The Record of Unusual Creatures

The first impression that these metallic monsters called the Gorgonian Demons by the L’Haronneans gave to Hao Ren was that these were ancient weapon systems that had gone out of control. And it was a technology-based, high level sort of out-of-control weapons, at the same time they too had a very obvious trait… like unique structure of a biological life-form.

Even if the beasts were totally made out of metal, the alloys still resembled obvious muscles, bones and innards structures, and each structure had a logical use to it, and their outer form were similar to animals, and the manta ray, giant insect form were the most obvious trait, and when you get into their insides, this wondrous ‘imitation of life’ were even more glaring.

Hao Ren was moving through the passageway inside the Gorgon Lord, and it felt like he was moving inside a squirming beast. Through the gaps of the tubes and electrical lines, he could see many machinery glowing red within the cavities, and at the same time splits were moving about within the transparent tubes, as the stress-inducing chimes of the machinery sounded like the organs of a living organism, and the oil and electricity within the tubes and cables were the blood and stimulants of the monster.

He had not found any wide corridors for normal personnel, and had only ran into those narrow single person passageway, at the same time, there were no signs of any cabins or control panels for humans, and in place were many ancient automated machines.

“Everything here points to this thing being totally automated,” The MDT floated by Hao Ren’s head as it inspected the energy and information flow, “These passageway is probably meant for the maintenance crew for inspections and repairs under special circumstances. So aside from the technicians, these things would not need anyone to control it.”

“Makes sense, the Gorgon Abyss had already existed for thousand of years, and it will be difficult to imagine every demon would have a group of pilots within one, with the L’Haronneans not even finding out after so long.” Hao Ren said as he followed the MDT’s navigation instructions deeper into the beast, and at the same time took notice of the observation window to observe the complex mechanical structures and operations inside the monster. These observation windows were present every other ten meters, and if he was not wrong it was meant for the maintenance crew. “But these passageways were more than enough…and if it is meant for maintenance work, that means it will extend to every corner inside this b*stard.”

He then looked through one of the windows at the machine room on the side, and in that room were a series of complex distribution system that was operating at full speed as an assembled air-to-surface missile was being sent into the launch bay window, and beneath the ‘missile assembly’ was a few turbine-like devices, the electricity created by the devices lit up the nearby magical runes and once the runes had absorbed the energy it would create a massive energy field, and based on the MDT’s scans, this energy field was the thing that allowed this behemoth to float.

Hao Ren totally had the ability to outright disable this Gorgon Lord’s combat capabilities. As long as he cut a gap in one of the nearby tunnels, and lob a few graviton grenades in those arsenals, anti-grav generator or energy cores, it would be more than sufficient to cripple the monster, but he did not plan to do that.

While the mechanical behemoth was ceaselessly lobbing missiles and bombs onto the ground, as long as Rheia’s divine barrier held, and Charlemagne and his men keeping a cool head there were no worries of any deaths while Vivian and Lily could easily protect themselves in this sort of combat scenario. And if not for the need to allow Hao Ren time to ‘investigate’, the two ladies could easily take the Gorgon Lord down if they worked together.

After all… Vivian had wrecked plenty of havoc by herself during the Mythological Age, and Lily’s doggoblast has divine powers to it, and that blast is no weaker than the main cannon of the Gorgon Lord.

So Hao Ren was totally not concerned about the combat outside, and what he planned to do was to collect as much information about the Gorgon Lord before it was destroyed.

“We are now in the middle of this thing, and further ahead we will reach the ‘command module’ where all sorts of signals converge.” The MDT projected the navigation map, and marked the signal reactions that it had managed to scan, “Beneath us there is a facility that is directly connected to the main shaft cable, but this facility is inactive.”

A facility that was directly connected to the main shaft, that meant that it is a device that consumes a lot of energy, but for it to be inactive in combat… what was it?

Hao Ren was curious and he quickly found the nearest observation window and took it apart before poking his head down below.

In the machine room beneath him, there was a massive ellipsoidal device, and around it were many cables and auxiliary facilities. A faint glow radiated slowly on its surface and around the device were neat rows of runes and marks, but they were all unimportant information.

“What is this?” Hao Ren raised an eyebrow as he asked.

The MDT’s shell was glowing blue, “Wait up, I’m analyzing it… Based on its structure and some key components, this is probably a dimensional distortion generator.”

Hao Ren frowned hard, “A part of a warp engine? Does that mean that… these Gorgonian Demons can warp?”

“But this function had been locked,” the MDT continued, “as they are now trapped in a very narrow universe, and they can’t even leave this planet. So to conserve energy, the warp engine and its auxiliary facilities are all shut down.”

Hao Ren suppressed his rampaging mind and refocused himself, “Save the scans, we will press on.”

And now long later, he had reached the final point the MDT had marked.

“The temperature here is very high…” Standing before a gate, Hao Ren mumbled to himself as he looked at the metal cabin with a red glow. “It seems like the Gorgon Lord’s control mechanisms require high-temperature to operate… or this place is heat chamber of the machine.”

The MDT answered with a deadpan voice, “I think it is the former, based on what information we have. This big b*stard is high-tech, and will have an equivalent high-tech cooling system, so the only reason to maintain a high temperature is that it needs it.”

Hao Ren nodded as he drew the Godslayer, and tore the locking mechanism of the gate before him apart with ease.

A not so wide semi-spherical cabin appeared before him.

And as expected, there were no pilot seats or control panels in the cabin, and its internal structure was surprisingly simple, the sloping semi-spherical walls had a few protrusions, and at the tip of each protrusion were images of the battlefield outside, and in the middle of the cabin as a slightly sunken ground, and over there, floated an egg-like metallic object the size of a man.

Hao Ren curiously approached the metal object and circled it halfway through before noticing there were a few lines of words imprinted on the egg. After translating it, the short message read:

E326-K7-75, Fist of Gorgon Corps, The Eternal Heroine, Eli Gneer.

You have returned from hell. May the stars always be with you, like you are for me, and me for you. Your love, Veir Klosse.

The MDT went back and forth near the words, “The front part seems like a serial number, unit designation, title and name, but the last part looked like a message left behind by someone.”

Hao Ren did not say anything as he instinctively held his hand out to touch the metal ‘egg’s’ surface.

A gentle mechanical clatter came from beneath the egg as its alloy shell suddenly folded away and shrank to one-third of its size, revealing the insides of the container.

There were no Eli Gneer within the container, rather only a cluster of chaotic darkness, and the cluster of darkness were writhing about like a thick glob of ink without any order.

Then the presence of an uninvited guest shook this glob of ‘black material’

Hao Ren felt like he had just heard a piercing screech, but in fact he had heard nothing. He only saw the black glob suddenly shook violently as it expanded and shrink, just like a muscle that was electrified as it contorted into nameless shapes. Following immediately after that was a series of roars as the already vibrating body immediately quaked as sirens blasted from all directions across the passageways and cabins!

The MDT shrieked, “Energy spikes detected everywhere! This b*stard is gonna self-destruct!”

“Bloody hell, what’s wrong with this thing’s temper!” Hao Ren’s felt his hair all stood up, “Self-destruction at a glimpse?!”

“Stop yapping in this key moment,” the MDT glowed bright, “Stand there and don’t move, we’ll teleport in…”

“Wait, we can’t go just like that!” Hao Ren felt amid the chaos, “Find anything valuable to take out with us, any recording devices, storage devices, whatever!”

The MDT quickly circled the cabin before slamming against Hao Ren’s head. “What’s there to look. That thing in front of you is probably the most important thing! If you want, then take… F*ck! F*ck! Faster, it’s gonna blow, it’s gonna blow….”

Hao Ren swiped the metal egg into his dimensional pocket and yelled, “What a farce! Nothing can blow me up….”

Before he could finish, the MDT had already activated the teleportation, and a flash later, both man and brick had disappeared.

And a flash later, the Gorgon Lord was consumed by the flames of its self-destruction.

Just like Hao Ren had said, a first rate demoman will never lose to a second rate.