Chương 202

Orion was moving before his feet even touched the crate. [Flight] engaged smoothly, wrapping him in a frictionless envelope of air, allowing him to launch himself from the crate and arrow toward the Command Deck suspended in the center of the cavern. Behind him, the factory floor erupted into chaos.

"Target Acquired," the Centurion boomed, followed by the whine of servos. The massive golem spun its torso with alarming speed, and the cannon arm aimed, glowing sickly green. A boom echoed behind him, and Orion had to muster his trust in Pauline. She vanished into the shadows, letting the flood of liquid pass overhead, then reappeared twenty feet to the left as steel crates hissed and smoked.

"Over here, you rusted bucket!" Pauline shouted, conjuring a whip out of the solidified darkness and lashing it across the Centurion's optical sensors. The golem didn't respond, but it shifted its focus to the Magistra, its glaive arm starting to vibrate with a familiar hum. She has its attention, Orion thought, grimacing as he watched the massive glaive carve into the concrete floor just inches from her flesh. Don't waste the time she's buying you. With a heavy heart, he turned his attention forward.

The Command Deck was fifty feet above, a grated steel platform overlooking the vats, and the only operator there was still gathering armfuls of thick, leather-bound ledgers and blueprints from a brass cabinet, throwing them into a glowing orange chute. He's already decided this place is done for. Incinerating everything to stop us from taking it shows they had protocols in place, but I wouldn't expect anything less, given how efficient these agents have been so far.

Orion pushed more mana into his flight spell, speeding up to try and stop him before it was too late. The man looked up at his approach, cursing silently, and reached for his belt, pulling out a small, bulbous crossbow, whose bolt was a glowing vial. He showed no hesitation when pulling the trigger, even as he looked into Orion's eyes. Orion banked hard to the right, his flight spell howling against the G-force as a streak of blue-white lightning ripped through the space he had just been in, scorching the air.

That's not lightning mana, he realized as he analyzed [Hypotheticism]'s feedback. Nor is it pure electricity. Some kind of bioelectric compound? How many weird weapons do these bastards have?! Considering the strain that even just flying was putting on his reserves, as the Silence in the air kept tearing his magic apart, he couldn't afford to cast a mana-intensive shield at the same time, and if he stopped for just a second, he would get hit, which meant no landing on the deck and fighting from there.

Orion darted through the air, dodging a second bolt that singed the hem of his lab coat, and raised his hand, calculating the trajectory and trying his best to make the spell as efficient and knowledge-based as possible. Unlike what the agent might have expected, [Gravity Cannon] was fired at the incinerator chute, crumpling the metal inward and sealing the opening.

The man cursed, dropping a stack of files and leveling the crossbow again, firing a spread of smaller lightning bolts that filled the air like a net, each one sapping the vial less than a single one of the larger bolts had. Orion dropped like a stone, canceling his flight spell to free-fall below the catwalk, then re-engaging it to swing up and over the railing, landing on the deck and skidding to a stop.

"End of the line," he panted, even as a new [Gravity Cannon] built up around his hand. The man dropped the crossbow, now realizing that he was too fast for him to hit, and pulled out a large vibro-knife. His face was hidden behind the brass rebreather mask, but Orion could see his eyes, and they were cold and hard. There would be no mercy here.

"You're persistent," the agent rasped through the mask.

"But too late." And kicked a lever on the floor. Below them, the Silence vats began to bubble violently, and alarms started blaring.

"The purge cycle has been initiated," he said, falling into a combat stance.

"In a few minutes, the entire facility will flood with a reactant, causing the whole thing to burn down. There will be no witnesses, no remains for anyone to dig through." The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. Orion clenched his teeth.

He didn't want to believe the man would kill himself so easily, but considering what the other agent had done when captured, stopping an entire facility from falling into the enemy's hands might have been a more reasonable reason for suicide. This guy must also be directly from the Iron State. No local helper would go this far, not without a strong ideological reason, and that doesn't seem to be the case here.

Thanam — Agent of the Iron State Class: Second Operator [C-rank] Level: 91 Mind: 218 Attunement: 189 Body: 130 Traits: Circuit Mana Manipulation [C-rank]; Golem Construction [C-rank]; Structural Precision [C-rank]; He stepped forward, ready to engage, when a sound of tearing metal echoed from the floor below. Risking a glance over the railing, Orion saw that Pauline was in trouble. She had led the Centurion into a maze of conveyor belts, using the machinery as cover, but the siege unit was relentless.

It had simply walked through the machinery, using its sheer mass to tear the steel belts apart. Damage was visible on its frame, indicating it wasn't completely invulnerable. But if the scratches and occasional hole were all her tier three magic could do, even in the current situation, Orion didn't think he would have fared much better. And now, Pauline was cornered against a vat of molten iron used for casting.

She built a wall of solid shadow, but the Centurion's glaive arm spun, creating a vortex of air that disrupted her spell, and it lunged forward. Pauline dodged, but wasn't fast enough, as the blade grazed her side, sending blood spraying up in the air. She cried out, clutching her ribs as she stumbled back and hit the railing of the vat, trapping herself. The Centurion raised its glaive for the killing blow, and Orion's mind stilled.

He looked at the Lieutenant, who held the vibro-knife and guarded the pile of documents. It was the evidence they needed to take down Norman, and more importantly, data that would reveal a lot about what the Iron State was capable of, and perhaps even how they managed to infiltrate Cyril so deeply. If I fight him, I will get the files. I know I can beat him, but in the meantime, Pauline will die. On the other hand, if I save her, everything will go up in flames.

We will only learn what we can recover from the wreckage, and considering what he said, it won't be much. And yet, even though he knew what the logical choice was and what so many other witches would want him to do, he couldn't bring himself to do it. In the blink of an eye, he threw himself down the rail and toward the Centurion. As he flew, he looked up at the cavern's ceiling, peering through the darkness.

Specifically, at the massive geothermal cooling pipes that ran directly above the golem that carried superheated steam and coolant under high pressure to keep the Silence vats stable. Time was running out. Pauline had managed to dodge once more, but it was clear she was running on fumes, as the anti-magic gas ate away at her reserves, forcing her to rely on tier three magic for everything, and thus tiring her even faster.

That same gas also meant that whatever magic he used would be weakened by the time it reached the pipes, and he doubted they had been built with anything but the strongest materials. He needed something that moved at the speed of light. Something capable of melting steel instantly. Tapping into the Field as much as possible, Orion drew up everything he could muster, every scrap of knowledge that would strengthen the spell's stability, and pointed upward.

For once, he had to consciously stop himself from channeling all his desperation into the magic. It would only harm his chances here, so he could only depend on cold logic and hope it would suffice.

"[Gamma Ray]." The air along the spell's path turned into plasma, a line of pure energy marking the ionization trail, and a moment later, light bloomed in the warehouse, transforming the gloomy atmosphere into a blinding landscape. The bracket supporting the pipe vaporized instantly, taking a significant part of the structure and the bedrock above it with it. It was impossible to predict how far the spell would travel, and Orion could only hope he hadn't just destroyed a house along with his target.

Then, freed from its support and under thousands of pounds of pressure, the pipe whipped downward like the lash of an angry god, slamming into the Centurion with the force of a freight train. The golem barely staggered back from the impact, demonstrating just how incredibly resilient it was, yet the pipe had burst, releasing a blast of superheated steam and coolant that engulfed the siege unit in a white-hot cloud.

The Centurion's chassis screeched as its gears and plates warped, and the sudden temperature change finally shattered its armor, exposing the internals. Distantly, Orion heard Thanam shout something. Maybe it was a curse or a yell of victory, but he couldn't care less because the destruction of the main pipe had destabilized the entire ceiling network. As a result, chains broke, support beams groaned and twisted, and much of the factory was brought down.

Orion swooped down through the steam and debris, grabbing Pauline by the back of her robes just as the vat of molten iron behind her tipped over, spilling a river of orange where she had been standing a second earlier.

"Got you!" he shouted over the roar of the collapsing facility. His heart pounded wildly inside his ribcage, and he knew he might second-guess himself later, but for now, he could do nothing but step onto the path he had chosen for himself. Pauline was pale and bleeding from her side, but still conscious enough to turn. She looked up at him, wide-eyed.

"Did you get it?"

"It was too late," Orion said, banking hard to avoid a falling girder, not wanting to go into detail here.

"We're leaving." He rushed toward the ventilation shaft high on the wall, pushing his flight spell to its maximum capacity. Behind them, the Command Deck caved in, and the agent vanished into the rising tide of Silence and steam. Orion hit the edge of the ventilation shaft and mowed through the bars, skidding inside and dragging Pauline with him, just as a pulse ran through the facility as the highly volatile mixture of industrial and alchemical fumes finally reacted.

Another portion of the cavern ceiling collapsed, causing the vats to rupture and release a mixture of silver Silence, molten iron, and volatile coolant into the pit below. The next shockwave struck the vent opening like a solid hammer, shaking everything around them so violently that Orion feared they'd die there, trapped on all fours.

"Move!" He yelled, scrambling up the metal tunnel. They clawed their way up the shaft as the roar of destruction pursued them. Dust, debris, and a cloud of toxic gas billowed from the darkness below, nipping at their heels. Orion didn't look back. He managed to throw an [Atmospheric Centrifuge] behind them to block the dust, but the pressure was enormous and still increasing. They could only move so quickly, especially as the temperature increased, and eventually, he could no longer hold it back.

Soon, they were consumed by the darkness, the noise, and the trembling earth, crawling blindly toward the surface as everything crumbled behind them.