Chapter 602: A Grim Conclusion

Even as her hands flew, doing what she could to save the lives of the elites in front of her, Omilaena felt certain that she was making a mistake.

Not that helping them was inherently wrong, because they needed her help. Fornil was pressed to his absolute limits with the severe injuries coming in, phased injuries that required extensive healing. Without Omilaena's help, more elites would have died. Without potions on hand from Juray, more would have slipped past them both.

But three had already passed, and the survivors told fractured stories of strange invaders. In the absence of a nation-destroyer, this was an unnatural occurrence, and they weren't properly reacting to it. The decentralized nature of the elites' organization was hurting them now, making them react with mixed plans where a single person could have seized control and prevented the disaster from spiraling further.

Could that be her? If not her, then who?

Omilaena finished her current surge of chakra and stood up, looking for a locus of organization that she could use to get a better handle on this. There was the Windborn teleporter arguing with Handelrey, Aeglien, and other elites, disagreeing about how to deal with the disaster. What got her attention was that Kyridnyiam was standing stunned nearby, clutching of all things a wooden door.

"What's going on?" Omilaena demanded as she walked over. The elites looked at her, briefly hostile, but it was a mark of either the seriousness of the situation or her work that they eventually responded.

"Powerful forces landed in the Elemental Nations," Aeglien said tersely. "Mixed reports on what exactly they are, but the reports suggest unprecedented strength."

"We have policies for dealing with invasions," Handelrey added, "but it isn't usually at the same time as an incursion. And this feels strange."

That matched Omilaena's intuition: the elites were acting like a great power had landed on the continent, but their usual methods weren't quite right for this. Several groups had gone out and there had already been three casualties, with a much higher number of serious injuries. Whatever opponent they were fighting had a lot of power, plus the ability to phase.

Based on the reports, the enemy's strength was difficult to gauge yet they seemed to use phases almost constantly. That was serious enough on its own, but the disastrous results had the Windborn woman refusing to teleport out more groups. Without action, however, the invaders were apparently terrorizing the Water Union, so doing nothing wasn't an option.

Glancing to the side, Omilaena watched Kyridnyiam with his door. Normally she might want to interrogate him, but he seemed too shocked to be useful. That clarified it all for her, though: what they fundamentally needed was military intelligence.

"Let me go," Omilaena said abruptly, cutting through the discussion. "I have a better shot at fighting whoever this is, but more importantly, we'll plan to retreat. If Handelrey and Aeglien come along, we'll have multiple teleporters. We engage, gather information, and retreat as necessary."

There was a little quibbling about whether to wait for others, but in the end the elites all wanted to defend Deadwaste, and they had to admit that Omilaena was the strongest they had available. As they prepared, however, she wasn't as confident as she'd projected. She'd trained all her phases further, but if this fight came down to constant phase use, she might not be as useful as her Power would suggest.

They teleported to the Water Union, high in the air instead of at the targeted site so there was more time to observe. Even from above, the disturbance was obvious: there was a Water Union city on fire, which was not their usual aesthetic. It looked like large groups of people were fleeing in terror, while a concentrated force was heaping wreckage on a bonfire near the center.

As they drifted down, as obscured as they could be, Omilaena observed the group more carefully. They looked like a group of ordinary men, but she was instantly sure they were from outside her known context: something about them was different from anyone she'd seen in her travels across Rosemount or Cloudspire. That was compounded by the fact that their average strength was absurdly high, close to a thousand based on primitive-seeming abilities, yet the symbols of their souls seemed to twist, as if their souls were fuzzy.

Or, Omilaena realized grimly, it could well be that her spiritual sight wasn't prepared for what she was seeing.

At the moment they were throwing wooden objects onto a great bonfire, not for any apparent purpose Omilaena could see. Others were tearing apart nearby stalls, smashing objects and hurling food, like savages except their expressions were filled with disgust. As she moved closer, they had yet to notice her, so Omilaena was able to pick out their words.

"All of this tastes like shit," one of them howled, spitting out food. "Is there no good food here?"

"Disgusting!" Another man kicked over a food stall, utterly demolishing it.

"They weren't lying earlier." A potbellied man spoke almost to himself, not audible to many of the others, but Omilaena's ears could pick up the words. "This is really the best they have. They weren't insulting us, we just..."

"Everything here is just shit," another said, picking at his clothes. "Even this silk is absolute garbage."

While this was all merely interesting to Omilaena, she saw the elites beside her growing increasingly distraught. These were inexplicably powerful strangers devastating their home, after all, a truly existential threat that they had yet to understand. Because, fuzzy souls aside, none of these men seemed like they should be so dangerous.

Handelrey glanced toward Omilaena, urging her forward, but she shook her head. Not yet. First she tried to examine the others, picking up on their social dynamics. They acted like they knew one another fairly well, but it wasn't a proper organization, they ruled by strength. The names of five men came up multiple times and Omilaena quickly spotted them. Though as rough as the others, their souls had a little more shape to them.

And if her spiritual sight could be believed, they all had far above 2000 Power.

Pulling out her goggles, Omilaena tried to examine them more deeply. She was increasingly convinced that her spiritual sight just needed to adjust to these souls, but this wasn't the time for deep secrets. Instead she focused all her attention on one of the men - the one called Budajix was a bit burly and kept throwing out a fist, using some sort of punching technique to demolish buildings.

At last she caught a glimpse of his soul:

<

Name: Budajix

Total Power: 2451

Bloodpuncher: Level 13 (1300)

Human Essence: 500

Brute Physique: D-5 (335)

Soul Level: 6 (216)

Mana Circlet (+100)

>

It didn't make sense to her, but it seemed like he had an overwhelming amount of power in a Class-like ability. Omilaena restricted herself from futile speculations, because they had a crisis on her hands. Aeglien was talking to the others about the possibility of negotiating, but Omilaena felt certain that they weren't going to resolve this with words alone.

Then, without warning, one of the five most dangerous invaders turned to spot her.

<

Name: Fodajix

Total Power: 2283

Ironeater: Feldspar Rank (1105)

Human Essence: 300

Brute Iron Physique: D-5 (335)

Soul Level: 7 (343)

Ring of Iron (+100)

Trueiron Sword (+100)

>

It was the slim, rat-faced man they called Fodajix, and his eyes burned at her in rage. His soul included what appeared to be a chakra-based ability, plus a higher Soul Level than the others. Whatever the reason, he noticed first, pointing and shouting.

"There's more of them, spying on us!"

The group of invaders immediately began to hurl objects in their direction, the projectiles moving surprisingly fast. All of them dodged on instinct, but Omilaena noticed over her shoulder that one of the stones punched directly through a wall behind her.

And then, a fraction of a second later, she had the invaders charging at her. Omilaena had grown used to instinctive speed phases, but she was still taken off guard: these men ran like untrained thugs, but it was like they were using perfect speed phases, crossing the distance in shockingly little time. Instantly the elites were fighting for their lives, using mobility techniques to retreat before the dozens of fighters could surround them, while Omilaena hesitated just a moment too long.

When they got close her combat instincts took over and she whirled into motion: she kicked off the first attacker and spun, hurling needles in all directions. Despite her surprise, Omilaena was sure that she managed an offensive phase when she manifested the needles.

Instead of blowing through her opponents, her steel just sunk into their flesh like normal needles. And she had hurled one at the weaselly man called Fodajix, but her needle actually glanced off - did he have a strong ability on top of his defensive phase?

"Well, you boys are fun." Omilaena swung her hips to one side and propped a fist on them, falling back to old habits after being shaken by the initial attack. And, to her surprise, it worked shockingly well, with the men actually halting their attack to ogle her.

"Holy shit, look at that one!" one called.

"I thought all the women here were hideous, but she's actually hot!"

Omilaena kept a smile plastered on her face even as she winced internally: she saw a violent lust in their eyes and there was no question that, as they advanced, they intended to rape her. Given their impossible strength, that was more of a risk than it had been in a long time, and she didn't like feeling vulnerable.

When Omilaena felt vulnerable, she got violent.

Three of the men advanced on her, intending to pin her down instead of trying to kill her, and that was a fatal mistake. Even if they were somehow fighting with phases all the time, Omilaena still had twice their strength. Her fingernails tore across the face of the first, she drove a knife through the ear of the second, and she grappled the third, pinning his arm behind his back.

He was shockingly strong... but not as strong as Kai when he was sparring with her. Omilaena kept the man pinned while she jammed a needle into his back, drawing as much blood as she could. She had taken out this group, but there were dozens more men, each of them a potentially lethal threat, and worse, the five...

She saw the punch begin too late. Budajix, the one with the Class-like ability, was targeting her. Even as she tried to disengage, Omilaena felt the blow impact her with overwhelming force.

Several buildings broke apart behind her before she slammed to a halt in a town square. Omilaena groaned as she forced herself up, realizing that her arm was broken. She still gripped a syringe of blood, though, so if they could just survive this and get away...

"We retreat," Handelrey hissed as she landed beside them.

"I'm trying," the Windborn teleporter said tersely. She was sweating, trying to extend her mana, but it wasn't working.

Qi flooded from above, reminding Omilaena of the brute force version of a presence technique. The one with a cultivator's soul - Yangix - was advancing on them with an arrogant expression, flooding qi over the city. She wanted to get a better look at his strength, but her head was still spinning from the impact.

"No more running away," he announced. "Most of the people here are pathetic, but a few of you are actually capable of hurting us. Just who are you?"

"Limited range," Aeglien said.

"Agreed." Handelrey nodded slightly.

That was all they said - no more planning, no more negotiations. Aeglien stepped forward, his crystal armor flaring with light so bright that the advancing invaders were blinded. Handelrey moved beside him, her hair flying wildly as great vines of stone ripped from the ground, wrapping around the enemy.

Before Omilaena could object, she realized that she was being dragged backward in a speed phase. The Windborn teleporter pulled her backward at top speed until they escaped the range of the qi, then she began to teleport.

As they disappeared, Omilaena caught a glimpse of the stone vines exploding from within.

Then they lay back on the Frontier base, with all the injured and dead elites. The teleporter slumped back, gasping for breath, her eyes wide. Omilaena simply lay on her back, strangely calm despite the grim situation.

It was tempting to speculate about the origin of these invaders, that they might come from the hypothesized fifth continent or be related to the god-like beings that had fought over the last incursion. She brushed aside such considerations as irrelevant. All that mattered was that they faced an apocalyptic threat and that, if she couldn't figure it out, more than just Deadwaste was at risk.

She marched over to Kyridnyiam, who was still clutching his door. "Why do you have this?" she asked.

"It... it blocks," he mumbled. "Their attacks break through everything else. The door from their ship blocks them."

"Let me see." Omilaena took the door from him, not ungently, and eased it against the wall before stabbing the surface with a needle.

The first attempt was like stabbing stone, her needle actually bending at the impact. Omilaena summoned her weakened focus and managed an offensive phase: this time her needle punched through the wood. Already close to understanding, Omilaena began examining her other evidence. She had the blood in her syringe, of course, and when she'd torn across the face of another invader, she'd ended up with some hair under her fingernails.

All of which led to the same conclusion.

"What... what's happening?" Kyridnyiam asked. "What are you checking?"

"Just a theory." Omilaena sighed and let the evidence drop. "The invaders aren't fighting with phases. All the physical matter that came with them is stronger than the strongest materials we have here. Their defenses are naturally as strong as the Empress of the Coiled Empire and they hit like Matiavel. Wherever they come from, everything is naturally phased."

"Oh..." Kyridnyiam's eyes widened as he understood. "Oh, shit."

Omilaena ignored him as well as the other elites who had heard her. She should be thinking of solutions, but she found herself wondering if Aeglien and Handelrey had gone to their deaths. They might have understood before she did and done it intentionally.