Standing before the two 3D Runes he had just summoned, Adam gulped audibly and began attempting every method he could to manipulate them.
He found that the glow on his arm and chest had faded, which caused him to panic. However, he discovered he could easily recall the runes to his body, even remotely, and the traces they left still lingered within him. He was simply drawing them in or out, but they remained fully attuned to him, still a part of him.
"Sister, can you please check the source code for the tile I am currently occupying. There should be something else appearing. Check under node type 'Sprite'."
Adam called for Solana as he stood in
> MESSAGE — "I perceive the Script, Brother-Commander. It manifests once more."
Adam was about to say something, yet Solana's hand worked like a machine and sent another message.
> MESSAGE — "I beheld it within the Liturgical Display of Operations. Just how does profane, unsanctioned Code invoke within my processes such overwhelming reverence?"
Adam smiled as he imagined the zealous nun shaking as she saw lines of code she was completely unfamiliar with, yet they were evoking something in her.
"Sister, just understand that these are no mere corrupt lines of code." Adam explained calmly, "They are the same type of constructs that caused your summoning to my world. If you feel something from them, it must be because you share a frequency. We wouldn't know unless we have an Esper to examine them."
At the Command Center, Solana read the word "Esper" and let out an "Ugh!", a reaction Adam easily imagined from her.
"For now, I want you to copy those lines of code. Contain them in a file and quarantine them so that the Sacred Code doesn't start to work its magic on them. Send them to my personal terminal and label them as Project RuneTech."
With that declaration, Adam finally had clues as to how these codes work as programs, intending to study them thoroughly. Solana confirmed that she did as he asked, and he gave her more commands.
"Now, I want you to attach the sprite I am interacting with right now to the node that loads it, before a duplication program." Adam said, as he singled out the Rune of Bending, "Once you run the duplication program and have it create a Sprite3D from the sets you have, I want you to pass the result to the other set of codes we have, then add the Print command, and… execute."
> MESSAGE — "And which Sprite3D construct would you require for the rite of Duplication, Brother-Commander?"
"Start with maa-aux_ven-trp_lv-0000001.sprite."
Adam explained how he wanted these codes integrated into the simulation, and Solana began working immediately without further questions.
Adam observed the two runes that he spawned in midair with his "Font of Magic" power into the empty space of the simulation. Just as Solana set the print order and executed the code into the simulation, something startling appeared in front of Adam and on the holo table simulation display.
"Whoa!"
Right before Adam's face, a figure emerged without any effect, as if an image was pasted into an empty space of a 2D environment, except this one was fully 3D, and it was a Venuxian Trooper of the Men-at-Arms, a generic-faced trooper that looked like that one time he summoned a Legendary-tier Man-at-Arms when he didn't give them names or identities.
What Adam simply did (actually, it was Solana) was to load the construct of the 3D Sprite (game dev term for 3D characters) into a program-run Bending Rune, which caused the rune to turn the image into a simulation character. Then, as it was run by the Puppeteer Rune, that supposedly static and unprogrammed sprite was now fully completed without further programming, turning into an in-simulation puppet.
"Army on demand, baby!"
Raising both his arms, Adam celebrated right away and asked Solana to tell him if there were any spikes in performance when the puppet was loaded, but the answer was negative.
Another success!
Using Runes inside Cyberspace was way different from what it is in Realspace, requiring an external operator or a pre-built program to execute the summoning commands from outside, but even with that drawback, the advantage this method offered was immense. Simply put, Adam didn't need a fraction of the power he used to summon his Realspace puppets in order to summon this one. In fact, he wasn't even sure he used mental energy at all, since he was basically diving into a sea of mental energy.
For now, he could summon a hundred Men-at-Arms and have them swarm, overwhelm the simulation of the Iron Maiden, stall the Dragon, and rescue Kave.
Or so he thought.
> MESSAGE — "Brother-Commander! Machine-run Presences detected. Your person is in grave danger!"
"What?" Adam immediately frowned at the message and looked outside the trench bunker he was in.
Solana had indeed created a full level that stretched in a straight path all the way towards the levels Kave was fighting through. There was no design, aesthetic touch, or even natural asymmetry. It was a straight trench reaching in a straight line between points A and B, stretching roughly half a mile (Earth distance).
So, once Adam looked into the straight trench, he spotted a single Satanist from the ones Kave was fighting running this way, a totally unscripted move from the usual behavior of the Iron Maiden's simulation.
"Sister, get me a few more troopers." Adam immediately ordered as he took cover, before trying to manipulate the puppet trooper into action, yet failing. "Also, add behavior to the trooper to use all power at their disposal to fight non-Solarium entities. Designate Kave and me as Solarium entities."
A few seconds passed, and the soldiers began appearing as Adam requested, with Solana giving him verbal command over the program-run puppets.
"Go, go, go, go! Eradicate the heretics!" Adam said, signaling all ten of his troopers to storm out of the bunker with their blazers aimed at the incoming Satanists, but as he was about to join them from the rear.
Bzzz-crack!
Bzzz-crack!
Bzzz-crack!
Bzzz-zzz-zzz-zzz-zzz-zzz!
All hell let loose!
Within a matter of seconds, the ten troopers Adam had were mowed down by hellfire blazers.
"FUCK! What the fuck was that?"
Adam himself jumped back into the bunker, avoiding a bolt that passed a few inches before his eyes, with its glow still lingering in his vision.
> MESSAGE — "Priority Alert, Brother-Commander! Hostile entities have undergone sudden multiplication."
"Shit! Send more soldiers!" Adam demanded and felt his heart pounding hard. "And fill this room with weapons right now."
Before he could even finish his words, ten more troopers were spawned into the bunker, and he organized them around the entrance, exchanging fire with the approaching Satanists, who were taken down before they could even find cover.
It seemed that his presence was now acknowledged by the Iron Maiden for some reason, and it was sending its forces to fight him, as if sensing his presence was disturbing Kave's trial.
But after defeating the incoming group, Solana reported that there was another group of enemies approaching from the other side of the trench.
"This is too open! We need cover along the way if we want to get out of this damn bunker!" Adam gritted his teeth while sneaking a peek through the entrance.
> MESSAGE — "It will not be possible to enact adjustments to the level design once full loading has been completed."
"Add them using the Bending Rune code. Change the terrain a bit. Don't make the trench so straight. Add cover points in our direction, some fortifications, and maybe trench branches; I don't know. Tell Elena to help you make the design more defensible."
Solana acknowledged Adam's demand and began manipulating the terrain immediately by using the source code of the Bending Rune to apply edits in real-time to the simulation. With that, the line of sight against the incoming threat finally broke, and Adam led his soldiers out of the bunker.
But before he did so, he grabbed himself an automatic blazer pistol and a sawblade before turning to a crate that had a certain symbol printed on its side: a fist tightened over a justice scale, framed by a sun halo. Adam recognized this as the Sigil of the Tribuanrium, the only branch of the Solarium government that existed outside the authority of the Regent of Sol but directly under ATEN, the Solarium's Department of Justice, the institution of Judges and Justiciars.
Adam already knew what he would find in this crate, and as he touched it, his body was immediately covered by a slim-fit military suit, adorned with military medals, symbols, and religious Solarium icons. His boots reached to his knees, and a coat covered his sides while blending perfectly with the rest of the suit. Finally, on the table in front of him, there was a dramatically peaked cap, the most iconic outfit piece for a Justiciar, and the infamous symbol of their office as law judges, military jury, and discipline executioners.
Adam admired the appearance of that cap for a long time, lifting it with a sense of reverence before placing it on his head. Confidence surged in his heart, and he was now sure he could handle whatever came at him in the treacherous trenches he was about to venture through.
A blazer pistol in hand, Justiciar Adam Clay stepped out of the trench bunker with a group of ten troopers guarding him. Some wielded rifles, others wielded shields and spaxes, while one bore a Blazooka on his back.
It was a full squad, and Adam made sure they followed tactics and secured the perimeter the same way Elena would lead them into the field. He then advanced towards the twisted trenches.
"Report on enemy movement?" Adam asked.
> MESSAGE — "They are advancing upon your location along the same Vector. Ten hostile units confirmed."
"And what about Kave?"
> MESSAGE — "He is maintaining tactical stability. He has located concealed subterranean trench networks and is executing hit‑and‑run strikes against the Satanists while evading the Dragon's pursuit."
"That's my boy. He knows his tactics." Adam smiled and waited in an area he found secure enough to ambush the incoming Satanists himself.
Once the hostiles arrived, Adam opened fire and joined the fight personally with his troops, holding the advantage by using heavy firepower quickly and loudly without sparing anything. However, he had to trade half his force to wipe out the enemy.
He wanted to hope that this would be the last thing he would see from the Satanists, but he had a growing hunch and immediately sent a message to Solana.
"Sister, spawn more reinforcements near me." He demanded.
> MESSAGE — "Negative, Brother-Commander! Invocation of the Rite of Duplication to herald additional troopers functions only within close proximity to the Runes you have inscribed."
Adam saw that message and frowned deeply, before asking why the Bending Rune could alter the whole level regardless of range, but couldn't summon anywhere. Solana replied with a technical explanation that the level itself was considered close to the Bending Rune as it was loaded on a single level node, whereas each puppet trooper was a node on its own with different properties.
For that, Adam requested that the incoming ten troopers bring with them a heavy slugger gun that needed a full fire team to man it, giving orders to secure this location before advancing further with ten of his soldiers, their backs covered by a heavy machine gun that could punch holes through walls.
After advancing half of the trench, which started to gain more elevation halfway through, Adam faced the Satanists with his squad and fought them bitterly, still losing half his men once again and waiting for reinforcements to arrive with another defensive machine gun.
But right as he passed a certain threshold, Adam was met with something that confirmed his suspicions.
Right before passing a certain choke point on the trench, Adam and his puppet squad found themselves at a fortified checkpoint, similar to the two he had just established. Rather than opening fire with heavy sluggers, the Infernal Cultists began spewing Hellfire throwers at the puppets, almost hitting Adam with a trauma-inducing breath of flames.
Adam immediately fell back alone, being chased by a squad of ten Satanists who had him severely outnumbered. He tried to at least call a Golem, but it was still far too impossible to use his ace in the hole, and he ran back towards his defenses, hiding behind them with his defense team. After a minute, a new squad was summoned and sent, but by the time it arrived, the five-man slugger machine gun team had completely eradicated the Satanists, and Adam returned to the offensive.
However, the thing that Adam feared the most wasn't the simulation, the battle, or the dragon; it was the Sacred Code of the Iron Maiden copying all the upgrades and summons he was making, and eagerly duplicating them to face him.
In a way, whatever was done on this side of the level would be reflected and duplicated on the other side, meaning that only Adam could make a difference in this fight, and it was he who could reach Kave.