As the entire sanctuary shook with the vibrations of a ma.s.sive explosion below them, Lia and Solaris started removing the mana generator from its socket. Luckily for Lia and Solaris, it seemed that the mana generator was designed to be moved from its point of installation and after Dax had removed its restraints earlier it was only a matter of disconnecting it from the power source, a small fusion generator which was built into the floor right below it.

"On the count of 3. 1.. 2.. 3!"

"Ghu! How is this thing so heavy!?"

Lifting up the generator from both sides, Lia and Solaris struggled to lift up the small generator, even in the low gravity. For whatever reason, it seemed that the mana generator had an absurdly high ma.s.s for its tiny frame, possibly due to the unknown materials which also made it impossible to scan. With a large amount of effort, the generator was finally freed from its socket, perhaps due to its extremely efficient design it still continued to generate mana, although the output seemed to be slowly decreasing which presented Solaris and Lia with a sense of urgency.

Although the elder which was still inside the sanctuary was distracted by Ifrit and Dax for now, it would likely sense that something was wrong when the mana generator stopped working.

"Lady Solaris!"

"I know, use all the mana you have. We must get this thing out of here as fast as possible, I'm past the point of worrying if my shoulders dislocate and tear off, if we fail now the entire mission falls apart!"

-

"Dax, the mana is starting to thin ever so slightly."

Having ducked into cover while Dax once more took over as a distraction, Ifrit reached out to their reliable partner trough radio.

"I see, that means we just need to keep this up for a little longer."

"Exactly~ Now guide that gross thing my way, I have a special present prepared for it~"

Getting a response from Dax over the radio, Ifrit didn't fret over how calm Dax sounded, having spent some time together with Dax they knew that the calmer he sounded, the more he was focused on other matters, that's just how he was.

(How did a mere mortal even become so strong?... Surely it is not just because he's a qiton or due to how long he had been fighting. Something must be broken inside that partner of mine, but oh well, that's what makes him so interesting in the first place~)

While a strange smile naturally formed on Ifrit's face they started stomping their feet into the ground in a sort of strange, almost rhythmic fas.h.i.+on, something necessary for the spell that they were currently preparing. Injecting trace amounts of their own mana into the stone floor below them, Ifrit started chanting in a long dead tongue, the tongue of their people who had tried and failed to invade the world doing the great calamity, leading Ifrit's soul to be imprisoned in a sword so many aeons ago.

(Although I hate this guy for fleeing and leaving my clan with the choice to die or be imprisoned in this strange land, I have to admit his spells are first cla.s.s.)

Giving a pa.s.sing thought to a demon Ifrit hated more than anything else, a cunning smile bloomed on their face when they thought about the time not so long ago when their partner had helped banish that very demon.

"Aspect of the old ones: h.e.l.lfire."

As they uttered the final words of the spell mana converged around Ifrit in a strange manner, then a small black flame which seemed to absorb the surrounding light came into being, floating in front if Ifrit's outstretched arm. Holding out that hand towards Dax's figure who had just come into sight Ifrit released their spell without any mercy or hesitation, betting on their partner's quick wits to avoid the spell.

Having just rounded a coroner, Dax felt his sense of danger spike, but not due to the especially p.i.s.sed off elder that was right behind him, but due to his reliable partner in crime which had an unusually large s.h.i.+t eating grin on their face.

"You f.u.c.king!-"

Spotting the small black flame which had been clearly aimed right at him, Dax collapsed his stance completely, slipping down onto his knees Dax narrowly avoided the small but extremely dangerous looking flame by sliding under it before presenting a not so nice gesture with his free hand that was not holding a rifle towards Ifrit as he continued running away from the elder who had also just entered the room. Having obtained line of sight on the annoying bug which had irritated it to such an extent, the elder gathered a collection of its decaying tentacles and pointed it towards the bug, but before the elder could erase that irritant from existence, Ifrit's spell hit the elder's barrier. Although the small black flame looked relatively tame as it flew through the air, that was far from the case when it came into contact with its intended target. Expanding rapidly, the void fire grew to cover the entirety of the elder's barrier in only a split second, eating away at existence itself, the elder was forced to deal with that flame before anything else, allowing Dax and Ifrit to escape its grasp once more.

Even if it the task of distracting the elder was going fine at the moment, there was no telling when both Ifrit and Dax could meet their untimely demise at its tentacles, the only reason the two of them were still alive was that the pair were both experts in their respective fields, Ifrit could use a truly impressive array of spells on which power was truly apocalyptic while Dax liberally used all sorts of chemical and biological weapons, but even then, all the two of them could do was stall the elder. The rate which they burned trough ammunition and mana did not allow for this game of catch to be a lengthy one, at most they could keep this up for another half hour, then the nature of the game would truly transform into a deathmatch against the immortal, ever resilient elder and even on a good day Dax didn't want to take that kind of fight. 

But for once in Dax's life, it didn't have to come down to the wire, as he had just emptied another magazine into the elder he felt a connection between himself and the Jug' being established.

"Ifrit, lure it towards the upper floors! it's time that we have our fun~"

"Roger~"

With a thin smile on his face Dax hurriedly made his way to the upper floors of the sanctuary while Ifrit led the elder in the same direction, but on the way there they got a little bit too overconfident, resulting in the elder getting a shot off at them.

"Oh fuc-"

hearing Ifrit cut out on the radio Dax's smile immediately froze.

"Ifrit!? Come in!"

Hearing nothing but static in response Dax feared the worst, that is until he noticed that Ifrit was still moving towards him.

"... Really?"

As he didn't know whether to laugh, cry or simply be disgusted Dax just found himself lost for words while he continued to warm up the jug's gravitational drive. Seconds later Ifrit rushed into the chamber Dax was in and hot on their tail was the elder.

(ICI, you better be ready.)

[AFFIRMATIVE, G05 REPORTING STATUS: READY FOR TASKING, WAITING FOR TARGET.]

"Move you numbskull!"

Giving Ifrit the bare minimum of time to separate from the elder Dax turned on the laser rangefinder on his rifle, pointing it at the elder as he sent its exact coordinates to the G05.

[TARGET ACQUIRED, ISOLATING…]

Just as Ifrit had made it outside effective range something happened to the elder and the very s.p.a.ce around it.

Suddenly everything came to a halt.

[ISOLATION COMPLETE.]

While the elder struggled to move it started preparing another attack, having figured out that one of the bugs in front of it was responsible for this strange attack.

"Oh no you don't! ICI hit it!"

 [REQUEST APPROVED. NOW COMMENCING DIRECT GRAVITATIONAL SINGLE STAGE COMPRESSION.]

With ICI's announcement as a cue, the elder was suddenly squeezed into a sphere no more than half a metre across, but at the same time it managed to fire off its attack, aiming at both Ifrit and Dax at the same time. Luckily Dax had seen the attack coming and by looking at Ifrit he correctly guessed what it was targeting, moving his body to the side at the same time as the elder launched the attack, the qiton managed to escape with his head still attached to his neck, although it cost him his left shoulder which was reduced to nothing due to the elder's attack.

"ICI increase the magnitude by 10! Squish this thing like the bug it is!"

[AFFIRMATIVE. NOW INCREASING GRAVITON GENERATION IN SELECTED AREA BY A FACTOR OF 10.]

Launching an immediate counter attack, Dax's severed arm even hit the ground before he struck back against the elder, with the increase of the pressure that was threatening to kill it increasing by multiple factors in only a split second it was forced to abandon all offence.

"f.u.c.k this thing is persistent!"

Having hoped to kill the elder with that attack Dax was forced to think quickly, as he knew the grav generator on the Juggernaut couldn't keep this output up for long.

"ICI accelerate target, vector normal, change velocity and add 1 km/s."

[AFFIRMATIVE, ACCELERATING TARGET. VECTOR NORMAL + 1 KM/S.]

Suddenly the elder switched from simply being compressed as it instantly accelerated upwards out through the roof of the sanctuary and away from the surface of the moon at high speed, while Dax wanted to leave the elder in orbit like that he knew he had to be more thorough.

"Calibrate for the new frame of reference and accelerate target, add 29.8 kilometres per second in the retrograde vector please."

[PROCESSING, STAND BY…. ORDER COMPLETE.]

"Please confirm de orbit."

[DE ORBIT CONFIRMED.]

Finally out of immediate danger Dax breathed a deep sigh as he picked up his severed arm, before finally turning his attention to Ifrit who had walked up to him in the meantime, standing right in front of Dax without a head on their shoulders.

"You good?"

Apparently the elder had some idea of what to target, thus it went for Ifrit's head with its earlier attack. Without a mouth to speak from Ifrit's headless body simply raised a hand, before giving Dax a thumbs up.

"... Okay, you're lucky that that head of yours was nothing more than decoration…"

What the elder hadn't known was that Ifrit's body was artificial, with the core from the sword they had originally inhabited replacing the bodies spine, as such, losing their head was nothing more than a simple nuisance for Ifrit.

"Then we're done here, let's get back to the jug for extraction."