"The path to the right leads to the planar hall. The planar door guarded by the dragonborn is located there. Fate feedback suggests… "
"Extreme danger?"
"No. Certain death! We are very likely to run into fearsome Third Grade dragonborn there."
"Bingo, you are right! Let's go!" A joyful smile appeared on Alice's face. She skipped towards Greem and led him down the middle path.
For some reason, the massive shadow that had been weighing on Alice's heart had suddenly vanished when she had left the World of Adepts. She no longer had that feeling as if her every action at every moment was under someone's scrutiny.
Even though she knew this reaction was a ridiculous one, and very possibly an illusion, she couldn't get rid of the feeling. She had given herself up to Fate, but Fate didn't belong to her alone.
It didn't matter whether it was the top-tier powerhouses standing at the pinnacle of the plane, or even the previous Witch of Fate. They were all linked with a delicate and mysterious connection. Every pulse of the powers of Fate in the World of Adepts could affect their souls and Spirits. Any action that one of them took in the river of Fate could not be hidden from another master of the laws of Fate.
The Alice of the present was still too weak. She couldn't yet be called a master of the laws of Fate. However, this didn't stop her from detecting the strange activities of the others blessed by Fate. She could still trace these phenomena through the movements of the laws of Fate and other, more subtle hints.
If one were to think of Fate as a poker table, then presently Alice only had the right to observe and spectate; she didn't have the power needed to play the game itself.
She needed the time and space to allow herself to grow.
As the Witch of Fate, the thing that Alice liked doing most was collecting powers of Fate. An ordinary life spent in an adept's tower accumulated powers of Fate at an excessively slow rate. It was only when she regularly threw herself into the tumultuous crossroads of Fate that she could rapidly gather large amounts of the power of Fate.
Moreover, this was not the World of Adepts. She didn't need to be concerned about being scryed upon by the other individuals blessed by Fate.
By following at Greem's side, she would always be able to come into contact with those blessed by Fate who could profoundly affect the Goblin Plane. People like Gazlowe, Princess Vanessa, or even Tigule had all been dragged right into the Goblin Plane's unstoppable vortex of history.
At this moment where Fate intensely clashed at every turn, an adept like herself that had learned divination abilities could very comprehensively sense the movements of Fate behind each battle and each conspiracy. To better experience the power of Fate, Alice had actively involved herself in the operation. She then used the powers of Fate she had gathered to exert weak yet delicate forces upon the general flow of events in order to adjust the trajectory that history was going in.
Apart from obtaining large amounts of power of Fate, Alice could also experience the movement patterns and methods of manipulation of the laws of Fate during this process.
The powers of the laws of Fate were too massive and subtle in the World of Adepts. It was hard for her not to be crushed and cut to pieces when she tried to intervene with her weak powers. However, here in the Goblin Plane, most of the Fate backlash would be shared by the so-called 'blessed ones of Fate,' thanks to delicate means of redirecting the powers of Fate. She could swim between these events, relying on Greem to protect her and keep her safe.
It held indescribably significant benefits for Alice's growth!
Alice deeply understood all of this.
What was breeding behind the battle today was a tremendous opportunity and an enormous danger for the Goblin Plane!
If the Goblin Plane could successfully digest the invading adepts and Dragonborn as gifts, then the goblins would be able to progress. There was a chance the plane itself could grow and become part of the 1%; the mid-sized planes. However, if the goblins failed, then the Goblin Plane could turn into the backyard of the adepts and the Dragonborn. Their plane would become a place exploited for its resources.
Boon and bane came in pairs. Fate worked behind each of these possibilities!
The immense danger that had appeared in the Goblin Plane might seem to have been caused by Gazlowe's selfishness and recklessness. However, what truly directed and pushed things in this direction was still that intangible power of Fate.
The appearance of magic energy. The debut of the space furnace. Even the conflict between that old goblin and the goblin royalty; traces of Fate could be vaguely seen in all of these events.
An ordinary person would have no other option but to sigh in resignation and launch themselves into the turmoil, even if they saw the flow of Fate. It was their world, and this was their life. They couldn't possibly sit by and watch as their loved ones were swept away by the river of Fate. Involving themselves and throwing themselves into the flow became their only option.
Only outsiders like Alice could ride the waves of Fate with a stance that was both detached and involved. People like her could recklessly change the direction the river of Fate flowed.
Much like the three paths that Alice had pointed out to Greem, the choice of each distinct tunnel meant pushing the Fate of the Goblin Plane on entirely different paths.
Choosing to save Princess Vanessa would undoubtedly be choosing to support the conservatives of the Goblin Plane. That would allow the conservatives to retain a bit of their former strength in the flood of Fate. This way, even if Gazlowe's ritual succeeded, two separate goblin factions would still exist in the Goblin Plane.
However, Greem had no attachments to the Goblin Royal Family to speak of. He couldn't be bothered to help them.
Choosing to attack the planar hall would undoubtedly incite an irreparable conflict between the adepts and the Dragonborn. When that happened, the only one to benefit would be old goblin Gazlowe. Not only would he gain the most significant chance of extending his lifespan, but he would also be able to devour the two intruding forces and allow him to become the true heir of the plane.
However, the possibility of such a scenario was almost zero. Unless Greem experienced a stroke, there was no way he would be dumb and generous enough as to offer himself up as a sacrifice for that greedy goblin.
After much consideration, the only thing that fit the adepts' benefit was to confront Gazlowe, the temporary 'heir of the plane.' As long as Greem and his party were able to defeat Gazlowe and successfully route the dragonborn army, they would be able to obtain rule over the Goblin Plane through this battle.
You pay the price for what you wish to obtain!
There was no such thing as an unearned victory in this world.
Even with Alice's help to choose the best path, what awaited him at the end was still a risky and bloody battle.
Thus, when Greem walked down that path with Alice's hand in his, he had already resolved to fight to the death. Even if what awaited him there was a wall of steel and iron, he would smash a way through with his life and blood.
That was because this was the path that he had chosen for himself!
Chapter 528 Gazlowe's Revival
The ritual hall.
While a storm of blood raged outside, the ritual hall bustled with activity.
Several goblin researchers in white robes were busy walking in and out. They were directing goblin engineers and ordering them to check all the metal pipes and control center stretched over the interior of the mountain.
If the animation of the Steel Capital were successful, then these metal pipes would become the blood vessels of the magical machine known as the Great Emperor. The giant space furnace would then become its heart. Old Goblin Gazlowe would be reincarnated within the Titan body of the Great Emperor, and he would become the true ruler that manipulated this giant beast.
Indeed, this was Gazlowe's true plan!
Whether it was the immortality ritual or the invasion of the adepts an
d the dragonborn, everything was only a part of Gazlowe's plan to put into motion Project Titan.
Gazlowe had only finally managed to gather all the staff and resources he needed inside the Steel Capital after so many tricks and schemes. Even though the adepts and the dragonborn were still freely moving about in the tunnels beyond his control, it only mattered that they were here.
Everyone knew how expansive the Steel Capital was. Trying to animate such a massive city into a magical machine lifeform required life force and souls beyond the imagination.
That was why Gazlowe designed this plan to bait all of the elite combat forces of the Goblin Plane into the city. When that happened, not only would the one hundred and twenty thousand goblins living in the Steel Capital become his sacrifice, but even his private army, the Royal Army, the adepts, and the dragonborn would become nutrition for the animation of the Demon God Titan.
He, the smartest goblin in the universe, would use this massive wave of life force to assimilate with the Steel Capital and become the undying Fourth Grade Demon God Titan.
The Goblin Plane would become the springboard for his ascension, allowing him to become a god that could rule over multiple planar worlds. He would be creating a new species for the multiverse– magical machine lifeforms!
However, before this could come to be, Gazlowe needed a massive surge of life force to allow his assimilation to succeed.
Gazlowe's elderly body lied upon a metal operation platform in the ritual hall. His skull had already been split apart like a blooming flower. His loyal subordinates had carefully extracted the brain inside and placed it in a massive glass vat that was five meters in diameter and fifty meters tall.
The inside of the jar was filled with light green nutritional liquid. Gazlowe's fist-sized brain was swimming inside like a tadpole in a pond. A dozen tentacles floated beneath the trembling brain. It was these tentacles that allowed the gray brain necessary movement.
As the battle progressed, several dragonborn scouts that had been murdered were sent into this ritual hall. Their corpses were then thrown into several small corpse dissolving pools by the side. Their bodies, souls, and everything about them was being dissolved and melted into a pure solution of life force. The solution was then injected into the glass jar, becoming nutrition for Gazlowe's brain to grow and strengthen.
One hour after the battle had started, Gazlowe's formerly tiny brain had grown into an Overmind three meters in diameter. The Overmind was happily swimming about in the nutrient solution.
The growth and development of the brain allowed even the unfortunately magically challenged goblin to obtain some strange supernatural mental powers. Gazlowe didn't even need that technological equipment to communicate with his subordinates now. He could directly speak to their minds.
Moreover, this mental power was strengthening as the brain continued to develop and expand. It even started to create related mental spells.
Telepathy, Soul Stab, Soul Whip, Soul Blast, Mind Control, Hypnosis, Mental Illusion.
Several mental and soul spells that had never been heard of before popped up one by one. They allowed Gazlowe to become extremely excited. He had never experienced supernatural powers before. The massive Overmind swam about in the glass vat, repeatedly using these strange magical abilities of his.
In general, he was able to become proficient at the use of some of the more simple mental powers after a bit of practice. However, the more complicated mental abilities such as Mind Control and Soul Blast were hard to master.
After all, these abilities were not techniques he had obtained through hard work and practice. They were mysterious fragments of knowledge from a different world that Gazlowe seemed to be able to hear and see after his Spirit had strengthened to a certain degree.
Most of the time, these mental powers were innate abilities that one would gain upon their Spirit reaching a certain level; one should be able to master the use of them without any practice or learning. However, Gazlowe's goblin origins undoubtedly had too lowly a spiritual origin. That made it hard for him to master a lot of these innate abilities successfully.
While Gazlowe was having fun with his newfound powers, the battle outside the hall had become incredibly intense.
Old Goblin–no, Overmind Gazlowe's–perimeter could no longer hold back the adepts and the dragonborn. Many checkpoints had fallen, with soldiers and mercenaries dying en masse.
However, Overmind Gazlowe didn't mind at all. Instead, he used his spiritual sense to send the cruelest order to his subordinates– massacre.
As Greem and Alice set foot on the path toward the space furnace, a bloody slaughter started in the Steel Capital a thousand feet above them.
As a goblin city, the Steel Capital had plenty of gardens and plazas.
At the moment, all of these public areas were filled with slave goblins.
They were all bound with ropes and made to kneel on the ground. The streets were sealed off by goblin chariots. Several fully-armed goblin mercenaries stood tall along the buildings nearby, their black gun barrels pointed at the slaves in the plazas.
With the order given to them, fire spat out of the black gun barrels, and a storm of bullets shot into the crowd. The slave goblins cried and howled in agony, but it didn't help.
Plazas of goblins were murdered on the spot at the hands of the goblin chariots and mercenaries. Scarlet blood flowed out of their tattered bodies and turned into a stream. This stream then gathered into a wave of blood as it trickled into the sewage, where it was directed straight into the core area of the underground tunnels.
Jars in the ritual hall slowly filled to the brim as large amounts of blood gathered there. Overmind Gazlowe's glass vat had turned a crimson red. The dense concentration of blood had covered his body.
It was hard to see the changes happening within, but one could sense that a massive being was struggling inside the jar due to the tumbling blood waves within. Occasionally, one or two long and fearsome tentacles would crash against the transparent walls of the vat. The limbs would squirm about, the suction pads on them clear for all to see.
Gazlowe's evolution hastened as if he could sense the approaching danger. The number of goblins being sacrificed in the city above also began to peak. The population of the Steel Capital numbered a hundred and twenty thousand. If one were to include the citizens that Gazlowe's army had caught from the nearby areas, the number of goblin sacrifices had reached a record of a hundred and fifty thousand.
Such a massive flow of life force directed into the underground became a catalyst for Gazlowe's assimilation with the Steel Capital. The entire underground network also started to fill with a strange, sinister aura.
Gazlowe's Spirit continued to strengthen and power up. It was even starting to radiate through the vat and spread outwards. Metal components, alchemical machines, control platforms, magical machines and magic energy weapons, every inanimate object; as long as they were within reach of Gazlowe's Spirit, they would possess a trace of consciousness.
Wherever Gazlowe's Spirit extended, the objects there would be enveloped in a coat of white light. They would then start to distort and twist according to Gazlowe's consciousness.
In just fifteen minutes, Gazlowe had managed to animate the ritual hall and turn it into part of its body. Moreover, as more life force surged into the room, his consciousness started to extend out to other areas of the underground network via the energy pipes and control centers.
Soon, the entirety of the underground network had become part of his body!
However, compared to the insentient metal machines and alchemical machines, Gazlowe's assimilation process of the space furnace was arduous. The violent and roiling magic energy in the space furnace was like scalding lava. He would be thrown into immense pain every time he touched the furnace.
In the past, Gazlowe would have left the space furnace for last and chosen to expand his consciousness domain within the Steel Capital. Sadly, he had no time!
His s
piritual senses indicated that another round of vibrations had started in the planar door; it seemed something new was happening in the Dragonborn Plane. If the opponent's reinforcements managed to arrive here, it would cause unpredictable impacts to Gazlowe's reincarnation project.
That was why Gazlowe used all the power he wielded to cut off all of the energy pipes to the planar hall. However, the Dragonborn seemed to possess a different energy source. They were sustaining the planar door through their own means.
With no choice left to him, Gazlowe assigned an enhanced group of magical machines from the outside to hurry to the planar hall and stop the Dragonborn from teleporting reinforcements.
Apart from the Dragonborn, Gazlowe also discovered a dozen intruders inside his 'body'. What frightened him the most was the arrival of the fearsome fire adept. That man had brought a female adept with him and had made it extremely close to the space furnace without his knowledge.
That undoubtedly put Gazlowe on guard!
Chapter 529 An Uphill Battle
Gazlowe was at a critical moment in his evolution. He didn't want himself being interrupted at this moment.
An elite group of goblin soldiers that had been guarding the surroundings of the ritual hall was immediately ordered to intercept these two adepts.
What made him want to scream out loud was how long the soldiers lasted. They hadn't even stood three minutes before being annihilated by that fire adept. The opponent had fully demonstrated the terror and power of an otherworldly adept.
The fire adept had turned into a five-meter tall flame fiend. Unbearably hot elementium fire surged out of his body as he casually strolled through the metal corridor. The floor, walls, and the ceiling started to melt under the ambient heat as he passed by. They melted like wax.
The goblin soldiers that dared to attack him were all melted along with the walls; their equipment and flesh turned to liquid. Only the magical machines and goblin chariots could last a bit longer due to the special alloy materials they were composed of.
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