The air was hot and heavy, It was hard to breathe, but the technicians did their best, running around the shield bunker, replacing foci, and cooling down formation lines.
“We can't manage for much longer! If we don't deactivate, the formation will melt, and the generator overheat! Everything here may explode!” a technician cried out to the golem standing at the control panel.
Azotain observed the people running around as the golem processed the words of the technician.
The shield generator Azotain was in charge of was close to exploding under the pressure. Usually, this pressure was shared with the array of generators that created the barrier covering the Pythian village.
Deactivating the generator would not be a problem, usually. The advantage of a barrier with an array of generators was that if one generator fell out, the barrier would weaken, but not fall. They could cycle for maintenance and save power when there was no immediate threat.
However, if their generator was like this, then all others were experiencing this, too. The knocking of the immortal outside was quickly bringing their “door” to the edge of its durability. If he shut down their shield generator, the barrier would weaken and the load they were currently taking would be directly redistributed to all others.
The Result: Immediate Extermination. All other shield bunkers but this one would explode and the barrier would completely fall.
...
“Well, well, well, look what we have here. A nice little field, ready for a harvest,” a voice suddenly echoed across the crowd assembled at the crossing between the barrier of the Pythian Village and that of Little Gamma.
People who were unwilling to fight, but couldn't cross into Little Gamma, enter the prepared shelters, or didn't dare to leave the Pythian Village before the barrier became a prison, had gathered in this place. There were also about 30 local guards from Little Gamma. Several members of the Guilds had also found their way here.
Everyone looked at the figure trudging down the empty main street leading up to the crossing between barriers. It wasn't a huge figure, but rather scrawny and toned. Their body was covered by a ripped, hooded robe and bandages. in their hand, they held a peculiar, rusty saber.
“What are you doing here, Priest of Corruption?” Tiny of Gamma Resistance stepped forward, his massive hammer resting on his shoulder. The figure came to a halt, staring at the Chosen of Magni blocking his path.
“Just claim some souls for Mother. These maggots of the Cloud Continent are a great harvest,” he clearly voiced his intention to slaughter all the foreigners present here. Tiny sighed, taking the massive hammer from his back.
“Don't tell me you are you going to stand in the way of my holy rite,” the priest said almost disappointed of Tiny's decision to protect them. Tiny scratched his cheek.
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“It's not like I'm particularly interested in protecting them, but I have a reputation to protect for Gamma Resistance as the vice-leader, you know?” he answered a little irresponsible.
“I see, well then... Corruption Knight, take care of him for me!”
“What are you-” Tiny was rudely interrupted by an eight-meter-tall beast in armor, slapping him away, sending him crashing into the next row of buildings, just to pursue his target the next moment. With Tiny out of the way, the priest turned to the crowd of cultivators.
“You seem to take us for a bunch of sheep ready for slaughter!” one of them stepped forward, unsheathing his sword. After all, they had the strength and standing that allowed him to come to Urth and they had survived this hostile world so far. Just because they were unwilling to fight a fight that wasn't theirs, didn't mean they were weak or cowards. At least not all of them.
“Right, Guard Kang, slay that guy for me!” someone else ordered their bodyguard. Following their example, roughly a third stepped forward to face him. They roughly knew his abilities from the tournament. They just had to make sure not to be hit by the weird saber, then-
The priest suddenly vanished from their vision. Covered in glowing tattoos he appeared right in front of Guard Kang. The man was still able to react. Lifting his sword to block the rusty saber, only to witness it instantly wither and break.
He would have died then and there, if the priest wasn't suddenly thrown back. Showing a similar figure as Tiny earlier, the priest crashed into a nearby building. At the helm of the crowd stood the still pissed and tired-looking Cade Albright.
Her hand had turned into a massive disfigured claw, dripping with the blood of the priest. The crowd could only look on in shock, as Cade appearing was even faster than the priest disappearing. they were still in a stupor when they heard the rubble move. The priest groveled out from the gravel of the destroyed building.
On the man's exposed chest were four distinct claw marks, bleeding profusely. The flesh around them was squirming, as if it was trying to heal them, but was unable to do so. Dark, sickly veins spread out from these claw marks.
“Urgh, how could this be?” the priest moaned, finding that the wounds were not healing as they should have.
“Hmm, looks like I won't even need to use my path to kill you. I can just cut you into ribbons,” Cade said a little disappointed. Her Rakshasa Claws were able to damage the soul, and it seemed that even the Priest of Corruption couldn't easily counter this damage. She had been kind of looking forward to unleashing the power of her path for the first time, facing a worthy opponent.
“Hmm, it seems like you are right,” he agreed, touching the open wound. The dark veins were quickly receding as his body countered the poison of her claws, but it had a hard time closing the wounds.
“There is no point in fighting then, bye!” the priest said decisively. He gave her a friendly wave and ran away, leaving the stumped Cade and the crowd behind. A moment later, the barrier protecting the Pythian Village and keeping the cultivators inside, disintegrated.
“Tsk, looks like simply don't want to go my way...” she sighed.
...
---A little while earlier---
“Requesting immediate, simultaneous shutdown of all shield generators because of overheating.”
“Requesting immediate, simultaneous shutdown of all shield generators because of overheating.”
“Requesting immediate, simultaneous shutdown of all shield generators because of overheating.”
Dozens of golems contacted the VIP lounge of Minas Mar, which had turned into ta temporary command center. The messages from the golems stationed at the shield generators came flowing in incessantly, and all of them were the same; requesting to shut down the barrier immediately to prevent the generators and lives from being lost.
Things inside the barrier were going as planned. The allied troops of Urth with the mercenaries and members of Minas Mar at their helm, were decimation the swarm of cultivators who lost the protection of their leader.
However, said Leader was posing a tremendous threat outside the barrier, to the point that their shield generators were failing. The moment they lowered this defense, the immortal would rush in and who knew what he would do? Just decimating Minas Mar's troops would have been the friendly option.
The only problem with this was their unwillingness to show that they also had two immortals on their side. Xiong Peng and Yu had both revealed that they were also immortals, so they were on the same stage as the alliance leader, just older with more experience and power.
Leana, Mary, and the other members of the command central were discussing, hesitating to deactivate the barrier, when Seth's voice suddenly cut cleanly through the chaotic noise.
“Shut down the generators. It will be okay.”