The False Love

Maria looked around the Haisha Bar.

Naturally, she also saw the virtual scene Zero had reconstructed using Changdian Data Reshaping. One by one, figures had been projected into place like sculptures.

The most striking of them was undoubtedly the two-meter-tall young man, a mechanical giant who had been modified by Zero and was now unconsciously shielded behind her. He immediately caught the nun's attention.

At first, Maria merely furrowed her brow.

Then—

Her gaze fell on the mechanical giant's face. It was the one place Zero had preserved well enough for anyone to recognize what the young man had looked like before.

The nun's body visibly stiffened.

A second later, Maria lowered her head. Her bangs cast a shadow over her forehead, hiding her expression from everyone else.

Across from her, however—

The six remaining members of the Emergency Rescue Squad had already drawn their firearms. In the blink of an eye, six red laser sights locked onto the nun, sweeping across Maria's vital spots as they stood ready to pull the triggers at any moment.

The Emergency Rescue Squad was famous for more than its medical expertise. Its combat abilities were just as important. That was why it had become the medical insurance provider of choice for nearly every bigwig in the Mechanical Alliance.

There was a classic story about the Emergency Rescue Squad. Two major arms dealers in the Mechanical Alliance had been locked in a business rivalry. One of them had kidnapped the other's daughter, triggering the Platinum-tier package she had with the Squad. Within minutes, the fully armed team had stormed the kidnappers' headquarters, cut through the arms dealer's entire security force, and successfully rescued the young heiress.

After that, no one in the Mechanical Alliance dared go without Emergency Rescue Squad coverage. Nobody wanted their rival's team to save someone and wipe them out in the process.

"Warning! Aggressive behavior detected. Please drop your weapons immediately, raise your hands, and state your identity and purpose. Otherwise, the Emergency Rescue Squad will consider you a hostile target!"

"Warning! Warning!"

Dangerous red lights flashed in the eyes of the six maid-like rescue units. Their cold, mechanical voices echoed through the Haisha Bar.

But the response they received was—

"How dare you."

Maria finally spoke.

She raised her lowered head, revealing eyes that had turned scarlet and an expression twisted into something terrifying.

Dense red mist—the telltale sign of Corrupt Calamity—began to billow around Maria. Sharp nails pierced her white gloves. Her nun's hat had vanished, replaced by a Crown of Thorns that seemed woven from blood and slaughter.

An uncontrollable rage, like a volcanic eruption, burst forth in a scream.

"How dare you turn my beloved Ash into—"

"—this..."

"Ugly freak!!!"

Maria had followed the Knights Order's report to the Haisha Bar. The moment she saw Zero, she knew she had come to the right place. In this world, only one person could make the five of them travel any distance to come in person: the Great Emperor.

The nun knew this wasn't the real young man, merely a "replica projection" created by Zero's ability. Even so, she couldn't accept it. Fury blazed within her.

The nun's bloodcurdling scream was followed by an even greater surge of Corrupt Calamity's red mist.

The entire backdrop of the Haisha Bar turned blood-red. On Zero's eyepiece, the reading for the area's Corrupt Calamity contamination had already reached Rank A.

[Data anomaly.]

[Reanalyzing enemy identity.]

The moment Maria appeared, Zero had compared her against the database and concluded that she was a Light Bearer, a Corrupted secretly cultivated by the Holy Kingdom's Church and part of a covert unit that usually operated behind the scenes.

But Maria's words, her attitude toward Lord Ash's projection, and the Corrupt Calamity emanating from her now had all overturned Zero's earlier conclusion.

After a brief second round of calculations, Zero identified Maria's true identity.

"Stia, the Corrupt Calamity fluctuations within you have exceeded the critical threshold. Please withdraw your consciousness from this body, which does not belong to you, immediately. If you continue, you will suffer severe, irreversible contamination."

Zero had barely finished speaking when the nun vanished. A moment later, a head was flung into the air. It traced an arc before rolling to a stop at Zero's feet.

In its place, one of the Emergency Rescue Squad's mechanical maids stood with nothing but sparks flying from her severed neck.

As the maid fell, the figure behind her came into view. Maria—no, Stia—held a blood scythe that had appeared from nowhere, formed entirely from Corrupt Calamity. It was the weapon she had used to kill the maid.

Her actions spoke for themselves.

Before, Stia had still harbored a trace of hesitation about claiming Liao Ji for herself alone.

But after seeing Zero's "atrocities" against Liao Ji, Stia no longer felt the slightest restraint or regret.

She even felt a little pleased.

Because—

Just as she had thought.

Once Lord Ash lost his power, those "false loves" would show their true colors and betray him without a second thought.

And that was when she could truly prove herself: prove that her love was genuine, and that she would love Lord Ash eternally, unchanged both inside and out.

A crazed smile tugged at Stia's lips, but fury and hatred burned in her eyes.

Seeing Zero again brought back all the memories of five hundred years ago, back in the Wasteland era. She had tried to bury those scenes in a corner of her mind, but in the end they remained as clear as ever.

"Hehehehe... Zero, after all this time, are you still going to put on that harmless, goody-two-shoes act in front of me?"

"I was so naive back then. I trusted you because you looked like that, and you took away my right to dress Lord Ash, wash him, clean, cook, and make his bed. You took away every last one of my duties helping with his daily life!"

Zero said, "Stia, as a domestic mechanical maid, those things were my job."

"But those jobs were mine to begin with. Mine alone!"

Stia's furious scream cut Zero off.

"And what about after that? Lord Ash gave you the Brand that should have been mine. He gave you the Corrupted Crystals that should have been used to increase my strength. And—and you even took the ring I loved most! It was my equipment, the token of love between Lord Ash and me. You—you had no right to wear my ring!"

"Were those things part of your job too?!"

The nun's accusation met with an expressionless, calm reply from Zero.

"Stia, Lord Ash was simply distributing resources appropriately at the time. Your healing abilities were indeed powerful, but back then Lord Ash needed a strong means of attack more. That's why he chose me and Jiu You."

"Besides, Lord Ash didn't forget you. After every battle, he still gave you some of the Corrupted Crystals. He even set aside a portion of the precious Corrupted Source Essence for you, to help you unlock your potential and break your restraints, so you could keep pace with us. Though, in my opinion, that was a complete waste of resources."

That last remark—"a waste of resources"—struck Stia like a deep wound.

It reminded her of those days when she could only watch Lord Ash leave on expeditions with other Corrupted while she stayed behind. On countless lonely nights, she had recalled those earliest memories, from when Lord Ash had only just begun his journey and the two of them fought side by side. But the more she remembered, the more it hurt.

She had longed to stay by Lord Ash's side, to keep fighting alongside him. But as Zero had said, her holy light could only heal, while Lord Ash needed slaughter.

So... so...

"Hehehehe... Zero, you're right. Five hundred years ago, I was a fool. And because I was such a fool, you—you despicable latecomers—got the chance to steal Lord Ash away from me!"

"But I'm different now, Zero. Do you see? I've learned to kill, too. I can reap lives one after another, just like you! If that's what Lord Ash wants, then what does it matter if I abandon the holy light?"

As she spoke, Stia seemed determined to prove herself. She rose onto her toes, and the next instant, her figure appeared behind another Emergency Rescue Squad maid like a ghost.

The rescue maids were genuine mechanical androids, constructed entirely from cybernetic bodies. Their strength depended on the package tier chosen by the client.

The Silver-tier package came with a D-rank cybernetic body, while Gold-tier came with a C-rank body. The highest, Platinum-tier package equipped every part of the maids with terrifying B-rank cybernetics. Each one cost over a million Ash Coins.

Cybernetic bodies were usually one rank weaker than Corrupted. So a B-rank android corresponded to a Danger Rank Corrupted. Five hundred years later, in this relatively peaceful world where Corrupt Calamity levels had dropped dramatically, even one Danger Rank Corrupted was rare. Yet this single Emergency Rescue Squad had the equivalent of seven of them!

That kind of force could crush any number of small or midsized powers across the world. But against Stia, even while she was "using" someone else's body, it was nowhere near enough.

B-rank cybernetics had fast neural transmission, but their reaction speed still couldn't keep up with Stia's blood scythe. Another rescue maid's head went flying through the air.

The four remaining maids didn't panic. That was the advantage of machines: emotions couldn't sway them. They seized the brief opening while Stia was recovering from her attack, pulled their triggers, and unleashed a storm of bullets at the nun shrouded in red mist.

Their guns were high-end models, too. They were military weapons made by Kaier Technology, equipped with Kinetic Acceleration devices on their bullets and Ballistic Coordination Processing chips in their frames. The chips gave the bullets tracking and ricochet capabilities, with an accuracy rate of up to ninety percent.

Unfortunately, even the most accurate bullet was useless if it couldn't pierce its target's defenses. The red mist surrounding Stia was like an incredibly tough net, stopping every kinetic bullet and keeping them from advancing another inch.

Then Stia swung her scythe and struck the bullets, sending them flying back along their original trajectories at tremendous speed.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Two of the maids were unlucky enough to be riddled with bullets of their own. The two remaining members of the Emergency Rescue Squad saw that their ranged attacks weren't working, so they abandoned their guns and charged in for close combat.

They were equipped with the latest military S-11 neural combat chips, making them killing machines that could supposedly take on a hundred opponents. But even a killing machine could be torn to pieces. In the face of an overwhelming gap in strength, their so-called combat techniques were a joke. They became Stia's toys instead.

Only after she had thoroughly "played with" the two rescue maids, from their arms down to their legs, did Stia toss their sparking severed limbs aside.

The appetizers were finished. Stia had saved Zero for last, as the main course.

Looking at the figure before her, who no longer had anything in common with a nun and instead resembled a brutal demon, Zero spoke:

"Information update complete. Stia, I have confirmed that your mind has been completely contaminated by Corrupt Calamity. At present, you pose the highest, S-rank threat to the Master. I have designated you as a hostile target."

"If you retain even a shred of lucidity, I hope you will stay away from the Master. The farther, the better. Otherwise, you and your Holy Kingdom will face a declaration of war from the entire Mechanical Alliance. I will not hand the Master over to you."

Stia merely gave a scornful laugh at Zero's threat and kept closing in.

Zero remained calm and continued trying to reason with her.

"You should know that I'm only the projection of a virtual consciousness. Even if you kill me, it won't change anything. Give up. All recordings of you and the Master have already been uploaded to the database and protected by the highest security protocols. You... can no longer have the Master all to yourself."

"Is that so? Zero, I didn't know you could be so careless. Why do you think I've been talking to you for so long? Why did I deliberately tell you I'd changed? Why did I 'perform' a battle right in front of you? Do you think I really wanted to waste my precious time on you?"

By the time Stia finished speaking, she had reached Zero. She grabbed Zero by the throat. The instant she touched Zero's virtual body, the outcome had already been decided.

Stia had won.

Because—

"You—you!"

For once, Zero's emotions surged violently. She even began to struggle. Only then did she finally understand what Stia had meant.

Yes.

How had she forgotten? Stia's greatest ability wasn't slaughter. It was holy light. Later, as Stia's rank increased, holy light became more than a healing ability. It could also control.

The moment Zero discovered that Stia had taken over Maria's body, she should have realized that Stia's abilities had evolved again, taking a more dangerous turn. That ability was... possession.

(Note: The translator's note has been omitted.)