39: Trump Card

[Year 21 Month 7: Continued]

Five kilometers away from Runehold, an earthquake was taking place—one of my own creation.

Codex was speaking to me, “Gol, ambient corruption levels have hit a predicted peak. Anomalous activity is taking place in the atmosphere.”

We had an issue on our hands. The second that the general killed the mini-boss, a tremendous amount of corruption mana surged out of the beast’s body, and while it wouldn’t do much for the global levels, on a much more local scale, it made all the difference.

Even with a burning headache, it was obvious that the remaining hounds were growing stronger, feeding off the energies of their dead leader. Somehow, they were even producing more, creating something like a cascading failure or chain reaction.

Within moments of identifying the issue, I began a long startup process for my backup plan that I had been working on for over two years.

Large cracks were forming across the nearby plains and were literally splitting apart the countryside, creating deep chasms and ravines that actually breached into some of the deeper levels of the Burrow.

Knowing this would happen, Metis had preemptively evacuated most of the population above ground, and whoever didn’t leave would be protected within several small bunkers that would be resistant to underground disturbances.

While I was more than a bit excited to enact my backup plan (considering I dedicated a tremendous amount of resources to it. I wasn’t quite thrilled about the situation.

I was hoping I would have a bit more time to better fine-tune what was in the process of awakening. Still, all of the major mechanics were done, everything else would be for efficency and vanity’s sake, important, but nothing that a brute forcing it with enough mana couldn’t do.

Even if it was splitting my mind in two.

When I drained my mana in the past, I was forced to go dormant, and yet this time, I managed to stay awake forcefully.

With my core runes flickering, I knew I was struggling and quickly disabled another hundred golems, granting me another burst in mana and a tiny bit of relief, at least, until it was drained once again.

“User, mana regeneration is struggling to keep up with processes. I recommend you shut down all unnecessary expenditures.” Metis spoke, her voice cutting in and out as her mana systems were running low on juice. “Systems deemed unnecessary: Runic Metis and Runic Athena processes, Mana lamps, Anti-detection Fields, Production Pillar nodes, and similar expenditures.”

Unable to respond from the sheer mental weight of the task at hand, I simply cut the supply of mana to everything she mentioned, knowing it meant only Codex and I would be left. I needed to make the rest of this work, and fast.

During the awakening phase, someone had to keep control of rampaging mana channels. If the flow of energy were too fast, it would cause a chain reaction, and everything would explode in a huge wave of mana.

Codex simulated it, and it would annihilate several kilometers; it also just so happened that Runehold was in that range. So yeah, an explosion would be catastrophic.

I had hoped I would be able to use one of my runic assistants for the job. Still, none of them had the mental resource capacity, and I actually needed help from Codex already to handle the calculated strain of the task.

Finally, after four minutes of wrangling my own mana into submission, it was ready and could begin to move.

Blasting out of the earth at the earthquake’s epicenter came an arm, a massive, earthen appendage, reaching out toward the sky.

Following it came the rest.

The head of the creature was twenty meters tall, towering over the surrounding region, but that was barely the tip of the ice burge.

In total, the stone construct was roughly one hundred and sixty meters tall, and could be seen from far away in all directions. Its body was clearly humanoid, but was considerably bulkier.

The exterior was made mostly out of granite plates, with the interior being the same reinforced stone that made up Runehold’s walls. When it moved, the plates would rub against each other, and sounds like a grinding roar, like tectonic plates shifting.

Its face resembled a weathered statue, broad and angular, but covered in ridges and incomplete chisellings, making it seem like a mountain had been sculpted into a rough approximation of a head.

The construct radiated power, and everyone who could see it paused.

Most importantly, a small message appeared in my vision.

[You have created a level 80 Gargantum Construct]

[Please note that these require an intelligence mind to operate, and may require additional assistance to start up properly.]

Already having prepped for this, I had another runic assistant ready to go and had decided on its name months ago. It wouldn’t be able to communicate with words as literally every ounce of processing power was being used operating the construct, but it would still listen to my commands.

“Goliath, let’s get rolling.”

While using such a weapon of war was likely a terrible idea for any possibility of peace between the invading soldiers and me, I was afraid of what could be coming.

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Years ago, Codex had warned of a slow but exponential increase in corrupted mana and estimated the [Invasion Boss] would appear once it hit a certain point.

He said that it would be in another year or two, but right now, I wasn’t sure.

“Gol?” Codex said, even the researcher’s voice filled with concern, “Ambient corruption mana has hit fifty percent. It has stopped being absorbed by the smaller Vexus.”

To my horror, the assistant was right, the corrupted mana had stopped being consumed by the Vexus, and instead, seemed to be draining them, reversing the current of vile energy. Helpless, despite my superweapon, I could only watch as the ambient corruption increased.

And then.

The corrupted mana pulsed, calling out into the universe for an answer.

There was a brief pause, and a split second later.

It responded with a earth shaking roar, and the earth once again split open beneath the battlefield.

[The Invasion Boss has been summoned]