Alien Evolution System

The Collector floated in the air, hovering just above the cliff face. It was now capable of flight independent of any of its wings, though certainly, the wings could add an extra burst of speed or maneuverability. At the basic level, flight was now merely a fundamental part of the Collector, originating from the World Shard floating in front of its head.

By exerting minimal amounts of magical energy, the Collector could sustain a flight that did not require any biomechanical movements. Quite similar to that of Sapia-sourced, but far more efficient in cost.

If the Collector wished for no cost flight, it could utilize its Firefly Shinchu and Daemon wings, but in general, its inherent flight was effective enough at a base level.

Thus, the Collector kept its daemon wings curled up and tucked into its back, beneath a layer of hyperalloy carapace plating, the same as it did with its insectoid Shinchu wings.

If the Collector desired maximal speed, it could use all of its various flight systems for a massively accelerated flight, but such was not required now. It lifted up its hand from the cliff face it had slammed it on.

The pasted remains of two squished humanoids formed little smidgeons of cracked black armor and blood on the Collector's hand. It absorbed the organic remains through pores in its carapace, and its shard analyzed and recorded their genetic material accordingly.

These creatures the Collector thus came to know as 'dwarves'. Shorter humanoids possessing an Inhera that allowed their roots and core to interface with the magical energy circulating through inorganic materials.

The amount of biomass they gave was utterly pitiful. Not even close to a hundredth of a single point.

Yet, to be expected.

The Collector was vastly beyond any measure of power it had occupied before. To even begin to progress its biomass bar now, it would have to face mighty opponents of great worth.

Anything lesser than that was not even worth considering. Nor would the Collector itself even consider engaging with anything that insignificant, not when it had tasted what true battle was like.

The Collector's ocular systems honed in on the pile of goblin corpses. This was where the swarm had gone. An immediate analysis of their wounds indicated damage corresponding with firearms, with bullet roles riddling their body, shards of explosively projected metal embedded within their flesh.

This put the Collector on immediate alert. Yet, a measured alertness.

Even the lowest grade of United Front weaponry would have dealt far more severe damage than the bullet wounds on the goblin corpses.

But that did not rule out the possibility that there was an United Front contingency possessing outdated weaponry from the Pre-Collective age. At the same time, further detailed analysis of the wounds, specifically in the bullets embedded in them, indicated that they were comprised of metals native to this planet and infused with mana.

The possibility was greater that these were weapons natively developed here by tinkerers utilizing the resources available to them such as magic, with firearms potentially being an example of convergent evolution among tinkerers that tended to develop some means of ranged projectile or energy based weaponry to compensate for their frail bodies.

Spotlights gathered around the Collector, illuminating its enormous form.

The Collector had sensed these presences already by hearing the whirring of their engines and propellors. Its ocular systems adjusted to them.

There was on large ship, likely a central command unit, shaped like a sphere of blue-tinted metal. Golden circuitry lined its structure, projecting an aura of magical energy that fueled a gravitational field which sustained its flight.

Dozens of seams and indentations in the sphere slid apart, and from them, weaponry emerged. Racks of missiles, the multiple barrels of machine guns, thicker barrels indicating higher caliber ammunition, and even glowing blue, crystal tipped firearms that likely were meant to project energy-based attacks.

Hovering by the sphere on either side were a total of ten far smaller ships. Perhaps ten meters in length. Sleeker in shape and fueled by twin propellors and thrusters that emitted a pale blue flame generated from mana, not any proper United Front engine.

Each smaller airship possessed a single cluster of rockets underneath it and two sets of machine guns.

The Collector had never seen such abject, blatant tinkering before on this world.

At the least, the civilization on this world, coupled with the unique properties of mana, seemed to rely vastly more on their individual mights than their tools, but this –

This was tinkering weakness at its highest heights. Or lowest low, as was more appropriate for the Collector's perspective.

The Collector floated higher in the air, level in altitude with the airships, and prepared not for battle, but for extermination, for that was what this would be.

There was no nobility, no personal glory in destroying swathes of little tinkerers in tiny coffins of metal.

The larger sphere-shaped ship started to glow red, and in turn, all the smaller ships glowed red. Then, they fired their weapons in synchronization. The clatter of gunfire drowned out the howling of Grainfall. A sea of bullets streamed out from the aircraft in streams of little light.

Bullets small and large clattered across the Collector's hyperalloy carapace, sparking as they skid across the ultra-durable surface without making even so much as a scratch. This level of damage was not even enough for the Collector's smartshock carapace to adjust and adapt its structure against.

The Collector channeled its newfound power, its royal daemonic blood, and utilized Sapia in earnest. Now that its magical energy reserves had caught up to its biomass, it possessed a veritable ocean of magical energy.

It stretched out its hands through the raging torrent of bullets and opened its palms. The palms flickered purple, and its black horns became charged with swirls of lavender energy.

All ten smaller airships were enveloped by purple, frozen in place, their firearms abruptly halted.

The Collector brought them down to the ground with a flick of its finger, hurtling them over a hundred meters crashing into the snow. A few of the airships exploded on impact, but the Collector left a few intact to analyze with the pilots inside alive as well, merely crippling their flight capacities.

All of the airships possessed their own natural magical energy field, as if they were almost like living beings themselves. Their inherent structure was rather similar too, comprised of an engine that functioned as a core and circuitry that worked their way around the machines like spirit roots.

Naturally, this meant that the Collector would have difficulty utilizing Sapia directly on them.

However, the machines did not process magical energy as effectively as did living beings, and the Collector's magical energy reserves were massive. Far enough above the machines that it could easily overpower any pitiful barrier they could erect.

This left only the central command unit, which possessed enough magical energy to at the very least repel direct control from Sapia.

After witnessing this, the sphere-shaped command unit began to intensify its internal acceleration of magical energy, likely preparing something more deadly than these weak and inconsequential firearms. Even the countless volleys of missiles had done nothing more than light the Collector's carapace in fire that quickly doused out.

The Collector watched as the command unit's center opened up, revealing the mouth of an enormous cannon. The cannon was comprised of segments of rotating, mana charged metal, and as they began to accelerate together, they generated large quantities of magical energy, shaping it into a sphere of destructive power.

The Collector dashed forwards, parting the fall of Grain around it with the sheer wind force generated from its enormous form. It was upon the sphere ship within a second, for it was still deceptively fast even at this size.

The Collector slammed a punch against the sphere ship, but instead of making impact with the metal, it instead struck the gravitational field around it. There was a muted sound of impact as the field acted like a force dampener of sorts, preventing hostile energy from directly harming the ship.

However, that did not mean the force was neutralized.

Instead, it applied on the field instead, causing the ship to blow backwards, spinning violently in the air as it was launched away over a hundred meters. Nevertheless, the sphere ship continued to charge up its attack even as it spun around, indicating that it possessed the capacity to orient the crew within to match any turbulence it encountered.

The Collector welcomed this test of its new ability. If it was a test of beams the tinkerers wanted, then they would have it.

It curled over and began to amass magical energy. Wind currents started to swirl violently around the Collector, forming raging gale forces crackling with electrical energy.

Arcs of red magical energy as large as buildings began to violently crackle around the Collector's back fin, and as the magical energy condensed, storm clouds began to form around the fin, their dark bodies intermittently lit up with flashes of lightning.

It was as if a natural disaster was beginning to form with the Collector at its center.

The fin began to glow a bright blue, almost white, and strands of intensely charged mana of the same color ran across from the fin up the Collector's spirit roots, lighting up its root network visibly as the energy traveled to the Collector's head.

The darkness within the Collector's jaws lit up in blinding light, and a high-pitched, siren-like noise echoed around the Collector: a manifestation of its energy buildup.

The sphere ship fired from its cannon. A beam of blue light comprised of intensive heat, significant pressures, and gravitational force meant to tear apart any armor or force field. Truly, the beam was a mighty attack, capable of quite easily cutting a swathe through a small army.

The Collector returned the favor.

The built up energy around the Collector's maw released as the siren sounds halted in an abrupt instant. A shockwave of lightning infused energy blasted out from the Collector, and the storm clouds around its fin scattered.

A spiraling beam of white lined with enormous bolts of lightning, shards of ice, and freezing winds capable of shattering metal with their pressure cascaded out from the Collector.

The Collector beam dwarfed the sphere ship's attack by three magnitudes, easily swallowing it up before striking against the ship itself.

The gravitational field around it parted as it faced immense pressure from the magical energy. Instead of punching straight through the ship, the beam gouged a hole in the ship first before the energy coalesced into the ship itself, building up within as a storm of raging electricity, ice, and wind that first made the ship glow a bright white, cracks forming in its exterior as streams of lightning coursed around it.

Then, the ship spontaneously exploded in a nova of light and scattered winds.

The light died down almost as soon as it emerged, the natural darkness of the Grainfall quickly swallowing it over.