From dawn until deep into the night, tens of thousands of believers knelt in prayer.
During that time, the constant flow of worshippers coming and going had long since drained the original power within their bodies—yet not a single one of them was willing to stop.
Because as long as they continued praying, they could draw in new traces of original power from heaven and earth. Even if it was only a tiny amount, they were still willing to offer it up to help purify the land.
In the end, it was Lana who forcibly halted the believers' spellcasting.
She had no choice but to preserve the strength of the Holy See and prevent its military power from being exhausted beyond recovery.
Without sufficient power, yet occupying vast stretches of fertile land, they would simply become meat on the chopping block—waiting to be carved up by the corporations.
In truth, she needed to advance to the rank of Mechanical Priest as soon as possible. Only then would she be able to cast divine techniques normally, rather than relying entirely on the consumption of stored original energy.
However, the path to priesthood granted by the God of All Machines was infuriatingly vague.
Open a space within the body. Then construct a fusion furnace.
That was all. Just two sentences.
The fusion furnace was the core hub of original power. Once completed, it could resonate with the original energy between heaven and earth, allowing the practitioner to undergo a qualitative transformation—gaining far greater strength and the ability to perform true divine magic.
Yet as for how to open that inner space, or how to condense the fusion furnace itself, the God of All Machines offered not the slightest hint.
They were left entirely to their own devices.
This left Lana deeply perplexed—but more than that, she sensed that this was a deliberate trial imposed upon them.
The God of All Machines was the embodiment of universal law and all knowledge itself.
He was responsible only for igniting wisdom and revealing direction. As for how sentient beings reached their goals—that was something they had to accomplish through their own practice and exploration.
To put it bluntly, the God of All Machines had no patience for idle fools. If you refused to think for yourself and only wanted to be spoon-fed answers, then you might as well go die.
Thus, Lana summoned all priests within the Holy See who had achieved one hundred percent coverage in original power cultivation.
One mind might see only flaws—but many minds together could uncover strengths.
Through collective discussion, research, and the collision of countless ideas, perhaps a miracle could be born—and with it, a true path to advancement.
…
…
While the upper echelons of the Adeptus Mechanicus secluded themselves in retreat, seeking breakthroughs, Night City had already erupted like a pan of oil dropped into open flame.
Every major news channel was broadcasting coverage of the holy war between the Mechanicus and the Badlands.
The corporations were furious at the Mechanicus for seizing control of the Badlands—yet none of them dared act rashly.
The number of high-level combatants within the Mechanicus was simply terrifying. Worse still, they possessed techniques capable of forcibly brainwashing others, converting them into loyal followers of the Machine God.
No corporation dared take the risk. After all, if their personnel were captured and dragged inside, there was no guarantee they would ever come back out. At that point, it wouldn't just be a matter of face—their core technologies might be completely exposed.
The Sandevistan units and other furious combat prototypes fielded by the Adeptus Mechanicus were unmistakably military-grade—and utterly ruthless.
After undercover agents were forcibly converted, even their prosthetic bodies were seized, reverse-engineered, and placed into mass production.
This alone proved that the Mechanicus not only possessed terrifying indoctrination techniques, but also extremely advanced manufacturing capabilities.
One had to understand—Sandevistan technology involved nano-neural systems at the highest level.
Any ripperdoc capable of installing a Sandevistan on a mercenary was considered top-tier, which spoke volumes about the technical complexity involved.
To develop Sandevistan technology, Qiandai Corporation, a subsidiary of Kang Tao, invested over ten billion annually in R&D alone.
And yet even so, the Realspace Distortion Sandevistan produced by Qiandai could only achieve a 20% time-dilation effect—even after obtaining samples of military technology through covert means.
By contrast, the pinnacle of military-grade tech—the Sandevistan Apogee—could reach a staggering 75% time delay, placing it several entire tiers above its civilian counterpart.
But now, even this incredibly difficult-to-manufacture military version had already been mass-produced by the Mechanicus. Any priest with sufficient standing could be equipped with one.
Even more absurdly, they could activate it for several minutes, allow it to cool down, and then activate it again—as though there were no side effects whatsoever.
It was utterly outrageous.
Watching footage of the Mechanicus slaughtering the Night Walkers, even Night City's most elite military forces—including the MaxTac Terrorist Response Unit—fell completely silent.
To put it bluntly, even they could not defeat such an enemy.
That was the strongest combat force MaxTac could field. Even Adam Hammer would have no choice but to submit when facing their main unit—yet MaxTac itself had no answer for the Mechanicus.
Faced with this reality, the corporations had only two options.
Either deploy large-scale weapons, ignite the Fifth Corporate War, and descend into full-scale hot warfare—
Or pull in reinforcements from their headquarters, assembling ever more powerful forces to jointly exterminate the Mechanicus.
The first option was utterly unrealistic.
Night City was packed with corporate powers. Once fighting broke out, no one would be able to hold back, and it could very easily spiral into a fifth world war.
As for calling in reinforcements—there simply wasn't enough profit to justify it.
The Badlands were a broken wasteland, devoid of resources worth fighting over.
Worse still, failure would be humiliating. And if their technology were cracked yet again—if the Mechanicus mastered even more advanced Sandevistan variants—then who could possibly stop their growth?
Thus, even the most powerful military-tech corporations and Kang Tao dared not act alone. With their own strength, they simply could not defeat the Mechanicus.
After all, Night City was only a single city.
The territories controlled by megacorporations numbered in the hundreds of Night Cities. Every region required garrisons and forces to maintain control.
If too many troops were concentrated in Night City, rival corporations would inevitably seize the opportunity elsewhere. The losses would far exceed a single stretch of Badlands.
And even if they somehow won—if the Mechanicus were wiped out—what would they gain?
A worthless patch of wasteland?
To put it bluntly, capitalists were businessmen.
And the greatest weakness of businessmen was indecision when faced with uncertainty. The first thing they considered was always profit.
They would never act without sufficient returns—and fighting the Mechanicus offered none.
The only thing of real value was the technology that ignored prosthetic burden.
But that had already been developed by Wapol Toy Company. Their Dimensional Chips perfectly replicated the Mechanicus' technology.
Unfortunately, the chips were prohibitively expensive. They circulated only among high-ranking executives and could not be deployed on a large scale.
To fight the Mechanicus, one would have to spend astronomical sums to purchase enough dimensional chips.
It was a guaranteed loss.
Only idiots would attempt it.
Besides, the corporations' losses weren't even that severe.
Although the Mechanicus had destroyed their laboratories in the Badlands, the companies had no intention of making it public.
There was no blackmail. No demands.
The Mechanicus had simply destroyed everything in full view of the public.
Clearly, they understood the rules.
There was undoubtedly a corporation backing the Mechanicus from the shadows.
That much was beyond doubt.
...
...
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