Mage Adam

The floating fortresses had a flaw---they used up a lot of energy.

Even though Adam had drawn energy-gathering magic arrays on the power cores of each city to help with this, the huge fortresses still used a lot of energy every time they moved even a little bit.

Because of this, they couldn't just fly around freely to find and destroy enemies.

This was when they needed scouts.

Some Titans, who accepted Adam's war ideas, had recently changed their thinking. They decided to evolve smaller instead of bigger, letting go of the idea that bigger is always stronger. These Titans became scouts.

Adam had his own scouts, the Forest Elves.

Both groups came back at almost the same time with the same news: "All marked warning areas on the map are empty, and the altars are gone."

In the Royal City, the Titan lords looked at each other, knowing Adam's guess was right. The Metal Eaters were indeed trying to get energy to help the Devourer. This meant that the final battle couldn't be avoided.

"Go to the Land of Divine Revelation. That will be our battlefield."

...

Every Angel's death brought the death of most of their children. Only the elite ones with the envoy title could survive. So, the Metal Eaters in the Land of Divine Revelation were fewer than the Titans thought.

The First Angel was in deep grief and fear now.

He had just killed the Third Angel with his own hands, sending him and his children to the altar.

Energy beams from the tops of ninety-nine altars connected to the hundredth altar. From the top of the hundredth altar, the energy shot into a spinning chaos.

Through the strange swirling clouds, Titania's dimming Origin could be seen, where the Devourer slept with closed eyes.

The Second Angel lay on the ground, waiting to die, with no will to resist. He was waiting for the altar to convert the just-sacrificed energy. When the conversion was done, it would be his turn to die.

"It should have been the Titans and the ordinary clan members as the sacrifices, right?" The Second Angel asked the Devourer and the First Angel, but he sounded like he was talking to himself.

The First Angel's stomach opened, and a giant eye, like a kaleidoscope, looked at the Second Angel.

"But why did it become like this? Father is a god. Aren't we god's children? Why do even god's children have to die?"

"Just angry, why go to such lengths?"

"First, you are Father's favorite child. Do you know why?"

The First Angel waited for a while, ensuring that the Devourer was busy digesting the energy and consuming the Genesis Flame. Then he answered, "Father is anxious. He said that during the second time, he sensed a hint of danger from that being from another plane."

The Second Angel moved slightly, seeming to mock, "Just because of that? Father is a god. What could possibly threaten Him?"

"You know, Father is different from us. He has more heritage. He said it is an old enemy."

The Second Angel laughed loudly, almost carelessly, "Even so, we still call Him Father. I..." The laughter stopped abruptly. "Never mind, I'm the same. I never cared about my children's lives either. We are all the same."

"It's all predestined. We were born because of Father, and we should die for Father. As long as He can defeat the enemy, we will be given new life, reborn in a new world." The First Angel said to the Second Angel, but it sounded more like he was convincing himself.

"Do you believe that? Those words?"

A deathly silence fell. The surviving Metal Eaters around the altar wished they could cut off their hearing. The conversation was too terrifying, and they forced themselves to forget it.

After a long time, the energy fluctuations in the altar stabilized.

"It's your turn now, Second, my brother." The giant eye held a terrifying grey light.

"Hehe."

"Hahahahaha!"

The ground shook.

"This is our fate."

The First Angel blinked, and energy shot out.

Suddenly, there was a loud noise from the outskirts. A transparent energy beam pierced the sky, striking the shield of the seventy-first altar.

The explosion dispersed the clouds, and both Angels, along with all the Metal Eaters, saw the approaching continent.

The Second Angel leapt up with all his strength, his eyes full of malicious delight as he looked at the floating fortresses.

Then he exploded into pieces.

"The shield is very strong. How much energy do we have left?" The 36 Lords stood side by side, and Lord Svorsi asked Adam, who was in charge of logistics.

"Enough for now. Attack with full force. Those hundred altars form a formation. If we can destroy some key nodes, we can stop the Devourer for a bit." Adam projected what he saw. Among the hundred points of light, twelve shone brightly. "Those are the ones."

The fortress operators were all Royal-level Intelligents, and Adam believed they could set the volley frequency and targets based on the information. Once the command was issued to every floating fortress, Adam turned his attention to what he could see directly. "Is that the First Angel? Quite... a peculiar appearance."

"That's right. His eye can shoot a grey beam, the same grey as the Devourer's. It's a terrifying ability. I almost died from it," Lord Fast said, still shaken from his brief encounter with the First Angel during the Seventh Angel's surprise attack. "Besides the usual energy traits, that grey beam can contaminate everything."

Contamination. Adam knew that the same grey had two different abilities. The one that nearly killed him was the Devourer's ability to consume.

The remaining transcendent Metal Eaters soared into the sky, swarming towards the fortresses. 

Lord Fast commanded, "It's your turn to act. Don't let the First Angel reach the floating cities. His power is too dangerous for us."

Adam reassured, "Don't worry about it. The First Angel is a hidden node. He can't leave the altar circle."

The other thirty-five lords nodded and transformed.

Facing this assault, the ninety-nine altars began to spin. The Metal Eaters, used as sacrifices, opened their eyes and continuously fired energy to counterattack.

Cannons roared, beams crisscrossed, and explosions chained together. Each volley claimed numerous Metal Eater lives.

The Titans' evolution made them different from regular elemental mages. They resembled technological war machines more than transcendent beings. Their combat style wasn't mysterious or strange but straightforward, creating a unique, thrilling sensory experience.

"The altars are moving! This altar formation can actually move!"