Chapter 1168: Grand Array

"Hmm... Does it look right?" Alice took a step back as she folded her arms.

She tilted her head, scanning the array from top to bottom.

Everything seemed to be in place but to begin with, this was an array build on nothing but pure theory guess work.

In the first place, she doesn’t have access to her full power right now. Trying something like this was a bit of a stretch but~

It’s not entirely impossible.

Simply etching down the triggered casts needed and laying down the foundation essentially transformed the array into a machine waiting for a battery.

A human sized battery. They could be human or elven, it didn’t matter so long as they had sufficient energy levels to not die the moment they’re plugged into the machine.

A fully rested roughly five Sigil Hunter was the minimum needed to charge the battery.

’The initial threshold is a bit hard to reach alone so many Hunters will be needed. However... as long as we can achieve that, it’ll be able to sustain itself to some extent and slow down the deterioration. The occasional recharge should work.’ Alice thought inwardly as she made some mental calculations.

Thankfully, for the test runs, they didn’t even need to go through that much effort. There was a perfect candidate near them.

Karya.

An Abyss Lord with energy levels far exceeding that of normal Hunters.

"Are you sure this is safe?" Karya had a slight frown on her face as Alyss strapped a couple of things to her limbs as instructed by Alice.

"Huh? Oh! Yeah I think it’s pretty safe. Well... You’re a Lord anyways, even if things go wrong, you’ll be fine." Alice gave her a not so reassuring thumbs up.

Meanwhile, Solana was crouching near Karya while observing some of the array.

"If things does go wrong, you’ll probably be sucked dry and die before your brain can comprehend what’s happening. But that’s only if the limiter breaks. Honestly it’s a pretty merciful death." She mumbled as Yuna quickly dragged her away as the corner of Karya’s lips twitched ever so slightly.

"Eh~ That’s only if I mess up my calculations. It’ll be fineeee." Alice grinned as she had Alyss make preparations to jumpstart the array so that it can extract the energy needed from Karya.

"Just to let you know, if I wasn’t sealed, I’ll be the one taking this job so don’t overthink it." Alice reassured while Karya simply sighed and turned to Allura.

"Lua, if your daughter kills me in this experiment, my blood is on your hands."

"Dutifully noted." Allura smiled helplessly.

Though she had faith in Alice’s capabilities, she had to admit that this array seems rather... rough.

To put it in a couple of words, it felt like it had been hastily put together and that it’s holding on with nothing but rope and dreams.

Regardless, their stray thoughts lasted only a brief moment as Alyss gave Karya a heads up before jump starting the array.

*BZT!!!

"GUH!!!" Letting a groan escape her lips, Karya widened her eyes as she could feel the energy being forcefully pulled from her body.

The drain felt rough, as though someone had punched her in the gut, ripped open a hole and started to drag out her intestines little by little.

She could now understand why Alice mentioned it needed several five Sigil hunters as no one would be able to withstand this kind of drain unless they had the reservoir of a small lake. And even then, it’s only for a brief moment before they had to be replaced.

Even for the Lord of Life such as herself, the drain made her groan in pain!

She practically had the reserve of an ocean so how much energy did Alice truly have if she was planning on taking this job instead of her?

Shaking those thoughts away, Karya focused on regulating her energy to cooperate with the drain in order to make it less painful.

"You doing good?" Alice shouted over while monitoring the progress of the array.

"Just peachy." Karya forced out through gritted teeth.

"Perfect. I’m holding back a bit since I want to make sure you’re comfortable with the drain. I’ll start it fully now." Alice gave an appreciative nod.

Karya widened her eyes.

"Wait what do you mean thaaaaAAAAARGHHHHHH F*CK!!!" She let out a curse as veins bulged on her neck as her eyes turned bloodshot.

Now it felt like there was a group of people punching her and dragging out her internal organs.

There was no sense of cooperation as she couldn’t even tell where she should start!

Thankfully, this pain only lasted a brief moment as the pain faded away completely after a couple of minutes.

Feeling the drain end, Karya was about to let out a sigh of relief when she felt her senses connection with the array and widened her eyes.

Energy rushed from the batter, connecting with the roots of the world tree. Then using this connection, it shot anchoring tethers between the leaves to craft the main body and core component of the spell.

The first anchor spun to life, several circles manifested as ritualistic symbols and Abyssal markings were carved into the air.

From the centre, another tether shot out to form the second anchor.

Then the third, fourth and it kept continuing as from her view, this impossibly large tree was now being used as a host for this grand array.

Then, after reaching a certain height, the array stopped using the tree and instead used the distant shimmering lights as reference points.

A ’cage’ of anchors were woven into the air itself and surrounded the Elven nation from all sides.

"Hmm yup, I outdid myself quite a bit hehe~" Alice wiggled in satisfaction as her hair swayed back and forth.

While others found it rather cute and adorable, Karya now fully understood the terrifying calculation power hidden within that tiny body.

Not even some of the best casters she had seen in her life could accomplish even a fraction of this array’s complexity and efficiency.

She wasn’t a well educated in casting of this nature but even a layman could see how impressive it was.

Rather, how impossible it was for a single person to design all of this.

One must ask if her brain was still intact or not after calculating this much.

But Alice was unphased.

This sight, which usually couldn’t be seen by people unless they were directly hooked up like Karya, was something she kept to herself as something natural.

There was only one person she could think of that could achieve something like this.

Yvael Velcarion.

Taking a deep breath, Karya supressed her thoughts for a moment as she stepped out of the ’battery’ compartment and walked up to Alice with the others.

"So it is done?" The Queen asked curiously as she couldn’t see the impressive array.

All she sensed was the giant fluctuation of energy as well as a feeling that something washed over them.

Nothing more, nothing less.

"Yep, it’s all done now." Alice nodded.

"What about the part needing my eyes?" She tilted her head in confusion.

She thought she would’ve needed to strap in like Karya for the eye’s power to be transferred but Alice shook her head.

"I’ve already sorted that out. When Karya powered up the array, I used my own eye, or rather, I used the power of Cayla to filter through all the strands and find your strand. The one responsible for discerning the truth and lies and linked it up to the main array.

"To put it simply, think of it remotely connecting with your powers. The array is fully functional." Alice gave her thumbs up and a grin.

"You might want to tell them about the full functionality of the array. If you don’t lay everything out, they wouldn’t even know what it’s capable of." Karya suggested.

After all, she saw the full thing. It did far more than what they originally agreed on.

"True. Alright so basically aside from helping you understand the intention of those approaching certain areas, you can connect your vision nearly as surveillance that can’t be detected through normal means, there’s gate protection and reinforcement, there’s automatic and manual barriers that can be deployed, there’s emergency relocation using natural anchors of gates and the rift between realms, there’s spatial shutdowns to prevent enemies from escaping by teleporting or walking. There are also main teleportation nodes where you can quickly move your forces from point A to point B, think of it was quick travel within the city.-"

The Queen widened her eyes as Alice kept rambling on what the array could do.

There seemed to be no sign of stopping either!

"-Naturally you can use the array as a foundation for some casting, think of it as a scepter or orb that takes most of the burden so that your body is safe. You can probably cast some impressive stuff as long as your vision for the cast is clear. It can also act as a emergency battery if needed though it’s a bit of a waste." Alice shrugged.

"There’s also a map function that gives you a rough overhead view of each of the cities, marking down allies and enemies based on energy rather than anything visual."

Snapping her fingers, everyone felt their vision shift slightly as a rough map of the city appeared before them.

It showed the full city along with everyone highlighted by a white dot and an arrow to show where they’re facing.

"I have the main permission obviously since I made this thing. But I gave you pretty high authority to ’bestow’ certain functionality to your subordinates for them to use. And with that... I think it covers pretty much everything?" Alice folded her arms.

She wasn’t sure if she got ’too’ carried away or not. Either way, that’s the main things laid out.

Meanwhile, the Queen was staring at Alice blankly. Her mind had already short circuited by the sheer absurdity of this...