“Then to celebrate the victory……cheers.”

Nayuta raised her gla.s.s smilingly.

It was at the highest floor of high cla.s.s hotel in Ataraxia, [Royal Ataraxia Hotel]. Inside the Chinese food restaurant that was among the lined up high cla.s.s restaurants there, Kizuna and others of Heart Hybrid Gear squad, and the Magic Knight of Vatlantis were gathering.

As expected from a hotel that was usually a purveyor for VIP, it had a magnificent view of Ataraxia’s night scenery from the large window. However, Megafloat j.a.pan that was usually visible was nowhere to be seen right now. When the sight was moved to inside the restaurant, the combination of Chinese outfit that made one recalled the world of Hokuto and the modern design was really pleasing for the eyes. Even while proclaiming the high cla.s.s perception, the atmosphere was mysteriously calming.

However the gathered members were similarly making disheartened face.

“Che……cheers.”

Inside the strange atmosphere that was drifting, whispering voice of cheers with timing that really late and didn’t match with Nayuta’s rally was raised.

Certainly they had defeated one of Deus ex Machina, Hokuto and recovered a part of the world’s configuration information, that was a great achievement.

On the large round table in front of their eyes, high cla.s.s Chinese food were lined up in astonis.h.i.+ng amount. Starting from Peking duck, there was also whole shark fin. Crab soup with swallow nest. Dried abalone steak. Ise prawn, foie gras, sea urchin and so on, high cla.s.s ingredients were used generously, cooking that usually one couldn’t really witness were being lined up.

There were also foods they had familiarity with like mapo tofu or steamed meat dumpling, gyoza, xiaolongpao, chop suey, pepper steak, fried rice and so on, but even those foods were somewhat different than what they could eat at school cafeteria. Most likely its ingredients and the effort for seasoning and the skill to make it was not merely somewhat different but at another level entirely.

The aroma of those foods was mercilessly stimulating the appet.i.te of everyone in attendance. However――,

Right now wasn’t the situation to celebrate so carefree like this wasn’t it?

Which reminded him until now he had never thought about but, from where these high cla.s.s ingredients were coming from?

Such question kept bothering the mind of the partic.i.p.ants here.

“Hmm, what’s the matter? Even though we finally manage to defeat a machine G.o.d and recover half of Lemuria after a great pain……aah, the people of Vatlantis still hasn’t recover their own world’s data, so because of that you all cannot get in the mood for celebration, is that it?”

“……That’s not it.”

Hyakurath who was wearing Ataraxia’s uniform with a napkin held between her collar was forming a wrinkle between her eyebrows.

There were two large round tables. In one table was Sylvia, at her left was Kei, Reiro, Nayuta, then Kizuna, Himekawa, in addition was Vatlantis’s Hyakurath and Mercuria, Valdy and Ragrus, they were sitting in that order.

At the other table were Masters’ Scarlet, Henrietta, Clementine, Sharon, Leila. Also Gertrude who obtained permission for going out was partic.i.p.ating in a wheelchair.

“My, then is it the food? For the celebration of defeating Hokuto, isn’t Chinese food the most fitting for this occasion?”

As though to say that she couldn’t hold back anymore, Reiri hit the table.

“Stop joking around! Just when I thought what were you planning to gather everyone like this. You are just making fun of us!”

“I’m not making fun of everyone or anything. I only want to give appreciation for everyone’s hard work. And then I’m thinking that with this everyone’s willpower can be maintained for the battle we will be heading for after this. Also, for those who are still unable to return home from the battlefront too, I prepare cooking with good nourishment. With the feeling of grat.i.tude toward everyone who had worked hard, I arranged this place but……is this a bother?”

“Uu……”

What she was saying was extremely proper. There was no ground to complaint where they could only express grat.i.tude.

But that was the story for normal person.

The one they were talking with, was that Hida Nayuta.

No matter how, they couldn’t possibly honestly accept this.

Himekawa also knitted her eyebrows and stared fixedly at the foods.

“There is nothing inserted in this foods right……”

That worry wasn’t too excessive, Kizuna thought that.

{There is no need to worry in that point. These foods are undoubtedly created in the kitchen of this restaurant. There is no strange point at all, starting from the ingredients, the cooking, until the foods were put on the table.}

Kei typed on her portable keyboard and opened window in front of the face. Together with the text Kei was typing, the image of the transportation of the ingredients and the cooking in the kitchen, and then the image of monitoring camera inside the restaurant were displayed one after another.

{By the way the ingredients are somehow delivered to the market each morning. Tracking from where it was sent to the market is impossible. However, the confirmation of the safety of the ingredient had been finished.}

“For some reason, it’s really suspicious……”

Toward the frowning Kizuna, Nayuta put her fan covering her mouth and raised a chuckle.

“Fufufu, so you are scared. If it is ingredients that originally existed in Ataraxia, then it’s possible to reproduce it. Saying it in reverse, ingredients that didn’t exist when the data of this Ataraxia was collected is impossible to be obtained though.”

“……For example what?”

“Let’s see……something like gra.s.shopper or frog.”

Kizuna replied with disgusted face.

“That’s unneeded. But――ah”

When he noticed, Scarlet and others were beginning to eat.

“Hee, isn’t this really delicious, this is shark fin you say? The texture is interesting. Isn’t it, Henrietta?”

“I think so. Putting together shark fin and ham is also delicious.”

Clementine was sampling every single kind of xialongpao.

“This is tasty! Inside it there are sea urchin or shrimp inserted yeah! The spring roll too, it has a lot inserted in it!”

Sharon was putting crab soup of swallow nest mechanically into her mouth.

“It’s said that swallow nest, is good for beauty……fufu, fufufufu, I’ll eat as much as I like.”

Leila was checking the menu of the hotel’s restaurant in her smartphone while reaching out her hand to the cooking with difficult expression.

“In what way I can eat the expensive one with the most effectiveness……as expected, abalone is 30,000 yen! No, that highest grade shark fin has unit price of 40,000 yen! Kuh! What’s with this market value! Eei, I’ll call them directly!”

While eating Chinese ham and spare rib, beef fillet meat black pepper stir fry, Scarlet noticed Gertrude who wasn’t moving at all.

“Hey―, you aren’t eating? It’s delicious you know? Or rather, it’s a loss if you don’t eat.”

Gertrude that was staring fixedly at the table with resentful eyes howled.

“You are noisy a.s.shole! I’m still in the middle of hospitalization, there is this thing called eating restriction! Just why did you bring me here!”

“Ah, is that so. Sorry. Well, I thought that it would be pitiful if you are the only one left behind that’s why.”

“Don’t you a.s.shole talk like that while stuffing your cheek with food-! I cannot see any pity in you for me at all like that-!”

Gertrude yelled with teary eyes. Sharon tilted her head with a slightly pitying expression.

“But……at the very least, if you can taste the place’s atmosphere……you will have fun?”

“It’s nothing at all except being tortured you a.s.shole-!” (TN: Seems like the anime attached a.s.shole in Gertrude’s speech, so I’ll also use that here for Gertrude’s characteristic way of talking.)

Leila was typing her calculator while smiling nihilistically.

“This place is a battlefield! My bad but there is no free time to take care of other people! We have never gone anywhere but fast food joint, school cafeteria, or convenience store. A chance to eat this kind of celebrity food will never come again!”

“Eating celebrity food that is pointlessly expensive like that is just degradation! Doing something like mimicking those rich people, you don’t have any pride of the commoner at all you a.s.shole!”

No matter what Gertrude said, Leila’s will wasn’t shaken in the slightest.

“The motto of the commoner, is to eat free food without mercy! You won’t be able to eat this kind of high cla.s.s food if not with other people’s money! Just how much money you think is needed so that you can eat this……fufufu”

The foods in Masters’ table were decreasing in the blink of eye. Kizuna could only smile wryly.

“Even if these foods are poisoned, it’s already too late isn’t it……let’s eat too.”

Kizuna reached out his hand toward the mapo tofu in front of his eyes.

“!? Wait Kizuna. I’ll taste for poison first.”

The moment Reiri said that, she rotated the part of the round table that was a level higher. The tofu that was dyed with the redness of chili oil and the black of minced meat finally arrived in front of Reiri’s eyes. Immediately the fragrance of capsic.u.m, black pepper, and j.a.panese paper stimulated her nasal cavity.

“Fufufu, but perhaps that deep vigilance is advantageous in battle. Here, Reiri.”

Nayuta scooped up white rice into a bowl and gave it to Reiri. Reiri was staring at that bowl with a face as though she was looking at a monster that sprang out from the abyss.

“……What are you doing?”

Nayuta tilted her head in puzzlement at Reiri who was having cold sweat.

“What a strange child. I’m handing over rice to you see? Are you feeling a little nostalgic?”

“……No. Since I was born, not to mention handing over rice to me which you had never done even once, in the first place I don’t have even a single recollection of you cooking.”

“Is that so?”

After Nayuta made a slightly puzzled face. She put the rice bowl in front of Reiri. And then she prepared the next bowl and served white rice again.

Reiri was having cold sweat while glaring at the bowl put before her eyes with a grim face.

Hyakurath who was sitting beside Himekawa who was sitting beside Kizuna, she was holding chopstick while biting her lips with a troubled feeling.

“Excuse me, Himekawa-san. This thing called xiaolongpao, what is the correct way of eating it?”

“Is this your first time eating this Hyakurath-san? Err let’s see, first take it using your sppon, then break the skin and let out the meat juice inside, put sauce and black pepper……”

“Oi, Hyakurath. Why did you ask Himekawa? How about asking me first.”

Mercuria murmured with a dissatisfied face. However Hyakurath answered nonchalantly.

“You don’t know anyway Mercuria.”

“Wha-! It’s not about that. Go to me first before Himekawa.”

“Himekawa-san is different than Mercuria, she possessed common sense, intelligence, and also sense of duty, she is a really diligent person. Rather than someone with bad behavior like you, she is far more reliable.”

Himekawa could only laugh dryly at the exchange of the two. When her gaze was swimming around looking for help, her eyes suddenly met Kizuna’s.

“Hayuru is really popular.”

“Can someone like you really say that……”

She looked up at Kizuna with moist eyes.

“Captain―, is it okay if Sylvia rotate the table desu?”

Sylvia who was sitting at the opposite side was waving her hand. After Kizuna nodded, he rotated the table. In the middle Sylvia took after him and brought the Peking duck in front of herself.

“Is, is that……the Peking duck?”

Ragrus who was sitting beside Sylvia stared doubtfully at the duck meat with thinly sliced skin.

“Somehow……it looked, mostly skin though.”

“This is that kind of food desu. You eat it by wrapping onion and cuc.u.mber together around it desu. It’s delicious desu!”

And then Valdy that was beside Ragrus, she was also not touching the food like Gertrude though because of a different reason. Ahead at the direction where she was staring fixedly was Reiri. If she averted her eyes even for an instant, in that opening Reiri might be attacked. Thinking that, Valdy didn’t let her eyes went from Reiri even for a moment. That Reiri wasn’t touching the rice that was served in the bowl, she was carrying a steamed dumpling into her mouth while murmuring toward no one.

“Good grief……even though Oldium and Golden Dragon’s whereabouts are unknown right now. This carefree gathering is just……”

Nayuta stared at Reiri as though she noticed sharply.

“If it’s their location then I know it you know.”

“――What?”

“Oldium and Golden Dragon are applied with my remodeling, I shared a part of my body with them. And so, I understand in which world they are in.”

“Wh……why, didn’t you say that sooner!?”

Reiri hit the table and stood up vigorously.

The two s.h.i.+ps other than battles.h.i.+p Ataraxia who departed in journey to search for Deus ex machine, Oldium that was boarded by Vatlantis Empire’s members, and the Golden Dragon that was boarded by the alliance of Izgard and Baldein. Nayuta knew the whereabouts of those two s.h.i.+ps. That truth also shocked Kizuna.

“That’s right! Then, we have to head there immediately!”

However Nayuta was scooping apricot pudding while replying in a calm state.

“Just wait. Even if you rush, there will be nothing good coming from it.”

Hyakurath also raised a condemning voice.

“But, even while we are doing this, Grace-san and student council president……no, Grace-sama and Zelcyone-sama, also……Gravel-san too.”

Everyone didn’t hide their irritated feeling and waited for Nayuta’s reply.

“I understand your feeling of wanting to hurry. But even the battles.h.i.+p Ataraxia is largely damaged because of the emergency landing in Hokuto’s world and the escape from the world’s crumbling. A little more time is necessary until it is repaired. Until then, please set aside this time for resting.”

Even if he was told that, Kizuna couldn’t calm down. The other two s.h.i.+ps were in similar situation with them, they were swallowed by s.p.a.ce-time tsunami and should be landing at unknown world somewhere. Right now, he couldn’t even imagine what kind of situation those girls were in. Perhaps they arrived at a terrifyingly dangerous world, perhaps they had fallen into a terrible danger.

Themselves unexpectedly arrived at machine G.o.d Hokuto’s world and narrowly obtained victory. That was because him and Hayuru who had finished Core’s reinstall and also Nayuta were there. However, the other two s.h.i.+ps beside Ataraxia were――,

“It’s fine you know.”

Nayuta smiled thinly.

“In those two s.h.i.+ps, there are Magic Knights that had done Core’s reinstall too isn’t it?”

“!?”

Himekawa didn’t miss that conversation.

She didn’t know that there was anybody else that had done Core’s reinstall. Together with a light shock, she felt desolateness that it wasn’t just her. And then, she became fiercely concerned who were the ones who had the reinstall done on them.

Kizuna was completely ignorant of what was happening inside Himekawa’s heart. He was anxious about the safety of the crews of Oldium and Golden Dragon and dropped his gaze on the table.

Nayuta who was sitting beside him looked up at Kizuna as though she had just remembered something.

“――By the way, Kizuna.”

Was there any other information!? Kizuna turned at Nayuta vigorously thinking that. Kizuna’s desperate expression was met by Nayuta’s lax smile.

“Do you want second?”

After evading Osiris and Yuris.h.i.+a, Grace who safely escaped Necropolis was flying in low-alt.i.tude above the desert. She was flying in quite a speed, but no matter how much she went, the horizon of the desert kept continuing without end.

Finally at the beyond, something swaying like a mirage could be seen. It was a gigantic structure that was half-buried in the desert. Looking from afar it was like a small mountain, but when it was approached it could be understood that it was a manmade structure.

It was a tilted palace that suddenly appeared on the desert.

The flags.h.i.+p of Vatlantis Empire, Oldeum had emergency landing into the desert. The s.h.i.+p’s prow part was buried in the sand, it was tilting to the left while inclining forward.

Looking at that appearance, Grace talked to herself in complaint.

“Good grief. For Oldeum to look like that, how pathetic this is.”

The hazy figure of the flags.h.i.+p was gradually becoming clearer. When looked from afar, its appearance looked like a castle and its castle city below it. Even when looked from near it couldn’t really be noticed as a battles.h.i.+p. The moment it was recognized as a battles.h.i.+p by the one watching, they would be surprised by its astonis.h.i.+ng size.

It had a gigantic body that easily surpa.s.sed two kilometer. The castle towering on the hull reached a hundred meter. Grace raised her alt.i.tude and she headed toward the highest level of that castle. After she flew inside the balcony that was opened there, she gently landed on the floor.

Suddenly, Elma and Clayda of Quartum who were facing the control panel with difficult face raised a shocked voice toward Grace who entered from the window.

“ “Grace-sama-!?” “

Clayda whose right eye was covered by eye-patch had her left eye opened so wide as though to represent the surprise of the right eye too. She stood up in fl.u.s.ter but then she spontaneously staggered, perhaps from having forgotten that the floor was tilted.

“What’s the matter, you two? To be that flurried.”

Toward that carefree Grace, Elma was unable to say anything for a moment.

“Tha……that question should not be asked! We cannot find Grace-sama’s figure, so we are really worried. Where had Grace-sama gone to?”

“Yes.Those guys’ city……Necropolis, I went to see the situation there just for a little.”

Clayda dropped her shoulders with exasperated face toward Grace who was broad-heartedly nodding.

“What recklessness……it was just like Zel-sama said.”

“Zel? Now that you mentioned it I don’t see her. Lunorlla and Ramza are also not here?”

Elma’s white haired head was pointing up at the left and right like beast ears. Those ears twitched and she talked with blaming tone.

“The three of them had gone searching for Grace-sama!”

Grace looked aside feeling that the angry Elma was troublesome.

“It would be better if they just waited obediently……good grief, this is really a bad timing.”

‘That’s because you were gone as you pleased!’ Clayda and also Elma murmured that inside their heart. However Grace didn’t notice and puffed her chest proudly.

“I found out that Nee-sama isn’t in this world. We have no more business in this world.”

“What did you say!?”

“Does Grace-sama know the whereabouts of Ainess-sama!?”

Clayda asked enthusiastically.

“I’m only guessing, but it seems that Nee-sama is with the other Deus ex Machina. However, I don’t understand the concrete location of Nee-sama.”

“The other Deus ex Machina is it……however, how did Grace-sama find that out?”

“The Deus ex Machina ruling over this world, Osiris, I met her. That woman said, that Nee-sama is not in this world, and perhaps Nee-sama is being held by the other Deus ex Machina. I don’t think that she is lying.”

Grace’s casual answer shocked the two.

“There was Amaterasu’s Yuris.h.i.+a working under that woman. If possible I wanted to save her but……from that Osiris, I felt some kind of indescribable dreadfulness. We cannot approach that woman carelessly.”

“That’s……for someone to possess strength to the degree of Grace-sama is just……”

Elma shook her head with an expression of unable to believe.

“With our current battle strength, it’s dangerous to fight that woman from the front. As soon as Zel, Lunorlla and Clayda return, we will escape this world. And then we will search for the other Deus ex Machina!”

Grace proclaimed powerfully, but Clayda shrugged her shoulders apologetically.

“About that…..we are unable to escape from this world.”

“What? What do you mean?”

“Since a while ago we are trying to move Oldium, but some kind of strange power is being generated, the s.h.i.+p cannot fly……”

Clayda touched the s.h.i.+ning control panel floating on a Victoria-style desk. Thereupon a large window was opened in front of the three.

There Oldium that was being buried in the sand was projected.

“This is the current situation of Oldium……please take a look.”

From the bottom of Oldium toward inside the sand, red line was stretching.

“What’s this?”

“This red light is displaying the strength affecting Oldium. A strange power is coming out from the sand, it is trying to drag Oldium into the sand.”

Grace made a difficult face.

“Just what in the world this power is?”

“We don’t understand. However, we were able to confirm the source that generated this power.”

As though pulling the camera, the image was rapidly becoming smaller. Then, there was the generating source of the red light at the far beyond.

“Most likely it was the place where Grace-sama had gone just now, it was at the Necropolis, that is what we think.”

The screen was enlarging once more, it was possible to confirm that the red light was flowing out from a point in Necropolis.

“I see……so this spot is nearby the shrine of Osiris.”

Staring at that map, Elma scowled.

“Then, this too is the work of machine G.o.d……is it?”

Grace fluttered her s.h.i.+ning pink hair and turned on her heel.

“I don’t know. But we can only return to Necropolis.”

Grace spread the wings on her back.

“And then, we will destroy the source of this power. Let’s go, Clayda, Elma. Follow me.”

Just when Grace was about to fly out from the balcony, her legs stopped still.

“Or else, are you two going to say that this is reckless and stop me?”

Clayda and Elma reflexively faced at each other, they floated wide daring smile.

“Fufu, if Grace-sama take us with you from the start, then we won’t give any complain.”

“We will be honored to accompany you.”

“Hmph. That’s exactly how the Quartum should be.”

The wings of Koros s.h.i.+ned, Grace’s body flew out from the balcony then, like a bullet that was fired. And then after her, Clayda and Elma wearing magic armor on their bodies chased after her.

The three lights flew above the desert, heading toward Necropolis where Osiris was waiting.

It was a country that slowly arrived to death.

Once there was a material that became the energy which moved this world.

“All of you people! See the radiance of this sun. This is exactly what we summoned from alternate world, an eternal power! This radiance will illuminate this world far and wide, promising eternal prosperity in the future.” (TN: The we used here is royal we.)

The word of the pharaoh who proclaimed loudly made the people went into wild enthusiasm. And then the pharaoh floated the s.h.i.+ning bright globe.

That was the sun that descended to the surface. With the power of the pharaoh, it was the ore that was summoned from different world. It had round shape, it was exactly the sun itself. It emitted high temperature, continuing to burn. And then before long it burned up and became a rock that lost its light. However after a while it recovered its radiance once more. It was an infinite energy that repeated death and rebirth eternally. That was what supposed to become the dream energy in Osiris’s world.

However, the dream turned into nightmare.

The wavelength emitted by that energy little by little was gnawing at the body of living thing. The cause was unknown. However, starting from a certain time children couldn’t be born, plant couldn’t be grown. Verdant land was transforming into desert.

The pharaoh who summoned the alternate world material received that influence the strongest. With the nonexistence of a method to cure the influence, the stamina of the pharaoh was decreasing, he became unable to wake up from his bed. Sensing his own last moment, the pharaoh called Osiris and Isis to his side.

“We will leave this world. This too…….might be the punishment for touching what human must not touch, of summoning the sun of alternate world……it concerned us to leave the two of you behind, traveling to the world of after death but……”

“Dear……o the great pharaoh.”

Tears flowed from Osiris toward her beloved husband who was at the death’s door.

“Father……mother……”

And then the still young queen didn’t understand what was happening. But, her parents were being sad, so she also became sad.

“Osiris, and then you Isis……survive for us. And then, if it is something possible, this world, the people, we want you to save them……”

“Yes, for sure……for sure, I will! That’s why don’t die!”

For the sake of saving the pharaoh that was heading to death, the people began to built a structure of gigantic stone. That was a huge pyramid for the sake of the pharaoh, the queen, and the princess. That was an act in the attempt of leaving behind the proof of one’s existence, and was also an act of groping for the way of surviving.

In this world the stone itself was integrated circuit, by carving in program onto the stone, it would follow the instruction and carried out the processing. That stone was piled up in many amounts, a vast array processing was carried out, constructing a special magic system.

That system put the pharaoh into the state of temporary death, it was something for the sake of reviving the pharaoh once again after a set of time pa.s.sed, repeating the death and rebirth.

But the wish of the people ended up in vain, the light of the pharaoh’s life vanished.

The completion of the pyramid didn’t make it in time. However it barely transformed the pharaoh’s soul into data, succeeding in preserving the pharaoh into a cyborg. That cyborg didn’t resemble the pharaoh’s figure when he was alive, it was fitting to call it as a machine mirror. That cyborg was named as undead.

After the pharaoh died, the queen Osiris was enthroned as the ruler. The queen who lived in sadness and her single daughter the princess, in addition the people of the country were attacked by even harsher fate.

The material of the alternate world stole the life of the old with weak body and the children next. The scientists banded and worked together striving for the elucidation and the countermeasure of the cause, but they couldn’t discover any valid method.

They had let the pharaoh to die, but they had to protect the queen and the princess. The result of the whole country offering up their whole strength was the completion of the pyramid in an astonis.h.i.+ng speed.

That pyramid granted life force that transcended human for the queen and the princess.

However that was nothing more than lengthening the timing of death. The pyramid was a gigantic magic system developed for the sake of buying time. The scientists were also desperately continuing their research for the sake of the true immortality, the true rebirth.

And then a few hundred years pa.s.sed.

The queen and the princess commenced sleeping, each time they woke up the desolation of the world and the decrease of population were advancing.

The people somehow evaded complete death by transferring their soul into undead, in order to wait for the time of recovery that would arrive eventually.

And then when Osiris commenced sleeping for the nth time, when she opened her eyes there was n.o.body else. Even the figure of her beloved daughter that should be sleeping beside her was nowhere to be found.

“Anyone……is there anyone here?”

Osiris searched for her daughter Isis who was the one who supported her heart.

“Isis!?”

What Osiris found was the figure of her daughter that had been completely transformed.

She found the record the scientists left behind. There it was written that Isis was tormented by despair, and in order to accept the ruin she severed her own life. However the retainers sealed the soul of Isis into an undead. That was the undead in front of Osiris’s eye right now.

“Why……Isis”

Isis who had grown tired didn’t commence sleeping, just like that she ended her life.

Osiris grieved in sorrow. After her husband even the daughter she treasured was also lost from her.

Since the last time she went to sleep ten thousand years had pa.s.sed.

There was only the pyramid and palace built from precious stones and the Necropolis city around it left behind. Everything else became sand and the world accomplished the transformation into a world where there was no living human.

Only machine survived, repeating self-recovery and self-improvement without stopping. There was no one to confirm that result, no one that rejoiced. In such a world, there were only machines continuing to work, earnestly remaking the body of the queen, the only existence that would evaluate their result.

During that ten thousand years, the queen was also reborn into a different living being.

The fusion of machine and living being. No, it was a body that couldn’t be differentiated from living being due to the evolution of machine. And then the technology that had evolved until the utmost limits was fitting to be called as the miracle of G.o.d.

Osiris was created from the machine’s self-evolution, a G.o.d of machine. She was a new G.o.d.

However, all those too were only empty.

Even with the power of G.o.d she possessed, she was unable to revive the flesh of her husband and daughter. Creating the same body like her and granting it to them was also impossible. For the sake of creating Osiris’s new body, what was used was that hateful sun which was summoned from alternate world.

Making use of that energy, Osiris materialized supernatural power.

In the country of the dead, Osiris looked up to the sky alone.

“I want to die……”

Killing herself who had became G.o.d was impossible. Unable to even sever her own life, unable to even save the people, Osiris stood still by herself in the palace together with her despair.

However at that time, the sky split and light s.h.i.+ned in.

“……That is?”

――AU Collision.

If she remember correctly, it was the phenomenon that occurred when the pharaoh obtained the sun of alternate world.

And then from the split of the sky, one more G.o.d descended.

A figure that was far more sublime than even herself. In opposite of her tanned skin and black hair, she had white skin and golden hair. Huge wings and armor that was like a shrine worn on her body, one more machine G.o.d.

Looking up at the descend of G.o.d as though in a dream, Osiris asked that G.o.d.

“Are you……G.o.d?”

Lowering her golden eyelashes, the melancholic G.o.d answered.

“My name is Thanatos. You are?”

“Osiris……Osiris of Necropolis.”

With a face that was unclear whether it reflected sadness or apathy, Thanatos descended down toward Osiris.

“Are you living thing? Or else a machine?”

“I am human……no, I was human. However, in order to keep me living, the people recreated my body into machine……”

Thanatos stared fixedly at Osiris with her drooping eyes.

“I see……it seems that you are an existence that is close to me.”

Osiris pleaded at the G.o.d descending before her eyes.

“O G.o.d, this world and its people……my daughter, please save them!”

“What need to be done to save them?”

“That is……something like rolling back time, or to make the world not crumbling, there must be something you can do!”

“That is meaningless thing.”

“Why!?”

“There are countless worlds. Even worlds that have reached the fate just like what you are talking about exist everywhere. Isn’t it fine if you go there?”

“There is no meaning like that! I, this world where I am in, where my daughter is, if this world doesn’t change then there is no meaning!”

“Something like that, is impossible even for me.”

“Why!? You are G.o.d aren’t you!? Even though you are G.o.d, you cannot even do something like that!?”

“What is so strange about that? You are an existence of the same kind like me. If it’s something you cannot do, then I too cannot do it.”

‘――I am, G.o.d? This me who is only played around by this unreasonable fate? Even though there is not a single thing that goes following my will?’

Osiris looked down at her own body. A body that was a fusion of living being and machine. This body wouldn’t even age, it promised eternal life. Certainly this was something to be pursued. She understood the potential of her body. The battle ability to sweep away any kind of external enemy. No matter how much the environment changed, she had the survival ability that could deal with anything. A perfect living being.

But everything was too late. With only herself alone obtaining the eternal life, there was nothing that came from it.

Thanatos murmured with feigned ignorance of Osiris’s worry or anything.

“I want to know what I am.”

And then she stared at far away with sad gaze.

“When I came to my awareness I had already been in this appearance. What happened in the past, in what way I was born. Who was the one giving birth to me.”

Thanatos was provided with every wisdom, she was created into an omniscient being. A purely ignorant and innocent being. She was a G.o.d who held such contradiction.

‘――This pure G.o.d, can I make use of her?’

Osiris’s information processing circuit that had been created through several tens of thousands years searched for answer. And then, she reached a certain conclusion.

“……Thanatos. You said that you want to know who are you, correct?”

“What kind of meaning my existence hold. What happened that led to my birth. What worth there is in the thing that I accomplish. And then――”

Thanatos’s expression clouded in melancholy.

“What should be done, so that I can die.”

What Osiris’s mechanical brain cell snapped out, the way to save this world, and also her husband and daughter.

“If that’s the case then I have a good way.”

Thanatos directed eyes that were tinged with sorrow.

“We are going to do experiment. With our power, we will once again create something that is the same with the world where we existed. If we do that, Thanatos will understand how you were born. Moreover……”

The tone of Osiris’s voice lowered.

“You will also understand what to do to destroy your existence.”

“I see.”

“Can you do that, Thanatos?”

“I cannot create living thing itself, but I am able to arrange an environment where living thing will be born. We just need to prepare a new box of world.”

“Box of……world?”

“However, it is a work that will take too much time with only the two of us. It’s better to search for partner that will lend us a hand. Let’s go, Osiris.”

“Eh……?”

“You too lend your power, Osiris.”

Mechanical strong arm that didn’t match Thanatos’s slim body moved toward Osiris.

“Ye……yes.”

Osiris too took that hand and entered the Entrance.

And then Osiris and Thanatos tied a strange cooperative relations.h.i.+p. Before long Hokuto and Odin were added as their comrades and they were able to create a new world in resemblance of their world.

However, it took time for living thing to grow in that world.

While waiting for that, Osiris returned to her own world. She performed guard so that the receptacle of soul wouldn’t break. Especially the undead where her husband and daughter’s souls were inserted which were enshrined in the pyramid, she paid thorough attention to there.

Staring at the pyramid from the window of the palace. Osiris’s chest was filled with expectation.

Osiris purposefully left behind the tool to create world, [Genesis] that originally should be collected back. If living being was born in the newly created world and they had evolved into about the same level like Osiris’s world in the past, that Genesis would send notification to Osiris.

‘――That is the time for harvest. In the new world, surely there will be living being with the same appearance like us born there. The souls sealed inside the undead, they can be revived by obtaining new flesh.’

She would make Thanatos thought that the experiment failed. With that Thanatos should lose interest of the world that was created for the sake of the experiment――that was what she thought.

She planned to annihilate the world and she would collect all the data.

“I never thought……that Thanatos and also the other two will be that obsessed with the data, how unexpected.

By chance she collected the sample of woman called Yuris.h.i.+a who had the spitting image of Isis. From the result of her investigation, she was able to confirm that there was no problem at all to make her into the receptacle of her daughter’s soul.

“However, the data that I have is only a fourth of the whole……”

It was insufficient with this.

Furthermore the problem was, for some reason there was not even a single man there.

To revive all the people and the greenery throughout the world, a lot more data was necessary.

She would collect all the remaining data.

She had captured the escaped data with the s.p.a.ce-time tsunami. It seemed that some also crossed over toward Hokuto and Odin’s location, but there was no problem. She intended to plunder the data from those two.

“――However, for Hokuto to be defeated by the experimental organism. That means I will meet painful experience if I let my guard down isn’t it.”

Osiris looked out over Necropolis from the window. The sky was colored with setting sun, the gigantic pyramid received the light of the evening sun and s.h.i.+ned.

Even though this scenery didn’t change since several ten millenniums ago, but they had changed really much.

With sad gaze, Osiris continued to gaze at the sunset.