In the armory, 2 teams in the full body armor were standing, reading their respective folders.
"2 minutes until the head out. Put on helmets."
Special operatives accustomed to this procedure, did this without questions, while 2 ring bearers were looking around confused. But seeing others pressing button on their necks, they did the same.
After which liquid came out of the neckpiece of the armor and covered their head, forming a full helmet without any visible lenses or holes.
"How would anyone see in such a helmet?" question rose in heads of Mind and Strength ring bearers, which was shortly answered by the words appearing in front of them.
[System's connection... ]
[Awaiting... ]
[Success...]
As soon as Ring System was connected to the armors, enchantments put on the armor before have been activated with new power. Even visually, different runes, glyphs, and patterns were now dimly glowing on the surface of all armors.
[Activating supporting interface...]
[Analysing external visuals...]
[Deactivating eyes...]
After which, everyone with helmets on felt a slight sting and their vision disappeared.
[Rerouting brain to a new visual source...]
Then finally teams started seeing, but this time visual information wasn't coming from the eyes, but directly from the helmets. What's more, people now saw the world with a 360-degree vision also called a panoramic view. However, this caused quite some strain on the brain of a human, that's unaccustomed to such a field of vision. That is until...
[Reducing brain strain. Switching to manual brain's neural signaling. Locating visuals...]
[Taking over...]
And after a millisecond of absolute darkness, everyone had a perfect omnidirectional vision and interface, with map scans, current objectives, teammates status and so much more.
While everyone was getting accustomed to their new interface, time for moving out was coming closer.
[Teleportation in 30 seconds...]
[Activating invisibility...]
[Success...]
[Taking over bodily function...]
[Temporarily taking over middle ear's functions...]
[Teleportation...]
[Negating apparition's effects...]
***
Above one of the old data centers in the United States, one team of invisible operatives has just appeared.
[Returning middle ear's functionality...]
And on the interface, their mission appeared once more.
[Teleportation was successful. Team 2, your task is to locate information about all the enemy's bases in the data center below you. The data center isn't directly connected to the internet, which makes hacking in from outside source is impossible. Infiltrate and locate the device with the required information. Landing in 4 seconds and remember! Oracle is watching.]
In the meantime, the system was updating its status based on the new location and preparing the interface itself for a new mission.
[Live map updating turned on...]
[Mapping living creatures...]
[Analysing creatures...]
[Coloring out enemies...]
[Analysing external light sources...]
[Adjusting visual's brightness...]
And finally second before landing on the roof of the datacenter.
[Consuming kinetic energy...]
[Conserving momentum...]
And team landed soundlessly on top of one of the buildings of the data center.
Infiltration began.
***
In another location, Team 1 had a similar situation. Plus, because the task was expected to end up in the fight, 2 ring bearers were sent with this team.
They were teleported close to the last known location of Marcus. And from there on, they had to first locate and then capture the guy alive. However, rather than infiltrating, Team 1 was entering with fire.
*Boom*
Everything started with an explosion, that took out the gate of the hangar leading into the base. It was a distraction, led by the Energy Ring bearer. As a monk, with close to unlimited Mana, he could spam strong spells without care, so he was perfect for the role of a distraction.
Although looking at how fast he was killing his way in, it's hard to say if he was just a distraction.
On the other hand, Team 1 operatives lead by their captain, were entering from the opposite direction, steadily approaching Marcus's location. On their way towards him, they quietly eliminated everyone they met. After all, whoever's present at the main base of the enemy, by default is an enemy.
Looking at their progress, in a few minutes they will reach Marcus.
***
Whilst that was happening, Magnus was having a fight of his life with Dark. And Shanghai, as well as its inhabitants, didn't like the consequences of that fight. But really, nobody cares about what dead think.
Speaking of the battle itself, Magnus was losing and he was losing hard, looking at how the "God" was suppressing him. However, that was true, only if you don't take into consideration a limited pool of energy available to that "God".
As for Magnus, he stopped sending part of the Mana he produces to Blacky, which meant that he started spilling a ton of this world's "Energy" into the atmosphere. And that Mana impedes whatever energy Dark uses to fuel his power.
The longer fight goes, the more fighting prowess Magnus will be able to showcase. However, the same cannot be said about Dark. His energy source is limited. He can't draw energy from it, forever. And he, himself, is not producing enough energy to cover for that expenditure.
So slowly, but surely Magnus was gaining his ground in a fight. That of course, is not canceling the fact that so far, Magnus gone through quite some beating.
His right hand was corroded by darkness, so he had to chop it off. His chest was being actively corrupted by darkness as well. He had to use a lot of Mana to not let that darkness consume more than it already did. His left leg was broken in two places, after an unfortunate crash/landing. If he was a normal human, he would've probably bled out and died by now. But Athena was helping him, by managing his body, healing him when possible, increasing the pain threshold and providing him live connection with Ring System, from where he drew almost all of Mana for the fight. Despite his Magical talent reaching astonishing heights, he is still inferior in energy production to a 'God'. Even if that 'God' has a damaged source(a.k.a. dying Universe).
*Four hours later*
Shanghai became a field that can't be named anything other than a wasteland. Fire, lightning, waves, rocks, darkness, light, shadows, monsters and so much more were sent into the battle.
But now was a moment of respite, when two fighters stopped their fight for just a moment and were floating opposite each other.
Dark who didn't change a bit since the beginning of the fight looked towards the progeny, who was closer to a corpse and sighed. Dawn is coming. He could feel it. And his power will decrease substantially after Sunrise. If even now, Dark couldn't defeat him, then it seems...
"It is the end..."
Dark said quietly, but his voice was carried unobstructed towards the progeny.
"It is..."
Progeny replied in a hoarse husky voice, due to his quickly regenerating vocal glands. Despite all the damage, he didn't fall. He didn't die. As long as his brain remained untouched, nothing can kill him. And his skull with brain inside had better defenses than a bunker.
His torso, with multiple holes in it, was slowly mending itself, sucking out Mana from the air to do that. The same was happening to the rest of his body.
'In a few more minutes, his body will be fully healed. Although, his soul should probably remain to be strained...' Dark thought, but after a few seconds, he sadly smiled, 'But with Athena as support that won't affect his fighting capabilities.'
Magnus, looking like a living dead, gave a hearty laugh.
"Had enough rest, 'God'?"
"..."
"Still keeping quiet? Is it arrogance or understanding? Understanding of your own demise."
Dark continues to ignore him.
Magnus looks amused by Dark and laughs. It was at that moment of carelessness, Dark burned all the energy he has and took out the weapon of death. Thanatos's reaper. There are no second chances with this weapon. Athena knows all too well how this weapon works. Anything it hurts will be permanently erased from the Creation. Nothing will save her, after this. But of course, there are repercussions. The Creation itself banned the usage of this weapon because everything that was created is sacred and should not be uncreated, by anyone other than the Creator. That's the law. Breaking that law is punishable by something worse than simple death.
But Dark had nothing to lose at this point. He knew he lost, but he won't let her live. As for his own existence? He simply didn't care.
He has only one chance.
With all his energy, Dark bursts towards Magnus on the speed above and beyond limits of the current Universe and slashed.
A mere moment and he appears in front of Magnus with his hand as if he just did a slash with a scythe he holds.
But Magnus who just stopped laughing looks confusingly at Dark and opens his mouth to say something, but nothing comes out, as he as well as the world around froze in sheer incomprehension of what happened.
"It's the end, indeed. Goodbye Athena..." Dark quietly whispers.
And a moment later, the world around shatters in response to using such an abhorrent weapon. Creation came back for Dark's life. But he doesn't care, as he sees progeny as well as Athena who came out of him at this final moment, slowly disappearing into nothingness and so...
He smiles...