Chapter 858: Final Clash [Pt 5]

>BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMM!!!<

Destruction littered her environs, yet Ana did not pause or hesitate as she operated her massive Golem, Hugo.

Enemies came to her in droves, but they were easily repelled by Hugo's immensely powerful defensive field. Its offense was even more impressive, considering the fact that Hugo had a homing function that could target thousands of enemies at once.

The firepower at her fingertips was also no joke.

'Just how much Mana does this Golem have?' Of course, she already knew the answer to her question was foolish.

The 'Mana Core' of Hugo was more of an engine that artificially produced the result of Spellcraft. Every time it was active and used energy, it gained more by collecting the surrounding Mana.

To prevent an overload, a stabilizer existed in the Mana Core—one that reduced the intake of Mana if the Core was getting full, and also expelled Mana from it if it had reached its peak state. In the end, every contingency had been accounted for, making this the bulkiest, most efficient construct she had ever seen.

"After this fight, I'm going to bury myself in research! I won't stop until I have made my own ultimate construct!"

Ana didn't know why, but a competitive spirit towards Jared was budding. She didn't want to lose, and she felt—for some reason—that she could do much better and eventually attempt to surpass him.

'I'll do my best!' She shot yet another missle at her enemies, easily decimating their ranks.

Since the Dwarf Colony was highly toxic, petty much all the soldeirs here were machines. The evil Jared's empire wouldn't want to endanger capable soldiers by placing them in such a wretched place, so the next best thing was to make Automatons and Autopilot Golems do the work.

Unfortunately...

>BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!<

... They stood no chance against the Ultimate Golem!

'I wonder how Stefan is doing...' Ana thought to herself, her cheeks turning a little pink.

Her heart began to slowly race, and she clutched her flat chest with a little bit of concern. Even then, a small smile began to appear the more she thought of him.

'What am I doing...?'

Ever since she was a kid, she never had much interest in romance and the likes. Boys weren't really her priority, considering she was surrounded by her male siblings.

Ana's major interest dwelled in knowledge, and she pursued that with all her passion.

However, ever since she and Stefan began to interact, she could feel this budding attraction no other person had managed to make her do.

'Is it because I've never really interacted with boys until now...?' When she thought of it, she had mostly been too busy—either with research or revenge—to give romance any thought.

'Even when I first met Jared, I was flustered, wasn't I?'

But, how did that explain the thumping in her heart whenever she talked with or thought of Stefan? In the first place, the kind of connection she had with Jared was a more competitive and respective one.

However, for Stefan, she could feel a longing and attraction that defied prior experience.

And it was for good reason.

'He's kind. He listens well. He teaches me new things. He's very smart and curious. He's veeery handsome too. He's strong. He encourages me all the time, and he's so proper. He can be assertive at times, but I like it when he's all shy and cute too.'

There was one other thing that attracted her to him—something that shocked her till this point.

'H-he... always mentions how cute I look... because of my stature.'

Why was she so giddy about this?

Usually, Ana got upset when anyone brought her height and overall appearance into the conversation. It felt like those who did this were looking down on her, or something. Even Stefan did something similar in their first meeting, for which he already apologized for.

In essence, she didn't like it.

Yet, why was it that when it came to Stefan, she was smitten by his charming way of implying how cute she was with her small stature?

'Most of the time, I overhear him talking about it. I wish he could say it to me more...'

Ana found herself drowning deeper and deeper in the vast sea of her emotions, almost to the point of forgetting her task.

"A-ah, what am I doing? I have to focus!"

She could honestly put the Golem on Autopilot and it would still do well in handling the enemies. Plus, she had hundreds of thousands of reinforcements. However, Ana knew she wouldn't feel comfortable if everyone was working hard and she wasn't/

"Stefan..." She whispered one last time, watching the pink snow falling in the distance. "... I can't wait to see you after this is all over!'

*

*

*

[A FEW HOURS LATER]

"You're all safe now. There's no need to worry."

It took some time, but the issue was finally resolved. After evacuating all the Dwarves, and also defeating all the enemies they faced, Ana and Stefan rendezvoused at the safe zone, commanding all their forces to remain suspended above the wide dome.

Fortunately, there were no casualties, and everything went exactly according to plan. The shaky part of the entire mission was pretty much how to explain the entire situation to the Dwarves.

Fortunately, the Dwarven race was more understanding than they gave them credit for. Perhaps it was due to all they had suffered, but the Dwarves slowly warmed up to their words, and they even thanked them.

All in all, it was mission complete.

... Or so they had thought.

>VWUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!<

Stefan and Ana instantly looked beyond the safe zone and watched the skies darken from a distance. It was the direction of the Eastern Continent, so the two of them knew it had to be the doing of their prime enemy.

A dark pillar of pure, unexplainably repulsive energy slowly converged at a point. They couldn't properly observe all that was happening, even with enhanced sight, but what they saw and felt bought a grim expectation upon them.

The black void in the sky had broken forth... and the darkness was now descending.

"Oh no..." They found themselves whispering as the dark clouds began to spread.

Was this the end?

*

*

*

[A/N]

What exactly has happened to the attacking team? Is evil finally going to descend and consume this world?

Here's the link.