Chapter 1399 — The Mantis

When that living mountain range once again began to stir after more than twenty consecutive strikes from the supercritical accelerators, when its dark surface—stretching on for kilometer after kilometer—once more heaved with those nauseating waves, when its bio-cannons once again began to gather energy even greater than before, the entire battlefield seemed to fall into a brief silence.

The soldiers had witnessed the world-rending might of the supercritical accelerator bombardment, and so when they saw that the Creeping Calamity could emerge from such a terrifying barrage utterly unscathed, everyone who beheld it felt a vast shock and dread.

No—it could not be called unscathed. Those accelerator projectiles, laden with immense energy, had indeed carved a series of dreadful wounds across the Creeping Calamity's surface. The "material criticality effect" of magic had vaporized hundreds, even thousands of tons of the colossal creature's bodily tissue, gouging out vast stretches of pitted trenches and rifts across its upper layers. The scalding fluids boiling off from within the Creeping Calamity had condensed into a cloud-mist hanging low in the air, shrouding the living mountain range like a pall of dark stormclouds. Fragments of splattered tissue were still raining down in an unending downpour, and even in this infernal state, the Creeping Calamity retained a considerable vitality—and had begun to launch its counterattack.

Magic bolts threaded with a faint stream of blue light shrieked toward the great shield of the Dawn of the Mortal World, several in succession, nearly all aimed at the same point. The nearby Gorgon fortresses had raised their shields at the first instant, attempting to intercept this dreadful attack—but the Creeping Calamity's magic bolts had, in earlier engagements, struck even tiny scout craft adrift in the magic turbulence layer. Its "fire-control" system was monstrously powerful, and the Dawn of the Mortal World was far too large a target. The Gorgons' interception failed.

A world-annihilating explosion bloomed across the surface of the Dawn of the Mortal World's shield. In the wasteland shrouded by dim daylight, it was as though a new sun had risen in an instant. The immense energy flows became layer upon layer of shockwaves, rippling outward in rings across the sky—shockwaves that even briefly dispersed the heavy cloud cover above the Tarash Plains. For a fleeting moment, ordinary sunlight shone upon this land once more, after so long an absence.

A creaking, groaning sound arose, as of massive crystals fracturing. Across every deck of the Dawn of the Mortal World came piercing screeches and the shrill whistling that followed close upon them. The great shield was instantly flooded with countless interference noises, and the shield generators along the deck edges burst into flame and exploded one after another. This magic bolt, its power so abnormally great, was clearly not to be compared with the previous attacks. After a delay of merely two or three seconds, a terrible bursting sound finally erupted from one point upon the Dawn of the Mortal World's great shield.

The devastating energy poured through the localized breach into the fortress shield, becoming searing flame and high-energy lightning that swept across everything upon the decks.

The entire control hall shook violently, metal grinding as though the great ship were about to break apart, assaulting everyone's eardrums. Bubbles rose in a stream from the main brain within its wetware socket, and it instantly seized control of the sky-fortress's damage-control systems. A great many compartments were sealed and isolated within seconds; tons upon tons of fire-suppressant, sealant, and magic-inerting compound surged through the pipes throughout the fortress, pouring over every damaged region. Amid the ceaseless alarms, Jinna Prince gripped the handrail before her and said loudly, "Report damage status! Report target status!"

"Shield locally breached. Half of shield generators destroyed. Redundant systems engaging. Decks A-2 through A-7 largely melted through; damage to corridors and compartments within the corresponding sectors is being tallied. Primary power down to seventy-six percent. Flight capability intact. Remaining damage not yet tallied," the main brain's voice sounded directly in the hall. "Target activity continues to rise. Estimated time until target's internal energy reaction reaches its second peak: ten minutes... High-density energy flow detected deep beneath the Creeping Calamity. Suspected connection to the target's reactivation."

Jinna felt a buzzing in her head. The tremors deep within the hall were gradually subsiding; the giant fortress seemed to have withstood that dreadful blow. But the main brain's report only sank her heart further—high-density energy flow deep beneath the Creeping Calamity. After a brief confusion, she had already realized what lay behind this piece of intelligence.

This was the Deep Blue Well—the energy heart of the old Gondor Empire. Though the old Gondor Empire had vanished into history, the energy veins of the Deep Blue Well itself had never died. The only high-density energy source deep beneath this land... was the Deep Blue Netway.

"That monster has already driven its roots into the Deep Blue Netway... It is drawing on this planet's energy to attack us," Jinna wiped away the blood that had at some point trickled down from her forehead, her eyes fixed on the distant vista displayed in the holographic projection. "Main brain, what is your status? Can you continue to sustain full-power computation?"

Pale pink bubbles rose in the tank housing the main brain, and within a conduit connected to its main body, some viscous pale-yellow fluid flowed slowly. The neuter synthetic voice sounded in the hall: "Overload state entered. However, portions of the neural system are damaged. Efficiency of ship-wide control has fallen to eighty percent. Manual computational assistance required."

Jinna Prince raised her head and glanced at the immersion pods arrayed near the main brain's socket. Those pods, with their silvery-white metallic sheen, stood open, and the neural contact points on the seats within glimmered coldly under the lights.

"...All command operators, enter the immersion pods," Jinna said in a low voice. "Order the Gorgon formation: reload the supercritical accelerators. Await the Dawn of the Mortal World's command. Prepare to fire again."

Receiving the supreme commander's order, the command operators in the control hall moved swiftly. Without hesitation they lay down in the immersion pods marked with their own numbers, and within seconds the canopies closed over them, entering deep-link state, their brains directly interfacing with the various systems of the Dawn of the Mortal World. Only a handful of officers, Jinna among them, remained in the physical world to continue directing the battle.

Using the immersion pods to assist in controlling the Dawn of the Mortal World—this was an "emergency system" left in place since the giant fortress's original design. When the fighting was at its fiercest and the situation most critical, the fortress's controllers could, by this method, directly connect their own brains to the Dawn of the Mortal World and augment the main brain's power. This would raise the entire fortress's operational efficiency and combat flexibility to an inconceivable height—and the price was that the operators' lives would be bound to the sky-fortress's various systems.

Shield overload, gun-mount destruction, armor penetration—every injury that occurred to the Dawn of the Mortal World meant that the person linked to it would suffer a direct neural shock. A body of steel, a fate of steel.