...and then the situation became truly awkward.
They didn't die. Neither true vampires nor flesh golems can be destroyed by a mere heart injury.
But neither of them could move. The core of the Voodoo Demon was severely damaged and needed repair, and the clone Mikket also required extensive treatment. These were injuries that they couldn't heal on the spot themselves.
The two fighters could only stand there, stuck on the floor, unable to do anything but stare at each other.
The audience of gods had just been watching them fight fiercely when suddenly both of them unleashed a full-force attack, severely injuring each other. Then, both of them collapsed to the ground, motionless like grilled saury... Is this... is this supposed to be a joke?
Fortunately, the gods were all quite patient. Everyone waited patiently for five minutes, but in the end, it was Smoke Mirror who lost his patience first:
"Master of Ceremonies! How do we calculate this?"
The master of ceremonies, the Skinflint, immediately and calmly replied: "According to custom, according to tradition, and according to the seventeenth resolution of the Third Council of Aztland, the winner will be decided when the fighter rises from the ground first and delivers the fatal blow to his opponent."
Smoke Mirror immediately retorted, "No, no, this doesn't look like either side can stand up at all!"
As the strongest deity in the biological magic system, He could tell at a glance that the two were half-dead and could not regenerate on their own unless they were left lying there for several days, which was obviously unacceptable.
The other deities in the audience gradually came to understand the true nature of the situation. However, they did not complain. Today's spectacle had already been very "rewarding" for all the gods. Now, everyone's biggest concern was the outcome of the duel—since neither side could move, who would win?
The master of ceremonies, Peeling the Skin, was now in a dilemma: in the thousands of years of history of the South American pantheon, they had never encountered such a situation in a ritual duel! Neither side died, both sides lost their ability to fight, and both sides launched key attacks at almost the same time, resulting in mutual destruction.
If we leave them alone, who will die first? But these two probably won't die even if we leave them alone.
Finally, the Skinner had no choice but to speak up: "According to tradition and law, the duel between the chief gods must be conducted under the witness of the great sun. In other words, if the two warriors have not finished their duel before sunset, the duel will be considered a draw."
"What?" Smoke Mirror frowned. "Who made this ridiculous rule?"
“It was you, Chairman,” the Skinner replied. “It was a resolution you yourself proposed at the Third Aztland Conference two thousand three hundred and thirty years ago.”
Oh dear, this is a bit awkward.
“Alright, but it’s not even two in the afternoon yet.” Smoke Mirror shook his head. “Making the audience wait here until evening? That’s not right.”
At this point, Smoke Mirror looked at Mickett, who was silent in the other private room: "My dear daughter, let's call it a draw for today, shall we? If we drag it out until dark, the whole company and both of us will lose face."
The smoke mirror's statement is not without merit.
However, the fact that such reasonable words came from the mouth of a cunning evil god only made him more wary. Mickett hesitated for a moment. Was Smoke Mirror plotting something again?
...That being said, looking at the paralyzed Voldemort on the ground, Mikkelsen didn't seem to have many other options.
“Okay. Let’s end this in a draw. But what happens after that?” She raised an eyebrow and asked, “The duel between the main gods won’t end like this, will it?”
The Skinner immediately replied, “It will not end in a draw, nor is it allowed. According to tradition and law, once the ritual of dueling between the chief gods begins, a winner must be determined before it can end. If a duel is interrupted in a draw, the next duel must be held seven days later. The ritual itself must determine a winner.”
That's alright, at least it won't really turn into a farce. It's just that I wonder what the gods and guests will think.
Thinking of this, Micket turned to look at the three bodhisattva incarnations in the VIP seats, only to see the incarnation of Guanyin Bodhisattva smiling and saying, "When guests are at home, they should follow the host's lead. What's the problem?"
If even the Bodhisattvas have no objections, then of course everyone else should have no objections too—but that's not entirely true; not all gods follow the Bodhisattvas of the Mithra Group. So why should anyone have objections? It's just another round next week, isn't it?
Even if they are too busy, they can always send an avatar or an apostle. Besides, what we saw today was more than enough to make our time worthwhile, and we even gained a lot!
So the duel between the main gods ended temporarily. Both sides' support personnel carried their warriors away to receive treatment and repairs.
The gods began to leave their seats, teleporting away as they had arrived, and many of them looked rather tense. Most of them were pondering how all they were seeing today would affect the struggle for market and divine power.
The Bodhisattvas also departed. Their vision encompassed more and farther than that of the gods. No one knew what they were contemplating.
Even the Smoke Mirror left quickly. Before leaving, He smiled at Mickett: "Good daughter, next time, in seven days, it won't end so carelessly."
Micket ignored him. She didn't leave immediately either, but stayed in her private room for a long time, lost in thought, seemingly waiting for something.
...It wasn't until a few minutes later that Hayden (and of course, the real Hayden) entered her box.
“The ritual site shouldn’t be eavesdropped on in theory. Karen is still helping me strengthen the defenses, but time is running out, so I’ll just be frank.” He scratched the back of his head, somewhat embarrassed, and asked, “When did you find out that I was Voodoo?”
Mickett smiled slightly, very dignified, yet with a hint of smugness: "The first day you helped me repair and enhance the Void Demon, I'm not stupid, Mr. Hayden. A few glances were enough to tell you and him worked together like the same person. Besides, I just lost a clone the night before last. Can't you even make that connection?"
Uh, that makes sense.
But hearing her say that, Hayden became even more puzzled: "So you just had your clone stolen, and you immediately dare to ask me, the guy who sneaked into the factory, to be your dueling proxy? Aren't you a little too bold?"
“What’s the problem? You’d never help Smoke Mirror anyway.” Mickett was amused. “What I need is someone who can help me defeat Smoke Mirror. As for you sending your clone into my factory as a spy, what’s so strange about that? Everyone’s doing similar things.”
"You want to peek at my technology? Then I'll let you use it as you please, so you can use it to strengthen my proxy fighters. Isn't that a win-win situation?"
Mickett smiled, as if what she said made perfect sense. Hayden, however, felt even more awkward—"Madam, don't you think there's something wrong with what you're saying? Don't you really think you're offering me too much?"
However, Mickett seemed genuinely oblivious. She was usually quite shrewd, yet somehow she always seemed to make foolish mistakes when it came to how Hayden was treated.
However, after finding Isam and fighting the clone today, Hayden gained a better understanding of Mickett. He began to realize that Mickett (specifically the original) wasn't really that... selfish.
She does at least have some concern for other people's feelings. Otherwise, there really wouldn't have been any need to offer Hayden so many "preferential treatments"... I guess.
Thinking about this, Hayden even felt a surge of warmth. Perhaps Mickett wasn't so bad after all?
So he scratched the back of his head and sighed, "That being said, I didn't win today."
Strange, how did his [Resurrection] spell fail?
However, to his surprise, Mickett shook his head and said, "When you pierced the clone's heart, you were already in a winning situation. The unexpected turn of events was due to unforeseen circumstances. You have proven that Voodoo's combat power is indeed superior to the clone's, and you will have another duel in seven days, so this does not count as a loss."
"Not losing means there's still a chance to win, and that's a victory in itself."
These words were exactly the same as what Karen had said to him after the New Yato incident. Hayden was somewhat surprised—Micett would actually say something like that?
Since that's the case, he took the opportunity to continue the topic, since it was indeed extremely important: "So, can the smoke mirror really completely clone you to that extent?"
After fighting the clone today, Hayden's biggest takeaway was discovering that Mickett had been pretending to be stupid all along. His biggest question was why the "resurrection" didn't work, but his biggest worry was still about the Mickett clone.
“Absolutely impossible.” But Mickett answered decisively, “He stole one of my clones a while ago. At the time, I didn’t know what he was going to do with it, but now it’s very clear. It’s impossible to completely clone my life, including my thoughts. He just used the stolen clone as a base to modify it.”
Mickett said that, and that's what she truly believed.
But Hayden knew perfectly well that wasn't the case at all! Good heavens! The stolen clone was still with the guerrillas, living as Ismail!
“I have some doubts about this.” But that’s all Hayden could say. “He has always called you his daughter and knows you inside and out. Perhaps He is your original creator and still holds your core biological data? Maybe He still has some kind of backdoor installed on you.”
Hayden isn't the only one worried about this. If there really is a backdoor, no god would dare to cooperate with Micket to deal with Smoke Mirror. Many gods are actually concerned about this now.
But Mickett's answer remained firm: "That's impossible, because my creator is not Smoke Mirror at all."
She didn't really want to talk to Hayden about it, but there was no other way now.
If the other person were someone else, she wouldn't even want to say it.
“My original creator was the ‘God of War of the South,’ ‘Hummingbird of the Left,’ ‘King of Mexico’, Vizilopochtelli, from a thousand years ago.”
After sighing, Mickett explained,
"Hundreds of years ago, when I was gradually becoming stronger, and the ancient gods of the Americas were still busy killing each other, I had already taken the opportunity to devour 'Left Hummingbird'. My self was perfected at that time. As soon as I awakened my self, I immediately destroyed all the relevant design data. Left Hummingbird was originally an enemy god who had always been at odds with Smoke Mirror, so the probability that my design blueprints would fall into its hands was very low."
"On the other hand, I'm not stupid enough to frequently create clones that could steal all my secrets. It's absolutely impossible to reverse engineer my core biological data from a clone."
Mickett was very confident about this. Therefore, based on the information she currently possessed, she didn't believe that Smoke Mirror could create her own clone. She believed that the clone must be the one that was stolen.
...Her logic was actually quite reasonable.
So the most frustrating part of this conversation was that Hayden couldn't articulate the real reasons for his disagreement, which violated several fundamental principles of collaborative discussion.
He couldn't explain why the missing clone hadn't actually been stolen by the Smoke Mirror, but rather intercepted by him, given a new name, and even volunteered to join the guerrillas—why couldn't he say? Firstly, because of the guerrillas' safety, and secondly, because of the already precarious relationship of trust between himself and Mickett. If Mickett knew that Hayden had picked up one of her clones, not only hadn't returned it to her or reported it, but had even rewritten the clone's name, Mickett would surely be furious…
Will she be furious?
Hayden suddenly felt puzzled. Mickett knew he'd infiltrated the factory as a spy using a clone, yet she wasn't angry and even played along! If Hayden told her about Isham now, would she really be furious?
He wasn't sure. Even the prophet's intuition hadn't given him an answer. Should Hayden give it a try? Perhaps, if he completely trusted Mickett, then Mickett would trust him even more, and then they could all open up to each other, cooperate sincerely, defeat the Smoke Mirror, and then unite against Mitra…
That sounds great, except for one small problem.
"Mr. Hayden, what's troubling you?" Mickett wasn't stupid; she quickly sensed that Hayden was preoccupied. "Do you know anything I don't?"
Hayden didn't answer her question directly. He thought for a moment and instead asked, "After we defeat Smoke Mirror and you become the new South American god, what new plans do you have?"
Micket frowned immediately.
After a moment of silence, she slowly began to speak:
"Once I can successfully gather the loyalty of the entire pantheon, the next step will naturally be to quickly enter the war preparedness mode against the Mithra Group. Mr. Hayden, I know you have great compassion for ordinary people, so I haven't activated the war preparedness mode yet, nor have I been operating the social machinery at full speed. But for the victory of the war, for greater interests, the sacrifice of human lives is inevitable."
"Life is power, and a large number of people is an even greater power. The great magic created by sacrificing a large number of lives can even defeat the gods."
At this point, Mickett even became quite serious.
"Without the blood of tens of thousands sacrificed, how could the Great Wall and the Tower of Immortality have been built? How could we have defeated Mithra, a god-level being, or perhaps even more powerful? Mr. Hayden, I am sincerely telling you the truth and reasoning with you. The lives of ordinary people are the resources that must be used in this war!"
"You will never succeed in defeating Mitra by fighting alone without sacrificing the lives of others!"
She genuinely believed from the bottom of her heart that what she said was not an excuse, nor was it the rhetoric of capitalists and tyrants exploiting the people. Therefore, she truly "valued" the lives of ordinary people.
...So Hayden also knew that this was the main reason why he dared not confide in Mickett.
There has always been a sad, thick barrier between them.
341: The Technology to Achieve Miracles
Everyone probably remembers what Micket said before: in order to win the duel against the gods, Hayden could use her resources and technology at will. Hayden initially thought, "Wow, that's great!" However, it wasn't until he actually saw Micket's database and witnessed firsthand how much incredible life magic technology Micket and the Smoke Mirror Company possessed that Hayden truly felt a sense of dread.
This was the first time he had ever seen all—or at least most—of a large corporation's core magical technology reserves.
Hayden had seen only a fraction of the power of Mithras and witnessed Adam usurp the power of the supreme god; he knew the supreme god was very powerful.
But he only recently realized that although Mikkelsen was not yet a main god, but merely a senior and powerful deity, her abilities were actually quite great. The full extent of her power could surpass Hayden's imagination.
She actually possessed sufficient technology and resources to improve the lives of every citizen under her rule, but she did not. Because she prioritized economic gains and social stability, she placed her hopes on money and politics. She cared deeply about how many people in her territory lived stably, but disregarded the actual survival of the people.
For Mickett, population was a resource, something that could be sacrificed in crucial moments to achieve a great victory. She valued their lives highly.
In other words, as long as the population survives and society remains stable, that's all that matters. Other minor issues are of no concern to Mickett.
Perhaps she has a point. But let's not forget, which side was Hayden on?
He always stood on the side of the suffering and oppressed people. Whoever was the oppressor, Hayden would make trouble for them. You say you're only making things difficult for the people for the greater long-term benefit, you say that the lives of the people must be sacrificed to win a great victory... Sigh, who can't say those things?
So ultimately, what Mickett wants, her values and personality, are fundamentally different from Hayden's. They aren't "comrades," so how can Hayden truly open up to her? If Hayden helps her take down the Smoke Mirror and seize the company, and then Mickett turns on him, things will get really messy. At that point, the more powerful Mickett might sacrifice even more innocent civilians.
...However, the most tragic thing is that Mickett might actually be right.
Hayden might not have been so frustrated if the vampire goddess's words hadn't hit him so hard.
As mentioned before, sacrifice is the most powerful force in South American magical culture. The people and gods here truly believe in the power of human life. They genuinely believe that sacrificing one's life can bring great power, enough to change the world. Because to take, one must first give. The sacrifice of life is a promise of victory and success.
Without sacrifice, how can you expect to succeed?
Therefore, South Americans genuinely believe in the need for sacrifice, and this is not merely an excuse used by rulers, nor is it just a pretense.
Similarly, Mikt truly believed that only by paying a tremendous price with his life could he possibly defeat an incredibly powerful enemy like Mitra.
Because Mithras is invincible and unbeatable.
To defeat an invincible enemy, a "miracle" is necessary.
The way to achieve a miracle is through sacrifice.
Only great sacrifices can bring about great miracles—this is actually the core of the great magic passed down through the South American pantheon since ancient times. It is the result of their technical and systematic use of "exchanging for miracles."
Ultimately, Mickett genuinely believed in the basic logic of this magic.
There was this difference in worldview between her and Hayden.
“...Mikttikahiva,”
So after thinking for a while, Hayden finally asked the question.
"Even if I can help you win the power of the entire Smoke Mirror Company, surpassing all previous achievements and becoming a supreme god, you'll still have to mobilize the entire manpower of South America?"
Mickett wasn't stupid. Hearing Hayden's question, she immediately understood his implication and answered decisively, "That's right, even with the power of the entire Smoke Mirror Company. One god or one large company alone cannot defeat Mitra. We must rely on their lives and great sacrifices—unless, Mr. Hayden, you have the power to join the plan right now and defeat Mitra."
There was a faint hint of sarcasm in her tone.
Hayden certainly didn't have that kind of power.
He could say he was searching, researching, upgrading, and becoming stronger in progress, but such things couldn't be determined immediately. Mickett had her own rationality and standards of judgment, and Hayden couldn't convince her with that.
What else could he say? Even sacrificing thousands of innocent lives wouldn't necessarily guarantee victory over Mitra? He could certainly say that, but Mikert would certainly retort with Hayden, "Isn't there a better way?" The answer is, there isn't yet.
But honestly, as someone from the lower classes, Hayden has something else to complain about—if sacrifice is so noble, why not sacrifice yourself first? If the gods in the smokescreen crave miracles, then they should be the ones sacrificing themselves to obtain them. Why have they been sacrificing ordinary people for hundreds and thousands of years?
But Hayden had a strong feeling that Mickert would reply, "Don't be ridiculous." She wouldn't understand that idea.
So Hayden sometimes got very annoyed with himself.
Why didn't he possess infinite divine power, so he could single-handedly defeat all the evil people and gods and keep everyone else away from this war? If he had infinite power, he would have already dragged Mithra off the moon and hanged him!