The Stargazing Witch & The Dungeon Planet
Chapter 85: First Segment War

Chapter 85: First Segment War

As one would expect, the barrier around the first segment collapsing meant a lot for the current situation. 

The number of ships that immediately turned around was staggering, but it also made them an easy target.

The already chaotic battlefield ramped up in intensity, and massive laser fire lit up the space. Numerous ships made successful evasive manoeuvres as they flew up; some chose to spin around the first segment, while others looked like they wanted to crash head-first into the first segment.

However, there was one more very obvious target: the ship, which was the last thing to come into contact with the barrier.

No one cared that the little old me was onboard, so it was also heavily fired upon.

Shit! 

The paper plane-looking ship was torn apart by the gunfire, causing scraps of metal to be sent flying everywhere. 

The ship was surprisingly flimsy, but that ended up being my advantage as the ship fell apart without trouble, meaning it didn’t simply explode after a bullet destroyed the energy.

During the bullet assault, I was sent flying; no damage was dealt, but it was concerning. First, I had to realign and protect myself. I transformed my starlight weapons into two hooks and chains and looked around for something to use.

After I found something, I fired the two hooks with extending chains of starlight.

They stabbed two pieces of scrap metal and dragged it by retracting the starlight chains. I had the two pieces surrounding me, so I was less visible. Thankfully, my black armour also lowered my visibility; I didn’t want to be shot while simply floating in space.

That could’ve gone worse.

(“ Looking on the bright side, are we? ”)

Espr’s voice constantly shifting after saying the first half in a high tone while ‘are we’ was in a lower definitely made their question ominous. Sometimes I wondered if they did it on purpose, but after talking with Espoiramissa for a long time, I had a strong feeling it wasn’t. 

Sure, I will say that I am.

(“ If that’s the case, what’s the plan now? ”)

Offhandedly I replied, scoop out, move, and fight?

First, I used [Star Mapping] to analyse the combat zone from a wide view and to look for the spear–which was floating nearby-ish in space.

The situation was certainly something. The initial wave of ships flew up, and the pursuers started to follow. After all the confusion, it seemed like there was a clear divide between the two sides of the conflict. However, looking carefully, there were plenty of ships that seemed eager to fly up–based on the direction they were facing, they could easily blast up to their above space, or move around, ready to break off to fly at a different angle–and there were also a few clearly friendly ships that flew up in a panic, hoping to stop something, but all they received was cannon fire from behind. 

So, the situation was still not good. The divide still hadn’t been properly created, the only good news was that there were still probably more friendly than hostile ships, but there were so many ways to prevent the space combat from going off the rails.

Of course, my suspicions of the below ships were merely suspicions. I could’ve easily been just over cautious and concerned and had just projected that on innocent ships… or maybe not, and they deserved to die.

At least a good number of ships were shot down; any amount helps, but they were likely less important targets.

There were quite a few ships that managed to dodge the bombardment; there were plenty that didn't, and now their waste was joining the pile of floating junk. 

Out of the ships that immediately flew up without any hesitation, even causing them to lose the advantage gained by the confusion and stealth, they were likely simply pirate-operated ships. The ones with Dominous Hood members on them were likely smarter.

(“ I wonder sometimes if you overestimate your hated foe ”)

Better than under, they’ve managed to stay alive and undercover for as long as they’ve been around after all. For how bloody long has that actually been?

They had been publicly known about for at least twenty-five years, but it didn’t take a genius to guess they had been around for longer. How much longer? That was a lot harder to figure out.

Maybe I did overestimate them now again; I knew most were weaker than me, but I was always on guard due to the potential dangers of equipment, tricks, plans, and traps they could have. That worry was somewhat justified; the people on Juptar put up a strong fight, even some of the grunts did a good job, and the commander and the upper management cut it close. 

I had the advantage of being at a higher level, and the passive [Primal Guardian Lord], while even unactivated, gave me great strength and resilience buffs. It was like having nearly two Vocations, but one didn’t have access to skills besides two specific ones.

Now I’ve learned there was a lot more inconsistency with their members, even within the same rank, than I first thought. My first encounters all those years ago must’ve been with a fairly important rank group of theirs, considering the dangerous nature of those arrows.

While I sat and pondered, the pulse fired out again, engulfing the area once more.

I don’t want to deal with this again…

My prayers to the stars of course went unanswered, as the scraps of metal I was hanging onto were sent flying.

I fired another chain towards the spear that was left floating in space. I managed to grab a gold while I was being flown away and had it yanked towards me.

I grabbed and for the first time in ages examined the arrow closely, I stopped caring about being flanged-shotted. The black shaft and redhead were the same as I remembered. I touched it with my gauntlet and with only a little pressure it was causing a mark in it. 

(“ It’s lost its spark ”)

These fuckers are one-time use?

That idea didn’t surprise me, they were a powerful item that destroyed a person’s level and Vocation. 

(“ Yes and no ”)

Fuck sake! And no to any straight answer from you!

I gripped the arrow segment of the spear tight. This was a weapon that caused me tremendous grift and pain, something I was likely to face in the future, for the love of fucking bloody something tell me the fucking answer!

Espr sighed.

(“ The effect that reduces someone’s level to nothing isn’t one-time use, however, the effect has its limited, and so for its usage, most of the time, it would only be one-time use ”)

Espoiramissa wasn’t clear on what those limits were, and I had no idea what the hell they were supposed to be that would consider them mostly to be a one-time use. From the rumours and disappearance, some of the highest-level people had been killed. Of course, it was hard to know, some of those people had very secretive lives, but knowing the power of these arrows, it was certainly possible that with no way to protect themselves from the effect that a little bit of overconfidence could spell their undoing.

(“ Even if you want to destroy or chuck it, I would recommend– ”)

No need to convince me of shit, I’m keeping this blasted thing. Still sharp, sharper than anything, perfect damn weapon if you ask me.

I wasn’t going to go crazy blasting everything yet… I still need to reserve my resources, I wasn’t going to gamble my chances at doing everything I wanted tonight by blasting my load too early. Sure, I was confident I would be fine maintaining my resources anyway but having a weapon, a powerful one, would make a great difference. The solar rifle I had gracefully taken was lost, floating in space. I had purposely let go of it as it was low on energy and I needed my hands for better things when the attack from the ships below happened. 

Well… it’s time to join the fight in the first segment.

My emotions were running high just by seeing the arrow today, and a sick hope also festered in me that I might see the original bastard again. 

I examined the situation around me, looking for ships that would be flying by that I could attach to.

While looking around, another barrier started to form around the first segment. Originally, there was the thin barrier, which helped create gravity and breathable space, and the defensive barrier, which prevented anything from getting inside. The defensive barrier had broken, but the thin barrier allowed ships and the like to pass through anyway. The new barrier that was being formed was another weaker defensive barrier; unlike the original, which could block ships, this one would only be able to stop mana projectiles.

It looks like they are unable to re-enable the barrier again.

I was unsure if that was a technical limitation or a result of Dominous Hood’s weapon of choice.

Soon, a ship that was close enough did fly by and used a starlight chain to latch onto it. The whole process was fast and within moments we were nearing the first segment’s floor. 

After utilising the ship’s momentum, I let go as I went barrelling towards the first segment. I was still a little low, but I was using [Burst] to correct my height.

Fuck… 

I had landed on the edge of the first segment.

“...This… is the first segment, huh…” 

I was finally standing upon my initial goal and it was not in a good state.

The top segment was much smaller than the middle segment in diameter, but in the centre of the segment was the massive spiralling tower that was even taller than the massive elevators that split the segments. 

While the defensive barrier around the first segment was destroyed, there was still one around the tower in the centre, and if anything, that one was even stronger. 

I had no way to tell the state of the people within the tower, but the small population outside the tower wouldn’t be having a good time. Most of the population lived on the tower because, to be fair, the tower was the segment. Even calling it a simple tower was underselling it; it was a massive pillar that made up half of the total length of the Jelannax station. 

Buildings made of extremely durable mana-reinforced material were destroyed. I looked at the situation with [Star Mapping] again, and it was clear from the damages that fighting had broken out here long ago.

With the barrier down, but with the one around the tower remaining, many people disembarked from their ships after they realised it was still active, so to avoid pressure from the fleet below now that their cover was blown with their reckless rush. However, that in no way explained all the damages.

I knew it was likely they had infiltrated the first segment but…

Looking at the damage, I wondered if it would’ve been better if I tried harder to reach the first segment. 

I didn’t care about other people... Parts of my empathy and compassion were the first to die when I was alone. The exception to everything was always my family and a few friends, and maybe it was being with them that brought those feelings back a little more. I wouldn’t go out of my way to murder passersby for no reason, and I tried to use less destructive attacks in populated areas. But I didn’t think I would go out of my way to protect anyone if I needed to be elsewhere.

However, seeing the destruction made me think, for the first time for strangers, that I should’ve tried a little harder. 

Time to stop thinking stupid thoughts.

(“ That I would agree, you have a lot of people to kill after all ”)

Right indeed.

Maybe it was compassion, or maybe it was simply the fact that I didn’t want Dominous Hood to fuck up more lives. Thinking about it a little bit more made me realise I didn’t matter; my main feelings had stayed the same.

They were people I wanted to exterminate brutally. 

I wanted their limbs torn off and blood painted across the space and dirt; burned away my scorching fires; and returned to nothing where they belonged.