July 11th, Year 714 A.G.

09:17am.

Compton District.

A massive 10-meter tall black humanoid robot with two metallic hands, two legs, and a square-shaped head accelerated through the chaotic streets of the Upper District while carrying a man with black hair and black eyes.

In its wheeled mobility form, while the Doom Rover v0.1 rushed through the streets while carrying him on its shoulder, Leon's eyes gleamed as he watched his surroundings with an anxious expression on his face.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The city was unraveling before him.

Unlike in Megabase 023 and in the 5 other Megabases of Leviathan Quay where thousands of military air transports were originally stationed with most of them mobilized to stop the invaders, the rest of Leviathan Quay didn't enjoy that kind of military advantage.

In Megabase 023 and the other Megabases of Leviathan Quay, the invading Federation army were forced to fight their opponents on their home ground.

They were forced to fight an aerial battle for aerial superiority where they were vastly outnumbered by their enemies.

1 to 1, the warships and military transports of the Omnicore Federation were better, stronger, and sturdier than the ones their counterparts used but the numbers advantage of the Geneforge transports leveled the playing field.

This was only in the Megabases though.

In the other parts of Leviathan Quay where the invaders descended on, though the Megabases sent out military transports to intercept them, it was not enough to fully stall the invaders.

The city suffered at the whim of the invading Federation army.

Mushroom-shaped explosions erupted at different parts of Compton District as the black humanoid robot accelerated past the destruction.

Sitting on the robot's shoulder, Leon was forced to watch.

He was forced to watch as homes and hotels were razed to the ground by missiles, he was forced to watch as stray laser beams hit the panicking civilians on the road, evaporating some in a swift death while mutilating others and leaving them alive but incomplete to die slow and agonizing deaths.

"Arghhhhhh…!"

Screams of pain and terror reverberated around the moving robot as the buildings and structures in this city were destroyed even as civilians were slaughtered in cold blood.

Leon was used to this in the past few days, he was used to the terrorists being the ones doing the killings but nothing that the terrorists did was ever on this scale.

This was on a totally different scale.

This was the scale of a full-blown international invasion.

Seated on top the moving robot that kept on seamlessly maneuvering through the destruction, dodging attacks and leaving the dying people behind, Leon watched in a daze.

'Why?' He thought.

The first people he met in this world told him about the tyranny of the Omnicore Federation.

Then, he questioned them.

Then, he thought it was probably propaganda.

But with Parasite's sponsor, Leon gained first-hand experience about the ways of the Federation and yet that was still just a single person's action, not a whole faction.

His time in the Big Gig Construction Company in Federation territory made him learn about how they restricted their own citizens, and now Lucian's story told him a deeper story about the Federation.

Unlike in Parasite's case when it could be argued that it was just one man who sponsored his slave trade and not the entire faction, what of Lucian?

According to what Leon knew, the Quantum Shaper Class was the only Ascended Class in Neo-Tokara whose knowledge was completely isolated and restricted from the outside public.

The Omnicore government were the only ones in control of it.

And this told Leon that the ones responsible for a bunch of kids' torture and suffering for years just to groom a formidable soldier were the Federation.

And now, he was seeing this.

'Why?' He thought again, looking at the destruction around him.

'Is world domination really that important enough to abandon morals completely and engage in such unhinged war crimes against others?' He struggled to understand the motivations behind the Omnicore Federation's extreme quest for conquest.

Maybe it was because of his fragmented memories, maybe the era he lived in was also like this but still, Leon didn't understand.

Though he didn't understand, in that moment as his robot ran through this city, with the catalyst from everything that was happening around him, he developed a new yearning that he had never thought of before today.

'I want to dominate this world!' His eyes gleamed.

'I want to stop the Omnicore Federation!'

'I want to make all the people responsible for the suffering in this world pay!'

As he had these thoughts, his System suddenly lit up with a new notification.

DING!

~----~

[You have received a new Mission: World Domination!]

>Strip the rulers of this world of their powers and drag them down from their Ivory Towers. Make them answer for their crimes, then dominate this world!

[Mission Reward: ???]

(NOTE: This is a long-term mission.)

~----~

Leon blinked on seeing this as he briefly focused on the mission but then he averted his gaze again, observing his surroundings.

If he truly wanted to complete this mission, what he needed was power.

He had to get stronger, far stronger than he was now and that step came with first completing his Ascended Counter tally and challenging his 2nd Trial.

Thinking of this, Leon took a deep breath and accessed his Ascended Counter again.

~----~

[Ascended Counter: 1,496/2000]

~----~

This was what his Ascended Counter looked like now after the mission that led to him losing 5 allies to the terrorists.

Stuck inside the underground complex of the terrorists, all the battles that Leon fought underground earned him his highest combined total of +368 Ascended Essence gained at a go.

He guessed that this number was boosted by him finally completing the design of his robot and using the Doom Rover v0.1 in battle.

Leon guessed that by the end of today, there was a high chance that his Ascended Counter would be full. That is if he survived today.

He still didn't know if Leviathan Quay had what it took to survive this invasion.

Despite how much he was overthinking and how much he wanted to stop the robot to help the people that were dying around him, Leon was no saint. He had priorities and his priority right now was saving his friend.

He was anxious. 'Why is Daren not picking my calls?'

And then his A.I suddenly came to life.

DING!

"Master, latest news update!"

After a few minutes of the invasion, the Gene Army finally managed to confirm the number of D Rank Ascended that led the invasion Federation army.

There were 2 D Rank Ascended, and right now both were above Megabase 023's airspace where they engaged in an intense D Rank battle against the 3 military leaders of Leviathan Quay.

This news from his A.I made Leon heave a sigh of relief because this meant that there was no extra Federation D Rank Ascended running amok.

Even with the Doom Rover v0.1 robot, Leon had no confidence in facing a D Rank Ascended in battle.

At most, the only way he could injure and conceivably kill a D Rank Ascended was through the robot's 'F*ck You Compartment' but even that was impractical because a lot of factors had to be in place for it to be used successfully.

The D Rank Ascended had to stay in one place for him to detonate all the jury-rigged bombs but considering how fast these guys were, Leon was not too sure about the viability of his plan.

All these reasons were why he didn't want to fight a D Rank Ascended.

After minutes since escaping the terrorist base on his robot, Leon finally saw the silhouette of the hospital in the distance but…

…the hospital was in flames!

…

Minutes earlier…

WOM! WOM! WOM!

Alarms blared across all military bases of the Gene Army in Leviathan Quay, from the highest Megabases to the smallest military base as every soldier in Leviathan Quay was mobilized for war.

Apart from the epic battles being fought above the 6 Megabases of the City, in the other regions of the city, the police tried their best to protect the city even as reinforcement from the Megabases helped them.

Still, it was not enough. The city was unraveling before them.

Yet, despite the pressure, the destruction, and the ridiculous figures of the mounting casualty list, the police and the army didn't stop.

They did their best to protect the city.

While air transports resisted the invaders in the sky, police trucks and army trucks also patrolled the streets with loud speakers.

"Move to the underground shelters!"

"I repeat, move to the underground shelters!"

Though Leviathan Quay had never faced an invasion of this scale before, they've faced numerous mini invasions from the Omnicore Federation over the years and though the city-wide shield was never breached, they've been preparing for the day that it eventually happened.

This was why hundreds of underground military shock shelters have been built around the city for eventualities like this.

The moment the invasion started, even as the major battles were fought above the Megabases, hundreds of more soldiers were sent to the streets to coordinate the evacuation underground.

This was when Sergeant Tyla pulled a few strings.

As a Sergeant serving directly under a Lieutenant in the army, Sergeant Tyla used Lieutenant Johnmark's authority to pull a few strings, making sure that her battalion was sent to Compton District.

When they arrived in the district as evacuation started, Sergeant Tyla personally led her squad to focus on Compton General Hospital where Daren was receiving treatment.

By the time they arrived, the hospital was already in flames with hundreds of patients already dead.

Sergeant Tyla didn't give up though.

Knowing that Daren was a Cyber Gladiator, even though he was injured, she had faith in his ability to survive as she led a few soldiers to bravely barge into the hospital.

They rescued hundreds of patients who were yet to succumb to the flames, and one of them was Daren who unlike others didn't even suffer a single scratch due to the energy shield generator that he had with him.

Sergeant Tyla personally led Daren underground to one of the shelters with a thousand-people capacity.

Alongside a few other soldiers, she stayed with the evacuees, protecting them while watching what was outside through CCTV cameras.

Due to the energy fluctuations and emissions around the city due to the ongoing invasion, network reception in civilian smartphones was extremely poor and this was why Leon couldn't contact Daren.

But as they watched through the CCTV cameras, the soldiers were shocked when they saw the same tall black humanoid robot that crashed the Demon of Ozempic's live video.

The soldiers blinked. "Is that…?"

"Stay here, wait for me!" Sergeant Tyla instructed her soldiers as she immediately rushed to the surface to attract Leon's attention.

By the time she reached the surface and climbed from the Lower District back to the Upper District, Leon already entered inside the hospital and was close to going mad as he saw no one inside, seeing just burnt corpses.

But then, he heard his name being called.

"Thomas!"

Leon recognized that voice; he looked and saw Sergeant Tyla.

Seeing that familiar face, he immediately heaved a sigh of relief. The mere sight of Sergeant Tyla's face reassured him that Daren was still alive.

After exchanging a passionate hug, she led him underground.

…

"You actually managed to create the robot!" Daren glazed his friend. "What an entrance man, I thought you were some superhero!"

Leon glared at Daren. "You still have the energy to make jokes in this situation?"

"What? Should I die of depression because the city is being invaded?"

Leon ignored him as he looked at Sergeant Tyla and expressed his gratitude to her once more, then his face turned serious.

After confirming that Daren was safe, he no longer felt as anxious as he calmed down and with that, he began thinking again.

Even with his current strength, in a battle involving warships and over a thousand air transports, he didn't believe that his current strength could make a dent and personally turn the tides of the battle.

'The only way I can truly influence this battle is if I'm D Rank'.

And since he was not yet D Rank, Leon abandoned the notion of joining a battle of warships and aerial military transports with his constructs.

But though he abandoned the main battle, he didn't want to stay idle.

He still wanted to do something.

Then he thought. 'What will Lucian do? Did he know about this invasion ahead of time?'

'No!' Leon rejected the possibility immediately. 'If he knew, he'd have showed evidence of it consciously or unconsciously during our conversation in the dream'.

'And if Lucian doesn't know, if he was also caught off guard by this invasion, what will he do?'

Leon frowned in deep thought, then his eyes widened.

From the psychological profile that he already had of the terrorist leader and all that he knew about him, Leon was 99% sure that Lucian will see the sudden Omnicore Federation invasion as a divine orchestration by his God to aid his divine mandate.

If so, then Lucian was definitely going to take advantage of this situation!

Leon hissed. 'That bastard!'

With the army currently occupied dealing with the Omnicore Federation, they had no more spare power or resources to focus on the terrorists, leaving them free to capitalize on this situation to deal even more damage to this city.

Leon's black eyes gleamed. 'If no one else can, I have to stop him!'

In that moment, his A.I lit up with a new notification.

DING!

"Master, you have to see this!"

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