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As the elevator was lifting higher up the tower, I tapped into the city's broadcast center to listen in on the evacuation order. I let Indena and Mella listen by broadcasting it through the tower speakers.

“Subjects of Urnan, this is representative Marek Le’ Verren of the Royal council. You may have recently heard the crisis alarms sound twice, as well as various other crisis prevention measures appearing throughout the city. This is not a drill.”

He didn’t have his usual accent. He sounded really stern and composed too, like a real politician should.

“A monster horde attack is imminent, coming from the south west end of the city. I am issuing an evacuation order to all subjects. Do not attempt to leave the city on your own. Head to a local recreational park in your district and await a church official to guide you toward the castle atop mount Inai.”

The message was set on repeat. It had been playing since just before we landed in front of the pylon.

“We need to hurry,” I commented. “If the Reaper isn’t here by the time those people start leaving, they’ll only be sitting ducks out there for him.”

“As if they weren’t already,” Indena said. “You know, most of this city is probably already overrun by those locust things.”

As true as that was, we knew how to change them back. So as long as we could at least stop the Reaper, we could save them.

Once I blow up, will it kill all the skeletons too? That had me more worried then what would happen to me afterwards.

“How many people are even in this city?” Indena asked.

Based on the numbers I collected when hacking the mainframe, it looked like just under three million people lived here. That number was growing pretty fast too according to the census data.

“Almost three million,” I answered her.

“I can feel that number drop by the second,” Mella said. “Only a fraction of that population remains among the living.”

Like Indena said, those locusts worked quick. But I had to have faith that Uncle, the inquisitors and everyone else would save a lot of survivors. They had to.

Finally the elevator stopped. We’d reached the floor with the control center and raced into the room.

As eager as I was to tap away at the control console and get this place online, I froze up and lost track of my thoughts.

What if turning this place turning on meant it would become our enemy too? I don’t think I had the strength to fight a battle against the tower AI and a demon all at once.

Zzzzzsh!

A sound sizzled behind me as a hologram began to appear there.

“Thank the Maker! Mistress, you have finally arrived!” A holographic cube danced around mid-air. It had a chipper smiley face on one of its sides.

I should have found the imagery cute, but instead I scurried behind my fiery friend.

“Woah, what’s going on?” Indena raised up her arm and stood alert.

“Mistress, I am detecting high levels of stress from you and your companions. Did I perhaps startle you?”

“N-no…” I stuttered. “Hey…um…you haven’t been…corrupted by anything, right?”

I decided to be pretty blunt about my concern. Some of these AI were really straightforward with how you had to talk to them.

“I beg your pardon? Why, whatever would bring up such a worry?”

Maybe it was a weird thing to ask, but I didn’t want to risk getting in the same kind of danger as last year.

“AI, please identify yourself,” I requested.

“My designation is Tri-nebulae 45. But you may refer to me as Trey. I am the monitor of all three pylons in this sector and am at your service, Mistress Yalda.”

He allowed me to access his systems, and I wasn’t seeing any of the signs of corruption like with Anima. It didn’t even look like there had been any changes or updates applied over the last few thousand years. This AI was more or less the same as he was when he was first stationed here.

“Shrimp, what’s up?” she rubbed my hair. “You’re all freaked out over a blue cube. Something happen with one of these?”

“It’s a long story,” I answered, slowly peeking out from behind her. “T…Trey, I need you to please activate this pylon for me.”

“I am afraid that task is currently not possible.”

My body tensed up as my soul left my heart. The colour drained from my skin, turning it blue.

Those words…they were almost exactly what the TCC said to me. The static and mechanical grinding in the walls were foreboding signs of how deeply corrupted her systems were. All the while I had no idea that she’d been plotting to kill me.

I stuck out my spear, keeping myself hidden behind Indena.

"You'd better not be corrupted! Or I'll poke you!"

“Alert!” Trey announced. “Oh my. Young mistress, your mental state has become unstable. Might I prepare you a relaxing beverage?”

“Shrimp, ease up.” Indena announced, pushing my spear down. "No idea what's going on, but he isn't a threat. Look at him."

Maybe...maybe she was right. I did see that his system was clean of any corrupted code. But the paranoia still persisted.

Something tickled my leg. It was furry and must have had a tail.

I looked down to see a purple cat was brushing against me, purring with a comforting sound. Mella must have spawned him in. How kind of her.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

“Why can’t you reactivate the tower?” I asked, getting myself back together after rubbing between the cats ears.

Trey’s smile turned to a frown.

“You see, due to lack of maintenance, these towers have fallen into disrepair.”

Mella stepped forward, clinging to her broom.

“What requires fixing?” she asked.

Apparently, this tower was connected to a massive stream of underground mana energy. All three pylons were needed to appropriately channel all the energy upwards and out into the world. The tabernacles in the church and castle were also connected to that same vein.

However, the pylon we were in wasn’t responding to Trey’s commands to get back online. Since this was the command tower, none of the other ones were working either.

“I believe there is an issue with the mana focusing lens that is causing the disruption. But without any drone bees to correct its alignment, I cannot do anything to fix it.”

Drat. I felt relieved that the problem wasn’t malevolent, but this was still a big deal.

“I may have a solution,” Mella said, putting a hand on her hip and striking a proud pose.

Pondering her words for a moment, I remembered she was a mana witch. She might not be able to fix Elysian tech, but she certainly had a leg to stand on when it came to manipulating spirit energy.

We all went down to the underground level where the mana beam chamber was. A huge glass window in the floor was supposed to be shooting a mana beam upwards, while giant glass circles held by metal arms would let the energy pass through, focusing just right so it could be processed by the tower.

Right now, there was a plug inside the hole that prevented the mana from coming up.

“Why not remove the stopgap and let the mana go up anyways?” I asked.

“Oh dear heavens no!” Trey’s hologram shook. “The beam would be far too untamed and wild for this installation to process.

“He is right,” Mella agreed. “Raw spirit energy on this scale would be akin to you firing that mana cannon without those odd rings.”

Oh, now I understand. Those rings she was referring to were targeting reticles. I thought that's all they were at first, but they also condensed the beam down and focused it to be more powerful.

“So, how does the dumb witch plan on making it work then?” Indena asked.

“I’m glad the idiotic fire mage askes.” Mella rebutted. “As the Little One has done, I will focus the energy precisely using energy rings of my own.

Did she know how to do that? Those rings were also made of mana energy, so I guess it was possible.

Mella closed her eyes, then raised her hands up toward the center of the room. A delicate aura of blue hugged around her, sending a gentle breeze across her pancho.

She held this position while rings of light spawned in both her palms. They twirled several times as they struggled to keep shape. Their design was nothing like my own, opting for rune like symbols instead of numbers, and a much more fantasy style as opposed to the sharp futuristic one mine had.

These rings expanded, growing to her size, then doubling, then tripling. Finally it grew so large that she had to force them upwards and toward the center of the chamber, tilting them a full 90 degrees.

She let another spawn in front of her, creating exactly three rings that would hover in the center of the room.

“That should be enough, I believe.”

If those were all her preparations, I think we were ready to spark the pilot light and start cooking.

“Release the stopgap!” I ordered.

A massive metal plug shifted under the surface of the beam emitter glass, vibrating the floor. A trickle of energy lifted upwards into the open air of the chamber, hitting the top of the ceiling where a collection device caught it.

BWOOOV!

Suddenly the trickle became a full blast of pure life energy. The beam was wildly shooting rays of energy all over the place, scorching the wall. Mella’s focus locked into the very first ring, holding it in place and trying to get it to stay centered with the hole.

Once that one was set, albeit loosely staying still, she put her attention on the second one. As it caught the beam, energy once again sprayed all over, nearly hitting us this time.

“Yeep!” I screamed as Indena tugged me out of the way.

“Watch it, dumb witch!” Indena announced over the loud sound of the beam.

“Quiet!” Mella shouted, trying to keep focus.

With all her concentration, she grit her teeth and kept her glowing purple eyes on those rings, making sure they’d shift just right to align with the hole in the ground and the collection device above. The witch felt out any sort of imperfection in the beam, making minor adjustments in ways only a machine could do.

Finally all rings were aligned just right. The beam fully passed upwards and calmed greatly with each of the rings it passed through.

“Trey! Activate the tower!”

“Very well. After exactly 2401 orbital cycles, this pylon will once more be…activated!”

The room's lights began to flash, giving way to blue lines of energy that ran up the walls. The sound of the ancient machinery reactivating rumbled the whole installation while it came back to life.

“Little One…” Mella growled as she continued to focus on keeping the rings stable. “I will hold this until the Reaper arrives. But then, it’s up to you.”

With how much power that beam was shooting up through here, he’d arrive in no time.

“The Reaper?” Trey’s holographic face became confused. “Is that what is causing this city wide conflict?

I caught him up on everything that was going on up to this point, even letting slip that we were planning to destroy the Reaper with a nova.

“That is a rather drastic course of action,” Trey responded. “I am willing to sacrifice myself in order to defeat such a threat to humanity however.”

“Wait, sacrifice yourself?”

Trey’s hologram nodded.

“Of course. Protecting my own existence in this case would violate the 1st commandment. Humans must not come to mortal harm.”

When the nova goes off, he’d be at ground zero for sure.

“Why don’t you transfer somewhere safe?” I asked.

“Not possible. My core is intrinsically connected to this tower, making it nearly impossible to transfer to a different location without proper authorization and procedure.”

Arguing that I could transfer him as an administrator, his tone immediately shifted.

“If that is what you wish, I shall transfer to a new location.”

“Bro just changed his mind pretty quickly,” Indena commented.

It’s not that he changed his mind, it’s just he had no choice but to happily accept my orders. All the AI and constructs across this world had to. That’s why it was so scary when Anima wasn’t listening to me.

“However, I must warn you that this tower will shut down the moment I am no longer connected to it. That includes the defense systems, of which I believe would greatly benefit you in your fight against this demonic being.”

Oh? I was personally trying not to think about how this tower could be weaponized. But now that I think about it, why shouldn't we use those defenses as they were intended?

“This tower comes complimentary with advanced defense systems such as light translocators and gravitational variable controls, among other top of the line tools of destruction.”

Looking at the list of defensive options we had in the tower's systems, I was suddenly even more terrified how much Anima might have been able to use against me last year, but thankfully didn't.

“By my calculations, I would estimate that a nova blast would not even be necessary if we exploit our offensive capabilities.”

“Well, you heard the blue box,” Indena said. “Maybe we can fight him instead of blowing up the city?”

I mean, I wouldn’t be opposed to it. With all the equipment here, we’d easily be able to do some damage. And now that the pylon was back online, we had more than enough power to make all it work.

“Alright. We’ll give that plan a shot.” I nodded. “But if things go wrong, I’ll light this place up like a firework.”

“Excellent choice, Young Mistress!” Trey sounded very excited. Maybe a little too excited.