novelraw Chapter 412: Toy (6.5k)
Chapter 412: Toy (6.5k)
"Ara, seems you guys slept pretty well last night..."
Early the next morning, when Helaire came up bringing food, Fisher and Asuka Karasawa were still not awake. Only upon hearing Helaire's voice did Fisher sit up. Because the terrifying noise of the Sun Ring hadn't sounded again this morning, when the peaceful sunlight outside shone onto their bodies through the Cage of Sealing Curses, they had consecutively slept in.
"Has the Sun Ring stopped?"
"Ah, it stopped last night. We can finally have a moment of peace. Every time Lord Michael's Sun Ring makes a sound, not just the Sanctuary, but even the surface and the World Tree can hear it clearly. They all have big complaints about us~"
Helaire sat distressed in the center of the room, distributing the fruits and melons she brought to Gou Wen and Fisher. When she looked at the groggy Asuka Karasawa, the smile on her face deepened a bit as she asked,
"Did you miss home last night?"
"Eh?"
Asuka Karasawa's consciousness cleared a little. She turned her head to glance at the text on the wall behind her. She didn't know why Helaire before her could read the Japanese she wrote, but before she could voice her question, Helaire had already spoken first.
"When that Transferred Person in the Fifth Heaven just arrived, his mind was not too clear. Lord Michael said the foreign objects on his body had invaded his body, afflicting him with mental illness... Every time he relapsed, he would always spout words we couldn't understand, but it roughly meant he missed the place he came from too. Only after Lord Michael personally took action to pluck off the cybernetic implants on his body did he get a bit better. You are even younger than him, so your longing for your hometown should be even more intense, right?"
"Ah... mm, but I'm fine now. Thank you, Angel Helaire.""...That's good then."
Looking at Asuka Karasawa thanking her while hugging the fruits and melons, Helaire smiled slightly and glanced back at Fisher. Then, she stood up and said to Fisher's group,
"The Sun Ring has stopped rotating, and the Sanctuary's forging energy is fully charged. Lord Michael has just finished forging the Gospel Relic in his hand and is preparing to head to the Sixth Heaven to search for clues about the World Tree Teardrop. You guys can follow me back to the Fifth Heaven now."
Gou Wen took the initiative to stand up first. Raising a hand toward Helaire, he said,
"Before that, can I send a letter home? It's not too troublesome. I've made special markings on it; it just needs to be tossed into the sea. When the time comes, a school of fish will help bring it back home for me."
Fisher cast Gou Wen a glance, completely unable to imagine how he managed such a feat.
But right after his words, Helaire before them had already impatiently begun rubbing her hands together, displaying an extremely intrigued look.
"Sure, no problem! Hand the letter to me. When the time comes, I'll help you toss it into the sea... Rest assured, I absolutely will not open it to look at its contents, nor will I absolutely add anything extra inside. Just trust me."
"..."
Faced with Helaire's guarantee bereft of any public credibility, Gou Wen gave an extremely strained smile. Wisely retracting his extended envelope, he consecutively changed his tune,
"Never mind. After careful consideration, I feel the contents of this letter still require further deliberation. I'll personally toss it into the sea once I'm done thinking, if there's an opportunity later on."
Being politely refused, Helaire wasn't annoyed in the slightest. She merely responded with an "Okay," before turning and exiting the Cage of Sealing Curses, walking toward the cylindrical passageway from before. At the same time, she placed her hands behind her back and hooked a finger—naturally aimed at Fisher.
Asuka Karasawa was still putting on her shoes. Pondering for a moment, Fisher stood up and took the lead to follow the beaming Angel Helaire walking ahead. This angel's Tier was staggeringly high, but Fisher only felt a sense of oppression during their first meeting. Thereafter, aside from her vile personality that relished seeking amusement, there was nothing special about her.
"Did you sleep well last night? There aren't any bedding items favored by other races in the Sanctuary, after all, we are all night owls who don't sleep. You could only suffer the grievance of sleeping on the floor."
Fisher shot her a glance and noticed her relaxed expression. With the majority of her body concealed beneath loose white robes, aside from her face, one practically couldn't distinguish her gender. However, just imagining it, the females angels transformed into should all be exceedingly beautiful. Coincidentally, they could also allow his Demi-Human Girl Completion Handbook to bind with them.
"It was fine, aside from it being somewhat chilly at night."
"Mm, this is also normal. After all, the food I gave you guys only consisted of things like fruits. I've heard that races living in the Snowlands all need to consume large quantities of meat to ensure their caloric intake..."
"You angels don't eat anything. Where do you draw energy from?"
"The sun."
Helaire smilingly turned to look back at Fisher. Then, she pointed at the circular halo resembling a crown above her head to explain,
"Our bodies and souls can both obtain nourishment by absorbing energy, and the halo above our heads is our organ used to store energy. You can determine an angel's current state by the brightness of the halo above her head; the brighter it is, the better her state."
Fisher silently committed this to memory. He also looked at the two pairs of illusory blueish-gold wings behind her back, following up to ask,
"Then what about the wings?"
"This is a symbol of our status and attribute. Numbering four explains that my Tier is at the Seventeenth-Tier. The shape being blueish-gold wings explains that I am a Powers angel... If it were a Cherubim like Lord Gabriel, then the shape upon her back would be eyes... What if it's a Thrones angel? Then the wings upon their backs will manifest as an amorphous pale silvery-gray, and there will be an extra halo above their heads, symbolizing their capability to walk the mortal world."
"So, Archangel Sariel is one of the Thrones?"
"No, she is Lord God's Emissary; she is outside the planning of these angel hierarchies."
Helaire shook her head. She had already arrived before the cylindrical passageway, waiting for Asuka Karasawa and Gou Wen behind them to arrive.
Meanwhile, Fisher keenly sensed that the angels' attitude toward Pandora, namely Archangel Sariel, seemed rather thought-provoking. It was just like the questioning words Angel Michael leveled at Pandora at the end of the trial that day. Moreover, not only did she lack eyes, but the Seventh Heaven she governed over was also completely empty.
All of this seemed connected to that legendary Chain of Heaven Jehovah. Yet up to now, Fisher still didn't know the whereabouts of that Chain of Heaven called "God" by the angels. He seemingly wasn't within the Sanctuary at all...
Then, was using the conditions given by Pandora to meet the Holy Grail, thereby shaking off the means of death, a viable approach?
While Fisher was thinking, Asuka Karasawa walked over slowly gripping her skirt. After hesitating for a moment, she slightly inched half a step toward Fisher's direction. Gou Wen also hid that letter to hand inside his clothes. Then, they disappeared from the Seventh Heaven via that cylindrical passageway together, returning to the Fifth Heaven.
Fisher was essentially accustomed to this sensation of rapid traversal. When they descended to the Fifth Heaven, the giant Sun Ring in the sky was still spinning slowly, seemingly dissipating heat. The temperature throughout the entire Fifth Heaven was also exceptionally scorching, making the pale-faced Asuka Karasawa want to vomit again.
Fisher glanced back at her. As a result, she immediately shook her head, puffing her cheeks a bit, painstakingly trying to control her muscles to not throw up the food in her stomach.
"Why do I always have a sense of danger..."
At this moment, Gou Wen glanced around, only to see extremely terrifying dark-red ribbon-like light waves echoing everywhere within the dark cosmos, seemingly brewing an intense scent of destruction. Smiling, he touched his cheek, where a bead of sweat had already glided down.
Numerous angels had already flown back in the distance, pondering how to continue completing their works before their respective fully charged forging furnaces. Only the one angel in the Sanctuary before them who didn't know how to forge smiled and looked back at Gou Wen. Before she could personally explain, a steady male voice rang out from behind them.
"It's highly likely Angel Michael is angry. The number of times he gets annoyed isn't many; it only happens when the forged item falls short of his expectations. He had already forge-struck the item he was preparing to forge over four times earlier, counting as an item he's spent a relatively large amount of time on. I don't know if it's because what you guys told him that day made him lose his total focus, leading to a slight deviation appearing?"
"Mikhail?"
Asuka Karasawa looked behind them, only to see that one-armed, one-eyed Russian man walking out of the cylindrical passageway again. He sniffed at the Aether tainted with the aftermath of Michael's wrath, violently coughing a few times as if choking his nose, muttering,
"Don't know if the machine tool I was building was ruined by him. Do you guys want to go check with me?"
Asuka Karasawa subconsciously nodded, then immediately shook her head and looked at Fisher beside her. Fisher didn't speak either, merely glancing at Helaire beside him, prompting her to laugh.
"It's fine. Although I originally had a bit of other arrangements, I was going to take you guys there to wait for Lord Michael anyway. Lord Michael has already left the Fifth Heaven for the Vortex of Wisdom in the Sixth Heaven. Without Lord Gabriel's help, it will be rather difficult for him to find clues regarding the teardrop amidst millions of books."
"Then come help me out over there. The things I manufacture are very fragile compared to the creations of these angels. Perhaps they might even be scrapped and have to be restarted."
Looking at Mikhail before him, Fisher nodded. He actually harbored an immense interest in this Transferred Person who had transmigrated even earlier than Asuka Karasawa. If he was also a member of the Creator's Society, could he possibly be the real Lord Cardinal?
Afterward, Helaire said she had some matters and needed to take a stroll near the Fifth Heaven. She directly allowed Fisher's group to follow Mikhail near Michael's forging room to check whatever machine room he built, not worried in the slightest about them running away.
Gou Wen had only walked out a few steps before he frantically sized up the planet below the Fifth Heaven, narrowing his eyes while gesticulating an uncertain distance with his fingers. Asuka Karasawa looked at the crouching Gou Wen, unable to refrain herself from asking,
"Mr. Gou Wen, what are you doing?"
"I'm considering whether I can toss the letter into the sea from here. After all, letting Angel Helaire help me toss it makes me uneasy no matter what... If she haphazardly alters the letter, I might as well just die out there."
Covering her mouth, Asuka Karasawa laughed. Sizing up Gou Wen for a moment, she said,
"Feels like Mr. Gou Wen is a very standard henpecked husband..."
Gou Wen's face darkened. Raising his head with an 'hehe' laugh, he didn't voice any rebuttal to Asuka Karasawa's words, merely stating,
"Oh my, I found Little Karasawa seems to be much livelier today. You clearly didn't speak much these past few days... Did something happen last night? Trul curious?"
"Y-y-y-you... you didn't fall asleep last night?"
"Hm? What? I did fall asleep? What are you talking about? Oh... Turns out something really did happen last night, couldn't be it's with Fish—"
Blushing in anger, Asuka Karasawa directly stood up, turned her head and left, strictly no match for Gou Wen.
Of course, mostly it was because...
Last night was simply too embarrassing! Secretly crying and carving words at night, she was caught red-handed by Mr. Fisher, and she even babbled a whole bunch of things to him all at once, bothering him to listen to so many boring matters.
Asuka Karasawa pinched her skirt, looking at Fisher's back ahead. Thank goodness he hadn't mentioned what happened last night at all this morning, saving her from such an awkward situation.
I just feel that Mr. Fisher is very mature and reliable...
Meanwhile, Fisher had actually paid zero bounds of attention to the conversational sounds of the two behind him. He merely looked at Mikhail before him. During his careful scrutiny, he faintly discovered there seemed to be a tiny bit of blue fluorescence flashing within the other's eyes, unknown for what reason.
Not long after, Mikhail led Fisher and the others into that second-floor room he was originally in. Thanks to him closing the doors and windows in advance, the equipment inside looked intact. The exceedingly complex high-tech machine tools were thus exposed to the "country bumpkin" Asuka Karasawa's eyes.
Last time she had just woken up from her dream and was eager to converse with Mr. Mikhail, so she hadn't had the time to carefully appraise these creations of his yet. Now looking at them, the entire room before her eyes was crammed full of one complex square device after another roughly as tall as two people. Those devices were sequentially linked by some sort of wiring Fisher had never seen before, leaving Gou Wen and Fisher—these two locals—completely unable to distinguish their exact purpose.
"Wow, these things... are all so high-end! Mr. Mikhail, how did you do it... You could still build so many things after coming to an alternate world. I've only been here a few days, and I've even forgotten the math formulas the teacher taught last week."
Asuka Karasawa admired it like so while sizing up the machine tools. Mikhail continuously checked his machine tools beside her without looking at her, casually saying in passing,
"Perhaps it's because you didn't memorize the math formulas properly during class, not an issue with your memory... But you are right. Clearly, after arriving in this world, my chips were already disconnected and rendered ineffective. I shouldn't be remembering the structure of these devices so clearly."
Having her failure to listen attentively in class exposed, Asuka Karasawa secretly pursed her lips. While feeling a bit embarrassed, for some reason, she secretly glanced at Fisher. Only feeling relieved upon seeing he hadn't manifested any expression regarding her past bad behavior.
"Chips? Are they the kind of things installed inside computers?"
"Mm, in your era, yes. Where we are from, human bodies are practically installed with access ports, able to connect to the net to obtain information at any time, and can also coordinate with cybernetic implants or weaponry equipment via implanting specific types of chips."
Mikhail pondered for a moment, reached out and gently pressed the back of his head, popping out a tiny chip the size of a calling card. This gave both Gou Wen and Asuka Karasawa quite a fright, because it was only at this moment they suddenly realized Mikhail had two slots resembling computer ports behind his ears. It seemed they could link directly to the brain.
"Don't be surprised, I've said it before. In our era, those who can maintain a pure natural body like you are nobody simple. Because this implies you don't need to rely on mechanical cybernetics to survive, implying you are basically entirely detached from production, and don't need to use this method to acquire information. However, all these things lost their effectiveness after being disconnected from the net. Only, I don't know why those memories in my brain regarding mechanical engineering are especially clear..."
"Especially clear?"
Fisher grasped onto this point in his words, asking thus with immense curiosity.
"Mm, clear to the point that not only mechanical engineering I've mastered, but even some machinery I've seen yet didn't know the manufacturing method of, I started gaining an idea of how to manufacture them... The machine tools before our eyes here were all modified by me to suit local conditions. Since there is no electricity suitable for our world here, and using the vast amount of energy utilized by the angels is highly unstable, I prepared to try using another energy source to construct machinery."
Mikhail casually pointed at several types of ore on the room's shelves. Turning his head to look, Fisher swiftly spotted a particularly familiar item. He frowned and opened his mouth to say,
"Moonstone?"
"Hm, do you recognize this kind of mineral? These are all things the angels occasionally use in forging. The properties of the ore you're speaking of are very interesting. It holds a very strong affinity with the particle weapons Novosibirsk Wind excels at. I used to be an engineer there in the past, so I happen to know quite a lot about this kind of thing."
Yet what Fisher realized wasn't merely some new energy source. Just looking through this ore before his eyes, he suddenly felt this man standing before him was highly likely the 【Lord Cardinal】 of the future Creator's Society. Naturally, it wasn't that David No. 1 harboring obvious mechanical characteristics, but the true Lord Cardinal.
Mikhail didn't notice Fisher scrutinizing him. He merely squatted on the ground, linking the wiring connecting the various machine tools one by one. With a 'tst', he said,
"Shoot, the cooling line seems broken. Could you two help me lift this up for a moment?"
"No problem."
Gou Wen smilingly walked over to help him lift the machine tool before them. Fisher also walked over and squatted down with him, looking at the wiring beneath the machine tool that connected to the first floor of the building. Mikhail said to Asuka Karasawa,
"Could you help me go downstairs to check whether the wiring in the direction near Angel Michael's forging room has burned out? Even though I've already implemented a certain level of protective measures, the capabilities of this group of angels is truly too unimaginable..."
"Ah, no problem, I'll go right away."
"You must remember absolutely not to enter Michael's forging room! There are many of his Gospel Relics inside, it's very dangerous."
"Got it."
Asuka Karasawa nodded, then turned back and ran downstairs. Mikhail signaled that Gou Wen could put the machine tool down, while Fisher shot a glance at the machine tool before them and asked,
"This machine tool is used to manufacture the weapons you spoke of earlier?"
"Mm. Michael was very interested in the weapons I spoke of, so I'm helping him replicate one. Though that thing possesses massive lethality in our world, I feel to them, it's just like a toy... But I also have to thank whatever reason makes my memory of these mechanics so clear, otherwise we'd be in trouble."
"Helaire mentioned to us earlier that your mind was not too clear when you entered the Sanctuary. This is a doctor; if you'd like, you can let him help check you out..."
Mikhail glanced at Gou Wen, who was smiling and waving at him. Subsequently, he shook his head, looking at his remaining hand. The shadows within his single eye deepened bit by bit.
"There's no need. That was just a mental issue caused by cybernetics. Ever since Michael dismantled the cybernetics, I've never relapsed again... It's just that I occasionally have strange dreams."
"Dreams?"
"Mm."
Although Asuka Karasawa wasn't present, Mikhail seemingly finally gained a little trust in the two individuals before him. He didn't avoid the topic, nodding his head as he spoke.
"I dreamed of my former hometown, New Moscow... Dreamed of so many high rises, machinery, countless corpses, and an ocean piled high by various weapons manufactured by Novosibirsk Wind. I dreamed of my wife. She told me in the dream she'd wait for me at home, but when I went searching for her silhouette, I could only see boundless cybernetics drowning me..."
"A classic symptom of cyberpsychosis. In the past when I was having an episode in the original world, I also could constantly see my wife's shadow, see corporate dogs chasing her, so I shot at them. Yet basically every time I woke up, I would've almost shot my companions to death..."
Fisher stroked his chin, carefully pondering the words of the Transferred Person before him, unwilling to let slip a single shred of potential information.
"Is that so..."
"Eh, the wiring... is it over here."
Let's shift back to the downstairs Asuka Karasawa. She glanced around the surroundings downstairs. Due to this place being the vicinity of Michael's forging area, there was no one else apart from them. The Sun Ring in the sky was still spinning noisily. She quickly raised her head, seeking out the wiring Mikhail connected. Following that wiring on the waal, Asuka Karasawa soon spotted an odd breakage on the other side of the wall.
She only saw how the wiring on the wall wasn't snapped or incinerated. Rather, it was covered by a viscous, semi-transparent colorless strange substance. That weird colorless substance clung to the wall surface, occupying it entirely like a creeper vine yet still constantly squirming.
"What is this?"
Frowning, Asuka Karasawa subconsciously wanted to head back and report the situation to Mikhail. As a result, the moment she moved her feet she realized something was wrong. She instantly felt her feet turn cold and wet...
"Eh?"
Lowering her head to look, she saw that the semi-transparent mass on the wall had actually crept all the way up from the floor. Her shoe had stepped exactly onto a mass of the semi-transparent substance. Then, her shoe and sock were instantaneously corroded away to nothingness. However, for unknown reasons, it exerted zero corrosive effect when touching her exposed jade-like foot. After smoothly enveloping it, it stopped moving.
Asuka Karasawa opened her pale mouth. Blankly, she turned her head to look toward the direction of Michael's forging room. Instead she saw this seemingly boundless semi-transparent strange liquid spilling out from a toppled small iron box inside that forging room. After grabbing onto one of Asuka Karasawa's feet, that liquid gathered sluggishly, bit by bit. Gradually becoming a head taller than Asuka Karasawa, it stared blankly at her, emitting strange sounds as it squirmed.
"Gu lu lu~"
Asuka Karasawa's complexion grew increasingly pale. She was frightened to the point her entire body was shuddering. Hastily yanking out her foot, she turned and ran, crying out as she fled.
"Help... Help! Help! Wu wu wu..."
"Gu lu lu."
Yet that semi-transparent dumpling-like item tilted its head. Watching Asuka Karasawa limping away on one foot, it seemed to grow increasingly excited. While squirming its body, it rapidly expanded, turning larger than the building before them in a mere instant...
"Gu lu lu!"
Its interior emitted bubbling sounds akin to boiling water, simultaneously squirming its agile, amorphous viscous body as it rapidly gave chase toward Asuka Karasawa. That sky-blotting shadow was practically on the verge of catching up to the poor, woeful Asuka sprinting barefoot on one foot in the blink of an eye, scaring her into screaming.
"Mr. Fisher! Wu wu wu save me—"
Meanwhile, not far away in Michael's forging room, there was actually a line of elegant and beautiful text atop that toppled tiny box which released this terrifying monster. If there was someone here who could read the angels' text, they might have known its meaning.
Written upon it was:
"Toy."