The Heavenly Martial Empress Returns: An OP Xianxia Returnee LitRPG

Chapter 156: The Lurking Spider Makes Her Move

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Her spiderwebs extended across the world’s spiritual plane, which had been mostly unexplored since Earth’s “Awakening” by the arrival of the Tower. Mana permeated the world and twisted reality; Gates expanded and sometimes gave birth to Dungeons. And every time this essence was left behind, space was more distorted and transformed.

A plane where the spiritual and ethereal exist was ripe for the taking, and completely unused by any person within the entire globe. When her Primal Divinity was summoned into this world, completely made out of Primal Power alone, a supernatural energy yet completely tied to different laws, she felt overjoyed.

This world, full of rich and easy to absorb and wield energies, was hers, and she expanded; her spiders walked through the land while her divinity spread across the spiritual plane of Earth, rapidly expanding her spiderwebs, creating her Domain below everyone’s noses.

And then she answered the call of despairing souls, of corrupted, dark minds full of anger and frustration, those that were insane and evil, who had no god to call for help, those that desired revenge and to stand supreme but were always defeated by the heroes.

She answered their call as the Queen of Cunningness and Treachery, Lady of the Dark Caves, and Mother of all the Despicable Ones.

“Why… Why did I have to die?! It’s not fair! I worked so hard for this! For everything!”

“Yes, you worked so hard, my dear. It’s unfair, isn’t it?”

“I am the Empress! I AM THE EMPRESS!!!”

"Yes, you are. And as an Empress, you shouldn’t let others dictate your fate. You must control them.”

“Yes…! Why did this happen to me?!”

“Indeed, why? The world is so unfair for our ilk.”

The Soul of Neferteri was being absorbed by this Divinity, her endless frustration and hatred making her a prime vessel for her manifestations.

However, there were other vengeful souls with her, not as powerful, not as vengeful, but that were good enough to complement her.

“I should have been the pharaoh! My brother is nothing but a bastard!”

“That’s right, my son. You should have been the pharaoh; you worked so hard…”

“That damn kid playing being a pharaoh, why?! I even managed to kill his father, yet he was able to steal the throne from me! How… HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?!”

“It’s very unfair, right? We should kill that kid and give you the throne instead.”

“I’m so tired of all of this! Where’s my brother?! Where’s my empire! Why am I stranded here?! Why must I suffer with these useless fools that can’t do a single thing!”

“That’s right! They’re all so useless and pathetic, my sunshine~ You’re the only perfect one in the entire world~”

Her tender words easily convinced them to serve her, their souls completely overwhelmed by her dark, motherly embrace.

She was the Mother of all Corrupted after all.

“Now let’s go, my children; it’s time for you to fight back… And for me? To take everything you possess. That technology, your knowledge, I want it all~!”

Black and purple-colored energies suddenly started leaking from the destroyed Mechanical Gods across the four different cities and even from the corpses of their pilots.

.

.

.

Amon-Ra-Anubis, born from the fusion between Ra and Anubis after combining the Mana, Spiritual Energy, and Ki of Merneith and Hekita, closed his book, a divine weapon he could manifest at will.

His sharp crimson eyes closed, noticing that his existence was already fading away. The combination of two Mechanical Gods was never fully developed by their makers, but it was a dormant program that awakened upon the absorption of supernatural energies.

Mana, Ki, and Hekita’s Spiritual Energy that allowed Anubis to reach new levels and recover quickly, was the key, and it could even be said that it was thanks to her abilities that this was possible.

“It seems my time is limited,” he said. “Hekita, Merneith. You may not be able to call for my help very soon. My powers are too extreme and create a great burden on Ra and Anubis. If there were more machines to combine, it might be different… However, the results of fusions will greatly change depending on what Gods you combine. Bear this in mind.”

“O-Okay… Thank you,” muttered Merneith. “Um, are you truly Amun?”

“That I am,” nodded the giant mech. “Perhaps not like you imagined, but I am the concentration and crystallization of Mythology and History, the Belief and Faith of people of ancient Times created my hypothetical existence. And through Ra and Anubis, I was able to manifest briefly.”

“Woah, that’s awesome!” Hekita said.

“The Ancient Egyptians knew this: that their Gods could never be truly real; therefore, we Mechanical Gods were created, our cores, the crystallization of their faith and belief, of their history and mythology. That world lacked Magic like this one; supernatural forces could never amass to create Gods.” He explained.

“I see…” Bing Xue nodded, descending from the skies. “So that’s how the Mechanical Gods were created? That is very interesting. I’ve visited other worlds before, and Gods are indeed created this way, sometimes. Amassing History and Mythology together to create a hypothetical existence, and through these supernatural energies such as Mana, and Divine Power which is a highly refined form of Mana, their Divinities are made. So that world had the amassed Mythology and History, Belief and Faith, but no supernatural energies to create God’s divine bodies and divinities, huh?”

“Indeed,” nodded Amun. “Because of that, they made a special crystal, a synthesized material capable of harnessing psychic energies; this is how Faith was harnessed inside, crystalizing into the God Cores we all have. And so they built bodies for their gods, making them real even with the absence of divinity and magic.”

“That’s really interesting,” nodded Bing Xue. “Anyways, it seems you’re already dissipating? Your power is impressive.”

“My hypothetical existence is brief, yes,” Amun nodded. “So I shall be leaving within seconds from now. However, truth be told, your power is even greater. Without you helping these girls, it would have been never possible for me to manifest. I am grateful to you, Bing Xue.”

Amun bowed to Bing Xue, and as Merneith gasped, her greatest of gods was bowing to someone else!

“Now I shall leave,” Amun smiled at Merneith and Hekita, who had already stepped out of him, floating using Hekita’s magic. “Be careful, however. The fight might not be over yet…”

Amun quickly dissipated into particles of azure light as Ra and Anubis returned to their original forms, looking at their own bodies in disbelief.

“Just what… happened?!” Anubis wondered.

“Craaah?” Ra groaned.

As the two Mechanical Gods separated and recovered their form, Merneith and Hekita smiled, nodding happily.

“We did it, guys!” said Hekita. “Well done you two!”

“That was amazing, Ra! I had no idea we could do that!” Merneith said.

As Bing Xue noticed that the battles across the four different cities finally came to an end and the threat from this parallel timeline was finally taken care of, she sighed in relief.

“Well, finally time to rest… Or so I would wish to think.”

She glared at the torn-apart Set, which was emanating a constant aura of black and purple, otherworldly energies.

Primal Power.

However, it was strange, twisted and transformed, enhanced, and made even stronger. This level of Primal Power surpassed even the Primal King.

And it was more akin to a malevolent Divinity of its own!

“Hmm, is this what Amun meant by the battle not being over?”

She crossed her arms as she glanced at a sudden eruption of this black and purple energy, resembling a deadly poisonous fog that spread out everywhere, leaving behind rivers of miasma that contaminated the desert.

RUMBLE!

“W-What was that?!”

“Eh? That’s…!”

The two girls panicked as they heard the tremor echoing below them and then the expanding domain of black and purple fog.

“What’s happening?! What is this cold and weird presence?” Merneith asked in disbelief.

FLUOSH!

The fog expanded at an alarming rate; within mere seconds, hundreds of meters had been covered, turning the sand completely pitch black and covered on purple-colored crystals as sharp as blades.

But that wasn’t all; the corpses of the invaders and their destroyed machines quickly began to move on their own once more, and the black and purple fog clouds, which Bing Xue immediately realized were a modified type of Primal Power, started possessing them.

The destroyed gold and black colored machines gained purple and gray colors, growing purple crystals over their bodies, somehow beginning to rapidly combine back together, forming monstrous chimeric metallic aberrations in the shape of spiders.

Hundreds of mechanical, aberrant spiders were born within seconds, and to make things even worse, Set pieces and Neferteri’s corpse were also back up.

“Oh, now this is interesting~”

Belze smiled as she glanced at the scene; the monstrosities being born were overflowing with a power she had yet to fully assimilate herself.

Meanwhile, the Egyptian Hunters glanced at the scene in disbelief.

“What the hell is going on?! Didn’t we win?!” Ahmed asked furiously.

“Why are they standing back up as if nothing?!” Mohamed wondered. “This makes no sense!”

“I sense an evil presence; a malevolent false god has manifested within those corpses and machines!” Sara immediately could sense evil presences. “It is manifesting across all of them! How… How is this possible?! Where did this false god come from?!”

“A false god? You mean the ones from the tower?” Heba asked. “But that shouldn’t be possible; they aren’t allowed to come here. Let alone influence in such a direct way!”

“RAAAARRGGH!”

Bing Xue crossed her arms as she smiled, seeing the monstrous spider-shaped metallic giant formed out of Set’s body, covered with black and gray steel and purple crystals.

And overflowing with an aura of malice beyond this world’s boundaries.

“I thought I could take a little break before this other problem started getting annoying,” she sighed.

“Merneith…! MERNEITH!!! I’LL DESTROY IT ALL! YOU AND EVERYONE HEREEEE!”

And the voice of Neferteri reverberated across the entire desert, her drowned corpse reanimated and infused with a malevolent and poisonous Primal Power, mutating her into an undead spider-like woman fused with Set’s steel and wires, ultimately giving them the appearance of a massive Arachne.

“Seriously, you really won’t let me have a small break, hm?”

As Bing Xue prepared to fight and finish this, across the other cities, the same scene could be seen: the machines that had been destroyed and their pilots all “came back to life” infected by this fog.

“W-What’s happening?!”

Mursha panicked as she saw the giant female mechanical goddess she had slain suddenly transform into a huge dragonfly and spider-like chimeric metallic monstrosity.

“RAAAARRGHH!”

Its painful metallic scream reverberated across the entire desert as it flew not towards her but towards Alejandria, only leaving behind the smaller spider monsters that charged against the city.

“Fiery Hair! Look!”

“Ah?! Huh?!”

“GRUOOOHHH!”

Peperina and Fiery Hair noticed the giant stone-wielding mechanical god they fought rapidly reform itself, infected by new powers and reanimated, fused with its pilot, and turned into a massive beetle and spider hybrid monstrosity.

It spread out its massive wings, flying away as the girls gave chase, leaving behind the other hunters to take care of the mechanical spiders.

“What in the world?!”

“Urbosa, don’t let him escape!”

“SHAAAHHH!”

At the same time, Urbosa and Merkite glanced as a massive centipede and spider-like hybrid abomination emerged from the countless mechanical snake heads they had cut down, merged with the old man that died inside of the machine. The monstrosity moved across the desert seeking something.

Bing Xue, who had spread her Doppelgangers everywhere, could clearly see that something odd was going on; instead of aiming for the cities, the reanimated giant machines all ran towards Neferteri.

“Is this Primal God trying to match my strength by merging them all together? Ridiculous…”

However, after having seen all those fights without participating that much, Bing Xue wanted to stretch a bit and try her new abilities.

“Hmm, maybe I’ll let you do that. Fine. Entertain me.”

She seemed expectant.

“But please, don’t disappoint me.”

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