You have reached the maximum level!

Initializing stat alignment!

Error!

Remort impossible!

Form s.h.i.+ft…

Somnus… what is happening?

[Unknown. Insufficient data.]

Solution found!

Remorting you as a Machine G.o.d.

Congratulations!

You are now a level 1 Hero.

Your t.i.tle is: G.o.d-Slaying Machine.

Granting you a new body.

Suddenly, a golden light descended from the heavens and basked the war machine's body. s.p.a.ce itself seemed to warp around the war machine, its body swirling into itself as if falling into a black hole.

Detected soul fragmentation.

Repairing damage.

Soulmerge complete.

Somnus… I am…

The voice within the machine's mind faded, becoming quieter and quieter.

Detected mind damage and a personality not suitable for a Hero cla.s.s.

Repairing damage.

Repair failed.

The machine shrunk, a great part of it disappearing into nothingness. Emily and Arcadia watched all of this happening with a mix of confusion and terror. Moments ago, a G.o.d had been killed, or its avatar at least, and now something was happening to Somnus.

As they watched the body of the war machine disappear, they could see a large white sphere extend outwards encompa.s.sing the s.p.a.ce where the machine once stood. The sphere continued rapidly expanding until they disappeared within it as well.

Was this retribution?!

Form parameters locked in.

Body creation complete…

The sphere then vanished, like a bubble bursting. Silence fell on the area. Even the drones stopped moving, as if the disappearance of Somnus caused them all to no longer have any purpose or objective. The refineries ceased their operations. The drones flying in the sky dropped like bricks.

Where Somnus once stood... there was now nothing.

[Arrod Dungeon]

"Structural a.n.a.lysis," the man said, glaring at his hands.

"OPCOM, request a.n.a.lysis of anomaly," he spoke once more. There was no reply.

"Reactor status," the man said.

Status

Name Somnus

Level 1

Race Machine G.o.d

Cla.s.s Hero

t.i.tle

G.o.d-Slaying Machine

Health Unharmed

Mana Overflowing

"All systems report," he once more demanded.

Other than the strange window that popped up in his consciousness, he received no reports from his submodules. He has been trying to understand his situation for a while now, ever since he appeared in this dark chamber. He was literally staring at the answer—his fleshy, carbon hands—but his mind rejected the possibility. Yet, even that resistance had to crumble.

A loud scream of fury and hatred echoed throughout the dungeon, causing even the most hardened veterans in the monster ranks to run for their lives.

"I am made out of meat?!"

[Arrod Dungeon - Dungeon Core]

The reinforced double doors leading to the most sacred place in the dungeon rattled from external blows. Finally, the door gave in, breaking off the hinges and falling inward. In the middle of the chamber was a large crystal floating in mid-air and giving off a faint blue light.

The moment the door was breached, several creatures poured in—orcs, goblins, ogres, mimics, fairies and even a young dragon.

The dungeon core was so startled it thought that the monsters were starting a coup. It was about to cut off their mana supply when it noticed that they ran behind the dungeon core, as if seeking shelter.

From the corridors leading to the dungeon core, screams could be heard. No monster ever heard another monster scream that way; it was usually the adventurers that did the screaming.

They heard someone shouting: "Where are my guns?!"

The words were followed by more death-screams.

"He's gonna kills us… he's gonna kills us all…" a goblin whined.

"Gives him the Dungeon Core… maybe he letses us go…" another goblin said to the first one.

The Dungeon Core panicked. It tried to mentally communicate with its inhabitants, but found their minds too clouded by terror to establish a connection. What could have caused such a reaction? What kind of monster was coming for the Dungeon Core?

Then, in the doorway, they saw it in all its poverty. Yes, poverty. The Dungeon Core had expected to see a man in golden Orichalc.u.m armor, with a sword bestowed upon them by the G.o.ds. The reality could not be any different. In the doorway stood a man with abyssally black hair, and black clothes that barely fit him. It was a simple s.h.i.+rt and simple trousers. In his right hand, the man carried a shortsword that was several decades late for its maintenance appointment. In the left hand, the man held a goblin's severed arm.

"I shall query once more. If you do not define the location of my body and my guns, I will terminate your existence," the man said, stepping into the chamber.

The Dungeon Core did not understand why the monsters were so afraid of the man. He had no armor, a shoddy sword and by the looks of him, he was a low level adventurer—and quite insane.

The Dungeon Core decided to take matters into its own hands, and began charging a fireball spell.

Magical symbols appeared around the Dungeon Core, contained within magical circles. They lit up, swirled and then shattered as the man sent the severed arm through them, on a collision course with the Dungeon Core.

As the arm struck the Dungeon Core, it blasted off a large chunk of the crystal. The impact was so powerful that the arm broke in several places, becoming as limp as a whip.

The man casually stepped to the side, letting go of the useless club, and picked up the crystal. It correctly, and cruelly, determined that this material was tougher and thus more suitable as a weapon.

"I shall query once more. Where. Are. My. Nukes?"

The Dungeon Core understood then why the monsters were so afraid of this seemingly harmless adventurer. The Dungeon Core was ready to give up any and all information, even lie about the things it didn't know, but it was unable to speak to humans…

[Arrod Dungeon]

Emily thought it was strange that she was in a dungeon, but that there were no monsters around. She did see a few just ahead, but they all ran from something. Arcadia was with her, but the Priestess was of no use in a fight; the shock from what she was earlier when the war machine killed her G.o.ddess still plagued her mind.

Still, the Princess did not wander aimlessly. She followed the sound that she could only describe as a pickaxe striking the rocks.

It was getting closer and closer as the two advanced through the dungeon corridors, and she could even hear faint speech.

She rounded the corner and saw a scene that would no doubt scar her for life.

In the chamber, before the Dungeon Core, stood a man who held a broken fragment of the Dungeon Core and bashed it against the very thing it came from.

"Why do you injure yourself? Why do you injure yourself?" the man repeated as he bashed the Dungeon Core over and over again.

Behind the Dungeon Core, a large group of monsters hugged the far wall of the chamber, trembling in fear.

"Reveal the location of my objective or I shall engage in illegal interrogation methods," the man said, as if he wasn't already doing that.

"S-Somnus?" Emily asked. She did not know how, but she knew that the man was none other than the machine of death and destruction that she was a hostage of.