Chapter 316: Closure and Lessons (1/2)
Landing amidst the peaceful chaos, I walked by buildings and cars. I hadn't looked through my past and old streets in a long time, and the differences staggered me. Vines, weeds, and trees grew out of every nook and cranny of my old hometown. The windows dirtied or decayed, turning into shining shambles. Even the sky overhead cleared up since all the cars left, and it contrasted my memories of this place like night and day.
I changed as well. I stood over twice as tall as cars, my feet having expanded until they left tire-sized indentations in the ground. I tried squeezing my way into a store, but I couldn't. My entire body dwarfed the entrance. I stood beside street lamps, and they stared back at eye level, the lights busted. Even the signs that used to advertise sat at eye level, my shoulders knocking one down when I zoned out for a second.
Pacing past the decay, one piece of it stood out to me. I walked up onto some old traffic lights, the wind and rain doing a number on the poor things. Somehow, someway, the artifact from my era still worked. Most of the lights buzzed out, years having passed since Schema's systemization. This particular set of stoplights buzzed along, its lights blipping in and out of existence at regular intervals.
Most of the lights shined all the time, which burned them out within a year of Schema's arrival. This traffic stop owned some type of faulty wiring that kept it from burning through its battery. I walked up to the traffic light, holding it in my hand. I never looked at one of them from this angle, my head actually a ways above it. I channeled a teeny bit of electricity into the apparatus, and it gleamed to life.
And so did the rest of the city.
The electrical network began flaring other lights to life. A series of lamps revitalized before everything sparked out of existence, the wires frying as my mana burned old fuses out. I laughed before reaching my hand above the stoplight. I pinched apart the metal, the cold steel squealing in my hand. I tossed it into my dimensional storage as a memento of its endurance, something I enjoyed seeing.
I flicked a wrist, and an old building's walls collapsed. No one still lived here after the Yawm invasion, so I wasn't afraid of killing anyone. I hovered the stone fragments into the air before pulping it to powder. With a quick bit of magic, the shifting sand created a tornado of dust that consumed the rest of the building, grinding it down to nothing.
As it settled, I jumped. I dispersed the force across a vast telekinetic pad, reaching well over a block's width in size. Wherever the panel touched, the ground caved in. It fell down into the dirt, a portion of the city forming a pit. Above the town, I got a good overview of the old sights. The residential district overgrew, the nearby forest taking it over. The industrial sector, already aged before the fall of Springfield, spotted green with the remnants of grass and plains everywhere. As for the main town with all the shops, it carried scars from Yawm's arrival.
I peered down at the melted slag left behind by one of Yawm's attacks. Torix saved our troops before they died in the atomic fire, but the ground lacked such luck. It molded into a radioactive mass, becoming a mushy blot of dirt and earth. I hovered over, feeling the warmth of radiation. Reaching out a hand, I closed my eyes.
Sensing the energy and were it manifested from, I wielded Event Horizon over the expanse. I drained it despite no life being there, and it bent to my will. The radiation seeped out, becoming a typical rock once more. I went about clearing out the rest of Springfield over the next few minutes. Wherever Event Horizon touched, the entire area cleansed until nothing alive remained.
It sterilized the air like salting the earth. Unlike the latter, I set up Springfield for a future instead of destroying any prospects the place carried moving forward. Quite a few eldritch struggled as I passed over, but they lacked the fortitude or levels to survive Event Horizon. A quick, skull-crushing gravity well handled the bulkier variants if they happened to live while I passed over.
After clearing out the native fauna, I created a gravity well over a block of the city. I crushed the old homes into a giant ball, stripping the city's surface. I moved this mass over the city, tearing the top of it off. It reminded me of pulling up a carpet, just a city instead. I rolled it into a giant pile of dirt before lifting it up.
A quick flash of mana later, and I stared at a big mound of molten slag. Wielding the molten mush, I created a slate over where the city once stood. Flashing more mana around, I traced in steel bars as supports, both sideways and deep into the dirt. A glassy, igneous stone formed over everything, tough as nails and reminding me of my armor.
Well, not that tough, but you get what I mean.
Flying off from the mammoth platform, I flew and compressed panels of it both up and down. This gave rise to staggered step ways, and I kept them in a hexagonal print, the landscape mirroring an old-timey gameboard. I plated the dirt with the same slag, running out of it after the last platform solidified.
I finished Springfield off with a column at its center, similar to the one I made for our capital in Blegara. I crafted and molded a monolith covered in cipheric runes with some of Schema's watered-down variations interspersed between them. After channeling mana for a while, a massive aura surrounded the place. It lacked the near invincibility of a blue core, but it served us well enough.
In place of a Schema defense, I set aside enough time to craft four super golems here. They remained the protectors of the new town, along with several chunks of quintessence as a power source for pioneers. Smiling at the settlement, I hovered off towards Mt. Verner, feeling good about the setup.
Springfield changed into something else, but it would carry on the name and legacy my hometown left behind. We'd remember the sacrifices people made against Yawm, and we'd live on. Getting a bit of closure out of the simple remodeling, I hovered over towards Mt. Verner, a swarm of activity permeating the place.
Golems leaped up and around, many constructors crafting buildings using a cold, pragmatic aesthetic. It clashed with the dark sheen of Springfield's remains, but that could work to my favor. I sent a message towards Torix, telling him to set up a stipend for anyone who moved where Springfield once was.
The staggered sections would be split up by engineers and architects, and the golems and barrier protected anyone deciding to live there. Settling the affair, I prepped myself for Helios's next lesson. Meeting a few hours past midday, Helios stayed at Chrona's mountain home.
The silver-shaded gialgathen carved out a section of the mountain's rock, keeping herself situated in a constant chill that permeated. It reminded her of Rivaria, her old home. Helios set himself up here, where the mountain's breathtaking view exposed itself to our side.
Helios attracted plenty of attention on his own, however. Several void ice constructs lingered about, the albony waiting with boredom for everyone to arrive. I floated down, finding two dozens disciples of Torix, the lich himself, and Chrona waiting for Helios's lesson. I paced over, sitting beside Torix on an antigravity panel. I leaned over towards him and said,
”Hey, what do you think about the Plazia deal?”
Torix scoffed, ”It's insane, so there's nothing unusual about it. In fact, I'd be far more worried if you'd done something more normal.” Torix turned to me, his eyes flaring bright, ”It's interesting, as I've seen your development over the years. You've been plagued with doubts and fear lately. It would seem that era has come to pass, and a new one has replaced it.”
I raised a brow, ”Really? It's that noticeable?”
Torix gave me a slight nod, ”Indeed it is. I, for one, am happy to see it. I've also made contact with this Plazia-Ruhl several times now, and I must say, he's a cunning fellow. He's been spying on us for a while now, and I never noticed. While appalled, that evasion also spiked my curiosity.”
Torix peered off, ”He gave me a few pointers on surveillance, so I'll be using a few of my summons to assist him with dismantling the Elysium camp...He'll be a powerful ally should he prove trustworthy. Considering I trust your judgment, we shall most likely be fine.”