The Limits Of The Current Garden

Altair's view slowly got cleared as the Mana Fog sucked itself up into a ball. Once it was clear enough for Altair to be able to see through but still have a thick layer of Mana Fog around, she promptly decided to seal away the parts that had conveniently gathered for her. The less Mana Fog that was around the less likely she was to be surprised again.

She had no idea what else the Mana Fog could do but she was sure it could distract her or disrupt what she wanted to do. She couldn't let that happen as she didn't want to linger around too long.

The Garden she had put up would be noticed for a long distance away. The people who were after her had probably seen it as it was obvious given the grass plain surroundings. She already knew that taking revenge was going to delay her. If those people sent even more of these androids after her once she tried to run, she had no idea if she would actually be able to escape.

She wouldn't be safe in this spot either. She knew her Garden's weaknesses from her own experimentation. It was far from an impenetrable wall that protected her flawlessly. She had seen it fall apart herself before she decided she should figure out its weaknesses.

Other than their natural ability, there was a very good reason why she still fears Ancient Dragons to this day, after all.

She assumed that the people who were chasing her were likely smarter than she was. If they were given enough time they would find out the weakness on their own. Once they found that out, Altair would be another step to being cornered.

Since Altair didn't have a plan on where to run yet once she was done here and she knew that these people would keep chasing her, the less she gave away to them the better. If she wound up cornered by them again in the future and they knew how to deal with her Garden then she'd be basically screwed, in her mind at least. Shields apparently blocked her Thread Magic, and that was a major problem for her arsenal already.

She wanted to know why that even happened as well, but she had more important things to do and didn't have the resources or time to investigate that little problem.

As she completed the box over the condensing orb of Mana Fog, the rest of the Fog around her started to move at a crawl as it dispersed through the area. Altair's Mana Pool was topped off from her breathing and she could see the scene beyond through the lingering Mana Fog that surrounded the place.

The two SND Neutralizers were moving far faster than they were before. They were still expertly dismantling all the shadow creatures that Altair sent their way. The giants and large Mechas that she created seemed to be nothing to them as they cut them down from the knees and moved on to the rest of them when they fell over.

The android that cornered Altair upstairs was far more efficient than the one that Altair had injured, however. While the complete one with both hands was a whirling dervish of death that used its shoulder cannons to devastating effect, the one-handed android was forced to use another new attack that Altair hadn't seem.

It was shooting lasers from its eyes. Those lasers burned a line through her shadow creatures like they were dust upon contact. Even the giants and mechas were getting decimated by them as if they were tissue paper. It wasn't even a fair fight.

Altair clicked her tongue in frustration at this sight. Then she realized that one of the androids was missing and started to look around for it. It wouldn't be good for her to lose track of one of her enemies.

The only thing she saw were the crushed remains of them to the right and ahead of her. It appeared that one of the giants or mechas had crushed it with their leg. This let caused Altair to sigh in relief. It seemed, to her, that she managed to destroy one of them before they were able to react. It also told her that they could be destroyed because, at that point, she was starting to think that she should just run instead.

But since she saw one of them down, she decided that she would put in even more effort.

Altair began dumping more Mana into the constant supply she was giving to the Garden. She dedicated this Mana to the strengthening of her shadow creatures instead of their number. Their numbers weren't going to do anything if they continued to get completely destroyed like this. She had to make them stronger and faster if she wanted something to change.

No amount of trash would be able to stop the wind.

So, Altair decided to try and build a wall instead.

Her shadow creatures showed an immediate improvement. They all began moving faster and ganged up on the SND Neutralizers faster. The androids, of course, reacted immediately to the sudden surging numbers assaulting them.

The complete android tossed one of its swords aside as its leg opened up. From its leg a gun was ejected into its hand that was just freed. It pointed the gun at the crowds that were approaching it and fired a single small red dot into the group.

Upon contacting the first creature that was rushing towards it, the small red dot shuddered and expanded in an instant, then it sucked in the creatures around it into some abyss or black space that appeared in its center with a thundering boom. The end result showing nothing in the area, not even the debris from the damaged building remained in that spot once it faded.

The injured android did not have this option due to it having lost one of its hands. Because of this, it began to get overwhelmed. The shadow creatures started to claw into it and slice into its body. The android increased its speed to try and make up for the lack of that strange gun the other was using, but it was clear that it was going to fall in the long run. The attacks being made against it still weren't enough to take it down for a while, at this rate, though.

Altair had never dumped so much Mana into her garden before. She had to increase how fast she was breathing to keep her Mana up already. Still, she felt that she had a bit more wiggle room to splurge just a tiny bit more. She also decided that the aerial shadow creatures weren't doing jack all at this point. Those shoulder cannons were still ripping them apart and they weren't able to get close even with their newfound speed.

So, she dropped them from the menu.

This saved her a tiny bit of Mana as she dumped more into the speed of her shadow creatures, causing her Mana Pool to drop precariously before it rose abruptly with each breath. Even she was startled or had to slow her breathing at all, she would need to cancel her Magic immediately or suffer from Mana Overdraft in the next second.

So long as she had Mana Fog that she was able to consume like air, she would be fine.

The two androids began to struggle more. The one that had only one hand was getting overwhelmed even harder but the horde that would have been able to overwhelm Altair within moments. She couldn't even see the movements of the androids and some of her creatures as she was gasping for air.

She eventually heard some tearing noises coming from where she figured they were fighting while the complete android was still barely hanging on with the help of that strange weapon that could absorb whole groups of her shadow creatures.

Then, on the far side of the Garden, a blue line pierced through the box and cut downwards. It caused Altair's Magic to begin to unravel as she felt a stabbing pain in her mind that told her that her Magic was failing. She didn't feel the burning pain that she had felt when the Ancient Dragon had torn her Garden apart. This was a new pain and a new feeling of her Magic slipping through her gasp.

She didn't know the cause but she couldn't allow the Mana Fog to escape the prison she set it in until she saw what happened. If she did release that huge amount of Fog then she would be blinded again and would have no idea what new weakness was on her Garden.

She was still sitting in the pond of Manamium as she used her Shadow Magic to make a new cage over the one that would soon disperse.

At the same time, the Garden that she made and all the creatures within it began to flake away. There was another blue beam that burst through the upper portion of the Garden, causing the Magic to fade even faster. There were several more beams that burst through in rapid succession following that and, within a few moments, the Garden became no more. Each beam that punched through it caused a chunk of the Garden to dissipate.

Once all of the shadow creatures were gone, the already injured SND Neutralizer was revealed to have been torn to pieces. The last SND Neutralizer was still standing, mostly unharmed as its clothes had a few slashes through them.

The things that attacked her Garden also became visible. In the distance, at the far end of where the Garden was, were two humanoids. One was a man and the other was a woman, both of them were dressed in fashionable clothes and had cold expressions across their faces. But they were androids, as Altair could tell. Where their arms would normally be were two cannons that were pointed at where her Garden used to be. Their chests were also opened, which revealed a glowing blue orb that sparked occasionally.

The two newcomers turned their attention towards where Altair was and she felt like a shadow was pressed down on her. It caused her eyes to open wide as her heart began to race. Her body screamed for her to run right now, not even with her legs but with her Magic. Her body urged her to teleport away to anywhere, as long as it was far away from there.

The two newcomers pointed their cannons in Altair's direction and fired their blue beams.