"You…"
Sarah Kerrigan's body suddenly convulsed violently, her amber pupils contracting to pinpoints.
The entity parasitizing her clearly hadn't expected to be so bluntly unmasked.
Athena's golden armor shimmered with Han-script runes, each inscription telling of ancient knowledge spanning dimensions.
"No need to disguise yourself, Amon," the goddess's voice resonated like a stellar core's vibration. "Did you really think borrowing this shell would fool my eyes?"
Athena had learned the basic history of the StarCraft universe from the Emperor. She knew that the being now inhabiting the Queen of Blades was none other than the fallen Xel'Naga, Amon.
And within her divine mind, the history of this universe unfurled like a scroll—
In the void-temple of Ulnar, Xel'Naga essences would merge with chosen beings in a sacred ritual called the "Infinite Cycle."
But Amon, once a guardian of this cycle, had fallen due to arrogance.
He desired to become a true god, to control reality as he pleased.
Amon discovered the planet Aiur and the Protoss race.
Through telepathic communion and Khaydarin crystals, he accelerated the Protoss' evolution.
After millennia of preparation, Amon attempted to descend upon the Protoss society in divine form. But activity in the physical universe consumed vast Xel'Naga energy, forcing him to periodically return to Ulnar to recharge.
To permanently escape this limitation, Amon began modifying the Protoss, trying to make them vessels for Void energy. In doing so, he turned the entire race into disposable tools.
When the Protoss learned the truth and rebelled, Amon left Aiur in fury and discovered the planet Zerus.
There, he found an even more perfect instrument—
The Zerg.
These creatures could devour genes, parasitize hosts, and control them by absorbing spinal fluid.
Because Zerg lacked individual will, Amon created a collective consciousness—the Overmind—to command the Swarm. Watching the Zerg consume and evolve brought him joy.
Meanwhile, Amon's interference caused the Protoss to lose their psychic links, plunging them into a long civil war known as the "Aeon of Strife."
It wasn't until a prophet, using Amon's leftover data and Khaydarin crystals, rebuilt the neural network called the Khala that things began to change.
The first Protoss to join the Khala formed the ruling Conclave, the second became Templar warriors, and those who refused were deemed threats and forced into exile.
These exiles discovered a Xel'Naga temple on planet Shakuras and settled there—becoming the Dark Templar.
And hundreds of these Dark Templar had also deployed here alongside the four Astartes companies. Their hatred of Amon far surpassed that of anyone else present.
At this moment, Athena's gaze pierced through Sarah Kerrigan's body like a blade, staring directly at Amon's will within.
The Spear of Victory quivered slightly in her hand, its tip glowing gold as it etched ancient Han runes into the void.
This interdimensional confrontation had finally reached its moment of reckoning.
The next second—
BOOM——————!!!
With a deafening roar, the space around Athena and the Queen of Blades twisted and collapsed. The two figures vanished as if erased by an eraser.
The shockwave swept the area clean, blowing away volcanic ash within hundreds of meters, exposing cracked earth.
Both sides in the battle froze. The Zerg's shrieks ceased; the barrels of human soldiers dipped slightly.
"All units, attention!" Sigismund's voice thundered across the comms. "Initiate evacuation protocol immediately!"
He then turned to Leon. "Agent Kennedy, retrieve the artifact and return to the fleet at once."
With that, the four captains led their respective Astartes companies to stand firm against the seemingly endless swarm.
"Third Company! Diamond formation!"
Gaozan's voice rang across the channel.
The Flame Lizard warriors shifted position. The hum of overloaded heavy weapons became a chorus. Frontline soldiers knelt and opened fire with melta cannons, evaporating advancing Zerg and carving scorched corridors a hundred meters wide.
"Black Templars, raise shields!"
Sigismund's command was crisp and forceful.
Twenty Honor Guards on the western drop zone activated personal field generators in their vambraces. Semi-transparent golden barriers linked together, rising like fortress walls, blocking kilometers of Zerg waves.
When Black Templar bolter rounds passed through the shield, they became "enchanted," triggering micro-blazing explosions on impact, increasing damage significantly.
"Heh…"
Tyberos's deep voice echoed from the northern front.
The Carcharodon captain stood alone at a narrow pass, tearing through the charging Zerg with his chainfist.
His Terminator armor was dented from fighting psionic tendrils, but each swing cleared a ten-meter radius.
He hacked off an Ultralisk's forelimb, toppling it, then crushed its head without pause.
Unless facing daemon-class threats, no number of Zerg could threaten him—this wasn't even a warm-up.
Forros and his Weeper company, meanwhile, launched a counteroffensive, intercepting the swarm while aiding other troops.
Their captain charged into the swarm's crest, fighting hundreds, even thousands of enemies alone to protect his brothers.
BOOM. BOOM.
Soon, thunderous engines roared—the first wave of dropships swooped down like steel eagles.
The Weepers' transports landed first. Even before the doors opened, white-armored Apothecaries leapt out, using jump jets to dart across the field, injecting nanites that sealed critical wounds with foaming gel.
The dropship fleet began loading personnel in order.
Helljumpers formed mobile firing lines. Red and blue Gauss rounds flashed in the smoke. Their gunfire shredded any Zerg that broke through the web.
One squad even hastily assembled a fixed missile tower, letting smart warheads and drones draw deadly arcs in the air.
"Wounded first! Weapons second!"
General Warfield directed at a transport ramp.
His right CMC arm was missing, sparking from exposed wires.
When he saw four Marines carrying an unconscious comrade, the old general rushed over, helping with his one good arm.
Meanwhile, Leon, Mike, and Chris's team continued retrieving the artifact.
A dozen intelligence agents formed a perimeter. Chris fired a shoulder-mounted plasma cannon, vaporizing stray Zerg.
"Thirty seconds!"
Mike shouted, fingers flying on a decoder to unlock the artifact's last seal.
Jim Raynor and Tychus Findlay covered their retreat.
The Rangers had taken position in an abandoned Terran Federation AA battery. Rusted turrets, miraculously revived by Tychus's brute repairs, still had half their ammo.
"Hahaha! Try this!"
He laughed as he flipped the switch, flattening a line of Hydralisks with 40mm chainfire.
Raynor picked off elite Zerg with a heavy sniper, each armor-piercing round punching through their compound eyes.
Then the sky went dark—
Not from Zerg, but from the shadow of the Nerva.
This Emperor-class battleship, like a mobile temple, descended shockingly low. Its belly cannons unfolded, and thousands of hardlight CIWS fired in unison, creating a steel storm worthy of gods.
RI~WHRR—WHRR—!!!
Zerg weren't shredded—they were vaporized into plasma by concentrated high-temperature light beams.
"All units, final evacuation window!"
Forros's mechanical wings fully extended, wingblades spinning into a silver cyclone.
The Weepers fought and retreated. Bolter fire caused chain-reaction explosions among the swarm. One threw a melta grenade, and the mushroom cloud blocked an eastern surge.
"Jim! Now's not the time to stare!"
Tychus smashed a Zergling's skull with a broken barrel and grabbed Raynor's pauldron. "That crazy lady's got a damn god handling her! You worry about yourself! You heard them—the Emperor wants her alive! Now move!"
"…"
But Jim Raynor's gaze remained fixed on where Athena and the Queen had vanished.
Beneath his helmet, his jaw clenched so hard it trembled.
"She's not a crazy lady, Tychus." He took a deep breath and finally ran toward the medevac. "She was just… used."
Above the battlefield, the dropships dove like migrating metal birds.
Leading gunships cleared LZs with rocket salvos, each blast creating dozens-of-meters-wide voids in the Zerg.
"Black Templars, rear guard!"
Sigismund stood on a lava plateau, greatsword planted in the ground, both hands gripping its hilt.
This stance activated another sacred relic hidden inside the sword—a one-time use artifact gifted by the Emperor himself.
BOOM————!!
A visible shockwave erupted, raising a golden forcefield over the drop zone, sealing off the fiercest swarm.
Flowing across the barrier were protective scriptures written by the Emperor. Even Ultralisks couldn't cause a ripple on its surface.
"All companies, follow evac order!" Forros reminded: "Flame Lizards first, Weepers second, Carcharodons third, Black Templars last!"
Terran remnants were prioritized for boarding.
"Go! Go!"
Warfield stood at the ramp. Every shout brought blood to his lips—he hadn't received any medical aid yet. "Forget the gear—just get in!"
When the last transport lifted off, the shield collapsed, and the swarm reclaimed the drop zone.
But it was too late—
All human ships fired their thrusters at once, scorching the front-line Zerg to ash.
RI~WHOOSH——————!!
The Nerva's secondary cannons provided cover fire. Blue-white beams carved molten ravines ten kilometers long through the swarm.
Later, aboard the Hyperion, the bridge screen showed Char's surface in real time. Matt Horner's eyes widened:
"Commander! Detecting high-energy spatial distortion!"
A region of Char's surface suddenly collapsed into a perfect sphere. At its center, eerie golden light pulsed.
Every Zerg turned toward it, letting out shrill cries.
Then, to everyone's shock, billions of Zerg began self-detonating. Their biomass surged toward the pit's center.
"All fleet units, retreat to safe distance!" came Sigismund's command, now acting in Athena's stead.
"That's no battle we can interfere in."
Time rewinds to just before the evacuation.
Athena's words had barely faded when her form became a stream of golden light.
In a moment imperceptible even to Astartes, her left hand shot out like lightning, fingers locking around Kerrigan's skull.
The Queen's bone wings began to rise—her psionics not yet gathered—when her body was yanked from the ground by an irresistible force.
BOOM—!!!
A sonic boom detonated behind them. Air shredded violently, forming a distorted vacuum corridor.
Athena's speed defied physics. Thousands of kilometers passed beneath her feet in an instant.
Char's surface blurred into crimson; only lava rivers pulsed like veins.
They landed on a magma-ringed island.
Scorching stone cracked beneath Athena's boots. Sulfurous steam rose around her but could not touch the divine aura flowing from her form.
With a flick of her arm, the Queen of Blades was hurled like a cannonball, gouging a trench tens of meters long across the rocky ground.
Kerrigan's body sprang back unnaturally, bone wings fully spread, psionics swirling like a storm. Her eyes shone blinding purple.
"You think a change of battlefield changes anything?"
Her voice was no longer fully her own—Amon's will overlapped it, cold and inhuman.
Athena did not answer.
She angled her spear toward the ground. Where it touched, the island's energy veins responded. Lava changed course, forming a searing barrier around them.
The Queen—Amon—struck first.
Her wings shuddered. Hundreds of poisoned bone spikes shot forth, each laced with armor-melting toxins.
Simultaneously, her left hand clenched. The earth cracked open, and countless psionic tendrils burst forth, twisting toward Athena's feet.
But the goddess's form blurred.
BOOM—!
Her charge left golden afterimages. The spikes and tendrils missed entirely.
As her spear thrust forward, its radiance turned the lava sea gold for kilometers.
Amon dodged, but the tip grazed his shoulder. Blue-violet blood vaporized on contact.
"You're too slow."
Athena's voice was cold—her attack, explosive like a starburst.
Her second strike rose from below, sending lava surging like a tidal wave, blocking all escape.
Amon shrieked, unleashing a psionic storm. Void energy clashed with divine fire, the blast shattering the island's hills and terrain.
In that moment, he blinked behind Athena, wings slicing toward her neck.
CLANG!!!
The Spear of Victory was already raised behind her, intercepting the blow.
Athena turned. Her golden eyes glinted with mockery. Her right leg swung like a battle-axe, heel slamming into Kerrigan's gut, sending her flying.
She crashed through three basalt hills before skidding to a stop.
Lava rain fell from above, casting a crimson veil over this battle beyond mortal comprehension.
(End of Chapter)
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