Free Web NovelChapter 327: Chapter 320: Divine Statue Gabriel
Only one year remained before he had to leave the plane of the Molten Iron Mountain Range.
「Cybertron. Assembly and Debugging Area.」
Twelve massive Magic Power lamps illuminated the entire space down to the finest detail. The Factory Servants had all been withdrawn, and all equipment was shut down. In the vast workshop, only Allen remained.
And before him, the silent, towering white colossus.
Its porcelain-like armor shone with a warm luster under the lights. Golden Rune lines snaked along the edges of the armor, like the bas-relief carvings on a temple colonnade.
The dark silver Mithril-tungsten steel frame gave the body a slender, well-proportioned form, like a marble statue brought to life—completely different from the sharp, angular design of the Freedom Gundam.
A Corinthian-style war helm replaced the traditional faceplate.
No light shone from the T-shaped visor slit; the soul within was still slumbering.
Golden, braid-like Magic Power conduits hung quietly from the back of its head. Eight wing-root interfaces were neatly arranged on its back.
Allen stood on a lift platform, level with the colossus’s chest. He placed his palm on the white porcelain armor, the pads of his fingers feeling the faint raised texture of the three overlapping layers of Runes.
Bottom layer: structural reinforcement. Middle layer: energy channeling. Surface layer: reactive defense.
Three Runes, stacked in the same area without interfering with one another.
Perfecting this overlapping imprint technique had cost him four months.
During the first two months, he had burned through sixty-three test armor plates in the Rune laboratory. Every failure was due to interference between the three Rune layers.
In the third month, he scrapped all his previous plans and started over, rebuilding from the most fundamental rules of Runes. He spent three whole weeks deriving a brand-new theory of "staggered-peak" Magic Power, which offset the oscillation frequencies of the three Rune layers so they would never peak simultaneously.
In the fourth month, the first perfect, layered armor plate was finally forged.
Allen withdrew his hand and took two steps back.
"Jarvis, release all restrictions. Awaken my ’Great Angel’."
[Command confirmed. Power link established. Chanting Core activated. Commencing self-diagnostic...]
As Jarvis’s voice echoed, the angel-like Golem in the center of the hangar slowly raised its head.
A low hum emanated from deep within its chest. Two second-generation singularity engines started up simultaneously. The oblate octahedral engine cores lit up with ethereal blue light patterns as Magic Power flooded into the body’s circuits through Mithril conduits.
The golden Rune lines began to light up, section by section, starting from the soles of its feet.
Ankles, calves, knees, thighs, waist, chest—
And finally, the head.
The fine, golden, braid-like Magic Power conduits behind its head began to drift as if they were alive.
A soft, milky-white light ignited within the T-shaped visor—a nearly divine, warm white.
The radiance spilled from the slit, illuminating the inside of the war helm and reflecting in Allen’s deep blue eyes, which burned with a heart-pounding fervor.
Then, an extremely faint sound came from its back.
SHIIING!
Eight enormous, translucent golden wings of light unfolded behind it with a great flourish, like a peacock fanning its tail.
The wingtips sliced through the air, shedding a constant stream of golden motes of light that dissipated into pure Magic Power the instant they touched the ground.
This was a machine standing 24.6 meters tall.
It was divine and majestic, yet exuded precision in every detail.
A Guard Series Golem.
[Divine Statue: The Eight-Winged Angel - Gabriel]
"Finally... it’s done."
Allen let out a long breath.
This machine had cost him an incalculable amount in research and development funds, taken two years to build, and resulted in the destruction of countless test models.
Gabriel was designed to be a "Witchcraft turret" and a "mechanical god," with an emphasis on high mobility, high firepower, and integration with Witchcraft.
Its creation completely overturned Allen’s previous brute-force design philosophy of "bigger cannons for thicker armor." From the very beginning, its design incorporated the power of "Witchcraft" on a massive scale.
The Golem developed this time was an extremely bold experiment, one into which Allen had poured every ounce of inspiration from his research on Witchcraft and Runes.
Wizards possess a Sea of Spirit and must use their Spiritual Power to construct Will Runes to cast Witchcraft. Golems, however, lack the most crucial component for spellcasting—Spiritual Power.
The necessary technology surely existed, but he couldn’t buy it. So, Allen spent two years and brute-forced his way through that door.
"Bring up the core data."
[As you command, Commander.]
A dense wall of development logs unfolded before Allen.
[Rune Core: Chanting Core]
This was Gabriel’s brain, and also Allen’s proudest masterpiece.
It was a multi-layered, nested Rune-sorcery architecture integrated into the Control Core, which solved the problem of Golems being unable to cast magic.
With it, the Golem could read the Witchcraft Runes from pre-installed Rune Boards (similar to Magic Scrolls), compile them, and release them as executable "sorcery" commands.
Allen defined "sorcery" as Witchcraft cast by a Golem.
Therefore, Gabriel wasn’t a Mecha in the strictest sense. It was a flying sorcery turret that truly possessed the instantaneous output of a veteran Second-level Wizard.
Aside from its Core Witchcraft, Gabriel could cast any Witchcraft Allen knew in the form of sorcery.
Those eight golden wings hovering behind it were no mere decoration; they were Gabriel’s "sorcery organs."
[Multi-Purpose Wings: Rune Feather System]
The upper and lower pairs of primary wings were inscribed with Runes for "anti-gravity," "acceleration," "turning," "propulsion," and "cancellation," among others.
When deployed, they created a low-Magic Power-density field around the Golem, directly negating inertia. This allowed Gabriel to hover like a hummingbird, make right-angle turns, and fly in reverse. Its maximum flight speed reached a terrifying Mach 5.2.
The four pairs of secondary wings were inscribed with Runes for "focusing," "diffusion," "amplification," and "tracking," used to enhance its attacks.
