What the hell is this?!
Alexander stared blankly at the magnificent metal colossus.
It was a Doraemon colossus forged from thick metal.
Doraemon's round, big face looked down from above at the scarlet land, his rounded hand extended at a forty-five-degree angle towards the sky, as if issuing commands to the entire planet Mars.
The hazy orange-yellow afternoon light of Mars cast a blue hue on the metal colossus' blue paint, instantly making everything around it turn blue, including Alexander's face.
Looking at the colossus, his mind went blank, a jumble of thoughts flashing through his mind.
Many years later, when Alexander stood in the 22nd century, he would surely recall that distant afternoon when Oudia took him to Mars to see the Doraemon colossus.
Alexander's gaze turned to Oudia.
Oudia's massive body trembled for a moment, and he hastily said, "My Lord, this was absolutely not prepared by me."
Then Alexander knew who had prepared it.
The great Martian mechanical crawler, draped in scarlet cloth, emerged from beneath the colossus, using an Omnissiah Axe as a scepter, and bowed reverently to Alexander.
"Cawl."
Alexander took a deep breath and said,
"You know I'm not a god, right?"
"Of course, my Holy Lord." Belisarius Cawl humbly lowered his head and said, "As you said, you are clearly not a god."
"Then tell me what the hell this is!"
Alexander pointed at the metal colossus and said.
This colossus was too visually striking, and its art style didn't fit with this galaxy, making Alexander's nerves somewhat disoriented.
He was afraid that this thing would suddenly move at the next moment and perform a Doraemon standing on the ground for him—"This thing wouldn't really be able to move, would it?" Alexander gasped.
"Move?" Belisarius Cawl was visibly stunned for a moment, then his remaining half-face tightened sharply, his eyes widening: "It can still move!"
Hearing Belisarius Cawl's words, Alexander immediately gasped and cast a wary look at the Archmagos of the Adeptus Mechanicus.
Cawl noticed Alexander's gaze and quickly and vehemently waved his hand: "My Lord, you misunderstand, this is not idol worship of you."
"You personally said you are not a god, how could I defile your glory with false idol worship? Please see."
With that, Cawl handed a data-slate to Alexander, showing the production report of the factory near the colossus.
"In the location closest to the colossus, our production efficiency has increased by two hundred and twenty-two percent, and even in areas twenty-two kilometers away, production efficiency has increased by twenty-two percent."
"My Lord, this is not superstition and idol worship; this is to improve the production efficiency of the entire Mars, purely out of rationality, not fanaticism."
"Really?" Alexander looked at the data-slate in Cawl's hand and fell into hesitation.
His will instantly extended in all directions, into every machine.
Indeed, the machines around this colossus operated much more efficiently than others. After all, Alexander did occupy some positions in the Malicious Art domain in the Warp. Worshipping him, theoretically, was like worshipping the Omnissiah; he could mobilize some power from the Malicious Art domain, which could improve the efficiency of machine operation.
According to Cawl's report, worshipping Alexander was even more effective than worshipping the Omnissiah.
This was quite normal, as Alexander couldn't really say what the Omnissiah was, but as a competitor in the Malicious Art domain, he could guarantee that the oilers hadn't achieved anything by worshipping the Omnissiah, at most some things pointed to the Emperor.
This made Alexander a little hesitant; he didn't want to be worshipped as a god, but if it was truly, as Cawl said, purely to improve production efficiency, it didn't seem entirely out of the question.
Alexander flipped through Cawl's report. He had conducted many pilot projects and experiments in this vicinity, standardizing the prayer rituals to Alexander and Saint Doraemon.
"Praise the great Saint Doraemon, you are not a god, but your holiness makes all machines roar, and power surge."
"Saint Doraemon is not a god, but Saint Doraemon is supreme, original power existing in all things."
"You are the source of power, you are the first power, you are the first cause of all machine operations, but you are not a god."
Every prayer word designed by Cawl emphasized that Alexander was not a god, that Alexander was original power, but original power was different from the God of All Machines and the Omnissiah. original power was not a god; original power was the first impetus for the birth of the world, and the first force at the beginning of the universe, the first cause of all things, but definitely not a god.
"The circumference of Mars' equator is precisely about twenty-two thousand meters. I plan for the first phase of the project to build a thousand holy statues around the equator, to greatly increase the production efficiency of the entire Mars, and then to build more holy statues along the latitude and longitude lines, until the entire Mars is enveloped in your blessing."
"Don't worry, all these plans have been judged by the Truth and Falsehood Divination Machine to be beneficial and harmless."
Cawl had previously requested thirty Truth and Falsehood Divination Machines from Alexander through Guilliman, and he didn't expect him to use them for this purpose.
Alexander frowned. After all, prevention was better than suppression, and what Cawl did was indeed flawless. He even only conducted a series of precise experiments and small-scale pilot projects, not acting independently without Alexander's consent.
"You just enlightened me; we can completely design your holy statues into some kind of mobile device similar to Knights or Titans."
"Then deploy them on the battlefield, which can not only boost the efficiency of our machines, but theoretically also suppress the operation of those traitor's weapons, power armor, and various war machines."
Belisarius Cawl said in an excited voice.
"..You." Alexander couldn't help but rub his temples. It was indeed theoretically feasible, by borrowing the power of the Malicious Art domain through Alexander.
But the art style was indeed somewhat abstract. Finally, Alexander sighed: "For issues related to faith, if you are unsure, you must have them judged by the Truth and Falsehood Divination Machine."
Cawl bowed humbly, looking as if he was listening to instruction.
Alexander scratched his hair, then turned to look at Oudia, who had already been moved onto the transport vehicle beside him.
"Take me to see that book you mentioned."
Oudia had mentioned that once he was on Mars, he would inexplicably start dreaming, dreaming of the so-called Dragon of Mars, even though he had long lost the function of sleep.
The most peculiar thing was that this dreaming situation did not involve the Warp at all. Even when Oudia tried using untouchables, blackstone, and Necron null-field matrices, he couldn't affect the appearance of these dreams.
And the reason this situation occurred was because Oudia had obtained a strange tome, which was said to come from the guardian of the Dragon of Mars, recording the truth of the Adeptus Mechanicus.
But after Oudia obtained it, he found that the book contained only some gibberish. Those with weak wills would immediately foam at the mouth and be on the verge of death, and even those with strong wills would become dizzy. Oudia, with the assistance of numerous cogitator arrays, could not read it, only experiencing dreams.
Alexander had come to Mars this time to see that book as well.
Oudia's body hummed, showing a momentary hesitation, seeming a little reluctant, as if there was something he cared about here.
But it was Alexander's command after all, so Oudia still directed the transport vehicle to start moving, carrying Alexander to the nearby Olympus hive city.
When Belisarius Cawl saw Oudia leaving with Alexander, a smile immediately appeared on his remaining half-face.
His massive body suddenly spread out, quickly approaching the entrance of the space elevator, covering a footprint on the ground with his body.
That was Alexander's first step on Mars, and in Cawl's eyes, it was an unparalleled holy relic.
Numerous machines were released from his body, quickly cutting out the entire ground and surrounding it with a Static Field.
"This is a small step for Saint Doraemon, but a giant leap for the Adeptus Mechanicus."
Cawl quoted the words of Saint Armstrong, who was recognized as a saint by the Adeptus Mechanicus.
Oudia's massive body was hoisted and squeezed into this large room located on the top floor of the Olympus hive city.
This room could be called large, but not luxurious. The interior decoration was very monotonous, piled high with messy mechanical blueprints and documents.
Clearly, even the Fabricator-General could not escape the High Lords' curse of overtime.
A servitor, carrying a huge safe, came before Oudia and Alexander.
Oudia deactivated the force field covering the safe, opened it, and exposed the ancient book inside to Alexander's eyes.
"Knight? Knight! Knight??"
"Motherfucker! Physics doesn't exist anymore!"
"Is this still a backward planet in the Middle Ages?"
A cacophony of chaotic, frenzied curses continuously surged from the seemingly ordinary, thick-skinned ancient book.
The cover of the book was tattered, but the cracks on it cleverly formed some ineffable geometric structure.
The book appeared finite, but it gave Alexander the feeling that it was also infinite in space.
It was just a profound, mysterious feeling, full of wisdom from the purely material realm.
Alexander pondered for a moment, then grabbed the book and stuffed it into his four-dimensional pocket.
[Item Name: Book of Great Lies]
[Origin: Solar System - Mars - Dragon's Prison]
[Description: An ancient book born in the Dragon's Prison, said to record the truth of the birth of the Martian Adeptus Mechanicus. Like everything in the Dragon's Prison, this book is also a part of the Dragon of Mars, the Dragon of Mars itself, containing the malice and wisdom of the Dragon of Mars, connecting to the Dragon of Mars' eternal dream.]
[Production Time: 303. M1]
[Status: Does the Dragon of Mars dream of Psyker medieval knights?]