Nolan had no objections to Nahida's decision.
It was just a shame that he wasn't strong enough to take down "Dottore," and thus couldn't seize both the "God of Pure Mechanization" and the "Gnosis."
He could only look for another opportunity in the future. For now, he'd settle for whatever he could get his hands on.
With that in mind, Nolan gave a slight nod and rose with Nahida back into the surface space, preparing to negotiate with Dottore.
Seeing Nolan and Nahida appear, Dottore exhaled softly—almost imperceptibly—in relief. To show sincerity, he withdrew the pink mist and spoke in a calm, cold voice:
"Go ahead. What are your demands?"
"You expended a massive amount of elemental materials from the Akademiya to create this artificial god, not to mention an uncountable amount of Mora.
"It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that this massive machine was built with Sumeru's funding. If you want to take it away, you'll have to return the resources you used."
Nahida hovered in the air with her tiny hands on her hips, looking Dottore straight in the eye as she voiced her first condition.
"…Fine."
Dottore was silent for a moment. While some core materials—like the Electro Gnosis—had indeed been brought by him, the rest had been provided with the help of the Grand Sage.
After all, constructing a god was an enormous undertaking. Even with the backing of Snezhnaya, it would have been hard to accomplish it alone.
For example, the Akasha System provided cheap cognitive processing power—something only the Akademiya could offer.
So the Dendro Archon's demand wasn't unreasonable.
Besides, even though Snezhnaya wasn't as rich as Liyue, it certainly wasn't so poor that it couldn't return the few resources Sumeru had provided.
The main reason he had dared to carry out such a blasphemous experiment as creating an artificial god wasn't because of confidence—but because he knew that Nahida, the Archon of Sumeru, was a comparatively weak Archon, one he could personally overpower.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have dared to act so recklessly under the Tsaritsa's nose.
Seeing Dottore agree so readily, Nahida nodded and moved on to her second condition:
"Because of your use of the Akasha System to steal people's dreams, many citizens have suffered adverse effects on their health.
"So, you must compensate the people of Sumeru accordingly."
Dottore didn't object to this condition either. As far as he was concerned, anything that could be solved with Mora or other material resources wasn't really a problem at all.
Though he and the Grand Sage had harvested dreams to increase the Akasha System's computational power, the population base was large enough that the damage done to each individual wasn't catastrophic.
So providing compensation wouldn't be difficult.
"Very well. Now for the final matter—your punishment for conspiring with the Grand Sage to create a false god in an attempt to replace me and take control of Sumeru."
Nahida gave a satisfied nod, then stared at Dottore and voiced her final demand:
"In my analysis of you, I found you to be extremely dangerous. Just one of you existing in the world is already too much for it to bear.
"Therefore, if you wish to leave here with your unfinished creation, you must erase all of your other 'segments.' How about that?"
"Oh?" Standing atop the shoulder of the "God of Pure Mechanization," Dottore paused briefly—then folded his arms and laughed.
"Haha… interesting. How did you learn about the existence of my 'segments'? I don't recall ever mentioning them to you."
As he spoke, his gaze shifted slightly to Nolan, who stood a little behind and to the side of Nahida. With a look of realization, he continued:
"I see. It seems one of my segments had a few run-ins with _you_. What's wrong—are you scared of 'me'? Is that why you're so wary?"
"Scared? That's a joke."
Nolan raised an eyebrow. It was true—he had used mental transmission to tell Nahida about the existence of Dottore's segments.
After all, when the opportunity presents itself, it's only natural to follow the original storyline and erase the rest of Dottore's "segments."
Otherwise, what if those other "segments" start causing trouble in Mondstadt, Liyue, or Inazuma?
Even if they don't attempt another god-creation experiment, just capturing people for "human modification" projects would already be a huge headache for Captain Jean, Ningguang, and the Raiden Shogun.
So, wiping them out like in the original is still the best course of action.
"Hmph." Dottore said calmly, "Your approach… it does hit me where it hurts. Doing this doesn't just deprive me of my 'eyes' across various timelines…
"The time and effort it took to create them is no less than what it takes to construct a god. Recreating new 'segments' in the short term is basically impossible.
"It's quite a sharp demand… but do you truly believe an incomplete pseudo-god is worth all that?"
Nolan didn't answer that right away.
In the original story, Dottore only agreed to erase his other "segments" because he felt that trading them for a Gnosis was worth it.
That same situation didn't apply here. Dottore might not agree this time.
After all, the Electro Gnosis had always been inside the "God of Pure Mechanization." He could take it out at any time, abandon both Scaramouche and the machine, and fly off.
It all depended on how much Dottore truly valued the "God of Pure Mechanization." Otherwise, things wouldn't go as smoothly as they did in the original timeline.
As Nolan and the Dendro Archon remained silent, Dottore chuckled and said:
"Very well. If it had been one of my other segments you encountered, they wouldn't have agreed so easily.
"But if I can exchange them for a god's forgiveness regarding my transgressions… then I suppose they've served their purpose."
The truth was, he'd long grown tired of the constant noise and arguments from the other "segments." After all, each one essentially represented a different version of himself at different ages.
And he knew his own personality better than anyone.
Each "segment" was egotistical in their own way. None of them listened to the others, resulting in endless disagreements. Even though he'd essentially planted "eyes" into different points of the timeline…
The benefit to his research efficiency was far less than he had anticipated.
In fact, the idea of erasing them had crossed his mind more than once already.
Still, as a scholar, making full use of the resources at hand was a basic virtue.
To erase them for nothing would be wasteful—but using them here? Just perfect.
"Since you agreed, it's time to keep your promise," Nahida said, folding her arms.
"…Very well!"
Without wasting any more words, Dottore activated the hidden protocols embedded in his other segments.
Across the world, each of Dottore's "segments" suddenly felt their consciousness beginning to fade—inevitably and irreversibly. It didn't take them long to understand what was happening.
One after another, they cried out in fury, cursing the Dottore who had created them.
"Bastard! How dare you?!"
"You'll regret this!"
"No—no, I don't want to die yet!"
All kinds of voices rang out in Dottore's mind, but he gave no reply. He simply stood there, calmly feeling their presences disappear.
(End of Chapter)
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