“So, do we leave her here?”
“I don’t think we can take her with us if she is blind.”
“No, you can’t leave me here!”
Nanashi took his blade out again and made quick work of the bars the girl was holding. Then he grabbed the girl.
“Huh?”
And placed her on his shoulders.
“Let’s go, quickly.”
We climbed up the stairs slaying some monsters on the way until we reached outside. Outside what waited for us was a strange sight. An undercity where humanoid robots and demi-humans walked side by side. There were more humanoid robots than there were demi-humans. There were no humans, so I pulled a cloak out of my inventory and put it on to hide my identity.
We quickly moved away from the jail where Azaz-rya had been trapped, and by explaining to her our surroundings we were able to make it outside the town market towards the outskirts of the town towards the swampland which supposedly lay beyond a mountain range.
“Where exactly are we?”
“This is Nova-Engels City. It was created as part of a ceasefire between the demi-humans and the machines. Mostly out of fear of my father. However, the humans have striked back against my father and trapped him. Of course, this will backfire, and most likely lead to the destruction of everything. They wanted me to control him but those fools don’t understand that that’s beyond my power. They don’t understand that the cute daughter of a god exists only to be served and obeyed to create order.”
“Okay, I am starting to get a general picture about where this is going.”
There was a call from Arthur so I telepathically spoke to her, as we headed towards the supposed swamps where we could find the Black Lotus Flower.
“Have you determined the nature of the anomaly? It seems that we are the ones stuck here, so I imagine that I am the target here.”
“Yes, my lord. According to John II this was the work of the same group which worked with him. More specifically, according to Lain, the place you are in is a simulation of a possible future by our own hijacked system, about what the future twenty years from now might be like. When you stepped into the cursed mirror they were able to abuse some of your admin privileges in order to create this twisted future you are in.”
“What would be the point of showing this to me? Do they think they can dissuade me by showing some kind of dystopia in the future? Don’t make me laugh. As if I would trust anyone, let alone a machine to tell me the future.”
“Yes, my lord, it is truly preposterous. With Lain’s help, unfortunately, I was able to map the entire realm. The map is thirty-two by thirty-two kilometres and seems to be an island roughly based on the Greater London administrative region.”
“Good. It seems that the dungeon which we escaped from was based on the Morden tube station. The fetch quest system is still active so this must mean that there is an exit which will lead us down to Morgoth, the boss level of the Angband dungeon. From there we should be able to emerge through a portal. Will you please try to find that exit for me, Arthur? Also, since she is not a creation of the saintess you should be able to analyse the little demon girl who is travelling with us.”
“Yes, my lord but by saintess does my lord mean the fairy?”
“Yes.”
I wanted to avoid looking into her myself in order to avoid any potential detection on her part of my looking into her.
There were only ruins where we were now, making it hard to walk, but according to the map that I was given by Arthur I was in Westminster. In prehistoric times and even into the middle ages, the areas around Westminster close to the Thames river were said to be marshlands and it seemed that in this future projection, in just twenty years they were slowly returning to that. Well, at least we would not feel any tiredness from walking because I didn’t implement that because I always thought it was a stupid mechanic in games.
I stepped on something hard but round. It was a skull. In fact, come to think of it, there were quite a few remains from those who had been killed. Well, it looked like they had been dead for a while so hopefully whatever killed them was not around.
The little demon girl sniffed around with her nose, shifting her head around.
“I sense something dangerous around.”
Oh, right. A wilderness encounter. Even if this was a simulation of the future, it still followed the game’s logic since it was a simulation of reality within a game simulation.
“We should hide somewhere and wait for it,” suggested Nanashi.
I looked at the map for the nearest structure which could serve as our hiding place. The nuclear bunker to the MI6 headquarters building was still intact. When we reached its location, it turned out that part of the building was intact too. There was one small problem, and that was that the building was across the Thames river, which like in Victorian times, looked toxic. There were dead things floating on its surface and the smell was so bad I had to turn down my nose’s sensitivity.
While I was looking around for a way to cross the river, Nanashi made Azaz-yra get off her shoulders and headed down the marshlands. There was a notification from the system. Then with his knees covered in mud he returned with a single flower in his hands. I guess I didn’t need to open that notification to know what it said.
Nanashi gave the flower to Azaz-yra where it sparkled and disappeared but the light returned in her red eyes.
She hugged Nanashi and then abruptly stood back in embarrassment. She pointed her thumb towards herself and spoke.
“Cough.. Cough.. Now that you have me you have nothing to worry about!”
Then her expression turned serious.
“It’s getting closer, we need to hide fast!”
She tried to fly carrying us both but we nearly all fell into the river, so she carried us one by one afterwards. She carried Nanashi first.
While she carried me I asked her if she could say where she sensed this danger coming from.
“From the direction we came from.”
I enhanced my vision to see if I could identify our foe.
