Clockwork Bride

Page 50

He looked up at the clouds that had been obscuring the night sky but were gradually dissipating, and frowned.

"At least for now, the Mitra Group certainly wouldn't dare send ordinary troops down to their deaths. We have no choice but to escape now."

The mist stirred up by the Dragon God not only blocked the vision of the gods, but also hindered the Mithra Group's communion magic; otherwise, there would have been no need for it to summon these clouds.

Alastor, now a half-crippled white dragon, Angela was wounded in battle, almost all the students were unconscious, and Hayden was exhausted. The impromptu use of extremely dangerous high-level ritual magic on the battlefield had left his heart pounding, his lungs burning, his brain throbbing, and his magic power nearly depleted.

Fortunately, the Mitra Group certainly wouldn't dare to make any rash moves right now. Otherwise, they could be worn down and killed by ordinary troops alone.

"Alastor, you must have a plan to escape, right?"

Hayden, at this point, couldn't help but glance at the group of students who had fainted around him. Having so many burdens to carry around is the biggest problem in the world.

Bai Long nodded in agreement.

It limped toward Hayden, and when it reached him, it opened its dragon mouth. Hayden initially thought it wanted to say something, but then the dragon gurgled a few times and spat out a moon-white, egg-sized bead, which rolled into Hayden's hand.

Hayden froze for two seconds, dumbfounded.

"Why are you giving me this thing?!"

I'm going to die.

Alastor, the white dragon, answered very calmly through sympathetic magic.

As for Yolanda and the others… to be honest, I didn't expect them to actually survive this long. My biggest hope lies with you and Todd and his comrades; they should all have escaped the encirclement by now. I taught them the most important parts of my hacking skills. They will continue to fight; they are the spark of the struggle.

But you are not merely the spark of struggle; you deserve much more. This is the final reward I can offer you.

Looking at the Dragon Ball rolling into his hand, Hayden was speechless for a moment, and didn't know what to do.

Fortunately, he reacted quickly and said, "Angela, treatment—"

However, Angela shook her head.

“Master, Mr. Alastor is dead. When you performed that rebirth ritual with him as the core, his ego was already mixed up with the essence of this spiritual vein.”

Hayden was speechless.

In fact, this wasn't something he was completely unaware of. The high-level ritual Hayden had just hastily performed involved casting his soul into the earth, merging with the dragon veins, and being reborn—an ancient magic. Just from the literal meaning, any normal person should understand how risky such an act would be.

That's why he said before that if Alastor were to be the core of the ritual, he would really lose his life.

The battle had barely ended when Alastor White Dragon's body began to visibly deteriorate. Its once material body gradually faded, thinned, and became more like a shadow than a solid object.

His sense of self is fading.

And isn't that... actually death?

Don't be too sad for me. I've already mentally prepared myself for the possibility of dying tonight, and I've made all the necessary plans in advance.

But this guy who was about to die was instead comforting Hayden.

[You've heard Professor Albion say those things all the time, haven't you? All those who remember me are the marks I leave on my life. You are, and so are Todd and the others. All my comrades are a continuation of my life.]

Hayden had indeed heard of this. He had also heard that true death is when the last person in the world who remembers you forgets you; only then is a person truly dead.

Considering how "Blessed Pure Land" operates, this statement surprisingly makes sense—the company will only delete your consciousness from the server when no one in the world loves you and is willing to renew your subscription. Therefore, Hayden can understand this explanation.

...But understanding does not mean being able to accept it.

"I hate your idea of ​​layering death on top of living life to continue."

So Hayden, with a grim face, raised his bronze scepter.

"If you're going to live, then live on your own."

【what? 】

If a dragon could actually show a surprised expression on its face, this is probably the time.

At the same time, Hayden took a deep breath, gathering the last of his magical energy. The arcane spell he was about to cast didn't need to be very precise, but it was a ninth-order arcane spell that even he wasn't sure he could cast consistently. So Hayden had to rack his brains to gather all the magical energy he had left, and even that might not be enough.

So Angela came over and took his left hand in her only remaining right hand. A bright, warm feeling immediately flooded Hayden's body, filling the void in his magic.

Thinking about it carefully, it's really terrifying—where did Angela get so much magic from? But now is not the time to think about that.

Hayden pointed his scepter at the head of the Alastor White Dragon, infusing it with its warm energy, and then shouted, "[Soul Binding Technique]!"

Alastor's face, at least for this moment, was clearly covered in grass.

The white dragon vanished in the next instant. Only the dragon ball in Hayden's hand trembled slightly.

Hayden sealed his remaining soul and self within this Dragon Ball. The Soul Binding Technique will freeze Alastor's soul and self-awareness at this moment in time. Hayden cannot currently resolve the issue of Alastor's self-awareness rapidly dissipating—but he might be able to in the future. Besides, he himself is someone who studies medical magic.

This exhausted all of Hayden's magic, and he almost collapsed. Fortunately, Angela was there to support him, preventing him from falling to the ground.

"You cannot fall yet, Master."

Her voice unusually stern.

"Although the battle is over, you haven't finished all the things you need to do."

As Angela said, things are not completely over yet.

Rather, many troubles are only just beginning.

055: A Spark

The following morning, the Mithra Group publicly announced that they had defeated the cyber terrorist organization "Bosa" and killed its leader and most of its members.

A few remnants of the [Bo Xun] organization are still at large, but there's no need to worry. When the tree falls, the monkeys scatter; a bunch of spineless thieves can't cause much trouble, and the company will capture them all as soon as possible.

People don't need to worry; life in New Jersey won't change much.

...At least that's what the Mitra Group announced to the public.

Adam Smith Apsara waved to turn off the news projector in the room and fell into thought.

This incident actually had little to do with Hayden, his good friend, at least not directly. This wasn't Adam's office at the company, but rather the study in his new home—over three months ago, he summoned a high-ranking demon to orchestrate the demolition of his villa in the upscale neighborhood and the murder of his servants. So now he had moved into a safer, and more upscale, new home.

Since ancient times, there have been stories of gods intermarrying with mortals, and even incorporating mortals into the divine race. While the overall proportion of such occurrences between the upper and lower classes in modern times remains low, the sheer number is actually greater than in ancient times. Therefore, Adam's new neighbors naturally don't see anything wrong with it.

So the devil infiltrated the palace of the gods.

"how?"

A gust of sea-blue wind suddenly blew into Adam's study. There stood Lady Alicia Apsara, dressed in a blue dress, her expression languid. Her posture was like a lotus emerging from water, graceful and elegant, her movements poised and graceful. Even just walking within her own mansion, she exuded unparalleled nobility and elegance.

Unfortunately, she wasn't the real Alicia.

"I was just thinking about this [Mara] that's been making such a fuss lately,"

Adam casually pointed to the projector screen, which was already turned off.

"Could their members or leaders also be of your kind?"

The being cloaked in Alicia's body raised an eyebrow and immediately shook its head: "Don't talk nonsense. Mara, the King of the Paranirmitavasavartin, was killed by the new gods of Mithra in the great war hundreds of years ago. He's definitely dead. In this era, apart from a few traitors who surrendered to capitalists and were absorbed into capitalist society, very few of my compatriots can live in cities. Don't you know that?"

As she said this, she shook her beautiful body, which had once belonged to Alicia, a god: "If it weren't for you providing Mitra's latest laboratory technology, I wouldn't have been able to take over this body without being discovered by the company. You did a great job."

You did a great job.

Look at the arrogant way she said that; she seemed more superior than anyone else.

Adam wasn't angry; he just silently endured it for a while before continuing, "So these student hackers used the name 'Bo Xun' simply... for the sake of looking cool?"

"It could also be to borrow some remnants of power from the name of Mara, as well as fate—what modern magic calls the sympathetic connection."

The female devil said casually,

"Mars is one of the Old Kings who fought Mithra to the very end in the Western Lands. His name is his power. These mortals may want to use his name and fortune to rebel against Mithra... What a pity, they could have been recruited as my followers... But then again, how do they know the names of the Old Gods?"

Adam remained silent. After all, he didn't understand much about ancient magic. In fact, he had already begun to think about other things.

Why did [Bājā] know the name "Bājā"? With the death of their leader, this question will likely remain a mystery to the Mithra Group forever. However, the company doesn't really care about such trivial matters. This incident is considered closed for the Mithra Group.

why?

Why doesn't the Mitra Group intend to pursue this matter any further?

There are two important reasons.

The first reason is that they have already received enough benefits.

Five Vajra Guardians perished in battle, a significant loss. However, at the same time, the previously abandoned industrial zone's spiritual vein was revived – an unexpected and welcome piece of good news. Although the vein's core essence seemed to have been removed, the vein's energy itself was fully restored.

This is worth much more than five Vajrapani deities!

The essence of the spiritual vein is gone, but the company can easily build a new one and install it; it's not a big problem. What truly matters is the purified natural energy of the spiritual vein. Now, the Mitra Group is even considering how to redevelop this once-abandoned industrial area, exploiting and squeezing the spiritual vein and its workers once more.

The life or death of Mara is a trivial matter; how could it be as important as such interests?

The second reason for not pursuing the matter further was that the Mitra Group noticed something strange during the incident.

With its boundless divine power and wisdom, capitalism has now conquered death. Specifically within the Mithra Group, each of its Protoss members is connected to the StarNet in real time. When someone is about to be killed, their consciousness is uploaded to the server almost in real-time.

This technology isn't entirely reliable. For example, if you're instantly killed in a surprise attack, there's no chance to upload; if your network connection is hacked beforehand and cut off, it's useless, and so on. While the Mitra Group has conquered death, it hasn't completely conquered it.

In fact, of the five Vajrapani gods who died in this battle, only two transmitted their consciousness before their deaths. Upon receiving their report, the Deputy Marketing Director in charge of this incident, Dhritarashtra, looked quite displeased.

This time, the natural spirits of the abandoned industrial zone defeated most of the Vajrapani gods. The victory or defeat was purely based on the suppression of power. There's nothing to say and nothing to be afraid of. In any case, the Mithra Group is still stronger, even the strongest, overall.

But how exactly did the spiritual vein remnants, which were almost completely drained, regain their power?

Of course, it was that strange robot in the white bio-combat suit who was behind it.

The Mitra Corporation wasn't stupid either. Many executives had doubts when they first saw the footage, wondering if the two people were just wearing bio-combat suits from the Smoke Mirror Company. However, after witnessing what the white bio-mechanical robot did, most executives no longer doubted their origins.

What is the most cutting-edge technology field of Smoke Mirror Life Construction Company?

As the name suggests, what they excel at, and even dominate the market for, is the magic that manipulates, controls, and even destroys life force.

Now, the Mitra Corporation sees someone wearing a bio-combat suit from Smoke Mirror Company instantly healing a nearly depleted and dying spiritual vein, and even capable of taking on several Vajra Warriors single-handedly... If you say this isn't Smoke Mirror Company involved, who the hell would believe that?

Do lower-class people have the skill to fake it?

Let alone the lower classes, even other large companies may not have this technology!

Therefore, most of the executives and managers of the Mitra Group are now convinced that this whole affair was orchestrated by Smoke Mirror Company to help [Bo Xun] oppose our company! What's even more infuriating is that Smoke Mirror Company refuses to admit it!

It's not surprising that they don't admit it. Smoke Mirror Company has always been like this: stirring up trouble everywhere, meddling in everything, reaping profits everywhere, and carrying out their conspiracies and schemes everywhere.

Since Smoke Mirror Company is the real mastermind behind this incident, Mitra Group's handling of [Bo Xun] is no longer as important. The crucial thing is to quickly convene a meeting to discuss how to deal with Smoke Mirror Company in the future—whether to retaliate or negotiate, and what the costs and potential benefits of each option would be.

[Bo Xun]? They were definitely just disposable pawns of the Smoke Mirror Company. Now that they're finished anyway, there's no need to waste time worrying about them.

This was also the version of events that Adam learned.

...However, he always felt that something was strange about it.

When he saw the footage, he thought the person jumping around in the black bio-combat suit looked a bit like Hayden.

So Adam contacted his subordinate, the dark witch Abigail, and ordered her to investigate what Hayden was doing.

However, Abigail replied, "Mr. Hayden? He spent the whole night with me at the bar last night."

what?

Adam could hardly believe his ears: "Hayden? He spent the whole night at your bar yesterday? Hasn't your bar been mostly closed lately? What could he possibly be doing there all night?"

That's a really good question.

"What can we do... Didn't Mr. Hayden make a really cute doll?" So Abigail winked in the video call. "Of course, we're playing together as a trio."

what! ?

It's been three months! When did Hayden become so good at having fun?!

That being said, Adam had indeed seen it in college; some bookworms who were initially dull-witted transformed into womanizers after experiencing the first taste of sex, becoming incredibly promiscuous. He couldn't believe his own Black Witch had been bribed by Hayden, nor could he fathom what reason Abigail could have for lying for Hayden. Naturally, he remained skeptical, muttering to himself after the call: "Could it be that the old witch wanted to play with young meat and willingly ate Hayden?"

Fortunately, Adam had other things to do and a lot of work to do, so he couldn't keep thinking about Hayden's affairs. Otherwise, this farce might have really gotten a bit out of hand.

"The company is still holding meetings to discuss how to handle this incident, but there is a high probability that the deputy marketing director, Chi Guotian, will continue to be in charge of negotiating with Yan Yanjing."

Adam said to the guy who was nominally his wife,

"However, Dhritarashtra said that he would take charge of this negotiation."

The demon, cloaked in Alicia's body, raised an eyebrow: "This is a good thing. The gods of capital are at odds with each other, and their struggles will wear down their strength. You should take this opportunity to sow discord among them. When the new gods weaken, we can reclaim our thrones as kings of the world."

That's right, logically speaking, that's true.

But that's why Adam found it strange—why would Dhritarashtra entrust such an important task to him, someone who had just married into the family and could even be said to have just become a "god"?

Just because Adam was his son-in-law? That's obviously impossible.