As soon as the Winter round arrived and exploded in the midst of lots of biopods, the fragments spreading out from every direction seemed to bring the onset of winter on this part of the battlefield!
It made no sense for space to experience winter as it was purely a terrestrial phenomenon. The biopods also shouldn't be so susceptible to freezing considering that their organic constructions were highly resistant towards extreme temperature fluctuations.
Yet when coming into contact with the cold and merciless arrival of Saint Dostoevsky's winter, the biopods could not resist the freezing effect that sapped all temperature from their organic masses!
Every single biopod affected by the Winter fragmentation round had frozen solid. There was no way they could shake off the chill as they had already died from the lack of warmth!
This was one of the weaknesses of the biopods. They may have come from fairly powerful greater phase lords, but the mental strength of these individual lifeforms were far too weak to put up a meaningful resistance!
The relatively weak physiques of all of these biopods also made them a lot more vulnerable to the physical freezing effect than the nearby greater phase lords!
Their relatively resilient phasewater-infused bodies allowed them to resist the effect a little better, but the difference in power was so great that the biopods could not escape the fate of getting frozen as long as they were within range.
Saint Tusa started to feel a little chillier himself as he was able to perceive the artistic conception that backed up this particular ability.
The Messenger of Silence formed this ability from the old and storied heritage of his ancient clan.
The Dostoevsky name went back far in human history. In a time where humans were still locked on a single planet, they waged war in all kinds of climates.
The distant ancestors of Saint Dostoevsky came from a cold and bitter country that had endured many wars.
In a number of those wars, the outcome was decided not through strength of arms or clever strategies.
As a descendant of the line of citizens that lived through those harrowing wars, the ace pilot worked hard to turn the power of winter into a part of his arsenal.
Instead, the deciding factors that allowed the country to survive and win was subjecting its enemies to the relentless force of winter. Entire armies froze to death! The relentless freeze that chilled the lands and sapped all warmth from the environment was an enemy that could never be defeated, only endured.
This was the winter envisioned and empowered by the Messenger of Silence.
As a descendant of the line of citizens that lived through those harrowing wars, the ace pilot worked hard to turn the power of winter into a part of his arsenal.
He went on a tour that allowed him to visit many different planets with prominent arctic environments.
The powerful ace pilot willingly left his warm and cozy cockpit behind and ventured forth into the snow-covered landscape with nothing but warm clothing and essential survival gear.
All of those months of trekking through tundras, climbing mountains taller than capital ships with ancient tools devoid of higher technologies and filling up his stomach by relying on nothing but the exobeasts hunted through his own efforts, Saint Dostoevsky managed to experience the raw force of winter on over a dozen different planets!
The saint did not endure all of these different winters because he was a glutton for punishment.
He merely believed it was the only way he could get close to replicating the processes of developing his other signature abilities.
He was right.
Reading about winter and studying it from the comfort of his climate-controlled cockpit was not comparable to experiencing the freezing chill, the raging blizzards and the moments of utter stillness during a windless day in person!
The fruits of his labor became evident when he fired multiple Winter fragmentation rounds that proved to be remarkably effective at clearing out swathes of biopods!
"@#&@#@!"
"MY CHILDREN!"
The Biopod Mother responded with fury to see so many of her biopods getting frozen to death without being able to complete their mission.
Personally, Saint Tusa found it strange that the Biopod Mother cared so much about the lives of her 'children' when she herself sent them all on a suicide mission.
Whatever the case, the deaths of so many biopods provided much-needed breathing space for the Dark Zephyr. The ace light skirmisher managed to slip out of the immediate envelopment of all of the organic threats and gave his defenses a much-needed break.
However, the Messenger of Silence had also directed attention away from the Diffraction Lord, giving the greater phase lord just enough time to recover more of his strength!
As his enormous physique worked overtime to regenerate his battle damage and knit back his disabled phasewater organs, the angry jureg phase lord forcibly activated his strongest and most developed spatial ability and began to bend the fabric of space in such a confusing wrinkle that it was no longer easy to travel in a straight line anymore!
"DISAPPEAR IN A MAZE OF TWISTED SPACE!"
Even vision became distorted as nothing was straight anymore!
The Dark Zephyr immediately found himself losing control over his own trajectory as his Saint Kingdom was not powerful enough to unravel all of the bending and warping of the surrounding space.
The Diffraction Lord acted a lot more clever than before. Instead of trying and failing to attack or debilitate the Dark Zephyr directly, the jureg phase lord instead opted to manipulate the surrounding space.
While the section of space closest to the Dark Zephyr managed to resist this effect with the help of the Saint Kingdom, Much of the immediate space beyond this protective sphere had become inevitably tangled!
Prevention was much easier than reversing. Saint Tusa found that his willpower was simply not up to the level where he could unravel one of the trump cards of the Diffraction Lord.
The Larkinson ace pilot quickly grew frustrated when his ace mech constantly went off-course and looped back to the place where he began.
His Saint Kingdom was steadily unraveling the folds and bends in space, but the pace was too slow!
By the time his ace mech got free, the Diffraction Lord would be long gone!
Fortunately, his backup and mentor in the rear solved his problem once again.
Silence.
A single resonance-empowered gauss round cut straight through the invisible space maze and tore a straight line that led straight out of this trap!
The Messenger of Silence even repositioned his Whispering Willow in such a way that his shot went on to hit the Diffraction Lord just as he was on the verge of teleporting away!
"#$&#$!"
"NO! YOU FILTHY SHELL-LESS HERETIC!"
The Dark Zephyr quickly flew out of the safe route created by the Messenger of Silence and quickly closed in on the Diffraction Lord before he could make a getaway.
Now that he was being subjected to the full brunt of the Dark Zephyr's space suppressor, the Diffraction Lord became dismayed again.
Although his enormous bulk ensured that he was not at risk of dying soon, the constant disruptions and debilitations were taking a toll on the old greater phase lord.
"SAINT TUSA!" A boosted transmission cut through the powerful noise and interference.