The invaders sat and waited for new orders. Willpower pools replenished as they ate to nourish themselves. For some, they knew it could very well be their last meal. So they distracted themselves by sharing stories of what they'd seen and on missions prior.

The Tkiktch named Steve asked Zack "Hey, can I ask you a personal question?"

"Huh? Ya, what?"

"Why do you have five tentacles at the ends of the two tentacles coming out of your torso."

Zack thought about the question for a moment and said blandly "I have five fingers coming out of each of my two arms."

"You've referred to a lot of things as 'tentacles'. I just thought I'd give you a bit of perspective on how other beings see you."

The other members in the area let out a few chuckles and one of them muttered "Newbie."

Zack couldn't help but think that he was on the brunt of some kind of joke. So he looked at Steve the Tkiktch and decided to think of him in a new light. He was a cockroach. A big black cockroach. Given the history of the Tkiktch, the dreaming consumers, Zack figured it was fair enough to think of him like that.

After a few more minutes Akma appeared out of his vortex and said in a panic "Go now! Quick as you can. All of you!"

All two thousand rogue invaders wasted no time and dashed towards the objective.

Zack flew overhead in his Poiraud form, the heavy lead rail gun ammunition weighing him down somewhat "Akma, what is happening?"

"Xarkris has decided to...disrupt the download by vaporizing everything with his presence."

"Then are we rushing because there's some kind of weapon charging up and we gotta start the download before it fires?"

"No, he's coming himself."

Zack looked at the variety of dangerous looking creatures and dismissively said "Well, then it's two thousand interdimensional soldiers versus one minor deity. Xarkris doesn't stand a chance."

Akma spluttered and shook his head violently "What are you stupid boy? Xarkris is a deity, he can manipulate the universe as he pleases. Just seeing some of these beings have been known to destroy a person's body, mind and or soul. Xarkris isn't even going to bother attacking to kill you all. He's just going to walk over the entire rogue invasion force."

Zack took a moment to let that sink in "Oh."

The remaining two thousand invaders entered a domed interior larger than anything humans had ever built. The floor was upraised like a hill and in the center of the slightly upraised platform was a three foot tall dais was an input port.

Steve blurred towards it and plugged in the data uploading device "There, it's plugged in, but the download is going to take some time."

Akma appeared next to him and asked "How much time is it going to take?"

"I don't know!" Steve the cockroach yelled out orders "Make as many barriers as possible. Willpower techniques, everything. You behemoths, get spraying!"

The Tkiktch behemoths began spewing their gel to make a far off barricade, after several minutes they showed no sign of stopping. The wall grew higher and thicker with each passing second. A mechanical walker of unfamiliar non-human design, plated with some kind of violet metal, set up what looked to be four strange square cannons. The gas creature floating overhead seemed to be swirling at an increasingly high RPM.

Akma yelled and everyone heard him "How far has that download come along?"

Steve said "Ten percent."

Akma said "That's not nearly far enough, he's here."

Steve called out "Listen up! We need to put as much between us and Xarkris as possible. He can only vaporize so much at a time."

Akma appeared next to Zack and said to him "I need you to get right in front of the downloading device."

"That's an interesting place to put me." Then he ran to his assigned position.

"Call it a hunch."

A staccato of crackling sounds slowly rose in volume. The hardened brown barrier began to glow orange and melt as it's outer layer disintegrated. The Tkiktch behemoths continued to spray to make the wall thicker but with a quick check of the map, Zack could see that the mass of white lightning was eating away at it effortlessly.

Zack said in shock "Impossible. I've seen those barriers withstand several minutes of sustained laser fire. Xarkris can't possibly be going through it this quickly."

Then a bright red orb appeared in the center of the wall. Lightning bolts broke out of a rapidly expanding hole, turning the hard as concrete substance into vapor. Consecutive booms ceaselessly filled the chamber. The cybernetic deity Xarkris had come. A mountain of lightning entered the dome. Some of the bolts arcing off him were at least thirty feet thick. The minor deity towered over the invaders, stretching all across the very limits of what they could see.

Volleys of every kind of munition imaginable struck Xarkris, to little effect. Laser beams seemed to dissipate within a few feet of entering the lightning. All the solid ordnance went farther in but were struck by a net of electricity before disappearing as well. The alien mechanical walker unleashed several bursts of cone shaped rippling discharges with it's cannons, car sized impacts made momentary craters within Xarkris.

Zack saw this and thought 'Some kind of anti-energy weapon?'

The Tkiktch stood their ground while Xarkris advanced at a leisurely pace. Zack watched in horror as the giant behemoths set up willpower Barriers and waited. The thick columns of lightning tore through their invisible shields like paper. Their house sized bodies vanishing in almost an instant.

Zack loaded up the railgun attached to his forearm and took aim at the golden balls filled with molecular circuitry. He used repulsion on the railgun and it collected the magnetic particles like how it was designed. Zack charged it for five seconds and pulled the trigger, all of the force was released at once. The lead bullet could be barely seen as it exited the barrel at mach seven. The sound was much more hollow than that of a gunpowder explosion. Zack was blown backwards off his feet but quickly got back up. His arm wrenched back out of it's socket, the bone moving in an unnatural painful motion.

'Okay, maybe charge to three quarters of what I did last time.' Zack got down on one knee and took aim. The gas creature suddenly expanded and dove into Xarkris, Zack couldn't believe his eyes as the lightning storm was momentarily pushed back by a wall of dingy orange smoke before it too disappeared.

Zack took the shot at one of the golden orbs floating around inside Xarkris. The bullet struck it's mark by some miracle. Zack watched the golden orb shatter, the lightning storm decreased in intensity for a fraction of a second. Then the golden orb reformed and Xarkris flared back up to full power.

"There's no stopping him." Zack saw all defenses fail against the minor deity's approach. The mid-tierman Steve Tkiktch fried to a crisp. The alien mecha's cannons ceased firing as they overheated and then it was overtaken. Only a few units remained before Xarkris came upon Zack and the data uploading device.

His mind raced 'What do I do!? What could I possibly against such a thing. I'm going to die, and this mission that had a million participants is going to fail. No. Don't panic. Go through options. Hydrokinesis? Better than nothing. The Poiraud form magnetic Repulsion? I'll just get pushed back. Maybe running's the best thing to do in this situation. No, I can't be a pussy. Hroyd's Ether Swipe. That would do almost nothing. Wait! Akma said there were benefits to opening the psychic link to the Eidolans fully. But I don't even like having such a connection in the first place.'

Zack said aloud "The stakes are too high." then he began top open the psychic link to all his Eidolans at once. First he iniated the connection that would allow for communication and when his Eidolans understood his intentions they reluctantly agreed. The situation was too dire and the stakes too high to refuse.

The very souls of his Eidolans poured into him and Zack began to lose himself. Then he opened it further.

Skill obtained Unity Opens the psychic link between two or more connected conscoiusnesses fully. Allowing willpower pools to be shared and focused towards a single task. Consequences: Difficulty unmerging consciousnesses Requires: Psychic Link to two or more consciousnesses

In that moment all the beings within Zack's eidolan network merged. The being that stood in Zack's skin remembered long years in dark tunnels, the blue of the deep ocean and hiding in the green from numerous predators. In this being's mind there was a very clear thought for the desire of protection from this insane living lightning storm.

He said "Barrier" and a clear shield made from the combined willpower pools of twenty unified beings of one mind formed over him and the data downloader. Columns of lightning came down like rain around him. Eight thousand points of willpower dropped in ten seconds. With every bolt he felt the force drive him into the ground. He knew the pressure would not cease and he knew that this was a struggle he would lose.

Then all of a sudden, the assault abated and the being that used to be Zack fell to the ground, his vision turning dark. Letting his willpower Barrier dissipate in the process. As his consciousness faded he saw a white haired Akma appear.

Akmadouric spared the Eidolan contractor a glance out of respect for his successful yet desperate act, then he turned to speak with Xarkris "I take it that by sparing my remaining soldiers, you've had a change of heart."

Xarkris looked at little blue white haired humanoid in silence for a moment, waiting for the download to complete, when it did he immediately said "Alright Akmadouric. You win. I will join your side of this war."

"Good. Let us depart to your core for we have much to discuss. The first topic will be that aspect that you've earned from our little contest."

Then Zack passed out.