Intergalactic conquest with an AI

But before the order could be given, the mist stirred again. From the same abyssal shadow, another massive fist surged forth, descending with terrible speed. It carried with it a force that made the very air scream, and for a moment the fortress seemed dwarfed beneath its sheer scale.

"FIRE!" Cleo's command thundered through the halls.

The rail cannon unleashed its fury. A blinding lance of energy ripped from the weapon's mouth, so bright it tore through the fog like a newborn sun. The recoil shook Cleopatra to her core, rattling every wall and sending ripples through the shield.

The shot met the descending fist head-on, followed by a collision of power that lit the battlefield in white fire, shattering the suffocating darkness in an instant.

The rail cannon's shot was strong enough to tear through a dreadnought and shred its defenses as though they were paper. But this time, its brilliance faltered.

The colossal black fist slowed under the cannon's blast, its advance hindered, yet it did not stop. With dreadful inevitability, the fist still came crashing down, its shadow blotting out the battlefield.

"Cleo～," Yssera sang out, her voice lilting with mischief despite the situation they were in. "I don't want to be the one to tell you that your precious toy doesn't work, but since no one else will say it, I guess I'll play the villain…" She flashed a playful grin while her eyes gleamed. "Your toy isn't working at all～."

Cleo's gaze remained locked on the displays, and her tone remained flat and cold. "Instead of wasting your strength annoying me, I suggest you use it to hold onto something." With a gesture, she magnetized her boots to the metallic floor.

Yssera opened her mouth to retort, but the chance never came. The massive fist slammed into Cleopatra's energy shield, and the entire fortress jolted with earth-shattering force.

Cleo stood firm, anchored by the magnetic locks, while Yssera was hurled across the command chamber like a ragdoll, her shriek echoing as she bounced against walls and consoles.

But it did not stop with one strike. A second black fist emerged from the mist, even more furious than the first, and smashed against the shimmering shield.

Whatever the creature was, it had not taken kindly to the rail cannon's defiance. Blow after blow fell, each impact warping the air and cracking the very fabric of space. With every strike, the shield rippled violently, waves of black mist exploding outward to swallow even more of the battlefield.

Cleopatra's mighty engines were being overheated, fighting to hold position, but the fortress was driven down again, grinding against the unstable surface of the planet.

Then, as though the heavens themselves could not bear the silence any longer, the sky opened in fire.

From above, a storm of plasma and lasers poured down in a relentless barrage. Beams of pure light and burning energy lanced through the mist, ripping it apart. The suffocating darkness was forced back, revealing the nightmare hidden within.

Encircling the Cleopatra was a sea of grotesque abominations, their bodies twisted into monstrous parodies of flesh and claw. They writhed and circled endlessly, their eyes glowing with hunger. But towering above them all was the true terror.

Nearly three hundred meters tall, it loomed like a god of ruin, its black body vaguely humanoid yet monstrous in every detail. Each of its massive arms ended in fists larger than warships, their skin rippling with living shadows.

Tentacles slithered from its back, snapping and lashing through the beams of the planetary bombardment. Lasers and plasma fire struck it in endless torrents, but the giant did not falter. It raised its tendrils like whips, swatting the energy blasts aside in irritation, as if the storm of destruction raining upon it were nothing more than a swarm of flies.

[Creator, energy readings confirm planetary bombardment. The source was identified as the Argos Dreadnought under General Carlos. Supporting fire is being supplied by multiple light destroyers linked to the fleet commanded by the officer titled "the Musician."]

The young AI's voice carried through the fortress. Cleo's eyes narrowed as streams of data filled her vision. She was already dissecting every signature, every fluctuation radiating from the massive giant. Every scrap of information could mean the difference between survival and annihilation.

Meanwhile, Yssera had clawed her way onto one of the chamber's walls with her talons buried into the steel. Normally her voice filled the room with constant chatter and mocking laughter, but now she was silent. Her greenish eyes were open wide, fixated on the towering monstrosity outside. For once, she had no words.

"Something is wrong…" Cleo's voice was low, almost a growl, her eyes flicking across the streams of data before her. "This thing… it keeps growing. Bigger and bigger by the minute."

Her scanners confirmed the impossible. The black giant that had loomed at three hundred meters was no longer the same size.

In mere minutes, it had swelled to at least three hundred and fifty, and still the readings climbed. Its flesh writhed like living smoke, its outline shifting and expanding as though the mist itself was feeding it.

"Yssera!" Cleo called sharply, turning from the display. "Have you found Rex? We cannot waste more time against this thing. If it reaches a thousand meters in size, I do not know if even Cleopatra can withstand it!"

Her eyes darted across the chamber until she found Yssera at last, clinging to one of the walls with her claws dug deep into the steel.

But something was different. Yssera's eyes glowed with an eerie green light, their usual playful spark replaced by something ancient and predatory. While perched above her head floated a crown woven of stellar energy and strange organic matter, its form flickering with a spectral glow.

Recognition struck Cleo in an instant. Ancient records stirred in her memory. A thousand years ago, during the War of the Swarms, she had seen such things before. The queens and princesses of the Khryssari would summon these crowns, merging their essence into a living swarm-creature. Through it, they extended their control and magnified their power.

"…Please… hurry, and find him," Cleo whispered, so quietly it was almost as though she spoke only to herself. Her voice trembled with the weight of urgency, but she did not raise it.

Instead, she turned her focus back to the growing giant, her eyes never leaving its form. She would hold the line, but Rex had to be found.

Her mind wandered briefly to the very first conversation she had shared with Yssera upon encountering her inside Cleopatra.

The Khryssari had claimed immunity to the dark mist, boasting of it with the same carelessness she carried into everything she did. Yssera had even released thousands of her drones into the fog, swarming across the battlefield in search of Rex. But they had returned without success.

Or rather, not entirely without.

The Khryssari search had not uncovered Rex, but it had found others... the mercenaries and even some of the lizardmen survivors still fighting desperately within the mist. And at this very moment, one of her possessed drones now stood before Valxir and his warriors.

The drone's body pulsed with unnatural life; its movements were too fluid, too deliberate for a mere creature. Its many eyes shimmered with faint green light, betraying the will that guided it.

"My lord! Keep your distance!" Zanar warned, his tone uncharacteristically urgent. Stellar energy erupted around his frame, radiating like a shield as he tried to force the drone back. "I don't know what this creature is, but everything in me says it's bad news if we kill it!"

But the warning fell flat. The drone did not retreat. Instead, a familiar voice slithered into their minds, smooth and mocking, carrying a playful cruelty that was impossible to mistake.

"Oh, come now. Do you really think such a little trick would frighten me～?" Yssera's voice teased, not from her lips but echoing telepathically through the drone.

The warriors stiffened. Volkong, ever quick to anger, stepped forward with a glare, the weight of his massive hammer resting against his shoulder. He bared his teeth, but his eyes betrayed something else... curiosity.

"It spoke!?" he shouted. "Are you telling me this thing can actually speak?" His tone was sharp, half hostile, half bewildered, as he studied the alien drone with renewed caution.

"Of course I can speak; what idiot wouldn't know how to?" Yssera's voice lilted with her usual playful arrogance, flowing from the drone as if its many eyes were mouths of their own.

The insectoid body tilted ever so slightly, her attention locked on Volkong, ready to dart away if his colossal hammer came down. "Honestly, I'm even more amazed that you can speak. You know～."

Volkong growled under his breath, his grip tightening on the weapon's haft, but before he could strike, Valxir stepped forward. His gaze was sharp, cutting through the fog of confusion.

"I doubt a creature like this could truly speak," he said coldly, his hand resting firmly on Zanar's shoulder to pull him back. "It doesn't even have a mouth. The only explanation is telepathy. But such a lowly creature wouldn't possess that kind of power."

His eyes narrowed as he studied the drone's shifting carapace, the way its movements seemed too precise, too deliberate. He drew in a slow breath, then raised his chin with authority. "So… who are you really?"

The swarm drone froze for a heartbeat, all of its many eyes fixing on Valxir at once. Their eerie green glow brightened, converging as though drawn to him alone.

The others might as well have been shadows in the mist, for in that moment, the Khryssari presence beyond the drone was interested only in him.