Reborn as a Mechanist with a God-Tier System-Chapter 246: The Terror of a Reality Sculptor [6]
Tick! Tock!
Time moved forward.
The time was 3:35am.
Major Lawrence was dead, Major Mendez was dead, Major Garfield was out of commission, crippled by the C Rank Federation General.
Major Kai and Major Potter, the most elusive and mobile of the 5 Lieutenants of the Freegrid Collective were the only ones still standing and they were both heavily injured.
But Major Potter no longer cared.
This battle against the Reality Sculptor already stressed his limits to their breaking point since, Major Mendez’s death was the final plug that flipped a switch in his head.
And now, the D Rank NetRunner no longer cared about death, he went all out as he no longer acknowledged the concept of surviving tonight.
He threw caution to the wind.
Overclock Mind!
Neural Projection!
Mind Distortion!
Psionic Assault!
Neural Burn!
Data Lash! 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮
BZZZ!
Major Potter went all out!
He pushed his remaining ADE to the limit in one final showdown.
And for a moment, it worked as the reckless barrage of attacks slowed down the cognition of the General’s main body, long enough for the frenzied NetRunner to drive a dagger straight through the General’s chest, then he twisted the dagger violently!
Major Potter’s last second frenzy caught the General off-guard.
With a metallic grinding sound, the entire chest components of the Synth were ravaged and torn apart, turning the Synth into a hollow shell.
Silence followed.
General Murphy calmly looked down at the life-threatening wound on his chest, then he looked back up.
BZZZ!
Time rewound!
All of that was just worth 1 Time Loop.
The blade retracted itself, the wound covered up completely even as the NetRunner briefly became frozen in time, unable to escape the temporal inversion field that felt like fighting against nature itself.
Then...
BAM!
General Murphy’s right hand gripped the NetRunner’s throat in a vice-like grip as he lifted him from the ground.
Major Potter tried to struggle and escape, not out of fear but to reset for another suicide attack.
Neural...
He tried to hop into the psionic network but before the ability could fully activate, he was interrupted.
Chronostatis Distortion!
BZZZ!
In the perception of the NetRunner, time instantly became stretched.
The process of activating an ability that’s supposed to only take a fraction of a second in the perception of the NetRunner suddenly became elongated to a process that takes over a dozen seconds.
General Murphy looked into the NetRunner’s dazed eyes with a grin.
Neural Projection!
Major Kai tried to intervene but the 13 temporal clones intercepted him, bombarding him with attacks that forced him to escape.
Major Kai dared not face 13 temporal clones of a C Rank Ascended head-on, he couldn’t help.
And as he stared into the NetRunner’s eyes, General Murphy uttered with a smirk. "Bravery is not the same as victory".
"Bravery as a Geneform is stupidity".
Major Potter spat on the General’s face. "I know, I’ve always been stupid".
General Murphy grinned, then he raised his free left hand. He straightened his palm and with it stabbed the heart of the NetRunner!
He crushed the NetRunner’s heart.
"Ugh...!" Major Potter coughed a mouthful of blood as he shuddered, then his eyes turned increasingly dazed as his body turned limp.
His final thoughts were disjointed. ’I hope... I fought valiantly...’
’I hope... I was able to do enough for the cause...’
’Mom... Dad... did you see me? Your boy is all grown up...’ His lips curled up slightly as he died with a slight smile forever frozen on his face.
Seeing the smile on the corpse, General Murphy scoffed in displeasure before casually throwing the NetRunner’s body to the side.
And finally, 14 General Murphys focused on just Major Kai.
The Major froze.
...
Neural Projection!
Neural Projection!
Neural Projection!
BZZZ! BZZZ! BZZZ!
Major Kai ran, he tried to use the inherent nature of Purgatory to escape the General but alone, he couldn’t effectively resist a C Rank Ascended, not when this was a Reality Sculptor that could create Temporal Clones.
He was overwhelmed from every side and cornered as the Federation General played with him like a cat stalking a mouse.
Alone, he posed zero threat to the C Rank Quantum Shaper.
Major Kai teleported one final time and staggered behind a broken wall. His armor was shattered, one of his leg was broken, and he bled from different parts of his body.
His breath was ragged, coming in wet gasps as he rested his back against the wall. He was at his wit’s end.
Bzzz!
The Federation General appeared in front of him without warning.
General Murphy had the same confident, teasing smirk on his face as he walked towards the D Rank NetRunner who was on his last legs.
Seeing his current state, General Murphy chuckled softly. "Are you done running?"
"You see?" He grinned as his eyes glinted in pleasure. "All that resistance of yours, all for what?"
He kicked away a fallen Freegrid Collective insignia. "All that fight, all that sacrifice, for this?"
As he spoke, his right hand moved in a devastating backhand as he smacked the NetRunner on the face.
SMACK!
Major Kai was smashed into the wall as he lost a few teeth from that slap even as gravity slammed him down, making him cough a mouthful of blood.
His eyes were red and filled with ruptured blood vessels, his right eye was black and swollen, and almost his entire body was broken in various places.
Towering above him, General Murphy looked down at him in a condescending manner. "Your struggle means nothing. It changes nothing, you never stood a chance".
Major Kai tried to rise, but he failed.
Still, he glared at the Federation General with brightly shining eyes, defiant through his blood and tears and to the very end. "We’d rather die than..."
General Murphy stepped on his chest, crushing the words out of him.
Seeing the look on the Lieutenant’s face, General Murphy mocked. "...than live kneeling?" He chuckled. "Yes, you all say that, blah blah blah".
He leaned closer, his voice cold and mocking. "And yet what have you ever done about it? You were born slaves," he grinned. "And you will forever be slaves. It’s your destiny".
"There’s no use struggling against fate".
Major Kai didn’t look offended.
In a pool of his own blood, he simply looked at the General, smiling with a defiant look on his face like he already accepted his fate.
Then he challenged with a defiant smile. "Do your worst".
"That’s not what I want to hear," General Murphy shook his head. "Tell me where he is".
Hearing that, Major Kai smirked through his pain in a mocking manner. "I thought you knew how to find him".
General Murphy wasn’t offended at all by the taunt.
He maintained his smile. "Well, I thought so previously but when I attempted to find him, I discovered that the energy of his Trial is somehow so tightly dampened that it’s producing no fluctuations at all".
"And without fluctuations, unfortunately I can’t find him quickly".
"There’s even no ADE manifestation disaster, no Neon Beast was attracted due to the Trial," General Murphy looked behind him with an amused but thoughtful look on his face. "Is he actually attempting the Trial outside the city?"
"Is that why I can’t sense any fluctuations, or...?"
"If he’s really attempting the Trial in this city and yet I can’t sense the tiniest ADE fluctuation..." He rubbed his chin in thought. "As mighty as we are, even our engineers are yet to create ADE dampeners of this quality".
"ADE dampeners of such quality to completely dampen the ADE fluctuations of a D Rank Ascended attempting a C Rank Trial for hours, only the Synth Order can produce them and it has to be produced by that lady herself".
He looked at Major Kai again. "What deal did you strike with those people? Did they actually break the treaty?"
Major Kai grinned in relief, then he laughed like he finally found what he was looking for. "I can finally die in peace". He wheezed and coughed blood.
General Murphy looked at him as his lips curled slightly in amusement, waiting for him to explain.
Major Kai didn’t disappoint as he grinned, revealing his bloodied teeth. "You really did a good job deceiving us that you could locate him," Major Kai shrugged. "But it doesn’t matter, our sacrifice was worth it".
"Even if we all die, it’s worth it. So long the General survives and rises as the ’Glitch’, the Freegrid Collective lives".
"My death is inconsequential".
General Murphy slightly raised his eyebrows. "Now, what gave you the misconception that I intend to give you a clean death?"
He chuckled. "Do you think I’m some hero, or do you think I’m a fool like Sylvari?" He laughed. "If you refuse to speak, you think I’ll just let you go?"
"I’ll torture you till you tell me the truth".
"What do you think?" He smiled. "Do you think you’ll break first and tell me the truth or you’ll endure long enough for your General to complete the Trial?"
He looked at his mechanical wrist watch on his wrist. "Do you even know how long a C Rank Trial takes?"
He smirked. "Do you want to bet with me?"
...
Less than a minute later...
"ARGHHHHHHHHH...!" Major Kai’s screams of agony reverberated through the quiet isolated battlefield away from the still ongoing aerial battle.
Squatting beside the weak NetRunner, General Murphy pressed his chest down with one hand while his other hand pressed his mechanical index finger into the right eye of the NetRunner, gorging it out!
Major Kai’s entire body shuddered in agony as he cried tears and blood, the pain made him feel like he was burning in hell.
There were different daggers stabbed into different parts of his body, focused on his joints and tendons as they left this NetRunner in a constant consistent world of pain.
Pressing him down, General Murphy looked at him with a taunting smile. "What admirable mental fortitude and endurance," he grinned. "Will you talk or should I continue?"
"Do you truly want to be a blind man on both eyes?"
He pushed his mechanical index finger towards the Major’s sole remaining eye even as Major Kai tightened his facial muscles, getting ready for another explosion of pain.
Seeing his reaction, General Murphy’s face became even more amused as a look of excitement emerged on his face almost like he was having a challenge with the Major to see his pain threshold.
But just as the index finger hovered mere inches from the eyeball, a foreign voice interrupted the torture scene.
"Wait," the voice paused, then he added. "That’s enough, I’ll take you to where Ren Nora is attempting the C Rank Trial".
General Murphy calmly turned his head to look.
Reflected in his eyes was a young Geneform in a black trench coat with short black hair and inky black eyes.
His eyes flickered in surprise. ’An E Rank Ascended?’
He grinned. "And who might you be?"
Leon fearlessly stared into the eyes of the C Rank Ascended, then he casually gestured at the distant C Rank NetRunner. "I’m the one who created the trap for that fool".
"..."
"..."
"....."
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[Special Appreciation to Shadesworn, Katcan20, and D4rkV1II4n for the Golden Tickets! Thanks for the consistent support.]
