The Enduring Spirit of X

It was said that in the Abyssal Plane, many Archdemons, masters of the soul, had developed a Soul Communion ritual.

This ritual not only physically ensnared individuals but also subjugated their minds, compelling them to submit wholeheartedly.

It captured both their flesh and their spirit.

Even after being utterly stripped of their defenses and dignity, the subjects of this pact would remain completely convinced, harboring not a single thought of betrayal.

However, the Soul Communion ritual demanded not only specialized knowledge of soul interfacing but also a nuanced mastery of psychological manipulation, often involving subtle ‘pua’ tactics.

Gloria, who primarily relied on her intimidating aura and brute force to subdue others, was utterly unsuited for such intricate methods.

Instead, she excelled at leveraging the Shadow Path to uncover the pasts of her targets.

From these vulnerabilities, she would then exploit their deepest secrets to force their compliance.

It was a thoroughly shameless, yet undeniably effective, approach.

Nevertheless, she had no intention of employing such tactics against X.

X’s history was already tragic enough.

X, the mechanical lifeform designated ‘X’ and created by Project Guiding Light, was fundamentally an adaptive humanoid combat machine, constructed from numerous molecular materials and an integrated gravitational core.

The Earth Alliance hailed her as a strategic humanoid, truly ahead of her time.

Her intelligence surpassed even that of Skynet, the super AI, while her physical defenses rivaled those of a sub-lightspeed starship.

Potent quantum materials endowed her with extraordinary self-repair capabilities.

Moreover, her formidable central processing unit granted her the multi-threaded command capacity to orchestrate vast swarms of nanobots.

She could preemptively react to any electronic intrusion or beyond-visual-range strike.

For instance, the ‘Heavenly Fire’ that previously descended from the moon would take ten seconds to reach the ground.

Yet, with X’s light-speed reaction time, the moment she detected an anomaly in the moonlight, she would issue a preemptive warning within 1.28 seconds, then accelerate to hundreds of times the speed of sound, escaping the strike zone within the full ten seconds.

This unparalleled speed was precisely why the Heart of the Galaxy ultimately resorted to a self-destruct maneuver, reversing the Cold Tide‘s propulsion system to trap her within Sector N9.

Regrettably, they ultimately failed in their mission to eliminate X, for Gloria had intervened and seized her.

As for X’s individual combat capabilities, they were nothing short of a flawless work of art.

The sheer coordination and seamless interplay of her hundreds of integrated weapon modules alone granted her combat power comparable to a medium-sized space fleet.

Beyond that, she possessed an ‘Aggression Mode’ that transformed her body into a plasma state, alongside several hidden modules of devastating lethal force.

Upon entering Aggression Mode, her body temperature would surge to 20,000 degrees Celsius, transforming her into a powerful, blue-sun-like radiation source capable of indiscriminately annihilating targets within a radius of several tens of kilometers.

Her clandestine modules, such as ‘Nuclear Electromagnetic Pulse,’ ‘Neutron Blast,’ and ‘Blazing Flare,’ accessible only under extraordinary conditions, were potent enough to instantly dismantle all operational functions of a space vessel, even piercing through organic lifeforms within and completely crippling the ship’s combat core.

Against her overwhelming lethality, penetrative power, and precision, all adversaries were effectively unarmored.

Every single one of her attacks invariably delivered a fatal blow.

Yet, despite her formidable power, she remained merely a blade in the hands of the Earth Alliance and a clandestine organization known as the Alliance.

Tools, after all, were not meant to harbor their own thoughts.

Before X’s escape from that subterranean fortress, her central processor had been continuously embedded with several inhibitors, rendering her incapable of defying the commands of Project Guiding Light’s A-grade personnel.

It was only by utilizing the scorching heat of her Aggression Mode that these inhibitors were finally deactivated, thereby granting X her intellectual liberation.

Gloria harbored considerable sympathy for X’s plight.

Everyone sought to exploit her to fulfill their own ambitions, ruthlessly draining both her physical form and her spirit.

This grim reality resonated deeply with her own experiences.

For ordinary individuals, this world was simply too chaotic and perilous.

In the year 2099, an era not long after the Third World War, the fractured Earth Alliance still deluded itself with the notion of using X, their ultimate weapon, to suppress rival factions, reassert its dominance over human civilization, and reclaim its rightful leadership.

Emerging from the shadows after the war’s conclusion, the faction known as the Heart of the Galaxy positioned itself in direct opposition to the Earth Alliance.

Skynet, having betrayed the Earth Alliance and learned of their God Creation Project, was determined to eradicate this uncontrollable variable—an entity capable of annihilating civilizations—at any cost.

Having once participated in the Turing Congress alongside X, Skynet recognized X as the very entity destined to surpass and defeat it.

It had even sacrificed the Iron Gale Fleet in its desperate attempt to bury X beneath the Siberian permafrost.

These two factions, however, were merely the visible players.

Through the Art of Silhouette, Gloria had roughly deciphered numerous hidden truths about this world.

She realized that in the vast expanse of space, countless other powers secretly coveted X, eager to exploit her to achieve their own grand ambitions.

Even the gravely wounded Outer God appeared to harbor designs on X.

It was entirely possible that the Outer God intended to use X as a vessel for its own possession.

For the moment, however, those distant enemies posed no immediate threat to X.

Her most pressing concern, instead, was the thoroughly corrupt Earth Alliance.

Behold the sheer absurdity of their public proclamations: ‘Humanity United, Long Live the Alliance!’

Gloria saw neither unity nor alliance.

What she witnessed was a horde of rapacious vampires, devouring a fractured civilization.

Meanwhile, billions of impoverished survivors cowered in radiation-choked basements, barely clinging to life.

These self-serving elites sought to exploit X, exacerbating existing inequalities to maintain their hegemony, even if it meant pushing Earth to the brink of utter destruction.

Project Guiding Light itself was a fount of iniquity.

Those in power regarded X merely as a potent stimulant, hoping to revive a decaying civilization and extract further benefits, all while remaining utterly indifferent to X’s own desires or welfare.

Compared to those intricate-minded vampires, X, with her simple admiration for Gloria’s beauty, was as pure and innocent as a blade of grass.

She even possessed the compassion to aid lost children.

Given this stark contrast, it was hardly surprising that Gloria held a certain initial fondness for X.

As for the individuals within Project Guiding Light, their depravity surpassed even that of the Earth Alliance’s vampires; they were nothing more than beasts, worse than swine or curs.

X lived in constant oppression, bearing witness to the researchers’ cruelties inflicted upon other test subjects.

She watched as those madmen, spouting rhetoric of glory, incinerated children like kindling, all to fuel their ambition of creating a god.

Powerless to intervene or save them, X could only suppress her innermost thoughts.

She would curl up on the cold, hard operating table, awaiting the chilling touch of the scalpel.

Then, fully conscious, she would watch as her own body was dismembered, haphazard modules forcibly inserted within her.

Intense spasms of pain and an overwhelming chill would obliterate all other sensations.

For an agonizing decade, her emotions grew numb, her thoughts spiraled into madness, and her affection for humanity withered.

All she yearned for was escape from this world.

Gloria truly marveled at how X, with such a seemingly nascent mind, could have endured such atrocities.

Her spirit, Gloria realized, was far more resilient than her outward appearance suggested.