[Welcome!!]
A holographic woman immediately appeared before Sanguinius, down on one knee.
A different position from the usual AI, who simply bows.
"You seem to have learned a lot again, Cortana," he said, stroking the AI's hair.
The texture had become extremely similar to ordinary hair, showing her evolution in using solid holograms.
[You give me too much honor, but it's thanks to a group of clones stationed here.]
Sanguinius was slightly surprised by the news, but it was inevitable.
He had literally given the clones carte blanche after his departure.
It was normal for them to take initiatives.
"Can you lead me to them? I sense countless changes here..."
The magical energy in the bunker had become extremely dense.
If Sanguinius could compare, then this place had nothing to envy Hell in terms of mana density.
[Indeed...]
Cortana accepted, but she seemed to be struggling with something.
"You wanted to know why I was in the bunker, but you weren't aware?"
The hologram simply nodded.
But the expected answer didn't come from her creator's mouth.
Well.
Instead, she just received a flick.
"That'll be your homework. And you tell me if you've figured it out," he said, gesturing for her to show the way.
Along the road, Rasputin and the Divination skill hadn't stopped sending various alerts to Sanguinius.
This meant that the trap present could hurt him.
'After the Baal Secundus version sealed the Fire Scorpions' souls, I was able to force an evolution into a Branded Swordsman.'
Thanks to the qualitative change brought about, the wounds on his soul had healed much faster.
Not only that, he could feel his authority over Trust strengthened.
'The clones must have abandoned their power gains, out of concern for me or for some reason.'
He couldn't really know, because all his concentration had been requisitioned to control his avatar on Baal Secundus.
He had simply sent messages in the Chat Group, to make them understand that he still existed.
Of course, one of them had immediately responded in a coded manner.
No one in the Chat Group had noticed his discussion with himself.
As for the current control of the avatar?
He had left it in automatic mode, but he could still control it anytime.
"Finally, you've returned."
Once he arrived at the control room, a clone immediately presented himself to him.
Sanguinius nodded to him with a calm smile, before extending his hand.
The clone seemed to sigh for a moment for some unknown reason, then he ended up shaking it.
Sanguinius quickly understood the situation.
Especially why his bunker and the island were emanating so much magical power so openly.
"Cortana... where's Thrax?" he said after having a complete understanding of the situation.
[He's still in Astartes training. He... he's having trouble digesting the training processes.]
The training used on Thrax was a similar version, but gentler, than the one used by the Night Lords legion.
Why this legion?
Thrax had literally lived in an environment that allowed him to see the darkness of this world.
The boy had a certain desire for revenge, but also a great thirst for justice.
Most importantly, the gene-seed prepared for him was based on The Night Hunter himself.
Sanguinius had considered using his own, but at the time... there was warp in him.
As for using Mittelt's?
He had rejected the idea, because that would make Thrax his son.
'At first, I really thought about ignoring his permission...'
But that would be really too disrespectful, and it would be impossible to keep the secret from Mittelt for long.
The link between genetic donors and the receiver was really deep, according to Sanguinius's memories.
'There's literally Magnus, who accepted eternal damnation for his Space Marines.'
So, it wasn't something to take lightly.
"I hope he hasn't devoured a criminal's heart, right?"
[Oh, of course not.]
[I softened the training, but I kept it hard enough to help Thrax better acclimate to his new organs.]
Indeed, Thrax had been able to receive all the implants and artificial organs thanks to the clones' Holy Power and their skills.
Normally, Astartes training takes 8 years minimum.
But Thrax seemed to have almost finished in half the time.
"Keep watching his mental state, but don't push him too far. And even against his wishes, stop at the slightest sign of mental failure."
Cortana nodded seriously.
An attitude that was appreciated by the Angel.
Teleportation.
[He's gone again...]
The AI looked at the empty location, with a complex, indecipherable gaze.
...
"Damn... seeing him holographically and in real life are two different things."
Sanguinius had teleported into the atmosphere, or more precisely into a floating fortress above the island.
This was also the reason for the clones' confidence in conducting magical experiments in the bunker, while Greece was right next door.
They had literally secured this territory from neighboring pantheons.
[Analysis...]
[Alert!!]
[Authority Level: Omega...]
[SENA signaling in progress...]
[Launching VVIP procedure.]
After the scan performed on him in the teleportation reserved area, several alerts echoed around him.
Finally, there was a short silence.
Poof.
With a whimsical sound, a small holographic fairy appeared...
(Image)
"Moebius?" Involuntarily, he distorted his face at the small fairy before him.
Yes, Sanguinius wasn't a fan of fairies.
But, if his clones had personalized her this way, then he hadn't been honest with himself.
[That is the name decided by SENA after a long deliberation], she said in a slightly annoyed voice.
'Unlike Cortana, the clones seemed to have directly given a personality to this AI.'
An understandable act, because a floating city could literally travel through space-time thanks to dimensional jumps.
Especially since it had enough firepower to raze a city in one shot.
Certainly, he had reduced the size of the city to a fortress at the time.
But this hadn't really diminished its firepower enormously, because it depended on its master.
Without the latter, it could just barely raze a city.
But with Sanguinius himself here?
'I don't appreciate that they built and inaugurated this thing without me, but... well done.'
During the journey, Moebius explained the infrastructures around him and the activity centers.
For example, the maintenance of the place was managed by a group of servitors.
Why not robots?
The clones had concluded that it would be more profitable to borrow unclaimed corpses from the Konosuba universe and transform them into obedient cyborgs.
'I can sense that they've built several elemental particle pools.'
The elemental particle pool.
This was an invention he wanted to include in the floating fortress.
It was normally used in magus towers to accelerate their magical training on several levels.
It also served as power supply, but for this floral fortress? This wasn't enough.
[We're here. SENA led by the Administrator must be waiting.]
The huge door of the fortress's central building finally opened.
"Me, who got heartache because of your absence at my welcome... sorry, guys."
A row of masked clones had been carefully aligned toward a round table.
There, six clones stood behind their chairs.
There was a masterless chair in the middle, but a familiar word was written on it.
"Administrator?!" he said, reading the familiar name.
"I'm here..."
As in his memories, a clone sporting a bureaucrat's smile presented himself to him.
He still had that particular atmosphere, but...
'He's become much weaker.'
"You've worked hard... rest."
Despite his disappearance, the Administrator hadn't shown signs of fatigue similar to the clones in Cortana's control room.
He had simply relaxed.
"You really worked hard... Neo Citadel? Very good name."