Chapter 270: War! War! War! (1) |
The component floated in the air, soaking in a pool of liquid energy. It had many tiny holes that absorbed a lot of liquid with each breath-like movement.
When Adam saw it, he remembered the information Garfield had shared. His earlier guesses suddenly made more sense.
The Devourer was one of Dilus, or a new race with Dilus' heritage. According to Garfield, Dilus was a powerful race that could fight across planes. Adam thought the Devourer was corrupting the origin and building altars just to leave Titania and get back home.
"No, he wants to become a god and create a void race loyal only to him."
"But what makes him so confident? If he has inherited memories, he should know that a race without any level-nine leader is just an easy target in the void."
"Unless he's sure that after corrupting Titania's origin, he can become a level nine."
Thinking of this, Adam asked Garfield, "Is Dilus extinct?"
"I don't know, I think they should be. I don't have any fragments about them. Dilus could be seen as an abyssal variant, the most unwelcome kind because they only plunder, destroy, and eat. Once they hit a hard place or reveal a flaw, no one would spare them."
This made sense. In a large cosmic system, entropy-increasing races were natural enemies because they brought no beneficial changes, only sped up destruction. The Mage World was similar, or they wouldn't hide their plane coordinate.
Adam then asked, "Do you know what would happen if such a component were successfully made?"
"This Plane would be destroyed. The whole plane would become their Fortress," Garfield replied, guessing. He didn't really know and could only speculate.
But this guess was enough. Adam immediately gave up on further infiltration. He turned into his Electro True Self and dashed out at top speed.
If what Garfield said was true, this place could be very important. It might not be directly monitored by the Devourer, but there would definitely be transcendent-level Metal Eaters around.
Adam worried that the moment he touched the diamond membrane with his drill, he might have caused big trouble.
...
At the Land of Divine Revelation, seven Angels gathered to discuss the strategy for the upcoming war. Unlike after the previous war councils, they did not return to their individual zones after the last one.
The strength of the Metal Eaters was far greater than the Titans had realized. Many potential transcendent parental bodies were sacrificed in the pyramids producing common parts. In more important altars, parental bodies even drew energy directly from transcendent Metal Eaters.
The pyramid altars were crucial strategic structures. The Titans had been given a chance to survive partly because the Devourer feared the Titans might launch suicidal attacks to destroy the pyramids, disrupting their plans and wasting their time.
At this moment, a roar came from the fifth Angel's brood. Sharp spikes pierced the void, sending out waves of destructive energy.
"Fifth, what are you doing?!" The other Angels, caught off guard, were affected. The closest, the sixth and fourth Angels, expressed their displeasure.
The fifth Angel 'produced' a transcendent Metal Eater. Then, a spike pierced its brain as he spoke, "Someone has invaded the outermost altar of my zone and triggered my final defense!"
Hearing this, the Angels immediately halted their discussion. The first Angel said, "It can't be the Titans; they don't have this ability."
The fifth Angel replied, "Exactly, it's that ant from another plane."
"What a death wish! If he had stayed in Titan territory, he could have lived a few more days. But he dared to enter the altar?" The fifth Angel was furious, feeling insulted.
The spike gradually softened. Its tip, lodged in the transcendent Metal Eater's brain, branched into countless tiny tendrils, taking full control of its body. The Metal Eater became a communication device, relaying the order to annihilate Adam in the alert zone.
Unfortunately, there was a slight delay in this communication.
...
As Adam reached the outside, the pyramid began to shake slightly. Broods fixed to the tower started to awaken. It was like an eight-magnitude earthquake hitting the place, with the ground cracking and fissures extending for dozens of kilometers. Countless eyes flickered like stars within the cracks, and then the monsters erupted from the ground, covering the sky like a sandstorm.
Adam was fifteen kilometers from the alert zone boundary, and he had seven minutes left of the planned thirty, so there was no longer any point in hiding. The only way out was to fight through.
Adam felt no panic; instead, he experienced a strange, exhilarating surge of adrenaline.
Almost a hundred years had passed since Adam gained his body and became a mage. He had never fought with his full strength, not even once---except for when he was an apprentice and was chased by antimages. But now, the antimages were too weak to matter to him. In this sense, Adam, as a battlemage, was somewhat unqualified.
He let his blades hover in the air and his spear hung in the void.
With Adam's decision made, all the Metal Eaters within a twenty-kilometer radius appeared as data models in his mind.
He discovered that a large number of Metal Eaters were waking up, including 100,000 level-three Metal Eaters, 20,000 level-four, countless level-one and level-two, and two transcendent ones.
Adam summoned his magical construct and filled it with his Electro True Self. Instantly, electricity wrapped around him, forming a 39.9-meter-tall elemental thunder body. A stable, strong magnetic field was generated from each electron, working together to make the violent electric elements as smooth as flowing water.
Dark clouds gathered above his head, with thunder dragons flickering in and out, their roars shaking the heavens and the earth.
His armor emitted a dazzling electromagnetic glow like an aurora.
Massive amounts of metal particles were attracted and floated, forming a sword that circled his thunder body, vibrating at high frequency.
Adam summoned Garfield's blazing Flame. Then he clenched his hands inward, forming the Flame into a smooth sphere and pressing it into the core of the magical construct.
Instantly, magnetic and gravitational lines intertwined, causing the space to ripple like waves, and dimensional rifts appeared and disappeared with the flow of energy.
"Let's test how strong I really am, and this time, I'll use the transcendent Metal Eaters as my touchstone."