Fritz Todt indicated that his sole target was Leonardo, with whom he was born and raised in the Machine Empire. Not just the few people in the area he had trapped; his unethical experiments, leaving the Machine Empire and coming to these lands, what he did in the southern part of the Golden City, and even the unique robot he created were all just to make Leonardo accept his superiority.
"I am giving you one minute to think! When the time is up, it will no longer be a game; I will attack with everything I have, Leonardo!"
Fritz Todt did not hesitate to use every opportunity that came his way to humiliate the short man. He was very relaxed while allowing his enemies to gather themselves in the middle of a battle.
"Master, is there nothing we can do? Touching him just once will be enough; can't you provide me with this opportunity?"
As Michelangelo searched for ways to destroy the man playing with them like toys, he had reached a single conclusion. Thanks to his Lineage Power, he was blessed with the power to shatter all mechanical devices, and touching the enemy once would be enough for him to achieve this.
"My dear apprentice; I must say that the thing before us is not as simple as you think. In fact, I have to tell you exactly what we are facing. I don't know what you will do or what you will think of me when my words are finished, but it is your right to learn the truth!"
After addressing the people gathered around him, Leonardo looked at Fritz Todt and his robot out of the corner of his eye, and then continued to speak.
"When I was still a young man, in the years when I had just graduated from engineering school and started working as an assistant, Fritz Todt and I were roommates. It was like this in engineering school, and in the schools before that as well; due to a regulation of the Machine Empire education system, we had to compete with each other since childhood.
The best and the second always had to walk together; they worked the first, who didn't want to fall behind, and the second, who wanted to take his place, to death without making any effort themselves. This regulation did not change regarding the thesis required for us to be promoted from assistant to engineer either.
We were both smart, hardworking, and skilled enough to handle this very easily, but our superiors said that only one of us could become an engineer this year, and the other had to wait for next year to receive the same title.
I was more ambitious back then; I couldn't bear to lose even a single year. I needed to access the privileges and opportunities provided to engineers and present my inventions as soon as possible. I had to do something no one had achieved before; I had to bring forth something befitting the candidate for the greatest genius of the century.
The Orc Empire was not yet a threat to other civilizations, or even to the Machine Empire. The only problem my civilization needed to solve was making better weapons and destroying the shield protecting the Sacred Tree on the Savage Swamp Continent."
Leonardo was speaking so fast that no one had ever seen him like this before, but when the name Savage Swamp came out of his mouth, everyone's facial expression changed. Especially Michelangelo began to take shallow breaths.
"We knew the shield was somehow connected to nature, and its ability to maintain the dense energy it harbored upon itself was intriguing. This was something my civilization had been trying to solve for many years; you know, element cannons are the greatest machines of destruction created by the Machine Empire, but even they have a very obvious weak point.
No matter how much massive damage they deal, their might is only as much as the element reserve that allows them to fire. If their element energy depots hit rock bottom, they would turn into pieces of tin that served no purpose at all.
I wanted to present a thesis on this subject; I would do what no one could, and I would make cannons that filled their energy depots by drawing the elements roaming free in nature. During my visits to the Savage Swamp, I had the opportunity to examine the energy shield protecting the Druids; I spent my nights sleepless working on it, and finally, I drew up my draft.
When I returned to the Machine Empire, I began making the final preparations to finish my thesis. It was still a raw idea, everything was in theory, but I was sure I could succeed if the necessary means were provided.
I could have convinced the council; it was highly probable that I would succeed with my past fame and my idea for an invention capable of ushering in a new era for my civilization, but it didn't happen. My roommate Fritz Todt had built his entire plan on my thesis; he had acted by thinking of even the finest detail to take me down.
I had a few theories regarding the unit to be used while drawing the energy required for continuous firing from nature, but he, my traitorous friend who set out by stealing my idea, came with a prototype.
He said my idea would be realized only by using a skeleton with an organic structure, and even that this method was cheap and sustainable. Unfortunately, he wasn't wrong; while the path I chose required many expensive components, the organic compounds that could be found everywhere were sufficient for his method.
When the resources were almost limitless and free, it was impossible for me to cope with his thesis. Fritz Todt, who had stayed behind me from the moment we met, was defeating me and stepping in front of me for the first time, but deep down he knew that it was all still the product of my genius.
Even so, this was not enough to stop him. After being accepted as the greatest genius of his generation, he continued to work to bring his thesis to life. He didn't just need to stay within the borders of the Machine Empire; the whole world became his testing and production ground.
Over time, I heard he changed his goal; the compatibility issue of organic materials added to energy cannons consisting entirely of inorganic metals led him to walk different paths. Instead of organic element energy storage units, he aimed to create weapons where two different materials supported each other.
This was exactly the point where human or living creature experiments began. They began experimenting to use plants to provide the connection, orcs to keep the vitality always sufficient, and humans and Druids to increase the element energy storage capacity.
Even though the Machine Empire announced to the outside that it banned these types of experiments, it maintained its full support for Fritz Todt and his project through secret methods. The one before you is the most perfect work created by this support; a magnificent product of fully compatible organic-inorganic cooperation.
If you've noticed, no matter how much Alis wounds it, the metal armor that is the outer shell can continue to heal itself. This kind of expenditure can only be achieved by using the life energies of orcs, which possess a high healing capacity. As for restructuring the minerals inside the metal, it is necessary to use magical energy delicately, and for this, the sensitive magical control of the druids is required.
Element Attacks are carried out in the ways used by humans. They create attack power either by transferring energy to the robot's limbs or by concentrating it upon crystals at certain points.
In short, inside this robot, organic material belonging to all races living on the World of the Six Civilizations sustains its life in harmony with each other. Michelangelo, it's not enough for you to just shatter the mechanical component that is the outer shell; the important thing is to destroy the structure on the inside. Otherwise, we will have no other chance but to die at the hands of this robot, which will manage to make itself a new metal shell every time!"
Leonardo had been speaking for more than a minute, but Fritz Todt had not taken action. Of course, he heard what was spoken, and he could have flown over the moon with joy in the face of his genius being recounted by his greatest rival.
"Leonardo, answer me with a single word; are you coming with me?"
For this reason, he did not intervene until Leonardo finished, but when his old friend's words ended, he wanted to know which of the options he presented they preferred. Either the word Yes or No was going to come out of the mouth of the man who had received the title of Master, and judging by his bowing his head and walking toward the robot, Leonardo had already made his choice.