Chapter 457: Desolation (1/2)

Zac’s large donation was compensation for pushing Jaol’s fate off-course, but it wasn’t completely born from benevolence. Such a huge sum would draw massive suspicion toward the comms officer, and his end would no doubt be pretty horrible if he stayed on the ship.

But the same probably held even if Zac hadn't done it. The guy seemed pretty shell-shocked, and Zac was afraid he didn’t understand the severity of the situation. This way he forced the guy into action to save his skin. It was both an apology and a threat. Jaol could take that money and escape, taking the knowledge of Zac with him.

Of course, the easiest solution would have been to kill Jaol, but it wouldn’t sit right with him. Zac's actions of reciprocity with Thelim, the Ent back on the 6th floor, had opened his eyes to an important truth. Giving back or severing Karma wasn’t only vital for Karmic cultivators, but everyone.

If he had cut down Jaol after having received help with the heist and all that valuable information it would have festered like an untreated wound in the back of his head. So he could only rely on this little ploy to deal with him instead. The money was a huge sum to most people in the F-grade, but it was almost nothing to Zac, especially after looting the mentalist. Just one of her dresses was probably worth five times that amount, and there were over a dozen of them.

He was already rushing toward the containment center, but Zac was observing the young technocrat through [Hatchetman’s Spirit]. He saw Jaol run inside and snatch some things from the laboratory before fleeing toward the escape vessel as fast as his legs could carry him.

Zac nodded in satisfaction as he ran to the metallic gates guarding the room housing the Shard, and he breathed out in relief when they soundlessly slid open without prompting. He was thankful he hadn't gone full musclebrain as he had initially considered as he saw the doors were over two meters thick with three layers of hidden energy shields within.

There was no way he would have been able to cut through such an arrangement in short order.

The interior chamber was massive, with a ceiling height of well over a hundred meters. It was inside the core of the ship, the monstrous spherical construction that had given the ship its name. The cubic chamber that housed the Shard just took up a part of it though, even with its impressive size. It was a good reminder that the ship was like a flying city, and he wondered if completely crippling it had ever been on the table for an F-Grade warrior like himself.

Roughly fifteen technocrats were standing inside the room, and they looked up with shock at the intrusion. None of them seemed like a threat though so Zac rather focused on the giant ball with a diameter of 100 meters in the middle. It was the outer shielding that protected the ship from the Shard, and dozens of tubes as large as a man ran along the floor from the right, likely powering the thing up.

Zac could barely discern another, far smaller, shield inside the ball. But further within, there was just a radiant light, like they had captured a miniature sun. He couldn't actually see the Shard of Creation, but he was sure it was within the core. This was somewhat proven by the fact that the splinter in his mind was fully raging by this point, pushing the Miasmic Cage to its limits.

He was considering how he could use the doctor's head to pass by the defenses when an alarm suddenly started blaring out from hidden speakers as dozens of robotic sentries rose from the ground. The seemingly empty containment chamber had turned into a battlefield in an instant. The technocrats didn't seem to be combatants though as they fled for their lives through a smaller exit in the back.

Zac didn't stop their escape as they were essentially civilians, and he had given up subterfuge by now.

Bad turned to worse as a dangerous spike in his mind prompted him to quickly discard the head, just in time before it exploded in a concentrated gush of purple plasma that immediately melted the reinforced ground where it landed. Zac couldn't believe the professor would up and kill himself.

But Zac's brows rose when a cylindric box inside the inner layer released some steam and opened up, at which point Dr. Fried stepped outside, completely unscathed. Soul Transfer or a backup body? The technocrats were full of weird means.

”Thank you for carrying me the last stretch,” the doctor snorted as a series of clanking sounds echoed out from within his body. ”Good thing I kept a few spares in case something happened with the treasure.”

Zac wanted to retort something clever, but he couldn't come up with anything before he was bombarded with attacks from the robotic guards that had repositioned themselves to protect the power supply of the shield.

It seemed the sentries had only held back due to the presence of Dr. Fried's head, but now they weren't restricted any longer. Zac furiously charged the closest machine as he released [Nature's Barrier] along with [Hatchetman's Spirit] to turn the surroundings into his domain.

He knew his time was limited as the captain could appear at any moment.

He needed to break through the shield in front of him, but the machines kept blasting him with concussive projectiles that threw him off-balance. It wasn't enough to hurt him as the leaves still absorbed most of the damage, but it did slow him down considerably.

Three furious swings with [Verun's Bite] crushed the thick shield protecting the robot, and another one cleaved it in two. He tried launching a few fractal blades at the shield next, but they were actually shot down mid-air by the remaining sentries. Zac grunted in annoyance and glanced at the machines, but he didn't have time to figure out his next step before his danger sense went off again.

He quickly flashed away with [Loamwalker], and it was just in time as a substantial explosion erupted where he had just stood, making him realize the machines were triggered to blow up the moment they were out of commission.

“It's useless,” the voice of Dr. Fried drifted over, and Zac's eyes widened when he looked over.

A massive machine had appeared seemingly out of nowhere, looking like a mix of a walking crystal ball and a mecha. It had eight sturdy spider legs that held a platform in the air. On top of it, a ten-meter crystal ball rested, and it resembled the containment shields a bit. Finally, there was a platform on top that the doctor himself stood on.

Over a hundred thin arms reached down from the upper dais, and appendages ended with small satellites pointed at the crystal ball from every direction. It looked to Zac like they were used to restrain the ball in the middle, and he could understand why. A chaotic swirl of febrile energies rushed around inside the crystal, and Zac started to wonder if the crazy researcher had turned the Shard of Creation into a weapon.