The last hologram finally shattered after what felt like an eternity. For the first time in seven days, the overwhelming noise stopped.
Silence spread across the Central Station again, though this time it no longer felt eerie because every inch of the gigantic structure had been scarred by battle. The glowing lights overhead flickered weakly as though even the station itself had become exhausted from witnessing what had happened here. Four women stood in the middle of complete devastation, breathing heavily while blood dripped onto the floor beneath them.
Runner stumbled before collapsing against a fractured wall breathing hard enough that even speaking looked tiring. Wounds covered nearly every visible part of her body. Her Nanorune Armor had long since been damaged and was restoring itself, though honestly she had stopped caring around the third day when survival became more important than appearances.
Nearby, Shimmer leaned against Annihilator like it was the only thing keeping her standing. Frost drifted faintly from her skin while dragon scales partially remained around parts of her body from overusing her Divine Transformation.
Natalis and Denisia looked no better as both twins sat against ruined debris with exhaustion written clearly across their normally elegant appearances. Golden blood stained their clothes while Holy Energy flickered weakly around them like candle flames struggling to stay alive.
Shimmer slowly raised her head before glancing toward a floating clock projection nearby. Her breathing uneven while she wiped blood from the corner of her mouth.
"It is the ninety-ninth day of the Second Epoch Cycle. We have been fighting for seven straight days."
Nobody replied immediately because hearing it spoken out loud somehow made the entire thing feel even more ridiculous. They experienced seven entire days of nonstop fighting with no sleep or real rest. Runner slowly groaned before sliding farther down the wall.
"Okay, that sucked."
The problem had never actually been strength. That was the frustrating part.
Individually, the holograms were manageable because they lacked Divinities and proper Tethers, meaning their combat versatility was incredibly limited despite possessing terrifying physical power. Unfortunately, the term manageable stopped meaning anything when there were millions of them constantly spawning without pause with every single hologram sharing the exact same Codex and fighting with inhuman coordination that turned the entire battle into an endless war of attrition.
During the first day, they had believed the numbers would eventually run out. By the third day, they realized that assumption had been painfully stupid. The Codex had eventually revealed itself through observation.
Unity. That was its name.
The humanoid hologram that had first spoken to them had remained absent from battle, merely observing from distant projections while continuously generating more soldiers. After watching long enough, they had finally pieced together what made the situation horrifying.
Every hologram was naturally weaker, but the leader—a Fifth Enlightenment Divine—possessed a Codex capable of elevating everyone beneath him to one Enlightenment Rank lower than himself. Since he was a Fifth Enlightenment, every single hologram they fought became a Fourth Enlightenment, which meant every enemy had been on their level.
There were literally millions of Fourth Enlightenment Divines.
Runner slowly rubbed her face while groaning again.
"That guy seriously has the most annoying ability ever."
Denisia leaned her head back against broken rubble while exhaling slowly.
"If they had possessed Divinities, we would already be dead."
Nobody disagreed. That part was simply true.vThe only reason they were still alive came down to several factors and every single one mattered more than they wanted to admit.
The first was Runner.
Being Aeterium meant survival for her was fundamentally unfair because Body Reconstruction had turned what should have been fatal injuries into temporary inconveniences.
Her flesh rebuilt itself repeatedly even after horrifying damage while she continuously forced herself. More importantly, her Speech Manipulation had helped them harder than anyone wanted to admit, constantly reinforcing their endurance, strengthening their bodies, accelerating healing and outright preventing collapse when exhaustion should have already ended them several days ago.
Every time someone neared their limit, Runner had spoken again.
"Restore."
"Endure."
"Heal."
"Rise."
They were simple words and reality obeyed. Obviously she wouldn't tell them to die because her Speech Manipulation came from Runes. Hence, using a Conceptual word like Death would put her out of commission for years and since they multiplied, that was extremely dangerous.
Runner looked down at her trembling hands for a moment.
"I hate how much talking I had to do. Do you know how annoying it is to literally speak nonstop for seven days?"
Shimmer gave her a deadpan stare.
"You complained while healing us."
"Multitasking," Runner defended immediately.
The second factor had been Shimmer.
As the second Frost Dragon after her mother Asenane, she had become something monstrous once her Divine Transformation fully activated, first taking on her humanoid dragon form before eventually abandoning restraint entirely and shifting into her true body.
Her full dragon form had been absurdly massive enough to dominate sections of the battle while freezing and destroying entire regions of the station through overwhelming divine frost and sound. Countless holograms had simply stopped existing beneath the sheer scale of her attacks. More than once, she had physically blocked entire armies just by existing between them and everyone else.
"I still feel sore. Do dragons get muscle pain?"
"You literally body-slammed thousands of holograms," Natalis said.
Shimmer paused.
"Fair point."
The third factor had been the power of the Andelaris twins.
Being Holy Beings gave them something terrifyingly effective against divine enemies because Holy Energy represented the purest forms of Divine Energy in existence, and unlike most powers that required complicated techniques, all they had truly needed to do was release it.
Waves of radiant destruction had torn through enemies relentlessly, burning through holograms faster than almost anyone else could manage while simultaneously protecting the group through overwhelming purification. Holy Energy purified anything they deemed was worth destroying.
Natalis sighed softly.
"I have never used that much Holy Energy in my life," she admitted. "I'm beginning to understand why our Heavenly Mother dislikes prolonged combat."
Denisia nodded immediately.
"My wings still hurt."
"You literally slept standing up twice," Runner said.
Denisia looked away.
"That never happened."
The fourth factor had been their synergy.
None of them specialized in narrow destruction because every single one possessed absurdly wide-scale capabilities, meaning the battlefield constantly transformed into storms of devastation.
Runner controlled positioning and survival. Shimmer handled overwhelming suppression through dragon-scale destruction. Natalis and Denisia annihilated massive zones with Holy Energy while protecting weak points. Over seven days, they adapted to one another until communication almost stopped becoming necessary.
By day five, movements became instinct. By day six, they fought like one unit. Nobody needed instructions anymore.
Then came the final factor, Biolumine. Honestly, calling her a factor felt disrespectful.
She had been the main factor of the entire attrition battle.
A soft glow appeared nearby as white particles gathered together. Moments later Biolumine finished reconstructing another section of Shimmer's injuries through Body Reconstruction before stepping back with folded arms.
Unlike before, she no longer resembled the cat she once had been because the Sinking Void had changed her after fully assimilating into Vastarael's Aeterium constitution. Now she looked closer to a cat therianthrope, possessing soft white cat ears atop her head, glowing slit eyes and a long white tail lazily swaying behind her and sapphire peony tattoos on her biceps.
Back in the Sinking Void, she had ascended into an Aeterium God Ranked Creature.
Divine Creatures already began at Divine Rank by default, and now Biolumine had reached the Second Stage of their rank, making her arguably the strongest presence among them during the battle. More importantly, she helped them repeatedly.
Biolumine crossed her arms while staring at everyone with narrowed eyes.
"You all fight recklessly, especially you."
She pointed directly at Runner.
"What did I do?"
"You tried punching a Fourth Enlightenment army."
"It worked!"
"It did not."
Runner looked offended.
"A little."
Biolumine sighed deeply before sitting beside her and continuing the healing process through Runner's body while flesh quietly reconstructed itself. Floating in front of them nearby was the stopwatch.
Six hours remained before they faced the leader, who was a Fifth Enlightenment Divine.
The station felt strangely quiet now.