Chapter 234: Kaboom (1/2)

The Sentinel turned towards his portal, ”Perhaps risking your life for a blow to the enemy isn't a good idea.”

I shrugged, ”Every fight is a risk. It's a part of the whole 'war for Schema' thing. Either way, you won't have to do much. All I need you to do is create a portal before I slam into the ground.”

The Sentinel's eyes narrowed, ”You intend to use your orbital bombardment to incite the eruption of Polydra?”

I spread out my arms, ”You got it.”

”That's insane.”

I shot the guy two finger pistols, ”Insanely smart?”

”No. You'll die in the aftermath at the very least. The eruption will consume you.”

I shook my head, ”Not exactly. From what I've gathered, this eruption will be more like a bomb going off. It will be like Mt. Saint Helens or Krakatoa.”

”What are those?”

”They're famous eruptions from Earth's history. I watched a documentary on them one day while I was bored. I didn't understand all the technicalities at the time, but the destruction from the eruption wasn't from magma.”

I opened my status, opening up Schema's information network. Though it sterilized a lot of the information, volcanic eruptions weren't something Schema censored. A few seconds of reading later, I tilted my status and showed the Sentinel some images.

”See here? It mentions a pyroclastic flow. We can instigate that to wipe the city. It takes this kind of eruption a few minutes to finish. That's plenty of time for me to survive. The Hybrids aren't as rugged as I am though.”

The Sentinel tilted his head, ”You have fought with glowing armor before, haven't you?”

”Yeah. Heat isn't something that bothers me much. It should be plenty to cull Poldyra utterly, though.”

The Sentinel sighed, ”Then I will create the tear. I must first visit the place. How will we get there?”

I pointed towards Polydra, ”We'll use the sewers. I'll send a message, you just have to slice the portal for that then jump through it. I'll land my orbital bombardment into the sewers, creating a kinetic explosion beneath Polydra. The weak spot should create an escape for all the pressure to escape from.”

I pointed back to the Sentinel, ”Just make sure to keep the portal open for me to escape from...And, uh, keep your distance. There will be a fragment of the energy and magma escaping through the portal. It's enough to kill, though.”

The Sentinel spread out his hands, ”How do you survive these impacts.”

”A loophole using one of Schema's trees.”

The Sentinel gestured up with a spear, ”Schema may allow a loophole to occur once, but multiple times? He wouldn't allow it.”

I shrugged, ”Eh, he's allowed me to do this three different times so far if I include my first Skyburner fight. Either way, it's reliable and works very well. I don't understand how Schema does it, but I don't have to.”

The Sentinel stared down and cupped his chin, ”Hmmm, perhaps he's pulling your mind from your body at the last moment then restoring it after the impact.”

I raised an eyebrow, ”You mean like what he did for the compendiums?”

”I...I wouldn't know. I know that Schema has a registry of people's consciousnesses for his revivals. They are costly, however. This is due to the nature of restoring a being's body, not from holding the consciousnesses, however.”

The Sentinel waved his arms, trying to make sense of it, ”Perhaps not all of your body is destroyed on the impacts? If that were so, then putting your mind back into a tiny portion of your remaining body would be more than enough. Your regeneration would follow through, your brain intact or not.”

I leaned back, feeling my head, ”Do I even have a brain anymore?”

The Sentinel gave me a deadpan look, ”I do question it myself at times.”

I rolled my eyes, ”I mean the actual organ...Alright, I'll ask the Overseer next time I see him if I remember too. Anyways, do you think the plan will work?”

”It will, given you survive it that is.”

I turned to Polydra, ”My mortality exists on the edge of believability at this point. Hell, Kessiah called me unkillable earlier. I'll do my best to prove her right. The only way to do that is to survive what shouldn't be survived.”

I opened my personal pocket dimension, ”Anyways, let's get this done.”

The Sentinel stared at me and the portal, ”What do you need from there?”

I gestured between him and the portal, ”I don't. You just need to step in here. It's easier to keep you safe here.”

The Sentinel lifted his spear, ”I have a better idea. ”

He swung it in an arc, creating a portal towards the forest we arrived in Polydra from. I walked over and pulled the tear apart, and he stepped through. After hopping over, the wistful forest carried the smell of ash. Smoke plumes rose from Polydra as two more dreadnoughts arrived to finish the town.

The Sentinel pointed at the city, ”We can walk there.”

I walked up while nodding, ”We could. You could also get captured and killed that way. Sounds like a good way to die.”

The Sentinel stared at the city as a tectonic explosion rippled out from a dreadnought. For miles around the city, massive oaks bent and tore from the impact's energy. I leaned over to the Sentinel, ”How'd you take one of those?”

Two explosions later, and I raced towards the city with the Sentinel in storage. I burrowed beneath the mountain, keeping my distance low. I encountered the defenses the Hybrids mustered against the gialgathens. My mobility within stone overwhelmed them, leaving their mammoth, mechanical worms hunting for nothing but the tunnels of softened earth I left behind.

Once in the sewers, I pulled the Sentinel from the Abyss. He fell out, suspended by gravity. He looked around, shaken by the experience but still lucid, unlike Torix. He landed on his feet, taking a deep breath before rearing back his spear. A second later, he tore open a portal to the Rak'shah dessert. I hopped in there, amazed at how smooth the operation worked so far.

Passing into the desert, I lifted up into the sky while the Sentinel walked back. The same heat built over my skin as usual, and I braced for the inevitable impact. Landing into the tiny warp proved simple. My depth perception impressed me from that perspective. A full minute away, I viewed the portal in pristine detail despite the distance.

All those points into perception paid off.

Once I sped up to an immense extent, I adjusted my descent slightly from my other attempts. I kept myself narrow like a sword slicing the air. As I whipped through the portal at supersonic speeds, I flattened my body. Instead of mitigating the impact, I created a wider surface area. This meant I hit the ground like a hammer instead of a bullet.