Chapter 251: Ripping the Vultures, Scrap Metal
It looked like the bird was pulling a glowing, screaming pile of digital spaghetti out of the giant’s chest cavity.
Prometheus let out a deep, booming groan that physically shook the mountain. His massive, emaciated body arched against the golden chains, the ancient code flickering wildly as the Vulture greedily swallowed the ripped data.
The other two vultures immediately joined in, plunging their jagged beaks into his arms and legs, violently tearing chunks of foundational data away and swallowing it whole.
"They’re eating him alive," Valerie whispered, horror lacing her voice.
"They aren’t just eating him," Sebastian corrected, his silver-tinged eyes narrowing into cold, calculating slits. He watched the process with total, unblinking focus.
The moment the vultures ripped a chunk of code away, the golden cuffs binding Prometheus flared with a blinding light.
*BZZZT.*
A wave of restorative, high-tier healing magic washed over the giant. The massive, gaping holes in his wireframe chest instantly stitched themselves back together. The old, 8-bit green light flared, aggressively regenerating the stolen Source Code in a fraction of a second.
Prometheus was fully healed.
And then, the lead vulture simply leaned down and violently ripped the brand new code right back out of his chest.
*SHHHK! SQUELCH!*
Another booming groan of pure agony echoed across the plateau.
"It’s an automated feeding cycle," Sebastian stated, his voice dropping into a dark, terrifying hum. "He’s the original creator. His code is pure, unadulterated foundational data. The Core OS chained him here, and they use these mechanical buzzards to constantly harvest his raw processing power. They rip it out, force him to regenerate, and rip it out again. Forever."
It was a twisted, digital perversion of the old Prometheus myth. A god chained to a rock, getting his liver eaten by an eagle every single day for the rest of eternity.
"The Architects really love their Greek mythology," Sebastian muttered, his hands balling into tight fists. "It’s incredibly pretentious."
"Sebastian, we have to stop them," Valerie said, her grip tightening on his hand.
"I know," Sebastian agreed.
He didn’t feel a surge of heroic righteousness. He didn’t care about saving the multiverse or being the good guy. But looking at the vultures constantly running their automated, torturous script on the bound giant, he just felt a deep, overwhelming hatred for bad software.
"These birds are basically just malicious bloatware," Sebastian growled, rolling his neck. The heavy pop of his biological steel joints echoed loudly against the glass. "And I’m the uninstall wizard."
He gently let go of Valerie’s hand.
"Stay here, Princess," Sebastian ordered softly, stepping slightly in front of her. "Keep your tether stable. Don’t engage them. If they hit you with that white static, it’ll sever your connection to Earth."
"Be careful, Seattle," Valerie warned, gripping her staff tightly. "They’re Level 95."
"I don’t care what level they are," Sebastian said, his cracked porcelain mask turning back toward the massive, feasting birds.
The red error runes carved into his chest and arms flared with a violent, aggressive heat. The dark, bruised-purple static of his [Error Accumulation] began to visibly bleed through the fabric of his black leather coat.
He didn’t bother using his [Code Compiler] to write a new law of physics. He didn’t pull his Earth Sword from his inventory. Some problems required complex, elegant mathematical solutions.
And some problems just required you to walk up and rip the enemy’s head off with your bare hands.
"Hey, pigeons!" Sebastian roared, his voice heavily distorted with overlapping audio files, vibrating across the polished black glass.
The three massive Deletion Daemons stopped their feast. They slowly raised their eyeless, jagged metal heads, their smooth domes turning to lock onto the terrifying, eight-foot-tall Glitch standing at the edge of the arena.
*SKREEECH!*
The lead vulture shrieked, spreading its massive, razor-sharp steel wings.
Sebastian cracked his knuckles.
"I’m here to do some pest control."
—-
The absolute peak of the black glass mountain was freezing cold, completely sterile, and about to get incredibly messy.
*SKREEECH!*
The mechanical shriek of the three Automated Deletion Daemons was deafening. It sounded like two rusty razor blades being dragged violently down a chalkboard connected to a stadium amplifier. The massive, fighter-jet-sized vultures spread their wings of razor-sharp dark gray metal. They didn’t have eyes, but their smooth, steel-domed heads locked perfectly onto Sebastian’s glitching, eight-foot-tall silhouette.
"I really hate birds," Sebastian muttered, rolling his broad, static-laced shoulders. "Pigeons are bad enough, but these guys look like flying garbage disposals."
He didn’t bother opening his green Administrator UI. He didn’t reach for the [Law of Rotting Gravity] or summon his heavy Earth Sword. Magic was a tool, but right now, Sebastian just wanted to break something with his own two hands.
"Sebastian, watch out! They’re diving!" Valerie yelled from the sidelines, her translucent blue Astral Avatar hovering safely a few yards away.
"I see ’em, Seattle," Sebastian grunted.
The lead vulture folded its massive steel wings and plummeted out of the dark sky directly toward him. It opened its jagged, metallic beak, revealing a throat dripping with highly corrosive, white-hot static. It fully intended to snatch him up and bite him in half.
Sebastian didn’t dodge. He bent his knees, feeling the sheer, impossible density of his thirty-percent physical synchronization coil tightly in his biological steel muscles.
"Let’s play," Sebastian whispered.
*BOOM!*
Sebastian launched himself straight up into the air. The kinetic force of his jump was so immense that the indestructible black glass beneath his boots violently cracked, sending a shower of dark shards skittering across the plateau.
He met the diving metal vulture perfectly in mid-air.
The beast didn’t even have time to snap its beak shut. Sebastian bypassed the deadly mouth entirely and wrapped his thick, black-gloved arms directly around the creature’s thick, armored neck.
*CLANG!*
The impact rang out like a massive church bell. The sheer weight of the mechanical bird hit him hard, but Sebastian’s momentum arrested its dive completely. They hung suspended in the dead air for a fraction of a second.
The vulture thrashed wildly, its razor-sharp wings slicing through the empty void as it tried to shake the human glitch off its neck.
"Down boy!" Sebastian roared.
He didn’t try to wrestle it to the ground. He just squeezed. He engaged every single ounce of raw, unadulterated torque in his arms, his muscles bulging beneath the black leather of his coat.
*CRUNCH!*
The thick, high-tier Ethereal armor plating of the vulture’s neck buckled inward. The sound was a horrific, grinding crunch of collapsing steel and snapping internal mana-conduits. Sebastian violently twisted his hips, torquing the massive steel head to the side with the unstoppable force of a collapsing star.
*SNAP!*
The vulture’s neck sheared completely off its chassis.
[Target Eliminated. Deletion Daemon Destroyed.]
[Experience Gain Negated by Level Cap.]
The red error lights inside the bird’s headless stump flickered and died. Sebastian let go, allowing the massive, decapitated metal carcass to plummet past him.
*CRASH!*
The dead bird hit the glass floor of the plateau and violently shattered into a million useless gray pixels.
Sebastian hit the ground a second later, landing in a low crouch. He barely had time to catch his breath before a massive shadow fell over him.
The second vulture didn’t dive from above. It swooped in low across the black glass, its heavy steel talons extended, aiming to carve Sebastian’s chest completely open.
"Missed me, ugly," Sebastian sneered.
He didn’t jump this time. He waited until the talons were inches from his face, then he threw his entire body flat onto his back. The massive bird sailed directly over him, the wind from its metal wings whipping his coat around.
As the vulture’s underbelly passed over him, Sebastian reached up with both hands and grabbed the thick, interlocking metal plates of its belly.
He didn’t let go.
"Guh!" Sebastian grunted as the sheer velocity of the bird yanked him violently off the floor.
He was essentially waterskiing on the bottom of a fighter jet. He used his momentum to swing his body upward, hauling himself over the side of the bird and landing heavily on its broad, armored back.
*SKREEECH!*
The vulture panicked. It realized there was a hostile virus riding on its chassis. It began to violently buck and roll in the air, trying to shake him loose.
"Hold still, you stupid tin can!" Sebastian yelled, digging his heavy boots into the grooves of its metal feathers to keep his balance.
He crawled his way up the thrashing bird’s back until he reached the base of its smooth, eyeless head. The vulture whipped its neck around, snapping its jagged metal beak at him, trying to bite his arm off.
Sebastian didn’t pull away. He shot both of his hands forward.
His left hand clamped onto the upper half of the vulture’s beak, and his right hand grabbed the lower jaw. The metal was searing hot, radiating the terrible heat of the white static inside its throat.
"Open wide!" Sebastian roared.
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