As Eisen kept flying toward the Statue that was actively buckling under its own weight, he was trying to do his best to prevent destruction and death wherever he could, but it was tough. The best thing that he could do right now was reach Silber. The God of the Mountain's skin was practically peeling off.
Thousands of years of wind carrying dirt and sand had covered it in another layer of rock on top of the one that had appeared because of the curse. Due to those pieces of rock, though, it seemed like Silber wasn't falling to the ground yet, as though it was propping him up.
Of course, the curse wasn't disappearing right away in the first place. It seemed to be just slowly releasing. That meant that there was still time to think, even if not a lot. At the very least, Eisen could send a message to Kiron and the other Knights, informing them of what was going on so that they could act accordingly and guide the soldiers to help out with the evacuation.
As Eisen glanced to his right, he could see giant tree roots growing and spreading through the city like waves, covering the lower levels in a roof that would protect the people from the falling debree as they were escaping.
At the same time, the world was practically shifting around Xenia as she was using magic to lift whole city blocks into the air to move them outside of the confines of the capital. But Eisen couldn't do even nearly as much as they could. He golems that might be able to do something, but Eisen had to actively command each and every one of them, and he couldn't waste any time on that right now.
Instead, he would do what he should be taking care of right now.
He soon reached the God of the Mountain's face. Silber's eye was slowly opening, his pupils dilated and his sight hazy. Eisen flew over toward his ear, "Silber! Can you hear me?!"
Silber's mouth seemed to slowly open, the roots of the trees that had grown around his lips snapping immediately as though they were threads, while chunks of rock just fell to the ground. A loud groan poured out of Silber's mouth, but it didn't seem like he was able to say anything right now. However, Silber's eyes seemed to be getting their focus back.
They were slowly moving toward a specific location. Giant's Blood Plaza. Eisen turned toward there, narrowing his sight. He held his hand in front of his face, holding his index finger and thumb into a circle. They had an enchantment engraved into them so that they would act as a telescope. And then, the old man saw something that made his heart skip a beat.
"Ah... so that's it..." Eisen muttered. The massive arrow and the blood around it were also turning back to what they were before the curse. Due to its immense effect on Silber, it had affected other things around him as well. At first, Eisen thought that would mean that all of his blood, even if away from him, would turn into stone, and the arrow that was soaked in it would react similarly.
However, that wasn't it. While Eisen was right in his assumption, the blood dripping from the arrow wasn't Silber's. It was a muddy, dark green. A giant's blood was still red, and the same was the case for Silber despite his current form, Eisen was sure. That meant that it belonged to a monster.
Eisen moved his gaze upward. He was wrong all along. So, so wrong. The debree falling from the sky wasn't because the mountain was collapsing. The petrified creature was waking up too, and the layer of rock that had formed on its own skin was releasing as well.
The monster that allowed Silber to survive this long, by teaching him its ability. Or maybe, those strands never belonged to Silber in the first place. They could have belonged to this monster. Or it could have been a mixture of both, not that it mattered anymore.
This wasn't a mountain that was hollowed out.
It was the maw of a Mountain Gobbler, and Silber had been in the middle of a battle against it as the curse set in. Mountain Gobblers didn't get their name from feeding on mountains' energy from within. It came from the fact that they could grow to the size of mountains, and then simply devour them whole.
A size like this was absolutely ridiculous and unheard of, but now everything at least made sense.
Brody's expression went blank for a moment as his eyes turned into the back of his head, but that lasted for just a second. By the time Jyuuk had approached to catch Brody, the half-demon was laughing loud enough for Eisen to still hear him. It was obvious that Eisen had taught this move to Brody at some point.
And then, the old man got started on the pillar. Though, it wasn't really a pillar. He had already started spreading out his demonic domain onto Silber's body. Though more specifically, onto the layer of rock that had gathered on him.
His Demonic Spawn and duplicates appeared on the side of Silber, all accessing Eisen's magic in order to build up a solid barrier of Eisen's own stone on top of the existing 'Statue'.
And in the meantime, Eisen had opened his item storage, pulling out a large barrel. It was a spatial barrel, filled with a massive amount of mana potion. Not only that, it was highly compressed. He only had one of these in his item storage, and it was worth millions of gold, but he had to use it up here.
Eisen opened up the top and placed it against his mouth, letting the potion pour down his throat. His body was filled with massive amounts of mana, which he needed to keep up the 'recreation' of the God of the Mountain. But it wasn't fast enough. Eisen bit down on the barrel and kept letting the potion pour into him at a steady rate.
Meanwhile, he took out Bai and turned the ego-tool into a sharp chisel. He would usually be a lot more thorough and careful, but he didn't have the time to plan this out too much.
Eisen pulled off his royal armor and let it fall to the ground. He could recover it later. His suit was dealt with quickly as well as he just cut it off himself. And then, Eisen started carving into his thick rock skin. And deeply, as well. It had to be deep.
The enchantment would take hold better that way. He groaned loudly as he carved massive chunks off his skin. His elemental spirit had also appeared and started helping Eisen out, carving the enchantment onto his back where Eisen himself couldn't reach.
It took just a couple of minutes for the enchantment to be finished, and Eisen filled it out with magic-infused metal and some crystal, a specific mixture that maximized the flow of mana through them. And then, he activated the enchantment.
---
[You have created the <Mana Syphon...]
[...]
[...]
---
A number of system windows popped up in front of Eisen, but he just shoved them to the side. He had to concentrate. The amount of mana that had poured out from his body had increased many, many times over. Eisen let out a loud groan of pain as the mana completely tore apart his insides. The taste of copper filled his mouth, but this old man ignored it.
The replication of the God of the Mountain was contuing at a high speed. If both Silber and Eisen can hold out long enough, then they could save this city from ruin.