The Almighty Ring

“Warning! Warning! Left wing engine failure. Insufficient energy supply. Brace! Brace!”

Just as the ship was slowly moving out of the dock, a warning blared around the bridge.

“What happened?” Akatziris roared.

“Leader! We do not have enough manpower to control each of the ship’s controls!” Bennette Straz cried as he handled most of the delicate controls.

They were already lacking in manpower, and those that were already manning other controls were suddenly re-assigned to divert power into the left engine, which in turn, left the posts empty and unmanned. Even though they were flawless in design, they were not designed to have multiple copies of themselves.

A long time ago, when the ship was fully operable, there were only seven original crew members. They were able to fly the ship without any trouble because of the support system. With a support system like 0543 controlling other parts of the ship, even one man would be able to control the ship!

“Leader! We are already doing our best! The ship must not take off now or the main power core will be compromised!” Straz warned sternly. He was thankful to be residing inside a machine frame or he would already be suffering from a severe panic attack.

“What can we do now?! If we choose to stay, forget about Jiang Fei and his fellow b*tches, the other three would be impossible to stop!” Akatziris’ face was almost plastered to the screen that was showing the movements of the three Elemental Lords. They might still be invisible to Jiang Fei, but not to her.

“Leader, we need a support system! Without it, the ship will not fly!” Straz gave the most logical answer.

“A support system…” Akatziris mumbled as she bit her synthetic, luscious lips.

“Open the doors! Let Jiang Fei in!” Akatziris suddenly yelled after three seconds of silence.

Akatziris was out of options. Without a support system to control the other parts of the ship, she would be stuck there. The only support system available then was resting in Jiang Fei’s fingers. She had to allow Jiang Fei on the ship and if all worked well, she could try and appeal to Jiang Fei’s emotions and form an alliance. In the worst case scenario, she could point at the three Elemental Lords and coax Jiang Fei into defeating them together. Either way, it was a better choice than having the ship destroyed.

“Leader… Are you certain-” Straz’s sentence was left hanging as Akatziris interjected harshly. He had only suggested acquiring a support system, not Jiang Fei! Who knew what he might do when he got to the bridge!

“Enough! I will hear no more objections about this!”

Straz’s statement was logical. Jiang Fei was not alone after all. He was accompanied by a group of powerful Level 5 Metahumans, one of them being Isabella the Destroyer! There was also the squadron of fifty female soldiers!

If Jiang Fei decided to use force, Akatziris and her men would be powerless in stopping them!

“Obey the command,” Akatziris said in a calm tone, as if she was certain and confident that she could get by this predicament.

“As you wish,” Straz acknowledged the order albeit hesitant about it. Even so, he was programmed to never disobey Akatziris’ orders. As so, he went over the captain’s console panels and opened the doors to the ship.

Just then, while Isabella was still banging on the entrance door to the bridge, one of the side doors which led to other parts of the ship opened.

“Did something happen? Did Isabella make a glitch in the system?” Ariel frowned.

“Let me go in first,” said Sylphy. With a “poof”, the girl vanished from sight and entered the ship.

“My sweet loving master, please hurry in. Or else, the rats from behind will come and get you!” Akatziris’ voice echoed from the inside of the ship.

“Rats?” Jiang Fei muttered, surprised. He had not realized that there were someone else coming for him!

“She’s right! We’re being followed!” said Isabella as she turned to the general direction of the three Elemental Lords. She had noticed their presence from a while back but had mistaken them for Akatziris’ men. A third party arriving was the last thing everyone would have thought.

“Tch! I’ve messed up!” Jiang Fei clicked his tongue and scolded himself. Ariel was always the one that was keeping an eye on their surroundings. The girl was severely drained from teleporting so many people from such a distance. If she were in her prime state, she would have noticed their presence before they could even teleport in!

“Come in quick!” Akatziris’ voice was heard again.

“Get in, we can’t stay here either,” Jiang Fei said. He then whispered in a slightly lower voice, “Keep your eyes peeled.

Jiang Fei made sure that everyone else entered first before entering himself. As soon as he did, the door shut close from behind. It was two minutes later that the three Elemental Lords arrived. Now, they were not bothered to cover their tracks as Jiang Fei and Akatziris were already in the ship. They had to force themselves in!

“Open the door!” Therazane snarled.

“I can’t. This door is something else. I need to put in more force,” Neptulon grunted.

Beside Neptulon, the others backed away.

“Open sesame!” Neptulon yelled as he placed his palms on the silver door. Unlike Isabella, who used brute force, Neptulon had channeled his energy onto the door, forming a visible bubble that wrapped around it. The bubble glowed and in no time, the door opened up miraculously. He was using the power of time to revert to an instance when the door was opened.

It didn’t take long for Neptulon to open the door. Although he was forcing the door to travel back two minutes in time, it took him even less energy than picking up a pencil from the ground. Unlike Metahumans that had power levels to resist the effects of the Core of Time, the door was an inanimate object. Neptulon could also simply make the passage of time flow to the beginning of the big bang itself if he willed it so.

“No! He has the Core of Time?!” Akatziris grunted frustratingly when she saw how Neptulon was able to get into the ship.

“I need a support system! I won’t be able to use ship’s defensive system without it!” Akatziris exclaimed. The ship was supposed to have a barrier around it which could have prevented Neptulon from opening the door so easily. However, due to the lack of manpower and an actual support system, the shield on the ship was left at its bare minimum output. That was why Neptulon had so easily used his power on the door.

Concurrently, Jiang Fei and his army of girls were chasing down a long pathway that led to the center of the ship. He had no idea why Akatziris had granted him entrance to the ship but it didn’t matter as long as he was on it. He had the superior strength then and if he was forced to, he could take over the ship by fighting Akatziris directly. Right now, Jiang Fei needed to focus on getting to the bridge before Akatziris could do anything else!