The Almighty Ring

“Welcome,” said Veiga humbly as he bowed down so low he looked like a 90 degree angle.

“Mhm.” All three of the new arrivals did not bother to look, but merely hummed a noise to acknowledge his presence.

“Great lords, we have traced Jiang Fei and the others. Should we pursue?” Veiga asked with the humblest tone he could do.

“Order your men to standby for orders, that is all. No need for you to handle anything else,” said the sniper with a snarky expression.

“Yes, Lord Neptulon!” said Veiga as he shrunk away like a rat.

“Don’t waste your breath on him. We must be away,” said the fat, older lady in the front.

“Very well, sister,” Neptulon nodded and hurried over to join his sister.

“You, and you, follow me,” said a bald man as he ordered Veiga and his fellow men.

“Yes, Lord Ragnaros,” Veiga replied and took a few of his men with him.

The group of men and machines followed the same path that Jiang Fei took to the hangar. If Jiang Fei could hear their conversation, he would immediately know who they were.

The three special individuals were three of the Great Elemental Lords from the game. Besides the now dead Al’Akir, the others were very much alive. The fat lady that was walking the fastest was the one that bore the greatest grudge toward Jiang Fei, the Earth Mother, Therazane.

“Sister, what do you think the rats are doing here?” asked Neptulon.

“I have nothing to say for I do not know what they are up to. Z0-11, on the other hand, was a peculiar one. How she managed to disobey our command, I do not know,” Therazane replied after a short silence, without turning to face Neptulon. Veiga might be the first real artificial intelligence to be extracted and placed in a machine, but he was bound by superior programming to always obey the three Elemental Lords. Akatziris, on the other hand, was supposed to be just a regular artificial intelligence, yet she managed to break her programming and disobey the three Elemental Lords. Something about her was off-putting.

“Be wary. For we are approaching our destination,” said Ragnaros with a solemn, husky voice.

Concurrently, the oblivious Jiang Fei was sprinting at full speed toward the hangar. The young man was literally chasing after fleeting time. If he missed the ship, he could never seize control of it.

“We are getting close!” Jiang Fei panted as he ran. He could now see the doors of the hangar bay from afar.

“Huh?!”

At that moment, Jiang Fei noticed a few flaperons opening from the walls, all around the entrance to the hangar bay. The pods opened up and revealed countless turrets. Before he could warn anyone, the turrets started to open fire. The turrets were firing with the most intense firepower, damaging the entire base. It was obvious then that Akatziris had every intention to abandon the base. What was a moon base when compared to Braveheart?

“Watch out!” Nina roared with her might. That was the first time Jiang Fei had truly heard Nina’s powerful voice. With speed, the girl flashed herself in front of Jiang Fei and deployed countless barriers in front of everyone. As a “defense specialist”, protection was her forte. Having her by his side was the best decision Jiang Fei had made.

“I’ll open a path!” Isabella cried when everyone was being shielded by Nina. With time running out, Isabella activated her domain and headed straight to the wall of turrets. Before she could land a hit, blast door after blast door came down from the ceiling, all equipped with the same amount of turrets embedded in them.

With her powerful armor and claws, the turrets did not inflict the slightest damage on her as every beam that landed on her was deflected like a ping-pong ball. The entire pathway was cleared just as quickly as they were established.

“It’s just ahead! I can still sense Braveheart! It’s still there!” Ariel cried. She might not be able to participate in the fight but she had recovered just enough energy to sense and observe.

“Make haste! We must make it in time!” Jiang Fei roared as channeled every ounce of energy into his legs.

When the entire party reached the entrance, Isabella didn’t stop to wait for the doors to open. Instead, she got ahead of the party and clawed the entire one-meter-thick Namekian alloy opened. Before Jiang Fei could stop, Isabella punched the rest of the door away with a single strike.

“Thank god! It’s still there!” said Jiang Fei with he entered the hangar bay and saw Braveheart still docked. The immensely large ship was so huge that even though it was already leaving, its acceleration was slower than a snail, literally.

“Board it!” Jiang Fei ordered, leading the charge to the entrance of the bridge.

“Sorry, Representative Captain, you do not have sufficient clearance to board the ship,” 0543 reported when Jiang Fei stood at the entrance to the bridge.

“What the hell are you saying? This is my ship! Bella, break it down!” Jiang Fei snarled angrily at 0543 before asking Isabella to break the door down.

Isabella nodded and punched the door very hard. However, her fist bounced off the metal door, creating a powerful boom that knocked even Jiang Fei away.

“Sh*t! Do your best, Bella! Do not stop until that door is opened!”

“Okay!” Isabella replied and continued to land devastating punches that could have broken mountains apart.

Braveheart’s integrity was heavenly as it had withstood almost a hundred punches from Isabella, and only showed a small dent.

“Dammit! 0543, find a way to open this door!” Jiang Fei ordered frustratedly.

Braveheart was obviously moving at this point. It was slow but in time, it would leave the dock and into space!

…

“My word… Impossible!” Therazane gasped when all three Elemental Lords arrived at the hangar bay.

“Did he really take control of Braveheart?” Neptulon muttered as he frowned worriedly.

“Unlikely. The boy wouldn’t be banging the door if the ship had recognized him as the captain!” Therazane answered.

“What is that all about then?” Neptulon asked.

“I have no answer for that. I believe it must have something to do with Z0-11!” Therazane replied.

“Do we pursue?” Ragnaros hummed.

“Not now. Let’s see how the situation develops.” Therazane held her fatty arms out to stop Neptulon from proceeding.

…

Akatziris and Bennette Straz were panicking. The ship was starting to move but it was accelerating at such a slow speed that they could run faster than it!

“Why is this ship so slow!” Akatziris roared. At this point, she knew what was happening outside the ship; of Jiang Fei and of the three Elemental Lords. This was her base and everything was connected to her consciousness.

Even though she knew about them, Akatziris dared not intercept the three Elemental Lords as she was incredibly weak. However, once she could truly escape with Braveheart, she could return with powers unimaginably strong.

With the ship in interstellar space, and without anyone chasing her, she could take her time to slowly find a way to seize control of the ship. Once she gained full access to everything Braveheart had to offer, she would return to Earth, not as a powerful machine, but an almighty god.

“Leader, the ship has no support system! We are manually working on every aspect of it!” Straz replied with an excuse.

The ship was a thousand-kilometer-long Interstellar Battleship without the support of a powerful support system, it would be close to impossible to start it. Being able to move with just dozens of artificial intelligence—Straz and his men—was already considered extremely fortunate.