I know where I am! It's that Genshin Impact thingy, right? Chapter: 13

Author Note: Human Bean next.

Honestly, this chapter was a lot of work, and I am not sure if it's entertaining enough. I tried, but I had to clear out way too much shit for people who didn't explicitly read my posts on QQ to bring everyone up to speed.

Also, there are a lot of rolls I will have to add once this chapter gets public.

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***

Elysia and I spent a grand total of around two days in Eastern Europe.

Even though the Herrscher was eliminated with unprecedented speed and decisiveness, in an Eruption, the Herrscher was only ever part of the larger problem.

The Second brought forth a lot of Honkai beasts all around the country, and turned a lot of civilians into zombies. 

The HQ and, by extension, local militaries were aware of the movement of the bigger groups, but some still managed to slip through, or straight up ‘appeared’ in contaminated cities when everyone least expected a new wave. As such, the responses and the containment were chaotic, to say the least. It was all only worsened with literal waves of evacuating civilians and refugees with various levels of Honkai sickness and contamination.

I got to know most of it only in hindsight, back when things were still hot, Elysia and I simply received a bunch of chaotic orders, with a few hours of downtime in between, if we were lucky, in the closest M.O.T.H. operation camp..

By the time we dealt with the initial push of endless hordes of monsters, half of Ukraine, the Baltic states, and Russia also suffered extensively. Luckily, my new pink partner and I were deployed in the most critical junctions, mostly to eradicate the waves of beasts that were heading to bigger cities and capitals, so the damage was somewhat contained.

At least compared to what would’ve been were we not actively involved. Wherever they couldn’t deploy us, they just nuked.

The whole thing is blurry in my mind. Board the transport, get to a place, kill everything, try to help out local military units quickly, board back, try to get some sleep, eat if you have time at the base, get another mission, board the transport… a dozen deployments like that, back to back.

I know that by the end of this marathon, I looked like shit, and smelled even worse, despite my ability to change clothes with a thought. I have no idea how Elysia managed to stay almost pristine.

Even exhausted, I noticed the looks people were giving me.

My involvement in the Herrscher elimination wasn’t exactly a secret among M.O.T.H. personnel. M.O.T.H., as an organization, from the very start, was built from people from different countries and with different allegiances, as Mobius put it once, ‘the organization was made chock full of spies’. Not exactly conducive to internal security, is it?

Essentially, while I had no doubt we had some secret shit that wasn’t supposed to leak internally, for the most part, it was the kind of projects not many people were aware of to begin with. Things were a lot of people were involved, be they eggheads or technicians or ground forces - leaked. They leaked relentlessly.

Not to the outside media, that’s grounds for immediate court-martial and severe prison sentences, but inside, even in between different M.O.T.H. branches, people talked.

Someone like me? The organization didn’t even try to keep me a secret. I think the logic is that they may as well use me for morale-boosting purposes, seeing that the rumor mill would inevitably spread info about yours truly. It was also plainly simpler to operate me as a known asset.

So, regular operatives on the ground knew that I, being M.O.T.H.'s very own poster-boy super soldier and the elite of the elite, would be deployed on the Herrscher. They also knew that the Herrscher was killed, that shit was broadcast ASAP to boost morale. However, the details of how the Herrscher died weren’t known, at least not at first.
Then there were countless battles Elysia and I fought all around Eastern Europe, which sort of made a lot of rank and file glimpse some of the unbelievable shit we can do.

By the end of this whole mess, I had people in the cafeterias giving me a wide berth with almost worshipful looks, and pilots and other personnel addressing me as ‘sir’.

Me, a ‘sir’. I guess I wouldn’t mind getting knighted eventually, just for that ‘knightmare’ joke to go full circle, after I save the world a couple of times more, I may just ask the Queen of England. In this world, this ArchLich was still alive, probably thanks to Mu's medical tech.

Which brought Elysia and me here.

We stood in the airfield, not too far from the transport plane that was supposed to take us back to HQ on Mu. A few people in suits and with fucking sunglasses stood in front of us. Which was comical considering the grey sky above, but hey, I couldn’t judge.

I was wearing shades too, mine were simply cooler.

“Run that by me again,” I asked, shifting in place a bit.

I saw the good folks from internal security in front of me tense up.

“We are here to accompany Ms. Elysia on the next flight,” One of the normally imposing-looking dudes said, looking more nervous than anything. “I am sorry, orders from up top. It’s just security precautions.” The man brought up a datapad, offering it to me. “Please confirm yourself.”

After a moment of hesitation, I did so.

This definitely looked like our internal tactical communication program, and the order did come with Anderson’s electronic signature. The order is to detain Elysia and accompany her to another branch M.O.T.H. office.

“This…” I opened my mouth to tell those guys to fuck off, but Elysia’s touch on my shoulder stopped me.

“Now now, don’t get in trouble for my sake,” The girl told me with a smile, stepping forward slightly, her voice devoid of her usual joking attitude, “This much is expected, considering no one even knew of my abilities before the Eruption. It’s thanks to your assurance that I was allowed to fight by your side throughout this without being taken away for extended verification.”

…why does she make sense now of all times, damn it.

I sighed, rubbing the back of my head in annoyance. She was completely right after all, I’ll already get a colonoscopy for disobeying orders and telling the head of our operations to go fuck himself because ‘I know better’, forcing the issue here will just make it worse, especially for my standing in the organisation.

I didn’t care for rank, but I sort of needed the higher-ups to trust me to an extent. Disobeying orders and procedures without having the authority to do so will eat up that goodwill real fast.

“Stop making sense, woman,” I complained mildly, before glancing at our internal security folks, who seemed to straighten up under my measuring gaze, “Alright, you convinced me. Now, I want all of you folks to make sure not a hair falls from this pretty lady’s head, and to be as accommodating as possible. You can do that much, right?”

The man who originally spoke up seemed to be taken aback by the request, but slowly nodded.

“We would do what we can, sir.”

I measured him with a look, and I think he meant it for the most part.

I walked up past the parting security detail and tapped the speaker on the shoulder.

“Thanks, I’ll take your word for it. You guys probably weren’t told much, but” I pointed behind my back with my thumb. “If not for that one, I’ll probably be dead, and the Herrscher would’ve continued to rampage for a while. Just keep that in mind.”

I heard a girlish giggle from behind, but didn’t glance back, simply put my hands in my pockets, and headed towards the plane.

“Sir!” I paused, before glancing back, towards the internal security guys… who were saluting?

“Thank you for your service!” The man said sharply, his expression solemn.

…that was a new one.

“At ease,” I waved it off, with a small grin, “Same to all of you, we are all doing the best we can, no reason to single me out.”

After casting a glance at the faces of other security agents, and seeing some of them unsure, and a few nodding, I headed towards the plane.

The flight will only take a few hours.

Honestly, I take it back, I fucking hate hypersonic flights, I need a week before getting my shit pushed in by Anderson. The Industrial Revolution was a mistake. Give me a ship to travel with.


***

After my deployment to Japan, I received a hero's welcome in the hangar area. I know for a fact it would’ve been way worse this time.

Luckily, instead of landing in a smaller hangar area inside the HQ building itself, we’ve landed on the airfield for actual cargo planes, which was still on HQ’s territory, but some distance away. From there, I’ve got into a car and been brought to the HQ building.

Thank the sweet merciful Jesus, there was no one waiting for me, and aside from a few people giving me salutes, I reached the labs relatively quickly.

Now, normally, my first destination would’ve been the command center to debrief and such.

But Mobius seemed to have managed to push through the insistent need to scan and check me. Which is understandable, if not for the new String, I’d likely be having Honkai Sickness by now.

While still very much dirty, tired, and grumpy, a few hours of sleep recharged me enough to interact with my favorite mad scientist.

***

“And this… is Super Knightmare,” I say, while over-boosting the shadow-armour like I did against the Herrscher.

I am now about four meters tall, basically entombed in a giant armour of living shadows woven into something akin to muscles and flesh, with armour on top, with my real body somewhere inside.

Mobius didn’t look very impressed. Lame of her. I think it looked fairly cool, and the other eggheads in the testing space who were operating observational equipment looked impressed, but no, she just no-sold the cool factor.

Lame of her.

“Alleged demon transformation, Knightmare, remember the game plan,” She said slowly, “We will test the other things later.”

I shrugged, and a few tones of shadows around me shrugged with me.

“I see. An ascended Knightmare isn’t much of a challenge, so how about I take it up to the next level?” Mobius sighed, she knew it was a reference she didn’t know, I knew I was quoting DBZ, we were all happy.

“Please just make it qui-”

“AND THIS!” I shouted dramatically, raising my fist up, “IS TO GO!!!” I spread my legs wide and assumed the ‘power up’ stance. For dramatic effect, I released my demonic energy and mana in a spiral pattern around my body, like it did when training or meditating, “EVEN FURTHER BEYOND!”

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH-uch!”

I looked at the Mobius, honestly feeling wounded and betrayed, when she shook a written request for the flying bike I filed a week or so ago dangerously close to a lighter. Why does she even have a lighter? She doesn’t smoke!

“Ugh, buzzkill,” I muttered, releasing the shadow armour, and filling a reservoir in me with a demonic juice, an outline of a demonic figure briefly flickered around me once I was ‘full’, “Here goes.”

And I triggered the transformation. This time, the explosion of energy wasn’t even voluntary. I’ve been told it’s a normal problem for men my age.

Jokes aside, I could see that the transformation was impactful; even Mobius unconsciously took a step back, as if hit by invisible pressure.

Before taking a few steps forward, to examine my form more carefully, whatever instinctive fear the other egg-heads felt was overpowered in her immediately by a pedantic attention.

“What is the time limit?” She asked sharply, glancing around my floating form, her eyes currently trailing across my lower body.

“Don’t know for sure. I found short bursts for a few seconds is the most efficient way to go, if I hold it too long, I get completely drained, so I had no opportunity to stress-test it,” I explained, dropping the usual jokes, and examining my fingers that now looked more like demonic claws. “In this form, everything I can do is augmented to an extreme. But… this isn’t a complete form yet. I can feel as if I am trapped in a small room, and don’t even have enough room to straighten my back… If that makes sense. Except the walls and ceiling are my own body.”

Mobius was listening to me carefully and nodded sharply once I explained my vague sensations.

“Drop it for now. I’ll take samples later.”

Nodding once, I released the transformation, and immediately, a feeling of weakness and helplessness washed over me, as I fell to the floor, gasping for breath.

I knew this wasn’t true exhaustion, not yet anyway, it’s just that outside of this form, I felt so pathetically helpless by comparison.

With some difficulty, I waved away the egg-heads and Mobius before they could hurry to my side.

“It’s fine, that’s normal. That will pass in a moment.” Swaying in place once or twice, I stood up, flashing the assembled people a thumbs-up. “It’s not surprising this happens, in hindsight. This power was supposed to belong to some really powerful guys, and even for them, it’s straining. Me being able to use it at all is a bit of a miracle.”

Mobius frowned but sharply nodded.

“Noted. Now, come, you’ll explain elsewhere. You can barely stand.” She gestured for me to follow and headed to her office.

I did so. Once we reached the office, I went in, and she gestured towards one of the seats, and closed the door with a remote.

“You mentioned you knew a world where this power came from. Sit down and explain, slowly.”

I hesitated for a moment, but did as she asked.

Once back to the HQ, I’ve been forced to attentd emergency testing. Once I was brought to the labs, I was scanned and checked for all possible results of honkai and radiation sicknesses. All possible samples that could be taken from my body were taken. Only now, almost half an hour late, did we come to address my new abilities.

“The story was told in a video game series back home,” I started slowly, shrugging, “With comics, novelizations, and such, you know the drill.”

The woman who sat opposite me, behind her desk, shook her head.

“I believe I told you before. I don’t know who you take me for, but I quite literally do not have the time to engage with this sort of brain-numbing entertainment. But do go on.” Right, she did say it before.

Wow, now that I look closely, she has quite colossal circles under her eyes. Is she also on stimms?

Dunno why I am surprised, come to think of it.

“To cut a long story short, in that world, demons are real. They lived in another dimension, but interacted with humanity from ancient times. No God, angels, or magic that was confirmed, only demons,” I stressed, for now omitting the mysterious ‘priestess’ that sealed the tower in the backstory of the third game, it wasn’t really relevant, and was never really expanded on in this story. This woman might have been an ancient half-demon for all we knew, “Demons there are weird. They were the whole bundle of supernatural. They could do normal-ish magic, possessions, trapping and manipulating souls, and were involved with a bunch of ancient civilizations that served them, the whole package of isotropic weird lore. Just without Hyperboria or Yakub,” I explained slowly, feeling the migraine come up just trying to relay all of that, before waving in the air absent-mindedly, “The important part is that Demons had a Jesus. A Legendary Dark Knight - Sparda. He served the Demon King and interacted with the human world a lot, but he saw in humans what demons lacked. A heart.” I stopped, seeing Mobius impatiently tapping the table.

“I am sure the story is very touching. Is any of this relevant?” She asked tiredly. This didn’t come off as aggressive, more as an honest question fueled by exhaustion.

“Yes.” I said, feeling like a man retelling a 40k lore on the first date, “Anyhow, Sparda liked humans a lot, and betrayed the Demon King. He severed the Demon World, also called the Underworld, from the human world and sealed the entrance. We don’t really know what the fuck he did since, but a few thousand years pass, and he marries a human woman, and got himself two ankle-biters who are also twin brothers with possible undiagnosed autism.”

I meet her eyes.

“Those kids are kind of the main point of the game, and likely the source of this,” I said, igniting a brief orange-purple flame above my palms. Not true fire, just a chunk of demonic energy given shape. “See, half-demons in this world could tap into something called a Devil Trigger. Being a half-demon doesn’t mean you get half the genetic information of a daddy and half from a mommy. It means you are fully a human and a demon both, at the same time.” I explained to her slowly, “Not sure how it’s even related to genetics, I am sure you’ll have a field day with this one, it’s more metaphysical. Anyhow, a half-demon is like a coin; it has two sides. One is the human, who is still supernaturally strong and fast, to the point that they can outrun a falling meteor, once they awaken their heritage, but that’s still just a limited bleed-over, I guess?” I wasn’t even sure how right I was here, mostly operating on what I remembered from the games, and adding what made sense, “But there is the other side of that coin, the Demon. Devil Trigger is flipping that coin.” I waved my hand dismissively in the air, “As the Sons of Sparda grew in power, switching to their demon forms became effortless, and they could’ve stayed in either of the two forms for as long as they needed. That’s fairly straightforward. Now…”

I straightened a bit in my seat, biting my lip.

“The Sin Devil Trigger was the ability both of them obtained not through training, or growing into their potential, no. This power was gained by the twin brothers, each from growing to their respective peaks, and then absorbing some external power to go over. A Sparda’s worth of external power.” I looked Mobius in the eyes, trying to convey how confused I was about the whole thing, “It’s not merely switching to your demonic side, it’s cranking down the demon dial in you to eleven and going beyond anything you could’ve reasonably achieved as a demon. From that story’s perspective, a human like me shouldn’t be able to use something like that. I mean, I didn’t meet any of the requirements, see?”

Mobius slowly nodded, leaning a bit back.

“You mentioned that the original wielders of that power had to grow into their potential first. Meaning, master the power of their heritage normally, I assume?”

I just nodded. Explaining that even reaching their potential normally took both of the idiotic but fuckign cool brothers decades and different power-ups for each felt redundant.

“Basically. It’s also that they are both, you know, sons of the Legendary Dark Knight. The guy who was strong enough to single-handedly cuck the Demon King and the entirety of demonkind.” I explain slowly, “I am not sure you can even have this transformation if you aren’t a Son of Sparda.”

I slowly exhaled, looking down at my own hands, and furrowing my brows.

“Which is why I said I think I am no longer a human. I feel stronger. I feel the demonic energy in me, I have those… instincts. Like, I just know how to shape my demonic energy to get a result, and it feels different from the skills I get from the Strings. Those felt like getting back to doing things you learned once, but didn’t practice for a while. This, this whole demonic mess? Feels like riding a bicycle. I just know how to do things right, once I try to do them, but not before or after.” Once again, I gave her a brief explanation of how this mess felt, knowing she would be able to untangle something useful.

Mobius seemingly considered me for a moment, thinking it over.

“The results from the scans we performed earlier showed anomalies, as you remember. Altered cellular structure and muscle mass, slight changes in your internal organs, brain activity, sensory organs, and neural system. Your body was definitely altered significantly, from the brief things I gathered, mostly in beneficial ways. We still have a few AIs comparing the earlier data of your body with what we gathered today, we have to spot every change,” She explained, her fingers slowly drumming out a rhythm on the table, as she stared blankly into a turned-off monitor, “I will try to make sense of all of this tonight, to make sure what happened to you does not present an immediate danger.”

Despite myself, I felt a pang of honest gratitude. Mobius was always like this, raining on my parade, being a kill-joy, but ultimately always coming through, doing things that are straight-up impossible for me or anyone else.

“...thanks.” I was going to offer for her to get some sleep instead. I was worried about how I had changed, but I figured I wouldn’t die.

None of the things that came from the Strings so far were even remotely dangerous, after all. I was also running around just fine for the last two days.

But knowing Mobius, she will just get offended over me trying to ‘manage her’ while being basically a drooling idiot, and she will still do things however she feels like she should.

“Honestly, there are a couple more things to go over.” I told her quietly, “Things I know about demons, some new strings I have, and the whole… You know, Herrscher's situation,” I finished awkwardly, feeling dead inside.

Mobius studied me for a moment.

“I’ll have Klein prepare a room for you in the medical,” She said simply, “You are obviously too exhausted for this, and I need you to have a clear head. But you also can’t rest without observation; if something does happen to you, I’ll need people stabilizing you immediately.” I appreciated that she spelled it out for my sake.

I knew she normally hated to explain things slowly and in plain terms. AKA - spoonfeeding the idiots.

“Yeah, sounds about right,” I said, relaxing in the chair slightly, “I am not looking forward to what Anderson has to say to me.” Considering the insubordination and direct refusal to follow orders, and all.

“That, Lab Rat, you brought upon yourself,” Mobius echoed mercilessly, as she started to tap away at the keyboard, her eyes fixed on something on the screen, the light from which was reflecting off of her face, “That said, depending on the results of the testing, you might have made the right call. Unfortunately, that rarely, if ever, means there are no consequences.”

Mobius sounded like she was merely thinking out loud, which I admit was a first.

The door hissed open behind me, and I heard the barely audible footsteps.

“Doctor, Mr. Knightmare,” Klein’s familiar voice made me turn to the pocket-sized assistant and give her a lazy wave.

Damn, if Mobius looked like she was on the death door, her assistant looked like she had long since passed it. Zombie Klein looked both heart-wrenching and adorable.

I know she isn’t a little girl, but I want to spoil her with candies and headpats. 

“Klein, please sort out the arrangement I requested,” Mobius asked, never really stopping working on something on her computer, “And bring me a C-86X. A double dose.”

“...understood,” Klein answered quietly, before glancing at me.

I simply stood up and headed to the exit from the office, throwing one last look at the head scientist.

There was a brief moment of hesitation, but in the end, I couldn’t leave it be.

“I know it may look urgent, but every instinct in me tells me things are fine,” I said, measuring Mobius with a long look, “So please get some sleep. My whole… thing can wait eight or so hours.”

Mobius didn’t look like she even acknowledged my comment.

Well, about what I expected.

Sighing, I headed out and waited for Klein to show the way.

Unknown to me, Mobius hesitated for a moment before sending Klein a message not to bring her the stimulant she requested.


***

The following day started with a debriefing straight after breakfast.

All in all, I got off easy. My pay for the month was docked, and I now have to attend remedial disciplinary courses, but even though Andreson told me off with grim face while extensively warning me to never try my luck again, the ‘punishment’ was a slap on the wrist at worst.

Straight after that, I got a heartfelt congratulations and a thank you from the man, who plainly told me that, unfortunately, he didn’t have much time for pleasantries besides that, as he still needed to monitor the situation in Eastern Europe and tard-wrangle the politicians.

I contemplated this strange encounter while heading towards the labs.

Being thanked and told ‘you did a good job’ while also having an equivalent of a gentle spanking for refusing to follow orders… made a lot of sense.

I guess the reason I was punished at all was just to uphold the chain of command, and because Anderson had superiors looking over his shoulder, too. He can’t afford to let go of blatant insubordination even if I made the right call at the moment.

Besides, I thought about it during the last few days. While I still think I did the right thing, having a super-soldier with uncontrollable power-ups refusing to follow orders when you had little to no means to stop said super-soldier was… well, bad.
It’s bad for the higher-ups' mental states because all people in power are addicted to having control over everything. The less I flaunt how little they have over me, the better, because eventually they will try to find ways to pressure me.

Before I knew it, I was back in Mobius' delicate, but firm coils.

A few hours' worth of testing followed. We started off ‘simple’ with the additional taking of my samples, including in my Sin Devil Trigger. Then we did a couple of tests with my new and improved shadow armour and its raised capabilities, and with the demonic energy and their attempts to trap and contain them.

I asked Mobius why she didn’t have me bring out the Devil Arm. Beyond a vague explanation that she had me do, she frankly told me that they needed to make sure I wasn’t dying first. Everything else comes after.

By the end of the extensive testing, I gathered a few things from the scientists' communication and Mobius’s own remarks and brief explanations, when she felt like explaining at all.

First of all, the samples they took while I was in Sin Devil Trigger only existed while I was in that form, reverting to normal human tissues once I dropped the transformation. My body was also altered to the point that some sequences in my DNA made little sense.

Though DNA was the least of the problems. My body was getting supernaturally strong and fast. In a way that couldn’t be easily explained biologically.

It was sort of how I was augmented by magic when wearing Shadow Armour, except constantly, and to a much smaller degree. There was another discovery… the changes in my body progressed with each subsequent use of the Sin Devil Trigger. Those changes were tiny, barely there… but they managed to pinpoint them after a few transformations..

There was another factor that got everyone spooked. Apparently, in my Devil Trigger, I generated Honkai energy. It didn’t appear like a lot at first; if anything, it was initially assumed to be a tiny amount, even the sensors in the labs didn’t immediately ring the alarm. Then they checked the samples of my DT form, and apparently, those samples of flesh while I was transformed carried enough Honkai energy to instantly kill a normal person… but with a catch. It wasn’t radiating outwards.

It was contained, somehow.

I also finally had a moment to ask Mobius about Elysia. The woman waved me off, saying ‘the pink menace is fine’ and that they just have her in a containment facility for observation, similar to the one where I spent my first few days after getting kidnapped by M.O.T.H., except she was getting VIP treatment.

Women privilege, I swear to god.

Apparently, they had to make sure Elysia wasn’t producing a dangerous level of Honkai, before anything else, the infuriating science woman even promised to personally handle her case once she is done with my nonsense. Which was more reassuring than I cared to admit.

The testing was put on hold for a lunch break, which consisted of a few sandwiches and cups of coffee Klein brought for us; most, including Mobius, ate while having their faces in monitors or some sort of equipment. Surprisingly despite how crammed the timetable of our science team looked, none of them were dead on their feet anymore. Klein and Mobius very much included.

I guess drugs to solve problems after all. Or something.

I reflected on that while I had my chicken&mayo sandwich on a small office chair. I was the only one doing nothing while eating. Felt fucking amazing.

A very persitent fly decided to fly next to me, big mistake. I crashed the little bastard with a single clap of my hands, before awkwardly dusting my hands off.

Mu is like a fucking Australia sometimes, I sweat. What’s with all the flies recently? Had to swat like, five in the medical just the other day.

Still, this whole setup looked casual, as if our eggheads were used to not even having time for a proper lunch.

Then, a few minutes into the ‘break,’ the door to the labs opened.

Alexanderson stepped inside.

“Just on schedule,” Mobius commented, glancing up for a brief moment, before giving me a look, “Knightmare, in the testing area. It’s time you show us that devil arm of yours.”

Well, the sooner we start, the sooner it ends.

“Gotcha, boss.”

The testing area was a big white room, very much like the one where I woke up crucified a few months back, except, well, without the cross. Any equipment can be brought in and out, and the walls were thick enough to shield people from most conventional dangers.

Most of the time, when we were doing testing, Mobius and others were in the room with me, rather than observing from behind a one-sided glass. This time was clearly a bit different.

I stood in the center, glancing towards the glass questioningly.

“Tell me when you guys are ready with the equipment,” I stretched a bit and manifested a basic set of pitch-black armour over my M.O.T.H. standard-issue uniform.

Most of the testing required me not to use the shadow armour to contaminate the results, even though recently, I’ve been using that spell instead of normal clothes.

“You can proceed,” Mobius' voice spoke up after a second or two from the dynamic.

Without dragging it out, I brought my hand to the side, and in the flash of purple and gold, the ornate spear manifested.

“This is Reality Edge,” I said, really happy that I had a few days to pick a fitting name, “Quite a thing, isn’t it?”

For a moment, no one responded, which was awkward. Then again, what did I expect? For everyone to clap?

I am not a redditor or a retard. Oops, tautology.

“There is no change to the ambient Honkai readings,” Mobius once again addressed me, her voice sounding just a touch accusing.

“It was all in the report you had me submit,” I explained back a bit lazily, “The Second Herrscher was transforming into a demon because of what I did. Reality Edge exists because of that to begin with. It would be weird if it was still radiating Honkai while dormant and weakened from the tranformation.”

I shrugged, glancing at the spear in my hands and studying it.

“Dormant? What do you mean by that?” Mobius asked, her tone cold and pedantic.

“Becoming a Devil Arm is a demon’s way to give a vassal oath. A way to preserve their lives when they lose in battle, by giving their power to the victor, and in return being spared,” I explained, the words flowing out of me with the complete assurance and a deep-seated knowledge that I was correct, “But the Second wasn’t a real demon by the end of that fight. The fact that it manifested the ability to turn into a Devil Arm is a small miracle, and I think it came with a cost,” I explained, my tone turning softer, as I gently twisted the spear in the air, bringing it up for the people behind the glass to see. “I get a sensation from this weapon. Like… you know, a sick person trying to sleep a disease off? Something like that.”

I explained, awkwardly glancing at the weapon

I decided not to mention that when meditating with a weapon I could swear I heard cute snoring. Those might have been the heavy-duty stims I was on in Eastern Europe.

“It actually saps a little bit of my demonic energy constantly. I just have so much that it barely matters. I think my power helps it out a bit. Reality Edge already feels more solid than it did two days ago. The Second Herrscher had the power to control space. Right now, Reality Edge can’t do that easily. But…” I threw the spear with a sudden movement at the opposite wall. The sound barrier broke, yet, before the spear impacted the wall, I willed it back. Space distorted, and I grasped it between my fingers once again. “...it still has some properties of the power the Second Herrscher used to have. I think once it recovers fully, it will be a scary weapon. Creating portals and cutting through space is a minimum here.”

For a while, no one answered me.

“We will discuss this at length later,” Mobius spoke up again, “You said you had new connections to the Entity?”

I nodded at that; the question was likely rhetorical anyway. Before breakfast, she had me submit a report with what I can ‘feel’ on the other side of the strings so she could prepare any additional equipment if needed.

“Let’s start with the simple one. The one you said ‘would allow you to magic better’.” I love that I can hear the deadpan in her voice.

Still, the last rounds of pretty exhausting testing sapped most of the sass out of me.

“Sure.”

I reached out, feeling up all five of the Strings connecting me to the great expense beyond.

They all formed throughout the last couple of days. One was that frayed connection, I think I partially used up to help create the miracle that is Reality Edge.

The connection was still there, but I had no idea what it connected me to. Unlike the other strings, I just couldn’t tell what it connected me with; it was too thin for that. I was still relavtively sure I can pull something with it.

Now, the other strings were solid. I reached out for one of them.

The images and impressions I got from it were… vague. Deep understanding, the ability to comprehend the incomprehensible, to interrupt your own sensations not just better, but right. I always had trouble explaining magic, or even thinking about what I felt in the magic I used, between all the different energies and whatnot. It’s sort of like having a sudden new form of sense. This will help with that, I just know.

I pulled.

For a moment, my body staggered as I suddenly… understood. Just a bit better.

The flow of energies in me wasn’t random. There was a pattern. I knew I could tell where they were, and even how they flowed around one another. It’s not that the sensations became clearer; I just… could interpret them better?

“Weird,” I muttered to myself, shaking my head, “Don’t feel much different yet. Do you want me to pull the shadow-power next?” I asked.

“If you recovered, yes,” Mobius commented sharply.

Right, the shadow power. That one felt weird. From the string, I got the impression of being able to twist shadow and darkness into spikes, weapons, and such.

But I… already sort of knew how to do that, once I mastered the shadow armour?

Still, I pulled.

This felt different. As always, the string pulled away the part of the endless Chaos. A moment of tension when I pulled, a piece I was connected to separated from the infinite chaotic vastness and headed towards me faster than light, then… impact. Like being struck by lightning, just painless.

However, once it interacted with me, something was off. Instead of feeling the ethereal mist of impressions and… things flow into me, building something up in my body or mind… it did something different.
The fragment started to fill me, and encountered parts of me that were already filled. So it started to flow into the gaps, filling them. Yet, the gaps were small enough that it couldn’t fit.

I already put a lot of thought into how to twist shadow armour into something completely different, but now it’s as if I got the rest of it down. More streamlined, more organized, more solid. Yet, too much I couldn’t absorb, because it was already there.

Under my senses to my great shock, I felt the string rebound, the content I pulled from the Super Chaos of Death flying back where it came from, leaving behind only the parts of it that filled the gaps in me… and then, before my very eyes, I saw a new string form. For the first time, I saw it being woven.

It wasn’t extended from the great Chaotic space, like I think it would. But neither did it reach from me towards the Chaos.

Instead, it just manifested all along between us. As if the string was always there, connecting me to this part of the great phenomena, and it just phased into my perception now.

“Knightmare, everything alright?”

I blinked away the non-existant lights, glancing a bit lost towards the window.

“Sort of, I think?” I tried, before twisting the shadows around me into a bunch of spikes, then into blades, then into walls. It took less than a second. In the next instant, I dismissed the spell, letting the shadows disappear like morning mist.

“The power rebounded, I think, because I already had it? I got something else instead.” I focused on the string.

At this point, I wasn’t even weirded out, just curious.

“This one will… make me more resistant to… just about anything. Including grievous injuries. Huh.” If Mobius theory about the powers given to me being handed based on my needs… well, I guess it’s a bit concerning.

Is the single penetration action from an underage Belarusian girl - just a prelude? Is my chest cavity about to start getting the Dante treatment?

For a few seconds, Mobius didn’t reply.

“That one we will leave for later, I want you hooked up to all of our scanners when you interface with this connection,” Mobius told me plainly, “Proceed with one of the others you reported on before.”

I blinked, but immediately realized what she was referring to.

I had three strings left, so I reached towards another one. I pulled.

This felt like pulling the Shadow Armour and the Transmutation spells back in the day. A huge chunk from chaos, too big to flow into my body. This one I needed to manually integrate, so first I had to drop the Sin Devil Trigger…

Or, well, I would need to do that once I wanted to use it. I contemplated this in a brief moment when I pulled on the string.

Then it reached my body.

Suddenly, as the new power brushed against my being, something in me extended. There was space in my being where I usually had to shove those spells and abilities. Like a container in my deepest part. 

It was this internal container, that space, that was suddenly stretched thin by the new power brushing against it… and before I could start panicking, that capacity in me extended with a snap.

This new ability easily flowed into it.

Despite myself, I laughed, both hysterically and euthorically, because for a second there, I was sure I was going to die. I literally heard a crunch from what I was sure was my soul.

Then the skills, knowledge, and energy manipulations I never learned suddenly became clear to me.

“Damn, this is something… Mobi check this out,” I clicked my fingers, and my hair became snow white. Obviously, I had to spend some mana for the transformation. Then, smiling, I summoned up the shadows again, like an ethereal mist, and made them turn bright, neon pink. “This is insane. It’s like… an incredibly huge bank of knowledge and skills just got deposited in my head. I know how to change my hair colour, skin colour, and I can shape-shift a bit! But also, there is a bunch of knowledge for how to utilize some of the spells differently to… change how they look?”

The more I spoke, the less sense it made even to me.

This power didn’t just give me a knowledge of a single spell, or enhance my body, or even give me a skill in an area I had never practiced.

It specifically gave me knowledge and skills on how to alter myself and some of my abilities. Partially with mana… but also with Demonic Energy for the Devil Trigger.

This wasn’t normal. This couldn’t have possibly belonged to some mage in another world, like how I believed the Shadow Armour worked. That felt almost designed…

No. Suddenly, something in my head clicked, not designed. Conceptual. I received everything I could know about altering appearances. Of myself and my powers both. This was what this power was about.

Just how my taming knowledge included Pokémon and even bits and pieces about human psychology. Just how my ability to move efficiently and with style extended to wielding weapons.

“...we will test the changes you can make extensively later. Until then, don’t alter your body again this carelessly.” It was Mobius’s voice that tore me out of my small existential crisis.

Also, wow, she was mad.

“Yeah, sorry,” I said, feeling a bit lost, before shaking my head. “Now, the droid?” As I said, I couldn’t help but sound giddy.

According to what I felt from the string, this was actually someone from the Galaxy Far Far Away.

“The robot, yes.”  Mobius echoed.

Without further ado, I pulled.

The space distorted a bit in front of me, and suddenly, in front of me sat… the folded B1 Battledroid.

It looked just like it did in the movies, just without the ‘CGI feel’ around him. It was sitting with its hands around its feet, and its head between its legs; they were transported like this in the what’s-it’s-name tank the CIS used during the Naboo and the Clone Wars.

Before I could truly appreciate my childhood coming to life, the droid shifted, slowly starting to unfold with jerky motions.

I didn’t feel threatened. With my armour on, considering what those guys were like in every media, it was not a threat, even if it turned out to be hostile. The blue marking on it were curious and familiar, though I didn’t have enough time to connect the dots.

Slowly, the droid booted up, as it stood, before grasping the standard blaster from behind its backpack, and finally standing up straight in front of me in the ‘at rest’ position. It was facing a bit to the side.

“You with me?” I asked it, curiously, “Do you even understand me?”

The B1 slowly turned towards me, mechanically rotating in place with an awkward motion.

“I do!” It said in… in that squeaky, low-ish, silly voice! I broke into a grin despite myself. “I understand you perfectly.”

I wanted to ask so many things, but first things first…

“How do you speak English? Or is Galactic Basic the same language?” I wandered out loud, and the droid stared at me with its lifeless eyes for a second.

“I don’t know…?” It said, as if asking back, the questioning notes in its voice, dragging out funnily due to the distortion always present in its synthetic voice, “The last logs I have access to are from aboard the Lucrehulk-class battleship Monias Dre Uhli,” Its speech pattern changed a bit once it said the name, making me blink. “Translated to the language we are speaking, it means something like Fortitude…?” Once again, it didn’t sound sure, “It appears I have certain odd entries in my database. I possess knowledge of the English language, and it seems my ownership was transferred from the Trade Federation to you.” It told me plainly.

That took me aback a little.

“Is that all you know?” I tried.

The droid stared blankly at me.

“No. I know how to pilot most standard vehicles, and how to maintain and repair them.” It was explained with... enthusiasm, I think? “I also have basic combat programming.”

Right, B1 droid. Those weren’t very sharp.

“... let's start from the beginning. Tell me who and what you are, where you served before ending up here, and what your last memory is.” I said, recalling my interactions with retarded Neural Networks, and tempered by this experience, I was as specific as possible with my prompt.

…I apologize, nameless B1, you don’t deserve to be compared to the chatbots. You are a retard, but at least you are sapient.

“Roger-roger,” HE SAID THE THING! “Translated to the language we are using, I am designated as a unit OOM-PILOT-8847-XKT-5529-THETA-332-QVN-7764-EPSILON-1188-TRADE-FED-GEONOSIS-FAC-003-LINE-42-BATCH-95571-UNIT-6633,” I felt like interrupting him midway, but decided not to. “I was stationed on a Lucrehulk-class battleship, Fortitude, on Geonosis, when we were attacked.” It sounded sad about the fact, the heartbroken tone actually made him sound somewhat comical, “The ship attempted the emergency take off, but was shot down, I think. I have been in the hangar, on my battlestation. The last memory I have is of an explosion. I think one of the backup generators near the hangar detonated once the ship fell.”

…holy shit, did I get a clanker from the First Battle of Geonosis?

“...was Padme Amidala about to be executed on the Geonosis arena?” I asked, feeling actually a bit excited.

The droid shook his head.

“I am afraid I can’t tell. I am not aware of who Padme Amidala is. My battlestation was in the battleship’s hangar control room, I opened and closed the doors! It’s an important job,” He told me seriously, “So I don’t know anything about the Geonosis surface.” It added apologetically, before moving its head a bit, as if to focus on me better, “But I think Geonosians might have had arenas!” He said happily, with the satisfaction of someone who managed to help.

…right, a ‘pilot’ B1 droid. God bless his simple electronic soul.

“Alright, let’s try from another angle. Did the Clone Wars already start?” I asked instead.

The droid simply stared blankly at me.

“The clown what?”

Well, that settles it. First battle of Geonosis, it is. I now have a genuine, rare clanker. Collector’s edition.

Now, RNGesus, give me HK-47. Please. Pretty please. Droids are so fucking cool.

“Well, I suppose it’s good that you aren’t one of the B1s from Naboo,” I voiced out loud, “If I remember it right, without a central command, you guys dropped like Alderan population in 20 odd years.”

The droid nodded enthusiastically, though somehow conveying confusion with it’s shoulder joints.

“This was a common issue for the previous B1 modification. They were completely hopeless,” It said, sounding both condescending and pitying, “My model can still be augmented by the central command unit’s processing power for faster battlefield coordination and decision making, but it’s no longer essential. Additionally, I am an OOM model and possess specialized skills. I boast an improved processing unit and additional programming to fulfil my role.” It explained, as if trying to sell me a car.

Fucking Trade Federation, did they upload a spamware ad in his motivator as well? ‘Buy one of us, get one free’, ‘free shipping from Corellia to Chiss space’.

Still, I was a bit surprised that the droid actually took the initiative to clear things out. No matter how much Star Wars media shat on those guys, from what I remember, a droid like that was almost as cheap as the blaster rifle it carried. It also had a human-like intelligence, even if it was a bit slow and clunky in every way.

Interacting with it, I could feel that he has a character, undeveloped as it may be for now.

“You are a helpful fella. I like you.” I told him plainly, before gently tapping him on the shoulder. “Tell you what, put this blaster behind your back, and head to the door right there. Some scientists and security personnel will meet you on the other side. They will likely ask you a lot of questions, maybe try to connect to your OS and see what’s inside, cooperate with them completely, and follow their orders as if they are my own. Don’t worry, they don’t want to break you, so as long as you warn them and cooperate, it should be harmless.”

The droid stared at me for a moment.

“...roger-roger. For the record, sir, I wasn’t thinking about a potential harm before you mentioned it.” It sounded hilariously worried, “Now, I do.”

I chuckled.

“Don’t be a baby, those guys study my body too. You and I are practically in the same boat, and as you can see, I am still functioning,” For a given definition of the word. As a society member I am cooked.

I paused for a moment.

“My name is Knightmare, by the way. Do you have a name that isn’t your bar code?”

“Negative,” It shook its tiny head. “At least if you are referring to my unit ID, sir.”

“I’ll think of something cool,” I promised, before nodding towards the door, “Now go ahead. Remember, blaster away, and don’t do anything hostile; suspend your combat subroutines if you have any. People here aren’t used to sophisticated droids like you, so they’ll be excited to get to know you.”

…somehow, that little bit of flattery made it puff its chest out with pride a bit.

“Roger-roger.” Slowly, it put the blaster behind its back, on a magnetic lock I assumed, and proceeded to walk towards the exit.

I couldn’t help but stare. This thing was a part of my childhood. Though it was mostly present as waves of disposable masses I cut away with a lightsaber in my daydream fantasies, it was still a part of my childhood.

…also, holy shit, he is tall. Like, 190cm at least. They didn’t feel that tall in the media. He would’ve been intimidating if not for that awkward slow movement and messed up posture.

The droid approached the door, the door opened, and it stepped outside.

I glanced towards the window.

“For the record, don’t make a liar out of me. He is probably a factory-fresh droid, so he doesn’t have much knowledge or experience that wasn’t implanted into him, but make no mistake, he is a sapient being. Treat him like one.” I requested.

“You mentioned this is a ‘battledroid’ and that the name is self-explanatory,” Mobius spoke up, “From your notes, I believe you mentioned that what will interest us most is the ‘droid brain, ’ the power cell, and that weapon it carried,” She prompted.

I nodded curtly at that.

“B1s are the cheapest, most disposable droids that galaxy might have ever produced. Despite that, he is a product of a few thousand years' worth of scientific breakthroughs of a space-faring civilization that uses FTL spaceships with the same ease we use cars.” Well, the galaxy far-far away also regressed in tech a couple of dozen times, but I won’t be bringing that up, “His batteries can last at least a few days; his processors and hardware, while cheap and non-impressive by galactic standards, can still house a sapient consciousness in that tiny head, and that rifle behind it’s back shoots super-heated particle beams produced from exotic gas.” I explained plainly, “Just don’t take him apart; aside from that, he is a treasure trove for material science and IT.”

Mu was a wonderful sci-fi continent, but despite that, they weren’t quite Star Wars level of bullshit yet. Even the robots they did have were still sufficiently complex neural networks, not true sapient AIs. Apparently, true sapients in AI technology was close, at least according to the local internet, but not quite there, and would require an entire server room of processing power to house.

“I will notify the engineering team.” Mobius promised, “This will be it for today.”

I blinked.

“I still have one more string?” I offered.

The dynamics came alive a second later.

“Leave it be for now. We have enough as it is, and you said that the connection is abnormal. We don’t know what might happen if you try to interact with it. Leave it for now, we may return to it later.” Mobius said firmly.

I… couldn’t really argue with that.

“Fair enough.”

The door behind me hissed open. I absent-mindedly glanced towards the strings and…

“Mobius…?” I tried, “I think I have one more connection. A new one.”

For a while, there was silence.

“Curious. Describe it.”

I focused on the string… wait, it is what?

“I… I don’t think I can.” I said, feeling the sanity slowly leave me, “It’s an item. It would be better if I just brought it out.”

“...proceed.”

Nodding towards the window, I extended my hand to the side and pulled the string, willing the object to appear in said hand.

A moment later, a plushie fell on my palm.

It is as I feared.

“Fumo.” It was, indeed, a fumo. Worse yet…

It was unmistakably a Yukari fumo. Now, I may not be a Touhou enthusiast, but I spent enough time on a korean basket-weaving forum to recognize it.

The fumo of a gap hag was staring into me with lifeless eyes and a tiny smile. I channeled some mana into it, while focusing on a specific image in my head, like the string told me and…

Slowly, the space next to me opened up like an invisible pocket, two ribbons holding it from either side, and the portal led to my room.

The alarm immediately started to blare across the room, colouring it red.

“...so, now we are thinking with portals.” I said absent-mindedly. At this point, I wasn’t even bothered by the false alarm; that thing had happened a bunch of times before.
I glanced down at the plushie in my hand and…

Wait, weren’t its eyes looking in a different direction before?

Slowly, I narrowed my eyes, staring into the innocently smiling, possibly youkai-possessed toy.

Here is hoping that unlike a Pokemon, those don’t evolve. Fingers crossed.