The Silk-Capital, Aethel-Wei, was a masterpiece of biological engineering a city suspended within the branches of the Great Weaver Tree, held together by shimmering bridges of light-conductive silk. Now, it was under siege.
The sky was a bruised purple, choked by the exhaust of a hundred Harvester-Class Dreadnoughts. Massive mechanical "parasites" had latched onto the city's roots, draining the emerald mana of the tree and pumping in the gray, sterile liquid of the "Revision."
[ZONE: AETHEL-WEI (SIEGE STATUS)]
[OBJECTIVE: DISABLE THE MANA-SIPHONS]
[ENEMY COUNT: 40,000+ (VOID-SOLDIERS & HARVESTER-DRONES)]
"It's not a battle; it's a slaughter," Elara whispered as the Scrap-Venture hovered on the edge of the capital's airspace. Below, the Jade Wardens were being overwhelmed by waves of Void-Soldiers, entities made of reconstructed scrap and deletion-code.
"They aren't just killing them," Mateo said, his eyes glued to his new Synapse-Hub display. "The Harvesters are tagged as 'Mobile Forges.' They're killing the Wardens, harvesting their spirit-silk, and forging new soldiers on the spot. It's a closed-loop slaughterhouse."
Kenji stood at the prow. His Void-Weaver Armor pulsed with a rhythmic, emerald-and-violet light. He could feel the pain of the city through the Spirit-Silk fused into his own skin.
"We need to break the loop," Kenji said. "Mateo, use the ship to jam their 'Rebirth' signal. If they can't forge new soldiers, they'll run out of momentum. Bjorn, Elara we're dropping into the central Plaza. We take the Master Siphon."
"And if the Harvesters target the ship?" Priya asked, her hands glowing with protective mana.
"Then you show them that 'Scrap-Shields' are harder than their 'Logic-Armor'," Kenji replied. "Drop the ramp!"
[SKILL ACTIVATED: MASS-PHASE]
Kenji, Bjorn, and Elara didn't jump; they blurred. Utilizing the silk-resonance, they bypassed the anti-air cannons of the Harvesters and slammed into the Plaza of the Weaver like a meteor.
The impact sent a shockwave of emerald frost and kinetic echoes through the Void-Soldiers.
"The Anomaly!" the Void-Soldiers hissed in unison, their voices a discordant binary screech. "The Architect demands the return of the Recursive Core!"
[TARGET: VOID-COMMANDER (RANK 42)]
A massive entity, four meters tall and draped in "Reclaimed" silk that had been dyed a necrotic gray, stepped forward. It swung a flail made of rotating logic-gates.
"I don't have a core for you," Kenji said, drawing the Void-Weaver Blade. "But I have plenty of scrap."
The Commander swung the flail. In the old world, the sheer weight of a Rank 42 attack would have crushed Kenji. But here, Kenji didn't block. He Recycled.
As the flail hit his blade, Kenji activated [Silk-Siphon]. He didn't just stop the momentum; he pulled the "Gray Mana" out of the flail, turning the weapon into brittle, useless iron.
"What...?" The Commander paused, its triangular eyes flickering.
"Your power comes from the System," Kenji said, stepping into the Commander's guard. "Mine comes from the trash you left behind."
Kenji slashed upward. The blade, infused with the Stasis Diamond's frequency, "Locked" the Commander's molecules in place. He then followed up with a [Recursive Shatter].
The Rank 42 Commander didn't just fall; it disintegrated into a cloud of emerald-green dust the purified spirit-silk returning to the tree.
[LEVEL UP: 32 -> 35]
"Bjorn! The Siphon!" Kenji yelled.
Bjorn was a whirlwind of destruction. His World-Root Splitter axe was glowing so brightly it left trails of green fire in the air. He slammed the axe into the base of the Master Siphon, a three-story-tall needle draining the city's heart.
"This is for the Gutter!" Bjorn roared.
CRACK!
The Siphon didn't break; it began to Reverse. Under Kenji's "Audit" influence, the machine stopped draining the tree and started pumping its own stored "Revision" mana into the city's defenses.
The Jade Wardens suddenly felt their jade-blades glow with a blinding, renewed power. The city itself began to fight back. The very bridges of silk turned into whips, lashing out at the Harvester drones.
[SYSTEM ALERT: SECTOR 5 STABILITY CRITICAL]
[INITIATING: DATA-PURGE PROTOCOL]
"Kenji! The sky!" Elara pointed upward.
The hundred Harvester ships weren't retreating. They were aligning. They were forming a massive, circular lens in the upper atmosphere.
"They're going to glass the city," Mateo's voice screamed over the comms. "It's a 'Manual Format'! They're going to burn everything to 0 to stop you!"
Kenji looked at the lens. He looked at his hands. He was Rank 35. The "Manual Format" was a Rank 100 event.
"I can't stop that beam," Kenji whispered.
"No," the voice of the Grand Weaver echoed in his mind, resonant and ancient. "You cannot stop it, Scrapsmith. But you can Redirect it. You are the bridge between the Broken and the Whole. Use the Silk. Use the Hunger."
Kenji closed his eyes. He reached out with his mind, connecting to every strand of Spirit-Silk in the city, every piece of Recursive Iron in the Scrap-Venture, and the seven dormant Stars in his soul.
[SKILL EVOLUTION: THE WORLD-FORGE RESONANCE (ULTIMATE)]
"Everyone! Connect to me!" Kenji roared.
Elara placed her hands on Kenji's back, her frost-mana stabilizing his overheating core. Bjorn gripped his shoulder, his kinetic energy providing the raw power. Priya, from the ship above, channeled her "Unranked" healing light.
The lens in the sky fired. A pillar of white, world-ending light descended toward Aethel-Wei.
Kenji didn't raise a shield. He raised his Binary Blade and acted as a lightning rod.
The beam hit him.
[WARNING: BODY INTEGRITY 5%... 2%...]
[SOUL-RECYCLING INITIATED...]
Kenji didn't die. He became a Prism. He took the Deletion Beam, fed it through the "Scrap of Infinite Recursion," and turned it into a Creation Beam.
He swung his blade toward the Harvester fleet.
The white light turned a vibrant, prismatic emerald. It swept across the sky, hitting the Harvester ships. Instead of burning them, it "Uprecycled" them. The mechanical dreadnoughts began to sprout leaves. Their cold, metal hulls turned into living wood. Their cannons became blooming flowers.
The Architect's fleet was being turned into a forest in the sky.
[SYSTEM OVERRIDE SUCCESSFUL]
[SECTOR 5: RECLAIMED]
[LEVEL UP: 35 -> 45]
The lens in the sky shattered. The purple clouds broke, revealing the first real sunset the Jade Empire had seen in centuries.
Kenji collapsed to one knee, his armor smoking, his eyes glowing with a faint, permanent violet hue.
"We did it," Bjorn panted, looking at the floating forests above. "We actually did it."
"We didn't just save the city," Elara said, looking at Kenji. "He rewrote the System's own attack. Kenji... you're not just a Smith anymore."
Kenji looked up at the sky. Among the debris of the floating forest, a single, black-and-gold shard was falling toward them. It wasn't scrap. It was a message.
[MESSAGE FROM: THE TRUE ARCHITECT]
[TEXT: IMPRESSIVE. THE NURSERY IS OFFICIALLY CLOSED. WELCOME TO THE SECOND LAYER'S CORE, KENJI TANAKA. THE STEAM-WASTES AWAIT.]
"The Steam-Wastes," Kenji whispered, his hand tightening on his blade. "Arc Two is over. Now... we see what the real world looks like."