I don't want to conquer witches anymore.

"But didn't you die forty years ago? Why are you in the floating city?"

"That's a misconception. I'm just missing. Who said I'm dead?"

Norton answered Cecil's question in his very familiar tone, while approaching Cecil like a ghost.

Lightbao is very strong in close combat, but she doesn't dare to hesitate when facing Norton—she didn't want to test the power of a Titan with her own body before.

She threw the roaring silver dragon into the coffin, grabbed Duke's hand, and threw him into the coffin as well. Then she hoisted the coffin onto her back, transformed into an arc of light, and sped away from Norton.

"No, what are you doing?!"

Duke was thrown into the coffin and was knocked senseless. The coffin seemed to have a special design, and even a soul couldn't pass through it. He poked his head out of the coffin and complained, but before Guangbao could answer, he quickly ducked back in, dodging the mechanical dragon that Norton threw at him.

He tossed the massive, heavy mechanical dragon as if it were a light baseball, and with even greater speed.

Who's the monster here? This Norton is way more like a monster than that pitiful magical mechanical dragon!

"Legendary... or at least near-legendary?"

Cecil murmured, a hint of excitement flashing in her eyes. After her battle with Geyue, she too had reached the threshold of legend and become a near-legend.

To go further, she not only needs to find her own path and legendary destiny, but also needs to continue accumulating combat experience with near-legendary and even legendary figures.

For the past month, Ge Yue has been annoyed by Cecil's daily challenges.

“I’m tired of fighting with Kagetsu, let’s try something different… Let’s settle this once and for all, Norton!” Cecil loudly challenged Norton, then whispered to Duke in the coffin, “Give me one of the diamonds in the coffin.”

"Huh? Oh oh."

Duke, who used to treat his companions as tools in witch games, is now finally experiencing what it's like to be used as a tool himself.

But Duke, who hadn't had a glass of water in a long time, really enjoyed and missed this feeling of giving up and lying flat. He immediately grabbed a handful of diamonds and handed them to Cecil.

Cecil didn't care whether she got one diamond or a handful; she swallowed all the diamonds in one gulp, then bit down hard, making a crunching sound, and swallowed them all at once.

Then she raised the angel of judgment and sang loudly:

"Angels with broken wings fall to earth, the corrupted heaven opens the gates to hell, priests who do not believe in the light deceive believers, and the voice of the holy light is no longer heard."

"Backlighting—A Bizarre Human World"

The brilliant holy light dimmed instantly, but although its brilliance diminished, its concentration increased instead of decreasing. The dim holy light, along with Cecil's sword tip, enveloped Norton and the spot where he stood, creating a cage of reverse holy light.

"Duke, change the staff, the shorter one."

Cecil casually tossed the Angel of Judgment back, took a short staff from Duke, muttered a couple of words, and the staff suddenly transformed into a spear, which she hurled at him in one go.

"Switch to the enraged silver dragon."

"Change to the Angel of Judgment."

"Change to a heavy bone crossbow, and the crossbow bolts must be the Demon-Slaying Arrows, that red arrow."

"Try switching to armor-piercing arrows... still no penetration?!"

"Change the magic scroll, I'll cast the forbidden spell."

"Change the magic circle."

With Duke's help, Cecil quickly switched weapons and bombarded Norton relentlessly, leaving him unable to advance an inch.

This is her most proficient and familiar fighting style.

But she also felt that if she became obsessed with attacking from a safe distance, she would have no room for improvement... However, perhaps she could try to continue down this path?

As long as the firepower is strong enough, there is no need to take any risks. Even for legends, the same principle applies, right?

As a legitimate spellcaster (referring to a genius paladin who can wield a two-meter-long greatsword), Cecil believes that the romance of a mage lies in developing firepower suppression to the extreme!

However, regardless of whether this path is correct or not, this is a battle concerning Duke's safety, and winning it steadily is the right thing to do.

With that in mind, she continued her relentless bombardment until Norton finally couldn't take it anymore.

"It's not fun playing, forget it."

He wasn't seriously injured, but this kind of battle where he was constantly being beaten made the Cavendish's Curse roll his eyes. He waved to Duke, turned around and left: "See you again, Duke, Cecil."

Cecil and Duke both breathed a sigh of relief, then exchanged a glance, confirming one thing:

It's best if we never see each other again!

However, there is less than half a day left before they reunite with Norton at the auction.

Chapter 183 I'm wondering if this thing can make...

Magical machinery represents the pinnacle of technology from the ancient magical empire and forms the foundation upon which this floating city was built and took off. However, this system, like another magical system favored by the ancient magical empire—"rune magic"—is not as rigorous as modern researchers imagine.

The old concept of magical machinery could not be mass-produced at all. Each magical machine that could be put into operation was a miracle, one in a hundred. However, the ancient magical empire at that time was rich and powerful and had the confidence to maintain hundreds of such wasteful machines.

In the ancient magical empire, the technicians of magical mechanics were not rigorous scientists, but rather metaphysicians. Their daily routine when creating works was "I think this thing will work," but whether it would actually work or not, no one knew until the work was completed.

It could be said that magical mechanics is even more mysterious than opening blind boxes, consuming an unknown amount of the Empire's funds every year and becoming a major focus of academia in the Empire's later stages. Among them, magical mechanical biology is the most prominent field of study, despite its extremely low cost-effectiveness, it still received strong support from the ancient magical empire.

A popular saying in the empire at the time was, "The next millennium will be the millennium of biology!"

Of course, as everyone knows, the ancient magical empire was destroyed in the next millennium.

Magic has even been considered by later generations as one of the important reasons for the destruction of the ancient magical empire.

But the principle of "you get what you pay for" is a truth as real as gold and silver, even in the world of blind box magic and mechanics.

There's no gacha pool that you can't clear with money; if there is, it's because you don't have enough money.

Although it had no cost-effectiveness whatsoever, the ancient magic empire still managed to create an unreplicable ceiling by recklessly spending money—they created several strategic weapons that could rival multiple legendary figures!

Indeed, even with such achievements, later historians still consider magical mechanics a pure waste of money, because the resources spent on it could have produced far more legendary figures than those few strategic weapons that have been destroyed in history.

From a certain perspective, the floating city, known for its wealth and extravagance, was the only designated heir of the ancient magic empire. However, even the floating city was nothing compared to the empire's wealth back then.

The magical mechanical dragon before him was a magical mechanical creature based on magical mechanics. Duke carefully examined its body structure but couldn't understand how it worked at all.

No engine, no power furnace, no magic crystals, no soul reaction... I can't sense any power supply system, so how does it move? With love?

"Or perhaps, it was completely destroyed by that strong guy?" Duke muttered a few words, then reluctantly patted the mechanical dragon's head, really not wanting such a cool thing to be scrapped like this. "If only its main structure were wood, I could..."

Before Duke could finish speaking, its head, which was almost separate from its body below the neck, moved slightly, then suddenly opened its eyes. Those camera-like eyes, reflecting light, looked at Duke... Cecil beside him.

It seemed unable to see Duke in his soul state, nor could it hear Duke's voice.

Cecil, glared at by the mechanical dragon, shrank back, seemingly unaccustomed to this bizarre creature. But soon, the brave Lightbear stiffened his neck and glared back: "What are you looking at!"

"What are you looking at... cough, I wasn't talking to you, sorry."

Duke coughed and waved his hand repeatedly at Cecil, whom he had successfully provoked. It took a lot of effort to calm Guangbao down, who had already started rolling up his sleeves. Then he looked at the mechanical dragon in front of him again.

Its eyes look lifeless... which makes sense; normal people would say that you can see the changes in its gaze through a camera lens, which would make it seem magical. But for some reason, Duke always felt that it seemed to have its own will.

I don't want to die.

Although it didn't make a sound, Duke felt it must be saying that phrase, and it was repeating it over and over.

From the little black creature back then to the mechanical dragon it is now, Duke seems to possess a special ability to vaguely sense the inner thoughts of these small animals (?). He originally thought the special one was the little black creature, but now it seems that the special one is himself.

"Don't want to die? Then show your worth." Duke shrugged, then turned to Cecil. "Lightbear, translate for me."

"what?"

Cecil seemed not to have realized that the mechanical dragon couldn't see Duke. She tilted her head, not understanding what Duke wanted her to translate, but... the mechanical dragon seemed to have misunderstood her surprised voice.

It suddenly began to struggle violently, but apart from its head, it remained completely still, like a person in a vegetative state with total paralysis. However, this mechanical dragon head was clearly a formidable creature; it actually twisted its head, turned around, and bit down on its own throat!

"Fuck-"

As sparks flew and metal collided, the mechanical dragon managed to bite off its already nearly severed neck.

The mechanical dragon's choice left Duke and Cecil speechless, but it soon became clear that it wasn't acting on a whim, but rather with a purpose.

After biting off its own neck, the remaining mechanical head immediately underwent a dramatic change. It extended several wires, which then wrapped around its wrecked body and began to dismantle and disassemble it rapidly. Soon, it had taken out many parts and installed them on its own body in the blink of an eye.

In less than five seconds, it installed a rocket launcher and then took off right in front of Duke and Cecil, bursting forth with terrifying speed to their astonishment.

Meanwhile, it was even assembling various devices onto its body while flying at low altitude, completely unaffected by the flight, so much so that it flew faster and faster, disappearing from their sight in a flash.

Seeing this, Duke and his companion exclaimed in unison, "Holy shit!"

Seeing this, Cecil quickly grabbed Duke by the collar, dragged the slow-moving soul along, and transformed into a streak of light, chasing after the direction where the mechanical dragon head had disappeared.

……

Not long afterward.

A small black cat appeared before the remains of the mechanical dragon. With its arrival, the light in the alley seemed to dim slightly. It gracefully walked to the missing head, sniffed the air, and then spoke in human language to confirm its presence:

"Found it, meow."

Then, it turned into a shadow and disappeared from the spot.

Chapter 184 Fully Automated Yin-Yang Robot

Even after witnessing firsthand the mechanical giant's hand-made rocket launcher, Duke still couldn't understand how it was done.

To him, it seemed to be simply piling up parts, kneading those metal contraptions together, and in no time at all, it produced a rocket thruster. What followed was even more surreal; after a few more assemblies, it armed itself from the dragon horns on its head to the half-neck connecting its chin.

It used to look like a dragon's head, but now it's turned into a fully armed iron ball.

Duke even suspected that, given enough time, it could grow three heads, six arms, and eight pairs of wings on its head... and then still function smoothly!

"So, the 'Power of My Thoughts' works not only on the magical mechanical engineers of the ancient magical empire, but also on magical mechanical creatures? I thought it would work this way, and then it actually did?! Wait, does this make sense? Is this the Joan of Arc River?!"

The fact that it could still function normally in such an absurd way shocked Duke's worldview... but Cecil was able to accept it.

Compared to Duke, who grew up in a world of materialism and science, the people from the other world of swords and magic are more accepting of such inexplicable things. After all, they are used to seeing those illogical miracles and don't think there's anything wrong with the mechanical giants that have made rapid progress in a short period of time thanks to my thinking power.

Even if this magical mechanical creature is indeed related to the Greenskins, it cannot contend with Cecil in the short term, nor can it escape her pursuit.

"Still running?"

The Judgment Angel, as large as a door panel, descended from the sky and landed right in front of the mechanical dragon, causing it to crash heavily into the side of the knight's greatsword and be forced to stop.

Immediately afterwards, Cecil made a grand entrance, dragging Duke along, and stepped on the mechanical dragon head, saying irritably, "That's enough!"

"Swish swish swish!"

However, the mechanical dragon not only refused to surrender, but also dared to fight back. The modification device it had just installed on its head was activated all at once, and then five missiles were launched in succession, heading towards Cecil, who was very close by.