Chapter 242: Presider Crostfree’s Report

The sudden attacks caught the world in shock. No one knew who it was that was suddenly attacking them but the surprise attack brought down most Exoskeletons and Armors in the air.

It was difficult to evade as it had an almost sentient means of bending and moving.

The structures were also bombarded, and several had already fallen to the sea.

The surviving aircraft that remained all surrounded Harker and kept shooting randomly to the sea.

The previous glorious scenes of victory had become a pitiful retreat.

"Retreat! This battle, we will pay back a hundred times to our foes!" Harker angrily shouted. It was as if he was out of character. The rage could be heard, but along with it, an incredible sense of depression and frustration.

"Move! Move! Move! Full retreat!" Harker ordered angrily.

Nearly half of the fleet was exterminated from the ambush. When most of the forces were on full retreat, several large silver oval objects surfaced from the sea. These Ovals were as big as the Rules of Emperors, but it was so smooth as if it had no gaps, cracks, or lines around it.

It had a strange electrical energy that linked itself to the sea below. The sea was howling as a malicious green energy could be seen at the deep blue under it. 

The lighting attacks continued to attack the fleeing structures. These were that were left. Any Armor or Exoskeleton had fallen into the ocean.

The scene was broadcasted across the world, and everyone knew that Pangea had to pay an incredible price for this. And yet, no one knew if the enemy had it worse.

The red moon that they conquered seemed domineering, but what was it that attacked them from below?

The news reporters worldwide began to report this shocking occurrence, and the world watched in silence.

Somewhere within the space near Australia was a pocket dimension that had moved away from the battle.

Presider Crostfree was seated inside his large ship. But it had severe damage as if a large hole could be seen on the center of it.

"Report!" Crostfree ordered.

"Sir. Nearly thirty percent of the ship was damaged, and we lost about a hundred Planteds and over twenty Pioneers." The Pioneer reported.

Crostfree gritted his teeth angrily. The energy he had to use was so astronomical that several Earth nations would not have been able to pay it up.

And all of his efforts made him gain nothing.

The bizarre attack from the person who called him Lost Primordial produced severe damage to his Presider Armor. And after that. He had to fight the Solarium Bomb. The deaths of the Planteds, and the Pioneers were nothing compared to the damages he had to endure.

Crostfree was silent, but he kept looking at a peculiar device on his hands. 

It was a simple transmitter. Of course, this transmitter was directly connected to the Moon and even to the main Orbital behind Mars.

Crostfree took a deep sigh and immediately began the call.

"You have... a lot to explain Crostfree..." Garnejazz no longer had a lazy voice.

"I know. Is the Princess reachable?"

"I just got out. I was deep inside Harker's facilities due to a misunderstanding and had no access to this Transmitter." An impatient voice was heard.

"My apologies if my statement offended you, Princess. It's simply because I was worried. The enemy is not as weak as we think it is."

"Who is the enemy?" Garenjazz asked curiously.

"I think we may have traitors among the previous Presiders."

"Traitors?"

"Well... I won't say, traitors... But right now, I just want to level the playing ground. Someone from the previous batch of Presiders must have discovered an inheritance belonging to a person who they call this..." Crostfree then aired the short audio of the words he heard.

"Lost Primordial! You thought you'd seen the last of us! But now, the stage is evenly set! You called yourself a god, but even the gods have bled! We've killed all of your Pioneers in the war back then, and we will kill you now!" An eerie laughed, followed this recording.

"Show us the video feeds. If you have acquired the audio, you must have some videos to show us. Who knows, you could be lying?" An irritated voice argued.

"I won't. Showing the video will unveil my Judges Call and my technology. Someone already got greedy on the previous batch of Presiders. I don't want to tempt others in our team to bear fangs at me." Corstfree countered.

"Who was that?" Garenjazz asked again.

"How should I know? But he could get near to me. The techs he had was bizarre. It was incomplete and lacking, but it sufficed to get near me."

"Who is the Lost Primordial? Are they related to the Primes?" A young voice asked once more.

"Yes, who is he?" Another Presider asked.

"Seriously? Many do not know about the Lost Primordial?" An irritated voice asked once more.

"You... know about it, Princess?" One of the Presider's asked.

"I asked one of Pridgeon's Pioneers, and he told me."

"Knowledge about this Lost Primordial is not easily disclosed. Many of the Presiders do not know this information, Princess. You just had the opportunity to pick a Pioneer who knew about this information."

Crostfree was silent, but he could not help but turn around to see Pridgeon's unconscious body.

He set the microphones to mute.

"Tend to that Presider. He is very useful for me."

The various Pioneers moved and began to tend to him.

"Presider. May I ask about the Lost Primordial?"

"I do not have any idea aside from the name. It seems that Pridgeon was very eager to win some plus points to Princess Zeraphine that he told this information to his Pioneers. Either that or what he gave out was negligible information." 

"Then, this information shouldn't be open to us?"

"It probably can be passed on. A Presider has full control over the techs that he bestows on his Pioneers. If he gave this information, he must have known about the Lost Primordial earlier and told his Pioneers the bare minimal information to investigate Earth. He is the weakest among us Presiders, but suddenly, he is the smartest. Ironic." Crostfree shook his head.

Presider Zeraphine began to cascade the information that he received from Pridgeon.

"So the Lost Primordial is said to be a Prime?" Lanterk asked once more.

"Not just a Prime. A Primordial."

"A Primordial?"

"Just as we are to Principals, and Principals to Primes, the Primordial stand above the Primes. It is a distinguished title. Anyone who has that title stands above everyone else in our world. Our current leader is a Primordial." Garenjazz explained.

Everyone was shocked. To many Presiders, knowledge beyond the Principals was very scarce. They could only hear of the Primes based on the discussions of the Principals.

"The Pioneer gave me a rather... in-depth report. If even my fellow Presiders have not heard of this Lost Primordial, then I believe this report will be helpful to us all."

"How is Pridgeon?" Garenjazz asked Crostfree.

"Unconscious. But he is still alive. I am currently in Australia and will hide for a while."

"You won't return to Mars? It seems that you expended quite a bit from that battle." A woman laughed.

"Oh, my dear Tiana. If you only knew. You'd probably be dead if it were you here. That man who fought me would have ripped your face and turned all your sciences to naught. You should be at least as daring as Pridgeon if you want to be useful from now on. If this is true, then we do not know what monsters exist within Earth!" Crostfree laughed.

"Are you implying that I am not strong enough to fight these monkeys?"

"They have Domain." Crostfree laughed.

"Yes, Yes. That Origin energy that the WGP has boasted. So what? Such foundational-"

"Have you seen the battle I did? Or rather, could you have seen it?" Crostfree laughed.

Everyone was confused until Garenjazz broke the silence.

"I can't. Can you tell me why?"

"I'll just say two words and leave it to the wise to understand. Domain Suppression." Crostfree laughed again.

"WHAT!?" Zeraphine and Feyor shouted in surprise.

Garenjazz was silent, and no one could tell what he was thinking.

"So it is a Domain. Then here are the possibilities. One... There is a Lost Primordial, and he did leave a legacy on Earth. This implies that the Lost Primordial may have died here. One of the Pioneers found it, and quite understandably, she kept it a secret."

"She? How do you know it's a she and not a he?" Tiana argued.

"Lourca Oviili. The Arbiter that went alongside the first batch of Pioneers. Weren't there wild theories of her betrayal?" Garenjazz asked lazily.

"That theory had no basis and is-"

"We are facing opponents with Domain Suppression. If I were to give Domain's foundation science to Earth, it would take them roughly a hundred years to understand it. What they have is a technology that should have taken about two hundred years of research! And that is assuming they have the same computers and devices that we have. That's why I am presenting this perspective." Garenjazz silenced everyone.

"Garenjazz is right," Feyor added.

"Domain Suppression means that they can already interact and draw movements beyond the third dimension. I had it because my Judges Claim were numerous, and three Presiders gifted me a hundred years worth of their research. Unless someone did the same, it would be impossible for Earth to reach this level at such a short time."

Many were shaken at Zeraphine's words, but everyone swallowed their words in frustration. It was a few seconds later that they suddenly realized the threat and power of Earth.

"I haven't finished my report. Let me remind you that whoever attacked me wasn't someone with the Lost Primordial. This is what happened. I detected an attack on the Kraken, which used Australia's Light Breaker tech. After which several groups began to attack the Kraken to the point that the WGP was forced to reveal their weapons one by one. Eventually, the WGP revealed their greatest weapon. It was the Invoking, and it had Domain Suppression." Crostfree answered.

"Wait. It wasn't the Lost Primordial who used Domain Suppression?"

"Gordon, aren't you the one who was tasked to spy on the WGP?"

"You think it's easy? That group is paranoid to the extreme!"

As the argument began, Crostfree muted his transmitter again.

"How is Pridgeon?"

"He is stable, Presider. We also began to feed his suit with a various energy source to quicken its auto-repairs. Presider. If I may, the WGP has shown more than just Domain Suppression. Why did you report only that one?"

"If I reported everything, I do not doubt that Feyor, Garenjazz, and even that accursed Princess will wage war immediately against the WGP. They will take advantage of this chaos between the WGP's war against this unknown group to immediately steal their current Domain science. But now, they will act with reservations. The price they have to pay is not worth the prize. So they will take a more economical route."

It was at that moment that Crostfree unmuted his device.

"Can I continue now? You can bicker all you want, but this is the truth of what I faced. Let me finish. You can argue all you want after this. Several groups challenged the WGP. Among them were groups which was a century ahead than the current techs of this world. A group could control the wind; another group had human mutation techs that allowed them to be similar to the Babylos Grunts. One of the more interesting technology is Cold Fusion. It finally appeared on this planet. Someone had already begun to study it. Another was a technology even I could not identify. Here. I'll show you the video."

The video revealed a strange green aura engulfing an object that looked like the Qilins Horn.

"Isn't that based on Pridgeon's weapon?" Tiana asked.

"Wait! I know that tech! I have it too! It's the Sheera's Pride tech foundation." Lanterk could not help but add.

"But that Sheeras Pride is different! Ours use star energy, but that one seems to use Cold Fusion as its foundation! What is that green power?"

"It's Plague Technology." Another female sighed.

"Andronze? Are you here? What a rare treat!" Gordon laughed.

"I always join your little meetings but just remain silent. And the reason is you, Gordon."

"Will you two settle your suppressed desires another time?" Crostfree cursed.

"Its Plague Technology. I'm not sure, it has traces of it, but that version seems to have an air form rather than liquid. But what I have is only the foundation. I haven't touched it since I got it apart from adding it with to weapons." Andronze explained.

"They used Plague technology and combined it with Domain. That is a Plague Domain." Garnejazz clarified.

Everyone was shocked.

"Merging techs? Impossible! How could they…"

"It's not that farfetched. If you understand Domain, it's elementary to translate it to other techs."

Crostfree's expression soured as he heard Garenjazz said that. He knew Garenjazz was lying. Garenjazz was most likely downplaying the tech so that others won't snoop around.

"Fine. If it's just him… I'll find a way." Crostfree said after muting his transmitter.

"I still haven't finished my report." Crostfree finally spoke.

"What there's more?"

"Yes. Much more. The WGP revealed their Origin attacks and began to win the war slowly. But… Something happened. It seems that it was all a ploy. The WGP fought with these who claimed to have received something from the Lost Primordial, and suddenly, the two worked together." Crostfree tossed the transmitter to the table nearby as the memories of his defeat nearly made him want to crush the transmitter.

"They worked together?" Zeraphine asked after noticing Crostfree's silence.

"They thought I was the Lost Primordial and gave a surprise attack. This is why Pridgeon fainted. He was attacked, and his ship blew up, and I had to save him but got hurt along the way." Crostfree explained.

"So the Lost Primordial is a Presider. Interesting." Garenjazz pondered.

"No!" Crostfree countered.

"No?"

"He isn't. Because right after I escaped, the feeds that you probably saw on Earth happened."

"Wait! Those attacks were not yours?!" Feyor was shocked.

"No! Garenjazz knows my tech possibilities. He can confirm. The Red Moon that you saw in the Pangean feeds was my tech. I retreated after that!"

"Crostfree is most likely telling the truth. He has a means of compressing and expanding things. Unless he made another Judges Claim, he wouldn't have that kind of technology. I fought him several times and know what his aces are. This is why we call him the One-Man army during the skirmishes that we once had. I won, of course."

There was silence. The Presiders were all shocked. Crostfree's expression turned red.

"Then who…?"

"This is just my guess… But the group who called themselves the Lost Primordial, who knows about us, used me as bait. And he attacked the enemies after my weapon was defeated. You've seen the videos. Isn't that technology one of his?"

"His?" Zeraphine asked.

"Presider Marrho. The Bolt of Heaven." Gordon echoed out in surprise.

"Then, a Presider has betrayed us." Garenjazz finally concluded.