-Ras Von Leoia-

Firing another volley of arrows from my bow, I felt my senses expand with each impact: spheres of space that I could see in distance, each letting me view a few split seconds into a future while they existed. To think I would actually go as far inscribing a seventh lesser spell specialty in the form of Arrows of Fate to grant me better use of Divination Glyphs along with serving a power-link target for Blind Oracle’s Soaring Gazebo. Cursed magic is surprisingly useful, especially for shortcuts if you know what you are doing, I noted to myself as Editon fired off another ballista bolt from my gazebo with unerring accuracy. The two cursed multi-system slots that were synthesized with Dulled Senses Affliction, Blind Eyes Flying that power-linked to my newly inscribed Contracted Cake-Eye-Balls and Dependant Spirit Sense that power-linked to my new cursed mandala in the form of Cursed Sense Share (Surge Glyphs), were serving me well.

Between Dulled Senses Afflict, the two of them, and the Blind Oracle’s Soaring Gazebo that was synthesized out the three of them and my multi-system slot housing my floating ballista and power-linked to one of my Eyes of the Blackzone and Arrows of Fate, my simulated body was completely derived of its five mundane senses: in return, my manalogical senses were honed to an abnormal degree while granting me sensory alternatives through my gazebo, Editon, cake-eye-balls, and even my arrows. Using my cultivated cursed magic that allowed me to grow so quickly in such a short amount of time, I could sense and map out the entire battlefield. I was almost tempted to continue this path of spellcraft development and knew I had to take it slow and steady now.

“What in the world is powering that giant?” I muttered to myself, only able to peak up what I was saying through Editon and my cake-eye-balls: roughly sensing the entire battlefield’s flow of magic through layered magics, I couldn’t help but be unnerved by the giant golem in front of us. There was definitely cursed magic and forbidden magic in its system casts and Hybrid System of Flower-altered spellcraft, but there was something more that was a volatile self-destructive reaction in the surrounding ambient and internal manas.

“Whatever it is, it is beyond fiendish!” answered Editon with a roar as he fired off another ballista bolt, destroying a cluster of golem conjurations that wandered into my minefield of spheres of foresight. 

“You aren’t wrong there,” I replied, telepathically moving the gazebo to avoid returning fire as I continued to pepper the surroundings with system-altered Arrows of Fate. It definitely was a drain on my mana, but it allowed me to more efficiently trim the tides and help the others. It would have been much easier if I could have focused my foresight-granting arrows on the giant golem but whatever weird unnatural energy circulating through it destroyed the magics before I could even attempt to scry its future. 

A sudden boulder soaring right at me broke my train of thought as it entered my ethereal vision radiating from my gazebo, forcing me to maneuver the gazebo to avoid the brunt of the blow. Before I could refocus my senses and tell Editon to return fire, he was already shaping and firing another ballista bolt. Through my cake-eye-balls I could see the ballista bolt of mana tear a chunk of earth out of the giant golem’s shoulder, but through my manalogical sense of detecting mana, masen, I could see a much more violent reaction as mana erupted from the golem before imploding. Watching as the weird unnatural flowing through the golem migrate to its shed earth and transforming them into smaller thrall-likes golem, I asked Pattissoria,

“Can you analyze that magic?”

“No, all of the wills of the metaverse are making it hard to do. All I can see is the result being some sort of birthing or creation spell,” asked my system assistant with a tinge of confusion in her voice. I couldn’t blame her, I could barely make sense of the magic unfolding in front of me: I knew that artificial world clusters were home for magics that weren’t natural for the metaverse proper but this was a whole different level.

Levitating myself even higher, I watched through Editon and my cake-eye-balls as the giant golem and its thrall golems lumbered forward with the waves of other golem conjurations: I was relatively safe in my gazebo with the altitudes I could achieve, but the same couldn’t be said for the sweet tooths or the town guard of Blackentrail. Let’s try not to have to bring in the revivalists, I thought to myself as I tried to formulate my next plan of action. Relying on simulated bodies only worked so well for safety, especially when we were dealing with known criminals that had users of cursed and forbidden magics for targeting real bodies.

“Editon, how much many can you shape into a single bolt?” I asked as I observed the thrall golem: they definitely had a half-life given how the surrounding ambient mana was attacking them more than sustaining them. Luckily at the weird fluxes in the self-destructive manalogical reactions, I shuddered to think how dangerous they would be if the reactions were stabilized to any real degree. How can something be so pure yet unnatural at the same time? 

“Four times worth. More if you allow me to risk us receiving cross-karmic retribution!” answered Editon, already increasing the size of my floating ballista to house a larger bolt, making use of some of my floating crystals granted by Synthesis: Editon’s Bow of Glyiria.

“Let’s not go that far yet.” Honing in my various manalogical and on-loan senses, I examined the giant golem for a core or whatever constituted for a core in a conjuration of that size. The more I focused, the more I ended up drawing on Editon’s manalogical sense of detecting layers of reality, disen, seeing how weirdly the layers of reality folded and contorted around the golem giant. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to having a developed sense of disen, I internally muttered to myself with a small shake of my head. As much of an insight it was, especially to see how the will centers and sources of manas reacted, I didn’t know how I could modify the emphasises, fundamentals, or incantations that Editon were using for a guaranteed increase in efficiency. “Focus on penetration and rate of mana emissions.” 

Feeling my mandala and system slots reel from a sudden drop in mana circulating through them, the ballista bolt flew out from my gazebo and tore the right pec of the golem giant as it failed to move around the attack: the near-invisible trails of mana emission being sucked into the wound and furthering the damage. It looked like I didn’t need any special magics to improve my matchup against this golem, exploiting the self-destructive of the weird unnatural energy coursing through it was good enough. Checking the length of the damage, I noticed that more thrall-like golems were made, but a lot less in comparison to the first bolt.

“Genius modifications, Ras! Not less from you!” laughed Editon as he noticed what I noticed, partially cause I was having his senses focused on the wound as the golem giant staggered back toward the base of the hill. Watching as he swished his rainbow-coloured garbing, he went to preparing the next bolt when the giant golem suddenly started to talk in a bellowing voice,

“You have given me strength. Now descend, A-Orib! Take my body as sustenance for your children.”

“What in the saintesses’ name…” I muttered in shock as I saw the layers of reality surrounding the golem giant literally ripple as cracks started to form in reality. It took me a second to realize that the giant golem wasn’t a companion type conjuration but a transformation type conjuration as I saw a Soldier of Clay emerge from where the golem giant’s tongue should have been: they were covered in cracks filled with the weird unnatural energy and oversized lumps, likely on their last legs already from the influence of the magic their magic using.

With cracks across both the giant golem and reality, more thrall golems started to emerge from the giant and the ground itself. The sheer variety and quantity of the new golems made me go pale: to think a suicidal thing of spellcraft could net the creation of so many monsters, or whatever these golems were actually classified under. Firing off a volley of Arrows of Fates, I watched so their scrying magic was distorted and destroyed the second they neared the new swarm of golems, destroying only two or three of them in the process.

“This isn’t good at all is it?” chimed in Pattissoria as a handful of the thrall golems started to lift themselves up on giant wings.

“No, not at all,” I replied as I telepathically commanded my gazebo to move as far back as possible. “Send the order to retreat to the others.”

“Umm… but most of them are currently outside of the conquest though. I can’t use the usual methods.”

“Then get creative,” I told my system assistant before watching as a group of flying thrall golems entered the range of my ethereal vision. I didn’t even have a chance to react as they made a beeline to my gazebo. Editon quickly fired off a half-formed ballista bolt point blank, only to have the golem hit explode violently, sending the gazebo rocking. “Suicide units!”

“Ras! We must vacate this vessel,” roared the spirit of the Tower as he grabbed my arm, almost forcing me to let go of my Bow of Glyiria. As the rest of the golems neared and started to swell with their unnatural energies, now fully intent of self-destructive chain reactions, Editon bounded out of the gazebo with me in tow.

Feeling my soaring gazebo been ripped asunder, the ethereal vision it provided winked out of existence as I also lost my ability to use Arrows of Fate; two of my four cake-eye-balls also disappeared in the devastation, leaving me to lean on the remaining two and Editon for my senses. To think whatever magics and spells that were used to make the golems were able to bypass my gazebo’s defenses so thoroughly. Landing on the ground, I tumbled unfeeling: everything was uneven and I didn’t have any ethereal vision to counteract my lack of sense of touch or nonexistent balance, something my quicksilver cloak and floating heavy crystals couldn’t compensate enough for. All I could do was rely on Editon and my remaining pair of cake-eye-balls.

“Editon, I need you to hold me,” I told the spirit, trying to process everything. In mere seconds, the bulk of my ability to perform even basic actions with the simulated body was destroyed and there was no reason I could reconjure it in the midst of a fight like this.

“Do not fret, I will carry you to Terrin so we can retreat to the conquest.”

“Yes, take me to Terrin.” Feeling Editon pick me up through his own body, I saw Terrin fighting through the spirit’s eyes: mana flowing freely from my half-brother as his sprite-spirit weaved around him and froze and sliced away at the golem while the Lion of Von Leoia tore through the golem conjurations with swift claw strikes and mana-infused roars. Looking closer, I was the trio of Sous, Minerva, and Wes were near him and all still fighting also. They regrouped already, that’s good, I told myself, at least with them I could attempt to try and salvage my use in this retreat.

These golems all had a half-life, all we had to do was out last them and then we could focus on the rest of the Soldiers of Clay while reinforcements made their way here. Hopefully the fights elsewhere were already done… we already had to use the dungeon core repairing Aux Cores for the Sweets Futurism Interconnection, we couldn’t risk straining them further with repairing System Assistant’s Caketopia.