Hyper-Dimensional Player-Chapter 408 - 35: The Great Purge

The battle was more brutal than Duncan had anticipated.

The industrial zone, like a jungle of steel, had begun to collapse on a large scale. Those cultists charging at the forefront moved with the swiftness of leopards, rivaling even the mechanically modified Defender Army.

The Natural Avengers at the front formed three battle echelons, possessing bizarre transformation abilities.

This ability was very similar to that of the Druid.

But unlike what Duncan had anticipated, these Avengers were transforming into creatures that were no longer ordinary natural animals.

— Mutant Split Claw Monster (Radiation Mutation)!

— Tearer Worm (Genetic Mutation)!

— Two-headed Radiant Snake Skin Beast (Genetic Mutation)!

One by one, the hideous and terrifying monsters with obvious mutated organs emerged, bearing marks of decay on their bodies, exuding a plague but still brimming with tenacious vitality. Their thick keratin had seemingly fused with industrial waste, giving their skin an asphalt-like sheen.

This was indeed a Druid’s ability, but they were transforming into apocalyptic monsters.

This batch of cultists was entirely different from those Duncan first encountered. They were more organized and disciplined, fighting with seamless coordination. A few burst units relied on Transformation Technique to traverse the gradually collapsing steel jungle, while the chanters in the rear scattered flesh and spores, which rooted and sprouted as the gray dust settled.

The countless spores expanded, split, and combined, engulfing the machinery of the industrial zone.

They could take root and sprout even in the crevices forged of steel, and countless vines entwined gears, pistons, levers, and bearings. Inside the collapsed walls, cement and steel rods intermingled, entwined by countless vine roots to form humanoid outlines towering four or five meters high.

Crack!

The steel bars on the ground were uprooted, these cement and steel structures becoming skeletal frameworks, and the entangled vines turned into muscles and skin. Finally, plant-like mechanical constructs appeared on the battlefield.

"Deal with those Steel Guardians first!"

At this moment, Avenger Kosov’s form changed again, looking like a werewolf with skin festering as if infected with plague. With a roar, it leaped nimbly through the steel jungle, pouncing on a Defender Army soldier. Even the biologically engineered steel spine couldn’t withstand its sharp fangs.

Sparks flew!

It bit through the enemy’s spine, allowing toxins to seep into the brain, and in a single breath, the defender before it was poisoned to death.

Rust Claw.

Kosov’s claws turned a dark gray, enduring a hail of bullets as blood spattered across its body. Its claws cut through the air, slicing through the guns in the Defender Army’s hands like tofu. The exoskeletal mechanical frames became porous, giving way like foam plastic, easily penetrated.

The werewolf, infected with plague, killed more than a dozen, its hunched form climbing up the high-rise buildings, then leaping down from tens of meters high.

Squelch!

The Rust Power-infused claws sliced open the Mechanical Cultivator’s Steel Armor. Amidst the flying flesh and blood, it was like a ravenous beast in a frenzy; its claws moved so quickly they left only countless afterimages, gouging out the mechanical priest before it, hollowing out the entire chest cavity.

In the next second, its claws pierced the mechanical priest’s skull, using the cadaver as a shield, its figure charging forward. It roared again, transforming into a three or four-meter tall festering bear man.

"The taste of blood!..."

"So tempting!... Are you already enjoying the feast?..."

Just as the Mechanical Divine Sect’s Defender Army rushed to support the direction of the werewolf raid, a sinister laughter echoed, revealing a pair of scarlet eyes and a pale, bewitching face in the darkness.

— Blood Drinker Liba (Blood Worship Sect Sage) (Five-star silver-gray)!

This woman’s speed was truly ghostly.

She weaved through gunfire, her form relying on reflexes to dodge bullet trajectories. As black claws and sharp fangs emerged, she instantly transformed into a ferocious bloodthirsty humanoid creature. Her dense maw of teeth would trigger trypophobia with a single bite, grinding flesh and bone into powder.

Feast of Blood!

As her figure leaped into the air, countless threads of blood converged on her body. The surrounding Mechanical Divine Sect members were sucked dry, and then the surging blood transformed into a mist of blood, spreading in all directions, dissolving all biological life within an instant.

— Beastification Mutant (Beast Worship Sect) (Plague) (Three-star silver-gray).

— Cultist Follower (Zoopathy) (Two-star).

— Cultist Follower (Living Corpse) (One-star).

The entire industrial zone was falling at a pace visible to the naked eye, the plague of flesh spreading in all directions. Infected humans soon showed signs of beastification, and some transformed into half-human, half-living corpse monsters.

"Feel the world’s pain!... Hear nature’s wails!..."

"The disaster has arrived!..."

By this time, Disaster Messengers had emerged from the sea of blood on both sides of the battlefield. They appeared as half-human, half-demon creatures. With a single lift of their hand, the ground trembled, and the Platform Layer began to experience massive earthquake collapses. Hurricanes, flames, and thunderstorms surged as magic power ran rampant, slaughtering all living things.

The steel jungle of the industrial zone had now entirely collapsed, replaced by a dark forest formed of innumerable vines, roots, and spores.

The Balancer of All Things—Panosis has awakened and descended!

"Balance!"

"Purify!"

"Purge humanity!"

This colossal entity is a terrestrial vessel composed of plants, flesh, rock, and steel. Its blood-red eyes filled with endless hatred, as it took a step forward, the entire ground seemed to ripple like waves. The earth undulated, causing all structures in sight to warp under pressure. Even the grand steel-cast statues in the plaza deformed in the surging waves of magic, eventually collapsing completely.

"Get out of the way!"

Duncan grabbed the nearby Tassia and jumped towards the area beyond the waves. He leaped down from a staircase tens of meters high, and with a screeching thud, the entire steel staircase deformed completely, sparking bursts of fire. Behind him, his mechanical arm grasped a metal pillar. Tassia, reacting quickly, hooked onto a slanting pipe with her other mechanical arm, allowing them both to barely stabilize as they slid hundreds of meters underground.

As for the Corpse Demon Bert, he wasn’t as fortunate, but since he was already dead, it wasn’t easy to crush him. He soon crawled out from the fallen debris, with his right mechanical arm damaged and sparking.

"Hmph!"

"Remnants of the Old Era!" 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

As Duncan and the others evaded the waves on the ground, there were rumbling sounds from the direction of the Mechanical Temple. Steel constructions emerged from underground, their heavy armor inscribed with mechanical runes, flanked by levitating servo skulls. Thousands of mechanized defense troops surged forward, with units even preparing artillery positions directly toward the industrial zone.

——Steel Angels (Mechanical Incarnation) (Golden Skull Mark).

The entire Mechanical Temple was operating at a rapid pace, countless gears meshing, and silver-white Eyes of Insight ascended into the sky, encompassing the entire battlefield in a holographic display.

When the mechanical incarnation of the Steel Angels appeared.

The heavy gates on both sides opened, revealing towering steel constructs over ten meters high amidst the steam waves, with even semi-mechanized mechanical priests visible within the cockpits.

At the far end of the temple plaza, a Data Sage, clad in a rust-colored magic robe, had mechanical nerve bundles protruding from his spine like frenzied mechanical serpents, precisely linking with the data interface of the Mechanical Temple. Subsequently, his vast computational power transformed into a temporary network, incorporating all members of the Mechanical Divine Sect into the computational domain of his activated source power.

"Load Mechanized Mind Domain!..."

"Chant the Blessing!... Activate Steel Will!... Transform the Mechanical Defense Army into slaughter mode!..."

"F46 district is highly contaminated!"

"Execute Purification Agreement!"

At this moment, the Data Sage seemed like a cold, merciless commander. With a raise of his mechanical finger, thousands of mechanical cultists in the temple began chanting blessings. The solemn chants, coupled with the rumbling of pistons and gears, turned everything before them into a battleground of slaughter.

An invisible electromagnetic wave spread in all directions.

Thousands of mechanical defense troops moved forward as an extraordinarily massive machine, with geometric precision and discipline, forming three echelons that respectively guarded the steel constructs, mechanical cultivators, and data priests.

Underneath the Mechanical Divine Sect, dark cannon muzzles rose. As the troops moved forward in coordination, the sect commenced indiscriminate large-scale bombardment.

Activating the Purification Agreement meant that over 800,000 people in F46 district could be considered expendable.

To cleanse an area of a million lives to prevent the spread of a plague brewed by magic.

At this time, Master Qiao, who had been secluded in an underground chamber, emerged from the rear of the Mechanical Divine Sect forces. He appeared like a human-shaped machine continuously discharging electricity, even isolating the source power network of the Data Sage, forming an independent electrostatic field that prevented others from approaching.

——Mechanical Electric Monk (Four-star Silver Gray).

——Steel Giants (Three-star Silver Gray).

By contrast, the high-ranking members of a lower district church had significantly fewer numbers, yet with destructive bombardment and a massive number of mechanical defense troops, they still held a distinct advantage.

Especially the mechanized incarnation of the Steel Angel, which had now spread its blade wings, sweeping forward like a storm of metal, crushing all life in its path.

"Your Majesty!"

At this moment, the Witch Demon Konggs spoke, his voice slightly excited: "So many souls!..."

"There are hundreds of thousands of lost souls here!..."

This was unimaginable during the Mythical Era, for a nation back then had only a few hundred thousand people. Even during the later Mysterious Era, though there was a population explosion, there weren’t many cities of a million scale.

But in the lower levels of Nest City, even a casual lower district had nearly a million people, with roughly 140 million living in the lower layers of Nest City, and less than 20 million in the middle and upper layers.

Duncan’s attention shifted from the battlefield, looking in puzzlement at the Witch Demon’s skull beside him.

The Witch Demon Konggs spoke in a trembling voice, "Hundreds of thousands of souls..."

"That’s already enough to coalesce a law within the Death Domain!..."

.........