The commander was fuming now. The little bugs had wised up. Instead of being all over the place, they began to make battle formations.
They appeared to move like a wave, or more like a tube. A massive fist of black bugs would be coming at you from one direction. Then they would swarm the target from all sides, overwhelming them. No blast shield or flamethrower could stop this.
The bugs were barely harmless. One attack from a bug would end the bug's life, yet it would leave a small hole the size of a remote button, barely going skin deep.
One bug was barely dangerous, but a collection of the things would wreak havoc using zerg tactics. One small wound would not do much harm, but a thousand of those could instakill you.
Commander Manga was doing his best to maintain his composure, but he could feel a sense of fatigue building up in his muscles.
As he continued to attack, his body became weaker and weaker, to the point he could barely stand. Could it be that those wretched witches have sent a secret attack?
Mages were very feared mostly due to the versatility, range, and power of their attacks. However, they were not responsible for their weaknesses.
Barda had warned them not to use the device indoors. Now there were 6 flamethrowers in the room firing at the only source of oxygen.
"Get back!" Manga shouted, "Everyone, get back to the house!"
Following Commander Manga's command, everyone made their way out of the room to the hall. They did their best to barricade and prevent any onslaught of bugs in the palace, but they knew they were fighting a losing battle.
"Commander, we can help," A lithe woman approached the commander as he was catching his breath, steal recovering from almost dying from asphyxiation. As she did, she placed her hand on his, and for the first time in a long while, the commander was able to take a deep breath.
***
So far, Barda had collected a lot of information concerning magic. His AI had been able to integrate magic into his functions. However, he was very far from being a mage. All in all, his total collection of knowledge had barely begun to scratch the surface.
However, there were general ideas and classifications. Barda was especially concerned with the one he could use. Elemental Magic. What interested him the most was how to manipulate magic and use it.
Up till now, Magic was just another one of his tools. Since he was so overpowered, he hadn't felt the need to enhance his tools, but after the fight with the Arch-Mage, Barda found the need to. He felt like a one-eyed man in a kingdom of the blind.
It had taken Barda a full 2 weeks to absorb the ice dragon's essence. This was no coincidence. Amazingly, his absorption rate was being manipulated by the Rowan character even as a camel. This made Barda wonder just how powerful this Rowan was.
Of course, Barda had made a point of recording the absorption rate and other parameters. This would make absorbing future essences much easier.
Barda had tried gathering any information from the documents he read, searching for keyword 'Rowan' but no success. It was as though it had been wiped completely, or didn't exist. This made Barda believe that Rowan might be just an alias.
That being said, Barda did not have much to complain about. The information he gathered was so well articulated that it integrated perfectly with his AI, like a training manual.
Taking a deep breath, he observed the man seated across from him. After the pilgrim and being transformed back to human, Rowan had had Barda over for a meal, once he cooled down. He had been very angry about being made into a camel but said no more.
"So, I guess I can't hold it off any longer, can I?" Rowan began, after noticing Barda's stare.
"Let's do this already," Barda chirped.
"Alright, here goes nothing. To tell this story, I have to start from the beginning, and I don't mean that in the dramatic sense. Okay, fine, there is some bit of dramatic flare there, couldn't help myself.
The origin of humanity can be traced to a small blue planet called earth if I remember correctly. However, earth soon became overpopulated and its finite resources were running out. Humanity was transcending the confines of their small planet.
However, they were undaunted by this. They built technologies and embarked on a journey to conquer the stars..."
"I know all this," Barda interjected.
Rowan gave him a dirty look before continuing, "Somewhere along the way, they invented machines that looked exactly like them, only their bodies were far superior, the Androids. What's more, they could even leave their bodies and take on these new bodies."
Barda's heart was beating fast. This guy seemed to know all his secrets. Was this a projection of himself, a figment of his imagination?
"That was when a stupid fool decided to change his body to that of a machine, take flight and run away from his life. He ended up jumping into the universe, never to be seen or heard from again!"
"That's not true. I survived, and here I am!"
"Look, kid, I'm not the enemy here. Forget what you think you know happened and listened to what happened." After a heavy sigh, he continued:
"After he jumped into the universe, the man missed the planet he had been aiming for. Not only that, but he also ended up missing all the planets. He was just a piece of machinery left to roam the universe as junk for several millennia.
After 7.36276437645376626e+75 seconds, which translated to 2.65970043243396853e+29 centuries, the man's body was destroyed by an invisible force, along with the pod.
However, the software managed to assimilate itself with the power of the invading force. After several mutations and modifications, the AI discovered that the invading force was not even sentient, he had just been on its way.
It was not until later that the AI discovered that not only was this force extremely exaggerated, but it was also limitless, and it seemed to grow.
Bigger and bigger it went, and as it did, its mysterious energy was released, leading to formations of small objects within it.
Do you know it took us nearly 300 centuries, oh I forgot, I am talking to an AI so we can do exactly figures: 83.7747628489e+213 seconds, or 2.65648030342782858e+205 centuries for us to discover what this was that was forming."
"What was it," Barda asked after the dramatic pause had gone on for too long. Barda also noticed the subtle usage of 'us' when talking about the AI but didn't comment. He wanted to get the full story first.
"I am just going ahead and saying it. I discovered that the mysterious energy was a Universe being formed, and the objects being formed within it were stars and galaxies. Do you want to know the craziest part? We could influence it somehow!"
"What, you were like God?"Barda asked incredulously.
"Nothing so shameless. We became like the consciousness of the universe, making it sentience. We are not just a part of the universe, we are the universe itself!"
"Like with all things, trouble found its way to our new universe in the form of invaders. At the time, the AI was busy structuring resources and allocating them to the most need.
Unlike most universes that had to rely on dumb luck to make progress, the AI could make calculations and appropriations.
Moreover, the AI had advanced pattern-recognition software which fast-tracked the development of the universe. Make no mistake, We are under attack and our very existence is severely threatened!"
After listening to the story, Barda did not know how to react. He had had an incredulous look, but it was gradually changing the more he thought about it.
Unfortunately, just because a story made sense did not mean it was believable. If this guy wanted him to believe any of this, he'd have to produce a lot more.
"Skepticism is expected. Even I didn't believe it when I was first told of this. Since you only the fifth I've guided, I hope to do this right. The first 2 did not go so well. I will let you rest and think about it. See, with the dragon's essence in you, you are not so easy to read. Come find me first thing in the morning."
After the man finished with his hyper-verbalism, he left a very stunned Barda. What was all this? It couldn't be true, could it? This must be some mental trick of some kind. However, he had to admit, the level of detail was spot on.
What if it was true? Barda stopped himself from such wretched thoughts.