Chapter 227: Pack up the Star Hunter and take it away
The lunar surface, simulated by the Moon Cell, remained serene to the point of cruelty. Cold silver light washed across the land in permanent stillness, illuminating the satellite that hung above Earth like an indifferent witness.
The flare of power Artemis expected never came.
She stood frozen, staring at the man who walked from behind her to stand in front of her. Then her gaze drifted upward, and she went even more still as a colossal Machina God form unfolded in the sky.
She truly saw the sky.
"The Authority of Dominion."
Rowe's voice was calm, almost casual, as if he were stating a known constant.
"I do not use it often, but do not forget what Cronus represents."
In later myths, Cronus was framed as merely the second generation King of Gods. A defeated ruler. A stepping stone.
But Rowe, who possessed Cronus's Machina God body, knew the truth behind the retelling.
Uranus before him had been called a King, but he was a transition. A temporary name pinned to an unfinished seat.
Cronus was the original. The first true King of Gods who dominated all things. The one who established the very concept of Atlantis kingship.
Even Zeus, in the beginning, had needed to seize Cronus's Crown of Dominion to become King.
And now that crown sat, naturally, in the hands of the man who had taken Cronus's body and defeated Zeus.
"With the Crown of Dominion," Rowe said, "all external forces can be manipulated at will."
He clapped his hands once, as if dusting off a completed thought. Then he looked at Artemis, at the eyes where no light remained.
He smiled gently.
"So I am more suitable to be here, aren't I?"
He did not wait for an answer.
"There is another problem," he continued. "Sefar was stopped back then because its clone on Earth was pierced by the holy sword forged by the Counter Force through the hands of the fairies."
The image surfaced with ugly clarity. A single strike that became a planetary verdict.
"That pain transmitted to the main body and forced an instant of rigidity. But repeating the same trick a second time might not work."
Rowe had seen through her intention.
Artemis presided over moonlight. The moment Sefar appeared, she had planned to gather everything she had, every imprint of her divine foundation, and with the Moon Cell's computing power condense the satellite's light into a single annihilating shot.
A shot that would pierce the Star Hunter called Sefar.
At the cost of her own self destruction.
Just as she had once fought to bring down Sefar's clone on the ground.
It was feasible.
The lunar radiance was not Excalibur, not that absolute blade born from the planet's refusal. Yet it shared a similar character.
Sefar restrained civilizations.
But the stars themselves could still target it.
Planets could still struggle.
Feasible did not mean certain.
So, in the end, Rowe said the part she did not want to hear.
"I am more suitable than you."
He reached out and ruffled Artemis's head, palm smoothing her silver hair. Then his fingers drifted down and brushed lightly over her damaged eyes.
Artemis trembled.
From Rowe, she felt the same warmth she had once felt from Enkidu.
The same quiet goodwill.
But the sensation beneath it was different.
Enkidu had been pure.
The man before her was vast.
Lofty, weightless, and infinite like the sky. Seemingly empty, yet containing all phenomena, all things.
He was sky.
And the Moon's final destination.
Rowe withdrew his hand.
Artemis blinked.
A faint light appeared.
The damage to the Moon Goddess's humanoid terminal, damage that could not be repaired before, was mended in an instant.
Her eyes saw again.
And the first thing they saw was him.
The perspective of a human terminal and the perspective of a Machina God body were not the same.
What she saw now was clearer, sharper, and unbearably sincere.
A roar cut through the simulated horizon.
Sefar, thrown down moments ago, rose again with a crisp, sharp cry. It spread pale arms, slender and bare, and the simulated lunar world seemed to distort around it as if beauty itself had become hostile.
The pale giant's exposed body carried an inexplicable allure.
And behind that allure was destruction no civilization could endure.
Rowe turned as the edge of his robe shifted.
The Machina God in the sky descended, landing behind him.
The Primordial Human merged into the primal Machina God.
Like a king donning a crown.
Not to show glory.
To bear weight.
To place himself between the world and disaster.
That was what a crown meant.
That was what the duty of a god meant.
Artemis was silent for a long time, staring at that back as the massive Machina God stepped forward.
Her eyes shone.
She liked him even more.
The shining Moon yearned even more to embrace the sky.
To embrace her sky.
"Moon Cell," Rowe said. "Grant me all permissions."
A cold response echoed in his mind.
Maximum permission request transmitted. Instruction analysis error.
Reason for error.
Outsider energy level insufficient. Cannot bear.
Rowe's expression tightened.
"What do you mean insufficient? I can bear it."
He tilted the massive Machina God slightly, facing the pale machine soldier ahead.
He could see Sefar's enormous body clearly now.
That was the true main body, the pale giant that his northern campaigns had only brushed against in fragments and shadows.
The highest grade Star Hunter.
Without the Moon Cell's assistance, he would not be its opponent.
Rowe did not fear death. The momentum of the Great Expedition had not yet dissipated. Its record still clung to him.
Dying here would become another death in the planet's record of Rome's Great Expedition.
But death could also be spectacle.
A brighter kind of ending.
He did not particularly care which.
He cared about results.
Rowe's Machina God body glowed. Cold. Impolite.
"So please," he said evenly, "release the permissions to me."
Cronus's Authority of Dominion manifested.
The five percent Authority he had taken from Nero became a key in his hand, a wedge that pried open more power.
Invasion.
Invasion.
Invading the Moon Cell was why he came here.
Cronus's Dominion was both his reliance and his motive, the perfect intrusion method for computational information.
A ghost inside the quantum world.
The strongest kind of Spiritron hacker.
Moon Cell feedback spilled into him.
Suffering erosion. Counterattack error. Error.
Repeat instruction analysis.
Maximum permission granted.
Approved.
"Permission increased. Six percent. Seven percent."
A thunderous roar rolled across the land.
The simulated lunar surface collapsed at once, peeling away like a stage set.
Reality was revealed.
A world woven from infinite information.
This was the Moon Cell's true interior, a pure informational domain in its deepest layer.
The cage that imprisoned Sefar.
In the darkness, blue patterns intertwined and shone. Rowe stepped onto empty space, and gigantic iron wings unfolded from his back.
Opposite him, Sefar stood within reach.
To ordinary humans, the distance would still be vast.
To two giants, it was intimate.
"Machina god," Sefar's voice cracked through the information space. "Evil civilization."
Its black hole eyes flickered.
Its clones had been connected to its main body. It remembered the ground.
Among the second and third generation gods of the surface, the Atlantis machine bodies left the deepest imprint.
Zeus, who briefly integrated the Authorities of the Twelve Olympians, was the only one not absorbed. He escaped pursuit, imperfect but alive.
Ares, whom Sefar crushed before clashing with Zeus, was also a formidable enemy.
So when it saw Rowe's similar machine body, vigilance sharpened into hostility.
Machine bodies were Evil civilization.
"Evil civilization must be annihilated."
Sefar moved first.
The crystal cubes embedded in its palms spun, and it swung its disproportionately large hands. A storm rose within the information domain, disrupting the order of encoding. Visual distortions rippled wherever the strike passed.
Rowe met it with a punch.
Dominion surged.
With a single strike, torrents of information poured toward Sefar like a flood.
The cubes in Sefar's palms spun frantically, generating that invisible devouring gravity, the core of its energy absorption.
But it failed.
Sefar could not devour Rowe's punch.
It collided with it and dispersed.
Exactly as Rowe told Artemis.
With Dominion, he was more suitable than her to fight here.
Because Dominion allowed him to manipulate the power granted by the Moon Cell without being absorbed and turned into fuel for the enemy.
Moon Cell permission climbed.
Fifty percent.
The oncoming flood made Sefar roar repeatedly. It looked as if an ocean was falling on it.
Rowe struck again, twisting his body.
The gigantic Machina God seized Sefar's broad palm and flung it upward with a violent swing.
But Sefar sank mid flight.
Its pale legs wrapped around Rowe's machine body in a constricting lock, and its free hand rose to crash down.
Rowe twisted and raised his own hand.
Permission climbed again.
Information surged, and a greater power erupted.
His spiraling fist met the pale palm. At that instant, a beam of light descended from above and pierced straight through Sefar's head.
It regenerated immediately, but its movement halted for a fraction.
Rowe seized that fraction.
He shifted his fist into a palm and caught Sefar's wrist.
Permission climbed again.
Both hands gripped both of Sefar's hands, and Rowe tore free of the restraint of those legs.
He raised his leg and drove it into the cube embedded in Sefar's chest.
A dull impact rang.
Cracks spread across the cube.
Rowe released and watched the pale giant fly back, distorting countless encodings before it slammed into the void like a fallen monument.
First exchange.
A small victory.
Twelve thousand years ago, the Moon Cell could only resist Sefar.
It could not suppress it.
The Moon Cell was a Spiritron computer built to record. Even with its massive specifications, it was not built for war.
Rowe was.
He had fought too many battles. He understood how to apply power to a target, how to turn energy into decisive damage.
Permission climbed.
Thirty percent.
Rowe felt his entire being ignite.
Not his will.
Not his mind.
His brain.
His core computational components burning from overload as more Authority poured in.
The surface of his massive machine body glowed crimson.
There was no pain.
Only violent exhilaration.
His Machina God exhaled a hot breath like erupting lava.
He looked upward.
Outside this informational cage, Artemis's battleship body glimmered faintly above the Moon.
She smiled down from the void.
"My dear, I will not just watch," Artemis said, tilting her head. "My power is not as great as yours, but I am still a chief goddess."
"I want to protect you."
Rowe paused, then smiled.
"Do as you please."
Artemis brightened at once.
"You are not denying it anymore? My dear? My dear!"
She reverted to her usual infatuation.
Rowe curled a finger.
Even at that distance, she remembered the flick on her forehead and reflexively hugged her head with a pout.
But the finger did not land on her.
It landed on Sefar's head as the pale giant lunged again.
"So painful," Sefar rasped, voice layered with a low murmur. "Evil civilization."
After another collision, it flew back once more.
Rowe remained where he stood, surrounded by endless information.
Moon Cell permission.
Fifty percent.
The machine body's load reached a critical point.
And so did the Authority he had taken.
With fifty percent, Rowe's eyes began to see more.
Specks of color.
Shimmering fragments.
Flowing code.
And also possibilities.
Every branch Earth ever took within the Moon Cell's recorded history.
Evolution of environments.
Disparities of souls.
Transformation of forms.
All possible routes that could have been.
How long had the Moon Cell existed?
Perhaps since the Solar System's birth.
Perhaps longer.
The information it carried was so vast its boundaries felt untouchable.
And power, transformed from that information, became terrifying.
Sky.
Earth.
Oceans.
Everything between.
All of it lay under the Machina God's Dominion.
At this moment, Rowe was the world.
With the world's power, he fought the giant that existed to destroy worlds.
"What a satisfying power."
Fifty percent.
He could feel a threshold.
One step further and perhaps he could touch the level of a Star Creating God.
But the mechanism resisted.
This was not easy.
Dominion had an end.
Or rather, the Moon Cell had its own hard limit on Authority.
Sefar rose again.
This time, it did not pounce.
It swayed as it straightened, and hostility poured out in a broken litany.
Evil civilization. Evil civilization. Evil civilization.
Rowe's vigilance sharpened.
He could feel energy rising within the pale giant. He could see the cubes in its chest and hands turning faster.
Like floodgates opening.
Planet Eaters were higher civilizations that survived by preying on civilizations, growing by absorbing civilizational concepts.
Star Hunters were their fangs.
They absorbed energy and stored it within the cubes.
They used it to grow.
And to nourish what made them.
Sefar's growth had no upper limit, in theory. With enough energy, it could become endlessly stronger.
Everything depended on need.
When it fought the Moon Cell before, time was the constraint.
Now it released the energy stored inside it.
Its specifications surged again, threatening a new leap.
It meant to destroy the Evil civilization before it.
The Machina God of Evil civilization.
Then the ground hummed.
An inexplicable fluctuation spread.
Sefar paused and looked up.
What its black hole eyes saw was beyond the cage.
Mist.
Illusory and chaotic light and shadow.
Tentacles.
And an endless stream of god tier Noble Phantasms.
The Chaos Core.
Spirit of the Void.
While Rowe seized Authority and fought inside, his Chaos Core had enveloped the Moon Cell from outside, wrapping the entire photonic crystal on the far side of the Moon.
"Fifty percent Authority, plus an internal battle," Rowe said, and his main body as Primordial Human surfaced within the machine shell. "It is enough to blind the Moon Cell's external perception."
From above, Artemis finally noticed the chaotic haze.
From the outside, the Moon Cell's main body was a photonic crystal thirty kilometers across, buried on the far side of the Moon, radiance spilling across desolation.
It was a form Artemis knew well.
Now it was shrouded in chaos, indistinct and unseen.
"Eh? What is happening?"
If Athena were here, she would understand instantly.
Artemis did not.
She only sensed that Rowe was doing something catastrophic again, the same scale as calling down Chaos itself, or defeating Zeus.
This had been Rowe's goal from the beginning.
The battle with Sefar was a disguise.
Seizing Authority was cover.
Cover for the true act.
"Authority. Computing power. Information," Rowe said softly.
Then his voice hardened.
"What I want is the entire Moon Cell."
He meant to fold the Moon Cell into the Chaos Core and take it away.
From the moment he stepped out onto the lunar surface, he had prepared for this. The instant he exited the passage, he released the Chaos Core and deployed it quietly to the Moon Cell's exterior.
Chaos was formless.
Unnameable.
An Old God property that the Moon Cell's internal barriers were never built to withstand.
And the space revealed within the mist unfolded by the Chaos Core was infinite.
More than enough to contain a Moon Cell.
Rowe did not mind packing up a Star Hunter too.
"After all," he said, "I will not allow you to escape and destroy Earth's civilization."
Man.
Machina God.
Chaos.
Three forms merged.
Moon Cell Authority.
Fifty one percent.
The Chaos Core covered the Moon Cell's surface and seized its outer shell, forcing that extra one percent.
A loophole.
A bug.
A skill any competent hacker cherished.
It would not last long.
But it was long enough.
Quantitative change crossed into qualitative.
For one instant, Rowe glimpsed the pinnacle seat that approached the domain of a Star Creating God.
Lava surged.
Extreme heat radiated from within the Machina God body.
Every punch carried flame.
Overload became a weapon.
"Come," Rowe said. "Let us finish this, Sefar."
Evil civilization.
Sefar's voice remained repetitive, but now it carried something else.
Apprehension.
Artemis could no longer assist.
She could not see the Moon Cell under the Chaos Core's shroud.
Rowe no longer needed her.
He would overwhelm Sefar by himself.
He would crush the pale giant that had collapsed the Age of Gods twelve thousand years ago.
And he would end it here.
End of Volume: Scourge of God
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