Chapter 877 Void Age and End of Childhood (1/2)

In the afternoon of Starfall Year 841, April fifteenth, as a gap opened on the World Barrier over the skies of West Barnett Highlands, a massive flow of energy surged from the Void into the world.

It was for merely an instant, but clumps of clouds that gathered over a thousand miles hence dispersed. The morning light dimmed, and the once bright skies and sun was instantly reduced to stars of the long night.

As those rivers of stars swirled, a silver metal river descended from the edge of the horizon, enlarging incessantly with thunderous rumble before finally turning into a massive steel hand transcending world itself, urgently pressing over the West Barnett Highlands!

Whoosh—!

A great gale billowed over the northeast side of the West Mountains. In the split second that the metal hand dove down, a super typhoon beyond class-seventeen kicked up, surging with a tempest and shockwaves that could bend steel. Its might could engulf all of the West Mountains and the Northern Empire, destroying ninety percent of surface buildings by the nations' frontiers.

However, that was when the spell that Barnil had cast over the highlands shone. Runic constructs that resembled combined gears rapidly rose, forming a conical beehive shape and forcefully suppressed all shockwaves at the center of the circular spell that had a fifteen kilometers radius—it was utter chaos within, while all was calm outside.

”Circle overloaded at 116%. Nostradamus, tell Joshua to be careful!”

At present, Barnil, who was standing beside the spell was staring tightly at the data displayed onscreen, crying out before raising his hand and quickly animating the next procedure of the spell. ”Commencing energy traction into second phase, 'ground foundation'!”

With a command from Barnil the chief engineer, the raging energies constrained by the runic formation struck true on the spell circle along with the giant silver palm—but startlingly, the steel hand that descended from beyond the Void did not destroy Barnil's circle, following the tractor beam instead to flatly press over the circle without any deviation or slanting.

Then, the metal hand crushed the surface of the Barnett Highlands, pushing along the miles-long circle as if a human palm pressing into a pile of snow, directly crushing a huge crater into the continent of the world of Mycroft!

Boom—In a split second, the world moved: stone, dirt or mud were violently chafing and crashing, hence broiled into surging golden magma. Logically speaking, all of the Barnett Highlands should be crumbling under the force of a tremor beyond magnitude ten, but Barnil's spell worked.

Colorful runic light glinted, with the gears runes firmly blacking the endless shockwaves. It was still binding the profound destructive force of the giant metal hand that could destroy the earth's crust, binding it within a certain boundary while using the destructive force itself to guide it deeper—right into the earth's mantle!

”Don't develop any problems, please.”

Barnil could hear Nostradamus's voice speaking from the other side of the screen, while the Rune Master whose entire head was filled with liquid nitrogen fully focused on controlling his spell, even managing to reply, ”This plan is of my design!”

If that was the case, there would definitely be no issues!

And as he had claimed, in a dozen seconds, when the giant silver hand pressed the entire spell formation down beneath the earth's crust while itself sink into the magma mantle, the metal beam that stood vertically between heaven and earth hence stabilized, motionless with nary a quiver.

As for the circle that had been pressed deep into the magma, at the instant it touched the searing core energies, its second function activated with the preset procedures its designer put in place!

”Core energy gathering spell—activate!”

With another command, the rune spell that had reached deep into the mantle activated again. This time it would not be stopping the shockwaves and heat, but convert them into cascading energies.

A slow swirl hence appeared deep within the mantle, with parts of the northwest's magma flow hence shifting direction and gathering towards that swirl. The incandescent power of the earth was absorbed by the spell circle as much as it would, before turning into an activation key connected to the metal hand.

”Joshua, your turn!”

Having confirmed that the core energy gathering spell had started and that the entire Barnett highlands along with a good portion of the continent was not destroyed by a certain warrior's palm, Barnil wiped away the vaporizing liquid nitrogen from his head and yelled at an empty screen, ”Hurry up and stabilize the foundation, or we would have to do it all over again if the Heaven Reaching Tower slopes!”

After an instant, upon the heavens, the deep voice of man rang from outside the world, transcending the Void.

”Understood.”

”Shapeshift!”

Deep underground, the five fingers of the metal palm held on to the subterranean reaches steadily like the roots of a giant tree. As the core energy gathering spell kept supplying it with energy while a silver light fell from the edge of the skies, the hand changed its form rapidly and in astonishing fashion.

Dense ranks of metal spikes shot out from the fingers, palm and the entire room like roots, entrenching themselves into the land while stabilizing the stone surface, turning soft mud into the sturdiest of stone. it was as if a tree was blooming and rooting itself down below—in less than ten minutes, the entire underground reach of the Barnett Highlands was permeated with metal roots, even stretching out without stopping towards the West Mountains and the southern deserts northeast to the highlands.

Meanwhile, over the skies, the World Barrier tore apart by a profound power slowly closed itself. Stunningly, however, the expanding metal beam stopped it from sealing: the center of the beam itself which had a radius of fifteen hundred meters and was near solid began to empty itself, with the cavity growing wider until it appeared extraordinarily hollow. Thus, it expanded into an empty tower that connects the sky and ground!

At the bottom of the tower was the massive roots digging into the ground, even the earth's mantle beneath all of the Barnett Highlands and even the West Mountains. At the middle of that great tower was the metal beam that reaches into the Void threshold over the skies, while its top was a massive Void base which foundation alone was ten kilometers wide, keeping the World Barrier open!

Beyond the Void, the Giant God of Steel severed the mutated arm from himself, allowing the hand which sole purpose was for creating the tower to work independently.

On top of the Steel God's head, Zero Three's eyes bulged as she watched the top of the massive tower seal itself and replaced a layer of World Barrier on the gap. Like a bottle cap, that single layer could be opened at any moment, but would usually stay sealed to prevent Void aliens intruding into the world.

It was after a long time that she recovered from the shock, and silently murmured, ”Joshua, is this the Heaven Reaching Tower you speak of?