Journey Back

Artemis and Alice departed from the city of Bulhin by the break of dawn. They left without leaving a word to Kein or to any of his subordinates. They were only informed that they were gone when a few maids knocked on their doorstep and received no reply. The Queen's Guard burst in only to find the room empty with a note left on the bed.

They gave the note to Kein and it read: "Thanks"

It was a simple gesture, Artemis and Alice did not want to be followed. Kein respected his wishes and decided against arranging a search party for them. He trusted Artemis as much as he feared him. Lord Harry was relieved to know that he won't be spending his money on a fleet of Airships.

Artemis and Alice began their journey south following the trail from the map that Kein showed them. Since Artemis had memorized the entire map, he now only needed to follow the shortest route back to their home. He did not want to raise suspicion, hence he did not request for a hovercraft to pick up near Bulhin or near any major population centers. It would risk them being exposed and his letter revoked.

Kein gave Artemis a letter the night before. This letter had his signature and his magic seal to prove its legitimacy. They were to present it to the Magic users of the academy, the letter was said to ensure that Alice would be admitted and looked after. Artemis wanted to accompany Alice in the academy, something Kein said would be a tougher than Alice's admission.

However, there is a restriction. People below 16 years old aren't allowed to enroll in the academy. Alice is 6 years old so they'll have to wait 10 years for her to enroll. The reason was similar to puperty but instead of something biologically, when in the age of 16, the mana of the individual will start to grow and sometimes hard to control but not life threatening.

"I'll see what I can do," Kein said back then.

"Please do." Artemis replied.

And so they were off into the wilderness to the south. The trail was a dirt path like last time but had significantly more traffic. They would regularly encounter carriages, some alone, some with escorts. Some were even packed with adventurers.

Villages in the area were still empty. The storm that they were expecting to hit a few months back never came. They sighed relief but their fortune was turned around when news of the dead lands spread. The dead lands, a land that suddenly appeared in the wake of the storm, has become infamous throughout. Rumors have spread that the dead trees have begun to walk over the earth, the grass would trap your foot and place you under the mercy of the trees.

Artemis did not know any of the rumors, but he saw what he saw back then. It struck him an uneasy feeling, a feeling of uncertainty, a looming danger. His main suspect was magic, but what was choking that magic? That same thing that almost killed Alice. Might one day kill him.

"Fuw." Alice wrapped herself using an oversized fur coat. Artemis also stole the fur coat from Kein but since he does not mind Artemis stealing a few small things, he went along with it.

Artemis and Alice's journey down the trail was slow, Artemis wanted Alice to strengthen her legs and so, forced her to walk. Alice accepted the challenge and has thus far walked a few kilometers at best with Artemis help.

Artemis slowed down as to let Alice keep up with him. Both of them walked together through the morning and were silent.

It was noon, the sun was at its brightest. There were scarcely any clouds in the sky, the sun was all there is. Alice was exhausted.

"Mister, can I go sit down? :v " Alice asked.

Artemis did not know fatigue or exhaustion but he was smart not to compare his body to this little girl's. Both were different and had their own special needs. There were a lot of trees around them, some were lone while some were in groups.

"Pick a tree, we'll go and rest there." Artemis said.

"Yay! 😄 " Alice cheered. She went to the nearest group of trees and lied on her back against the meadow. Artemis followed behind her and sat under the tree. The shade was more than enough to block out the sun and give them space to breathe.

Alice was a sleepyhead, evident by her constant lapse into sleep whenever given the opportunity. As soon as she lied down under the shade, she fell asleep. She also snored, albeit not that loud.

"Maybe because she's full." Artemis said to himself while he checked on her temperature. Artemis made sure Alice ate a lot before they left Bulhin. Artemis was surprised by how easy it was for them to actually leave the city without attracting attention. Taking advantage of the commotion last night, he managed to figure out holes in the security of the city and sneaked out at first light.

Artemis tilted his head to his right shoulder and closed his eyes for a good moment, just for the fun of it. Although he does not know the concept of fun, based on Caitlyn's explanations, this should be having 'fun' right?

"Who am I kidding." He muttered as he opened his eyes. "Acting as if I am a normal human will never turn me into a normal human. I will still be who I am, a human inside a machine body. A human that was not even purely so. I have a human heart but I have the mind of a machine, together, these two form me. I am me. But, what was my real name? Before the world was plunged into darkness. I guess I won't know for now, or will never know."

Artemis acted distressed. The feeling was forced, it was all an act. He was forcing himself to feel more human, to display characteristics of a human. He wanted to display emotions genuinely but how could he? How can he achieve such a feat?

For all, he knew, before the portal, before the machines, before he even woke up. The world was already dead and who knows how long has it been dead? He could only scavenge what remained of the prewar human civilization. He could make out they did, how they did it and why they did it.

Looking back. He remembered. He and a group of Androids were exploring the ruins of the United Governing Building. Prewar armored and mechanized vehicles were entrenched around it, most had holes blown into their hulls, the skeletons of their crews displayed the shadow of their deaths. After breaking through the entrance, they went and explored the inside.

More and more skeletons plagued the destroyed halls, blasted rooms and charred floors. It seemed like the humans scuttled the entire building when it was breached by the enemy. Whatever enemy it was, the defenders were desperate not to surrender whatever information this building held. The information must have been critical to humanity's survival but sadly, as evident by the lifeless Earth, blown up mars and dead colonize planets, they still failed.

The building above ground was destroyed and was of no use but the building below it was still relatively intact. Artemis and his Androids came across a vault, judging by the damage, it was evident that something bashed it open. Beyond the vault was a long hallway full of prewar battle suits, exo-suits for super soldiers and Mech Walkers with their pilots still inside, albeit lacking flesh, blood or skin.

Artemis and his group of Androids could only equip the smaller armaments they have so far managed to learn how to use prior. Staring at the big guns that were on the floor, begging to be wielded once again. They ignored the spoils and proceeded deeper underground. The human defenders fought bravely here, whichever hall or corridor they would go through, there were barricades, more downed soldiers, more signs of heavy fighting.

The underground facility had doors but most were either blown out, had a huge hole in it or just needed a little nudge and would go apart on its own. The rooms housed destroyed supercomputers, archives and the like. It only took them a few minutes of constant digging through the rubble to find the secret stash of papers.

For whatever reason, the prewar human government decided it best to store its information into a mountain of documents. It was a smart move actually, in an event of a data breach or massive data loss occurring in their digital systems, these papers would become great back-ups. Primitive and a hassle they may be, they still served the purpose well.

Half of the documents were either already ashes, partially burned or were downright unreadable due to decay. Artemis and his Androids made use of the other half and began to rummage through them all. The documents were literally stacked in a pile that resembled a mountain. Artemis and the Androids had to organize the documents themselves, with all the time in the world, that was what they did. For 46 hours Artemis and his Androids organized the papers into an organized mess of documents. The documents ranged from top-secret projects and reports to daily tax reports, apparently, Artemis recalled that one region was not paying taxes at all.

"Humans." He muttered to himself as he was sat down on a corner of the room. His Androids were still hard at work, displaying no signs of fatigue or confusion. Their only enemy was the large pile of possibly millions of documents and files. Rearranging all of it manually was still a lengthy process.

Then, when all was well and the documents were organized and packaged into giant boxes, they headed out. Their goal was to secure any prewar information that may be of value to their current cause which was to rebuild the world.

When they got up to the upper building. They found themselves trapped inside due to a dust storm. It was a massive storm of dust particles with speeds reaching roughly 400 kph. With the material their cargo was made of, it was far too risky for them to make the trip back to the machine factory. And so they had to wait out the storm.

The Androids stood stationary beside the big black boxes. Standing as if they were part of a special forces military. They were just drones, robots, mere machines programmed to blindly follow Artemis' orders as effectively and efficiently as possible. They had no free will, no emotion, they just stood.

Artemis was alone yet he did not mind. Whatever humanity he had was long extinguished and he even embraced his loneliness. He was a king with literal pawns in a chessboard. He manually moved the pieces, and the pieces will follow without objection nor hesitation.

Playing a game of chess with himself against the world and whatever nature was throwing at him.

He would sometimes be sarcastic and call mother nature "vengeful" since its Gaia was corrupted and was seeking vengeance. And since from what he knew, humans were the main pollutants of Earth. So why wouldn't mother nature be vengeful?

But, looking back. He knew of the theory of evolution, of how humans evolved from apes.

"Hm, mad at your own creations. You should have made some firewalls to prevent them from going haywire, backups or whatnot." He said to the air.

And with all of this flashing inside his head. He was then slapped back into the present by Alice.

"Yes, what do you want?" He said.

Alice was pouting and she placed her hands on her stomach. Then, she slapped Artemis again. Her slaps were weak and Artemis barely flinched but she was actually trying to say something to him. She was just too shy to tell him straight.

"Eh?" Artemis then realized, he had been lost in his thoughts for the entirety of the afternoon.

Artemis heard a rumble and looked at Alice.

She blushed.

"Great, you're already hungry." Artemis said after which he stood up and began to scan the trees.

"Bad luck, it seems like these trees don't bear edible fruit. let's get going before it gets dark. let me carry you." Artemis said. Alice nodded with eagerness and jumped on Artemis' arms. they continued their journey east as the sun began to set and the moons began to appear in its place in the sky.

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In the same hell dimension, in a palace, a figure jumped towards it very exhausted.

"Oh? You're back already. Hows the mission?"

"Terrible. Forgive me, General Davoth, we failed the mission, we didn't get the girl. We lost Kai and some of our best men,"

Said one of the members of the Hanzo Squad, or the most fastest and strongest among them besides the leader.

General Davoth was silent for a moment.

"How dissapointing,"

Before the ninja-like demon could react, his arm was cut off, for something that is at the late stages of A-rank(Lv.80) and could move at the speed of Mach 10, he couldn't even see it coming, it was a speed that he couldn't understand.

"AHHHHH!!!"

"You can leave," General Davoth calmly said.

"Y-Yes, General," With a very painful expression, the Hanzo member disappears without leaving a trace while picking up his arm on the ground.

Seeing the Hanzo member left, one of the butlers, an Archdemon with a strong and terrifying pressure around him.

[IMAGES]

His golden eyes looks at General Davoth and asked politely.

"Was this gonna be a problem, Lord Davoth?"

"No, Its as we expected. Don't need to worry, it doesn't matter anyway. The metal demon that guards her has great potentials in him. I doupt that I could defeat him but I fully aware that I'm no match against him, but...

...I bet the almighty Dark Lord could match him,"

"We have other plans instead of taking the girl or any chosen ones around the continent. The Dark Lord's resurrection is still a few month's time,"