Intergalactic conquest with an AI

From the battered box where Rex's body lay hidden, something stirred. At first, it was only a shimmer, faint motes of silver dust drifting into the air like sparks from a dying star. The dust thickened; it became brighter and sharper until all at once it erupted.

A colossal pillar of silver light tore through the suffocating mist and climbed into the heavens, blinding and magnificent. The darkness recoiled instantly, scattering like prey before a predator. The suffocating weight was lifted, and for the first time since the nightmare began, they could breathe.

From high orbit, Carlos saw it too. The storm that had swallowed the land was torn open in an instant, an eye of clarity shining in the middle of chaos. His fleet's sensors lit up with alarms, readings spiking wildly as the beam of silver power split the night.

In that revealed clearing, something stirred. Something was moving within the heart of the storm, at the very center of the light.

"Go, my son. Show these thieves the difference between a hollow pretender of Tier Five and one who is a true planetary champion. Show them the might of your bloodline."

The voice rang out like a divine decree, and from the towering pillar of silver radiance, another figure began to emerge. It was no beast or monstrous form, but the simple silhouette of a man, carved entirely from pure silver light.

Nothing more, nothing less. A human shape, but one that held the weight of a world behind its every motion.

The first to witness this impossible being was Little Red. She was closest to the phenomenon; her dragon armor's sensors were feeding her streams of raw data as usual, but for once, she trusted none of it. According to every scan, every calculation, the silver giant in front of her was nothing more than a Tier Five existence.

Yet her instincts screamed otherwise.

The aura pressing against her was overwhelming, as though a planet itself had settled upon her shoulders, crushing her beneath a gravitational force beyond imagination. The silver light around him burned not like fire, but like the pull of a living star, heavy and relentless.

Then, the giant opened his eyes.

They were not hollow, not empty. They shone with a breathtaking brilliance of molten gold laced with silver, a gaze both terrible and beautiful. His eyes fell upon her, piercing through her every defense, yet instead of crushing her, the weight vanished.

In its place, Little Red felt something entirely different. Her body became light, overflowing with strength, as though every cell had been reborn. The exhaustion of endless battle evaporated in a heartbeat.

It was the same euphoric surge of stimulants flooding her veins, but without the poison, without the ruin.

She glanced down at her hands. They shimmered faintly, wrapped in a silver glow. The light spread across her entire form, wrapping her body and armor in a luminous veil. She hardly had time to marvel at it, for the silver giant raised his colossal hand toward her, with his palm open in invitation.

His intent was clear. He wished for her to stand upon it. And though she knew nothing of what he was or why he had come, her body moved as if entranced. Without hesitation, she stepped onto his hand.

"Well then," Rex muttered to himself, his voice carrying into the vast silence of the mist, "I don't know what in the hell is happening, but this feels… incredible. Still, why is everything so dark around here?" His eyes swept the black haze that had nearly smothered the entire planet, his golden-silver gaze cutting through it with disdain.

"My child," the familiar, calm voice of the Lady in White entered his mind, her words delivered with a motherly firmness.

"Do not waste time staring at the scenery. This form drains your planetary reserves faster than you realize. You will not be able to hold it for long. Take your people and leave this world immediately. The enemy that dwells here cannot be defeated by you or by anyone on this planet."

Rex's thoughts flickered toward the faint presence of his exhausted companion. The little white sand rabbit lay slumped at her side, pitifully small, its ears drooping as though it were carrying a mountain. It looked even weaker than when Rex had first met it.

After all, its strength was utterly drained, and the reason was simple.

The greedy little Rex had devoured half of its planetary energy. Under normal circumstances, that should have been impossible. Not even a Titan could absorb such vast power without their body instinctively rejecting and expelling it.

But Rex was not like other Titans.

His body was something unique, two beings fused into one. His flesh and blood carried the inheritance of a Titan-born, while his other half was intertwined with Cleo's living Kaelzar metal.

From the moment she fused her body into his to save his life, their existences had been bound together. That fusion allowed him to channel and contain what should have destroyed him.

The result was something monstrous. Something without precedent.

A hybrid that could drink in half a planet's essence and wield it as fuel for life itself. A being born to surpass limitations, to carve a place beyond the boundaries of his tier.

He was still marked as Tier Five, but beneath that simple label lay the truth... Rex had become the absolute ruler among them. A monster above monsters.

Whether his power could rival or even surpass the peak of Tier Six remained uncertain, but one thing was already undeniable. Rex had stepped onto a path that no one before him had ever walked.

But that was not the end of it. Because Cleo and Rex shared the same body, Cleo had always been careful with the torrent of power flowing between them. She kept herself locked at a stable Tier Three, suppressing what Rex sent her.

Her current form was nothing more than an artificial body of living metal, and it could not withstand the sheer wildness of Rex's true energy. Even if she had been able to, she would have enforced a suppression, limiting herself to no more than forty percent of his strength.

What she never had a chance to realize was that once Rex broke through to Tier Five, that same forty percent was no longer a manageable flow. It had become forty percent of half a planet's energy.

The moment it poured into her body, the vessel ruptured. She exploded in a flash of silver shards, scattering pieces of her artificial form across the room.

The blast startled Yssera so violently that she almost lost her footing. She leapt down from the wall while cursing, but then her eyes widened.

"What the hell was that!? Cleo!" she shouted, her voice cracking from the shock. She scanned the ground frantically, staring at the broken fragments that had once been Cleo's frame.

A soft, calm voice answered her. "Do not worry. I am still here."

Yssera spun around and saw Cleo standing in front of her, though not in flesh. It was her holographic projection, shimmering faintly; her presence was oddly serene despite what had just happened.

"What happened to you!?" Yssera demanded to know, her tone sounding half outrage, half disbelief. "You just... exploded... out of nowhere!" She jabbed a finger toward the scattered remains still smoldering on the floor.

"I am not entirely certain yet," Cleo admitted, her tone being measured. "I am running an analysis. It will not take long before I identify the cause."

As if on cue, one of her smaller chibi-like holographic forms appeared beside her, holding a translucent screen. The tiny projection handed it over before vanishing in a flicker of static.

Cleo studied the readout in silence, her golden eyes narrowing as the data scrolled before her.

Finally, she exhaled, almost in awe. "The answer is simple. Rex has ascended to Tier Five. The energy we share was so overwhelming that my vessel could no longer contain it. It was destroyed instantly."

Her voice, though calm, carried a trace of wonder. She continued scanning the vast numbers on the display, numbers that reflected the impossible surge of energy she had just endured.

Yssera's expression darkened, her eyes narrowing with irritation. "Wait a second. Why in the world is Rex sharing his energy with you?" Her voice was sharp, her tone almost accusatory.

Cleo turned her gaze on her briefly, unbothered by the hostility in Yssera's eyes. She offered no explanation, no defense. With a flicker, she turned back to her station, her focus already fixed on the colossal silhouette looming within the black mist.

The giant was advancing, a mountain of shadow at least four hundred meters tall, its every step shaking the battlefield.

Cleo's holographic form steadied itself, her hands tightening over the fire control. Silver tracers lit the air as she resumed her relentless barrage, striking at the black titan that moved ever closer.

But her concerns were far from over.

Barely two minutes after Cleo had resumed firing, the Cleopatra shuddered under the force of a sudden and unfamiliar energy strike. The fortress groaned as if the very metal in its frame wanted to split apart; the walls trembled with a violence that rattled every soul inside.

Yet this time, the impact was not aimed at them alone. The same wave of energy surged outward, slamming into the black giant that had been advancing relentlessly.

The towering monstrosity staggered, its enormous frame driven back several steps. A guttural roar tore from its throat, a sound so deep and furious that it seemed to shake the mist itself.

It raised its colossal hands to its face as though to shield itself from a searing pain, its body twisted in frustration. The air around it pulsed with distorted power, and for the first time since the battle had begun, the black giant seemed not invincible, but vulnerable.