Chương 230

Yunius held the golden barrier high, his face a mask of intense focus. Alchemical shells hammered against the magical barrier, sending violent ripples of failing energy across its surface. All the while, ancient branches above splintered and rained down on the Collegium forces, threatening to crush anyone who stepped outside the protective dome.

Orion watched the destruction from the safety of Pauline's shadows while the woman occasionally cast her own spells to disrupt the enemy's rhythm, doing his best to filter out the smoke and debris to see the underlying data. It was immediately obvious that the Dreadnaught and the Centurions weren't fighting as separate units. No, they operated as a single, perfectly synchronized team. Data streams pulsed between them, invisible to the naked eye but glaringly obvious to his enhanced perception.

Once he'd managed to isolate them, he focused on tracing their origin, hoping to find something useful because, while Yunius was holding for now, it was clear that the tide had shifted. What he found was that the fortress acted as the main server, managing the tactical telemetry gathered by the smaller units. It then evaluated incoming magical attacks, determined the best defensive course, and adjusted the combined anti-magic fields to counter the spells.

The biological cores within the infantry were enslaved by the main processor, serving as amplifiers for the larger network. Although they had some independent abilities, as was obvious because they managed to fight before the Dreadnaught came into range, they were essentially being piloted. It was an extremely efficient system, guaranteeing that as long as the connection remained, they would have unmatched synergy.

"They are connected to each other," he said loud enough to be heard by Jonatan.

"The fortress has taken command of the Centurions. If we can disrupt the connection, they'll lose their synchronization." Jonatan eyed him for a long moment, clearly unsure how it related to him, before a flicker of understanding lit up in his eyes. He then turned, watching the relentless artillery fire with a more scrutinizing look.

"You have a way to disrupt it, then. Can you do it from here?"

"Not alone," Orion admitted. Despite his skill improving during the exploration of the mountain range, it was still not enough to directly affect a tier four being. Still, that didn't mean he was powerless. He pulled the carved quartz crystal from his pocket, turning it over in his hand.

"I believe I can emit a frequency that will jam their internal communication, but the fog surrounding the hull will dissolve my spell before it hits the target, and I don't believe I will be able to pierce through it on my own. I need someone skilled in metamagic to push it through." Jonatan opened his mouth, probably to explain that the others were much better suited than he was for this task, but another barrage slammed against Yunis' shield, sending several mages stumbling back, and he closed it.

After a moment, he nodded.

"Tell me what you need."

"I will construct a beam of light encoded with the disruption frequency," Orion explained, already beginning to visualize the necessary spell matrix.

"The concept is straightforward, but the execution will take some time, since I need to adapt it." That was an understatement, if anything. The data stream passing between the golems was so articulate and dense that trying to understand it was a reckless endeavor. But Orion didn't need to gain access to it, just disrupt it, and breaking something was always easier than making it in the first place.

"We will target the main optical sensor on the front of the hull, which functions as the receiver for their visual telemetry. If we overload that specific input with the jamming resonance, the feedback loop will crash the central processor. You just need to make sure the spell survives the crossing of the clearing without losing its coherence."

Normally, he would have handled this himself, but this operation would demand too much of his focus, and he strongly suspected that if he failed the first time, he wouldn't get a second chance. Once Jonatan had enough time to develop his own side of things, Orion focused mana into the quartz. I would prefer to use the CC for this, given the complexity of what I'm attempting, but the network failure will likely completely damage any catalyst, and I'm much less concerned about losing this than my magnum opus.

He built the foundational structure of [Infinite Laser], which had once again demonstrated its reliability as a solid base from which to expand, carefully adjusting the wavelength to carry the screeching resonance he had created earlier at the base. A vibrant violet glow gathered at the tip of the crystal, humming with unstable energy, and he looked at his fellow mage. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Jonatan's eyes were shut as he concentrated, and Orion could sense multiple spells converging before being layered upon his own magic. Some of them were familiar from his own studies of metamagic, like [Maximize Magic], which increased the beam's volume and power, and [Penetrate], which wrapped the laser in a dense layer of arcane insulation, strengthening the spell against the corrosive effects of the surrounding atmosphere.

Others were unfamiliar to him, but he could gather that they all offered some form of protection from disruption, ironically the very kind of thing that would have really helped their enemy. Under normal circumstances, this would have been overkill and overly redundant. Bloating a spell like that for minimal or no increase in power or speed was simply not done for a reason. But given what they were up against, Orion thought it was only sensible.

"Fire," Jonatan urged as the last piece slotted in place. Orion stepped slightly out of the shadow pocket, aligning his shot with the front of the advancing fortress, and once he was sure he had a clear shot, he released the pent-up energy, ignoring the shouts of surprise from his own side as it passed above the men's heads.

The violet beam sliced through the clearing at blinding speed, its insulating metamagic coat hissing as it met the fog, burning away layer by layer, but it lasted long enough for the light to hit the reinforced glass of the main sensor. The frequency washed over the biological core processing the visual feed, piercing through any defenses it had with the last metamagic before disconnecting from the other machines. A strange noise sounded as the very delicate sensor inside the core shifted.

It didn't break, since Orion simply couldn't supply enough power to truly damage a tier four being, but given how finely tuned that device had to be, it was more than enough. The Centurions jerked, their fluid movements stiffening and becoming erratic as the shared dome of anti-magic shattered into weaker, separate fields. The fortress turrets swiveled aimlessly after losing targeting telemetry from the infantry units, and their shots began to go wide or lose power to improve accuracy.

Yunius quickly noticed the collapse of the unified defense. Then he did something even Orion hadn't expected. He dropped the battered golden shield and went on the offensive. At his command, the ground beneath the fortress warped, and the iron treads lost grip as the earth itself transformed into a frictionless, glassy surface. The heavy machine slid sideways, its cannons firing wildly as it tried to correct its course.

A massive tree took the brunt of the barrage and fell soon after, only for one of the mages to take advantage of that as well. He guided the large trunk to fall on a disoriented centurion, which lost a limb as it noticed the threat too late to avoid it completely. That was the signal for the rest of the squad to give it their all. Samael uttered a quick incantation and summoned a stream of crimson flames, focusing them into a narrow, drill-shaped spiral instead of letting them spread out.

The spell struck the nearest Centurion's chest plate, melting through its brass armor and igniting the alchemical fluids within its joints, releasing the alchemical suppressant to try and preserve its integrity. But more and more spirals struck it, each digging deeper into the chassis until they created a path through the dust, causing the construct to collapse, limbs flailing as internal fire consumed its core components.

Hames followed up a moment later, taking the chance to gather the moisture in the humid forest air. With a flick of his wand, he summoned a barrage of crystalline ice spikes, striking the hydraulic joints of a second machine, freezing the alchemical lubricants and pinning its limbs to the forest floor.

It was clear he had gained a deeper understanding of the silence-based protections, as he focused on damaging the joints and hindering the centurion's movements without causing enough harm to release the powdery suppressant. The remaining warmages didn't need an invitation to take advantage of those openings and started covering each other's casting times as they ruthlessly exploited the newly created blind spots.

They cast spells of freezing wind, concussive force, and searing lightning, systematically dismantling the remaining constructs piece by piece. The fortress attempted to release more fog to conceal its isolated units, but Yunius had already summoned a strong wind to blow it away. The Archmage was floating among the highest branches, and his robes started billowing as he drew directly from the dense mana pool in the center of the basin, something Orion hadn't even realized was possible.

Obviously, it's mana, so it makes sense that it could be used, but I've never received any indication that it could be interfaced with. Besides its heavy presence on the Field, it almost feels inert to my senses. However, I suppose that might change with a greater Attunement. Considering that his Attunement stat was more than four times lower than Yunius's, he felt he could be forgiven for not realizing that was a possibility.

He was briefly distracted from his thoughts when the Archmage crafted a complex series of layered magical circles overhead. The air shimmered as the surge of power distorted the light around him until Yunius brought his staff down. A pillar of pure force descended from the circles, hitting the top of the fortress and crushing the heavy plating. The main smokestack was finally silenced when one of the rotating turrets was completely crushed.

The machine shuddered, its internal engine whining as it tried to reroute power to its remaining weapons. It fired another volley of shells at the Archmage, but Yunius deflected them with a wave of his hand as the ground surged. The impact changed their course mid-air, causing them to detonate harmlessly against the thick trunks of the Ironwood trees. At the edges of the battle, the centurions were finally torn apart and broken, their isolated defenses overwhelmed by the warmages' coordinated assaults.

The fortress, stripped of its escort and badly damaged, made a final effort to reach the Silence tank. Its engine roared, and the treads scraped against the glassy earth, slowly pushing the heavy machine forward toward the center of the pool despite the hundreds of spells now splashing against its armor, demonstrating its monstrous resilience. But Yunius didn't seem determined to let it act as it pleased, and he descended to the forest floor, landing gracefully in front of the approaching machine.

The ground beneath his boots cracked slightly from the immense amount of mana he was channeling. He raised his staff, pointing the glowing tip straight at the center of the heavily armored hull. This time, Orion easily felt the mana pool's response, which supplied an enormous amount of mana for the Archmage to use, who then compressed it into a bolt of lightning.

As he unleashed it, Orion was yanked back into Pauline's shadows by the scruff of his lab coat, and even then, he felt his eyes burn from the sheer luminosity the spell emitted. Maybe calling it just a bolt of lightning doesn't do it justice. It would be like calling my [Gamma Ray] a ray of sunshine. Technically not wrong, but definitely not enough.