Infinite Paths: The Raging Phoenix-Chapter 1474: Destruction

After he was done collecting the batteries, Rain began to work on his failsafe in case the battles on both fronts took a bad turn for any reason... no one knew of his plans, and he knew that everyone would be against that, but he was fine with it. Rain was being self-centered and that wasn’t the first time that such a thing happened.

"It feels like things are going to happen the same way as before... the worst-case scenario always happens when I prepare for them this much," Rain thought. "Still, we are in the end game now... I am willing to go this far. Anyway, how many fail-safes I already have at this point? Well, at least I will be able to say when the time comes: you thought you had outsmarted me, but I outsmarted your outsmarting."

In the end, no one saw Rain since the meeting until the time for the beginning of the mission. They wondered what he was up to since he wasn’t resting since no one knew when they would have the chance to rest after that, but at least he looked ready when he showed up again.

"Red flag, he is doing something behind the scenes again," Terra said.

"Agreed," Seara nodded. "That only means that he has a guilty conscience, and a man only has a guilty conscience for a reason."

"Yes, you are right... I confess," Rain said. "I am guilty of the crime, of all crimes that you must be thinking right now. You can punish me as you see fit; just don’t hurt my face. Wounding my face would be such a pity to all the women in the entire cosmos."

"Yeah, right," Terra said while furrowing her eyebrows.

"I wonder if we still have this type of exchange when we get older and if Rain will still say this kind of nonsense when he is filled with wrinkles," Seara said.

"I will never have wrinkles. Do you know why?" Rain asked. "Because my muscles will have muscles that can flex."

Although Rain said that kind of nonsense, he was worried since Seara just raised a death flag... she didn’t know it was a death flag, so she wasn’t worried, and only Rain would worry about that kind of thing.

Recognizing the efficiency of splitting up their tasks, they decided to utilize Iori’s pocket dimension as a central hub, allowing them to coordinate their efforts more effectively while minimizing the risk of detection by their enemies.

With Rain’s mastery of teleportation and Iori’s pocket dimension at their disposal, they became the linchpins of the operation. Their ability to move swiftly and discreetly ensured that they could maintain a constant presence across the trip, providing support and assistance wherever it was needed.

Eventually, as their mission started and their comrades waited to carry out their assigned tasks, Rain and Iori found themselves alone in the camp. The once bustling hub of activity had now fallen silent, its occupants scattered across the battlefield, each playing their part in the unfolding drama.

"It must eat you from inside out. The fact that everyone you cared about is in my pocket dimension," Iori said.

"That is only partially true," Rain said. "I am only worried because everyone has to join the fight in some shape or form. Regardless, if something were to happen, I already have countermeasures for a bunch of possible scenarios. They don’t call me, the most cautious man alive, for no reason. They also call me the most paranoid."

"... It is better if we start moving already," Iori said.

Rain nodded, and then they immediately appeared in the enemy’s territory... it wasn’t one of the planets that Rain had visited recently, so he touched the ground for a moment... Iori wondered what he was doing, but soon Rain got up, and nothing looked like it had changed.

Before Iori could ask what Rain had done, he used Teleport again and then appeared on the next planet and then did the same thing over and over again.

"Are you looking for traces of activities of the machine gods or the dragon god?" Iori asked.

"Something like that," Rain said. "One can never be too cautious or there is too much preparation work when facing enemies of this caliber."

Rain didn’t want to divulge details, and Iori didn’t feel like talking with him at all either, so that worked well for the trip to be completely silent for dozens of hours. Along the way, they crossed hundreds of planets, and at some point, Iori started to get angry since it felt like Rain was wasting time, but he couldn’t confirm that since he knew that using Teleport could be mentally taxing as well. Those breaks could be necessary.

As Rain and Iori went deeper into the heart of enemy territory, they stumbled upon a region of the universe unlike any they had encountered before. Amidst the vast expanse of space, they found themselves surrounded by a swirling maelstrom of debris and wreckage, the remnants of countless destroyed planets and civilizations.

The sight was both surprising and horrifying. As far as the eye could see, the heavens were littered with the shattered remains of once-thriving worlds, their broken fragments drifting aimlessly through the void.

Amidst the wreckage, Rain and Iori could discern the twisted remains of buildings and structures, their skeletal frames jutting out from the debris like the bones of some long-dead behemoth. The silence of space was broken only by the occasional creak and groan of metal as the shattered remnants of these fallen civilizations shifted and settled in the void.

It was a sobering reminder of the cost of war, the devastation and destruction wrought by unchecked aggression and unchecked power. And as Rain and Iori gazed upon this grim tableau, they knew that they were treading upon sacred ground—ground that bore witness to the folly of mankind and the consequences of their actions.

"What happened here..." Iori asked.