Aron closed his eyes and began the process of imprinting his intent into the enormous runic construct he had created over the past hour. It was no easy task, as the necessary intent that would allow the construct to function at full capacity was just as complex as the construct itself, and he had to futureproof it by leaving room for upgrades as his knowledge of the runic language increased.
In order to make that possible, he needed to imbue it with an even more complex second layer of intent that would create “hooks”, so to speak, that would be used in the future to tie in potential upgrades, a task that would be made much more difficult should he ignore it now and leave it for later.
The runic system, he had discovered, was much like a computer. The carved runes in their physical form were like a computer’s hardware, and the intent that allowed them to function was software. The mana itself was the power that allowed the entire system to function. And just like a regular computer program, once it was compiled into a kernel it became much more difficult to modify.
Thus, the time-consuming process of imbuing the runic construct with intent began as, instead of mana, Aron sent his pure mental power cascading down the carved runes like a vast convoy of vehicles traveling along an interstate network.
Over the next two hours, Aron remained completely still, the only sign of life in his body the slight rise and fall of his chest as he breathed. His conscious mind had completely turned inward, continually shaping his mental power into intent and directing it into the runic construct, which began glowing brighter in the areas his intent attached itself to.
As time passed, his eyebrows furrowed so tightly he could crack a walnut between them and veins became visible on his body, starting from his temples and tracing their way down his neck, along his chest and shoulders, and all the way down to his fingertips. He felt like a jackhammer was running unattended in his skull, banging about and ricocheting off the bone, leaving naught but pain in its wake, but he had no choice other than to persevere in his task.
The construct he was imbuing was one of the most important aspects of the layered defenses in the solar system, and if his concentration slipped even for a moment, he would have to begin again from scratch. And, being two-thirds of the way through, he would rather suffer more now than suffer again in the future after his mental state recovered.
Thus, all of his higher-order AI subordinates had assumed direct control of the stealth fleet currently in orbit and deployed it around him, locking down space around him such that even a speck of cosmic dust might have difficulty in slipping between the physical layers of defense set up to protect him. Even the construction of the space elevator came to a halt in order to prevent even the slightest possibility of a disturbance caused by the ongoing construction.
Finally, after three torturous hours, Aron opened his eyes. A slight unwillingness flickered across his face as he prepared himself for what was about to unfold and muttered, “Activate.”
A torrent of mana flowed out of his mana heart like water cascading down from Angel Falls, entering the rune and slowly creeping through it along the path his intent had taken. And as the mana continued flowing, the rune slowly began turning the pure white color of his intent.
(Ed note: Angel Falls is the world’s tallest waterfall. Located in Venezuela, it’s 979 meters from top to bottom with a plunge of 807 meters. It’s so tall, in fact, that liquid water turns into vapor before reaching the bottom, making it one of the world’s most beautiful and, dare I say, “mystifying”, natural wonders. Do an image search, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.)
“This... is going to cause a commotion,” he said, unconsciously clutching his chest as he watched the rune shed its pure gold color and turn white like the entire thing was a set of dominos toppling from one end to another.
After the entire rune construct turned white, a kilometer-thick shield began spreading out from it and surrounding the Earth in a protective cocoon. It was moving excruciatingly slowly, revealing that there was a bottleneck somewhere in the process, and it was a very unexpected one at that: Aron himself. Although he could draw mana from a vast distance, it was akin to filling a bucket with a fire hose, then pouring that bucket out into an empty swimming pool through a drinking straw.
Essentially, the output of his runic heart simply couldn’t keep up with the demand of the runic construct he was empowering, leading to the slow progress of the shield’s completion. That was only compounded by the low mana density surrounding the planet; his runic construct was entirely capable of powering itself through its activation via drawing mana from its surroundings, but there simply wasn’t enough mana for it to draw within its much more limited range.
That said, he had taken that into account when designing the construct, as well as during the process of imbuing it with intent. The construct wouldn’t collapse, it would simply throttle its progression based on the weakest link in the chain. Thus, it was only a matter of time until it was completed and the world would be held safe within its protective embrace. All Aron had to do was wait patiently for the process to be completed.
That said, it only moved slowly in comparison to Aron’s usual nigh instantaneous usage of runes. Within thirty minutes, the activation process was completed and Earth was finally shielded. Its task completed, the runic construct faded from view, still present and functioning, but invisible to the naked eye and mana senses; Aron had inverted it so it would only be visible when under a certain operational load, and currently, it was under hardly any pressure at all.
But the people watching from the ground knew nothing about that. All they knew was that an enormous golden circle filled with strange script and diagrams had appeared, turned gold, then turned white, and finally disintegrated. They had no clue what it all meant, and nobody would be stupid enough to publicize it. In fact, Aron himself had moved the construct after it vanished, setting it on a random course around the world in the center of the thick shield, making it even harder to spot.
