Wasteland Echoer.

Soon, time around them began to distort and change rapidly, quickly switching from a completely accurate image of abandoned ruins to a chaotic, unknowable illusory state of overlapping various lights.

This confused state lasted for about two or three minutes before it stabilized slightly, transforming into a strange state that was a mixture of certainty and the unknown.

"'The Creator's Mechanical Heart'... Hahaha, hahaha, hahaha..." The Lord of the Night, forcibly supporting his weakened body, stared at Wright's body, which hadn't changed much from before but seemed even more real, and spoke in a voice more distorted than that face:
"'The Creator's Mechanical Heart,' those 'existences' that were 'erased,' are quietly taking root and sprouting within your body, growing into a physical entity once more. That indescribable chaotic sphere... from the moment it entered your body, it completely replaced your heart. Whatever your original heart was, it will become that kind of 'existence.'"

"A hot, real, beating... heart of flesh and blood?" Wright slowly extended his right hand, stained with blood and filth, and trembled as he slowly touched his chest, which still burned with pain.

Boom!
dong dong!

Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
The familiar, dull throbbing came from there, part of it reaching my ears as sound, while the other part transformed into an absolutely real tactile sensation and an indelible "presence".

"Heart, this is... the 'heart' of humanity!" The Lord of the Night's entire body convulsed involuntarily, yet this did not affect his equally distorted words:

"'The Creator's Mechanical Heart' has existed in different forms during the Dragon Age, the Human Age, and the Steam Age. It may have become the beastly heart of the dragon race, or the greedy, charred heart, or the twisted, filthy heart that has mutated into a monster, or the seemingly indestructible alloy heart that is like mechanical steel. But it has never...never existed as a true human heart of flesh and blood."

"You mean, I have gained the Creator's...approval?" Wright turned to the Lord of the Night with an excited tone, but the real, throbbing "flesh and blood mechanical heart" gave him a calm and composed feeling, like a god looking down on the lowly ants of the masses.

Perhaps it is the "divinity" within him resonating with this "relic of the Creator," or perhaps it is the red demonic energy within him guiding him slowly and irrevocably toward the divine.

“This is indeed the Creator’s approval, and even more so the approval of the ‘ancient gods’ within you. These red magical energies, red magical energies, red magical energies, seem not to be resisting the ‘power of the Creator,’ but rather welcoming them and beginning to slowly merge with them.” As the Lord of the Night spoke, he forcefully slapped his face, half of which was covered in dark tattoos and steel, and the other half still showing flesh and blood, while using his few purplish-black fingernails to dig hard into the two cheeks of “different materials.”

Sizzle! Sizzle! Sizzle!

The sound of flesh scraping against steel echoed continuously from his increasingly distorted face, reverberating throughout the empty, predominantly stone hall. Blood-red and black marks began to appear, accompanied by streams of reddish-brown viscous liquid that emitted a putrid, foul, dusty, and pungent odor, sliding down his cheeks, sticking to his robes like tar, and falling onto the dry stone floor, where it quickly dried, rotted, and turned into a pool of black ash.

“I can’t stay awake. I feel like everything is a nightmare set up for me by the Creator. This dream is so vicious that I seem to never be able to wake up. Creator, why? Didn’t He abandon humanity? Didn’t He consider the Lost Ones and the ‘Heartless Ones’ to be inferior failures of evolution, lowly creatures like ants and straws? Why would His power… so readily approve of a human?” The Lord of the Night said, stopping what he was doing and staring into Wright’s equally dark pupils with his pitch-black eyes.

He forgot his divine status, and he forgot the condescending mockery and arrogance he should maintain when facing humans. He even forgot to put down his claws, which were covered in blood and grime.

“Perhaps the Creator has never abandoned humanity. He has always given humanity opportunities, just like this wasteland world.” Wright’s voice became exceptionally low and calm. His eyes remained fixed straight ahead, revealing not a trace of the emotions that belong to a living being.

"Including the *Holy Words*, the *Dragon Words*, the *Dark Book*, and even *The Creator's Principle*, a legend has been mentioned simultaneously. As stated in the second sentence of the first volume of *The Principle*: The Creator was born in a chaotic dream of a higher dimension. At the moment of His birth, there was nothingness, only a cacophony of noise and low sobs, which together constructed His lower-dimensional nightmare." Wright slowly stepped forward, one hand surging with an exceptionally abundant red magical energy, the other resting on the beating "Creator's Mechanical Heart," and slowly spoke:

"On the day of chaos, He created the finest particles, which formed atoms and molecules, as well as the earliest forms of matter at high temperatures. On the day of cooling, He created time and the universe, causing this void to rapidly transform into an endless expanse of darkness."

"On the day of the explosion, He created the clouds, and then countless stars. As time began to run, the explosions never ceased, and a brand new universe appeared in this dimension. Stars, the sun, and the earth were born in countless collisions and explosions, and were connected under the harmony of the Creator's destiny. The moon revolves around the earth, and the earth revolves around the sun, and finally the seed called life was born."

"What...what are you trying to say?" The Lord of the Night's voice was tinged with confusion and anger. "What I'm trying to say is that humanity has existed since the dawn of life. However, dragons, as the forerunners of the entire world, are required to 'examine' the rules for the Creator, which is the origin of 'reason.' Dragons are destined to be destroyed by humanity, just as the gods are destined to perish in this era." Wright's voice began to quicken slightly, but it still retained the calm and composure he had shown earlier.

"As the 'Odyssey's hordes said: its strength, its apparent greatness, its fall, its exile—all are the cause and effect of creation, unchangeable. After the dragons were exiled, humanity ruled the entire planet. This is an unalterable fact, both now and in the future, because… the Creator created humanity in His own form in a higher dimension."

"Human beings are the creator, and the creator is human beings. The creator observes the entire planet through the eyes of human beings, and then understands the entire universe He created through the hearts and minds of human beings, ultimately helping Him to awaken from the eternal nightmare."

“But when the Creator awakens from the nightmare, the entire world and universe will collapse and disappear, and the Creator will also vanish from this dimension. If His ultimate goal is to awaken, then He should abandon humanity instead of continuing to leave behind these ‘inferior’ beings,” the Lord of the Night retorted loudly.

He was occupying the body of Hoshino Shota, a boy whose soul had already died, so his rebuttal sounded unusually immature, ridiculous, and even cute.

"It seems that you, as the second-highest deity after the Creator, have never understood the Creator and the essence of His existence. The Wasteland Era was merely a punishment bestowed by the Creator upon humanity's greed and folly, not the destruction of planets and worlds. The seed called anger has long since withered in endless death and desert, while the flower called hope has already bloomed amidst the warm waters of the underground river." Wright strode forward.

He walked past the stone statues of gods, past the technological remnants of the "Crimson Zone" and the Crusad Empire, past the bloodied face and twisted body of the Lord of the Night, and past the faint golden rays of the setting sun cast down from the high point.

Finally, Wright stopped ten meters away from the Lord of the Night, with his back to him, and continued:

"The Creator has never abandoned humanity, nor has He given up on humanity, nor has He imposed any destructive divine punishment upon humanity. All He has done is to help humanity in a cruel way. Dak told me that he strongly agrees with a statement Yaroslav told him last year: the whole world is already slowly starting to turn again. After extreme despair comes the hope for rebirth. And I am the 'executor' chosen by the Creator to revive the world and human civilization."

"After all, I am an Order Keeper who carries an important mission!"

“No, that ‘Creator’s Mechanical Heart’ should have become a machine. It should have turned you into a puppet to be used by our gods. It is our gods who should set the world running again. Humanity must return to the infinite worship of the gods.” The Lord of the Night murmured, his tone growing increasingly frantic.

He whirled around and charged toward Wright, only to trip over an exposed steel bar from the old Empire era. The dark magical energy surging within him seemed to be encased in layers of steel, suppressed by the red magical energy and the creative power carried by the "Creator's Mechanical Heart," unable to be released in the slightest.

He could only let out a low growl like a wild beast, struggling desperately forward on the ground, yet his trembling eyes remained fixed on Wright Socrates.

Wright merely sighed softly, shifting his gaze from the Lord of the Night's pitiful and pathetic body, and said in a mockingly compassionate tone:
"We will meet again, perhaps after I return to Crusad from Khitanris. This is the fate ordained by the Creator, just as you can never attack me now. Humans are not as inferior and pathetic as you imagine. We have been struggling between destruction and death to have survived until now."

Wright turned around, paused for a few seconds, and continued speaking to the Lord of the Night:
"That guy 'Blood Wolf' told me that the deepest part of the original 'Red Layer' of the 'Functional Red Domain' had an exit that led directly to the ground, an escape route from the Crimson Domain. In the Federation's legacy documents, it was called the 'KD-NK-03 Path' and it should... should be less than a hundred meters ahead. It's a pair of elevators, disposable, that can directly lead to the old industrial area of ​​Nebusk City."

"However, if both elevators have been activated, this place will collapse, burying all information and relics related to the Creator. If... you still want to keep your promise to Hoshino Shota, to exist in this world using his body, and to watch the world and the revival of human civilization in the darkness, then... leave this place."

After saying that, Wright ran off without looking back.

A few minutes later, accompanied by a dull mechanical roar, the brilliant golden light of the setting sun, rising from underground, was completely replaced by the gentle moonlight of the night. (End of Chapter)