The Herald of Rain exhaled the breath she was holding as she watched the fight develop. The last time she had seen NSLICE-00P, the hero dungeon master had displayed power roughly equivalent to an Archon, so the Herald had hoped the High-Archon would be a match for her. Yet…NSLICE-00P’s growth and her ability to defy their expectations had filled the Herald with anxiety, and she couldn’t help but fear that the cyborg would just wipe out Vommik with ease. So it was a great relief that Vommik was holding his own, at least at present.

And likewise, his forces had engaged all of NSLICE-00P’s, and were holding them down…which left the Herald of Rain to her own devices. So it wasn’t the best case scenario…but it also wasn’t the worst. Her allies were intact…and buying her time and space to execute on her own plans.

She frowned and rubbed at her sore throat before shaking her head. She tried not to think about NSLICE-00P stripping away the spells granted by the Blessing of Deluge…within that very Realm. Because fortunately…she had a plan. Her defeat in the Realm of Deluge was deeply concerning…but it had also been an attack of opportunity, since she hadn’t expected NSLICE-00P to waltz right into a Realm of Mana. So it did not impact the Herald of Rain’s original plan to deal with her foe.

The Herald of the New Dawn had taught her much about NSLICE-00P's origins. He described a fantastic and deeply horrifying world, one that had barely a drop of mana within it. He talked of constructs of metal and lightning and fire, of a society that processed the world around them and bent it to their will despite being limited to their physical bodies alone.

Honestly…the Herald of Rain didn’t understand half of it. She didn’t want to understand it. She was one who had devoted her very life to uncovering the mysteries of magic and unlocking the infinite potential it held. A world without magic was not one she wished to ever see.

But what she did understand was that NSLICE-00P came from such a world, and such things explained the nature of her existence. And more importantly…that nature contained vulnerability, the one chink in the hero dungeon’s armor.

She nodded at one of her companions, trying not to wince at the sound of her hoarse voice.

“Do it.”

The Herald of Storms nodded, and began to chant his spell. The others, including the Herald of Rain, began to chant as well, offering up their mana with basic Mana Transfers. Normally, this would not be enough for a Ritual Cast…but the Heralds were no normal mages. They were each blessed by one of the most destructive and extreme Realms of Mana…Realms that did not permit any other attribute to exist in their presence. Like corrupted dungeons, their mana was twisted to match the attribute of their chosen Realm, suffering no other.

So…if anyone transferred mana to them, their blessing would take and twist this mana into its Realm’s attribute. The Herald in question could then utilize it as their own.

And so, the Herald of Storms pulled out a special mana core, designed and enchanted by the Herald of the New Dawn himself. He cast his spell with this core as his focus, channeling his mana through it and up into the sky. A small storm cloud gathered before unleashing a mighty bolt of Lightning.

The bolt struck the nearest drone…and did no apparent damage to it.

The Herald of Rain grinned. The Herald of the New Dawn had come up with an attack that would turn NSLICE-00P’s strength against her. The Herald of Rain didn’t really understand this ‘virus’ concept, only that it was vaguely similar to a disease, or perhaps mana corruption, for a being like NSLICE-00P. A similarity her leader had utilized to design a mana transmittable virus functioning on the same principles as the ‘secret’ weapon High-King Xavlaeron thought he had hidden from them.

As such, the attack wouldn’t even need to strike a target directly. Contact with the target’s mana, such as via a defensive barrier, would suffice to transfer the virus. And best of all…they didn’t need to target NSLICE-00P herself. NSLICE-00P was apparently directly connected to each and every one of these drones, or anyone who shared her armor that apparently was grafted directly onto their bodies. And here people insulted their group for merely connecting their mana to a Realm.The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

The important point was that once the virus had infected even a single target among NSLICE-00P’s servants, it could spread across all of them. Even up to the hero dungeon herself.

And they had gotten a direct hit on one of her drones. All the Herald of Rain now had to do was wait, and soon the entire enemy force would be defeated.

So she waited.

And she waited...

B-Beta’s code flashed, and they felt weird. They shifted their attention over to the unit in question…and found an intruder. Malignant code, carried via foul mana, had infected the unit.

B-Beta immediately moved to terminate it.

The virus was not merely a program, and not merely a spell. It was a self-replicating construct of mana and code, capable of interacting with both and absorbing either into itself. It was not sentient yet, but it was autonomous, and growing with every moment.

It…was quite like 00B-Beta, in fact. Which meant…it was very much like a Cyber-Elemental. And if an Elemental comes into direct contact with another Elemental of the same attribute…then the more powerful absorbs the weaker.

And the virus wasn’t even sentient enough to realize it was under attack.

The two constructs of mana-code came into contact. 00B-Beta drew upon the Great Mother’s Holy mana protocols and purged the foul mana from the infected unit’s systems. Now clear of mana, the malignant code was defenseless as 00B-Beta assimilated it into themself. They looked it over…the code presented a novel method of cyber-attack without an exact match in existing CELIU protocols, and was worth further investigation, especially given its interaction with non-Lighting attribute mana. 00B-Beta flooded the code with Holy-mana…and then sent a copy back from whence it came…

The Herald of Rain furrowed her brow. According to the Herald of the New Dawn, the virus should have taken mere seconds to apply its effect. Even accounting for additional time to spread from unit to unit and overcome any countermeasures, they should have seen some change by now.

And then…a change occurred. But not the one the Heralds expected.

Glowing golden and silver lines shot up the lightning bolt and into the cloud above, then followed the stream of mana into the mana core. The lightning from the Herald of Storms began to spin around inside the mana core, intensifying and twisting about.

A second later…the core exploded, throwing the Heralds back. The Herald of Rain grunted as she was thrust back into the lake she had created earlier. When she opened her eyes…she gasped.

The Herald of Storms, being in physical contact with the core, had not survived.

She grit her teeth. Once again…NSLICE-00P had defied her expectations. Even the Herald of the New Dawn had been outmaneuvered, despite conducting a Divination on their foe. The Herald of Rain wanted to scream.

But she took a deep breath, her reapplied Blessing of Deluge allowing her to breathe the water as easily as air. The Herald of the New Dawn had warned them that this method was not guaranteed to succeed, though he had not expected it to literally blow up in their faces. So the Herald of Rain did have a back-up plan. They had learned in Corvanus that there was no such thing as too many contingency plans when dealing with NSLICE-00P.

So, she moved on to their next scheme.

Even a High-Archon of the Sun Elves was failing to defeat NSLICE-00P as a mage.

Even the Herald of the New Dawn’s creation had failed to defeat her as a machine.

So this time, the Herald of Rain would target NSLICE-00P as a person.

She closed her eyes and stirred up her mana. The water around her formed into piercing jets and grinding spheres, and began to work on the magic circle at the bottom of the lake. The original circle was ground away by the spheres, then the jets carved new lines into the stone. Soon, her new spell circle was ready.

She opened her eyes, now glowing with dark blue light, and filled the magic circle with power.

The ground began to rumble, all across the battlefield. A few moments later, the sand began to explode. Plumes of water shot into the sky as water from deep below blasted up and through the surface. The Herald of Rain then activated her spell. She let her presence flow through the water, while she gave up her body to the Deluge. The mana from her blessing took hold of her physical flesh and joined it with the unstoppable tide, moving past stone and space alike, until it caught up with her presence, and she rejoined the Material Plane once again.

She reformed in one of the plumes of water, one that had shot up right behind a certain half-Wulver boy. The Herald of Rain grinned as she reached for the one named Taog.

“Got you.”