The Mech Touch

None of the captives should have been able to move.

The only exception was Sharpie. As an intangible living sword that possessed no material body, its existence completely fell out of the scope of the restriction effect.

No matter how Roshaw or Grey Watcher Xarnus instructed the statue of the Unending One to lock the bodies of their enemies, neither of the two could have imagined that Ketis actually bore an extra form of life!

As soon as she realized that the pet gifted to her by Ves remained unbound, Ketis secretly plotted to extricate herself from this predicament.

Though Ves probably never intended to make Sharpie exit her body, she thought differently.

Since Sharpie was a sword, why should it remain sheathed in her mind?

Swords were made to be used! A sword that never cut something had no meaning in her 

eyes!

Therefore, Ketis mustered all of her concentration and forcefully tried to infuse Sharpie with the capacity to exit her body in order to cut the strange tentacles that kept her and the surviving locked in place!

Fortunately, Sharpie didn't disappoint!

The moment the surviving Mirror Raider soldiers regained their ability, they began to fire their weapons at the Grand Protector, the Grey Watcher, the ritual circle and the giant tentacled whale statue!

The attacks failed to make an impact!

The same grey shield that prevented the Xona Stalkers from damaging the shrine also protected the vulnerable blood red ritual circle painted on the floor.

Grey Watcher Xarnus also enjoyed the same protection. The dark shield that flickered into vision blocked every attack that attempted to pierce his aged and frail body.

The old man didn't even interrupt his alien mantra or raise his head from the floor. He continually prostrated before the idol of his dark god no matter how much chaos spread to the rest of the shrine!

As for the statue of the Unending One, its aged metallic construction had survived for eons against environmental decay while incurring only superficial surface damage. How could a bunch of laser beams and projectiles possibly destroy the source of the darkness that engulfed Ulimo Citadel and its surroundings?

The only target that sustained actual damage was Grand Protector Roshaw! Though his armor was extremely well-made, its armor plating was not as impervious as Breyer alloy.

"Impossible! How could you escape the grip of the Unending One!?"

"I'll tell you after you die!"

The pirate lord still held Ketis in the air, but that meant that he was within striking distance!

Ketis didn't hesitate and slashed her cutlass against Roshaw's faceplate! A shallow crack and other marks of damage appeared after she had vigorously attacked!

"Ahhh! You insolent wench!"

Roshaw withdrew a large hand cannon from his holster and fired into the abdomen portion of her Rising Red Dragon!

BOOM!

A surprisingly powerful impact struck her armor, causing her body to be flung from the pirate lord's grip! As her armored bulk soared backwards, artificial gravity reasserted itself, causing her damaged armor to bounce and drag across the floor.

"Watch out for that hand cannon! It's more powerful than you think!" She shouted.

It was too late! Though Grand Protector Roshaw looked surprised that Ketis survived the attack, the experienced pirate leader immediately brought his weapon to bear against the head of a Mirror Raider soldier.

BOOM!

The powerful round that Roshaw fired was no regular projectile! This extremely potent round exploded against the helmet of the Mirror Raider. As the unfortunate fellow's combat armor wasn't as resilient as the Rising Red Dragon suit, the helmet failed to withstand the incredible power of the shot and broke apart.

Roshaw whipped out a laser pistol with his other hand and quickly fired at the exposed head of his target.

The beam instantly burned the Mirror Raider's exposed head!

"No!"

"Come on, keep attacking!"

The frenetic battle continued as both sides incurred damage. Roshaw carefully fired his hand cannon at the helmets of his remaining attackers. Though his excellent armor acc.u.mulated a steady amount of damage, as protection that was fit for a pirate lord, its quality and resilience ranked among the top in Ulimo Citadel.

"This isn't working!"

Everyone knew this, but their loadout was limited. Ketis knew that if she didn't join the fight, all of her comrades would die without achieving any result!

However, her armor sustained severe damage after being hit by Roshaw's hand cannon at close range. Cracked armor plating and failing components marred her Rising Red Dragon's abdomen. Combined with all of the other damage her suit had already incurred, her mobility and protection was no longer as good as before.

"I have no choice but to fight!"

Though she eagerly wanted to charge forward to assail the Grand Protector with her sword, she eventually settled for pulling out her compact laser pistol and firing it at the pirate lord at its highest power setting!

The second-class laser pistol immediately attracted Roshaw's attention as a powerful laser beam vaporized a portion of his chest armor!

"Insolent!" He roared and ignored the remaining survivors in order to take out Ketis!

BOOM!

Before he fired, Ketis turned her damaged bulk to the side in order to let her side armor take the brunt of the blow. Plating shattered and delicate components blew up under the force of the attack!

"Ahh!" Ketis shrieked in pain. Though the inner layer of her armor managed to protect her arm, the impact still pushed her backwards.

She fired back with another full-powered shot. This time, she managed to hit the pirate lord's already-damaged faceplate.

The attack was so alarming to Roshaw that he quickly aborted his attack and switched his helmet to full-combat mode. Only a vague snake-headed visage faced the Mirror Raiders which looked ready to sink its fangs into their flesh!

The gear owned by the pirate leader of a great pirate group was not comparable to the Mirror Raiders! As the now-exposed Larkinson clansmen spread around Roshaw and tried to attack him from multiple angles, the great enemy ignored their attacks and focused solely on killing the greatest threat, which was Ketis!

BOOM!

Ketis knew that she couldn't afford to let any section of her combat armor get hit twice! The incredible power of Roshaw's hand cannon would certainly inflict serious bodily damage to her as long as there wasn't enough Breyer alloy in the way to absorb the damage in her stead.

For this reason, she continued to fling and roll her armored bulk around the floor so that Roshaw continually hit the remaining armored portions.

"Annoying woman! Stand still so that I can end you already!"

In the meantime, Ketis tried her best to shoot at Roshaw with her laser pistol, only to inflict moderate to superficial damage to the power leader's armor.

As a pirate who led an increasingly more wealthy pirate group, he had to survive against all sorts of enemies. For this reason, the Grand Protector invested heavily in his own protection.

However, the powerful laser pistol Ketis made sure to protect from any attacks packed a very powerful punch for its size. Though her aim wasn't the best, the integrity of Roshaw's armor quickly worsened as it endured a lot of laser attacks.

Unfortunately, the constant impacts kept spoiling her aim, causing her to delay too much in firing her pistol!

BOOM!

Her chest plating finally succ.u.mbed. As the most crucial component of her combat armor, its loss and the loss of a lot of essential systems immediately shut down many of the other systems of her Rising Red Dragon! The heavy armor plating and structural components that covered her head and limbs turned into a hindrance that severely weighed her down and exposed her to Roshaw's next attack.

Ketis had run out of options! Sharpie had already exhausted itself and she really didn't have any mental energy to empower it again.

Though she hastily tried to remove herself from her broken gear, it only took a single pull of the trigger for the Grand Protector to take her life!

However, just as Roshaw ended her life, the darkness and pressure in the hall abruptly destabilized!

Ketis, Roshaw, the Mirror Raiders and even Grey Watcher Xarnus were being pressed to the ground by huge and mind-numbing pressure that had suddenly spread from the hall!

"What.. our idol! What have you done?!"

The statue of the Unending One began to sway and topple as it somehow incurred a lot of damage!

To everyone's surprise, the bottom half of the statue that supported it had been chewed through. The culprit turned out to be a cat whose presence the pirate lord had overlooked!

"Meow.."

The increasing pressure along with the indigestion he felt from consuming the incredibly hardy metal caused Lucky to feel incredibly bad!

"This cat!"

Not even the prostrating Grey Watcher had noticed anything amiss as he constantly kept his eyes facing the ground. Never in his life could he have imagined that a mechanical cat of all things could have chewed through the incredibly tough metal structure of the statue!

The lack of support eventually caused the statue to topple over and collapse onto the blood-red ritual circle!

A powerful pulse of destabilized energy exploded from the damaged ritual circle. At the same time, the Grey Watcher's body became squished as well, removing any control over the ritual!

A large amount of black fog exploded from the toppled statue. The ritual circle dimmed, but the pressure on everyone's minds grew exponentially greater!

It was as if the broken statue's floodgates had opened! What used to be a smooth, controlled flow transformed into a raging tide that affected both sides.

Roshaw wasn't able to fire his last shot!

Lucky wasn't able to lift his body from the floor!

The Mirror Raiders weren't able to move, let alone think!

"You.. you ruined everything! Ahhh!" Roshaw screamed as his damaged armor form strained to resist the incredible amount of suppression released by the destabilized ritual.

There was one exception.

With great effort, Ketis managed to resist the suppression and strip herself from her broken armor. She stripped herself down to her underlayer vacsuit and the helmet that was key to her ability to resist the suppression!

"How can you move?" Roshaw asked with astonishment.

His greater strength may have allowed him to speak, but he was barely able to do anything else!

Ketis picked up her cutlass and laser pistol and strenuously walked over to the pirate lord's prone body.

"My gear is better than yours." She grinned. "Now die!"

She fired her laser pistol at Roshaw's damaged helmet at full power. She had no idea how long this suppression would last, so she didn't want to delay in taking out the greatest threat in the shrine.

It was incredibly easy for her to fire her weapon at a prone target. It only took a couple of shots for Roshaw's helmet melt!

Ahhh!

The protection lasted just long enough to spare the pirate lord's face from being melted! Unfortunately, the residual heat burned his face and inflicted an immense amount of pain to the leader of the Dry Snakes.

"Next time, don't talk so much."

Ketis stabbed the tip of her cutlass straight through Roshaw's exposed skull. The powerful pirate lord and one of the principal people responsible for killing a lot of Larkinsons died.

She felt no pride or accomplishment for this kill. If not for Lucky's help, she would have died along with the rest of the Xona Stalker defectors!

Her cutlass hacked at the neck of the pirate lord. After separating the head, Ketis lifted it up and tossed it into the hole on the ground.

The decapitated head of Grand Protector Roshaw plopped into the vat of ingredients. Without any fanfare.

"Here's your transcendence, bastard."

Something shifted underneath the fallen statue.

"You…" A different voice called. "Blasphemer!"

The Grey Watcher that should have been crushed by the weight of the giant statue amazingly managed to worm his way from underneath!

Not only that, but his convulsing body underneath his grey robe seemed to grow stronger and stronger.

A huge vortex emerged from the cultist's body. A substantial amount of darkness blasting from the broken statue began to enter into the vortex.

As this process continued, the pressure on everyone lightened up, but the Grey Watcher's body changed as certain abnormal growths grew larger!

Monstrous alien arms poked out of the Grey Watcher's robes! They grew larger and more vicious even as the cultist's body grew in volume as well!

Grey Watcher Xarnus was mutating!

"Shoot!"

Ketis fired her laser pistol at the Grey Watcher, and so did the two Mirror Raiders who managed to regain their ability to move.

Unfortunately, the Grey Watcher's increasingly monstrous form regenerated most of the damage!

Once the Grey Watcher's ballooned to the size of an elephant, an abnormally deep voice rang in everyone's ears!

"YOU SHALL PAY FOR YOUR BLASPHEMY!"

The Grey Watcher had turned into a quadruped lizard-like monstrosity with n.a.k.e.d flesh. Though it looked wrong and flawed, the strength the body contained was very real!