Chapter 175: Failure?
Boom!
The earth quaked. All around, everyone hid in horror, unable to comprehend what was happening.
The clueless civilians across the city silently prayed for their lives.
Buildings groaned from tremors, high-rises swayed as the earth shuddered.
Back in the research facility, Carmen staggered to his feet. He pressed his card onto the scanner.
It flashed red again, but this time he yelled hurriedly, "AUTHORITY OVERRIDE!!"
The alarming beeping froze, the lights flashed blue.
[State of emergency detected!]
[Override Authority Carmen Walker Recognized!]
The lights turned green...
Before Carmen and the rest could even finish letting out a sigh of relief, the doors slid open.
A blistering wave of heat washed out...
"Ahhh!" Everyone screamed in pain as hairs singed and overalls burned black.
They were mostly sheltered scholars, barely having stats at 50. Their defense was nothing noteworthy.
So even the slight wind from Brandon’s flame was enough to send their skins blistering red.
They stared in horror, retreating from the workshop faster than they had arrived, unable to even close the doors behind them.
The heat permeated the surroundings. The heat sensors picked up on this, distilling cold sprays of frost to balance the temperature.
But the damage was already done. The walkway was littered with figures suffering from at least third-degree burns.
Elder Ron witnessed this sight from a distance. A chill washed his back as he shuddered in apprehension. Fortunately, he wasn’t right behind them, or his fate wouldn’t have been much different.
"You!" Carmen croaked, pointing his now leathery, steaming white fingers at Elder Ron.
"You have fault in this! If we don’t die today, I’ll report you! I’ll make sure your license is revoked and your qualifications are scrapped!" Carmen hissed, his eyes spilling red with rancor.
The building quaked once more, causing their painful moans to intensify as he collapsed back to the cold, hard, metal-plated ground.
Elder Ron didn’t pay Carmen any heed. Using the wall as support, he stood staring beyond them into his granddaughter’s workshop, worry clouding his heart.
’Is little monster alright?’
.....
Back in Kylie’s workshop...
The heat was at its peak. A Shackled Rank human would have found it hard to even breathe at this point.
But all three figures remained unharmed...
Kylie, who was supposed to be the most susceptible to the heat, was protected by a glowing barrier of milky shade.
Her eyes remained glazed over as though in a trance, her fingers punching at the operating board with deft speed.
Meanwhile, on Seth’s end, he and Brandon stood facing each other, with Brandon letting out compressed jet-packed torrents of flame onto a simmering metal while Seth hammered away.
Lines of bronze glowed on Seth’s skin, his muscles becoming even more defined, his hair letting out a subtle simmer as it billowed.
Royal purple pulsed in his eyes, his grip on the hammer locking tighter, his calves clenched as he prepared to deliver the last shaping strike.
The hammer fell the same moment Brandon quelled his flame in sync, as the metal pulsed brightly beneath its strike.
There was no crisp clang from collision, no sonorous reverberations of strumming metal.
There was no noise at all. It was as though the strike triggered a resonance at a pitch beyond the frequency human ears could perceive.
Instead, the earth shook!
It was as though the convergence was happening all over again.
But weirdly and surprisingly, no building crumbled. If one paid attention to slight detail, they would realize...
Even utensils sitting on cabinets across several households, appliances on desks across various workplaces — none were displaced.
Nothing toppled, nothing fell, yet they all shook in tandem but sat stable.
It was as though the force spread in equal measure, down to every rock, every spoon, every structure. The force rippled through all in steady measure, overwhelming nothing.
And even as the world-ending tremor slowly died into slight vibration, everyone was shocked to see everything still in place.
The earth didn’t crack, roads remained steady, buildings sat straight after swaying...
But one thing still remained — the tumultuous storm.
Seth’s eyes slowly dimmed. For the first time in a long, long time, he felt exhaustion that hit him to the marrow.
His eyes flashed as he caught sight of his stats.
He hissed in apprehension.
[Vitality: 19/399]
[Essence Unit: 23/400]
This meant forging brought several times more toll on him than even battling.
His muscles loosened and his bones ached, his head pulsed as the large hammer slipped from his grasp.
He stared at his trembling hands. Just now, it was as though everything he did was an embedded memory.
It stemmed from his muscles. He suddenly knew where and how to temper, he understood the best metals to mix, he shaped the metals as though they were clay in his grasp.
It was an entrancing, enchanting feeling — one he enjoyed, but in the end it came at a cost.
Light pulsed in his palms as he summoned an essence crystal. Clutching it tight, he absorbed essence greedily.
Seth didn’t even have the time to appreciate his craft.
But Brandon did for him...
Brandon’s eyes flashed in amazement as he let out a whistle, impressed at the sight before his eyes.
The hardware components of the battle suit pulsed brilliantly as they orbited midair, as though the ground itself was too blasphemous to sit on.
He reached out and grabbed one...
It was cold to the touch despite the intense heat permeating the workshop. The metal flashed brilliantly in his grasp.
He whistled again as he glanced at the recuperating Seth. "Tsk tsk, multi-talented is an understatement!" He chuckled, tossing the metal back into orbit.
He himself was quite spent, just as he sat cross-legged, ready to summon an essence crystal.
Kylie’s voice rang, causing both Seth’s and Brandon’s eyelids to snap back open as they turned her way.
"Done!"
Her eyes burned bright as she slammed on a button. Even she never expected to finish this soon.
But this device before her was more impressive than she imagined. The semi-automatic indication written in its description wasn’t for show.
Making every action simple and speedy, what was supposed to take her at least three days was summed in a few dozen hours or so.
She licked her lips, excitement burning in her eyes as she rushed to the side of the machine, opening a compartment.
Light shone as a series of golden runes floated out of the small compartment. Each rune danced in the air, pulsing brilliantly as they streamed through the hot wind, floating towards the orbiting metal hardware out of pure purpose.
It was as though the metal parts called and the runes responded.
And right before everyone’s eyes, the runes pulsed, etching themselves onto the metallic parts, forming links as the battle suit slowly assembled itself from the incoherent whole.
It was a mind-boggling sight, no human intervention needed, as it slowly clinked into place, forming into a whole humanoid exoskeletal battle suit pulsing with runes.
A radiant halo burned around the newly formed genetic armament, but it was yet to be completed as a circular gap remained in the chest, dark.
Kylie snapped out of her daze, realizing it was her cue. She swung open another compartment.
Once more, a cadence of brilliant gold spilled, as a circular glassy orb of bright gold flew right out.
And like a metal facing the irresistible pull of a magnetic force, the orb was dragged across the air by a formless power.
It slammed right into the gaping hole, sitting perfectly. The halo shone brighter.
Everyone watched with burning anticipation...
Seth’s tired eyes lit ablaze with expectation, Kylie staring with both satisfaction and unending curiosity at her handiwork.
But just when they expected the armament to reach its climax, the lights suddenly dimmed, and golden runes dulled black.
The glassy orb dimmed grey as the battle suit collapsed from the air.
The atmosphere froze...
Brandon’s eyes flashed with disappointment and pity. "It failed?"
Kylie’s brows creased, unable to understand. She mumbled silently, unable to make heads or tails of where things went wrong.
Only Seth remained calm. He stared at the sky, his eyes flashing as his gaze abruptly narrowed...
"TAKE COVER!" he yelled suddenly in warning as he leapt through the air, instinctively rushing towards Kylie’s direction.
As a comrade who had faced countless dangers together with Seth, Brandon’s instincts weren’t dull. The moment Seth’s alarm rang out, he leapt away.
The principle of follow orders and ask questions later propelled his body into the distance.
A thunderous rumble rang as a disastrous clap of thunder struck.
From the whirling tumultuous clouds of the sky, brilliant currents tore down, illuminating the entirety of Aegis as the haunting current streaked down at the research facility!
