Chapter 71 - Ultimate Chaos

Christeané rocketed forward, the sonic shock generated from his incredible speed suppressing the rising magma below as he slammed into Morcii almost instantly. Sent flying several hundreds of kilometers, the Nanocreature leader then flipped himself around midair and launched himself back across the mountainous region as he threw both of the Sendous Chakrams and slashed the air in front of him with the Arcán Claymore, generating a massive slice of energy that carved its way through the terrain below and forced Christeané to throw himself to the side. He intercepted one of the Chakrams, snatching it out of the air with his fist before the second chakram slammed into his back just as Morcii reached him and grabbed his face, smashing it on his knee and then launching him down at the crater below. The Nanocreature leader immediately clasped his four hands together and transformed them into a single giant laser cannon before firing on the Chaos State Forcetechnic, driving him further into the magma and drilling a hole part way through the planet’s mantle itself. Barely a second later, an arrow of energy pierced through Morcii’s laser fire and obliterated his arm-mounted cannon, followed immediately by a second arrow that the Nanocreature barely managed to parry away before Christeané reappeared in the space beside him and bashed his head with the Tanivas Staff. The Forcetechnic then attempted to follow up with a punch, but Morcii grabbed him by his forearm and flung him away, sending him tumbling into the neighboring desert region.

Christeané violently crashed into the sand, impacting with such force that several tens of meters of sand instantly compressed into stone before he leaped back to his feet, just in time to block an incoming blow from Morcii — which only obliterated the very stone that had just formed. The Forcetechnic then dismissed the weapon he used to block as he reached out and grabbed Morcii’s newly re-formed arms before swinging the Nanocreature around and slamming him into the ground beside him, blowing away several kilometers of sand with the impact. Morcii immediately yanked his arm down, ripping Christeané off of his feet just as he dealt the Forcetechnic a fierce kick, sending him flying high into the atmosphere as Morcii launched both Chakrams and the Tsern Spear at him. Christeané knocked the Chakrams away with his fists alone and then caught the spear, twirling it around and flinging it back toward Morcii. He then re-summoned the Mystryth bow and fired arrows at the Nanocreature so rapidly that he may as well have been firing a machine gun. Morcii simply dismissed Tsern before the spear came even close to hitting him and then took to the skies, outrunning the energy arrows with ease as they instead slammed into the planet below and created a series of kilometer-wide craters. Christeané then discarded the bow and took off after Morcii just as the Nanocreature reversed course, slamming into the Forcetechnic with arms outstretched. Christeané quickly blocked Morcii’s hands with his own, interlocking fingers and attempting to rip the Nanocreature’s arms off his body before Morcii simply slammed his second set of fists into the Forcetechnic’s chest, sending him flying away. The Nanocreature quickly followed by merging his hands into a giant laser cannon again and firing at Christeané, creating giant swathes of scars and canyons on the terrain below as he chased the Forcetechnic with the laser beam.

Eventually ceasing the laser fire, Morcii immediately pulled his hands apart and summoned the Arcán Claymore just in time to parry a glaive-thrust from Christeané. The Nanocreature quickly grabbed the weapon with two of his tails, holding it in place as he summoned the Tsern Spear and the Hastryth Chain Weapon in his other two tails and began hacking and slashing at the Forcetechnic faster than he could block. Morcii then finished by flipping overhead, smashing his foot into Christeané’s scalp and instantaneously dunking him into the ground below, cratering the entire region. Within seconds the Forcetechnic exploded out of the ground several kilometers further out and launched both Tanivas and Aldrace toward Morcii. The Nanocreature deflected both weapons and then attempted to block the high-powered punch that Christeané dealt afterward, but was still flung through the atmosphere and into low orbit.

{”…ACCURSED CHAOS STATE…!”} Morcii growled as he turned away from the planet below and re-formed his giant laser cannon once again, taking aim at the distant space fleets. {”A SHAME THE SUPPORT ISN’T QUITE SO DURABLE!”}

(”I don’t think so!!”) Christeané roared, rushing toward Morcii’s position at incredible hypersonic speeds — only to miss as the Nanocreature thrust himself to the side. The Forcetechnic immediately twisted around and crossed his arms in front of himself just as Morcii opened fire; he managed to block most of the laser blast before flinging himself toward Morcii and stabbing him with the Aldrace Glaive. The Nanocreature simply separated his body around the weapon and dealt a fierce kick to Christeané with his lower half, sending the Forcetechnic flying to even higher orbits and into the midst of the space battle above.

(”This is bad…”) the Forcetechnic muttered, glancing warily at the Citan ships sitting within mere kilometers of his position before suddenly diving to evade another blow from Morcii. He summoned Mystryth and began firing arrows at Morcii, but gave up quickly when the Nanocreature began using Citan ships as shields. Dismissing the bow, he instead rushed in with the Matlés Gauntlets alone and attempted to close the distance between himself and Morcii to engage in close-quarters combat, but the Nanocreature contented himself with constantly fleeing and taking potshots at the Forcetechnic with tail-mounted laser cannons.

By then, the Citan fleets had realized that the battle between Morcii and Christeané had escalated and reached their turf, and many of the spacecraft were turning away from the Nanocreature fleets and gunning it from the battlefield. Christeané could even spot some distant ships disappearing into FTL before having his attention forced back to Morcii as the Nanocreature slammed into a nearby Citan Battlecruiser, easily piercing its shields and demolishing the bridge. He then positioned himself behind the engines and transformed his tails into one giant hand, which he used to grab the kilometer-long ship from behind.

(”You’ve gotta be shitting me—!”) Christeané growled just as Morcii launched the defunct ship toward him at incredible speeds. He quickly ducked under the ship and resumed chasing Morcii as the Nanocreature continued to seize control of Citan and Nanocreature ships alike, throwing each and every one of them at the Forcetechnic. In an effort to not cause any more casualties, Christeané actively avoided counterattacking the Citan ships, but he freely demolished or returned any Nanocreature ships Morcii attempted to launch at him. After deflecting several Nanocreature ships, Christeané prepared to grab and throw another when it suddenly transformed into two giant hands and grabbed him. He easily broke out, but they immobilized him just long enough for Morcii to approach and slam all four of his fists into the Forcetechnic’s torso — only for Christeané to immediately negate his backwards momentum and then summon the Aldrace Glaive, stabbing Morcii again before the Nanocreature could dodge. As Morcii separated from the weapon again, Christeané slammed his right fist into the Nanocreature’s upper body as Morcii dealt a fierce kick to the Forcetechnic, knocking them several hundred kilometers away from each other.

At this point the Citan fleets had fled entirely, leaving only the Earthian Battlecruiser Genesis several thousand kilometers away from the main battlefield. Morcii and Christeané noticed the ship simultaneously, leaving the Forcetechnic to fly after the Nanocreature and deflect debris from the space battle as Morcii carved a path toward the vessel. Not even a minute passed before Morcii slammed into the Genesis’s shields, causing them to flare brightly as he prepared to deal a final blow to the ship — only for Christeané to smash into him from the side, flinging him away.

(”Stop running away!”) Christeané shouted after the Nanocreature irately, his voice somehow carrying even through the vacuum of space. (”I’m your opponent!”)

{”YOU EXPECT ME TO CEASE CRUSHING FLIES TO FOCUS ON A MERE WASP?”} Morcii retorted, {”I DO AS I PLEASE, ALDREDANOID! I CANNOT HELP IT IF THE BATTLE YOU OFFER ME IS LOSING MY INTEREST.”}

(”Keep your hands off the bystanders,”) the Forcetechnic demanded, (”If you’re so confident that you can win, then why not just wait for later?”)

{”MM. WELL, THE ANNOYING THING ABOUT DISTRACTIONS IS THAT THEY CAN’T WAIT.”}

(”What?!”) Christeané immediately took off toward Morcii — only to be intercepted by a massive slab of stone. He was momentarily surprised, but quickly recovered and pulverized the kilometers-long object. After shooting himself through its leftover debris, Christeané began searching the area for Morcii — and then stopped when he laid eyes on one of Neticen’s two moons, and the massive chunk of stone that was splitting off of it, crumbling into chunks, and flinging itself at the Forcetechnic. (”For fuck’s sake…!”) He scowled as he punched away two more chunks of stone before returning his attention to Morcii. (”Controlling the fucking moon—!?”)

{”YOU UNDERESTIMATE MY ABILITIES, ALDREDANOID!”} Morcii gloated as he summoned the Sendous Chakrams and launched them toward Christeané before reforming his giant laser cannon and opening fire once more. {”AS I HAVE SAID A THOUSAND TIMES: I AM UNDEFEATABLE!”}

(”What a load of bullshit!”) the Forcetechnic roared as he grabbed two chunks of stone and launched them toward Morcii, following with several arrows from Mystryth. (”You think I’m the one doing the underestimating? Think—!”) He threw himself forward, slamming his fists into Morcii and knocking him away. (”—Again!”)

The Forcetechnic then instinctively dodged backwards as a huge slab of rock suddenly filled his vision, blocking Morcii from view. He quickly obliterated the slab with a punch and flew through the debris, punching away several more slabs of stone as he attempted to locate the Nanocreature leader. As the space around him became filled with an ever-increasing amount of moon rock, the Forcetechnic decided to remove himself from the newly-made asteroid field and search for Morcii from outside. He immediately rocketed away parallel to the planet of Neticen below, easily pulverizing anything in his path until the field began to clear. The Matlés Gauntlets flared with energy as he drew his fists back and slammed them into another several-kilometers-wide chunk of moonstone, completely obliterating it. He then flew through the debris — and spotted Morcii just before the Nanocreature slammed into him. Christeané reacted quickly enough to stop Morcii’s charge by grabbing the Nanocreature’s fists and immediately performing the space-borne equivalent of a dropkick, flinging Morcii through another stone and into a gigantic slab of rock. The Forcetechnic summoned the Aldrace Glaive and instantly impaled Morcii again, nailing him to the stone slab. He then grabbed the staff end of Aldrace and swung it around, whipping both Morcii and the stone over his head and into the planet below, where they impacted with a massive shudder, cracking the terrain for hundreds of kilometers around the impact point. Christeané slammed into the still-impaled Morcii himself for good measure, completely obliterating the entire continent in the process.

{”…WELL… …DONE…”}

(”Still alive?”) Christeané scowled as he glared at the mangled mess of Nanocreature below him.

{”…I CAN’T… DIE,”} Morcii croaked, {”NOT… BEFORE I… DELIVER ONE LAST… MESSAGE…”}

(”Yeah?”) The Forcetechnic eyed the Nanocreature warily as he drew back his fist in preparation to deal one final punch. (”What’s that?”)

Morcii broke into a menacing grin. {”YOU’RE TOO NAIVE!”}

(”What—?!”) Christeané immediately threw a punch but was interrupted as the very crust and mantle of Neticen lifted into the air and converged on his position, encasing him in hundreds of kilometers of stone, dirt, and magma faster than he could even think to dodge.

{”…PLEASE,”} Morcii snorted, using the rock and magma around him to quickly manufacture new nanomachines and repair his damaged body as the massive stone tomb around Christeané compressed itself into diamond within seconds. {”IF THE DESTRUCTION OF A CONTINENT IS ALL YOU CAN ACHIEVE, THEN DESTROYING ME IS OUTSIDE OF YOUR GRASP!”}

The Nanocreature leader observed the new landmark with amusement for several seconds before a deep scowl began to form on his face. {”…THE AYAS… AREN’T SCATTERING—?!”}

He was interrupted as the entire structure exploded, the very stone falling to tiny pieces as Christeané burst out with amazing speed, reaching Morcii instantaneously and performing a fierce uppercut that launched the Nanocreature into middle orbit. Morcii quickly summoned Arcán and Tsern in an attempt to counterattack, but Christeané simply ripped the weapons out of his hands and then slammed his fists over the Nanocreature’s head with such force that Morcii nigh-instantaneously reappeared on Neticen’s surface, sending out incredible shockwaves that shattered the entire hemisphere. Christeané smashed his fists together gleefully before launching himself at the Nanocreature again, who managed to block the incoming charge with his bare fists. The two combatants struggled for several moments, attempting to overpower one another as Christeané pushed from above and Morcii from below — until the Forcetechnic finally snapped his arms aside, ripping Morcii’s arms out of their shoulder sockets as he slammed his head into the Nanocreature’s chest, propelling the both of them through Neticen’s crust, mantle, and core — and then back out the other side, tearing the planet asunder and ripping Morcii’s body to shreds. When Christeané finally emerged from the other side, all that was left of Morcii was a small portion of his torso and half of his face, which quickly reshaped itself to reform his mouth.

{”HOW…?”}

Christeané smirked proudly. (”You said that destroying a continent wasn’t enough, so I took it up another level.”)

{”YOU…!”} What was left of Morcii’s face contorted with rage. {”…YOU CAN’T… BEST ME—!”}

(”Look, the Chaos State may be powerful enough to let us hear each other even in the vacuum of fucking space,”) the Forcetechnic retorted as he grabbed Morcii’s head, (”but that doesn’t mean I have to actually listen to your worthless tirades.”)

{”YOU—!”}

Christeané then slammed his empty fist into the Nanocreature’s head, completely obliterating it. He watched the remains tentatively — and sighed of relief as they slowly disintegrated, followed by a brief flash of light as the four Ayas that Morcii had absorbed reappeared in space. (”Chaos State: Master Eighth Tier,”) Christeané declared, and grinned as the four Ayas disappeared again, this time into his person. Certain that it was no trick, he pumped his fists and whooped before whipping around and speeding off toward the Genesis, prepared to spread the news:

Morcii… had been defeated!