Intergalactic conquest with an AI-Chapter 365: Xylos Siege. {6}

Laser beams flickered wildly through the smoke, flashing like lightning in a storm. Screams echoed, overlapping with gunfire and crashing metal. No one could tell where the enemy was or how many of them there were. The smoke turned red with light and blood.

"Everyone retreat from the smoke! Get out of there now!" the captain shouted while grabbing a wounded soldier and pulling him toward safety.

He ran as fast as he could, heart pounding, boots slipping on blood-slick stone. Just as he broke out of the fog, he allowed himself a brief breath of relief.

That was a mistake. ƒree𝑤ebnσvel.com

A faint sound like a chime rang out behind him.

He looked up slowly.

Floating above him, untouched by the chaos, was she.

Her figure was elegant and terrifying. Twin white wings extended from her back, glowing softly like a divine weapon. Her silver-white armor gleamed in the dim battlefield light, and her golden eyes locked onto the captain like a hunter finding its prey.

In her hand was a long sword glowing, humming, eager to strike.

Her calm voice was barely a whisper but it rang louder than a scream.

"Goodbye."

She raised her sword to deliver the final blow.

"Do you think there's no one here who can stop you?!"

The voice rang out loud and fierce, cutting through the chaos like a lightning strike. Just as Cleo's sword was about to take the captain's head, the young northern general appeared in a flash, planting himself between Cleo and her target.

His arm moved with perfect timing, catching her blade with his bare hands, stopping the killing blow just inches from the captain's neck.

Sparks flew from the hands of the general.

Cleo's glowing eyes flickered with faint curiosity, but not surprise. She didn't care who she struck since her sword was made to kill. Yet for the first time, it didn't reach its mark.

"G-General!!"

"The General's here! We're saved!"

A wave of hope swept through the surviving soldiers. Their eyes widened in disbelief as they witnessed the northern general standing strong, locked in a deadly clash with the invader who had torn through their ranks like a storm.

Cleo, a peak Tier 3 Kaelzar, floated effortlessly in the air with her wings spread wide and her sword humming with energy.

But the general stood on solid ground, moving with his fists clenched and burning with energy. He was also Tier 3 peak, and his strength came from discipline, grit, and countless battles.

They exchanged blows, each strike faster than the last. Cleo danced in the air like a professional dancer while the general launched powerful jumps, trying to keep up. Their weapons clashed, sending shockwaves in every direction.

Though Cleo could fly and strike from above, the general's timing and raw strength made up for it. Neither could land a decisive blow. The battle between them became a spectacle that inspired the soldiers to keep fighting.

Hovering mid-air, Cleo tilted her head and gave a small nod of respect. "Praises. You are a praiseworthy opponent. You've stopped my strikes not once… but many times. I must commend your skill."

Bullets and plasma shots flew past her as the defenders continued to fire, but her glowing wings emitted a pulsing energy field that blocked every attack like a divine shield.

The general grunted, brushing dust from his shoulder. "Well, thank you," he said with a smirk, "but there's no need to praise a man for doing his duty."

With a battle cry, he leaped into the air again, aiming for her chest, but Cleo twisted effortlessly away and floated higher, avoiding the clash. He landed heavily, sweat dripping from his forehead, but his eyes remained sharp and focused.

As the fight dragged on, Cleo made a decision.

She stopped engaging the general directly and turned her attention to the real target: the fortress defenses.

Gliding like a hawk, she moved across the walls, striking anti-air cannons, disabling missile launchers, and overloading energy grids with targeted blasts.

The general chased her from spot to spot, desperately trying to stop her rampage but he couldn't fly, and she was always one step ahead.

"While I must say," Cleo said as she landed atop a shattered turret, her voice cool and elegant, "your troops are of good quality... in the end, they are limited by one thing... flesh."

Her words stung like venom. The general turned his gaze across the battlefield and his heart sank.

His soldiers were brave but they were exhausted. Many had been fighting for hours without rest. Their arms trembled, their movements slowed, and their shooting became less precise.

There were no fresh reinforcements left to rotate in since every squad was already in combat, spread thin across the entire fortress, holding back endless waves of Kaelzar forces.

And Cleo was right. No matter how hard they fought, their bodies were made of flesh, and the limit of the flesh was their weakness.

"You see," Cleo's voice echoed over the northern fortress like a divine judgment, smooth and cold.

Her white wings glowed as her words boomed across the battlefield, carried by speakers and comms alike.

"My legions can keep fighting for days without sleep or rest. But your soldiers? They bleed. They tire. They fall. I offer you one last chance...surrender now and be spared. Keep struggling… and be exterminated."

A moment of tense silence passed.

Then the northern general, with his blood running down his cheek, lifted his head. His eyes were fierce, filled with fire. "Hmph! Even if our bodies give in, we'll fight with the strength of our souls! We will never surrender to invaders like you!"

With a battle cry, he launched himself toward Cleo once again. Their weapons clashed in the air like thunder, the sheer force of their strikes cracking the air around them. But Cleo only smiled, as if the fight was a dance she'd already learned by heart.

"Commendable," she said calmly while dodging a punch, "but you seem to have forgotten, this isn't the only front I'm attacking."

She twirled in midair like a blade of light, her wings extending sharply. With one strong flap, she struck the general square in the chest. The force of it hurled him through the air, smashing him into a wall. Dust and debris fell around his broken figure.

"Down south," she continued, her voice now filled with icy pride, "one of my youngest creations leads the charge. And let's just say… she hasn't yet learned the concept of mercy."

And Cleo wasn't lying.

While the north still held on through sheer willpower and leadership, the southern fortress was collapsing into ruin.

The Kaelzar legions, led by the young AI, had already breached the walls. Now, they poured into the city like a flood of metal and fire.

The skies screamed with the sound of Aegis units flying overhead, unleashing precise death. The ground trembled under the boots of Tyrant Units, whose massive bodies crushed stone and steel beneath them.

The young AI gave no orders for surrender. No offer of mercy. No interest in negotiations.

The Aegis Legions hunted every living thing inside the fortress. If it moved or even if it didn't but was made of flesh, it was cut down.

Tyrant Units grabbed wounded soldiers like ragdolls and used them as living shields, laughing in mechanical tones as they absorbed gunfire while swinging their massive swords through entire squads.

Blood soaked the walls.

Screams filled the air.

And in the middle of it, the southern general stood his ground. Bruised, battered, and half-broken, he continued to fight. Plasma burned through his armor, shattering bone and ribs. Still, he held onto his weapon, rallying the last of his men.

But three Mauler Juggernauts had surrounded him.

Each of them stood like a walking mountain, their silver armor glinting under the firestorm above. They circled in close with their plasma cannons charging. The general could barely stand now and his breaths were shallow, his armor torn apart while blood poured from his side.

He raised his weapon with trembling arms, a defiant fire still flickering in his eyes.

"…Come on then," he growled. "Let's finish this."

But instead of what the Southern General was expecting, the massive Mauler Juggernauts didn't move at all. They just stood there, completely still. Then, out of nowhere, a small glowing blue figure began to take shape a few meters in front of him. It floated above the ground like a ghost made of light.

A cold, mechanical voice echoed from the figure.

[Identity confirmed: Southern General.]

[You have two choices: surrender and become our slave... or resist and die here, along with all your soldiers.]

The figure was a young-looking AI, her voice calm but emotionless. Her glowing cybernetic eyes locked onto the general with a chilling intensity.

The Southern General coughed, a bit of blood on his lips, but he laughed through the pain.

"Heh… cough, cough… There are no slaves on Xylos!" he shouted proudly, his voice full of defiance. "Only warriors!"

Without hesitating, he pulled out his handgun and fired at the AI. But the bullets passed straight through her since she was only a hologram.

The shots continued past her ghostly body and clanged harmlessly against the armored shield of one of the towering Mauler Juggernauts.

The AI didn't flinch. She didn't blink. She didn't even react.

[.......]

She said nothing more. Her hologram flickered for a moment, then vanished completely, leaving only silence behind.

Then, in the very next second, all three Mauler Juggernauts raised their heavy cannons and fired at the Southern General. The ground shook violently as explosions tore through the earth. Smoke and fire burst into the air, and chunks of metal and debris flew in every direction.

When the dust finally settled, nothing of the Southern General remained.

Nothing... except his feet, still standing where he had made his final stand.