Modern Cultivation : The Strongest Couple Bonded by Vampire System-Chapter 611 - 611: Planetary Weapon

In the ship, MingYue stared at the planet through the holographic display.
"Alex, why don't we try this planetary weapon? I'm curious about its power," MingYue asked as she pointed at the weapon list.
Alex glanced at it. "This one uses a floating rock and accelerates it into the ground.
It's good for destroying a city, but it's pointless against Sigma."
MingYue leaned closer.
"Then what about this one? It says it needs space crystals."
Alex checked the details. His eyes sharpened.
"Interesting. This is similar, but it uses space to raise distance, which raises momentum," Alex said.
"Wait. If I modify it a bit…"
The battleship had a decent stock of space stones. Alex decided to test it.
The engine began to hum.
One of the floating rocks that orbited the ship started spinning.
Its shape shifted as its outer plates locked together, forming a drill-bit.
The glow inside its seams brightened.
Then it shot toward the planet.
Space in front of it twisted like a sheet being pulled.
The rock passed through the distortion and disappeared.
A heartbeat later, it appeared again, but not in the same place.
It reappeared farther along the route, skipping distance as if the travel in between had been erased.
It did it again.
And again.
Each jump added speed.
The rock kept rising in velocity, already passing the speed of sound.
MingYue's eyes widened as the numbers climbed.
"You could keep accelerating it," she said.
"Yes," Alex replied. "I could push it until the material starts failing."
He watched the stability line tremble as the stress climbed.
The rock could hold absurd speed for a short time.
But if he kept feeding power, it would tear itself apart, and the release would shred the planet.
He did not want that.
His goal was to rattle Sigma and take the initiative.
'This should be enough. They should have a space barrier down there, protecting the core.'
The rock jumped again.
This time the distortion widened, aiming for a precise layer deep beneath Elyndra's surface.
***
In the chamber near the planet core, the air was thick with life force.
Four Sigmas stood over eleven Mecalyte bodies laid out in a crude ring.
Their hands were busy weaving structures into the stone, carving channels and embedding crystal into the corpses.
Then the space above them warped.
A violent ripple rolled across the chamber like a sudden pressure wave.
Every Sigma froze at the same time.
Their red eyes blinked once.
" Space intrusion," one Sigma said.
Another turned its head. "We have no more time. Activate it now."
"Yes," a third Sigma replied. "Now."
The eleven Mecalyte bodies jerked.
They sat up as if pulled by invisible strings.
Green veins lit up beneath their mineral skin.
Then they began walking toward a single point on the chamber floor.
When the first Mecalyte reached the point, its body started to soften at the edges.
Like stone turning into a flowing mineral slurry.
The second Mecalyte pressed into it.
Their bodies fused.
The third joined.
Then the fourth.
The fusion spread faster with each addition, like a chain reaction that got easier once it started.
The Sigmas stepped forward.
They placed their hands into the growing mass and joined it.
The chamber shook.
Space around the fused mass began to distort again.
***
Back in space, Alex felt it instantly.
The distortion he created was being resisted from the inside.
MingYue turned to him. "They fight back?"
Alex's eyes went cold. "Good."
He pushed more space power into the weapon system.
The battleship's runes flared.
The drill-rock jumped again, forcing its corridor open harder, punching deeper.
The planet-side distortion fight back.
Two space patterns collided.
The tug of war turned the corridor into a scar in reality.
The sensor feed give warning with unstable readings.
MingYue grabbed the rail, her hair lifting slightly from static charge that should not exist.
It released a wave of distortion that struck Alex's corridor like a hammer.
Alex responded by forcing the corridor wider.
He forced it to stay open.
The two distortions overlapped for a single breath.
Then space exploded.
BAM!
A flash of warped light spread through the planet's interior like a cracked mirror, and the entire Elyndra shuddered.
On the holographic display, the planet's surface did not split, but shock lines raced across tectonic layers, and the resonance spiked sharply.
MingYue's eyes narrowed.
Alex stared at the readings.
Above the planet, near the battleship the space begin to distort.
It folded inward, then tore open in a tight circular hole.
A massive hand emerged first, shaped like a humanoid fist but built from layered stone and metallic plates.
Green veins ran between the seams.
The fist clenched once.
The barrier hole widened, forced open by raw power.
Then the rest of it climbed out.
It was tall enough that its shoulders almost brushed the battleship's lower sensor range.
Its body proportions were human-like.
Its chest was a thick core frame, half stone, half alloy, with a glowing cavity at the center like a reactor.
Inside that cavity, purple energy swirled in slow spirals, dense and heavy.
Its head looked like a helmet fused to a skull, with a narrow slit of purple light where eyes should be.
Its arms were long, forearms reinforced with drill-like ridges and blade edges.
It stood on a platform of distorted space.
MingYue's voice went quiet. "Is that Sigma?"
Alex stared at it.
He felt something was different.
There was a huge amount of life force, but it did not feel like it belonged to the creature itself.
It felt like a robot being moved by life force energy.
And that core.
That core felt like… a planet core.
A realization hit Alex.
Sigma had been trying to fuse himself into the planet core as his real self.
That way, even if his main body outside was killed, he could hide here and keep existing.
Alex's gaze turned cold.
'While I tried to use the Mecalyte as our cover, this bastard is trying to use me as one too.'
He felt relieved that he never truly cooperated with Sigma.
'Now I know why sentient AI is outright banned. They're too smart for their own good.'
Alex did not know how, but somehow this AI had predicted many scenarios and built this plan.
It somehow could predict Alex's current power and strength.
It knew about Progenitors and Primordials.
It knew Alex would return here someday, and it would have a chance to ally itself with him.
Even if Alex disagreed and tried to kill it, it could pretend to be dead, while hiding inside the planet and improving itself.
'If I didn't find his existence early…'
The thought made Alex shudder.