58th Move | Arms Race

AN: Graphical depictions of violence in this chapter, just a heads up if you have a weak stomach.

I just realized that describing Scientia as a less psychopathic version of Tanya is valid.

_____________________________________________

Around the time of Scientia's meeting, Lura, Ingrassia.

Kenya Misaki was feeling rather bored. Laying down under a tree in the courtyard of his school, he munched on a lollipop while looking out beyond the tree line and into the city. Despite being at the center point of a coup, nothing has really changed for the small Otherworlder.

Taking out the wrapper for the candy, Kenya wondered where this was made— it was so similar to the taste of the ones in his homeworld that he had spent his entire allowance on buying the lollipops from that merchant.

"Made...in...Tempest?" Even now, the orange-haired Otherworlder still struggles with reading the words of this world, what with there being half a dozen dialects of the Ingrassian language alone each unique to a specific region.

"Huh, so it's the nation that Miss Shizue went." He crumbled the wrapper and sensed a familiar presence appearing. "So what's Miss Seagull doing here?"

The presence let out an offended gasp that sounds oddly like a seagull, "Kenya Misaki, that is highly rude! My name is Noel Aizome!"

Turning to face the source of the voice, Kenya found himself looking at a young woman in her early 20s with brunette hair and brown eyes. Her current clothing consists of a white dress shirt, black tights, high heels covered by a blue blazer, and a pencil skirt.

Kenya rolled over so he doesn't need to see clothing that reminds him too much of his home, "tsk! Why do you wear clothing that came from my old world?"

Noel placed her hands on her hip, her expression softened, "well, as your teacher, I thought it best to try and connect with my students, so I researched a little bit on the clothing of your old world in the Library of Lura, and voila, here it is."

"Bah"

"So... is it working?" Noel asked hopefully.

"Go ask someone else."

"...I see."

Noel quietly left the area, leaving Kenya to stew alone.

"Stupid Seagull..." Kenya worked hard to stop the tears from flowing, "stupid stupid stupid!"

The desire to see his home again burned persistently inside him, like a sailor wanting to come home after being on a long voyage.

"KenKen!" The Spirit of Light hurridly appeared, darkening the area despite it being noon, "hurry! You must leave!"

Kenya quickly rubbed his eyes before looking at the spirit, "huh? Why all of a sudden? Aren't I suppose to finish my education here?"

"No, you don't understand! I saw armed men gathering outside the gate—"

Whatever the Spirit of Light was about to say was ignored as Kenya blitzed towards the front gate, curiosity burning brightly.

Running down the halls and through the main door, Kenya silently noted how the kind old receptionist was gone.

Looking beyond the gated premise of the School, he saw how the Headmaster is trying to negotiate with the dozens upon dozens of armored knights and wizards.

The headmaster was a middle-aged man wearing a dark red three-piece suit, currently, he was outside the opened gate talking with an especially well-decorated knight.

"—by the order of the new King Aegir of Ingrassia, all Otherworlders are to summarily brought forth before the Throne to be given the honorable title of 'Defender of the Kingdom', brother, you know better than anyone how easily heads of those with power will roll in these turbulent times, please do not fight."

The Headmaster merely sighed sadly and bowed his head in shame, "both of us know this isn't what Ingrassia stands for, any kind of slavery has been banned ever since the founding of this great Kingdom—!"

Upon hearing the words 'slave', it caused Kenya to remember back to when he first came here, how he only barely escaped enslavement by the nature of being a child.

"—tsk!" Kenya ground his teeth together, he yelled out, "what Defender of the Nation?! You all just want to enslave us like the other nations!"

Catching the attention of the knights, the knight who was talking to the headmaster raised his sword towards Kenya, "get—"

Whatever he was about to say was silenced by a punch straight at his nose by the headmaster. Like a bowling ball, the head knight sailed across several meters and smashed into the other knights and wizards, all of them falling like dominos.

"Grab your friends and get out of here, Kenya!" The headmaster got into a stance, a bright aura surrounded the man like a set of armor, extensions on his clothes floating upwards as if gravity is a mere suggestion.

Instead of doing as he's told, Kenya drew his sword and ignited it. "Lightbulb!" He called forth his light spirit.

"Never! We fight for our freedom—"

*Boom*

As if to emphasize his point, the headmaster clapped his hand together in a thunderous clap, blowing Kenya back through the opened gate which promptly closed.

"GRAB YOUR FRIENDS AND RUN, KENYA MISAKI!" The headmaster roared as loud as he can before blasting back into the cluster of armored men, "There's a cart in the forest with smugglers ready!"

The sheer loudness and strength Kenya saw the headmaster use was enough to convince the Otherworlder that it may be best to leave. Adhering to his advice, Kenya rushed down the halls toward his old classroom.

Hurridly opening the door, he saw Alice, Ryota, and Gale, but no Chloe. "Guys! We need to go! Grab you— no ignore your stuff we need to go! And where's Chloe?"

"What is happening—"

"—wait, why?"

"Stop yelling—"

"SHUT UP!' Kenya yelled out as he realized it was going to devolve into an arguing match again, "listen, I don't know why but the new King has ordered the enslavement of all Otherworlders— children or not. The headmaster is stalling for time for us to get into this cart with smugglers ready in the forest— and can someone Plu~lease tell me where the hell is Chloe Aubert?!"

Alice spoke up, "Chloe? I think she's in the dorm—"

—Kenya blitzed away toward the women's dormitory.

Opening the doors, he was forced to quickly close them when he saw the daughters of other families who go to this school instead of Chloe. Due to how quickly he's going at it, others only saw a brief blur before disappearing.

Running down the hall and blitzing past several doors, Kenya finally stopped at the last one, "ugh... here's hoping she's inside this one."

Shoving the door open, "Chloe!"

—Only to see Chloe dressed in only pajamas, a magical circle underneath her.

"Kenya?"

"Chloe we need to go ASAP!" Kenya exclaimed as he walked in, "the new King's got this stupid degree to enslave all of us no matter the age!"

The orange-haired boy expected Chloe to be shocked, or at least show some expression of fear, only, before he got any of those, Kenya saw a calculating expression on her face, as if this hadn't gone to plan.

"Chloe?"

"N—nothing," Chloe timidly spoke and opened her dresser, taking out several pieces of clothing.

Turning to face Kenya, Chloe started to push him out of the door, in between him and the girl was this large bundle of female clothing that Chloe was carrying.

Just as Kenya reached the doorframe—

"[Tiferet - Netzach]"

"—hrk!"

The boy found a sword piercing through his chest.

The sword is one of those that the knights of the Kingdom would have.

"The endgame is now," Chloe spoke with a face devoid of emotions in front of him, holding the grip of the sword currently lodged in his chest, "you will be critical in this. I have planned eons for this, Kenya, thank you."

Chloe let out a small smile that would've looked cute had this been in any other context.

"W—w—wha—?" He managed to squeak out before finding him on a terrace overlooking the gate. He felt his connection with the spirit of light being cut as if it had been severed cleanly with a knife.

Due to him standing on a ledge with a sword in his chest, Kenya leaned forward and fell, his last sight before hitting the ground was the headmaster yelling his name and grunting in pain.

_____________________________________________

After the meeting, I decided it would be best if I took up my role as the Commander of the Grand Republic's Military by directing troops and creating supply lines.

It has been one week since the beginning of the war and the border between Tempest and the Empire became a no man's land, as any attempt made by either side is destroyed with gusto.

Using the computer inside the Citadel, I was able to get communication and Doormaker up and running within 6 hours of the initial attack, allowing our tripods to repel any additional invaders after the vanguard was destroyed. The Eastern Empire's admittedly strong tanks and their WWII-style combined arms were useless in front of these metal monstrosities, so they were quickly pushed back to the original border.

Field Marshal Ririna had taken up direct command of the eastern theater. She had wanted to continue, but whatever troops that step foot on Imperial soil got instantly incinerated by True Dragon Velgrynd. What's interesting is that she ONLY kills troops that move into Empire soil.

(Whatever Ultimate Skill Velgrynd has, it somehow allowed her to ignore the tripod's shields and turn them into useless slags of metal)

It's making me paranoid how Velgrynd never once flew into Tempest air space, merely sitting back and only intervening if the Tripods touched Imperial soil or if a new Doorway opened up inside the Empire's domain.

It spoke volumes of how strong a True Dragon is if she could defend an area larger than Canada from any intrusions no matter how small.

Really makes me wonder if she sees all of this as a game or potentially waiting for something else, [Psychology] couldn't rule out any possibility for someone as old and enigmatic as her.

The only reason I'm playing this 'game' with Velgrynd is that I want a clean victory to show the West that even in war, I am merciful. Of course, if I really wanted to win I could easily call up all three of my Endbringers to fight against the Scorch Dragon, but that'll likely result in half of the continent on fire and millions dead by the time either the Endbringers are done, or the True Dragon is dead. Afterward, the West will trust me even less, thinking that death is a preferable option compared to receiving my help and being enslaved for eternity.

In the end, I'm fighting both a Public Relationship war as well as a legit boots-on-the-ground war, a literal war on two fronts.

Considering our position geographically to the Eastern Empire and the West you got yourself some ridiculous irony, especially when the West is in a coalition against you (In other words, the similarity between Tempest's current situation to Germany during the World Wars is so similar it's almost scary, except, our 'Germany' is the only bastion of liberty in the world and USSR is an Imperialistic Empire whereas the Allies were a bunch of authoritarian monarchies, god if this weren't real I would laugh so hard at the irony).

Although, Rudra must seriously become dull in the head since he actually invaded us from the east. You just don't do that. During WWII, even if Germany and Japan both attacked the USSR at the same time, Siberia was just so big and treacherous that the Soviets can focus all their efforts on beating back Germany before focusing on Japan.

I had to restrain Milim to prevent her from annihilating the Eastern Empire since she'll probably lose against someone like Velgrynd. Even if she does succeed, it'll be a victory for her instead of the Republic.

*Click*

I was snapped out of my musing when the door to the War Room was opened. Turning my head around, my eyes were forced to adjust to the brightness outside before Shizue closed the door.

The glow of the holographic map did nothing to remove the grim outlook on her face.

"My Lady," Shizue kneeled before me, causing me to get flashbacks to when she had asked me to help her students.

Spinning the chair to face her, once I saw how deeply she was kneeling before I confirmed my suspicion.

Hesitantly, "I... I know I have no right to ask you of this again, but the new King Aegir of Ingrassia has rallied up every Otherworlder they can find no matter the age. My Lady, I ask that you excuse me from service so that I can at least rescue my students from becoming child soldiers."

Yep, knew it.

After the mental breakdown from a week ago, Arcueid practically glued herself on me after apologizing profusely for the slaps, unwilling to let me go for more than a few seconds— made some meetings really awkward but at the same time, being so loved and appreciated made me feel all kinds of warm and fuzzy. Rimuru and Veldora showed their support by calling me at least once every day, while Ririna sends in her handwritten report every week.

Looking back, I realized how I was acting irrationally, and how one single thought spiraled out of control, more so when I had let my paranoia take the driver's seat.

Currently, I was enjoying one of my rare moments alone when I finally convinced the True Ancestor that I'm fine.

I let out a grunt as I felt a minor headache coming in concerning her issue. Logically and pragmatically, it's better to just ignore Shizue's request. But I'm not feeling too logical right this moment.

The diplomacy option and the war option aren't going to cut to rescue her students, so that leaves only the third option: covert operation. Rubbing my forehead, I forcefully blinked several times as I thought about the Third Option.

Within the Third Option, there exist several classifications for different operations, with common ones being Public Influencing and Blackmail. Again, none of those are going to cut it, and Assassination would be too extreme. Instead, Shizue is going to lead an Asset Denial, essentially where the team attempts to either try and recruit talents or eliminate them to deny the enemy assets, hence the name.

Yes, that would work.

"Diablo."

The snapping of air signaled the appearance of the Black Primordial off to the side of the room, bowing deeply, "yes, my Lady?"

I burdened Diablo with additional responsibility for the design and production of the War propaganda. As a Demon, he should know instinctively how to charm people into the prospect of war.

Still, looking back at it now, Diablo may be overkill since the Citizens of Tempest knows what's at stake, that if we were to lose then all liberties, rights, and freedoms they enjoyed would get squashed.

"First thing, how's Rain and Kathy dealing with their duties?"

After the meeting, I had expected Rain to perhaps ask me for a spot on the Ark for Guy Crimson, only for her to rebuke me by saying 'Demon Lord Guy wishes to see the End, not escape it'. I assigned her to aid in the Ministry of Defense, managing wartime and civilian resources as she is a maid...

As for Kathy, despite my best effort, [Psychology] is still saying that I see her as something akin to a stand-in for my sister. I felt offended, what? So what if I assigned Kathy a cushy job in Cyberspace management? So what if I pulled some strings and created a new Ministry of Cyberspace just for her? Does that count as favoring? No, it shouldn't; Cyberspace before the establishment of the Ministry has been mostly mob rule or had differing rules between sites, it's high time for some regulations to be put in place.

And the War would be the perfect time for regulations to be implemented.

On a side note, Kathy caught on really quickly to how computers worked, unlike her peers. Within an hour of playing around with the Datapad I gave her, she was accessing its mainframe and internal codes, commenting on things only I (the designer of the Datapad OS) or another software engineer would know.

"Rain is doing her job excellently, we have cut down on wasteful resources by 30% compared to the last quarter alone."

Nodding along, I waited for his judgment of Kathy.

"Kathy... is seeing the Cyberspace of Tempest as her own playground. She's been called a 'tyrant' over 3,000 times ever since she became a moderator, taking down sites on a whim while playing cruel tricks. Despite her best efforts at hiding it, I saw over 84,000 complaints lodged against her, quite impressive actually."

"I... I... I see, I'll talk with her over lunch today."

I let out a sigh before continuing.

"Shizue is going to participate in an important Asset Denial operation, I think some members of the Stalker Team can assist her in this endeavor." Turning to face my servant, "Shizue, an Asset Denial is one where we try and use whatever means necessary to deny the enemy potential assets, the denial is either recruitment or termination."

Shizue grimaced once she realized what I'm referring to, "...yes, my Lady. I accept the parameters."

"Grab your Siberium Chassis and go, you have 72 hours to complete this Asset Denial Operation. Diablo, help her come up with a workable operation layout."

With that, the two left.

Although... my left hand cupped my chin, now that I think about it, what are the chances that this is a trap? I wondered rhetorically as I absentmindedly took out a small purple box from my Pocket Dimension, gently squeezing it like a person squeezing something soft and precious, I threw it back as I got up.

"Ahhhhh..." stretching my limbs, I heard a few cracks in each of my joints. "Admittedly, I never would've even thought of proposing until at least a year of dating, but..."

I seriously need to take a vacation, perhaps a dreamy cottage by the lake for the honeymoon would do me some good. A break from all the stress of making an Ark. Materializing a holographic panel with a single thought, I started to customize a small section of the Encyclopedia Universalis to resemble the Canadian wilderness.

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The Hexagon, Operation Headquarters

Shizue followed Diablo and teleported into one of the high-security areas of the Hexagon. Appearing in front of another disarmingly simple wooden door, Diablo placed his right to the side of the door, right in front of a small cube— a scanner.

Shizue recognized such scanners, they are almost synonymous with secrecy since you can always find them being the metaphorical lock to any area restricted to the public.

Several seconds later, the scanner beeped and the door opened.

The door opened by sliding off to the side instead of swinging in, inside the room was a long table filled with paper.

It was only when she saw the side of the door did it occur to her that this is no ordinary door— the door was thick, her internal display showed it to be 16.8 cm in width and filled with a material so opaque that it practically sever the connection between the inside and the out, allowing for almost complete and utter privacy as no signal can come in or out.

A faraday's cage on steroids.

This is why she stopped at the doorway: this is a Maid Chassis, and her Core is still deep within the Citadel, Shizue worries the moment the door closes she would lose control of the robotic body.

Seeing her being apprehensive, Diablo let out a mysterious smile as he pulled out a large textbook titled 'Quantum Mechanics v1.2' from seemingly nowhere. From this distance, she can see that it was authored by her Lady.

"Have no worry, that material does not block Quantum Tunneling-based communication. It works by distorting any signal that passes through the crystal lattice into unintelligible white noise not too dissimilar to the cosmic microwave background radiation. Quite honestly, our Mistress is most impressive, isn't she? Being able to turn what was possible only on the quantum level and scaled it up into something that can transmit enough data to connect to multiple bodies across long distances." He commented as he licked his finger and flipped through several pages of the rather thick book, "It's in a way similar to Quantum Entanglement, and even after studying the books and papers that she wrote, I still couldn't develop a method to reproduce the effect she managed to induce with technology, and I have [All of Creation]."

Diablo then mumbled quietly, "truly, there is a difference between 'learning' and 'remembering'."

So that's why her sensors are giving the feedback of an opaque material, it's not completely 'dark' per se, merely distorted her scanner into giving false data, the appearance of 'opaque'.

Going inside, Shizue stood at the other end of the table, directly opposite where Diablo was standing.

Shizue can't help but feel unease around someone like Diablo. Despite the two serving the same master, the Artificial Lich has always had a prejudice against Demons, primarily those of the Black, Red, Yellow, and White bloodlines since they were the ones causing most of the demon-related incidents in the West.

The prejudice first started after she became one of the 'lucky' up-and-coming adventurers hired by Ingrassia to investigate the aftermath of the Lake Shore Dyed Scarlet Incident decades ago.

The haunting memories of a city dyed in red 'paint' flash inside her mind. Burnt corpses of humans stacked up in piles taller than she is. Shizue can still remember the smell, the horrible horrible heavy stench of iron and the stink of rotten flesh and burnt fat, the disgusting sounds shredded human meat would make when you accidentally step on them.

Blood still dripped from every nook and cranny long after the Lake Shore Dyed Scarlet Incident, half-eaten limbs strung about here and there, quartered and skinned corpses of children as young as three, crushed decapitated heads with its grey matter missing as though someone had viewed it like an egg, cooked babies placed onto the tips of stone spires as decorations, severed male genitals and female breasts were strung about on the walls of houses like slabs of salted meat hung to dry in lines so long it's better to measure it in city blocks—

Shizue could almost hear the ghostly cries, the pain imprinted onto reality, and feel the anguish of the dying in the atmosphere. Every conceivable method of killing was done, from the simple stab through the chest to systematic live burial to forcing fathers to rape daughters until either died and was quickly replaced.

Many cried. Even more emptied their stomachs.

It was something that shouldn't exist.

It was cruelty incarnate.

It was savagery manifested.

It was like looking at the aftermath of an unhinged S-rank Fleshcrafter gone berserk.

The lake by the ghost city was still dyed pink even after it had been days after the Incident.

And there, amidst all this carnage was what she liked to call 'The Juicer': two massive blocks of stone hypothesized by the Eastern Empire's military were used to squish the surviving humans after the initial onslaught like how a juicer would squish fruits. There were deep markings— tracks— of various sizes behind each stone block like the rails of a train, signifying that the Juicer was originally much smaller, but likely after realizing it would take too long, whoever was responsible for the brutality had enlargened the blocks to be more efficient.

No one wanted to be anywhere near The Juicer, as it was a brutal and bloody holocaust of thousands, indiscriminately murdered by what could only be demons. Hell, it was so bad that the Eastern Empire pretty much let the meat around and inside the Juicer rot because no soldier had wanted to be near it, even when threatened with a dishonorable discharge. It took Velgrynd herself to finally clean up the mess after Shizue and the rest of the adventurers hired by Ingrassia had left, having finished their investigation.

Several Adventurers later went to a Hypnotist to get their memory of the incident suppressed.

Shizue felt guilty at the enjoyment she had being in Silberia, the pain in the air had caused Ifrit to stay silent for the whole journey, giving her days' worth of respite.

"Indeed, she was the one who saved me from my fate, after all." Shizue walked in with discreet caution at every step, it would be terribly rude to her Japanese side to not at least be polite to her coworkers.

"Now, let's see..." Diablo gestured towards the table in the middle of the room, causing multiple panels of holograms to materialize in thin air.

Looking around, Shizue noticed how three of the four walls of the room are lined with TV screens displaying data about the current war effort with the last wall being one single Touchscreen.

The massive touch screen showed the world map, with dots representing active operatives all over the place, primarily concentrated in places like Sarion and the Eastern Empire.

"Now," Diablo's words diverted Shizue's attention to him, "for any 'executive action' that includes a potential 'health alteration committee', we first need to decipher what the primary variables going to be. For these Asset Denial Operations, we're first going to need to sort out what we know."

Shizue's eyes narrowed at the apparent change in words. "Why are you using those words? Aren't we—"

Diablo raised a finger, shushing her, "no no no, we don't use the A-word or the K-word here nor on documents. No, the most we call it is 'euthanizing' or 'complete sterilization', and even then it's toeing the line quite a bit. Besides, when it comes to 'those' types of operations, Research and Development will provide us with a hyper-specialized tailor-made strain of a 'Terminator Virus' that causes multi-organ failure or total cellular degeneration for those really tough targets. These Terminator Viruses are the perfect health alteration methods as they are extremely customizable. For example, the Terminator's lethality can be activated after a certain number of generations, meaning that by the time the target's dead, it could be weeks after our agent has left the country, making it superior to most forms of poison."

"Subtly and efficiency is the name of the game for us," Diablo concluded, causing Shizue to give a small nod of acknowledgment, and morbid curiosity sprung within her mind.

He then pulled up a holographic whiteboard from nowhere, on it is a connected double T-chart with 'Awareness', 'Outcome', and 'Concealment'. Diablo tapped his fingers on the Awareness part, "the first variable is 'awareness', in other words, how aware is the target about our intentions?"

Shizue's synthetic lips thinned at the changed wording regarding assassination before giving it some thought, "the students shouldn't be aware of anything."

Diablo snapped his fingers, "so close but oh so far, the Ingrassian government undoubtedly knows the value of Otherworlders' and is probably guarding them, thus a 'simple' non-consensual immigration isn't viable with the guards they have in place." The Black Primordial wrote down 'guarded' underneath 'awareness'.

"Now, the 'Outcome' is obvious: either we deport them back to Tempest or you as a member of the health alteration committee does your job, plus, it would hurt our Mistress dearly to lose someone who has been with her for so long." He wrote down 'Safe' under Outcome.

"Lastly, we have the Concealment." He turned around to face Shizue, Diablo's eyes blazed with interest and excitement, "we here in the Special Circumstances Unit have three different types: Secret, Open, and Terrorist. The Secret type describes operations that must remain secret to the general public. The Open are ones where it doesn't matter if the operation goes public or not. Lastly, we have the Terrorist, in this type, we need the public to know in order for it to be effective, the 'health alteration' of the late Demon Lord Clayman is an excellent example of a Terrorist case."

He looked at Shizue expectantly, like a parent giving a child basic information and expecting them to connect the dots. "...probably a Secret?" she asked unsure of herself.

"Indeed, we do not want to spark War with the West when we're currently fighting one with the East." After writing it down, the Demon played around with the interface and an overhead look of Lura popped out.

"Now that we have a Guarded-Safe-Secret Asset Denial Operation, we can work on basic reconnaissance." preemptively, another holographic window opened up next to Diablo. Shizue is taken aback at how efficiently the Black Primordial is using these complex interfaces, he's like a Scientia-lite when it comes to working with these! The digital lich thought, silently annoyed at how old these new gadgets made her feel.

"Stalker Neon." A heavily distorted voice spoke. The panel displayed the element Neon.

"73355. Is Stalker Carbon available?"

"Code received, Stalker Carbon is available."

"Excellent. I'm going to send over the data for a new headhunting operation. Tell Carbon that it's from the highest echelons of the Administration and that it's time-limited."

"... very well, Hydrogen. Stalker Neon, out."

Diablo then turned to face Shizue with a satisfied smile on his face, "we should be getting information in about 12 hours, afterward, we can plan for the Asset Denial."

_____________________________________________

Unknown.

It was a pub area, with a bar and pool table. Most of the lighting came from either the lights above the pool table or those of the bar.

Instead of clown clothing, Laplace wore a stylish suit as he wiped each wine glass meticulously. The rest of the now-defunct Moderate Harlequin Alliance, namely Footman, and Tear, were both competing against each other in the act of dart throwing. Clayman sat by one of the sofas, reading from a small book, the light coming from a tiny flashlight on his forehead was more than enough to read with.

Due to Tear's much slimmer frames, she was currently winning the dart game.

After accepting that monster's offer, Laplace and Co were given a new base of operation where they could relax between missions. Admittedly for Laplace, the place was quite nice. Amenities were aplenty, and things that Laplace never knew he needed were supplied, things like fireless and magic-less lighting, an endless supply of previously unseen alcohol, and most of all— The Internet.

Really, the Internet is probably the best thing to come out of Tempest.

Placing the cleaned glass down onto the tabletop, the deathman pulled out his phone that has restricted access and started browsing Posit, a portmanteau of 'post' and 'it', a social media app where people could share all kinds of things.

"Laplace, we have an order from the highest echelon of Research and Development." Captain Kagali announced as she walked through the only door in the room. Within her hands is a folder of documents, probably concerning this 'order' if Laplace had to guess.

"Ah yes. Another order, another tug on our strings, for what we are but puppets on the grandest stage? Actors who've been given an updated script, grass that flows with the wind."

Clayman closed his book as his head leaned back onto the top of the sofa, his eyes staring at Laplace.

Ever since returning, Clayman has gotten extremely philosophical about everything to the point of being detrimental. During missions, the automaton would constantly spouse philosophical babbles like water from a waterfall.

The entire Moderate Harlequin Alliance had mental whiplash at how much Clayman has changed.

Kagali's eyes twitched in annoyance, a tick mark appeared on her forehead, and the edge of her mouth twitched uncontrollably "Yes Clayman, your observation is as astute as always."

Clayman looked pensive for a moment.

"For what reason are you angry at me, Mein Elven Leader? Anger is fleeting, so why has thou chosen to be angry? Being happy! Be glad that we are here to experience this moment in time! For time never stops marching!"

Deciding to ignore Clayman for the time being, Kagali directed her attention at Laplace, staring at the deathman.

Laplace nodded, pouring himself a drink before taking the folder from Kagali's hand and opening it.

_____________________________________________

Late evening local time, Lura, the Capital of Ingrassia.

Lura was once spoken by merchants and tourists to have some of the best nightlife in the world, only, it seemed to be more of a dream now that King Aegir came into power after the Coup.

The barren streets with not a soul in sight offered much protection as Shizue stalked the night, jumping silently from rooftop to rooftop throughout this tile-infested jungle. Her Siberium Chassis allowed her to jump from the edge of space and not make a single sound nor disturbance when landing, thus, aside from seeing a humanoid mass of blackness darker than black, there exists no evidence of anyone there.

Of course, there were some guards here and there on patrol but she moved too fast to be seen.

Shizue stopped at the belfry of a particularly tall bell tower. Due to her tuning the Siberium shell to not reflect any photons, she blended well into the night sky like a shadow.

"So you're our handler boss' maid, huh?" A rough voice from behind her called out.

Quickly turning around despite knowing nothing short of an attack from the likes of perhaps Hero Chronoa could harm her, Shizue stared at the origin of that voice in confusion.

She stared into a figure blocked by shadows.

"—you are Stalker Carbon?" Her voice sounded different due to her Siberium Chassis.

Technically speaking, this Chassis doesn't have a voicebox. Rather, the body talks by producing soundwaves artificially in a limited area on her Siberium Skin in a fashion analogous to how President Rimuru talks using [Ultrasonic Wave]

"Indeed." It— he said as he walked into the moonlight, dressed completely like a circus clown, Stalker Carbon bowed respectfully with one arm over his chest like a knight, "Stalker Team Vice-Captain—Stalker Carbon, at your service Miss Shizue."

Shizue's eyes narrowed in distrust as she remembered something, with an accusing tone, "I know of that design, your name is Laplace and you were part of the Moderate Harlequin Alliance. How and when the hell did you fall under the employment of Diablo?" Her artificial muscle tensed in readiness for action.

"Scientia is a... very dangerous and convincing person."

In an instant, all hostility receded as Shizue relaxed, "I see."

Shizue was feeling stupid for asking such a thing. To the Otherworlder, Scientia has this odd charm, whether it was due to her fairness and the rewards she gives to her employees, Shizue can't help but feel a sense of loyalty.

Finally letting the photons bounce off her, the Servant of Scientia revealed her monochrome body to the world. Facing the city, Shizue turned her back to the Deathman and gazed off to the dark city, her mind remembering how bright the streets used to be.

"Where are my students."

"Your students are currently locked up in the Royal Castle, awaiting their turn to be engraved a Slave Seal."

"What?!" Shizue shouted violently, "the Kingdom Ingrassia is a beacon of humanity, (and used to be) of freedom! It's why many of the escaped Otherworlders went to Ingrassia in the first place!"

Like a devil, the renamed Laplace chuckled at her horror, as if enjoying a holy place's fall from grace, "clearly not anymore!"

Shizue gritted her teeth, "...are my students fine at least?" She said desperately, with a bit of hope in her voice.

Which was promptly crushed by Carbon's next words: "Well, all are fine..." Shizue's eyes lit up in happiness, "except one is dead."

Shizue's jaw fell slack, her body froze, and all micromovements ceased.

"How."

Realizing that this is no time to play around and that if he were to die, his handler would probably file Laplace's death as a 'workplace accident' or KIA, Stalker Carbon thought about his following words carefully.

"He was killed by some knights who snuck in as the headmaster was distracted. Any inquiry beyond that was promptly ceased by the Acting Knight-Captain at the time."

"..." Shizue gripped her hands tightly, so tempted was she to punch something. Like hitting the surface of an ocean, the only thing stopping her is that her Siberium hands would more likely sink into the wall rather than cause any satisfying cracks.

"I see, and they are currently inside the dungeons in the Royal Castle?"

"Indeed, they're going to be declared 'Defender of the Kingdom' in about 3 to 4 days' time based on what information I was able to acquire."

"Do you have the map?"

Carbon's hand reached within his clown costume and pulled out a folded map no longer than her forearm, "here it is. So do you need any help?"

"No."

Handing her the map, Stalker Carbon leaned on one of the pillars that supported the belfry, "I'll be on the comm in case you need a distraction. If you want something more, Stalker Potassium and Ranger Tungsten are also nearby, ready to cause a scene at a moment's notice. Happy Hunting."

Faster than sound, Shizue burst forward toward the large white castle.

Even if her logical mind isn't telling her that it's her fault, Shizue still can't help but feel guilty and be reminded of how she failed Hinata.

After all, she should've tried to at least give them Tempest Citizenship, especially with how zealously the Constitution of Tempest guards her Citizens, her students could live the rest of their lives with a safety net in the form of the Republic behind them.

Just as a tiny slice of her mind brought up matters of her Ultimate Skill, she instinctively shut that down, not even considering the possibility as doing so would destroy herself.

In absolute silence, like a monochrome shadow, she stopped at the base of the walls far away from any patrol teams. Looking around, Shizue grabbed a wooden cart and pushed it near where she planned to breach.

Crouching down by the wall right underneath the cart, Shizue re-tuned her Siberium and started crawling forward, into the wall.

Despite being made out of magically reinforced stones, the castle walls offered no resistance as Shizue moved forward.

In fact, to an outside observer, it would look more like Shizue is moving through something made out of soapy foams than anything solid.

According to a book authored by her Lady, the physical universe can be seen as this giant music sheet of quantum strings vibrating at each their own frequency, with each note being a particle. These strings are small, as small as they can be, and by changing how they vibrate, the Siberium creates an oscillation effect that terminates any resisting opposing vectors, meaning that if Shizue wishes to crush a diamond, she merely needs to press her finger down on the crystal since the vectors that resist her would be canceled out: it would be as easy as a normal human squeezing their hand.

This material also makes it so that Shizue can be sped up to relativistic speeds in microseconds and not experience any effect of the extreme G-force nor will it cause any nuclear explosions typical of moving at such speeds in an atmospheric condition.

When Shizue asked how her Lady could control these fundamental portions of the universe without the use of magic, her Lady used the analogy belonging to this one philosopher from their old world called 'Plato', saying how we only see the shadow on the cave walls, and by controlling the shapes responsible for the shadows, she can control the shadow to a certain extent.

Shizue quickly zoned out like a 9-year-old trying to decipher University-level maths after Scientia got into her lecturer mode trying to explain how the 'Shapes' in this case is the other 7 extra spatial dimensions that are rolled up into these tubes of near-absolute thinness and through bending them, she can change the physical laws.

Like a literal hole in reality, Shizue popped out the other end with not a single scratch on her monochrome body. The tunnel she created when passing through the walls was very cleanly cut and separated on the molecular level.

A port opened around her stomach area. Reaching in a pulling out the map that Lap—Carbon, her mind corrected her, had handed her. Shizue saw how far away her students were.

In a brief second, Shizue's internal computer calculated the best way to get to her students.

>209 Steps

Wait for me, my students! Shizue declared in her mind.

_____________________________________________

AN: Yes that was inspired by the CIA Assassination Manual.

after reading the Tsukihime remake, I find myself interested in perhaps a Side Story where Scientia and Arcueid got transported into Fuyuki and the True Ancestor is forced into drinking Scientia's blood and turning her into a Dead Apostle since otherwise, Alaya would sic the entirety of the Counter Force on Scientia's ass in no time flat, in fact, the Human Order may just abandon that Timeline all together. It would be really funny to see Scientia's technology turning True Magic like the Second and the Third into mere Magecraft.

It'll also be interesting to have Scientia chat with Da Vinci, one magecraft genius and one scientific learner talking should be interesting.

The talk between Gilgamesh and Scientia, one who lives in the past and the other in the future, would predictably go violent. You know, I really didn't get the whole stagnation thing, the past century has been arguably the most meaningful and impactful century throughout the entirety of human history. We waged wars that resulted in the deaths of millions, we invalidated ideas, we promoted new ideologies, we cracked the atom, we created computers, the moon landing, and the advancements in civil rights and liberty, I'd say humans have hardly stagnated.

Hell, the 21st century is looking to be even more impactful. By this century's end, we are looking at colonies on the Moon and Mars, mastery in genetic engineering, creation of True AI, and potential eternal youth, the only way for the 22nd century to be more impactful would be if we reached out of the solar system or if we finally met aliens.