With the assistance of the witch demon Konggs, the corpse demon Bert had undergone a drastic change in appearance.
Duncan equipped him with various chanical prosthetics stripped from chanical cultivators and the defender army, then draped him in the rust-colored battle robe of the defender army. As long as he kept his hood up and wore a gas mask, he looked exactly like a combat chanical servant controlled by a chanical cultivator.
By the ti they left the collapsing underground ruins, the entire team had undergone a trendous transformation.
Duncan donned the gray magic robe of the chanical priest from the Insight Sect, while Tassia, after a disguise, appeared as an apprentice priest. Now, the two of them were followed by a semi-chanical servant. Although not flawless, their three-person team could deceive most people.
A formal chanical cultivator, an apprentice following his ntor, a semi-chanical servant, and a witch demon disguised as a servo skull.
Such a team, unless encountering an Archbishop-level entity, could hold its own even if their identities were exposed.
F46 Zone, Platform Layer.
Returning to the platform layer of the gathering point via the underground passage, Duncan imdiately noticed sothing amiss.
Because in the industrial area of the gathering point, a large number of units with red marks appeared, and simultaneously in the residential area, comrcial zone, and divine hall area, many units with ’Neutral’ marks appeared in disguise.
"Sothing must have happened."
Duncan signaled Tassia beside him, who imdiately loaded her weapon, while the group bypassed the abnormal crowd ahead. Tassia headed to the residential area, while Duncan entered the divine hall area of the chanical Divine Sect alone, not daring to bring others along.
Outside the square in the divine hall area, Duncan saw the hurried Ian and grabbed the church deacon, saying solemnly, "What happened?"
Ian also appeared anxious, but relaxed slightly upon seeing Duncan, cautiously saying, "The governor is dead!"
"Chaos has erupted in many lower zones."
"Kosov, the foreman in the industrial sector, is leading other workers on strike, the city hall can’t suppress it, and is requesting the church to send the defender army to quell it."
"Lord Duncan?"
"Where have you been during this ti? Master Qiao was looking for you several tis."
What?
The governor is dead?
Duncan’s expression showed slight surprise; although this world had a theocratic political system, many Nest Cities still appointed administrative governors for secular matters, wielding power similar to colonial governors during the colonial era, ruling over billions nominally, akin to an independent king.
However, in reality, the church’s Great Sage wielded greater power, as governors changed frequently, but Great Sages rarely changed even in hundreds of years.
After saying a few words, Ian hurriedly left. If the industrial sector’s strike wasn’t quickly addressed, it would soon trigger a wider unrest.
At this mont, Duncan didn’t hesitate, heading directly to the logistics warehouse in the divine hall area. After using the cultivator’s emblem to open the door, he imdiately picked up a light exoskeleton armor, connecting its interface to his chanical nerve bundle, before grabbing a heat gun and rummaging through the place, taking out all the high-tier weapons stored there.
"Priest Duncan?"
"What are you doing? This is against protocol! You must apply for permission!"
A fifty-sothing female deacon rushed over, attempting to stop Duncan, but in the next second, an electromagnetic rifle was pointed at her forehead.
This firearm used steel needle ammunition, one magazine capable of firing two hundred rounds.
"Move aside!"
Duncan ordered expressionlessly, saying solemnly, "There are cultists in the industrial area."
Upon hearing this, the female deacon hesitated slightly but still refused to budge, saying, "To request the use of chanical marvels, the bishop’s order is necessary."
Thunk!
Duncan couldn’t be bothered with her, directly knocking her out with the butt of the gun.
After picking up thirty magazines with a total of six thousand rounds, Duncan reached for a tunable sixteen-tis scope on a nearby shelf, adjusting it to a four-tis lens using a gear, before hoisting a very heavy, silver-gray sniper rifle.
——Adjudicator T130 (High-tier Marvel)(chanical Firearms)(Explosive Bomb)(Armor-Piercing)(Precision)(Steel Enchantnt).
Compared to other firearms, its design was sowhat retro, resembling WWII-era sniper rifles, even featuring a wooden stock. Yet, upon touching it, Duncan felt an ancient chanical soul far surpassing other firearms in spirituality.
This thing had seen several owners, with its chanical soul attempting to resist before being suppressed by Duncan’s will.
"Behave! Listen!"
Sparks flew from the drill on the external chanical arm behind Duncan, and with his gentle reassurance, the chanical soul inside obediently complied.
"Your Majesty."
At this mont, the voice of the witch demon Konggs erged, and slowly said, "I sensed the aura of a chaotic ceremony."
"I’m afraid a riot is imminent here."
Duncan confird that sothing was about to happen through the red marks, while the witch demon Konggs, proficient in ritual magic, referred to a chaotic ceremony, a large-scale magic affecting people’s minds, which if ordinary people couldn’t resist with willpower, would turn them into aggressive mobsters.
In the Mythical Era, this was a dark ceremony often used by demons, and even in the Mysterious Era, so madn liked using it in crowded places to achieve unspeakable aims.
However, the ceremony now was initiated by hidden cultists.
Upon returning, Duncan saw at least hundreds of marked units of cultists, with so already evidently turned into red enemy marks.
"Here!"
Duncan tossed the electromagnetic rifles to Tassia and Bert, giving each ten magazines, totaling two thousand rounds.
"Follow closely, do not get separated!"
The mont he finished speaking.
Boom!
A muffled sound echoed.
Buzz.
Soon after, a massive tremor emanated from the direction of the industrial zone, followed by one lighting unit after another going out. As darkness descended upon the entire lower district, the uprising stirred by the cultists had already begun.
"They’ve cut off the power supply!"
Tassia’s expression shifted, grimly saying, "If the life-support systems cease operation, the oxygen here will last no more than forty-eight hours."
The entire Underground Nest City is very densely populated; without life-support systems, with ventilation ducts closed, how long the oxygen lasts depends entirely on luck. They are essentially entombed deep underground, relying entirely on the survival equipnt.
Click.
Duncan chambered a bullet, his expression indifferent as he said, "That’s enough."
"We need to find a way to fight our way to the upper district."
He finally understood.
Getting to the upper levels of the Nest City through normal ans was far simpler than directly fighting their way up.
He, the Emperor of the Empire, had never felt so stifled before. Having been here for two to three months, he hadn’t seen the sun even once.
Sounds of explosions ca from the direction of the industrial zone.
After the energy system of the entire F46 District was cut off, the Divine Hall’s ergency backup power was activated, but only the nearby areas had power. Accompanied by the piercing sound of alarms, squads of Defender Army began to assemble, fully ard and expressionless, heading in hundred-man squads towards the industrial zone.
In the Dinsion Space, on the projection page.
Lines of prompts appeared.
——"Chaos ritual detected."
——"Unknown summoning ritual detected."
A sharp scream suddenly rang out.
Outside the industrial district, on the right side of the wall, the faint shadow of a Banshee erged in the darkness. She was about over five ters tall, entirely translucent, and bullets on the battlefield passed through her body, causing no harm whatsoever.
The Banshee’s figure spun around, rising into the air, and in the next second, her soul-piercing scream spread in all directions.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Heads exploded one by one. Centered within a five-hundred-ter diater, all the Defender Army that rushed in to suppress the riot bled from their seven orifices, their heads exploding. Even the chanical Cultivators mixed among them also died suddenly in a miserable manner.
The Witch Demon Konggs’ voice sounded, solemnly, "Your Majesty! It’s a Death Scream!"
"Soone has summoned Void Creatures."
At this mont, there was no need for the Witch Demon’s reminder, because under Duncan’s godlike perspective, life marks in the industrial zone began to die in swathes, followed by the ergence of a unit marked by a blood-colored Skull Mark.
——Balancer of All Things - Panosis (Void Demon God) (Ancient Hatred) (Blood-colored Skull Mark)!
In the godlike perspective.
In the central location of the industrial zone, thousands upon thousands of workers had already died suddenly, yet one person stood on a high platform of steel gears, marked as Foreman Kosov. He activated the factory’s processing device, feeding corpses directly onto the assembly line, where they were crushed into a mix of blood and bones under chanical pressure.
The collected blood seeped into the machinery, polluting the Steel Cast Prayer, then washed off the Holy Oil sared on the machine gears in streams, cleansing the machine oil thoroughly.
Innurable tree branches and roots wrapped around the machinery, visible by the naked eye, causing the chanical steel to crumble as if it were decaying wood. A complete life cycle was rapidly accelerating, black seeds absorbing the nutrients of flesh and blood, rooting and sprouting, converging to form a giant entity.
In an instant, it was like experiencing the vicissitudes of millions of years; the iron machines of human civilization were entirely buried under the roots and leaves of countless plants.
Foreman Kosov walked on the ropeway ford by thorny vines, plucking a bright red fruit and chewing it in his mouth, then laughing hysterically as he jumped into the blood pool of the life cycle.
Rumble!
The entire industrial zone was collapsing rapidly; countless tree roots penetrated the reinforced concrete high walls, and the majestic steel machinery decayed and rotted like bubbles, ultimately unveiling a dark green creature intertwined with countless vines and roots in the real world.
"This is a Void Evil God? Then what am I?"
In Duncan’s bewildered gaze, so of the cultists began to transform, including Foreman Kosov, who had jumped into the blood pool.
——Natural Avenger (Balanced Unity) (Four-star Silver Gray).
——Disaster ssenger (Balanced Unity) (Four-star Silver Gray).
——Tree Sea Evil Spirit (Balanced Unity) (Three-star Silver Gray).
——Spore Association (Balanced Unity) (Three-star Silver Gray).
The surging flesh and plants reshaped the bodies of those cultists, turning them into grotesque, twisted monsters resembling primordial Tree Demons. Amid the chaos, the foreman marked as ’Kosov’ rushed out, bullets striking its tree-bark-like skin, sending splinters of wood flying everywhere.
Whoosh!
Its ten fingers transford into vines, shooting out like arrows, piercing through the bodies of six Defender Army soldiers. Blood was instantly absorbed by the vines, seemingly satiating them. The silhouette of Kosov regenerated and healed at an astonishing speed, while those Defender Army soldiers, aside from their chanical components, were drained to mummified corpses in re seconds.
Their bodies acted like an incubation nest, imdiately beginning to swell after turning into mummies, then exploding. But there was not much force; instead, it dispersed countless poisonous spores.
At this ti, the suppressed voice of Corpse Demon Bert sounded, muttering, "They are from the Avenger Sect."
"The Balancer of All Things was once among the protectors of the Nature Gods, shielding the weak Divine Spirits in the Mysterious Era..."
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