People gathered beneath that strange machine, kneeling and praying as if it were not a machine, but a god.
But that was not all.
"Ahhhhhhh!!"
Suddenly, screams began rising from the crowd. Duanmu Huai and the others could clearly see some of the people starting to shriek. Their bodies trembled, then began to swell and split apart. Gears and metal emerged from their skin, spinning as they tore through it and drew it inward.
"Ugh---!"
Seeing this, Kurokawa Akane hurriedly covered her mouth, afraid she might cry out. She could see the people's skin and the clothes they wore being gradually sucked into their bodies by the ceaseless turning and churning of the gears until they vanished without a trace. Yet although these people screamed horribly, their expressions were filled with excitement and exhilaration, as if what was happening to them was not pain at all, but something that brought them immense joy!
When they stood up, they had completely lost their human forms and had become machines! Their skin was brass, while their eyes resembled two protruding cameras. Gears and springs could be seen turning all over their joints.
Looking at them now, no one would have guessed that not long ago, they had still been human—or at least, they had still looked human.
But this was not the end.
After those people had completely transformed into robots, they let out joyful cries, then raised their arms and ran forward. Kurokawa Akane watched helplessly as the robots charged straight into the enormous machine they had worshiped, only to be mercilessly shredded and crushed by its moving parts before merging into it.
"W-what, what, what is going on?"
Although Kurokawa Akane had witnessed many things beyond her imagination since following Duanmu Huai, the absurdity of the scene before her still