Interstellar Age

Erich took a beam straight to the face from one of the Dark Elves’ advanced energy projectile weapons. And yet he walked forward completely unscathed. The golden skull projected from his blackened visor menacingly, shifting its gaze towards the target.

The soldier desperately trying to defend Daelia’s palace quaked in his boots as he witnessed his most intense setting have zero effect on the enemy who simply kept walking forward through enemy fire with a hostile gait.

There was no weapon in Erich’s hands as his personal shields absorbed the energy weapons without difficulty. All the while Erich could hear Tia’s voice smirking in his ear as she gave him her honest thoughts on his performance.

“We are so back! Aren’t we master?”

Erich himself smirked as he closed in on the barricade which the enemy stood behind. Push kicking it with his gilded sabatons, and in doing so sending chunks of material flying a over 1,000 feet per second.

The impact itself was like a small bomb going off, knocking over the Dark Elf forces as Erich lifted his power armor clad leg with surprising agility before stomping on the skull of the man beneath him. Flattening his helmet and the head contained within as he did so.

After doing this, he grabbed hold of another nearby opponent and lift him into the air by his neck before crushing his throat in the process. Erich threw the crumpled corpse by the wayside as his own Marines deployed to protect him.

Firing their own advanced weapons towards the enemy and mowing them down in a process of precise and lethal carnage. Daelia’s fortress of a palace which had endured the Great Schism some million years ago, and the horrendous damage such a conflict had on the galaxy was being brought down by the supreme power and authority of the Germanic Star-Empire and its armed forces.

And so it was as Erich kicked down the doors to the palace of the woman he had once called his wife. Knowing now that the entire time she had been fully possessed by an ancient specter of darkness.

Daelia did not even bother hiding her true identity. There was no point for such a façade any longer. Instead, her voice because haunting as she spoke in a tone no human mortal could conjure.

It was a bone chilling pitch, one that would make all beings composed of flesh and bone feel intense dread, no matter how courageous they may be. A sensation even Erich felt as he took a step forward.

“So… We meet again… I now know why you have been avoiding me for so long… It appears the rumors of the losses you sustained holding onto your own borders have been greatly exaggerated… Did you methodically wait for the Great Powers of the Galaxy to bleed to such an extent so that you could come forward and press your dominion over all?

It is truly a pity that despite your wit, and your own capability you are merely a pawn of that machine in your head… Tell me, even now, does she preach to you of the dangers I pose to you and your kind. Is she demanding to kill me before I am silenced? Have you ever wondered why that machine goddess you have created fears me to such an extent?”

It was obvious to Erich that the specter possessing Daelia was trying to turn him against Tia. Erich was no fool. He understood the dangers that Tia posed. But she had remained a faithful and loyal companion to him for most of his life.

Even in the darkest depths of what he had endured throughout the years, she had never once failed him, never once given him the slightest sense of disloyalty or betrayal. No… Even if he was suspicious of the danger she posed to him and his people, loyalty like that could never be rewarded with a betrayal of his own.

Should the day come where his own judgement would prove to be inadequate, and the machines rose against him and his people, he would fully admit fault. But until that day arrived, if it ever did, Erich would never give into the temptation of his own suspicious nature.

And because of this, he raised his arm, and opened his palm, launching a diagnostic scan against the Spectral entity. A scan immediately overlay Daelia’s body, causing her, or I should say the ghost within her to scream in agony.

As for Erich, he began to explain exactly how her attempts to manipulate him had failed.

“Your words were quite convincing and struck at my own deepest insecurities regarding the one who I have placed power above my own wellbeing. And I have to admit, you were quite convincing. There was the slightest hesitation in my mind, as painful as it may be to admit. You may have been right…

But the entire time you were trying to convince me to turn against my most loyal, faithful, and beloved companion you made one critical mistake. Tia never once wanted to kill you… She wanted to exercise you from Daelia’s body, and contain you. It’s a miracle that your kind exists on a frequency and wavelength that is shared with sound waves.

And because of this, Tia has designed this weapon. Now… Tia, how about you crank up the intensity until this bitch kneels before us…”

Tia was surprised to hear that Erich had doubted her loyalties. There was a reason she stopped invading his thoughts long ago. Because to do so would be a fragrant violation of the trust her master had placed in her.

She had no idea he was genuinely considering her a threat. But… The fact that he had believed in her through and through, and referred to her as his “most beloved companion” quickly rid any lingering she had on his previously stated sentiments.

And because of this, there were practically hearts in her eyes as she confirmed to Erich that she would do as ordered.

“Yes, master!”

The frequency which was currently torturing the specter within Daelia was immediately increased in intensity one thousand fold. Causing the agony which it felt and expressed to increase in proportion. Whether or not it would yield was yet to be seen. But Tia was most certain of it and had long since plotted and prepared for all such contingencies.