Chapter 340: Nuclear

Kael opened the cannon’s upgrade list. The first stage reduced the cooldown between shots, while the second improved the loading mechanism. Neither impressed him. They were useful, but the cannon’s real limitation was not the number of soldiers required to operate it. The barrel overheated after every shot, forcing the crew to wait or risk an explosion.

Then Kael reached the third upgrade, and his attention sharpened. The cannon’s short, thick structure disappeared in the projected image. Its barrel lengthened, splitting into several reinforced rails surrounded by rings of unfamiliar metal. The wheels were replaced by a heavy anchored platform, and the firing chamber began resembling some combination of an ancient siege weapon and a modern railgun.

That was where the real sauce was.

Kael checked the cost. Eight thousand contribution currency.

He sucked air through his teeth. He needed several times what he currently possessed, especially after upgrading the two ballistae. There was no chance of purchasing the third cannon stage before the next wave unless he found another way.

Kael studied the projected blueprint more carefully. The system did not show every detail, but it revealed enough of the structure for him to understand the intention. The improved cannon used a longer reinforced chamber, a better heat-distribution network, and an altered barrel designed to withstand far greater force.

He dismissed the interface and placed one hand against the existing weapon. Buying the upgrade was impossible, but building something based on it might not be.

Kael turned toward the nearest fortress officer. "Do you have spare cannon parts?"

The officer glanced toward the ancient weapon. "Some."

"How many?" Kael pressed.

The officer considered the question. "There are older cannons inside the storage towers. Most were damaged beyond use long ago."

Kael looked back at the cannon. "Damaged how?"

The officer grimaced. "Some cracked. Others exploded. A few were dismantled to repair the remaining weapons."

"Bring me everything you have," Kael said.

The officer hesitated. "Everything?"

Kael nodded. "Broken barrels, wheels, firing chambers, metal fittings. If it used to belong to a cannon, bring it."

The officer studied Kael for a moment before nodding. Soldiers and fortress workers disappeared into the nearby towers. They returned with carts.

Kael had expected damaged equipment. He had not expected this degree of damage. One cannon had its entire inner mouth torn out. The metal around the firing chamber had peeled outward like the petals of a flower, likely after the weapon exploded from overheating. Another had been split almost perfectly in half. Several carts contained nothing except wheels, warped barrel segments, cracked braces, broken firing mechanisms, and fragments that could only generously be described as formerly belonging to a cannon.

The burly climber examined the pile. "You asked for scrap."

Kael pulled out Brokk’s Hammer. "I was hoping for slightly more cannon mixed into it."

He started with the least damaged weapon.

The legendary hammer made the restoration possible. Torn metal shifted beneath each strike, drawing itself inward and reconnecting with the surviving barrel. Cracks sealed. Warped sections straightened. Pieces taken from other cannons were reshaped and fitted into missing areas.

The fortress workers watched in disbelief as the destroyed weapon slowly regained its original form. Within less than an hour, the first cannon was operational. Kael moved to the second and then the third. Two hours after beginning, three restored cannons stood along the battlements.

Kael looked toward the other climbers. "Take one each."

The spear user blinked. "You repaired these."

Kael gestured toward their sections of the wall. "And your sides need more firepower."

The mage rested one hand on the newly restored barrel. "You’re the one getting blocked..."

Kael shook his head. "It’s fine. For now, I’m lending these to the fortress. You just happen to be defending it."

The burly man grinned and seized one of the cannon’s towing bars. "I’m starting to like this floor."

Kael watched him pull it away. "Wait until the next army arrives."

The climbers took the cannons to their respective walls, accompanied by fortress crews carrying ammunition and cooling equipment. Kael checked the timer.

[The Second Wave will begin in 9 hours 47 minutes.]

They had the entire night. Which was worrisome. How would the rest of the waves fit in within the 48-hour window? The answer came soon from realization, they’ll be one after another without pause...

Kael took his focus back to other more important matters. He had spent only two hours restoring the three cannons. That left him with time to attempt something less reasonable.

He returned to the final pile. What remained was barely a weapon. There was no complete barrel, no intact firing chamber, and no frame capable of supporting the pressure of a shot. Repairing it would not work because too much material was missing. Brokk’s Hammer could remind an object what it used to be. It could not create several hundred kilograms of absent metal from nothing.

Kael opened his inventory. Fragments of the metal golem fell onto the stone. Heavy chunks of dark metal struck the ground hard enough to crack the surface beneath them. The golem’s body had possessed the irritating ability to repair itself, forcing damaged pieces back toward their previous shapes. That had made the creature annoying to fight. It could make the material invaluable to work with.

Kael selected one of the smaller fragments and placed it against the remains of the cannon. He struck it with Brokk’s Hammer. The metal flattened.

Kael waited for it to crawl back into its original form. It did not.

He struck again, lengthening the piece into a curved section that matched the cannon’s surviving frame. The material remained exactly where he placed it. Kael’s eyes narrowed. The golem metal’s self-restoration did not resist changes imposed through Brokk’s Hammer. Once the legendary tool gave it a new shape, the material accepted that shape as its proper state.

"That’s useful."

He began working. Kael used the fortress cannon as a base, studying its proportions and firing mechanisms while building the new weapon around the surviving scrap. The Reclaimer’s metal formed the barrel, chamber, and outer supports. Each strike stretched, curved, or compressed the material while Brokk’s Hammer fixed the alterations into place.

The work took hours. Kael thickened the firing chamber more than the standard design. He lengthened the barrel slightly and added reinforcing rings around its exterior. A salvaged wheel assembly was repaired and attached beneath it, allowing the weapon to be repositioned along the wall.

The result looked like one of the fortress cannons, only darker, heavier, and far more solid. Kael wiped the sweat from beneath his helmet. "Bring me powder and a cannonball."

The soldiers obeyed. The cannon crew loaded the powder first, packing it into the firing chamber before rolling an iron ball into the barrel. Kael checked every component, then stepped away.

"Fire."

The soldier pulled the mechanism. The cannon roared. An iron ball shot across the empty field and struck the earth at a distance comparable to the fortress weapons. Dirt exploded upward, and the projectile bounced several more times before disappearing into the darkness.

Kael immediately approached the barrel. It was warm, but not red. No cracks had appeared along the firing chamber. The Reclaimer metal had endured the shot with almost no visible damage.

Kael grinned. "That works."

He tapped the side of the barrel with his right gauntlet. The cannon creaked, and Kael stopped. Something had changed, if only slightly. For a moment, the weapon had grown heavier beneath his hand. Fine red lines shaped like a matrix had appeared in the metal, spreading outward from his gauntlet like the veins of a leaf before fading.

Kael looked down at his arm. He had forgotten to deactivate Heft and Fire. The runes were still connected through Anchor.

He pressed his palm against the cannon again. The red matrix returned. This time, he maintained contact. Lines crawled outward from his hand and spread through the dark metal. Their progress was painfully slow, advancing a few inches at a time along the barrel and firing chamber.

Kael waited as the network continued expanding. It reached the reinforcing rings, the wheels, and the entire length of the barrel. The cannon had become part of the runic circuit. Kael’s heartbeat quickened, and he pushed internal energy into it.

The weapon screamed.

An ear-deafening explosion struck the fortress. The sound broke across the walls with enough force to send several nearby soldiers stumbling. Windows shattered in the towers behind Kael. Dust poured from the battlements. The cannon’s mouth exploded apart.

Yet what emerged was not an iron ball.

A sphere of fire ten times larger than anything Kael had released from his gauntlet tore through the night. It crossed the battlefield like a falling star turned sideways, painting the fortress, plains, and distant mountains in violent orange light. The fireball struck an unfortunate hill far beyond the range of the ordinary cannons.

The hill vanished inside an explosion. Flame rose into the night sky. Stone and burning earth scattered outward as the shockwave returned several seconds later, rolling across the open plain and reaching the fortress as a hot gust of wind.

Kael staggered. His internal energy had dropped to nearly one-third from that single shot. He stared at the distant inferno. "This can actually use internal energy."

The soldiers around him said nothing. Several had fallen to the ground. One remained frozen with both hands over his ears, staring at Kael as if he had just fired the wrath of a god from a siege weapon assembled out of garbage.

Kael turned toward the cannon. The mouth had been destroyed. The end of the barrel had split open, its metal peeled backward by the pressure of the blast. The damage was severe enough that even Brokk’s Hammer would require time to repair it.

He barely finished the thought before the metal moved. The split sections trembled, then began pulling themselves inward. Torn edges reconnected. Cracks vanished. The peeled barrel folded back into place while the reforged golem metal returned to the form Kael had given it. Within moments, the cannon stood intact again and ready to fire.

Kael placed one hand against the restored barrel. The metal was already accepting the red matrix once more. It was a weapon that could channel runes, amplify their output, and repair itself after firing.

Kael slowly smiled beneath his helmet. "Now, this changes things."