-3: 126
To quickly sort out the situation... or rather, to confirm the disaster heading my way, I made discreet inquiries to everyone I was intimate with.
Thankfully, so far it only seemed to be Rapi, Marian, Shifty, Syuen, and Jien who were pregnant.
So far.
It could be more later, so I made sure to flag that...
But right now, it was fine.
Indi was obviously excited to become a big sister many times over.
But for now, everything seemed to be under containment.
So, after letting all of that be... and ignoring the fact that Anis had run off to learn more about the 'Wombforce 9000' that Syuen of all people had apparently invented...
I went with Neon to her small firearms workshop to get more details about the lore bomb she dropped.
"So let me get this straight," I slowly said. "Your base form, brain, and body is actually that of the former V.T.C. Pope."
Neon nodded. "Yep! Princess! She, uh... wasn't a very good person. But she was good to Stall III!"
"Stall III. Right. That's the other person making up who you are then. An... Outer Rim worker?"
"Mmhm! One of the Outer Rim denizens who was scraping just to get by! Oh, she was called Stall III because she was born in the bathroom stall number three, where most babies were dumped!"
"...Just what sort of fresh hell IS the Outer Rim?"
Neon shrugged. "Well, it doesn't really matter now, right, Master? You brought most of them up here to the Outpost!"
"...Right. That's true." I slowly nodded.
The dead end dystopia that was the Outer Rim was practically resolved now since I'd smuggled most of them up to the surface and the Outpost.
Technically illegal according to Ark procedures, but honestly who was gonna stop me, right?
But that aside...
"So." I looked at Neon. "You're neither but both. You have Stall III's personality and appearance because that's the wish that Princess had. And you have Princess's mind and at least partial memories because Stall III wanted her to live. So you're in a weird place where you're an emergent third personality that can look through Princess's memories like a search engine, would get recognized as Princess by any relevant biometrics, but look like if Stall III had managed to mature into adulthood?"
"Yep! Neat, right?" Neon let out a bright smile.
I stared at her and said, "You are, I'm pretty sure, 100% clinically insane. Or at least mentally ill. But I'm pretty sure I am too, so welcome officially to the team."
Neon laughed. "Thanks, Master! But anyway!" She focused and said, "We're in a pretty big pickle, you know? I don't remember too much from Princess's memories since I mostly have her skill set instead of actual past memories... but we definitely need to defeat the Queen if we want to stop the Raptures. But she's extremely powerful, you know? I think even with all the firepower I have now, it might still be a tough battle."
I blinked. "Wait, really? She's that overpowered?"
Neon nodded, uncharacteristically serious. "Mmhm. Master's been doing great at developing new attack avenues and vectors... but I think the Queen still wins in pure output. Not to mention the fact that she can flood the world with Raptures if she decides to send the space station crashing down to Earth. We're in a stalemate right now only because she's stuck in space... and willingly."
"...Willingly, huh?" I placed my hand on my chin, thinking.
...That made sense.
If the Queen was as powerful as the old reports made her out to be, then killing her or stopping her wouldn't have been as easy as just breaking the connection to the space station.
It probably just rerouted her resources. And while it might have caused her to lose a good chunk of resources... it was definitely still voluntary.
Which meant we were all on a timer.
"I see. So we need to hurry then."
Neon nodded. "That's right. Master's doing good in consolidating your forces. But you can't rely on the Ark. I'm not sure why... but I kinda feel like if you do you can't win. At least not without losing a lot?"
I tapped my chin. "Hm... That makes sense. If we follow the trend in these sorts of situations, the Ark is probably tied up with the tech that the Rapture Queen is using. Since I'm using things I built up from scratch, I'm not affected if things go dark. But if I use things from the Ark or rely on their resources, I'll probably get crippled later on."
In hindsight, it was strangely suspicious about how easily humanity jumped in biotech to develop Nikkes that could clash against the mechanical Rapture threat...
"Mmhm!" Neon smiled. "But Master's cheating by stealing things from everyone, so it'll work out! Probably!"
I laughed. "I mean, you're not wrong. I guess I really am stealing from everywhere I can, right?"
Raptures, Heretics, Nikkes, the morale of the Ark, Outer Rim denizens, places on the Surface...
I was running around like a proper JRPG hero and grabbing up everything I could before clearing the main quest of 'Beat Ganon' like Link would in Breath of the Wild.
Now, it was possible I could do that right now. In fact, I was fairly sure I had tech to preemptively strike the Queen in space.
But I was also fairly sure that would result in me having to face a gauntlet of threats unseen and unanticipated while also facing the Queen at full force.
In short, bad idea.
So...
I nodded. "The bottomline is still just reclaim surface, get resources, strengthen tech, and prep for the final battle, huh?"
"Yep!" Neon nodded. "So... Master!" She grinned. "Isn't it time you start deploying us properly to reclaim spots on the surface? And more research facilities?"
I laughed. "Sure. Since Abnormal is up and running... let's go do a proper logistics meeting. It's been a while anyway." I checked my phone. "It's around... 2 PM now. Let's have everyone meet at 5 PM for dinner and plotting."
===
Meanwhile, far in the distance within the artificially constructed Ark built by the Four Beasts.
Siren and Grave waited with bated breath as they watched Leviathan and Bahamut work together to carefully restore Cinderella's core.
Abe twitched, resisting the urge to step forward and help herself. Instead, she looked at Siren and said, "Can we trust them, Siren?"
Siren nodded. "Mmhm! I trust Levi! And also..." She looked over at Nihilister and Liberalio, who were both idly scrolling through their phones, and giggled. "We know that Heretics don't have to be bad people!"
Nihilister quickly looked up and said, "Hey. I resent that statement. I'm a terribly evil person. I've destroyed countries, cities, scores of humans..."
Liberalio nodded. "And when you met Father, you folded like a wet towel."
"Grk. S-So what?" Nihilister's ears turned red. "Pops is nice, okay? Plus, I don't have to think as much when I'm around him. He lets me run wild and says it's okay."
Abe glanced at Liberalio and Nihilister. Then she slowly looked back at Siren and said, "...Okay. I understand what you mean at least." She frowned. "...But how did they get past the corruption?"
At that time, Bahamut, a booking looking beauty with crimson eyes, black hair, and glasses, looked up and said, "I, the enlightened Bahamut, shall explain!" She pointed at Liberalio and Nihilister before saying, "The Offspring became Heretical Heretics, choosing once again humans over Raptures!"
Silence.
Liberalio slowly tilted her head and said, "You are... not incorrect. But it is more complicated than that..."
Leviathan blushed and mumbled, "I'll say. That Commander is... something."
Siren looked over at Leviathan. "What was that, Levi?"
"N-Nothing!" Levithan sat up straight and said, "Anyway!" She pointed at Cinderalla, laying in the coffin Abe had built to hold her. "Anachiro-"
"Cinderella," Abe instantly said.
"Cinderella." Leviathan nodded. "Since we have her Glass Slippers, we can slowly wake her up. But the energy output is going to draw a lot of hostile Raptures and Rapture units that have been corrupted by the energy-eating crystals around here. Ziz and Behemoth can help with the perimeter, but it's going to get pretty intense." She looked at Abe and Siren. "Can you two help keep things safe while we work?"
Abe shook her head. "I need to be here when Cinderella wakes. To be sure."
Siren frowned. "I should be here too. Cinderella might be disoriented when she wakes up."
Leviathan turned to look at Nihilister and Liberalio. "...What about you two?"
Nihilister stood up and cracked her neck. "I guess I can help... Pops DID need more Rapture parts. And I think he'd be interested in the crystals, right, Libby?"
Liberalio hummed and slipped her phone into her pocket. "That is true. Father is preparing for a proper surface reclamation war, so the more resources we can secure to help him, the better."
Abe paused and quickly looked over. "Surface reclamation war?"
Liberalio nodded, a faint smile on her face. "Of course. Father is quite the hero, you see. And intelligent as well."
Nihilister snorted. "When he's not thinking with his lower head, you mean."
Liberalio kept smiling as she drifted over to Nihilister's side, heading off with her. "Well, a King requires his consorts..."
Abe frowned, mulling over everything. But then she looked up at Leviathan and said, "How long will it take to bring Cinderella back?"
Leviathan held out her hand, wrapping Cinderella in dark matter and connecting to some spare Harmony Cubes they had found, as well as her Glass Slippers. "I'm not sure. It's the first time I've done this... but Ana- Cinderella doesn't seem hurt. Just exhausted." She looked over at Siren and said, "Do you think that Commander would be able to send any help for us?"
Siren blinked. "Oh! Um..." She tilted her head, thinking. "I don't know? Commander Hoopa seemed pretty busy... But I can ask him!"
After that, Siren pulled out her phone.
Abe paused. "...Ask him?"
"Mmhm!" Siren nodded. "Commander Hoopa is really responsive with his text messages on Blabla!"
After that, Siren sent off a text.