"What is that?"

The captain’s voice pulled the Female Wizard back to reality from that vast, cold perception.

Her lips trembled, but she found it difficult to describe in words.

"A... will. It’s incredibly vast and absolutely rational."

She struggled to organize her thoughts. "It has no emotion, like a machine performing a massive number of calculations."

Before her words had even faded, a barrage of shattering sounds came from the thorny vines and the Defense Array blocking the entrance. A sharp, metallic scraping noise pierced everyone’s eardrums.

"They’re breaking through!" The Contract Wizard’s face paled. He desperately squeezed out his Magic Power, channeling it into the thick vines. The dim light of the Runes flickered twice, on the verge of collapse.

Everyone’s heart sank as a sense of despair washed over them.

However, the anticipated storm of attacks never came.

On the contrary, the suffocating sounds of metal scraping and clashing outside reached a crescendo and then, in an instant, abruptly stopped.

Dead silence.

The sudden stillness was more heart-pounding than any clamor.

’What happened?’

The six survivors looked at each other, not daring to relax for even a moment.

The next second, a colossal shadow fell over the semi-collapsed building they were in.

The light was blotted out.

Everyone instinctively looked up, peering at the sky through a crack at the top of the pyramid.

The low, lead-gray clouds had been replaced by a far larger, more massive silhouette.

It was... a metal island floating in the sky!

It just hovered there silently above their heads, exuding a suffocating sense of pressure.

It didn’t resemble any known enemy structure; it was more like a floating marvel.

"What... is that? Is it the enemy’s final form?" the young elementalist Wizard muttered, his voice filled with confusion.

No one could answer him.

「Meanwhile, on the deck of the Sky Throne.」

Allen’s expression was indifferent, like a god looking down upon the earth.

The reconnaissance results on the screen before him clearly displayed everything below.

Six green dots, representing friendly life signs, were huddled inside a dilapidated building below, their signals weak.

Surrounding them were tens of thousands of densely packed red dots, forming a sea of red that completely encircled the six green ones.

"DSeek, collect information and analyze all hostile units."

[Based on scan data uploaded by the Demon Eye, the units resemble Mechanical Bodies. Internal composition: 97.3% known Magic Metals, including Earth Vein Tempered Steel, Dark Iron, and trace amounts of Mithril... An unknown energy conduction pattern has been detected. The interior is solid, with no modules or parts, and lacks the typical structure of a Golem.]

[Warning: Hostile units exhibit ’swarm intelligence’ and ’fusion’ characteristics. After a single unit is destroyed, its constituent materials are rapidly absorbed by nearby units and reassembled into new forms. They are presumed to be a type of metallic life form.]

[No other enemy types detected.]

On the screen, a metal spider that had been blown to bits by a counterattack from the defensive Magic had its remains devoured completely by its swarming kin in a matter of seconds.

And those that had devoured it visibly swelled in size.

What was even more troublesome was that, due to the survivors’ fierce resistance, several giant bosses had been "nurtured" on the outskirts of the encirclement. They had consumed a massive number of their comrades and now resembled small, mobile mountains of steel, with Magic Power fluctuations approaching that of Level 2 creatures.

Watching the metal monsters display this "devour and evolve" mechanism, the indifference on Allen’s face vanished, replaced by a subtle, fiery glint in his eyes.

"Metallic life forms... fusion..." he muttered to himself.

’Isn’t this just like the liquid metal terminator from the sci-fi blockbusters of my past life?’

’Although the fusion speed is a bit slow and not as dramatic as in the movies, it’s still a pleasant surprise.’

’I can’t even imagine how much my Golem Legion would improve if I managed to crack this technology!’

’The technical bottleneck in the "Reverse Transmutation Technique" I’ve been pondering lately... I can see a glimmer of hope for a breakthrough right here!’

’That classical text from three thousand years ago proposed a method to break down finished products into raw materials by analyzing the "Binding Force."’

’And these things before me, they’ve mastered how to efficiently "fuse" raw materials into combat-ready products!’

’These aren’t monsters at all!’

’This entire city, these endless metal creations... this is clearly a treasure trove!’

’A rescue?’

’Those 50 Credit Points are instantly insignificant in the face of this technological prospect.’

Allen’s gaze swept across the vast, ruined city, his eyes shining as if he were looking at an unmined, priceless lode.

’He didn’t come here to save anyone; he came here to "learn"!’

’Of course, I should still go through the motions. After all, I’ve seen them alive, and it’s no trouble to scoop them up along the way.’

"Jarvis, clear out a safe zone. Don’t let them die."

Allen’s finger tapped lightly on the screen, on the exit path just outside the six encircled green dots.

"Fire the main cannon. Let’s see what they’re made of."

[Executing command. Sky Throne main cannon charging... 10%... 30%... 70%...]

The lights of the Sky Throne dimmed as all its power converged on a single point.

[Charging complete. Target locked.]

"Fire."

...

In the ruins, the six survivors were still gritting their teeth and holding on.

Just then, at the bottom of the floating island in the sky, a circular area began to slowly light up.

It started as a single point of light, but it rapidly expanded, growing brighter and more dazzling, as if an artificial sun were coalescing there.

An indescribable tremor, originating from the depths of their souls, seized every one of them.

It was a pure, destructive fluctuation of energy!

A blazing white pillar of light, roughly thirty meters in diameter, shot down from the heavens and slammed into the ground!

The pillar of light grazed the wall of the survivors’ building as it came crashing down, hitting the area that held both the densest concentration of metal monsters and the survivors’ defensive positions.

In that moment, time seemed to stretch.

The six Wizards watched with their own eyes as everything in the pillar’s path—the ferocious, unkillable metal monsters and the defenses they had painstakingly erected—completely... disintegrated and vanished the instant the light touched them.

When the light faded, a perfect circular void appeared in what had been a tide of metal. Its edges were so neat they looked as if they’d been drawn with a compass.

Beyond this vacuum, the metal monsters remained as dense as ever.

And off to one side stood the six dumbfounded survivors, now completely exposed.

The steel torrent that could have torn them to shreds moments ago was now held back by a clear, insurmountable line of death.

Everyone was stunned.

’What terrifying power...’

One Wizard opened his mouth. "This is our backup, right...?"

"I think so... Looks like a Second-level Wizard," another said, equally unsure.

"But I get the feeling they were trying to kill us, too."

High above, Allen couldn’t care less what the people waiting to be rescued were thinking. He pursed his lips, suddenly disappointed.

’Gone in one shot? And here I thought they were tough.’

’Looks like the material’s hardness has a low ceiling. It can’t withstand high-intensity attacks, so it’s no good for high-end Golems.’

’Still... it might be interesting to use it for certain ability modules or special transforming Golems in the future.’

As the survivors stood there in a daze, a cold voice suddenly echoed from the sky above them.

[I am Association Investigator, designation EX-2071, executing rescue mission BR-0447.]

[I am about to begin clearing the area. Please remain on standby.]