Turning his attention back to the battlefield, Sect Master Lei searched for Han Sen. Since the one he saw in the beginning was a clone, it meant that the real one was somewhere out there creeping around. Not finding any hair of him, he shifting his gaze to the wraiths who were the source of much frustration.
They were immune to physical attacks making the only way to harm them be energy-based attacks. In any other circumstance, this would have been acceptable, but when considering the fact that the cultivatoers in the formation were expanding their qi to activate the formation, it was a big problem. On one hand, if they attacked the wraiths and exhausted their qi pool then the formation would not activate, leaving them and the Sect vulnerable.
On the other hand, though, if they focused all their qi on activating the formation, they themselves will be left vulnerable. And if they were to die before activating the formation then all their efforts would have been for nothing.
'Between a rock and a hard place... Of course, there's a third option...'
Sect Master Lei placed two of his fingers behind his ears before he said, "Brother Horko, release all the Puppet Knights and send them into the formation. Make sure the Wraiths don't disturbe the pillars of the formation."
On the other side of the phone? ***[Cameraman]: I can confirm, when he placed his fingers behind his ear a mark started glowing... I think this is some form of telepathic communication...*** On the other side of the com?? Was a middle-aged man with messy hair. He had a skinny build that was further highlighted by his baggy pants, wifebeater that left his tabletop chest exposed, and a lab coat that almost reached his knees.
"Master Lei, the Puppet Knights aren't yet fully functional. We also haven't finished making the proper software for combat so on the battlefield, as they are now, they are nothing more than sturdy meat shields."
"It's okay just then them, man them to distract the Wraiths and make sure the pillars supporting the formation aren't disturbed."
With that command, Horko went to work; he who was in his workshop commanded all his workers to man all the Puppet Knights currently functioning. Thankfully they had enough manpower to control all the Puppet Knights which numbered in the five hundreds. Each worker was equipped with a headgear that covered their entire head like a bubble, at the end of the gear was a tail-like structure with a horizontally stretched tip that attached to the back of their necks.
Horko commanded everyone to "dive" whatever that meant… And right after that command was issued everyone seemed to have fallen unconscious as their bodies went limp making them look passed out drunk. Their positions weren't helping their case either as one of them was lying on the floor while others laid on tables or chairs, some even on the floor.
Horko laid on top of a table as he himself "dived", and with the trusted [CameraMan] we were able to see what happened when one dived. Horko's vision blurred before turning pitch black, then slowly different colored strands of light appeared and disappeared in a flash. It almost looked like what happened when one traveled through a wormhole. Before long the lights disappeared and what was left in their place was a blue tint; slowly a display appeared as different panels emerged in his field of vision. In the middle, a panel appeared with a loading bar in the lower half while the upper half was occupied by a string of words that read, "Synchronization at 98%".
The percentile increased one point at a time before reaching a hundred percent, that was when every panel disappeared, in its place a single panel popped up asking for an ID badge number. As soon as Horko enters his ID number a futuristic view appeared. Different displays surrounded Horko's field of vision, one reminiscent of Tony Stark's Iron Suit inner display.
Looking to his left and his right, Horko saw rows upon rows of robots with human physiologies, but due to the dim lighting, not many of their features were clearly visible. Observing this, he commanded for the doors to open; and open they did. Countless doors stood side by side, separated by a vertical column. Shutter-like parts retracted to the sides uniformly, creating an opening that allowed the passage of a single grown adult.
The [CameraMan] sensing what was about to happen instantly directed the focus back to the battlefield. Countless cultivators could be seen struggling to fend off the wraiths. Mind you they weren't weak or anything, in fact, they were said to be the main military might of the Nine Dragon Sect; when excluding its technological might, the problem was they needed to focus on activating the formation as with that they would be able to defend against any schemes Han Sen might play. And that held them at a disadvantage.
One of the cultivators who acted at the pillar was on the precipice of being overwhelmed when suddenly, from below, the wraith that harassed him was sent flying by an armored robot. The robot had a greyish-blue metal that covered its mechanical body and a head that was structured like a Knight's helmet. Actually, on closer look, its entire body was designed like a Knight's armor.
The Puppet Knight managed to throw away the wraith before flying towards another wraith that disturbed the cultivator. Similar occurrences appeared as countless Puppet Knights rose from the sea of clouds, supported by their thrusters at their back, aiming to shoo away the wraiths and protect the cultivators from further disturbances. Creating a perimeter around the cultivators, the Puppet Knights stood guard allowing the cultivators to focus on activating the formation.
The wraiths relentlessly tried to stop the cultivators but between the Puppet Knights defending and attacking there wasn't much wiggle room. A minute passed when suddenly a large array formation appeared with the cultivators acting as the pillars. The Sect Master let out a smile as he thought, 'The formation is activated!' In fact, he wasn't the only one who was happy, almost all the cultivators in the formation let out a sigh of relief as they were finally free to counterattack. Even the ones who were on the islands were relieved a little as they saw the the formation light up.
The formation pulsated with a fiery red light causing a quakes to emerge from within the islands. Just then, Han Sen appeared floating above the array formation, he executed bizarre hand seals which caused an even bigger array formation to appear above him. The formation was massive enough to engulf the entire Nine Dragon Sect; it glowed with golden light before slowly rising higher and higher, increasing its altitude.
The ones in the formation below were shocked beyond compare as they felt the same feeling of death from the beginning. 'So this was it!!!' thought Sect Master Lei as he gritted his teeth. Although he didn't know what the effect of the formation was going to be, he knew it was going to be catastrophic!
Han Sen, along with the black mist as well as the wraiths, disappeared into thin air prompting the formation to flash with a blinding light. Once the light subsided, in its place was a pitch-black void. Not even the Sect Master was able to gleam the horrors the existed on the other side!
Watching this unfold, the Sect Master placed two of his fingers behind his ear before calling out, "Everyone, lend us your strength!!!" When the Sect members heard that, they swallowed their fear and raised their trembling arms up toward the sky before sending out their qi in support.
Their qi was collected by their individual island defensive barriers before being guided into the pillars that further strengthened their formation, due to that the quakes from before appeared again but this time much stronger!
Back at the void, suddenly chunks of rock came out of the void, heading straight for the formation. One of the pillars seeing this pointed his finger like a pistol before shooting out condensed fireballs, destroying one chunk after the other. But this only went on for a short while before the cultivator was frozen from shock. From within the void, a red dot appeared; it slowly kept expanding and before long it reached the edges of the void. It had a redish rocky surface which sent chills down people's spines.
Everyone seeing this were flabbergasted as incredible heat radiated from it. For a better perspective, the [Cameraman] flew toward the edge of the formation and recorded it from the side. By the way it was protruding outwards, it seemed like it was something massive…
***
[Reader]: Hey, wait! Last time we saw Han Sen wasn't he on top of a meteor or something??? If that's the case then… Don't tell me?!?!?!
[Author]: Congratulations [Reader] you have accurately guessed what is going to happen.
[Reader]: Bruh you have to start being original at some point in the story*The reader typed this with tears in his eyes*
[Author]: HAH!!! You have seen nothing yet!