Facing Svarog

Seeing the master of the Robot Settlement appear, Jing Yan felt quite pleased.

However, the people beside him were extremely tense.

Stelle, the "Galaxy Baseball Hero," pulled out her Curio baseball bat, which began to glow with a brilliant white light as intricate patterns spread across its surface.

March 7th immediately cast a skill on Jing Yan: [Cute is Justice].

Blue and pink light swirled around Jing Yan's body, granting him a layer of Six-Phase Ice armor.

"Not bad," Jing Yan remarked, admiring the armor on his body.

As expected of a Pathstrider of the Preservation, the defensive capabilities of March 7th's armor were quite impressive.

Yet, compared to that, he was more curious to see how he would fare against Mr. Svarog, the leader and strongest entity of this Robot Settlement.

Nearby, the vagrants, seeing that Mr. Svarog was getting serious, scrambled to grab their various tools and fled.

It seemed they had rarely witnessed Mr. Svarog in action; they kept glancing back with expressions of shock while picking up their pace.

"Outsiders, humans, I grant you an opportunity to explain yourselves!" Svarog stated calmly.

His voice was the same mechanical monotone as always.

"Uh, Jing Yan, you really aren't a robot," March 7th said, glancing at Jing Yan.

Stelle, standing in the same row, wore an awkward expression upon hearing this and rubbed her forehead.

At this moment, Jing Yan didn't waste words; he had already begun to act.

In his view, there was no point in talking, especially to a hunk of mechanical scrap like this.

In the eyes of a machine like Svarog, there were only family and non-family, threats and non-threats, and so on.

As a mechanical entity, even if his programming was sufficiently complex, he still perceived and understood the world in an almost entirely rational manner.

However, in the universe, variables were everywhere.

Reversing his inherent perspective was no easy task.

Therefore, Jing Yan struck directly.

[Illusion Domain]

Jing Yan unfolded his domain.

Following that, [Body Enhancement].

This move was similar to the ability of Stelle, who walked the Path of Destruction.

Of course, Stelle was a special case.

She wasn't strictly a Pathstrider in the traditional sense; it was only because her body contained a creation of the Path of Destruction—a Stellaron—that she could wield the power of Destruction just like other Pathstriders of that Path.

As long as she received the blessing of an Aeon from another Path, she could still utilize other powers.

This was something most Pathstriders could never achieve.

A massive mechanical claw beside Svarog suddenly generated a powerful suction force, pulling Stelle, the "Galaxy Baseball Hero," toward it.

It then generated a red energy barrier to encase her.

Immediately afterward, rows of small missiles launched from behind him, streaking toward Jing Yan.

"Mr. Svarog, wait!"

Clara sensed that the atmosphere had turned sour and wanted to intervene, but March 7th held her back.

"Wait, little Clara, don't go forward; it's too dangerous up there."

March 7th looked down and said patiently.

"This, but..."

Clara and March 7th exchanged a glance, then looked toward Jing Yan and Svarog ahead, her eyes filled with worry.

She continued, "But..."

"It's fine," Jing Yan said casually, his back turned to them.

The small missiles from earlier had not hit Jing Yan; instead, they struck several Automaton: Grizzlies that had come to "protect" him.

Under Jing Yan's control, they had been rebooted and had developed something akin to human emotions.

Because they had just been formatted and restarted, they were like young children—ignorant, yet capable of understanding commands without needing to learn language.

Thus, they had stepped forward to block the missile attack for Jing Yan.

The massive bellies of the Automaton: Grizzlies were dented and pitted by the explosions of the missiles released by Mr. Svarog.

But they were otherwise fine.

After all, Mr. Svarog's attack had been aimed directly at Jing Yan, and the bellies of the Automaton: Grizzlies that had come to block it were the thickest parts of their frames.

"Outsider detected. According to calculation results, target danger level: Extreme! Initiating Annihilation Mode!"

Mr. Svarog continued.

A mechanical claw flew forward, shoving the Automaton: Grizzly aside.

At the same time, a beam of light erupted from his hand.

It struck directly toward Jing Yan's face.

Jing Yan merely smiled at this moment.

He did not move at all.

He allowed Svarog's light cannon to strike him square in the face.

It pierced through the thin layer of blue-pink Six-Phase Ice armor cast by March 7th before hitting him.

However, the next instant, his figure flickered a few times and then vanished from the spot.

It was as if he were nothing more than a virtual projection.

Svarog's movements came to a halt.

Suddenly, Jing Yan's figure reappeared in another spot nearby, still standing with his arms crossed over his chest. He spoke up, "As expected, this ability is effective against mechanical races as well."

"After all, you have eyes, don't you?"

Jing Yan said casually.

Everything that had just occurred might have seemed perilous at a glance, but in reality, it was not.

He hadn't relied on blinding speed to dodge Svarog's cannon fire; he had truly relied on this technique—or rather, this divine power—that made him appear like a virtual projection.

[Illusion Domain]

Under the influence of this domain, even Svarog, as a machine, was not immune.

So much so that the spot he had just attacked was not where Jing Yan was standing, but rather an empty space beside him.

And he had yet to deactivate this ability.

"Cough, cough, damn it!"

At this moment, Stelle, the "Galaxy Baseball Hero" who had been restrained by one of Svarog's hands, had successfully used her bat to break through the red light barrier and escape.

Svarog immediately followed up with a massive floating claw, striking downward. Stelle struggled to raise her baseball bat to parry the giant mechanical talon descending from above.

[Verbal Domination]

Jing Yan began to use another one of his abilities.

He did not immediately call upon other machines to join in a group assault.

The reason he refrained from doing so was that he wanted to test the extent of his divine power's influence on a more advanced ancient machine like Svarog.

Clearly, Svarog's programming was more rigorous, and his defensive mechanisms were more sophisticated.

"Virus intrusion detected. Isolating and shutting down partial sector functions!"

Svarog stated to himself.

This reaction caught Jing Yan off guard for a moment.

As expected, as a Pathstrider of "Destruction" and a mechanical entity with a more refined intelligence module, he was far more difficult to deal with than other machines.

He was more resistant to the influence of "Eros," and consequently, much harder to control.

At the same time, the interesting part was that he would classify this influence as a digital virus.