V4C92: The Constructor Orb

The second day of the battle began, and only Wei Yi was able to stay fully awake. The rest were beginning to get tired due to the constant exhaustion of planar energy and their physical stamina, and even the contributions of the earth vein beneath the ground was unable to assist their mental state after a certain point. It was almost bad enough to force them to pull out of the battle, except that there were two things on their side.

Obviously, the first was that the power of the earth vein beneath the ground did not appear to be reliant on Wei Yi to continue functioning the moment that the energy was rerouted to other purposes, and so the whole length of the wall now got to enjoy a line of over a hundred railguns floating above it, constantly firing in the direction of the approaching forces with spheres of energy also provided by the earth vein. It was inferior to what the Ascendant could do with the same number of railguns, and it was unable to aim at the enemies even as poorly as the automatons aimed, but it was fast, consistent, and completely free from human interaction. It was also enough to take down the weaker shields, so it didn’t matter much.

While this was good, it was nowhere near as exciting for them as the fact that the tide was slowly decreasing in quantity. At first, there had been an endless number of automatons in the distance, but now they looked to have finally hit the limit of the forces that had been prepared prior to the invasion.

All of the new troops were still of the same quality, type and construction as the ones that came before them, but when they only needed to face a tenth of the number consistently, the challenge was suddenly greatly reduced. As they were also improving with their theft of the principles and weapons used by the enemy, as well as figuring out the exact ways in which the minimal thought of the automatons functioned, they were able to continue fighting with their full strength the whole way through the night, reaching the morning with great excitement.

Due to some of the automatons simply being dismantled rather than blown up by various means, Wei Yi had been able to obtain quite a few pieces of the weaponry utilised by the automatons.

The plasma cannons required something from the energy core via a connection that wasn’t easily removed from the automatons without taking up far more time than she had, but the minigun and railgun alike were easy enough to rip away from the robots and still make use of them in an effective manner. As a result, after she made more of an effort to remove these things without obliterating the energy entirely, as well as manufacturing some of the spare automaton bodies into the less plentiful of the two, and eventually had a number of railguns and miniguns that were still capable of firing without much difficulty or significant requirements on the part of the wielder.

In other words, she could give the weapons to a bunch of people in the third realm, link them up to the earth vein to power the weaponry and provide some of the necessary ammunition, and she would have an army on par with the automatons in terms of their offensive potential, and possibly more depending on their cohesion and tactics.

As if that wasn’t enough for them, she also had a bunch of extra anchor energy points – which had to have exceeded the thousand mark by now in terms of the first day’s acquisitions – to shove into a technique. While that didn’t sound quite as appropriate as it should, given that techniques were an advanced thing involving the very concept of reality, it was essentially throwing in anchor energy to advance a concept that she already understood well enough, and bringing it to a new level that she would have needed to develop to for a long time had she tried to do it normally.

As Obliteration had reached the peak already, and since the Dao of Obliteration would need quite a bit more energy to be developed to any reasonable extent, she did not invest into that. It would have also been quite worrying to see everything in the world according to how it could be destroyed, so she did decide to avoid endangering her sanity unless it was absolutely necessary, due to having experienced the Eldritch Dao.

She ended up going with the Railgun Obliteration technique, a more intentional combination of the Railgun Bolt and Obliteration than her first use of the former with the Dao of the latter. It was an incredibly powerful technique, and certain to prove to be even more effective against more ordinary foes of the Planar Continents, such as the Great Families and the Patriarchs of the districts that chose not to side with the Ascendant’s Arbiters, so it was not a waste to invest into it. The only real issue was that it was partially based on something that she only imitated, not fully understood, and so it took far more anchor energy to make up for the gaps in her understanding and bring it forward to a new stage after stage.

That did not stop it from reaching the Thirteenth Stage by the time of the action, but that was a given with how much energy she was practically gobbling up.

“What is this? How can the world’s energy change this much with every breath that we take?” an alchemist in a dark building questioned, looking with a panicked expression at the work that he had failed once again, “This shouldn’t be possible!”

“You’ve heard word of the Ascendant, did you not? Perhaps she truly is working against the Greats all of the time,” another suggested, raising his head as a wave of energy seemed to pass by them once more, “Look, it is happening yet again. We’ve also been able to observe the scenes of a battle occurring in the vicinity of the Ping District, so it is likely that there is some truth to what we’ve heard. Perhaps that is the scene of a battle against them at this very moment.”

Together, they looked out of the only window in the building, and pondered the truth.

Further away from them, a woman with blond hair was standing by, her muscular arms folded beside her minimal che-

“Oi, don’t take this opportunity to break the fourth wall. We’re on a very important mission, aren’t we?” she looked to the side, her eyes containing a strange light that did not seem to belong within them, “Well, Ruon?”

“I don’t know why you chose to speak to me in this fashion. You know that Lily is far more keen to act in a distracting fashion… and is also more likely to mention that part of your body,” another woman suddenly appeared beside her, blowing a strand of white hair with a black tip away from her face while speaking in a cold voice, “She is also far more prone to breaking any of the seventeen walls.”

“Seventeen? I remember the first twelve on her list, but not the last five. What are they?”

“As you know, the twelfth is an intentional joke about the third wall, so the thirteenth is some kind of convoluted pun about the number in Antanian culture combined with something she saw when looking out in the void, as she does every now and then. The fourteenth-”

The numbers were clearing up, but there was something in the distance that provoked Wei Yi’s intuition, prompting her to set up a few more of the railguns formed from her own energy for defensive purposes. With her guidance, they were actually able to aim at the enemies consistently, so if there was about to be a resurgence in the number of automatons flooding in their direction, these would be able to deal with a small number of them before they had the chance to come to the front lines and become a bother to them.

For some time, nothing came, but that intuitive sense did not weaken, and neither did her caution.

“Wait, everyone, can you hear- no, you can’t, but can you see that the approaching army has had a strange delay to it?”

“Delay?” Jia Rong, the one closest to her, asked as she glanced into the distance, looking at the wave with furrowed brows, “I don’t really see anything in terms of a delay, but the energy around them is slightly different, I think. There are even fewer of the particles that I usually see being repulsed, and it almost looks like they’re being affected by something else.”

“I see something like that too. Can you get some distance from me? If an attack on me is coming, it would be best if you did not get caught in the range of whatever explosion the automatons manage to produce,” Wei Yi warned, “Apparently, the other worlds have something called nuclear energy, and-”

She stopped and looked back in the direction of the tide, clearly seeing an orange light that surpassed all of the enormous automatons they had been dealing with prior to this, including the one colossus and weapons platform that they had managed to dissuade from attacking them just yet (by flooding it with so many attacks that it had little choice but to step back and attempt to recover). It was also travelling in an irregular manner, moving neither like something with legs of the infantry and walkers might bob, nor simply sliding along as if on the treads of the tanks, but it instead looked to glide over the terrain in a strange manner.

In addition, while the light of the other automatons was consistent and clear, this one occasionally flickered and shifted in brightness in various spots.

Only once it came into the one kilometre range of her spiritual perception, and her eyesight as well thanks to the very particular landscape of the battlefield that they had chosen for themselves, was she able to confirm what exactly it was supposed to be, and the answer was simultaneously surprising and very much to be expected from the automaton army.

Just as she thought, the new foe was not travelling via legs or treads, but was instead making its way over through outright levitation, hovering two metres above the ground at all times if the shield was to be included, meaning that every small bump would slightly affect its overall position. Extending quite far all around it, a dense orange shield covered it at all times, containing within it a sphere of black metal that was at least ten metres in diameter, and a vast quantity of metal pieces and chunks that simply orbited it in a chaotic manner, strangely avoiding collision despite that. The point of these items was not immediately obvious, but the guns on its body certainly were.

They were embedded right into the spherical body, looking far more sleek than the other automatons, and looked to amount to four weapons in total, so long as there was no new weaponry to identify, which could raise the number to nine or more.

All eight of the obvious weapons were plasma cannons, and did not look to be much more powerful than the large plasma cannon of the centaur, but the ninth was in the middle of the front, looking almost like a large orange eye staring upon the world. It did not look too different from the eyes of the other automatons, but the internal structure was very different and there were also a number of eyes all around its body that should prevent the need for such a blatant spot to bring the attention of its foes to. Hence, it was either a weapon, or some kind of tactical decision on the part of the creators.

“I’ll try to engage it. Jia Rong, stay at the back and watch out for the two big ones that had come out before this,” the Ascendant instructed, rushing off right away.

The orb was moving more slowly than some of the other automatons, and as both of them got closer to one another, it became more obvious that it wasn’t moving directly towards the fortress walls or the vague direction of the district some distance behind them, as the rest of them were. Instead, it was heading towards some of the automatons that had been disabled by shots of the stationary railguns above the walls, those that still had some structural integrity and did not yet have their energy cores removed from their bodies. Whatever it was up to, she did not wish to give it the opportunity to do too much of it and sped up.

Even then, a moment before she could get within a proper distance of it to do much, the orb enveloped one of the broken automatons within its orange shield and looked straight at it with the one enormous eye.

A dozen soft threads reached out, wrapping around the automaton infantry while the whole thing was surrounded by the light from the eye, as well as a number of metal pieces that floated over despite their original trajectory around the orb. Some more threads moved out of the eye and grabbed onto those pieces, the metal suddenly shifting as if it was made of liquid.

In moments, the metal was transformed into the head and part of the left arm of the broken automaton, the edges fitting perfectly onto the torn and shattered portions of the automaton floating a short distance above the ground. Some more threads bound the new pieces onto the old, and then the infantry automaton was lowered to the ground and brought out of the shield of the orb, which turned up and locked eyes – or its one eye, rather – with Wei Yi, staring at her for a few breaths. Then, it moved back by a few steps and released a loud noise.

She couldn’t tell whether it was the sound of alarm or some kind of exclamation, but what was very plain was that all of the surrounding automatons suddenly turned their attention towards her.

‘So they did get something to direct the army… I have to wonder whether it was made recently, or if it just took a while to emerge from the Ju District,’ Wei Yi thought, producing a series of Railgun Obliteration rails around herself and aiming all of them at the sphere.

All of them were manifested and charged in mere moments, the bolts shooting out at the same time and at the area of the same hexagonal portion of the shield, except that the sphere did not appear to have the same type of barrier as the rest of them did. Instead, it was one large, flexible sphere, mimicking the automaton itself, and when her explosive bolts hit the barrier, they caused enormous ripples within the surface.

Even with the immediate Obliteration energy explosions, the orange obstruction was not destroyed, giving the orb a chance to charge its many weapons.

Just as she launched all of her attacks at once, so did the automaton, resulting in eight spheres of orange plasma flying at her with far more intelligence put into their direction than before, as one headed for her current position and the others locked down the seven viable directions in which she could dodge. This even took into account her typical movement speed that had been displayed while approaching the automaton, which was far more than could be said for the previous attempts of even the weapons platform automaton.

Despite that, it was still a little lacking in her eyes.

“Accelerate!” she exclaimed, this time pulling upon the earth vein beneath her in order to supplement some of the energy consumption from the Command of Law with that of the world itself. If the heavens had a problem, they could just figure out the Full Success Stage of the Dao of Law.

All of the incoming projectiles greatly sped up the moment that the effect of her voice reached them, flying past her in a single breath. The one that would have hit her directly also passed by, as it had intended to hit the place she would have been had she continued moving in a certain direction for a second longer than she had been given the chance to do so thanks to the acceleration.

The automaton was also affected to a small degree, and it chose to create some distance between the two of them and lock onto another broken automaton to begin performing repairs. Perhaps it thought that it would take her out, or maybe it concluded that it would be unable to defeat her on its own, but either way, it displayed far more intellect than the previous enemies, which had all continued attacking regardless of how far away she got from them, leading to them easily being caught by some of the blasts from the top of the wall.

‘Hm. I think that I need a little more firepower to take it down quickly – pretty sure that’s an otherworldly term, which is highly appropriate – so returning to the walls first would be wise. However, the plasma cannons… I think it is possible to replicate them with the earth vein, despite what I had initially concluded,’ Wei Yi thought as she used her fourth realm movement method to appear back on the high wall.

The others had been observing the situation, and so the moment that she appeared, Miyu had something to say.

“It’s called a constructor orb!” she exclaimed.

“Thanks, I guessed that already. Does it have the ability to build anything new, or- ah. I guess that it does,” she cut herself off as she saw the flying orb stop in an empty part of the battlefield and assemble some of the metal pieces floating around itself into an elite infantry, “Luckily, it appears to be limited to weaker types of automatons, so it shouldn’t be too great of a risk to keep it alive, not that we should do that. What I would like to do is understand is the shielding method, as it seems like an incredibly powerful one to adopt for ourselves, and the principles of the plasma cannons that these things use. The one on the constructor orb is different, so it may be that they are easier to copy.”

“Is that so? I cannot say that I understand any of this, so I will keep maintaining the walls with what little energy I have,” the Jiang Patriarch said, “Also, I would advise that you speak with the Lan District’s leader when you have the time.”

“’Course, just not now. This is not at all the time, and I am sure that you understand.”

“Of course.”

“Should we go out and put some pressure on it and the things it is assembling?” the Chao Patriarch said.

“Go ahead. I can perceive most of the details about the constructor orb from here, so as long as you don’t bring it outside of the range of my spiritual perception, there won’t be any issues. Now, Luo Na, tell me, have you ever practised making talismans with your own blood?”

“… Can’t say that I have, I’m afraid.”

“Alright then, knowledge infusion, go!”

Wei Yi sent a diluted form of the Bloodline Character Arts into the mind of the Luo Matriarch, one that would be usable with one’s own blood even without an active bloodline and without the madness that was the current cosmic energy, or the Ascendant’s Bloodline. Even then, it was an incredibly long technique, featuring countless deductions and insights on the matter of talismans and blood, so it was not something that she could easily push into someone else’s mind in an instant.

This was especially true due to the current state of the defenders of the wall, which essentially acted to greatly increase the mental strain of every little task that they might undertake.

Hence, Luo Na reacted with the expected gritting of teeth and the obvious mental struggle occurring inside of her head. It took almost a whole minute of real time for her to finally be able to open her eyes and look upon the complex world around her, and although the fatigue that had previously been present looked to have been multiplied a thousand fold, there was also a new glimmer in her gaze.

“That is amazing… you have either spent far too much time developing this, or you have the mind of someone many times as old as you are. What kind of insights did you need to develop this kind of technique?”

“Bleeding a bunch, mostly. In fact, that is how I develop most of my techniques, so stop looking at me as if what you are thinking is even possible for me. Non-functioning female reproductive system and all that… Ahem, so, as I was saying, attempt to incorporate that into your own creations and we should be able to empower the defences further without needing to change any fundamental designs, giving me more room to act out against the various approaching threats without worrying about my own planar energy supply,” the Ascendant said, pausing for breath, “Anyway, that does not concern the rest of you. How has your work on the various railgun methods gone so far?”

While Luo Na nodded and proceeded to work on integrating the Bloodline Character Arts into her own talisman creation methods, the Ping Patriarch said, “Given the situation that we’d been left with in the Ping District, I have actually had a few thoughts on the matter. I think that it might be possible to make the railgun more efficient if we…”

“Don’t you worry, the seventeenth wall remains unbroken. That woman’s certainly not helping it with her quasars, though.”

“Right, I am sure that makes sense to you… actually, I’m not even certain about that…”

“No, I am sure it does. Just wait for another few million years, and she will reveal the many layers of the plan that she had been working on since she first revealed the fact that she is very fond of acting like a fool for personal gain.”

“You’re meant to be the sensible one, aren’t you, Ruon? You are sounding more and more like a conspiracy nut with every word you speak.”

“Again, no, I do not. Listen to the lack of emotion in my voice. There is no passion that would be found in the words of those that have a genuine interest in conspiracy theories, although I do not blame you for misunderstanding me.”

“This is what you’re going to be doing in the abyss between worlds? Discussing tones of voice?”

“Yes, Lily, that is what we will do. It is entirely your fault,” Ruon stated.

“Not going to mention that tide in the distance?” the woman with one eye covered by hair asked, pointing out into the black abyss of space.

“No.”

“Alright then.”

“Is the technique finally ready?” the Chao Patriarch asked, his robes torn, and his body bruised and bleeding. He had been fighting against the constructor orb for some time, and so his energy was at the brink of being entirely exhausted.

Fortunately for him, Wei Yi was indeed in the perfect stage to enter and take over, and she did so with a thousand rails floating above her, all of them aiming at the constructor orb, which was actively building up a number of automatons as she approached. Unlike before, the rails were not separate for every single bolt that she was going to use, but instead they were paired together, connecting four rails together to fire four bolts each, resulting in a vast number of bolts all being projected by the grid of rails.

It was incredibly powerful in appearance alone, and the sheer fluctuations of energy caused by the combined resonance of those rails prompted everyone near them to back away.

After a lot of thought, there turned out to be no better method to enhance her own power than to go beyond the current numbers and break every boundary possible to attain something so absolutely destructive that the shield of the constructor orb would have no chance whatsoever to endure it. The previous attacks had clearly had some effectiveness, so multiplying them until they worked would work well enough regardless of the nature of the shield.

Obviously, the fact that she had gained some understanding of the shield and how it worked was also responsible for her decision, as she was able to confirm that the hexagonal and spherical barriers alike were making use of a plain yet powerful principle of defence. With the plentiful energy within energy cores, the shields actively repulsed anything that attempted to breach them from one side, making use of the individual points of the shield – either hexagons or the particles that composed the constructor orb’s shields – to support one another like the bricks in an arch might keep each other standing regardless of the significant weight put on the top of the arch.

This could be utilised in many places, but it would take a little time to optimise it in such a fashion that it would be useful without requiring one’s full attention to be devoted to the defensive technique, as the current one did require a lot of focus to maintain.

That was one additional benefit of the automatons and other entities without an ordinary mind when compared to cultivators. Whereas a cultivator either needed to create a flow of energy that would accomplish what they wanted, or maintain their technique via their own mental energy to prevent it from acting against what they wished of it, the automatons were able to make use of some internal structure to simply keep that functioning regardless of their other actions. If she was to make use of the Red Phantom Flood and properly split her mind into several pieces with it, that might be possible for her as well, but it seemed extremely dangerous to allow herself to become multiple people within one body, as the inevitable differences in decision making and opinion would be bound to lead to her downfall.

Back to the more immediate matter, she brought those rails closer to the orb, then, using the power of the earth vein to supplement their charging, she allowed the many rails to reach their absolute peak.

As she did so, the orb was not firing, instead taking advantage of the many pieces of metal around it and on the ground to assemble a larger structure in front of it. The automaton’s design looked to resemble that of the colossus, except that its legs were not yet as long, causing some to become rather worried, but just as it was becoming sufficiently complete, the rails were ready.

In one go, several hundred bolts were fired in perfect synchronicity, the sheer kinetic force produced by them instantly scattering the rail grid due to the pressure put upon them. Fortunately, this happened only once the bolts were fired, and so the bolts successfully left the so-called barrel and, before even Wei Yi was properly aware of it, they hit the spherical shield that was extended further out to give room for the colossus.

The shield was breached in an instant, the many bursts of blackened red scorching the sand and turning it to glass, while the bolts continued and travelled right through the colossus shell.

They fell upon the constructor orb and pierced it, lodging themselves somewhere deep within the spherical body of the automaton. For a moment, it was as if the Obliteration energy explosion had been nullified somewhere else, but then it finally exploded, the sheer might of the detonation completely shattering the body of the constructor orb and sending all of its pieces, both the internal ones and those that had been floating on the outside, out throughout the desert, with some flying far further than they really should have done after any kind of explosion caused by mortal hands.

“Aside from the damage to the ears, it looks to have worked. Everyone, if you are still able to hear me, that is, the orb is broken and victory is, for the moment, ours! We shall upon the armies of our districts and take the fight to the Ju District, and make sure that they understand the consequences of waging war with the Ascendant’s Arbiters!”