Skyfire Avenue

The Violet Prince grunted in irritation, and gestured once again. This time a host of umbrella-shaped aliens spread out, and under the protection of armored turtle-aliens they began to approach.

He could see already that, while these humans were small in number, they commanded great strength.

On the other side, Lan Jue was quietly giving orders. Suddenly a barrage of blinding white light erupted from the planet’s surface. It surged toward the aliens like a murderous tide. The first salvo from their railguns!

Over a hundred burning streaks of energy slammed into the enemy forces.

But the Violet Prince was ready. The beast he rode upon writhed violently, and a surge of mental energy burst from it. The smaller creatures around it seemed to explode outward, flung in every direction. Most of the salvo hit nothing but air. Trying to get a lock of these aliens was going to be harder than they thought.

Only a handful of shots found their mark, striking the several thousand meter long monstrosity that protected them. However, the beast itself was safeguarded beneath a chitin-like shell. Its thick plating absorbed the railgun fire without incident. No even a scratch remained to mark where the guns had hit their target.

The enemy was stronger than expected, but Lan Jue wasn’t flustered. He glared at the armored aliens coming their way and, with eyes narrowed, nodded.

Star Division saw the signal and was on the move. A thousand soldiers spread out to meet the armored foes head to head. This time the Paragons didn’t react, instead keeping their eyes trained on the alien generals.

Tan Lingyun led her small team toward a target, one of the armored beasts. She knew this breed to be lacking in defenses power but well defended. They could survive a direct shot from a battleship. They were large, cumbersome, and hard to crack.

The next wave coming in behind them was a host of monsters that looked like evil centipedes. As Star Division moved in to intercept the turtle-aliens they rushed in as support. A spray of purple beams shot out. The salvo was cunningly arranged, with each dozen-meter wide ray aimed right for a mecha suit.

Star Division then proved their worth on the battlefield.

Tan Lingyun led the counteroffensive in her emerald-green mecha. She launched off of the turtle-alien with the tip of her mechanical foot and launched herself into the air. In her hands glinted the pair of short swords that were her weapons, and she swiped them downwards. The speed of their movement left behind a streak of aquamarine power that spread out in a wave. The wave seemed almost soft, but in its passage the air rippled strangely. The beams of purple light that had been cast their way were reflected back as they encountered the sword-swipes, no small amount of which pummeled the turtle-alien in front of them. None of the shots reached Tan Lingyun’s team.

Hers wasn’t the only team to evade the attack, similar tactics were employed for the other units. For instance, Tang Xiao morphed himself into a shield – teasingly formed in the shape of a turtle – that protected his team.

The aliens were strong, but their strength only came into play within a certain scope. They could defend themselves well enough against warships, but Star Division was another matter.

Not every team chose to take the blasts head on. Some had more clever solutions. The turtle creatures were over a hundred meters long in some cases, and though cumbersome made for effective barriers. The largest human mecha suits were twenty meters, max. Lan Jue saw some of the teams knock the turtle a hundred and eighty degrees and use it as a shield. Their shell was the alien’s greatest advantage. If a human couldn’t break it, then how could these centipedes?

The shells were strong, but didn’t cover the alien from head to toe. Like a turtle they had limbs and a head, and those were its weakest points.

Star Division’s reaction was quick. In what looked like just a flash of color, the beasts were immobile or dead. Many of their vital crystals had been extracted and recovered by the soldiers. Meanwhile the centipedes continued their hail of fire to no effect.

A hundred turtle-aliens were dead or turned to the enemy’s profit. The Violet Prince’s face was a dark thunderhead. These humans… they were proving troublesome.

He looked upon Lan Jue with some small measure of fear. He had felt the power released when he and Qianlin had broken through. Even now his human-like heart beat with trepidation.

It was this fear that stopped him from sending in a full charge. However, it was beginning to seem as though typical alien soldiers were ineffectual. When did their turtle brethren become so weak? It was as though they didn’t have any armor at all.

Of course that wasn’t true, their defenses were strong as ever. But now they faced human Discipline, mighty powers enhanced by technological mastery. It was particularly effective against their own strengths, which relied on vital energy. It was proving far more fatal than pure energy alone. The turtles were dealt with before they could serve their intended purpose.

At last the Violet Prince engaged. He waved his hand and a flood of purple light spread out from him, swallowing his lesser soldiers in its wake. As the power washed over them the aliens’ eyes darkened to an angry wine hue. Their bodies swelled, and a fierce aura hung over them.

Amplification?

Lan Jue smirked. Did he think they couldn’t play the same game? He needn’t say anything, Qianlin was already releasing her soothing light over the soldiers. Over a few short days she had been imbued with an enormous flood of faith. She was only too eager to release some of it.

The power of faith was a pure form of energy, suppressing it was difficult. If it had been the Pontiff in her place, he would have been only too happy to turn that faith toward personal benefit, to make himself stronger.

However the faith he had commanded was borne of tradition, whereas Qianlin’s was the result of salvation. The Pontiff’s people begged for peace within them, and Qianlin’s followers had been directly saved. The purity of it was entirely different. She was their redeemer! Faith like that was sincere and powerful, how could Qianlin not benefit from it even if she didn’t seek to?

The white light spread far and wide, even covering the nearest centipede monsters. To them the light was like the fire from a thousand suns. They screamed in pain and fled before they were destroyed, trailing plumes of acrid purple smoke. Even direct orders from the Violet Prince fell on deaf ears. Fear and instinct overrode his commands.

Human reactions were reversed. Under the light of the Queen of Heaven they felt refreshed, renewed. Any energy they’d expended was returned to them in an instant, but there was something more. It was as though there was something in the air, something that merged with them and communicated with their Disciplines. A strength they’d never felt filled their bodies.

The more experienced Adepts understood – this was protogenia. What they felt was the pull of their truth living in the threads of the universe. It was only the faintest hint, but to them it was almost miraculous. Just like Lan Jue had in years past, using his protogenia through his Ascension to amplify his powers, these soldiers were strengthened. It lifted them up in every way!

Lan Jue’s decision to bring Star Division into the main fight was not random. By now the leaders of every unit of Star Division was a ninth level Talent. Their mecha suits were custom made to blend with their abilities seamlessly, resulting in formidable destructive power especially harmful to aliens.

But this was secondary. Star Division wouldn’t be able to stop the full alien army by their own strength alone. Even with a couple interstellar fleets as backup, the enemy was simply too strong, and powerful though the railguns were their efficacy was limited.

The Paragons were the true power. Star Division’s primary directive was to keep them safe. Making sure they survived was paramount to the success or failure of the human assault. Prior to making his suggestion to Lan Qing, he’d made sure to have Qianlin try her Discipline on normal Adepts first.

They were pleasantly surprised!

Under the Queen of Heaven Domain, these Adepts could begin to sense their own protogenia. They couldn’t control it, but its presence was enough to amplify their abilities by three hundred percent or more.

What’s more, Qianlin’s abilities restored their energy the same as it did for Paragons. She was a one-woman support team for the whole Division, and with her help their chances of survival rose sharply.