The vast entryway was perhaps a quarter of a kilometer long at a glance. It was also roughly four times that wide. The ceiling above me was so far up that even with my considerable vision it took me a second to see it. My considerable powers as a true elemental overlord came in handy in this particular instance as they allowed me to begin to formulate a mental map of this facility even as I stepped into it.

One of the annoying traits about this place was that from outside of it my abilities at my level couldn't allow me to map the interior. In other dimensions, my sensory abilities were not quite as sharp as they would have been on worlds with stars, but normally I could still use them as I had in Puerto Rico at the beginning of my life, to form a potent mental map of a place even from the outside, but here... Here my senses were unable to pierce the inside of this building until I had stepped into it. That said I knew that going in.

I had had the foresight to ask the knowledge domain to tell me what to expect when I came here. Because of that, I learned of the quirks of divine gravesites such as this weird factory. Annoyingly enough this was one such quirk. It wasn't the only quirk either. Another was the fact that these sorts of places tended to spring up spontaneously when the gods they hold are killed, though that isn't always the case as Morehammer's divine gravesite, the Emerald Palace was actually built before his death. This particular gravesite also wasn't a spontaneous one, and I learned that when I touched the front door earlier.

Off in the distance, robotic footsteps grew louder as more and more robots were deployed to come and subdue me. Technos' efforts at subduing me were clearly serious, but for someone like me, this was nowhere near enough. I could see the entire entryway in flawless detail thanks to my potent vision, and when the first of my would-be subduers approached from other rooms, ones that until now had been hidden behind moving walls, the walls moved out of the way and allowed them to step into the entryway. I chuckled and willed my shadow to go and engage one group of them.

I wasn't the only one to grow stronger during these past three years. My shadow, itself a sort of living creature and guardian of mine, had also grown in strength and even in intelligence. The creature was also far more aggressive than it had been before. My shadow extended itself from me, aided by my usage of my powers over darkness, and began to speedily crawl towards one of the newly exposed rooms. As it did the creature began to grow in height, no longer just a seemingly flat, two-dimensional being, but now a creature of something like but not quite flesh and blood.

My shadow took on the form of an aggressive giant, armed with a powerful war hammer made of solidified shadows. When it closed in on the creatures, it issued a belligerent roar and rose its war hammer high in the air above it. I turned to face another of the groups of robots right as my shadow began to bring the powerful hammer down on its foes.

The robots I faced were all draconic ones, most of which were clearly lesser creatures like drakes and wyverns. A handful of them were clearly either robots like the one I had made for Drow or had once been organic true dragons. They were all crawling out of a handful of the rooms that were now fully exposed to me and they issued mechanical roars in my general direction.

I chuckled and I decided to have some fun with the dragons. I rose a hand and activated one of my wrath-based abilities: "Blind rage". It was a simple power that affected anything that wasn't a vestige, and it caused the targets to go berserk. It was technically an active power, but it was one of the active powers that had unlimited usages. At the moment I aimed it at the robotic dragons that had been approaching me which caused them all to stop and begin to turn on each other.

The mechanical dragons effortlessly began to tear each other, snapping at their fellow robots with claws made from arcane metals and unleashing powerful breath attacks at each other, as well as biting into their fellow metallic dragons. I watched this go down with an amused smile on my face even as more walls began to move out of the way and expose more enemies to myself and my shadowy guardian.

My shadow effortlessly batted away enemies determined to see me brought low, and even began to chuckle and laugh as more and more robots were struck by its attacks. When the next group of enemies appeared and began to dash at me, ones who had been locked away in a room to my left, I tossed my staff to my right hand and rose my left, pointing it at them.

I didn't need to speak to use my powers, all I needed was a desire for my powers to activate. A large forcefield appeared around the five or so robots closest to me from the charging group that I hadn't disrupted with my powers over anger. The barrier was a large, pink bubble that entrapped all of them. A split second later it shrunk to the size of a pebble, instantly crushing all of them. Barriers and forcefields weren't just defensive, at least not in the hands of someone creative.

"No matter how many enemies are thrown my way... I'll eliminate them all." I muttered, even as I willed some of the remaining robots from the group that was charging at me to explode, and the others to implode. Most of these robots weren't worth the effort it'd take me to actually get involved personally. That said, a handful were worth the effort.

I willed a small dagger into existence in my left hand, and I grinned. One of the powers I had gotten as an intermediate god, a deity who was well and truly a god, was called "absolute dexterity" and it came with improvements to my already incalculable speed. I was now capable of exceeding the speed of sound. That, combined with one of the powers brought to me by the assassin class made me unbeatable in moments like this.

I activated the power, "flash-step" and basically teleported next to one of the rampaging robot-dragons. The creature was still lost in its rage, and I took my dagger, made of acid-resistant steel I had created myself using alteration and creation, and I slashed the beast. My attack was a slash at the speed of the light and it effortlessly cut through the beast's metallic body, causing a significant bit of damage to the monster.

My attack was so fast that by the time creature began to react to my attack in my perception an eternity had already passed. Whenever I used my true speed the world slowed down around me, and that had been the case before, but now it was amplified multiple times over.

As an intermediate god, all of my basic stats but strength, which was already at its absolute maximum, were further amplified but the newest one that had been amplified to the maximum was my dexterity. That included my perception of time and my ability to break down even nanoseconds into smaller units of time.

The dragon roared in pain when it finally felt the pain from the blow, something which wouldn't ordinarily happen to robots but I was messing about a bit and I was also causing it to be sensitive to the pain of my blows. In fact, all of the robots were sensitive to pain, thanks to my enhanced auric abilities, another consequence of intermediate godhood, but the majority of them were killed in one blow so they didn't really have a chance to demonstrate their unusual sensitivity.

Behind me, my shadow had successfully finished killed perhaps a few dozen of the robots and was absorbing their shadows to grow stronger than before. While the robotic dragon in front of me was reeling from the pain of my blow, I destroyed the dagger I had created and I finished off the beast by activating "disruption" an older but newly enhanced chaos domain ability that caused the robot to shut down when I placed a single hand on it. I silently created a barrier that surrounded myself and the other robots which were over here, still fighting one another. And then I closed my eyes and create a small black hole.

The black hole was tiny, not even a foot wide or tall, and under my command. I could control the thing because I was both a powerful god of darkness, physics, and stars, and a demon lord of darkness. The instant it appeared it began to draw the robots, still in the throes of their mindless rage, into it. I chuckled as the black hole did nothing to me but forcibly drew the robots into its creeping, destructive embrace.

The robots were effortlessly drawn into the black hole, their forms compressing and being destroyed even as they were drawn into one of my ultimate attacks. I had the ability to command black holes, and the one here was so small I could reach out and hold it in my hand, but naturally occurring black holes could be sizes so large they were capable of being over a quarter of the size of a solar system. I could also create even larger black holes if I ever wanted too, thanks to my other powers.

"How utterly incredible..." I muttered, a smile on my face as I watched one of my most destructive abilities wreck havok. I could use this power to utterly destroy entire solar systems if I ever wanted to just lay waste to existence. This power was one of my most godly ones, and it was also a truly terrifying power even to me. This remind me of the incredible power I possessed as a god and demon lord of destruction.

I willed the black hole out of existence with but a thought, and undid the barrier that surrounded me. As I undid the barrier my shadow returned to me and I sensed that it had grown in raw power thanks to the feeding it did on my robotic foes. I chuckled as my shadow returned to me, once more fusing with my form and returning to its normal, seemingly two dimensional form.

More robots were about to be deployed, but I was ready to ignore them. Something I had learned when I had my confrontation with Morehammer was that though a vestige itself was something like a god and was difficult to affect with some sorts of deific powers they were not deities. Vestiges could not bless their servants, nor could their abilities overpower an actual god's abilities.

I was capable of direct combat but I was also a powerful manipulator and a lot of my powers were based around manipulation. If I didn't want to fight someone and that person was not a vestige I could prevent a fight from breaking out in dozens of ways. When more of the walls moved out of the way and revealed more robots coming my way I chuckled and activated a number of abilities at once.

Some of the abilities I activated were ones that infuriated targets. Those powers were aimed at some of the robots and caused them to turn on each other in a mindless, endless rage. Some of the abilities I activated caused creatures to fall in love with me the instant they sensed me and filled them with an urge to not be violent towards me. My powers over love were strong enough that even non-organic lifeforms weren't exempt from their effects, and those powers washed over several squads of robots who immediately overcame their orders and vowed, mentally, not to harm me.

I heard their vows in my head as clearly as I could hear any mortal's thoughts thanks to the choice I had made a few years ago to become a demon lord with power over mental abilities. That gave me the ability to read the minds of extraplanar entities as easily as I read the minds of mortals, which had been immensely handy in places like the Heart of Darkness and Infernius.

As some of the robots tore themselves to pieces and others approached me to protect me I finally began to truly step deeper into the factory. At the moment I had around three dozen robotic guards, some of which were robotic dragons though most of them were robotic devils of various types. I was silent as I stepped deeper and deeper into the ominous gravesite, but there was a confident smirk on my face. This was the first adventure I had gone on in years and it felt nice to be back to adventuring on my own.

I had raised the levels of my classes over the last few years very swiftly. I created conditions under which I could safely level by creating arenas in places like Duvessa and Dunkelheit where I fought against various enemies. I had also called on existing sages throughout my empire to come and tutor me in the ways of magic and to show me how to properly use alchemy and a dozen other things.

For some of the stranger classes, ones like patron and god I had risen them by investing my power in clever and pious mortals who swiftly grew to become the leaders of cults and the founders of distinct religions, each of which worshiped me in unique ways, in hundreds of worlds. I had also visited the dreams of tens of millions of individuals and I had become a familiar figure in the dreams of the most pious worshipers of mine, which also helped increase my levels in some of the religious classes.

These were efficient leveling techniques, something which mattered given how immensely difficult it was to level something like god or patron up. That said these were also incredibly safe ways to level up my classes, and though I could appreciate the safety of these tactics they were also boring.

My old lifestyle had been fun, even if it was laughably inefficient. The first roughly 5 or so months I had been alive were incredibly chaotic, and I myself behaved more foolishly than many mortals, but every day I was able to do something different and I was able to explore the universe.

For the last three years I had chosen not to do that. That was a smart decision but it also made many days, weeks, and even entire months a monotonous mess. It was only recently that things began to diversify again, and with my acquisition of powers as an outer god, an archfey, and my new status as an intermediate god I felt confident, equipped, and powerful enough to tackle Technos head-on.

I reached the end of the entryway a few minutes after entering the factory. Another vast wall and ominous door stood in front of me, which I approached and opened without any hesitation. This gravesite wasn't about to scare me away. I had come here to become an archdevil and I wasn't about to be deterred. Not this late into the quest I had accepted over three years ago.

What awaited me and the robots my powers over love had swayed to my side on the other side of the door was a much smaller, more narrow chamber. As I stepped into it another notification filled my vision.

Pre-Programed Notification: Welcome To The Chamber Of Destiny

Greetings "Insert devil name here"! (Error update: that creature appears to be a "devil duke", an anomalous entity that is both a devil and not a devil, this iteration of the system is attempting to figure out more about the anomalous entity and force an update) You are now at the crossroads of destiny. Will you prove yourself to be a lawful entity and peacefully join your siblings in eternal unification with Technos, or will you stick to wicked ambitions and attempt to have an audience with Technos himself?

If you seek to join Technos and become a member of his eternal host, please advance to the end of the hallway and step through the door on the other end. Once you do you will be brought to the assimilation chamber and mechanized into a greater form of yourself then you could ever hope to achieve on your own at the cost of your independence and free will.

If you are more evil than lawful please go to the hallway to your right and attempt to survive a gauntlet of Technos' own design. In it you will face minions, worshipers, and creations of the technological deity, and eventually, if you survive long enough you shall have a chance to speak directly to Infernius' first great guardian.

I chuckled and read through the notification twice before closing it. When I did I heard the voice of Technos, broadcast by the infernal P.A. system his divine energy must have rigged throughout this factory.

"So are you feeling warmed up now?" The voice asked, amusement audible in it. I didn't respond, content, for now, to allow the deific echo to talk at me rather than engage it in actual conversation.

"Oh so you're so the strong silent type? How amusing. Somehow I doubt you'll willingly unify with me, so I'm looking forward to seeing you clash with my worshipers." The voice proclaimed, still believing that some of his servants would somehow overcome me. I smiled at his words, and he replied to me by audibly chuckling before I was met with silence again.

The hallway before me was a short one. It ended merely a dozen meters away from where I was, and there were two exit points that I could see. One of them was a closed door, behind which I could hear the sounds of machinery hard at work. The other was to the right of where I stood now, and it was an open door.

Beyond the open door was a small walkway leading to a strange, circular arena where a single angel stood, waiting patiently for something. His eyes were closed, and with but a glance I immediately learned everything I needed to know about him. Being a god of knowledge had its perks.

I walked out of the "Chamber of destiny" and onto the walkway. As I began to approach the angel the creature's eyes opened revealing eyes that were the color of a cloudless sky.

The robots that had vowed to protect me detected the angel as I closed in on the end of the walkway and they flew out towards the creature, hatred almost radiating out of them. I hadn't manipulated them to feel hatred towards the angel, it was just their innate reaction to a creature they accurately recognized was an enemy of mine. That said the angel wasn't bothered by them.

The angel was a humanoid type angel of technology and had an array of nasty abilities. It demonstrated one of them with but a single motion, a single metallic wing unfurling from its back and immediately fired electricity covered feathers at the robots I had swayed to my side. The robots were too slow and when they were struck with a feather they fell to the floor and began convulsing, making a series of high-pitched noises, before shutting down one by one in the order they were struck by the feathers. I didn't bother trying to protect the robots as it wasn't necessary for me to do so for me to be able to take the angel out.

The angel was the first real obstacle I would face on my way to take down Technos. That said, to call this an obstacle was to downplay my abilities. When I stepped into the arena I placed my staff on my back and I closed my fists. I'd have fun taking down an angel of technology with nothing but my fists.