Chapter 369 - 358: What Can Dispel Sorrow
Chapter 369: Chapter 358: What Can Dispel Sorrow
"Gabriel, deactivate hibernation."
The moment the command was given, a dazzling light erupted from the depths of Cybertron.
BOOM!
A 24-meter-tall white colossus flew out.
Beneath the murky yellow sky, eight translucent golden wings of light boomed open, like a holy sword rending the dead silence as it stabbed toward the distant, lead-gray clouds.
In the distance, seventeen red dots rampaged through the ruins.
They looked like a pack of grotesque, stitched-together abominations.
Rotting flesh and twisted skeletons were tangled together. Dark red, aberrant Magic Power pulsed across their bodies like blood vessels, granting the monsters an extremely tenacious life force.
The leader was over 30 meters long, resembling a giant, three-headed lizard. With each step it took, a muffled tremor shook the ground.
[Analysis: These are likely modified Magical Beasts that died on the battlefield and were mutated into undead by Magic Power radiation.]
[Total: seventeen. The leader-class individual’s Magic Power fluctuations are hovering around the threshold of a Second-level Wizard. They were awakened by the commotion from our recovery operation.]
’Undead spirits from the war decades ago?’
"Waking the dead... I suppose that’s my fault."
Allen leaned back in his chair, lacing his fingers together. "So, let’s grant them their final rest."
Gabriel hovered in mid-air.
[Form One: Eight-winged Judgment]
The eight golden wings instantly fanned out, transforming into eight homing blades. The blades left trails of light in the air as they locked onto the sixteen smaller undead Magical Beasts behind the leader.
SHINK! SHINK!
It was over in an instant. The high-frequency vibrating blades sliced through the undead Magical Beasts as if they were cutting tofu.
As they ran, the sixteen monsters disintegrated into a shower of scattered remains.
Only the three-headed lizard was left.
It raised its heads, and all three of its giant maws simultaneously spewed corrosive black breath straight at Gabriel in the sky.
[Activating defenses.]
Gabriel didn’t dodge or evade. Three overlapping layers of Runes on its surface lit up, and an enhanced AT Field formed in an instant.
The breath slammed into the invisible barrier, deflecting to all sides like waves, not even touching Gabriel’s white porcelain armor.
"Witchcraft suppression."
Gabriel raised its arms horizontally, its incantation core operating at full speed.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Several enhanced [Magic Energy Bursts] slammed into the ground like super thermobaric bombs, and the massive explosions instantly engulfed the giant lizard.
When the smoke and dust cleared, the giant lizard’s flesh was torn open, exposing large sections of its skeleton. But an ominous black Magic Power surged wildly within it, and the wounds began to shrink at a rate visible to the naked eye.
Stimulated by the Magic Power, its energy level even briefly broke the 6,000 mark.
"Impressive resilience. A pity I’m in a hurry." Allen glanced at the progress bar for the battlefield recovery.
"Gabriel, Form Two."
In mid-air, the eight blades flew back, rapidly weaving and re-forming in front of Gabriel.
A 16-meter-long golden spear materialized. The Runes of a seven-fold chain incantation lit up one by one.
Gabriel drew one arm back, its body arching into a perfect curve.
Hurl!
The [Holy Lance: Longinus] became a streak of golden light that pierced the heavens.
The giant lizard seemed to sense the mortal threat. Its three heads frantically gathered Magic Power, trying to resist.
Too late.
The spear instantly pierced through the giant lizard’s central head, pinning it firmly to the ground.
Immediately after, the seven-fold incantation detonated inside its body. Paralysis, scorching, freezing, shattering... followed by a violent Magic Power detonation.
BOOM—!
A massive explosion rang out, and the giant lizard, along with a hundred-meter radius of ruins, was completely obliterated.
[Target eliminated. Time elapsed: seven minutes, forty-two seconds.]
Allen turned and walked toward the warehouse. "Clean it up. Get back to work."
...
「Day Three.」
The cleanup operation had progressed to the midpoint of the battlefield.
[Warning. Three anomalous Magic Power environments detected ahead.]
Jarvis zoomed in on a section of the sand table. Three areas were flashing with an eerie purple light.
"What’s the situation?"
[The lingering effects of multiple High-tier Magic spells are interfering with each other in this location, creating extremely unstable Magic Power zones. Factory Servants entering these zones will be disrupted and shut down.]
Allen brought up the feed from the Demon Eye.
The space in that area was distorted with a ripple-like effect. Arcs of electricity and plumes of mist would periodically appear out of thin air, only to vanish again.
’Go around it?’
’No. Beneath those areas are the wrecks of two Floating Battleships. A rough estimate puts it at over ten thousand tons of high-purity Black Patterned Magic Steel.’
’That’s all money.’
"The traditional method of removal is to find a few Witchcraft masters and have them spend days painstakingly untangling the chaotic web of Magic Power nodes."
Allen stroked his chin. "But I don’t have time for that."
He stood up and walked out of the workshop.
"It’s all a pile of junk anyway. Let’s just brute-force it."
He closed his eyes, his Spiritual Power extending like tentacles.
[Energy Dominion Skill] activated.
Inside the Cybertron Workshop, the five Earth Vein Magic Furnaces let out a deafening, simultaneous roar. Thirty percent of their immense Magic Power was instantly siphoned away, crossing space to converge within Allen’s body.
He opened his eyes, a deep blue storm of Magic Power reflected in his pupils.
[Magic Turbulence] x3!
From a safe distance, Allen brutally slammed this massive amount of Magic Power into the three anomalous zones.
It was like dropping a depth charge into an already unstable area.
The resulting Magic Power turbulence crashed into itself with a roar. Space vibrated violently, and a visible storm of Magic Power tore at everything on the ground.
"Jarvis, Sky Throne main cannon. Charge."
[Charging complete.]
"Now, plow right through that area again."
High in the sky, the Sky Throne’s main cannon lit up with a blinding white light. An orange-red pillar of light descended from the heavens, striking precisely at the center of the Magic Power storm.
The pure, destructive energy instantly shattered the turbulence’s critical point.
RUMBLE—!
The entire battlefield ruin trembled. Under the bombardment of the main cannon, everything buried was forcibly purged, ultimately decaying and dissipating rapidly.
The smoke and dust settled.
The ripple-like distortion was gone.
The three anomalous zones had returned to normal.
"Shock therapy. Highly effective." Allen nodded in satisfaction. "Servants, move in. Time to haul bricks."
...
「Day Eight.」
The cleanup operation entered the red high-risk zone.
This area was dense with Magic traps, curses, and unexploded ordnance.
Allen wasn’t even interested in scanning it.
"Purgatory, Storm Falcon, Sky Throne, Gabriel—commence long-range bombardment. Clear it point by point."
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Thick beams of light and Magic Missiles rained down one after another.
Each blast sent shrapnel and scrap metal flying in all directions amidst the shockwaves.
Deeply buried traps were crudely detonated, and curses were vaporized by the high temperatures along with the soil.
Before the flying metal fragments could even hit the ground, they were precisely scanned and located by the Demon Eye in mid-air.
[Coordinates X14, Y72. Titan Magic Steel fragment. Recyclable.]
[Coordinates X19, Y88. Unidentified alloy. Contamination levels exceed standards.]
Like tireless ants, the Factory Servants followed behind the bombardment, dragging valuable wreckage back to Cybertron.
He had turned a dangerous mine-clearing operation into a mechanized, assembly-line bombardment.
This was the right way to be an Alchemy Wizard.
So satisfying!
But when processing a particular batch of wreckage, the assembly line jammed.
It was a pile of composite armor, deeply contaminated by a High-tier curse, with several types of metal fused together.
[Warning: Material recovery furnace cannot process. The curse is highly corrosive. Forcing decomposition will contaminate the equipment.]
Allen went to the edge of the processing area and found that one of the Factory Servants in charge of transport had already been affected. Jarvis had already cleared the surrounding area.
He looked at the pile of scrap metal radiating a strange Magic Power, and a faint light glowed at his fingertip.
"Perfect. I can test a new Witchcraft on you."
[Disintegration]
An invisible beam shot out, striking the pile of wreckage with precision.
CRACKLE! POP!
The metallic magical bonds within the composite wreckage instantly collapsed, and micro-explosions of Magic Power triggered a chain reaction inside.
Amidst a series of dense pops and crackles, the entire piece of armor gradually turned into a large pile of fine powder.
Having lost its magical medium, the curse clinging to the surface dissolved on its own, dissipating into a few wisps of green smoke.
The entire process took less than a minute.
Allen opened his memo pad and typed a line of text:
"Disintegration Application Test: Excellent. Can break down the curse’s medium at a molecular level, possessing extremely high combat potential. Drawback: severe material destruction, makes salvaging loot impossible."
"It’s perfect for dealing with this nasty stuff."
...
「Day Eleven.」
The lead-gray sky was still overcast, but the wasteland below had been transformed.
The forty-square-kilometer battlefield ruin looked as if a dog had chewed on it; three meters of topsoil had been scraped clean off.
All the wreckage, battleships, and mountains of scrap metal had vanished without a trace.
Only the bare, dark red bedrock remained.
Cybertron Storage Area.
The last batch of fully loaded transport containers was sent through the main gate on a conveyor belt.
Allen stood on a high platform, looking down.
For the first time in its history, the vast storage area was more than half full.
Rows upon rows of neatly stacked metal ingots shimmered with a captivating luster under the cold lights. It was the gleam of wealth.
"Jarvis, final report."
[Cleanup Mission BR-0512, execution complete.]
[Total recovery of high-purity Black Patterned Magic Steel and equivalent-grade metals: 234,000 tons.]
[Calculated at the average bulk market price in Hub City, total approximate value: 93.6 million Low-Level Magic Stones.]
[After deducting various expenses, estimated net profit: 81.5 million Low-Level Magic Stones.]
[Additionally, an unexpected collection of Titan Magic Steel, Adamantine, and unknown high-grade alloy wreckage totaled 2,100 tons. Temporarily stored in a special-grade isolation bay, pending decomposition or processing after future technological upgrades.]
Eighty-one and a half million.
Plus over two thousand tons of high-grade metals that couldn’t be appraised.
Allen’s breath hitched slightly.
He gazed at the mountain-like piles of metal ingots, and the gaze that had been as cold and hard as iron gradually softened.
A long-lost emotion, something called "joy," began to spread within him.
This kind of "structural arbitrage opportunity," born from disparities in information and technology, was what Allen loved most.
With this money, not only would Cybertron’s cash flow be instantly restored, but he could even triple the size of his new factory in Hub City.
Most of his bottlenecks would be instantly resolved.
His Humanity Value received a massive boost at that moment.
"Retract Cybertron." Allen turned, his gray, magic-resistant cloak whipping in the wind.
The massive complex of buildings began to turn incorporeal, once again vanishing into its Half-Plane.
"Time to head back."
A satisfied smirk tugged at his lips.
"To the lords of Hub City... I’ll take all of your trash."