I Am Dreaming
A strange dream. No, was it a memory from the past? In the haze of my consciousness, scenes flowed that I could not tell were dreams or memories. I was curled up in a place filled with light, my body repeatedly dissolving and being remade within a warm, golden radiance. And endlessly, memories of someone poured into me. A man who had accomplished great feats, a ruler and leader more outstanding than anyone. The life of a man with golden hair who had fought countless monsters was etched into my mind. The fourth archangel Uriel, reborn solely for him. The angel of destruction for God, the judge of fire. That was me. No, I remember coming to kill God. I am the succubus named Q-B. A demon who opposes God. No, am I actually an angel born to kill God's enemies? The more my thoughts crossed, the more my head ached. 'My head hurts so much. Let me out of here!' I struggled to move my curled body, but it would not budge, as if it were not my own. As I screamed at the splitting pain in my head, someone with white wings appeared and placed a hand on my head. In an instant the pain vanished, and a pleasant sigh escaped me as my mind cleared. Gratitude spread through my heart toward that presence, and affection welled up. “Sister. Forget everything and be reborn. Eternal glory and happiness without pain will be with you.” The more I heard her voice, the more at ease and happy I became. Surrendering my body to that comfort, drowsiness washed over me and my eyes closed—then I woke from the dream. “Hah!”
The place I opened my eyes to was inside the modification device. Even after waking, the memories from the dream lingered before my eyes like an illusion, making my head spin. While I clutched my dizzy head, the lid opened and Michael's figure came into view. “Get up and put on your clothes.” “Yes.” For a moment Michael's image overlapped with the woman from the dream, and a strong fondness bloomed. Ah, now that I think about it, the voice and silhouette seem the same. Was that person Michael? I took the hand she offered and stood. At the slight smile on her face, the memories from the dream grew clearer. “You must attend to him as usual, so please hurry.” “Yes, Michael.” The memory of attending to him surfaced vividly and told me what to do first. The clearer the memories from the dream became, the more comfort and happiness filled my heart. I quickly donned the maid uniform I usually wore and followed behind her. As we climbed the spiral staircase, I listened to her words. “You have been chosen as his plaything and are receiving God's grace, but make sure there is no negligence in serving him.” “Yes.” “For a while you, Uriel, will be in charge of attending to his bedroom, so keep your body clean.” “Understood.” Huh, was my name Uriel? For an instant memories of God and the other archangels calling me Uriel mixed with memories of various people calling me Elisha or Q-B, and my head throbbed. Elisha? Q-B? Gradually Uriel's memories were pushed aside and my original memories returned. “Uriel?” “Ah, yes?” “You must still be suffering aftereffects of the grace. It will get better gradually, so don't worry.” “Yes, thank you for worrying.” Even as I felt affection for her smiling, concerned face, my sense of self as me gradually returned. Whew, it was fortunate that I had built up resistance from frequent brainwashing; otherwise I would have become Uriel for good. If I had been an ordinary angel, the existing loyalty to God would have combined with it and I would have naturally completed the transformation into Uriel. It had been a dangerous state of being brainwashed, but I had gained something. First, that God and the archangels treated me as the archangel Uriel. My trustworthiness was much higher than when I was an ordinary angel, making it easier to move around. Also, that I had been implanted with and remembered God's usual conduct and schedule. If I handled it well, it meant I could create openings whenever I wanted. So for now I had to act as Uriel and wait for an opportunity. Following the knowledge from the memories, I moved along a familiar path I had never seen before toward the bedroom to attend to God's bedroom. Leaving Michael behind after we parted ways, I arrived at a bedroom that was a mess from the battle before the meal. Goodness, he is rather fastidious about his sleeping place, so I need to clean up quickly. Oh no, if I let my guard down I start thinking from Uriel's perspective. I must be careful. Mindful of my still-unstable sense of self, I hurried to tidy the room. I replaced the broken furniture with spare pieces from storage and swapped out the ruined carpet. I activated the automatic cleaner and the air purifier to remove the dust inside. Even though everything was something I was seeing for the first time, it felt familiar, as if I had always done it. Such a natural implantation of memories—truly an incredible brainwashing technique. While I was removing the dusty blankets and sheets and laying out new ones, I heard the door open. “Uriel, he will arrive soon.” “I'm almost finished.” “Hurry and prepare for the night service.” “Yes.” Even Raphael, whom I had never exchanged a single word with until now, was naturally treating me as Uriel. After finishing arranging the bed, I entered the attached bathroom and took off my maid uniform. Then I stopped in surprise at the sight of my body reflected in the full-length mirror. I had been too focused on the brainwashing to notice the sense of incongruity, but the moment I saw the state of my arms and legs with my own eyes, I felt something wrong with my senses. Silver metal lines running along the inner sides of my arms and legs. The shape of my arms and legs, covered in skin that was paler than before, was the same as before, but they had been replaced with prosthetics. The astonishingly precise artificial body moved completely naturally, as if it were my own, except for a slight sense of incongruity in weight and texture. Because only the arms and legs had changed, the difference in skin tone along the body's boundaries stood out even more. It was clearly a surprising and serious matter, but there was no time. Pushing the shock aside, I hurriedly washed my body and came out of the bathroom. God possessed tremendous stamina and sexual desire to match his powerful physique. Although three archangels took turns attending to him every night, the role of night service had been assigned to me, the new archangel, for a while. It seemed to be an attempt to settle the implanted emotions and memories through sex with God. Whatever the intention, it was a golden opportunity to kill my enemy, God. No matter how strong a body God possessed, as long as he was male there would be an opening after ejaculation. I had to aim for that moment. I stood straight beside the bed and waited for God to arrive. Usually the night service of the archangels was performed as thoroughly passive dolls. Since they were used like masturbation devices, no opinions or thoughts were needed at all. Soon the door opened with a loud noise and God entered. He observed my motionless body standing beside the bed with interest, then stroked his chin and spoke. “Hmm, since only the arms and legs were replaced, the body and color are different.” He moved my arm around as if handling a toy. Because his build was large, his hands were also big, making my arm look relatively slender. He put my arm down and pressed his fingers firmly against my lower abdomen as he spoke. “It's too soft. I can't risk breaking it on the first day by using it carelessly. I'll just sleep today.” What? Just sleep? He literally took off his clothes and lay down on the bed. Unable to move my eyes any more than necessary, I had no choice but to maintain my posture and stare straight ahead. After a long while with no movement, I glanced sideways at the bed and saw that he had already fallen asleep. He really is just sleeping? Nothing ever goes smoothly. I examined his sleeping figure with only my eyes. He was sleeping spread-eagled without even a blanket, so his front was fully visible and his sculpted physique caught my gaze. The more I looked at him, the more my heart raced and the implanted memories and emotions disturbed my mind. Only after forcibly turning my eyes away did my pounding heart calm down. As expected, when I was alone with him it was hard to control my fluttering heart. Since I could not move like a doll during the night service, I stood still beside the bed, closed my eyes, and slept. I woke at the usual early hour out of habit. Waking at the set time to match when he would awaken was also a duty of an archangel. No, I'm doing it again. My mind keeps wavering. Even though the enemy was asleep, I had stood beside him and simply slept, wasting a precious opportunity. It was regrettable, but it would soon be time for God to wake. Maintaining my motionless posture, I waited for him to awaken. A few minutes later his eyes snapped open. He sat up abruptly, stretched his body this way and that, and said, “Hmm, it's been a while so my urges are overflowing. I'll play with you before morning duties, so get ready.” “Yes, my God.” After he left the bedroom I recalled the schedule. Aside from morning duties, he mostly did as he pleased, but spent most of his time training. Training with a cyborg body—I could not readily understand it, but it was his hobby and something he enjoyed. After handling the tasks assigned to me and the other archangels and finishing the morning meal, I came to the training ground. He had suggested playing at the training ground, perhaps because he was concerned about having destroyed the bedroom. When we, dressed in training clothes, entered, he said, “Let's see the results of the modification.” “As you command.” Just like yesterday, the play began with an enormous fist flying toward me. While going through the morning routine and checking my modified arms and legs, I found that even though they were prosthetics, I could still reinforce and recover them with vital energy. I did not know whether vital energy worked on non-biological matter or whether this prosthetic body was composed similarly to a living body, but it was an encouraging development for me. Thud. I deflected the incoming fist of absurd size and power at an angle with my forearm. Even though I had only brushed it aside, a heavy impact transmitted through me, yet the prosthetic arm moved perfectly fine, as if such an impact were nothing. Seeing my action, he laughed and said, “Good, block more boldly! Don't dodge!” I took his attacks with my arms and legs as much as possible while aiming for his head and neck. But because of the difference in height and the fact that I was blocking with my body the same way, I could not even approach. If I got closer while taking attacks with my body, my neck seemed like it might reach, but unlike the modified limbs, my biological body could not withstand the attacks. Thud! Thwack! Now I was even attacking in time with his attacks to cancel them out. I blocked his fist with my knee and threw my own fist, which he took head-on before launching a kick. Unlike him, who attacked one-sidedly, I had to defend against attacks aimed at my body and was gradually forced back. “Excellent. It really feels like playing when you hit and get hit. Modifying was definitely the right answer.” “Huff, huff.” “Stop.” At his single word my body stopped. I relaxed my combat stance, stepped back, and lowered my head. “I was going to take it slow, but I've changed my mind. Make it the highest specification.” “Yes, understood.” Michael, who had been removing his training clothes, answered. During the fight with him, the outer surfaces of my arms and legs, which had received countless impacts, had torn in places and revealed the silver interior. But aside from the exterior, there were no functional problems. Remarkable performance. Moreover, because I felt no pain from the impacts, I could block without hesitation. That meant God also felt no pain from impacts. The ways to kill him had decreased even further. Likewise, Gabriel, who had removed my training clothes, looked at my limbs with the silver parts exposed and said, “Since there is damage, go get it repaired and modified right away.” “Yes.” While washing the sweat from my body in the shower room, I touched the parts where the silver showed. Repair—literally repair, not treatment. The word now felt starkly real for my limbs that had become prosthetics. For some reason my mood turned strange, but I steadied myself. My goal was to assassinate God. I took comfort in the fact that becoming a prosthetic body had increased the success rate of the assassination. Yes, I had never been particularly attached to a biological body to begin with. I decided to think of it lightly. Still, there were more than one or two things that bothered me about undergoing full-body prosthetic modification. From the demon core that was a succubus's heart to Tya in my belly. I could not refuse the modification or decide its contents, so I could not intervene, but I hoped no problems would arise. Following Michael, who had been waiting outside the shower room, I returned to the underground level where the modification device was. As I lay inside the device again, Michael spoke to me. “The highest specification means possessing a body on par with God's. Congratulations on receiving the gracious grace of God.” “Thank you.” I glanced around and offered insincere thanks just in case. Still, to be sure, I decided to ask. “Exactly how much modification does the highest-specification prosthetic involve?” “I do not know the details either, but aside from the brain, nervous system, and part of the internal organs, everything will probably be modified.” I heard the answer just before the lid descended. Whew, brain, nervous system, and part of the internal organs. In that case, God's weakness was definitely the neck and head. No matter how sturdy the prosthetic, if I could crush or sever the relatively slender neck, he would die. Submerged in the liquid, I continued thinking of ways to kill him until I lost consciousness.