Some sharp-eyed team members, who used to work at the company, noticed: "She's using arcane magic?"
That's right. Am has only used arcane magic so far. She hasn't used any of Miktikashiva's divine power, and the arcane magic she uses is just ordinary spells, not some secret technology from a major company. Anyone can learn it if they pay. It's just that as a god, she has greater energy, superior control, and faster calculation speed.
This is truly strange. Could it be... could it be that Isam is unable to use the divine power and cutting-edge secret technology from her true form?
That's actually true.
Mickett wasn't stupid when she created the clones. She knew all along that creating edible clones for herself would eventually cause problems, so she placed a seal on the clones during the creation process to prevent them from using her divine power or knowing her most cutting-edge and unique technological secrets.
(She still believes that the clones under Smoke Mirror's command stole her items and then broke the seal.)
Isam's connection was severed by Hayden, and she was given a new name. Of course, she couldn't use Micket's original resources anymore. She was indeed a minor goddess, a true god—but what was the divine authority of the God of Capital? Isam didn't own a single asset, not even a tiny bit.
So she really is a blank slate goddess.
Therefore, Am can only use arcane magic, and specifically those arcane magics that anyone can theoretically use.
However, there's nothing inherently wrong with that. As everyone knows, the strongest modern magic is the most advanced and cutting-edge arcane art.
Am desires wealth and true divine authority, but she's also quite happy using arcane magic as she is now. She's particularly skilled at time-manipulation spells, and thankfully, her original body's memories contain most of the arcane knowledge that can be bought with money worldwide.
What is arcane magic? It's not the ancient, foolish gods, nor is it an outdated antique displayed in a museum. Arcane magic is the great, standardized power of today, industrialized and modern. For Isamim (the Daughter of Tomorrow), it's also the path that leads her to a brighter tomorrow!
"What are you all standing there for? Come in right now!"
She waved to the guerrillas in the distance, then continued to order the vampires, whose limbs were out of control, to lead the way.
344: I'll have nine, you'll have one.
Stepping inside the isolation wall, there are long, seemingly endless corridors on both sides, and in front are gates leading to various sections. Simply walk straight through them to enter the core of this strange, secret base—a huge, silver-white hemisphere shaped like an inverted rice bowl.
Between the hemisphere and the isolation wall were various boxes, crates, and shelves, some clearly military supplies transported from elsewhere—weapons, clothing, medical supplies, and so on. For the guerrillas and the underground base, these were invaluable resources, even worth their own lives. The survival of thousands of lives depended on them.
So when Todd waved his hand, the guerrillas began to select and move the key targets.
Isham isn't in charge of this. Although nominally 80% of these supplies belong to her, she's not in a hurry. Having these things alone doesn't make one a god—without followers, without people to worship and seek her out, what kind of god is she, even if she saves some money? Magic and divine power have always been forged with faith.
So Amun wanted the guerrillas and underground bases to owe her money. This is a world of capitalist magic, where if you owe a god money, she will have certain powers over you... Unfortunately, Todd didn't take the bait.
But just because Todd didn't take the bait doesn't mean the other guerrillas wouldn't either.
"Guwa!"
To protect the security control room, ten war zombies drew their swords and charged towards Am. They were not zombie minions, but lesser gods, paramilitary units, and opponents to be reckoned with. They were as strong as elephants, tightly bound to the dark forces of nature by undead magic; they looked like dried, living corpses, but their cracked skin could withstand heavy machine gun fire.
However, Isham reached out to them, drawing arcane marks in the air. A sudden burst of light exploded, almost blinding everyone. Even the battle-hardened corpses groaned at the sudden light, yet continued their surging forward without slowing their pace.
Ordinary magic is useless against them. Enhancing the soldiers' magic resistance is the most basic requirement. The war corpses at the forefront swung their blades at Isiam, stirring up gusts of eerie wind, carrying with them corrosive and berserk energy.
Am calmly extended her hand, fingers spread wide, and pressed it against the war corpse's chest. It instantly became immobilized. A second later, it began to burn.
No, it turned into flames. In the blink of an eye, it was transformed into flames, enveloping Ishmael's hand, the flames outlining the silhouette of the corpse howling to the sky. Ishmael used time magic to accelerate its matter many, many times over, causing it to ignite instantly. For a moment, the light it unleashed was more brilliant than the sun, and the shapes drawn by the flames were extraordinarily dazzling.
Mortal warriors might be terrified in this situation, but undead creatures are generally fearless. The remaining war zombies continued their attack on Am. They weren't just incredibly strong zombies; they were also equipped with various combat functions by the Smoke Mirror Corporation. At this moment, they activated one of these functions: ten implanted bio-tents extended from each of their backs, each tentacle gripping a weapon—swords, spears, and halberds—all aimed at Am.
But Amu turned away indifferently, his fingertips lightly brushing against the bio-tents. Instantly, all the bio-tents seemed to gain new life, binding the war zombies tightly and securely.
Before they could break free, Am raised her hand above her head and exhaled deeply: "[Time Flies]".
Light immediately flowed from her hands, like water, or like two bolts of lightning, each striking one of the nine bound war corpses. They didn't seem to be truly electrocuted; instead, they turned into wisps of smoke with a soft "poof," leaving only their weapons and equipment lying on the ground, a scene both calm and eerie.
Am's magic was like flushing a toilet, sending them to some unknown future. Considering Earth's revolution around the sun, they'd probably just fly directly into outer space.
She slaughtered these lesser gods as easily as killing chickens. And these lesser gods' efficiency in killing mortals, well, everyone knows, is only slightly more difficult than killing chickens.
No wonder some guerrillas have stopped what they were doing and turned to watch the battle in Am. Their eyes held a mixture of hesitation, seriousness, and a mixture of awe and reverence. Because she possessed power, and she used it to help them.
Even Todd (who certainly wouldn't worship her), seeing all this, couldn't help but think about how to use Amu's power for himself and the guerrillas. Little did he know that such thoughts and ideas were actually quite similar to worship for the god of capital.
Am could see their eyes—and it felt amazing! Since being activated by Hayden, she had never felt so awake and alive. What kind of god is someone without worshippers?
"How about it?" So she walked back and raised an eyebrow at Todd. "To be able to take over the company's resources without losing any of your subordinates, that must feel pretty good, right?"
That would be wonderful! But Todd knew that Amu hadn't come here for that. Now that things had come to this, he simply asked directly, "Miss, guerrillas don't need to beat around the bush, just tell me what you want?"
Very well, Amu and Micket both liked this, so she said directly: "You are mortals, without any divine protection, and you will die miserably in battle against the corporate gods; I am a god, but I have no assets, no followers, only the power to protect you—so why not let me be your guardian deity? You should be able to see that this is what I was thinking from the beginning."
Todd nodded. "Wow, that sounds really good, but you still want to split the protection money 20/80 with us. That seems a bit too high?"
"It's just in name only."
Am waved his hand dismissively.
“I am not an old god, so I will not ask you for sacrifices. In name, 80% of what you harvest afterward will be mine, but I will not actually take it away; in name, I am your guardian god, but I will not actually order you to do anything. I will also give you new magic.”
This is mostly the truth.
Worship and wealth are both forms of power, but power doesn't necessarily have to be used directly. Often, power only needs to exist in people's eyes; it's merely a created illusion. So Eminem wasn't really lying.
But not all the time, and most of the time not all of the time.
Todd nodded again: "Sounds good, but when you need money and decide on a suitable investment opportunity, you'll come to us with contracts and agreements. If you can't come up with the money, you'll order us to do things for you to repay you. You can turn off the new magic you've given us anytime you want—Miss, we're not dealing with capitalists for the first time."
Isham finally frowned: "Today I'll help you take this base. If Miktikashiva doesn't win, you might run into other troubles tomorrow. You won't be able to defeat the Protoss then. Even the weakest Protoss can kill ten times your number. There is no true freedom without power. It's not a good idea to refuse my terms for a freedom that doesn't actually exist, is it?"
To her surprise, Todd laughed instead.
"Freedom comes at a high price, but slavery comes at an even higher price. That's why we guerrillas and underground bases fight to the death."
Todd's laughter trailed off, his expression returning to calm and seriousness.
"Besides, Miss, if you think we are completely incapable of fighting the gods, you are sorely mistaken."
……what?
This really surprised Amu.
Is Todd insane? Mortals fighting gods? Are they going to just overwhelm them with sheer numbers of deaths and sacrifices?
"Okay, at least we've exchanged our opinions."
Since that was the case, she could only shake her head, turn around and walk away to continue her attack on the secret base. Todd shrugged and went back to command his guerrillas.
The area with the isolation wall has been captured, but the inverted silver-white bowl-shaped hemisphere in front of it is the real treasure chest of this adventure!
Am is a god; her looting of peripheral military supplies is utterly useless. Fortunately, this secret base has maintenance costs completely disproportionate to its size, and the guerrillas had previously investigated the quantity of high-level materials transported in. For a small military base, the resource consumption here is simply too high.
Since Todd rejected her offer, Am could only hope to salvage some valuable items from the core area.
She walked toward the isolation door leading to the silver-white hemisphere, reaching out to break it. However, before Amu could even touch the door, it opened by itself.
Someone came out of the door. Am saw him immediately, just as she was seen before she could even hide, which startled her so much that she gasped.
Because that is a god.
"Hey, who let you sneak in?"
He was a three-meter-tall giant, clad in gleaming black armor composed of interconnected, smooth obsidian plates. The joints were devoid of leather and chains, only meticulously and intricately fitted clusters of tiny obsidian stones forming elaborate patterns. This was armor fit only for the war gods of South America.
He held a long spear in his hand, a massive lance, its spearhead a full meter long, its patterns resembling burning flames, its silver shaft reflecting light as if emanating from the sun. This was a weapon designed to slay gods and demons. It was a weapon that only a select few South American deities could wield.
This is a true god, a true god and general with the function of war.
He turned to look at what was happening inside the isolation wall, at the guerrillas carrying military supplies, and immediately understood what had happened—when Amu hacked into the isolation wall, he had turned off the alarm systems in the outer area, and the silver-white hemisphere had no idea what was going on outside. But now he finally knew.
"Hmm, not bad. At least it's more interesting than being a guard."
The young war god smiled. He glanced at Amu, but didn't recognize her. Hayden's disguise spell on her was indeed powerful.
However, Amun knew him because Mikt knew him. He was the God of War under the Smoke Mirror, a minor god who was highly regarded. His name was Broukchabtan—the god of violence, murder, and sacrifice.
And there was someone here who recognized him, even if that person had only seen him once—Gustav was helping other guerrillas. But the little war god had just stepped out of the door when Gustav saw him.
Gustav's eyes widened immediately: "It's him!"
He hadn't forgotten why he came to join the guerrillas in the first place.
The guerrillas were completely frozen in place. They hadn't anticipated this situation, nor were they capable of dealing with it—the War God race was dangerous enough, but a War God?!
Why didn't Smoke Mirror's most trusted little war god go to the capital to help him maintain security for the duel between the main gods? Is this little base more important than the security of the capital?
Fortunately, the little war god didn't care about mortals. He looked down at Amu and smiled: "I don't know you, but I can tell you have almost no divine power. You don't look like a minor guardian deity of a North American subhuman tribe either. Are you some bankrupt little god who's leading bandits to rob and make a living?"
Am's face was deathly pale, but she didn't say a word.
“It’s fine if you don’t want to talk about it.” The Little War God looked around, examining the remains of the dead bodies that Amu had blasted to death. “You hacked into the outer security system and even killed many of my men without being detected. This skill is indeed very useful for robbing small bases and research institutes. Unfortunately, you’ve chosen the wrong target today.”
It sounds like his next sentence is about to obliterate Eminem.
"Please forgive me, Your Majesty." In this critical moment, Amu frantically racked her brains, trying to think like a little adult. "I didn't know this place would be such an important asset. I just wanted to make a little money while the national security was relaxed during the Gods' duel..."
No, she shouldn't bring this up.
"Please allow us to leave. I will compensate for the damage already caused and prevent further loss to the Lord God."
What will they use to compensate?
Even Amu herself didn't know, but that was the only thing she could think of saying it that way.
So, as expected, the little war god shook his head: "You are not capable of causing more damage to the main god. The outer isolation wall is just something that will do, but the sphere behind me is something that the little god cannot open."
But looking at Amu, he smiled and said, "But at least you have the ability to hack into the isolation wall's system, so I have a better suggestion—minor gods like you, with the ability and courage to rob other gods from the outside, are rare these days. And because you are at least a god, you are more useful than the devil in some ways."
These words gave Am a very ominous feeling: "I don't quite understand what you mean."
"It's simple. From now on, I'll tell you which poorly guarded facilities to attack. That way, you won't run into trouble you can't afford to mess with, and you'll be safe during operations."
The little war god grinned.
"As for the spoils of the raid, I'll split them nine ways with you. When I'm not busy collecting debts from you, you can even keep most of the profits, continue to be called a god, and live to see today—these are incredibly generous terms. Accepting them is the wise thing to do. What do you say?"
Damn, who the hell would "cooperate" with you on these terms?
This was the first thought that came to Amu's mind after hearing these words.
The second thought was that, after she came to her senses, she finally realized how incredibly stupid she had been.
So what should she do now?
345: Ghost fights ghost
Ten minutes ago, Isham had told Todd that she should be the guerrillas' guardian and that 80% of all the profits they had taken from the company should be given to her.
Now, she's being humiliated by a sudden corporate mogul who's demanding she kneel before him like a dog, offering her a 90/10 split of profits. If she doesn't kneel, she obviously won't survive until tomorrow.
Karma comes fast. Am now knows how foolish she was. That's a good thing.
...But what should we do now?
Pretending to agree to let this little war god get through today seems easy enough, but Am suspects he's not as naive as she is. He'll definitely do something to her first to secure the deal.
Hayden used some cognitive distortion magic on her beforehand, so that mortals and even weaker gods couldn't tell that Am was a clone of Mikkert—it turns out that Hayden was really good at this kind of trick—but as long as a great god who knew Mikkert saw it, she would definitely be exposed.
Am was thinking, desperately thinking. Fortunately, she hadn't given up hope. Since the moment she was activated, she hadn't been in control of anything, so even though she felt powerless, Am wouldn't despair. She was still thinking, still looking for an opportunity.
Is it really a dead end?
There are methods.
Because there are other "on-site resources" besides her.
...It was only then that Am realized that while she was being entangled by the little war god Brukchabtan, and while the little war god was talking to her, Todd and his guerrillas had actually been secretly carrying out their mission.
They didn't do anything particularly eye-catching; they simply recovered quickly from their initial shock, then huddled together in a rustling manner, doing things that even Amu couldn't clearly see.
Meanwhile, the young god of war was completely focused on Amu, not even glancing at them. He probably completely forgot there was a group of mortals there. Both old and new gods can easily overlook mortals.
Isham narrowed her eyes. She had made a decision.
"Your Majesty, I am very interested in your proposal, but a 10/90 split is really too little. I can't even support my army like that."
She looked up, spoke in a serious tone, and even raised one hand to project the expense section.
"I think we should be fair, for example..."
Whether he was amused or not, the little warrior actually leaned over to look at the program schedule projected by Amu.
At such close range, it's impossible for Am to do anything under the nose of a combat-type minor god. Her reaction speed is slower than that of a war god, and arcane spell casting time is indeed a bit slower than that of divine spells.
But there are other people here. Some that the little warriors wouldn't even notice. When Amu gets the little warriors' attention, they can do some—oh dear, really crazy things.
Gustav raised his heavy bio-pistol and fired three shots at the little war god's head.
The little war god wasn't wearing a helmet, only a hat with a black feather stuck in it. But that didn't matter. A mortal's pistol couldn't possibly pierce a true god's face, no matter how much it was modified or strengthened. The little war god turned his head, looking very surprised, as if he had just remembered that there was a group of mortals here.