(There she is... Now all there's left is scanning this thing and getting out of here without the elders noticing.)

After admiring the generator for a short while longer Dax went back to work, setting up scanners all the way around the mana generator before signalling the others to form a perimeter around the room to make sure the scan wasn't interrupted. Due to the sheer complexity of the generator, the scan progressed slowly, but after an hour it finally compleated, although it was far from the result Dax had hoped for.

[ERROR, SCAN FAILED. REASONS: UNKNOWN MATERIAL(S) PRESENT IN OBJECT, SCAN AREA'S EXCEEDING MAXIMUM AVAILABLE RESOLUTION, CANNOT COMPUTE.]

(Oh for f.u.c.ks sake… Then plan B it is, this is going to be tricky.)

Finding that the scanner he had brought with him couldn't a.n.a.lyse the mana generator not only due to unknown materials present inside it but also that some of the components were too small and fine to accurately scan Dax was left with only one option: Brining the mana generator back with them, something which was even more problematic than it sounded.

Calling the others back to the room with the mana generator, Dax wiped the spore's off an arm mounted display on his vacuum suit, then he typed out a line of text, using that method to 'talk' with them.

"We're going to need to divert to plan B."

"What!? Why!?"

Immediately following Dax's report came Solaris' outrage, it seemed like the nerves of this operation was starting to get to her, which was somewhat understandable as the operation just switched from 'almost complete' to 'insanely complicated with a high risk of failure and death'.

��Even with the most precise scanners I have we can't a.n.a.lyse the mana generator, that means we're going to have to bring it with us."

"Then that's what we do, we can't afford to return empty handed."

The next one to 'speak' up was Lia with a confident smile on her face. After she had been recruited from the criminal organization she had belonged to all her life by Solaris, Lia had undergone cybernetic augmentation, leading to the eventual installation of a wide angle sensor which covered her eyes, the dull grey and smooth looking sensor was able to relay a mult.i.tude of different information directly to her brain and newly instaled ICI unit, allowing her to see things she hadn't even believed was possible. Combining Lia's new 'sight' with her already amazing sense of hearing which surpa.s.sed Terra's, Lia was the best scout currently available to Dax, which is why she had joined him on this mission.

"I agree with Lia~ There's no other choice than to just do it, this is what we came here to do~"

"I know that Ifrit. Fine! We just need to do this, right!?"

With Ifrit also adding their positive sentiment on top of Lia's optimism Solaris caved, leading Dax (Who had a large grin on his face) to break down the next steps of the operation.

"Okay, then let's do this right. I will start looking at removing the mana generator from whatever fasteners it is attached to, then after the generator has been freed I'll take Ifrit with me down to the lower levels and blow up the gate, that should distract any elders in here with us for long enough that Lia and Solaris can get it out of here and to the Juggernaut. After you're on board and strapped in you'll disable radio silence and allow me to connect to it and take over control of it, then I'll use its offensive grav drive to pin down the elders in here and I'll then escape over the horizon with Irift before we'll be picked up and retreat back to the central kingdom. Any questions?"

Looking at his subordinate's faces while they read his orders, Dax watched how Ifrit's constantly smug looking expression turned into a full on grin, meanwhile, Lia hardened her determination while the colour drained from Solaris' face.

"That was an order, I'll not allow any objections. Now reestablish the perimeter while I get this thing unfastened."

Immediately striking down any rejection to his plan Dax left the others with no choice in the matter as he went to work.

-

"I can sense a stationary ma.s.s of mana right below, it must be the gateway. Can I break radio silence as soon as we destroy it?~"

"Yeah, sure. But first, help me set up this shaped charge, I need the exact location of the gate."

After removing the restraints of the mana generator Dax had taken all the modular explosives that Solaris and Lia had carried before making his way to the lower, more open floors of the sanctuary together with Ifrit. After Ifrit had pinpointed the exact location above the magic gateway which connected this sanctuary with the imperial capital Dax started setting up a ma.s.sive shaped charge.

"Will this really work?"

"Yeah, using all the modular explosives we carried this shaped charge with have at least 20 metres of penetration, the explosion is going to form a concentrated molten metal lance that's going to cut right through the floor and the gate formation below."

Checking, double checking and finally triple checking the location of the charge, Dax retreated together with Irift out of the giant hall/plaza while running an explosive cord behind him.

"Detonating in 5 seconds."

Taking a deep breath as the time ran out, Dax activated the explosive cord, then only a split second later, the sound of a ma.s.sive explosion could be heard and felt in the ground, followed by some sort of otherworldy scream only a second later.

"So only one elder? Well, even if that's slightly disappointing then there's at least the plus of it being really p.i.s.sed off~" 

"Yeah, that was the point of all this, remember the plan!"

"Sure~ See you later, my dear partner in crime~"

Cutting radio silence as the duo's current objective now switched from stealth to being noticed, Dax and Ifrit split up as they commenced the most dangerous game of catch in their lives.

Rounding a corner, Ifrit sensed a ma.s.sive spike in the ambient mana in from of them, then the floor in the room it had just reached disappeared.

"So you're coming for me first?~ That's a mistake!"

Stopping in place by using wind magic, Ifrit's entire body lit up in a soft purple glow while they quickly started chanting in multiple dead languages at the same time. By the time the top most tentacles of the elder came into view, Ifrit had already compleated their first spell, as they stomped the ground, creating an erratic array of strange, crimson runes which spread out of the stone floor before they all increased in brightness by serval magnitudes, signalling the completion of the spell.

"Hmm… What was this one called again?... Oh well, let's just go with this one instead~ Dimentual rift of Yal'ugal the all seeing, consume thy rightful world at thy leisure so thy can bless us with thy mighty presence."

Forgetting what spell they wanted to use mid sentence, Ifrit pivoted the entire formation they had built up to a different spell of comparable potency, while the spoke the words of activation the erratic runes around them suddenly transformed from their bright red colour into a strange green one, then the very s.p.a.ce around the elder distorted. Suddenly parts of the elder's body which were supposed to have fixed distances from each other warped uncontrollably, while some parts of its body were ripped apart, others were compressed beyond their limits, leading the elder to let out another alien sounding scream. Although such an attack wouldn't kill the elder, it would cause it immense pain while trapping it for a while, which was also exactly the effect Ifrit was after.

Of course, Ifrit didn't stay to observe that, the very second they finished casting they turned tail and ran in a different direction, cutting into one of the countless service shafts that ran throughout the sanctuary to drop down a few levels before continuing to run away from the elder.

"Catch me if you can!~"

While they sounded quite casual about it all, Ifrit needed way longer time than it would take the elder to escape from the spell to be able to cast something of similar magnitude, thus after only a few minutes the elder once more closed in on them.

But that disadvantage was already well accounted for.

"Smile dips.h.i.+t!"

Unknowingly the elder pa.s.sed an area where Dax had prepared multiple traps, as it strayed inside effective range Dax's face turned into a grin as he shouted while pressing the detonator. Out of nowhere, countless disks the size of a fist popped up from the floor, by the time they had armed over half of them had been erased from existence by the elder, still, the ones remaining were plenty for the job they needed to do. Instead of producing an explosion, the jumping mines acted as flashbangs, producing a strong light along with a series of deafening pressure waves which rendered most of the elder's senses unuseable.

"Watch out for the flash trough! It is somewhat bright!~"

Emerging from cover the second the opportunity arrived, Dax pointed his Rex Alpha a.s.sault rifle at the temporarily blind and deaf ma.s.s of decaying tentacles and cybernetic implants, then he squeezed the trigger as he averted his eyes. While Dax was already aware that anything from normal armour pricing all the way to ultra high velocity anti grav barrier ammunition would not be able to pierce the barrier around the elder he went for something else entirely. The magazine he emptied in the direction of the elder was a mix of multiple kinds of munitions, there were several kinds of airburst flashbangs and mana disrupting bullets, along with a healthy dose of modified non leathal proximity smoke rounds, instead of being packed with harmless smoke agents they were packed with weaponized tear gas and other chemical weapons in powder form, making for a colourful and extremely deadly looking smoke explosion.

(At least some of those compounds should work against it, and if not there are still the magazines without the modified smoke monitions.)

Escaping from the area before the elder recovered, Dax had already started setting up traps in a new area before the elder was even able to see again and by that time Ifrit was already ready to shoot off another spell which would be intensely annoying for the elder to get out of.