33rd Move | Opponent's Move

The massive stone door made for a very imposing sight for Shizue's students.

Slowly, "so this is the place that'll save us?" Kenya asked with a feeling of awe practically radiating from his voice as he gazed upon the intricately designed stone door, "then what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

The blonde girl, Alice Rondo, carefully touched the door and traced her fingers to feel the rough texture.

Chloe stood the furthest back, content to quietly stare and observe as she always does.

Ryota Sekiguchi, the Japanese Otherworlder who was usually really timid, stood behind Shizue, hugging her legs.

Gale Gibson, the oldest among them, sat on one of the many roots that came out of the ground.

"Come on, let's go already!" Kenya yelled out excitedly before running forward until Shizue immediately reached out to grab his hood, stopping the young Otherworlder in his track.

"We are waiting for a very important person, Kenya," Shizue said, gently yanking the orange-haired kid back, "when they get here is when we'll enter."

Kenya grumbled a bit before sitting down beside Gale.

Shizue swept her gaze across her students, inside her heart was a sense of tremendous anticipation as she could finally save them.

A sudden smile appeared on her silver face, it was in response to a funny memory of how after Ramiris had agreed to help Shizue's students, the latter had attempted to use Doormaker to transport herself out, only to discover that the Labyrinth is hidden inside an isolated manifold from the rest of the world. A type of pocket dimension.

This effectively means Doormaker has an extremely difficult time trying to fold the complex fabric of spacetime to allow instantaneous travel between two points, which then led to an awkward silence as Shizue waited there, staring at a specific section of the wall while Ramiris hovered right beside the Digital Lich, waiting for something to happen.

Returning to the Academy, it took another two weeks of constant petitioning as well as using her connection to Yuuki for the school administration to green-light the trip to Ulg Nature Park.

Suddenly, a black door with a purple outline appeared at the base of the stairs that led up to the Dwelling. From that Doorway, a single figure walked through.

It was as if the blackness of space had personified, or the void in the shape of a person. No light reflected off of that humanoid figure, akin to a black hole, absolute darkness blacker than even the night sky covered her Lady from head to toe.

Her students instantly went on alert, all of them were unsettled by the appearance of this black void. All of them ran and huddled behind Shizue, placing the Digital Lich between them and the humanoid void.

Shizue frowned. Did her Lady really think that the Dwelling was so dangerous as to require her to don the Gravastar Armor?

"W—who are you?" Kenya, always the most impulsive of the group, uttered. Although he tried his best, anyone can clearly see the fear on Kenya's face.

Without any warning, a face appeared on the section of the humanoid void which represents the 'head'. The skin was pale, the eyes were as red as freshly spilled blood, and the face was completely flawless, so flawless in fact that it caused every child except for Chloe to recoil as if they saw something disgusting.

"So these are your students?" Scientia said in a synthesized voice filled with imperfections that covered any possible uncanny perfections.

_____________________________________________

I have a problem with the nature of this world.

Beyond spreading modernity to this world, my next step will be to create a civilization where its people can simply reach up and touch the very stars themselves as if they are touching the roof of a house, where traveling across the universe is about as trivial as taking a stroll down a park.

I want to create a civilization only found in the most powerful of science fiction. Where its standard of living is beyond even the Federation of Star Trek.

In a collaboration between multiple specialties like [Mathematics], [Sociology], [History], and half a dozen more, I have devised a hyper-accurate mathematical model capable of making accurate predictions concerning large groups of millions or more people.

In my spare time, I have made actual, legitimate Psychohistory, the likes of which you would only find in Isaac Asimov's science fiction stories.

In my past life, this would've been invaluable, not just for macro-economists, but for me as well since I could predict the trends in consumer tastes and adjust accordingly. Although its usefulness for me after reincarnation has lessened, it's still a valuable model that gives me a glimpse into the future.

And I did just that, but what I found was less than pleasing.

Using Psychohistory, I figured out that, because I'm a Perfect Homunculus, no matter what I do, the people of this world will never accept anything from me, not when there are alternative sources like the Church unless I go full tyrannical and turn into a despotic dictator. Granted, there will be outliers, but in general, I can't change the mind of the majority of humans because the hate against a Perfect Homunculus is just that ingrained into the collective consciousness of this world.

How bad was my ancestor to generate such hate?

Psychohistory made further predictions about how the chance of me being a Perfect Homunculus is nearing 100% within the next 30 years. I'm expecting in such an event, the world would gather once again to slay me irrespective of how much I've improved their standard of living.

Logic be damned, hatred needs no logic.

And the world does have a chance at slaying me since if my predecessor was neutralized, they simply must have a way.

It's weird, being able to calculate the time of your death. Turning [Silenced Emotion] as high as it is considered 'safe', I came to the logical decision of what every organism does when they are mortal: leave something for the next generation.

Then came the question of what should I leave behind.

I can't create offspring since I have no reproductive organs. I tried cloning using my own cells but they're so different that had I not known better, I'd have assumed that I came from a different planet.

Then I consulted [Biology] and [Philosophy] about what should I leave behind, before peering deeper into the concept of 'DNA' and found a related concept, 'information'.

DNA and offsprings are just information. The former is information concerning instructions about how to build an organism while the latter is just information from two different organisms conjoining together.

And so, the idea of Encyclopedia Universalis was born.

The single greatest concentration of knowledge and information in the entire universe, the Encyclopedia Universalis will contain the knowledge of a Type V Civilization, it will contain all of my knowledge and every single blueprint from [Inspired Inventor], a grand library pertaining to everything I know about physics and more.

The Ultimate Archive.

What it'll be made out I don't know yet. [Inspired Inventor] has given me several materials that are so entropically detached they almost defy the laws of Thermodynamics, but I'm personally leaning towards using an ultra-massive black hole with the mass of half a Milky Way and engineering its event horizon to contain those colossal amounts of data.

This medium of storage will last until the very end of the Black Hole Epoche some 10^100 years in the future.

It will be my greatest gift to the world.

Of course, if I want to actually build it I would need all the information first. Unfortunately for me, the specialties give me blueprints for the technology, not the actual working theories behind it.

However, I can cheat this limitation on [Inspired Inventor] somewhat by teaching myself the science behind it through using [Teaching] and [Learning] to create books that make understanding String Theory and Supersymmetry as easy as remembering the first 20 digits of Pi.

There are limitations to this bypass— I need to figure out the connection between different sciences somehow before it just 'clicks' and somehow makes sense.

And now this leads to my current, most pressing problem: the separation and incompatibility between the material and immaterial.

Or, how Magic, Skills, and Spirits don't make any damn sense!

Under the current model of the universe, there exists ten spatial and one temporal dimension. Thanks to [Inspired Inventor], I managed to reconcile Quantum Mechanics and Relativity into one coherent Theory of Everything, at least, to describe things slower than light. For objects faster than light, you'd need the Theory of Supercausality.

Unlike Supercausality, which I can at least somewhat connect with the Theory of Everything, I have nothing for Spirits, Skills, and Magic.

I can't explain those things at all, and not like how scientists in my old world could come up with ideas of how to slot Relativity and Quantum Mechanics, I have no idea how to fit them into the existing model of the Universe at all!

It's incoherent! They shouldn't exist! The current model doesn't allow the existence of such supernatural things as Souls, Spirits, and Magic.

Walking through the Doorway, I appeared at the base of some stairs leading to a massive door embedded within a tree so titanic [Biology] and [Magic] say it's only possible due to magicules.

Underneath the void-like armor, I grimaced. Glancing at the tree reminded me again of how strangely magicules interact with biology.

My gaze slowly fell downward until they fully focused on the students that Shizue was walking about. All of them were looking at me with varying degrees of wariness and mistrust in their eyes.

"W—who are you?" The orange-haired one asked.

[Psychology] suggests it's probably due to them being unable to slap a face on me.

Well, I can't really just peel back the Gravastar Armor like a nanosuit, so instead, I quickly opted to use a hologram and project my face a few millimeters above the surface of the Gravastar, and place around where my face would've had this been a nanosuit. It was a different version of that Digital Mask.

The result was instantaneous. All of them except for that black-haired girl recoiled in shock as if they just saw a severe burn victim be pulled out of a house fire.

My face didn't change at the reaction. I was used to it after all.

"So these are your students?" I asked, giving them a quick glance with my voice distorted as they passed through a speaker.

Eying them, I saw three of the kids flinching.

Shizue responded with a quick bow, "Yes, my Lady. These are my students."

My bodyguard then moved to introduce them. Placing a hand on the orange-haired kid's head, "this one's name is Kenya—"

"I can introduce myself!" The kid slapped away Shizue's hand, then he marched up to me with false confidence every step of the way, "I'm Kenya Misaki, and you're the one who turned Miss Shizue into this huh?!"

The kid puffed out his chest to look taller and more confident.

"Why yes, I am," I said casually, in contrast to Kenya as I stared into his eyes, "do you have a problem with that?"

Kenya seemingly deflated, the previous confidence leeched away as he finally realized what he was doing. There was growing horror in his eyes like a sobering drunk who realized what they did last night.

Gulping, "I... I... uh..." He adverted his eyes away from me.

"My Lady..."

"Confidence is good,"

And I meant that. In my experience, there's a reason why the saying 'fake it till you make it' exists. A lot of companies, especially in the Crypto space, started off with this saying.

I placed a hand on Kenya's shoulder before leaning in, "it'll help you immensely in the future. But too much confidence becomes arrogance. Be sure to not cross that line."

With that, I walked past Kenya and started my trek up the stairs. As I do, however, a floating, coffin-like box came out of the still-opened Doorway.

"My Lady, what is that?"

I raised one of my eyebrows as Shizue gestured at the coffin-like machine.

"Oh, this?" The machine hovered a meter off the ground. It was smooth and white in color, and seemingly carved out of a single larger piece of stone. "This machine will help me collect data about the spirits. An opportunity like this is rather hard to come by. I needed a reason to justify my spending time away from building my Matrioshka Brain."

I tapped on the machine. My most advanced sensor yet. I figured that since spirits interact with Electromagnetic force and maybe Tachyons, I'll use those particles to observe how they interact with each other. As such, this sensor uses sophisticated manipulation of Wave Function and photons to peer into the depth of an intangible spiritual lifeform. Based on how the particles react, I can then successfully determine their properties.

"I see," Shizue said, before placing a hand on the shoulder of the tallest student, "come on, introduce yourselves, my students."

Feeling obligated, the tallest student went first, "I'm Gale, Gale Gibson. Nice to meet you!"

His tone felt forced.

"I'm Alice," the blonde girl went second, slowly walking out from behind Shizue, "Alice Rondo."

"Chloe." The black-haired girl said, not elaborating any further.

For some reason, I felt the urge to be instantly on alert. My gut felt a sense of danger coming from the girl before I dismissed it.

"I'm... I'm Ryota Sekiguchi." The timidest of the group finished.

"Well met students of Shizue Izawa." My tone was more reserved than usual as if they belonged to a wise and ancient being.

"Let's start, shall we?"

Shizue nodded, before knocking on the massive door and walking back a few meters.

The stone doors opened slowly, they grind themselves on the floor, creating white patches as they move.

... I just realized that there weren't those white patches synonymous with stone grinding there before.

Placing a hand on my chin, I theorized that they were likely self-repairing.

I weakened the anti-gravity field that was stopping the Gravastar Armor from just falling into the earth and found these magical stones can withstand more than an abnormal amount of deformation before breaking.

All of this happened in the span of a single second, so no one noticed what I was doing.

Returning the anti-gravity field back to normal, I ran after the ground which was a few meters ahead of me and entered the labyrinth.

It entrance to the labyrinth was connected by a tall hallway that seems to come straight out of a gothic cathedral. The only light present was those embedded in the arches which flank the hallway. Firing off a wave of ultrasound, I found that I didn't get any rebounds beyond the nine meters mark.

Interestingly, according to the sensors, it seems those aren't magic, and instead bioluminescence. In other words, they're bacteria generating light.

*Beep*

An alert from the topology compass told me we'd entered into an isolated manifold.

I would've been more concerned had Shizue not alerted me beforehand that the labyrinth exists inside its own pocket dimension. Had she not I would've overclocked the Doormaker to have it transport me, my servant, and her students out of this manifold.

Pulling up a holographic panel, the coffin-like sensor machine reports how there's a small number of Class-5 Magicule Singularities, or spirits, in the ground right underneath me. Small, almost undetectable flares of magicule probed the edge of my Gravastar Armor before fizzling out, consumed by the ultra-relativistic fluid.

It seems the spirits are just as curious about me as I am about them.

According to the sensors, the number of spirits reached double digits when it came to the kids.

Interesting behavior, I really wonder why an entirely different form of life has so much interest in human kids. Is it because of their Souls from another World?

After around 30 minutes of mostly silent walking interrupted only by some quiet chatters between Shizue's students, we've reached the inside of a truly massive chamber. In front of us was a walkway made out of pure light that goes around a blue crystal-like mountain in the center of the chamber like the grooves on a screw.

"""Woah..."""

While the kids are mesmerized by the beauty of the place, I was entirely focused on the crystal mountain that was radiating an ungodly amount of magicule.

[Inspired Inventor] has no idea what kind of material it is other than it's definitely not on the periodic table and most likely a type of magic material like magisteel. [Material Science] suggested it could be a type of Bose-Einstein Condensate, except, those are made out of solidified bosons— force carrier particles— that only exist at temperatures near Absolute Zero.

A new boson then? Or a magical version of Condensate?

Shizue stopped around the base of the path right before the incline towards the top of that crystal mountain and waited before turning her attention to an orb of yellow light.

"Ah, so you're finally here!" the orb flew around and said excitedly, "welcome to the deepest part of the Labyrinth: the Dwelling of Spirits."

So this was Ramiris? A supposed Demon Lord?

I looked at the small fairy with an unimpressed gaze. Even with the assurances of Shizue, I still feel like Ramiris isn't a Demon Lord at all.

The Western nations talk about Demon Lords like they were a bigger threat than even North Korea in my old world—

My attention was diverted when I saw how the coffin-like machine detected spirits numbered in the quadruple digits and was still rapidly climbing.

"Lady Scientia," hearing my name, I turned away from the holographic display to Shizue, seeing my servant gesturing towards that orb of light, "students, this is Ramiris, the fallen Spirit Queen who is one of the oldest Demon Lords."

My hands twitched as [Spirit Physiology] urged me to dissect her as use the resources to build an artificial Soul.

"According to her, she had existed before written records."

"Yep yep!"

The tiny fairy exclaimed cheerfully.

"I see," I remarked with affirmation, still a bit skeptical of the entire Demon Lord charade.

"I am Ramiris of the Labyrinth! And—" Ramiris cut herself off as she hovered closer to me, moving past all the kids to give me extra attention, "woah... reality itself is different around, and yet— ahem."

The fairy cleared her throat before placing a hand above her chest.

At the same time, I was wondering why in the hell a spirit, a lifeform that doesn't need to even breathe, would clear its throat. Why would it mimic a human?

In a haughty voice befitting of a royal princess, Ramiris continued, "As I said before, my name is Ramiris, the Fairy of the Labyrinth and the fallen Spirit Queen! Welcome to the Dwelling of Spirits children, hopefully at least one of the spirits would choose you."

Ramiris' words were like a bucket of water as they dosed the flames of eagerness the kids had. Before, Shizue's students probably saw it as guaranteeing they'll be saved, but Ramiris raised the possibility that's not the case.

Seeing how down her students suddenly became, my servant attempted to cheer them up.

"Of course, a spirit would choose you all!" Shizue quickly said in a cheerful tone, her hands up to her chest in a gesture designed to show confidence, "You all are worthy of being saved! I know for a fact that the spirits would think so too!"

Shizue then cast a brief glare at Ramiris for the comment, causing the fairy to back off.

"Are you guys ready?"

"Yeah!" Hope brimming in their eyes as all of them other than Chloe did a little hop

Shizue spoke with a rare confidence in her tone I haven't heard ever since she had become my servant, "let's do this then,"

As a group, they collectively trekked up the pathway of light and reached the top of a platform floating above the crystalline mountain.

The first to go was the blonde girl named Alice.

The girl went on one knee and clasped her hand together in a praying fashion. Very soon, hundreds of purple light particles— Lesser or 'Inferior' Spirits, [Spiritual Engineering] had helpfully identified— descended from above like angels.

Unfortunately, Lesser Spirits aren't enough. The rampant magicules within a young Otherworlder are like quantum fluctuations: it's random and ever-changing, so the spirit would have to constantly adjust to fully control those magicules. A Lesser Spirit is too stupid to adjust its regulation, so either it'll take way more than necessary or too little.

Shizue's hands tightened in frustration. Even through the mask, I can tell despair colored her features, what with her shoulders slumping at the realization she's failed one of her students.

Alice didn't cry when she got up. On her face was a look of serene acceptance, as if she fully expected it to happen.

"Alice..."

The blonde hair girl didn't respond to Shizue, and instead chose to go to her companions and accepted their attempt at comfort.

"Ah..."

Shizue looked utterly devastated.

Next came Kenya, who did the same thing as Alice, but instead of failing, a bright burst of light exploded on top of Kenya as what looked like a young boy with wings on his back came into existence.

"Hiya there! I—"

The boy was quickly cut off when Ramiris zipped up right next to the spirit's face.

"Who said you can just barge in here?!" she badgered the Superior Spirit.

"Ramiris!"

"Well, when there's someone who's at least as good as the one down there, I just simply must come to see them with my own eyes!" the spirit bubbled before narrowing his eyes when he turned to look at me, "well that's interest..."

Shizue ignored all that and looked relieved, though I can tell there was a hint of guilt in there as well, probably because she was feeling guilty over how one of her students was unable to acquire a spirit, "At least... someone managed to gain the favor of a Superior Spirit of Light."

"Wait!" Kenya whipped his head to look at the teacher, "are you serious?"

Shizue merely nodded her head as the orange-haired kid looked warily at the Spirit Spirits of light. Those who got a superior spirit are destined to do great things in the future, so the kid must be feeling a lot of pressure all of a sudden.

"Well, I just had to take a look at such a shining beacon—" the light spirit was about to make a joke before Ramiris clapped her hand to get his attention.

"Hey! I'm talking to you, don't ignore me!"

"Either way, I've decided to save you, orange hair kid!" the light spirit crossed his arms together as Alice looked on in immense jealousy.

"My name is Kenya Misaki!"

"Oh, what a wonderful name! Do you mind me calling you Ken-Ken?"

"No! And—"

"Wonderful! I think we are going to have a great future together Ken-Ken!"

And with that, the spirit of light zoomed toward Kenya and was absorbed into his body. There wasn't any trace left of the spirit other than a brief magicule signature and the now regulated internal magicule of the kid.

"Sorry..." Ramiris apologized sheepishly, "he's one of our more annoying members..."

The next one was the timid-looking Royta Sekiguchi

He failed.

Gale Gibson.

Also failed.

Finally was Chloe Aubert. Shizue was quietly cheering Chloe on, muttering a "come on" every now and then.

Chloe went into a praying posture and... she succeeded.

*Whoosh*

An incredibly tense pressure washed over the whole chamber, causing Shizue to activate her stasis and me to turn off the Digital Mask, returning my head back into the absolute void like it was before. The pressure caused sounds of crumbling to echo throughout this chamber, with bits of dirt and debris coming from above.

The Gravastar Armor said how it detected a strong ripple in spacetime as well, causing me to be actually concerned for once, and took out a gamma laser capable of unleashing terajoules of energy from my pocket dimension.

The laser formed itself around my right arm.

I could've chosen a yottajoule laser but that'll most likely vaporize the other kids present from the minuscule waste heat alone.

"Huh?" Ramiris seemed confused.

A second pressure was added to the first, causing me to flinch.

The pressure wasn't a physical one like you'd find deep underwater or in fluid dynamics but the type that raises the hair on the back of your head. The type that comes from watching a horror movie, where you know that you're mere seconds away from a jumpscare, or when your instinct is telling you that you're in the presence of a natural predator— someone designed to specifically hunt you.

A hole in spacetime opened up right in front of Chloe. It wasn't like Doormaker as it was releasing a kaleidoscopic light in addition to all kinds of Electromagnetic and Gravitational radiation. The coffin-like sensor even detected some previously unknown Tachyons from Supercausal Spacetime.

White gas erupted out of that hole as a woman came out of it.

"What the hell...?"

The woman appeared naked save for a piece of white cloth that veiled her form. She had black hair, and blue eyes, almost looking like an older version of Chloe.

Magicule] is calling it... What the hell is a Manas? My eyes furrowed in confusion, the specialty isn't making any sense by calling it Chronoa, that Hero is presumed dead, what with the last confirmed appearance close to 80 years ago

DANGER

"Hrk!"

[Silenc— Error]

DANGER DANGER DANGER DANGER.

DANGER DANGER DANGER DANGER DANGER DANGER DANGER

A sensation of deep foreboding overtook my gut as I stared at the black-haired female figure donned in heavenly white robes as if this spirit— no, this is not a spirit, as [Magicule] said, this is something else entirely.

My fingers started fidgeting around as if they had a mind of their own. The constant opening and closing motion made me think it wants to grasp something.

My gut SCREAMED at me like it never had before to KILL this unnatural thing. It's telling me to completely and utterly obliterate—annihilate—euthanize—exterminate—decimate—eradicate—liquidate—to just do whatever I can to KILL! To KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL

KILL

KILL

KILL!

KIIIILLLLLLLL!

"AAAARGH!"

For the first time in my two lives, I'm struck with an overwhelming sense of bloodlust so strong that I can practically taste blood in my mouth— the blood of this thing— this Manas— I want to taste it— I want to drink it— I want it— I want it— I want this thing to just DIE, DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE!

I just want this thing in front of me to be gone, so that this feeling of fear so potent it feels like I can practically jump out of my skin would end.

Just as I was about to fire the laser, the impossible female thing let out a frightening glare that made me bite my tongue so hard that I actually fully closed my jaw.

The taste of iron filled my mouth. I never expected to actually bleed inside the Gravastar Armor so I never installed a cleaning function, so with my mouth filling up with blood, I'm forced to constantly gulp it down like water lest it overflows and seeps into the armor.

[Psychology] is saying my body is currently stuck in choosing either fight or flight. Paralyzed from fear.

Like how a deer would freeze if caught in a headlight, I too, froze when the glare continued.

A crushing oppressive atmosphere descending from that glare made the suit of armor I'm wearing feel suffocating. It feels like it's judging me. I feel naked in front of that thing. I feel like my armor is worthless.

I can't breathe. I knew I never needed to breathe in such a magicule rich area but I still cannot breathe.

It feels almost as if my lungs aren't working.

Finally, the thing moved. It flew towards me. Its right hand pulled back as if preparing for the thrust of a sword, its stance showed masterful elegance that [Martial Artist] and [Sword] are utmost impressed by.

Just as the being passed through Chloe, it snapped me out of my stupor when Shizue stepped in front of me.

I very quickly raised the terajoule gamma laser and fired.

*VZZZZZZZZ———*

The concentrated beam of gamma rays was so bright that to everyone else other than me and Shizue, it'll be the only thing they will be able to see for a while as it'll cause temporary blindness. It won't affect me or Shizue because the Gravastar Armor and the War Chassis filter out any light that's deemed too bright for my viewing pleasure.

This feature backfired immensely as I was able to clearly see exactly how the THING, the female-looking THING that's even more alien than I am, pass through the laser unharmed like it wasn't even there and pierce me with her invisible sword.

The laser stopped firing as my finger left the metaphorical trigger.

An explosion of pain erupt from the spot where the THING pierced me with its unseen sword.

Yet, I am unhurt.

That phantom pain felt like the pain from a real wound.

Whipping my head around, I saw a flash of the figure's clothing changing into something that looked like it had been through a war— wear, and tear were everywhere all over her body.

Blinking at the sudden change, the figure's clothing returned to normal as she came around for another turn— another stab— another thrust— "no way! Whoever you are, you're too dangerous!" Ramiris suddenly yelled,

Shizue sped towards the alien thing, only to again pass through the THING as if it doesn't exist.

"What is that?!" Shizue yelled while I continued to just freeze when I saw the THING cross her right arm again over her chest as if it was about to do a swipe with a sword, intent on taking my head off.

"I don't know! I've never seen it, but with the massive amount of Time magic I think they don't belong to this era!"

Hearing that made me raise my hand.

Strings shot out from the tips of my armored fingers toward the THING, strings that are made from the very fabric spacetime itself and can capture through everything.

"—!"

The strings phased right through and stabbed into the walls of the chamber.

My mind went blank at the sheer impossibility in front of me.

That's impossible! Nothing that exists couldn't be bound with those spacetime strings!

An instant later, crimson lines bloomed all over my body underneath the Gravastar Armor as a small red stone emerged to the surface of my chest. Those red lines were so numerous that it almost looked like most of my blood vessels were visible.

I subconsciously activated [Unlimited Alchemy], and using that magic, I transmuted the gas and magicules all around me into tiny shards of a superheavy unstable element with 120 electrons in its orbit.

Superheavy elements are notoriously unstable and therefore radioactive because the Strong Nuclear force which holds the nucleus together has a very short range, and thus, with 120 protons in its nucleus, the half-life of these tiny shards is measured in the hundreds of nanoseconds.

There were near-hurricane force winds as air rushed to replace those that I took to transmute.

Before more than 1/16 of these elements decay into a less energetic stage, I launched them at the rapidly approaching THING.

But just like the spacetime strings, the superheavy elements passed through harmlessly the THING harmlessly.

"Ah..." Sounds died in my throat with that 'Manas' did a swinging motion with its invisible sword before merging with Chloe after passing me by.

The little girl's consciousness fled from the girl as she hit the ground, or rather, she would have hit the ground had Shizue not flown at speeds just below that of sound to catch the little girl.

I collapsed to the ground. The Gravastar Armor felt extremely suffocating, it clings to my skin too much, and it was becoming increasingly unbearably irritating— I want out— I want out— I want OUT!

Instantly, I appeared in another place.

The place was completely different. I was completely different.

My panic was wiped away, I can see through my hands, my ghostly hands, hands that are much less defined than normal baryonic matter.

Everything else appeared equally ghostly.

It was Subspace. This place was Subspace, a place filled with the Supersymmetric partner of your typical subatomic particles. This place, this Otherspace that overlaid the entire Universe, is a mirror of the Universe. Every particle in the Universe is inexplicably linked with its Supersymmetric partner out here in Subspace.

This was why in my old World it was thought Supersymmetry to be false: the real Supersymmetric partners are in an adjacent realm, and you'd need a particle accelerator so large they'll wrap around Earth to even begin figuring things out.

I stood above a ghostly planet, the edge that should've been clearly defined as the border between the planet and outer space wasn't very clear. It was almost like I was standing above a ball of gas.

Finally, I began to see photons instead of Photinos as I transitioned back into Realspace in a fusillade of various Supersymmetric particles.

The Subspace Diver deposited me right next to my Gravastar Armor, now appearing as a sphere two and a half meters across of absolute darkness that swallowed all light that touches its surface.

That was an emergency rejection mechanism. I can mentally communicate with the Gravastar Armor thanks to Neural Connectors that sunk into my neck and wraps around my spine.

The crimson lines receded back into the stone on my chest, before that stone was encased once again by my flesh.

I looked around me. It was like everything was a dream. My attachment to reality was rather loose after such an experience.

There was a strong desire to just lay there, on top of this platform of blue light.

But I'm never one to just lay there. Even in my old life, during the holidays, I always worked.

So I got up, even with my muscles feeling very weak. The thin nanosuit that I'm wearing helped greatly with the nanomachines transforming and reconfiguring themselves into artificial muscles.

A holographic interface materialized next to me. Tapping several times, I opened several portals around me to my pocket dimension.

"My Lady!"

From those portals came out several highly lethal weapons to organic carbon-based lifeforms, namely: Magnetic Monopole Launchers and Neutron Emitters.

Magnetic Monopoles are different from the Monopoles of the Particle Disintegrator. These are elementary particles that carry their own unit of magnetic charge and disintegrate matter by catalyzing nucleon decay and transforming the nucleus of an atom into pions and positions, giving a near-on-par yield to that of anti-matter while being far easier to contain as it's stable.

Commonly, topological defects like Magnetic Monopoles are made by compressing energy until the Fundamental Forces began to merge and later let it cool. The breaking in cosmic symmetry is what makes topological defects.

Against pure organic life, there is perhaps no better weapon than neutrons. Due to their large size and heavier nature, neutron beams are highly corrosive to all known forms of self-replicating chemical systems. The Neutron Emitters focus the heavy subatomic particles and form them into a coherent beam using a series of 'mirrors' as a resonant cavity.

"My Lady, please wait! Stay your hands." Shizue cried out, clutching the girl into an embrace.

Alarmed at what's happening, Ramiris too, got in between me and the girl.

"Shizue..."

"My Lady, please! She's innocent! She's a student of mine! Whichever spirit joined her clearly chose her because she was special. Please don't snuff out so much potential!"

My gut is telling me to press the trigger. In fact, it's screaming at me to kill Chloe.

I breathed out.

I felt myself standing on a thin wire above an inescapable abyss.

Have you ever been given a decision that you know will affect the rest of your life? Things like whether or not you'll go to a certain college or marry this other person. That is what I'm feeling right now.

I grit my teeth as my mind dragged me back to the memory of the fear I had of that THING. It's like looking at your death billions— no, trillions of times all in that short time frame. Enough bodies that one can make a planet out of it.

I doubt my mind would have stayed the same had I been a human.

I breathed in, and out.

My ethics restrict me from killing children. But I couldn't care less at the moment.

The urge to kill this girl, in addition to how my gut is telling me to kill her as well, makes it so easy to just listen and pull the trigger. The peer pressure is great.

Yet to blame a child for being possessed is like killing Patient Zero of a pandemic without learning about the virus first.

The Magnetic Monopole Launchers and Neutron Emitter retreated back through the portal into my pocket dimension.

The strength in my legs finally gave away, but with the nanosuit hardening, I didn't collapse to the ground. My mind felt extreme regret at not killing Chloe, enough that I'm almost tempted to rectify that mistake.

Reaching up, I touched my forehead using my left hand and felt wetness covering the tips of my fingers.

What the hell was that? I zoned out, shutting out everything, I thought about what had just happened, my body and mind felt immense relief as if I had just escaped death, yet I was never in any danger, was I?

No, I can't be in any danger, the armor would've protected me had I been in danger.

The Gravastar Armor is my greatest defense yet. I can stand in the point-blank range of a Gamma Ray Burst and be totally fine.

So why? Why did I feel such primordial FEAR from that Thing, that 'Manas' who looked like a dead hero? I searched my mind for an answer, all my specialties are annoyingly silent on the matter.

And how the hell did strings made from space-time itself FAIL? [Space-time Engineering] assured me it could bind even True Dragons.

It took a while for me to return to reality, and when I did, the first thing I did was take out a bottle of pills about the size of my hand.

"Shizue, have your students consume one pill each."

Taking the bottle, Shizue dumped some pills onto her hand and found them to be blue in color.

"My Lady?" Confusion colored her tone as Shizue tilted her head a bit to the side, prompting me to elaborate.

"These are radiation pills, designed specifically by [Medicine] to heal most radiation damage by healing moderate genetic damages. If your students still exhibit symptoms like nausea, vomiting, fever, fatigue, diarrhea: or just anything out of the ordinary within the coming two weeks, alert me and I'll prepare a full Stem Cell Treatment to repair severe radiation damage to their genes."

That 120-electron element, despite existing for less than a second, definitely gave the kids a lethal dose of radiation. Without the pills, they'll probably die in around 12 to 48 hours in horrific agony with their skin falling off.

As Shizue disseminates the pills, I'm left with my own thoughts.

So many questions. I wonder if this is what it's like to fight against an unchained Milim, because if so then I will need to bring more firepower.

Having mere Yottajoules at my disposal is nowhere near enough.

The seven of us walked silently out of the Dwelling of Spirits. Even without saying anything, I could tell Shizue was frustrated as all hell, three of the five kids aren't able to be saved since no Superior Spirits had chosen them.

I stood in the back of the group, pushing the floating coffin-like thing in front of me.

It now occurred to me that it may be inappropriate to carry around something that has an uncanny resemblance to a coffin amidst children who have been diagnosed with this world's equivalent of a terminal illness. So I quietly and without anyone detecting, deposited the sensor into my pocket dimension.

Once we were outside, I saw some sunlight still peering through the heavily forested ceiling.

Looking around me, I saw the three kids who weren't able to get a Superior Spirit looked completely dead, lifeless as Shizue probably hyped this to be the ticket to save themselves from an early grave. They're in complete despair.

No one wants to die. Even those who actually wish for it. It takes a shockingly high amount of courage to actually go through with it.

Humans are biologically and evolutionarily wired to want to stay alive. Though that is disputed sometimes by our brain, it is nonetheless true. Just look at how many disasters and incredible tales of unlikely survival humans have lived through.

The genetic bottleneck in my old World's human history showed how every modern human originated from approximately 10,000 humans.

My servant cannot even bear to look at those who she had failed. The other two who were able to get a spirit had a look of extreme guilt.

There's cruelty in despair. But to be given hope and then be taken away, that's extra cruel.

I got an extreme sense of deja vu when I looked upon the eerily familiar look of despair on the face of those kids.

I can't help but recall a specific memory I've always tried to bury.

In my past life, I had a sister who had that look when she came home that day. The day that changed everything.

"Damn it."

Biting my now healed tongue in a grimace at that particular memory, I placed the remaining three charges I have left for the day into [Spiritual Engineering] and had the blueprint for the creation of Artificial Spirits using [Unlimted Alchemy] inputted into my mind.

That should work. They're like artificial intelligence but instead of silicon being their flesh and electricity being their blood, it's these... particles and magicules.

"Wait here," I said to them just as Shizue and the kids were about to leave, the former's mood turned an instant 180 once they saw I was running back into the Dwelling of Spirits.

I suppose spoiling my employees every now and then because of their hard work is worth it. At least it'll encourage loyalty.

I am definitely becoming softer. The 'me' from a few months ago definitely wouldn't have done such a thing.

The crimson lines returned as I shredded countless sparkles of Lesser Spirits within the Dwelling into its most basic components, a particle that I'll need to spend some time testing, before using those particles and rebuilding them block by block into creating the World's first Artificial Spirit Intelligences.

Since I based these Artificial Spirit Intelligences on the human cognitive mind, they're without an identity. However, just like newborns, these ASIs would grow alongside their owners and become something of a reflection. Unlike humans, however, these ASIs don't have anything resembling emotions since I see them as more of a detriment.

Eventually, these ASIs may develop emotions to better mimic their partners, but that's not important in the present.

I dislike magic, but I'm not so as hardline as to never use it.

Three orbs of condensed, glowing radiance transformed into humanoids. They look like dolls as their skin was devoid of any color, their pupils are jet black, and they possessed no hair.

...they look like something straight out of a horror movie.

So I reshaped them again using [Unlimited Alchemy] into a form that more resembled a toy figurine, so that way these ASIs don't fall into that uncanny valley as I did.

I further redesigned them with vibrant colors. The first one was a Space spirit, so I gave it a blue color. The second one was Earth, so I made it brown. The last one was fire, and as with tradition, I made it bright orange. Now, these ASIs will regulate the internal magicules of the kids.

Obviously, dismantling, dissolving, and repurposing so many Lesser Spirits had caused Demon Lord Ramiris to be rather livid. My first thought was to perhaps finally use Ramiris as tinker material, before stopping myself as reusing a Demon Lord would probably cause too large of a negative splash among the geopolitical scene, especially in the East concerning the many monster nations that clog Tempest's southern borders.

So instead, I proposed a contract with the fairy: I will grant her one single irrefutable favor, as long as it is within reason and doesn't involve anything harmful to my or the Jura Tempest Republic's interest, and can be redeemed at any time in the future.

After completion, I looked around the large chamber, finding Ramiris staring at the three Artificial Spirit Intelligences and studying them with an intense look. It was as if she was trying to decipher everything about them.

"Impressed?" I asked her. I'm interested to know what the Spirit Queen thinks of my creations.

"You do realize the Artificial Spirits only have a short lifetime correct? They aren't like real spirits who are immortal," the small fairy stressed, "I don't know if their Spiritual body could survive beyond the ten-year mark without breaking down."

There was a small smile on my face.

"Of course, but these are more than just normal artificial spirits. These will likely outlast their owner, to be honest," I assured Ramiris, and she just sighed.

Uneasiness briefly flashed across her face, "Does the name 'Veldanava' ring any bell?"

Veldanava?

"No, why do you ask?"

"Nevermind." Ramiris then disappeared, leaving me all alone to ponder just what or who 'Veldanava' is. Based on the name it seems to be perfect for a True Dragon, after all, Velgrynd, Veldora, and Velzard, all of these had 'Vel—' as their first three letters.

Is the owner of this name the elusive Fourth True Dragon?

So many questions.

Though most of all, I should keep an extra eye on this Chloe Aubert.

_____________________________________________

AN: Scientia got a first taste of what it's like fighting against one of Tensura's Strongest, the Hero Chronoa.

And the Killing Intent alone froze Scientia.

I wonder if you guys caught on to the Chekhov's Gun I placed in this chapter?

The Truth is being revealed more and more as the Final Arc approaches, and almost all important characters have almost been introduced.