Academic gathering with a lich-Chapter 576 - 529 PLAN B

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I’ve been outsmarted.

Trapped in a mechanical prison formed from his own flesh, [Lyle] let out a sigh, filled with regret.

Just a second ago, he had been ready to pop open a bottle of champagne for himself, but the next moment, Dorothy looked at him as if he were trash. Seated on her mechanical throne, she never made a single move and even started working on her virtual operation panel. Meanwhile, he and his five transformed avatars, struck by the Genesis Beam, had become mere toys.

The five avatars turned mechanical on the spot and now stood like oversized, terrifying figures, idle and unmoving. As for himself, it was only in the last moment that a part of his body turned mechanical, allowing him to manipulate the metal to form a reflective surface on his skin, reflecting some of the beam’s energy. But it didn’t make much of a difference, his legs and left arm were already petrified, and in his mind, a virus created from scrambled code was howling, making it impossible to even think about casting spells, let alone summoning tendrils which now appeared pixelated.

Lyle could now barely even think.

Dorothy had made some adjustments to her plan. She’d abandoned her own evolution and was still in the mosaic transition phase, utilizing the spare computing power to create these mechanical harbingers of doom and even stealthily sped up the charging of the Genesis Star. Just as Dorothy could not predict the extent of [Lyle]’s Evil God powers, Lyle, who had obtained the Creator’s code, had also misread Dorothy’s plans. The mechanical harbingers were merely bait to lure Lyle, nothing but empty shells with appearances deceiving, although the harbingers created with all of Dorothy’s efforts would not have lasted long against [Lyle], either.

These mechanical harbingers were not an exercise in futility without meaning; they were scouts, a tool for Dorothy to gather data on the destructive capabilities of the real harbingers in preparation for attaining [God Mode]. Upon receiving the intelligence on the harbingers of [God Mode], Dorothy immediately adjusted the data for the Genesis Ray to make it a weapon specifically against Lyle.

According to the original plan, the Genesis Beam that would take three minutes to charge should have mechanized a region including the City of Machinery, causing a certain extent of breakdown in the physical laws of the planet. The Force of Mechanism would have been released, and those petrified Mana Blocks would have begun eroding the nodes of the world’s magic network.

Dorothy, fully aware of the power of the Evil God, abandoned her grand design and redirected the first blast of Genesis Light entirely against the newly completed Evil God. The World Creation Ray, which once twisted the will of a god until nothing was left, was also specifically adjusted to target [Lyle]. Lyle hadn’t yet renamed himself to Dorothy No. 2, he really should be grateful for his junior high physics teacher’s education.

There were also problems of his own making.

Should it be said that villains die because they talk too much?

[God Mode] allowed Lyle to truly achieve a trinity, but also combined three types of flaws into one.

Lyle’s caution, the harbinger’s arrogance, and Nia’s playfulness combined to make him hesitate, failing to corrupt Dorothy before the beam fell. She turned herself into bait, successfully hooking the blind folly of the Evil God.

And most critically of all,

"My attack speed wasn’t fast enough, didn’t surpass the speed of light."

"We’re mages; it’s already good if we have high health for melee."

"Nia lost... sob..."

It appeared that even [God Mode] was on the verge of collapse amidst their disagreements.

Dorothy sat on her throne, coldly watching the behemoth that knelt before her, as a delicate face emerged from within the mosaic.

"Genesis, second charge, begin."

Without further ado, Dorothy initiated a second strike against Lyle. It seemed to Lyle that the Genesis Star hanging in the exosphere was charging again, with the Sword of Damocles ready to fall at any moment.

"Fortunately, I have a PLAN-B."

Outside the City of Machinery.

On a protruding mound, evacuating tourists watched bewilderedly as a column of light descended from the sky.

Though the Genesis Light from above was shocking, the terrifying ceremony they were witnessing now was even more horrifying.

Several deranged skeletons were busying themselves with something, while a knight in metallic armor knelt on the ground, howling in despair.

The shiny, scale-covered hand, smeared with black machine oil, lowered from its lookout and turned to face companions.

"The signal Plague Doctor boss talked about is here. Are you all ready? If not, we’d better hurry to the academy and ask the professor for help. It’s too late for the Plague Doctor boss."

The Flexibility, crouching on the ground, didn’t even raise its head, just stuck up a thumbs-up.

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"Okay."

"Okay my ass!" SS pointed at the long, black object on the ground, screaming in despair, "This is what you call okay?! The iron filings inside me are practically shaking loose!"

SS violently kicked the metal block he had supplied the materials to make, berating the Liches Andrey.

"You told me you were the best machinists of Andrey!"

"Spirit Summoners, though I don’t think there’s much difference." 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

"You said you wanted to build a missile, I gave you the blueprints! I even asked if you needed assistance! You said you could handle it! Is this what you call handling it? A square coffin with tail fins!!! You spent three minutes welding several metal plates into one piece!!! Are you Liches planning on developing space burials!"

"Don’t call this a missile! I won’t allow you to insult missiles!!!"

Shiny faced the hysterical SS, paused for a moment, and exchanged a glance with Flexibility.

"The thing you gave me was a blueprint? I thought it was fuel for ignition."

"Ah, I thought it was ritual materials; I didn’t expect this magic ritual called welding to be so troublesome." Shiny patted his head, brushing aside his doubts, "So, Flexibility, the vessel to contain the power that the boss requested is ready, right?"

"It’s ready."

"Then I’ll add ’the essence’ now." Shiny opened the central square hole of the missile coffin and poured in a bowl of flesh and blood."

Flexibility blocked the SS who was having an OCD attack; both of them now seemed like lunatics to each other.

"Don’t disturb our ritual, robot!"

"You’re wasting materials, meat-and-bones person!"

"Wasting?" Flexibility muttered, "Is there such a thing as wasting the power of the Evil God?"

Below the box infused with flesh and blood, the Spirit Summoning Array emitted a faint glow, which was the most basic array for a Spirit Summoning Skill, the communication array.

It woke the spirit hidden within matter, and at this moment, it awakened the power of the Evil God hidden in the flesh and blood, which was... Lyle’s incarnation.

The flesh twisted the metal, and the iron block with ugly welding scars was engulfed by tentacles and slime, as screaming bloody maws and twisted eyes grew on the blood-red flesh, their cold, glittering gazes moving to lock onto the group.

Like a half-dead Lyle, the flesh missile let out a terrifying scream.

SS took two shocked steps back, looking at Flexibility, who was bleeding from the ears and showing no reaction.

"Alright, I admit that this monster missile has attacking capability now, but without a launcher, won’t it just explode in place?"

SS watched Flexibility’s mouth moving, but couldn’t hear anything through his own receiver; the terrifying screams had infected and heavily damaged his sound processor like a virus.

Flexibility shrugged his shoulders and stepped aside. With the space Flexibility had cleared, SS saw the operator adjusting the greenish-white skeletal surrounded portal.

With a flash of green light, a thick crimson tentacle protruded from the portal.

A gigantic flesh creation squeezed out from the portal framed by bones.

Mister Scarlet stood on the tentacles of the Blood Nest Great Tree, looking down at his students.

"Extracurricular activity, I like this wild feeling."