Wasteland Echoer

"Yes, just crying," Jota responded.

His voice was very soft, as if he hadn't slept well for a few nights, and he sounded a little weak.

"Oh?" The Giant Pope turned around, "threw away" the water in his hand, and frowned in confusion.

"As a [Slayer], I know everything about the 'Ancient God's Magical Machine' all too well. The water that is now filling the magic circle is a mixture of 'Vita's Water' and the rainwater summoned by the 'Ancient God's Magical Machine' .As long as the [Slayer] approaches it with the purpose of activation, it will 'cry'." Jota replied.

"Where is Epiphyllum?" the Giant Pope asked, stroking the scepter as if stroking a gentle domestic cat.

"I don't know." Jota shook his head, stood upright, stretched out his hand to caress and arrange his pure black hair, and said:

"Perhaps it is a prophecy dropped by someone to prevent us from activating the magical equipment. Epiphyllum often blooms for a moment in the darkest and mysterious night. As long as the observer is distracted for a moment, its 'brilliance' will be fleeting, and then it will disappear. If you want to see the flowers bloom, you have to wait a long time.”

"Maybe it's a guide, Jota, especially for you." The Giant Pope speculated in a sharp voice.

"Why?" Jota asked.

"'A moment of blooming', we only need you to drive the magical machine to resist humans for a day, no, a few hours. As for the strange abilities it comes with, in addition to guiding us with the 'Daughter of the Mechanical Element' Apart from a few points related to God’s Domain, I don’t expect anything else.” The Giant Pope replied:

"In other words, you only have to drive it once."

"Indeed, but Your Majesty, before I take the 'Cry of the Ancient God' potion, I want to talk to you about the past and future of this sequential monster. As you know, I am the only one with the [Slayer] profession among the three major churches. Or, you may not be able to find a new [Slayer] in the future, and even if you find one, he may not understand the 'Ancient God's Demonic Weapon' as well as I do." Jota demanded in a pleading tone.

"Of course. Five years ago, you were the first to discover the magic weapon hidden in a dark corner of the warehouse, hidden in oil-soaked linen." The Giant Pope agreed.

"'Ancient God's Magical Machine', 'Ancient God's Magical Machine'. It has nothing to do with the Creator, and it has nothing to do with the sequence of gods. As we all know, the old gods and the sequence of gods are two completely different systems, and they are even mutually exclusive. The existence of conflict." Qiaota stood on the spot and explained:

"A kind of great power that lives in the dark deep sea, tempting believers to go crazy and mad, and finally willingly sacrifice themselves to fulfill the gods. Most of the believers who believe in and come into contact with this kind of gods have mental illness, but they can rely on various means to maintain their spirits. of stability.

The other type is beings close to the light. They are said to live in fantastic and wonderful divine realms and rely on human faith to gain strength. As long as humans seek the gods, talk about the gods, or even remember them, they will be able to continuously obtain the magic source power under the order established by the Creator to maintain their existence. But as long as they are completely forgotten, they will disappear and turn into dust. "

"The 'Old God Magical Machine' is the work of the old gods. The great old gods realized the power of a kind of power called 'technology' at the beginning of the Steam Age. Among them, Dipsel and Keyaru While meditating in the dark, damp, and sticky underground palace, an idea of ​​merging the power of the old gods with machinery suddenly came to me."

"The idea of ​​fusion?" Ning Yuan, who was listening carefully, asked before the giant pope spoke. His face was full of doubts, and he looked at Qiaota, who had a calm face.

"Yes, that's right. Traditional monsters are too boring, you know? 'Wish Condensation'. No, you may not know, because you have great power that surpasses all the lost ones in the Zine Empire. Sometimes you don't You will see the beauty of 'technology'. But the old gods are different. Although they have been quietly emerging from the bottom of the deep sea at dim moments, they have continued to attack humans. But since humans invented powerful artillery, the Crusted Empire developed technology that can With sonar and radar that understand everything, they don’t dare to appear in front of the world easily.”

"They are mysterious, at least they think so. They need to maintain a rare sense of mystery, then they have to learn, keep up with the times, and evolve themselves."

"Evolution? Is one of the directions for the evolution of gods to be mechanization?" "Ning Yuan" asked with great interest, his eyes turning as he thought.

"That's right. After countless prophets broke through the wormholes that bound time, they discovered that the future era will be an era of machinery, real machinery, not prosthetics made of scrap metal. Countless electronic components are aggregated and are After being covered with steel or a stronger and more precious metal, it becomes a limb that does not have magic power but can be controlled by people at will."

"At that time, human beings will no longer need a body, but it is not simply about releasing the soul from its shackles and reaching the other side of becoming a god, but about infusing consciousness into a small piece of metal and connecting it to a more powerful steel body. To illustrate with a passage from the future, it is..."

"What is it?" "Ning Yuan" asked eagerly.

"Abandon the body, abandon the pain, merge with machinery, and ascend to the era."

"People in the future believe that only by abandoning the fragile, sickly, aging, and collapse body, and by abandoning some of the emotions that are inherent to being human, and choosing to escape into the mechanical sequence, can they truly enter the vast universe and reach the other side of the stars. "

"We humans can easily know these, let alone the old gods? They know the future better than us, so they turned their bodies into steel, their nerves into conductive electronic components, and their brains into chips for storage The consciousness, the heart, becomes a real piece of 'steel pump', thereby enabling mechanized evolution."

"But the old gods had countless bodies. In the moss-covered fortresses of the deep sea, there were hidden spare bodies buried by the gods and priests. As long as the deep sea is not destroyed and the planet is not destroyed, they can live forever in the mysterious and eternal night. Guard them until their loyal followers sacrifice their lives, find sacrifices, and invite them to take over this miserable world again."

"So..." "Ning Yuan" interrupted Qiaota, pointing to the area behind the "magic circle" where the Giant Pope was, wrapped in a huge piece of dark cheap cloth, and said:

"Can I understand it this way? The ancient god's magical machine is a huge machine that evolved from the body of the old god and combined the power of the gods with the power of the devil and other extraordinary powers?"

"That's right, the 'Condensation of Wish' and 'Hope' sequence cores have strengthened your wisdom, and also enhanced your ability to understand." Qiaota nodded and said:

"It's just that the bodies of the old gods used by the 'Ancient God Magical Machines' are spare bodies that they carefully crafted long ago in the ancient times. The 'ancient' here means ancient, ancient. Also, what we obtained' The ancient god's magical weapon is actually a withered body."

"What do you understand by a withered body?" "Ning Yuan" continued to ask.

"The old gods took away and destroyed the chip transformed from the brain of the spare body. The 'magic machine' left behind became a carrier. As long as there is a [Slayer] willing to sacrifice himself, he can turn himself into a substance that replaces the chip. , then you can perfectly inherit the power of the old gods. There are sporadic descriptions of this in the Gods Chapter of "All Things in the Ancient World": "

"The power of ancient gods' sacrifices, the long time to store hope, machinery is the eternal truth, and power is the unchanging law of the ages."

"They are in moisture, but they like dryness; they are in darkness, but they long for light; they have bodies, but they create machines; they are always sleeping, but they want to wake up."

"Jota, after hearing your description, I seem to have a clearer understanding of the past and future of the 'Ancient God's Magical Machine'. Now I just want to ask you a question." The Giant Pope finally spoke, saying in a slightly dry voice.

"Please." Jota bowed.

"Have you fully adjusted your condition? If you are ready now, I will chant the spell to activate the 'Ancient God's Magical Machine', although this will consume one-tenth of my life. But this life has already been It doesn't matter anymore, the life of the lost is long and meaningless, even accompanied by pain and killing." The Giant Pope showed a bitter expression, crossed his hands, and pressed on the animal-headed scepter.

"Of course I'm ready. Now my consciousness is very clear and my magic power is very full. I just have to take the potion." Qiaota nodded.

"That's good, we can start the official 'topic', haha." The Giant Pope laughed.

Immediately afterwards, he poured the magic power in his body into his hands. After they glowed slightly with a reddish light, he recited in a low voice in Kruse German:

"Great sage, please bless us. The 'Burning Hell Fire' you buried deep in our bodies and spirits has given us inexhaustible courage. Now, please let the light of the Lord of the Night envelope us, please light The haze of the goddess surrounds us, please ask the gods of the past to listen to the call of temporary believers like us and give us the strength to fight."

After the chanting of the incantation was completed, a golden light emerged from the seven orifices on the giant pope's old face.

They were like bright ribbons, hovering and flying in mid-air, and finally landed softly in the magic circle with complex lines.

As the accumulated water and withered flowers evaporated and were annihilated, the magic circle emitted a brilliant light.

The pattern that looks like two spliced ​​gears emits a soft light like dusk, the pattern that looks like a giant dragon’s head emits a bright red light, the pattern that looks like the moon emits a blue light like the vast sky, and part of the pattern that looks like a human silhouette emits light. Colorful psychedelic colors.

They were like the sky, like flames, like stars, like dreams. They lasted for several minutes before slowly becoming dim.

boom! ————————————————————————

While several people were staring at the "magic array" and thinking about the meaning of the light, the ground shook violently like an earthquake.

A moment later, the dark piece of cheap cloth flew like a ghost over the "Mechanical Test Area", was torn apart by a mysterious force, and was broken into pieces and scattered to every corner of the ground like black snowflakes.

With a burst of incandescent light shining, the true appearance of the "Ancient God's Magical Machine" covered with cheap cloth was revealed in front of several people.