Chapter 1396: Why Is This Place So Complicated?

Ferrick couldn’t find anything funny about this.

As the ice sphere turned, he finally saw what the light inside truly was. It wasn’t residual power from Caldren’s armor, nor was it a signal emitted by his mechanical core.

It was Caldren’s consciousness.

His very soul.

Elowen hadn’t just frozen his mechanical body.

Her ice could imprison souls.

The last of Ferrick’s will to fight vanished.

Run.

He had to leave now.

This body was lost.

Ferrick stopped pulling against the golden chains and gave up trying to teleport. The core inside his reinforced frame rapidly shut down. The lights in his chest, mechanical eye, and thrusters went dark one after another.

A translucent soul emerged from the mechanical body.

Ferrick didn’t look back. The instant he was free, he flew straight for the mechanical city, hoping to make it inside before the golden array sealed shut.

He hadn’t gone far when every sound around him disappeared.

He could no longer hear the gunfire.

He couldn’t sense Kaelira’s energy either.

It was too quiet.

Ferrick looked down.

A thin layer of ice crystals already covered the bottom of his soul. Frost climbed his translucent outline, spreading from his legs to his waist, then across his chest and arms.

It hadn’t just appeared.

Elowen’s cold had reached him the moment frost formed beneath Caldren’s feet.

He simply hadn’t noticed.

Ferrick watched in silence as ice sealed around his fingers.

It was over.

Crack—

The ice closed completely.

Ferrick’s soul froze in midair, still posed in flight toward the mechanical city.

The deep blue light slowly faded from Elowen’s eyes.

Her expression returned to normal. She retrieved the ice sphere containing Caldren, then turned an interested gaze toward the mechanical pyramid ahead.

The reinforced body Ferrick had abandoned remained motionless, still bound by golden chains.

Then Kaelira’s colossal energy sphere arrived.

Purple-red light swallowed the sky.

Boom—!

The mechanical body took the impact first.

Its reinforced armor held for only a moment before collapsing inward under the heat. The shoulder plates, chest armor, and thrusters Caldren had given him melted one after another. Metal ran down the body in streams of molten iron.

The temperature continued to rise.

Before the molten metal could drip away, it vaporized. White steam burst from the purple-red light as the surrounding air warped violently in the heat.

By the time the sphere passed, the reinforced mechanical body was gone.

Only churning steam remained in the sky.

Meanwhile, inside the mechanical pyramid, Ethan had no idea how far the battle outside had progressed.

He was strolling through a maze of metal corridors, enjoying himself immensely.

The walls were pieced together from metal panels of different colors. Pipes and cables crisscrossed overhead, and nearly identical mechanical doors appeared at regular intervals. The passageways kept branching, with many of the intersections looking exactly alike.

Ethan glanced around as he walked.

Whenever a wall blocked his way, he casually tossed an energy sphere at it.

Boom!

Another metal wall exploded.

Broken panels flew into the room beyond, while severed circuits spat sparks from the jagged opening. Ethan stood at the hole and poked his head through. When he realized it wasn’t the direction he wanted, he returned to the corridor.

"Why is this place so complicated?"

He looked between several identical passages.

"It’s like a maze."

A huge, vacant-faced figure followed behind him.

The creature towered over ordinary beings, its shoulders nearly filling the entire corridor. Every step it took sent a heavy tremor through the metal floor.

Ethan turned around and carefully compared their sizes.

Then he nodded in satisfaction.

Definitely big.

Still not as big as Seraphina, though.

"I really should thank you guys."

Ethan looked up at one of the corridor’s surveillance cameras.

"You were so worried I wouldn’t finish eating everything that you even sent me an assistant. Thanks!"

He played with the pulsing energy sphere in his palm and continued forward with a spring in his step. Strands of white lightning occasionally leaped from his fingers and struck the giant behind him.

The giant’s body trembled slightly each time the electricity passed through it.

After watching this happen several times, Ethan began to wonder if he’d overdone it.

They soon reached an intersection.

One passage led left and another right. A thick metal support column stood between them, with no proper path behind it.

Ethan stopped in the middle of the intersection.

He looked left, then right, and spent a long time considering his options.

In the end, he chose the middle.

An energy sphere flew from his palm and slammed into the support column. The first explosion blasted a crater into its surface. The second widened the breach.

Ethan kept throwing energy spheres until his arm grew tired, then turned and motioned for the giant to take over.

The giant stepped forward and hammered the column and the wall behind it with alternating fists.

Every blow shook the metal corridor. Cracks spread along the structural joints, and countless components rained down from above.

The surveillance system recorded Ethan’s every move.

Footage and data traveled through the internal network to a control room farther ahead.

Merrin stood before the monitors, his expression darkening by the second.

A mechanical puzzle cube turned in his hand. When Ethan blasted through yet another metal wall, Merrin nudged Korrick beside him with his elbow.

"What do you think?"

He pointed at the screen.

"If the lord were here, what would he do?"

Korrick thought for a moment.

He gave no answer.

Mechanical armor unfolded across his body, sealing around his limbs and torso. The faceplate closed, and the suit’s power lights came on one after another.

Merrin understood.

With a helpless look, he crushed the mechanical puzzle cube in his hand. A mass of metal components sprang from inside and crawled up his arm, assembling into a complete suit of armor around him.

The two left the control room and headed to the end of the corridor to wait for Ethan.

Elsewhere in the labyrinth, Ethan ran into a new problem.

The giant who had been following him quietly suddenly went berserk.

With a low roar, he turned and smashed through the mechanical door on the left, then sprinted down the adjoining corridor. His thunderous footsteps echoed through the passage before rapidly fading into the distance.

Ethan stood at the intersection and looked left, then right.

Since the giant had gone left, Ethan chose the right.

Korrick and Merrin had already taken position behind a heavy mechanical door.

To focus on their coming fight with Ethan, neither of them checked the surveillance feed again. They had no idea the figure charging down the left passage wasn’t Ethan at all.

It was Thromm, the only prisoner held in the mechanical city’s prison.

The heavy footsteps drew closer.

Korrick had barely tightened his grip on his weapon when something struck the door from the other side.

Bang!

Thromm rammed it open with his shoulder.

The entire door, along with its mounting frame, flew inward and slammed into Korrick and Merrin. Caught off guard, both men were knocked to the floor and shoved backward, their mechanical armor spraying sparks against the metal surface.

They pushed the door off themselves.

The moment they saw who had come through, they both froze.

"Thromm?"

Their shock lasted only an instant.

Old enemies needed no explanation.

Thromm attacked first. He stepped over the twisted door and brought his massive fists down on their mechanical bodies in a rapid barrage.

The first punch struck Korrick in the chest.

It left no obvious damage on the armor, but the force sent him sliding backward. The impact passed through the outer plating and reverberated through his chest and limbs.

The second punch struck Merrin’s shoulder.

Merrin raised an arm to block, but the blow still sent him crashing into the wall. His armor’s joints ground under the strain, while the recoil shook the body inside.

"Korrick!"

Merrin had only just regained his footing when Thromm stepped forward again.

Korrick made his decision.

"Merrin, combine!"

Both suits opened their connection ports.

Armor components extended toward the center and locked together. Merrin took control of the combined machine’s lower body, while Korrick assumed control of the upper body and arms.

Their mechanical bodies fused into one. The resulting frame rapidly grew larger, and another layer of armor formed over it.

To Thromm, the transformation meant little.

His fists kept coming.

Punch after punch hammered the combined armor like a pounding rainstorm. Korrick raised both arms to block while Merrin repositioned their legs, barely keeping them clear of the worst of the assault.

They tried to fight back.

One mechanical leg swept low across the floor toward Thromm’s legs, only to deform at the point of impact. Thromm’s body barely swayed. The recoil traveled back through the leg armor, making Merrin’s movements lag.

If they kept fighting without weapons, Thromm would eventually beat their combined body apart.