Gravitor looked out of the watchtower, staring at the manufacturing complex from above. Although his eyes were fixated on the manufacturing complex, his focus was elsewhere.
Gravitor's eyes drifted to his right. Forest Princess was sitting near the skeletons of two Vrekhar soldiers that they had killed to claim the watchtower for themselves.
She passed their skull from one hand to the other, casually playing with the remains of the guards whose bodies she had broken down into nutrients and absorbed to replenish her mana.
A heartbeat later, she stopped, threw the skull to the other side of the watchtower, and said softly.
"I'm bored. Null, can't we just kill some soldiers? Once Riven starts destroying the weapon depots, everyone will realize hostile entities are here anyway. So what's the point of maintaining so much secrecy?"
It was the perfect time for him to try to start a conversation with her and maybe even tell her his feelings. But he was stuck keeping an eye on that Brat's progress in the mission.
It was so annoying…
Null didn't reply to her instead he turned towards him and asked.
"Have you spotted any activity?"
Gravitor shook his head and said.
"Not yet sir."
Null just replied.
"Keep looking."
Gravitor cursed him in his mind.
"Fuck you…"
He wanted to start a conversation with Forest not babysit that brat but he had no chance other than obeying Null since he was the leader of their team. In the hierarchy of the Supreme Empire, disobeying the leader of the squad was a crime punishable by death.
Left with no choice, he continued doing his work but just then something changed. The air itself grew heavy and he felt a powerful presence near him.
Gravitor turned towards Null and asked
"Did you feel that Null?"
Null didn't reply instead he closed his eyes as his body began to glow. When he opened his eyes again, he turned to Forest Princess then to him, and said.
"Brace for a battle to the death."
Before he could understand what was happening, he felt the ground beneath him vibrate. At first, the vibration was almost non-existent but then it became stronger until he felt the entire ground beneath him shake.
Then the ground cracked and the entire watchtower came crashing down along with them. Gravitor's eyes darted around, he only saw dust and falling debris.
He kept looking and located Null and the Forest Princess. They were falling into the area of a manufacturing complex. He felt his heart beat faster when he saw her falling.
"Don't worry I will save you, Princess!"
Then Null shouted back.
"Gravitor you know what to do."
He didn't say a word instead he closed his eyes and began to channel mana throughout his body in a certain way. A moment later, he opened his eyes and a wave of mana exploded from his body, traveling in every single direction.
He felt his mana sweeping deep into every single falling debris around him and when the process was completed, he only uttered a single word.
"Stop."
The debris had stopped falling and was currently floating. Then three tiles probably from a section of the floor shot towards him, Null and Forest Princess.
The tile appeared beneath his feet and he landed on top of it. He looked below him — Null and Forest Princess had also successfully landed.
He willed the tiles to descend to the ground while he kept all the debris of the watchtower floating. He planned to use them as a weapon for whatever threat he was going to face.
As they descended to the ground, he heard the Forest Princess's voice.
"Thank you Gravitor! As a reward I will cook the remains of the next beast I kill for you."
He felt his heart beating faster. Did she cook for him? It was a dream come true for him.
Then she added in a teasing voice.
"Just joking!"
His mood was immediately ruined but he didn't dwell on it since that was her nature. Instead, he kept descending at a faster speed only slowing down when he was at the same level as the others.
When everyone was together descending to the ground slowly, Gravitor asked.
"Who did this?"
Null pointed towards a certain direction and said.
"Look there."
He looked in the direction he was pointing and froze.
It was Voric and the person next to him was an even greater danger. That was Kulvrek — the Ascended being. Things had taken a turn for the worse.
As he stared at them, Null's voice echoed throughout the base.
"How did you find us Ascended Kulvrek?"
Kulvrek kept staring at them and his authoritative voice echoed through the air.
"I know everything that goes on inside this base. I also know that you have sent an Awakened warrior to destroy our weapons Depot and I have already taken care of that matter."
That meant that Brat was going to face great danger. The brat might also die — he didn't care about his life but that meant that the chances of their mission failing would increase.
Kulvrek's lips curled upwards. Then he added.
"Isn't that right Mind Manipulator Null?"
Null didn't say a word. Kulvrek continued speaking.
"I will assume that I am right."
Then Kulvrek turned towards the countless soldiers behind him and said.
"Open fire!!"
Gravitor saw a wave of arrows hurling towards them at an incredible speed. Null's head snapped towards Gravitor and said.
"Block all incoming projectiles!"
Then Null snapped towards Forest Princess and said.
"Do what you do best and kill any enemy that you can find."
Gravitor nodded and said.
"On it."
Forest Princess exclaimed.
"Just leave everything to me! I will turn every one of them into nutrients for me to replenish my mana."
Gravitor didn't say anything else, he sent debris hurling towards the incoming arrows. The arrows snapped into two upon impact but the debris wasn't destroyed so he used the same debris to block more arrows.
As he did he saw from the corner of his eye that the Forest Princess took out a handful of seeds from her pocket. Then she spread them out — when it landed it immediately bloomed into tall and thick roots. The roots shot towards the Vrekhar soldier, tightly wrapped around their bodies.
The soldier screamed but the grip of the roots didn't loosen… no matter what.
But then Voric charged forward with his silver rods and cut them down with his rods freeing the trapped soldiers.
Then he heard her sinister laughter which sounded like a melody to his ears and she said.
"Oh, you are still alive? Don't worry I will soon have your head."