Chương 210

The dots flickered again, and Orion had to forcefully pull his mind away from the odd sense of nostalgia that the sight evoked. Now was definitely not the time to lose himself in the past, especially considering what the map signified. Each red dot represented another one of the canisters, currently releasing a silence-based mixture to corrupt the creatures of the range. There were hundreds of them, and every moment they remained here was another moment the damage could spread further.

His mother gave him a look, clearly realizing he'd figured out something about the contraption.

"It's a control switch," he said, pointing to the huffing valves and lines of script.

"This hub is actively preventing the canisters from releasing all their contents at once. It broadcasts a continuous suppression signal, and if the signal drops—if this machine loses power or gets destroyed—every single canister in the mountain range will open simultaneously." Asteria stepped closer, examining the monstrosity.

"We're in a hostage situation, then. They rigged the board so that if we discovered their command center, our first instinct would be to destroy it, thereby fulfilling their main objective for them."

"Exactly," Orion grimaced. He could imagine several reasons why the Iron State would want to prolong the spread of the chaos as much as possible, not least because it would give them a chance to slip back in while the Sanctum was busy dealing with the fallout. Suddenly, the machine emitted a high-pitched whine, and the rhythmic pulsing of the red dots faltered, turning a warning yellow. Crack. A spiderweb of fractures spread across the main crystal at the center of the cage.

The temperature drop from the Wyvern's icy breath caused the brass to contract quickly, exerting immense stress on the fragile arcane components inside. A hiss of super-cooled, pressurized mana began to vent into the room.

"It's failing," Orion said, feeling a surge of adrenaline. He activated [Hypotheticism], and the world slowed as he analyzed the venting pressure.

"The core was damaged during the fight. We have less than three minutes before the containment field shatters and the signal dies." He didn't feel the need to go over what that would mean. Fortunately, Asteria was quick on the uptake and quickly took command of the situation.

"I shall hold the vessel together as long as possible. Try to see if you can fix it." Before he could try to explain how that wasn't exactly an easy task, she reached into her robes, producing two vials, one filled with a viscous black tar and the other with a glowing white powder. She uncorked them and used telekinesis to draw the substances out in twin ribbons, which twisted through the air like serpents, weaving through the brass cage and wrapping around the fractured crystal.

"This is a little rougher than what I usually do, but I'm not familiar with this kind of enchantment, and it's better to avoid messing anything up," she murmured. The moment the black tar and white powder touched the freezing, venting mana, they underwent a violent endothermic reaction. The ribbons instantly hardened into a flawless, translucent resin, sealing the cracks and stabilizing the core's physical structure.

"Alright, the physical breach is sealed, but the internal mana pressure is still increasing," Asteria warned, and Orion could see that despite her nonchalance, she was exerting a lot of effort to physically wrestle with the ambient field to keep the core from detonating.

"You have your window, Orion. Chop chop." Orion didn't hesitate, thrusting his hands into the console's access ports, extending his senses through the circuitry, and letting his trait to interpret the data stream. What a mess. The Iron State magitek was a bastardized blend of cold physics and intent-based magic, to the point that its logic gates didn't make sense to a purely scientific mind.

A copper wire carried electricity perfectly, but instead of ending in a grounding pin, it fed into a carved rune that he could vaguely interpret as representing [Stagnation]. Actual physics controlled the transmission, but it was magic that managed the encryption.

"It's a compromise between two conflicting systems, but one that was born organically," Orion murmured under his breath, even as sweat froze on his brow as [Hypotheticism] strained to translate the contradiction into something he could understand.

"It's looking for an authorization key based on a fluctuating arcane wavelength." He mapped the signal, converting the magical intent into a sine wave of geometric data and gradually gaining a clearer understanding of its actual function. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

"It changes the encryption key every four seconds based on the internal mana density," he continued, raising his voice over the growing whine of the machine.

"Mom, I need you to lower the mana density of the plug by twenty percent and keep it there, or the physical circuitry is going to melt before I can bypass the ward." Asteria didn't question the accuracy of the number. She uncorked a third vial, allowing a pale blue vapor to enter the machine's intake valves as an alchemical buffer, and the high-pitched whine lowered to a hum.

"That worked," she said, half surprised, half in admiration. Orion grunted in acknowledgment and focused on isolating the specific frequency of the 'hold' command. He couldn't safely turn off the machine without risking triggering the safety protocols, but luckily, he didn't have to. He only needed to change the lock. Their mechanical skills are very advanced, but I guess there was no reason for them to improve their cryptography to the same level, since no one else uses similar methods.

That just proved how important [Hypotheticism] was. It served as a universal data translator, provided he had a vague understanding of the mechanisms he was trying to study. Drawing heavily from the Field, Orion began to inscribe a new equation directly into the machine's primary processing crystal. He removed the Iron State's external receiver protocols and looped the 'hold' command back into itself, creating a localized, self-sustaining circuit. Essentially, a digital ouroboros.

His body twinged with pain the longer he worked, and he knew he would need to rest once this was done, but it was nothing compared to what he'd just endured a few days earlier during the escape from the factory.

"I'm locking it in now. It should work, but be prepared in case something happens," he warned. Once Asteria nodded in acknowledgment, he severed the external transmission feed and slammed the looped equation into place. The machine shook, and for a moment, he feared he'd set off some hidden trap, but soon enough, the venting pressure equalized. The frantic yellow blinking on the holographic map stopped, switching back to solid red, then slowly faded into a dormant green.

The hum settled into a gentle purr, and Orion ripped his hands away from the console, collapsing backward onto the icy floor and gasping for air. System Notification +1 Mind +81, 200 Exp Level up! Huh. I guess successfully decoding and interfering with such an advanced artifact would count for something, especially given my class. Asteria gently lowered her wand once the alchemical resin had fully hardened around the core, looked at the green map, then down at her son.

"Good job," she murmured, "the fluctuations have dropped to almost nothing."

"It'll hold," Orion panted, pushing his glasses up his nose.

"Indefinitely, at least as long as the machine isn't physically destroyed. But the canisters are still out there, and I couldn't do anything about the connection with them. Cutting it off would have resulted in them releasing their contents all at once."

"Yes, that is still a problem," Asteria agreed, her expression turning serious.

"If every dot is indeed a canister, then we're dealing with hundreds of them, spread across the entire range." Once she was certain he would be alright, she pulled a high-tier communication crystal from her robes that reminded Orion of the one in Last Thaw, albeit smaller and sleeker.

"Elder Alcmene," she spoke into it with authority.

"We have a situation on our hands that could escalate into a mass outbreak. The immediate trigger has been neutralized, but the artifacts causing it are still in the field." Orion couldn't hear Alcmene's response, but Asteria's face grew more serious by the second.

"Yes, I agree," Asteria said finally.

"Draft the mobilization orders in my name, too. I am claiming this observatory as a forward operating base and will move some of my people here to coordinate the teams once enough have gathered." With that, she pocketed the crystal and turned back to Orion.

"We'll soon get the reinforcements we need for a full sweep." He nodded, slowly pushing himself back to his feet.

"I'll prepare a quick explainer with what we've learned so far," he said. Asteria pursed her lips, eyeing his exhausted figure, and sighed.

"As much as I'd like to insist you stay with me, this isn't something we can take slowly. Prepare the explainer, but make sure to rest. You'll be needed back in the field soon enough." Orion blinked.

"You're actually letting me go back out? I thought you would definitely bench me."

"Under normal circumstances, I would lock you in our apartment for a year," Asteria said dryly.

"You certainly have gotten into enough trouble just after returning to the Sanctum. But your team understands the situation better than anyone else, you know the behavior of the corrupted fauna, and more importantly, we simply don't have enough witches available to handle everything, especially with the operations still ongoing in Silverpeak." Before he could do more than open his mouth, she pointed to the map.

"As far as I can tell, there are canisters on at least a quarter of the peaks, and some of them should be low enough not to pose a threat to you if you take it seriously." Orion closed his mouth with a click and thought it over. That makes sense. This particular peak was unusual since it housed the control structure, but there were plenty of mountains inhabited only by tier one and two creatures, so it would be a waste of time and resources for Magistrae to deal with them. That didn't mean it wouldn't be dangerous.

As he'd seen with the Yeti, the goats, and the roc, even usually calm creatures could go into a frenzy because of the corruption, and he suspected some might even have mutated into stronger forms. But the longer they let it spread, the worse it would get, and his team had shown they could handle moderate threats.

"The highest peaks will be handled by teams of Magistrae, led by the other Veil Priestesses and me, depending on their availability. I suspect the Iron State left far worse things than Yetis and Wyverns guarding their deeper installations." Asteria then placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Go back to your friends, Orion. Rest as long as you can before the other teams arrive, because the real work begins then." Orion nodded, and once his mother had started setting up her operational center, he walked back out through the rusted hole in the bronze doors, stepping into the freezing wind of the summit. Dorian, Luna, and Selene were standing just outside the entrance, clearly waiting for him.

"Oh, you're okay," Luna breathed a sigh of relief.

"What happened in there?" Orion quickly went through the sequence of events and briefly explained the nature of the threat they were still facing. Once he made it clear that they wouldn't be able to return home just yet, the others surprisingly relaxed.

"What?" He asked, noticing their expressions. Dorian smirked.

"We were kinda worried you'd sneak out to take part in whatever clean-up was necessary. At least this way, your mother knows to keep an eye out for whatever trouble you manage to bring on our heads."

"Hey, I'm not that bad!" he complained, but the eye-rolls he got back didn't do much to make him feel understood.