New Game+

The battle began.

Unknown to the loyal Pioneers, they didn't know their Presider was sent away and had returned. The entire region where the fight was happening was not visible due to the destruction on that site and how Arthur assigned the positions of the army. Under the guise that the fight was still ongoing, no one set foot at that location.

The military might of the Unlock outclassed Shakstress. Half of her Throne wasn't functioning. Her control over the Universe Energy wasn't strong.

Meryl, Richie, Chase, Sammy, and Gardo fought her for a bit and hindered her from attacking Seeker and Lynd, who followed the same thing they did earlier.

The attacks of Meryl were lethal to Shakstress, and space and sound shrunk, but Richie was able to disrupt the shrinking tech with a loud shout that the three of them did.

They filled the room with thick sound and created a powerful water world.

The weight of the room became heavy, and Shakstress sensed that it was as if she was shrinking a massive space instead of the small one. And so, she changed her tactics and minimized certain parts to block it.

But even with her best efforts, the Unlocked had already experienced a battle against her and were now even more equipped with the suits they found inside the ship. Gardo was easily able to close the ranks and land another attack on her. Meryl also used her powers to create a flaming body whose attacks were even more powerful than Gardo.

The Unlock who fought her couldn't help but feel a sense of pity on her as even they could feel that their victory was certain.

In the midst of such a hopeless scenario, Shakstress, however, had never felt such happiness. She wasn't fighting an enemy who disdained her, but someone who respected her. She fought as was her choice, and this choice was freedom.

Seeker and Lynd completed their power and took a step forward.

Both were now radiating with great light. The power they had surpassed their forms when they battled deep in the ocean. But unlike then, no radiation leaked out of them.

"Enough." Seeker called out to his allies as they stepped forward.

"You did it. You two are showing a science that only the peak of the Top Tier can do. What an amazing sight. You may not realize what you did, but that form is one of the few requirements to become a Principal!"

"A body that can freely wield the dimensions..." Seeker could feel the power and knew that he could easily teleport now without hindrances.

"Yes. That's what we Top-Tiers are capable of. We can assume a form that can freely move and interact in dimensions beyond. That is the bare minimum. If we can perfect that, we become Principals. And that process is called Dimensional Upholding. Because in your current form, you can uphold a form that is stable and can pass to these dimensions. The form you have is also very unique since it requires the two of you."

"Thank you for telling us. What's the next stage?" Seeker asked curiously.

The next step is the Dimensional Purging stage. That is when a Principal becomes a Prime. And finally, Dimensional Transcendence. From Prime to Primordial."

"Thank you." Seeker and Lynd took a step forward and rushed at Shakstress.

Massive white energy covered Lynd and Seeker, and the three fought.

By the time the white energy disappeared, the battle was already over.

Outside, Octarion and Hermes continued to battle even when the massive ship of Shakstress disappeared. The army still had orders to secure their retreat.

Octarion and Hermes continued to battle in the sky, but then they heard a voice call out.

"Hey."

Richie had used his powers to send the message directly.

"We won. We will be retreating with the ship. End it, your little fight. Hermes, you deal with Andronze. You may need to stick around for a bit and scare her so that she won't chase after Shakstress's ship. Seeker already took care of Pridgeon. Octarion, you retreat too. Lead the surviving forces of Shakstress to be part of the Tyrant Empress's army. Ask the Tyrant Empress for help as all eyes are on you." Richie explained.

"How generous. Are you sure? It'll be this suit that will defeat you. I have yet to offer all Overcomers to my queen." Octarion laughed.

"Dream on, golem. You got a lot of gifts, but the truth is, we gained more than you have." Richie chuckled.

"Wash your next and get ready. I'm going to offer you, queen, to my men when I'm done." Richie laughed.

Octarion turned angry.

"Retreat now. We will rejoin you shortly. We are still in the vicinity but have shrunk the ship. We are just finishing up here. We'll be making a massive attack to break you two up. Prepare yourself." Richie ordered. He was seated within the comm channel of Shakstress.

The fight against Hermes and Octarion continued, but both teams were careful and were preparing for an attack.

Then a powerful boom echoed from the sides, and it was as if a massive object was closing in on them with the goal of crushing the two. The form of a large Lion could be discerned. 

BOOM!

Another massive explosion occurred, and the two giants vanished.

Octarion's form appeared, and it retreated. It gave orders 

Hermes also made his way towards Andronze's Pyramid.

The Four winds followed closely behind.

The battle that they had was short but very terrifying.

"We can't beat him like that..." Austin sighed.

"Yeah..." Omricon agreed. He had fought with the massive giant and couldn't find a way to break the massive defenses.

"We don't have powerful offensive attacks, and we were running out of wind." Omega added.

"It's that stupid suit of his!" Alvin blamed.

"No. We are Overcomers. We cannot blame it on those things. We were unable to win because we could not Overcome." Hermes smiled as he gazed at the retreating armies that trailed around Octarion.

"But it's not exactly that we lost either. But let's not take confidence in that. Octarion, after all, is the most recent Overcomers who joined our ranks. Let's go. I feel the wind blowing ominously. Welp... let's do as ordered and distract Andronze for as long as we can. Then we flee. I have to find Lowengren to ask for help on our lies. The spies of the other Presiders will soon inspect the battle. We have to disappear and meet up just as planned."

"But I thought Arthur vanished along with that ship."

"They shrunk and escaped. It'll be hard to chase. And it seems something also happened at that Moon-ship. Look at it. That Pridgeon is also retreating," Hermes pointed.

Inside the moon...

Pridgeon was doing his best to stabilize the dimensions when Shakstress left. The space began to tremble, and an intense shaking happened as if the entire place was about to collapse.

The teleportation that Shakstress did was a forceful means that made her teleport and breached the area. But what Shakstress didn't know was the specific energy that Seeker and Lynd used when they teleported. She used Universe to create the breach, and it caused an unstable reaction. This caused Pridgeon to worry as his ship began to tremble.

He didn't know that the collapse was only temporary, and it soon returned to normal. The trembling of his ship had a different cause. Lynd and Seeker were cloaked and close to Shakstress. They released a powerful Realm that forcibly created immense vibrations to scare Pridgeon.

Pridgeon panicked and used his Universe Energy to stabilize the commotion.

After 'stabilizing' the area, he immediately rushed out and gave the orders to chase Shakstress.

"Presider! We can't! The scanners aren't showing her ship! And we have a lot of problems!" The Pioneer Commander reported.

Pridgeon then noticed the missing power sources in his ship.

"That Shakstress!" Pridgeon cursed as he rushed towards several parts of the ship to check on the damage.

He noticed several anomalies on his return and immediately issued a full retreat. 

Andronze saw the forces retreat. Pridgeon didn't even attempt to battle the remaining suit that was retreating.

"What?! He's retreating?!" Andronze was confused.

"But why?!" She wondered.

"What are you doing? You're not going to retreat?" Hermes asked as he retreated.

"What happened?" Andronze asked.

"Our prayers won. Good job on spreading that post. In the end, we failed to kill Shakstress. But our team got what we needed. Still, it brought out more enemies. Have you sensed them? Other time-travelers?" Herms asked."

Andronze froze as she heard this.

"Let's retreat. You better get back to Egypt and withdraw your army."

"Yes!" Andronze acted and issued the commands.

As Andronze quickly gave orders and issued Egypt to be on full alert, Pridgeon was running back and forth around his ship, checking every inch of it.

The first concern was the power chambers of the ship. He had to replace the missing Ankh Core. Then he took an accounting of the things that were taken or stolen.

"Was Shakstress trying to confirm or search for clues about my devourer suit?" Pridgeon wondered. 

Because of the missing power sources, the scanners of his ship had failed. And he could not trace the location of Shakstress anymore as the ship vanished.

"Damn it! Damn it all! I was so close to killing her!" Pridgeon cursed.

But the many problems in the ship indicated another possibility.

There were spies inside his ship.

"Move! Return to that dimension! And make a full alert! Spies have entered the ship!" Pridgeon cursed.

"Shakstress must have done this!" He cursed and kept on ordering his Pioneers and scanning them for any changes. The camera feeds that he gathered on the locations attacked would reveal a bright light that none of his techs could pierce through. There was only a powerful fluctuation that made him think of Principals.

"What was that...?" He frowned.

As the moon arrived on the other dimension, it began to move towards its original course. But along the way, Pridgeon performed various tests to confirm that no spies were in his ship and tried to find anything wrong in that gap when he fought Shakstress.

"Garenjazz!" He finally decided to ask for help.

"Had fun?" Garenjazz laughed as he answered the call.

"I need your help!"

"I'm sure you do. Shakstress just sent out a ping to warn everyone not to attack her. She also revealed a lot of techs that you have." Garenjazz chuckled.

"What?!"

"Oh, don't worry. If anyone should worry, it should be Lanterk. That kid is in trouble." Garenjazz sighed.

"Oh. Right. We can also interpret that revelation that we, Presiders, are all in trouble.." Garenjazz laughed again.