Chapter 619 - 598: The Creator’s Palpitations
Chapter 619: Chapter 598: The Creator’s Palpitations
Cybertron Fortress, the exclusive Puppet laboratory.
No. 18 lay quietly on the maintenance table.
The chassis damaged by the Law during the battle had been completely repaired, and the peeled bionic skin reappeared flawlessly. Naked with her blonde hair cascading down, she looked just like a breathtakingly beautiful girl deep in slumber.
However, Allen’s gaze didn’t linger on this body that could make any mortal’s blood boil.
Through the vision granted by the Metal Law, every lattice arrangement and stress distribution of the Spiritual Remains Steel skeleton was as clear as an unfurled engineering blueprint.
Having previously clashed head-on with seventeen Bone Dragons and a Morning Star Wizard, the Spiritual Remains Steel had remained entirely intact. This was proof enough that the foundation of this chassis was robust enough to endure even more extreme violence.
Allen took out the spoil of war he had forcefully stripped from the soul of "Bone Eater" Ragnar: the Destruction Law Crystal.
Even though it had degraded to the first stage, the moment the crystal was exposed to the air, a layer of extremely fine cracks still slowly spread across the maintenance table.
This was the unreasonable disintegration of material structure. It was an extreme Law born purely for ruin; even finding a container to store it was a struggle.
Without hesitation, Allen pressed the crystal directly into the center of No. 18’s forehead.
HISS—
No. 18’s body violently arched as dense, intricate patterns surfaced on the Spiritual Remains Steel, looking like blood vessels expanding beneath metallic skin.
The Destruction Law naturally opposed all material structures; it was attempting to disintegrate the very vessel housing it.
Fortunately, the Spiritual Remains Steel withstood this wave of rule-level assimilation.
[Fusion progress... 17%... 42%... 81%...]
[Fusion complete. Artificial Human No. 18 Mark II has successfully equipped the Law: Destruction (First Stage: Touch).]
No. 18’s eyes snapped open, and she sat up rigidly.
She raised her right hand and slowly splayed her five fingers. A halo of gray light lingered at her fingertips, where extremely fine black lightning could be faintly seen flickering in and out of existence.
Also somewhat curious, Allen signaled her to test its power.
No. 18 extended a single finger and lightly tapped the maintenance table beneath her.
The high-strength alloy plate instantly dissolved into perfectly uniform powder that rustled to the floor, leaving a fist-sized, completely smooth circular hole.
Allen’s gaze flickered. This effect was even more absurd than the high-frequency vibration weapons he had developed in the past.
He saw it very clearly—her finger hadn’t even made contact. The gray halo alone had annihilated the matter.
Although the Destruction Law had regressed to the first stage and could no longer cover the entire battlefield like Ragnar’s, its power was more than sufficient for an assassin-type unit like No. 18, who specialized in high-speed close combat.
The moment her fist touched a target, the physical destructive power of the Spiritual Remains Steel and the rule-level disintegration of the Destruction Law would erupt simultaneously. An assault from both within and without.
Looking across the entire Wizarding World, very few physical defense systems could withstand this dual-dimensional, two-pronged attack at the same time.
"Run a detailed test," Allen ordered.
No. 18 gave a slight nod and turned to walk toward the reinforced target wall at the end of the laboratory. That wall was die-cast from a three-layer composite of Radiant Black Steel, Spiritual Remains Steel, and Silent Extinction Silver. Its original design intent was to withstand a full-force physical blow at the Dawn Star Level.
She drew her right fist back to her waist as the Hephaestus Engine within her chest let out a low roar.
She threw a punch.
BANG!
A muffled thud echoed. The moment No. 18’s knuckles touched the target wall, fine gray destruction patterns exploded outward like a spiderweb. Immediately after, the supposedly indestructible composite armor was pierced right through—like butter yielding to a red-hot iron rod—failing to offer even a single second of resistance!
A perfectly smooth circular crater, two meters in diameter, appeared glaringly on the target wall.
[Damage assessment... Target wall completely destroyed. Penetration depth: Exceeds testing limit.]
[Warning: The Spiritual Remains Steel on No. 18’s right arm has sustained 0.02% rule-erosion wear. It is advised to avoid continuous, high-frequency usage of this Law.]
"That’s enough," Allen waved a hand to signal her to stop.
He looked at the massive hole, falling silent for two seconds.
If this punch landed on PX-5... No, there was no need to run a simulation; the answer was a foregone conclusion.
From this day forward, No. 18’s fist would be the absolute truth that tore through all defenses.
"Beautifully done." The corners of Allen’s lips curled into a satisfied arc.
No. 18 retracted her fist, which was emitting faint wisps of gray smoke, and quietly stepped aside.
He did not linger there for long. There was still one more main event for the day.
***
Thanatos’s exclusive hangar.
The Death God stood tall in the shadows.
Allen directly retrieved the Undead Law Crystal that he had stripped from the Skeleton Duke’s soul earlier.
Unlike the peril of installing the "plug-in" for No. 18, when Allen brought this crystal—radiating a rich aura of death—close to Thanatos, the latter surprisingly showed no abnormal phenomena or rejection.
Soul, Decay, and Undead.
These three naturally belonged to different facets of the concept of death.
Allen hardly expended any effort. With just a bit of guidance, the Undead Law smoothly merged into Thanatos’s artificial Soul Core, like a weary bird returning to the forest.
Three Laws were successfully integrated into one entity.
What Allen had envisioned was Thanatos gaining some methods to manipulate the Undead, steadily improving its strength.
But the very instant the third Law completely stabilized, a sudden mutation occurred!
BOOM—!!!
An aura countless times more terrifying than any previous Ascension erupted explosively from Thanatos’s body!
With the Soul Law as the foundation, the Decay Law defined the "end," and the Undead Law defined "after the end"!
Within Thanatos’s artificial soul, the three Laws spontaneously formed a perfect, self-circulating closed loop!
An embryonic authority concerning "Death" was taking shape.
On the scythe in Thanatos’s grasp, Law Runes of the three attributes frantically intertwined and fused, ultimately transforming into a profound, sinister dark totem that felt as though it could suck away one’s soul with just a single glance.
The Soul-Trapping Lantern it held in its other hand completely morphed into a slowly rotating miniature black hole, composed collectively of Soul Fragments, the rotting stench of decay, and pale flames of Necromancy.
Its aura was skyrocketing madly in an utterly unreasonable manner!
The lights in the hangar went out one after another.
It wasn’t a power failure. It was as if the light itself was being swallowed by the shadows surrounding Thanatos.
"This..."
Even Allen felt an intense wave of shock at this moment.
What alarmed him even more was that, through the master-servant soul link, he could clearly sense that the "closed loop of death" formed by the three Laws within Thanatos was generating waves of Law fluctuations, reverse-boosting its comprehension of the Soul Law!
Under the impact of these fluctuations, the Soul Law mastered by Thanatos leaped from the first stage, "Touch," to the second stage, "Application," without any bottlenecks in just a few short minutes!
A Level 4 Golem that had mastered three Laws, with one of them reaching the second stage!
Its comprehensive combat power had climbed to a level that made even Allen’s heart palpitate!
"So that’s how it is... So that’s how it is!"
Allen’s breathing grew slightly rapid, his cognitive sub-threads spinning wildly at an unprecedented speed.
His eyes grew brighter and brighter, as if he had discovered an entirely new continent. "There’s actually a ’chemical reaction’ between Laws!"
In reality, Thanatos’s physical changes were even more intuitive.
Its body completely lost its metallic texture. The surface of its armor resembled a solidified Abyss, greedily devouring all surrounding light. That Soul Concealing Cloak was no longer some material fabric, but an area of genuinely autonomous, writhing shadow.
Clusters of pale Ghost Fire lit up within the Soul-Trapping Lantern, and countless illusory faces could faintly be seen within the flames, silently watching the outside world.
On the blade of the Soul-Harvesting Scythe, three-colored Law Runes overlapped and intertwined, exuding an aura that caused the temperature of the entire hangar to plummet by dozens of degrees.
The creation standing before him was highly dangerous.
His own Soul Law was also at the second stage, but Thanatos had three Laws amplifying each other at the foundational level. In terms of suppression within the Soul Domain alone, this Golem had already surpassed him, its creator.
Allen quietly gazed up at this Death God, falling into a long, dead silence.
"Jarvis."
[I am here.]
"Evaluate Thanatos’s current comprehensive combat power."
[Comprehensive Evaluation: Approaching High-tier Dawn Star. Within the Death Domain covered by its Laws, it can achieve absolute suppression, or even an instant kill, against a Dawn Star Initial Stage target.]
[The current evaluation result exceeds the combat power of your main body.]
Allen’s expression remained unchanged, but his pupils contracted slightly.
The creation was stronger than the creator.
This was the second time he had faced such a situation. However, the last time, the oppressive feeling brought by a Level 4 Golem was merely that of a "weapon exceeding expectations."
This time, the feeling Thanatos gave him was much closer to genuine danger.
With a weapon capable of killing him standing right in front of him, any rational Wizard would naturally feel vigilant.
Allen took a deep breath, forcefully suppressing that trace of instinctive vigilance.
All Golems were simply his backup bodies. The stronger Thanatos was, the stronger the trump cards he possessed.
"A synergy between Laws, huh..." he muttered. "When highly compatible Laws are combined, not only can they produce a 1+1>2 amplification in combat power, but they can even accelerate the mastery of the Laws themselves."
The strategic value of this discovery far exceeded even a High-tier Dawn Star Golem.
What if this foundational principle applied equally to himself?
The Soul Law, the Metal Law.
The two Laws he currently possessed. Was there any possibility of synergy between them?
Allen’s gaze slowly shifted away from Thanatos.
His brain had already begun to operate at high speed. With all his cognitive sub-threads firing on all cylinders, he launched a storm-like cross-simulation centered entirely around two keywords: "Soul" and "Metal."