Mage Adam

Adam's work was tough. He could use his mental power to simulate parts of the Dilus being digested, but it wasn't the same, after all. He failed over a hundred times before finally capturing a whole one.

But once he managed that first step, the rest got easier.

Adam then broke down the simulated parts, and a mostly gray data chain wriggled and struggled in his hand, trying to get away. He was careful not to use too much force, afraid he might crush it.

At that moment, the doll acted again, using sealing magic to hold the data chain still.

After mechanically repeating this process for half a day, Adam finally broke down Dilus's soul completely into data chains.

Now, they floated in front of him.

Adam carefully put them back into their original shape and then enlarged them proportionally.

His avatars came forward, working in groups to analyze the differences between them and the original information.

Adam himself tried to understand what the gray energy was and why it could swallow and assimilate the Flames.

A day passed, and the avatars succeeded in their calculations, but Adam's research showed no progress. The gray energy was too complex, and he had no breakthrough.

He had to temporarily give up this idea and summarize the formulas separated by the avatars into a model, combining it with the Flames' algorithm.

The next day, the conversion succeeded. But Adam found that this was very different from magic. Since he did not understand the principles, he could not construct it using runes. It was only a tool that Adam had to recalculate every time he used it.

Adam signaled the doll to release the seal. Then, the gray chains swarmed back into the soul, and Adam threw out the model.

BOOM!

The Dilus exploded.

Ayesha knew the experiment had failed. Without a word, she fixed all the level-four Diluses present in a semi-evolved state.

After dozens of experiments and a long time of adjustments, Adam finally stabilized the model. He could now separate the unassimilated Flame information without killing the Diluses.

"I can only manage this much for now, and the method is quite troublesome," Adam said, spreading his hands to Ayesha.

Ayesha nodded, taking the model for storage.

Adam's worries were unnecessary. The Third Tower had complete ancient heritage, so their magic mostly didn't need rune groups but was directly driven by mental power and magic. This model was troublesome but not a problem for them.

She said with satisfaction, "You are indeed very good at this. I heard you refused to join the Third Tower before? Believe me, you are well-suited to our magic. Will you reconsider?"

"Sorry, I refuse."

Ayesha pouted. The doll waved its hand and slapped Adam's head twice, expressing displeasure, and shrieked, "You don't know what's good for you!"

Then, without further persuasion, she grabbed Adam by the ear and led him to the Titan lord.

The chanting of the spell echoed through the space as the Titan lord floated. The metal that made up his body silently shattered.

Nearly five hundred of Adam's avatars surrounded the floating mass of information, which had a long diameter of 400 meters and a short diameter of 150 meters. They were watching intently.

Adam himself was next to them. He simulated another information mass, marking out the streams of information that matched those in the ordinary Flames.

Every moment, countless pieces of information flashed in the eyes of each avatar. 

Three days had passed since Adam's last conversation with Ayesha. She had helped Adam stabilize the overclocked state, greatly increasing efficiency.

The experiment had reached a critical moment, and Adam began to strip the same information from the simulated mass.

Each stripping caused one of his avatars to crash. An hour later, the simulated mass before Adam still contained redundant parts.

Adam sighed deeply. He exited the overclocked state and said to Ayesha, "It's still missing some parts. Simulation won't do it. I must strip directly from the Flames. But doing this will kill the Titan lord for sure."

The chanting stopped, and Ayesha said indifferently, "Hope the sacrifices are worth it."

Adam interrupted her, "We can't do that. We should honor the deal between us."

The doll rolled her eyes and said discontentedly, "Stubborn."

Seeing that Adam remained unmoved, the doll kept her eyes rolled while inserting her fingers into her own temple. She then pulled out a creature Adam was very familiar with---a transcendent-level Greater Devil!

She threw the devil in front of Adam along with Garfield.

Sensing the presence of another of his kind, Garfield woke from his sleep. He glanced at the devil, then quickly hid behind Adam, trembling and saying, "Master, a Greater Devil! A Greater Devil!"

He had every reason to be afraid. The relationships among devils were far from harmonious. For devils, consuming their kind to absorb the same source of power was the best way to evolve, far quicker than making deals and deceiving.

Garfield's heritage was full of stories of devils battling and then devouring each other. They even had a set of convenient methods for digesting their kind.

Ayesha said, "Use your pet as the base to transform my devil. Don't worry, there will be no danger, and there are great benefits." Seeing Adam's skeptical look, Ayesha said with displeasure, "Do you think I would deceive you two little guys? Should we make a pact?"

With Ayesha's generous offer, Adam couldn't refuse. He agreed, and she took Garfield's Original Flames from his spatial body, ignoring his wails and pleas.

"Smart choice." The doll jumped down from Adam's head into his hand, signaling Adam to hold her. As he did, Adam felt an unimaginable surge of magic power fill his arm instantly, so strong that it suppressed his own existence.

"Use my magic to simulate the Flame and temporarily promote your pet. Then, using your previous method, transform the Greater Devil into the Original Flames. Be quick; you won't hold out for long," Ayesha said, walking to Adam's side and placing her hand on his shoulder to stabilize him.

A vortex of magic surrounded Garfield and the Greater Devil, the energy far exceeding the magic array Adam had built with ether crystals.

Garfield was instantly forced into the body of the Greater Devil.

Then, a massive flame shot skyward, and the transformation began immediately.

Adam could clearly see another will awakening in the flames, furious and frantically attacking Garfield, who had no ability to resist.

At this moment, Ayesha softly reprimanded, and the Greater Devil's will shattered and disappeared effortlessly.

Garfield's terrified expression turned to one of enjoyment as he felt himself growing stronger with every passing moment. His barrier to transcendent level was now as fragile as glass. His energy fluctuations grew stronger until they reached level eight and then stopped.