Star Forge Titan

"That's amazing." Afrediya exclaimed softly, but there was obviously another reason for her better mood.

"We have to find a chance to go outside the atmosphere. Really, where have we been sent by the ancient tower ruins?" Alvin shook his head. Although it sounded like a complaint, the boy's expression revealed his eagerness to try.

"Do you want to take a closer look at the ruins? It feels a bit dangerous." A dull voice came from below, and the hatch on the back of the mountain spider was pushed open from the inside out. Diana, who popped her head out, had a stern face and a rather cold tone.

"Hmph." Afrediya put away her smile and crossed her arms across her chest while puffing out her cheeks to express her dissatisfaction.

"Don't be a kid, and don't act like a pufferfish." Ivan joked to Frey, then extended his hand to Diana to help her out of the passage.

Although she didn't need such help, the silver-haired girl's cold expression softened slightly. She couldn't help but steal a glance at the fierce demon king beside her, who was trying hard to look fierce. As a result, he happened to glance in her direction. The two of them exchanged glances and snorted coldly at the same time, causing Ivan, who was caught in the middle, to gasp, as if his back teeth had been attacked by tooth decay bacteria twelve times.

Seeing the interaction between the three, Marian couldn't help but cover her mouth and laugh. The adults in the tribe were not as interesting as these outsiders, which made her feel very novel.

"Okay, okay, let's go for a walk over there." Alvin took one of them by the hand. Although he was given a cold stare from both sides, he was not rejected.

"Wait, it's dangerous over there." Marian quickly spoke out to dissuade them.

"The Great Beast God's body is cursed. Anyone who gets too close will immediately begin to vomit and develop cursed purple scars. Even if they leave immediately, they will die within a short time. Only a very few can survive, but their bodies often become extremely weak, making it difficult for them to live a normal life."

"This sounds..." Alvin didn't finish his words. In fact, he felt that the above symptoms were a bit like acute radiation syndrome, which is a sudden abnormality of the body caused by exposure to large doses of radiation in a short period of time.

"It's a bit like the reaction of an ordinary person after suddenly entering an environment with high concentration of magic." Afrediya frowned, and her eyes became deep as she looked at the ruins of the giant beast god's head not far away.

Most creatures in the world of Palladia have adapted to the natural environment with magic, and will feel uncomfortable if they suddenly enter an area with too low magic concentration.

But magic is ultimately a very active energy. If its concentration exceeds a certain threshold, it will become unsuitable for the survival of most organisms.

On the contrary, higher-level transcendent beings and individuals with more powerful life forms such as ancient dragons can easily enter these areas and even benefit from them.

However, due to the active and fluid nature of magic, such high concentrations of magic rarely occur in natural environments. Furthermore, the Great Beast God is a man-made product of the Ancient Empire, and thus has nothing to do with the natural environment.

The only explanation was that the Great Beast God's body was filled with some kind of extremely efficient magical device. Even if only a few fragments remained, they could transform the surrounding area into an extremely high concentration of magic power, making it difficult for ordinary creatures to approach.

Chapter 196: Initial Exploration of the Wreckage

Honestly, the Great Beast God's head looked quite spectacular up close.

Imagine a head as tall as dozens of stories, lying quietly in the ruins, even if it makes no sound. It still makes people instinctively feel a sense of fear, a deep fear of huge objects and human-like bodies.

The skull looked no different from an ordinary human. Only one-third of the face, once complete with facial features, remained. The fracture stretched from the left eye across half the nose to encompass the entire forehead. Behind the torn face lay a complex and mangled array of mechanical structures, including six enormous mechanical eyes, giving it the appearance of an arthropod.

Ivan was a little curious about why this thing was called a Great Beast God when its head clearly resembled a human. But as the mountain spider continued to move along the viaduct, he immediately understood the reason after seeing the side view of the head.

It was unknown whether the other beasts were giant beasts, but the head of the beast before him had five faces, and the incomplete human face I had just seen was only one of them. Of these five faces, the human one was the front, and on either side, stacked up and down, were four smaller faces, each embodying a different animal.

Due to the severe damage and weathering, Alvin could not be sure which four animals they were. However, from the remaining outlines, these faces were obviously not expressionless like human faces, but instead had four different expressions: joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness.

"The aesthetics of the ancient empire are really unique." After a slight complaint, Alvin turned around and looked at the people who were coming down from the mountain spider.

"This is due to the influence of primitive religious beliefs at the time, such as animism, as well as some historical aesthetic reasons." Afrediya excitedly began to talk about a lot of scientific knowledge.

Diana, standing nearby, was stunned. Ivan, with his usual expression of "I really can't handle her," had a familiar look on his face. After all, academic mages tend to have a certain penchant for teaching. Marian, who couldn't hear the Huma language, was both bewildered and adored. Due to their ancient tradition of collecting knowledge, the Sumuabum tribe, from which she came, had always admired those with vast knowledge.

"So that's how it is. That's amazing, Frey." Ivan's words made Afrediya giggle embarrassedly.

After dealing with the demon king, who was easily dealt with, he turned to Marian. Considering external factors, the next area was unsuitable for the girl to continue serving as a guide. According to Afrediya, since Marian had not undergone any ascension rituals, entering the remains of the Great Beast God's head would undoubtedly lead to the development of strong magic field syndrome, known locally as the Great Beast God's curse.

"Marian, you stay here. The strong magical environment ahead is not suitable for ordinary people to enter."

"Ah."

After saying this, Ivan looked at the other two. Although the mountain spiders, or the engineered golems 'Eight-Legged Stone Chewers,' were the most powerful group in the Stoneweb Wasteland, this was after all the remains of the Great Beast God. There was no guarantee that something might suddenly appear, and the environment within the wreckage was bound to be extremely complex.

Taking all the above into consideration, it is best to leave someone with fighting ability outside as a reserve.

but……

Cold sweat inadvertently seeped out from Ivan's back, and two pairs of beautiful eyes were looking over here.

How to do?

Whoever you choose to go in with will make the other party unhappy, and if they are unhappy during the day, then by the night it will probably be you who is unhappy.

There is only one answer, and that is to choose none of them. Women will only disrupt the speed of my archaeological excavation!

"I'll go in and explore the way first. After all, this thing is the pinnacle of ancient empire technology, and there may be danger inside."

Good, such a legitimate reason would definitely dispel the suspicions of both girlfriends. Wait, how come there are two girlfriends? It seems like his instincts are evolving towards Aquaman. Is this the instinct of a Titan? So powerful!

On the surface, Alvin remained serious, making it difficult to tell that the frequency of his inner activities was rapidly increasing at a speed comparable to the plunge of O shares.

"be careful."

Perhaps because she'd just been coaxed, Afrediya, who wasn't in governing mode, waved him off briskly, seemingly not dwelling on the shady dealings she'd just been engaged in. Of course, the possibility of her being confused couldn't be ruled out; it was even quite possible.

After all, as the ruler of the northern kingdom of Elrond, if His Majesty the Demon King is really so naive, then... in a sense, it is quite scary.

"It's better to be cautious." Diana glanced at the smiling Afrediya, took two steps forward and stuffed the magic gun she was carrying into Ivan's hand.

This girl was quite perceptive, but she seemed to have overlooked some objective realities. The power of someone's finger snap was probably ten times greater than that of this little gun.

Well, you can't refuse someone's kindness. Thinking this, Ivan accepted the magic spear without changing his expression, and the smile on Afrediya's face beside him immediately shifted to Diana's.

"Don't worry, I'll just take a look. I'll be back soon if nothing goes wrong." After poking the cheek of His Majesty the Demon King who was starting to COS a puffer fish, Alvin jumped off the overpass that was more than ten meters high with a smile.

The adult world is indeed very complicated.

Marian had a stern face, and while she was watching the show, her inner thoughts were quite rich.

Elsewhere, Ivan, having just landed, ignored the rising dust and immediately wiped the sweat from his sweat, letting out a long breath. Pulling his legs out of the pit, the poor force release clearly revealed the inner turmoil of a certain boxing master. Fortunately, he was always adept at self-regulation.

When they were less than fifty meters away from the head of the Beast God, as if passing through some invisible curtain, the concentration of magic power in the external environment began to rise sharply, which made Ivan's expression become slightly serious.

This kind of high-concentration magic environment would make a transcendent excited, but he didn't feel anything now. After all, hundreds of thousands of units of common magic were stored in the lepton space on a daily basis, not counting the original magic flowing in the body, which also remained highly active.

After finding a crack, Ivan successfully entered the Great Beast God's head. The environment inside was surprisingly not dim, and the walls constantly emitted a faint fluorescent light, illuminating the entire space with a dark blue.

The interior of the Great Beast God's head contained a corridor-like structure, clearly designed to accommodate personnel from its inception. It's also possible that it served as a pre-designed passage for maintenance. However, it's unlikely to be a mere maintenance passage, as Ivan, currently maintaining a normal height of around two meters, could easily fit inside even at that height.

If it was just a maintenance passage, there was no need to build it so spacious.

unless……

Unless the Great Beast God is not just a simple super-giant automatic golem, but a comprehensive strategic transport platform that integrates multiple functions in parallel, a firepower delivery platform, and even a migration platform for planetary immigration.

As for the reason behind the war between the twelve great beast gods, it was definitely not as simple as an AI rebellion...

Sure enough, the real object that appeared before his eyes immediately proved Alvin's guess.

It was a completely skeletonized corpse, a corpse wearing the uniform of an ancient empire.

Chapter 197 An unexpected discovery

Soldiers of the ancient empire...

Although Alvin has not systematically studied the history of the ancient empire, he has mastered the most basic logical reasoning skills.

A large number of clothing items with the same style and color, apart from uniforms, are rarely seen in other clothing categories. Considering the strategic importance of the Great Beast God in the ancient empire, those who can stay there for a long time are either professional technicians or professional soldiers.

The researchers obviously didn't carry weapons, at least not more than one per person. At this moment, most of the corpses lying on the ground were holding cold weapons, with a few clutching objects resembling magic guns.

Alvin speculated that these corpses were most likely soldiers of the ancient empire when they were alive.

He casually pulled out a broken sword and examined it for a moment. He discovered that even after decades, these weapons still showed no trace of rust. Although the magic attached to them had dissipated, some traces of magic still remained. Clearly, the ancient empire had mastered the ability to mass-produce magical items, and also had profound attainments in materials and metallurgy.

Looking at the corpses all over the ground, Alvin suddenly had another question.

The remains of the Great Beast God fell directly back to the ground from outer space. Even if its material was strong enough, how did the bodies of these soldiers remain intact?

A free-falling Great Beast God would have left its corpses scattered across the ground. However, all the bodies were remarkably intact. The few missing limbs had traces of medical supplies like bandages. This not only proved they had experienced brutal combat, but also indicated these missing bodies were not the result of the Great Beast God's crash.

Looking at the ground, Ivan pondered for a brief second. A flood of memories flashed through his mind, causing him to immediately notice a tiny detail.

Before entering the Great Beast God, he had noticed that the remains of the body appeared tilted, that is, the internal passage of the Great Beast God was not completely parallel to the ground, and the former should have a certain angle of inclination.

This means that if someone enters the wreckage, even if the ground is still flat, they will need to tilt their body or change their stance to ensure basic stability, just like standing on a sloping hillside.

The cause of this gravity anomaly lies within the remains of the Great Beast God.

Ivan closed his eyes, and it seemed as if a drop of water fell from the depths of his consciousness, causing ripples in the originally calm lake of his heart.

The ripples in his consciousness quickly transformed into invisible waves that spread across real space. Dust and other tiny fragments floated upward against gravity, and a wave began to spread in all directions. This was the phase telemetry formed by Ivan extending his perception into the spatial dimension. Not even the corpses, walls, or any other object in the ruins could stop its forward momentum.

Relying on the new form obtained from the Pluto blueprint, the descendants of Titan began to master various space-related abilities, phase remote sensing being one of them.

Soon, Ivan discovered something deep within the Great Beast God's wreckage, continuously emitting vibrations. These vibrations formed a kind of field, maintaining the uniform gravity within the area. No matter how the external environment changed, it was difficult to interfere with the internal environment covered by the field.

This is really an unexpected gain...

The ancient empire had already mastered some of the technology to interfere with gravity. If they had gone one step further, would they have already weaponized this technology?

Not only was he not nervous about it, Alvin was even eager to try it.

Referring to previous scientific theories, gravity can also be viewed as a kind of space-time curvature, which affects how objects move in space and the passage of time. In other words, gravity is not only a force, it is also a property of space-time.

This meant that he might be able to draw upon the ancient empire's technology to further develop his spatial abilities, thereby influencing or even manipulating gravity. By then, perhaps the Dimensional Wave Fist would have a new ultimate technique.

With joy in his heart, Ivan began to move towards the source of the fluctuations. With each step he took, a piece of armor forged from light appeared on his body.

The left half featured a demonic crescent horn and a black iron crown, while the right half consisted of a helmet composed of outstretched white feather wings and a crown of star rings. The visor fell with a clanging metallic sound, sending countless sparks flying. Ribs of armor burning with clear magical flames and a broken ring coated in white flames locked together, forming a perfect breastplate that covered every corner from chest to back.

The supreme Death Armor, born from the fusion curse, and the light-forged armor known as the "Light of Oblivion," was quietly completed. The pure white hem, draped around the waist and adorned with broken blades and bone, rustled with each step.

Acting alone also has its advantages that are hard to tell others, such as being able to equip yourself freely without worrying about other people's opinions.

However, the anticipated battles and accidents didn't occur. Fully armed, Ivan made a rather boring journey to the source of the fluctuations. Along the way, he saw numerous signs of damage: numerous defenses, either aged and ineffective or damaged by external forces. Strong fortresses often begin to crumble from within; it seemed the Great Beast God had also experienced serious internal strife.

Finally, only one intact armored barrier remained. Tapping it with his fingers, Ivan determined it was over 500mm thick, constructed entirely of multi-layered composite armor, offering far greater defense than homogeneous steel plates of equivalent thickness.

In addition, the detection device with a green indicator light showed that this "wall" was actually a heavy door with the function of opening and closing. But the incident happened suddenly, where could Ivan find the key or password to access the locked door?

The answer is no.

Even a heavy door made of multiple layers of composite armor is no stronger than a piece of paper in the hands of an awakened Titan.

With a snap of his fingers, accompanied by a crackling explosion, the layers of defensive magic disappeared without a trace, turning into points of light. Then, the multi-layered composite armor bloomed like a flower in spring, creating a brand new entrance for the unexpected visitor, allowing them to pass through smoothly without bending.

Retracting his right hand, Alvin walked into the cabin where the gravity control device was located.

The first thing that caught his attention was a purple crystal hovering in mid-air. The corresponding fixing devices at both ends released an invisible force field through the air, and black arcs of electricity burst out around the crystal without warning.

The invisible force field also restrains these arcs, preventing them from hitting the disc-shaped metal fixtures at both ends and causing damage to the entire device.

This was clearly the core of the Great Beast God's internal gravity control, and Ivan was very interested in it.

However, there was another thing that concerned him.

After entering this crucial compartment, Ivan found it completely empty, devoid of any other equipment besides the gravity control core. Even on a vehicle as large as an aircraft carrier, comparable to a small town, internal space is extremely valuable; it's unlikely to be left empty for no reason.

So, this is not normal.

Could it have been lost during the fall? Apart from the path he had just opened, the intact walls around him quickly denied this possibility.

Or does the gravity control device need to be kept away from other devices?

Looking down at his feet, Ivan noticed traces of items being dragged across the ground. In some places, he could even see disconnected cables and slots used to secure items. These signs indicated that this place wasn't always this empty.

In addition, there was a faint herbal scent in the air, which was somewhat similar to the scent on Marianne.

According to the information mentioned by the girl during her casual chat, in this land that has become a wasteland, the crazy iron beasts and other wild beasts mostly have a keen sense of smell. Whether they want to avoid danger or hunt animals, the Amo people who go out have to pay attention to the direction of the wind and frequently use various methods to remove the smell on their bodies. Herbal deodorants have become the choice of most people.

As Alvin walked towards the purple crystal suspended in the air, he thought and made a guess.

Someone came...

Although their purpose was still unclear, they took away a lot of machinery and parts.

As to why they didn't take away the complete gravity control device.

Don’t want to? Or can’t?

Chapter 198 Heavy Star Crystal

Alvin was not too surprised that someone had entered the ruins of the Great Beast God.

Although a strong magic field can induce mutation or even death in ordinary creatures, extraordinary beings and higher-level life forms with stronger adaptability will not be affected by it.

Theoretically, if an elite team composed entirely of superior transcendents were assembled, they could enter and exit the Great Beast God ruins without hindrance. Furthermore, if the Great Beast God hadn't been destroyed to the point of fragmentation, its internal environment wouldn't have become so harsh.

For example, the head ruins Ivan had just entered had suffered considerable damage to its internal magic engine. While the main body was still functioning, the isolation mechanism had undoubtedly failed, transforming the interior of the wreckage and the surrounding area into a powerful magic field.

What really concerns people is why these people want to enter the ruins of the Great Beast God?