Silas' snap echoed throughout the entire city as a green line shone throughout the central district, causing it to glow brightly.
Jessica, who was now panting as she looked at her handy work, could not help but drop to the ground and let out a relieved sigh.
She had heard the battle Greed and Silas were having, and she knew she wouldn't have much time left to finish up.
In her hand, a staff with a pointy bit at the end of it could be seen. At the same time, anyone who could see her would have immediately seen the caved ground around her. It wasn't too deep, to be extremely noticeable, but now that it was glowing with a green light, it could be seen clearly.
However, what would have most likely caught someone's attention before was not the carved ground, instead, it was an artifact that stood before Jessica, pulsing with mana as all the elements crackles around it.
It was covered in hundreds of tiny runes and stood at a height that made it taller than most.
It was very wide as well, making it the size of around two people standing right next to each other.
It looked like a pier as it got more narrow as it got closer to the top until it eventually became the size of a needle.
This was the handy work of both Silas and Virack. Of course, Virack did most of the work. The only thing Silas contributed was the idea, and it was enough for Virack to make it.
Despite what Virack might have said, he was quite the forgemaster. Sure, he was the best forgemaster in Darkless, but that didn't mean he was the best in the kingdom, let alone the continent.
He had also made it obvious that he could not create weapons or armor above the advanced tier. However, after seeing him create the machine by using Silas' design, as well as his knowledge of this world, Silas could tell that Virack was definitely a genius.
Hell, even Eclipse looked surprised by what he saw.
He had lived close to a hundred years, yet not once had he seen something alike to what Silas and Virack had created.
However, it had done something that fixed the majority of their problems.
What Silas called the "mana engine" was a mechanical machine capable of melting mana crystals and cores into liquid form before pumping their pure energy through the runes around it.
The machine itself wasn't hard to make. Silas simply used Earth's knowledge of engines. Of course, he had to change the design a little for it to fit what he needed it to do, but it worked out in the end.
Jessica looked at the mana pump with star-stricken eyes as she could only imagine what kind of genius one would need to be to make something like it.
***
"What did you do..." Greed asked while taking a step back.
"What did I do?" Silas raised a brow before letting out a light chuckle.
"I stalled your ass so all of this could be set up. You're so easy to read!" Silas reeled back in laughter. His cackles almost felt maniacal in nature, and that very thing made the veins on Greed's forehead bulge.
"I knew that, if you thought you were winning, you wouldn't make the order... I also knew that, due to your relentless pride, you would have most likely gotten everyone in the city into one location in order to allow them to watch the execution of Archie by your hands, just so you could feel superior." However, even while Silas said this, she was not listening.
Looking back, she made the mental order for everyone to kill themselves. She was close enough for that order to be easily carried out... However...
She no longer felt it.
The connection between her and the substance within their bodies allowed her to control them in the first place.
She couldn't feel that connection anymore.
"And you know what's even worse? That superiority complex of yours is the very reason I knew exactly where to place the magic circle for it to have the highest effect possible. Of course, I made it so it affect the entire city, but the results would be a lot more reliable if it was close as possible to most of the people."
"You created an array..." Greed asked with rage and shock in her voice.
It would have been impossible to create an array at such short notice.
Arrays were the peak level of spell crafting.
One-time-use arrays usually took hours to create. Stronger ones usually took days, and even then, the stronger arrays needed someone with a powerful core to create them.
The reason arrays were considered the peak of spell crafting was because they were one level above silent casting. Of course, there were some capable of creating them without having the ability to silent cast, but it was still considered insanely difficult.
After all, one required the dedication of using a spell hundreds of times to understand it enough to create it without an incantation, while the other required years of study toward runemanship, spell crafting, forge-mastering, and many more fields.
Arrays, though, were powerful... They were beyond powerful.
If armor was capable of creating a normal man into a king, powerful arrays in a particular location could create a domain for the user that is so powerful they might as well be considered higher beings.
Of course, this required years of dedication since these types of arrays would only be found in noble houses, mansions, and even castles.
They did everything from dampening certain elements to amplifying them.
"H-How.... How did you create an array this quickly... Unless-"
"Oh? An array? Well, I called it an artificial spell, but array doesn't sound too bad either."
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