Successful Domination

No! To be precise...

It was Svarog who had adopted a strategy of sacrificing the pawns to save the king, continuously shutting down various sectors to make his own cognition more independent and inclined toward an inorganic state.

In fact, the logic centers of the mechanical bodies here were still a bit too complex.

This included all the other Mechanical Vanguards as well.

If their mechanical intelligence units were very simple, leaning toward the most basic switch structures, then theoretically, Jing Yan would be unable to manipulate them through the divine power of Eros.

Because such mechanical bodies would have no possibility of giving birth to emotions.

Since that was the case, they naturally could not be influenced or controlled.

To avoid being influenced, Svarog was constantly choosing to shut down sectors and seal off information hubs.

Doing so had indeed succeeded in resisting Jing Yan's control, but it was also causing his own strength to steadily decline.

In a certain sense, this was an understandable course of action.

Because Mr. Svarog was a Pathstrider of the Path of Destruction.

His own defense was skewed toward physical resistance; even when facing this kind of "mental" or "software-level" intrusion, he could only adopt a nearly crude and simple method to defend. The consequences of doing so, while not exactly self-destruction, were...

From the way it manifested, it was actually quite similar.

Following this, Mr. Svarog's words became even more brief.

His actions became more direct.

However, at times, his movements would lag or stutter.

They were no longer as fluid as before; sometimes, there was a sense of jamming, or the feeling of a marionette on strings.

This was also because the continuous sealing of his processing cores had led to a significant decrease in his computational ability for movement.

The same actions could have originally been completed more efficiently.

But now, they would reveal more openings.

In the distance, Clara saw this and felt a pang of heartache, struggling anxiously until she suddenly broke free from March 7th's restraint.

She wanted to rush toward Svarog's direction.

"Danger!" March 7th exclaimed in shock after noticing Clara running over.

At this moment, the Mr. Svarog before them was no longer the Mr. Svarog of the past.

"Eliminate target" seemed to have become his sole pursuit.

"Cease, and submit!"

Jing Yan said calmly.

Under these circumstances, with an intruder suddenly appearing on the battlefield, could Mr. Svarog hold back, or would he mercilessly choose to launch an all-out strike, eliminating them both?

No one could say for sure.

But judging from his currently poor state, it seemed the latter was even more likely to occur.

"Hey, hey, kid, don't run over there!"

At this moment, Stelle had just used her baseball bat to withstand the pressure of a giant mechanical claw; turning her head to see Clara running past, she couldn't help but call out to dissuade her.

At the same time, Svarog's next round of missile attacks had already begun.

Dozens of missiles popped out from behind him, tracing arcs through the air toward Jing Yan's direction.

"Useless." Jing Yan said.

"I can see it very clearly; you are still trapped in an illusion, which means your reconnaissance and detection systems are still unable to detect and judge what is real and what is false. In this situation, do you think opening up an area-of-effect strike will be of any use?"

Jing Yan said, completely dismissing it.

The next second, however, Clara ran from the outside into the range of the attack.

She was not there to stop Mr. Svarog's missiles from hitting Jing Yan.

Because those missiles wouldn't be able to hit him at all.

She was there to stop Mr. Svarog's "self-destruction."

Clara did not have a very deep understanding of the current battle, but she could see that as Svarog fought, his mobility grew increasingly weak, looking as if important parts or organs were damaged.

Although she didn't understand why, nor did she know that this was actually a decision of self-sealing Svarog had made to counter Jing Yan, she still had to come forward, attempting to stop this battle and find a way to have Mr. Svarog repaired.

It was just unfortunate that she had appeared within Mr. Svarog's attack range.

"Damn it."

In the distance, March 7th said anxiously.

Immediately, she unleashed her skill.

Intertwining pink and blue light lit up beneath Clara's feet.

It was just that, it seemed, she was still a step too late.

At this moment, the missiles launched by Mr. Svarog were about to strike Clara.

Clara raised her arms in fear, covering her eyes.

"Ah!" she cried out.

The next second, the missiles exploded, and thick smoke billowed up.

However, it was dispersed once again.

Suddenly, a pale blue steel figure appeared beside her, blocking the missiles that had just struck.

The person who appeared was none other than Mr. Svarog, who had already shut down many of his mechanical units.

"Do not be afraid, Clara!"

Svarog's voice rang out.

Afterward, he stopped and did not resume the battle.

With his head bowed, he remained in a kneeling position, using his back to shield Clara from the attack, frozen in place.

He did not move an inch.

It seemed he had fallen into a state of dormancy.

"Not bad."

Jing Yan watched this unfold.

He deactivated his state.

Up to this point, Mr. Svarog could be considered to have resisted a portion of his [Verbal Domination] divine power.

However...

The price was falling into a near-eternal slumber.

But with the contact of Jing Yan's divine power.

And Clara's attempts at repairs, Svarog's condition was gradually improving.

Of course, this would take some time.

About half an hour, to be precise.

Clara was very dedicated to this, constantly going to the nearby Mechanical Vanguards to borrow parts.

Watching Mr. Svarog gradually being repaired and rebooted, and seeing Clara's anxious efforts to fix him, Jing Yan felt a sense of melancholy in his heart.

He stood to the side, lost in thought.

In truth, Mr. Svarog had a chance to avoid being affected by his [Verbal Domination] earlier.

It was just that, within Mr. Svarog's system, the concept of family existed.

Clara was his only family.

Therefore...

Mr. Svarog had ultimately been influenced by the power of "Eros."

When he woke up again and unlocked his emotional control center, he would no longer be an absolutely rational existence.

For Jing Yan, this was naturally a good thing, and the same held true for Svarog himself, or for Clara.

However, all of this was predicated on the fact that Jing Yan harbored no malice.

If Jing Yan had possessed malice, under the final, successful "submission" command of [Verbal Domination].

Mr. Svarog would now be capable of harming anyone Jing Yan ordered, provided it did not involve harming Clara.

Of course, this might not seem like much at first glance.

After all, in Mr. Svarog's cognition, the people of Belobog were destined for destruction.

However, even if people had discovered a turning point, such as the Stellaron being sealed.

He would still execute the extermination order without mercy; such was the terror of Jing Yan's power!