Adam decided to shut his workshop for a bit and head out of York City alone under the stars.
He didn't just leave for his own advancement, but also to try changing the devil's form of life.
He was pretty sure his own progress would go smoothly, but he wasn't totally certain he could change the devil's form of life successfully.
Plus, if he did manage it, he'd need to get ready for a trip to the royal city to meet the Royals. So, he had to keep this all under wraps, not letting Qi 31 or the other Titans catch wind of it.
Titania had lots of places nobody ever went to. Adam had already found out where the floating fortresses patrolled. Not long after he left the city, he found the perfect hidden spot where nobody would come across him for a while.
The devil tried to change Adam's mind one last time, sensing his end might be near. "Master, are you sure about this? Why the rush? You said Titan knowledge was interesting, right? What if someone finds out..."
Adam cut him off, "No 'what ifs'. If we're found, it's only you who'll be in trouble. I can just hop into another body and stay in Titania. Worst comes to worst, I start over as a newborn, and that's a risk I can live with."
Then, the ground just melted away, and Adam turned into a shimmering silver liquid, sinking into the earth. He quickly reached a depth of a thousand kilometers. There, he lit up his Flames, carving out a massive space.
"What did you say, master?"
"I meant what I said. If we manage to change your form, I'll sort of hitch a ride in your body to the royal city. So, it'll be you, not me, visiting the Royals. Which means, if the Royals do anything, it's you who'll be in trouble. I can always ditch the Mithril 99 identity and start fresh."
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})"And if it doesn't work..."
"If it fails, I'll just drop this identity. No way I'm facing the Royals without being sure." Adam laid it out for the devil as he got the energy blocks ready.
In Adam's head, the devil was just sitting there in gray and white, mumbling, "This is it, the end of my life, my fun, my mates..."
Adam just ignored it. Thanks to their boss-servant deal, the devil couldn't say no to Adam's plans. He only explained all this because they'd been together for so long.
As Adam kicked off his own advancement, he cut off the devil's connections to the outside and silenced him. He focused on loading up his Vital Generator with dense energy blocks and super-pure mithril, keeping a steady rhythm.
Adam's energy vibe soared, and at the same time, he started to transform, both inside and out.
Adam's deep understanding of electromagnetic runes and formulas started to change into Spark Code, lighting up in his Original Flames. The bright red turned almost invisible, and during this shift, the Flames sent information into his body as energy.
Every bit of his mithril frame started to move, changing into tiny nanobots. These nanobots then went around marking other atoms with equations.
If anyone had been with Adam right then, they'd have seen him looking pretty weird, sort of melting away and then coming back together over and over. This kept getting faster until it was all a blur. The atoms mixed it up based on the equations, kicking off complex, high-energy chain reactions, boosting his energy even more.
Half an hour later, the mithril broke down completely and started spinning fast around his Vital Generator. The Flames burned so steadily they almost looked solid, pouring out energy. A massive and scary magnetic field spread out, turning the ground around Adam into a sea of metal, with big waves rolling through it.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})The advancement went without a hitch. The mithril put Adam back together. He was now over just two meters tall, looking a bit like a liquid metal robot. Apart from the mithril's color, he was everything like a regular carbon-based life form, well, if you didn't consider that he now weighed over two hundred tons.
Adam's face, all sharp and defined, showed a hint of a smile. He told the devil in his thoughts, "I've got good news."
"This magnetic field from the upgrade might just mess with the Origin's tracking a bit. You might not get caught by the Origin right after showing up." He explained to the devil.
Then, he made a container from a bunch of energy stones with Space Metal in the center.
Adam got right back to work. Life forms driven by willpower were a rare find in the ether, and he couldn't wait to do the experiment on it.
He pulled electrons from the metal all around, adding them to his magnetic field. This almost made a little world within Titania, one that the Origin's usual scans just skipped over. After watching for ten minutes to make sure it was safe, Adam called the devil over.
The devil, not waiting for Adam to say anything, walked over to the container like he was in a daze.
"We've got past the riskiest part; you should have faith in what I can do."
The devil didn't say a word.
"Hanging onto hope is key. If you think you're done for, then you probably are."
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})Adam's words seemed to hit the mark. The devil, perched on the edge of the container and halfway out, spoke up in a mix of fear and hope, "Master, I really don't want to end up dead!"
Adam, not exactly pouring his heart out, tried to reassure him, "Calm down, you're not going to die."
Right after he said that, he gave the devil a nudge into the container and set off all the energy blocks in there. In no time, the devil was swallowed up by a blaze.
Then Adam got his Vital Generator going and let out his Original Flames. He did something like what the Titans do when they pass their Flames, splitting his own Flames in half and pushing them into the devil.
The moment these two different wills touched, there was a huge reaction. The spark set the devil on fire, sparking up a dark flame. The heavy energy around them zoomed into the fire.
"How's it feeling?"
"It's actually pretty good, not hurting at all, but kind of nice and toasty."
Adam nodded, all going according to plan. The devil was just right for turning into a spark form.
"And the rest?" he checked.
"All the bad vibes are going up in smoke. Anything in me that's not really me is just fuel now."
"I've figured out how to pack a metal body together."
Adam threw in more packed energy blocks into the container. They hit the flames like drops of water in hot oil, making the fire roar and nearly break out of the container.
By now, the devil didn't need Adam to tell him what to do. He started pulling in all that wild energy and then settled down into the Space Metal.
