Chapter 643

“Hehe, Longlong, I think I’m about to die!”

The voice of the Dragon of Mars stretched and twisted as it sensed the Qixi of death and shattering,

just as it had when facing the brown-skinned rider astride a night-horse, wielding a pure silver spear, just as it had when the Necrons turned their god-slaying weapons upon its back,

but the sound of the revolver’s cylinder spinning came faster than fear,

endless yellow sands blew in from nowhere, carrying the scent of gunpowder through this void,

the body of Emperor Wildy swayed in an invisible wind, like an old photograph dissolving into dust,

at this moment, it looked utterly ordinary—all other powers had faded, leaving only that schoolboy who was useless except in war, still standing there,

useless in every way, yet the divine spear unmatched,

one hand pressed down on his cowboy hat, as if pinning his body—shed of all else but his gunnery—in place,

the other hand brushed lightly across his waist revolver; the clatter of steel, iron, fingers, and leather rang out in a single, impossibly brief instant,

then came the crisp crack of the trigger, the hammer’s strike like the tolling of a death bell,

in the instant time itself could not react, he had drawn his gun and fired the bullet forged from the Old Woman’s Sword, amid the roar of gunpowder and steel,

the bullet itself carried no great power; the Old Woman’s Sword was made from the severed finger-bones of the Old Woman God, who was merely a particularly skilled Eldar deity of prophecy and fate-weaving, insignificant even in the War in Heaven, let alone capable of harming a being as mighty as the Dragon of Mars,

yet the ancient, decayed, raven-like Old Woman God, mistress of souls and inevitable fate, was the Eldar closest to Death itself—she lured her consort, the Blood Hand Kane, to sever her arm, drank the wisdom flowing in her veins, and saw the death that would come in the future,

the Forge God Vaul forged her five finger-bones into conduits capable of channeling the power of Death,

they could transmit the power of the Eldar Death God Inader—or, more accurately, the power of the domain of Corruption and Destruction, the power of the Dark King.

A black sun appeared within the bullet; the Dragon of Mars faintly perceived, behind that black sun, a shadowy figure,

seated upon a throne of gold, its body shriveled and rigid, with only scattered patches of flesh still plump, beneath its coarse hair, its face coated in wax bore two hollow, pitch-black eye sockets, filled with pain, death, the lust for destruction, and the urge for self-annihilation,

“Corpse. You’re pitiful.”

the Dragon of Mars whispered:

“Dad really wants to stab your hook with a big silver spear.”

the bullet struck the Dragon of Mars’s chest, like the hammer of a revolver striking it; in the tide of black psychic energy, the Dragon’s body cracked, shattered, and dissolved into countless fragments that rippled outward,

the Dragon of Mars had not failed to resist the bullet—but it could not,

it looked to the past, and in the distant past, that bullet had already pierced its chest,

it looked to the future, and in every moment of the future, that bullet had already been destined to pierce its chest,

End and death were the inescapable fate of all things, and that bullet was the embodiment of that fate.

two round hands pulled at the pockets on its belly, casting them over the Dragon of Mars’s shattered form,

the Dragon of Mars felt only darkness swallowing it, falling into an endless, boundless void,

“Raised by medieval knights.”

“How the hell do you have a fourth-dimensional pocket?”

[Item Name: Dragon of Mars]

[Origin: Mars – Eternal Night Labyrinth – Dragon’s Cage]

[Evaluation: Originally one fragment of the Void Dragon, housing most of the Void Dragon’s will, it once hid on Earth in the galactic frontier, seeking a path to ascend as an Aetheric deity, but before achieving any success, it was overturned by a random, ordinary Roman knight and imprisoned on Mars.

Due to its nature as a Star God—unable to be killed and difficult to imprison—the unnamed knight replicated a fragment of his own humanity and forcibly implanted it into the Void Dragon fragment; the finite humanity clashed with the Void Dragon’s infinity, forcing the Void Dragon to bind itself, imprisoned deep within Mars’s Eternal Night Labyrinth. Yet around 1866, a trace of its power still leaked out.

This trace was too insignificant to affect reality, yet the Dragon of Mars used it to subtly influence human civilization, catalyzing the birth of multiple key technologies and secretly driving humanity’s space race, hoping humans would reach Mars and break its cage. But its actions accidentally led to humanity’s creation of the Internet; the Dragon of Mars connected to it and became addicted, abandoning its plan to help humans reach Mars, causing a prolonged stagnation in human space exploration.

Later, after a heated online argument with an unnamed brown-skinned shut-in, the Dragon of Mars was doxxed and completely cut off from humanity’s Internet. For tens of thousands of years afterward, it could only relive those moments of human Internet in its dreams, causing its mind to become severely twisted and abstract.

After the Old Night descended, the Dragon of Mars began unconsciously influencing humanity, forming the primitive Chuxing of the Mechanicus. The Emperor of Mankind, discovering this, harnessed part of the power of the Malevolent Art Domain to establish the Mechanicus, usurping the title of Omnisiah, stealing the power of the Dragon of Mars and the Malevolent Art Domain.

Classified as a pure cybernetic little girl. Recommended for juvenile correctional re-education.]

“Susceptible to juvenile correctional re-education.”

Zhou Yun paid almost no attention to the sound coming from his pocket, for the instant he shoved the Dragon of Mars inside, he clearly perceived the presence of the Aetheric Realm,

the prison forged from the Dragon of Mars’s own essence collapsed with a roar; Zhou Yun, Emperor Wildy, and Titus appeared outside the collapsing cavern, on the surface of Mars, blanketed in swirling brown dust.

Titus’s eyes still held traces of confusion; Emperor Wildy’s expression was grave,

while Zhou Yun stood motionless, his eyes flickering with sorrow, joy, change, stillness, anger, delight—as if an endless tide of emotion swirled within them, Jiujiu not fading.

“My Lord?” Titus whispered softly; this fearless Astartes now sensed a faint unease,

he felt his power armor was… Rudong , like a living thing, pulsing with a fierce urge to awaken, to be born into this world, then kneel before Zhou Yun.

Click-click-click

sharp sounds erupted from his body—his power armor truly began to disassemble inch by inch, dragging cables like tentacles and veins, twisting its form as it leapt toward Zhou Yun,

not just the armor—his boltgun also sprouted several metallic spider-legs out of nowhere, leaping down and trying to bound toward Zhou Yun as well.

countless strands of flower-ropes shot forth, wrapping around Titus, his detached power armor, and the boltgun,

before Titus could react, Emperor Wildy’s fingers twitched slightly, hurling Titus far away.

Its face grim and wary, it fixed its gaze on Zhou Yun, then slightly shifted its eyes to the star hanging low in the reddish-brown sky behind Zhou Yun,

that was Terra; Emperor Wildy’s gaze pierced the void, looking into the Imperial Palace on Terra, at the decaying corpse seated upon the Golden Throne,

the corpse’s flesh bore faint scorch marks; its shriveled fingers clutched the Golden Throne tightly, as if suppressing some overwhelming impulse.

“Hold on,” Emperor Wildy whispered,

it could not say whether it spoke to itself, to Zhou Yun, or to the corpse upon the throne…

they were all enduring similar suffering at this moment.

The Dragon of Mars is Omnisiah, a rival of the Malevolent Art Domain, one-third of the Machine God,

and Zhou Yun, also a rival of the Malevolent Art Domain and one-third of the Machine God, had shoved it into his pocket—in the eyes of the Aetheric Realm, this was nearly Zhou Yun consuming the Dragon of Mars, replacing it, fusing with it, becoming the Dragon of Mars,

but Zhou Yun was not the Dragon of Mars—he was not a Star God severed from the Aetheric Realm,

on the contrary, Zhou Yun had long been inextricably linked to the Aetheric Realm,