Somewhere concealed in the starry sky above Calypto was a large destroyer starship. This starship also doubled as Hidden Death Valley's command center.
Currently, the large warship that could easily fit 5000 people like nothing, only held a select few passengers, less than 100, in fact.
Of them, most were part of the information sector, tasked with monitoring, reading, and classifying the deployed soldiers' information.
The ones not partaking in this particular job could be counted on one hand.
The Commander who first briefed the geniuses on their mission was one of them.
Currently, he stared menacingly at a star map.
"The students are doing much better than expected, but on the contrary…"
The first line of defense had already been breached.
The leading Nox Avatar and its strongest followers charged into the starry sky around one month ago, and they'd already breached one of the immense and complex defense lines that'd been set up around Calypto.
"Reports from Throh are chaotic. It's still too soon to understand whether the operation is proceeding in our favor or not. Haa, the only good news in this situation is that at least those kids are safe…"
Since most of the Nox experts in Calypto were in the starry sky fighting against the actual troops set up to restrict their movement, the geniuses on the surface would be safe from a majority of the threats that—
HONG! HONG! HONG! HONG!
The abrupt and jarring sound of alarm bells rang from the information division.
The commander immediately rushed over. When he reached the source of the alarm, he was met with a large number of people moving about with papers and holographic windows floating about.
"This is a completely unexpected situation. The squad is on Continent 6, so the nearest troops that could provide assistance are over an hour away."
"How fast can the starship get there? We must not lose that squadron."
"I agree that they are extremely talented, but their talent will not change reality. If we move the starship now, the invisible pressure our existence puts on the Nox Avatar and its forces will disappear, and the main defense line will be attacked far more harshly. We cannot sacrifice the fate of the universe for a few geniuses!"
The commander pushed his way through the crowd and listened in on the conversation.
'What is this…?'
He finally reached the front of the crowd and saw the scene projected on the screen they were all watching.
A single squadron of five people…
…facing off against an army of Nox fit to conquer an entire world.
The starship was immovable due to the current circumstances.
The nearest forces that could provide aid were over an hour away.
The commander clenched his fists as he watched the screen.
'Please…please try to survive for a single hour!'
***
"Sir Saint Emperor sends his regards."
Those words echoed around the canyon and amplified, as if forcing the Stargazer Squad to accept the reality they'd just been presented with.
Damien inadvertently frowned as he gazed at the butler's condescending expression. Soon enough, he fixed his expression and smiled back at the butler. "This is quite the reception, isn't it? I didn't know the Saint Emperor cared about me so much."
He replied calmly as his awareness silently spread around him.
For ten thousand kilometers, he could see nothing but a wave of Nox.
It was truly an army that could conquer the world.
Aside from that…
'So the Saint Emperor was someone like that…he is the owner of the Nox Avatar ruling this Infected Source World.'
A few pieces of the puzzle in his head started to click.
He looked back up at the butler and his army.
"I don't know if your master told you, but I'm not a fan of small talk, especially if I'm talking to dogs. You came here for a fight, did you not? Ah, I forgot that dogs don't speak English. Want me to say it again while barking?"
'The emergency signal didn't return any positive responses…1 hour, huh.'
Damien tapped his academy emblem and activated the emergency signal the second he saw the butler.
After all, with the ferocity of the mana raging around his body, he was evidently a high-rank 4th class Nox at the very least, if not an extreme peak level expert.
The response to his call for help, however, was wholly negative.
'That damn Saint Emperor…has he been watching me since then?'
Damien thought back to his encounter with the Demigod a few months back. That day, the Saint Emperor controlled the World Core itself to act as his avatar.
Damien wondered why the Nox expert didn't kill him that day. Most old monsters were adamant about cutting the weeds and pulling the roots regardless of the situation.
'But it seems he just wanted to play with his food a bit.'
He let Damien continue moving unrestrained to drop his guard, and at the moment when he was completely unprepared…
'He dropped an army on my face.'
Damien sighed. None of this would've happened if he'd just made the obvious connection between the Saint Emperor and the Nox Avatar. None of this would've happened if he didn't choose to recklessly interact with an infected World Core with no prior knowledge about its functions.
The Saint Emperor perfectly tracked Damien's movements with ease and prepared the perfect trap.
For the first time, Damien met a tactician who he couldn't overwhelm with brute strength alone.
'I don't know how many millions of them there are, but they'll be endless once we start fighting. In a large-scale battle like this, the Nox's transformation ability shines the brightest.'
The ability to combine after death and be reborn was something a practitioner could combat in smaller situations, but when an entire army was involved, wasting mana on eliminating the Nox remains was impractical.
In fact, it was far more practical to allow the Nox to reform and slowly kill them until they couldn't reform any longer.
After all, no matter how strange the Nox's inherent ability was, it couldn't overcome the barrier of Divinity.
'Alright, it's just a few million, right? It's just an hour, right? Let's just fucking go for it.'
Damien unwillingly accepted the current circumstance. His entire thought process only took a few sparks of an instant, so by the time he gathered his thoughts, the Nox butler was just beginning to reply to his earlier statement.
"Making crass allusions to provoke me will not work, dear sir. However, it is true that we have come here to fight. Or is it better to say…we have come to exterminate?"
The butler raised his body and smiled eerily.
"Since dear sir has stated his discontent towards flowery talks, this humble one shall not bother with it any longer. Then, shall we instead move on to the main event?"
He raised his arm in the air, summoning a cane from the space in front of him.
He grabbed the cane's head and allowed the tip to touch the ground. He clicked his heels and turned his body.
"Please enjoy the gift our dear Master has prepared for you, O beloved guests."
His words echoed through the canyon once more, accompanied by the uncoordinated stomping of the approaching armies.
The butler's body vanished into the crowd.
And Damien's eyes hardened.
'I think I might have to go all out this time.'
