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The two Venerables watched from the skies as the battle unfolded. Anna's quick thinking and her amazing yet very random and crazy plan worked in the end, and they managed to get inside the Mechanical Tree despite the enormous quantity of foes they had to go through.
By coordinating her abilities with Zero One and Zero Two, Anna was able to send wide-ranging shockwave-like signals of Zero One's request, a new program that helped machines fight back against original protocols and gain their own sentience and free will.
With this, the group of allies they had progressively grew bigger, with thousands of new robotic allies fighting by their side and battling against their former friends just so they could attain the freedom they desired.
"Anna's plan worked, but this cannot keep up for too long either," said the Heavenly Empress. "The party she gathered is enough to hold back for… a couple of minutes. But more reinforcements are coming, and they seem to not want to negotiate or ally with us."
"Yeah, I noticed the same thing," nodded the Heavenly Demon. "It is beneficial that Anna has such a large group of allies, though: her Familiars, her Friends, and her Demons. All of them together managed to break through the tight security and army protecting the door, amazing."
"They got inside the Primordial Beast fragments," said the Heavenly Empress. "Do you think the beasts are planning something as well?"
"What would those mindless creatures of primordial origins even plan? They are nothing but creation and destruction incarnate," shrugged the Heavenly Demon.
"No…" the Heavenly Empress said. "I think there are many more now… Since the moment Anna gave them her sponsorship, they had changed."
"What… do you mean?" The crow's red eyes glanced at the white crane.
"Fufu, let's just wait and see, shall we?" She smiled. "Song looks like he's having fun watching, and he really wants to join."
"I would let him join, but you keep insisting he has to save his strength, whatever that means!" the crow groaned.
"You'll see what I mean," she nodded. "For now… Let's watch. It would be wise of us to also save our strength. This is by no means the last battle. But at the same time, that doesn't mean it won't be a great challenge. Because what I sense inside of that tree… it surpasses all my expectations of what the machines could have ever constructed."
"I agree…" the crow gripped his fists tightly. "Anna… You can do this."
.
.
.
What I saw in front of me was beyond my wildest expectations; it was a huge mecha!
But not just any mecha; this thing was enormous as it was beautiful.
I had never seen any Mechanoid model like this before at all.
It had a slender humanoid form, with several layers of armor on top of its slender body, and floating gadgets resembling triangle-shaped white pieces of metal imbued with golden-colored circuits and blue lights.
It had a small head, but it was mostly humanoid, a humanoid face made of metal, with glowing golden eyes. It had a big white helmet-like structure over its head and a V-shaped crest made of gold.
It also had four airplane-like wings made of white and gold metal on its back and four slender arms with fingers and everything, capable of dexterous movements and grabbing objects.
Its legs were also slender and long, resembling needles, and its chest had a large opening where Zero Three, the girl we just saw, entered, and then she began to pilot this thing!
Once the chest closed with her inside, it showed a huge crystalline coverture of gold over the white metal.
But that wasn't a weak point; its durability and toughness… Just from here, I could tell that thing was as tough as a mountain, or some more.
Perhaps a synthetic, diamond-like crystal, which composed a large part of this mech!
However, the most surprising part wasn't all of that, no.
The most surprising part was its multitude of Martial Cores within its internal body, dozens of them all amassed together into a gigantic nuclear battery fueled with Immortal Ki and Electromagnetic Energies.
"It seems they have already mastered the ability to harness the power of this world…" I said, glancing at the mechanical giant of over twenty meters, to step forward, glaring at us with her sharp golden eyes.
"I'm honestly surprised. We did everything we could so you wouldn't even be able to step inside, but here you are." Said the voice of whom I assumed to be Zero Three. "How irritating… Ah, is this irritation? What an annoying feeling."
"Is it you, sister? Are you there?" wondered Zero One. "We should try to find a way to peacefully—"
RUMBLE!
The robot stepped forward; the gigantic mech swung its hands down at the same time as it materialized an enormous pair of white and golden katanas.
"Whatever you try to say to me, it will not work," she said. "Die."
SLAAASH! SLAAASH!
Two enormous, crashing waves reached us within a second after we reached the interior. The giant mech's powers were the real deal; both of these attacks were like powerful Immortal Martial Techniques.
However.
I was here.
FLASH!
I jumped off the back of Sepa and quickly summoned all my weapons at once, unleashing a powerful Thousand Blades technique!
"{Thousand Blades}: {Horizon Severance}"
A new technique that put everything I had, every weapon, their weight, cutting power, and the accumulated slashing attacks from the Skill itself into a single point.
SLAAASH!
Creating a horizontal, slashing attack that severed whatever was in front of me, the two slashing waves unleashed by Zero Three were…
BOOOM!
Naturally disabled, as both shockwaves erupted into a loud explosion, shaking the foundations of the Mechanical Tree interior.
"You dare deal this much damage to my mother…"
She seemed very furious, stepping forward, her two massive katanas rushed down, attempting to slash me apart.
CLAAANK!
I quickly used my shield, placing it between her two katanas as I held her attack back with all my strength; my Aura transformed, showing several of my Egos appearing, pushing with me to give me more strength.
Yeah, no matter what I do, and no matter who I fight, I will never fight alone anymore.
"Annoying."
BAAAM!
She tried to crush me with her mech's foot, but I quickly disappeared from the scene, turning into lightning for a second, and rushed towards her back, swinging my swords at her.
"You're strong and tough, but slow as fuck."
{Thousand Blades}: {Horizon Severance}
SLAAAASH!
A huge slashing attack reached her back, cutting through a layer of her defensive armor and then releasing an explosion of various elements converging together into pure cosmic chaos.
BOOOOMM!!
"Ugh…!"
As I was about to aim to cut off one of her limbs, suddenly, I saw her entire body twisting at lightning speed!
Well, that wasn't slow at all.
BAAAM!
Before I could react, she punched me with a gigantic mechanical fist, sending me flying into the ground. I collapsed onto the floor, rolling over it in pain.
"Fucking hell, you surprised me there."
I slowly stood back, my swords overflowing with my rainbow aura.
"Distract her. I must slay my traitorous sisters first."
And as I imagined, she ignored me, sending dozens of Mechanoids carrying Heavenly Ki within them to fight me instead.
My Aura began to grow larger and stronger at the same time as I spammed and activated all the equipment abilities I could, boosting myself through the roof.
"Start the concert!"
I called three of my Egos, who emerged from my Aura, quickly manifesting the power of the [Little Princess of Rock's Heart Throbbing Concert (A Rank Privilege)]!
RUMBLE!
The concert started right behind me, as the machines were instantly paralyzed by the sound waves hitting them and decreasing their stats based on my own stats and the buffs I had.
"E-ERROR…!"
"TERRIBLE MUSIC… TASTE DETECTED."
"G-GRAAAHH…! EARING SENSES… IN DANGER."
"Wow, come on, it's not that bad!"
I reached them, swinging Gram and the [Golden Heaven Sword of Hope: Beautiful Yellow Flower Qin Xiuying] that my master gifted to me, at the same time.
Gram's dark and light powers converged, forming a huge dragon, while Qin Xiuying's heavenly powers manifested into a beautiful golden lotus around my Aura.
{Thousand Blades}: {Heavenly Lotus-Devouring Black Dragon}
"ROOOAAARRR!"
SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!
The dragon rushed forward at the same time as I attacked, piercing through all the machines while devouring the lotus in front of me, generating not only a storm of slashing attacks but also…
BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM!
Several consecutive explosions, tearing to shreds the Mechanoids in front of me, which were such a big and annoying problem back then when I first fought them!
But right now? They were small fry.
"Rise!"
I quickly raised their remains, and they immediately returned back up to their feet. Transformed into Undead Robots, they became bulkier and gained metallic scales, dragon tails, wings, and horns.
"Come with me!"
I rushed forward, catching up with Zero Three, who was fighting the Primordial Beasts and Zero Two. It seemed she was easily overwhelming them.
Meanwhile, Zero One was fighting against a couple of the same machines I just battled while trying to continue hacking the internal synapsis of the Mechanical Tree by connecting to it through the floor, which she smashed with her fists.
"Go help Zero One!"
I need to prioritize Zero Three; she's too powerful. With a single attack landing on Zero One, she might even die.
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