Retro Hero (5) - 23

"This won't do!"

"Why are you shouting so early in the morning, sister?"

"It's obvious, Midori! Did you forget what Sensei told us yesterday!?"

The previous evening, Sensei had informed them of the regulations necessary to maintain the club. They needed to fill the member quota and produce results. The Game Development Department, who hadn't heard about the results part, was shocked.

"Certainly...... that part will be difficult, right?"

They had started their plan to get closer to Rio, but after she regained her memories, there was a possibility that she would strictly follow the rules. What the Game Development Department needed now was to create a game.

"We already know about the existence of the G Bible. Once we know about something like that, we have no choice but to find it."

"Hmm, that's a good point. Apart from game development, once we know about the existence of a secret to making great games, we can't resist. It's like knowing the existence of a hidden item."

"So, we have to collect it. Then, do we have to go to that ruin......?"

"Yeah! That's right! It might be where we found Alice, and we don't even know where it is in the ruins in the first place."

The Game Development Department's daily mission for today was to collect the G Bible.

And next to them, Sensei was having his cheeks touched by Alice.

"I saw it yesterday, and it's amazing! Alice wants to transform too!"

"That's impossible, Your Maj... Alice. I don't know the reason for this constitution of mine either."

"Sensei can transform too. That's amazing."

"Could it be that you change form when water is poured on you, Sensei?"

"I'm not Ranma, Toki."

Sensei transformed into a spitting image of Alice. However, there was a big difference in the look in his eyes and his personality compared to Alice. Sensei, recalling that Alice's name was AL-1S, wondered if the current student was a different individual. Like AL-2S. However, like Alice, the number was 1.

He felt puzzled by this... but since there was no way to find out, he had no choice but to let it go for now.

"Ah, and this."

"This is?"

Momoi gives Rio a small, amulet-like device, which was made at the request of the Engineering Department... and it was made in just two hours. It was a device that interfered with recognition, making people around them see a different face instead of their original one. It even made it so that their halos couldn't be recognized.

"It's an amulet from me!"

"An amulet, huh. I think its effects are logically nonexistent, but I'll gratefully accept it."

"I feel like I'm being insulted and thanked at the same time..."

Momoi's head momentarily went blank at the strange way of speaking......

"Then, our destination for today is the Millennium Ruins. Before that, let's have breakfast. For breakfast......"

"Alice wants to eat sushi!"

"Let's have conveyor belt sushi."

Sensei strongly agrees with Alice's suggestion. He wanted to take them to a high-end sushi restaurant, but considering his wallet, he decided on conveyor belt sushi. Since Sensei was paying for it, no one objected.

"It's my first time at a conveyor belt sushi restaurant."

"Me too... It feels unfamiliar."

It was Toki's first time, and Rio, who only went to expensive restaurants, was also a first-timer at a commoner's conveyor belt sushi restaurant. And Yuzu, who rarely went out, hadn't been there since she was a little kid, so her eyes were sparkling.

She was scared to go out... but she couldn't resist free sushi.

"If I press this, the sushi will come?"

"Yes, you can order the sushi you want by pressing the panel. Of course, you can also pick up any sushi that's rotating."

"Alice has acquired cake!"

"You said you wanted to eat sushi... Are you starting with dessert?"

Sensei was disappointed that Alice started with cake when she was the one who wanted to eat sushi. Still, they ate various kinds of sushi and food afterward and finished their meal.

They went to a relatively cheap conveyor belt sushi restaurant, but Sensei smiled wryly as he looked at his lightened balance.

Anyway... the group had breakfast and headed straight for the Millennium Ruins. But......

"Um, where did we go, Sensei?"

"I don't remember."

"Hmm, I don't remember either, what do we do, sister?"

"Ugh... It's okay! There's no guarantee that the G Bible is there anyway! Let's just search the area!"

Since they couldn't remember the area where they found Alice, they looked around randomly. First, they entered a building nearby, and there were some robots inside.

The robots pointed their guns at the group as soon as they saw them, but at that moment, Toki ran forward.

Thud thud thud!

"Preemptive strike response complete. Shall we continue with additional combat, Sensei?"

"...No, please leave this to me. I have a feeling I can do it."

Sensei fidgeted with his hands, and soon, electricity flowed from his hands with a crackling sound. Then, assuming a familiar-looking pose, Sensei instinctively used that power.

"If it's me right now, I can do it. Since we're at it, let's try using it."

A beam of electricity shoots out. The blow, which grazes the robots and electrocutes them, hits the wall and disappears.

{{.........}}

Then, the robots lowered their guns and quietly made their way.

"Wh-What did you do, Sensei!?"

"I just made the robots my allies. I instinctively felt like I could do it."

"That's amazing, Sensei. Could it be that Alice also has that power?"

"Was Alice a mage instead of a hero!?"

"W-Who knows... Maybe a hero with a special active skill."

"Is it like superpowers? It's not mine, but if it's an Abi-Eshuh......"

"It's amazing, I guess. Is it some kind of hacking? I don't think it's something as unscientific as superpowers."

Seeing the power Sensei showed, everyone wondered if Alice also had it and what that power was as they went inside.

Alice was convinced that there must be something there, seeing as the robots were guarding it. It was a dungeon rule, after all.

After that, robots, including drones, blocked the group... Sensei walked forward in the lead, generating an unknown spark from his body. Due to that spark, the robots lowered their weapons and made their way.

"It's an amazing power. Can you freely control robots, or rather, electronic devices?"

"I wonder? But it's definitely how to use it."

"It's kind of... a dangerous power."

"Isn't any power dangerous? What's important is how you use that power. Even fire can be used for good, like cooking food or driving away the cold... but it can also be used to inflict harm."

"It's all about how you use tools and power, huh."

"That's right, Rio. Anything in the world can be misused, and it can also be used for good."

"It all depends on how you use it, huh..."

"What's important is the will of the person who wields the tool, the person who wields that power."

Like a teacher, Sensei gave a lesson. Rio, who had no memories, felt a strange feeling after hearing Sensei's words.

The group went further inside to find the G Bible, and they started to see some kind of sound and light from the inside.

"What's that......?"

Yuzu was scared by something that was faintly visible from the inside. The Saiba sisters were also surprised when they saw it, and Toki guarded in front of Rio. Alice and Sensei looked at it with sparkling eyes, feeling a sense of familiarity and eeriness at the same time.

The Judge Who Condemns With Compassionate Torment

<Chesed>

It was the army of the Nameless Priests. One of the weapons of the Nameless Priests, a being that was once a member of Divi:SION......

One of the factories that made the army of Divi:SION, the management AI robot of that factory was inspired by the Decagrammaton and became a prophet.

Although it was said to be more enhanced than the AI robots of other factories, it was fundamentally just one of the many factories of Divi:SION. In other words, it was originally nothing special.

To the Nameless Priests, it didn't matter if one was lost or not, so they were neglecting it.

And the princess of the nameless gods found it. Chesed, who faced the princess of the nameless gods who should have been his original master.

However, Chesed said nothing. Even though he remembered his past self, even after seeing Alice and Sensei in front of him, Chesed, as a prophet of the Decagrammaton, abandoned his original duty and sent out robots to kill the princess who would be the biggest problem for the plan.

"Please buy me some time."

Then, Sensei raised her hand in the air and emitted electricity. While the group, except for Rio, destroyed the robots and fought... Chesed rotated its main body sphere and gathered energy as if preparing something.

At that moment, the remains of the robots began to gather in Sensei's hands. Then, something like a gauntlet was attached to Sensei's right arm.

It was a tool to end it in one blow.

Feeling danger from it, Chesed tried to fire the gathered energy as a laser. But Sensei was faster.

"Too slow."

And so, it is said that Chesed paid the price for betrayal.