Author's Note: Get ready for some librarian on tinkerer action.
-------------
The man takes his time walking slowly down the stairs. He appears to be in no hurry. Every step he takes forward, the rebels take two steps back. This is who the rebels all fear the most. That man stops walking once he reaches the bottom of the stairs.
“I-It's him!” One rebel whispers as if he trying not to be noticed by that man.
“Gnosia's most powerful person: Emmanuel Newton.” Another person says while slowly stepping back.
“I didn't think he would come out so soon.” Another person says visibly shivering.
“Even if we all attack him together, we would be no match! We have to get out of here!” Someone yells in a panic.
As if on cue, all the rebels scatter as to avoid Emmanuel's wrath.
“Hmph! You try to destroy this library, and think you can leave just like that?” Emmanuel says with a glare shining on his glasses.
He stomps on the ground and multiple black ink marks come traveling out in blinding speed on the ground. The ink lines bend and warp around as if they are snakes that had found prey.
“He's attacking!” Someone yells out while fleeing.
“No matter how powerful he is, I just won't sit still and let him attack me!” A fire mage yells while turning around from running to face Emmanuel. You can tell from his trembling expression and his soiled pants that he's afraid, but a cornered rat is when a rat is most vicious.
One of the black ink lines from Emmanuel wraps around the fire mage faster than he could move out of the way. The ink line slithers menacingly, making it to the transmutation circle on the fire mage's robe. The ink lines connects, and the transmutation circle visibly changes. When that fire mage tried to use his transmutation circle to fire off a fire based magic spell, he found that he was unable to use any of his fire powers.
“Dammit!” That fire mage says eyes open in shock. Nothing but horror is in his expression now. “I can't use my transmutation circle at all!”
Most people in New Reality would be lucky to even bind to one or two transmutation circles. The transmutation circle that they want to bind with has to be compatible with them. Any change in the transmutation circle by the wrong type of person would result in the circle not being usable to the person.
Even though compatibility makes circles so fragile, most people who wear them are not worried. Even if they get damaged, transmutation circles are easily repaired, depending on where you place them. For example, if you place a transmutation circle on a sword and it gets damaged, you can repair the circle with Weapon/Armor Repair along with the sword.
Even if a calligrapher tries to write over it, the transmutation circle will work just the same as before. However, there is one way to change a transmutation circle, and that is with the skill Transmutation Circle Creation.
Calligraphers can only copy transmutation circles. They can also change them, but once that calligrapher changes that transmutation circle, that circle becomes useless. Only someone with the skill Transmutation Circle Creation can create and change transmutation circles, and still get them to work. All the circles that the rebels have have been copied and pasted from some original circles that some special librarians had designed with their Transmutation Circle Creation skill.
Even the teleportation circles the calligraphers have created have been copied using the skill Copy-Paste. Given how rare the skill Transmutation Circle Creation is, as it requires a person with the librarian class to get intermediate in five classes, most people don't even worry about not being able to use their transmutation circles.
The rebels knew that the head librarian of Gnosia had this ability, but they thought that they would be long gone by the time he came out. That is why they are in such a panic.
“Since you are in such a rush to die, let me help you.” Emmanuel says calmly to that fire mage.
That transmutation circle that is attached to the fire mage starts changing again. The circle then activates, out of the fire mage's control.
“AAAAAAAAH!” The flame mage starts screaming.
A bright flame bursts forth, covering his entire body. It didn't take long for him to burn into ashes. The rebels look on in horror.
“He... He couldn't even do anything!” An air mage rebel says in the air.
“This will turn into a massacre if we stay here.” A warrior rebel says shaking while slowly backing up.
“Don't worry. You all will soon be joining him.” Emmanuel says passing his judgment on the rebels.
“Run!”
“Flee!”
More ink lines come from Emmanuel's foot. It looks like the ink lines coming out travel much farther and faster than what Null, or any calligrapher there is capable of. Null can only control two ink lines at a time with adequate control with his Ink Hand technique, and the maximum range is 7 meters. If Null tried to control more lines, he would quickly lose control of them.
Emmanuel however has not moved at all. His arms are crossed, and he's looking on as if he's watching something that has nothing to do with him. He moves those ink lines as easily as one would move their pinky: Effortless. His ink lines reach a warrior who specializes in speed, 84 meters away!
It looks as if Emmanuel has no limit on how far the lines can go. What's even more surprising is that he's controlling the lines with one foot. Null is only capable of adequate control when the ink is coming from his hands. Emmanuel however can make ink come from any part of his body. Yes. Anywhere. Even there. Don't think about it.
Some die by having their transmutation circles changed to bury them alive. Some die by having their transmutation circles summon a globe of water around them and drowning them. They die in a myriad of ways. None of them pleasant. Since the remaining rebels decided that their chance of escape was small, they tried attacking Emmanuel at the same time.
Arrows, magic spells, and bullets. They all surround Emmanuel so that not even a mouse would be able to escape that onslaught.
Emmanuel then raises his hands in the air. A colossal amount of mana gets summoned from his body. There's so much mana being generated, that he shines like the moon on a starless night, even during the day! That mana condenses and becomes a shield construct made entirely of mana.
The shield dome shaped in nature, and proved to be very sturdy. The rebels last ditch all out attack couldn't even make the shield budge. Unfortunately for Emmanuel, mana constructs take a huge amount of mana, so Emmanuel can't summon them for long periods of time. Fortunately, he doesn't need a huge amount of time for them.
One of the more powerful earth mages surrounded himself in an earthen dome so that the ink lines do not make it to him. He then tries to use his powers to turn the earth underneath Emmanuel's feet into a soft mud in order to drag Emmanuel into the earth.
“Hmph.”
The land under Emmanuel's feet changes. A white light shines on the land he stands on and changes it. He changes the land back into some glass-like surface. The earthen dome that the earth mage has surrounding him has a transmutation circle drawn upon it. The transmutation circle starts to glow.
The earthen dome protecting the earth mage becomes a prison. He can no longer control the earth that he had manipulated. It starts constricting around him and changing into coal. His screams were being muffled by the coal surrounding, suffocating, and crushing him.
“Wow. To think that librarians could even change composition of things.” A warrior on Gnosia's side comments.
“That wasn't a librarian technique.” An alchemist shakes his head correcting the person. “That's was an alchemist technique called Transmutation Mineralization. Only an advanced level alchemist is capable of that. I thought only the head alchemist here was at the advanced level in alchemy. I had no idea Emmanuel was there too.” He says astonished.
While the rebels were trying to escape, one of the wind mage rebels notice that the ink lines are only traveling on the ground.
“Hey, have you noticed that the lines only travel along the ground?” An air mage rebel says.
“Huh. You're right! We might have a chance!” Another air mage says with newly revived hope filling his eyes.
“We'll have the glory of taking out Emmanuel Newton. Heheh.” Someone says with an evil grin.
They fly high above the ground just above Emmanuel, and arrange themselves in a circle to set off a terrifying combination attack. The attack they are using is a wind mage technique called Vacuum Pulse. It's a high level wind mage technique that first hits you with a high powered blast of air, then the vacuum that's created creates a second attack that pulls in the wind causing a shock wave to further damages you. What makes the attack even more potent is that the attack is invisible. There is no “wind is green” in New Reality.
While Emmanuel is massacring the rebels, he notices their plan.
“Hmph.” Is all he says.
He doesn't hold these people in any regard at all. Emmanuel's finger raises in the air. A little gap appears in his mana shield. Once again ink appears on Emmanuel. This time however, the ink appears on his finger. The ink line does something unexpected. It travels in the air at the same blinding speed as it did on the ground. It splits just the same as it did on the ground. The wind mages were caught off guard.
“He can create ink in the air!?”
“That's an advanced level calligraphy technique!”
“God dammit! That's just cheating!”
They died just as brutally as everyone else. They had died from asphyxiation. The sounds of anguish and terror from the rebel's side continued until there were very few left.
Unfortunately for Gnosia's side, Winford was not taken down so easily. Winford knows that a transmutation circle needs to be completed before it can work. Any transmutation circle that is attempted to be drawn on him gets interrupted when his armor changes shape. It's hard to draw a circle on such dynamic armor, so he's safe for now.
With Emmanuel sparing no one, even Gnosia's side have pale faces on them.
“This is too unreal! He hasn't even moved!” One warrior says watching Emmanuel's fight like his life depended on it.
“He is so merciless! I'm glad he's on our side.” Another person says shaking his head.
“I always thought the stories about Emmanuel have been greatly exaggerated. It appears I was wrong. I thought he was just a librarian.” A warrior says.
“”Just a librarian?” While they are mostly weak, a librarian has the potential to become very terrifying! Just look in front of you! Most of us mages started out trying to be librarians hoping to be even a sliver as powerful as Emmanuel, but that class is just too difficult to develop.” He says that last sentence in a sour mood.
“Yeah. We started out not having any stat boosts from that class. I remember being frightened from even seeing a common rabbit. Haah. Those were the days. Being a librarian is great and all, but I'll stick with being a mage.”
“Looks like the final battle is about to start. The survivors that were able to escape abandoned Winford. He's by himself. Looks like Emmanuel's transmutation circles don't work on him. Dammit. I thought it would be an easy victory with Emmanuel out on a rampage.”
“Don't forget. Winford is one of the very few to make it to the advanced stage in his mastery, the same as Emmanuel. Of course he won't go down that easy.”
Winford looks at Emmanuel Newton completely different from everyone else. Winford had held everyone attacking him with disdain. However, with Emmanuel, he looks at him with respect. That respect isn't reciprocated however. Emmanuel starts walking slowly towards Winford and looks at him as if he's an annoying fly. He stops a few meters away from Winford.
“As the leader of this little movement, you will not have the luxury of dying so quickly as your underlings.” Emmanuel says to Winford as if stating a fact.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
“Tch.” Winford says as all the tentacles move at blinding speed to attack Emmanuel.
Emmanuel didn't even move as the mana surrounding him condensed into a mana shield. The tentacles bounce off the shield with a “Clang” sound.
The mana shield disappears. Emmanuel raises a hand in the air. More ink lines start forming. They form into a transmutation around the size of Emmanuel himself. The circle starts to glow. Fire starts blazing out of that transmutation circle and condenses into a ball.
Extra plating starts sticking out of Winford's armor and covering him. Emmanuel launches his attack. Massive fireballs fire at Winford and he is hit. Winford is pushed greatly back and collides into a building. His armored plating has some cracks, but other than that he's fine. He quickly uses his repair skill to repair his armor.
Emmanuel creates more transmutation circles in the air. They contain different elements condensing to form different attacks. Wheels form from under Winford's feet as he rushes towards Emmanuel. Winford also gets rid of his extra plating, as they impede his mobility. He dodges some in the nick of time, but he is still hit. The damage though didn't look to be that serious.
Winford is trying to get back up from Emmanuel's last attack. He then sees a bright light glowing on the ground. He realizes that this glow is not something that's on the ground. This glow is coming from the very ground their standing on, as Emmanuel changes the ground to suit his needs. He uses the trick that earth mage had tried to use on him before: Turning the ground into a soft mud to trap his enemy.
Winford was quick to react before any damage was done. The armor on his arm changes. A grappling hook appears on his arm. He fires it towards the top of a building and pulls himself towards it. Emmanuel though still wasn't done. He then changes the composition of the building he is pulling himself towards. It starts turning into mud.
Winford starts releasing the hook from the building being demolished and starts using his grappling hook towards other buildings. Emmanuel steadily turns all the buildings around Winford into mush, leading Winford's building escape plan to failure. Seeing as how using his grappling hook is now useless, he summons a flying robot towards him and uses it as a platform.
Emmanuel follows suit. Two transmutation circles appear underneath his shoes. A gale starts blowing from him. It's so powerful that even the Gnosia army far away have to cover their faces. With a leap, the circles under his feet glow. Two huge wind blasts are fired from his feet, enabling him to fly.
Emmanuel chases after Winford, and the gap between them steadily closes more and more. Emmanuel spreads out an arm. Mana starts to condense and grow out. At around 5 meters, the mana starts to stabilize. He creates a giant sword made out of mana. He then adds transmutation circles on the giant sword. Those transmutation circles join together to create a transmutation circle array. Those transmutation circles look like they increase the sword's power.
Winford knows it would be terrible if that sword were to hit him. He has already wasted a lot of mana on repairing his armors. The more components there are to a gadget, the more mana a person needs to repair it. Since Winford's armor is so advanced, he uses up a lot of mana to repair it. He can't afford to repair his armor too many times or he'll run out of mana. He pulls out a huge grenade launcher and starts firing shots. Emmanuel swings his arm out along with that huge sword.
Emmanuel's mana sword is able to deflect most of the bombs coming towards him. Multiple explosions go out due to Winford's bombs, and they seem far more powerful than the bombs that Null uses. Emmanuel's sword manages to block most of the bombs, but he has to fly out of the way of some of them. Winford then takes out his giant sword.
“Upgrade!”
Winford uses his tinkerer skill, Upgrade to upgrade his sword into a gargantuan sword about the same size as Emmanuel's sword. Emmanuel flies towards Winford while Winford rides on his robot towards Emmanuel.
When those two swords meet, a huge shockwave is generated. During that collision, Winford was clearly in the weaker position. He was pushed back, even with his robot helping him. Still, a huge dent with cracks showing was present on Emmanuel's sword.
The mana sword Emmanuel has starts to change. It starts to change into a ball. Four additional appendages come out. It's a mana construct made into a giant hand. He starts flying towards Winford with an open palm.
Winford takes out his chain gun to shoot Winford from afar. However, the bullets can't get through Winford's giant hand. He switches over to his grenade launcher. The weapon manages to make the hand construct shake, but it was still growing strong. Seeing as the hand was about to approach him, Winford pulls out one of his most powerful works.
Due to Winford being a high leveled tinkerer, he has a huge amount of bag space contained on his person. He pulls out a metallic arm around half the size of Emmanuel's mana fist.
“Tch. You think you can beat my Fist of the Titan so easily? Upgrade!”
Winford then upgraded the fist to be just about the size of Emmanuel's. The fists countered each other as they became emboldened in a hand lock. Emmanuel then clinched his fist, crushing Winford's giant fist little by little. Winford detaches the fist and retreats.
A huge explosion! That fist was actually a gigantic bomb. Even Emmanuel didn't come out unscathed from that surprise attack. Emmanuel was finally injured for the first time, though it was only superficial wounds.
Meanwhile on the ground, Gnosia's side was watching this battle in astonishment.
“Winford truly is powerful. To think he is still alive after facing Emmanuel.”
“Still, it's clearly seen that Emmanuel is stronger. Winford is only delaying the inevitable.”
Emmanuel creates more transmutation circles in the air. They once again fire at Winford. He manages to dodge most, but not all. A boulder smashes against his arm. The armor is unresponsive in that arm. A huge fireball is aimed at Winford's head. This throws the sensors he has built into his head in disarray. The robot Winford is riding on is also hit. It's starts flying erratically, trying to stabilize its flight.
Emmanuel aims and Winford is hit again. This time, the robot's wing he is flying on is damaged. Winford doesn't have the time nor the mana to repair this damage. The robot that he's on starts falling towards the ground. Winford jumps off it before it crashes. Luckily for Winford, he and Emmanuel's battle traveled far from where Emmanuel had changed the ground, so there was ground to stand on.
Winford was in pretty bad shape. His armor was in a mess. It will take him a while with the repair skill to repair the damages. The ground then starts to glow again. Winford sinks and becomes trapped! Only his upper torso and body is visible. Emmanuel lowers himself and levitates above the trapped Winford with his arms crossed.
“You've done well. You even managed to slightly injure me. However now, it's over.” Emmanuel says walking slowly towards Winford.
Winford struggles to get out of this predicament, but it looks like he's stuck. The controls that still work on his helmet are giving the command to retract. The helmet retreats onto his armor showing his bruised, beat up face. Despite being trapped, despite looking like he's on his last legs, he still has that smile that is saying that everything is acting according to his plan.
That smile unsettles Emmanuel a bit.
It's then that the ground starts rumbling. Not only that, Gnosia's army sees something that shocks them. A huge army of robots start approaching, from the land, from underground, and from in the air. Each of these robots are the most powerful robots in Winford's arsenal. They are all level 300+. He was waiting for Emmanuel to spend his mana just for this moment.
Flying robot suicide bombers dive towards Emmanuel. Emmanuel created three transmutation circles while flying in the air. The robots aren't like the rebels he fought before. They are far more powerful and durable. However, Emmanuel still manages to take the robots out in one hit due to his sheer power. He manages to take out a few before the attacks got to be too much even for him.
Emmanuel puts up a mana shield. The shield is able to hold for a while, but there are just far too many robots. He only has so much mana inside of him. The collisions aren't very powerful, but there are just so many. Cracks start showing up in Emmanuel's mana shield. It didn't take long for that mana shield to shatter. He realizes that it's not a good idea to stay in the air, lest he become an easy target with everything able to fire at him. After he lands on the ground, he puts up earthen pillars to block the flight trajectories of the suicide bomber robots.
Those giant humanoid robots start ramming through the pillars and charging towards Emmanuel. There are some that are destroyed, but some are able to make it towards him. Emmanuel uses his alchemy to sink them into the ground. However, the robots that dig are immune to this, and help dig out the suicide bomber robots. The suicide robots then resumed their attacks. This was a battle of attrition, and Emmanuel was losing.
'I don't have that much mana left. Should I withdraw temporarily?' Emmanuel ponders in his mind.
The attacks start ramping up. The attacks steadily increase while Emmanuel's mana decreases. Emmanuel eventually gets overwhelmed. An explosion hits Emmanuel. Blood spurts out his mouth. This is the first time Emmanuel's face shows anger. He tries to escape by flying away, but he gets mobbed. Attack after attack is brought upon Emmanuel, with no breaks in between.
It was then, that Emmanuel falls to the ground beaten. All of Gnosia's hope falls when Emmanuel falls.
“He... He actually lost!?”
“He was our last hope. *sigh*”
“We have to save him!” That person yelling that starts to rush out.
“Don't be an idiot!” Archum yells at him and others attempting to save him. “If Emmanuel himself couldn't stop him, what makes you think we have a chance?!”
They all look down depressed knowing that Archum is right.
“All we would be doing is throwing our lives away. I'm sure Winford will not kill him for now. Knowing him, he'll make a big public wide execution.”
“But what can we do?” Someone asks Archum anxiously.
“We retreat and hope for a miracle.”
Gnosia's army retreats. Winford's robots don't pursue. Winford sees them as no threat. Pretty soon Winford plans on taking over the entire city, and there will be no place left for them to hide. He also knows all of their strategies. After all, he helped develop most of them.
Winford is now out of the ground due to his robots digging him out. He walks towards Emmanuel's downed body.
Emmanuel looks at Winford with clenched teeth.
“What's with that look?” Winford gloats. “You probably imagined yourself invincible in this city, right? You were the hardest obstacle in my plan. Don't worry, you'll live. For now anyways.”
Winford snaps his fingers. Locks and chains covered in depleted mana stones are put over Emmanuel. Now he can't use any techniques at all. All those mana stones suck in Emmanuel's mana and spit it out random. It happens so rapidly that Emmanuel can't control it at all. They take him away with Emmanuel not knowing what's in store for him.
------------
Author's Note: Null's end path will not look like this. It won't even be similar. This was just to show what a librarian is capable of.
On another note, the toaster burned my toast, the lights went out when I took a shower, and my broadband keeps cutting off. We don't have to wait for a robot uprising! It has already begun! Curse their annoying, inconvenient revolution!