Masses of enemies continued to encroach on the territory of Ghost Reef, led by the remaining Icons of Mana. The ebb in battle created by Coop’s conquest of the Ark and ensuing return was already waning, but he had made it to the Underlayer and returned to the surface before his companions were forced back into total war. He was finally able to stand where the Champion belonged, at the forefront of all his allies, as they faced the enemy.

Titanic monstrosities rose from the depths like alien megafauna, still seeking conflict after the atmosphere had returned to normal. Since there hadn’t been a standard resolution to the Eradication Protocol, the Icons hadn’t gone back into hibernation. Once they were brought into existence, their natural inclination was to secure territory and grow their legions of minions. That impulse hadn’t gone away. Though their domains were stripped without the Ark reinforcing their efforts, their auras were a spectacle of intimidation and danger, and their mission was domination. They wouldn’t have been summoned if conflict was unnecessary.

The island defenders kept their distance from the pinnacle enemies, only willing to confront them when the conditions were perfect. They only committed to discouraging their gradual approach instead of confronting them with the desperate intensity that had been necessary before. They ensnared the monsters in traps and took potshots that had them flinching or stumbling from range, partially stifling their progress until the defenders were ready to focus one down.

Most of the active fighting was centered on the smaller minions who rushed ahead of their leaders. In the past, they would have dragged the domains forward, inch by inch, but that was no longer a viable strategy within Lighthouse territory. Raid Bosses pushed forward, smashing battlelines and paving the way for the giants before succumbing to the coordinated efforts of the defenders. Regular monsters swarmed in their wakes only for synchronized attacks to converge and swallow them up with balanced combinations that magnified damage.

Unlike the previous efforts from the forces of mana, they could not easily establish their domains. Minus the advantages established by controlling territory, they were reduced to a nearly limitless and powerful coalition of monsters. They had lost multiple decisive factors in the war against humanity without corrupting mana and their ability to respawn. That meant the Lighthouse could find their footing and counterpunch in ways that were simply inconsequential before.

The forces of mana continued to crash into the human defenders like waves, incompatible with any other existence outside of escalating conflict. They were unable to fully breach the man-powered barriers, but the humans still shifted backwards, strategically bending to avoid breaking. The defenders waited for one of the grand attacks from a powerhouse among them before retrieving small amounts of territory with minimal risk. The successful tactics used against the forces of mana had already been ingrained into their bodies and their trust in each other was absolute.

Despite the cancellation of the Eradication Protocol, it felt like the fight for planet Earth would never actually end. Everyone involved with the surface was treating the scenario like the second half of a marathon rather than a sprint for the finish. They were thankful to be free from the corrupting energies and to actually have some light appear at the end of the tunnel, but from their perspective, it seemed like the journey to victory would still be excruciating and long.

Reinforcements had steadily been arriving from the underground layers as they were liberated from their own pressures. By the time Coop made it back, the island had never seen such an army of humans, but they were patient with their efforts, their leaders strictly avoiding getting ahead of themselves. It wasn’t the time to be rash. Sacrifices were no longer necessary to drag out another few seconds of survival.

Coop was happy they had been conservative with their defense. He finally had the opportunity to step up for the island settlement, and he did so with the sense of responsibility that had pressured him throughout his progress in the Ark. He wanted to ease the rest of the journey with all the power he had. He really had no other role to play.

As the largest Icons reached the shallows around the island, stomping onto the wet sands with dramatic splashes concealing enormous limbs, Coop took the initiative. The first thing he did was delve into his massive mana pool to enhance Legacy of the Mists and push it beyond its limits. He had no concern toward leaving himself vulnerable when he was surrounded by the most reliable companions to ever exist.

He held his ethereal spear high and briefly imagined spectral armies joining the human defenders before expanding the scope across the islands. Instead of a squad of one hundred phantasms, he was seeking to ascertain his new maximum.

Mists burst all across Ghost Reef that were different from his usual domains. Unlike when he applied his Fog of War skill, the mists were being generated by thousands of phantasms tearing holes between planes and leaping into reality. They dragged small quantities of mists that quickly dissipated in the new atmosphere, establishing a temporary blanket across the sands and shallows.

The city titles had already stretched the limit of Coop’s ability far beyond his previous amounts, but his control of mana took the small push and flew away with it. Phantasms immediately formed legions, their various armors reflecting in the light of day as they mixed with the humans. Then more formed, pushing forward so that they contended with the nearest forces of mana, demanding the space for more of their comrades as the manifestations continued at their backs.

When Coop’s spear shattered, its durability completely depleted, instead of disappearing, the phantasms maintained their forms. They dragged their own shining weapons into reality with the exhilarated bloodlust of their Champion until they represented an army that was unrealistically large for the small island. The slight veil that their mists created combined with the shallow waters to soften the light of day. It made it seem like they were standing in the heavens, their battlefield an uninterrupted and featureless plain, with the forces of evil on the outside and the forces of man on the inside.

Coop grinned at the enthusiastic battlecries of the residents who were eager to join the fight as the phantasmal legions clashed with hordes of demons and angels or swarms of parasites and dragons. He wasn’t done. Next, he was portioning out a section of his almost depthless mana pool to summon an apparition with Inheritance of the Mists.

He was planning on bringing the biggest and baddest force that human imagination had ever mustered with no concern for his own potential exhaustion. Knowing he had reliable backup all around him gave him the confidence to go all out. Whatever came forth would be the signal for the counter attacks to begin and everyone around him was bristling with anticipation.

He wasn’t specific with his summon, letting the memories of the original skill upgrade guide the apparition to reality from the pantheon of human imagination and the records of mana. Though he fully anticipated some war-like deity who would rain destruction upon their foes from behind the army he had established, he wasn’t being particular with the source of power that came to their aid.

Instead of what he expected, he was stricken with an overwhelmingly gentle presence. Rather than bolstering his limbs, introducing him to a legendary weapon or tool, or even establishing its own unimpeachable domain, its consciousness simply awakened.

As the out of body experience took hold, giving him an expansive look of himself, then the area around him, and ultimately the entire island, much like when he first linked Presence of Mind with Fog of War, he couldn’t help but wonder what it was. It was clearly taking a wider perspective than his usual single-minded devastating attack-focused possessions, opening his awareness more and more on something of a macro scale.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“It’s about time, isn’t it?” A surprisingly mellow whisper echoed in his head, like a mother soothing a young one, as he continued to wonder.

Then, Coop’s eyes flared with powerful verdant energy, all of his prodigious mana enriched with the essence of life such that it leaked from his soul like a breeze of leaves. Though he stood like he was in a trance, his consciousness was still expanding away, retreating toward a broader and broader vantage that encompassed more than just the island. He asked himself who or what had responded this time, expecting it to be enormous.

A light chuckle echoed in his mind, as if his imagination was too immature, patiently giving him a chance to correct his mistake. She wasn’t enormous, she was all-encompassing.

“Yes. Now, be at ease, for I am the Great Goddess Gaia, the Ancestral Mother, the personification of Earth itself.” She responded to more than just his thoughts with an airy voice, simply using him as a medium to interact with her ‘domain.’

The Apparition of Gaia hadn’t possessed his limbs or transformed his weapon, leaving him as he had already been, in charge of his own faculties. There was no need to establish a unique domain, for everything already was within her grasp. Instead, she existed like a calm sea that engulfed not just his mind, but maybe all consciousness, lacking the distinct anthropomorphic forms that other apparitions had taken. She couldn’t be defined by a single physically distinct existence, instead present in basically everyone and everything. Coop was a singular leaf floating among a river of others and she was happy to observe.

He found himself in complete awe of the primordial power flowing through him and throughout all of his surroundings, including his allies. It passively radiated beyond his perception, across regions, and from every corner of the planet. The Mother of Gods continued to expand his horizons, and no matter how wide the scope, her power was already everywhere. All of the mana that had been accumulated by life on Earth was within her scope. Only the forces of mana represented any opposition.

“You have been an admirable steward.

” She whispered, amusement in her voice. “But humanity has always been a bit deluded in its self-importance.” She laughed again, like they were the problem child that was a bit too clever for its own good. “Earth should be regarded as one interconnected entity, you’ve grasped it now, haven’t you?”

And with a casual nonchalance that even Coop couldn’t relate to, she cast a simple buff with the level of enhancement the possessions usually reserved for Coop himself. It spread like a wave from Coop’s spot among the soldiers. It wasn’t the first time one of the possessions had interacted with people other than Coop, but it was the first time it had been such a wide cast.

All the defenders of Ghost Reef were upgraded, enriched with a power that reinforced the already established connections between them all. But it didn’t stop there. The animals that accompanied his allies were also enhanced, and all their power magnified as it spread. Alligators and seagulls were possessed by the same verdant energy that had exploded from Coop’s eyes, and when they perceived the forces of mana, the enemies weren’t nearly as intimidating as they had been before.

Then, the heightened strength kept expanding, sweeping away from the island, through the shallows, and into the reefs, where unseen creatures had been avoiding the conflict while resisting the corruption of mana where it was most convenient to do so, within Lighthouse territory. Sharks, parrot fish, sea urchins, needlefish, sea turtles, dolphins, puffer fish, and eels stirred themselves from dormancy, bolstered by energy that had been accumulated all across the entirety of the planet.

When Lyriel explained that the early arrival of the Eradication Protocol was a result of human activity, she had completely underestimated the influence that the rest of the inhabitants of the planet were having. Even Coop had sold them short, and he had specifically been conscious of all the animals on his adventures. If they hadn’t already been truly connected, his world travels had provided the final link for his skill to reach.

Through the eyes of the Apparition of Gaia, he saw it. The power of mana had been accumulated by all kinds, within all sorts of ecosystems. Glimpses of the now enhanced verdant energy erupted everywhere.

The complexity of Earth had always been its greatest strength, but this was a more tangible result than Coop had ever expected. Competition and natural selection had driven the instincts and mentalities necessary for survival that weren’t essential in uplifted species, but life wasn’t exclusively a system of rivalries. They all existed together, in one interwoven web of life. It was a fact that was easy for humanity to overlook as their societies developed.

Instead of a purely independent enhancement from the apparition, through Coop, they were sharing the power that all life had collectively accrued. Humans may have been the focus for the galactic community, but it wasn’t like other species hadn’t secured their positions during the assimilation. They had been crushing the Primal Constructs such that the planetary sponsor never truly had a chance to establish itself from the start.

Mother Nature didn’t say anything else before Coop’s perception returned to normal, satisfied to show him instead of explain. It seemed like their collective consciousness toward the ties between them was enough to get any further messages across.

Despite his empowerment, Coop didn’t move. Instead, he was temporarily rendered into a spectator, catching glimpses of countless battles that had already been ongoing all across the planet while the Eradication Protocol took place, even while humans were pushed to the brink and isolated to their last stronghold.

The extent of their underestimation was truly revealed when one of the nearest demonic Icons, a gigantic titan of blood and stone, was overshadowed by rising forms originating from the sea itself. Even if he expected something large from the sea, the bulging ocean eventually broke around a completely unforeseen force.

The coral colonies actively rearranged themselves until they towered over the monstrous Icon, resembling something like a giant humanoid robot, built from individual polyps of coral. A fist of reinforced coral rock smashed against the Icon’s burning skull, crashing into it like a meteor before breaking into pieces.

Both forms crumbled, but only the coral reformed and rebuilt, becoming an even larger threat as the colonies recombined into something greater, collecting patch reefs to add to its total mass. All around the island, smaller reef fusions appeared, aggressively ambushing the forces of mana that had trudged across their surfaces time and time again. Ghost Reef itself rose from the shallows and reclaimed the sandbars, an army of coral colonies finally empowered to take action. Coral golems of countless varieties matched the phantasms in number.

But that was just the start. Further in the distance, beyond the reefs, where the water was deep, Coop became keenly aware of leviathans that had tucked themselves in the edges of Ghost Reef territory. Eyeballs the size of buildings, designed for the deepest of the oceans suddenly opened with a verdant haze, energized by the apparition. They rose from the depths, wrapping tentacles around Icons and tearing them apart. Coop watched as the towering legs of the parasite Icons struggled to stay above water before snapping like giant twigs.

Giant whales armored with bone breached the surface, calling to each other in vibrating tones, and for the first time since the Tempest Fleet had been destroyed, the battles expanded back into the deep waters beyond the coral reefs of the island. Humans and phantasms rushed into the battle, taking advantage of the reinforcements. When they brought down the Angelic Icons, they were consumed in one gulp, exploding in light that illuminated ribs hidden within rubbery flesh.

Monsters of black scale, with jaws so full of teeth they couldn’t be completely shut, dragged the massive Dragon Icons by the tails toward even deeper waters beyond the continental shelf. The dragons flapped their wings in resistance, but without their domain the primary abilities of the Icons were sealed. They couldn’t rewind themselves to safety, instead sinking into much more dangerous territory before disappearing among the churning sea water.

The counterpush from Ghost Reef smashed into the forces of mana as chaos claimed massive sections of their armies. As the monsters were beset upon by sea monsters and the creatures most at home in the water, Coop’s phantasms led the way for humans empowered with more energy than they had ever felt to finally go wild. The marathon they had anticipated was off to a spectacular start.