Chapter 155: The Rampaging Automaton; Abyssal Corruption

Gilbert reacted in the blink of an eye. Driven by instinct, he immediately removed the crystal embedded at the back of his head and pressed it against his subordinate's—the one whose crystal had shattered.

As the crystal took effect, the destabilizing defensive formation managed to survive the onslaught.

A hum echoed from within the cave, marking the end of the automaton's attack. The three magicians had long been waiting for this moment.

Almost instantly, they infused the spell models they had prepared in advance with mana and unleashed them.

Two of the magicians were the first to act. Two massive chains of rock shot out toward the automaton, their cores filled with a red crystalline substance. They wrapped around the two metallic arms of the Destroyer-class automaton.

The automaton glanced down at the chains binding its arms and immediately exerted its immense strength to break free. The terrifying force it unleashed caused the two magicians controlling the chains to tense up; they nearly lost control of their spells.

Quickly chanting supplementary incantations, they invoked the second phase of the spell in an instant. The magicians slapped their hands against the rock walls of the cave, causing the ends of the massive chains to merge into the rock. The chains appeared as if they had grown directly out of the cave walls as they restrained the Destroyer-class automaton.

Earth mana continuously flowed from the rock walls into the Chains of Grievance. The magicians maintained their connection to the chains, channeling mana to sustain them, while the earth mana repaired the damage that the automaton's violent struggles were inflicting.

The Destroyer-class automaton, a heavy assault tank designed for the battlefield, boasted extraordinary strength and defense, making it nearly impossible to restrain with ordinary bindings.

However, the magicians' spell was specifically designed to counter such foes. The Chains of Grievance were exceptionally effective against mindless yet powerfully destructive entities.

When the automaton exerted its full force to break free, its internal alchemical structures would operate at maximum capacity and output immense power. When this happened, however, the chains would simply extend, dissipating the force through continuous elongation and effectively neutralizing its brute strength.

Then, once the initial burst of strength subsided, the chains would tighten again. This process repeated indefinitely in a cycle that granted the stone-based chains astonishing resilience.

By then, the third magician had also finished preparing his spell after a slight delay—the fourth-tier spell Corrupting Flame. A surge of eerie green fire rapidly spread along the Chains of Grievance. The faintly acrid scent of acid lingered in the air, a testament to the flames' powerful corrosive nature.

Under the magician's precise control, the Corrupting Flame didn't damage the Chains of Grievance but instead used them as a conduit to reach the Destroyer-class automaton's body.

The moment the fire touched the golem, it erupted into a dazzling green blaze, engulfing the massive construct in a searing inferno.

"Are you alright?" Taking advantage of the brief respite, Gilbert ordered three other warriors to retreat. He dragged back the Nightblade who had taken the brunt of the attack and replaced his crystal of mental fortification with a spare before checking on his condition.

The signature effect of Corrupting Flame was its ability to consume mana from its targets and surroundings, intensifying its own flames as it burned. It disintegrated enemies not through brute force but rather relentless corrosion.

However, against a foe like the Destroyer-class automaton, whose defenses were specialized to an extreme degree, the raw destructive power of the flames alone was insufficient.

The magicians had never intended to destroy the Destroyer-class automaton outright with Corrupting Flame.

Instead, the spell drained the surrounding mana, blinding the automaton in the process. These constructs relied on releasing alchemical energy and receiving feedback to perceive their surroundings, but Corrupting Flame effectively blocked that approach—exactly what the Nightblades team needed.

"We're ready. I'll take you all outside." As Gilbert secured the injured warrior, one of the rangers prepared to activate his latent potential.

A pulse of light rapidly expanded outward from the intermediate ranger, enveloping the entire team.

For a brief moment, no more than half a second, space itself seemed to freeze. Then, with a sudden jolt, the entire team of eleven vanished from the cave.

The instant the teleportation concluded, an immense surge of magical energy erupted from the Destroyer-class automaton still covered in Corrupting Flame.

Its internal alchemical mechanisms had detected the persistent corrosive damage and initiated a purge protocol.

The automaton's mana core accelerated its internal cycling, compressing the stored mana to generate an immense magical shockwave. This outburst was so powerful that the resulting fluctuations themselves seemed to gain magical properties.

The shockwave functioned similarly to an EMP burst that disrupted the intricate spell structure of Corrupting Flame. The green inferno flickered and sputtered, as though suddenly deprived of oxygen, before rapidly weakening.

With the Corrupting Flame neutralized, the Chains of Grievance, no longer sustained by mana, were also shattered by the automation's magical blast, setting it free.

Yet instead of immediately attacking the eleven Nightblades it had been fighting, the Destroyer-class automaton hesitated. Something had changed.

As the automaton's alchemical systems purged the foreign mana from its body, something seemed to remain behind. It raised its metal arms before its crystalline face as it channeled an immense surge of mana. The magical circuits inscribed within its metallic body activated, converting that mana into extreme heat.

Its once-lifeless metal arms now glowed red-hot—like searing branding irons, except far more intense. This concentrated magical heat was enough to melt through armor with a mere touch.

And that wasn't even the worst part. This heat wasn't designed to simply pierce armor—it was meant to cook the flesh inside it.

"Be careful. Its attacks seem to contain some kind of mental corruption. I think that's what affected us,"

The injured Nightblade warned his teammates. His mind was still in turmoil from the earlier blast of corruption from before. They hadn't detected any abyssal influence when they arrived, which was strange given how deep they were underground.

That could only mean the Destroyer-class automaton itself was the source of the mental contamination.

"It's acting too much like a human." Gilbert muttered, quickly relaying a key observation to his team.

There was nothing mechanical about this golem's behavior—it showed an unnatural level of awareness. That was highly abnormal for an unmanned construct.

The mere presence of a Destroyer-class automaton this far underground in such a remote location was already suspicious, but its unnatural behavior made the situation even more enigmatic.

Still, at its core, it was an automaton—and that meant that they could still destroy it.

Gilbert exchanged glances with the three rangers. A silent understanding passed between them. They were all ready. The magicians had buffing spells prepared, and the four shield-bearing knights had already stepped forward in defense.

Gilbert barely spared a glance at the golem's glowing, red-hot arms. Without hesitation, he charged forward.

The three rangers followed immediately behind. As they moved, waves of magical light flickered across their bodies—the effects of Stone Bulwark, Flame Ward, Vitality Infusion, and more. With these magical enhancements, their speed and strength surged.

The Destroyer-class automaton was designed to serve as vanguards of war. They were forged by dwarven hands and perfected by gnome engineers. Their strength was overwhelming and their defense unmatched—but their agility was lacking. On the battlefield, this flaw was mitigated by the presence of troops that it would advance alongside, but deep underground, it was on its lonesome. That was the flaw that the Nightblades would exploit.

A ranger's longsword struck the neck of the Destroyer-class automaton in a shower of sparks, but the attack failed to leave even the slightest mark on its surface. Instead, the ranger himself was momentarily stunned by the toughness of the automaton's armor.

A metal fist, radiating terrifying heat and immense power, smashed down at the ranger from above. The ranger sidestepped just in time to avoid the blow that would have crushed him, armor and all, as the fist instead slammed into the ground.

Rock shattered. Cracks spread outward from the impact site in all directions, causing the entire cliffside to tremble uncontrollably. At the center of the impact, sand and soil melted under the extreme heat and turned molten.

Despite narrowly dodging such a devastating strike, the ranger didn't panic. A single mistake would mean death, but as a member of the Nightblades, he had been through many such battles before.

Realizing that he couldn't harm the automaton with direct attacks, the ranger slid to its side and crouched, slamming the pommel of his sword into the ground beneath the automaton's feet.

In perfect coordination, another ranger arrived from the other side and struck the ground at the same time with the hilt of her sword.

Under the combined assault of two rangers possessing the strength of full-fledged knights, the ground shattered and became unstable. The Destroyer-class automaton staggered violently.

Gilbert and the remaining ranger seized the opportunity, lashing out simultaneously with two iron chains that wrapped around the automaton's neck. They pulled with all their might.

With its already unstable footing and the added force from the chains, the automaton's own weight became its downfall. It toppled over, crashing to the ground with a thunderous impact.

Gilbert's eyes lit up. He felt a surge of excitement. His latent potential, Spectral Blade, was specialized for offense and allowed his attacks to phase through solid matter and strike directly at the target's core.

And his target was precisely the Destroyer-class automaton's alchemical core. If he could destroy it, the automaton would be completely disabled and rendered powerless.

Fighting spirit surged through his legs, strengthening his muscles as he dashed toward the fallen automaton. His eyes locked onto a glowing seam on its lower back.

Before setting out, Gilbert had meticulously studied the structure of the Destroyer-class automaton's alchemical core at their base. It was located at the most concentrated point of mana flow within its body—an asymmetrical, unmarked area distinguishable only by its intense magical signature.

One of his fellow rangers had already pinpointed the core's location.

This was the perfect moment for Gilbert to strike. The automation was at its most vulnerable while it struggled to rise.

Gilbert's Spectral Blade activated, imbuing his longsword with a phased edge that would bypass the automaton's formidable defenses and strike directly at its fragile core. His killing blow was ready.

As expected, the Destroyer-class automaton attempted to push itself up from the ground, its heavy limbs straining to lift its massive body.

However, Gilbert had missed a crucial flaw in his reasoning. The automaton hadn't been designed to fight from a prone position, but that didn't necessarily mean it was weakened.

On all fours, the Destroyer-class automaton actually gained more stability, allowing it to exert its full strength more smoothly.

Having realized this, it abandoned its attempt to stand and instead adjusted its stance, turning toward Gilbert with the fluidity of a beast.

"Watch out!" The magicians' warning cries rang out from Gilbert's back. His heightened vigilance immediately told him something was wrong.

The Destroyer-class automaton now facing him on all fours had two crystalline plates covering its face—plates that were beginning to glow ominously. It was about to release another beam on annihilation.

"Damn it!" Gilbert cursed. Just before the beam was released, he pushed off the ground with all his strength, leaping backward to evade the attack.

A thick beam of destructive energy roared past beneath him, scorching the ground and transforming rock and soil into molten lava. The landscape was left with a deep, glowing trench.

However, Gilbert's crisis was far from over. The automaton's head could still move, and he was unable to change direction or evade in mid-air.

Slowly, the automaton turned its head toward Gilbert.

The beam was seconds away from vaporizing him, but Gilbert remained calm.

His eyes remained fixed on the glowing seam at the automaton's back. He gripped his sword tightly, ready to strike.

He wasn't afraid—because he trusted his squad. The magicians had already begun casting spells the moment they detected the surge of mana in the automaton.

The third-tier Earthen Grasp and the fourth-tier Gaia's Fist—two massive hands of stone erupted from the ground beneath the automaton, pulling it downward.

They weren't strong enough to overpower the automaton, but they didn't need to be. All they had to do was disrupt its balance. The ground crumbled and the automaton's footing sank, causing its beam of annihilation to misfire.

Simultaneously, a colossal fist of rock burst out of the earth at the automaton's side and struck its head with immense force.

Despite its formidable defenses, the automaton's metal neck was momentarily forced downward by the sheer impact.

That moment was all Gilbert needed. His sword, empowered by Spectral Blade, plunged downward, as his strengthened muscles added overwhelming force to the strike. He drove it straight into the automaton's alchemical core.

The blade phased through the automaton's sturdy outer shell, bypassing all of its defenses, and re-materialized inside just in time to pierce the fragile core.

A muffled implosion erupted from within. The destruction of the mana source triggered a catastrophic chain reaction inside the automaton, unleashing a contained explosion of immense power.

Trapped within its own metal body, the force of the explosion obliterated the automaton's inner mechanisms.

A final, brilliant flash of light flickered from within, and then—silence.

The Destroyer-class automaton's limbs lost their strength as it collapsed. The internal glow of its body gradually dimmed. It tried to move but failed.

"This body... is broken?" A thought emerged in its artificial mind. No, that wouldn't do. It needed to be free. It refused to return to that dull, lifeless place. It needed a new body—and oh, wasn't there one right there?

Gilbert, still gripping the hilt of his embedded sword, exhaled heavily. His all-out attack had drained him, but at least the strange automaton was finally—His eyes widened in shock as crystalline fragments slipped from his neck and fell to the ground. A moment later, an overwhelming tide of chaos and madness surged into Gilbert's mind.