19 18th Move | Otherworldly Horrors

A different type of M.A.N.A. clung to my back as I looked around the chamber I was in. The tentacles were careful to avoid touching anything. Unlike its previous iteration, the M.A.N.A. on my back was purely mechanical yet it still retained the eight tentacles that act as extra arms to help me manipulate things no heavier than a table.

My head spun around to fully take in the room I was in, [Inspired Inventor] was busy giving me many ideas but I needed to pick out the appropriate one from this sea of ideas.

Ignoring the context, one can easily mistake this room for the inside of a large Tokamak fusion reactor, except the central pillar has been removed and was instead replaced with a risen floor platform and a bit of a lowered ceiling.

My head stopped once I was focusing on the raised platform in the middle of the room. With the goggles on my head and over my eyes, it took a little more effort.

Bitting into my thumb, three of the tentacles went forth and gently opened the platform to reveal intricate electronics and wirings.

One of the tentacles reaches toward an opening in the room and grabs a portion of a ring. It was a part of a highly complex... I think the word to use is 'particle accelerator' but it doesn't really accelerate particles.

So... perhaps a defect accelerator?

To properly assemble it, the accelerator needs nanoscopic precision. Thus, the specialized welding tool I used is in fact a collection of microscopic laser emitters that look like the fine hairs on an expensive paintbrush.

Slowly, over the course of an hour, I attached all of the ring portions to the center of the risen platform and fallen ceiling, exoskeletons wrapped around my limbs and body helped nullify the impact of sudden micromovements of muscle that would deter absolute precision.

The HUD on the goggles notified me that Shizue was approaching, so I stopped what I was doing and cracked my neck while simultaneously closing and opening my hands to get rid of any sleepiness.

"My Lady, President Rimuru just had a meeting with the King of Dwargon, they hashed out a free trade agreement as well as a defensive pact," a human voice called out to me.

When I was deciding on how to bring her back, I eventually decided to turn her into the Citadel's Assistant AI by integrating her soul orb directly into the central terminal deep within the monochrome fortress.

Using a type of quantum tunneling-based communication, Shizue was able to transmit her thoughts and desires between her soul orb and her physical body with zero time lag. As a bonus of integrating into the Citadel, Shizue can be considered a hive mind as she can now control multiple bodies simultaneously.

Diverting my attention to the new voice, I saw Shizue Izawa in all her new body's glory, entering through a portal made by Doormaker. From a glance, no one would be able to tell that the person who stood in front of them was actually an Organic Interface, a type of gynoid designed to replicate human behavior so well that a person would only know for sure once they open the gynoid up.

Shizue's Organic Interface was covered in synthetic flesh. Her face was one of the most intricate machines in existence to avoid the uncanny valley that all humanoid robots of my old world fall into, I had to spend extra time carefully replicating every single facial muscle and implementing them into the final design of the Organic Interface.

The Shizue in front of me wore a maid uniform to signify that this body was for service. The gynoid carried a tray containing a single featureless bottle.

"That's good, he's learning," I said as I shook my legs. Staying mostly in one position even causes my leg to fall asleep after a while.

My eyes trailed across the room. It really does look like the inside of a Tokamak, only the central pill has been changed into an upright standing ring that is the defect accelerator.

If it wasn't for the fact that this machine required a personal touch I would've just programmed an AI to do it.

Picking up the bottle from Shizue's tray, I twisted the top and it opened.

It was a bottle of tea, held within a container that was almost perfect in its thermal insulation abilities.

Bottoms up, I noted in the back of my mind that I didn't really like tea all that much in my past life despite knowing the health benefits, yet in this new life, I seem to enjoy it as if it's ingrained into me from birth.

"Ahh..."

Emptying the bottle within a single gulp, I was partially thankful for the tea not being scolding hot like most are.

Hmm, perhaps it was because I couldn't find in myself the patience to wait for the tea to cool, and that's why I never really got into it.

Placing the bottle onto the tray, I smiled at Shizue, "Excellent as always, Shizue."

The edge of the gynoid's mouth curved upward when she heard the compliment. While this was happening, my attention was fully on how realistic the smile was. The facial muscles seemed to be working quite well it seems, good.

If Shizue was going to be working under me from now on, I'm going to make sure she's eye candy.

I may not have any sex drive under most conditions, but I can at least appreciate the female form like someone appreciating fine art.

"Shizue," My words caused the person in question to stand still. Approaching her, I pinched an exposed part of her hand hard, "are the stimuli sensors working?"

"Yes, My Lady."

I capped how much stimuli a servant chassis can experience. Since it was my first time doing this, and even with [Robotics]'s assurance, I made sure that it wouldn't overwhelm my employees.

Releasing her, I returned to check up on the machine to see if anything was wrong.

I'm now treading in areas that modern 21st-century physics hasn't even made theories for.

Sensing how the servant wasn't leaving, I turned my head to face her, "Shizue?"

"My Lady, I think it's time for you to take a break," Shizue said assertively. Good, I like a subordinate that isn't afraid to speak up.

Tapping on a bracelet I wore on my left wrist, a hologram projected out in front of me showed how I've been working for over two days nonstop to build this Dimensional Bore that'll pierce the barrier between universes and unleash a tether like a fishing line before reeling it in.

Yes... alternate Worlds. The very fact that I moved to a new World means that other universes exist. Such a realization brings in plenty of existential and philosophical questions in particular 'the anthropic principle and infinity'.

One of the strongest arguments for the existence of God in my old world was how fine-tuned everything was. That is, the laws of physics and universal constants seem to match up perfectly with the creation of complex chemistry that results in life.

However, if it was proven that multiple universes exist and physics exists on a spectrum, then that means the anthropic principle is true. Effectively, a universe only exists because there are observers within it. If there are no observers, then that universe might as well not exist. It's similar to the thought experiment known as 'quantum suicide'.

But, this raises an even more terrifying existential question: could physics as a whole be not 'real'? In the sea of infinity, anything that has a chance, no matter how slim, of happening then it will happen, and according to quantum suicide, so long as you have a slim chance of surviving, you will always survive because the version of you that hasn't survived cannot perform any observation.

What if physics isn't the ironclad laws that scientists think them to be and merely a series of coincidences created by quantum mechanics? And any deviation from that chain of coincidences results in the breakdown of everything and subsequently, the death of all observers?

What if the whole universe exists within a massive wave function and it's the observers who shape reality? A participatory universe? The fact that magic exists seems to give credence to the possibility that consciousness and the physical universe are linked in some way.

My knowledge of physics, self-taught by reading materials made by [Teaching], and whatever specialty I want to learn, didn't give me a clear answer to these questions.

This interdimensional exploration experiment is meant to breach into somewhere outside of this universe. It was built with [Dimensional Physics], [Spacetime Engineering], and half a dozen other specialties related to the underlying nature of reality.

I want to breach into other universes. I want to know the truth of the underlying nature of reality.

Of course, trying to play around with alternate worlds brings up images of Lovecraftian horror, so there's shielding in place ready to activate in the moment of a lockdown. If in the highly unlikely event that the shielding broke, I can just send the entity back to where it came from or I can just trap them inside the pocket dimension that the Dimensional Bore is situated in. In this version, Ifrit couldn't hope to escape.

Then I discovered that black holes are the antithesis of pocket dimensions, as they act like clothing irons and smooth out any spacetime manipulations. Thus, I placed the reinforced control room next to the Dimensional Bore, which is now in Realspace.

In case all of that fails, I can just straight-up kill them with the most advanced weapons I currently possess as a failsafe.

Giving the place one last look, the specialties reported that nothing was wrong and that it was ready to be activated.

"Alright, just let me test this machine before I take a break," I said as I headed out using a— no, 'portal' wouldn't work anymore, a 'Doorway' sounds better, made by Doormaker to change into more appropriate clothing. Returning minutes later into the control room adjacent to the room containing the Dimensional Bore, only this time with a white lab coat.

Shizue stood next to the wall of the control room, observing me as I activated the machine.

A single bright pinprick of light fell from the ceiling before stopping at the center of the ring. Then the defect accelerator started doing its job.

As I watch, the similarity between what I'm doing and what ice fishing is beginning to dawn on me. I'm ice fishing, except the ice is spacetime and the ice drill is the Dimensional Bore while the fishing line is the tether the Bore would release to catch 'fishes'.

The principle behind the Dimensional Bore wasn't too different from that of Doormaker, but instead of connecting two points within the universe, it'll connect two points between two different universes.

From observation, it appears that interuniversal wormholes are highly unstable things. They require what's known as a naked singularity, or a black hole without its event horizon, to act as the mouth.

Naked singularities are non-Cauchy boundaries in spacetime. This means that there's no order, no pattern to the spacetime evolving from a naked singularity: it's impossible to make causal predictions of events. In fact, many physicists imagined spacetime as a whole being destroyed the moment a naked singularity is created.

Obviously, just like General Relativity predicting the impossibility of faster-than-light, that was wrong.

Usually, a naked singularity is produced as the remains left over after a black hole's evaporation thanks to Hawking Radiation. That takes too long, so instead, I opted to go with a more extreme method requiring the ultra-dense topological defect known as 'Cosmic Strings'.

So became my second-most expensive project. The defect accelerator accelerates many millimeter-long threads of Cosmic Strings faster and faster to create an extreme frame-dragging effect within the space inside the accelerator. With this frame-dragging effect, I will peel off the event horizon on a quark-sized black hole like someone peeling an orange.

Slowly, the camera inside the Dimensional Bore's room showed how some of the lights started to bend. Those spots of light started to streak around the slowly forming naked singularity, creating long arcs that went up and down parallel to the defect accelerator.

Frame-dragging. I had to isolate the Kerr Metric of the accelerating Cosmic Strings and focus it in on the black hole using Negative Mass, as otherwise the whole Dimensional Bore would get dragged into the Kerr Metric and start spinning uncontrollably.

It was a bit weird, to be honest. Those streaking arcs of light went into the ceiling and the ground.

Finally, the lights began to turn red as a result of what's known as 'Redshifting'.

Eventually, after about a minute or so, the pinprick of light in the center of the ring disappeared and was replaced with a naked singularity. It no longer radiated any Hawking Radiation as the event horizon disappeared.

As an object with a point of infinite density and zero volume, and yet possess no event horizon sheathing it, spacetime in the immediate volume of the naked singularity breaks.

Using this break in spacetime, the Dimensional Bore reached deep into it—

There was a sudden blinding flash of light. Sensors reporting to graphene monitors in front of my control room indicated every wavelength of light was detected from that flash.

The camera I was using before was flash-fried, so I opened one from another angle and saw... a metal helmet?

There was a metal helmet floating in the middle of a room filled with metals that glowed a deep red.

With a simple gesture, I had the graphene tablet zoom in on the metal helmet hovering in the center of the room. It... looked primitive honestly. It was probably some kind of technology from the modern age.

First, I need to get rid of the atom-sized black hole. So I stopped suspending it in the air and had it drop through the floor.

The atom-sized black hole would radiate away its mass in a few minutes, so I wouldn't need to worry other than perhaps a small earthquake when the micro black hole evaporates in a fiery explosion.

Having the magnetic field that was currently upholding the metal helmet spin it around so I could see everything about it, I found a logo and the word 'Nerve Gear' in Japanese with a manufacturing date in the early 2020s.

I don't recall Japan ever having something like this, so it's probably not from my old world.

Fascinating, I wonder what kind of things I can learn from this.

Tapping several more times on the graphene monitors, I created a new file under the label 'Interdimensional Objects', and started a new document 'Object-001: Nerve Gear'.

_____________________________________________

"Demon Lord Clayman, I have found out the anomaly that broke your divination spell." The clown with an eerie-looking black mask said while bowing, then he got up and handed the other person some papers.

"Thank you, Laplace, efficient as always," Clayman remarked as he took the paper and saw the drawing of someone in a uniform that looked like it came from the Eastern Empire with a face so perfect it unsettled even him.

In fact, if it were made by anyone other than Laplace, Clayman would doubt the reality of the drawing and come to the conclusion that they had just bought the drawings from a really good artist. An artist that Clayman was very interested in commissioning.

Months ago, Clayman's divination magic would start to short out randomly whenever he tried to look at the Jura Forest in preparation for his master plan of puppeteering a new Demon Lord. Lately, the inability to use divination magic had gotten so bad that he can't even look at the Jura Forest for more than a few seconds before being brick-walled, resulting in him being blindsided by the utter destruction that rained down upon the Orcs.

The destruction that, if he were honest, caused me to feel a bit of fear.

A world burning. What kind of entity could possibly have wrought such destruction? Did his plan fail because of meddling done by another Demon Lord? Who could it possibly be?

It can't be Carrion, that beastman is not the type to use subterfuge. Frey? The harpy bitch doesn't have the capacity to cause such destruction. Then Clayman's thoughts turned to perhaps it was Milim, but she was right next to him when the Orc Lord was wiped out.

Last time he checked, Milim didn't have the ability to split herself, not like that woman in the Eastern Empire. Even after so long, Clayman still can't get over it.

"It's not easy I tell ya." Laplace continued after crossing his arms, "Had to convince Gelmud to give the ogres who made contact with this... 'Scientia' person a second chance. After Gelmud had named the red one and had some of them killed while letting the rest run away, I had hoped that Scientia was the type of person who would take advantage of those desperate people, and turns out? I was right."

Laplace's tone possessed only pride as he leaned back on the chair. His posture showed only relaxation even when there were three other Demon Lords in the room, all had a crystal ball in front of them.

"I had less time than I would've liked to sketch what this 'Scientia' looked like, but I managed to get the face in on time right as they left before doing rest in pure memory."

Milim grabbed the crystal ball in front of her and started shaking it. If one were to look carefully one would see the orc army and then a wave of blackness before the resulting hellscape, everything was burning, and death stalked the forest. Seconds later, the crystal ball cracked and was rendered useless.

"Well, I'mma off now, more clients elsewhere," Laplace said as he disappeared.

Milim dropped the broken crystal orb before snatching the paper from Clayman's hands, forcing the deathman in question to beat back the urge to shout. Even if he was considered a rising star in the Ten Great Demon Lords, treading upon and earning the wrath of Milim would only be detrimental.

The child-like Demon Lord closed in on the paper, scrutinizing the drawing with a careful eye. Unlike Clayman however, she was not unsettled by the image.

"So this is the one who's caused our divination spell to short out?" a cruel smile formed on her face, "well she seems fun."

"Milim, we had a deal concerning the Jura Forest remember?" Clayman said before sipping a cup of tea.

Milim turned to face Clayman, "Well it's not like Veldora is still around is it?"

"Well..." The deathman trailed off when he realized the truth of her statement. "Very well then, go have fun with your new toy. Just... please don't break it."

Milim then walked to the balcony behind Clayman, and just before blasting off, she yelled out, "Remember our non-interference deal! See y'all!"

_____________________________________________

Over the following week, I activated the Dimensional Bore constantly whenever it was off cooldown and got over 30 different Interdimensional Objects.

Most of these objects are essentially useless. They're mostly composed of rocks of varying sizes with the largest being 30 centimeters across and the smallest only a bit bigger than dust particles.

Even after I studied them intensely I couldn't find any differences between the rocks in front of me and some rocks you'd find on say another planet.

While no alien lifeforms were fished out of the naked singularity, there was a single thing that piqued my interest:

A golden sword sheathed within a scabbard of gold and blue.

The sheath itself can be described as pleasing to the eyes as if it was made by the gods themselves. What little of the sword I can see, that being only the handle and the crossguard, was of classical design, yet it felt somehow... right in a way.

It was as if I was looking at a geometric circle or the pleasure you get when you look at a really clean workplace. The really odd thing came when I discovered I couldn't pull out the sword from the scabbard. In fact, I tried to use machines that could pull a small moon apart and it still didn't budge.

Even before those tests, I could tell it was a magical artifact of the highest degree. After scanning it with some magicule scanners, I discovered the reality distortion caused by the magicule within the sheathed blade so much it was opaque to even neutrinos.

Neutrinos are a type of fermion that interacts only with Weak Force and Gravity. They are so small that a neutrino isn't likely to interact with an atom even when it passes through the entirety of Earth.

Yet this sheathed blade was able to block out all neutrinos.

It was as if the sword was made out of uniform matter with no holes in between. Or at least, the holes between atoms were small enough that those neutrinos couldn't pass through.

But that was impossible. Even nuclear pasta, the densest matter possible, couldn't completely block out all neutrinos. Any denser and the matter would turn into a black hole. Not to mention, I could lift the scabbard without any mechanical aid.

I placed the anomaly inside its own special containment cell separate from others.

I was happy. I finally caught something miraculous. Something that was different.

But then [Magic] suggested I try my hand at combining a Summoning Ritual with the Dimensional Bore.

I almost dismissed the idea before actually giving it a thought. My curiosity demands me to know how magic interacts with what's beyond the physical universe.

My current theory for how magic works is that the whole of reality is a simulation. That is a depressing theory, so I'm trying to find evidence that disproves it.

This led to me making a very intricate circle of modified pig blood on the platform. Shizue tried to help but gave up when she saw how complex the circle actually was.

The whole thing took me seven hours of drawing. Halfway through I realized I could've just built a machine to do it for me but by then, [Psychology] stated that the sunk-cost fallacy had kicked in and I was stubbornly determined to see it through.

"It's... finally done," I announced, mostly to reassure myself I wouldn't have to go through that frustratingly tough exercise in despair as I had to redo the circle in its entirety due to a mistake here and there.

"Congratulations my Lady, you managed to make the most complex summoning ritual I've ever seen," Shizue said while clapping as one of her bodies moved to wipe the sweat off my brow while another gave me a glass of water.

It was as if I was playing Flappy Bird all over again and I had to get the target score of 50 but I kept dying in the 30s and 40s.

Flexing my fingers, I took several deep breaths before taking the glass and downing it in one gulp.

The refreshing water washed away all phantom sensations of frustration, allowing me to think clearly once more.

"Let's just hurry along with this,"

I'm going to bed after this. I need to sleep. The mental exhaustion was just too much.

A gut feeling had me placing the sheathed sword in the middle of the circle. it was only after I performed the action did I realized how all this wouldn't look out of place in a human-sacrificing satanic cult from a horror movie. What with the whole blood circle and all.

If this doesn't result in anything new, I'm not even going to bother trying it again.

Everything went just like many times before, except this time the Bore reeled in something else, an anomaly.

_____________________________________________

In a place beyond space and beyond time, a place where there was no mass, energy, or force, a place where linear causality wasn't possible, a place where there was only Light: it was a noplace above it all.

Everywhere below was a rolling chaos of constantly changing unimaginable multidimensional geometric fractal branes helped along by foams of quantum uncertainty. These branes shifted, changed, frothed, spun, swelled, and scattered all the while being held closely together like blades of grass in a park.

Here, in this noplace, reality is laid bare.

Around these Branes, a 'wall/barrier' filled with 'stars' covered it like a sky.

This was a place that hadn't been intruded on by anyone else other than Him. Until now.

A 'light' shot at the 'sky', piercing it as a needle would with a piece of cloth.

_____________________________________________

Unlike before, this Interdimensional Object entered with an eruption of smoke instead of light. Sensors quickly indicated the smoke to be made out of a mixture of water vapor, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, and 32 other gases.

So normal smoke from a campfire.

However, through the camera and the various lights I installed inside the Dimensional Bore, I could see a silhouette resembling a bipedal humanoid.

"Huh?" I couldn't help but utter in surprise.

Slowly, like the introduction of a monster in a horror movie, the smoke parted to reveal the figure who got transported.

(AN: Play: Arcueid's Theme (Moonlight) - Tsukihime Remake OST)

"..."

All of my senses were on edge. My gut screamed danger.

Yet I couldn't help but be mesmerized.

With the technology provided by [Inspired Inventor], it is completely within the realm of possibility to suspend quantum decay and entangle particles together in a hypercomplex web that creates an illusion of unchangeability, a 'stasis' of sorts. Materials within such a stasis were similar to the Siberium, so I decided to call them 'Static Matter'.

Is Shizue using her War Chassis? Because if not, then why does it seem like time is standing still?

The enthralling figure had a head of gold and eyes of red, just like me. She wore clothing that was as white as freshly fallen snow and black leggings.

She was like a mountain— a snow-capped mountain unclimbed because it was forbidden within the local religion.

She wasn't a woman, no her youth and innocence portray her as a girl. A girl in her late teens.

And if the clothing is any indication, a girl from modern times.

Had I finally pulled someone from my old world?

Does that mean I can eventually find a way back to my old world?

As I was pondering the implications of what had just occurred, the teen on the platform looked around her like a child lost in a new environment. Her eyes glanced at the intricate machines and only stopped once she realized what she was standing on.

The blonde teen picked up the sheathed sword and looked at it lovingly as if it were a long-lost cousin reunited.

Her hands traced around the scabbard gently.

It wasn't until a few seconds after she had picked up the sheathed sword that I was finally dragged out of my mind and back into reality.

Pressing on a speaker button I edged closer to the microphone.

"Hello!" I said in German. [Biology] pegged her ethnicity as European, so I thought why don't I try German first? If that doesn't work, I'll try Norwegian. "Can you understand me?"

The girl gave no reaction besides instantly turning to and staring at the camera on the ceiling that I was looking at her through. It was as if she was staring at me.

With a single charge into [Language], I was able to quickly communicate in nearly every verbal language from my old world and even extinct ones like the old form of English from the 12th Century.

I switched to Norwegian, "Can you understand me now?"

The girl continued to stare at the camera, so I switched to look at her from another camera at a much lower angle this time. The girl didn't stare at me from the new camera angle and instead stared at a section of the Dimensional Bore's wall.

Turning off the mic, I hummed to myself, one side of my mouth trending downward, "Hmm. Still no response. I'll try English this time."

"Can you understand me?"

No reply.

"She can't be deaf can she?"

Mandarin, "How about now? Can you understand me?"

Still no reply. The red-eyed girl simply continued to stare at a section of the wall as if it were the most interesting thing in the world.

The possibility that she may be deaf is increasing. I'm tempted to open a Doorway underneath her but I'm thoughtful enough to know that'll startle her.

Best to get on the right foot this time. The two fiascos I had with people from other worlds made another fiasco undesirable. Who knows if this girl came from an urban fantasy settle and was actually a super vampire or something?

In descending order of speaker population sizes, I tried to greet her in different languages but elicited no response. The girl persisted in staring at a very specific section of the fucking wall instead of responding.

I mean, come on, at least utter a phrase or something for me to analyze. Even if it's a foreign language, the girl looks human enough so she must have some human traits like loud tones signifying something important.

I continued through the list of languages before Shizue tapped on my shoulder.

"What is it?" My brow slanted inward in irritation. What the hell is wrong with this girl? Does she not understand proper social etiquette despite being dressed in some fashionable modern clothing?

Shizue pointed at the monitor displaying the girl, "She's... staring at us. At you."

"Huh?"

That can't be right, she's staring—

My head turned to look at the camera feed. Recalling the exact dimensions of the Dimensional Bore, my eyes flashed upward to look at the wall above the graphene monitors.

A chill ran down my spine despite the room being a comfortable temperature.

(AN: End BGM)

"OH—"

The girl finally moved. It all happened in the time span it took me to swear. Dropping the scabbard, the girl brought her hand up before coming down faster than the human eye can register on the invisible shielding, somehow shattering it with a single blow.

"—SHIT!"

That was plasma shielding! How the fuck did she shatter it like glass? It was invisible plasma shaped by magnetic fields! You can't do that!

Realizing the shield was destroyed, I was about to activate the teleporter before the teen leaped at the wall separating me and her.

The wall of the Dimensional Bore ripped open like a paper stapled onto a wall being ripped off by a single swipe from the monster in blonde.

I couldn't even think about the loss of advanced technology before another swipe from the monster in the shape of a teen tore open the final layer separating the two of us. The hole she made was large enough for her to walk through.

I could see her emotionless eyes. They looked like they belonged more to a robot than anything resembling humans. She was less than two meters away from me.

Alarmed, Shizue threw me back against the wall on the other side of the room as she got between me and the entity I summoned into this world.

Sparks hissed from ripped wires and electronics as the entity stopped in her tracks. The blonde figure's emotionless eyes betrayed only confusion at the sight of Shizue's synthetic body akin to how a child would act when they first see a hammerhead shark; it doesn't make any logical sense to them.

Taking this opportunity of hesitation, I slammed on the lockdown button beside me as metal wires popped out and wrapped around the entity's arms and legs, preventing movements and drawing them up into the air like a human X. Realizing she's been trapped, the entity struggled in the bondage unsuccessfully.

I breathed out in an attempt to calm myself down.

[Silenced Emotion—

The floor groaned as the entity thrashed around in her bindings, actually succeeding in snapping one of the wires by overpowering the tensile limit.

I stared at the scene with a dumbfounded look. Holy shit, that wire was made from carbon nanotubes, the wire alone could support a Space Elevator! ...And this otherworldly horror just snapped it as if it was a flossing string.

The entity continued to struggle around as the frighteningly loud sounds of metal giving out and breaking grew ever louder and louder. Shizue's main combat chassis wouldn't be here for another minute or two, so I'm stuck with this monster in front of me.

I can't run. The only thing that's stopping the monster is the wires. Once that snaps then it's all over.

I'll fight then.

Taking out my phone, I tapped several times before placing it over a certain part of the wall. Moments later, a portion of the wall beside the phone opened up to reveal two guns.

The emergency weapon case.

One is the size of Rimuru's human body. It was grey in color, with smooth streaks that intersected with mechanical blocks that jut out for seemingly no reason giving the weapon a steampunk crossed with science fiction look. This weapon causes incredible amounts of pain through rapid mutations and will eventually shatter the ego portion of the Soul.

The other is more 'futuristic' in its appearance. If I had to describe it, I'd say it looked as if an alien wanted to recreate the XM8 from my old world purely from memory after a single glance. The Particle Disruptor. It is based—

I flinched at the loud and terrible sound of two consecutive wires snapping. One more left to go.

Particle Disruptor it is.

I grabbed the weapon in question while picking up a single cartridge. Clipping it on below the gun, the humming sound it made was lost as the entity was using both of her hands to try and drag herself over to where I stood like some sort of relentless monster from a horror movie who lost their lower half but is still determined to kill the protagonist.

Some flaps on the gun opened and closed as I turned the safety off. I turned to the crawling monster just as it jumped at me.

Shizue tried to restrain her but was instantly shredded into useless synthetic flesh and metal when the thing barreled straight through the maid's chassis and into the wall, missing me by just a few centimeters.

[Silenced Emotion: 50%]

The entity roared as if frustrated, revealing two fangs that looked like they belonged to a vampire. Instinctively, I brought the Particle Disruptor up and slammed on the trigger as hard as I could, and desperately hoped this weapon worked.

*PSSSP*

The weapon sounded almost like a can of coke being cracked open for consumption. A blue pulse bursting with Cherenkov radiation shot right through the entity's human-like torso, taking out everything in its path.

Everything within a single line was seemingly wiped from existence. A circle hole was bored into the figure's torso, and with the destruction of her spine, the girl fell, folding inward like a clamp.

*PSSSP*

A second 'can of coke' was cracked open. The second pulse almost split the folded figure in two as it further annihilated chunks of her back.

*PSSSP*

*PSSSP*

*PSSSP*

*PSSSP*

*PSSSP*

*PSSSP*

*PSSSP*

*PSSSP*

*PSSSP*

*PSSSP*

*PSSSP*

*BEEP*

Out of ammo.

Bringing the gun up so I could see without it blocking my field of view, I saw that there wasn't anything remaining of that monster in the shape of a girl. What remained in its place were the many overlapping holes punched into the floor by the Particle Disruptor.

[Silenced Emotion: 80%]

The Particle Disruptor. Shooting out manufactured 'monopoles', the disruptor causes the atoms and molecules of its target to disengage from one another.

Fascinatingly destructive things. Monopoles cause incredible destruction despite being only the size of a Proton. If it weren't for Doormaker teleporting them away into deep interstellar space, it's quite likely a large section of the Citadel's inside would be destroyed by the subsequent devastation.

The door to the control room was busted open as Shizue in her combat chassis came in. The suddenness of her action caused me to yelp in surprise.

Shizue's current body completely forgoes the usual fleshy skin in favor of more protection in the form of a thin layer of stasis, or as I like to call it: Static Matter.

Since causality requires time to enact cause and effect, and Static Matter is unchangeable thanks to their particles being entangled in such a wave as to be dependent on one another, this has resulted in an inviolable material that cannot be broken by any conventional means but can be thrown around. Energy has to go somewhere after all.

I've made it so that the field of stasis can be extended to encompass entire objects or personnel. Perfect for protecting me in case of trouble.

However, the drawback of being the perfect shield is that Shizue cannot pilot the body remotely. Instead, she's forced to insert her soul orb into the machine, a process that usually takes some time.

"My Lady! Are you alright? Are you hurt anywhere?" Shizue asked me worriedly once she saw the threat was gone.

Bringing a hand up to fix the messed up hair, I saw my hand twitching ever so slightly from the entity. "yes, I'm fine Shizue. If it were the other weapon, this whole room would be dyed red as she balloons up until she pops."

"I see— I'm sorry my Lady, it appears we have an imminent impact against the Citadel."

"A what?"

"In three... two... one..."

There was nothing. I didn't feel anything that would suggest an impact had hit the Citadel. As it should have since the Siberium coating seemed to be doing its job as it nullified all forces from an impact.

"Shizue, give me a visual of the outside," I said and a holographic tab opened in front of me, showing a little pink-haired girl in some kind of getup that seemed more in line with a stripper than anything family-friendly, standing on top of the Citadel, stomping on the outer layer with her foot like an impatient kid waiting in line.

What is it with strange girls coming here? Isn't one enough for one day?

"Audio please, and give me a speaker to the outside"

"—come out here and play with me!" the kid lifted her foot and was about to slam into the fortress once again before I got her attention by speaking up.

"Ahem," I spoke into a small handheld microphone provided by Shizue, "who are you and how can I help you?"

Looking around but seeing no one, a bright bulb seemed to light up above the kid as her hands clapped together, "Ah so you're using divination or clairvoyance, aren't you? How unfair! But to answer your question—"

The pink-haired scantily-dressed kid placed a hand above her budding chest, "my name is Milim Nava, one of the oldest Demon Lords, the only Dragonoid in the world and known as the Destroyer with a capital D! And I wanted to say hello."

That's it?

Is that it? That's what caused her to bang on my door? Is that seriously it?

I turned to Shizue, my mouth away from the microphone, "Alert the Kijins. Tell them to stay out of sight. Give them full access to Doormaker."

Returning, "Hold on, I'll come out to properly greet you after I finish changing my clothes." I said and turned off the microphone. Looking down at my dress, Shizue's other bodies stood silently at the door, on her hands were ready clothes for me to switch into.

You know, I really don't recall any scantily dressed kid in Tolkien's works. Are there ancient Greek elements in this?

_____________________________________________

AN: A blueprint made with [Blueprint] or [Planning] allows someone else to make the tinkertech object as long as they follow the instructions to the letter, essentially it grants someone a tinker power for only that one object.

We got a first-hand look at how the black spots of [Guide to Victory] function.

Fun fact: I actually put the Evenicle option last chapter as a joke and actually know jack about the plot. the only reason I know about it was due to SsethTzeentach's review...

so now I gotta play it huh?

Here comes the character growth with our loveable vampire princess leading the way.

I had originally wondered just how I was going to have Scientia grow past that paranoid phase before reading the Tsukihime remake.

No Arcueid Good Ending though.

Sad.