20 Chapter 20: Fighting robots and a bit of Omnics history.

Note: This chapter contains a small bloody scene, be warned.

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Mother and daughter were walking down a huge, long hallway with no one in sight, no doors, and only the lights on the ceiling seemed to give some life to this dark place.

As they walked, Emilia decided to ask her mother something.

"Mom, aren't you surprised that artificial life exists?" her question seemed to amuse her mother, who burst out laughing.

"Of course it does! But the most interesting thing is how it came to be, a total accident and a very stupid one at that!" after laughing Selene said those words with a distinctly dismissive and mocking tone in her voice.

"Will you tell me?" asked Emilia in a melodious voice, trying to sound smaller to please her mother.

"Well, where do I start? Omnics are really the product of an accident, not even humanity was trying to make a sentient artificial intelligence, but they didn't wait for quirks to appear.

There is still much debate as to whether quirks are genetic or something more esoteric, we have plants and animals with quirks and their descendants have them as well.

Considering that they are life, it would seem that the only requirement for quirks to arise is the "life" factor. Somehow, inexplicable even to great minds of the past and present, someone with a quirk related to technology decided to create an AI.

Simply put, who hasn't tried to create their own personal artificial intelligence? I have one, but neither this guy nor humanity expected something incredible. He created artificial life! It was unheard of, because even when they tried to replicate what that person did, they could not.

The thing is that this stupid person did not know the true nature of his quirk and its true potential, he basically copied himself without realizing it and created a program that literally replicated him completely.

So we have artificial life, and here comes the most exaggerated thing, that it manifested a quirk four years after it was created. People went crazy, wasn't that genetic? Apparently yes, but not entirely, and there were still things that were ignored about the quirks.

Look, daughter, if there's ever a spirit in the world that doesn't have a quirk, it would be rarer than if it did. This thing did not show its potential, and although there was a lot of suspicion, people were very proud of the new discoveries and advances.

Around that time, they started sending people to the moon, so the human spirit was very defiant. And so this terrible event began. Like any self-respecting life, perpetuating itself through offspring is a kind of habit, instinct and necessity.

Soon the world was flooded with many artificial lives, assembling their mechanical bodies, awakening their quirks, and fighting under the command of their leader, the first artificial life called EVA. The greatest villain of the entire American continent.

Now the Omnics live in their mechanical city somewhere in the orbit of Mercury. Although their existence has been influenced by the advancement of robotics and artificial intelligence, EVE herself pointed out that they are unique and unrepeatable. That's why, dear daughter, I've prepared a horde of killer robots for you to fight at your leisure."

Grateful for her mother's little story, Emilia smiled and followed her until she reached a huge metal door that stopped their progress. Soon this door moved, leaving a completely dark path.

"Go inside, remember that no matter if you get stabbed, amputated or broken, we can bring you back to your original state after healing you and using the healing chamber. So, enjoy~" Selene pushed her daughter into the darkness, Emilia was a bit stunned, as she hadn't thought that things would go this way.

Not startled by the closing of the door and her fall into the deep darkness, Emilia took a small breath and struck a very free and exposed pose. She knew there were other things moving in the darkness, and soon she saw dozens of red eyes watching her.

"This is going to be incredibly fun," Emilia exclaimed in excitement as she felt her heart pounding and her fighting instincts surging out of her like a tidal wave.

Although it was sudden, she knew she wanted this, her mother understood her perfectly and this situation couldn't be the best for her. Emilia undoubtedly wanted to enjoy this fight and would give her all during the fight.

She couldn't see them, but that was just a small layer of the challenge, soon she slammed her left fist hard into her side, hearing the crunch of the plastic and metal pieces being crushed. Soon he began throwing powerful punches and swift kicks as he moved quickly around the huge, dark room.

Even without knowing what they looked like, she had already felt the weapons they were using against her, not only their incredibly hard limbs, but also long, thick blades and spikes digging into her flesh. Even when she activated her quirk and began a steady destruction alongside her shadow, she could not avoid getting hurt.

But the more damage she took, the more she laughed, she had long wanted a bloody battle like this to better hone her instincts, she even felt that the wall preventing her from advancing to the Void Realm in the Realms of Refinement was loosening.

She could already sense her surroundings with her senses and instincts, but she could never make it as effective as the Void Realm, which even allowed her to react to attacks at short notice.

But this was what she needed, with every blow, every elbow, every crush, with every axe kick or stomp, with every claw against the cold carcass of her enemies, she felt more alive and more aware of everything around her.

"Come on, push me further over the edge! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Cough..." Emilia screamed and laughed at the top of her lungs as she coughed up blood.

She had stab wounds all over her body, horrible cuts, an arm missing, cuts on her face that had blinded her, one of her ears apparently torn off. Her back was full of razor slashes, her torso and abdomen were covered with many, many cuts and bleeding holes.

But he was still standing, laughing as he struck with one hand, smashing the ground with his mighty stomp, or making the air resound with his wild kicks.

More and more blood gushed from his body, but he didn't seem to feel it, his movements were slower, but he still tried to hit enemies. It wasn't until a robot seemed to drive two blades into her stomach, ripping it open and spilling out her intestines, that Emilia felt completely weak.

She stared at the two red lights that seemed to be the eyes of the robot that had injured her, smiled, showing all her teeth, or at least the ones she had left, and head-butted the machine.

"Th-that was... beautiful!" finished Emilia, lying unconscious on the floor with her whole naked body bleeding, she was completely mangled and disfigured, but there was a smile on her face.

...

How did it feel to have your whole body healed? Horrible, like a thousand steel ants stinging every part of your body. Emilia felt this while she was inside a giant glass capsule covered in a bluish liquid.

Her naked body floated while a mask covered her face to allow her to breathe, the wounds were closed but the scars remained, even on her shoulder where her arm had been cut off there was a burn mark showing the perfect circle where the limb had been repositioned.

The only thing on her body without scars was her beautiful face, courtesy of her mother. How did she heal? First she received emergency treatment, then a nasty pink fire reattached her limb and carefully repositioned her intestines, leaving her with not only a bad cut on her stomach, but an ugly burn mark.

Her eyes, easily healed, and her ear, reconnected by the healing fire of Mr. Marcus Grant, Emilia's regular healer. The other wounds were healed by the healing chamber developed by Selene and the Martian colony a few years ago, apparently her mother didn't want Emilia to have so many burns on her body, she already had enough, including the one on her ear.

We can say that the Martian technology is superior to everyone else's! It's not just colonial propaganda, it was true, and they were very advanced compared to Earth, so the Martians felt a certain superiority over their Earth counterparts.

Soon Selene approached the capsule and put her hand on the glass as if she wanted to touch her daughter inside.

"Come out and hatch at last, my dear daughter, and show the world how capable you are," Selene whispered, smiling sweetly.