Chương 278

To say that it was a shock to find Collegium magic so clearly woven through the spells supporting the Amalgam would be a massive understatement. Yet his mind was trained to dissect far more complex problems, and he immediately began analyzing the anomaly. He knew the Iron State despised traditional casting. They engineered the Silence specifically to suffocate the Field, and the little magic they used was most often artificing tied to their machines.

There was no logical reason for an arcane matrix to be embedded in their primary coordination core. Unless someone with Collegium training had placed it there. Is there a spy? More than one? I know they've been crawling around Cyril for a while, given how fortified some of their positions were, but I assumed they hadn't infiltrated the major factions, what with their attempts to entice the minor nobility of Silverpeak. But then again, there was that matter involving the Crimson Wheel's old leadership.

Cassius had been convinced that an external force was at work, and it was reasonable to assume it was the Iron State. If they had managed to almost take over a faction, why couldn't they slip a few people into the Collegium, which was known to take in anyone who showed talent? Setting the political implications aside for a moment, he traced the spell's outer edges.

It resembled a communication tether, a high-frequency receiver designed to bounce encrypted signals across vast distances, matching the data he had from Archmage Valentia's spell. The arcane design had been replicated, and they were using it to coordinate a massive operation through a single mind. Again, this showed growth. The Dreadnought had coordinated several Centurions, and during the Battle of the Maw he'd seen something similar, but it paled in comparison to the sophistication before him.

It wasn't without trade-offs. The Amalgam had clearly been created solely to maintain and direct the base, and nothing more. Its level was incredibly high, and he had little doubt that if it had been given a body, it would have been a truly terrifying foe, but it was almost pitiful now. Shocks constantly ran through the brains, forcing them to stay on task. In fact, he was sure it hadn't even noticed their presence before, so focused was it on managing the defenses and continuing production.

Orion turned his head, opening his mouth to point out the runes to Esmeralda, only to stop as a blinding flash of blue light filled the chamber. Verner thrust his hand forward, his normally calm face set in a mask of sudden intensity. A spear of arcane force tore across the room, striking the cylinder's plating with devastating force. The casing shattered, and shards of metal and glass rained down onto the steel grating.

"What are you doing?" Esmeralda hissed, her rapier flashing up as the noise reverberated. Verner lowered his hand and let out a relieved breath.

"It was a distress beacon. I recognized the buildup in the brass conduits from what I saw at the other base. I had to destroy it before it could broadcast our location to the entire sector. Being pinned in this room on our own would be far less pleasant than last time, I assure you." Orion stared at the smoking crater where the plating had been. The brass was gone, and with it, the runes were erased. His eyes drifted to what was rapidly becoming a good friend.

Verner was an expert in subtle casting, as shown by the spell he had developed to contain all sorts of magical signals within a defined space. A spell that would have been useful to contain the beacon without destroying any evidence. Even if Verner didn't trust himself with such delicate work, he still had the skill to sever internal wiring without causing too much damage. Using that much power was out of the ordinary for him, though Orion himself had reacted violently more than once.

I didn't use to be like this, but this world has changed me. Sometimes for better, sometimes for worse. I shouldn't be too angry with him. He would still go over everything he'd managed to recover later to make sure he hadn't missed anything. Suddenly, the distant thunder of Garrick's assault at the eastern gate, which had settled into a manageable background hum, spiked into a deafening roar. Alarms shrieked through the factory walls, louder than the low-level warnings they had tripped earlier.

These sirens forced Orion to cover his ears, lest they damage his eardrums. Nasty bit of unconventional weaponry, that. I guess there is no fear of friendly fire when everyone here is either your ally, and thus more machine than man and capable of altering their hearing range, or an enemy. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. For the first time since he'd laid eyes on it, the Amalgam reacted.

The fluid pooling around it began to boil, and the stitched brains pulsed with purple light. Hidden panels in the ceiling snapped open. Four automated alchemical turrets descended on brass rails, their barrels swiveling to lock onto the intruders. Vents along the floor hissed, releasing thick jets of concentrated Silence gas to suffocate any magical retaliation.

Esmeralda frantically gestured toward the brains, and though Orion couldn't hear her, he got the impression she was trying to tell him they needed to hurry. She moved before the turrets could fire, becoming a blur as she bounded off a steel pillar and launched herself into the air. Her rapier flashed, driving straight through the first turret's targeting optics and sparking a violent electrical short that detonated the payload in its barrel.

Verner, too, was shouting something, drawing a complex shape in the air to form an arcane shield over their heads as a barrage of darts rained down from the remaining turrets. He pointed at the brains, making a chopping motion, then an exploding one. Orion decided that meant 'go for the kill'. He didn't need to be told twice.

He set aside his annoyance and focused on the bubbling vat, trying to find a way to kill it as quickly as possible, especially since its security protocols were now active and would likely bring the entire base down on them soon. The Amalgam was a Tier Four entity, if barely so. Despite being utterly immobile and lacking the raw destructive power of a walking monstrosity like a Dreadnought, its processing power and defensive integration made it incredibly dangerous.

The concentration of Silence gas in the room was also skyrocketing, making every spell feel like dragging a boulder up a steep hill. Esmeralda landed lightly on the edge of the shattered cylinder and plunged her rapier into the boiling fluid. Her eyes flared as she bled into the vat, seeking to poison the organic matter. The brains convulsed, but the Amalgam possessed a powerful [Arcane Void] trait.

The fluid rapidly neutralized her blood, and all she got as she pulled back was half a blade, as the acids had eaten through it. Now it was his turn to gesture. Orion caught Verner's eye and mimicked using a hammer to break through the remaining glass, slipping his hand into the imaginary hole as if he were going to attack through it. Fortunately, Verner got it and adjusted his stance, shifting from a defensive shield to an offensive wave.

It took him a moment to set up—a moment during which Orion began his own preparations, crafting [Event Horizon] around his hand—but eventually he released a thrumming pulse of arcane energy that struck the compromised cylinder with surprising force, making it shake and shake. Glass spiderwebbed, unable to withstand the rapid shift in structural resonance, gave way with a wet crash that Orion was sure was suitably dramatic, but since the siren was still going, he was deaf to it.

The fluid spilled across the floor in a tidal wave, fully exposing the pulsing brains to the open air. Now that the others had done their part, it was time for Orion to step forward. Within [Event Horizon], a light began to build, growing more powerful as it kept rebounding within the spell until the area became pitch black. Perhaps it was foolish to try to take on the Amalgam with a single spell, but the System had recognized [Null Light] as having grown beyond its previous limitations.

As he poured everything he had into a single beam of dark light, Orion couldn't help but feel this was no less a mercy-kill than dealing with the poor druids had been. The impact sent a ripple through the room. [Null Light] did as it was wont to and turned the organic matter into nothingness, carving a thin hole through the brains. The wires and feeding tubes ripped out of their sockets, sparking violently, and that, more than anything, led to the central intelligence's death.

The automated turrets above them seized, their barrels drooping lifelessly toward the floor, but Orion didn't let up until he felt the System echo in the back of his mind. Only then did the laser taper off. System Notification Participated in the defeat of [Iron State Amalgam] [Lv. 151] Major Level Disparity Bonus Applied. Experience penalized for the target being damaged and immobile. +2, 850, 000 Exp Level Up! Level Up! Level Up!

A surge of power flooded through his body, burning through his exhausted flesh with an almost painful heat. He gasped, dropping to one knee as the System reforged his limits. Level 99. He stood at the precipice of greatness, the divide between the chaff and the wheat. Only one level remained between him and the third tier. It was an even more stunning achievement, considering his age, though Orion didn't think it counted given his advantages.

His heart hammered against his ribs, and the Field seemed to reach him more easily now, even through the fog, though that might have been the Amalgam's passing. Finally, the siren's whine began to taper off, and he could hear again.

"The factory seems to be shutting down," Verner observed, looking at the dimming emergency lights.

"Then the others are going to be swarmed by whatever is left," Esmeralda said, having found time to reforge her rapier.

"We need to move." Hurrying out of the core chamber, they prioritized speed over stealth, traversing the maze of catwalks and access tunnels toward the explosions. With the Amalgam no longer controlling the internal defenses, the blast doors remained open, and the automated traps were inactive. A few independent machines still tried to block their path, but they were quickly dealt with, especially as the concentration of Silence in the air was lessening.

When they burst through a final set of doors, they stepped into the choking gray air of the eastern courtyard. The scene unfolding before them was pure chaos, bathed in the hellish light of burning oil and venting alchemical exhaust. The courtyard had become a vast expanse of cracked concrete, strewn with the wreckage of at least thirty Walkers and half a dozen Centurions, with countless workers scattered throughout. Sometimes, blood slipped from some bodies, while denser fluids leaked from others.

Garrick was at the front of the debris field. He was bleeding from a deep cut across his collarbone, and half of his pauldron had been sheared off by something very sharp. He leaned into a two-handed stance, and it was easy to see he'd cut a swathe through the enemy, given how much liquid dripped from his sword. His opponent was a hulking metal creature, a four-legged quadruped resembling a scaled-down Dreadnought. It hissed steam and pushed twin pneumatic pile-bunkers at the veteran's chest.

Garrick absorbed strikes that could have crushed an ordinary man into paste with mere grunts, deflecting blows meant to destroy a fortress wall, while his boots gouged deep trenches in the concrete. On the other side, Erethemor had become a walking torch, shrouded in a cloak of boiling crimson fire that vaporized the yellow Silence gas on contact. He roared, grabbing a charging Centurion by its blade and halting it mid-swing.

The extreme heat warped the machine's chassis, and Erethemor forced the draconic fire down into the construct's core until the biological components popped. He tossed the melting scrap aside to face the next squad of augmented guards. Daus rested against a shattered barricade nearby, visibly exhausted.

His bark armor leaked luminous green sap, and a terrible wound pierced his midriff, yet he kept channeling mana to drive thick, thorny roots through the asphalt, tripping and crushing the Walkers attempting to flank Garrick and preventing the Centurions from forming a single unit. But it was Jordan who worried Orion the most.