Star Forge Titan

Hmm? Could it be that...

Alvin vaguely guessed what was disturbing the spatial dimension.

Then, an extremely excited voice suddenly rang out from the ruins filled with building debris.

"What the hell are you thinking about!?!" Along with the voice, a virtual projection appeared in the air.

"How can you use hyperspace navigation on a planet's surface? Aren't you afraid of causing a massive disaster?! If the planet's gravity changes, the entire world could be destroyed!!!"

"Oh." Ivan's reaction was very cold.

Despite the half-armored mask, the face in the virtual projection still looked familiar, clearly a younger version of Uncle Beta. Considering what the chief had previously told him about his past, the identity of the visitor was clear.

"Are you Alpha?" His full armor prevented others from seeing Ivan's expression. But even though it was a question, his tone was full of certainty.

"Young man, I'm not talking to you." Alpha shouted loudly, then moved his face close to the virtual screen with an excited expression. Just from his eyes, one could tell that he was extremely shocked.

"New magical mobile weapons and hyperspace navigation. Beta, Beta, you have quietly produced remarkable results over the years."

"Ah? Me?" Uncle Beta pointed at himself in surprise.

"Humph, this is a wasteland filled with only stupidity and ignorance. Who else besides you and me can accomplish such a great feat?" Alpha crossed his arms over his chest, his tone trying to appear indifferent but revealing an unconcealable joy.

"To some extent, I must admit that this is a real surprise. If I incorporate your trans-dimensional navigation method into my plan, the revival of the empire will be just around the corner!"

“…” Beta didn’t know what to say and could only remain silent.

"I'm really looked down upon." Alvin shook his shoulders. Instead of being angry, he felt amused.

He thought he would see a madman, a lunatic, but he didn't expect that the real mastermind behind the scenes was more like a clown, an arrogant clown.

"I'm surprised you're not dead." Beta took a deep breath and sighed.

"Of course I won't die before I revive the empire!" Alpha, who had a handsome face but frantic eyes, spoke word by word, staring at the face that looked exactly like his own but much older.

"Give up. The Empire should accept the bitter consequences of its past. What we, the remnants of the old era, should truly do is to do our best to repair this broken world and give the new generation more possibilities for the future."

"What nonsense! As long as I am alive, as long as there are citizens of the Empire, the Empire will not die! Those stupid and ignorant wastelanders are not worthy of occupying the Empire's land and the Empire's heritage!" Alpha shouted at the top of his lungs:

"Alive? Alpha, stop kidding yourself. Memories are instilled by machines, and bodies are made by machines. You, no, have we ever really lived?" Beta breathed rapidly, and his tone became aggressive.

Wow, Alvin sighed to himself.

He was actually not surprised by the truth of the matter. Uncle Beta's previous narration of the past had vaguely revealed some clues, and his words at this moment only confirmed his previous guess.

"I don't know what you've been through, nor how you crawled back from hell. But over the past decade or so, after starting a family with Kalimue, I truly understand what it means to be alive." Beta's words were quite sincere, but Alpha obviously didn't hear a single word he said.

"Has your brain become abnormal after living with lower animals for a long time? I am really disappointed." The virtual projection image gradually blurred, and a sharp whistling sound of an object tearing through the atmosphere when it moved quickly was heard in the distance.

"Even after dying once, you're not going to change at all? Alpha, I'm the one who's really disappointed." Beta shook his head.

"Mr. Ivan, I'm familiar with this madman. Language is meaningless now. Please help me."

"My pleasure." Alvin took two steps forward.

"Dead people should be left in their graves. Especially the crazy ones."

As he spoke, three small black dots within his field of vision grew larger and larger. They weren't shells fired from heavy magical weapons, but three strange-looking... people?

Chapter 223: Deja Vu

Since the exploratory attack ended too quickly, the next enemy to appear must be an elite one.

However, Ivan gradually frowned. With Titan's enhanced senses, he could discern even a drop of dew on a leaf from a great distance. Therefore, this small spatial barrier couldn't block Ivan's vision.

The real reason why he frowned was the second wave of enemies' appearance which was really not like human.

Compared to the mass-produced scumbags whose left eyes and arms had been replaced with magical mechas, the second wave of enemies had almost entirely replaced flesh with steel. More precisely, only their heads and necks retained their human form.

In addition, a large number of magical machines are very abruptly spliced ​​with the biological tissues, and various weapons are distributed indiscriminately like pathological proliferation.

It looked like a steel balloon filled with weapons, and the remaining head was randomly embedded in an inconspicuous position on the surface of the sphere, not even in the center.

The sight was truly disgusting, yet at the same time it gave the young Titan descendant a sense of déjà vu.

"Hybrid?" Ivan asked in a low voice, with a hint of surprise in his tone.

"Well, Alpha's masterpiece." Beta gripped his weapon tightly with a serious look in his eyes.

"Directly connecting living beings to magical artifacts is said to be a technology modeled after the creations of ancient civilizations. Theoretically, once the modification surgery is successful, the recipient can skillfully operate various magical artifacts with virtually zero delay, just as if they were using their own arms. However, the vast majority of those who undergo the modification gradually fall into madness and out of control for various reasons, ultimately becoming completely mindless magical puppets."

"But compared to those finished products that still retain a basic human form, that guy's technology is even more radical than it was decades ago. Just talking about the degree of transformation, after undergoing this scale of human body transformation, I'm afraid the recipient's own will will soon collapse, and they may even be reduced to a living puppet that can only be controlled by external commands, etc..." Beta showed an expression of disbelief.

"Is this what Alpha is for?"

"Madmen and lunatics always want their subordinates to be slaves who only obey orders." Alvin shook his head. After experiencing so many things, he was not surprised at all. The group of witch kings in the silent desert were much more crazy than Alpha.

"How's your combat effectiveness?" Ivan said casually without caring much about it, but in fact he recalled something in his heart, something familiar.

"It's hard to say. It depends on the effectiveness of the magical mechanical components that were integrated into it. If it were completely rebuilt with combat machinery, it would likely have a destructive power exceeding that of a magical chariot of the same tonnage."

Beta raised his weapon and fired a shot from a distance. There was no roar of gunpowder explosion in the barrel, only the "hissing" sound of air being penetrated by a high-speed object, followed by a high-frequency whistling sound caused by the conduction of strong electric current.

It turned out to be a weapon made using the principle of electromagnetic catapult. Alvin looked at the strange gun wrapped in bandages, and the magic technology from the ancient empire's heyday made him more and more interested.

But the attack from this ancient weapon proved ineffective. The metallic arrows, before they could even reach the enemy, were intercepted by some invisible barrier. A particle shield emitting a pale green light emerged, spherically covering most of the body. Only the weapon port was excluded from the defense, meaning the enemy could attack unhindered while protected by the shield.

In an instant, the distant shadows of three small black figures suddenly split into dozens of points of light. These flaming objects rapidly grew larger, closing the distance as they unleashed a dense, long-range barrage of fire, whistling in arcs and forming a net that tightly blocked all escape routes for Ivan and Beta.

But how to say it?

The hits were accurate and had a wide spread, but it didn't mean anything.

Ivan raised his right hand and clenched his fingers tightly. Titan-level grip force was transmitted through the medium of hyperspace to the surface of each missile.

The streamlined metal shell immediately caved inward and deformed, causing all the magical machinery deeper inside to be damaged, and it quickly turned into an exploding fireball.

Force string control can use space as a medium, and Pluto's proxy's ability to control space has brought this skill to a higher level, so we have the spectacular scene of fireworks exploding in the sky before our eyes.

Beta's eyes widened. If the previous mountain-destroying attack represented an unimaginable limit to power output, then the scene before him was the product of near-perfect control of that power. However, the cyborgs sent by Alpha didn't stop. Due to their excessive transformation, they had long lost the ability to feel fear and instead uttered a unified, frantic cry.

"The passerby gave me strength, steel is immortal, and machinery roars!"

The chaotic machinery quickly deformed during flight, with thrusters shifted to the back and rapid attitude adjustment devices similar to vector nozzles emerging from its limbs. The metal "balloon" that was originally filled with weapons turned into three steel giants over dozens of meters tall, and the remaining biological parts were also wrapped in layers of armor and "swallowed into the stomach", leaving no weaknesses that the opponent could exploit.

Clearly, realizing that ranged weapons were ineffective, the newly emerged enemy immediately opted for close combat, their appearance clearly preparing for close quarters combat. The mana furnace within the cyborg roared, its output steadily increasing, generating a force powerful enough to deform steel—a true display of industrial violence.

Then they were blasted down.

The light-forged armor on Ivan's body reflected light slightly, and he just snapped his fingers very casually.

With a crisp click, like a pause switch, the cyborg, transformed into a giant of steel, froze to a halt. Immediately afterwards, the heavy armor and various weaponry were dismantled by invisible forces. It wasn't shattered or torn apart, but disassembled into its various components in a nearly non-destructive manner.

The metal parts circled around Ivan like an asteroid belt orbiting a star. Even the remaining head of the patient, along with the life support device, floated in it. The three of them had only confused expressions on their faces, as if they were in a dream.

Beta, standing behind Ivan, was also dazed. Despite two successive rounds of enemy attack, his body remained unscathed. However, the mental impact left this "old popsicle" who had slept from ancient times feeling like he had been punched. His head was buzzing, and he struggled to comprehend what was happening before him.

"It doesn't even reach the level of a chassis. It's not even as good as a semi-finished damaged knight." After looking at all the parts one by one, Alvin shook his head regretfully. It was obvious that he had gained nothing.

He had seen similar creations in the ruins of the Giant Kingdom. In comparison, Alpha's hybrids were far from perfect. At best, they merely forcibly connected a human body to a magical machine, allowing the machine to be controlled by the human brain, but without a true fusion of steel and flesh.

While he was thinking, a strong light suddenly appeared on the distant horizon. The light was so strong, as if dozens of suns exploded in an instant. The eyes of those who dared to look directly at it would melt in a few seconds, and then their bodies would turn into a black silhouette imprinted on the ground, provided that the ground itself could be preserved at that time.

The land was cut and ravaged until it melted into glowing hot lava, as if the planet itself was torn open a wound, from which a continuous trickle of dark red blood flowed.

Such a strong light is undoubtedly Alpha's real killer move, and the attack was launched by a corpse half lying deep in the industrial area, the corpse of a metal giant.

"The power of the Great Beast God, see it? This is the true power of the Great Beast God!" Contradictory words mixed with ecstasy and crying echoed in all directions.

It turned out that both the dialogue and the ambushers were a cover-up, essentially a pawn sacrificed to slow down Ivan and his men's advance. This allowed Alpha to initiate their plan early and reactivate the Great Beast God, which had been severely damaged after the Sunshattering War.

But Alpha's virtual projection with half of his face covered in iron appeared in the air again, with tears in his eyes but a smile on his face, he looked like a madman.

"The cutting-edge technology of the Great Passerby, a super-ancient weapon called the 'Incineration Cannon'!"

But just as Alpha was ecstatic, Ivan's voice suddenly came from the ruins destroyed by high temperature and shock waves, his tone full of sudden realization.

"So it's a burning cannon, no wonder it looks so familiar."

"What!?!"

Chapter 224: Restarting the Giant God

The Incineration Cannon is a super-ancient weapon that is directly connected to a star-shaped ultra-high-power magic furnace, thereby simulating the internal reactions of a star to attack.

The operating principle and damage-causing mechanism of this thing are very simple and crude. It mainly relies on instantaneous extreme high temperature and impact force to cause damage, so simply increasing the power of the magic furnace can immediately increase its power.

According to Ivan's memory, Lind of the Central Empire equipped the weapon on the Giant God Soldier as a long-range weapon, and the first combat proxy he obtained - the Golden Knight also carried sixteen incineration cannons as secondary guns.

In short, before obtaining the Pluto blueprint and creating a new form, Alvin often used the incineration cannon to clear out the miscellaneous soldiers, so he was quite familiar with it.

But the experience of being hit by a burning artillery shell was unprecedented and quite novel.

After the flash of strong light, thick smoke billowed up with a roar, and the earth seemed to be split in half, spewing out the deep, glowing, dark red "strawberry sandwich". Only a small area in the middle protruded upwards very conspicuously, like a silent and unknown traffic island on a busy road.

As for the traffic policeman standing on the traffic island directing traffic, that is the role played by Alvin at the moment.

There was no need to dodge. Even a newly born Titan could not escape unscathed after taking an attack that was powerful enough to tear the earth apart head-on in human form.

After all, it was just a job ability acquired at a low level. Even after the outermost corona shield was transformed into a dark eclipse form, it was still penetrated. After absorbing the despair armor, the light-cast armor with an extremely exaggerated shape also shattered into pieces, revealing the tall body underneath.

The lingering heat in the air blew against him, and Ivan felt a tingling sensation he hadn't felt in a long time. It was like the sudden burst of static electricity when putting on and taking off a sweater in the dead of winter, catching you off guard but not causing much actual harm.

Even, there are benefits?

The half-broken Lightforge Armor, with hexagonal light pieces even hovering in mid-air, soon recovered at a speed visible to the naked eye, as if time was flowing backwards. During the recasting process, the Lightforge Armor completely absorbed the power of the Deep Despair Armor, causing its originally exaggerated appearance to change accordingly.

The new armor looks extremely simple, almost entirely composed of streamlined pure white armor plates, retaining only some of the artistic style of ancient armor on the helmet and breastplate. It unexpectedly has a special beauty that combines classic and modern elements.

Seeing this, Ivan finally showed an expression of surprise on his face, not because of the previous round of attacks, but because of the new shape of the light-forged armor.

The Lightforge Armor's current appearance, aside from a few subtle artistic touches, was largely similar to the specialized powered armor produced by the Space Army's Orbital Commando unit during military training in a previous life. It was said to be capable of single-unit atmospheric penetration in emergencies, provided it was equipped with specialized auxiliary equipment like a heat-insulating parachute. Its design was, of course, futuristic, embodying the simple, elegant aesthetic of the golden age of science fiction.

Ivan himself didn't hate this change, but Alpha, who also saw this scene, immediately fell silent.

In the virtual projection screen, the madman wearing a half-face iron mask was silent for a long time, then looked thoughtful, and then raised his hands and inserted his ten fingers into his hair and rubbed it randomly, his eyes became confused and blank.

This doesn't make sense! Even if the Great Beast God wasn't fully activated and could only fire the incineration cannon at low power, this is still a super-ancient destructive weapon crafted from the legacy of the Passerby, a super weapon capable of destroying an entire city. How could someone be hit head-on and remain unscathed?

He found it difficult to understand, and even suspected that he was under a hidden illusion. In other words, he had not actually given the order to attack, and everything he saw and heard was all an illusion?

"So, this is the whole plan? Delay time, activate the Great Beast God, and then destroy the enemy in one fell swoop. It's simple, but highly feasible, and has a certain fault tolerance rate. It's not like the madness you showed before." Alvin nodded to show his approval of the plan, and then showed an interested expression.

"Come, continue to let me see the true power of the Great Beast God." The young Titan waved towards the image in the sky.

"You'll see." Alpha said coldly and closed the virtual projection.

In the distance, the giant beast god half lying on the ground was surrounded by a magical glow.

This creation, a culmination of technology from the peak period of the ancient empire, is covered with signs of damage. Unlike the other giant beast gods that are in pieces, this huge steel creation in front of us has already taken a preliminary completed form, but its entire body components are from different bodies, especially the golden head with eight curved branches extending backwards. Even the paint job does not match the main color of the body, which is pitch black.

From a distance, it looks like one person's head is attached to another person's body, but this crazy stitched product can still come back to life.

The outer shell was incomplete, and through the damaged area one could see the right arm of the internal silver support frame rising first. The movement seemed slow, but in fact it was able to stir up the thin clouds in the sky, making the originally dim wasteland gradually brighter.

boom!

The Great Beast God pressed the ground with his right arm, and a force rose from the ground, driving his larger body towards the sky.

Alvin heard the sound of the wind around him getting louder and louder, just like hundreds of bombs exploding one after another. When the giant beast god pulled out its two legs of varying thicknesses from several kilometers deep underground, the Tiehu Industrial City, which had been well preserved, was finally completely destroyed.

The earth rumbled and trembled, steel clanged, and after a hundred years, the man-made giant god once again stood on the planet!

Born from destruction, the redesigned Magical Heavy Mecha God, codenamed Conqueror, emerged! According to ancient imperial documents, this is the Great Beast God's true name!

If the previously enhanced cyborg looked like a steel giant after its transformation, the beast god that stood up again was like a towering mountain with a human standing upright. The shadow it cast alone was enough to cover two-thirds of the city, and the low dust cloud after the Battle of Broken Sun was only at the level of its chest.

"It's so big." Alvin clapped his hands in admiration. Beta, who was standing behind him, didn't know what expression to make.

"Uncle Beta, I'll send you away first, and then I'll try the strength of this thing." After saying that, regardless of whether the other party agreed or not, the young descendant of the Titan directly pushed out a palm, and the spherical space bubble immediately wrapped around Uncle Beta, and then turned backwards at a very fast speed.

Looking back at the heavy mecha god whose top was so high that it was difficult to see, Alvin did not immediately transform into the Titan form. Instead, he stretched out his legs and ran forward, actually using this most primitive method of movement to approach the enemy.

But Ivan's speed was too fast, just like a missile galloping across the earth. The Heavy Mecha God launched an attack without hesitation, and the overwhelming attack poured down from the clouds, but all the missiles and even the light beams were quickly thrown behind by the flying figure.

This thing is not fixed yet...

The violent body movements did not affect Alvin's thinking, and he came to the above judgment almost instantly.

While my understanding of the ancient empire's technology is limited, I imagine there are similarities in the development patterns of civilizations and weapons. Any long-range attack strives for precision and power. The various attacks currently unleashed by the Heavy Mecha God are certainly powerful, but their corresponding lock-on capabilities are clearly insufficient.

This is by no means normal behavior for cutting-edge military weapons.

Thus, Alvin completed the boarding of the enemy machine.