Illuminura gasped in disgust as a piercing scream of some child in pain wailed through the air. Streams of purple lightning shot into the clouds in a thunderous display of raging power. The sky itself darkened as a storm gathered overhead and the world flickered with the purple light of the lightning that spread from cloud to cloud.

Soon the clouds gathered in great whirlwinds sending the sky into turmoil. Chaos amongst the clouds brewed forcing Godfrey's flyers to dive down below the clouds. Radio chatter arose among the humans of coming danger as the omens multiplied.

Under Alice's command, the infantry took cover deeper into the fortress ruins; lest they are consumed by the coming storm. The wardens lumbered on as troops rushed to safety amongst the war-torn buildings.

Unable to understand the truth of the matter Illuminura watched and studied these phenomena. Feeling secure within the bastion of her knight she did not take precaution. Instead, she became intrigued with this turn of events.

Sensing life within the storms she opened her mind but an overload of information struck in the form of white-hot pain forced her to shut it once again. An immense collection of emotions drove the irradiated atmosphere to fuel the storm that now gathered into a single point.

Then in a blinding flash, a titanic detonation exploded. In immense force slammed into Illuminura's knight and pushed it back a meter. Illuminura was forced to work to counterbalance her construct. She reformed prepared for battle regardless she confidently stood her ground.

She watched through her mechanical eyes as her vision was restored and gasped at the colossal monstrosity floating before her. A massive humanoid construct, a titanic manifestation of suffering, pain and torment.

Its body was a mess of powerful winds as if the being's almost transparent body was formed out of innumerable tornados and whirlwinds. The gushing winds rushed about seemingly taking the form of gargantuan muscles and thunderous lightning sparkled and bolted about like veins all throughout the body.

The face was the very incarnation of anger with bright lightning violently holding together the impression of an angry face. In the centre of where the forehead ought to be shone a bright jewel.

As she watched the celestial could detect something with the glowing crystal. It was some primal conscience that drove the beast onward. Focusing on it Illuminura sensed something alive deteriorating screaming in agony as its very soul fractured and tore itself apart.

With its first breath, it roared with the sound of a million voices suffering in unison. With size enough to match the knight this is the incarnation of a million soul's suffering and hatred. This is what had become of the new goddess.

The Construct fixated upon Illuminura's knight and roared as a lightning storm gathered all around it. It hissed and rumbled is it breathed heavily with anger and roared as lightning rained down from the heavens to scorch Illuminura's machine. The knight's shield absorbed it with ease as Godfrey regrouped behind her in support.

"Captain, take shelter and leave this to me!" Illuminura demanded.

"I refuse! Unless command order's me otherwise we've got you're back."

Illuminura didn't respond as she launched a fusillade of golden energy beams into her foe. They shone straight through with little effect. As The Construct roared with beastly anger Godfrey and his men fired away an unrelenting torrent of lasers blasting through the beast only to scorch the ground behind it. With the flexing of its muscles, it launched itself at Illuminura, slamming into her knight and brushing off the soft armour yet blowing away every Cuirassier around her. Godfrey braced himself as his ship spun out of control and in a vicious impact crashed violently on the ground.

Illuminura launched herself into the heavens as The Construct chased after her. She fired a relentless barrage of plasma bolts into the gem hope it were a weakness. To contrary it absorbed the energy poured into it with ease while battering the knight's shields with torrents of lightning.

Energy running low Illuminura knew she couldn't withstand another strike so she waded into brutal melee. The two titans of the sky clashed with thunderous forces shaking the very heavens.

Alice peered out of cover and looked all around and found a crashed cuirassier not too far from where she hid. She thought the pilot dead or at least injured. The war machine was wrecked, reduced to a scorched husk of twisted metal.

It was a pitiful shadow of its former glory. Yet the cockpit remained intact. If there were a life to be saved she would not leave it to its fate. She turned to her subordinates.

"Stay here! I'll go check on that pilot." She ordered.

"But sir-" replied one.

"What is an order private!" She snapped.

Silenced, he stood down along with his comrades. The Venusian rushed to the Martian craft under the light of the roaring sky. When she got to it she quickly looked about for some mechanism or something, anything.

She tugged and pulled at random markings, levers and anything that resembled an eject trigger. A voice came through the com channels.

"The front and sides are sealed in tight with armour plating. There should be a lever towards the rear of both wings that'll trigger the explosive bolts within the windshield and blast the cockpit open." The voice explained.

"Who is this?" Asked Alice.

"Luke Immelmann. Oberleutnant. That's my C.O. in there. My instruments tell me he's still alive!"

"Understood. Get to cover."

"I already am sir."

She searched the stubs where once were wings and found the lever that Luke was talking about. She pulled it and as Luke predicted an explosion blasted off the windshield. She grew thankful as she saw the pilot was battered and bloodied but alive.

As she worked her way to Godfrey an uproar of curses and gunfire echoed in the comm channels. Alice heard it all and paused and turned her full attention to it.

"What's going!?" She asked.

"Ma'am there's more of those zombies in the lower levels! No casualties. It's under control."

"Has anyone found the first lieutenant yet?"

"No." Came a voice.

"No." Came another.

"Not yet." Came a third.

She frowned as she found the control panel press against his chest. She studied the mess and found various machinery wrapped around Godfrey in a mangled mess. Alice strained as she worked to free Godfrey from would otherwise have been his tome.

"Sir?" Came a Martian voice.

She paused again.

"What is it?" She asked.

"I've found the first lieutenant. He's dead."

She sighed but felt that time was against her and so continued working. There was no time to mourn anyone, no time to honour the dead. There is only time to work hard and fast to ensure the survival of the living.

Alice drew her rifle and with surgical accuracy shot most of the machinery free. She was forced to wait as the molten metal melted its way down. Soon she braved the heat to try freeing Godfrey of the machinery that had ensnared him.

A Golden light flickered through the air as The Construct hammered at Illuminura's defences. She responded in kind with lashing tendrils and blasts of powerful energy bolts. Each one, a small sun in its own right simply slipped through the ethereal creature.

The earth ruptured and the sky split wide open as the beast looked to the knight and spread its arms. A titanic torrent of purple energy spilt forth from the tears. The Construct poured prodigious power that even atomised the air upon contact into one strike of cosmic forces into Illuminura's knight.

Illuminura strained as she tried to withstand the herculean power of the beast. She fed all her power to reinforce her dying shields. But the monumental energy overwhelmed her generator and blew the fuse, taking it and her shield out.

She strained as she diverted power from all other functions into the knight's limbs. Large energy blades protruded from her arms as she launched herself at the foe. Relishing the opportunity The Construct charged onward with an ear-piercing squeal preaching its bloodlust.

With the full extent of her strength, she lashed out slicing through the creature's right arm. The Construct cried out and roared in pain as its arm deteriorated and Illuminura focused on a perceived weakness.

There she figured out that focused omega rays were the key. Unlike the ionised matter utilised by the preferred armaments in the celestials' arsenal, a knight's swords were blades of irradiated matter given their form by their wielder.

Her hope, however, waned as a new arm was generated in place of the old one. It took pleasure in newfound bloodlust as it flexed its new arm. The Construct faced Illuminura with a sinister look.

Undeterred, she stubbornly refused to turn tail and flee despite the consideration that it may be the safer option. Thus she recklessly charged into brutal combat. Strike for strike Illuminura fought the beast with fervour, determined to outlast it.

She felt more pain than she had in centuries as the beast pounded into her mechanical body gouging out chunks of precious metal with every strike. She winced and growled as she felt every piece get torn from her mechanical self.

Again and again, she lopped off a limb only for another to take its place. She took its head and saw the body dissipate only to be replaced time and time again. She struck the gem only to have her blade break upon hitting it.

Yet for all this time its corrosive touch ate at her knight's body. Reducing its once splendid physique to a humanoid mass of moving metal. Scorched and wrecked the knight buckled under the strain of having to withstand the mighty strikes of its foe.

Feeling the tide of the battle turning against her she grew desperate and drove her machine to its absolute limit. She fed power to her arms and fresh blades materialised in place of the old ones.

The world shuddered and quaked as powerful mechanisms battered at each other in a brutal, relentless war of attrition. Throwing caution to the wind, Illuminura drove her knight's limbs at supersonic speeds shred The Construct into nothingness.

In those violent moments of broken composure, she realised that she had forgotten something. Something in this moment reminded her of a lost part of her mind. Some intricate detail that her long years of power and prosperity have allowed to slip from her mind somehow found a way back in.

Her eyes widened in the realisation of an omnipotent truth of all humanity. A certain trait most humans possess but her kind have forgotten in many respects. However in that moment little did she realise the immense strain she had put on her machine spelt its doom.

Mechanical muscles broke and snapped, mechanisms collapsed and blew up and Illuminura screamed in agony as the knight was riddled with detonations. She passed out and was returned to her real body.

She was then automatically taken out of the pool and dressed in her armour. She was then encased in an escape pod and jettisoned. As a final safety measure while the reactor within the knight's failing heart detonated.

With the deafening screech of atomised matter as its final, fiery death cry the celestial knight erupted with the force of a great supernova. The tremendous explosion consumed all within a kilometre of it with the light of a thousand suns.

Such a massive eruption violently tore the sky apart as Alice tried to pull the unconscious Godfrey from the wreckage of his cuirassier. The gargantuan explosion shook the world for miles all around as the sky itself was ruptured in the wake of this apocalyptic disaster.

Awestruck she froze as she watched the death of the celestial knight in a fit of despair. Then she found the vile beast of winds and lightning fall from the heavens. The gem upon its head cracked, shattered and deteriorated.

The Construct wailed in pain as its body collapsed into a single point. Then the great gem that had once adorned itself upon the beast's forehead detonated in one huge fireball. This consumed all around it for miles all around.