They stopped chanting scriptures, or at least stopped reciting scriptures praising the gods and bodhisattvas. Instead, they began to sing incredible hymns in unison!
What they sang were the glory and eternity created by the new humanity on earth. They were the sacred hymns of how their ancestors united the world and built new cities and new nations! Therefore, holy light began to emanate from these intensely activated brains, flickering like breath.
At the same time, the Holy Vial opened automatically, splitting into two halves. Holy light burned Adam's clothes to ashes, revealing his well-trained and muscular body. Then, the Holy Vial closed, enveloping him like a fetus in a womb, and automatically filled with a mysterious alchemical potion similar to amniotic fluid. The potion-filled Holy Vial immediately became like a lens, focusing the holy light shining from hundreds of thousands of brains onto the bottle and onto Adam.
In the blink of an eye! Under the focused light and within the alchemical elixir, Adam's body ignited with golden flames, rapidly disintegrating his flesh! The excruciating pain of being sliced apart was indescribable, beyond reason; Adam screamed in agony, his eyes wide open, as if his eyeballs would burst from their sockets. The sudden surge of holy light even burned away his retinas!
Not only that, but the rate of decomposition was terrifyingly fast. Almost instantly, nearly half of Adam's body, starting from his hands and feet, had been broken down!
Accompanied by even stronger, excruciating nerve pain, a second premonition of death surged into his mind, blaring a loud alarm in Adam's head, screaming in his brain—Stop! Stop the fuck!
Death, that futile alarm, was the feeling of death. It was so intense that Adam knew he was about to die…
...But will he really die? Die so ridiculously in the ascension ritual he prepared himself?
No, Adam would never die such a pathetic and laughable death! Only ordinary people, the inferiors in his eyes, who live their lives in humiliation, submitting to fate like lice and ants, would die like clowns!
Could ants and humans be the same creature? He was Adam. Such a thoughtful and ambitious individual was no mere ant! From birth, he vowed to be a hero, not a blade of grass! From birth, he vowed to stand atop the world, scorning the lowly cowards!
The thought of death filled his mind, but would he die? Would he die so ridiculously here, dying like an ant?
Fuck it!
"Activate the sympathetic resonance circuit!"
Ignoring the most terrible pain in the world, Adam squeezed out his last bit of will and strength from his mangled body and cried out loudly within the Holy Grail.
"The Third Stage of the Name-Transforming and Fate-Breaking Ritual! [Kowtowing Insects], quickly bear my name! Then let me write a new destiny! Let the greatest and supreme divine power enter my newborn body!"
"At that time, I will achieve perfection! Adam Smith will ascend to the state of the First One (adam·kadmon)! The beginning of a new world!"
The final declaration activated the final switch. The holy light, focused by the Holy Bottle, completely incinerated Adam's entire body. Every single cell in his body was destroyed in that instant, leaving not a trace of DNA. The last remnant of Adam in the material world was also utterly erased.
So, did he just die like that?
If the laws of fate were to work as they do, Adam would actually have died here.
However, at this very moment, an invisible force seemed to change Adam's fate.
Therefore, in the next instant, the [Holy Bottle] suddenly emitted countless beams of light. The scattering light illuminated the entire thirteenth underground level as if it were under direct sunlight. That burst of light dispelled the shadow of death!
"Oh oh ...
Then came a roar, like the cry of a newborn baby, stirring up a fierce wind in the enclosed underground space.
The Holy Bottle also exploded in the storm and light, shattering into countless fragments.
The melody that came from the heavens not only harmoniously resurrected Adam's burned body, but also rewrote his new form. His mortal body was erased by holy light, but a purer form began to emerge from the material world. Something more immortal, constructed of transcendent light, began to take shape.
In the blink of an eye, Adam's lost body was rebuilt. His reconstructed skin shimmered as if studded with millions of tiny diamonds; his bones were reassembled and polished into the hardest substance in the universe; his reconstructed heart possessed explosive power stronger than a nuclear reactor! The mortal body that had just vanished into dust had now been reshaped by supernatural matter!
Adam Kadmon stood up proudly and spread his arms.
God has truly been born. His body is perfect, even flawless. Tall and majestic, he radiates divine light. Adam's current feelings and thoughts allow him to fully understand just how powerful he is.
He has already written a new destiny for himself. He is indeed a god now.
Not only that, Adam also prepared a retinue of gods for himself. Along with the Holy Enchanted Bottle, hundreds of thousands of translucent boxes containing cloned brains exploded. However, these hundreds of thousands of brains, having lost their boxes, did not fall to the ground. Because these brains already bore the name "Adam."
A powerful spiritual force surged from these minds, allowing them to levitate in mid-air and continually thank and worship Adam, their fathers, their God!
Hundreds of thousands of brains, suspended in mid-air and interconnected via chips, linked by the name "Adam," now swarm around Adam Cardomion like devout followers, offering their praise! For they are no longer mere tool brains. They have gained intelligence, consciousness, and even immense power! They are a new kind of humanity, Adam Cardomion's benevolent race!
...To be honest, the scene was a bit frightening, but Adam didn't seem to care. In fact, this was Adam's original plan. After all, most humans in this world were shallow and foolish, lacking thought and value, mindlessly drifting through their days. Therefore, for Adam to create and lead a new kind of humanity, all he needed was a brain and the power of thought. What use were the other, cumbersome organs?
(As for why he still has a two-meter-tall, robust, and perfectly human-shaped body, and even an erect penis, that's another matter. After all, Adam has always felt that he is special.)
In short, possessing true divine power, nearly a million divine followers, invincible chip technology, and a perpetual motion machine of the brain, Adam no longer needs to hitch a ride on the fallen angels' coattails. He has become a legitimate new god of capitalism, and may even become an independent supreme god!
Let those laughable devils clash with Mithras head-on and get beaten to a pulp! Adam is free! In time, he will use his wisdom and cunning to surpass Mithras and stand at the pinnacle of the gods!
"Adam, what on earth is going on!?"
A voice suddenly came from the entrance to the room. Adam didn't need to turn around; his heightened senses told him it was his fallen angel wife who had barged in. This wasn't surprising; in fact, it was perfect timing—he could use this opportunity to break ties with her…
……Um?
Suddenly, Adam's lightning-fast thinking led him to a strange discrepancy. Why hadn't his protective magic and senses warned him when the fake Alicia entered or even approached the room?
He quickly turned around and looked over, only to find the fallen angel staring blankly at him, at his newly reconstructed divine body, and at the hundreds of thousands of brain-based gods floating around him, worshipping him incessantly.
Adam immediately wanted to seize the opportunity to attack—but then, in a moment of extreme terror, he discovered that he couldn't even raise his fist to her!
What the hell is going on?!
"Adam, I never expected this..."
The fallen angel continued to stare at Adam, and said blankly,
"...I really didn't expect you to prepare such a big surprise for me!"
As she spoke, she was so moved that tears welled up in her eyes, and she even reached out to wipe them away.
"I had always suspected you had ulterior motives, but it turns out I was just being cynical! Your ulterior motive was to prepare such a wonderful gift for me!"
“We were supposed to spend at least two or three months building up resentment among the citizens of New Jersey, planting enough seeds of discontent. But you’ve done an even better job than I planned! Now it’s time to overthrow Mitra’s tyranny!”
Before he could finish speaking, the fallen angel hugged Adam tightly: "Darling, I love you so much! *kiss*"
Not only that, but she also possessed astonishing divine power that was on par with Adam's, in fact, completely equal to him!
At the same time, Adam was suddenly struck by an even greater shock—in the realm of the unseen, he had already come to regard his fallen angel wife as one!
What the hell is going on?!?!
284: Bombard the Moon!
Frankly, Adam couldn't understand why things had turned out this way.
Even after hearing what the fake Alicia said, Adam could only understand part of it. Fortunately, he wasn't stupid, and now he had an incredibly fast thinking ability. Even if he didn't understand the principles, knowing the effect was enough.
In short, a mysterious force unknown to Adam connected him with the fake Alicia. Just as Adam ascended to godhood through the [Name-Breaking Ritual], this mysterious force also pulled his demon wife along, causing her power to surge.
Strangely enough, the [Name-Breaking Ritual] that Adam just performed somehow extended its effects to the fake Alicia, meaning that she also underwent the same ritual, breaking and creating a new destiny—a destiny linked to Adam.
This mysterious power and connection metaphysically united Adam and the pseudo-Alicia, making them completely equal. Furthermore, Adam's power cannot attack the pseudo-Alicia, and vice versa. Their protective magic cannot even target each other, because magically they are one.
Sounds good, right? After all, they've both become incredibly strong now!
But after Adam figured all this out, the first thing that came to his mind was—he was doomed.
He originally intended to first become the new god of capitalism, then seize the opportunity to consolidate and expand his power, ultimately surpassing Mithras to climb to the top of the gods. But clearly, given the current situation, capitalist society simply cannot accept a new god so deeply bound to fallen angels. Even if they reluctantly accepted him, Adam's foundation is already destroyed.
Now, Adam could no longer sever ties with the old gods and demons; there was no way he could jump ship. In fact, he wasn't even sure if he would be metaphysically affected if the fake Alicia were to suffer any consequences—the two of them were probably already bound together on a fateful level.
...Since that's the case, we might as well follow the devils down this dark path.
One of Adam's strengths was his exceptional adaptability to his environment, far surpassing that of Hayden.
"Your Highness, let us join together to overthrow Mitra's tyranny!"
He hugged his devilish wife and said with a sincere expression.
The fallen angel happily embraced him. The couple appeared very loving, but only Adam knew that his heart was bleeding.
However, Adam was quite adaptable. He wouldn't panic at suddenly falling from the sky, because panic would be useless. Even if he fell to the ground, he'd still grab a handful of mud when he got up. Since there was no chance of escaping the chariot of the Old Gods, he might as well accept it.
So he quickly switched gears and began thinking about how to go all the way down this path, how to truly defeat Mithras… Honestly, this was extremely difficult, but complaining was useless, right? He wasn't an ant. Adam was a man of thought and wisdom, determined to climb to the top of the tower!
Think, my brain! Find a solution to this problem!
—Whether it was because Adam now truly possessed divine wisdom and a brain, he actually came up with a solution immediately.
So while thinking, Adam tried to ask, "Princess, you said that we would have needed at least two or three months to slowly accumulate the resentment of the citizens of New Seattle and plant enough seeds—but now that we have these hundreds of thousands of brain-bound new gods, the former doesn't need to be prepared anymore, right?"
“Of course. Nearly a million new gods, and brain gods who specialize in mental and intellectual power, can provide more psychic energy than ten million or even a hundred million mortals.” The fallen angel raised an eyebrow. “Moreover, these new gods love and worship you wholeheartedly. This is certainly more useful than the resentment and despair of the citizens of New Seattle.”
“Grief and hatred are also the other side of love, and therefore they are very powerful. But positive forces are always more useful than negative ones. If you can have the love of a hundred million people, who would want the hatred of ten million?”
It's true that demons are adept at using negative mental energy. But if positive faith and love were available, who would want to wallow in resentment and hatred all day? It's only because the remaining demons have been driven to the Middle East and Africa to eke out a living that they've resorted to such desperate measures as using negative forces.
This is actually similar to Astaroth. She didn't want to create some kind of bizarre tourist area in the Dead Sea, and then have to fawn over the gods and act as a waitress. But she was bankrupt and had to pay off her debts; how could she care about anything else?
"Now that we have nearly a million new god-kind followers, we no longer need to use the ten million citizens of New Jersey. We can just leave them alone."
That's what the fake Alicia said.
Hearing her say this, Adam asked thoughtfully, "Your Highness, didn't you say before that you wanted to pamper and spoil the mortal race? If we go to war with the Mithra Group in New Asia, the mortal citizens here will probably be killed by the aftershocks. Is that alright?"
"What's the problem? The reason we need to support mortals is so that we have objects to love." The fallen angel waved his hand. "The power of love can only be activated by others. So we originally needed mortals. But now that you've created a more useful new human race, we don't need to pamper ordinary humans anymore."
As she said this, she looked again at the floating brains surrounding Adam, who were constantly worshipping him, and revealed a satisfied and somewhat indulgent... almost bewitching smile.
“You are already the father and ancestor of this new human race, aren’t you? They respect us, and we cherish them. This is already an infinitely overflowing and infinitely large cycle of the strongest power. There is no need for the old humans to get involved.”
The fallen angel spoke these words without the slightest hesitation. Her alluring smile was simply beautiful.
Adam finally understood something further.
Some feelings can't be adequately described with "I see"... but anyway, I see. So-called fallen angels are really like this. Even if the out-of-control servants wanted to raise humans, they wouldn't necessarily need to raise the specific types of humans they currently have. As long as they're human, that's fine, so the easier the humans are to raise, the more convenient... like new humans who are just brains.
...Actually, this kind of thinking is quite similar to Adam's own, except that Adam was ultimately only at the level of human thought. Indeed, the two of them really were a match made in heaven.
So while Adam absentmindedly echoed the fallen angel's words, he began to think about other things: things that weren't on his side, but on Hayden's side.
"The [Kowtowing Bug] system has been activated into a new human brain. Although I can still hide it and delay for a while, the company's higher-ups will eventually discover that there is a problem with the system here. Since that's the case, there's no need to delay for another two or three months, lest things get complicated and we end up in a passive position."
After a while, Adam said this.
"Your Highness, let us immediately raise the banner of rebellion against the Mithra Group! Our first attack will target the group's core base, with the goal of eliminating Mithra Bodhisattva first!"
"Once Mithra Bodhisattva falls, the entire group, no matter how much resources and power it possesses, will be leaderless. The remaining seven Bodhisattvas also have their own agendas, and it will certainly be difficult for them to decide who will succeed them as commander-in-chief in a short period of time. This is where our chance of victory lies!"
At least that's what he said.
Whether the fake Alicia believed him or not was anyone's guess. However, she certainly believed that her and Adam's newly acquired, astonishing power was enough to defeat Mitra, or at least had a chance of doing so!
As for whether this is confidence or arrogance... well, only time will tell.
——————————————————————————————
New York
This city has been adorned with fantasy from the very beginning; it is a soap bubble of fantasy decorated by the gods of capital, like a maze or a castle built on sand.
Even tonight, under the night sky, she still shines brightly. The neon lights embedded in the skyscrapers glitter like shattered jewels, scattered in the hazy darkness. In comparison, the stars in the inky sky seem dimmed.
Many cities have their own nicknames, which may seem arbitrary but are usually rooted in something about the city or tell you something about its history. New Jersey is no exception; it is often called the Emerald City because the city, under the deliberate design and construction of the Mitra Group, is as beautiful as an emerald gem.
But when people gave New Jersey this nickname, did they ever consider that in older fairy tales, there was once a city called "Emerald City"?
In that old fairy tale, everyone who came to the Emerald City was required to wear green glasses, believing this would protect their eyes from the city's blinding light. And when looking through the glasses, everything in the Emerald City appeared green. In reality, this was a deception orchestrated by the city's lord, the great wizard Oz. He claimed that the Emerald City he built was truly composed entirely of green emeralds and ordered everyone in the city to wear green glasses. However, the green they saw was simply a result of the lenses on their faces.
So, the person who gave New Jersey the nickname "Emerald City" might have done it on purpose from the very beginning, right?
These temple-like skyscrapers, constantly monitored by the astral network, made the city truly appear as beautiful as a fantasy. In other words, the city's beauty was nothing more than a figment of imagination. Since the skill chips burst the bubble everyone held in their hearts, the city's beauty vanished.
In the very center of New Jersey stands a colossal tower. The Mitra Corporation's New Jersey branch building. It boasts 180 stories, taller than any other building in New Jersey, even taller than the ancient Space Needle. The difference in building height is like an insurmountable class divide between gods and mortals.
Adam and his fallen angel wife had now reached the top of this skyscraper. Now, the only thing higher than them was the golden light radiating from the spire, like a beacon of power.
In this city, this building is indeed a symbol of the new divine order. Even though the [Bójīn] incident a few years ago forced the Mithra Group to allow two other large companies to enter the Evergreen State market and break New Yatu's monopoly, the Mithra Group is still the true king of New Yatu.
...But that won't be the case from now on.
Why did Adam and the fake Alicia come to this open space? Weren't they supposed to be overthrowing Mithra's tyranny? What are they doing climbing to the top of the tower? Are they planning to blow up the building and call it overthrowing Mithra?
Of course not. What they are attacking now is not any of Mithra's symbols—but the very essence of Mithra Bodhisattva!
So where is the true form of Mithra Bodhisattva?
Of course—it's in the sky!
Adam, now truly God, stretched out his hands. His left hand clasped the right hand of the fallen angel. His own right hand was raised high, pointing towards the night sky above. The full moon hung high in the night sky, clearly visible. In fact, the full moon was almost blindingly bright to Adam in his present state.
As is widely known, the abode of the Bodhisattva Mithra, the company base where he has lived for many years, is on the moon.
If someone could stand on Earth and snipe at the Moon, it might be possible to ambush and kill Mithra Bodhisattva. But the Earth and the Moon are 384400 kilometers apart; who has such power? Master Roshi? Did Adam, who became a god, possess such strength?
...The world will soon see.
Adam himself was quite frustrated. When he finally obtained the power that should have made him invincible, some completely unexpected circumstances trapped him on the devil's chariot, preventing him from cutting through it.
It was as if fate had decreed that he would never be allowed to experience the joy of invincibility, but instead be forced to taste the feeling of being toyed with by destiny... even though he had already changed his fate through the [Transformation of Name and Breaking of Fate Secret Ritual].
But Adam was never one to complain about his circumstances. Faced with this "fate," he would never sit idly by and wait for his fate!