A complete Outer God possessed three characteristics: transcendence, ultimacy, and divinity-transcending the material world, existing eternally, and wielding supernatural power. Lu Mingfei possessed all three to some degree, but he refused to transform.
For a god, that condensation nucleus was the mortal body and its finite past, present, and future. Once the transformation occurred, divinity would come to dominate the god's identity and essence. The stronger the god, the more pronounced this became. Yet Lu Mingfei was like an ever-growing condensation nucleus that instead commanded divine power.
The Greater Will hoped to observe phenomena concerning the essence of the universe in Lu Mingfei. It had once tried to design a perfect mechanism to create a pure, perfect Empyrean from the Crucible of Life. Entirely from an Outer God's perspective, guided by the highest-order outcome, it had designed an Empyrean that eliminated all the negative effects of humanity during the transformation from human to god. The result had been failure.
Lu Mingfei had chosen another path. He cared nothing for divinity or balance. What would the result be?
The veteran could no longer remember how many times the Dragon Raja had charged. The sour stench of dragon breath still lingered over the scorched earth. He looked toward the distant thunderclouds. Black clouds and flashing lightning covered half the horizon. On the land beneath the eye of that storm, filthy Dragon Raja alchemical factories were hatching new Deadpools.
He was a veteran who had been conscripted more than ten times and was already quite familiar with the Dragon Raja's methods of attack. Those fire-breathing dragons came from the Bronze and Fire lineage. Their flames clung to thick, acidic glandular secretions and could keep burning.
According to a comrade who had once been a Hybrid, the authority of Bronze and Fire had not