Apocalypse Forecast

Chapter 422 - 364 Waiting for the Moment_1

The day after the Metal Tree ascended into the sky, within the solitude of darkness, aside from the flashes of destruction that burst in the distance, a roaring sound emerged.

It came from beyond the city.

Apart from the loud clanging and collision of countless steel pieces, there were flecks of star-like light moving across the dark iron—the fleeting brightness of a massive welding torch in motion.

Sixteen large furnaces operated non-stop around the clock, depleting one-third of the city's metal reserves and eighty percent of its productivity. Combined with the incredible abilities of the Giant Beasts, layer upon layer of steely blue Steel Armour, glowing with a starry sheen, evenly enveloped the Behemoth's shell.

This granted the mountain-like Giant Beast invincible Armor.

It was brutish yet precise, as if an entire metallic city wall and war fortress had been carefully draped upon Huai Shi's form.

Even the RGB holy light that fanned out from his back caught a hint of iron sheen, spreading out and flowing through the sharp, radiating angles, carrying the destruction meticulously crafted by human cunning.

Radiation.

After unabashedly consuming all the radioactive dust, Huai Shi's body now showed a terrifying level of nuclear radiation. Instrument detection revealed that he had developed eight massive reaction cores internally.

It was as if eight nuclear power plants had been stuffed inside him.

But the dog himself seemed as if nothing was amiss; other than adding a pile of uranium ore to his daily meals, no abnormalities arose, and he proved to be extraordinarily resilient.

"It's one thing to suddenly evolve reactor-like organs, but why can it even refine control rods on its own? Isn't this a little too much of a cheat?"

The scholars responsible for the project scrutinized the massive creature, which seemed endless at a glance, their eyes shining brightly, "May I study it?"

Huai Shi bared a smile and raised his paw again to weld a metal badge of a Peach Feast Member onto his head, the eighth one.

Analytical reports on Huai Shi weren't lacking; in fact, he had been thoroughly scanned from the inside out the day after his arrival here.

It was then discovered that his evolutionary system—no, his very being, from the ground up—was entirely different from all known systems of Current Circumstances Creatures.

While based on the biological template of the Current Circumstances, many of its traits clearly bore the marks of Hell, that is to say, an Erosion species.

Indeed, if Erosion species were considered a threat, then the largest one from the entire Night of the Witches was right beside them. It never missed its five meals a day, eating their food, drinking their drinks, and even helping them with steelmaking and iron forging. What kind of spirit this represented was hard to say, but the fox-folk were truly frightened.

What was even more perplexing was that all of its structures had now become completely different from other creatures. No, to be more precise, these could no longer be considered within the realm of biology.

What was this? This was a moving piece of metal, steel, a mobile furnace and a dormant volcano, a monster so exaggerated in size that it could single-handedly face an apocalyptic scenario.

It defied all current biological laws and followed none of the rules known to ordinary people, as if it had emerged from a fairy tale spun from nothingness.

Yet he had stepped out of his own story and entered this place, appearing before everyone.

Utterly inconceivable.

Even the external Creators had fallen silent. This wasn't a matter of performance or functionality, nor a question of superior conception or creativity. From the very beginning, their paths were diametrically different.

The Creator behind Huai Shi had not crafted a living Giant Beast, nor had he sought replicable and falsifiable rigorous scholarship. He never even considered whether the laws and statutes he wove within the unique environment of the Night of the Witches could stand once removed from it.

Instead, treating the entire Night of the Witches as a stage and all these trials as a performance, that Creator had whimsically brought a character to life.

He hadn't pondered consequences or coherence, ignoring all elements unrelated to his inspiration. Capriciously taking up his pen, he wildly trimmed and corrected reality. In the end, he captured a multitude of features he personally cherished and planted them in the soil of reality to grow unrestrained. He sought no reward, no aftermath, nor expected any recompense beyond that.

It itself was the purpose, the answer penned by that unknown Creator—a story committed to paper on a surge of inspiration.

Besides the bygone Utopia, where else could one find people capable of manipulating phenomena so adeptly? Apart from those neurotics pursuing a perfect world, who else would harbor such naive ideas and employ such audacious methods?

External Creators had once contacted the Ivory Tower to inquire. The responses they received, without exception, were either silence or ambiguous non-answers. They neither denied nor confirmed any Professor's participation in this Night of the Witches. But indisputably, Huai Shi could now be considered a work of Utopia.

To welcome the return of their departed colleague, those precursors who had already witnessed their own end came here, contributing works originating from the same source as hers.

This was their unique form of tribute.

And now, as hundreds of giant gantry cranes retracted and countless supports collapsed thunderously, Huai Shi slowly rose from the trembling ground. As he stretched his body slightly, an ear-piercing roar of metal scraping against metal erupted.

Sparks burst, one after another, from the gaps in the Armor, glaringly bright.

As Huai Shi's movements grew increasingly violent, the earth's tremors intensified. Heavy chunks of iron, dislodged by friction and collision, broke off from his body, unstoppable.

But when the myriad iron filings slowly settled, the steel-clad Giant Beast was utterly transformed—not just in stance and shape, but as if it had undergone another Metamorphosis.

Now, with Huai Shi's every breath, a massive amount of Source Substance circulated between his Armor and his body, completely fusing the welded, riveted steel with his own shell until they were indistinguishable.

Layers of scale-like patterns emerged on the smooth Armor, resembling the tempered grain left by a master craftsman's hammer—majestic and so sharp as to forbid a direct gaze.

Facing Huai Shi, the Scholars atop the high tower couldn't help but retreat a few steps, swallowing dryly.

Under that ferocious aura, panic and regret involuntarily arose in their hearts. It was the familiar doubt and unease that blossoms in the minds of countless research fanatics when they sense something has gone awry: Was everything they had done still under their control?

If Huai Shi were to show even a hint of hostility now, the Erosion species would likely not even need to launch their "Offensive"; the Eternal Titan Empire might be reduced to ruins before other Giant Beasts even had a chance to defeat him.

"You..." It instinctively reached for the alarm button, took a deep breath, picked up the microphone, and asked somewhat hoarsely, "How do you feel?"

In the unnerving silence, Huai Shi's amber eyes looked down, examining his current body. He grinned, revealing the archetypal villainous smile from movies and dramas, causing the Scholars' hearts to sink.

And then, their hearts truly did sink.

Because Huai Shi said, "My butt itches, I want to scratch it. Can you dismantle this thing first?"

"..."

The Scholar's face twitched. He stared in astonishment, the very picture of Are you f@cking kidding me?! confusion. What kind of joke is this, man? Over six hundred people and several thousand automated machines worked for forty-eight hours straight to get this suit of Armor on you, and you want to take it off already? You've barely worn it!

"Haha, scared you, didn't I?" Huai Shi laughed triumphantly, pointing at the Scholar. Then he shook his head and said, "Just kidding... Hmm, well, it really is a bit itchy, but I can scratch it myself."

As he spoke, his sharp, heavy tail lifted and vigorously scraped against his rump, sending up a shower of intense, dazzling sparks.

Before the Scholar could say anything, Huai Shi's voice rumbled, "All of you, back off a bit... This is going to be quite a show in a moment, don't want any accidental injuries."

And so, as a piercing alarm sounded, all Evolutionary Groups within the construction site quickly boarded large transports and retreated tens of kilometers.

Then, they witnessed streaks of electric light once again emerge from Huai Shi's body as he took a deep breath.

In an instant, a wild, ice-blue flash enveloped his shell. With his roar, it erupted. Amidst a deep BUZZ, like that of innumerable bees, a thick Thunder Pillar abruptly surged from his body, soaring into the sky!

The Thunder transformed into a Sky Pillar, its light of frenzied annihilation illuminating this mad world.

Tearing through the darkness, it unleashed Space Breaks in all directions, coldly lashing this world.

Its terrifying power, hundreds of times greater than before!

Merely a slight activation of his Talent had triggered such a fearsome display. This immense amplification came not from Huai Shi himself, but from the thousands of intricate and colossal Doomsday Magnetic Field Engines beneath the Armor now encasing him.

The Scholars' ingenious, scheming designs had amplified Huai Shi's destructive power to levels beyond his own imagining. Yet, this was not for killing enemies. It was to charge the thousands of Alchemy cannons mounted on Huai Shi's back—weaponry so large that each cannon required a train for transport.

Four main cannons were mounted on his left, right, and rear, complemented by over eighty secondary cannons, and over a thousand auxiliary cannons integrated into the central grid for power shunting.

Huai Shi had become the Titan Empire's mightiest weapon: a mobile war fortress, an upgraded War Machine!

"You know," Huai Shi said, stretching his body pleasantly. He sniffed the thin air, detecting a gradually intensifying stench, as if glimpsing the grey tide roaring towards them from a thousand miles away. I actually find myself hoping they come sooner...