44 Unknown Changes

[Make sure you don't take anything out of its place.]

[Mhm, I understand.]

The man nodded his head after hearing the woman's reply and turned around to leave the area they were in.

[Let us go back. We don't need to rush anything since the vault is in our hands now.]

[....]

[Remember this is for a better world.]

The man left these words and his companion silently followed behind him, not sparing a single glance at the woman.

Shaking a bit in her place, the woman held her breath before finally letting go as she watched the two men leave her sight. She paused for a bit before turning around to look at the creature she discovered just seconds prior.

[You should leave this place before you get discovered.]

Unknown feelings were wrapped in her voice but the animal just saw the empty smile she had. This aroused some sort of feeling within it and it began to poke its nose against her legs.

The woman froze but judging that the creature was trying to comfort her, she hesitantly rubbed the top of its body before she stood up.

[...You remind me of her..]

*** 

After the series of images faded away from Yuuto's mind, he looked at the floating fragment once more trying to digest what he saw.

"Two men and a woman talking about the vault of Alexandra… I'm guessing the vault is the room I discovered back then. But that blatant attitude one of the men had with the woman indicated some power balance between the three."

The attitude, facial expression, and tone. All of these were things Yuuto caught when witnessing what was inside the fragment. 

With the abundant fragments he had gone through so far, catching the feelings of others was one of the skills he started to develop as memories were very prone to being influenced by these elements.

And two emotions were very prominent within that one fragment he saw.

Tired and Lost 

"The woman looked very familiar too," Yuuto mumbled to himself and suddenly remembered the color of her eyes. "Was that Cyrille..?"

Yuuto tried to match the facial structure with Cyrilla and after comparing the two in his head, he felt like it was highly likely it was her. In the game, there was no definite image of what Cyrille looked like other than a portrait so he didn't know right away.

But after meeting Cyrilla it began to be obvious it was Cyrille after she grew up without her sister.

"But why did this trotter have this memory so tied into itself…?"

This stumped Yuuto as there were still some elements that he was missing and opted to look over them at another time as he noticed the time.

Chasing the trotter and fighting this monster took a bit of time off him and it was reaching the point where Dan Heng would be back based on what March had told him.

Feeling like he should move quickly, Yuuto looked at the red crystals that the monster was made from and decided he should take them as their material was something that had some uses.

His hand glowed white and after touching each of the crystals, they slowly faded away turning into fragments to which he absorbed within his library.

"I finally have the almighty inventory… I should find some diamonds and emeralds so that I can trade them for later."

Yuuto joked to himself as this memory was the most game-like power he had and after counting the amount of crystals he got, he walked up to Bronya who was still eyeing the area around them.

"Do you still want to stay in that room or are you finished for the day?" He asked Bronya since he planned to return to Boulder Town to meet with the others.

Bronya looked at him for a bit before answering. "Will you be returning to that room?". Seeing him shake his head Bronya took this in and walked beside him.

"I had enough for today. I learned a lot and want to digest some of the things I read."

She thought back to what she saw in that diary and furrowed her eyebrows remembering its contents. Various thoughts began to grow within her mind until a voice suddenly cut those off.

"What is with you people and thinking so hard that you begin to create wrinkles whenever you guys turn quiet…"

"Huh."

Bronya suddenly felt a pair of fingers pinch her face and was stunned to see Yuuto looking at her with an empty smile.

"Wh-What are you doing..?"

"Is this a certain trait within serious women? Cyrilla too but she's a child and I stopped her from doing that..."

"Uhmm…" 

Bronya didn't know what to do as this was the first time something like this happened to her but Yuuto stopped before she could properly react.

"Learning more is good but overwhelming yourself will make that positive into a negative very quickly. Relaxing your brain is equally as important."

She listened as Yuuto walked towards the trotter resting on the ground near them and brushed his fingers against its smooth skin.

Bronya watched as he felt the trotter for a while before standing up and leaving. She began to finally follow him when she saw how he waited for her and jogged quickly to catch up to him.

"Let's continue our conversation from the time we first met. I'm feeling generous today so you can ask me a question and I can answer it to the best of my ability."

Yuuto sent her a sly smile which made her oddly annoyed and any thoughts before this began to fade away.

Bronya looked at Yuuto for a bit and noticed the bits of burnt fabric he had at the edge of his shirt and asked him a question with a straight face.

"Is it true that all of your clothes got destroyed that one time?"

"...Who the hell told you that..?"

"Nobody in particular." Bronya turned her head when she felt his eyes suddenly burn into her and she tried her best to hide the corner of her lips from rising.

***

"Was it you?"

"I use my right to be silent!"

"Really? Let's see if silence can help you with this."

"Hah! You must take me for a fool if you think something like this can stop me!!"

Stelle smirked before she covered her ears and closed her eyes seeing Yuuto bring up some images on his phone.

After Yuuto and Bronya's brief walk back to Boulder Town, the two had a pretty interesting time talking together as he learned that Bronya had a surprising number of stories she heard from an unknown source.

This ranged from his infamous scene from Solarian to others he didn't even know people witnessed. Yuuto thought about this deeply and felt like only one person was capable of doing something like this.

'Just wait until I get back on the Express…'

Yuuto clicked his tongue when he saw that Stelle wasn't very willing to speak and decided that he should slowly marinate his revenge for later.

Stelle who had her eyes closed, felt a slight chill but ignored it as it didn't seem like anything dangerous would happen soon.

"What are you talking about?"

"You don't need to worry about it."

Cyrilla tugged onto the corner of his shirt and looked at him with an upturned gaze but he shook his head as if it was nothing too important.

Looking at Cyrilla who was standing beside him, Yuuto was able to take a proper look at her and noticed that a few strands of her hair were neatly braided while another was a bit messy.

"Did someone help you get ready?" Yuuto pointed at her head and Cyrilla nodded.

"Big sister March helped me braid it. I had a hard time following her since it was my first time doing a braid like this."

Cyrilla smiled brightly showing that side she did to Yuuto and the corner of his lips naturally raised seeing her talk about the braid she did.

He rubbed her head softly before talking to Dan Heng who was standing right next to him.

"So did your trip bring any good news?"

"Nothing too special to be honest but I can confirm that Svarog began to stay within his camp right after the whole situation with the vagrants."

"I see. Was that all?" Yuuto thought that this was within what he expected and continued to ask Dan Heng for anything more.

Dan Heng kept silent before telling Yuuto one thing he noticed when he was out on his search.

"There was one other thing. The monsters within the fragmentum had shown a slight increase in quantity compared to when we first came here."

Yuuto listened intently as Dan Heng began to recall all of his experiences which made him raise his eyebrows the longer he listened.

"I also faced some variants which surprised me. I guess the data that the fragmentum had within it began to show some changes at some point."

"Variants…"

Remembering the golem-like monster that had abilities similar to the Blaze Out of Space, Yuuto frowned thinking about the subtle changes that were occurring that he didn't like.

'I need to quickly set up before things go in a direction I'm not prepared for.'

Shifting through the ideas he had, Yuuto finally brought up the topic that he wanted to talk about now that he was with Dan Heng.

"You want to go back to the surface tonight?"

Dan Heng looked at Yuuto with a serious look and was beginning to wonder why he wanted to do something like this.

They still had some time to stay within the Underworld but hearing that Yuuto wanted to go back up sprouted a few thoughts within his head. 

"Take a look at this." Yuuto took out his phone and began to show him a few images of a large mecha that matched the aesthetic of the Silvermane Guards.

"Within the room, I talked about, it had blueprints to this machine and it's stated that the Supreme Guardian has control over this creation."

Although he knew that the Engine of Creation was something used in the fight against Cocolia, Yuuto wanted to do something against it as this was no longer within a game but something he had only one shot at.

'I don't want to wait for the Preservation to give us permission to use it…'

Even if they can't fully use it, having certain parts be disabled would also be his ideal.

The thought of facing a large machine, hoards of fragmentum monsters, and Cocolia herself, Yuuto wanted to decrease the burden they would face so that the fight would be at least easier for them.

Dan Heng listened to more of his reasons and started to agree with some of his reasons but a few things seemed a bit iffy for him.

"How are you going to tweak it then? I know that this machine has this blueprint but considering this is a foreign planet, some parts may be different to what we are used to seeing."

"Don't worry, I plan to meet up with a mechanic who specializes in Belobog machinery. Once she learns the current situation, she will definitely help us."

Yuuto thought of the blonde-haired woman who shoots lightning from her guitar. 

Knowing her personality and past with Cocolia, he was certain that she would even volunteer to help.

–CREAK

"Hello, ladies and gentlemen~ Your beloved guide is here to assist you once again! Free of charge this time~."

Finalizing some things with Dan Heng, the door to where they were suddenly opened, and in came Sampo who had a tired-looking Seele standing right behind him.

"If you guys are all ready, then allow this Sampo to guide you towards the settlement of the infamous Svarog. Be careful in taking pictures as some robots ma—"

"Do you mind getting rid of your blabbering?"

"Miss Seele I know you might be tired from your previous job but saying things like this would hurt my feelings… Showing some kindness is appreciated!"

Seele's cold eyes stared at Sampo's gentle smile and a wicked look began to grow on her face.

"Kindness? Sure, I'm certainly feeling generous enough to show you some 'kindness'." Seele began to crack her knuckles as she stared straight at Sampo.

"I remembered! Sharing is caring! I have already received enough kindness from you Miss, so sharing your wishes with others is something I will definitely encourage!"

Sampo's smile almost broke when he noticed Seele coming closer and he immediately went out the door encouraging the people around him to follow him. 

"Pfft."

Amidst the silence Sampo created, Yuuto couldn't help but break out into a laugh seeing the show he was lucky enough to witness.

"Let's go and follow him," Yuuto said as he was the first one to move. 

***

Within a snowy area that was strange to see considering the area was underground, a girl with a red hoodie looked at the transparent orb in her hands.

Images of trees floating in the background mesmerized her as this type of structure was very foreign to her.

"Mr. Svarog, is it possible to see this image on the surface?"

Clara asked the large robot beside her while she continued to look at the gift Yuuto gave her.

[Calculation: there is a 0.0000001% chance of seeing the image you have asked]

"Really? Then I wonder how Mister made such a pretty scene in here…"

Clara whispered to herself as she imagined herself going through the array of trees she saw within the orb.

Svarog who was beside her stared at the orb Clara was holding and his mind began to move very fast.

[Image projection… Affirmative. Use of mechanical devices to achieve projection…Negative. Unknown technology is in use…]

[Initiating destruction of unknown object… Negative. Clara's emotions will undergo various changes if the order goes through…] 

His red eyes began to dim by a certain amount before he stared at Clara for a while longer.

–BZZZT

Disturbing the moment he had, the image of a group of people flashed within his mind as one of his minions managed to notice some movement beyond the walls of the settlement.

[We have some foreign guests.]

***

If using my jades to pull for Acheron is a sin, then I will gladly become a sinner.

Ps. I became a huge sinner