Chapter 442 - Core

"The Great Mana Barrier Array wouldn't last for long… We need to at least divert its attention."

Grand Sage Maze is currently holding the core of the Array. 

By doing this, she would be capable of controlling where the Mana or the Energy must be focused on the barrier. Currently, about 200 magicians are currently supplying mana to the barrier together with thousands of Mana Stones that they have acquired. 

They are confident that this could last for a while but they are not happy about this!

After all, they need the Space Beast to be killed or perhaps, to move away from this place. They can't just defend here forever!

"I'll do something about it… Stay here and focused on strengthening the Array." Grand Sage Gildartz took his cane and slammed it on the ground… He then vanished like he mist before reappearing above the huge Space Beast.

"Mana Break…"

A grade 3 spell was released just by a wave of his cane.

The spell didn't do much damage but the Grand Sage wasn't surprised about it…

Bam! Bam!

The Space Beast continued smashing the barrier and ignored him completely.

"Mana Break… Mana Break…"

The old man continued casting the similar spell with at least 5 seconds delay in each spell.

"Graaah!'

Finally, after hitting the beast for the thirtieth time, a defeaning cry suddenly stunned everyone… The Space Beasts was hurt by that spell!

However, the Grand Sage didn't stop and continued casting it!

"Mana Break!"

At this time, the Space Beast sent four huge tentacles to try and catch him… It happened extremely fast and the Grand Sage was hit!

Puff!

However, the man that was hit was just a mist from one of his spells! 

He reappeared behind the Space Beast as he observed its body…

"I see… So Mana Break can really weaken you." The old man muttered… Apparently, everyone had been trying to find its weakness but none of them could find it. 

It was then suggested by Avalon to try and drain the Mana within the beast's body. Well, even the A.I. is unsure about this suggestion.

Nevertheless, it seems that the space beast requires a lot of energy to control its body, and taking its mana or energy away from them would be disastrous. After all, they could crush their own body if they didn't have enough mana to support it!

The battle was intense and a lot of Magicians are already reaching their limit…

Apparently, not all the limbs of the beasts are aiming for the Grand Sage… Many of them were still trying to break the barrier in the city!

Perhaps, if not for their lack of vessel, they would be able to arrive there a bit earlier. Currently, there are five Chronos and five Airships from Veritas that are moving to send reinforcement in this place.

In truth, even if Ace arrived here with his five Chronos, they wouldn't be able to do that much either. They need everyone to arrive so they could change the tide of battle. 

What they needed right now is a group of powerful magicians that can activate a powerful array to kill the space beast and stop its natural growth…

"I can't let it kill more magicians… Avalon, we have to hurry!"

Ace said in a frustrated tone. Their plan to fight the Empire before it could completely settle on this planet and have fewer casualties has already failed…

'Tsk… Everything is not going according to plan… We should at least kill this beast today…'

It is extremely frustrating for him since ever since he dreamed about the arrival of the Empire, he had done his best to prepare this planet to fight against the Empire.

However, though he managed to put up a good fight, it was still not enough… Many magicians have died and the lands on this planet still ended up on their hands.

'Ugh… I can't think like this… If I lose hope, everyone would follow suit. I need to give them hope… But what do I do if this plan failed again?'

The Montego's Mage Towers are ineffective, Maja's Automatons were only good enough as cannon fodder, the Virgan's Mobile Turrets were only capable of stopping the advance of the Bio-Armored Soldiers, and even with the help of Zairus's Airships and Mech Knights, they were still unable to fight the empire equally.

'I guess without Veda's Cryptic Mages, we would be in an even more tough position.' Ace mused as he considered their current situation…

Right now, they are only dealing with the outside forces of the Empire… Their Elite Terubs were no longer getting involved as they seem to have stayed within the Flagship for some reason…

[ ETA: 10:01 ] 

[ The Grand Sages and Grand Arcanists from other cities are also hurrying to the Capital. ] 

"What? Isn't that bad? What if those cities get attacked?"

[ They said that they will deal with it if it really happens. ] 

"Haa~ Very well… Let's just do what we can here."

Ace sighed as he looked at the huge Space Beast on the screen. The walls of the city were already broken as the beast started creating havoc everywhere…

Multiple spells like petrification, traceless, oscillation, fireballs, and many other elementals spells were being used. However, none of them seem to hurt the beast at all!

Ace looked at the Beast thrashing the nearby magicians as he thought of something…

'Now that the Space Beast managed to adapt to this planet and can use Mana… Does it have a Beast Core this time?' 

He had a serious look on his face as he thought of this…

It must be remembered that the Steel Knights use fire-type beast cores to run as their engine… Now that there is a beast here that could possibly have a core, wouldn't they be able to create something out of it? 

Perhaps a stronger and even the best ever version of a Steel Knight that they could make?