Spending My Retirement In A Game

Of course, the curse wasn't disappearing right away in the first place. It seemed to be just slowly releasing. That meant that there was still time to think, even if not a lot. At the very least, Eisen could send a message to Kiron and the other Knights, informing them of what was going on so that they could act accordingly and guide the soldiers to help out with the evacuation.

As Eisen glanced to his right, he could see giant tree roots growing and spreading through the city like waves, covering the lower levels in a roof that would protect the people from the falling debree as they were escaping.

At the same time, the world was practically shifting around Xenia as she was using magic to lift whole city blocks into the air to move them outside of the confines of the capital. But Eisen couldn't do even nearly as much as they could. He golems that might be able to do something, but Eisen had to actively command each and every one of them, and he couldn't waste any time on that right now.

Instead, he would do what he should be taking care of right now.

He soon reached the God of the Mountain's face. Silber's eye was slowly opening, his pupils dilated and his sight hazy. Eisen flew over toward his ear, "Silber! Can you hear me?!"

Silber's mouth seemed to slowly open, the roots of the trees that had grown around his lips snapping immediately as though they were threads, while chunks of rock just fell to the ground. A loud groan poured out of Silber's mouth, but it didn't seem like he was able to say anything right now. However, Silber's eyes seemed to be getting their focus back.

They were slowly moving toward a specific location. Giant's Blood Plaza. Eisen turned toward there, narrowing his sight. He held his hand in front of his face, holding his index finger and thumb into a circle. They had an enchantment engraved into them so that they would act as a telescope. And then, the old man saw something that made his heart skip a beat.

"Ah... so that's it..." Eisen muttered. The massive arrow and the blood around it were also turning back to what they were before the curse. Due to its immense effect on Silber, it had affected other things around him as well. At first, Eisen thought that would mean that all of his blood, even if away from him, would turn into stone, and the arrow that was soaked in it would react similarly.

However, that wasn't it. While Eisen was right in his assumption, the blood dripping from the arrow wasn't Silber's. It was a muddy, dark green. A giant's blood was still red, and the same was the case for Silber despite his current form, Eisen was sure. That meant that it belonged to a monster.

Eisen moved his gaze upward. He was wrong all along. So, so wrong. The debree falling from the sky wasn't because the mountain was collapsing. The petrified creature was waking up too, and the layer of rock that had formed on its own skin was releasing as well.

The monster that allowed Silber to survive this long, by teaching him its ability. Or maybe, those strands never belonged to Silber in the first place. They could have belonged to this monster. Or it could have been a mixture of both, not that it mattered anymore.

This wasn't a mountain that was hollowed out.

It was the maw of a Mountain Gobbler, and Silber had been in the middle of a battle against it as the curse set in. Mountain Gobblers didn't get their name from feeding on mountains' energy from within. It came from the fact that they could grow to the size of mountains, and then simply devour them whole.

A size like this was absolutely ridiculous and unheard of, but now everything at least made sense.

"You seriously let them build the capital in a monster's body?" Eisen ground his teeth, furious at his own incompetence in the past. He could have just warned them, told them the truth. There was no way that the former Eisen didn't know about all of this. Anything would have been better than what was happening right now. In a matter of a minute, if even that, thousands of people died.

And it wouldn't just stop at that.

Eisen glanced to the side, seeing a dot of green pop up. He didn't even have time to read which of the other two it was, he just summoned them immediately. And quickly, on his palm, Evalia appeared.

"This place is collapsing. I need you to help calm people down and make sure they safely get outside the city," Eisen said immediately. Evalia, taken aback at what was going on around her, took a few moments to take in this unexpected situation. But that was all it took. She immediately nodded her head, "Alright, I got it."

Immediately, Evalia took out a paintbrush from the bag on her hip. She glanced around for a moment, and then simply jumped off Eisen's palm. She was soon caught by another one of Jyuuk's eagles, and was being carried closer toward the ground as the artist started painting something into the air. But Eisen didn't have the time to look at what she was doing. He had to figure out what to do next himself.

He concentrated.

The Mountain Gobbler wouldn't be an actual major threat, no matter what rank it had achieved. Over the close to hundred thousand years that it had been here, its body was dug up completely. While Silber's body was actively protected, the same wasn't the case for the monster, as nobody even knew it existed. There was no way it would be able to survive that.

Its veins and bones must have been excavated or damaged too much to live for long. However, that didn't even matter right now. All that the Mountain Gobbler had to do was close its mouth, and it would be over for everyone still left in the city.

They would have to do something against that. But-

In the middle of Eisen's thought, the last dot turned green. Eisen stopped instantly and summoned Brody, who appeared on his hand a few moments later, "We're in the mouth of a giant monster. We need to make sure it can't close its mouth."

Brody looked around, his arms crossed, "...Well, at least this is something you could call an emergency," Brody replied, "But how should I-"

"No time for smalltalk. Kill it, make it fall unconscious, or just destroy its muscles; anything to make sure it can't force its mouth shut," Eisen said immediately. It seemed like Silber was still doing his best to stay upright, so he could hold the Mountain Gobbler's mouth open for now, but that wouldn't last long. So while Brody took care of that, Eisen would have to improvise a new pillar.

"No, I mean, I don't have any large-scale attacks like that. You know I can't use magic, and nothing I remembered on the central continent could make me deal with something on a scale like... this," Brody replied, "Maybe if Xenia-"

"No, it has to be you. You have more destructive power than her. This is possibly a Transcendent monster. Only you could damage it. Listen, I'll throw you now, have Jyuuk fly you up. But more importantly, watch me."

"Wait, you'll throw-" before Brody could finish, being interrupted by Eisen for the third time now, the old man simply tossed Brody, all the whilst pulling out his sword. Eisen knew that Brody would be able to remember this. And he probably wouldn't even have to try. Like Eisen, he was extremely close to his memories at this point. He should just be able to remember.

And so, Eisen turned to the side, aiming at a massive chunk of stone that was falling from the top of the monster's mouth. The old man swung his sword, using the Mountain Splitter sword technique, cutting the stone into much smaller pieces that Xenia soon handled down below.

Brody's expression went blank for a moment as his eyes turned into the back of his head, but that lasted for just a second. By the time Jyuuk had approached to catch Brody, the half-demon was laughing loud enough for Eisen to still hear him. It was obvious that Eisen had taught this move to Brody at some point.

And then, the old man got started on the pillar. Though, it wasn't really a pillar. He had already started spreading out his demonic domain onto Silber's body. Though more specifically, onto the layer of rock that had gathered on him.

His Demonic Spawn and duplicates appeared on the side of Silber, all accessing Eisen's magic in order to build up a solid barrier of Eisen's own stone on top of the existing 'Statue'.

And in the meantime, Eisen had opened his item storage, pulling out a large barrel. It was a spatial barrel, filled with a massive amount of mana potion. Not only that, it was highly compressed. He only had one of these in his item storage, and it was worth millions of gold, but he had to use it up here.

Eisen opened up the top and placed it against his mouth, letting the potion pour down his throat. His body was filled with massive amounts of mana, which he needed to keep up the 'recreation' of the God of the Mountain. But it wasn't fast enough. Eisen bit down on the barrel and kept letting the potion pour into him at a steady rate.

Meanwhile, he took out Bai and turned the ego-tool into a sharp chisel. He would usually be a lot more thorough and careful, but he didn't have the time to plan this out too much.

Eisen pulled off his royal armor and let it fall to the ground. He could recover it later. His suit was dealt with quickly as well as he just cut it off himself. And then, Eisen started carving into his thick rock skin. And deeply, as well. It had to be deep.

The enchantment would take hold better that way. He groaned loudly as he carved massive chunks off his skin. His elemental spirit had also appeared and started helping Eisen out, carving the enchantment onto his back where Eisen himself couldn't reach.

It took just a couple of minutes for the enchantment to be finished, and Eisen filled it out with magic-infused metal and some crystal, a specific mixture that maximized the flow of mana through them. And then, he activated the enchantment.

---

[You have created the <Mana Syphon…]

[…]

[…]

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A number of system windows popped up in front of Eisen, but he just shoved them to the side. He had to concentrate. The amount of mana that had poured out from his body had increased many, many times over. Eisen let out a loud groan of pain as the mana completely tore apart his insides. The taste of copper filled his mouth, but this old man ignored it.

The replication of the God of the Mountain was contuing at a high speed. If both Silber and Eisen can hold out long enough, then they could save this city from ruin.