Chapter 34: The Birth of a Specter (5)
"...Transformation."
Wiiiiingggg---!
As Bo-ram whispered, a motor-cranking sound resonated strongly. It was extremely loud, but for some reason no one paid any attention.
Clang clang clack.
And immediately after, the silver metal, which was mounted on both her arms and covered from the back of her hand to her elbow, began to expand. Like a scene in a Transformers movie, it started to flip and divide itself and quickly enveloped her whole body.
Clankk.
And as the armor eventually spread all over, the ground shook lightly, and Bo-ram who was sitting with her upper body propped up, disappeared.
"Hohhh, that"s something special. I thought this place was just a primitive planet that was common as day, but there"s all sorts of stuff here."
"Don"t call it primitive, you idiot."
Before I knew it, Bo-ram stood behind me and answered with a brusque voice towards the direction of Celestia, who whistled in surprise. She had five broken bones and couldn"t stand up properly, but she looked fairly fine as if the silver armor that covered her whole body had a healing effect.
"What do you mean idiot... I know you don"t like such words coming out of my mouth, but I"m still an Imperial Princess okay."
"Ahh, yes, that"s right. Come to think of it, I heard there"s an anachronistic royal family in this universe."
Celestia did not lose her temper at Bo-ram"s carefree comment. No, let alone being angry, instead, she was smiling brightly like a flower in full bloom.
Clang clang.
"...You"re the one that started it first; don"t blame me for what"s about to happen."
She c.o.c.ked her pair of golden pistols that appeared out of nowhere.
"Hmph. You think I"ll back down?"
Wiiiiingggg!
As Celestia brought out her guns, Bo-ram also released her aura. An unknown mechanical sound began to ring from the two arms of the suit of armor that was covering her body.
I was watching the whole scene from the very beginning, and I secretly broke into a cold sweat.
Needless to say, if Bo-ram, my guard, fought with Celestia, the Imperial Princess of the Leonhardt Empire, the situation would turn dire.
"Stop it."
Kiinggg!
It was meant to stop them, but suddenly, the mechanical sound that came from the silver armor stopped in a single stroke, and Bo-ram staggered greatly.
"Hmm? What"s going on? You okay?"
Celestia, who was angry for a moment at Boram"s provocation, realized that Bo-ram"s condition was abnormal and put down her pistols. Bo-ram had a confused expression.
"Hahhh... hahh... What just happened? Why was I about to fight with you?"
"You"re the one who provoked me first, so what kind of gibberish… Don"t tell me?"
Celestia looked like she had a clue as to what was going on, and she began to look through every inch of Bo-ram"s armor. Though Celestia was fl.u.s.tered by the sudden change in the situation, she still observed. Fascinatingly enough, a golden lion pattern conjured up in her blue eyes.
"What"s the matter?"
"Ahh... it"s a secret. Huhhhh, oh my G.o.d. I can"t believe I"m seeing this in a place like this… Ugh, this is going to complicate things. Will Father come because of this?"
"h.e.l.lo there?"
I frowned at Celestia, who muttered some nonsense, and raised my head slightly and used Cla.s.sification on her t.i.tle.
Detro Galaxy Union, Fourth Corps, First Advance Squad
Discovered the adversary, Celestia
"What does it mean by discovering the adversary? Who"s the adversary?"
Since we were on the subject, what I could see was the t.i.tle, not the person"s mind. There were many applications to the ability to see a t.i.tle, but it was not such a convenient ability for it to view a person"s mind or current thoughts in the process of cla.s.sification.
"By the way, Bo-ram, are you okay? Why were you like that just now?"
"I, I don"t know. Strangely, while wearing this armor... I think I was angry after seeing that woman. Come to think of it, strangely, I think I was hostile towards her usually too."
Although it was armor that covered the whole body, her expression was clearly visible because the face was revealed when the visor of the elegantly-designed helmet was opened. Roughly glancing at the t.i.tle above Bo-ram"s head, I could see she wasn"t lying.
"Are you all right now?"
"Yes. It suddenly got better."
She came and stood behind me again. However, perhaps because of the situation just now, she had a complicated expression as she was confused.
"By the way, she said transformation."
As Celestia and Bo-ram were lost in thought for a while, I looked at Bo-ram"s armor. The helmet, which appeared to be made from the image of a dragon"s head, and the silver armor, which was made of metal-like material that did not interfere with the user’s movements at all, were quite fancy with the intricate patterns and the jewels that were embedded all around the armor.
"Anyways, that"s an unusual transformation. That isn"t a Magician Girl, but more like a main character from a superhero series."
"...Sunbae."
I was bewildered by Bo-ram"s expression that suddenly became stiff.
"Why, what"s up?"
"The word Magician Girl... Where did you hear that from?"
I was shocked by the question that came out of her low voice and my head went empty.
"Why did I say the term "Magical Girl" from my mouth?"
Needless to say, it was because of her t.i.tle.
"Oh? Come to think of it, I"ve never heard her say the term "Magical Girl" before, not even once, did she?"
At that moment, I desperately racked my brain. I searched through my head and organized my thoughts. Fortunately, there was an answer that came to mind.
"What, why are you so nervous? You said that those martial artists who attacked me before were Magician Girl Apprentices."
"...Martial artists?"
"Yes, those a.s.saulters. I thought it was an official t.i.tle after hearing that they were called Magician Girl Apprentices? Was I mistaken about something?"
I"ve always thought so, but my acting skill is really on a Best Actor Award-level.
A flabbergasted expression was the point I focused on, which gave off a vibe that she was too serious for something so obvious. Bo-ram"s face turned red as she got baited into it.
"Ah! Ha! Hahaha! That"s right! I had that kind of nickname. Hohoho, I too jokingly call those martial artists who were female magicians "Magician Girl"!"
"Why are you acting so strangely for something like that?"
"Hohoho! You told the Captain-nim that we"ll be coming, right! Let"s go quickly! Imperial Princess-nim? Let"s get moving. The eyes around are gathering."
"Don"t say out loud that I"m an Imperial Princess. People are staring."
As if they forgot they were just about to fight a moment ago, the two women organized the atmosphere in an instant and led the way. And while I was being led by these women, I was drowning in thoughts.
"That armor brainwashed Bo-ram"s mind."
There was no evidence in particular, but there was something called a sixth sense.
Bo-ram was basically a lively person, but she also had enough social skills to act like a shy beauty.
In fact, she had been living her life without any flaws, so much so that people who knew her at school referred to her as a beauty that had the image of a falling flower bud. And in the Universe where she had no background to a.s.sociate with, she purposely provoked a fight with an Imperial Princess, no less?
I didn"t think I understood people well, but no matter who looked at it, this was a strange situation.
"And how she came to her senses... was because of my words huh."
Now even I knew what was going on. The fact that my orders exert absolute authority over machineries. Just by simply speaking, they would absolutely obey my orders. They would do anything. Even things they couldn"t do originally...
"But there is a limitation."
When I was on Earth, I was not aware of such an ability. It was not because my abilities manifested after coming this far. The power itself had been around for a long time, but the pre-condition — the target having to be a machine, couldn"t be easily met on Earth.
To be precise, it was the artificial intelligence that listened to my orders. It didn’t need to be a perfect artificial intelligence, but at least functions that were equivalent to that were needed.
In fact, when I was on Earth, it was useless to shout "Come on, turn on!" at a broken PC. That was confirmed after testing it with a faulty communication device in the Albatross ship. If it didn"t at least have the ability to understand what I was saying, it was meaningless no matter what order I gave.
"I guess the saying "an ignorant ghost who doesn"t recognize a talisman" is the perfect thing to describe time like these?"
"...A talisman?"
She shook her head as she looked at Celestia, who questioned my sudden remarks.
"I"m just talking to myself, so don"t mind me."
Bo-ram, Celestia, and I headed for the Captain"s room through the corridor, and there were shattered and destroyed Metal Bodies as well as maintenance machines here. Originally, several walls were supposed to stand in the way towards the Captain"s room, but due to the battle, all the walls were destroyed and there was no one left to protect it.
But then again, the Albatross ship"s greatest fighting force was Major General Chun Hyun-il, so it would be rather funny to leave some troops to defend him in these times of emergency. Of course, that didn"t mean there was really n.o.body around; there was a soldier equipped with a gun in front of the Captain"s room.
"Halt. The Captain"s room is beyond here."
He stood in our way. It was a cautious atmosphere, as it was right after the battle in which countless people died. But Celestia stepped forward immediately following that. Seeing the surprised expression of the man who wouldn"t have been able to sense Celestia, it looked like Celestia most probably disabled her Stealth. "I"m sorry. They"re guests I brought along."
"Prin-, Imperial Princess-nim! Loyalty!"
"Hoho. Keep up the good work."
"Yes!"
Pa.s.sing by the soldier that was keeping the "ATTENTION!" pose while maintaining discipline, we entered the Captain"s room.
Krieeekkk---
"Ugh... What is this?"
I hesitated for a moment. Because I could feel the dense and heavy pressure from the surrounding air. The strong pressure was suffocating, as if I had entered deep into a swamp.
"What a ridiculous Spiritual Pressure..."
I wasn"t the only one that sensed it, Bo-ram stood in front of me and tried to ward off the aura. Before I knew it, strange patterns appeared around her armor and it was throbbing like a living creature.
"Ahh, my bad."
But soon after that, all the aura disappeared as if it was washed away.
"I"m in the middle of treating my injury."
It was an oriental house. It may be a little ambiguous to use the word "house" inside the ship, but that was the truth, so it couldn"t be helped. The Captain"s room was as big as a decent school"s sports field, and there was a simple tile-roofed house in the center of it.
To our surprise, there was a waterfall on one side of the Captain"s room, where water was flowing down and beautiful flowers as well as unknown gra.s.ses were growing abundantly. Among them, there was a scent that gave off a sense of refreshment, perhaps because it came from precious herbs.
"Are you feeling better?"
"I"ll have to get some more treatment."
Celestia smiled as she looked at Major General Chun Hyun-il, who was in a lotus position[1] and did not even budge.
"You look fine though?"
"We didn"t actually fight like crazy. Ahhh, that aside, it"s nice to meet you. I"m Chun Hyun-il. Our age difference is over 500 years, so you won"t say anything if I drop the honorifics, right?"
As he spoke to us in a friendly manner, he lifted himself up, but even that seemed to exert a great deal of energy. He was around three meters tall as he stood up properly, however, it was definitely not just because he was as big as a small-sized Gigas.
Rather, the important thing was the inside. Unlike before, Bo-ram handled the aura well, as if she couldn"t really feel it. Nevertheless, I could sense it — the presence in the form of an enormous power hidden inside him.
"Oh my G.o.d. Is this really the power a mere life form could possess?"
It was so outrageous that I laughed in vain.
I couldn"t come up with a plan to win in a 1:1 battle with him even if I rode on the Golden Constellation, Goldrian. It was to the point that if a war were to break out, even if I could make considerable achievements, if I were to get within a hundred meters of him, it would be difficult to escape. Even though I was strong enough to capture and not destroy Punishment, a Terra-rank battleship when I was riding on Goldrian, he was at a level I couldn"t possibly reach.
"These transcendents are existences beyond common sense huh."
I couldn’t believe there were not just one or two, but hundreds and thousands of these kinds of people. No matter how big the Universe is, isn"t this too much?
It wasn"t a joke, it would be possible for a mere individual to destroy a civilization or a planet, so no wonder all the forces were centered on the transcendents.
"That"s right, maybe... Maybe the reason why the Universe is a monarchy and not a democracy, is also because of the transcendents."
I found it strange from the moment I saw terms like Empire, Emperor, and Imperial Princess.
Why did most of the forces of the Great Universe which had a more advanced civilization maintain the monarchy which was abandoned even on Earth? Even though they were neither suppressing or regulating information, how did citizens of the future tolerate the existence of a king which had real power?
"It"s because of power."
That"s right. Power.
If an individual had the power of a transcendent, and the power to destroy the civilization to which he belonged, he would become an existence that couldn"t be bound by the framework, rules and laws of society.
It would be a different story if he accepted it, but how could someone coerce such an existence?
In the end, whether the process was smooth or if blood had to be shed, if a transcendent appeared and there was no way to deal with them, there would only be two outcomes.
Either he becomes king. Or he becomes G.o.d.
"Did you say you"re Dae-ha?"
"Ahh, yes."
After a moment of contemplation, I came to my senses and faced Major General Chun Hyun-il.
Major General Chun Hyun-il moved his head slightly and glanced at Bo-ram, who was sticking close beside me.
“Now, now... this is really interesting."
It was hard to discern his expression as he had the appearance of a polar bear, but I think he laughed for a moment there. And right after that, he bowed down and moved his face close enough to touch nose-to-nose. It was such a nimble movement that didn"t fit his huge build, but there was not a single hint of wind blowing around, which gave me gooseb.u.mps all over.
"Wha-, what"s the matter?"
"What do you mean what"s the matter? Ahhh, it"s no big deal. I just wanted to ask."
When I made eye contact, his black pupils that seemed bottomless swallowed me up like an abyss.
"Who are you?"
1. It"s supposedly a posture used during meditation.