The 'Dimensional Audience'—this was how Tendo understood his unique "cornerstone" for becoming a god.
And he didn't just think it; he acted on it.
If it weren't for the 'Popularity System,' Tendo might never have reached his current height.
In a sense, that seemingly ethereal 'popularity' was a special kind of 'faith.'
After all, gods could gain powerful abilities through the fervent 'faith' of their followers.
Tendo, too, gained all sorts of magical abilities and boosts through the 'popularity' given to him by his dimensional audience.
Essentially, there was no major difference between the two.
And precisely because Tendo had long understood the importance of 'popularity,' he went to great lengths to stir up chaos and gain higher popularity.
Even the current 'Above the Heavens' storyline, which he personally directed, was a "famous scene" he designed for himself in the second season to achieve this goal.
The dimensional audience thought the "heavens" Tendo wanted to surpass were those of the City of Steam.
But in reality, the "heavens" of the City of Steam were very, very small to Tendo—not worthy of the word "Above."
What he truly wanted to challenge and transcend were the "heavens" where the 'God of Machines' resided, the one summoned by Ivan.
The perfect technique, Hell's Rashomon, was Tendo's first "gift" to the god.
He wanted to personally verify whether the crazy idea in his head truly had the potential to pull a god down from its pedestal.
The answer to that question was about to be revealed.
Rumble!
As Tendo activated the technique, the Quantum Cube behind him visibly expanded. A heart-pounding energy wave emanated from the constantly spinning Quantum Cube.
Sensing this special energy, the hundred-meter-tall divine phantom floating above Ivan's head seemed to be drawn to it.
The massive eyes, which flowed with starlight and data, slowly turned towards the giant Quantum Cube at this moment.
With a divine indifference, it began to examine the colossal, spinning object.
At the same time, Ivan, who had finished amassing his power, raised the golden energy greatsword condensed from countless quantum bees in his hand and expressionlessly swung it down at Tendo.
He was about to cast divine punishment upon this blasphemer.
Just as the golden greatsword sliced through the air, the Quantum Cube behind Tendo suddenly pulsed violently. An invisible black starlight wave rippled outwards, spreading rapidly.
In the next second, everyone, including Chen Kong, Danica, and Vivian, felt as if they were being enveloped and dragged by an invisible hand.
Then, they instantly fell into a space of pure blackness.
Within this space, Tendo stood before a unique gate.
On the red-painted pillars next to the gate, a dark red, blood-like mist swirled.
The twisted black horns growing at the top of the pillars were faintly visible in the eerie red mist.
The entire gate looked like the gaping maw of hell, ready to devour everything in sight, as even light lost its meaning here.
Just as the dimensional audience wondered about this change, information about Tendo's perfect technique appeared before them.
[Name: Perfect Technique - Hell's Rashomon]
[Effect 1. Rebirth: Can forcefully drag the target into a special 'hell' space.]
[Effect 2. Delusion: Past sins and obsessions will be infinitely magnified within the Rashomon.]
[Effect 3. Judgment: The beings in this hell will be subjected to an endless onslaught of 'slashes.']
[Description: 'What humanity fears most is not death, but facing their truest self.' — Tendo Simei]
Under the power of Hell's Rashomon, Ivan and Tendo appeared simultaneously in this bizarre space.
The physical rules here were distorted by Tendo's permanent vector field, causing everyone's senses and memories to be infinitely magnified.
In such an environment, even Ivan, a logical star envoy known for his rationality, was affected to some extent.
In a trance, a flood of strange yet familiar memory fragments instantly poured into Ivan's optical sensors.
These memory fragments were the traces of his life as a 'human,' which he had long since formatted and should have completely forgotten before becoming a star envoy.
In the images, a young Ivan had neither undergone the so-called mechanical conversion nor completely abandoned his so-called humanity.
At that time, he would be ecstatic to receive a model of a mecha and would cry when his mother scolded him.
But when the Machine God Cult discovered his talent, everything changed.
The Iron Dome family forcibly took him from his parents. As the cold alloy door slammed shut, it cut off his final cry.
To make Ivan abandon the frailty of mortals and possess the 'rationality' of a qualified star envoy, the Iron Dome family forced him to undergo the so-called 'mechanical conversion.'
Lying on the operating table, after countless agonizing experiences, his once-warm emotions and flesh were eventually replaced by cold data and machinery.
For a period of time after that, he gradually grew accustomed to the weight-bearing of his metal skeleton, adapted to the precision of his electronic eyes, and obtained the powerful strength that countless people dreamed of.
But as the price for all this, Ivan lost his sense of self and was reduced to a rational 'tool' needed by the 'family.'
Within the Iron Dome family, this behemoth bound by 'data coding,' he slowly lost his human edges.
Ivan had never thought about whether this was right or wrong.
By this time, he had completely lost the ability to judge things as a 'human.'
His mind was left with only a fanatical thirst for 'knowledge' and a blind, absolute worship of the 'God of Machines.'
Under the influence of Hell's Rashomon's 'delusion' power, the emotional fragments in Ivan's mechanical database, which should have been deliberately sealed, began to grow wildly, like suddenly ignited sparks.
The despair on the operating table, the sadness of being abandoned, the confusion of losing his sense of self—
These emotions, which should not belong to a machine, were now bit by bit corroding his core programming.
[Warning. Emotional module abnormally activated. Core logic scrambled]
A piercing alarm echoed in Ivan's consciousness, but he paid no attention.
Even the motion of his sword swing became strangely sluggish.
At that very moment, countless black slashes emerged from around Hell's Rashomon, raining down on Ivan.
Each slash precisely struck a joint on Ivan's mecha.
This not only caused physical damage but also followed the energy circuits, little by little, invading his consciousness and continuously magnifying the surging negative emotions.
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