Chapter 285 248: Future Vision, A Shadow Over the War

The second option was to use the Heterodox Technology from the Ancient Black Box... Even as a Mechanical Sage, the risk of doing so went far beyond facing attacks from his peers within the Mechanical Order.

If this Heterodox Technology were to spiral out of his control, no one knew what the consequences would be.

But in this death game—this race against time—he had no other choice.

Time flowed on.

Forty-two minutes had passed since Matthias and his group departed.

Even with reinforcements in the upper port—fresh troops led by Stearns, company commander of the Death Battle Group's Second Company—and Reinhardt holding the line, Raphael, who was overseeing the entire situation, could already sense the defensive lines at the various Barge Ports beginning to collapse.

An endless tide of Demons.

Dwindling defenders.

Ammunition reserves running low.

And the ten consecutive aid requests Senior Think Tank Albert had sent to the front-line command had all gone unanswered.

Raphael's Mental Power was draining at an immense rate. While slaughtering Demons, he had to maintain Mind Sensing over the entire upper war zone and simultaneously stay in contact with the commanders on every front.

Even he was beginning to struggle.

After he used Pain Suppression to obliterate the soul of a Slaughter Demon, his senses were suddenly plunged into the depths of an ocean. Uncontrollably, his vision and mind were swept into a vision of the future.

This was an innate Extraordinary Power of his Mind Bloodline, the ability to see prophetic visions of the future.

Now.

Raphael felt as if he were adrift in the deep, dark expanse of the cosmos. He saw Verne torn asunder by a Void Storm—the ground fractured, magma erupted, and a dark power shrouded the land.

He saw a sacred, silvery radiance dimming, like a moon fading to black.

He saw a pair of eyes in the darkness, fixing him with a mocking stare.

He saw... a Demon Legion mothership looming over Verne, its cannons blasting the Orbital Port to smithereens.

Then, Raphael took a sharp breath, and his senses snapped back to the Real Cosmos.

At the same time, Senior Think Tank Albert's voice rang out via Telepathy.

'Raphael, what did you see?'

During his three years of advanced study in the Iberian World, Raphael had studied under Albert for one week. Though the time was short, Albert had been left with a deep impression of the young Think Tank member and his Mind Bloodline.

Even though he couldn't see Raphael's vision of the future, as a Senior Think Tank with the power of a Master Level Tier Two Wizard, he had clearly detected the recent fluctuation in Raphael's Mental Power.

'Some... visions of future disaster.'

「Barge Port War Zone.」

Seven hundred meters from Raphael, in a small break room for port staff, stood a rugged, hard-faced man. He wore no helmet, revealing a thick, untamed beard. His face was a ferocious mask as he tightly gripped a silver Warhammer with a long, narrow handle—an instrument capable of amplifying a Wizard's Power.

Faint, dark purple sparks of Spiritual Energy, the sign of a psionic link, flickered in the depths of his eyes. At the same time, an unending stream of Wizard's Power flowed through the scepter in his hand, blanketing the entire upper Barge Port.

This Wizard's Power formed a defensive barrier around the exterior of the upper port. Glowing with a dim, ethereal blue light, it deflected stray munitions and space debris, protecting the Barge Port's main structure from damage.

Meanwhile, three powerful Ash Guards stood vigil inside and outside the small room, never leaving their posts.

Regardless of how fierce the battle on the port's defense lines grew, or how devastating the casualties became, they remained utterly still.

Though Albert was not the leader of this Ash Guard detachment, he held a rank equal to Iron Crown Florian and was also the sole Senior Think Tank present.

After the Orbital Port's internal defensive core was damaged, he had been struggling to maintain its basic defenses. He also deliberately concealed his presence to prevent Huffman from discovering him.

His reasons were twofold: not only had Florian tasked him with maintaining the upper port's defenses, but he had also judged the situation and concluded that he was not needed to deal with Huffman.

And the outcome was just as he had predicted.

That Vengeful Angel of the Emperor hadn't used their full power to kill Huffman; they had even been promoted to a Four-star Earth Military Rank as a result.

Albert's brow furrowed slightly upon hearing Raphael's response.

He had served in the Death Legion for over five hundred years. He had even watched the current Death Battle Group Leader, now Grand Governor Sedon, grow into the man he was today.

While maintaining the upper port's defenses, he had repeatedly sensed a faint, elusive evil presence—a power that had no business being in the Verne War Zone.

Moreover, from his understanding of prophecy, he knew this was not an Extraordinary Power that Raphael, despite his Mind Bloodline, could possibly control at his current level—not before he ascended to a Tier Two Mage and became a Senior Think Tank.

Even Dietrich, the Think Tank Director of the Death Battle Group, struggled to master such a potent Extraordinary Power.

In other words.

The young Think Tank's ability to see future visions was most likely due to the residual power of a Void Divine Artifact in his soul, which was being influenced by some malevolent entity that had no place on Verne.

For even before the outbreak of this grand war between the Imperial Administrative Region and the Dark Abyss, Dietrich had deduced that another power was fanning the flames from behind the scenes.

Albert didn't press for details about the vision. He simply warned Raphael, 'Prophecies of the future are riddled with uncertainty. Don't let them affect your judgment.'

The warning made Raphael realize something.

Every time he had a vision of the future, it was always in the vicinity of Verne World.

'I will give it serious thought.'

Sensing the Mind Marks of two Ash Guards approaching the upper port, Raphael quickly contacted Florian, the highest-ranking Ash Guard commander on site.

'Sir, the material transport team is back, but they've run into trouble on Level 283. They need support.'

Having already tended to his wounds, Florian had donned his Power Armor again. He was at Port One, slaughtering the Abyssal Demons that had broken through and assisting in its defense.

Hearing Raphael's telepathic message, he took a step back, letting a nearby Ash Guard fill the gap in the line. His brow furrowed as he replied, 'What about the others?'

'Their Mind Marks vanished in the lower levels of the Orbital Port. I suspect a Wizard or some other entity skilled with Spiritual Power is hiding down there.

Manon and Hymes eliminated four Void Knights. They contacted me and are already on their way to provide support.'

'Understood.'

'Wizards?'

Florian's heart sank. As a high-ranking member of the Ash Guard, he was privy to certain secrets of the war. Still, he thought, Bach and Matthias should be strong enough to handle whatever trouble they had run into.