Chapter 439 - Relics of the Past

Gabriel looked confusedly at her before asking, "What do you want from me?"

"My next mission, Commander," The girl replied stiffly.

"What mission? And why do you keep addressing me as 'commander'? I don't even know you..."

"Administrative Authority has been handed to you so you are my—this squadron's commander."

"Squadron? What do you—"

Before he could continue asking, the other humans who were standing in front of the pods began showing some activity.

"Threat Detected!" The young lady quickly said before she rapidly turned around and the metal surrounding her arms quickly transformed into long blades.

Gabriel was alarmed by the hostile change, but the reason for it soon became apparent. One of the humans that woke up suddenly began screaming for some reason.

"GAAAAAHHH!!!"

"W-what's happening?!" Gabriel exclaimed.

The young lady only eyed the screaming human and she coldly said, "Anomaly detected. Unit Number 04, Ego Transplant Incomplete. Visible signs of Mental Meltdown. Threat Level: 7, proceeding to eliminate before energy core meltdown sequence initiates."

When Gabriel heard the word 'eliminate' he felt that something bad was about to happen. Before he could say anything, however, the young girl from earlier had already dashed towards her screaming counterpart with her weapons raised in the next instant.

Feeling the killing intent that the girl who identified herself as Unit 01 aim towards the human who similarly woke up from the pod just like her, Gabriel was bewildered.

"H-Hey, wait!"

Unit 01 didn't listen to him, however. She was already upon her counterpart and she slashed down with her blades. One blade swung down on the person's head, lopping it off, while the other blade stabbed through their heart.

Gabriel was speechless when he saw this. He wanted to say something, but the next thing he saw was even more absurd. Instead of blood that spilled through the person's wounds, a transparent blue liquid flowed out and when the girl, Unit 01, pulled out her blade from the person's chest, something else also came out with it.

"Th-that's not a heart..." Gabriel involuntarily said upon seeing the object that was pulled out of the human's chest. It looked to be some sort of complex mechanical contraption instead of a heart.

"Threat eliminated. Retrieval of the Energy Core complete. Starting up the absorption process."

The mechanical contraption that was pulled out of the dead human's body suddenly disappeared and the young lady turned back towards Gabriel and repeated her earlier words.

"Commander, the threat has been eliminated. What are your orders?"

"W-wait a minute... Tell me...what are you and what are those people behind you? You guys obviously aren't human!" Gabriel exclaimed, demanding an answer.

"We are the first automaton squadron. We have been awakened by you, Commander. When is the war starting?"

"War? What war?"

"The war against the Fallen..."

"The Fallen?"

"The Fallen, extraterrestrial organisms that travel from one world to another to consume the planet's core and assimilate the planet's inhabitants into their ranks. Zombie-like creatures that can parasitize a host and transform them into one of their own—"

"E-Enough, there's no war here. We're currently inside of the Myriad Tower of Strife, participating in some kind of trial or something. If you have any information about this, please tell me."

"Searching Database. Myriad Tower of Strife. Trials of the Ancients."

Gabriel then listened to a long description of what the Tower was and the Trials of the Ancients. It was all news to him and he even touched upon the worldly threat known as the Fallen and the people who fought against them, the ancients.

The young girl also explained that she as well as the other 8 who were awakened from the pods were created by being called the Ancients and were weapons of war that were designed to specifically combat the Fallen.

Half of the things the girl told him were unintelligible gibberish to him. There was no war and as for things called Ancients and the Fallen, there was no such thing according to his knowledge, at least.

Gabriel had been given access to Cecil and Quinn's massive information network and had absorbed all of the info he could yet there was nothing in their network's database that depicted of beings called the Ancients or the Fallen.

The only thing he was able to half-believe was the information about the trials and the tower as well as the information about the people who were sleeping inside of the pods.

It turned out that these 'humans' were exactly humans. They were human-like automatons that were created by the beings known as the Ancients and they were specifically designed weapons of war.

���So you aren't humans?"

"Correction. We are human-based automaton and our bodies are human. So, in a sense, we are human."

"O-Okay—wait, what?"

"We are automatons that were created using human bodies as a base."

"..."

Gabriel felt like he just heard something dangerous. He wanted to question her further, but the other automatons began showing some activity behind the young lady.

"Unit 02, reporting for duty."

"Unit 03, reporting for duty."

"Unit, 05, reporting for duty."

...

...

"Unit 10, reporting for duty"

The remaining 8 automata lined up behind Unit 01 in a neat 2-line file and reported to Gabriel. They too treated him like their leader.

It was bewildering but after Gabriel gave it some thought, he remembered the awakening process and was reminded that he had given up a drop of his blood to wake them up. That part was also the Authority Transfer or something so the automaton probably treated him like their leader because he was the one that woke them up.

"Commander, the war hasn't started. So why were we awaken?" Unit 01 asked.

"I'm not sure whether or not this war of yours will even occur, but I woke you all up because I thought you were humans who were participating in the tower's trials."

"Negative. We are not trial participants."

"...Well, at least you guys gave me some info about the trials. If you want to go back to sleep, I can put you all—"

"Negative. We do not want to be put back into the coffin."

"Coffin?"

"It is the name of the pods that we rest in."

"...What a weird name."

"..."

Only the young girl called Unit 01 was speaking on behalf of everyone else in their squadron. It seems like she was the leader. Gabriel was a little miffed by the fact that the leader was cold and unfeeling, even for an automaton.

She had cleanly executed one of her own without a second thought once she detected that there was some kind of malfunction in their system.

"Commander, what will you have us do?"

"...Just follow me. If you have a map of this factory complex, give it to me. We need to find the Power Station."

A young man from the back of the line quickly stepped out and walked towards Gabriel. He bowed his head towards Gabriel and said, "Unit 08, Navigator Class. Here is a map of the factory complex, Commander."

The automaton handed Gabriel a mechanical orb and pressed down on the red 'eye' on the orb and a holographic map was projected just above the orb. Gabriel's eyes widened when he saw this.

"W-wow...not even Earth had this kind of technology yet..."

The map showed their current location and the most direct path towards the factory's power station. It was actually in the southern district which they had already explored but was located underground.

It was in a building similar to this one so it was understandable that they hadn't been able to find it since it took Kira a while to find this underground storage area.

"Thanks. Let's get topside then."

Gabriel said before handing back the orb to Unit 08 and turning around and walking towards the elevator. Both Angelia and Kira were still curiously peering out of the elevator door so when they saw Gabriel walking towards them with the 9 people walking behind him, they immediately stepped out of the elevator, knowing that it was safe, and rushed towards Gabriel.

Upon seeing the 2 unidentified humans rushing towards her commander, Unit 01 quickly pulled out her weapons and was just about to rush in front of Gabriel to 'defend' him, but thankfully, Gabriel quickly noticed her actions.

"Threat Detected. Unidentified Female Human, threat level: EX. Unidentified Male Human, threat level—"

"STOP!"

Gabriel quickly yelled. Unit 01 froze in place while Angelia and Kira arrived next to Gabriel.

"Big bro, are they good?"

"Captain, they're not a threat?"

The two immediately asked. They had turned a bit cautious after seeing Unit 01's actions. It was like she was going to attack them just because they were going to approach Gabriel.

"01, these two are not threats."

"Understood, Commander," Unit 01 replied and quickly retracted her blades.

Gabriel shook his head at how stiff and mechanical the girl was replying. Angelia and Gabriel were both surprised to hear that the girl called Gabriel her Commander.

"What's this, big brother?"

"Why did she call you commander, captain?"

"...It's a long story. Anyway, I found the power station. They'll be joining us so get along. Let's go finish this stage's quest."