NOVEL NEXT Chapter 71 – Conflict of Interest
The moment when Mordred advanced to rank 1.
“What the fuck just happened? Why did the plane destabilize? Did you touch something?” ‘Shion’ is in an extremely bad mood.
After killing the Dragon’s Shadow, their progress should be smooth sailing as they could freely plunder the micro-plane. In fact, Sumire and Shion were thinking about using the micro-plane as their base camp. There were modification and terraforming plans drafted so that the micro-plane could be used to its fullest to grow resources due to the existence of the small tributary of the River of Time.
However, things went to shit after Shion became aware of the condition of other groups.
There was no need to elaborate about her portion of dragon’s shadow clone. It was obliterated after paying a relatively acceptable price of damaging her gunlance.
What made her have an extremely bad mood was Ayame’s group. Under various condition, that dumb girl actually gave Kenji a genetic stimulant that could only be used by Murasaki clansmen.
To be honest, Ayame’s decision to give him the genetic stimulant wasn’t wrong. In special cases, it could allow the user’s gene to be stimulated so that it might be able to awaken one’s bloodline ability.
Unfortunately, Ayame’s stuff is customized for Murasaki clansmen only.
Murasaki clansmen possessed the bloodline of a rank 6 lifeform capable of wielding thunderbolt and lightning1(very very frightening) . The Immemorial Beast was a lightning-path apex predator who was on top of the food chain, having no equal other than gods or top tier Sovereigns before being subjugated by the Murasaki clan. Moreover, the Great Archmage also altered their bloodline further with magic machinery and advanced science; they were closer to synthetics than organics.
As for Kenji?
He’s merely a mortal without a bloodline. In cultivation terms, a rank 0 entity isn’t considered a true cultivator. Only those who have climbed to rank 1 are privileged to cultivate the foundation to pursue higher levels. Rank 1 is the true beginning of cultivation and those that haven’t reached this level are considered as slightly stronger mortals.
And so, the combat drug that is designed to be effective on Ayame would typically explode or melt mortals, sometimes in a literal sense.
Ever since then, Ayame has been periodically feeding Kenji with a type of emergency pill that will help in slowing down Kenji’s genetic collapse. At the very least, Ayame’s treatment allowed Kenji to survive despite his inability to do anything other than suffering from pain.
That being said, Shion’s bad mood is known to everyone because Kenji is someone that she cares a lot about. When Ayame was interacting with the central computer, Mordred coincidentally broke through to rank 1 which destabilized the dimensional laws of the plane. Shion immediately accused it was Ayame who did that because not only was she the one capable of doing so, Shion also needed to shift the blame to someone.
Obviously, Shion is completely aware that the destabilization of dimensional laws was due to her main soul, Mordred, advancing to rank 1.
“I… didn’t do anything!” Ayame replied with indignance. “I’m just looking at the spec of your customized exosuit. It should be closer to a power armor than a true exosuit if not for the lack of internal systems, honest!” She raised her hands like she had given up.
Shion did not say anything but the frown on her face did not disappear. She interacted with the computer as it revealed the situation. She ordered an emergency meeting with everyone and briefed them about the situation.
“As you might’ve known, the 4th Hall, which was inaccessible for some reason, seems to harbor a time bomb. Not literally of course, but something from there destabilized the micro-plane so we have to leave this place quickly.” Shion elaborated. Nobody could get a read on her face once she turned serious.
“We will have to accelerate our resource extraction. I’ve filled my dimensional storage ring with the things I needed.” She scanned the rest of the hunter. “We should be ready to head out in 12 hours. Go take what you need.” Shion turned her back and interacted with the computer after she said her piece.
The others are dazed from Shion’s explanation but they quickly recover after a harsh reminder from Sumire. Nobody doubted Shion’s deadline because she was the only one other than Ayame who had rich experience in dimensional warfare.
Just like that, twelve hours went quickly in a blink of an eye and they exited the micro-plane. The only reason why they did not go back and forth of the plane was because the gate has a cooldown of 1 week. Once someone activated the gate to exit, nobody could make another gate once the time expired. After all, the resource to maintain the spatial gate isn’t infinite.
Although the gate is truly limited by the resource, the one-week cooldown was fabricated because Shion wanted to give the resources to Mordred. She could do this because she was the first one who touched the main computer and her encryption was specially made to hinder Aozora, Ayame’s A.I. Unit.
When they exit the gate, a group of mutant kobolds greet them. These kobolds have mixed reactions because they saw a group of fully armored people coming out of the spatial gate. While the Hunters wore military-grade exosuits which included a helmet and covered their whole body with high-grade black alloy plates, none could compare to Shion whose exosuit was so heavily modified that she stood 2.5 meter tall!
The gunlance and heavy shield seems fitting for her now.
The only ones who did not wear an exosuit were Ayame and Kenji (for obvious reasons). The moment she exited the gate and reconnected with the World Wide Weave, she immediately interacted with her omni-gear.
“Go download the necessary resources you need to refine your own exosuit. There’s a chance that we’re going to use it.” Shion ordered, her voice deep borderline synthetic when she spoke through her exosuit.
“Yes.” Ayame nodded in acknowledgement as it was her plan to begin with. Her cooperation with Shion should’ve ended after she received the intellectual properties of Combat Exosuit Minor Inheritance, but she felt guilty for leaving Kenji in that situation. So, she will stay with Shion until Kenji’s situation is solved.
While the two conversed, Sumire approached her kobolds. “How’s the situation?” She asked in human language supported with telepathic will. What she got as a reply was kobold hiss and murmur, but she got Nyx’s help in translating them so she completely understood them.
“I see.” Sumire glanced at Shion. “Whatever you offered to the Frozen Heart girls is protecting us now.”
Shion made a shrugging gesture but due to her bulky armor, the action became awkward. “I merely give them a cultivation technique that would be beneficial in the long term. Though, they will need a large amount of resources to properly cultivate it. Anyhow, we have to support them as soon as possible.”
“That’s true. Let’s go.” Sumire followed the hulking metal figure of Shion.
…
The corridor is covered by overgrown vines and ents. They were receiving snow and ice-path saturation attacks but they resist the corrosion of the cold. Despite being half-frozen, they could still move albeit in greatly decreased movement speed.
“What is the meaning of this?” Anastasia knew what’s going on, but she played dumb because she sensed Shion’s familiar presence behind the door. Three other girls stayed behind her, protecting the door that led to the room where Sumire’s kobold had stayed. She was fulfilling her part of the bargain after receiving the cultivation technique from Kasumi.
Needless to say, Radiant Desolation and Thousand Flower wanted to get their hands on whatever it is that Twin Helix got from secretly taking the inheritance hidden in the fortress.
“Twin Helix has forgo their duties to protect fort Esela. Isn’t it normal for us to ask for compensation?” Radiant Desolation’s leader, Li Xiao Bai, answered Anastasia’s question.
At this time, the door that Frozen Heart has been protecting opened. The cramped corridor became even more so after the presence of the 2.5 meter tall armored Shion. “Did you say something about… forgoing their duties?” Her voice was so deep and borderline synthetic.
“Yes. Isn’t that what happened?” Li Xiao Bai’s eyes shone in concealed greed the moment he saw each of Twin Helix members going out of the room donned in sleek alloy armor. With a glance, he knew they were exosuits that were usually worn by military forces of almost every country, but the worth of their exosuits should be higher than normal because even the military wouldn’t be able to refine them with this level of craftsmanship.
“The alliance contract indeed implies that each team would be responsible to guard Fort Esela depending on its respective area. However, have you realized that Frozen Heart is taking care of two portions instead of only their own?” Shion replied.
Li Xiao Bai frowned. In reality, they too, have just recently came out of their own inheritance space and received a significant growth in terms of resources and methods. Their confidence came from the immense benefit that they received from the minor inheritance that they plunder.
Although it seems implausible for two minor inheritances to be located in one location at once, the reality is, this was pretty common. Minor or True Inheritances have all sorts of shape and form. It could be a micro-plane, a scroll, or sword, or even a painting which was an entrance to its own minor dimension. It could even be in the shape of pure telepathic will (True Meaning), which was pretty common in True Inheritances.
And so, it just happened that the one that Hana and Li Xiao Bai took is coincidentally placed near Combat Exosuit Minor Inheritance.
The two teams just came out of their inheritance space and absorbed the intel gathered by one of Hana’s trump cards, the mimic ents, when they replaced the two team’s members. Despite merely mimics, they actually perform Thousand Flower and Radiant Desolation’s responsibilities, so the two teams have ‘never’ left fort Esela despite otherwise. The two captains learn that Twin Helix has been missing and quickly head over to where they were last seen.
The moment Shion came out from the room donned in an exosuit which was already borderline with magic machinery armor, their greed rose.
The two captains have yet to confirm things with Anastasia because honestly, those pale girls are quite difficult to deal with. They were too rigid and morally upright to backstab or blackmail other people, so they didn’t bother too much with her team.
However, Shion’s rhetoric now explains why Frozen Heart girls are covering for Shion. Frozen Heart is guarding Fort Esela on behalf of Twin Helix not because of dereliction of duty, but because they have deals to begin with. Since that is so, then Hana and Li Xiao Bai couldn’t use the justification of forgoing duty to blackmail Shion.
This was quite problematic.
It’s not like they never tried to have a secret deal with Frozen Heart. It’s just that, their unity is so strong that unless one could make an effort that moved all of them, Anastasia wouldn’t accept any under-the-table deals.
Which means, Shion has bought Frozen Heart with something that they couldn’t offer. The question is, what?
What could move the whole team of these pale women so that they stood on Shion’s side?
Li Xiao Bai and Hana traded glances with each other, communicating at the speed of light. “Very well, then.” Hana led the rest of Thousand Flower and Radiant Desolation to the surface.
Hana and Li Xiao Bai might be impulsive, but they are not brain dead enough to fight against an antimage with a Soul Armament who inherited a magic machinery armor. The alliance contract wouldn’t allow it either. Losing their casus belli meant they couldn’t extort benefit from whatever Twin Helix received in the inheritance they took.
Shion’s plan to buy Frozen Heart members is truly a prudent action.
“Thank you.” Shion extended her armored hand to Anastasia.
The pale girl smiled happily. “You’re welcome. Hey Shion, during the days you were gone, I’ve been cultivating Broken Wings Body Tempering art nonstop and my six physical attributes have been increasing steadily!” The originally cold and disinterested girl has become a chatterbox. The gap of personality that she showed was so great that everyone had to raise an eyebrow.
At this time, a prismatic bright light came out of the underground storage room which interrupted Anastasia’s non stop muttering. Then, a 2.5 meter tall mecha-like armor came out of the room. This figure was too well-made to be called an exosuit, it was like a power armor instead. It was made from iridescent materials which gleamed in prismatic colors.
“What the actual fuck? Did you make yourself a power armor?” Shion stared at Ayame who’s clad in that armor.
Ayame possessed her own dimensional storage methods, that was obvious. Unlike the one that Shion possessed, her dimensional storage has a small tributary of the river of time flowing into it. Meaning, time flows instead of frozen.
Some might think that a dimensional storage with time progressing isn’t a good one, but that isn’t actually a universal case. Some methods, if used properly, could be extremely useful.
What Ayame kept in those special dimensions are Fabricator Units, connected with Furnace units through conveyor belts and industrial inserters, supported by temperature regulators and others. In other words, she brought a mini-factory with her at all times. It needs to be said that hers are far more advanced than those inside Combat Exosuit micro-plane, having greater productivity and efficiency.
Due to the limited dimensional burden that the Combat Exosuit micro-plane could handle, she could not typically ‘summon’ objects from this storage dimension, so this function isn’t used very well in fear of breaking the micro-plane instantly.
But now that she returned to the main world, she could resupply and use any equipment that she had from the said dimensional storage or directly retrieve her stuff from Cloud Storage. Of course, the ‘resupply’ in her words is completely different from what others would expect.
Murasaki Clansmen aren’t allowed to bring power armor or exosuit outside Galatreon unless they were under special mission. This was the barest minimum rule so that they are allowed entrance in any country. After all, Murasaki clansmen’s power armor is in a completely different league than any others. Their bloodlines are specifically modified for the usage of magic machinery artifacts.
Allowing Murasaki clansmen to enter their territory is like inviting foregin soldiers to their territory. At the very least, these foreign soldiers should be as less ‘armed’ as possible. This rule extended to restrict all regarding blueprints or other related to power armor. The Mass Fabricator, which was typically used by specialized Power Armor known as Special Assault Armor, is also included in the restriction.
However, it is a completely different matter if any Murasaki clansmen got their own hands on a blueprint from outside. This simple rule matters a lot because designs from Galatreon are military secrets, each of them are extremely powerful if any country could replicate them.
Since Ayame could download physical data resources such as Solid Photon or others through the World Wide Weave and then refine them within her own dimensional factory, a time consuming and physically demanding task of refining a power armor isn’t actually that difficult for her.
Of course, that does not discount the necessary industrial capacity and advanced resources to refine a power armor, but isn’t Galatreon specialized for that endeavor?
“No, this is just an exosuit without an internal reactor. Why? I thought we’re going to go fight against Thousand Flower and Radiant Desolation? I went to the hassle of designing the model as close as possible to Takemikazuchi Mk. 2.” Ayame replied innocently.
The biggest difference between a power armor and an exosuit is the internal system. Which means, at the very least, a power armor not only having an internal reactor, but also hosts a Virtual Intelligence that will assist its pilot. Ayame’s brain is already a host for an advanced type of Virtual Intelligence known as Artificial Intelligence, and her triple mana pool could serve as a pseudo-reactor. Therefore, any exosuit that she wore would be as powerful as any mass produced power armor.
Shion was in a daze. She muttered a name that shocked Kasumi to the core. This girl…is truly too much to handle.
“Did you say Takemikazuchi Mk. 2? Can you elaborate?” Shion asked.
“Oh… You don’t know, vice-captain? I thought you’re quite familiar with one of the most advanced mechas ever invented.” Sakuya spoke through her black exosuit.
“I am knowledgeable, but there’s always a sky above the skies.” Shion brushed her off.
“True.” Sakuya nodded after a bit of thought. “Well, as far as I know, Takemikazuchi is the giant mecha that Murasaki Shizuku, one of the two Great Archmage’s wife, pilotted to fight against Demon King Maximilian… right?” Sakuya raised a question at Ayame as if she’s unsure.
“That’s right. Ancestor Murasaki Shizuku donned the MEKA known as Takemikazuchi Mk. 7. The ‘Mark 7.n’ behind its name signifies the 7th generation meka which can only be piloted by a rank 6 Sovereign, so the second generation that this thing is based on one that can only be piloted by someone of rank 1. But, this is a mere replication and not an actual meka, so I can only replicate… roughly a percent of its original power…” She muttered as the Mage Armor-type exosuit is being stored part by parts.
The solid photons and other materials whose structural integrity would be heavily affected by the passage of time are immediately stored within one of her dimensional storage that does not have a tributary of the river of time so that it can be used again later.
“I… see.” Shion suddenly turned mute. It took her a few odd seconds before she spoke. “Alright, let’s return to the surface. I need to try a few things.” she muttered softly, but even a dumbass could feel the shakiness in her voice. It seems like something bothered her.
“You alright there, captain?” Ayame asked.
“Nothing for you to worry about.” She dissed Ayame. “Anastasia, have you met with difficulties in cultivating the body tempering art? Let’s discuss this while I try a few things.” She tried to switch the topic as she got close to Anastasia.
The pale girl did not deny. Despite Shion wearing a heavy exosuit which was obviously a precious inheritance, Anastasia did not show any greed. Not because of the lack of one, but because she has a principle. Besides, Shion has already given her and her team a great benefit, greed is something that people from the Seas of Eternal Winter could suppress as if it was their inherent talent.
Otherwise, they won’t be famous for their unnatural sense of unity.
While Shion is exchanging casual conversation with Anastasia and sometimes the other, her primary lightning core was trying to suppress the shock that she felt.
‘Takemikazuchi… wasn’t he one of the Sovereign Magus on the same level of ‘Intelligent Metal’, ‘Grimsong Specter’ Mordred, and Mordred’s big brother? How much memory loss does my main soul experience in the previous ‘death’? I’m pretty sure Magus Takemikazuchi has a strong connection with the MEKA that Murasaki Shizuku piloted during the 4th calamity…’
Although Shion is conversing normally with the other hunters, Kasumi, who controlled her body, was distracted. Kasumi really wanted to pass the information regarding Magus Takemikazuchi to her main soul, but that'll have to wait until they have a chance to converse properly.
