Marcus inspected the stationed Dragoon. His hands brushed past it, walking back and forth. Seeing a legitimate mobile suit makes part of him sing in happiness.
Something akin to an awakening of an inner nerd. This machine was entirely created by Quinella, a division just for her.
The Inventor took a few of them and stationed them in his Confiscator as he wanted to test them out.
It would be a crime not to do that.
After checking the exterior, he took the stairs up and went to the front of the machine from the back.
The stomach area of the machine slides out, revealing a seat. With a small smile, Marcus walked over and sat down. The moment he did, the seat slid back into the machine.
Once inside, the crystalline screens turned on. They surround him from all sides—a sphere cockpit where one could see from all angles.
With the screen online, he could see the OS boot up. The seat adjusted to him, and the control sticks came from the sides of the cockpit.
'Not bad, not bad at all. To think that my darling is already capable of such machine designs. All these small touches.'
Marcus was proud of what his Quinella had created. He saw a subtle psionic interface from the schematics he had just loaded. These machines have a Triangle version of Twin Dragon Diamond Core, as well as an M.T.M reactor, quite an overkill, but he can see what she was cooking.
The diamond reactor is to power the frame purely, the 18 nova thrusters and Graviton support. The M.T.M kinetic reactor is to power weaponry, nothing else. Quinella designs this machine to wage war, not battle. The machine will operate until someone creates something that can outperform Twin Dragon Diamond Core and could damage this thing.
'The girl is serious with the 'Elites' tag she placed on these machines.' Marcus thought to himself as his eyes continued to inspect the frame's schematics.
After checking them, he dismissed the window mentally and then pressed a button on the control sticks.
The button triggered the release of the magnetic hold, and the walk bridge lifted, allowing the Dragoon to walk towards the runway.
"Well, this runway is quite a mobile suit unfriendly. Aurora, place a note about the magnetic railing runway. We should be ashamed to use primitive jet fighter runways."
As he was 'burning' himself, he pulled the right control stick to the middle. The Dragoon transformed or, more like, dropped into a jet fighter mode.
This control arrangement was a subtle nod to Tristan Knightmare from Code Geass. It's a slick nod from Quinella to one of the best mecha shows.
[Leaving a note]
The AI replied to Marcus as he brought the Dragoon to the runway. Instead of wheels, the plane mode has several graviton projectors, which is a good choice in the long term as the integrity knights could launch these mobile suits in different ways depending on how the combat situation requires.
The inventor's left hand went to the side, just next to the control stick and put the hand on the lever. That is thruster control.
He pushed it all up. There is a subtle notification there. The more he pushed it up, the redder it was. At the lowest, it was very light green. At the max, it was dark red.
This detail indicated that all 18 thrusters will be operating at max.
Marcus saw how the machine reacted to that. The speedometer went from Kilometres to Match the speed of sound.
"Very nice, Quinella, very nice. I like those small details."
Once the runway was empty, Marcus pressed the throttle, and the Dragoon blasted out from the Confiscator and right into the caverns.
The Inventor swiftly needed to turn as the mobile suit approached a wall.
The speed of this thing was very impressive. Because of such close proximity to walls, Solomon's successor needed to pay attention to how quickly he was moving and needed to turn.
"Impressive, the subtle use of graviton projectors around the cockpit negates the G-force, the air resistance creates kinetic energy which ends up absorbed by the frame and feeds the M.T.M reactor," Marcus commented about the machine he was piloting.
His whole attention was on the screen as he focused on piloting in such claustrophobic conditions.
"Aurora, are you mapping the route I am flying?"
[Yes, sir]
"Good."
As he sharply nodded, the very next second, he used the psionic interface to see if the Silver-Haired Dragoness was following him.
A slight smirk appeared on his lips as he saw she was trying to keep up.
"Do try to keep up, Na'er." Marcus teased her over the comms.
"I will!"
~~~~~~Meanwhile, Greek Underworld~~~~~~
Even if one could not discern what kind of expression Hades had because of his Skeletal appearance, the aura he emitted was more than enough.
The Underworld God's aura was as solemn as it could get. One of the Trinity Gods of the Greek Pantheon pondered how he could escape from this with his 'hide' intact.
Millions of soldiers breach all of the Underworld entrances. They are slowly marching towards his realm. It was like a ticking time bomb, and he, like a prisoner, chained to a chair, forced to watch it tick.
'This is very bad. With the amount of soldiers they have, he has me put in a corner. My soul reserves are dwindling thanks to the war.
This move is a checkmate for me.'
With a hand motion, he appeared on his throne and sat down. He then contacted Olympus.
"Hades, you are too late. I do not have the means to stop what is happening." Zeus went straight to the point.
The current accident is not the first time. Over the past 5+ thousand years, Hades had rebelled, sealed himself, or caused a scene of some sort.
So, the King of Gods knew why his brother contacted him. Hades wants to be saved in some sort of form and keep some of that pride intact. Sadly for him, such a thing is not possible.
"Zeus, do you even comprehend what you are saying? Our Pantheon is getting under attack! If I lose, Greeks won't have an Underworld!" The Skeletal God exclaimed with anger. His hand was clenching his staff hard, and his teeth were gnashing from the sheer anger he was feeling at this moment. Not even his skeletal form can clench the anger.
"I already dealt with that. Athena and Ares are with Marcus Goldman. Continued use of the Underworld has been granted to us. In truth, Marcus will even build a special prison for us where any sort of enemy can be sealed away for good." Zeus explained with smooth and barely hidden smugness.
The King of Gods didn't tell his brother that Marcus only accepted this as he would be allowed to experiment on prisoners.
Not that Zeus cares what will happen to those cast aside to the Underworld.
As The God of Sky was basking in 'his' achievements, Hades trembled as he realised what was going on! Olympus has abandoned him!
"You passive curl! Do you even realise what this means!? I tried to bring glory back to our Pantheon!!! Destroy those upstarts! Put humans in their place! All you did was bow your head to a mere human!
Fine! If this is the case, then so be it!"
With a smack of his staff, Hades dismissed his communication with Olympus, then stood up from his throne and walked away.
It was time for him to prepare for his last stand.
~~~
The second layer of the Underworld is Hades Realm, which is quite bad for Hades himself. Marcus' soldiers swiftly surrounded all the entrance points to Hades Realm.
At this moment, Hades has sealed the doors to his realm. Massive obsidian doors donned with gold ornaments are between Marcus' troops and the Greek Underworld.
As the G.A.T. Knights are surrounding the entrances, Aurora Bots are preparing the siege. Since the cavern is not that big, they can't bring massive siege equipment. Not that Technocracy cares or is in any rush.
Instead, the Aurora Bots equipped with M.T.M reactors started to build massive cannons to blow off the gates from all the entrances, not that Marcus needs one where he is. He has a Battleship!
While the army prepares for a siege, the gunships continue dropping off the Knights.
One of these gunships is carrying Sirin and Atalanta; the pair are looking through small gaps on the side of the gunship.
The amount of G.A.T knights is enough to form a snake-like formation. It was neat and very orderly.
"Aren't we flying for over ten minutes? I still can't see the end of them." The Herrscher last time saw this many— people? Are they people? Well, human-like beings in Arc City. But that was because it was a city. She had never seen this many combat-ready personnel before!
"At this moment, Technocracy has close to 4 million Forward Knights and close to a million Assault Knights. Depending on Master's mood, he adds 30 to 13 thousand of them per day."
"...This is closer to god-like behaviour than human." Sirin casually mentioned what she was thinking, her eyes still on the formation on the ground, slowly moving through the labyrinth-like tunnels. Thankfully, this place has cave-like crystals sticking out all over the place, giving them some natural light.
"And who decides what is what, Sirin? As a literal pet to Marcus, I started questioning certain things. Who decides these definitions? Why do Gods call themselves Gods? Who decided that?
Does the power they wield tell them to call themselves Gods? Or is it because they were the first ones to be spawned by the world?
Ultimately, I believe they took those titles by themselves and decided to do that. Because, at this moment, nothing matters. Just look where we are." Atalanta pointed at what was outside. They were about to invade THE Hell!
"We are leading an army to invade actual hell!"
"...I see your point. I am slightly ashamed to say that I did call myself a God once." The Void Queen slightly blushed from embarrassment as she said that.
Compared to what she saw, people in this place have more power than her. And are much more durable than her.
Well, her example is Marcus; the rest do not truly matter.
"...I see. Then it's power, is it not? If you are powerful, you can call yourself one." Atalanta was getting all philosophical. One does as when one lives at such extremes.
"...You want my answer?" Sirin asked curiously.
"I do; your roots are from a completely different reality." The Lion Maid asked her as she moved her head away from looking outside and looked at Herrscher instead.
*Sigh*
The Herrscher sighed with her eyes open wide; what could she say? Being a little girl manipulated by some alien will that controls the particles?
"My opinion doesn't mean much, but since you asked. I would say that the man who brought me to this place is the closest thing to a God.
But my opinion is very biassed. Since I am part of his faction." She showed her the shoulder patch she had—the Ten Rings.
"The other Gods I saw are maids or a Fiance, which used her connections to get to him. They are more humans than gods."
"Precisely my point." Atalanta nodded at her words before her eyes returned to the army on the ground.
They have been flying for a while.
~~~
As the gunships landed, the side doors slid away and allowed people to leave.
Sirin and Atalanta left and proceeded to walk to the temporary forward base.
They can see it was like a mini fortress hastily erected. Where Atalanta is used to seeing wooden versions of these, this time around, it looked like it was metal of some sort.
As they were slowly walking there, another gunship landed. As the doors slid to the side, they revealed a familiar group. It was Artemis, Hypolyta and Jeanne.
The Lioness' eyes perked up seeing those. She proceeded to walk towards them instead of the forward base.
Sirin, for a second, looked confused, but then she saw where the maid was going. She looked curious at these three.
"That silver-haired woman with blue eyes is Goddess Artemis." As if knowing the huntress-turned-house cat explained to Herrscher.
"Oh."
'Marcus' greatest spoil of war before Nyx. Very interesting.'
Sirin has heard bits and pieces from Atalanta about Artemis. The Goddess of the Moon was considered an ambitious woman.
It does make sense to her. This woman was worshipped as a Goddess for 99.99% of her life, and now she was reduced to a maid.
So, she is trying to regain some of that prestige. The best way to do that is to become the wife of Marcus Goldman.
'But. I don't see that happening. I am very confident that with his intelligence, he can see what she is planning. I do think it's his sadism at work enjoying watching this Goddess struggle towards something she has very little chance of achieving.'
Sirin, being a fellow sadist, can see between those lines what is going on.
"Atalanta, what is going on? What is with these new armours?" Artemis was confused seeing three types of Forward Knight types of soldiers!
She hates being out of the loop!
"Goddess, you didn't follow the updates? Thanks to this war, the armies went through several 'revolutions'." Atalanta said straight to the point. The Lioness wasn't surprised that Artemis wasn't following anything. The Goddess is not tech-savvy, after all.
"...But it was only around a week! How much did it change!?" Artemis' blue eyes went to the side and looked at the knights. She could see a new armour type, the second and the old type. They were all mixed up in the formations.
Just how fast all of this happened!?
"Week is more than enough. You have seen how our Master advances." Jeanne wasn't surprised. Hypolyta nodded at the blonde's words. She was in the same boat.
Instead, they looked at the girl with orange eyes and strange pupils.
"...you must be Master's new creation?" Hyppolita asked with a knowing tone.
"In a way, I am."
"In a way?"
"Yes. Regardless, we should go and see what—Marcus is doing. No doubt he is waiting for us." The Herrscher motioned for them to walk towards the temporary base they had built at the side of the cavern's wall.
"She is right, let's go." Artemis nodded at the white-haired girl's words. She looked at her for a bit. Her Divinity analysed this girl.
What she sensed from her made her somewhat apprehensive. She hasn't felt something like this for a while.
This girl is a killer; someone who could bathe millions in blood without batting an eye. That's what she is sensing from this girl's soul.
'What did Master create this time?' Artemis pondered this as they were walking towards the forward base.
Less than a minute later, they were at the heart of the base.
A holographic map was in front of Marcus. This map shows entrance points to Hades Realm.
"This is the final battle of this war. With the fall of Hades' Underworld, the rest of the layers will free-fall." As Marcus explained to Gu Yuena and his ship girls, he noticed new arrivals.
"Oh, what do we have here? My maids are back." The Inventor smiled slightly as he noticed them, so he turned towards the five girls walking over.
All three of them slightly bowed to him. Sirin was somewhat intrigued to see a goddess bow!
To think that he had 'tamed' the Goddess of the Moon to this extent!
"Yes. We have returned. The fighting has officially ended on the surface of the Underworld." Artemis explained to him as she looked at the new Ship girl.
'It was just over a week, and he has two new creations. The whole war was a mistake, uncle, and now you will pay for it.'
That's right. If not for the war, Artemis could have had a better chance in her 'grand plan,' but it's getting increasingly out of hand.
Her stay as a maid is looking more and more like a possibility.
"Good, I assume only a few stranglers are left, nothing for us to worry about. For now, we should focus on things at hand."
The trio nodded at Marcus' words and walked over to the map. Artemis' eyes scanned the content of the map.
'To think that someone could surround Uncle's underworld. S.P.B.A surrounds every single exit and entrance. The only possible exit that could be used is to the human world directly, but then Uncle would need to remove the space lock.'
The Goddess of the Hunt realised that her uncle had boxed himself in. Not that he ever considered that someone would have enough resources to surround literal hell.
"The main bulk of the forces is with me. I plan to break through these gates and make Hades focus on me while he does that; G.A.T. will breach the other entrances along the way.
Before he realises, we will pin him from all sides."
"Good plan, but you should be wary of the grim reapers. Uncle hasn't used them yet." Artemis recalled Pluto and Thanatos.
"Goddess is right. Hades' Grim Reapers are strong and have weird powers." Hyppolita warned the group.
"Then I hope they have enough of them to cause a threat to us." Marcus acknowledged the enemies for whatever they were worth.
Lastly, he looked at Tirpitz, his battleship.
"Tirpitz, you will destroy the gates for me with your battleship." The Inventor said that with a small smile. It was time for his North Queen to show the power of the battleship in cannon mode.
"Understood, I won't disappoint you."
'So she is a battleship.'
The maids were storing the new information away. Le Fay would snort at them for being stupid and not just checking the information on logs. But they are far too old-fashioned.
'Now that I think about it. Where is Le Fay? She never did join us in a fight.' Jeanne looked around, but she couldn't see Le Fay.
Saint Reborn didn't realise that the Witch was working her way to the top. The witch is a witch, which means she can adjust to her surroundings. She is an ambitious and intelligent person who adapts to her circumstances.
The witch is working directly for the Head Maid and assistant. Since Le Fay can't replace the house cat position, she can become valuable to the Head Maid and Assistant.
If she is to show that she is obsessed with Marcus to those two, they will be much more lenient and willing to share some of the plans and schemes.
That's why Le Fay is not with Marcus at this moment. She wouldn't be helpful to him at this moment.
"Good. What about you three? Did you rest enough? Can we start the assault?" His question got them by surprise. They swiftly nodded their heads.
'So that's how it is.' Sirin observed the interaction between him and the maids. She noticed peculiar behaviour.
Marcus, from time to time, would ask things which would make them be kept on their toes.
Like now, he is 'postponing' the attack because of them. But Sirin knows better. This question is just an act, as he knows they will say they are rested.
'I still don't know if it's his sadism or if he just likes to mess with them.'
"We are fine. You can start the assault." Artemis swiftly nodded.
"Good. Then, Tirpitz, you may start and Enterprise, notify the troops."
"Understood, Admiral."
"Yes, leave it to me." The pair started to walk towards the exit.
As they walked away, Marcus looked at the maids he had not seen for over a week. He smiled slightly at them. That smile made the maids start blushing.
"M-Master, we have slain many enemies in your name," Jeanne said proudly.
"Good, we can discuss rewards and things like that after Hell falls." The inventor nodded at her. He was interested in the results.
He wants to see which of them is more dedicated to him.
"Yes!"
The trio got excited about the whole reward thing. Well, only Hyppolita and Jeanne, as Artemis didn't show on her face. Well, her eyes trembled from possible rewards!
~~~
Tirpitz walked in from the sealed gates, and a massive golden ripple appeared behind her, tens of metres above the ground.
This ripple grew in size until it became tens of metres wide.
Slowly, a metallic construct similar to a ship floated out from the ripple.
The battleship started to transform, the hull split in half vertically, becoming a massive cannon, unlike Enterprise, which has a 'crew', Starscream fighter squadrons. Bismarck's class is all about firepower. Tirpitz IS one man's army.
As the transformation was complete, the energy gathered in the barrel. The dual Diamond reactors rerouted all the power to charge a beam for destruction.
Less than a minute later, the beam was released from the cannon, slamming into the gates the next second.
There was no explosion, and there was no explosive substance. Instead, the gates started to melt away like ice exposed to heat rays.
Slowly, the other side started to be revealed. Marcus looked at this with a small smile. Part of him still doesn't believe that he is waging war to conquer the very hell itself.
But it is what it is. He needs to conquer this place; he needs to put Hades in his place. If he leaves this God alone, he will wage something in the future.
Marcus knows that he is not all-knowing. Someone like Hades could potentially discover some weakness the inventor didn't perceive before.
That's a potential he doesn't want to deal with in future. These Underworld Gods are a tricky bunch mingling so close to Death.
He would rather deal with Gods of Wisdom or War.
'But that's until I understand everything there is to understand about life and death; once that is out of the way— well…'
'There won't be any need to fear anything.'
As the doors melted away, things started to pour from the other side.
"To think that he will go on offence instead of defence!" Jeanne and Hyppolyta were surprised by Hades' move.
Massive bats, cerberuses, hell hounds, lamias, and other things started to pour towards G.A.T Knights.
"Fire. Destroy all of them."
When Marcus said that, everyone opened fire, and light mana started raining on the creatures.
The Spider walkers' metallic horns roared as they moved forward, and the Yeagers started to dash forward. This battle was the last of this war.
"We should join," Artemis commented as she summoned her bow.
"Are you sure? You will be fighting against your uncle." Marcus asked her.
Artemis looked at him with a slight deadpan look.
"To think my Master will question my loyalty this late in the game. I am slightly hurt."
"..." Marcus doesn't know how to reply to that.
"He might be my uncle, but I am part of your faction, not whatever renegade thing he has created," Artemis explained as she looked at the battlefield.
"Fine. You three can join." The inventor motioned for them to get to it.
"Great!"
"Let's go!"
Jeanne and Hyppolyta rushed into the battlefield while Artemis dashed towards one of the spider walkers, jumped on top of it, and started to shoot her arrows from the walker.
"Well, and you two?"
Marcus turned to Gu Yuena and Sirin.
"I will have to wait for a bit. The particles here are too sparse for me." The Herrscher casually shrugged. She was in no rush to fight forces from hell.
"And my place is next to you." At the same time, the Dragoness acted like his bodyguard.
"I see…"
With a nod, he pulled out his tablet and checked something.
[Ars Almadel Salomonis Support: Positioning]
'Well, this was expected. However, this data.' Instead of Satellite weapon support, Marcus looked at the data.
"Damn, to think that Hades could do this." The Inventor frowned as he saw the enemy numbers were not falling.
The pair looked at him with a confused look. Their Master is swearing!?
"What?"
"He is respawning his fighters. The moment they die." Marcus said that with a thin line on his lips.
"Such a thing is destabilising the plane of existence and the very fabric of reality. For this to work, he needs to drain the power from somewhere. For my troops, I have Neo- Heaven system and Diamond cores to sustain the process.
Such a system doesn't exist here."
With a frown, Marcus started to float and disappeared from the location.
"D-Did he just—" Sirin looked with shock. Did he just go to the frontline!?
A massive purple explosion happened inside the Hades Realm the very next second.
"Yes. I am going after him."
[BALANCE BREAKER!!!]
The Dragoness got clad in her armour as she flew right after her Master.
There is no way she will miss rampaging!
~~~
Marcus, like a beacon of light, was shining high in the Realm of Undead.
Below him, a massive battle was raging. On one side were machines, armour-clad men, accompanied by a battleship and an aircraft carrier.
There was enough space to summon them since they were inside Hades Realm.
The other side had monsters like the undead, zombies, skeletons, grim reapers and other hellish creatures, not that Marcus cared about that. He just pointed his hand at the enemies below.
His rings manifest on his fingers.
"Watch closely, Underworld. This is what evolution looks like."
Space gathered in his palm as he released several balls of rippled space.
These space ripples rushed forward, morphing, growing in size, taking the shape of humanoid giants. Purple eyes manifesting on their heads.
Slowly, they became spectral beings who started to fight against Hades' troops.
These creations appeared thanks to the power of three rings, Ring of Focus, allowing to skip in the magic calculation. Then, the Ring of Space allows manipulation of space and lastly, the Ring of Evolution.
Marcus created a path of 'evolution' for space itself. Such a thing is only possible when several rings work together.
Slowly, the spectral giants started to rip to shreds the opposite.
This creation was not the end, as Marcus created more elementals.
Fire, water, thunder, earth, all of the elements started to push back the enemy deeper into the Realm of Hades.
As this was happening, the Inventor flew at rapid speed to the castle of gold and obsidian.
With a casual hand motion, he blasted through the castle gates and walked into the depths of the Greek God's Fortress.
He quickly found himself in the throne room where Skeletal God was sitting on his throne.
"You are one annoying human. You know that, don't you?" Hades said with a dull voice.
*Snort*
"Says the skeleton who declared war on me. To think that a Greek God would gather fellow Evil and Dark Gods to attack me. A mere human, I am humbled." Marcus pretended to be a simple 'human'.
His behaviour only infuriated Hades further.
"Don't mock me! Marcus Goldman! You are a freak, a monster! A paradox! You should not exist!" Hades snapped at Marcus as his hand slammed into his throne.
"Not exist? I could say the same thing. In the world of logic and reason, you should not be around at first. Yet, I don't throw a hissy fit as you do."
"ENOUGH!!!"
The Greek God of the Underworld pointed his palm as black energy rushed towards Marcus, who ignored the attack. He was like a wall as the black energies splashed into him and diverged to the sides as the energy got nowhere to go.
"Is that it? You used 'Death' to kill me? That's so basic; your divinity focuses on ageing cells in one's body. But as someone who is 'perfect', I do not have ageing cells." Marcus flickered his hand and destroyed the black energy.
Hades slowly lowered his skeletal hand, and his eyes, which were blue flames, were flicking rapidly.
"...This is absurd!"
"That's what you said. Not me." Marcus took a step and appeared in front of Hades. His finger 'moved' towards the Skeletal Being's forehead.
One of the Greek Trinity Gods responded to this as he used his impressive energy to blast the Inventor away.
"You use Space and time. Impressive. You are not human, that is for sure. No human can do what you did. This is the realm of Gods." The Godling said with an impressed tone; there was also some underlying fear.
Marcus dusted himself off as he was moved back a little bit.
"Human this, human that. Do you really want me to start discriminating against you as well? So far, I have been very civic with you." Solomon's Successor said with slightly narrowed eyes.
"Hmmm. I was praising you, human. Not every—"
***BOOM***
Marcus punched Hades—Hard.
The god blasted through walls and outside, flying, spinning hundreds of times and eventually slamming into walls of the Underworld.
Before he can release a sound, a hand grabs him by the head and starts to drag it through the wall like it is a farming tool.
Marcus didn't hold back as he dragged Hades through the underworld before yanking him away and throwing him into the depths of the underworld, creating a massive crater.
Once again, he appeared in the crater before slowly walking over to the Underworld God, pulling him up, and looking directly into his blue flames for eyes.
"I am going to punch the very 'God' out of you. And believe me, there is no God or Primordial in this Reality who will save you from it." The Inventor 'reminded' and 'explained' what will happen.
After explaining the course of action, Marcus released his hold, and the Godling started to fall, but before he could fall, a punch went to his face.
With a loud sonic boom, Hades flew to the other side of the Underworld.
The Inventor followed after him. It was time to teach that skeleton some etiquette.
~~~
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