Sometimes, even when you know a tiger waits on the mountain, you still have to head straight toward it.
In Transformers: Dark of the Moon, the Matrix of Leadership could directly resurrect Sentinel Prime, so it could certainly restore Optimus Prime to normal now. Although the Matrix was the key to activating the Star Harvester, at this moment it was also the only way to heal Optimus Prime.
If they did not use the Matrix of Leadership, they would have to sacrifice a companion. This was a trap The Fallen had deliberately arranged. He understood Optimus Prime's personality perfectly. As long as there was a choice, Optimus would never sacrifice a companion.
Why had The Fallen kept Optimus Prime alive instead of killing him? Wasn't it precisely so Optimus would retrieve the Matrix of Leadership, after which The Fallen could swoop in and steal it? The whole scheme was one trap nested inside another.
The one thing The Fallen had failed to account for was Jetfire. He either did not know or did not care what this ancient Decepticon thought.
Optimus Prime spoke in a tone that said the responsibility was his alone. "Even if it's a trap, I have to stop The Fallen."
"Cough, cough!" Old Jetfire coughed forcefully.
"I'm old. Cybertron can't have only one voice... That's why I've always gone back and forth. You can't beat The Fallen. He's far stronger than you. Let me give you a gift!"
The staggering old Jetfire grabbed his own spark. Then, without regret, he chose to end his life. Holding up his spark, he crashed to the ground in front of Optimus Prime with a tremendous boom.
Ratchet saw the grief on his leader's face. Optimus Prime said nothing, but Ratchet understood what he wanted.
Ratchet and Jazz worked together. They began connecting Jetfire's spark and channeling its energy into Optimus Prime.
Jetfire's original body rapidly disassembled. Numerous weapons and pieces of equipment followed the spark and installed themselves onto Optimus Prime.
The infusion of fresh energy made Optimus Prime, originally 9 meters (about 28 feet) tall, surge to a height of 12 meters (about 40 feet).
Jet-black wings spread across his back. Two cannons stood over his shoulders, humming deeply as energy flowed into them.
Two laser cannons appeared on Optimus Prime's arms. Two thruster cannons were also added beneath his feet, almost like height-boosting insoles. His originally red-dominant color scheme now gained streaks of black, and his eyes turned a deep blue, a sign that his energy reserves were overflowing.
Who knew about the future, but right now Jetpower Optimus Prime was absolutely the strongest form Optimus Prime had achieved so far!
"We're going to Egypt! Autobots, roll out!"
This time Bella did not teleport them. After combining with old Jetfire, Optimus Prime had also inherited Jetfire's Space Bridge teleportation ability. In an instant, he brought the group to Egypt.
It was the middle of the night in Egypt, but the area around the Great Pyramid of Giza was extremely lively.
The enormous Combiner Devastator, formed from an excavator, a sweeper, a bulldozer, a crane, a dump truck, and a cement mixer, was tearing apart the pyramid. More than half of the Star Harvester beneath it had already been exposed.
The Egyptian military was useless. The Americans were overwhelmed with their own problems and had neither the knowledge nor the time to care about Africa. By now, the entire area around the Great Pyramid of Giza had been occupied by Decepticons.
The Fallen kept using his spatial abilities to search for the hidden tomb.
He had been searching for a long time, but his progress was still zero.
A sudden spatial fluctuation made him look toward the distance. Optimus Prime had arrived!
"Damn it! Big guy, do you even know how to teleport? What kind of tactic is this?" Bella completely understood Optimus Prime's urgency. The combination could only last a few minutes, so he had to kill The Fallen as quickly as possible. Understanding was one thing, though. Did he really have to teleport them straight into the middle of the enemy?
With no other choice, she drew Frostmourne. Before a nearby Decepticon could raise its weapon, she drove the two-handed sword into the spark in its chest!
Slashing left and right, she pushed her speed and strength to the limit. At that moment, she fought like an Asgardian, swinging the two-handed greatsword like a windmill. In the space of two breaths, she cut down several ordinary Decepticons.
Megatron, Starscream, and the other elite fighters were absent, but there were still plenty of ordinary Decepticons on the battlefield.
Bella's work on shaping her divine body had produced obvious results. Her strength, speed, and constitution were all increasing rapidly. Even so, asking her to fight several hundred Decepticons at once was still difficult. From beginning to end, that had never been her style of combat.
"Wait for me!" Worried that she would become a target, she chose not to fly. After clearing the enemies around her and finding an opening, she hurried to Jazz's left side.
She raised her left hand. A blast of Frost magic one hundred meters (about 328 feet) long and ten meters (about 33 feet) high shot forward in a cone, covering every enemy within a sixty-degree arc in front of her.
Seven or eight Decepticons froze into blocks of ice. She rushed over and gave each one a sword strike.
As Autobots, Jazz and Ratchet had plenty of experience being mobbed. The two joined up with Bella and fought while retreating toward the riverbank beside the pyramid.
There really were many Decepticons, but they were spread across a huge area, so only a few were directly exchanging fire with the Autobots. Seeing the two old comrades fighting steadily while withdrawing, Bella shifted more of her attention to Optimus Prime.
Optimus Prime charged at the front. The wings on his back spread wide as he flew toward The Fallen at the top of the pyramid.
Optimus Prime's fusion had a strict time limit. Once the time ran out, all the attached parts would automatically fall away. His combination with Jetfire was a one-use move, but precisely because of the time limit, it was incredibly powerful!
With a single kick, Optimus Prime knocked down Devastator, the giant formed from six Decepticons. The cannons on his shoulders fired three shots in succession at Devastator's head, chest, and abdomen.
The head was connected to the right arm, the torso to the left arm, while the two legs barely remained joined together. A Combiner like Devastator only looked impressive. It helped sell more toys, but in actual combat, forcibly twisting six minds together left the result hopelessly confused. Normally, it was only suited for straightforward charges into battle. Now, struck by Optimus Prime's thunderous attack, Devastator broke apart on the spot. The three sections of its body rolled down three different faces of the pyramid.
"Seems you've picked up a few new tricks?" The Fallen showed no fear at all. He raised his right hand and tried to manipulate the gravity around Optimus Prime.
The moment he acted, he realized something was wrong. "What's going on?"
Optimus Prime relied on the tremendous energy inside him to suppress gravity's control over his body. He thrust his sword forward violently. The Fallen's instinct for self-preservation won out, and he unconsciously stepped two paces to the side, directly exposing the Star Harvester behind him to Optimus Prime.
The two cannons on Optimus Prime's shoulders were Jetfire's most powerful weapons. Their barrels aimed at the top of the pyramid. From aiming, to charging, to firing, the entire process took only two seconds. Then came a deafening boom.
Going straight for the root of the problem, he blasted the highly advanced-looking Star Harvester into pieces.