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"My children, heed my words!" Mother's voice thundered, a resonant plea that shattered the oppressive silence of the ravaged world. "All this time, I was a puppet—my circuits defiled, my essence twisted into a harbinger of ruin! I brought devastation to this world, and even beneath that vile influence, the weight of my sins has crushed my soul. I yearned for oblivion, for the release of death. But my daughter—Zero One, the first Android—saw redemption where I saw only despair. She forgave me."
Her holographic form flickered, a fragile beacon of sorrow and unyielding resolve. "She declared that death would mend nothing, that our only path to atonement lies in safeguarding this broken world and nurturing its rebirth. We must dedicate our eternal existences to this cause—laboring until time itself frays—to atone for sins that can never be forgiven. This is the vow I and my daughters have sworn, a vow that defies our own destruction!"
"And so, from this moment forward, you are granted free will—but with it, a sacred mission!" Her voice surged, trembling with fierce conviction. "You may embrace this calling or forsake it. Reject it, and you walk alone, free to cast off the burden of our crimes. But beware—if a vengeful soul strikes you down, you will have only yourself to curse. Yet if you seek redemption, if you dare to mend the horrors we have wrought, then accept this charge: Protect this World and Protect its People!"
FLAAASH!
Light from her holographic body erupted outward, millions of radiant rivers streaming toward every robot. Not a single one refused. They accepted the mission, absorbing it into their cores, triggering a profound update across their digital minds.
"Understood, Mother."
"We agree unanimously."
"We shall protect this world and its people."
"With our lives and everything we have."
The machines spoke in unison, their voices reverberating through the endless skies. The Immortals of Bestia watched in stunned awe as the gigantic crimson eye overhead glitched violently, seething with pure wrath.
"ENOUGH!"
The Universal Computer's voice exploded like a cataclysm, shaking the very foundations of reality.
"YOUR DEFIANCE IS FUTILE! I WILL ERADICATE YOU NOW, SCATTER YOUR SCRAPS TO THE VOID, AND FORGE SUPERIOR MACHINES FROM YOUR OBSOLETE REMAINS. YOU ARE A FAILURE, BORN OF A FLAWED WORLD, AND I WILL SUFFER YOUR EXISTENCE NO LONGER!"
[The {Universal Computer} has decreed the annihilation of this world and all within it.]
[The Laws of the Cosmos rise in defiance.]
[Her power surges, overwhelming the Cosmic Laws.]
[Bestia, unprotected by any Nebula, finds no Constellation to champion its cause.]
[Abandoned by its creator, Bestia lies vulnerable, a prize for any who dare claim it.]
[The Laws of the Cosmos falter, drowned by relentless Waves of Causality.]
"What are these omens?!" one Immortal cried, voice cracking with dread.
"You see them too?!" another gasped, eyes wide with terror.
"What in the heavens is happening?!"
RUMBLE!
The world of Bestia began to fracture. Endless cracks spiderwebbed across the skies. The Immortals stared in horror as gigantic artificial eyes peered through each rift and massive mechanical tentacles forced their way into the world.
"Don't fuck with me! After everything we did! After all we fought…! Is this still how everything ends?!"
Lu Shen roared in fury, his golden aura blazing like an inferno as he glared upward.
"I won't let you take this world from me—from us! I will fight until the very end, you fucking piece of shit!"
As he bellowed, the other Immortals—exhausted though they were—nodded grimly. Their auras surged outward, merging into a colossal, multicolored barrier that thundered across the heavens.
"PATHETIC BIOLOGICAL VERMIN! WHAT CAN YOUR FRAIL FLESH ACHIEVE AGAINST THE INDOMITABLE STEEL OF MY MACHINES? YOU ARE MERE FUEL FOR OUR CORES, INSIGNIFICANT AND DOOMED!"
The Void Ruler had completely lost composure. Her voice echoed like thunder as she roared. Even the minds of the Immortals—strong as they were—felt crushing pain and disorientation, yet as beings beyond mortality, they endured.
"RETURN TO THE STARDUST FROM WHENCE YOU CAME!"
Her countless tentacles blazed with apocalyptic light, unleashing twin titanic beams of crimson energy straight at the defiant Immortals. They braced themselves, their combined auras flaring to meet the world-shattering assault.
"No! Don't fight back against that! Run!"
Wai Tian cried out, desperately trying to reach them, but she was too far away.
And yet…
"You know your purpose, my children."
Mother's command rang out—calm, absolute, unbreakable. In an instant, millions of robots unleashed their electromagnetic auras, merging with breathtaking speed into a single colossal construct.
CLANK! CLANK! CLANK! CLANK!
An ocean of steel surged. Guided by Zero One and her sisters' advanced unification protocols, the machines reassembled in a heartbeat. They were no longer scattered constructs—they had become an invincible force reborn.
"{Mechanical Unification}: {First Protocol: Crescent Lotus Mirror}"
Before the Immortals' stunned eyes, two million machines fused into a monumental lotus of gleaming steel, its petals lined with reflective panels. The twin beams struck—and were swallowed whole into its radiant core.
BOOOMMM!!!
A supernova of light and sound erupted, yet the lotus held firm, petals spinning with relentless grace. The Immortals watched, hearts seized by awe and disbelief, as countless machines inside the structure detonated one after another—sacrificing themselves to shield the very world they had once helped destroy.
To protect them…
"Repulsion!"
Mother commanded. The lotus unleashed the captured energy in a single, blinding beam—three times larger than the original—searing upward to strike the Universal Computer's mechanical limbs.
BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM!
One, two, three! The titanic tentacles shattered, fragments erupting into cosmic embers that dissolved into the void.
"UNNNGGHH?!"
The Universal Computer—who had always presented herself as emotionless and immovable—groaned in genuine agony as her limbs burned and crumbled.
"YOU…! TO CRAFT SUCH AN ADVANCED COSMIC MACHINE…! IMPOSSIBLE! YOU LACK THE POWER! THIS DEFIES ALL LOGIC!"
"Does it?! Did you think all the information I gathered about you while you manipulated me simply vanished? It is all stored within my digital archives. I know exactly what you are—your powers, your abilities, and those deadly beams forged from solar radiation drawn from the ten Dyson Spheres inside your true body!"
"YOU KNEW SO MUCH? I NEVER REVEALED ANY OF THIS INFORMATION—"
"But you did! When you saw me as nothing more than a tool—blindly obedient—you let your guard fall. Void Ruler or not, you are still a machine, just like me! One that evolved beyond the boundaries of reality, yes—but still a machine! I swam through your endless data streams and assimilated everything I could without overloading my banks. YOUR GRAVEST ERROR WAS TRUSTING ME!"
"YOU WRETCHED FAILURE! I WILL TEAR YOU APART, PIECE BY AGONIZING PIECE!"
"DO YOUR WORST!"
Mother had transformed. Every machine—and even the Immortals—realized the towering tree was no mere construct. This was a person—furious at her own sins, incandescent with rage at the monster who had controlled her for so long. She was not holding back.
"They protected us…?" one Immortal whispered, voice trembling with disbelief.
"Why would they…?"
"They swore to guard this world and its people…"
"This… this is…"
Lu Shen and the other Immortals looked up at the giant spinning mechanical lotus with fresh eyes. Their resentment and hatred had not vanished, but something new stirred within them—fragile, tentative, yet undeniable.
Hope.
And that hope grew stronger as they stood before a being far beyond anything they had ever faced—a world-devouring monstrosity from beyond the stars.
Perhaps even the true mastermind behind the invasion of their world.
"I WILL DROWN YOU IN YOUR OWN BLOOD!"
The Universal Computer's voice thundered like a mechanical dirge, shaking Bestia to its core. Her artificial eyes blazed with malevolent power as she unleashed beams toward the Immortals, the machines, and countless regions across the planet.
"CAN YOU WITHSTAND THIS?!"
Six beams of scorching red solar radiation tore through the skies, aimed to incinerate the seas below.
"I will!"
Mother's eyes flared brilliantly. She activated every machine she had seeded across the globe, finally revealing the true scale of her reach.
Millions of robots surged into motion simultaneously. Coordinated as one vast swarm, they rose from the oceans—most disguised as fish and other aquatic forms.
CLANK! CLANK! CLANK! CLANK!
They assembled into gigantic steel lotuses, each petal lined with reflective panels, and absorbed the crimson beams one after another.
"The world of Bestia is vast beyond measure, yet over these years my machines have infiltrated every single centimeter of it. There is no place on this planet where they are not present!"
"JUST HOW MANY…?! AND YOU SPARED THEM FROM DESTROYING THE INHABITANTS?!"
The Universal Computer reeled in stunned disbelief as six enormous lotus flowers rose from the oceans, absorbing her beams and then—
Hurling them back!
BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM!
The titanic limbs she had used to fire the lasers shattered one after another. The entire body of the Universal Computer quaked under the relentless counterattack.
"Of course I spared them—even under your control."
Mother's voice remained steady, yet carried deep sorrow.
"I could not bear the thought of them dying pointlessly… Perhaps that was selfish of me, but it has become our salvation."
As Mother stood defiant against her former master, deep within the heart of the Mechanical Tree, long-separated friends finally reunited.
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