Annihilation Device (3)
Still, the journey to the core of the Annihilation Device left us with more than enough time to spare.
While Levia worked to unlock the data for review, I kept piloting the ship steadily forward. Only after we cleared the heaped bone-mound region and began entering a new zone did she finally speak, the locks apparently released.
"Information access privileges acquired. Shall I confirm the contents immediately?"
"Mm… yes. Please do."
"Understood."
The moment Levia opened her mouth to continue—
♪ Ding~
PAUSED
Ah.
That familiar chime rang out, the world froze, and a new event message bloomed before my eyes.
A Tale of the Ancients
The information Levia has uncovered is as follows.
Communication Log: 51254446-BX
Playback commencing.
"May this choice undo the mistake…"
—Sssssssssss…
…???
Unlike usual, the event message felt off. It claimed to be playing a communication log, yet an abrupt video suddenly unfurled before me.
The footage itself was strange. A figure whose gender was impossible to guess jammed a syringe into their own arm. The instant they flung the empty syringe aside, they hurled their entire body at a writhing mass floating before them. The silver something coiled around the figure the moment contact was made… and then simply dismantled them.
What the hell? Nanomachines?
Nanomachines or not, why show me this of all things? While I sat there nursing that suspicion, the video cut out and a fresh event message appeared.
The Truth of That Day
Ash's true nature is not, in fact, a scientist of a fallen ancient civilization…
Rather, after that scientist injected a special virus into their own body and then flung themselves into a mass of nanomachines, the scientist's DNA code, the injected special virus, and the nanomachines themselves spent long ages intermingling. The result was a product of pure chance.
Across those endless years, the something that formed a self effectively became the representative of the nanomachines' collective consciousness.
And by pure coincidence, it came to function as a core component of the Annihilation Core.
…Hmm.
So that was the video for this event. Still, the content of the message felt thoroughly bizarre. Rather than delivering anything event-like, it seemed far more desperate to cram information into my head.
Or maybe it was something else.
Feels like the data keeps cutting out mid-stream.
It was exactly like reading a file that had only half-finished loading. I released the pause first.
PAUSE RELEASED
"…Then I shall report at once."
I listened to Levia while continuing to drive the ship toward our destination. A short while later:
"…That is all. Do you have any questions?"
Levia had offered a reasonably detailed account, yet at its core she was simply reciting the same fragmented event message I had just seen. I turned to her with a tone that made no effort to hide my confusion.
"Levia. Is everything you just said the full extent of what you managed to recover?"
"Correct. Due to database degradation over the long ages, the connections between certain data fragments have been severed."
"Hmm."
Her answer left me privately puzzled, but outwardly I let it slide.
"Fine. Report any additional information the moment you find it."
"Understood, Minister."
After all, we had come here both to locate Ash and, while we were at it, to shut down the Annihilation Device exactly as the Precursor Empire had threatened us into doing.
We pressed the ship's advance without pause and at last reached the planetary core.
"This is the deepest level?"
"Correct."
Perhaps because we had already passed through zones packed with vicious superweapons and regions choked with nothing but skulls, the sight of the colossal pillars rising at the planet's heart, the enormous discs rotating between them, and the unidentified star glittering among those discs failed to overwhelm our senses despite its high-tech, ultra-civilization grandeur.
"Look at that! What a rapturous energy source!!!"
Well… one person, at least.
"Indeed!"
"Oh… look at those beautiful curves. To maintain that at such a scale…"
No—quite a few of them were not so much unimpressed as actively venting their twisted desires. Not that their reactions changed what I had to do right now.
"Riel. Where are you picking up Ash's signal?"
Use Ash and the Leviathan's power to wreck the Annihilation Device from the inside. That was the plan I had slapped together on the way here, and to execute it I needed Ash first and foremost. The moment we arrived I had scanners sweeping the surroundings nonstop, yet—
"Umm… Minister?"
"What."
"Ash's presence is… right above us, y'know?"
The moment Riel's incredulous voice reached me, I snapped my gaze to the upper observation window installed on the bridge. And there—
—Kuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!!
"Oh."
"Whoa."
A colossal assembly of electronic terminals and monitors, easily matching the Leviathan in size, was approaching us as though bowing its head.
Holy hell.
The thing looked so much like a certain G×ados from my previous life that I instinctively knew it was the core of the Annihilation Device. Even stranger: half-embedded in what seemed to be the core's forehead—or head—was a woman.
The sight was so abrupt that every one of us was seized by the same questions: who was she, and why was she there?
Then, immediately after:
"Uh, Minister? That half-buried girl is giving off Ash's presence!"
Riel, who had been monitoring electromagnetic signatures, blurted it out in a voice full of surprise. I focused my gaze again on the distant "woman."
"Is that true, Riel?"
"Yep. The exterior looks a little weird, but the electromagnetic signals pouring out of her are definitely Ash's."
The joy of finally locating Ash lasted only a heartbeat.
—Pajijijijijijik!!!
"Unyaaah!!"
"Kh—!"
Right in front of the operators on the bridge, circuit boards and screens burst into flame and exploded one after another. At the same time—
—Kiiiiiik… Kuuung!
—Bzzzzzznnnn…
Accompanied by an utterly grotesque racket, the Annihilation Device's core—which had been a fair distance away only moments before—closed the gap in an instant. It settled into position and coiled around us like a serpent wrapping its prey.
"All hands, battle stations!"
"DEFCON 1!"
Everyone on the bridge, along with the combat troops standing by throughout the ship, braced themselves to launch an immediate boarding assault and crush the threat from within.
But right after that—
"…Who are you?"
Contrary to every expectation, it did not attack without question. Instead, still coiled, it directed a comparatively polite inquiry our way.
It was supposed to attack without mercy. Did some kind of error crop up here too?
I entertained the thought for only a second before realizing this was no time for speculation—an immediate answer was required. I ordered Riel to establish a comm link first.
—Chijijijijijik…
Once the new network connected and the faint static settled, I lifted the microphone and sent a brief transmission toward the still-repeating annihilation core.
"N—"
But at that exact moment—
♪ Ding~
PAUSED
An event window slammed across my vision without warning, freezing everything once more.
Oh, for fuck's sake.
I abandoned the posture I had been about to speak in and checked what new nonsense the event had decided to throw at me now.
The Deepest Heart of the Annihilation Device
At last you have succeeded in reaching the deepest core of this planetary fortress.
After reading the event message, I stared blankly for a moment, then decided I had better release the pause and spend some time talking with that damned Annihilation Core.