“Core?”
Hexode walked to the machinery and leaned down, casually fiddling with the disassembled metal pieces. He quickly discovered that this thing was both rough and detailed. From the pitted outer shell to the hidden internal structure, it was almost impossible to grasp at a glance. Picking up any cylindrical object, it contained dozens or even hundreds of parts, far more complex than a musket. "You mean..."
“The Iron Bird flies because of it,” Mask affirmed.
“Wait, are you saying that thing faster than a Bogler Wyvern is powered by a pile of dead objects?” Hexode frowned. As the Overlord who had faced the Iron Bird head-on, he saw it very clearly—the thing flew not because of the vibration of its wings, but because of the buzzing paddles on its head.
In a sense, it was similar to a windmill, but the latter was pushed by the wind, while it actively generated wind. However, how the paddles could maintain high-speed rotation for so long was always a problem the Celestial Lord couldn't figure out. It was absolutely impossible to do this with human power alone, so he subconsciously attributed it to magic sigils or other self-releasing magic stone systems. Only in this way could he explain why the Iron Bird could fly into the sky under the control of a male, even without a witch.
But now, Mask was telling him that what drove the Iron Bird was just a pile of dead metal creations?
“Incredible, right? I think so too.” Once the topic was something he was interested in, Nasorelle suddenly perked up. He stretched out a slender finger, rummaged in the iron bucket, and then handed it to the Celestial Lord. "Want to try it?"
Hexode looked coldly at the black smudge on his fingertip. "Do you want to taste a severed hand?"
“Ahem… some things always leave a deeper impression when you experience them yourself.” The other party sheepishly retracted his finger and put it in his mouth. “Part of it is a burnt smell, but it also has a slight fragrance. This thing is most likely used to hold flames.”
“Fire cannot drive the Iron Bird.”
“That depends on what kind of fire—if the burning is intense enough, it can certainly do it!” Mask retorted. “You’ve also seen those fire branches used by the bugs. I took them apart and looked at them carefully. Their essence is burning, but because the speed is so fast, it seems like an explosion! Since this kind of power can push the iron crossbow out of the barrel, it should also be able to push the paddles.”
“The explosion of the fire branch is an instantaneous event. If it’s really as you said, you have to keep adding combustibles to the iron bucket, and the speed must exceed thousands of times per breath to reach the rotation speed of the paddles. This is theoretically impossible,” the Celestial Lord said coldly.
“This is also what I haven’t figured out yet.” Nasorelle directly admitted. “That’s why I called these bugs here, wanting to hear their opinions. Who knew that their level of dullness was no different from the inferior bodies outside—I thought the bugs were deliberately hiding something, using some means, but it turned out they really didn’t know anything!”
Speaking of this, the Mask Overlord gesticulated excitedly. “Can you believe it? The creators of this thing and this group of bugs actually belong to the same race! The principles contained in the machinery are now laid out in front of them, but they are completely ignorant of it, and say that it’s just a trick of the Fallen Witches. I was inevitably a little too forceful when I got excited—”
“L-Lord…” The noble was glared at by Nasorelle, and his face turned pale immediately, trembling non-stop in the corner of the wall.
“Now I can understand why you don’t regard humans as bugs. But I have to say, these guys you brought up are still bugs, and the lowest kind!” Mask turned to look at Hexode. “By the way, I heard that Iron Birds and Fire Branches are made by the Graycastle people? Can you catch a few Graycastle craftsmen for me? I really want to see if their brain structure has changed compared to the bugs. If so, maybe fusing a human head wouldn’t be bad…”
“Enough!” Hexode interrupted. “I didn’t come here to listen to you say these things! Once you get their Legacy Shards, all your questions will naturally be answered. The key is to win the war. The God of Gods will enter human territory in a week, and I don’t want you to cause any more trouble for me—creating more symbionts is your entire task, understand? Also, don't touch these—hu—mans anymore.”
Mask fell silent, and after a moment he spread his hands. "...Of course."
The Celestial Lord gave him a deep look, then grabbed the surviving noble and turned to leave the remodeling room.
Long after the stone door closed, Nasorelle shook his head slightly.
“That’s all you are, Hexode.”
“The secret is the key to unlocking the essence of truth, but you are not interested in it at all.” He took out a new mask from his robe and slowly placed it on the witch's head. “Magic is not the entirety of the world’s operating rules, nor is the Battle of Divine Will. Even if you use Legacy Shards to obtain everything from the defeated, not everyone can reach the top in the end. This is why I can create symbionts, while you can only run around on the battlefield.”
“You don’t even realize the meaning contained in these metal creations…”
The Mask Overlord turned to gaze at the wreckage of the Iron Bird, muttering to himself.
Humans use explosions to propel huge objects, giving him an unprecedented enlightenment, which is the transformation of power—it is very common for stability to evolve into instability, but it was the first time he had seen using unstable, violent combustion to achieve stable rotation. From explosion to flight, there must be some internal connection during this period that transforms the form of power.
Since the two are reversible, does this mean they are essentially the same?
Then what about magic?
In the past, the tribe had never thought carefully about the way magic manifested itself. What it showed was usually what it was... but now that he thought about it, could magic also undergo similar transformations?
If the magic used to raise the God of Gods was directly transformed into the power of an explosion, how terrifying would the power be?
He seemed to see a brand new path unfolding before him.
If he could master this secret, let alone the Celestial Lord, even the King… would be nothing more than that.
Knowledge is the most powerful force in this world.
I really want to know... I really want to know the secrets of humans!
Nasorelle raised his head and couldn't help but laugh strangely.
……
Hearing the faint laughter behind him, Hexode turned his head away in disgust.
“Lord… it’s a good thing you came!” The noble, carried on his shoulder, said with a mournful face, “The monster poked a hole in the heads of everyone else, I was almost next—”
“I know, don’t worry, it’s all over.”
He unloaded the noble, but instead of letting him leave, he grabbed his collar and lifted him over the drawbridge railing.
“Wait, C-Celestial Lord, what are you doing?” Looking at the terrifying worm trough below, the noble was instantly panicked. "No... no!"
Hexode didn’t reply. He raised his hand and threw the surviving noble, who fell into the bottom of the ten-meter-deep cave with a scream. Facing the sudden "food," the inferior bodies swarmed forward, responding to this gift with excitedly swaying bodies.
What he needed was a stable and controllable workforce.
The noble who had seen the experimental field and the true face of Mask was clearly not one of them.
Even he thought Nasorelle was no different from a monster, let alone these humans.
Rather than letting him go back and complain about what he had encountered, it would be better to let him shut his mouth forever here.
Although this would bring some trouble, it was better than not being able to clean up the mess later.
Returning to the humans' temporary residence, Mavien. Pike was the first to greet him, "Lord... I wonder about those who were kidnapped..."
“I have confirmed that they were captured because they were secretly communicating with Graycastle. Because someone else was in charge of the intelligence, the news was slow to reach me,” Hexode patiently reassured. “But luckily I arrived in time. According to your tradition, those people were not executed, but escorted to the Celestial City. After the war is over, they can redeem their freedom with ransom or other considerations. There is also good news, that is, the remaining nobles have all passed the review, and such things will not happen again in the future.”
“Is that so…” Mavien breathed a sigh of relief. “So that’s what happened, thank you for your care.”
“It doesn’t matter, as long as you do your best to complete the tasks I have given you, you will definitely have a place in the human world in the future.”
“Of course, of course.” Mavien suddenly took out a letter from his arms. “By the way, Lord, just when you went to the inner city, someone handed me this thing—it is said to be specially sent to you. Although the possibility of misdelivery is greater, since it has been brought into the Miracle, I think it is better to give you a glance.”
“Oh?” Hexode unfolded the letter, and his pupils suddenly contracted!