Adam was indeed caught off guard. He was usually eloquent and articulate, but now he was stunned.
Finally, when Adam realized what was happening, his surprise gradually turned into a surge of anger from the bottom of his heart.
But anger doesn't necessarily have to be shown. As a true social being, Adam's emotional control prevented him from easily displaying his anger on his face.
Seeing Hayden stand up from the sofa, really turning to leave, and realizing Hayden wasn't buying his tactics, Adam suddenly came up with a new solution. So, just as Hayden was about to hit the office door, Adam suddenly said coldly, "Hayden, do you think you're better than me?"
This question made Hayden chuckle: "Where do you get the confidence to think I'm not better than you?"
“Alright,” Adam smiled again. “Then let’s have a competition.”
Let's compare?
This really surprised Hayden: "What can you compete with me in? You don't mean to compete in bookkeeping, do you?"
“Of course not. Neither of us are gods yet, but Hayden, don’t you pride yourself on being the top classical magician? Then let’s compare some ancient things.”
Adam chuckled as he lightly tapped his desk.
No sooner said than done, his mere senior manager's office actually began to change. The desk, sofa, and other cumbersome items were automatically absorbed by the floor, even the walls began to recede and deform, and the large floor-to-ceiling windows were blocked off by metal panels. In just a few seconds, Adam's office had transformed into a vast, enclosed space of pure white. Hayden was momentarily stunned.
"Your company has such great benefits, that even the senior managers' offices have built-in battle arena transformation functions?" He couldn't help but ask, stroking his chin. "I want to ask Karen to make one for me when I get back."
I have to admit, this place does look like a perfect spot for a fight.
Now that things have come to this, Hayden's fighting spirit has been raised: "What's next? Is this the battlefield for our life-or-death struggle?"
“Of course not. Don’t you like playing with classical stuff? Then let’s have a classical magic duel.” Adam shook his head. “Don’t you want to reason with me? Then let’s compare strength. I’ll show you whether our statuses are equal.”
"This duel is solely for showcasing strength, so both sides will stop short of direct attacks and instead cast a spell. Each will manipulate the effects of their own spell to fight against the other. Whoever's spell is broken first loses. Pretty traditional, right?"
This... is indeed quite traditional. In fact, this is a form of magical combat among ancient sorcerers. Because magic is inherently dangerous, if two sorcerers started physically attacking each other over a quarrel, they could easily perish. Therefore, they would make a pact during arguments, and the two sorcerers would fight in a layered, indirect way, displaying their magical power to each other. Sometimes they would summon monsters, sometimes they would conjure things for each other, and sometimes they would compete to see who could solve a practical problem with magic. The winner could enjoy the thrill without risk, and the loser would realize their lack of magical power and naturally have to retreat obediently, ensuring neither side lost their life.
Of course, occasionally the two sides will play it too hard, competing with each other to see who can throw themselves into a deep fryer, and then the loser gets fried... but that's a special case, after all.
Overall, this was a common occurrence among magicians in ancient times, and it was part of the so-called "etiquette" of the feudal era, just like knights and warriors gathering to compete in archery, horsemanship, or simple hand-to-hand combat.
Thinking about this, Hayden realized—Adam, having mingled with the devil, had probably learned quite a bit from them. This guy might even know some traditional fighting techniques… but so what?
"interesting."
After a brief moment's thought, Hayden had already made up his mind. He wasn't about to back down easily in a magical duel.
“But just fighting with magic isn’t interesting. Let’s make a bet.” Then he thought for a moment and came up with another trick, “If I win, you give me the development data for the skill chip.”
Adam actually nodded: "Okay. But if you lose, I also want some technical information you have."
What did he want? The technology for the Dream Flower? Hayden quickly calculated in his mind and felt that this shouldn't be a big problem. The Dream Flower without Karen and Angela wasn't that terrifying after all. If Adam and Hayden wanted to create Angela's technology, then it was obvious that Hayden couldn't produce it at all; at most, he could only give him the wish-granting spell, which was even less of a problem.
"make a deal."
"Then the bet is settled."
Despite the challenge of a magical duel, Adam hadn't even changed his clothes or brought out any equipment; he was still wearing the same black business suit. He even gestured to Hayden, saying, "You go first, make your move."
This is truly rare. Hayden had assumed that Adam, having just insulted him, would be enraged and stab him in the back. Unexpectedly, not only did Adam not launch a sneak attack, but he even let Hayden strike first in the duel. Was Adam truly unafraid that Hayden would suddenly unleash a powerful attack after casting a spell, instantly killing him without a direct confrontation?
...Well, maybe Adam really isn't afraid. After all, Hayden simply couldn't do something like that before someone else made the first move against him. Perhaps this is what they mean by character determining destiny.
So Hayden, like a gunman drawing his weapon, pulled a rowan staff from his robes and slammed it against the white floor. A cold, metallic sound, like metal scraping against glass, immediately filled the air. Not only that, but a low, ferocious roar followed immediately. Though muffled, the sound had an extremely unsettling quality, oppressive in the chest, like a thousand needles pricking the lungs.
What kind of magic is Hayden trying to perform? It's so powerful!
The roar of that ferocious beast even made Adam's heart leap. He also felt a powerful, oppressive aura emanating from Hayden's magic.
After the piercing sound subsided, he finally saw what Hayden had conjured up.
...That was a wolf.
It was a gray-black wolf cub with dark, amber-like eyes.
Incidentally, this little wolf cub was only about the size of a Chihuahua. So for a moment, Adam was really confused—what was the point of conjuring up a Chihuahua for a magic duel? The agreed-upon rule was to "cast only one spell."
But the next second, Hayden slammed his rowan staff on the floor a second time. The little wolf cub instantly grew from the size of a Chihuahua to that of an adult wolf.
"Oh, moon, from the silvery moon, the great lord of the wind and sky. Bring me the moonlight that nourishes life!"
Hayden raised his staff, chanting as he struck it a third time. A flash of white light, and the wolf cub was now as big as a polar bear.
"This giant wolf neither enters towns nor valleys."
By the time he knocked for the fourth time, the wolf was already the size of an African elephant.
"Its hunt is solely to bring justice to the heavens!"
Each time Hayden struck the ground with his rowan moonlight staff, each incantation he uttered made the wolf cub grow larger, stronger, and more ferocious. By the time Hayden had struck it for the seventh time, a giant wolf as large as a small mountain stood before him. It howled at the rowan moonlight, its howl filled with terrifying power.
Even Adam, witnessing the entire process, couldn't help but widen his eyes and ask, "What is that?"
“I have been using and studying wolf magic.”
Hayden shrugged. Ever since he acquired werewolf magic from the Russian mafia years ago, he had been constantly improving and developing it. Now that he was a celestial being and a top-tier archmage, he could certainly put some fancy tricks up his sleeve with wolf magic.
Incidentally, the sacred beast of the goddess Hecate of the Dark Moon is also a wolf or a dog (which is essentially the same thing). And as everyone knows, Hecate is now Hayden's companion.
So now Hayden possesses incredibly powerful wolf-summoning magic. This giant wolf has the strength to fight gods. Each of its sharp, pointed teeth is as large as an adult's arm, and its grey-black mane flutters menacingly in the moonlight. Heroic warriors will be torn apart by it, and perhaps one day even gods will be swallowed whole. But Hayden hopes that its power can bring justice to mortals who have been deceived and exploited by the gods.
So Hayden called it—"This is the divine beast I created and summoned—[Fenrir the Giant Wolf]."
The power of this giant wolf was so great that even Adam would frown upon seeing it.
However, as the saying goes, in competitions and duels, the one who makes the move later often performs better than the one who makes the move first. So Adam's brow furrowed for only a moment.
“That’s interesting. I certainly can’t conjure something this big as easily as you do.”
He didn't chant any spells, nor did he produce any magical artifacts. After all, he didn't need them. Regardless of what Adam said about a magical duel, he wasn't actually a true classical magician. So instead, he raised his hand high and snapped his fingers in the white room.
Then Adam uttered a word that took Hayden by surprise!
"What I can conjure is much smaller than yours—come forth, my [Artificial Angel]!"
263: The Artificial Angel of the God of Capital
[Artificial Angels]?
What?! "Artificial angels"?!
Hayden is no longer the naive young man he was a few years ago when he first brought Angela out of the city. After the events in the Fallen City, he now understands exactly what angels are, and therefore is even more suspicious of what Angela really is.
But at that moment, Adam suddenly shouted, "[Artificial Angel], come out!", which really startled Hayden.
For a fleeting moment, a voice deep within Hayden's mind even told him that if Adam were to conjure something like Angela, Hayden would immediately disregard the rules of the contest and rush forward to strangle Adam to death.
This wasn't Hayden's usual style, but the term "artificial angel" really terrified him.
The next second, responding to its owner's call, a box-like object emerged from the white wall of Adam's office.
It was a silver cube. Each side was about a meter long, and its surface was completely smooth, without any bumps or unevenness. However, at Adam's call, the cube immediately opened. Although no seams were visible, the cube's faces suddenly began to function; its components moved, deformed, stretched, and unfolded like a Rubik's Cube, completely disappearing from its original shape in an instant, expanding in all directions.
Eventually, it transformed into a shape resembling an "opened egg" and stood upright on the ground.
At the center of that "egg" was a silver-white figure quietly curled up.
It was indeed a humanoid figure, a humanoid form. She hugged her knees, curled up like a fetus, sitting quietly in the middle of the "eggshell," with hands and feet, possessing unparalleled beauty, and a pair of folded silver-white wings behind her. In fact, everything about her was a bright silver-white.
It was a silver-white doll with the outline of a beautiful woman, wings, and a luminous body, like the moon in the sky.
In short, it was indeed a... angel-shaped doll. And anyone could see at a glance that it was a top-of-the-line, most expensive, custom-made mechanical doll.
But Hayden saw things more clearly than most people. So he knew that this doll was not simply something that surpassed existing doll machines; its level was far beyond that.
"Arise! [Artificial Angel]! Destroy that giant wolf!"
As Adam gave the command, the angel puppet, which had been hugging its knees, raised its head.
It was only then that Hayden saw the doll's face clearly for the first time. The moment he saw it, Hayden secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Because Adam hadn't actually created something exactly like Angela. Although she was far more than just a high-level combat robot, and although she certainly possessed a powerful force—Hayden's intuition didn't sense any connection between this angel doll and the colossal entity from outer space.
But more reassuring than that was the expression on the angel doll's face.
Although this angel doll had more delicate features than Angela, her indifferent face was completely expressionless. Unlike Angela, who was always smiling and cheerful, this angel doll simply wore a cold, emotionless face.
The moment Hayden saw that utterly unhappy, expressionless face, he immediately understood that this angel doll was not the same as Angela; in fact, they were vastly different. This relieved him, but... it didn't mean he could rest easy.
Hayden and Adam, each having summoned their own "summoned beasts," exchanged a final glance. Without further ado, the [Artificial Angel] calmly raised its hand high.
In her hand, a long and large object appeared out of thin air. Its main body was as thick as a cannon barrel, but the handle was as small as a toy. It was nearly two meters long, and the top split like a tuning fork... It was a very strange "spear." Just like the battle stage prepared by Adam, the creation of this [artificial angel] clearly made extensive use of spatial magic technology.
Spatial magic is incredibly expensive. The average person couldn't afford to use teleportation magic even once in their lifetime. Storage spaces are even more costly to maintain, because expanding a space isn't something you can just do and leave it; it requires continuous energy investment to sustain it (otherwise, the natural universe would gradually erase it). Hayden is quite wealthy now, and he teleports around freely, but even he hasn't created any large storage spaces for himself.
He said he would build a combat transformation space like Adam's when he got back, but as everyone knows, Hayden's personality is such that he's reluctant to waste Kallen's money like that, since it's not for anything worthwhile.
Adam certainly couldn't squander Dhritarashtra's money like Hayden did. Where would he get the money to do such things?
Regardless, it was clear that the [Artificial Angel] didn't care about Hayden's questions. She swung the summoned tuning fork spear as easily as if it were a twig, and with a whoosh, it swept across the void. This produced no visual effect, only a deafening explosion that suddenly occurred, causing a chain reaction in the surrounding space.
In response to the vibrations of the giant tuning fork, countless hazy afterimages appeared in the space, dreamlike and illusory, surging towards the giant wolf Fenrir.
Fortunately, Fenrir's speed was comparable to sound waves. Before the afterimage created by the sonic boom could catch it, it had already launched itself into the air at an even greater speed. Then, a sharp claw slammed down from above the [Artificial Angel's] head. This giant wolf's claws and fangs were as deadly and ruthless as swords of death, utterly annihilating!
Needless to say, this was some of the essential secrets Hayden learned after being struck by the [Divine Punishment Sword], which he then incorporated into the summoned beast he created! Fenrir's claws were as sharp as divine swords, each one fiercely clawing down at the [Artificial Angel's] forehead, determined to tear her apart!
[Artificial Angel] immediately raised the tuning fork gun to defend. It seemed like a casual sweep, but it skillfully blocked the wolf claw's path, and the two collided head-on.
In an instant, the tuning fork spear trembled violently, and began to flow with a melody that was almost like a tune. This melody flowed endlessly, gently "striking" at Fenrir's huge wolf claws with each beat.
Fenrir's wolf claws were actually deflected by this human-sized tuning fork!
Amidst the melody emitted by the tuning fork, a deafening "crack" was heard, and Fenrir's right forepaw was torn apart!
Seeing this, even someone as slow-witted as Hayden would understand what was going on. Even so, he was still genuinely astonished: "Musical magic!?"
This was certainly no ordinary musical magic. The instant the tuning fork vibrated and produced the melody, Hayden actually detected a hint of Angela's usual singing style in it. This was truly more terrifying than anything else!
Of course, this is by no means Angela's song, and in fact, the difference is quite significant. But listening to the melody played by the tuning fork by the "artificial angel," Hayden's intuition at that moment led him to a fitting metaphor: it was like a shadow, a shadow glimpsed from some higher, grander celestial symphony. The melody played by the tuning fork by the "artificial angel" was not the melody of this celestial song, yet it was indeed a fragment of Him.
And that is already incredibly terrifying, powerful, and horrifying!!
Thinking about this, Hayden couldn't help but ask, "Adam, what exactly is inside this angel doll shell of yours?"
The question sounded utterly ridiculous to Adam: "What are you pretending for? Hayden, isn't that why you came to see me today?"
“I know you’ve always been proud of your classical magic because you think those things are something that modern arcane industry can’t replicate or mass-produce… But you’ve clearly seen the skill education chips being tested in practice, and you still think that way? Isn’t that a bit irrational?”
Adam shrugged as he finished speaking.
"You think that the Mitra Group can't reverse engineer and use the magic of those extraterrestrial gods and so-called angels in our chips? You're really being naive."
"Don't underestimate capitalists just because you've had a bit of a lucky break, Hayden!"
264: This isn't a treasure contest, you bastard!
Don't underestimate capitalists.
When did you, Adam, become a capitalist? Aren't you just a highly skilled wage earner?
What kind of spiritual capitalist?
Hayden really wanted to complain. But he had to admit that the "artificial angel" Adam had just revealed was indeed something special.
Adam said that the Mithra Group could now store angelic magic in skill chips and let people use it at will, which sounded terrifying. Hayden was indeed startled at first, but he wasn't really stupid.
Your skill chip can hold angelic musical magic, fine, you're impressive, but skills alone aren't enough to drive the most powerful magic. Energy aside, Hayden knows the Mithra Corporation has plenty. But where does this "artificial angel," this angel puppet, get its mental and spiritual drive for magic? Hayden doesn't believe an ordinary clone could wield such powerful musical magic.
As for the melody, score, and performance techniques of this angelic music magic, where did you get them from?
These places are full of questions, and so many questions clearly suggest something sinister might be going on. Hayden isn't an idiot; he wouldn't be so easily frightened by something like this.
"Don't get too cocky. This is a contest of magic, not a contest of magical treasures. Seriously, what you did was already a foul! We're competing in magic, not magic weapons!"
So Hayden shouted.
Adam retorted confidently, "We're comparing 'a single spell effect.' A golem is certainly a complete spell effect. What's wrong with that?"
What a self-righteous statement! Hayden was stunned for a moment: Go to hell. So, my wish for Angela is also "the effect of a spell." Do you dare let me bring Angela to play with you, this "artificial angel"?
—Although he wanted to say that, it was clear there was no going back now. But there were still many things to do in this magical duel. Musical magic might still have a way of being countered.
Just as Fenrir the Giant Wolf was in grave danger, Hayden suddenly raised his Moon Staff and struck the ground. His thoughts and magic instantly traveled through the wolf, causing its amber eyes to flash with endless green flames. It raised its head and howled as if worshipping the moon. The piercing sound waves reverberated, their immense power causing even the space expanded by the magic to tremble.
The artificial angel, with her silvery-white wings—or more precisely, the gravity control system on her wings—levitated and soared through the air. However, the piercing howl that shook the space was impossible to avoid with conventional evasive maneuvers. Therefore, the angel puppet first predicted the sound based on information from its various sensors, then raised its tuning fork-like giant spear and unleashed a technique of overlapping sound projections. An incredibly profound and complex melody immediately painted mandala-like patterns in the pure white battle space.
At this moment, the [Artificial Angel] had pushed the tuning fork's power to its limit, attempting to counteract the giant wolf's howl that was trying to shatter space—however, the tuning fork's magic, when clashed with the divine beast's howl, was ultimately restrained by its compatibility. With only this single, limited tuning fork, the angel puppet could no longer completely block Fenrir's howl.
The next instant, Fenrir's massive gray wolf claws slammed down, striking half of the [Artificial Angel]'s body!