Encounter and Blessing

Kairos was surprised to see me appear with Myne.

[What happened? Why are you in tatters like that?]

[A ferocious tiger just hit me.]

[I see. Sure is a ferocious tiger.]

Myne was in a bad mood. I waited for her to wake up while keeping watch on her.

But apparently she sensed my gaze and woke up. Then, feeling embarrassed that someone saw her sleeping face, she jumped and bit me.

[Trying to attack me while I sleep, what a crafty guy]

[Fate! You....]

[No, I didn't. That's a false accusation! I was just trying to wake her up]

[Well...that's what they always say]

[Not Mikuria-san too...]

You two, even though all of you knew that I went to wake Myne up. How could you?

Myne really hates being woken up like that then. I could sense a small bit of Wrath skill leaking from her.

[Okay, let's stop with the joking. We need to go. Is the preparation done?]

[ [ Yes ] ]

Kairos nodded back to us. Then he took the black sword that was left leaning on the wall behind him.

[Are we going at last? Took you long enough.]

[My bad. Things just not the same as usual. And it's all thanks to Fate. I haven't been able to find anything as funny for a long time. I guess I'd been too focused on how much time I had left.]

[You are...such a horrible man. You haven't really changed at all.]

Kairos looked happy.

[Alright then, let's go. Mikuria, until later.]

[Yes. Be careful.]

Mikuria saw us off while waving her hand.

We left the room and walked along a clean white passage. We saw nobody along the way.

[There are actually not that many researchers in this facility. And most of them tend to stay in their own room doing research like Mikuria does. Two researchers rarely pass each other in this passageway.]

According to Kairos, the facility was automated to maintain a good living condition for the researchers, as well as keeping them safe.

The reason why my dirty clothes suddenly became clean, was because that's one of the facility's functions.

But it was easy for us to sneak in only because Mikuria-san had disabled the facility's surveillance system.

[Let me tell you, this looks so easy only because we have an insider.]

[If we don't...what would happen?]

Even the strong looking Kairos actually paused upon hearing that question.

I could see fear in his face.

He then pointed to the back and told me.

[Look at that. Although it's currently inactive now.]

[The bronze statue?]

[It's not just a statue! It's a machine. A mechanized doll that will attack immediately once it detects a suspicious person. The most troublesome part is that more of them will continue to come. Not to mention that those things have no soul, so Gluttony skill cannot devour them.]

[Cause it's not fulfilling, so it's a bore?]

[That's right! That's why, it's better to not awaken them if possible.]

We proceeded through the path that Mikuria-san had designated.

Next we entered the engine room. Greed unlocked the system lock for us. Despite how he looks, he's really a sword that can do something like that.

I remember him doing a similar thing back when I sneaked into the research facility at the capital's military district.

[Okay then, how should we proceed from here?]

Kairos asked me since I'm in charge of navigation.

According to the portable floor plan, the engine room manages the electric power and air conditioning of each floor.

In other words, it's like this again, huh...?

I felt like I had a weird case of deja vu.

[It seems that we'll have to go to the underground level via this ventilation shaft. Apparently, even though Mikuria-san couldn't secure a regular path to that place.]

[Well, of course. She didn't even know what's in there after all.]

I pried open the cover of the designated ventilation shaft, as per the instruction.

[Ugh... the inside is a bit dusty. And just after I had shower.]

[Indeed. Myne, I don't think piggybacking will work here.]

[.....I'm going back.]

That said, Myne walked back toward Mikuria's lab.

Kairos promptly blocked her path.

[Oy you, wait! How about your promise?]

[Myne....will go]

[Just kidding. I know. Promise must be fulfilled.]

The heavy sound of the huge fans echoed through the shaft.

The huge fans was meant to circulate air from the outside into the facility, and apparently to the underground floor as well.

[Fate seems to be very familiar with this.]

[Ahahah... I did something similar in the past.]

[As expected from our guide. I made a good choice.]

He pushed me onward after a tap on the shoulder.

Myne followed after me, with Kairos being the last to enter the shaft.

[Don't you think, it's getting somewhat cold?]

[Cold...]

[Indeed it is. Don't let your hands cling too long. Greed, what's the current temperature?]

[You really like to work your sword roughly. The temperature is -10 degrees. It also gets colder as you get down. You might become a clattering mess if you keep going down.]

[I thought so. Let's make it quick then.]

Thus we sped up a bit, albeit while making sure to not make any noise.

When we finally reached a dead end, our breath had become visible due to the cold air.

I wish I had winter clothes on. I've been running to keep my body warm. If I stop, the cold would likely invade immediately.

[What do they keep in such a place? Although it's not excessively cold, it's not the temperature where most living creatures could stay in for too long.]

[It's too cold.]

[The place marked in the floor plan is just around the corner.]

Our destination was just beyond this vent right in front of us.

I gently cut the vent with my greatsword.

[That's not bad at all. Although there is still some roughness there. But I can feel that you've been forged through actual battles.]

[This is the first time someone actually praised my swordsmanship.]

[I guess Fate's teacher was a very strict person, huh?]

[I guess so...]

I have many that can be considered as my teacher, but Aaron certainly at the top of the list.

And indeed, everyone was strict.

Especially when Myne and Eris trained me. Those two were exceptionally strict.

They even mockingly called me [Raggedy Rag Fate] when I got too exhausted to continue the training.

[What?]

Recalling those days of hellish training, I unconsciously turned my sight to one of the demonic instructors.

Although I suppose the current her has no idea what I'm thinking.

She tilted her head in question, then urged me to proceed onward.

[Quickly. I'll push you if you don't.]

[Okay, I know. Heave ho.]

After making sure that no one was around, I jumped out of the ventilation shaft.

And the first few things that entered my sight....what scattered around to be exact, made my body feel colder.

Body parts were scattered everywhere.

Mutilated arms and legs that had been frozen solid.

And it seemed that those severed limbs...belonged to humans...

At that point Myne spoke as if to confirm my suspicion.

[The leftover food.]

[You two, look ahead.]

What...what in the world...is that?

A machine angel? No,

It's like several machine angels were melted together and kneaded into one large blob of slime.

Even in this extreme cold, the blob seemingly survived without freezing.

Boko, bokoboko...boko...

Now that I looked at it more intently, I noticed a large number of faces and limbs sticking out.

There were humans in the blob as well. Did they end up becoming the core for those machine angels?

No, they aren't. I don't think they function as a core like Luna did. This one was more distorted than that.

Even now, the humans' cries could be heard leaking out.

I noticed Myne stepping back.

[Myne?]

I called her name, but she didn't reply back to me. Instead, one of the individuals mixed together into that blob of horror responded.

When I turned around to see the source, I saw a pair of eyes that was shedding tears.

[My...ne, you are...finally here.]