Chapter 86: Gods and Epics

"Ha ha, I call it the Sky Mech City, little one." As Muria was critiquing, the surroundings rapidly transformed, an overwhelming force acting upon him, bringing the familiar sensation of spatial transition.

Muria tensed his facial expression, trying not to appear flustered. He looked around uneasily until he spotted his father, Ansol, which quickly calmed him down.

"Lord Osiris." Under Muria's watchful eye, Ansol respectfully greeted a towering Titan who was assembling mechanical components in the distance. Seeing his father's actions, Muria followed suit and bowed as well.

This was a big shot, Muria concluded. This Titan's body was even larger than his grandfather's, and he was standing on a vast complex array, assembling various magical mechanical components that sent shivers down Muria's spine.

The scene before him filled Muria with awe, especially after seeing the twenty streams of metal composed of battleships, all belonging to this powerful individual.

"No need for formalities." Having just completed assembling a weapon, the epic Titan, Mech Emperor Osiris, turned around with a smile, "Muria, son of Titan and Dragon, we've met once before, remember?"

Hearing the familiar tone of this big shot, Muria was momentarily stunned, his gaze reluctantly shifting from the weapon that had captivated him—a three-hundred-meter-long massive gun engraved with intricate and dazzling runes. Upon its completion, it had immediately captured Muria's attention.

But when a big shot speaks, attention must be paid. After shifting his gaze, Muria thought for a moment and then realized who he was dealing with. He remembered, during a visit from his maternal grandfather, Demos, an epic Titan had intervened once, and from the exchange at the time, that Titan was named Osiris—undoubtedly the big shot before him.

"Do you remember now?" Observing Muria's look of realization, Osiris raised an eyebrow.

"I do remember." Muria smiled sheepishly, slightly unsure, "Lord Mech Emperor, are you the one who clashed with my maternal grandfather?"

"That's right," Osiris responded cheerfully, much like a friendly neighbor, if one could overlook his immense size.

The seemingly gentle demeanor of the Mech Emperor made Muria a bit more bold, even though this Mech Emperor seemed even more powerful than his grandfather, Akhmond.

"Lord Mech Emperor, may I ask you some questions?"

"What would you like to know?"

"Are all those mechanical creations outside yours?"

"Of course, they're mine."

"Then..." Muria hesitated briefly before asking the question that had been on his mind since seeing the metallic continent, "How was this Sky Mech City built?"

Understanding the Epic Titan Akhmond's feat of creating a semi-plane was one thing, but this Sky Mech City wasn't just about raw power; it required a core knowledge of a civilization developed to the interstellar era as a foundation.

"This city," Mech Emperor Osiris touched the rune-covered metal wall surrounding him, "was built by a civilization called Yaheng, who devoted all their manpower and resources over a century as a token of their gratitude to me.

When I first received this city, I was not satisfied, so I modified it, and after continuous development, it became what it is today."

"This..." Muria listened to the Mech Emperor's words, another question arising in his mind. What exactly had Mech Emperor Osiris done to make a technologically focused civilization, desperate for resources, devote all their efforts over a century to build a city like a continent for a powerful alien lifeform?

"Lord Mech Emperor, what did you do for the Yaheng civilization?" Muria asked cautiously, struggling to imagine what could compel an interstellar civilization to pay such a price to thank a powerful outsider.

"I saved the Yaheng civilization, preventing their world from destruction," Osiris explained in a matter-of-fact tone, casually describing his past achievements, "The Yaheng civilization relies completely on external objects. Their world, for some reason, attracted the attention of several roaming void deities.

They were then invaded by those deities. The weapons developed by the Yaheng civilization were potent, initially repelling the deity minions, causing significant losses. However, when the deities themselves appeared, the Yaheng people, being fundamentally weak, couldn't even look directly at the deities.

Anyone who did was corrupted by the deities' power, twisted and turned into a follower. With the deities intervening, the Yaheng people were driven back. Their world was on the brink of destruction.

At that time, I happened to receive their world's distress signal. I brought my kin army to their world and helped them fend off the deities' invasion.

After the war, my kin army was nearly wiped out, and the Yaheng civilization, to thank and compensate me for my losses, used all their resources to build this Sky Mech City for me, and gave me all their core technological knowledge."

"...," Muria, hearing the understated way Osiris described the battle, could imagine its brutal nature—a kin army of an Epic Titan completely decimated. Considering the number of monster legions his grandfather owned, the scale of that battle must have been horrendous.

"Hmm?" As Muria was visualizing that grand scene, something seemed off, "Lord Mech Emperor, deities typically have followers, right? Why refer to them as kin?"

"It's just a term. Although they call themselves deities, they're quite different from the divine beings in our world. They are more like beings like us, not reliant on faith, not bound by worlds, roaming the void with their kin. When they find suitable worlds, they invade with their armies and then destroy them."

"Like you!" Muria felt a chill, a sense of dread rising in his heart, "Lord Mech Emperor, how common are these world-destroying deities in the endless void?"

"In my thousand years of travel through the void, I've encountered just over a dozen deities. But from the records of various civilizations, I know of more than thirty."

"So many deities?" Muria's face stiffened, involuntarily looking up at the rune-filled metal ceiling, "Will they invade our world and destroy Erathia?"

"You never need to worry about that," Ansol intervened, "None of the deities in the void dare to meddle with our world."

"Why not?"

"Because our world has too many gods. Although some don't like to admit it, it's indeed because of the multitude of gods that many beings in the void don't dare to target our world."

"Lord Mech Emperor," Muria thought for a moment before raising another puzzling fact, "Why do these deities destroy worlds? Just for fun?"

Eradicating all life in a world and destroying all habitable environments would surely cause the world's inhabitants to resist with all their might. If it were just for fun, the cost seemed too great.

"The destruction of a world makes deities more powerful. This is their path to epic status," Osiris revealed, unsettling Muria.

"The path to epic status." Muria murmured, then looked up at Mech Emperor Osiris, larger and more imposing than his grandfather, feeling a premonition that he was about to hear words that would impact his life.

"Muria, do you know the difference between gods and epics?"

Muria honestly shook his head;

 he knew epics were powerful, comparable to gods. To some extent, epics were even considered superior to gods, but he didn't understand why.

"The fundamental difference between gods and epics lies in primal force, the core power of the world. This is a versatile power. Possessing it almost grants the ability of a creator."

As he spoke, Mech Emperor Osiris picked up a metal ingot. Before Muria's astonished gaze, the metal ingot glowed brilliantly, rapidly splitting and transforming into numerous metallic components, which then assembled into a mechanical gryphon in just a few moments.

"Screech!" As soon as it appeared, the lifelike mechanical gryphon cried out, and several rings of spirit intent, like those forged from metal, appeared around it.

"Spirit intent rings! How is that possible?" The scene before Muria was unprecedented; spirit intent, understanding one's soul and the true essence of one's power, was something only sentient beings with souls possessed.

"Screech!" With a raise of Osiris' hand, the newly appeared mechanical gryphon flapped its wings and landed next to Muria, its silvery-gray metallic eyes peering at him.

"It really has a soul?" Muria set down the egg he was holding and couldn't help but reach out to touch the spirit intent-level mechanical gryphon. It felt metallic, but it undeniably possessed a soul; he could feel it, "This is creating life!"

"This is one of the basic privileges of an epic who has mastered primal force," Osiris explained calmly as Muria continued to observe and touch the mechanical gryphon, "Gods have similar privileges, but ours, as epics, are superior."

"Why are they inferior?" Muria was particularly curious.

"Gods rely on faith, ascend to their divine thrones, gather divine offices, and gain the right to use the world's primal force, deriving their power from the world. But they are also bound by the world's rules, even unable to leave their world.

Our epics' primal force is entirely our own and can be used freely without any restrictions."

"Gods' primal force comes from the world, but where does an epic's primal force come from?"

"An epic's primal force also comes from the world, but unlike gods who ascend through faith and gather divine offices to gain the right to use primal force, epics obtain their primal force in two main ways."

"Which are?" Muria's eyes sparkled, keen to learn.

"Saving worlds or destroying them. These are the ways epics acquire primal force, also the paths for legends to ascend to epic status."

"Saving worlds! Destroying worlds!" Muria was dumbfounded; these were hellishly difficult ways to advance.

"Saving an endangered world on the brink of destruction, the world's will grants primal force as a reward to the savior. It's primal force that's completely unaffected by the world's will, free for personal use."

"Did you help the Yaheng civilization fend off the deities for their world's primal force?" Muria asked tentatively, his heart racing.

"Of course, otherwise why would I help a civilization I've never seen before?" Osiris spoke as if it were obvious, "In the endless void, there's no such thing as good or evil, only survival and growth, and only strength is truth."

"Do deities invade Yaheng civilization and destroy it also for primal force?"

"Exactly, the moment of a world's destruction releases a vast amount of primal force. However, this type of primal force is too violent, still carrying the world's despair, and is very difficult to assimilate."

Hearing Osiris's description, Muria's heart skipped a beat. This tone suggested that Mech Emperor Osiris had once destroyed a world and tried to absorb and refine the primal force obtained from that destruction.

"Lord Mech Emperor, have you ever destroyed a world for primal force?" Muria asked with a stiff smile, his voice slightly trembling.

"No." Osiris looked at Muria, who seemed somewhat agitated, and touched his nose, feeling that this junior might have misunderstood something: "I chose the path of saving worlds. I just happened to encounter a deity destroying a small world. At the moment of the world's destruction and the dispersal of primal force, I went and took a share."

"The setting of an epic was long planned, initially intended to be written when the protagonist was preparing to ascend to epic status later in the story. But seeing some book reviews, I couldn't help but write it in advance.

An epic completely surpasses a legend, and the gap between these two levels is insurmountable by any bloodline."

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