Chapter 221
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 221
Chapter Title: The Small Babel Plan
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Heinrich shouted from the hand of the Dimensional Machine God.
"My creation! Let us go at once! We must build my tower!"
[Understood. Initiating the 'Small Babel' plan as scheduled.]
Guuuu—
"This body shall ascend to the throne of the Demon King as well."
With that declaration from Heinrich, the Dimensional Machine God left the shattered 59th floor behind and began to move.
It headed toward the 50th floor, where the Dimensional World Tree stood.
Boom!
The Dimensional Machine God seized the massive World Tree.
A gigantic drill and metal wires shot out from the Machine God's palm, embedding themselves into the World Tree.
[Dimensional Machine God – Dimensional World Tree connection established.]
[Babel takeover initiated.]
From the 51st floor to the 59th floor, circuits unique to the Machine God race—glowing red—extended out, connecting to the World Tree.
The dimensions of the World Tree were covered in circuits like veins, shining red.
The Dimensional Machine God submitted its report.
[World Tree takeover complete.]
[Dimensional connections allocated to the Four Heavenly King Heinrich.]
[Additional takeover of floors 60, 61, and 62.]
Crunch! Cruuunch!
The circuits rose like tree roots, beginning to conquer the upper floors.
"What the hell is that Four Heavenly King guy planning?"
"The World Tree?"
"What's even going on?"
Unlike the confused humans, the angels vaguely understood the situation.
Defying the laws, destroying Babel, and unauthorized floor departure.
It was Heinrich's blatant rebellion.
Alphard, who had been mixed in among the humans, opened a private channel.
[Heinrich is proceeding without issue.]
[After investing so much time, it's going well. I'll wrap it up as planned. What about Ju Gonghyeok?]
[Ju Gonghyeok hasn't reacted yet. From his response after the mission ended, it seems he didn't anticipate convincing Heinrich this far.]
[Worth using the Demon King's seal.]
[Even one who reigns like a god can't prepare for everything he doesn't know. Plus, executing the plan while Ju Gonghyeok entered the Archangel's trial was effective.]
[Our victory... well, not quite.]
[This isn't a plan targeting Ju Gonghyeok. It's merely a step toward the final war. I leave the last phase to you.]
The future humans' communication cut off.
[18 percent of Babel's floors have entered control.]
Heinrich flashed a triumphant smile at the Dimensional Machine God's report.
"Good. Now detach."
[Yes, initiating floor separation.]
Cracks spiderwebbed across the white Babel Tower.
The floors covered in red circuits slowly protruded from Babel, creating dissonance.
Soon enough, Babel split apart.
Thud!
[Babel floors 51 through 62—twelve floors—detached.]
[Floors 20, 34, and 68 additionally detached.]
A massive chunk from the tower's midsection broke off.
The floors Heinrich had taken charge of were included sporadically.
The detached dimensions, which had floated like discs after the upper and lower sections separated, now aligned in a straight line.
[Babel's fifteen floors vertically connected.]
[Babel's 15-layer reconstruction based on the Dimensional World Tree.]
"Hahahaha! Hahahahaha!"
The detached floors from Babel gathered together, forming a tower-like shape.
Heinrich laughed maniacally, so ecstatic he seemed insane.
It was the sight he had always dreamed of.
As more dimensions connected to the Dimensio Machina, Heinrich's white hair turned black, and his hunched back straightened.
The elderly Heinrich transformed into a young mage.
"I, I am the Demon King! The Demon King of Babel Tower, 'Bel Hydra'!"
The Dimensional Machine God, connected to the tower, continued its work.
[Babel 15 layers converted to energy source.]
[Supplying to engines and manifestation organs.]
[Manifesting 1,000 types of Machine Gods from embedded blueprints.]
Parts of the tower crumbled as Machine Gods took shape.
Saturation Machine God Super Overlord, Neural Machine God David, Warhorse Machine God Temujin, Dignity Machine God Augustus, Destruction Machine God Vulcanus...
Including the great Giga-Deus figures from Machine God history, a thousand elite Machine Gods surrounded Heinrich like his royal guard.
One more Machine God was added.
[Invulnerable Machine God Baincliff production complete.]
[Partial trait loss. Partial stat loss. 81 percent of lifetime performance implemented.]
A hole opened in the Dimensional Machine God's hand, revealing a massive iron knight.
Bright light gleamed from the empty helmet of the iron knight.
- It is an honor to serve you, Demon King.
"Kyahaha! Even the tin can finally knows its master!"
Thud! Thud!
Baincliff, reborn as the Invulnerable Machine God, took heavy steps and stood behind Heinrich.
Cluesti of Swiftness and Baincliff of Invulnerability.
Heinrich couldn't hold back his laughter at the sight of the two aligned Four Heavenly Kings.
"Kukukuk. Cluesti and Baincliff, plus me and the Dimensional Machine God—that makes it the full set of Four Heavenly Kings. Think you can handle it, weakling Marduk? Kyahahahaha!"
Nathanael pointed at the pitch-black Machine God standing aligned with the Four Heavenly King Machine Gods.
"Isn't that one over there the old Vulcanus?"
"Yeah."
Among the Machine Gods manifested by the Dimensional Machine God were many Giga-Deus-class figures from Machine God history, including Vulcanus.
Ju Gonghyeok stroked his chin.
"I see how they reeled those guys in."
The creation of the Thunderlight Machine God.
Normally, without Cluesti's treasure 「Scythe of Swiftness (U.SSS)」, the authority of swiftness couldn't be transferred to a Machine God.
'But Alphard used something about thunderlight factors. Looks like that solved it.'
The Dimensional Machine God's blueprints. No need to discuss that. Probably picked up from the future.
'They even secured the beastman chiefs' corpses. No reason they couldn't get Machine God cooperation.'
Everything else made sense, but the Dimensional Machine God's completion was baffling.
Blueprints alone couldn't whip up the Dimensional Machine God.
Because it was a Machine God that used Babel itself as material.
'I don't know what means they used, but they fooled the Demon King's eyes and helped use dimensions as materials. Having an 80th-floor guy appear on the 60th—blatantly breaking the balance.'
The future humans had accelerated the Dimensional Machine God, which was meant to be completed gradually over a long time, by a full 20 floors.
That alone flipped the entire situation.
'No wonder Heinrich ditched the mission and went rogue.'
Rebelling on the 60th floor was actually better than the 80th.
The Dimensional Machine God required one dimension for its exterior and another for its internals—a monster machine.
For the monster machine to operate properly, even more energy sources were needed.
'Rebelling on the 80th floor, Heinrich could only use his 4 or 5 dimensions as fuel. But rebelling on the 60th...'
Grafting the Dimensional Machine God onto the Dimensional World Tree allowed him to steal fifteen floors from Babel.
Thus, the current Dimensional Machine God had three times the output Ju Gonghyeok remembered, and it had even summoned an additional thousand Machine Gods.
Ju Gonghyeok calmly reached a conclusion.
"He won't survive."
"Yes!?"
Nathanael and Lilianne jumped in shock.
"What weak talk is that all of a sudden!? You're dying?"
"...Hubby, did I back the wrong horse by any chance?"
"No."
Ju Gonghyeok looked up at the 88th floor with complicated eyes.
"Demon King Bel Marduk dies. Almost certainly."
"The Demon King? Even so, shouldn't we fight to find out?"
"Even at a glance, he dies. Bel Marduk is strong, but he's no warrior. He's an academic mage."
Lilianne was dubious, but Ju Gonghyeok asserted it.
"You've never seen him fight, so you think of him as an invincible Demon King, but his martial prowess was carried by Cluesti. He's a rear support or staff officer type himself."
"The Demon King as a staff officer..."
"Even a Demon King can't help not being a warrior himself. He's not weak. Just a different type."
That's why Cluesti had to be killed before the 88th floor.
As far as Ju Gonghyeok knew, there was only one strategy to beat the warrior Cluesti and mage Bel Marduk combo.
[Predicting odds of victory against Demon King Bel Marduk.]
[『Demon King of Genesis Annihilation Law, Bel Marduk』 Strength SA, Agility SA, Technique SSS. Endurance SS, Will SSS, Mind EX, Mana EX. Key Traits - 『Demon King (EX)』, 『Enlightenment (EX)』, 『Genesis (EX)』, 『Annihilation Law (EX)』, 『Master of Babel (EX)』, 『Transcendent Phenomena Researcher (SSS)』, 『Master of War Magic (SS)』...]
[Heinrich solo combat. Win rate 38%.]
[With Thunderlight Machine God. Win rate 52%.]
[With Invulnerable Machine God. Win rate 76%.]
[With Dimensional Machine God. Win rate 99%.]
"Kukuku, open the gates! Bel Marduk! I'll take your head and seize Babel!"
Confirming the win rates, Heinrich raised his two divine treasures.
『Orb of Destruction (U.SSS).』
『Cuirass of Invulnerability (U.SSS).』
They were the treasures the Demon King had bestowed upon the Four Heavenly Kings to open the 88th floor gate.
The condition to open the 88th floor gate: possess two treasures.
Heinrich fulfilled it with his own and Baincliff's.
'With two treasures, we could hold without opening...'
Not this time.
If Heinrich took only five floors, they could let him secede from Babel.
But with seventeen floors including the Dimensional Machine God? The blow would be devastating.
To the point where maintaining Babel was questionable.
Guuuung—
At the pinnacle of Babel.
The 88th floor gate opened.
"Hahahahaha! Advance, my servants!"
[March.]
At a gesture from the Saturation Machine God Super Overlord, the thousand Machine Gods entered the 88th floor one by one.
With the two Four Heavenly King Machine Gods and Heinrich entering, victory seemed impossible.
'At least if we could smash one, like the Thunderlight or Invulnerable Machine God...'
Facing Demon King Bel Hydra was unavoidable.
But that didn't have to be a bad thing.
'I don't know what those guys are thinking.'
Ju Gonghyeok coldly gazed at the human camp where the future humans hid.
'You know what this means.'
Lilianne raised a magic circle.
"Hubby, communication with Basement Level 1 is connected."
The emblem of the Machine God cluster on Basement Level 1, 'King Maker Cluster,' appeared in the magic circle.
[Greetings. Ally Ju Gonghyeok. You called?]
"Put the vaccine in the designated spot."
[Question. The vaccine is still incomplete. Current progress 79%...]
"Put it there before I smash all your heads. I'll finish the rest."
[Terror. Understood.]
As the Dimensional Leap spell 「Herald of Dominion」 formed in Ju Gonghyeok's palm, a cylindrical vaccine was summoned from Basement Level 1.
It was an unexpected situation, but Ju Gonghyeok saw opportunity over crisis in his eyes.
Perhaps a 'chance' to end Babel once and for all.
'If I get the Dimensional Machine God... beastmen or whatever, irrelevant.'
Becoming the Dimensional Machine God's master would immediately grant the SSS-grade trait 「God of Mechanisms」.
By partially modifying his body to surpass limits and raise SSS-grade stats, Ju Gonghyeok would instantly reach Four Heavenly King level.
He'd have the qualifications to kill the Demon King.
'With the Dimensional Machine God too... I could kill him for sure.'
The colossal Machine God that dominated Babel.
It was the Deus Ex Machina to forge the ending Ju Gonghyeok desired.
Endorphins surged through his drug-free brain, veins boiling with excitement.
'Bel Marduk? Bel Hydra? Who cares? Just kill them all with that.'
He saw Heinrich and the two Four Heavenly King Machine Gods entering.
The Dimensional Machine God's turn was last.
Due to its overwhelming mass, it took considerable time to enter.
[『Creation Machine God Vulcanus (SSS)』 Third Ability 「Overdrive」 activated!]
[『Thunder God Zeus (SS++)』 Second Ability 「Argus (Flash)」 activated!]
[『Asura King (SS)』 Third Ability 「Eight-Hand Mutual Combat」 activated!]
Giiiing—
Vulcanus's 「Overdrive」, drawing out item performance to the extreme.
Cluesti's cloak overheated, blazing in blinding crimson.
Sparks and flames jetted kilometers back from the cloak's hem.
"Lilianne. Open space."
"Ah, hot! Y-Yes!"
- I'll go too!
Nathanael stuck close, and a rift in the temporary space opened, flames surging forth.
Ju Gonghyeok's murderous gaze turned to Alphard one last time.
'I don't know how much you underestimated me. But that's mine.'
Not just the Demon King—future humans were no exception.
'I'll make you regret handing that over on the 60th floor. Before you backstab, I'll kill you one by one.'
Paaang—!
Ju Gonghyeok's body turned to a flash and shot toward the Dimensional Machine God.
Even Alphard could see Ju Gonghyeok charging through the vast void, spewing flames.
[...Ju Gonghyeok has charged out.]
[Really? According to records, the vaccine is still...]
[Guess he doesn't plan to sit and watch. We'll try talking it out depending on the situation.]
Tension crept onto Alphard's face.