When the Amaranto Mark III fired her shot, she did not simply launch an attack.

She had become the totem to which all of the red humans in the combined fleet placed their hopes upon.

The powerful ace marksman mech and her impressive luminar crystal rifle had taken on a greater meaning.

Since the Larkinsons and their friends and allies entered the Hypeh-Tekas System, they had constantly endured the darkness and the malaise of the deathborn's machinations.

This strange new incorporeal race had extended their influence all the way from M87. Their motivations were not a mystery.

Their origin was death.

Their touch was death.

Their goal was death.

The very existence of this parasitic race threatened all sentient life forms that inhabited the Red Ocean!

No matter whether it was the native aliens that occupied the new frontier for many eons, or the humans who had only arrived in the last century, all of them risked the fate of extermination if they did not take these extragalactic interlopers seriously.

Though multiple such as Ves already figured out that it was impossible to block the arrival of the deathborn due to how they could spawn from the corpses left behind on one of the many battlefields across the constantly active battlefronts, they at least felt an obligation to hinder their entrenchment as much as possible!

As organic beings who unquestionably depended on the power of life to maintain their existence, they could never tolerate the encroachment of the deathborn race.

For multiple hours and days, this mysterious race had constantly tormented the personnel serving in the combined fleet with unnatural visions and forceful emotional manipulation.

Millions of deathborn cannon fodder never ceased to assault the perimeter of the protective energy fields that kept the combined fleet largely out of danger.

The sight of these once-living humans and aliens disgusted everyone.

The deathborn had not truly risen from the dead.

Any semblance of personality they retained from their original bodies had disappeared entirely.

People refused to believe that these deceased friends or enemies had returned from the afterlife.

They would rather convince themselves that the corpses had absorbed so much death energy and other negative energies for so long that they spontaneously spawned undead spirits that had no relation to the originals.

Whether these speculations came close to the truth, no one could say for certain.

Not even Helena dared to make any definite claims.

Whatever the case, the operation taking place in the Hypeh-Tekas System could be considered the first formal clash between the technologically and spiritually developed red humans and the mysterious deathborn.

While the confrontation between the two sides had already begun from the moment the combined fleet entered the outer edge of the star system, it was only now that Saint Stark had made a move that red humanity truly participated in this struggle!

Though the energy beam's brightness and thickness did not match the firepower that the Amaranto Mark III could produce when she was operating at her peak, it still carried qualities that elevated it far beyond a mere energy weapon attack.

Tens of thousands of red humans had not only placed their hopes in this strike, but it also carried the earnest expectations of the artificial life that assisted in the targeting process.

The smart AIs of the Tortuous Scream along with the immense processing power of all of the other major warships had painstakingly worked to shine a light on the darkness that surrounded them from every direction.

It had not been easy.

The dark miasma represented much of what they opposed. Aria and Stella both reviled the chaotic flux that characterised the sensor readings of the dark clouds. Though the energy vortices imposed a bit of order into the hostile energy field, it was impossible to completely translate its irregular movements and fluctuations into a clean and neat mathematical model!

Simplification was impossible.

Only by increasing the length and complexity of the mathematical formulas to an unimaginable extent had the smart AIs finally derived a sense of order from all of the chaos and complexity.

Yet even then, the calculations made with the help of these exaggeratingly long and bloated formulas still produced a number of inaccuracies.

If the smart AIs had more time or access to much greater amounts of processing power, they felt confident in their ability to close the gap even further.

Yet these clever artificial life forms did not possess the arrogance to assume they could ever solve all of the variables.

Even if they could achieve this impossible goal, it was not worth the astronomical amount of time and effort.

The smart AIs could only accept the reality that they existed in a universe that was shackled by limitations.

They had to make do with skewed and imprecise solutions.

The smart AIs therefore harbored just as much hope as the red humans they served about the outcome of this initial strike.

They strongly wished that Saint Davia Stark could thread the needle and utilize their flawed calculations to achieve a positive result!

Both humans and artificial life forms did not have to wait long after the Amaranto Mark III discharged her first shot to witness the results.

The resonance-empowered transphasic light beam had seared away all of the dark miasma in or just around its path.

It was as if the Amaranto Mark III had forcefully carved a tunnel of light through the fog of darkness!

Though the omnipresent dark miasma quickly tried to fill up this relatively large gap as soon as possible, many ships happened to occupy the right positions to allow their sensors to see right through the other side!

"What is the result?!"

"Target... struck!"

"What?! Can you confirm?!"

"Our optical sensors and other sensors have observed a large object suspected to be an enemy formation anchor suffering a direct hit from the Amaranto's energy weapon discharge!"

"It is true! The energy field patterns are undergoing a major shift! We are detecting an all-round weakening from this side!"

Multiple people paid attention to the changes to the surrounding dark miasma.

They soon noticed that the energy vortex around the damaged formation anchor actually began to slow down!

It still spun around, but it was losing speed with each passing second!

"Yes! We did it! Saint Stark did not disappoint us at all! She not only struck the enemy formation anchor, but inflicted enough damage to put it out of commission!"

Though there were people who grew worried that the deathborn would find a way to repair their damaged artifact and make use of it again, this should not be possible in the short term!

As long as the Amaranto Mark III took out several other large formation anchors in quick succession, the aforementioned concerns wouldn't matter anymore!

Yet just as Saint Stark wanted to rely on the existing mathematical model to guide her aim on her next target, she soon began to frown as she took notice of an undesirable development.

Others noticed the changes as well.

"What is the status of the other three energy vortices?! Have they exhibited any changes?"

"They… they are moving!"

When Ves looked at the local map, he could see that two of the energy vortices spontaneously drifted around the combined fleet.

Though their movements were slow, Ves could already extrapolate their approximate destinations!

"The enemy spell array is manually or automatically compensating for the removal of one of its formation anchors!"

"I knew it wouldn't be that simple." Ves grumbled under his breath.

Formation Master Andrea Vos also anticipated this possibility, though she did not think this outcome was inevitable.

Many qi formations possessed a certain degree of tolerance towards damage and deviations after they became active.

It took quite a lot of advanced knowledge, resources and effort to add mystical redundancies to their work, but it was often worth it in most circumstances.

Well-designed spell arrays designed to be deployed against enemies needed the slack in order to keep operating when things started to fall apart.

The deathborn's formation masters evidently shared this common ideal.

Their formation arts may have been derived from a completely different galaxy's cultivation traditions, but they still shared a lot of common traits with the formation arts mastered by the Red Collective.

"If we assume that the death energy formation is originally based on four primary formation anchors, then I am almost certain that it can only handle the loss of one of them." Andrea Vos stated with a strong hint of resolve in her voice. "A formation consisting of four strong anchors is stable. A formation consisting of three strong anchors also remains stable, though it is already flirting with the edge. A formation consisting of only two strong anchors… cannot properly function anymore. Saint Stark only needs to shoot down one more enemy construct to free us from this trap."

All of that sounded great, the problem was that much of the groundwork put into guiding the Amaranto Mark III's aim had become outdated since the opposing side's adjustments!

Ves groaned.

"What is the problem, cousin?" Saint Jannzi frowned and asked. "Shouldn't it be easy enough to predict where the formation anchors are moving? You can still track the overall shifting of the energy vortices. Even I can guess that the formation anchors are trying to form a perfect triangle shape."

"It is not as simple as that, Jannzi. This is not a simple geometrical problem. It only looks that way on the surface. The behavior of the energy vortices and the many ripple effects they produce completely changes the dynamics of the space affected by the dark miasma. All of the data gathered by the Woodsap mechs and the monstrous calculations made by the smart AIs had become… irrelevant. While there are still a lot of common rules that can be reapplied in the new situation, the lack of data on the new situation makes it a lot harder to produce an accurate mathematical model that closely aligns with the new situation."

The latest ace pilot of the Larkinson Clan finally began to understand the greater problem.

"So… we have to send out a bunch of Woodsap mechs again?"

"Possibly."

"NO." Saint Davia Stark forcefully responded to the spoken and unspoken doubts by those who realized the issue at hand. "I WILL ACCEPT NO FURTHER DELAYS OR SACRIFICES. MY AIM IS ALWAYS TRUE. WITNESS MY ACTION. MY LIGHT SHALL SEAR AWAY THE DARKNESS!"

The Amaranto Mark III had not waited to hear the results before she had already begun to accumulate energy yet again!

Though Saint Stark originally intended to shift the muzzle of her Instrument of Vengeance by a 90 degree angle, the changes taking place beyond the curtain of darkness forced her to rely on her own judgment!

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