Published at 21st of January 2026 6:26 am

Chapter 3786: Fear Machine

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He reached the spot where the Divine Doctor and the Mother of Nature worked together. A cozy, but large and spacious burrow within the body of the Mother of Nature had opened up with warm lights from bioluminescent flows that hung on the ceiling.

They had created a little workshop with organic projectors creating three-dimensional holograms that featured data from a large number of underground organic sensors from the root systems that the Mother of Nature had control over.

The Divine Doctor poured over them with an engrossed expression.

"Looks like you guys have been busy over the past year," Rui remarked as he took a good, long look around at all the instruments and data feeds that were present. "I’m glad to see that you’ve been putting in a lot of effort into studying Gaia."

The Divine Doctor’s gaze shifted from the instrument before him to Rui with a knowing gaze, studying his body with a once-over. "...Looks like the integration went well. I don’t see any signs of rejection. That’s good. Your martialus side has accepted your Anthean side completely, from the looks of it."

Rui nodded. "It wasn’t easy, but I pulled it off. There were some unexpected hiccups... and some terrifying implications from it. But more on that later."

"What’s that you have in your hand there?" Mother Maeria’s vessel frowned at the blackened head in Rui’s hands.

It was hard to miss such a strange and creepy object. She could sense that while the flesh was dead and strangely inert and preserved, the brain was still active, along with some other cells that were present in his body.

"Isn’t that...?" The Divine Doctor squinted.

"Tokugawa Ieyasu," Rui clarified. "A Martial Sage who could experience the Fear."

Mother Maeria’s eyes widened. "Impossible. It requires an extraordinary state of existence to be able to sense the fear. There is no way that a pathwalker at potential singularity can possibly experience it."

"He can," Rui confirmed with confidence. "I’ve sensed his fear. It’s boundless and existential."

"It could just be a mental illness," the Divine Doctor coolly countered. "Not every terror-struck person is experiencing the Fear. Anxiety disorders are a thing."

"No," Rui shook his head. "He doesn’t have any of the other symptoms or traits associated with mental disorders. His decisions and actions were rational enough, considering his agendas and priorities. His judgment, while folly in my personal opinion, resembles that of a man who was plagued with fear from a great threat and resorted to extreme measures to achieve power. I’ve experienced the Fear myself, and I recognized what I saw in him."

"If he truly does experience the Fear..." Mother Maeria frowned. "Then why essentially kill him? Is he not more of an asset to us alive?"

Rui’s eyes sharpened as a glint of rage flickered in their ethereal depths. He shifted his gaze to the head in his hands as his expression grew colder.

"He betrayed Panama, he killed many in the clan of my mother, and he killed my grandmother. He got what was coming to him."

"Is your vengeance more important than the fate of Gaia?" Mother Maeria raised an eyebrow. "If he truly experiences the Fear, then is he not more of an asset in an alive and healthy state?"

"He’s a liability." Rui shook his head. "He has no loyalty and his word cannot be trusted. He has betrayed his side multiple times now in pursuit of greater power. That is why I almost entirely killed him, save for his brain, which I have preserved. We can use his brain to create a machine that can detect Fear. And potentially locate it or help understand it."

Both the Divine Doctor and the Mother of Nature grew intrigued at that proposal.

"You want to... use a Martial Artist’s brain to create a machine?" Mother Maeria did not look particularly enthusiastic about that idea.

"Fascinating," the Divine Doctor put aside the data he was studying, directing his full attention to Ieyasu’s head with eyes of interest. "You want to hook him up to a neural interface and then feed his brain data from our sensors and try to measure the change in the fear he experiences to different sensory data."

"As expected of the Divine Doctor, you instantly nailed it." Rui nodded with a hint of enthusiasm. "If the source of the Fear is discrete, then the amount of fear that he experiences should serve as a valuable compass that points us in the right direction. With this, our chances of locating and understanding the Fear are much greater. Before, the only ways we had of truly experiencing the Fear were when I used Gigabrain or when Maeria resonated with her sisters. Both of these are highly costly and inconvenient to serve as a sensory method."

"That is true," Mother Maeria admitted. "Nature resonance is a deeply taxing move."

Her attention shifted to the head in his hand with greater interest. "Very well then, the technology to create the machine you have conceptualized already exists. I can create a biochemical neural interface that can feed his brain data in a manner that can trick him into believing that he is truly in that region with his body intact. That should give us more accurate data insofar as what we hope to achieve."

Rui nodded. "Here."

He tossed the head to Mother Maeria like it was a ball. "Whatever you do, make sure you don’t give that head any kind of control over anything. Tokugawa Ieyasu is a dangerous and powerful man. If you give him even the slightest opening, he will exploit it to the fullest."

"I will keep that in mind."

"Before I go, give me a brief rundown on all the progress you have made in the past year," Rui remarked, looking around the workshop. "I’ve been out of the loop for over a year, and I’m going to be extremely busy from this point on, so I’m not going to be able to partake like I wanted to, but I do want to be involved and aware of everything that has been going on in this front."

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