"Hey, can't this ship go any faster?" Tianluo asked, a hint of sarcasm in his voice.
"If you don't like it, feel free to jump off. I guarantee that'll be much faster," Blackbeard replied dryly.
Tianluo and Blackbeard, sharing the same ship, were speeding away from Matera, breaking through its atmosphere. Behind them, creatures that had emerged in large numbers from the earlier rift though unable to fly continued to fire relentlessly at Blackbeard's ship and the escaping crew.
The laser shots, capable of traversing long distances, nearly hit Blackbeard's mothership, which was parked hundreds of kilometers away in space. While several of Blackbeard's crew ships were shot down, the ship carrying Blackbeard and Tianluo managed to dodge every attack with impressive maneuvers.
"Hmph, not bad. But I could do better," Blackbeard said mockingly.
"If you've got time to talk, do something about all those lasers."
"You think I'm just sitting here!? Even at full power, my ether-based gravity shield can only take two hits before it breaks. Recasting it drains a lot of energy," Blackbeard snapped, his face slightly pale.
"Tch. We'll be out of Matera's atmosphere in about five minutes. Just hang in there," Tianluo said.
"…Hey "
"What!? I'm piloting here."
Tianluo glanced at the rearview monitor and froze. The dimensional rift on Matera had expanded, now covering nearly half the planet. From within the rift, a colossal hand emerged, reaching toward the fleeing ships. One by one, Blackbeard's crew ships were destroyed with a mere touch. The massive hand was now bearing down on their own ship.
"Hey, hey, hey, what the hell is that!? Blackbeard, do something with your ether skills," Tianluo shouted, trying to keep his voice from cracking.
His fingers trembled on the controls as he pushed the ship to its limits. Cold sweat dripped down his neck, and his heart slammed against his chest like a war drum.
Why now? Why here?
The hand was impossibly huge, a monstrous reality that didn't belong in this universe. It wasn't just a threat it was a declaration. That something far worse than death was reaching for them.
He clenched his jaw. This wasn't how it was supposed to go. Not after everything. Not after they'd barely escaped with their lives on Matera.
"I've been trying! None of my attacks work. What is that thing? I've never seen an Outer like this," Blackbeard said, eyes wide.
"Yeah, first time for me too damn it! That hand's right behind us! We've got no choice but to go full throttle!" Tianluo yelled, slamming the ship's accelerator.
But even at max speed, the hand moved faster. Just as it was about to catch up, a massive laser blast several times larger than the ones fired earlier struck the hand, slowing it down.
**
"What is that thing?" I muttered unconsciously.
Even though I was floating in space, a protective magic layer shielded my body, letting me breathe and move with ease. Despite it being my first time out here, my instincts told me I'd die if I dropped my magic for even a moment. To navigate, I reinforced myself with gravity magic.
Standing atop the ship, I surveyed the battlefield with enhanced vision.
"The Outers," said Ballack, who stood beside me likewise protected by magic and scanning the chaos.
The Outers. I remembered my teacher mentioning them unknown beings from outside the universe. But what is outside the universe? No one knows. The term "Outer" refers to entities from beyond. Their existence is abstract but believed due to the occasional emergence of multi-dimensional beings. Rare though they are, their arrival always spells planetary destruction.
The creatures from the rift initially resembled common monsters metallic bodies, some bipedal, others spider-like. They fired lasers like machines. Strong, yes, but they didn't seem like the world-ending kind.
That assumption died the moment I saw their lasers shatter Blackbeard's ether shield.
It was important to note: Blackbeard's ether shield possessed multi-dimensional and strong gravitational properties, capable of nullifying and absorbing energy. I had seen it block even Tianluo's dimensional slash.
"That laser… it doesn't use ether, does it?" I asked Blackbeard, who clearly knew more than I did.
"They're called the Outers for a reason. They don't follow the same rules as we do," he replied grimly.
Ballack elaborated. In our universe, all powers no matter how diverse originate from ether. But the Outers operate on a completely different principle. If ether is Yin, the Outers use Yang. When ether-based attacks collide with Outer energy, they cancel each other out. It sounds fair, but it isn't. All living things in our universe rely on ether meaning even a glancing hit from an Outer can be fatal. Meanwhile, Outer bodies render our attacks useless.
"Then how do we fight them?" I asked.
"We don't," Ballack said flatly. "If a planet is hosting their emergence, it's already lost. Evacuate. That's the only option."
His words chilled me. If ether didn't work, then neither would any of my attacks.
As I mulled over our hopeless situation, a giant hand emerged from the rift again. I turned to Ballack, expecting him to say something but he looked just as shocked as I was. This was new, even to him.
"Ballack, if we don't act, that hand is going to reach Tianluo and Blackbeard's ship," I said, urgency creeping into my voice.
Ballack shook himself from the daze. "Normal attacks won't work."
"We don't need to destroy it just delay it, even for a second."
"You're right… If it were a regular Outer, maybe. A large-scale attack could buy us time. But something that big… Even if I use all my magic in one focused blast, I might only delay it for half a second."
If Ballack who had several times my magic capacity could only manage that, then I had no chance on my own.
Which meant…
"Ballack, use all your magic and fire one huge spell."
Ballack nodded grimly. He had no better option. He trusted me.
"Mei! Does this ship have any weapons?" I asked, using the communicator.
"Yes, but if we fire them, the ship won't be able to warp for a while."
"Hmm… not ideal. Be ready to warp the second we're clear."
"O… okay."
"Kagura! I need your talismans. Enhance Ballack's magic with everything you've got!" I called.
"I'm already in position. All talismans activated," Kagura replied from the deck.
I sighed. "Been a while since I pushed myself this hard."
I poured all my remaining mana into a support spell one I had created myself. Normally, it didn't require much energy, but this time I overloaded it, layering the effect over and over.
A massive magic circle appeared in front of me no, not one. Hundreds. Each nested inside the other, stretching forward, shrinking in diameter, all perfectly aligned. They extended hundreds of meters, compressing and amplifying any energy that passed through.
*
"All those circles… The complexity is insane," Kagura whispered from the deck.
"As expected of General Jiang's heir," she added from the control room.
"I figured as much," Ballack said, preparing his spell. "Even though I have more mana, I never felt superior to you. I can't even decode your circle formula."
"Encryption's pretty standard," I replied.
"I just fire everything through this, right?"
"Yep. Let it rip."
I was running on fumes, my vacuum protection spell barely holding. With no mana left for gravity control, I started to float.
"Chaos Magic Gehenna!"
Ballack released his spell. A black beam its nature unlike anything I'd seen blasted through the magic circles. Each layer multiplied its power, refining and focusing the energy until it became a condensed, destructive laser that hit the Outer's hand.
"Unbelievable…" Ballack and I whispered at the same time.
That catastrophic beam, powerful enough to obliterate Matera, vanished the moment it touched the hand. Still, it did what we needed it delayed the hand, just enough for Tianluo and Blackbeard's ship to escape Matera's orbit.
And the hand? Still intact.
"That was just its hand. What's the rest of it like?" I muttered.
"I don't want to find out," Ballack answered.
"Could it be as strong as the Chrones?" I asked.
Ballack said nothing.
I guess he hasn't seen the Chrones either.
Ballack and I returned to the ship, completely drained. Tianluo was already inside. Blackbeard had rejoined his fleet. But
"Ballack! Gai! Get in, now! We're warping that thing's still chasing us!" Tianluo's voice crackled over the communicator.
I looked back and sure enough, the giant hand was still pursuing us. The rift hadn't closed, but the rest of the Outers had retreated. We weren't going to make it to warp in time.
Then, just as the hand was about to reach us… it stopped.
It opened its palm, reached toward Matera, and crushed the planet like it was made of clay. Then it withdrew vanishing into the rift leaving only debris behind.
We stared in silence.
Matera was gone.
*
In the silent aftermath, time seemed to freeze.
The remains of Matera drifted through the void glowing shards, once part of mountains and oceans, now no more than dust and debris. The world they had just fled from no longer existed.
No one spoke.
Even Tianluo sat still, staring at the screen, fists clenched so tightly his knuckles turned white. He hadn't lost anyone close to him on Matera but the sheer scale of the loss pressed on his chest like a mountain. Millions, maybe billions, wiped out in an instant.
"It was just a hand..." he whispered, more to himself than anyone else. "What kind of monster are we up against?"
There was no answer. Just the quiet hum of the ship, and the growing dread of what might come next.