirmed the location of the Psychic Stone."

"I'm sure what will happen next will be quite exciting to watch."