Meanwhile.
Aboveground, ever since the machines had launched their all-out assault on the core area dozens of minutes earlier, all of Curse City had been engulfed in war.
Particle beam after particle beam tore through the black mist and slammed into the towering tree at the very center, which reached straight into the sky.
Around the outskirts closest to the core area, enormous, writhing vines kept rising from underground, desperately checking the Mechanical Church's mass advances and charges.
The followers of the Flesh God Cult had also built tightly guarded defensive lines around the core area.
"Hurry!! Defensive line three has fallen! Send reinforcements immediately! They're breaking through!"
"Those damned machines! I'll fight them to the death!"
"Watch out for their particle beams! Hold the chokepoints! The underground root network has been completely overrun. Don't let them break through our defenses!"
Under the relentless bombardment, the followers of the Flesh God Cult screamed like madmen.
At the very center of Curse City.
Countless crisscrossing flesh vines and roots tightly wrapped the aboveground half of a tower that extended into the deepest reaches underground.
Clearly, that was the entrance to the Colossus Tower.
The Mechanical Church had also chosen an exceptionally shrewd moment to launch its all-out assault, brazenly attacking at the final moment before the Desire Sect could breach the Colossus Tower's outer defenses!
"Your revered Majesty, Mother Goddess, our preparations are complete. Now we need only wait for most of the machine swarms to enter our ambush, and the Mechanical Church will suffer the greatest losses in its history."
Inside the Flesh Leviathan.
Within a writhing, crimson chamber, more than a dozen Night Doctors wearing pale crow masks knelt on one knee, paying their highest respects to the Flesh Seed beating vigorously like a heart before them.
Red Fog