The Stargazing Witch & The Dungeon Planet-Chapter 168: Flesh, Steal, and Starlight

The Stargazing Witch & The Dungeon Planet-Chapter 168: Flesh, Steal, and Starlight

Chapter 168: Flesh, Steal, and Starlight
(“ Someone is having some fun ”)
I tore out a chunk of metal and flung it across the planet’s surface like a skipping stone. The mech was still moving; simply tearing apart the insides wasn’t enough to disable it.
Each arm could operate separately and so could the legs, but the self-destruction sequences fizzled out as I continued to tear out the material where they energy tried to concentrate at. I wasn’t letting this thing destroy itself its own way; its damned metal body only had one outcome: that it was fuckin’ scrap metal.
Argh! Fuck, just angry built up after dealing with this thing.
I was still riding the bliss from my earlier murdering, but my anger had been building up again, and this stupid kindergartener-designed project just didn’t want to stay down. Calculating the energy it was pulling, it would’ve definitely blown up a part of the underground base and a good number of the assault fleet in the process. The fact that it was moving away could’ve been an attempt to control the radius so it didn’t break something important, but for the moment, I didn’t know.
But tearing it apart does pretty darn good.
“Craftybeard, do you have everything sorted here?”
“I mean, you have been doing a fine–”
“If you don’t want to be here personally, that is fine, but that body is more than enough to handle the cleanup.”
I barked back. I was completely confident that this was some fake body, which was why he hadn’t performed as well as I expected. Though perhaps even my original estimates were a little high, even if he was in the four-hundred range, he was still a crafter at the end of the day.
My mind went back to stupid mech.
Yeah, no, even if he is a crafter, he likely has a supply of stupid shit.
I didn’t disbelieve the fact that the majority of his creations were non-combat focused. That made sense; he was a bloody old man that liked to make things. Even looking at the list of items he presented for the auctions, there was one solely about food.
But he was also a fucker that lived for centuries; of course, he had some dangerous shit hidden. Heck, the sword was apparently named by a relative of his and from my previous quick scan of the weapon before it attempted a disappearing act, it was old.
After making Swiss cheese out of the skyscraper mech's central body, I flew out and saw the state… of my armour.
“Fuck, I overdid it with my armour…” I observed my tattered shell of metal. Yeah… I did not do a good enough job at keeping it safe. Despite my protections, I did place over it. There were many attacks–when I was inside the mech–that either went through the shields and simply crushed everything. It was not an environment that someone like Nina would’ve liked. Well, she would’ve done better than me; her shields were good, mine were only strong because they were dense.
“Any sign of exploding?”
I asked.
“No.”
Craftalot replied,
“It appears your effort to make a playground out of a junkyard worked.”
“I don't think that statement even works, but anyway, any complaints?”
“No, I will handle the cleanup.”
Craftalot snapped his fingers and his drone swarm got to work dismantling every single remaining turret along the arms that could be a threat.
The legs had slowed down to a halt. They were already slowing down when the charging began, but once the tower became what it was now, they had sped up by a bit, but by no way did it catch up to its previous speed.
Let’s see what you can do.
I was fully ready to leave this mess to Craftalot after I had dealt with the major problem with Nina and his help. Nina’s ability was still up and running, and watching literally mech the mech down was a fun sight and a terrifying one, since, oh, in every beautiful golden star was it doing work. I believe the fact that the parts of the body were mana dense was the reason it was acting on it so fast. There had to be a reason why it was melting and not items that were casually laid around the base.
A few more cannon blasts came down from space to deal with the limbs, and while that was occurring, I went down towards Nina’s hiding spot.
Taking a well-deserved breather, she finally deactivated the moon projection ability once I came to visit her in the hole where the mech originally came from.
“Feeling alright?” I asked, she really held her own in that fight, which wasn’t too surprising considering her abilities, but a mech monstrosity with over a thousand cannons that could damage large spaceships, and a bunch of other weapons, she held strong for one woman with simply the power of shields.
If my old self had to experience that, then it wouldn’t have been pretty. I would’ve had to activate Espr’s skills for enhanced strength and even then, my flight abilities would be so much worse–way harder to make minute adjustments and costly. It would’ve been a situation of trying to keep as much of my body intake to regenerate. It would’ve been a death sentence for my bet with Espr as I would be raking up levels fast.
It really brought back the perspective of how much stronger I was. My max output was theoretically the same, but now I could use that energy with much less worry since I had plenty coming in. Not to mention actual flight was such a good ability, and since [Star Mapping] was just a part of me, it wasn’t an energy drain to use while in combat.
…I am only going to grow from here, huh…
A baby Spiritual Being with was considered a bad start since the world I consumed was already dying. I felt absurdly powerful, but that really was really only the start…
How strong are the other Spiritual Beings?
“I could be better…” She replied honestly. I couldn’t see her face, but I doubt it looked good underneath the armour.
It was something Espr didn’t really speak about since it was completely far from my current power, but the curiosity remained with me.
(“ I know you are having a retrospective, but you were talking to someone ”)
I know I can do multiple things at once.
“...Do you have any plans of returning back to the assault team?” I asked, I was worried about that happening.
I knew she would want to since it was her nature to, but I didn’t think it would be the correct decision. The people on the assault team weren’t weak. Well, there certainly was a mixed bag, but the lowest level was 200–for the people who landed on Asta and Neo–there were still people nearing the 300 range and a few in that range who had been holding back. Both sides had been playing that game, keeping their best cards back until the worst arrived, despite the casualties that had likely been caused, which was why Nina was so determined to protect people. It was like the level 200s were children; they were people with a lot of experience, but of course, a healer didn’t want them to die.
“...Sigh.” She let out a long sigh that carried more regret than she would’ve liked. “No, I would just burn through my small remaining mana if I did. I have been pushing my limits since I arrived, but they have caught up.” I could feel mana moving from some sort of storage in her armour to her person, recovering her supply. “Fighting during the resupply process will also be detrimental.”
“Anyway, to contact the team?”
“Yes, the comms are back online. Craftalot sent a message through them.”
“You good, Crafty?”
“Ye,s I am.”
“Going to turn mental comms off?”
“No, good as backup.”
“Trying to spy on my thoughts.”
“Haha, that ain’t possible, you can be sure of it.”
“I know it's not, but that doesn’t mean you didn’t try.”
(“ You really like messing with that old man ”)
He enjoys it, his emotions glow like a damn light bulb when I give him shit and we get stuck in a back and forth.
(“ Ceella fond of old things, like the stars and old man ”)
Don’t even suggest those two things are even in the same category.
A bloodthirsty aura might’ve been emitted by me as Nina had to ask, “Is everything well?” In a very concerned voice.
“Multiple people knocking on my head comms. Don't worry.” I explained the situation clearly.
Nina just sighed and added, “Comms are currently working on the planet. Haven’t been able to communicate with the fleet or the teams on other planets.” There was a little bit of worry in her voice that I decided to fix.
“Your personal team is safe. Lila and the gang have rescued, I think it was a hundred and nine people? I stopped counting exactly during the mech situation.”
Before she said anything else. “Of course, I made sure I had eyes over there. I needed to make sure Lila was safe.”
“...Thank you.” Nina nodded and gave a genuine thanks. She trusted me, whether that was because of my abilities or person, I did not know.
Sigh…
Not sure why I internally sighed; I just did.
“It’s alright, I will keep an eye out, but your team is skilled enough, and with how well they work together, they will be safe.”
I didn’t stay with Nina for much longer. I could see one of Craftalot’s drones nearby, so I knew Nina should be safe, but I did create another one of those Starlight mosquitoes. I attempted to reinforce it with more energy, which went alright, and reworked it a bit so that it would stick around for a bit longer.
Probably should help out the underground lot.
The people in the assault team were doing a few jobs. My spying effort was made easier since they had blown out every door they had come across. Someone that team must’ve had a vendetta against, and honestly, good on them. Everything was going mostly well; the formation had shifted since Nina wasn’t down there, and honestly, that might’ve been for the best. They were seemingly over-reliant on the shielding, not because they had to be, but because they could be.
Looks like more people are coming over… There are a few individuals coming down from the fleet, and stronger people are now leading the assault formation. Looks like our side is finally pushing out the ‘bigger guns’. Though I have to wonder how many of them would’ve even been useful against that mech.
That giant hunk of metal was very bullshit, but people with certain skills that could do wider-scale damage, or just a massive swarm of attacks after the shield was broken, could’ve made the fight easier.
Now I am just nitpicking.
I decided to stop worrying about the loser who stayed behind and focused on the super losers who had been hooding in a fucking for years.
I moved through the metal jail of a base. Bloody stars I hated how this place looked and felt. I mean, it wasn’t much different from normal space metal stuff and well, I didn’t like how that looked either, but something about it made me hate it even more…. I mean, it was probably just because Dominous Hood made it but eh. I still hated it.
Bullets began shooting towards me, which I easily sidestepped, and punched the turrets that had popped out of the wall.
Still some turrets hidden?
They wouldn’t be a threat but I was surprised that they all hadn’t been destroyed but perhaps it was a case of some being able to repair or replace themselves.
My appearance was still covered in my armour, but the armour itself was stitched together with Starlight. Yeah… it got really damaged during the fight with the mech. Honestly, more of a sign of how tough my current body was and how fast it repaired itself.
…What is going on?
I increased my speed as I accelerated towards where the assault team was. I felt a massive energy shake from within the best as something was changing.
Looking ahead with [Star Mapping], I saw the assault team begin to get overrun by a swarm of grey cyborgs–the simplest way I could describe them. They were human once, men and women, but their skin had become a dark, muted grey, and mechanical components were layered across their flesh. The mana within them was enhanced and they had intelligence, as each one was fighting with perfect form, reacting to the assault team.
“Craftalot, if you can still hear me. Big danger is likely to come to the surface soon. Actually, ETA unknown, some sort of cyborgs; they do have some mechanical components, but they aren't primarily metal. I think. Not near them for a proper can.”
Despite the initial shock, the assault team were defending themselves, but a few had gotten unlucky and lost some limbs, which included a head. Suddenly there were massive shifts in the base and large hatches began opening up from the bottom level towards the surface.
Dammit, why weren’t they found earlier?
From the sound, it was likely they didn’t exist in such forms until this moment, but the swarm of cyborgs split, and some began moving towards the surface. [Star Mapping] showed me this wasn’t the only location or planet this was happening; the other site on Asta had a swarm emerge from the entrance, and it appeared that the smaller team which went that way was whipped out… The planet Neo also had these cyborgs appear, but they were the only threat to emerge.
More Dominous Hood grunts and higher staff appeared, the latter with an assortment of normal levels of dangerous-looking weaponry and artefacts, but quite a deal less than I would’ve thought. It was mostly built stuff, then Dungeon artefacts which they were sure to have a lot of.
Then I felt a large surge of mana and other mixtures of energy, as they were being
empowered
by something not from this realm.
Gears popped into existence and created massive hulking monstrosities around the size of normal G2 Mechs. Which caused many people to immediately open fire.
I could feel the energy being pulled from deep within the base and could see the streams that lead down to it.
With the seals on the deepest depths of the Dominous Hood’s base opened, I could see through the light another stupid Dominous Hood idiot, a piece of shit, and likely the biggest scum of them all, attached to a throne of organic metal that pulsed with various artefacts implemented into it, with thousands more connected via gross metal wires.
I understood the goal.
A faux Spiritual Being.

.
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Chapter 168: Flesh, Steal, and Starlight