Chapter 213: The Storm Gathers
Kalpas crushed the last remaining puppet head in his bare hand, grinding it to dust. The corridor around them had long since been pounded into rubble by the fighting.
"Hmph." Kalpas tossed the fragments aside and looked around at the group. "Not bad."
During the battle, even while dealing with the puppets himself, he'd kept an eye on how the others were doing. Still green, the lot of them — but they had decent enough form when it counted.
Especially Kiana. Over these past few days, his flames had been getting more and more respectable. Not bad at all.
"They've gone too far. Can't pinpoint their location." Sirin stood on a chunk of rubble, gazing into the empty void stretching out before her. "Looks like pursuit is off the table."
"Because that bunch has always been cockroaches." Kalpas crossed his arms and stared at the puppet fragments at his feet. A flash of anger crossed his face — followed by a long sigh.
He'd vented. So what? It was already done and over. All you could do was let off steam. Beyond that, there was nothing.
Irene glanced over at Kalpas, who seemed to be quietly stewing, and shook her head. Then she turned to Sirin. "Not a single trace, then? As the Herrscher of the Void, there shouldn't be anyone more capable than you when it comes to Imaginary Space, right?"
"Oh, there are traces, plenty of them — the problem is that from where I'm standing, there are over a dozen of them stretching off in different directions." Sirin looked out into the distance. "I followed two of them, but both just... fizzled out after a while."
"Who knows which ones are real? And judging by how they operate, there's a good chance they've deliberately split up to scatter and flee."
"If we want to give chase, it's going to be difficult. And the moment we lose even a little more time, if they get far enough away, finding them again becomes nearly impossible. Tracking someone through Imaginary Space is a lot harder than you'd imagine."
"Understood." Irene gave a single nod. She hadn't expected to catch the Herrscher of the Legion in one go anyway. The Herrscher of the Legion wasn't the most powerful Herrscher — but they were absolutely the hardest to kill, simply because of numbers.
On top of that, the Legion's Herrscher of this era had the Theater of Domination on their side, letting them hole up inside Imaginary Space and become even harder to find. This time they'd slipped up, which was the only reason they'd managed to get caught. But that lot had cut and run so fast it would make your head spin — they'd abandoned their own people without a second thought.
They'd just have to find another opportunity later.
"Still, it's not like we came away empty-handed." Irene gave the chain in her hand a small tug. Several small cores dangled into view — caught in the links, wrapped tight in thin threads of light, trembling.
"With these, tracking them down again shouldn't be too hard, assuming we get the chance." Irene secured the fragments back inside the Key of Binding. "Let's go. We're heading back."
Sirin reached out and opened a portal home. Kalpas crushed the body he'd been using — the one constructed from the Corruption Authority — and returned to Irene's own body.
As she received Kalpas back, Irene reflected on what she'd seen. The Corruption Authority could copy a body and lend it out for others to inhabit — but when it came to Little Corruption herself, she was the Herrscher of Corruption. The fit was perfect.
For everyone else, though, it was just borrowing. There would always be a gap. Elysia had only used it briefly before, stepping out for a quick chat and nothing more — that had been fine.
But the moment things came to blows, that small gap became a gulf. It was clear they'd need to get the bodies in the cloning tanks sorted out sooner rather than later.
She was still turning that over in her mind as she stepped through the portal.
— Theater of Domination —
A vast theater slowly pieced itself back together in the void. One corridor along its outer edge was missing, and at its center, a huge swarm of puppets had gathered.
They were not in a calm mood.
"This is outrageous. Outrageous!" The puppets roared with frantic voices. Several of them leaped down from their seats and pointed up at the cluster of puppets standing on the raised dais at the center.
"You were the ones who said this plan would work. That's why we went along with it. And now look — we've lost over a dozen friends!"
"Puppet Number 266." One of the dais puppets picked up a gavel from somewhere and slammed it against the table. "Our plan was perfect."
"The problem was with those who carried it out. They shouldn't have even been in that situation. Once Seele was neutralized, they should have converted her into one of us."
"As for Schicksal — I'll admit I underestimated Otto. He spotted the anomaly almost immediately. But so what?"
"If you don't like our proposals, let's hear yours."
The puppet who'd spoken shrank back at that. But then another rose to its feet, eyes fixed on those above.
"But this is still a failure of leadership. You misjudged Otto, and because of that we've lost a whole pile of puppets for nothing — and now we've exposed ourselves to Schicksal."
At those words, a wave of response rippled through the crowd. Puppets raised their hands all around, like a tribunal turning on the dais.
"Exactly! I've been working hard to gather intelligence on Schicksal's side — and now Schicksal is going to inspect everyone. Who's going to answer for that?"
"Same here! I'm embedded in Schicksal's logistics division. I was on track to get access to the Immortal Blades. If something happens to me, what then?"
Grievances like these erupted over and over among the puppets — even petty, trivial complaints got aired. Some puppets charged straight up onto the dais.
"Order! Or-..." The puppet with the gavel didn't even get to finish before one of the charging puppets grabbed it and hurled it off the platform. Several more puppets began brawling on the dais.
After a while, the last puppet left standing on the dais picked up the discarded gavel and began to knock it again.
"Then it is we who shall propose the next course of action."
— Hyperion —
"Ahhh, even if you ask us so earnestly, Miss Irene, this really puts us in a bind." Einstein gazed at the chained core fragments Irene had set on the table, an expression of mild helplessness on her face.
"Even if we wanted to research these, we wouldn't know where to begin. Our work with Herrschers is... rather limited."
Their Sovereign was technically a Herrscher, yes — but every Herrscher's situation was different. The Herrscher of Reason, for one, certainly didn't have anything like multiple cores to speak of.
"Just give it a try. Nothing to lose from trying." Irene shrugged. They couldn't exactly let the Legion just wander in and out as they pleased. And given their behavior, there were almost certainly more of them inside Anti-Entropy.
Definitely more than just that one — Xiao Lin.
"Yes, yes, understood." Einstein nodded. The gravity of the situation wasn't lost on her. Nobody had expected the Herrscher of the Legion to still exist — to have emerged entirely beneath their notice.
When had the Herrscher emerged? Unknown. How many had infiltrated? Unknown. But letting them continue to operate freely was unthinkable.
"The screening process is going to take time, though." Tesla crossed her arms. There was, technically, a method to rapidly identify potential vessels — but it would take time.
And in that time, who knew what the Herrscher of the Legion might get up to.
"Honestly, no one knew the Herrscher of the Legion had already emerged." Irene waved a hand. "But what's done is done. No point dwelling on it."
"Right now what matters is what's in front of us. As for the research — I have two people who can help."
"Oh?"
Irene tilted slightly to one side, and two beams of light flew from her hand, gradually taking shape in the air. The figures that materialized were Mobius and Vill-V.
At the sight of them, both Tesla and Einstein's eyes lit up. Mobius they weren't so familiar with — but Vill-V they knew. A mechanical genius of the first order.
And anyone standing alongside Vill-V as a partner had to be operating at the same level, right?
Irene wasn't done. She reached into her pocket and produced MEI's card, pressed it against herself, and then decisively handed over control.
[MEI, she's all yours.]
"Mm... I know. I'll handle it properly." MEI's voice came out a little flat, but it was still better than the completely withdrawn state from before.
"Oh — Mei?" Tesla stared at the MEI who had taken over Irene's form, that familiar face making the name slip out before she'd thought about it. But then she looked again and realized it wasn't her.
The bearing was completely different. And the figure, too.
"Hello. I'm MEI." MEI raised her hand and gave a small wave to the two of them, then let her gaze settle on Einstein's face, something wistful and apologetic in her eyes.
"Ah, so you're Dr. MEI." Tesla nodded. The name was familiar enough — there was an entry for her in the Soulium records on the Moon.
"At first glance I thought it was Mei."
"My, my. It seems Dr. Tesla's eyesight has truly declined with age." Einstein shook her head with an expression of exaggerated sorrow. "It would appear the prolonged drain on her intellect has finally claimed her vision as well."
"But don't worry — merciful as I am, I will certainly remember to look after you. You have my word. I will take very good care of yo—"
"Go die, Chicken Nest Head." Tesla had zero patience for Einstein's needling. Two sentences in and she was already raising a metal fist and giving chase.
Einstein, who had been prepared for exactly this, bolted sideways — but as a homebody lab rat, she hadn't taken two steps before Tesla caught her and hauled her back.
"You thought you could outrun me at this range? If you'd actually managed it, I'd give you this." Tesla raised a thumb.
"Sadly, you didn't. So all you get is this." She flipped the thumb upside down, eyes bright with triumph.
"Alright, alright, Tesla wins, duly noted." Einstein gave a round of mock applause. "Okay, that's enough. Get up — we still have work to do."
"Tch..." Tesla clicked her tongue, stood up, and pulled Einstein to her feet as she did. Einstein shot an apologetic look at the other three — though none of them were particularly fazed.
If nothing else, Elysia had pulled stunts far more unhinged than this. They were long past the point of being surprised. So without further comment, everyone prepared to move on to studying the cores —
— when a notification suddenly popped up on the computer nearby. It was from Rin.
"Yoo-hoo, good afternoon." Rin's voice came through the speaker. "Just a moment ago, we received a message from Schicksal — more specifically, from Overseer Otto's office. It's a... warning letter."
"Hm. That tracks." Einstein blinked, mildly surprised for a moment — then quickly put it together. She had a decent idea of what had happened. "It's the same thing that hit us, more or less. Schicksal's been infiltrated by the Legion as well."
The Herrscher of the Legion would never have been content to hit just one target. In all likelihood they'd made moves elsewhere too. The World Serpent was probably fine — they didn't have many people to infiltrate.
"I honestly expected Dr. Einstein to be a bit more surprised." Rin gave a small nod. She hadn't expected Otto to be this decent about it — getting infiltrated himself and then sending a warning letter to everyone else. She'd even wondered if there was some trap buried inside, but checking had turned up nothing.
In the end, Otto had simply sent a warning letter. Nothing more.
"Perfectly in character. Otto never does anything out of the goodness of his heart unless the situation is bad for everyone." Irene reclaimed control from MEI, spread her hands, and laid it out for the group:
"When that happens, Otto will do whatever it takes to turn a universally bad situation into one that at least benefits him. If even that's not possible — then a situation that's good for everyone right now works just as well."
And the thing that would be bad for everyone in the near future was undeniably the Herrscher of the Legion. Though it wasn't surprising — their side had only seen a handful of them here. The rest of the Herrscher's Legion wouldn't just be sitting somewhere doing nothing.
From the encounters they'd had so far, it was obvious this faction harbored tremendous hostility toward the human world. If only a few had come here, then the rest had to be harassing somewhere else — Schicksal, the World Serpent.
And the odds of negotiating with the Herrscher of the Legion were essentially zero. So naturally, Otto would report it to everyone and drag all parties into dealing with the problem together.
What's more, Otto had a particular need for the Herrscher of the Legion — or more precisely, for the Legion's cores, to serve his own ends. But since this was something everyone needed to resolve, Otto would naturally drag everyone in without a moment's hesitation.
"What did the warning letter actually say?"
"Pretty much what you guessed." Rin forwarded the contents to Irene's action terminal. "Basically, it says that several individuals claiming to be affiliated with us approached Schicksal and were intercepted — apparently threatening to hand over everything about our operations."
"But Otto spotted the problem almost immediately. Naturally — someone like Otto was never going to trust a free lunch that walked through the front door."
"Very consistent with Overseer Otto's character." Irene nodded. "Well... I suppose I'll need to find a time to thank him. Though I imagine that time won't be long in coming."
"It almost sounds like you already know something, Irene." Tesla raised an eyebrow. "Care to share? Being kept in the dark is not a comfortable feeling."
"Well, I can't very well tell you about things that haven't happened yet." Irene shook her head. "All I can say is that Otto won't be giving us trouble much longer."
"As if anyone would believe Otto is just going to stop giving us trouble." Tesla rolled her eyes. Did they not know what kind of man Otto was?
Expecting Otto to stop being a problem for them was about as realistic as expecting that man to walk into the room and hang himself from the nearest rafter.
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