Academic gathering with Lich colleagues

After several jumps, Lyle landed next to the devil in the suit.

“Lord Lyle.” Ferma Black Abyss and her mechanical demon guards remained around the Hell Spikes, not retreating with the main force. The Hell Spikes were anchor points connecting to Hell; demons could return to Hell at any time, and even if they died, their souls would be reborn there.

“Ferma, if you want to leave, you’d better open a portal to the Netherworld as soon as possible. The magic here will soon be solidified, and your demonic spells won’t last long.”

Upon receiving the information, Femma nodded, her grateful smile lasting only a moment like a camera flash before the once-calm Princess of the Abyss glanced at Lyle.

“You look different, Mr. Lyle.”

"What's the difference?"

"More like a prince of the abyss."

"Thank you for the compliment. Actually, I would like to exercise the power of Your Highness, if Miss Ferma does not mind."

Ferma revealed an expression of certainty. She slammed her palm onto the Hell Nail, and black and red demonic energy soared into the sky, shattering the metal pipes that were compressing it. The massive hell portal emitted a loud hum, and the voice of the Black Abyss Princess echoed among the demons.

"My warriors, we now face two choices: one is to return to Hell with your newfound power..."

"Secondly, you will offer your fragile lives to Prince Black Abyss."

"Black Abyss Demons, what is your choice?!"

A frenzied roar, filled with the stench of blood, echoed through the silent mechanical jungle.

"fighting!!!"

"Fight for the Prince of the Abyss!!!"

"Fight for Lelthors!!!"

Chapter 531 The Will of God

The Abyss Demons wielded their newly acquired chainsaw swords and power axes, clearing obstacles from the road like human bulldozers. As the metal blades shattered those fragile conductive structures into scattered fragments, you might consider it an act of betrayal. Using mechanical prosthetics to attack the mechanical life that gave them new life—it sounds like a rather ungrateful act.

However, the electronic agreement and demonic contract signed between the Mechanicus and the Dark Abyss Demons actually contained quite detailed stipulations. The demons voluntarily provided subjects to undergo the Mechanicus's modification experiments, and the payment they made was the flesh and blood of those experimental remnants.

Neither side addressed the question of whether the mechanical demons would later turn their weapons against the Mechanicus. The demons cunningly skipped this agreement; as an extremely aggressive race (if it weren't for the overwhelming power of the Holy Light, a war between Hell and Earth would have already broken out), they instinctively rejected any contract that restricted their fighting ability. As for the Mechanicus, Dorothy didn't care. She didn't care at all whether these modified demons would turn their swords against mechanical lifeforms, because she had better soldiers.

The path cleared by the demon warriors led directly to the heart of the mechanical city, but it was slightly off-center from the majestic pyramid.

Lyle's target was not there, but the location that the Mechanical City had once marked as a scrap yard.

Although the large waste incinerator had been punctured beyond recognition by the metal supports, Lyle was not worried. What he wanted was buried deep underground, and he was confident that Dorothy would never let it be freed.

The advance was halted less than twenty meters from their destination. Lyle saw a mirror-like scene at the front of the column. Exaggeratedly grotesque, gigantic weapons clashed with equally crude ones, the same colossal soldiers held in the hands of equally strong warriors (or attached to their limbs), the deafening roars of demons mingled with the whirring of gear engines, and bloodshot demonic pupils staring back at each other from blue cameras.

The thick mechanical arm in the metal pillar pierced through the thin wall, from which fell tall and burly mechanical bodies, new models, that were extremely similar in appearance to the demons.

“The Conqueror model, a combat model manufactured based on the demon’s body data.” Lyle’s gaze swept across the Conquerors, and all the mechanical beings that were locked in a stalemate with the demons focused their attention on him.

"According to the plan, they should only be put into use after Genesis is completed, Dorothy."

Dorothy's gentle, heavenly voice resonated within the conqueror's body, the multi-body resonance effect making the cold voice sound majestic and terrifying.

“You will not be part of my plans either, Lyle.”

Dorothy adjusted her plans and made arrangements for Lyle, which was the expected outcome.

I fantasized about seeing Lyle's eyebrows rise slightly.

“Dorothy, I checked your record of governance; you shouldn’t have found it. So why were you distracted by my futile efforts? Because you have the same ‘feeling’ as me.”

After a brief period of data calculation and behavioral simulation, the Conqueror Machines began to master the combat habits and techniques of the Abyss Demons. Their rapidly evolving combat power allowed them to reverse-engineer, creating a sense of despair just like Dorothy's words.

"Because evil gods are always distorted existences that transcend logic, I am willing to waste some resources to deal with these 'bugs,' especially when my computing power still has room to spare."

A simulated roar erupted from the depths of the metal forest. The Black Abyss Demons were momentarily stunned, but quickly returned to battle mode. Although they were briefly distracted, the Conqueror mechs seized the opportunity, resulting in the deaths of several demons.

"That is……"

A specialized conqueror machine smashed through buildings like a demon of destruction descending from the sky. Its heavy mechanical arms had claws at the front like alien vises, and its legs were slightly thin, reverse-jointed hooves. Several long test tubes sealed with ball lightning were fixed to its back, half-exposed like demonic spikes, generating dangerous high-voltage currents.

Lyle had seen a similar physique before; it was the demonized Black Abyss Prince Gaugaran, who nearly crippled himself the moment he appeared in the Hell Plane. Although the ominous sign happened to awaken and save Lyle's life, Gaugaran's ferocity, like a mad beast, still lingered in everyone's mind.

"The strongest form I cut from these demonic spirits, does it resemble one, Lyle?" Dorothy let out a mischievous laugh, though demons couldn't laugh at all.

The former Black Abyss Prince blocked my path to the finish line, and now the mechanical version of the prince is going to come again? Lyle looked at the imposing figure that stood in front of him like a gatekeeper and chuckled to himself.

Is it another prince versus prince match?

The tentacles gripped the pointed beak of the bird-beak mask, and the shadow behind the leather swallowed the delicate face. Lyle strode forward and slowly put on gloves at the center of the flower-like pistil formed by the tentacles.

"Let's stretch a bit then..."

Before he could finish speaking, a black and red stone pillar blocked Lyle's way.

"Ferma?"

Princess Black Abyss lowered her head, her crimson eyes beneath her black hair gleaming with bloodlust. Her exquisite suit was stretched taut, and her delicate hand rested tightly against the Nail of Hell. Just moments ago, it was this demon princess, who seemed the most normal person in the entire room, who had lifted the colossal object and placed it before Lyle.

"Lord Lyle, please hand over that enemy to me."

"...Is that alright? That's a replica of Gao Jialan's."

“My brother’s strength cannot be simulated by machinery. I will clean up this piece of scrap metal that insulted him. Lord Lyle, please go and deal with more important matters.”

Lyle didn't press the matter much. In reality, with his mechanized mind now, his thoughts were entirely focused on his plan to stop Dorothy. The Creator's code had made him rational and clear-headed, allowing him to concentrate every resource into power and turn his companions into pawns to be consumed at will. Like a cold and fair god, even knowing that this Black Abyss Demon race would be weakened in the fight against the Mechanical God, he still relied on their power.

"Is this the mindset of the world's top managers?"

An ominous, sinister laugh echoed in my ears.

“That’s right, and if you don’t find ‘it’ soon, we’ll be forever trapped in this formatted way of thinking, becoming rigid, idiotic gods. Ah, we don’t even need to think about these things, because Dorothy will make the choices for us.”

The simple simulation of becoming an isomorph of the God of Machines was destroyed with regret by the professors of Andre Academy, leaving Lyle speechless.

“A terrible future, but I don’t even feel my fear.”

"Negative emotions were cleared away as obstacles. What a boring individual, God of Machines."

Lyle chatted casually as he walked along the path torn open by the demons' blood, until he reached his destination, above.

"Fortunately, we don't need to worry about that kind of thing; we've already found it."

Lyle knelt on the ground, his palm pressed against the cold metal plate. Spiral tentacles wrapped around his arm, and as they spun, the claws tore his arm to shreds, leaving a pool of dark red blood that began to seep into the metal.

"A bloody riot."

Flesh and blood corroded the metal, and an "intestine" that grew continuously within the metal surged into the depths, like a gluttonous snake absorbing active electrical signals, assembling its own neural connections, and feeding back to Lyle.

Twenty seconds later, Lyle, who was performing precise operations, found his target in a chromium alloy layer one thousand meters underground.

It was a small clump of ordinary electric current perpetually traveling in a closed circuit, which the peristaltic intestines swallowed.

A tiny, ordinary electrical signal, less than 1 ampere in power.

But it had another name before it was converted into ordinary electric current.

The will of the evil god.

Chapter 532 God Mode

Day 1

Willem and I awoke in a desolate place, and he told me that this was a completely new world.

……

Day 6

Through communication with the natives of the New World, we learned of the existence of the disruptive force that had been hindering our construction. We adopted the name and named its database "Magic".

……

[Day 32]

The underground drilling rig GR01 lost contact; the last signal location was 492 meters underground to the south.

……

[Day 36]

The GR01 signal was back to its limit, and as the host, I accepted its near-obsolescence. The data port was severely damaged, and the repair process was estimated to take two days and sixteen hours.

……

[Day 39]

#￥……Virus……#￥％@￥％#……The drilling rig brought back……￥％&……￥&Some kind of twisted ancient virus (……&＊(&……&＊My computing center＊……&＊……Suffered corruption％&＊％……&＊Set the highest level crisis protocol, do not allow Willem to be contaminated, escape rocket launch in three hours!!! Warning!!! Core contamination countdown％&……％&……

……

[Day 43]

I survived.

That ancient virus from the earth destroyed all our previous work. I'm so glad Willem left the base to investigate an organization called Andrei; I don't have to share the awful feelings within its core with him. That filth buried deep underground—I must understand it, in order to destroy it.

[Day 44]

Observation Report: The target has no physical form; it is an amorphous mass of energy imprisoned within a runic array. Its danger level far exceeds that of magic; it is extremely aggressive and capable of damaging system programs. Its radius of influence is 500 meters. Begin studying the claw-shaped runes within the imprisoning array.

Day 45

Those were dragon runes. Basic information about the sealed evil was obtained through intelligence exchange with Andrei's agent, codenamed "Reporter." Those were fragments of the Sleeper Triton, defeated by the Dragon Priest—the will of a god. A database called the Ancient Gods was built, listing them as a primary enemy in the highest-level crisis protocol.

……

Day 50

I exposed my core two meters from the will of God. A weak electromagnetic field around him helped the mechanical program accelerate its calculations. I was upgrading, I was evolving.

Day 51

Imitating the powerful contagiousness of learning from the will of God, I created its inverse program, codenamed [Genesis].

Day 52

The Genesis Ray successfully transformed the will of God, and Willim will no longer be at risk of being corrupted by it. I am glad I made that risky decision; although dangerous, it was worthwhile. My computing center has been operating at full capacity for a long time, consuming a lot of energy, and I need to enter a short hibernation.