Magical Engineering [Progression Fantasy, LitRPG] (Book 3 Complete)

As I charged the creature, I felt it probe my mind again, and again it failed to get a grip. It felt like oily fingers trying to reach deep behind my eyes and being forced back out. There was a pain, but I could ignore that. I had no idea what was keeping it off me this time, as Connie's music hadn't started yet, but whatever it was was working, and I was thankful for it.

Fireball after fireball left my body while I internally debated how the hell we were going to actually win this fight. I needed more of a plan than the orders that had been thrown together last second. That meant pulling up a chat window, distraction or not, while I tried to keep my attention on staying alive. I sent the first message as I knocked a black tendril off my shield.

Dave: I want you all focused on keeping shields around everyone on our side within the thing's range. We will use the feedback loop to fuel our spells as fast as we can. Understand?

Beta: For the Empire!

Gamma: Yes. New fighters are approaching, and we will handle shielding them. Burn the excess mana as fast as you can. It is starting to unleash those smaller pieces of itself again as it did on the highway.

Dave: Corey, it might be best to let Gamma handle most of the fighting coordination here. They have the experience.

Corey: Understood. Gamma, you will be in charge of the forces. I will handle the core and socket cycling. Apollyon, I want you to focus on keeping the energy away from the city. I believe it was draining the dungeon energy, so we need to keep its supply shut off.

Apollyon: Do you want me to continue to shield your mind?

Dave: That was you? Thank you, and yes, keep doing that.

Apollyon: Of course, only I will be the one allowed to kill you.

I closed the chat window on that grim statement, hoping it was their attempt at humor. I could feel the mana pouring in from the shields that were going up across the city. Connie's music had started up as well. Luck willing, that would keep the other people safe from its effects.

Hundreds of the smaller black shapes poured from its mouth as its eyes yet again focused on me. There was an anger there that hadn't been there the first time we fought. I got the feeling that it hated me now.

Good, that meant I could keep it focused on me. Anything that would help keep the others safe was my goal. At some point, though, we'd need something beyond safety. We needed a real way to kill this thing.

"I will consume this world. You cannot stop me. My young will feast on all that remains of this universe!" The words didn't seem to come from the siren so much as they reverberated all around the city.

I could feel a new attack that accompanied them. Again, the tendrils attempted to force their way into my brain, and again, the force that I now knew was Apollyon countered each and every one. The music grew louder. Several other performers had joined Connie. She had easily shrugged off the effect and was working on stopping any further attempts at it.

"This is your one and only chance to leave our world before we kill you!" I roared back.

It was complete bluster, an attempt at intimidation. I didn't expect it to work. The fact that the monster seemed to hesitate at all shocked me. It was almost reassuring when a wave of icy blackness slid over me. I wasn't sure I could handle a world where my orders were obeyed by eldritch beings.

Unlike the core creature from the simulation, my shield was able to deflect most of the attack, and the continued feedback from what had grown to several dozen people fighting this thing was easily refilling my core. It wasn't quite faster than I could use the mana yet. But that was mostly because I had three dungeon cores and myself casting nonstop magic. It was almost a good problem to have.

"Dave, all we're doing is stopping its attacks, and barely. We need to find a way to hurt it!" Rabyn screamed, having appeared next to me.

"I'm open to ideas. I didn't really read much at all about the monsters of chaotic space while I was in the archives, or since we got the books!" I yelled back as I tossed another several fireballs at the monster's head.

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"Don't have any. Never fought one before. Mel picked a terrible time to run off, could really use his smarts here!" Rabyn said, stabbing his butcher knife deep into the face of one of the smaller creatures.

Luckily, even without Mel around, we did have some of the things Mel had put into place before he left. Several rounds of explosive ordinance crashed into the creature. Grant and his people had arrived. As its head reared back, revealing a silver substance leaking from its shoulder, it screamed louder than ever.

The magical rounds he was firing seemed to have a greater effect on the monster here than they did on the highways. Was it because it was out of its own world and forced to fight in our mana flow? Or had the few rounds we had managed to cobble together somehow been more powerful? Either way, I was glad for the change.

All around us, magical attacks, boosted by Connie's music, were now hitting the creature. More of the silver substance started to pour from it. Was that blood?

"It looks like our best bet is just overwhelming force!" I yelled to Rabyn as new black tendrils whipped from the monster's hands.

His response didn't come in words. Instead, a wall of knives surrounded him, more than I had ever seen from the Orc before. He rushed past me, leaping directly into its open mouth. Not to be outdone, I chased after him, assuming this wasn't just a suicidal charge and he had a plan.

While I ran after him, I did something I had been considering since the fight started. The only spell I had that scared me now had twenty-five ranks in both orbs. Just as the mouth closed around us, I supercharged both Rabyn and my shields with soul mana, and I triggered Sever the Bonds, targeting what I assumed was the creature's tongue.

Rabyn's knives flew from him, impaling its mouth and throat as we were forced deeper into it. Moments after the knives came my own attack. I had purposely used as little mana as possible, trying both to reduce the explosion and hopefully avoid any potential radioactive aftermath.

How did radiation and nuclear weapons work exactly? Was it caused more by the type of material used for the fission, or was it an active property of the reaction itself? I couldn't remember exactly what caused the particles, and it was something I probably should have looked up before I had done this, but who can predict when your city will be attacked by a creature out of nightmares?

The explosive eruption catapulted us down its throat all the faster. The good news was that my shield held, blocking the worst immediate effects of my attack. The bad news was that Inner Vitality was now reading my radiation exposure at critical levels. That meant that either neutrons or gamma rays could pierce my magical shields, likely both, given the fact that light could as well.

A scan on Rabyn showed he had the same issue going. Here's hoping regeneration could handle that, and that I hadn't contaminated the city much beyond this space. How hard would it be to clean up radiation with magic?

"Whatever the hell you just did seems to have hurt it more than my knives did!" Rabyn yelled as we splashed down into a pool of silvery liquid.

"Something I probably shouldn't have done, but I was worried. Can you cut us a way out of here?" I asked. The substance we were standing in was draining the shields faster than I liked.

"Yes." It was his only word as he produced a large fillet knife and made several rapid slashes into what I assumed was flesh in front of us.

We spilled out of the creature's stomach to find even more people had gathered to fight it. Hundreds of Reltleons and dozens of humans were backing up Grant's group, alongside the Arena squad fighters. Even Trolke was here, trading blows with one of the few tendrils still wriggling.

From the actions of Rabyn and me, everything above its shoulders was entirely gone. That hadn't taken all of the fight out of it, but with another few minutes of fighting, we had finally dispatched all of the things it had released, at least that we could find, and killed it enough that its movement had entirely ceased.

The city had come together and stopped the first real attack in its tracks, and the even better news was that my magic was clearing up my radiation sickness. So even if it meant some extra work, we could heal everyone affected by my split-second decision. Now we just had the cleanup.

As the news started to be passed around that there had somehow been no casualties on our side, cheers started to sound from all over. While Rabyn cleaned himself off, John had pulled all the other kitchen workers together, and the real celebration had started. Food and drink spread across the city as the earlier fear turned into a shared feeling of triumph. No one had been forced from their homes this time. We had fought, and we had won.

As I joined everyone, freshly showered and mostly radiation free, I looked out over the people I had saved again today, and for one of the few times since this had all started, didn't hate the idea of being an emperor.

"Johan, did you catch those readings? The spikes correspond to exactly when the creature died and the dungeon energy Apollyon was using was freed," Bert said, staring at several readouts and a piece of paper in his hands.

So far, their work had found no concrete evidence for what had happened with the missing energy. That was at least until today. It seemed what had started as an unlikely theory had finally become a rock-solid truth.

It had been a week since the big fight, and the two scientists at the Antarctic dungeon had finally finished going over all the data they had collected. The battle had caused their instruments to spike. But they still managed to capture it all.

"I did, but that can't really mean what it shows, can it?" Johan asked back.

"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth," Bert replied, quoting Sherlock Holmes. He had brought his personal collection with him, and recently finished reading through the books again.

"If you two are sure that this is truly what is occurring. It is time to inform Dave," Apollyon's manifest form said.

"Bert is right, this is all it could be," Johan replied.

"I will summon the others. If the dungeon energy truly is causing the Earth to expand and grow, they will need to be informed," Apollyon replied.

Looking back at the early events of what would set the Empire of Dave on the path it would later take, one of the likely more influential ones would be the best Jester's assault on Alexandria, and the aftermath of their attack.

Systems of Change, A Book Not Yet Written by a Man Not Yet Born

End of Book 3