Shadow of the Beautiful World

Time to enter December 2009.

It's only a few days before Christmas. The busy wasteland lord took time to visit the real world and spent a few days of beautiful and peaceful time with his family in the mysterious house.

In addition to spending time with his family, Merlin also took time to go to Las Vegas, where he sent a gift to his good friend, Miss Lingdie, and spent the Spring Festival together.

His relationship with Psylocke is the purest among the ladies.

The mutant lady with an unusually independent personality has stated long ago that the relationship between her and Merlin is just a one-night affair, and Lingdie prefers occasional passion to staying together forever.

Compared with love, Lingdie is obviously more inclined to live a life of her own.

Of course, Merlin would not force her.

After reuniting with his family, Merlin returned to the wasteland.

He is destined to be restless in the recent period, but it is not because of the rising flames of war in the hell dimension. He has no intention of joining the intrigue between the kings of hell right now.

Merlin was busy with another looming matter.

The fifth shock of Tinder is coming.

Not only the wasteland of Merlin, but also the border of hell is ready to deal with this incident.

Icarus mobilized the forces belonging to the Mechanic Cult all over the world early, ready to deal with this last large-scale and large-scale omnic awakening.

East Africa, the Nigerian prairie, not far from the Numbani Industrial Park, in a special area that has been blocked for several years.

crash

A flash of thunder streaked across the night sky, briefly illuminating the deserted land.

Cold raindrops fell from the sky, hitting the open black umbrella, making a tinkling sound.

Amanda Waller was standing under the open umbrella.

The sudden torrential rain lowered the temperature a bit, so the chief agent, who was not in good health, added a windbreaker in addition to his uniform.

Every now and then she coughs.

Behind her is a small camp, guarded by hundreds of heavily armed high-level agents and armed omnics, and in the camp, scientists recruited by the Eye of the Sky are also busy.

In this special area, there are unseen energies active.

Waller is waiting.

She made an appointment with a friend to meet here tonight.

A few minutes later, after Waller finished drinking a glass of water, a dark red light suddenly appeared in the night, like a floating will-o'-the-wisp, quickly forming a door in the halo.

Under the watchful eyes of the surrounding Sky Eye Society agents, an extremely mysterious woman dressed in a thick black ceremonial robe stepped out of the teleportation door.

She covered her face with a black hood, holding a metal scripture scroll in her left hand, and a silver-white lantern in her right hand.

The style of the lantern is quite unique, like a small meteor hammer, and it seems to be made of steel, full of futuristic handicrafts.

Icy raindrops hit the lady's robe and dripped to the ground.

And the lantern in her hand shone with a gentle white light in the rainy night. It was pulled by a slender chain on the long pole in the lady's hand, shaking in the air with the lady's forward steps.

On the lady's black robe, there is a skull emblem made of gears, which represents her identity.

Behind her, through the open dark red door, omnics stepped out one after another.

They are dressed almost exactly like this lady, holding a scroll in one hand, a lantern in the other, or a mechanical incense burner that exudes a special smell.

They stood just outside the open door, standing motionless in the rain curtain, like sculptures, full of the smell of a secret church.

Quiet, sincere, and mysterious.

These are the mechanical priests under Icarus, dedicated to preaching omnics.

You guys came on time.

In front of the group of mechanical priests who emerged from hell, Amanda Waller, who was wearing a windbreaker, coughed a few times. She stared at the leader of the mechanical priests who stood in front of her without saying a word.

she says:

Why so silent today, Ms. Hope.

Today is a big day.

Hope, who led the mechanical priest to the present world, raised his head. There was a solemn expression on the face that was very similar to the outline of a human female face.

she says:

New brethren will be born tonight, and we will lead them to our holy places as forerunners.

This is a sacred matter and it must be taken seriously.

Hope glanced at Amanda Waller, then turned his head and looked at an old man with white hair and an indifferent expression standing behind Waller.

She bent slightly towards the old man, and she said:

Your old friend asked me to say hello to you and Professor Charles, Lord Magneto Eric.

Magneto nodded to the robot, but he didn't say much.

And the reason for his presence here is also very clear.

It is to supervise the fifth impact of the fire source that will start tonight.

You have so many people here, is it enough?

Waller looked at the dozen or so mechanical priests standing outside the dark red door, and she frowned and said to Hope:

According to the data of the previous 4 fire source impacts, our scientists estimate that the number of primitive omnics that will be born tonight will not be less than 300,000 in the Numbani area alone.

If you count other fire source infection areas around the world, at least 1.4 million omnics will be born tonight. Judging from the experience of the previous four times, the fifth fire source impact will last at least half a month.

To be honest, I don't doubt the sincerity of Mechanicus, but your preparations seem to be a little insufficient?

enough.

Hope replied somewhat casually:

The number of people is not a problem. Under the watchful eye of the God of Myriad Machines, our compatriots will always be inspired by machines.

The slender young lady glanced at the brightly lit camp behind Waller, and she shook her head.

Under the watchful eyes of Waller and Magneto, Hope squatted down and put her hands on the ground wet by the night rain. She closed her eyes and sensed the surging energy beneath the ground.

After a few seconds, she said to Waller without looking back:

You can withdraw your people, Waller, the residual energy of the fire source has begun to make waves.

The impact is coming... This time will be the last time the fire source is active, and the energy it bursts out will be very strong. We can't say whether it will have a bad effect on the flesh and blood.

Waller, who was standing under the black umbrella, nodded. She took the communicator handed over by her subordinate and issued an evacuation order for each frequency band.

Ten minutes later, five black helicopters took off in the night rain, carrying the agents and researchers of the Sky Eye Society and left the infected area.

Aren't you going?

Hope glanced behind him in surprise. Waller was standing there holding an umbrella. She didn't seem to have any plans to leave.

Facing Hope's question, Waller said blankly:

I don't care anymore. In fact, if it can really transform me into a mechanical body, I'd like to thank it.

Oh yes.

Looking at Waller's pale and excessive face, Hope suddenly realized.

Amanda Waller was seriously ill with almost no cure. She also refused organ replacement for mechanical prosthetics. She was dying soon.

It would be a good thing for Waller if he was really transformed into a mechanical creature during the last impact of the fire source. The mechanical body would not be defeated by cancer.

I'm always curious, why are you so stubborn?

Hope stood up, shaking the raindrops off his fingers.

In the increasingly majestic heavy rain and the thunder and lightning buzzing from time to time in the sky, Miss Robot said to Waller in a tone familiar among friends:

As long as you nod your head, the Mechanicus will send you the best prosthetic organs. You must have a lot of scientific research results in biology. To be honest, you have many ways to cure your disease.

Waller remained silent.

Hope also seemed to have lost interest in chatting. She stood beside Waller, looking at the endless grassland in front of her.

On the ground of this fire source heavily infected area, many temporary warehouses like containers have been placed in advance, filled with discarded metal artifacts.

They are placed in every corner of the entire infected area in a precisely calculated manner, like a large coffin standing in the dark.

This is the method left by S.H.I.E.L.D. to deal with the energy impact of the fire source.

Instead of allowing those energies to diffuse into the residential area, to find and activate metal creations independently, it is better to throw away some scrapped industrial materials, various abandoned cars and electronic equipment, etc. in advance.

These mechanical garbage destined to be destroyed will disperse the impact energy of the fire source, restrain the energy that affects the flesh and blood, and consume it in the polluted area.

On the one hand, to prevent the mass emergence of new omnics from scaring the populace.

On the other hand, it can also facilitate the official containment of newborn omnics.

There have been 4 massive spark strikes over the past few years and this approach has proven to be very effective.

As soon as the newborn omnics awakened by the energy of the fire source, they will be escorted by the prepared agents to a shelter near the contaminated area.

For example, the newly born primitive omnics on this prairie will be sent to the Numbani Industrial Park.

After cleaning up its own memory data and changing its appearance, it will be put into the commercial market again as an industrial robot made by humans.

However, because of Icarus' last riot, the Numbani Industrial Park was razed to the ground, so Hope appeared here with the Mechanical Priest himself.

Since the Mechanicus created the trouble, they were responsible for solving it.

As far as I know, several other large industrial parks have been shut down one after another.

Hope stood in the increasingly majestic rain, she asked softly:

Although the construction of the omnic industry park is to deal with the impact of the fire source, the omnic industry is still a new industry in your human society.

So I'm curious, after this shock is over, what will you do with those omnic industrial parks?

she says:

Should it be discarded directly? Or continue to operate?

Abandonment is impossible.

The Celestial Eye currently maintains a cooperative relationship with the Mechanicus, so Waller can reveal a little inside information to the omnics.

Holding an umbrella, she looked at the dead grassland in front of her, and said:

Although the Numbani Consortium was established to support the omnic plan, it has been entangled with too many interests so far. Even the World Security Council cannot abandon it.

However, after the last impact of the fire source is over, the secret mission of the Onika Consortium will also end. Next, it will probably continue to exist as a purely commercial organization.

Having said that, Waller showed a smile that she didn't know whether it was mocking or sighing, and she said:

The profits it makes are too lucrative, just like a hen that lays golden eggs. Our industrial system has an almost endless demand for omnic robots. Who would shortsightedly kill the chicken to get the eggs?

Then the original omnic that was sealed in the industrial park this time...

Hope blinked, and she said:

Can you share some with us?

Do you think that's possible?

Waller looked at Hope, and she said:

Every sealed omnic is sold for money, and there is almost no manufacturing cost. Besides, the official is already very vigilant about the active mission of the Mechanicus...

It's the bottom line if we don't suppress you, you still expect us to give you more omnics?

Waller said:

Is Icarus treating us for fools?

It doesn't cost money to ask.

Hope didn't care about Waller's sarcasm. She shrugged and said:

What if your brain suddenly has a convulsion? Then we won't make a lot of money?

A robot and an agent are bickering, and Magneto's Eric next to them has no interest in participating.

He has been sensing the surrounding magnetic field, and after a few minutes, he suddenly said:

coming!

Um?

Waller turned her head, and in the heavy rain in front of her eyes, a pale electric current visible to the naked eye jumped out at the end of her vision.

It was like a flash of lightning bursting out of the ground, rushing out of the ground in the pouring rain, and the moment it touched the air, it turned into a ring-shaped shock wave with an arc of lightning, spreading in all directions.

That is the last remnant of the fire source fragments left in this land.

It is being released.

The shock wave full of energy spreads outward continuously, in Hope's eyes, it is like a rhythmically beating engine, and also like a beating heart.

wow

The unique energy storm hit Hope's body, making her thick robe rattle.

The moment the energy-filled wind touched his body, Hope immediately felt refreshed...

Well, a robot shouldn't feel this way, but when facing the Cybertronian mechanical relic, Hope really felt like his mechanical body was strengthened.

kuang

In the center of the energy storm outbreak, in the warehouse where the energy of the fire source was first contacted, an abandoned electric car shook strangely. Under Hope's gaze, it changed shape rapidly.

In the continuous transformation of the metal on the body surface, it quickly became a diminutive omnic.

It does not have the function of transformation, but it is endowed with a life and body that can truly move freely by the source of fire.

It has a pair of eyes made of headlights. In the flashing lights, the robot's eyes can't hide the blankness.

The soul of the machine is on top.

Hope grabbed her lantern, and she said to the mechanical priests who witnessed all this as if they were witnessing a miracle:

Open the scriptures and sprinkle the wisdom of the God of Myriad Chances into their bewildered hearts.

Light the lanterns, and lead them to their divinity with the hymn of machine-spirit joy.

Ring the bell, let the levers run, let the cogs roar, let the fires kindle, and light the way to the Holy Land.

Sing in unison... take them home.