The Villain's Story

Chapter 941: Project Alpha.

For sixty whole years, humanity has been preparing for revenge. For six entire decades, they kept their heads low, their mouths shut, and focused solely on progress.

While the Martial Star was busy with managing his own realm and thwarting rebellions in his conquered planets, Humans were evolving, just like they had since the very moment of their birth.

From the moment they could throw the stone, from the moment they could shape the stick into a spear, from the very moment the first child of man was born on this very planet, war was born.

Cruelty had arrived, and this cruelty, this demented intelligence had secured its owner the rightful place as the owner of Earth, the Apex Predator of this planet.

Humans have been waging war ever since the very start of their race, since its very inception. Humanity has always been at war with everything, including itself.

And because of that, it has evolved. To fight against disease, to fight against malnutrition, to fight against nature itself, to fight against ignorance, and most importantly.

To fight against itself. Humanity has always, always considered itself the greatest enemy. No single threat on Planet Earth could ever compare to another human being, and thus, progress was halted.

A planet was divided by war with itself. Since the very beginning.

War is not the art of the demons; it is not the art of the Celestials who declare crusades on the Abyss. War is not the art of the Dragons and the Gods, War is not the art of the elves, orcs, and dwarves.

All of their inception began with finding themselves or peace, but not humanity. Humanity has always washed its body with the blood of its own.

War is the art of Homo sapiens.

Choosing the House of War was the logical choice; it was the instinctual choice. It was the right choice.

And now? Humanity no longer fights among itself, instead finding a common enemy to focus upon.

Fear not the one who unites humanity against himself; pity the poor bastard instead.

——–

They came without warning. That was the first thing, the absence of a warning. One moment, the night was what it had always been, vast and indifferent and full of ordinary darkness. The next moment, the horizon ceased to exist on both sides.

It began as a sound. Not an explosion, not yet, at the very least. Something deeper and more primal than that. A vibration felt in the chest before the ears heard it. The kind of sound that bypasses conscious thought entirely and speaks directly to something ancient and animal in the nervous system of any being. The sound of something incomprehensibly large moving through the air. Through the water. Through the world itself.

The demons and demonic beasts who were awake on the coastline looked out to sea and saw nothing at first. Then their eyes adjusted, and they understood that what they had taken for the horizon, that clean, familiar line where ocean met sky, was gone and replaced by something else. Something that stretched from one edge of vision to the other without interruption and moved with the slow, terrible patience of a geological event.

It was the fleet.

Thousands of warships. So many that the ocean beneath them was no longer visible from the shore… Only steel, only hull, only the churning white water at the bow of each vessel pressing forward through the dark. Destroyers and cruisers and battleships and carriers arranged in formations so vast and so precise that they seemed less like a military force and more like a new geography.

A moving continent of iron and fire advancing across the water in absolute silence, save for that deep, resonant vibration that continued to build in the chest of every living thing that felt it.

The two dragons in the sky, flanking the Mighty Mothership, were overshadowed by the hundred fighter aircraft.

The Demons on the coastline stood up, some ran, some faced the fleet with stupid pride. As for the hundreds of thousands of demonic beasts rushing at them from the sky and the depths of the Sea?

Oliver stood at the front of the moving continent of steel and fire, his hand raised high. The cacophony of demonic screams surrounded the entire sea, threatening to consume it, but his hand did not waver.

Alan silently watched from under the sea, aware of what the Sage was doing. With expertise just like Alan’s, The Sage manipulated the mana in the surroundings, and yet, he was not doing it to cast a spell.

No, he was doing it to destroy one. The Grand Barrier that protected Terra Damnum, in front of his very eyes, was being dismantled. At such a quick pace… that Alan was uncertain if he could do so himself. Perhaps, using [Dragon Eyes], and a majority of his mana, he would be able to achieve a similar result as the Sage.

Despite being a Dragon, there was still a lot he had to learn about Magic.

But then again, it was to be expected. Oliver’s expertise in this dismantling came from his years of experience and his years of researching this barrier. Clad in a black military uniform, adorned with every medal there was, the Sage silently dismantled the Great Barrier surrounding Terra Damnum.

His best friend, Sword Saint Arken, dressed in similar attire, watched with a slight smile on his face, as Oliver… had done it.

Alan’s eyes widened as he saw the Great Barrier… shatter like glass. It was expected, but the mana released was astonishing. He was pushed back slightly in the deep waters, but Arken and Oliver did not move a single inch, just like the fleet.

His extreme sensitivity to mana was at fault for this. Alan laughed at himself inwardly… as the Demonic Beasts rushed towards them. A moment of hesitation appeared.

‘Should I do something?’

But in the end, he chose to listen to orders, even as the disgusting lot came closer and closer.

But not a single awakened being moved to intercept them, not a single one. Arken could cut them down, Oliver could shoot them down with magic, and the Three Dragons could make quick work of them, but that was not how things were supposed to go.

Not on this day.

Oliver took a deep breath, and the hand that stretched towards the sky finally lowered itself, pointing towards Terra Damnum.

And that was the signal for the Fleet.