Ares was on the ropes.

He had lost track of time, but one thing was clear to him, he was running out of energy and his opponent wasn't. The effort it was taking to keep his domain intact while fighting the giant stitch craft entity was getting more and more taxing.

Of course, he understood why. This... Thing. The amount of innocents it had consumed in its evil wake, it definitely had energy to spare. And now, after all their battling, it was not even the biggest threat anymore.

Ares braced as he deflected a large gash of Psionic energy away from his domain, straight into the supermassive blackhole nearby. The thing was growing constantly due to all the energy it was sucking up and was most definitely over a thousand astronomical units.

The two of them were fighting on the cusp of its event horizon, right on the edge of its innermost stable orbit. Neither letting the other have a chance of getting away. Ares manifested a spear of energy and launched it towards the leviathan beast in rebuttal.

The strike fizzled out after meeting the creature's flesh, a sliver of its colossal body falling off and instantly began making its way into the black hole.

This was getting dire. The gravity was beginning to affect his domain, slowly pulling, tugging at his very energy. Ares decided now that enough time had passed. His fleet would have made it to the rendezvous point, but now he had to make two gambles.

The first being, he had to use his domain energy as a catalyst to achieve teleportation away... in the direction past the blackhole. If something went wrong, he could fall into the blackhole itself, leaving his fate undetermined.

The second being in order to do that, he needed to drop his domain, making himself absolutely vulnerable for the first time during the battle. But he was no coward. Either he succeeded and continued to fight another day, or he would perish... And hope his little parting gift within his soul would be enough to destroy this creature.

He began laughing within his domain as he began charging up one final attack before attempting his gambit. Despite facing his mortal enemy, this had been a blast. He had not fought like this in so long. Using his powers instead of his machine body. Still, he knew he had to return to it. He had to return to his sons and daughters. He had to continue to fight.

He tanked a prodding screech with his domain and stood his ground as his attack readied. He had moments to enact his plan after the attack fired off. His enemy wouldn't give him longer.

He took a deep breath, the redundant respiratory action he was going to actually miss, he found it pleasant. The domain dropped and the power of a dozen white dwarfs was sent cascading towards the entity.

His domain, which had been constantly struggling back against the enemies all this time, collapsed into himself and then, he felt danger. The previously slow body of the creature, it moved too fast. It inhaled in a microsecond, absorbing his power, somehow, and its large maw was closing in upon him.

Ares did not panic. His fight was not over. As the maw made contact with his avatar, he then swiftly vanished from place. Energy depleted from him in a moment. He began shrinking rapidly. He couldn't maintain his form, his energy was sapping away.

However, the energy was then contained. As alloy capable of withholding his power engulfed around his shrunken form. He felt a soothing coldness where pain had just been. His energy was being absorbed by the newly created chassis. It had been in work for some time, there were still kinks to be made to it, but the twenty meter tall body had encased him.

Ares wasted no time. The thrill of the fight, purged. Useless. Emotions, overridden. Distractions. Cold logic. Battle data took over. That was the closest he has ever gotten to such great power. He could use this. Comb over days of combat. Find flaws, tweaks. It would take time, but his trump card would be ready again soon, but even then…

That was a fight of life or death. His processors noticed something immediately after activating. The energy. That which it suppresses. It was changing. Adapting to the current war. Something unheard of since Ares himself fought his siblings, before he perfected himself.

Ideas suddenly came to the cold body adrift in space, surrounded by a legion of ships. His processors already began conducting data analysis. Coming up with contingencies in the event that this phenomenon needed overriding, but the cold logic remained true. This was beneficial while staying true to the doctrine. The flesh is weak. The future is metal.

Ares refused to float any longer, fifteen seconds was time he was giving the enemy. "Phobos command, tether me to a ship. We regroup, scour desolate systems. Recruit among populated. Our war continues."

…

The Stich craft leviathan halted its movement, ignoring the occasional biomass being ripped from its body. Jewel was analysing the raw chunk of torso she had managed to bite off the god.

Her little skirmish had yielded great hypothetical results. But the main success of this little pastime was the Psionic energy within her maw. It confirmed for her. This Ares, While barely registering as such, on such a fetoscopic scale, she now had proof that this being was once human.

Its energy while now looking nothing like anything close to what Apollo was currently capable of, in the deepest deepest reaches of its composition. It was there, changed. Not identical, but it was there.

The elation Jewel was feeling was palpable. It was almost as good as when her and Apollo mated... That wasn't true, it wasn't remotely close! But her elation remained great all the same.

She had it. Proof of concept. Human god entities. Literally in her maw. She could study this unique energy. Understand how it functions and possibly then, aid Apollo in his growth beyond her current capabilities.

He could perhaps grow at a much more accelerated rate? So much so that the gap closes between then and finally his seed could survive within her? The hive threatened to release pheromones across all bio forms, but Jewel managed to hold herselves back just in time.

She couldn't linger here any longer. She was extremely powerful, but this current form she was currently possessing was not suited for the black hole she had created. Bits of her were falling off every second. She couldn't abandon all this biomass either, and even if she could, she couldn't abandon the energy. She needed it intact so she couldn't devour it either.

Jewel's unique mind sighed, she hated doing this, it was so cost heavy, but she couldn't teleport away with this amalgamation of dead and alive bio forms. Turning in the direction of where Prime 4 and Nukumi had travelled here from, She broke the boundaries between real space and the Psionic plane and began funnelling her own energy into the plane.

The sheer abundance of energy lost forced the tendrils, the ones she uses to travel faster than light, to pierce through both veils of reality, fast-tracking the current tendrils' growth by thousands of years as it reached out to the Psionic abundance.

After the tendril reached her, she stopped expelling her energy and sealed the crack. She then used what was left of Prime 4's corpse within herself to activate her travel through the tendril, leaving behind the battlefield without a second thought.

Jewel then returned her unique mind back to home world, leaving Nukumi in charge of the bioform she had created. It was improper and would need to be devoured later, but had to remain intact until it was back here. She couldn't risk that energy dissipating.

Back in her own mind, she checked upon her primes, Prime 4 was now within her vast Mindspace having been killed by the surprise attack, she would have to make a new body for it now, her old body was beyond repair and dead.

Reckless. Apollo's little challenge had made them reckless. This would not stand. This was unforgivable. Jewel had to do something outlandish to remedy this. She had to scold herself...

"My Primes, our mates' love has left you lacking of your autonomy. Your minds are clouded, misguided. Prime one and two, merge back together now. You are made to work together not separate. Nukumi, bring that carcass home and do not be blinded by desire again. Prime 4, your obsession got your body destroyed. Do you think Apollo-mate would want that for you? Fianna... Kill that god entity then retreat, you are overextending and starving the hive fleet under your control. And the rest of you. Do better. For the sake of our mate."

Back within the silence of her throne room, Jewel began doing the lightwork of overseeing her hive in greater detail instead of allowing her sub minds to take the burden. That was until the silence had her realise something.

"Why hasn't Apollo opened his rift all week? I want to see my mate!" She just fought with one of the stronger classes of gods for the last few days after all...

She wanted some Apollo time for her efforts.

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