Chapter 76: The Battle, the Rise, the Fall (2)
Alas, the Mind Flayers or even their Elder Brains were not known for being particularly smart, as most of them were rather stupid in a certain sense.
Mind Flayers were generally known to be mentally rather unstable, which was rather a heavy irony, considering the fact that they were Psionically probably the most advanced species in the Cosmos.
Yet, there was also one of the species that was so easily influenced by their emotion like no other, to the degree that it was very dangerous for them. One could also say that it was self-destructive to them, just as in the case.
Because there wasn't a better word than self-destruction when one could see what they were doing.
Still, everything was good for the Imperial Defesne Froces because, due to the actions of the Elder Brain, the Imperial Defense Fleet was able to easily concentrate their firepower on the Mind Fleet Leviathan.
However, this window would be closed rather shortly because if Grandmaster Byrmellir were to find one positive outcome of the Elder Brain executing all of the salves across the entire Mind Fleet Leviathan, then it would be that the Mind Flayers were free of the rebellion.
They didn't need to focus on combating the revolting slaves and so on and could now wholly focus on space combat, which was already taking tremendously high losses on the side of the Mind Fleet Leviathan.
Something that the Imperial Defense Forces were surely aware of, judging by the decision of the Bashar-Generela Varathar Medes, who ordered all ships to advance on the Mind Fleet Leviathan and annihilate them for all.
The IMperila Starshisp were advancing through the Rylon Star System, abandoning their previous position, as they were not defending right now, but instead, they were executing every single offense move they could.
Now, when the MInd Fleet Leviathan was still disorganized, they were using everything they had to destroy as much of them as possible.
This was also for another reason because the HighCom was aware that if things really went to shit, then the Elder Brain won't hesitate to sacrifice the entire Mind Fleet Leviathan to boost up its power.
As the Elder Brain ruled the entire Mind Fleets, they had a certain ability to tap into the Psionic Potential of the entire Mind Fleet, which was a rather dangerous ability. At the same time, if the elder brain was resolute enough, they could not only tap into the Psychic Potential but also drain it from the Mind Flayers.
Essentially, sacrifice the entire Mind Fleet in order to boost up their powers to a ridiculous degree, of course, depending on the number of the Mind Flayers within the Mind Fleet. Due to that, Bashar-General Varathar Medes issued an order to start annihilating the Mind Fleet LEviahtna at any cost.
'It would be better to kill it faster... don't need to give it a reason to drain the potential of the rest of the squids.'
Grandmaster Byrmellir then channeled the Super-High Risk Primal Psyker Ability, Destruction Authority, in full force as he decided to end the fight as soon as possible. He knew that if the Elder Brain drained the entire Psionic Potential of the entire Mind Fleet, the eldritch abomination would receive a tremendous boost to its combat prowess...
Not really to reach its peak, but it would most probably be stronger than himself, and then, he feared that, coupled with his injuries, he would lose the fight. Yet, he was rather confident in the Imperial Defense Forces under the Bashar-General Medes, who knew about the situation.
Judging by the ferocity with how much the Imperial Fleets were engaging the Mind Fleet Leviahtn, it was evident. Even though the Imperial Starships were taking losses, they ignored everything in order to destroy as many of the Mind Flayers as possible.
All of the higher leadership was aware that once the duel between Beyonders was lost, all of them would perish here or, worse, be turned into slaves and experimental subjects for the squids; nothing was worse than that.
With the full might of Destruction Authority flaring forward, he appeared in front of the Elder Brain, bringing on him the might and fury of the Eternal Imperium of the Asurya as he swung down his sword that was flaming with the Destruction.
The Elder Brain, still severely weakened from the backslash it suffered from the Psychic Echoes of vailing souls and all of that, the negativity that caused the Elder Brain rather serious injuries, wasn't able to defend itself properly.
But the Elder Brain still managed to conjure several hundreds of Psionic Bolts around itself as all of them were fired toward Grandmaster Byrmellir at lightning speed. The elderly Highborne Asuryani looked at the incoming barrage of the Psionic Bolts, each one of them strong enough to obliterate Imperial Starship to nothingness.
He grinned slightly at the sight as he appeared several hundred meters away from the Elder Brain. He swung his sword, creating a wave of Destruction Authority, obliterating the Psionic Bolts with one attack.
Even though he could have continued his previous attack at the Elder Brain, he couldn't let the Psionic Bolts continue in their trajectory because most of them would hit Imperial Starships and cause heavy losses among the Imperial Defense Force.
Obviously, for the elderly Grandmaster, such a thing was absolutely unacceptable,e as he was then forced to intercept them.
During the window that was created when Arsit Byrmellir was destroying the Psionic BOlts, the Elder Brain used the opportunity to draw the surrounding Psionic Energy, as all of its tentacles glowed with tremendous power that was crushing everything around it, and even the space was becoming distorted, as small cracks started appearing in the space.
When Grandmaster Arsit Byrmellir saw what the Elder Brain was doing, his pupils constricted as he stared at the Elder Brain with intense glare because he knew that the Elder Brain was creating something akin to an unstable Black Hole or, better known as Psi-Singularity.
Not giving the Elder Brain any more opportunity, he instantly rushed toward the Elder Brain that was too preoccupied with the creation of the Psi-Singularity to notice that the Highborne Asuryani already appeared in front of it and as he outstretched his right hand, a beam of pure Destruction shot toward the area where the Elder Brain was creating the Psi-Singularity.
Unfortunately for the space squid, it realized too late, as the Annihilation Beam hit the Psi-Singularity right in the center, as the space cracks trembled and grew noticeably larger, and everything around them exploded.
Arsit Byrmellir could sense the Edler Brain being grievously injured in the explosion for several reasons, not only due to the sheer damage from the explosion itself but also from the fact that when it was creating the Psi-Singularity, it was forcibly disrupted and all the Psionic Energy lashed at the Elder Brain.
As everything was still in the seas of the explosion, Grandmaster Byrmellir immediately followed after the Elder Brain, who was in relatively poor condition. Most of its tentacles were missing, together with good chunks of its body.
Some of the remnant Desutrcition Authority was latching on its body, destroying it greedily, as it was also feeding on the Psionic Energy of the Elder Brain to sustain itself longer and to destroy more of it.
When he saw the state of the Elder Brain of the Mind Fleet Leviathan, Grandmaster Byrmellir knew that the fight was already over. The Elder Brain was in no state to attack or even do anything, even if it could do anything, he would be able to it.
The gamble with the Psi-Singularity didn't work.
That was also the reason why no sane Beyonder would use this technique during combat, as the repercussions, if it failed or was interrupted, were beyond severe. It mostly resulted in the grievous death of the Beyonder because the Psi-Singularity was one of the most powerful and potent Psionic Techniques that Breyonder could use.
Still, if someone did what the Grandmaster Byrmellir did and disrupted the process, then it would result in a tremendous backslash and the revolt of the Psionic Energy back to the body of the Beyyonder who was casting the Psi-Singularity.
Usually, the result was death.
Some exceptionally powerful Beyonder would come out alive, albeit mostly crippled or with severe injuries that would take decades to heal at best. He observed the Elder Brain for a while, thinking of the historic moment because this would be the first time in a very long time since someone killed the Elder Brain of the Mind Flayers.
Not only that, but the Eternal Imperium of Asurya also managed to destroy the entire Mind Fleet, which was even more rare as the entire Mind Fleet would never rise. This was an unprecedented victory for the Phoenix Empire, as they managed to destroy the entire Mind Fleet and slay the Elder Brain.
He decided not to waste any more time with the Elder Brain, as giving this thing even a few more seconds of life was a dangerous hazard, so he swung his sword and stabbed the Elder Brain with the Destruction Authority.
Immediately, he felt an explosion of Psionic Energy as the entire star system was trembling; the wave was being sensed even across the whole Alaric Star Domain as it was signaling that a powerful Beyonder had fallen in the Rylon Star System.
The Elder Brain of the Mind Flayers and Mind Fleet Leviathan has fallen.
He knew that this news would reverberate through the cosmos in the few days, and it was also a signal for the other factions to hit back at the Mind Flayers as they were the common enemy of all factions within the Cosmos.
Grandmaster Byrmellir was sure that within upcoming months, all High-Level Civilizations in the Andromeda Galaxy would launch a campaign on the holds of the Mind Flayers within the Andromeda Galaxy.
The Mind Flayers were becoming more and more active within the Andromeda Galaxy and most of them were either from the Mind Fleet Leviathan or from the allied Mind Fleets. Because the Mind Fleet Leviathan that was strongest from this mini-alliance between various Mind Fleets has fallen together with its Elder Brain, the rest of the Mind Fleets became easy targets.
Not only in the Andromeda Galaxy, but even within the Milky Way Galaxy, the Automatons and Protoss Tribes would launch bloody campaigns against the Mind Flayers to strike them as hard as possible and push them out from their galaxy.
In the surrounding galaxies, the scenarios would be the same. Fall of the Elder Brain was a very rare event, as the Elder Brains were rarely killed. However, in their defense, they rarely left the safety of the void in between the galaxies where they were hiding.
As soon as he killed the Elder Brain, he dispersed the Destruction Authority, as his Super-High Risk Primal Psyker Ability was rather unsuitable for what was needed to be done. He immediately stabbed in the center of the Elder Brain's corpse and started cutting deeper and deeper through the brain tissue of the Elder Brain.
Soon enough, he found his target...
Psionic Nuclei of the Keter-Class Elder Brain...
This little thing of the size of a small ball was all that he needed to start recuperation from his injuries. He was already crippled for a very long time, and his strength was reduced to the Euclid-Class...
Now, he could finally start the process of healing, and after some time, his strength would recover to his prime; perhaps it would even increase.
The main reason why he couldn't really heal his injuries was that he needed Nuclei of Keter-Class Beyonder.
And because the Andromeda Galaxy was located in rather more desolate parts of the Cosmos from what he knew, Keter-Class Beyonders were rare in these ends of space. There were only a few of them, and each was a prominent member of a High-Level Civilization.
Either way, he could only depend on his luck and find it in some ruins, or perhaps find some weakened Keter-Class Beyonder or whatever.
Now, the heavens gave him an opportunity during the invasion of the Mind Flayers.
He looked around, because with the death of the Elder Brain, the remaining Mind Flayers lost all of their will to fight. The death of the Elder Brain, who was worshipped as a living God within the Mind Fleet, was something that broke their wills.
Without the Elder Brain, they were lost and ripe to be picked by the Imperial Defense Forces that started destroying defenseless Mind Flayer Starships, sometimes they just bombarded them to nothingness, and sometimes they were even boarding and occupying the starships that were in better shape.
The Imperial Forces were very effective in the clean-up operations because once the Mind Flayers stopped resisting, they were easy to defeat. This space battle would enter the history books as one of the worst battles of the Mind Flayers as a whole.
Even though the Mind Fleet Leviathan wasn't one of the strongest Mind Fleets of their species, it was still one of the stronger ones, and it had a relatively big size compared to the other Mind Fleets.