Chapter 386: A Chaotic Start

Various world leaders have been monitoring the situation at the Suez Canal that led towards the Mediterranean sea.

Everyone watched with grave expressions and prepared to take command of their teams from afar. Some even made alliances with other nations as the stocks and shipments were mixed. Various other preparations, even going as far as to read and sink their cargo and taken by another country, were set.

Many predicted Egypt to attack. Others expected a battle in the Mediterranean.

And then several ships suddenly positioned their mortars and began to bombard and fired mortars.

The world leaders watched in a daze. Those who owned the boats that shot lost five years of their lifespans from the shock they saw.

One of the older leaders died of shock as well.

Among those that surpassed the being of humanity, watched in horror.

Pridgeon was shocked. This went against everything he thought and believed.

He had been observing the progress of the ships and was ready to battle. He knew that many ships waiting at the entrance to the Mediterranean sea had various soldiers ready for war. They would attack once those ships would leave the territory of Egypt and the Caliphates.

But then, the ships started shooting.

Some shot to the Caliphate region, while some of the ships shot at Egypt. Some even began to bombard the Mediterranean sea without warning. However, since most of the squads that were secretly waiting only had basic tech and did not have any specific technology that could be associated with the technological possibilities of other nations, the bombardment had killed several squads immediately.

And if that wasn't shocking enough, the emergence of the men who could somehow fly for some unknown reason. 

"It's them! Those who attacked the Kraken!" Pridgeon had seen the reports and saw through the records of Crostfree's ship some of the videos of the battle in the Kraken. But these people left right before the showdown between the WGP and the two strange people went in and ambushed Crostfree.

Pridgeon believed that these groups could be allies but had no solid evidence to support this claim as the group was trying hard to destroy the Kraken.

He had searched for these groups for so long but was angered that they appeared.

"You have these people in the database, right? They appeared before."

"Only Presider Corstfree appeared on the three-dimensional plane at that time. So we cannot properly gauge and test it from where we were. So the data we have for these people are too little."

"Hmp. And Crostfree didn't record the sight. He thought it was beneath him... Damn it? Who sent these people? And those bats! They appeared during the battle in the Kraken. What technologies can you detect?"

"Sir, we can't detect any techs from either group." The Pioneer reported.

"Is it Myrth? If my info is right, then it's possible that her shrink and expanding techs could be hiding an entire fortress that is too small to see. Are these people part of her team?" Pridgeon pondered.

"Analyze the source of the wind and tell me where it came from."

"We can't. It's too chaotic. The wind there has some air channels that we noticed. But there is also a large gale hovering nearby that's making it distorted for us to figure out the path."

"How can wind do that? What an interesting tech. But it seems Egypt was prepared to fight them." Pridgeon's expression grew grimmer.

"What do Presider's actions imply?" Pridgeon asked the Pioneers around him.

"It's possible that they expected the attack and are using the infamous name of the Lost Primordial to get the other nations to attack them." A Pioneer guessed.

"Right. But why did this team suddenly make an appearance? They just jumped out of that boat and revealed themselves for no apparent reason."

"A diversion!" The Pioneer realized what Pridgeon was implying.

"Exactly. There has to be something else going on. Where is the location of the one hundred and fifty elites that came from Mesopotamia?"

At that point, a swarm of small, red balls that looked like bats flew across the area, and riding the swarm were humans who were shooting and attacking the ship's soldiers.

Pridgeon recalled that this was also present in the battle at the Kraken.

"Sir! Those riding the red bats are attacking the one hundred fifty elites from Mesopotamia!" 

"What?!" Pridgeon was shocked once more.

"They are not allies? How is the conflict?"

"The one hundred fifty soldiers had a few losses from the attack, and the two groups are killing each other!"

"Is there another Presider joining this clash?" Pridgeon cursed. He thought that the flying people and the bat people belonged to the same group that led the one hundred and fifty men.

"Sir! We detected a Golem! It's similar to the ones that appeared in the Kraken! The ones from the Call of Automaton!"

"A Golem?! What's going on?!" Pridgeon shouted.

When Chester Gallium fell, his entire body began to morph and gather the many metals nearby. The Unlocking did so many things to Chester, and one of them was the ability to control his liquid metal, which made up more than fifty percent of his body, to gather more metals from the part of the ship. He began to merge and even use magnetism to control it.

Hermes had also asked the WGP Emperor to give him the data that detailed the Call of Automaton and how golems could be created. And this data, along with several tools, was given to Chester Gallium.

The Realm of Gallium had grown considerably with the technology of the Call of Automaton. The metal liquid was part of his body and could move at command. And with his ability to 'digest' other metals, Gallium dove down to the stocks of special metals and electrical charges, and soon a tall metal humanoid that looked like an Armor stood up.

The soldiers began to shoot the strange figure that emerged from their boat. Gallium ignored all as the strange liquid substance had formed a form of shock and penetrating absorbing form. The bullets themselves began to sink in, and when a magnetic charge was full, it caused all the bullets to shoot out.

Even some of the rockets and mortars launched were thrown back out and exploded around the ship.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The attacks blew up around the ship.

Chester stood at the very core of this large Armor. 

"Time to apply what I learned." Chester laughed.

His liquid metal technology followed the core principles of creating the Automaton. But instead of draining the Origin Energy to control it, Chester used his Realm to do something that no other Unlocked can do. He created receivers on various parts of his liquid metal which could receive the commands he sent via his Realm. And just like that, smaller robots were created.

Several small robots rushed out of the place where he stood and began to attack.

"What? The WGP is here?! Did they ally with the Lost Primordial? Or did the Lost Primordial already have this tech?!" Pridgeon complained as he watched from afar.

Back in Egypt, Arthur and his team continued to make counter-plans on how to defeat that.

"There should be a limit of how many small robots that Chester could create, right?" Gardo asked.

"Depends. If he's smart enough to create a reactor inside his suit to keep him fueled, he could create an army. If he had my father's lightning tech, this would be possible. Of course, he could generate electricity via turbines and use Herme's winds to power it..." Arthur guessed.

"Should we deploy him now?" Harker asked Lowengren.

"Not yet. Some of Akasha's familiars are fighting with a powerful team of elites. This should be another Presider's force. It shouldn't be Pridgeon's team, right Arthur?"

"It's not. Pridgeon's team will position near the edge of the battle. They will only sweep in after. Considering Pridgeon's behavior, he is quite wary of the other Presider and since he thinks Andronze is right here." Arthur explained.

"Good. The cowardly but smart wind of Hermes ought to have guessed our intentions. He should be giving the instructions to send the wind whispering that sound." Loewngren smiled.

As Lowengren guessed, the wind whisperer blew near one of the small platoons belonging to the elite team of 'that' Presider.

Several soldiers jumped from one bat to the other and kept shooting.

The elites felt great resistance from the wind and hindered them from reacting quickly. Even those wearing Exoskeletons couldn't move.

"What is this wind!" Then soldiers cursed.

ZAP! ZAP! ZAP!

The group of bats and the soldiers jumping over them shot a barrage of strange bullets that created a powerful electric shock.

As the group passed, the whisper of the wind followed closely behind.

"Presider Pridgeon needs us to destroy all ships so we can fight Andronze... Eliminate all enemy Pioneer forces!" The whispers were heard as they echoed out.

As the bat swarm passed, the elites began to move out again.

"They thought we were dead?" One of the soldiers couldn't believe it.

"This Presider underestimates our techs. He thinks those lightning bolts could kill us!"

"If we received a few more, we could have died, though." Another soldier added.

"Did you all hear that sound as they passed?"

"Right. Presider Pridgeon wants to attack Egypt. I'll report it to Presider."

Up in the sky, a small pebble was floating directly above the battle. The pebble was floating by some strange means. This small pebble was also a large fortress.

Inside the fortress is one of the Top-Tier Presiders that journeyed to Earth.

A tall woman, nearly twice the height of an average man, watched and grew curious. Her figure was breathtaking, and a strange rainbow halo shone around her.

"Interesting... Pridgeon wants to play? He just got some toys from Crostfree and thought he could challenge a Mid-Tier along with me? Quite foolish. Who would have thought that these folks that fought in the Kraken were his all along? I guess fighting him will be fun." The woman laughed.

"Descend." 

At her command, the small pebble began to free fall. 

Back in Egypt, Arthur observed the battle.

"Alright. I'm sure Hermes already initiated the plan. We're off to a good chaotic start. The Presider's should be confused now. Let's see what will happen from here on out. Once the Presiders move, we can't tell what's going to happen. But as for us, we should bring out our first chess piece. Deploy him."

"Hey! You're up. Delay the Overcomers for our units to get in position." Harker ordered.

A lone Armor emerged from the base and flew towards the underground tunnel.

"Is he enough? Although that Armor we sent has the arsenals and weapons of Egypt, why give it to him? He's not even a skilled pilot!" Harker asked.

"Trust me. Fighting him is not about skill! Especially now. Me and Arthur taught that guy psychology. I've been telling him about this, and Arthur also offered more hints in our short stay here."

"Psychology?" Harker was stunned. Lowengren was one of the people he feared. And this Lowengren, the paramount of liars and manipulators, taught another his skill? And then, there was Arthur! Two of them shared their wisdom and intelligence with another!

"I never believed you two would be the type to pass on your skills to another. How skilled is he?" Harker asked.

"He's extremely terrible at it."

"The worst."

"I am never teaching him again."

"Me too. I'm sorry for dragging you into that, Arthur."

"I cannot accept your apology. Only a few things can mentally break me despite my Unlocking. The horror I faced was so much it increased my Unlocking by one percent. And looking at your reaction, I now know you've been lying. You didn't really teach him, did you? He claimed you taught him and you said that yourself, but you never really had any session with him!"

"Of course I lied to you! I would never teach that guy directly! Instead, I gave him a book to read and convinced him he's an expert! I just needed him to have another perspective in what he thinks of whatever his crazy head has."

"I don't understand. He's... bad at it?" Harker asked again.

"Bad is a severe understatement." Arthur shook his head.

"But I made him think he's very good at it that he surpasses even me and Arthur."

"Why?"

"Observe. You have not witnessed his power firsthand. Even I got caught up in his Zone breaking ability. But now, armed with more power, he can take whatever he thinks he knows and use it break the hearts of people."

Headed towards the center of the battle was an Armor being piloted by the first powerful weapon within the arsenal of the Council of the Wicked. 

"I'm Backman. That's the line, I'll say. And I'll say bit with the distorted voice of Batman with a thick Austrian accent. It'll be so awesome." The man piloting the Armor muttered excitedly.

In the battle of the Mediterranean Sea, Vender Hirock joins the fray.