Quietly, she let it out, concern. “Ten … years?”

  “… It’s a long story, obviously. Maybe some other time,” Ryan replied, patting his friend’s shoulder. At least he didn’t feel any pity from her, though he couldn’t blame her, even if that had been what she felt.

  By the time the next round for Vanda and Kit started, there were only twelve minutes left on the cooldown of Ryan’s Spirit Link skill. Sometime during the last round, he should be able to activate the skill. Though for now, the second round itself had to finish.

  This time, as in every other duel until now, Lightspeed began jumping around on the barriers that it could create under its feet. It got a lot more hits in due to how unpredictable its movements had become, but even so, Energizer barely seemed to be taking much of any damage. High defense and high damage. That did certainly sound like a golem.

  While the battle was more drawn out than before, it did end sooner or later; obviously. But that being the case, Vanda didn’t seem like she had really broken a sweat. As if she was only just getting started.

  The break between the second and third rounds was shorter than the first, as if both sides wanted to quickly return to the duel. Whether that was to save time or because they were both excited to continue was a bit unclear, though.

  Ryan took a deep breath. Just five more minutes and he could connect to Gaia’s fragment. Or at least, he could try.

  The last round of the duel started, and Lightspeed shot forward, once more jumping around wildly. However, Energizer was acting different to before. Vanda was getting more excited about this fight, and seemed to act a bit different. Something had changed in Energizer; Ryan could see the threads of green mana change just so slightly. Larger lumps of knots but shorter distances between the cuts. And the moment Ryan seemed to recognize this, Energizer started to move. Fast. A speed that easily seemed to match Lightspeed, despite Energizer’s larger size and weight.

  Finally, Ryan realized why exactly the way the robot was moving had seemed familiar to him this whole time. It was a classic battle approach for Enhancers. Through their skills and ability to manipulate both aura and mana, they were able to intertwine the two energies into each other in specific patterns, boosting them in a number of ways.

  Strengthening their muscles or eyesight, improving their intelligence or even the effects of magic spells in some rare cases. And what happened to Energizer just now was that its body was a classic method of switching between different “modes,” as they were referred to by many Enhancers. Going from strength to defense to speed within moments. Energizer was clearly something created to imitate the way that Enhancers fought.

  Frankly, it was impressive; clearly this was something that Vanda had worked very hard on. The only bad part was that she, apparently unknowingly, used Gaia’s fragment to make it all work. But it really didn’t matter what her intentions were. It didn’t matter how impressive it was. This was clearly like some kind of ridiculous torture for Gaia herself.

  Ryan was focusing back on the cooldown of the Spirit Link skill, but as he tried to, he noticed something else.

  The threads of mana seeping out from the cracks of Energizer’s body were starting to … change. Their color became muddy, as though they were soaking up the water of a dirty puddle. The more mana was used within Energizer and the more that this mana leaked out, connecting with the fragment of Gaia already with Ryan, the more that corruption seemed to spread.

  “Huh?” The confused mutter came from the other side of the room, from Vanda. She was fiddling with her controller, the way that you did when it stopped working. But despite that, Energizer kept moving, only much more erratic than before, as if its limbs were being jerked around by some other force.

  Its arms were being twisted around in an all too familiar way. It was the exact same thing that happened when Maximus settled into his new body. But … still different. It just felt completely wrong to Ryan; there was no other way to say it than that. Energizer kept moving forward toward Lightspeed. Kit was also able to tell that something was going on, and was looking at Vanda when it happened.

  Energizer grabbed Lightspeed. It wrapped its right hand around the other robot’s neck, and then began tearing its arm off its body.

  “Vanda, what are you doing?” Kit asked, confused, trying to get Lightspeed out of Energizer’s grip.

  “I-I’m not doing anything—it’s, it’s doing that on its own!” she stuttered out a response. Vanda was trying to get the robot to respond to her input, but no matter what she did, it didn’t work.

  And then, Lightspeed’s arm was ripped off. Wires were exposed as the robot’s whole body started to spasm.

  “Vanda!” Richie yelled out, snapping his finger toward the two robots to try and take control. Energizer flinched for a moment, and the corrupted mana in the robot’s body seemed to all gather toward Richie. The threads began to climb through the air, toppling over each other to carry the corruption over to Richie. It happened too fast for Ryan to respond and stop it, and the corrupted mana crept up on the gnome.

  Richie fell to his knees, grabbing his head in pain. “Aargh!” he screamed loudly, clear physical pain in his voice. Everyone stared at him as Energizer continued. It threw Lightspeed to the side and proceeded to pull apart the arm. The metal plating was pressed on top of Energizer’s plates, while the wires wrapped around its limbs. Ryan watched the threads of mana break down the metal plates, pulling them into the rest of the body. It looked all too familiar to him; it was just like how the monsters in the Abandoned Copper Foundry looked and seemed to advance their bodies.

  At this point, Ryan didn’t hold back anymore; he had to do what he could, and practically jumped at the robot. Similarly, Maximus tried running at it, though hesitant due to the nature of what was happening to it. But Energizer was too fast and small, and immediately jumped out of the way of either of them.

  With just a single leap, it reached the podium in front of Vanda, who was staring at her creation as it went berserk.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Corruption

  Vanda dropped the controller onto the ground as Energizer jumped onto it. Like a wild animal, it began to tear the piece apart, pressing any small piece it could onto its body. Wires and screws and even plastic. All of it was fused into its body in one way or another. However, as it did so, Ryan was able to grab it in the midst of its attempts.

  He wrapped his hands around it and tried to keep it tied down, but his palm was quickly cut up by the sharp edges of metal and plastic that were covering it now.

  “Fucking—” Ryan clicked his tongue, trying to persist through the pain. But the cuts weren’t all; Energizer was also strong, far stronger than anything of this size should be. Rather, the only thing that Ryan could think of that had similar strength at that size was Maximus. Gaia’s fragmented core seemed to be somehow reacting to this false “body” that had been created for it.

  He ended up dropping Energizer, but Maximus was already waiting down below. He caught the robot, holding on to the grooves of its body and quickly slammed it onto the ground. For a little while, Maximus was successful at restraining Energizer, but Ryan was able to see something that he really, really didn’t like. The formerly bright green, now dark enough to be called black, threads of mana were wrapping around Maximus. Ryan had a bad feeling; and it was quickly confirmed.

  [A corrupting force is encroaching on Maximus]

  Without hesitation, Ryan forcefully pulled Maximus into his domain, scanning the spirit’s mana with his gaze. Some wisps of Maximus’s mana were dyed black, but when they touched Ryan’s skin, it was like a layer of oil or tar was scraped off. He could feel the corruption laying on his skin, like a living scab attempting to dig into his skin. But before he could even swat it away, it fell apart and disappeared, unable to live on without something to cling onto.

  Ryan had managed to save Maximus from the corruption, but at the same time, this led to Energizer being freed again. The “possessed” robot jumped up and immediately ran back around the room. None of the club members were able to catch it, no matter what they did; it was like trying to catch a mouse, but the mouse had sharp edges all over its body and the capabilities to break their hands with ease. Ryan couldn’t blame any of them from running away instead of actually attempting to catch it for more than a few moments.

  “Ryan, what’s happening?” Modak asked with deep confusion and concern. He was squatting down next to Richie, trying to help him out as he recovered from that pain.

  “I don’t—Something is corrupting Gaia’s fragment, and now it’s going wild! It’s trying to add anything it can to its body and grow stronger,” Ryan warned the others.

  Richie, hearing what Ryan was saying but not understanding, glanced over to him. His eyes were completely bloodshot. “What do you mean … ? What … fragment?” he forced out, and Ryan looked over toward Vanda with some hesitation.

  “The ‘crystal’ Vanda used as a battery is the fragment of a spirit core, and now something is trying to corrupt the part of the spirit left inside of it,” he explained, though that was really all that he could tell them. He had no idea why this was happening, or what was corrupting Gaia. That didn’t seem like the kind of thing that could just happen from being used as a power source. There was something else that was affecting Gaia, Ryan was sure of it.

  Richie stared over at Vanda, who was now hearing about this for the first time as well. “What … what do you mean, ‘spirit core,’ that’s not … That’s not what it is!”

  With a deep glare directed at the girl, something that came involuntarily, Ryan barked out, “Yes it is!”

  It wasn’t like he was mad at Vanda directly; she was just the only one that he could be angry at right now. It wasn’t like he knew who was actually behind this; and frankly, he wasn’t totally convinced that Vanda was actually innocent here.

  “I’ll try to control it again, I just—” Richie pushed himself off the ground, reaching his hand out toward Energizer as it started ripping into the case of one of the old computers stacked up in the corner of the room.

  “No! The corruption was trying to take you over too. I have no idea what that’s going to do to you.” Ryan stopped him, pushing the gnome’s hand down again. “Even Maximus was about to be taken over. I think I know a way to stop this, but we need to somehow get to the fragment.”

  “Can’t you do that domain thing? Pull the fragment in? I thought you just need to be close enough!” Silvia suggested, but Ryan immediately shook his head.

  “No, I tried earlier, and it didn’t work. I think all the mechanisms are keeping it locked in somehow—it’s not responding,” he pointed out, turning back to the rampaging Energizer.

  By now, it had climbed inside the computer’s case and was pulling apart the broken electronics, making them part of its own body. Before long, it climbed out of the case again, larger and clearly stronger than before. It was now barely recognizable as the robot that it started out as; instead, it seemed to be a mass of wires and metal and plastic in the shape of what it used to be. And from Ryan’s perspective, the whole thing was kept together by threads of Gaia’s corrupted mana.

  Ryan looked down at his hands; they were cut up and covered in blood. None of them were particularly deep, and they should heal quickly enough, but it was painful and annoying. And more importantly, it meant that Ryan wouldn’t be able to do this barehanded. He walked over to one of the nearby podiums; they were quite simple. Metal bars holding up angled wooden boards. It was really wonky. It was easy enough for Ryan to kick away the thin crossbeams that were keeping it somewhat stable.

  Ryan handed Silvia the tablet that was on the podium. She saw the blood that was on it but wasn’t able to stop him before Ryan picked up the podium, carefully approaching Energizer.

  It was still running around, now hanging on to one of the monitors. It practically shoved its hand through the screen as if it were some thin fabric just waiting to break. The sharp shards of glass were also being fused into its body, making it even more impossible to grab it. But Ryan didn’t hesitate to push the podium right against the robot. The monitor completely broke, and its stand fell over with Energizer still on it. Ryan pressed down on it, using his full weight to try and break it.

  But instead of Energizer breaking, the podium’s wooden top cracked apart, and the robot grabbed the podium’s wooden legs. Its hand fused into the metal, starting to absorb it into itself.

  With a click of his tongue, Ryan pulled away the metal bar that now had Energizer stuck to it. “Fucking idiot,” he groaned, proceeding to slam the robot into the ground like a hammer. This time, pieces that it had only just connected to were flung off. One was shot up at Ryan, scratching his cheek. Just a little higher and it could have hit his eye.

  Ryan kept going, until suddenly the weight of Energizer seemed to mostly disappear. It had grown to weigh a few kilos at that point, so Ryan noticed it before he saw or heard it be thrown around the room and hit the wall. It seemed like its arm had been torn off, and said arm was still attached to the end of the metal bar, in the midst of the robot trying to absorb it. Not only that, but it was still wriggling around, and Ryan could see the threads of mana wriggle like worms trying to crawl out of the detached limb. Ryan placed his hand in front of it, pulling the escaping mana into Gaia’s domain. The mana was properly pulled inside, while the “corruption” stuck to his bloodied palm. And this confirmed it for Ryan.

  This corruption couldn’t do anything to him, at least not like this. It was like Ryan’s body rejected it. He didn’t know why, but that didn’t matter right now. The important part was that this meant he could still save Gaia’s fragment from this. He just had to get to the core, and the more he hesitated or waited, the harder that was going to get.

  The room was filled with complete panic. The club members were picking up their Duelists, trying to save them before they were torn apart, like some of the others already had been. And then, they ran out of the room, not even thinking about what they were doing.

  “Wait, no, stay in here!” Ryan yelled out. “Keep the fucking door closed!”

  Taking the opportunity that was given to it, Energizer ran out of the room. It could clearly tell that it was going to be in danger if it didn’t run away. This was different to the dungeon. Of course, in both cases, the fragment was being protected. In the dungeon, it was done by a monster, but here, it was done by the body around the fragment itself. Instead of counterattacking Ryan, which it could tell would lead to a loss, Energizer fled. Or at least, for now.

  This was the engineering building; this place was chock-full of numerous computers and technologies that the robot could absorb into itself. And as it did so, it would get stronger. Without hesitation, Ryan ran outside and chased the rogue machine down the hallway, ignoring Silvia and Modak as they tried to yell after him. But he couldn’t pay attention to that right now; he had to hurry. In his hand, Ryan was still holding the metal bar with Energizer’s arm fused to its end.

  And then, Ryan saw the robot enter a door at the end of the hallway and could feel his heart almost skip a beat. It seemed to be just a storage room … but a storage room in this building meant that it was filled with the exact things that Energizer needed. Ryan pulled open the door and immediately spotted the metal cabinet across the fairly small room. Its thin door was crumpling up as the metal was pulled into Energizer’s body. Beyond it were a number of power tools. Ryan swung the improvised weapon in his hand down at the robot, but it barely made it budge. It released its grasp from the metal door, already having pulled off a fair chunk that was now covering half of its body like an armor.

  Energizer tried to jump into the pile of laptops and computers stacked up in the corner of the room, but Ryan stabbed the metal bar forward, hitting it out of the air. He was about to once more swing down at the Energizer, but before he could, someone pulled on his arm from behind.

  “Don’t! You can’t break it anymore!” Vanda was pulling Ryan back, tearing at his jacket and almost making him fall backward.

  “What the hell are you doing? Get off me!” Ryan yelled out, as the hobgoblin flinched upon seeing his expression.

  “You can’t … if you break it, you’ll ruin everything, you’ll … I …” Tears welled up in Vanda’s eyes as Modak quickly grabbed her and pulled her away from Ryan.

  The orc looked her in the eyes, trying to explain the gravity of the situation. “No! If he doesn’t do this, then that thing is going to keep rampaging!”

  “B-But just … why can’t he just not break it?! Just take out the core and—” she pleaded loudly, and for a moment, even Ryan was hesitating, remembering what Richie had explained to them; the event tomorrow was something that could potentially change the lives of the club members if things went well. Ryan didn’t know her situation, but Vanda must have put a lot of pressure onto tomorrow. He understood it, and he could feel her pain, but he couldn’t let that dictate what Ryan was going to do.

  “… I’m sorry,” he responded, trying to tune out Vanda’s yells and screams as Modak and Silvia were pulling her away. Ryan looked back inside the room, and was met with a horrible sight. All the electronics were covered in thin, tangled threads of dark mana. They crumpled and tore and were all pulled to a specific spot in the corner of the room.

  Ryan stabbed the metal bar at that spot to try and open up a way, but it didn’t work; that mass of metal and plastic and glass was too dense for him to get through. The crunch of the materials was so loud that Ryan could barely hear himself think, until it all went quiet.

  Ryan backed out of the room as the large mass revealed itself. He had no idea what happened, but something made Gaia’s mana spread so much faster than before, and now, Ryan was looking into the face of a two-meter-tall mass of electronics that had been completely torn apart. Gaia’s core was deep inside that figure. More and more, the idea of safely recovering the fragment from inside the original robot seemed impossible.