“I know, but it just seemed wrong,” Seraphina explained. “Were we transforming the monster girls into those… blobs?”
Quinta stared at her for a long moment. Then, she stood up and walked to the window, looking out at the outpost below.
“I will make an exception this once,” Quinta said, keeping her back to Seraphina. “Everything we have done there is to win the war against monster girls, Kaijus, and Aberrations. Without our labs and the captured monster girls, our mech program would not exist. Imagine how many cities would be destroyed. Think of your home city, Vambrace. Would you be fine with it going away?”
“No,” Seraphina said.
Quinta turned around. “We use the monster girls as both a power source and a thaumic strengthener. Their biological material contains mana densities we cannot replicate synthetically. Without those ‘blobs,’ as you call them, our mechs would be scrap metal within seconds of engaging a Kaiju.”
“Some of that lab stuff didn’t seem safe,” Seraphina countered. “There was a version of the blobs with the upper bodies of monster girls sticking out of them, stuck in large vats. But when they emerged, they began growing rapidly until the Kaiju chimera ate them.”
“Those are unpurified Synergy Sources,” Quinta explained. “A few complicated processes need to happen to make them purified, such that they can be safely utilized inside the mechs. The vats keep them completely docile and restrained.”
“Oh, I guess that makes sense,” Seraphina said. She rubbed her back as if she were nervous. “Sorry, I thought the scientists were experimenting on something they shouldn’t have back there.”
Quinta nodded and walked back to her desk. She tapped a notification on her screen. “Now, I think we have discussed enough grim topics for one morning, as well as topics beyond your clearance level. We are holding a funeral service for the personnel of OU-U-1 in a few days. A memorial. I will be attending. You should join us, Archangel. It would mean a lot to the rest of the staff.”
I noticed how smoothly she switched the topic. She didn’t want Seraphina digging any deeper.
“I’m still uncomfortable with the blobs,” I forced Seraphina to say. Her voice was steady, despite her attempts to fight me. “They look like mad science experiments.”
Director Quinta didn’t even blink. She merely clasped her hands on the desk.
“Sometimes we do not get the comfort to choose in war, Archangel,” Quinta replied smoothly. “We do what we must.”
“Not good enough,” I thought.
“Have you ever seen them, Director?” Seraphina asked. I made her lean forward slightly, mimicking genuine concern. “Up close? They look like stuff out of nightmares. They look… evil. And the meat ones… the purified ones… they seem to be constantly in pain. Like they are stuck screaming.”
Seraphina’s heart rate spiked. She didn’t want to say this. But I held her there. It would be more useful if Seraphina were aligned with our goals. And the easiest way to do that was to break her view of the Monster Purifiers.
Quinta’s expression hardened.
“It is best not to focus on the aesthetics of our survival,” Quinta said, her voice dropping an octave. “We cannot back down now. Those ‘experiments,’ as you call them, are the spine of our defense. We are humanity’s last chance at survival. If we falter because the methods are unsightly, then the Kaiju win. And if the Kaiju win, your family in Vambrace won’t be safe. You want to protect your family, right? You don’t want them to be eaten.”
“No,” Seraphina said. “Still, it makes me extremely queasy thinking about all this. The images can’t stop leaving my mind.”
“Very well,” Quinta said. “I can make a recommendation to visit one of the on-site therapists. They will be able to prescribe you amnesia-inducing drugs to help you get through this.”
“I think I’ll pass on the drugs,” I had Seraphina say while shaking her head.
“Then we are done here,” Quinta said, turning back to her holographic screens. “Archangel, you are dismissed if you have no further questions. Feel free to schedule a visit with the on-site therapists at any time.”
“Thank you, director,” Seraphina said, standing up. She headed outside the director’s office, and I released her.
She gasped, her body sagging. She shivered violently, hugging her arms to her chest. Seraphina didn’t say another word as she immediately headed towards the exit. She walked through the sterile white corridors, ignoring the salutes of passing personnel.
She flew off into the sky, dashing towards her apartment building. She reached her room, and the heavy door slid shut behind her. She immediately collapsed onto the edge of her bed, burying her face in her hands.
"Why?" she whispered to the empty air, her voice cracking. "Why did you make me say that? Why did you make me lie?"
She pulled her hands away, staring at her palms. "I don't know if Quinta is telling the truth. I don't know anything anymore." She stood up and paced the small room. "The memorial service. I just need to get to the memorial service. It'll make sense then. It has to. I can't… I can't think about the meat blobs right now. If I do, I’ll lose my mind."
“Ugh!” She cried out. “I can get their images out of my head.”
I felt tears building up in her eyes. “Just stop thinking.”
“Hopefully, this sets her on the right track,” I told Samsara. Life would be a lot easier if Seraphina agreed with us.
"Yeah, I hope it wakes her up," Samsara replied, her mental voice heavy with concern. "She needs to see what they’re actually doing. It’s monstrous. If the roles were reversed—if we were grinding up humans to power machines—they’d find it terrible. But they do it to us, and it’s all necessary.”
"Hypocrites," I mentally spat.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
I shifted my focus to our projection.
Inside the stilted house, the miniature version of us sat on a wooden stool. Nara was happily munching on her grilled deer meat, grease shining on her chin. She pushed a wooden plate toward our projection.
"Here! Try it cooked," Nara offered, her tail waving in the air. "The humans say it brings out the flavor."
My projection picked up a skewer of grilled meat. It smelled smoky and rich, different from the raw vanilla and citrusy tang I was used to. I took a bite. It tasted more like a combination of cheese and oranges this time, with the spices on top adding richness. Interesting. I slurped up the Core stored inside the meat.
I [Tracked] my mana and my souls. My excess mana had gone from 10,000 to 10,050. Plus, my souls had increased by 1 to 4,436.
"It works," I thought, satisfied. "The projection can absorb mana and souls from food. That makes the cost of [Project] way more manageable."
"And cooked food tastes pretty good," Samsara added, savoring the lingering taste of the spices the humans had used. "We should ask them to cook for us sometime."
"Maybe later," I said. The projection finished the skewer, thanked Nara, and vanished. There goes 1 hour.
My main body was still sitting outside the village entrance. Samsara watched with a mix of curiosity and mild disgust as I raised my right arm.
It was time to test the [Incantations] that Devotio taught us. I thought about detaching my right arm. Wait a minute, my right arm was actually five furled-up tentacles, each ending in one of my fingers. Instead of detaching the whole arm, what if I just did one tentacle?
The black, rubbery skin shifted as I commanded the muscles underneath. My arm, which usually looked like a solid limb ending in five fingers, began to unfurl. They separated, and I started [Focusing] on the [Sacrificial Limb Detach] [Incantation] on the tentacle making up my right thumb.
A sharp, hot pinch radiated from the base of my tentacle. It wasn’t the full agony of losing a whole arm, but still a bit painful. The tentacle fell off, flopping onto the grass below.
"Okay, pain is manageable," I noted, shaking out the remaining four tentacles of my right arm. "Now for the timing test."
Devotio had taught us that [Bomb Infuse] had a standard one-second fuse. That was too fast for long-range throws and too slow for close combat if the enemy moved. Modifiers cost mana, but missing a target effectively wasted 2,000 mana.
I grabbed my detached arm tentacle with a thumb on the end and [Focused]. I made four rings' worth of mana. This left three gaps in between the rings to form [Incantations]. This spell would be made of 3 [Incantations]. The one that went in the inner gap would be [Bomb Infuse]. Then, I would transcribe [Delay | 300]. That would increase the fuse time by 300%, which would mean it would explode in four seconds rather than one second. Then, the last [Incantation] in the spell would be [Expedite | 50].
Simple math. Fifty percent of four seconds is two seconds.
As I completed the spell, the severed tentacle began to glow with a volatile orange light. I scooped it up with my remaining hair tentacles and hurled it outward, a large boulder about a hundred meters away.
“One,” I counted.
Two.
Boom.
The explosion shattered the boulder, sending granite shrapnel flying through the air.
"Perfect timing," I said out loud, a grin spreading across my face.
"Now for the complicated one," Samsara reminded me. "The
I nodded. This was the real mana saver. If I could set up traps that only triggered when I attacked, I wouldn't waste explosions on empty air.
I unfurled my left arm this time, isolating the pinky tentacle. I [Focused] on [Sacrificial Limb Detach]. The pinch stung, but I ignored it. Samsara was getting used to the pain, too.
This time, I started drawing three rings of mana. [Bomb Infuse] became the inner [Incantation] again. After that, I focused on writing [Thaumic Stipulation |
“Snake?” Samsara asked.
“I’m dedicating this first test to you,” I said, wrapping her in a partial hug.
“Aww, thanks,” she said. She returned the hug.
I tossed the arm several dozen meters in front of us.
"Okay, let's trigger it," I thought. Instead of spending mana on a detonation command, I wove the trigger into a cheap offensive spell.
I [Focused] on the tip of one of my hair tentacles. There, I made another outline of a three-ring spell. I put [Blood Spike] as the inner [Incantation] with [Thaumic Link |
As the blue spike began to form on my hand, the distant tentacle flared orange. A second later, it exploded.
"Efficient," I hummed, [Tracking] my mana. “We can lay mines whenever we want now. But before that, we should go eat.”
“And before that, you should let your arms regenerate,” Samsara said.
“Good point.”
After a couple of minutes, my tentacles fully regenerated. I grouped them back together into arms and reformed my hands. Our next target was a Kaiju. A couple of Tier 1 Kaijus or even a single Tier 2 Kaiju should get us enough souls to evolve.
Samsara went to grab Aisling’s shoulder. She had turned invisible again with only her lure showing.
We traveled for about an hour across the grassy plains. The only sounds we heard were the rhythmic thuds of our footsteps and the slithering sound of Samsara’s tail.
Then, my ears twitched.
“...instructing the servants to increase productivity,” a female voice said. “We need to make up for the disaster that happened at OU-U-1.”
“Did you hear that?” I asked Samsara, stopping mid-step.
“Definitely,” Samsara said. “I can’t believe the Monster Purifiers are still out here.”
Agreed. “Let’s stop by for a quick snack.”
We altered our course, moving silently towards the sounds of the Monster Purifiers. I activated [Color Camouflage II], vanishing from sight. Aisling, already invisible, moved along behind us. I made her turn her lure invisible.
We approached a ridge with a small cave jutting out of the ground. Well, small for us. The entrance was probably only 30 meters tall, not even reaching our knees.
"Ma'am, the sensors are spiking," a male voice said. His tone was jagged with panic. "Seismic activity implies a heavy entity. A Kaiju."
"Calm down, technician," the female voice replied. She sounded bored. “They won’t be able to see or smell us.”
This lady forgot about hearing. On the other hand, she probably didn’t expect us to have Demiurge-level hearing.
"But the readings—" the man stammered. "Something is approaching. Fast."
"Let it approach," the woman dismissed him. "It will walk right past us, just like the others. Be prepared to activate the noisemaker once it enters visual range.”
I walked right up to where the voices were emanating from. To my eyes, there was nothing but empty rocks. But my ears told a different story. I could hear the hum of machinery, the scuff of boots on concrete, and the heavy breathing of labor.
I took a step forward, and the illusion shattered. Three buildings appeared out of thin air. One of them was a structure close to where I was standing. It was a domed structure made of steel. The other two looked like office buildings, and they were further back and closer to the cave. A concrete floor had been established below and around them.
I spotted some defenses, but what interested me the most were the people coming in and out of the cave. They were monster girls.