After following Lu Chen into the space-time rift, Nahida observed the workshop's surroundings, her brows furrowing deeper and deeper.
"They actually managed to build such a massive secret workshop so close to the Sanctuary of Surasthana..."
Lu Chen looked at her and spoke in a low voice. "A place like this couldn't have been built overnight. The sages must have been secretly cooperating with the Fatui for a long time."
Nahida's face darkened further, her small cheeks flushing red with anger.
Lu Chen couldn't help but think to himself that for so long, Nahida had felt her own power was lacking, so she had tacitly allowed the Akademiya to control Sumeru, believing they were more fit to govern than she was. But what happened today would likely shatter that illusion completely. This enormous workshop had been built right under her nose, and yet she had known nothing about it...
If the Akademiya was hiding this much, then what else were they keeping from her?
With questions weighing on their minds, the three pressed onward, drawing ever closer to the source of the two overwhelming energies.
When they entered a vast and magnificent hall, an astonishing sight unfolded before them.
Scaramouche raised his head in shock. "What... is that?"
"Tall, tall, tall?" Nahida blinked in surprise. It looked strangely similar to the toy Lu Chen had once bought her.
But the thing before them was far too big.
Towering more than a hundred meters tall, two colossal humanoid mechs loomed ahead like immovable iron fortresses.
At their feet, Fatui agents and Akademiya scholars scurried about, their figures as insignificant as ants beneath the giants.
"Is this... the sages' plan?" Nahida asked instinctively, her eyes wide as she looked to Lu Chen.
"It seems so..." Lu Chen muttered, tilting his head upward. The two overwhelming energies were emanating from the tops of the mechs—one heavy and unyielding like "geo," the other clear and light like "anemo."
"A godlike aura..."
Scaramouche stared at the mechs, his eyes alight with longing. "They're... creating gods?!"
Under the workers' operation, the massive constructs trembled faintly, their heads flashing with green and ochre light.
At that moment, a strange laugh echoed across the hall.
"A giant machine forged by the combined power of all six Darshans of the Akademiya... Once the final step is complete, it will wield power equal to the gods themselves!"
"No one but me could achieve this! Hahahaha!"
"Ha! The Akademiya! And all those sages who are long dead." The man laughed maniacally. "If only you could see this scene now!"
"Even gods can be created by mortals. Yet you never cherished my genius... heh..."
Lu Chen and Nahida exchanged a glance, each seeing the same shock reflected in the other's eyes.
The one laughing so wildly—was the Doctor?
He was faster than Lu Chen? Did that mean Ei and Venti hadn't managed to hold him back?
Lu Chen quickly dismissed the thought. The Doctor before them was clearly different from the one outside. This one looked younger, his demeanor less composed.
"There aren't just two Doctors!" Nahida's voice rang in Lu Chen's mind.
He followed her gaze toward the top of one of the massive mechs.
From the cockpit, half the body of a young-looking Doctor protruded.
"Three Doctors?"
"What's so surprising?" Scaramouche said quietly.
Both Lu Chen and Nahida turned toward him, and Scaramouche explained, "This lunatic cut pieces of himself at different ages and turned them into prosthetic bodies. Each 'slice' can act and think independently, with its own personality."
"But don't underestimate them just because they're fragments," Scaramouche added, arms crossed.
"I see..." Nahida murmured. "Three Doctors... this just got a lot more troublesome..."
As Lu Chen stared at the younger version of the Doctor in the distance, all of his doubts fell into place.
The reason the Akademiya had been exploiting the collective dreams of Sumeru's people was to create gods. The minds of everyone in Sumeru City had been reduced to little more than living processors, their brainpower harvested for computational strength...
And according to the Doctor, the plan had originally been prepared for Scaramouche. Perhaps it was the lack of a body close to divinity like his that caused the experiments to fail again and again, leading to the endless cycles of the Akasha's dreamscape—until now.
The cores powering these "gods" were none other than the Gnosis of the Archons of Anemo and Geo.
Nahida also understood at last why The Withering had spread so rapidly and on such a massive scale.
"The Akasha was originally meant to counter Irminsul's corruption. The Akasha Terminals were only a byproduct... But they diverted it for this purpose instead. No wonder the computing power meant to resist corruption has become dangerously insufficient..."
"We can't wait any longer," Lu Chen said firmly. He remembered the Doctor mentioning the giants were just one step away from completion. If the Fatui gained two more godlike allies, the balance of power could shift entirely.
With that, he guided the space-time rift, leading Nahida and Scaramouche quietly toward the two enormous mechs.
As they passed one of the Doctors, Lu Chen saw Nahida glare at him with pure hatred.
She clearly despised this instigator of Sumeru's calamity, even raising her middle finger at him in the end.
She had picked up that gesture from Lu Chen himself...
Watching her furious little display, Lu Chen couldn't help but shake his head with a smile.
The Lesser Lord Kusanali was simply too adorable. Even in her anger, she didn't seem threatening at all—more like a tiny wildcat sharpening its claws.
"Hm?"
The Doctor suddenly glanced ahead suspiciously. For some reason, he felt as though something dangerous was watching him.
Yet there was nothing in sight.
"Doctor, what is it?" a nearby Fatui guard asked.
"Nothing." The Doctor frowned, then coldly ordered, "Restart the Akasha dream. Refocus all computational power. We must accelerate our progress before any accidents occur."
"But the sages said..." the guard hesitated. "Many of the carriers are already at their limits. If we keep restarting, the damage to them could be—unpredictable..."
The Doctor said nothing, only fixing him with a cold stare.
The Fatui guard shuddered instantly. "Understood!"
Moments later, outside the secret workshop, Sumeru City fell silent once more. Countless people slipped back into that bizarre, illusory dream.