“Wh-What the hell are you doing to him?!”
“Ehehe, are you jealous, Nia?!” Nia charged forward to hit Luna, but she parted from my side and dodged it with little difficulty.
“Viola! Time to go!” Viola turned away from its ongoing conflict with Rouge and jumped toward its master. Luna then hopped on to its shoulders as they began to escape. It looked ridiculous, like a little kid giving a piggyback.
“I had fun today! See you later!” Luna blew a kiss as Viola emitted a purple mist from its wrist. I immediately realized that it was bad news.
“Gather forth, Water! Swirling Shield: [Aqua Shell]!” I summoned a glob of water that sucked up all the mist. The smoke began to mix with the water until it turned a very foul color. I then carefully moved the water and placed it in a pot of flowers.
Just as I did that, the flowers in the pot shriveled up and died. I knew it, it was some kind of toxin.
Luna and her Gollem had escaped. What the hell just happened... That was seriously nuts...
“Tsk... That damn woman escaped again...!” Nia yelled and kicked at the ground out of frustration. I could understand her feelings.
Oh, that’s right... I gotta use my magic to heal any wounded survivors...
Huh...? As I started to walk, I felt a strange sensation on one of my legs. I looked down.
“...Eugh...” There was a sticky, damp stain on my right thigh. Don’t tell me...
I grimaced when I realized what it was. I slowly turned to Nia, who was also grimacing.
I moved toward her, but she held up her palms as if to ward me off.
“Sorry, I don’t wanna catch cooties.”
Wow, they even have the concept of cooties in this world... Damn, this day has been horrible.
◇ ◇ ◇
“Come forth, Light! Neutral Therapy: [Area Heal].” I quietly cast a wide-range recovery spell on everyone in the black market... I didn’t want to draw attention to myself, after all. But it might have been a bit late for that.
There weren’t as many dead people as I’d initially assumed, thankfully... It seemed like Rouge had successfully held Viola back from doing the worst it could’ve done. But that was only the case for the basement.
Euri went up to confirm it and reported back that the upper level was like a vision of hell itself. Everyone was dead. Bits of guts, bone, and brains were strewn all over.
I didn’t want Nia, Rouge, and Euri getting any undue attention. They were members of the Red Cats, after all. I used [Gate] to covertly return us to the hideout.
Once we got back there, Euri made some tea. I sipped at it and finally reflected on what was going on.
“That Gollem was... Terrifyingly strong.” Euri had warned me about the crown’s regeneration, but it was far more intense than I’d thought. Viola seemed to be about as good as regenerating as the Phrasium armor on the custom Frame Gears.
Or maybe it was even stronger than that... I sliced it in half, and it came back like it was nothing. That wasn’t just a regular regeneration, it was way faster and way more intense. I had no idea how to even take down something with an ability like that.
“So that’s the kind of thing the crowns are capable of...” I shuddered. Nia glanced to Rouge, then to me. She spoke up.
“Crown Gollems possess incredible power, but they demand a price from their masters. There are risks. Her immortality doesn’t come without a cost.”
“What kind of cost?”
“Rouge, for example, is capable of generating flames and gaining strength directly proportional to the amount of blood that I feed it. The more blood I spill, the stronger it grows. My father, the former leader of the Red Cats... That’s how he died. He gave as much blood as his life would allow, to turn Rouge into an unstoppable force.” A blood pact?! What the hell... He died to that? Preserved blood didn’t cut it, either. It had to be freshly spilled blood. I remembered hearing that a human would die if they lost a third of their blood, so her father must have gone over that limit...
“Then what’s the price paid for the purple crown...?”
“I’m not entirely certain if this is true... But I heard that the price is sanity. They slowly reach new depths of depravity and madness, until eventually... Once they don’t remember who they are anymore, or what they’re doing, Viola will end them and seek a new master. They say that only the purple crown can kill the purple master. From what I understand, Viola has killed each and every one of its previous masters. That’s the penalty for a body that can’t be killed any other way.” Does that mean her crazy attitude was because she’s been losing her mind to the crown...? Maybe... But it kind of felt like she still had her personality...
“Despite their bodies, the purple masters tend to have the shortest lives. The other crown masters like me don’t really need to worry about dying, so long as they live carefully, but the purple masters have their deaths all but guaranteed.” I wondered how the immortal bodies were even granted... Was it magic, perhaps? I thought maybe she was undead, and that seemed like the closest approximation. She had dull, lifeless eyes, after all.
Purple masters would lose their sanity until all semblance of reason was stripped from their minds... They’d descend into madness, and then be put down by the source of it.
I opened up my map and ran a search for Luna’s location. Nothing came up. She was probably carrying an artifact or something around that prevented her from being traced. It wouldn’t have surprised me if there were Gollems in this world with abilities similar to my [Search] spell. When you thought about it, the Gollem’s singular abilities were similar to people’s unique Null spells.
According to Nia, she was also in possession of an item that could alter the memories of those she encountered, resulting in survivors of her attacks only recalling a purple crown and a “frenzied mistress.” The people she caused to blackout in fear were usually the ones that were left alive, and the ones with hazy memories. The fear remained inscribed into them, and even asking them about what happened is enough to send them into shock. It seemed like Luna and her crown were like wandering reapers. But eventually Luna herself would end up the target of a culling...
Gollems from the crown series seemed like double-edged swords. I was kind of concerned that the Etoiles might have had similar drawbacks...
“The Etoile Gollems don’t have any trade-off, don’t worry. Crowns are just complete exceptions. The stories go that the crowns were created by a Gollem engineer named Chrom Ranchesse, but the stories also go that the man was completely insane. He lived in the ancient civilization that was destroyed.” I felt a strange sense of déjà vu upon hearing that. I wondered if the template for geniuses somehow overlapped with the template for complete weirdoes... Doctor Babylon was useless for anything besides research and inventing...
Recently that old coot had installed a camera in the girl’s bathroom... I caught her peeping on my fiancées and cackling like an old man... Naturally, I smacked her over the head and told her to remove it.
I pulled out the three Gollems I’d purchased from my [Storage]. I wasn’t able to store living, or at least sentient, beings with my magic. I’d tried storing the Babylon mini-bots in there once, and it just didn’t work. It was probable that after I activated these three, I wouldn’t be able to put them back inside... But I needed Nia to tell me how to turn them on to begin with.
I opened the display case and took out the red-themed Gollem. It was definitely child-sized... It was actually shorter than Rouge, now that I got a closer look.
It had a feminine form, specifically a young girl’s body. Its base color was white all over. It didn’t have any human facial features other than a face. No ears, no nose, no mouth. It was kind of like it was wearing a mask... she didn’t look uncanny or anything. Its features were still human.
“Wow... It really does look human-like...” Euri muttered quietly while inspecting the Gollem.
These Gollems were probably not designed for combat. This type w
as often more intelligent than standard Gollems and was probably created with a humanoid appearance so they could look after children or mind houses.
Even though Rouge and Viola were humanoid too, these Etoiles were not clad in armor, so they looked a lot more like people than the crowns did.
But to be honest, I was too used to the Babylon sisters. Whenever Nia or Euri commented on how human the Etoiles looked, I just didn’t buy it.
“So, how do you activate them?”
“You’re supposed to place your hand on the chest area, release a little of your magic, and say ‘Open.’” I didn’t understand, but I did as I was told.
“Open.” A small whoosh of shifting air came from the Etoile as her chest opened up. The interior was full of peculiar machinery. There was a dice-like cube in there that glowed bright green, it was contained inside a strange glass container that resembled a softball.
“The cube is called a G-Cube. It’s a Gollem’s core. Put your hand in and pull it out.” I reached out to the glassy surface of the circular container and found my fingers passing through it. It was gross... Kind of like dipping my hand into a jar of Vaseline. The sticky liquid engulfed all my digits.
I pulled my hand out with the tiny emerald cube, and strangely enough none of the weird liquid came out with it. It felt really weird.
“So long as the G-Cube remains, you can reconstruct a Gollem around it. It loses its memories and skills, though. Those things are stored in the Q-Crystal, located within the head.” It seemed like the Q-Crystal operated as the brain, while the G-Crystal operated as the heart. Those combined with bodies crafted in the ancient civilization made up the Legacy Gollems.
You could create a new Gollem by incorporating just the Q-Crystal from a Legacy Gollem, but the end result would be vastly inferior to the original.
Plus, it seemed that Gollems, when inactive for a period of a few hundred years or so, periodically reset their memories. That was why there weren’t really any Legacy Gollems with memories of how the ancient civilization used to be.
“So, what do I do with this?”
“You need to register as the Gollem’s master using the G-Cube. It needs to take in some of your genetic info. Anything should be fine, a bit of hair or a fingernail clipping should be enough.” I pulled a strand of hair out of my head and pressed it against the G-Cube. The strand slowly melted into it and vanished.
I put the G-Cube back into its container and locked its chest back up.
In order to steal someone else’s Gollem, you needed to overwrite the registration with your own genetics. You had to shut down the Gollem and open it up, too... Which was definitely difficult. Most Gollems would definitely resist having their master changed, after all.
Even taking someone’s Gollem by force wouldn’t do, you’d still need to open up its chest and override ownership.
Gollems were personal property, so doing that was highly illegal. There were security measures in place to prevent Gollem theft, but I didn’t need to worry about that right now.
I heard a quiet hum from the Etoile after installing the G-Cube, slowly a faint red light appeared on her translucent parts. But that was only for a moment, the lights gradually grew dim.
“Hmm... This isn’t right. Usually, it would’ve started by now.”
“I wonder if it’s broken, then... The shopkeeper did say something like that.” Hrmm... It did activate for a moment, though... Let’s see here... It kind of feels like an old, broken appliance. Maybe there’s a loose connection in there somewhere? It might take a bit more than a few smacks on the back to fix, though...
I decided to check it out.
“[Analyze].” I used my magic to get a feel for the Gollem’s structure. I didn’t have much knowledge about it, so I didn’t really know what most of what I learned meant.
But I could understand how the magic flow inside it worked. The magic flow from the G-Cube wasn’t reaching the Q-Crystal, which was probably the issue. There was a blockage around the neck area. It was kind of like a blood vessel blockage in humans... But that kind of thing would be lethal if it happened to a person.
I walked around the Gollem and checked its neck. I noticed a small, clear cube-shaped protrusion about one centimeter in diameter.
I pushed it. Nothing happened. It didn’t really look like a switch. I used [Analysis] on it, which showed me that there was a small magical barrier around it, disrupting the flow of magic around the Gollem’s neck.
Is this a safety mechanism or something? Maybe if I’d bought it legally, I would’ve gotten a key to disable this part or something.
Let’s see if I can’t do something about this...
“[Cracking].” I began to work myself into the Gollem’s startup procedures. My Null spell completely overrode the activation requirements for the Etoile unit in front of me. It was impossible to modify the entire thing, but I was able to modify the small portion that kept the little barrier active.
Once the barrier was removed, the magic flow managed to move upward to the head. Then, the clear reddish parts all over the Etoile’s body began to light up softly. The magic must have reached the Q-Crystal.
“Oh, it moved.”
“Wow, you did it!” The two of them cheered, but were promptly cut off by a voice that came from the Etoile.
“Activating... Activating... Model Number ETA-01 has been formally activated. All systems nominal. Register master name, and machine name.” Ooh, it’s talking. Or... Well, I guess it feels more like a recorded message.
“Uhh... Master name is Mochizuki Touya. Machine name is... Uhh... Hold on...” Etoile meant star, so I wanted to give her a name related to astronomy.
A few famous red stars from my old world were Antares from the Scorpius Constellation and Betelgeuse from the Orion constellation. None of those names sounded particularly girly, though.
I guess it doesn’t have to be a star name.
“Uhm... Your name is Ruby, then.”
“Understood. Change in master registration is ongoing. Reboot initiated.” I’d given Kohaku and the others names based on rare minerals and stones, too. So I figured naming the Gollems that way would be fine. Kougyoku’s name kind of meant ruby too... But that wasn’t a big deal.
It went without saying that I’d call the other two Sapphire and Emerald... But they were a little long. Saph and Emerl were probably enough.
Ruby stopped moving for a brief moment, then made a low noise. It turned its head toward me.
“Can you understand me?”
“Ping.” Ruby nodded toward me. Huh, she can’t talk? But she spoke earlier.
“This Gollem probably has intuitive learning. It’ll only have limited noises and motions to begin with, but it should be able to learn over time without an issue.” As Nia spoke, Rouge nodded along. In a sense, she was kind of like an infant right now, so I’d need to dedicate some time to her development and education.
...Is it gonna be safe to entrust something so infantile to Doctor Babylon...? I don’t really trust her with child-rearing.
“Oh well, that sounds fine. Nice to meet you, Ruby.”
“Ping.” Ruby nodded again. Is she gonna be able to talk down the line...? I wonder if I can get the doctor to modify her so she learns faster... But maybe that’s a little unethical?
I was about to activate the blue Etoile, Saph when Nia suddenly interjected and told me something interesting.
I was told that when registering a Gollem, it was best to have only one per person. It was possible for signal interference to kick in if you had more than one Gollem under your command, which had a severe impact on performance.
For example, if you ordered Gollem A to move to the left, and Gollem B to move to the right, the interference might cause the Gollems to obey the wrong orders, or just not even move at all.
That could cause a fatal mistake in a combat situation.
But apparently, if the Gollems were of the same type and manufacturer, signal interference was m
uch less likely. Since all three of these were Etoiles, it was statistically less likely that their orders would get messed up... But the chance wasn’t zero, so I was told to keep it in mind.
I overrode Emerl and Saph in much the same way using [Cracking], then registered myself as master.
“Nice to meet you both.”
“Pong.”
“Pang.” Ruby said ping, Saph said pong, and Emerl said pang, apparently.
I decided to test out the signal interference to make sure things were alright.
“Ruby, raise your right hand. Saph, raise your left hand. Emerl, raise both your hands.” I gave them all conflicting orders, but they followed them without any issues. It seemed like there wasn’t an issue.
These three reminded me of the ninja trio. Sarutobi Homura, Kirigakure Shizuku, and Fuma Nagi. Mostly because the names were associated with fire, water, and wind... And it kind of went with the whole red, blue, green theming.
I wondered about entrusting the Gollems to those three girls... That probably wasn’t possible, though. The idea of Ninja Gollems sounded cool, though...
Plus I’d purchased these three to get them to guard the Dimensional Disruptor, anyway.
... It feels a bit late to ask this, but... Are they even gonna be able to protect the place? These Etoiles seemed more suited to caring for people and nursing... I had no idea if they were good for combat. It was a tad too late to worry about it, I decided to make it work. They’d probably be fine if I equipped them with some decent weapons...
It would probably be fine. I decided not to worry about it. My focus now was finding a place to install the Dimensional Disruptor, anyways. An uninhabited place would probably be best.
If there was a place similar to Dragoness Island like in the regular world, that’d be pretty good. I didn’t think anyone would approach something like that.
I asked if there was any place like that. The answer I got was unexpected.
“...There’s a place like that?”
“If you’re talking about an island of Dragons... Then yeah. Drakliff Island. Nobody ever goes there because it’s full of raging Dragons. Their nest is there.”
In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 13 Page 15