Strawberry Devil in a Fantasy World

Once Mae had accepted my assistance, I quickly healed her back to full health.

Generosity is in my blood!

Because of the impact from earlier, her specialized magitech rifle had been damaged severely. Luckily, there were no intricate parts exposed so I was able to repair it by attaching the broken pieces thereby returning it to its original form. A special scope was added since the original one went missing.

After that, I had a test run to make sure it wouldn't jam before loading it up with a single bullet. This one bullet should be more than enough to destroy a fey core.

"There you go. I added a special sight on your scope that allows you to see the location of fey cores. The bullet here is quite special as well. I'm sure you understand what I'm getting at, no?" I said and handed the rifle back to her.

"Yes..."

"Good! Now I'll be watching from afar. Do your best, alright? If you miss the target, you might not get a second chance."

She grimaced but otherwise remained silent.

Now I have to do is sit back and enjoy th-

Just then, I received a summon from Mera.

What bad timing! We're just getting to the good part...

And, to think she completed all of her objectives so soon... Sheesh. I underestimated her skills. Let's check her situation real quick before showing up.

From above Formere, I did notice a few magic circles were down for the count. Though if I didn't pay attention before, I wouldn't have noticed that any had went missing.

Eh, whatever, looks good to me. Gabriel, do your best!

Since I didn't want to keep Mera waiting, I answered the summon, appearing next to her and hovering in my childlike fairy form with a wizard outfit and a shiny wand.

"Wish granting fairy, Kerry, at your service!" I spun around as I announced that gleefully.

Kerry was the alias I just decided to use whenever I answered summons.

"That prick!" Mera said with a grumble and yelled, "Did she give me the wrong summon? What kind of stupid prank is this!?"

"Ehh... Ahh..." My eyes darted around trying to find who she was fuming at. 

She kept her voice to a loud whisper. "Kerry? Give me Berry."

"It's me...Berry. I'm just using an alias." I replied with my shoulders slumped.

She did a double take and blurted, "Eh? What?"

"So, what's your command? I don't see any enemies here?"

We were underground in a storage facility some sort with wooden crates stacked here and there. The room was lit with magic crystals nearly aligned on the ground. This wasn't a place I had paid any attention to when I had scanned the city.

"This is just a safe place for me to call you. There's a hidden passage that I would like to investigate, please."

"What's there?"

"In the past, the fake guardian sometimes used it. Unfortunately, I can't get past the barrier to look into it myself."

"Oh? That's interesting. I can take a look, sure."

"That doesn't count as a command, does it?"

"Mm... No."

"Thanks. I'll lead the way."

This place was like a labyrinth in that it only had one path aside from random storage rooms. Everything looked the same, however, at the end of the passage was a steel door that looked slightly out of place. It had no doorknob and on the white steel frame was a mini touch pad that looked to be from a different era.

"This is the one." She said.

"Hmm..."

I could see a passage beyond it but something felt strange about it. Even with my eyes, the passage seemed fuzzy. Though, I couldn't sense any danger from it.

Well, since I don't have a code for it, let's just bypass it.

With me around, there was no barrier that I couldn't pass through.

Past that gate, the walls became solid white steel illuminated with electricity powered crystals. There were even touch pads next to all the doors along the hallway. As a matter of fact, it seemed like we entered a hallway of some sort.

"Wow, I didn't think elves were this sophisticated..."

"I'll take that as a compliment. Now hurry before the sentries come."

"Sentries?"

"They're mechanical golems. They come out of some of these rooms periodically but they only patrol this area. Once we leave this area, the sentries should no longer bother us."

"How do you know that?"

Apparently, different areas of this place followed different designs and functioned differently or at least that was what she was told.

Like... Where am I? I can't even see the surface of Formere from here!? Not even with my tactical sight? What's going on!? Where's the forest?

I have a bad feeling about this... Even if no one tells me, I think I have a good idea what I'm getting myself into.

"I've snuck in here once before with several... Friends... before. They lost their lives. It was hell trying to escape."

"Ehh... I'm sorry about that."

"Don't mind it. For your information, some of these doors lead to other places that that negate magic."

"Can you elaborate?"

"Teleportation gates."

"Ahh... Okay. I get it. By the way, where exactly are we? I don't sense Formere anywhere."

"We're not? I thought we are?"

She seemed just as perplexed as I was. This could only mean trouble.

I quickly checked my status to make sure I was still linked to the system. Thankfully, it was still there.

Echo, what is this place?

[It is a subspace.]

Eh... Ah, that makes sense, I guess? Who's subspace is it?

[It belonged to the previous world administrator.]

Figures. It seems to contain quite a few gates. Does any of these connect to other worlds?

[Unable to advise.]

I guess that makes sense this isn't my subspace. I'll have to keep my eyes peeled open for clues.

Honestly, I'm just relieved I haven't been ejected out of this place yet. If a fight breaks out here, I don't know if I'll be able to survive.

She first took the right hand path, and I followed along. After a bit, she said something irresponsible. "From here on out, I don't know the exact way to get there."

You serious!?

The two of us stopped in front of a four way intersection. Since the paths weren't straight, we had no clue which to pick.

"We're trying to reach the demon or fake guardian, right?" I asked just to confirm our goal.

"Yes." She nodded.

"Well, funny, I'm receiving multiple energy signatures in this place. I honestly can't tell which one is the one you're looking for... So just pick any one? But personally, I believe we should retreat and wait for the fake guardian to come out because fighting in this space is extremely disadvantageous for the two of us."

"Oh, is that so?"

"Yes, this is a subspace. Although the creator is no longer present, the current administrator of this place if such a being exists would be next to invincible."

"I see..."

"Also, don't you want to find your fiancée?"

"Huh, are you getting cold feet? Obviously if I can get rid of that fake guardian, he'll come back to me! We're not leaving this place until I figure it out."

Oh boy oh boy...

I'm missing out on such a good show at Rotask...

Within this subspace, I seemed to have lost the capability to monitor outside activities. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that I lost a pair of eyes.

"This place is no different than a maze. Now I don't mind fighting a couple demons and whatnot, but it would be a waste if you had to use a command on a demon that isn't your target." I said.

"True... Wait, no! If that's the case, we should eliminate all of them! They're a threat to our nation. We can't have them lurking here."

"Sure, sure."

I intended to persuade her to leave at once, yet it wasn't working at all. My charm just wasn't powerful enough, apparently.

Even with my tactical eyes, I couldn't figure out the size of this entire subspace. The passages twisted and turned both left and right, and sloped up and down. Occasionally, at the end of a passage, there would be an elevator connecting to other levels. It was a three dimensional maze in the truest sense.

"You know, we've been wandering around here for a while. When do those sentries come out?"

"It's hard to keep track of time in here but I would say at least ten times a day?"

"That's quite frequent."

"I'm leaving them to you!"

I feel like this is a grey area... It's one of those "if you think too much, you lose!" kind of thing. I'll just follow her and hope for the best.

While we were wandering around, hoping to bump into the one she was searching for, I probed around and tried to study this maze.

"Mera, I think some of these doors would lead to other floors. Let's give it a try? Think about it this way, even if we keep following these passages, what's the chance of meeting a demon?" And, to be more persuasive, I added, "Also, if we don't finish this soon, my daughter will cry. I can't keep her waiting."

"Eh? That's what you're worried about? That's a joke, right?"

I threw up my arms and exclaimed, "Look! We don't even know how much time is passing!"

She just shrugged, "Oh, that you don't have to worry about. Time here flows normally unlike your weird place."

"Hey! My place isn't weird." I declared indignantly.

"Whatever, I get your point. Let's try a few doors. Also, whatever you do, keep away from those touch pads."

"Touching those things would invite those machines over, right?"

"Something like that..." Her voice trailed off at the end.