Chapter 58: The Architect’s Gaze
"Do not let them charge their attacks," Kanos commanded sharply. His head was still throbbing from the barrier breach, but his tactical mind remained razor sharp.
The Cleaner on the right did not even try to evade. Its silver rings suddenly stopped spinning and snapped into a vertical alignment. A blindingly fast pulse of pure kinetic force erupted from its blue core.
"They are using localized gravity bursts," Belida yelled. The knight quickly dragged Sili behind a thick concrete pillar just as a stray shockwave tore a massive trench right through the stone bridge. "Our hounds cannot eat physical force!"
Kanos gritted his teeth. He knew his printed army was highly specialized for an anti magic war. Against enemies that literally edited the physical gravity values of the environment, his hounds were just fragile balloons waiting to be popped.
The twenty massive void stone giants charged forward. Their heavy footsteps shook the bridge violently. Since they were made of solid, ultra dense anti magic stone, Kanos hoped they could withstand the kinetic blasts better than the smoke hounds.
Two golems finally managed to grab the left Cleaner. Their giant stone hands clamped down hard on the spinning silver rings, trying to crush the machine using brute force. The machine buzzed violently, its blue core glowing dangerously bright as it tried to push the heavy giants away.
He looked at his heavily bandaged, completely useless right arm. He cursed quietly. He could not draw properly. His printed army was struggling.
But Kanos was not going to draw a complex creature. He did not need an anatomically perfect hound. He just needed to draw a single, simple concept. A virus.
"Papuyu," Kanos called out coldly. "I need you to get me within two meters of that machine on the right."
Kanos started sprinting down the chaotic bridge. Papuyu ran slightly ahead of him. The right Cleaner noticed them approaching. Its silver rings shifted, aiming a deadly kinetic pulse straight at Kanos.
Kanos slid across the cracked stone floor, closing the distance rapidly. The machine hovered just above him, its rings spinning wildly to clear the smoke.
He poured his remaining health points into his left arm. His hand moved aggressively, drawing a jagged, completely chaotic spiral pattern directly onto the pristine metal surface. It was messy. It was entirely flawed. It was the absolute antithesis of structural perfection.
The bloody charcoal lines instantly ignited with a blinding white light. Because the lines were intentionally flawed and drawn directly onto the enemy’s physical body, the resulting structural failure did not explode outward. It exploded inward.
It failed.
Seeing its partner destroyed by an impossible logic error, the left Cleaner panicked. Its core overheated wildly. Belida did not waste the opportunity. The giant knight leaped off the back of a golem and brought his greatsword down with explosive power, perfectly cleaving the distracted machine entirely in half.
The deafening noise on the bridge finally ceased. The only sound left was the heavy panting of the surviving fighters. Kanos lay flat on the stone floor, his chest heaving rapidly. His left hand was completely stained with black charcoal and dried blood.
"You really enjoy nearly killing yourself, Illustrator," Belida said, a tired grin on his bruised face.
Sili ran over, dragging his leather bag. The broker looked at the destroyed Cleaners in absolute disbelief. "Boss... you just broke the system’s ultimate fail safe. There is literally nothing left in their catalog to throw at us."
"Good," Kanos said coldly. He started walking slowly toward the staircase. "Then it is time to go upstairs and meet the admins in person."
