[Voidknight Ascension] Chapter 245 – Path of Blood

“That was a nice thing you did,” Komachi told Sam as he cut-and-thrust around the parrying blade of an automaton.

It was a testament to how much they had both grown that they could hold full conversations in the midst of battle.

Twisting on the balls of his feet, Sam lashed out with his new sword and cut the automaton in two. “I can only imagine how much Zarishna misses her home. Somewhere out there are pieces of Earth, but even if there was never another speck of soil from Earth…people would remember. My friends would remember. We could reminisce. She doesn’t even have that.”

“She was really focused on the Emperor’s muscles though,” Komachi told him as he ducked a spear tip aimed at his throat. He cut the metal arm off at the elbow and then used a blast of Void mana to still the creature’s mana core.

The golden monster collapsed in a heap of ruined metal.

Void mana was excellent for fighting such creatures. A single blast of Void to their core and they were reduced to scrap. Unfortunately, Sam didn’t have the vast reserves of mana required to use it on every creature.

Still, it was surprisingly fun to one-shot a monster with a burst of black-and-silver fire.

Even Komachi let out a little excited cheer at the monster’s defeat. She loved magic.

“Can’t really blame her,” Sam said as they stalked through the halls of the Proving Grounds. These Remnants seemed to be different from the others. They were more straightforward. Focused.

The entire place was far better lit as well, but that also seemed to coincide with stronger monsters. The automatons known as “gears” were specifically brutal.

They floated in the air like spherical wave breakers and used powerful debilitating magicks that even Sam struggled to endure. Komachi’s [Cleansing Aria] only seemed to function half the time to rid him of the debuffs, which was doubly strange.

Whenever Sam saw one, he immediately made a beeline for it and dispatched it with utmost prejudice. He switched to his greatswords to get the job done. When one descending colossal greatsword wasn’t enough to cleave the gears in two, adding another finished the job.

Sam immensely enjoyed dual wielding. While it was more strenuous than handling his weapon with two hands, the versatility was unbeatable. And that wasn’t even touching on how potent his dual wielding weapon forms were.

It was almost too bad he didn’t have another similarly sized sword to match his new sidesword.

“Why’s that?” Komachi asked as they entered the last room of the Proving Grounds. Their way forward was blocked by a tank-shaped automaton that floated menacingly in front of the twisting, bending light that was their ticket out of here.

“If you loved somebody, wouldn’t you miss them more than anything else? A person is much more precious than a place,” Sam told her. He kept his blue eyes trained on the creature, ready for it to make any sudden move. “Home is other people, Komachi.”

“…Yeah.” She let out a quiet, sad meow. “I remember feeling like that.”

Sam wrung the handle of his sword, growing increasingly concerned when the creature in front of him remained stationary. The pneumatic door hissed shut behind him as he took a few tentative steps into the room.

Like the other pinnacle rooms, this was situated at the top of a tower. He could vaguely smell the salt in the air. A smell that instantly made him homesick, even if it didn’t smell the same as Hawai’i.

That had been missing before, hadn’t it? And though there was still impenetrable darkness outside the arched columns that ringed most of the upper floor, Sam swore he could make out shapes.

Far too dark for his human vision, but he had been sure there was unceasing nothingness outside the last time.

“Wonder what’s out there,” Komachi whispered. “It feels a little different. A little more alive.”

Sam edged around to the side of the room, hoping to make a break for the twisting light that would carry him back to the Empire.

The creature turned soundlessly, floating nearly a foot off the floor with its 10-ton bulk of darkened bronze. It had no eyes that Sam could see. Several glassy apertures could have been cameras if this thing was a modern creation but, given where he was, Sam had to remember that they were just as likely weapons.

He still remembered the stinging pain of being hit with those lasers. The Empress had called them something else, but they were lasers in Sam’s book. If it shot out a thin beam of light that burned through armor, that was a laser.

“I don’t think it wants us to get the Lumanot,” Sam told Komachi.

“You want me to ask it?”

“I don’t think that’s a great idea,” Sam said.

“Ya never know, maybe even machines like Machi.”

He wasn’t usually nervous about fighting, but this thing was massive. Its resemblance to a tank was more unnerving than anything else. It didn’t have a gun per se, but it certainly didn’t seem to be lacking in weaponry.

Mechanical, multi-jointed arms dotted its wide squat metallic body. Pieces of its fuselage hinged and opened whenever it moved, reminding Sam of a breathing creature.

Unlike the most recent monsters in the Proving Grounds, this thing seemed to be in pristine condition. It radiated power that kept Sam from rushing it.

The ogre had been a living, breathing creature with obvious weak points. This thing…there was something wrong with it.

Sam had been fighting to protect his friends and his home against the ogre. This automaton was just defending the long-lost Lumanot. It felt wrong to attack it without at least trying to get around it. Sam was the invader here.

Komachi hunched down low on his shoulder, her tail whisking back and forth. “Then again, it does look real mean,” she said nervously.

Sam took a step forward.

Nothing happened.

He took another, and then another, until he was tentatively strolling toward the creature. His palms sweated in his gauntlets. He wrung the grip on his sword, wondering when it would attack.

And then, just as Sam was getting comfortable, the creature sprang to life.

He had been right. Those lenses all over its body were weapons.

They lit up in an instant, blinding him like an oncoming train’s headlights. Reacting purely on instinct, Sam just barely managed to put up [Void: Surge].

A swirling spherical barrier of Void mana pulsed around him and denied the dozen pulses of light that would have skewered him alive. The force of the assault was so overwhelming that it bowled him over and onto his back.

Carried on the momentum from the powerful attack, he slid across the tiled floor for several feet until he finally came to a stop.

Sam whipped out another pulse of Void mana to deny another attack as he sprang to his feet, but nothing came.

The tank-like automaton regarded him with the same demeanor as before. It did not attack, it merely watched.

His cat paused mid-scramble into his armor before she realized what was going on. She eyed the automaton suspiciously, playing an instrument softly to build up stacks of [Heroic Rock]. Many more of the miniature instruments across her body lit up with mana, playing as well.

Rolling his shoulders, Sam switched to his greatsword and held it out defensively, waiting for the monster to attack again.

Several tense seconds passed.

“It’s not going to attack, is it?” Sam asked.

“Maybe it’s got bad eyesight?” Komachi suggested.

“Maybe.” Sam didn’t think that was the case.

Like the other automatons in the Proving Grounds, this creature seemed to be programmed to do a specific task. Clearly that was guarding the Lumanot, which was no longer there.

It seemed that when Sam approached it within a certain distance, it would activate. There had to be a way to take advantage of that.

Sam mulled it over.

There was no way of getting around it, which meant that Sam would have to go through it.

He had hoped to avoid a pitched battle in the Proving Grounds. The last time he ventured into the Empire’s past, he had to fight for his life.

Sam had every expectation that would happen again. While he had earned a unique sword forged out of his literal blood, he couldn’t afford to be weakened any more than he already was before he ventured into the portal.

He hardly had to remind himself that if he went down, more than just his life would be lost. The fate of an entire world rested on his shoulders. There would be no one coming to help him in the Empire.

Sam and Komachi were on their own.

“I have a really dumb idea,” Sam said, taking a few steps forward. He used the scuff marks on the floor to judge the distance, but even then, he was still off by a foot.

The lights of the automaton blazed once more. Sam leaped back out of range.

A deep smoldering line of melting tile marked the distance at which the creature could attack.

“Handy,” Sam said, stepping up to the cooling edge. It glowed with heat and an alarmingly pleasant smell wafted up like baking cinnamon rolls.

The automaton was several yards away, far too far for him to reach normally. Sam was a melee fighter. His specialty was bringing the fight to his enemies.

But he did have one ability that he could employ. One that could deal a ton of damage if he used it right.

Making sure not to stick the toe of his boot over the line, Sam began charging [Heavy Blade]. Metal mana ran up and down the gargantuan greatsword, extending its tip several feet.

The more he charged it, the longer the blade became. With his higher magical stats, Sam was alarmed at how easy it was to increase the size and density of the mana within his greatsword.

It was a night-and-day difference compared to the man he was before.

I should have been increasing my magical stats this entire time, Sam thought to himself.

Still, such an attack would be nearly impossible without a stationary enemy. He could have sheathed the blade and struck, but there was a problem with that.

He needed to be able to judge the distance.

With his greatsword clasped in both hands and raised over his head like a glowing beacon of light, Sam could accurately judge the length he would need to hit the monster.

No monster would ever be stupid enough to let an enemy charge up such an obvious attack, but this was no normal monster.

Komachi eyed [Heavy Blade], still building up [Heroic Rock] stacks. “Does boosting your Strength and Vigor help with that skill?”

With a mental nudge, Sam was able to bring up the information on the skill while still charging the attack.

[Heavy Blade]

(Swordsman Ability) (E-Class)

(★ Common)

Tap into the Metal mana of your weapon, increasing the weight of any greatsword or larger and providing a scaling modifier of Strength and weight. Amplifies your already overwhelming Strength, pushing every stat point further. This ability can be charged, consuming even more mana, granting your weapon a Metal aura, and enhancing its weight and damage further. Grants a minuscule bonus to the effect of Strength and weapon weight when using [Heavy Blade].

“Just Strength,” Sam said, sweat dripping down his face. He had never charged his [Heavy Blade] so much before, and the strain was becoming unbearable.

“Hmm, still, maybe Machi needs somethin’ that adds some oomph to magical stats.”

He could barely process what she was saying. All his concentration was bent into charging [Heavy Blade].

At the last moment, Sam used [Void Infusion]. His weapon was so long and heavy, he could barely hold on to the sword. It took all his concentration just to keep it in line with the creature in front of him.

As the blade fell forward with all of Sam’s strength, black-and-silver fire roared to life along its prodigious length. The automaton reacted just as Sam had hoped. Its many lenses began to pulse with light, ready to unleash beams of devastation.

But then it did something else Sam hadn’t expected.

Its many-limbed arms reached out as the sword closed in. Sam’s muscles bulged as he brought all of his power to bear, but it turned out to be wholly unnecessary.

The Void infused into the blade had it sliding effortlessly through the blocking limbs. Chunks of metal clanked heavily to the floor as Sam’s overcharged [Heavy Blade] sheared through its arms and then through the main body.

Motes of metal mana broke apart as Sam dismissed the attack. The creature before him finally stopped hovering. It collapsed into neat halves with a resounding crash that shook every bone in Sam’s body.

When the vibrations settled, the monster did not rise again.

The way was clear.