Chapter 937: ssenger of God
The nightmare Afternoon Town.
When Ebner saw all the lights of the Floating City flare to life, he was startled, nearly stowing away the Gear Book at once.
—He worried that the sudden change in the Floating City might draw the dangerous beings of Afternoon Town, and then implicate him.
But soon, Ebner sharply noticed that nothing in the town stirred. It was as if those monsters hidden in the darkness hadn’t sensed the dazzling light of the Floating City at all.
"The ritual protecting the Floating City... I already judged from the Gear Book’s projections that it was an enlarged version of the secret technique Evans’ Hidden Barrier...
"This barrier must borrow the dense ’dark’ divine power the Goddess left behind in the town, sinking the Floating City into a deeper nightmare than this Afternoon Town itself. That’s why the monsters can’t perceive it.
"My nightmare is deeper than yours. So, compared to you, I am hidden. Unless you descend into a deeper nightmare too, you can’t affect ... If I compare this with the Misty Town of the Nation of Night and the church in that Kabas Town in East Chester, the principle is probably the sa.
"And the reason I can see it, perceive its changes, is because the black gem the Goddess gave
at my chest generates a barrier on the sa principle as the Floating City’s. Which ans I share the sa nightmare layer as it.
"So then, the outer barrier of the Floating City is aningless to ... since we’re on the sa level, with the sa ’hidden’ depth."
A brief mont of thought cleared the puzzle for Ebner, and his expression eased.
anwhile, he reached the junction where the middle stairways of Afternoon Town t the Floating City’s platform.
Having co this far, Ebner didn’t hesitate. He stepped across the visible barrier.
As expected, it didn’t hinder him at all. Yet, as he passed through, he felt sothing mark him, and his intuition warned he was being monitored.
He wasn’t concerned. If the Floating City lacked even this much vigilance, it would have been destroyed long ago regardless of barriers.
Still, he decided to cloak himself with a combination of Psychological Invisibility and Hiding in Shadows. As an outsider, he stood out too much. If the residents misunderstood, trouble would follow.
He ca in peace, but that didn’t an he’d just sit and be beaten. Besides, before eting the rulers face to face, he wanted to observe and collect information.
Because of the sudden activation of all high-energy projects, the citizens of Morning Star City shifted—from stunned silence, to panic, to fear, to excitent, even frenzy.
The panicked and fearful rembered the "Fall of Morning Star," fearing another catastrophe or an enemy invasion.
The excited and fervent rembered their revered chanical Emperor, and his prophecy: "When He returns, the Morning Star will shine, and calamity will be driven away..."
Countless people stread from the mid and lower levels within the mountain, climbing through passages to the surface, gathering beneath the central tower at the statue of the chanical Emperor to pray.
Ebner followed the crowd, wide-eyed.
Ninety-nine percent of them had undergone full chanical transformation. Only a few "younger" people born in recent decades had rely partial augntations.
Because materials were scarce, much of the tal ca from scavenged parts of Afternoon Town, so the designs of their prostheses were wildly varied—patchwork and mismatched, like so underground street in a cyberpunk world.
But this tradition of complete modification—even replacing the brain with simulated chanical substrates—actually gave Ebner convenience.
For after becoming a demigod, his "Information Extraction" (the ascended form of "Breath Extraction") normally only read shallow local "records."
Now, though, these chanical brains themselves were storage banks. Ready-made databases he could "extract" at will.
Their nature was no different from residual "information" in the environnt. All were within the scope of the Seer’s power.
"202 years ago... the Fall of Morning Star. Hm, that year... According to the Gear Book’s data, the Floating City existed 203 years before falling... The numbers so close together—does that signify sothing?
"The five Alchemists fought the four Pontiffs... Hah, that Goron was a powerful ’Trinity Cathedral,’ calling himself a Pontiff is one thing... but the other three? Barely Sequence 5, yet daring to claim the title? Was the ’True Creator’ so cheapened? That’s outright blasphemy.
"Well, they must have heard the True Creator’s murmurs and converted. Maybe each heard sothing different, built their own doctrines. That explains why such a small Floating City had four separate True Creator churches... probably even denouncing one another as heretics.
"The chanical Emperor, Lucien Evans... Ha, in a past life I really milked the Arcane for all it was worth! Good thing I didn’t call the Floating City ’Aringen’...
"Unfortunate though—at the end of that life, nearing my natural limit, I encountered an energy core explosion during augntation... For over two centuries since, no such accident in countless chanical surgeries. No wonder people still suspect it was the True Creator cult’s assassination... though my friends and students clarified in the investigation reopened a century later.
"And the prophecy... The Morning Star will shine, calamity will be driven away...
"That must have been
foretelling my own return, right?
"As for the shining Morning Star... Did my arrival trigger so preset chanism?
"Not quite. The changes began after I unsealed the Gear Book...
"So then, what exactly is this Floating City? What state are these people in? Little ’Sun’ clearly told
that the true Morning Star City had crashed in reality outside Afternoon Town."
Reading, muttering, analyzing, Ebner’s gaze finally fixed on the statue of the chanical Emperor before the tower.
Klein had once toured Master Klaus’s imitation of the Floating City, describing its key facilities in detail. But he never ntioned such a statue...
That proved it was built only after the Floating City sank into the nightmare town. The being that left dream-guidance for Klaus in the divine war ruins had not known of it.
That alone wasn’t enough to catch Ebner’s interest. What truly intrigued him was the sense of familiarity it gave—akin to what he had felt before the "Wanderer" Alvin Abraham, the God of Luck, or the Sealed Artifact 1-025.
Studying the over-three-ter statue clad in red armor gleaming with tallic light, helt fully enclosing the head, Ebner thought:
"This isn’t really a statue. It’s a full-body prosthetic suit, built with care and elegant design!
"And that yellow gem atop the helt... If I’m not mistaken, it’s a mystical item made by fusing Beyonder characteristics with other materials. The chanical Emperor’s legacy?
"This statue—no, this armor itself is a powerful mystical weapon!
"No wonder those watching
didn’t mind
approaching it. To them, this would be the safest place.
"But... is it really so safe?"
A grin tugged at Ebner’s lips. He used a necromantic technique from the Book of the Dead—the sa spell for controlling bone dragons—to make the three-ter armor kneel, extend its hand, and lift him up.
Thanks to his brief experience of controlling Alvin Abraham’s body, Ebner was already skilled. And since this was his own legacy, aligned in spirit, no synchronization was needed. It wasn’t as smooth as an imperfect clone, but simple motions worked.
At the sa ti, Ebner shed his concealnt, raising high the Gear Book.
The gathered citizens of Morning Star City, shocked at first, soon followed one unknown leader in bowing. Voices rose in waves, repeating the prophecy:
"The Morning Star will shine, calamity will be driven away...
"Emperor, is it You returned?"
With their varied vocalizers—electronic tones, vibrations, chanical noises—the chorus was a chaotic din.
At that mont, the three Supre Councilors in the seventh-floor office could no longer sit still. In an instant, each descended from above, arriving before the statue.
They had planned to wait and see what this intruder intended, to probe his strength. But now, seeing him in the posture of a preacher, they could not delay.
With a hum, the black-armored man activated a jamr, disrupting the other citizens’ speakers and receivers, letting only his electronic voice be heard:
"Who are you, sir? What do you intend?"
"I am a ssenger of God..."
Ebner regarded the three clearly extraordinary rulers, smiling as he replied.
(End of Chapter)
Reviews
All reviews (0)