The feeling of a complete shift in perspective hit Adam hard, not because he was blown away 60 feet and barely survived his crazy trap to kill the Hulkroid, but because of how the battlefield reacted to him afterward.
It wasn't much different from the battle from before; rather, it was far more aggressive, and they were on the defensive for a good part of half an hour. However, leaving the defense to his subordinates and focusing his attention on logistics started to show results in how fast the camp was coming up.
His lieutenants weren't attached to combat squads anymore; they were spread across different parts of the base and on the front, acting as the grease that would make his machine roll forward, making decisions that he no longer needed to make.
Adam put Megan on the Script Monastery and Elena on the War Factory; not only did things get faster, but cheaper as well. Kave was focusing on the assault, staying in fortified bunkers to lead the troops and intercept attackers, whereas Yuki was staying in the Command Center, handling communications with the Stellar Ark in orbit, playing her own games of politics, acquiring secret military files, and speeding Requisition Points gain for Adam.
All of these were roles Adam could never have filled on his own, and now they were being fulfilled and handed to him to do his actual job: to strategize and command.
With the advantage of having a mothership in orbit, he no longer needed to scout the map; rather, Yuki's first action was to get a full visual on the battlefield for him, something that his previous narrow perspective had never even considered, which made him think about constructing an actual Stellar Ark in Realspace, despite knowing the astronomical costs.
Still, the words that Solana told him about the difficulty increasing weren't all air; rather, it was clear to him since, in this new session, there was no longer one Freeze Manifestation, but three of them in places where there had been no Freeze before.
Adam knew how difficult it was to conquer one of those points, and Kave was already diving straight into the nearest one, so Adam reinforced him with tanks and artillery; however, getting too close to the Freeze was the problem.
A Paladin would be necessary to get rid of a node since Paladins carry the Holy Flame within their Atenite Cradles; however, having a Holy Furnace and spreading its influence across the map might be the right option to take. Though the speed would be slower, a lot of RP would be saved to use for critical requisitions.
For a while, Adam focused on his map and started watching as the enemy came from various directions to slow down his assault force, succeeding in halting it for a bit before reinforcements would come and push forward. There, he saw a pattern.
"Computer, isolate all trenches that have active fighting on display; don't view anything else."
Adam's verbal command was easily understood, and a new kind of display appeared to him: units fighting in certain spaces, taking the most optimal path to the objective.
"View the enemy routes, the bombardment arcs, the strategic and logistical points, and the Freeze Manifestations."
The view was updated once again, displaying only the critical information Adam needed.
"Now keep it all in lines, no need for view. Give each type a different color."
Yuki frowned while working on yet another terminal, before pausing for a bit and looking at Adam's new view. She stood up and walked beside him, crossing her arms; then, the two Sages tilted their heads with a shared "huh!"
Each of the two was surely having some sort of internal Sage meeting in their own minds, analyzing the lines they were just looking at.
During the following five minutes, they tried many combinations of overlays; with each one, a different pattern appeared. However, most of the lines were opposing each other, and most of them were incomplete.
"This is it, huh?" Yuki asked, turning to Adam. "The thing the nun was trying to teach you?"
"I think…" Adam scratched his chin and listened to the reports coming from Kave, who was requesting more troops. He turned to Yuki and asked, "How much RP do we have?"
"232." She replied.
"We need 250 for each Paladin we deploy from the Ark above, but only 50 RP to get a squad of Men-at-Arms dropped right into battle from orbit," he said, gritting his teeth.
"You can drop defensive buildings right in the middle of the fight for 150, or an elite Terminator squad also for 150." Yuki gave him the other options she had on her screen.
"None of that can deal with the Freeze Manifestation," he groaned and looked ahead. "However, I think what this overlay shape is trying to tell us is that if we were to try these many different approaches with the Freeze, we can… I don't know… disable them?"
"You want to try it out?" Yuki asked before trying to figure out the numbers needed. "With our RP gain and output, I think we can manage. A Paladin can get the job done, but they have to engage with everything in their path until they reach their objective, which could take forever."
"You are right." Adam nodded and made up his mind, taking the handset in his hand and speaking to the group, "Guys, we're trying something out. If it fails, we'll be vaporized by particle beams from that big-ass Ark up there. I hope you don't mind."
"Yes, why not? Risk our lives, o' brave Commander," Megan replied over the radio.
Adam smirked and switched over to Kave.
"Alright, bro. Here are some commands that make zero sense."
"Hit me," Kave responded.
"I want the troops going to C7 to divert their route to C6 and meet with the other squads on D5. Try to hold your ground at M9. The enemy at F13 is coming in hot, so let them come and meet them at F10 after you make sure you are surrounding the area from F9, F11, and E10." Adam laid down his command.
"Yeah, we need more men for that," Kave replied.
"Yuki." Adam turned to his Requisition Lieutenant.
"On it. Where do you want them?" She responded and spoke to Kave.
"F7." Kave replied.
"Do it." Adam gave permission and turned his attention elsewhere. "Elena, I am assigning you to bombardment."
"I will make it rain hellfire, Commander," she replied, causing the three nerds to react with a slight frown to the canon game line.
Finally, Adam saw the friendly line on the map start growing and branching out, with shapes starting to make sense one after the other. The objectives he had to hit were laid down perfectly to mimic what he assumed to be a shape of Sacred Geometry. He returned to the regular battlefield view on the holo table and tried to make sense of what he was watching, but all he saw was a rather organized battlefield where supplies, logistics, and reinforcements were supplying the front unhindered, with almost half the map conquered and one hour remaining on the Doomsday Clock.
It was impressive in a way, but the more he looked into it, the more he discovered that battles weren't something that could be organized unless the battle layout was organized from the beginning. It was Solana who set the secondary and primary objectives, as well as the map layout, in a way that it completely followed a certain logic and led to a certain result.
He was simply playing that game she had made, and now he was assaulting the three Freeze Manifestations at the same time, with enough troops to overwhelm the trap formation. Hell, he had eight Battlemaster tanks rolling around the battlefield just now.
Then, following the new logic of this battle, he started bombarding the Freeze with artillery, tanks, rocket batteries, and even flamethrowers until the Freeze points shattered simultaneously, revealing three pathways down to the underground.
Adam immediately turned to the clock and saw that it was now one hour and forty-one minutes.
Still, if the point of this Sacred Geometry was to create this supernatural flow, which, in Adam's point of view, boiled down to a combination of AND, OR, and NOT gates that are connected in symmetrical ways, this flow, however, led to some interesting results, such as high-efficiency logistics and quick responses to enemy retaliation, acting as some sort of metaphysical grease for the simulation.
The thought that disturbed Adam at first was how this lesson was so ineffective in and of itself; after all, battles are chaos and mayhem, not order and symmetry.
Then it hit him.
"We're in Cyberspace!" He shouted, eyes wide in realization.
He indeed was in Cyberspace.
"Way to state the obvious." Yuki retorted under her breath.
"No, no, no! Now it makes sense. I get why they do it the way they do," he said with excitement. "Cyberspace is a mental space; the Sacred Code needs mental energy to perform. Somehow, electronics convert the power that runs through them into mental energy. Like…" He said and started snapping his fingers, looking for words: "Maybe it is a natural phenomenon, as in some kind of effect that always existed but was never discovered because we weren't looking for it and we didn't need to." He then grinned and pointed, "Not before Runes, we didn't."
Yuki shifted to face him, running his logic through her mind, but his Sages were already two steps ahead of hers.
"Think about this: if this new dawn of electronics caused by SolTech was related to Mental Energy so that the Sacred Code can function, then Sacred Geometry starts to make perfect sense," he said excitedly. "Look at one of our old PCBs. They are efficient, but sometimes you need to look far deeper just to know what goes where and all that. However, if you look at some Sacred Geometry shape, take the Rose of Life for example, you just look at it once, and it makes sense in your head. Mentally, energy-wise, it's efficient; thus it becomes more Sacred Code friendly than regular PCBs."
Yuki finally caught up to his logic and seemed taken aback, before asking:
"So you're saying it makes the Sacred Code that is running in Cyberspace consume less mental power that has been converted by electronics from regular current flowing through them?" she asked before trying to see the sense in this. "Your evidence?"
"My evidence is the lack thereof." Adam pointed with a maniacal grin. "If it exists, then it needs energy; then it must have a source. It emerged after we did X; it needs Y from X, then it is 'X-Y.' Basic deduction, Yuki."
Yuki fell silent now that Adam had fully planted the seed of thought into her mind, a frustrating creationist seed that she couldn't help but try to refute.
It was indeed a deductive claim, based on the lack of other reasons and following simple logic, but in a way, it just walked the easy path laid down by Solana, not by arduously collecting data, analyzing, and coming up with a logical explanation that wasn't just "somehow electronics emit mental energy" or whatever.
Adam also seemed to be thinking of that problem, but he shook his head and refocused on the trial, now embracing the fact that Solana's teachings might be the key he needed to fully understand and unlock the potential of both SolTech and RuneTech.
✧ ✧ ✧ ✧ ✧
Some time later, Adam and his group woke up from the simulation, dizzy and stumbling to the ground, all thanks to the effects of the drugs they had been injected with to keep the simulation running.
"For fuck's sake…" Kave stood up first, but he realized it was too soon, then got down and started retching.
The rest remained seated, fully taking in what just happened after the epic finale of the fight, before shuddering from the sheer horror they had been through.
The machines fought them not just on one level underground, but three. Each one stripped away an advantage of Adam's forces and led to absolute struggle.
The first underground level took away the artillery support, but its tunnels were large enough to accommodate armored vehicles yet dangerous enough not to withstand their firepower. In some areas, artillery support would be possible via bunker buster technology. This level had seven Freeze Manifestations all on its own.
Then came the second underground level, where Adam had no way to bring down artillery or armored vehicles. It was a narrow maze where the machines would lurk in holes and ambush the Men-at-Arms. Kave started calling it Machina Vietnam, but he was surprisingly able to adapt to the kind of combat, giving Elena a surprise when he took the front and covered her retreating squads. That level had over sixteen Freeze Manifestations, each of which buffed the Doomsday Clock by 15 minutes, which was enough to set the clock up to almost three hours.
Then came the third and final level, the Machina's womb, a vast and open space with no lanes, trenches, or cover. However, it was the most vulnerable part of the Machina, hosting pillars upon pillars of hibernation pods, housing tens of thousands of Code Hosts (captured humans whose limbs were amputated and brains were wired to serve the Machina as processing units).
Then finally came the surprise: the largest and most defended Freeze Manifestation with the extraction target right at its center. The timer was ticking fast, but since the forces on both sides were interlocked in battle, Adam sent down a squad of Paladins to try to beat the Machina's defenses, but even the mighty Paladins were helpless against the largest Freeze Manifestation.
Then Adam had an idea, and long story short, he invented something inside the simulation, causing a system message to appear before his eyes.
≪ Your [Spirit Geometry] skill has improved! (I → II) ≫
He personally intervened, solved the Freeze Manifestation in a way not even Solana anticipated, got out with the cubic extraction object in his hands, then ordered a full retreat and got to the extraction point right as the Doomsday Clock hit zero.
Adam remained seated in the Iron Maiden for some time before finally standing before everyone else, finding a main terminal, and logging in as Commander Clay.
> UNIT PROMOTION — MILITARY PERSONNEL "CLAY, ADAM" RANK: BELLARIUM CAPTAIN, TRIBUNARIUM JUSTICIAR
> REPORT — ALL BELLARIUM COMPANY PRIVILEGES HAVE BEEN UNLOCKED • YOU CAN NOW ASSIGN LIEUTENANTS OVER BELLARIUM PLATOONS (0/6)
> REWARD — YOU HAVE UNLOCKED THE [CONVERGENCE CUBE] TECHNOLOGY
> PRAISED BE SOL IMPERIUS
> GLORY TO THE SOLARIUM
"The heck is a Convergence Cube?"
Adam frowned upon the mere mention of something completely alien to him, but upon its mention, a sudden burst of clutter came from behind the Guardian statue, which the Iron Maiden chairs were positioned in front of, and a pale-faced Solana rushed ahead.
"Convergence Cube? Did you just say Convergence Cube, Brother-Commander?" she asked, clearly shocked, and almost positioning her head between Adam and the screen of the terminal shrine fitted into a prayer niche.
She wasn't waiting for an answer as she immediately started tapping the log Adam was reading through, completely disregarding Sacred Protocols.
"Hello!" Adam called to her, half annoyed and half taken aback by her actions. "That's my ordained account log, Sister."
"A thousand apologies, Brother-Commander! But this…" Solana's tone wasn't her usual as she started delving deeper into the backlogs, as if trying to find the source of this action within the Sacred Code, before pausing and turning to him. "I must convene with my fellow Brothers and Sisters of the Scriptorium. Deliberation upon this subject must be conducted within a sacred authority."
"Why?" Adam asked, a subtle hint of mockery in his voice, accompanied by a tired smile. "Another HereTechia? Is the Sacred Code acting up again?"
"Not to the extent of my knowledge," Solana replied, thinking deeply of what she just witnessed. "A Convergence Cube does not belong to the trusted records of SolTech. Its design lineage lies beyond the Sacred Code's sanctioned archives."
"XenoTech then?" Megan asked, standing up from her chair and reaching for a bottle of water.
"No, its provenance is unquestionably Human," Solana replied, stuttering as her sub-brain processing seemed to be jamming her thoughts. "It… it can't be made by SolTech because SolTech is made from STDs."
"Yuck!" Megan made a face. "That joke got too boring already. Just say Solarium Trusted Diagrams or Designs or whatever."
"That's not the problem now." Elena cut Megan off before turning to Solana, "Blessed Sister, how can it be human technology but not SolTech?"
"Most SolTech descends from designs inherited from—or refined upon—the engineering legacies of the First Solar Age and the Great Stellar Age. The Scriptorium does not merely preserve these designs; it validates them. By the Will of Sol Imperius as expressed through the Sacred Code, each Pattern is classified as Sanctified or Heretical." Solana explained what most people present already knew. "The Convergence Cube was the sole known Artifact capable of generating Technology Diagrams of Great Stellar Age origin. Thus the Chain of Provenance appears paradoxical: Humanity forged the Convergence Cubes. The Convergence Cubes generated Stellar-Age Diagrams. Those Diagrams gave rise to SolTech. SolTech, in time, culminated in the Sacred Code... and now the Sacred Code is issuing Convergence Cubes once more."
After Solana explained it, even the most technical minds around her were frowning and shrugging; to them, it was clearly natural to backtrack technology to its original source.
Rather than being a big deal, it felt like Solana was fangirling over a steam engine when her car had an internal combustion engine.
"For years, the Luminaries of the Scriptorium and countless Brothers devoted entire lifetimes to disputing whether such Constructs could exist at all, let alone whether they constituted HereTechia. Entire Conclaves were convened over questions that now stand before us in tangible form." Solana looked at the people around her, seeing them not as shocked as her about the matter, so she decided to make them face reality. "Brother-Commander, I request that you inspect the Fabrication Protocol of the Convergence Cube. Enumerate every required Component, Material, and Rite of Assembly. I require the complete sequence without omission."
Adam blinked twice before agreeing and turning to the screen, carefully navigating the script until he reached the Convergence Cube item details.
There, his eyes narrowed, and he leaned against the screen with an unfathomable expression, clearly not able to follow the logic of the thoughts he was having just now.
"'Requirements met, Diagram rewarded.'" He recited the first line on this particular page before continuing, "Holy Furnace, Solymer Ash… and… those lines."
"What lines?" Elena asked.
"Those are from Project RuneTech," Adam replied and backed away, looking rather confused about all this. "To craft the Convergence Cube, we need Solymer Ash from the Holy Furnace and two different Runes."
To Adam and those who understood the gravity of this, it felt rather unsettling since he was the one trying to find a way to bring Runes and technology applications together.
And so a question remained:
"What is the meaning of this?"
✧ ✧ ✧ ✧ ✧
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