Chương 117: B2 Chapter 58: Multithreading Combat

Carlos double-checked his precautions yet again. Ten layered Force Bubbles surrounded him, with a contingent trigger to add a new layer inside for each outer layer that got broken, plus a Contingent Teleport to get the hell out if the number of intact layers ever drops to 5 or below. An Omnidirectional Vision spell gave him almost literal eyes in the back of his head, as well as his sides, and he was very glad that several of his soul structures were helping manage all the extra information.

He had also precast Haste, Flight, Temperature Ward, and assorted other utility and defensive spells. Amber, standing a few feet to his right, had her own set of Force Bubbles and contingent spells. They had decided that having the freedom and flexibility to act and dodge independently was probably more important than the additional concentration of power that tying their defenses together would gain, and he really hoped that was the right decision.

He did not want to find out how he could live with himself if something happened to Amber that adding his defenses to hers could have prevented. He was aware of four of his other minds nervously going over other details of the same overall concerns, and that really didn't help his anxiety, but he wanted his extra minds all ready to engage instantly when they teleported.

Even now, his body-mind—a term he'd come up with for the mind in charge of controlling his body, since splitting that among multiple minds tended to cause accidental interference, and calling any mind the "main" one felt wrong—was holding the Teleport ready and setting the destination coordinates as Lorvan provided them. A surge of concern and desire to help came from Purple, and Carlos responded with assurance that felt fake even as he tried to project it. There was no time to put anything meaningful into words.

An idea pulsed over the bond, and Carlos accepted immediately. A mix of mana, aether, and essence surged toward him and Amber, and their magical bonds with Purple broadened. Or perhaps deepened might be a more accurate word? Carlos mentally shook his head. This was not the time to think about such trivialities as the best word to describe what Purple had just done.

Wordless indignation and disappointment surged from Kindar for perhaps the dozenth time, but Carlos wasn't about to risk the boy on a battlefield where even the Crown was in danger. He might have tried to leave Lorvan and Ordens behind, too, but serving the Crown regardless of the risk was literally their job, and they were determined to fulfil their duties to the fullest. This wasn't the time to think about those matters, either, and Carlos firmly blocked out Kindar for now and refocused his attention.

He cast the Teleport. It was by far the longest-range one he'd ever done, but now at Level 50 the amount of mana required was minor, despite the distance. Amber stood to his right, with Lorvan and Ordens in front of them and facing the same direction to hopefully identify them instantly to the royals as allies. A web of essence and mana wrapped around all four of them, and reality flickered. Sparse clouds above vanished, replaced by clear blue sky.

Trees and greenery of all kinds blinked out, replaced by endless plains of desolate rock, gravel, and scattered patches of the hardiest weeds. The air felt thick, full of a hostile weave of mana, essence, and aether that felt like an especially ornery dungeon's domain. Royal strength flared and clashed perhaps half a mile away, but none of their attacks were aimed in Carlos's direction.

His minds that had been dithering about his worries a moment before instantly snapped to their tasks, taking in all of the surroundings and relievingly concluding there was no immediate danger to them. Carlos's body-mind took the task of focusing on what was directly in front of him. Lorvan and Ordens, seeing that they were not immediately embattled on arrival, snapped off a quick salute.

In front of them were four more royal guards, clearly more for formality and show than protection, with Princess Lornera in the center. Carlos thought he felt a thin crack in the steel solidity of her soul, but it was such a faint impression that he couldn't be sure. The royal guard at Lornera's right hand barked out a query.

"Colonel, who are these nobles, and why did you bring them?" Lornera preempted Lorvan before he could respond.

"I know them, general. Good question on why, however; this battle is no place for ordinary nobles, regardless of rank, and especially not newly raised. Why are you here, Lord Carlos and Lady Amber?" In silent answer, Carlos and Amber simply dropped the disguises on their souls. Lornera's eyebrows shot up and her jaw dropped open. She stared in shocked consternation for a moment, but recovered from the surprise in barely half a second.

"I see. You actually could be significantly helpful." She glanced toward the ongoing battle, then looked each of them squarely in the eyes.

"Even so, this is beyond your Level, and both sides here are aiming for soul-kills. Are you sure about taking that risk?" A sound like a crash of thunder rolled over the whole group, accompanied by a strong gust of wind, and Carlos held back a wince. He looked at the source of the noise and nodded firmly.

"As sure as I can be, at least. We owe the Crown for keeping us safe as we grew, and we're prepared for a hard fight. What can you tell us about the enemy, there? And can you let, um… Let the Crown know we're on your side?" Lornera nodded.

"That's Supreme Enchanter Nyralis. He has an immense hoard of enchanted items. Standard mage stuff, plus spiked force barriers, teleport-dodging, and beams of light that strike instantly and attack both body and soul. Beyond that, your own observations will be more useful than mine. As for letting my father know…" She turned toward the battle and yelled something very short and garbled. It was rather high-pitched, too, kind of like an extremely sped-up recording. Wait, no, that's exactly what it is, isn't it?

Except not a recording. Carlos considered the phenomenon while another of his minds directed his Flight spell to lift him off the ground and toward the fight. His analysis superstructure held a snapshot of the garbled yell in perfect clarity, and he reviewed the memory, trying to slow it down in his mental playback to make it easier to understand. Wait, no, that's a bad way to approach this. I should try to speed up my mind and perceptions instead.

That way, it will help with understanding new events as they happen, not just in hindsight. If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Haste was a common spell, a mainstay of mage buffs for nearly any role, and he already had it active, but it primarily affected physical speed of the body.

Even with his buff-connecting superstructure amplifying the spell's effectiveness to the equivalent of a dedicated soul structure, it barely affected his ability to perceive the shout's details. What little help it did give came from its improvement to reaction speed.

That thought gave him an idea, though: He had soul structures oriented toward improving his reflexes and ability to respond appropriately to things in various ways, and speeding up his mind and perception of time was a good method to achieve such effects.

Between his mind, perception, and analysis superstructures, he had three superstructures that were all directly applicable to the task, his soul-themed superstructure applied indirectly to help coordinate them all, and he could probably get most or even all of the rest involved with some creative thinking for synergies. Carlos's soul editor and optimizer turned his intent into action, and he reviewed the memory of the high-speed yell again.

He played back the snapshot in his mind at its original speed, and everything seemed to slow down dramatically as he focused attention on deciphering the words it contained. He could tell it was definitely speech now, but the words still came too fast to understand.

He pushed harder at the concept, fed extra mana into the effort to empower it, and especially focused on how enhanced speed of thought could tie into everything he might ever do with spells—even designing spells, as well as casting them, could be done faster this way. While one of his minds was occupied with that, another considered the capabilities Lornera had warned them about.

The most immediately concerning thing was the light beam attack spell, especially since he wasn't certain whether a standard Force Barrier would block it. That defensive effect was normally transparent, and dangerously intense light might just go right through it. On the other hand, any mana infused in the beam would almost certainly be blocked as a magical attack. Perhaps a lens shaped to deflect light from that direction might help?

He thought the idea was at least worth a try and slapped together a spell for it, hastily bastardized from a combination of effects that he was fairly sure were meant for making magical telescopes and microscopes. He shared the spell's design with Amber, and she copied it. Meanwhile, Carlos's body-mind struggled to fly through the thickened air. His frustration with the nuisance barely had a moment to build before Purple responded, however.

The distant dungeon core reached through their newly-strengthened bond and poured forth a torrent of dungeon power. Threads of essence flowed out, bearing mana for fuel and weaving themselves to permeate the environmental aether, and Purple's strength clashed with the hostile presence. [Focus your efforts on the human enemy. I will deal with the dungeon, in the manner that only another dungeon can.] The mana and essence in the air resisted for a moment longer, then yielded reluctantly.

The hostile dungeon was higher-Level, but it could not match Purple's royal-grade soul plan, and its efforts were far less focused. The feeling of wading through soup broke, and Carlos and Amber both suddenly surged forward. They both adjusted quickly to the removal of the obstacle, flying erratically but swiftly toward the conflict. Nyralis glanced in their direction and opened his mouth, and Carlos quickly put a scrying sensor in range to listen.

"–hid another two royals in your pocket, Elston? I didn't think you were that sneaky. And with a different soul plan, likely mage types? Intriguing!"

"Mind your defense, enchanter," Elston growled out as he swept his arms through the air. Two crossed arcs of force flew through the air, joined by similar crossed arcs from Patrimmon and Brenelle that bracketed Nyralis from three directions. Nyralis abruptly repositioned, teleporting a short distance to one side, out of the paths of all six attacks, only to find six more already converging on him.

He teleported again, and this time, his arrival was met by six physical blades as the Kalor combatants charged unbelievably fast. Brenelle stabbed down at his head from above with both armblades, Patrimmon stabbed up from below, and Elston slashed with one armblade from each side. All six blades slammed into a barrier so strong that it made Carlos's senses ache, and he felt a thunderous collision of essence echo into the surrounding area.

Elston seemed to be trying to take hold of Nyralis's Force Bubble and physically crush it. The surface of the bubble rippled, but not from strain. Spikes emerged and stabbed outward, most of them at Elston, but a few also flew at Brenelle and Patrimmon. Nyralis grinned smugly.

"You know, Elston, you're so much easier to hit when you anchor yourself to my position like that." Elston continued squeezing, and his scions hammered opposite sides of the spherical barrier repeatedly, but Nyralis showed no sign of strain. Spikes of force continued stabbing out from the bubble, and some of them even tried to dig sharp-tipped hooks into Elston's flesh and soul. He rebuffed every hit, but Carlos felt Elston's mana exerting itself in the effort.

The king's soul was still incredibly potent, but it felt drained. Carlos wasn't sure just how much Elston's reserves were depleted, but it was definitely substantial. A drill-like spell slammed into Nyralis's barrier from Amber. It was a special-purpose custom-designed dispel, created to demolish critical structural elements of the Force Barrier spell. It caused a few ripples, then its power was spent. Nyralis was just too far above their Level for any conventional tactic to work, even with royal souls.

While the spell failed to break Nyralis's defense, it did get his attention. He glared at Amber, then sent an angry look at Carlos as well.

"Do you two idiots want me to swat you like the flies you are?" His Force Barrier pulsed and shoved Elston back, and he quickly aimed two wands, one at Amber and one at Carlos. Beams of golden light appeared, hitting their targets at the speed of light. Three of Carlos's layered Force Bubbles shattered instantly, but they held back the mana of the spell just enough to keep it from interfering with his hacked-together Lens Deflection, and the light bent to one side.

Two new layers appeared inside, just before the light beam's mana smashed through another two of the outer layers. Thankfully, the light spell's mana followed the path of its light, flying off into the distant sky. A hurried check found that Amber had fared similarly. Both of their Force Bubbles rebuilt themselves in moments, but that didn't feel nearly as reassuring as Carlos would have liked. Elston announced his displeasure with another attack, this time a strong double thrust.

"Don't think you can ignore the Crown, enchanter!" Carlos pulled back a little, thinking furiously. We're not high-Level enough for conventional tactics to work against Nyralis, even with Elston and the rest occupying his attention. Even a specialized spellbreaker spell didn't work. Crashing the local system would technically work to beat him, but that's a last resort—and doubly so after what the dragon said about it. What other options can we try? His thoughts raced, and everything seemed to slow down.

Another thought came to mind, seizing his curiosity regardless of relevance. And how is Nyralis this strong? Sure, he's loaded with items, but that doesn't explain how he has a full set of Tier 10 soul structures. At the same time, another of his minds was gleefully reviewing the decompiled-and-transpiled code of Nyralis's Golden Beam spell.