Defiance of the Fall

Chapter 342: An Easy Gig

“I am not really part of Firmament’s Edge,” the alien wept. “My company was just one of many contracted by them to scan newly integrated planets. I just wanted to use their name to make you back down.”

Zac couldn’t help but shake his head at the Technocrat’s bad luck. Perhaps Firmament’s Edge was a terrifying existence in the multiverse, but unfortunately for the alien Zac was perhaps the only Draugr who had never heard of them before.

“Who is the traitor you mentioned? What were you looking for?” Zac asked.

“I don’t know,” the Alien wheezed, but his eyes widened in horror when black smoke started to emanate from the corner of Zac’s mouth. “I swear, I don’t! We were all given scanning equipment before being transported. We were simply supposed to immediately report back if the equipment found whatever they were looking for.”

It was a huge relief to Zac that it seemed as though the true leaders of the Technocrats hadn't been warned off by the silver ball that was lying next to the alien. Zac gazed at it for a second before he reached over and crushed it in his fist, twisting it beyond redemption.

“Then why did you mention a traitor?” Zac asked with a scowl after turning back to the dying Technocrat.

“It’s a rumor my boss heard. A top person in Firmament’s Edge stole something extremely valuable and fled to unintegrated territory. But small people like us have no way of finding out the details. If we did, our home planets would get incinerated in a heartbeat,” the alien winced.

Zac kept pushing for more answers, but the alien started to become rambling and incoherent in less than a minute. His brain was breaking down like the rest of his body, and Zac ended his life with a merciful swing.

He did, however, manage to find out a few more tidbits. The hidden incursion in the underworld was truly a Technocrat Incursion, and it was controlled by a small corporation attached to the Technocrat faction. They only possessed five E-grade warriors, the foreman of the company along with four cultivator bodyguards.

Better yet, it seemed that The System truly had it out for the Technocrats because it essentially confiscated any and all advanced technology that they tried to sneak to Earth. Only minor items without destructive capabilities or components that needed massive amounts of refinement were allowed through, but at exorbitant cost.

Most of their time had been spent building their base since they essentially needed to produce everything from scratch. Of course, the Technocrat’s name wasn’t just for show, and they already had production lines for all essentials they needed for their mission.

They had created an arsenal of weaponry with the help of the plentiful minerals and crystals in the underworld, creating an impervious defense. Even the two dangerous drones had been created almost from scratch on Earth, proving how great their capabilities were. Luckily they required a few hard to make components that limited their number. But still, rooting them out would be far harder than their low levels indicated.

He also learned that time was of the essence. The technocrats had been arduously digging toward the surface the past three months, not resting a second after they finally managed to manufacture a monstrous machine that was strong enough to rip through the reinforced ground. They expected to be able to reach the surface in less than two weeks, at which point they would set up some massive scanning device they had brought.

Zac couldn’t let them reach the surface. His amulet was spotted even though it was inside a Cosmos Sack, proving the quality of the scanning devices Firmament’s Edge possessed. Unfortunately, the alien had no idea how the tools worked or the limits of their capabilities.

He only knew that they couldn't send transmissions through space since the System blocked them. But they might be able to find anything that Leandra had ever touched. Or even worse, they might find Kenzie even if she stayed within the Mystic Realm.

The Technocrat company that had arrived on earth hadn’t expected to find anything and only saw the Incursion as an easy gig. They would arrive at the planet, scan it with the items, steal some resources, and then return to get paid by Firmament’s Edge.

They had only brought a small crew of mostly non-combat personnel, wanting to keep their costs as low as possible. But that would all change if they found signs that Earth actually was the planet that Firmament’s Edge was so desperately searching for. The Great Redeemer would be the least of Zac’s problems if that happened.

Zac looked down at the dead body of the technocrat, but he still held off on deactivating [Profane Seal]. Keeping the towers around did drain a decent amount of miasma, but there was a good reason for keeping it. A towering aura billowed out from Zac's body, causing the air to shudder as Zac kept changing between infusing it with the Dao of Heaviness, Sharpness, and Rot.

It was his Dao Fields, and he unleashed them to the fullest in hopes of catching and destroying any hidden machines. The technocrat turned delirious before Zac had the opportunity to ask anything about the items he possessed, so Zac was afraid to release the cage. What if a hidden spycam found its way back to the technocrat incursion?

A smattering noise drew Zac’s attention, and he looked over in the direction of where the sound came from. Dozens of small detonations took place in the air, looking like flies getting zapped by electricity. Zac looked at the spectacle with confusion until he managed to snag one of the flies as it exploded nearby.

The thing was as small as a grain and seemed to be made from platinum, but Zac couldn't be completely sure of its original form since it was pretty torn. It was covered in cuts so minute that Zac could barely see them, and bent and twisted as though it had been subject to extreme pressure.

It appeared that the thing was immune to his [Winds of Decay] skill, but it was helpless against the Dao. It wasn't surprising since the Dao wasn't simply increasing the power of skills, it was attacking with the fundamental truths of the universe. It was hard to block out and even harder to heal from when wounded.

Zac’s mind was pounding like he had a bad headache, but he pushed himself to the limit to drown the area in his Dao Fields for a while longer. With his current level of insight the area turned into a field of death, something far beyond the area around the Fiend Wolf during the first beast wave. Even cultivators who had already got their class would likely be turned to mincemeat if they came within 50 meters of Zac at this moment.

Luckily it only took a few seconds before the smattering stopped, meaning all the microscopic machines in the air were destroyed. He didn’t know what the purpose of the small machines was, but leaving them intact couldn’t possibly end in anything good.

All the gadgets on the alien’s body had been destroyed as well, and the two drones were beyond salvaging. But Zac wasn’t disappointed by that since he doubted he could do much with them in any case. While he was somewhat tech-savvy for an earthling he could only be considered a caveman by the standards of the far more advanced Technocrats.

Zac couldn’t be sure whether there were still some machine spying on him, but by this point there was simply no way for him to be sure. But between his Dao Fields and [Winds Of Decay] the area had gone through multiple sweeps, allowing Zac to finally relax somewhat.

Since there was nothing else to trap he could finally unsummon the five majestic towers. They immediately started to dissipate, once again turning into miasmic clouds. Zac gave the towers once last marveling look, completely satisfied with his first test run of the skill.

His new skill [Profane Seal] had been beyond anything that Zac had hoped, and he felt he still hadn't discovered all of its marvels. It was comprised of two parts. The first past was a short-distance teleportation, allowing him to move even faster than when using [Loamwalker].

If Zac wanted to the skill could be ended at that point, meaning it would only act as a movement skill. But there were limits to that since the skill seemed to have a cooldown. But it would allow either escape or a rapid charge if needed.

The second half of the skill was the cage he just dissolved.

Zac could create a sealed space the size of which he could control to a certain degree. The only ways to get out was to either destroy the towers through brute force or to kill Zac. But any attack against the towers would be met with the retaliation of [Deathwish], meaning the cage protected itself from attacks. It was a flexible skill that could let him trap a group of powerhouses or even lock down a large section of an army.

There were still some details he needed to figure out through experimentation, but Zac was completely satisfied with his choice. He had a feeling that [Profane Discharge] would have worked in a similar manner, where the first half of the skill was the same teleport, with the second part being a large scale eruption of force.

But Zac much preferred the cage. With his massive pool of attributes he would be able to whittle almost anyone down before they managed to break out, especially now that he had [Winds of Decay] to turn the whole cage into a field of death. He only needed to figure out a way to imbue the breathing skill with the Seed of Rot to turn it even deadlier.

Unfortunately, he had tried that in the heat of battle, but there was no response. Perhaps the skill needed to be upgraded before it could carry the Dao, just like how it was with [Deathwish].

All these things together had immediately spelled the end for the Technocrat.

Of course, he knew that [Profane Seal] wouldn’t always be as effective as it was this time since it wasn’t without its weaknesses. The alien had actually only been level 48, mostly relying on his gadgets for survival. A stronger opponent would be able to not only largely resist the drainage of the chains, but might even be able to rebuff them completely.

The cage also wasn’t impervious to interference. People from the outside could destroy the towers with enough force, allowing their allies to escape. So when he managed to trap his target he had to act quickly before it all was for nothing, because he would only be able to use the skill once or twice during a battle.

Zac sighed and looked down at the half-rotten corpse of the Technocrat before taking out a vial with a green substance inside. He poured the viscous liquid down over the body, and a cloud immediately rose to the sky. Less than a minute later the body was completely gone, not even leaving the bones.

The liquid was a common item among vagrant cultivators in the multiverse. It was all too common that you were left with a corpse you didn’t want to explain, so the best thing was to make it go away. The liquid completely destroyed any remnants, which would hopefully erase any evidence of what you had done.

One item that had withstood the corrosion was a cosmos sack though, and Zac was a bit surprised that a Technocrat even used an item like that. Perhaps spatial devices were still out of reach through technology even for the Technocrats. But Zac didn’t immediately pick it up, rather opting to take out an inscribed box to put it in inside.

The box was used to isolate treasures that emitted strong auras, but Zac hoped it would be able to block out any potential distress calls from the items the alien possessed as well. He would bury the box later, only picking it up again when he had a better grasp on the Technocrat's capabilities. For now, it would have to stay in a backpack that Zac took out.

The cave was once again starting to become visible as the mists from [Winds of Decay] and [Fields of Despair] were dissipating. The emerald smoke originating from the [Primordial Breath Amanita] had already mostly dissipated between the battleroach king’s absorption during their battle and the mushroom getting sealed away.

The dispersion of the haze left the cave in full display, allowing Zac to finally grasp how the alien managed to sneak inside.