Chapter 258 - Ancient array (Patreon)

We rest for a while, and the power of our stats heals our bodies. In my case, it's mostly my passive skill doing the work, but it's good enough.

When we finally continue through the tunnels, I feel a bit different. Weirdly, I feel better, some of the tension leaving my body, and Myrra seems to be similar.

“Fuck, feral one, I didn’t expect you to kick at my crotch, twice. Do you have no manners?” Even her voice is a bit different from how she usually talks to me.

“Said someone who spit blood into my face,” I answer her.

“Feral One, I can bet with you that there would be humans willing to pay me to spit on them,” she says.

My steps stagger from surprise, and she notices that which makes her smile even more.

I mean, she is not wrong, but damn.

Thankfully another group of snapjaw ants appears, and I avoid reacting to that. Already used to fighting them, we move quickly, repositioning a lot and slowing them with Myrra’s ice and my [Redistribution].

Even with multiple Gravity ants and one Sentinel ant supporting them, we deal with them fairly quickly, yet another group tries to slow us down.

As always, I can feel my [Tether] far in front of us, meaning the black mana orb is most likely still bothering the leader of the Colony and severely damaging him or messing with his mana control.

Hopefully, it won't kill him in the end. I have a lot to pay back. I don’t care that I mostly got my ass kicked last time. This time I won’t rely on others. I won’t rely on healing or Sophie to slow him down, and I will fuck him up on my own.

Sure, Myrra will probably want to get in a few hits, but that’s something I can live with.

I have been too reliant on others for too long, which staggered my growth, and instead of trusting in myself, I relied on external help. From now on, I will be careful not to do that.

“He is moving again,” I tell Myrra.

Both of us speed up, and we run, killing the ants that pop up as quickly as possible and, in the process, reducing the distance. It takes another few hours for us to get even closer, and that’s when the first bigger group attacks us, hundreds of ants filling the tunnel, impossible to see through because of the number of bodies.

My yellow flames get blocked, and a constant barrage of ranged attacks forces us to create barriers to block it. Any attempt to create an anchor in the middle of them and send a bomb there gets disrupted.

Quickly, I create two javelins. One I infuse with disruptive mana and the other one with thermal energy. Both of them shoot quickly after each other, the former disrupting barriers and the latter causing an explosion in the middle of the group.

[You have defeated Warrior ant - lvl 168]

[You have defeated Disruptor ant - lvl 159]

[You have defeated Gravity ant - lvl 165]

[You have defeated Spellslinger ant - lvl 195]

[Lvl 205 > Lvl 206]

More attacks fly in, and Myrra’s flames envelop the tunnel, putting constant pressure on them. There aren't many Flame Legion ants, so I also add my flames to the mix, and slowly we burn through them all.

A burst of kinetic energy sends smoking bodies to the sides, and we continue to run, finally reaching a room that is bigger than any we have seen in a long time.

The room is shaped like a pillar, and its ceiling seems to be stretching on forever, and I can't even see where it ends. It's also as wide as a few football fields, something that's impossible to imagine normal humans being capable of doing.

But I don’t watch it in awe, nor do I spend more time checking the details. My eyes find that ant. The ant with a black matte carapace floats near the middle of the room, surrounded by thousands of ants and even more of them on the walls. The sheer amount of ants is hard to even count, yet I do not feel worried.

Their leader, the First One, just stands there; he does not attack, he does not use the mana of the Colony. No, there is a dagger stabbed into his body that reacted with [Tether] which made it impossible to remove from the body. The black dagger constantly pulling on the mana and, in a twisted way, keeping [Tether] running.

I feel Myrra tense next to me, her eyes also on the First One.

Armor surrounds my body, this time just of my size, and I boost my body with the kinetic energy I was collecting, flying right towards the First One.

Bursts of kinetic energy send ants that attack me away, and I disrupt hundreds of ranged attacks that reach me and even tank some or use anchors to avoid more.

Mana permeates my body, cycling, flowing like a hurricane, and my new trait activates.

Immediately, an overload of information attacks me, but I keep my eyes glued on the First One, only absentmindedly dodging attacks on me. I watch the waves of invisible mana flowing freely through the air, the ambient mana no one takes over and that permeates the world.

And the entire time the First One just stands there, his eyes watching every move of mine, and then an array under him activates with a push of mana from the ants. The amount is enormous, and it needs to be for him to get through the black mana orb absorbing some of it.

My attack passes through the air as the First One disappears, and I observe the mana swirling in the air; I do it with my eyes as it’s something I’m not even able to perceive currently. I watch waves of mana swirl, move, crash against each other, and then point in one direction.

Left without their leader, the remaining ants send once again most of their mana towards where the First One disappeared, and the ones that rely on physical stats attack us.

It takes just a bit of fighting, and we realize that most of the ants are weak. Most of the stronger ones died in Virelia or haven’t returned yet, and even the ones that returned through the array had to spend extreme amounts of mana or even sacrifice themselves to facilitate the transport. Plus, the entire time we didn’t see any mushrooms around in the past few days, a lack of food weakening them even further.

And now, the ones with mana spent most of it to allow the First One to disappear somewhere, giving him the last bits of it.

What follows next isn’t even a fight. The ants are weakened, drained of their vitality and mana to keep their progenitor alive, and no matter how many of them jump at us, they are barely a threat to me and Myrra.

Every time it looks dangerous, we escape into the tunnels where the amount of how many can attack us is reduced, and now there is barely anyone capable of destroying my anchors that pop up everywhere, and I keep sending my tricolored orbs through them, killing ants in the hundreds.

[Tether - lvl 24 > Tether - lvl 25]

[Tether - lvl 25 > Tether - lvl 26]

[Mana Domain - lvl 26 > Mana Domain- lvl 27]

[Lvl 206 > Lvl 207]

[Lvl 207 > Lvl 208]

[Lvl 208 > Lvl 209]

A few ants group and try suicidal attacks or endure to drain our mana as much as possible. They cooperate, create barriers, and counter our skills. They come up with ways to use skills against us, constantly changing frequencies.

My senses are at their peak, and I activate my new trait multiple times, but only for a few seconds to avoid a few dangerous situations.

The Colony is deadly, but not right now. Most of them are lower level and the rest are severely weakened, either sacrificed by the First One or having a need to protect him imbued in them.

Myrra’s Aurora glass allows her to teleport when needed, and she even uses it similarly to my anchors to send attacks through them. I even see her creating two mirrors of that glass, one to absorb the ants' attacks and the other one to send it back to them, but she rarely uses this move, as it seems to be costly and situational.

I dodge to the side, and a trapjaw ant passes by me, a blast of kinetic energy burrowing a hole in him. Immediately after, I duck under a projectile and move to the side to avoid another attack.

[Resonance] activates, and I shrug off an attempt to disrupt my armor, grabbing another ant by its leg, pulling it off, and sending it away with a kick.

I jump backward as the bus-sized one charges at me, and my flames burn his head, blinding him until a mana orb lodges into his head, where it expands and tears it apart.

Everywhere around are thin threads of concentrated mana, hard to detect and infused with [Resonance], causing every ant that charges into them to be cut apart by wire-like threads strong enough to cut them in half. I continue to do that, as it always takes them a few moments to detect and disrupt them, and meanwhile, they kill plenty of them while reducing the amount of attacks.

Another group uses ranged attacks against me, and I duck to reduce my size, creating a small barrier in front of me that I skew a bit so attacks slide to the side, instead of hitting it directly and requiring more mana to block.

I add an anchor to one of the javelins and shoot it at the ants that attacked me, and when it reaches them, I send a burst of thermal energy through it.

We fight for what feels like hours, and as if hypnotized, I get into a rhythm and keep taking mana from my reservoir.

It doesn't feel dangerous, and the weakened Colony without their leader or strong hitters is something more akin to a chore to deal with. Yet, I feel no pity and no hesitation. I kill every single ant I can see or sense. Each one of them could be one of the ones sending mana to the First One during that day, indirectly helping him to…

A combined attack of dozens of ants crashes against my chest armor and throws me flying through the room, crashing against the wall. Right after, more attacks bombard me as I lay there. They keep crashing against the [Regalia] infused with [Resonance], barely doing any damage other than wasting my mana.

I push my thoughts back to my mind, and putting my hands on my knees, I push myself back to my feet, using [Infusion] to send thermal energy through my armor, making it seem like embers are glowing under the surface.

More attacks hit me, and I boost my body right against them, burning them alive.

When every single ant is dead, we move towards the middle of the room, pushing all mangled, burned, frozen, cut bodies of ants to the side to see the floor.

Surrounded by all those corpses, plenty of them as big as a bus, we stare at the damaged array.

"You can fix it, right?" Myrra asks me.

"Yes, but it will take a moment; there are traps left behind, and some parts are really damaged."

After I say that, I immediately get to it, "Can you bring my bags from the tunnels? I have some stuff I might need in them."

Myrra nods, "Will do so."

I get to it, the array is more damaged than the one in the old mines, and I even have to redirect some inscriptions, as if using plasters to fix them instead of replacing them.

Once in a while, I activate Mana Wavelength Iris to work on them, and the trait, even though extremely taxing, helps a lot to speed up the process.

"Did you know that when you use your skill or what it is, a golden ring appears around your pupil? It's not too thick, and I can still see the color of your eyes, but around the black of your pupil, that golden circle appears," Myrra says out of nowhere.

I pause for a moment, "I see," I nod and continue.

I didn't realize it until now, but now it looks like when my trait is activated there is an effect to it. Similar to multiple people I meet who have eyes with mana circuits on them. Ruby and Obelia, for example, even Min-Jae's eye had some under the surface.

As I continue, my mana continues to replenish; I still have some left in my reservoir, and my body's mana over the hours I spend on the array also quickly replenishes.

Then, when I'm done, we sit there for a bit. Myrra takes out some food and water, and in a way we got so used to over days, we share food while exchanging a few words. We do not talk too much, to keep our minds sharp for what is to come.

When we finally feel ready, I activate the array, and Myrra steps in, both of us pulled and transported.

Appearing on the other side a strong wind hits us, strong enough to push even our strengthened bodies, and I absorb some force from it with [Redistribution].

A chilling cold immediately penetrates my body, but Myrra starts releasing heat around us, and I absorb more wind until we create a warm, quiet bubble around us.

Looking around, I realize that we are at the top of an extremely tall mountain battered by blizzards. The snow that falls barely allows us to see anywhere, and sending my senses to the area, I detect only more mountains and another array.

Gesturing to Myrra, I start walking, releasing a bit of absorbed kinetic energy to blow off the snow until we reach the cave that we enter.

Unlike the surroundings, there is no snow in the cave, and a few lights glow on the wall, most likely the work of the First One that passed by to activate another array, keeping the last bits of mana he received as he left.

This array is a bit different and seems to be much older than the ones I've seen before. The design is more robust and less efficient as if made by someone who didn't care how much mana it would take to activate. Someone with a high enough mana pool to ignore that.

The array is not damaged at all, the First One probably incapable of doing so.

As I send my senses to it, I start examining it and where it leads, something that I can partially do now thanks to my trait.

I follow the trail of mana, and when I see where it points and get an estimate of the distance it transports over, I almost feel like laughing.

The one-directional array in front of me heads to a place somewhere high above us. To a place in the orbit of the planet.

***

Next Chapter