The Mana Sentinel did not move with the grace of a human or the precision of a machine. It moved with the weight of a mountain collapsing. Its body was a jagged landscape of obsidian plates held together by a core of brilliant violet light. Every step it took on the porcelain floor of the Lunar Apex sent a shockwave that threatened to throw Ren and his companions into the vacuum of space.
[SYSTEM MESSAGE]
Threat Level: Universal Hazard.
Identification: The Lunar Purge Unit.
Condition: Hardware Bound.
Warning: Administrative Deletion is ineffective against Physical Mana.
Ren stood his ground while the obsidian giant loomed over him. He realized his mistake immediately. He had treated magic like a line of code that could be deleted but this creature was the hardware. It was a physical manifestation of the system's will. You couldn't hack a hammer that was already falling toward your head.
Anya dashed forward with her black armor sparking with violet lightning. She didn't wait for a command. She was a creature of instinct and her evolution was accelerating. She leapt into the air and brought her blade down on the Sentinel's leg. The metal hit the obsidian and a shower of sparks illuminated the hall. Anya was sent flying back by the sheer kinetic feedback.
Elara caught Anya before she hit the wall. She screamed at Ren that the creature was absorbing the kinetic energy of their attacks. She said every hit they landed was just making the Sentinel's core brighter. She pointed to her device which was now showing a massive power drain from the lunar core.
Ren looked at the Sentinel's eyes. They weren't eyes at all but lenses focusing a massive amount of mana. He saw the "syntax" of the light. It wasn't a spell. It was a pressurized beam of raw existence. Ren realized that the Sentinel wasn't trying to kill them. It was trying to reclaim the S Rank Core in his chest. It saw him as a stolen part of the machine.
Lyra was still on her knees in her grey rags. She looked at Ren with a mixture of hatred and desperation. She told him that he was a fool for waking the Purge Unit. She explained that the Sentinel was the final insurance policy of the Archivists. She said that if it couldn't retrieve the core it would simply detonate the moon to ensure the "data" didn't fall into the wrong hands.
Ren looked at Lyra and then at the Sentinel. He didn't feel fear. He felt a cold clarity. He realized that if he couldn't delete the creature he would have to "Overclock" it. He reached out and grabbed Lyra by the collar. He told her that he was giving her a choice. He said he would restore her mana access if she acted as his "External Battery."
Lyra spat at him and called him a monster. She asked why she should help the person who humiliated her.
Ren's eyes turned a dark obsidian. He told her that if she didn't help him she would die as a "D Rank" peasant in the middle of a lunar explosion. He promised that if they survived he would let her leave with her ship intact. He said his word was the only thing she had left.
[SYSTEM MESSAGE]
Skill Activated: Resource Bridge.
Effect: Linking Proctor Lyra to Sovereign Ren.
Status: Restoring 15% Mana Capacity.
Lyra gasped as a trickle of violet light returned to her hands. Her rags shimmered back into a faint starlight gown. She didn't have her staff or her full power but she was no longer helpless. She looked at the Sentinel and then at Ren. She told him to tell her the plan.
Ren turned toward Anya and Gage. He told Anya to keep the Sentinel's attention on the frontal plates. He commanded Gage and the children to stay in the shadow of the stasis pod. He looked at Lyra and told her to cast a "Mana Dampening Field" on the Sentinel's joints.
Anya roared and blurred into motion. She was no longer just a girl with a sword. She was a violet streak of destruction. She struck the Sentinel's chest over and over. Each hit was weak but it forced the giant to pivot its massive weight. The Sentinel's obsidian plates groaned as it tried to track her speed.
Lyra raised her hands and a thin veil of purple energy draped over the Sentinel's knees. The creature's movements became sluggish. Its obsidian plates began to grind against each other with a sound that felt like teeth breaking.
Ren didn't join the physical fight. He sat cross legged on the floor and closed his eyes. He wasn't looking at the Sentinel with his eyes. He was looking at the "Power Grid" of the moon. He saw the massive cables of mana running beneath the floor. He saw the "Flow" of the energy from the core to the Sentinel.
[SYSTEM MESSAGE]
Aetheric Architect: Deep Scan.
Target: Lunar Power Junction 0.
Status: Found.
Ren realized that the Sentinel didn't have its own battery. It was plugged into the moon through its feet. Every time it stepped it was drawing a terawatt of mana. Ren smiled. He had found the "Plug."
Ren told Anya to strike the floor instead of the creature. He yelled for her to break the porcelain tiles beneath the Sentinel's right foot.
Anya didn't ask why. She plummeted from the air and drove her sword into the floor with everything she had. The porcelain shattered and revealed a glowing blue conduit of mana.
The Sentinel let out a roar of digital agony. Its right leg went dark. The obsidian plates on its thigh began to crumble. It tilted to the side and struggled to maintain its balance.
Lyra watched in awe as the giant faltered. She asked Ren how he knew. She said the Sentinel was supposed to be invulnerable.
Ren stood up and his golden veins were pulsing with a violent intensity. He told her that nothing was invulnerable if you understood the "Maintenance Cost" of its existence. He explained that the bigger the hardware the more it relied on its power supply.
[SYSTEM MESSAGE]
Quest Update: The Sentinel's Core.
Objective: Extract the Aetheric Heart.
Reward: 50,000 Mana Credits.
Ren sprinted toward the tilting giant. He didn't use a sword. He used his hands which were now glowing with a dark golden light. He leapt onto the Sentinel's knee and climbed the crumbling obsidian plates like they were a staircase.
The Sentinel tried to swivle its head to fire its plasma beam but Lyra was ready. She unleashed a burst of violet fire that blinded the creature's sensors for a crucial second.
Ren reached the Sentinel's chest. He saw the violet heart pulsing behind a translucent plate of obsidian. He didn't try to break the plate. He placed his hand on it and initiated a "Force Sync."
[SYSTEM MESSAGE]
Sovereign Override: Initiated.
Target: Aetheric Heart.
Warning: 99% Chance of Core Melt Down.
Ren's mind was flooded with a heat that felt like he was standing in the center of a sun. He felt the Sentinel's ancient programming fighting his will. It told him that he was a "Temporary Asset." It told him that the "Harvest" was inevitable.
Ren screamed and pushed his golden mana into the core. He told the machine that he was the Architect and he was officially "Decommissioning" the unit.
The obsidian plates of the Sentinel began to turn into white hot glass. A massive pillar of violet energy erupted from its chest and shot through the ceiling of the Lunar Apex. The entire moon shook as if it were being torn apart by an invisible hand.
Suddenly the Sentinel stopped moving. Its light died out. The obsidian plates turned into a fine black sand that began to cover the floor.
Ren fell from the creature's chest and landed hard on the porcelain. He was gasping for air and his hands were charred black. He looked at the center of the sand pile and saw a small and perfectly round violet gem.
[SYSTEM MESSAGE]
Achievement: The Giant Killer.
Loot Acquired: The Aetheric Heart (Rank S).
Lyra walked over to the gem and her eyes were wide with greed. She said that a heart like that could power an entire galaxy for a thousand years. She reached for it but stopped when she saw the look in Ren's eyes.
Ren picked up the gem and felt its power flowing into his S Rank Core. He felt his "Level" skyrocketing. He was no longer Rank 9,500,000.
[SYSTEM MESSAGE]
Leaderboard Update.
Current Rank: 500,000.
Ren looked at the Earth through the hole in the ceiling. The white deletion was completely gone but the planet was still covered in a strange purple mist. He realized that the "Mana Tide" had arrived.
Suddenly a massive shadow fell over the moon again. It wasn't the Archivists or the Hegemony.
A fleet of ships made of living bone and black iron appeared out of the rift. They bore the emblem of a bloody skull entwined with a golden rose.
Lyra's face turned pale. She whispered that they were "The Reapers." She said they were the most feared mercenary guild in the expansion. She explained that they didn't come to harvest souls or play games.
"They came for the heart," Lyra said.
A voice boomed through the lunar speakers. It was a voice that sounded like a thousand screaming souls.
"Sovereign Ren. You have ten seconds to hand over the Aetheric Heart. If you refuse we will skip the Earth and go straight to the Sun. We will turn your entire solar system into a cold grave."