Chapter 116: True Ancestor Agatha 1
“Is the problem with the Caracas Steps resolved then?”
Alice manipulated the Overseer-exclusive report format hologram floating in the air, carefully reviewing the tasks she had completed.
First, the confirmation of blood contamination across the entire Caracas Heavy Industry Steps.
The contamination had progressed significantly, and the criminal organization originally occupying the corporation’s area had entirely mutated into terminally infected individuals or vampires.
As Rilstia had mentioned, Alice’s original mission was neither aggressive purification nor eradication of the blood-contaminated zones but merely a simple investigation.
It was literally just a “check the situation and report back” kind of task.
Although Alice couldn’t help but intervene here and there, unable to ignore the injustices and problems before her, the situation wouldn’t have escalated to involve Ark’s upper echelons even if she had left it alone.
Even if the vampires had threatened the central residential areas or the dragon districts beyond the lower layers, the matter would have been concluded by deploying Overseer and Executor units specialized in extermination.
Of course, in the process, residents in the lower layers and adjacent areas to the Caracas Steps would have been killed by vampires, but since Ark did not consider this a “major incident,” Alice had effectively saved many lives.
Well, now that the Artificial Sun had been created, there was no need to worry about blood contamination anymore.
Alice, along with her doll and Marlang, had hunted the vampires of Caracas Heavy Industries with the help of the Hush Gang and the orphan girl Mel, resolving the matter by constructing an Artificial Sun at the center of the corporation.
The disappearance of the Pernobis Academy students was also confirmed.
Unfortunately, they were all dead.
The reason for their deaths?
Because they deserved it.
Nothing special.
The search for survivors was completed.
The investigation was finished.
Returning to the Silion Residential Zone, Alice nodded with a rather satisfied expression.
‘They said it takes quite a bit of time for a report to reach Rilstia, didn’t they?’
【Since it’s not an urgent report, by Ark’s standards, it typically takes about a week for a human’s report to reach Administrator Rilstia’s desk.】
‘Hmm, they say the Administrator has a lot of work to do… Isn’t that just a lie?’
【Well, even if it’s a lie, does it really matter? With this extra free time, I’d say it’s not necessarily a bad thing.】
‘That’s true.’
Until the Administrator officially declares the mission completely concluded, Alice had some free time.
While most visitors to the lower layers were wealthy individuals with nasty personalities, coming to enjoy the poverty and misfortune of others as a form of entertainment, Alice wanted to take a moment to observe the changes in people’s lives and habits now that the Artificial Sun was in place.
Had she truly created a better world than yesterday?
Or had she needlessly meddled in something that didn’t require intervention?
Either way, the once-dark world was now bathed in radiant light, making it unexpectedly pleasant to look at.
“It’s definitely a better world than yesterday.”
The lower-layer residents, who used to bundle up in coats, now walked around in loose clothing.
The temperature had risen to a livable level overall, and most importantly, the existence of light brought a sense of a day’s beginning and end, causing people to adopt a more systematic lifestyle.
There wouldn’t be any significant changes immediately, but… yes, why stop at just this?
Why not find other contaminated areas or vacant Steps and install new Artificial Suns instead of just one for the Caracas Steps?
What else could be a good idea besides the Sun?
Right, given that machines and metals could be freely corroded here, perhaps daily essentials plants or artificial food production facilities could be reassembled and mass-produced anywhere across the Steps…
At that moment, something caught Alice’s attention.
Amidst the light of the Artificial Sun rising from the distant Caracas Steps, a black shadow appeared like a blemish.
‘What’s that?’
As Alice enlarged her pupils to check the black spot resembling a sunspot, it became clear.
The shadow.
A human-shaped figure with wings…
-BOOM!!!!
“!!”
What was that?!
【Recovery system activated!】
【Main system initializing.】
【Combat module activated.】
【Bio-synapses engaged!】
By the time Alice regained her senses, the emergency systems in the Silion Residential Zone were blaring loudly.
Someone had infiltrated the Silion Residential Zone.
No, it wasn’t just an infiltration—they had smashed into the zone like a meteor.
No ordinary human or criminal would dare to attack a place that housed Executors, Overseers, and other Ark officials.
Alice immediately threw herself off the balcony, activating the magnetic fields of her mechanical tendrils to glide between the buildings.
-BOOM!
-CRACK!
-THUD!
The sounds of buildings collapsing were already echoing around her.
Amidst these, occasional noises of flesh being torn apart pierced through.
Although it took Alice less than 30 seconds in real-time to reach the source of the commotion, it felt like several minutes had passed.
When Alice arrived, the first thing she saw was the central sector reduced to ruins in an instant, with blood flowing below like a river.
Crimson spears of blood were embedded all around, and those who had hidden in the buildings likely perished in the first bombardment.
Blood streamed from the buildings.
It flowed along the roads and pooled on the ground.
There was no place untouched by blood.
Though corpses were not easily visible, someone’s red blood was spread everywhere.
At the center of that river of blood stood something strangely familiar.
“Hello~”
“…….”
A woman who had locked eyes with Alice waved her hand.
The woman had long, blood-red hair and a dangerously seductive appearance, as enchanting as a succubus’s devotion.
Her mature figure seemed sculpted by a Greek artisan, capable of captivating anyone human.
However, upon seeing the blood-colored wings behind her and the fangs glinting between her crimson lips, Alice realized this being was not human.
“…True Ancestor.”
“Ah, that’s right. A True Ancestor.”
The True Ancestor descended slowly from the sky to the ground, gracefully bowing like an elegant noblewoman as she lightly lifted her red dress.
“Call me ‘Agatha,’ little lady.”
“Hah.”
Hah, so why has a True Ancestor suddenly come looking for me?
At first, I thought she might be the very essence of the True Ancestor Virus I encountered at the Barrier Agency.
Back then, it also seemed strangely obsessed and fixated on me.
Could this True Ancestor, like Gaia, intend to stalk me as well?
Even if that wasn’t the case, I assumed she must be connected to it somehow.
However, I instinctively understood, as the True Ancestor Virus’s blood still lingered in my body, that this True Ancestor, Agatha, had no relation to the one I had met before.
If so, Agatha must have sought me out for some other reason.
It was unlikely to be a friendly one.
“Overseer! What on earth is happening…!”
Executors from the Silion Residential Zone, armed and ready due to the sudden emergency, emerged with their weapons, but Alice gestured for them not to approach.
“Focus on evacuating the people first.”
“…!”
This was not a matter for Executors to intervene in.
The Executor froze as he noticed the True Ancestor spreading her blood-red wings behind Alice’s resolute expression.
“It’s okay, it’s okay~ Take your time. Go ahead and talk. I’m not so rude as to interrupt someone’s final conversation.”
Ordinarily, Executors couldn’t contribute to battles between Overseers and True Ancestors, and an Overseer’s orders were absolute.
As Alice suggested, helping to evacuate the residents still in the zone was the proper course of action.
“However, Overseer Alice…”
The Executor hesitated, seemingly reluctant to leave, as it was hard to accept that someone so much younger than his own child was facing a True Ancestor alone.
Moreover, the Executor was well aware that Alice was the one who brought light to this lower tier.
Even though he wasn’t particularly close to her or had many conversations with her…to the Executors, she was still remarkable and admirable as the person who brought sunlight to a place everyone else had abandoned.
“I’m not going to die, so stop with the nonsense and follow my orders.”
“…Stay safe.”
In the end, the Executor had no choice but to turn his back and follow the command.
Only after the Executor disappeared somewhere to evacuate the survivors did Alice deploy her Mantis Blades and activate her combat modules.
Sensing the fighting spirit emanating from Alice’s body, the True Ancestor chuckled.
“Oh my, they say you’re a 3rd Class Overseer, right? Are you sure about this?”
“Where did you hear that I’m a 3rd Class Overseer?”
“Hahaha, does that even matter? The important thing is that a mere 3rd Class Overseer can’t possibly handle me, can they?”
Agatha spread her blood-red wings as she spoke.
It wasn’t baseless arrogance or conceit.
A True Ancestor with fully established reason and self-awareness was a being that even a Grade 1 Overseer couldn’t guarantee victory against, and the Central Administration had deemed it impossible to eradicate the True Ancestors entirely, granting them the Abyss as their domain.
“Ah, but before that…I’m a bit hungry, you see. It’s been a while since I’ve gone out.”
-Crunch!
[Blood Feasting]
With a snap of the True Ancestor’s fingers, the blood splattered across the floor, collapsed buildings, and ruins began to wriggle and move.
What had been no more than a few drops grew steadily, becoming a river, which swallowed the ruins and surrounding areas as it flowed toward Agatha.
Blood.
The blood grew darker and thicker.
As the river of blood infused into Agatha, her crimson wings expanded further, and the sinister power of blood turned into a horrifying weapon in its own right.
It was something so terrible that an ordinary person would have fainted on the spot.
“Are you finally aware now?”
The True Ancestor.
Agatha smiled as she spoke.
“Do you realize what you’ve meddled with?”
Behind her, crimson wings soaked in the blood of countless victims flapped like a cape, and below, the blood writhing from the corpses of the dead awaited her commands.
Looking at the blood-soaked steps, Alice silently flexed her fingers.
She had created a sun, satisfied herself that she’d made a better world than yesterday, and planned to report back to Rilstia or Oriana. But the sudden intrusion of a True Ancestor had turned everything into an emergency.
Going back early was out of the question.
The True Ancestor, in turn, took quite a liking to Alice, who faced her without a hint of fear.
Not only was her courage commendable, but most of all, her face was pleasing.
With such looks, she was enough to satisfy the True Ancestor’s sense of aesthetics.
She was the sort of toy worth taking home to play with for a long time.
“But you know, I’ve been curious.”
“About what?”
“What drove a little girl like you to create a sun in the lower layers—a place that has never seen light since Ark’s founding?”
Agatha’s crimson wings partially concealed her smirk.
“Let me take a guess at your reasoning for creating that bothersome artificial sun.”
With her back to the sun, Agatha resembled an angel made of blood.
No, rather than an angel, she was closer to a grim reaper slaughtering humans like insects.
“The lower layers have incredibly low economic activity, and they’re filled with beggars and destitution. Bringing light to such a place yields no returns. Ark’s central command would never issue such an order because it wastes resources. So, this wasn’t an official mission. Which means you used your own resources and abilities to construct an artificial sun here… But no matter how much I think about it, I can’t fathom why.”
Agatha scrutinized Alice.
Her appearance was beautiful.
She could give her a good scare, take her away, and use her as a toy.
“Maybe you… wanted to help the unfortunate people of the lower layers? Or were you entertaining some childish notion of becoming a hero?”
It was a sharp observation.
To be precise, it was to create a better today than yesterday.
To make the world, even slightly, better than it was yesterday.
It was with that singular thought that Alice created the artificial sun to illuminate the lower layers.
But then again… was there anything to be ashamed of?
Alice deliberated for approximately 0.1 seconds.
As a high-performance android with a semi-artificial brain and synaptic networks, Alice could easily accelerate and partition her thoughts.
After much contemplation, she concluded that she had no reason to feel guilty.
“So, what if I did?”
“Ahahaha! So, what if you did? Were you aware of the consequences of your actions?”
“What consequences?”
“No one in the lower layers will appreciate something like that. Do you even know how long this place has been abandoned? It’s been over 200 years since humans abandoned their own kind here. A place steeped in mutual hatred and hostility. Do you think the conflicts and resentment would suddenly disappear just because you gave them a sun?”
Agatha thought to herself.
Ah, such a naive, pure little child.
It was almost laughable.
Agatha found herself charmed not only by Alice’s appearance but also by her passionate, almost foolishly pure nature.
How adorable, thinking that adding a single sun to a dark world would make things better.
She eagerly awaited the moment when all that would shatter, drowning Alice in despair and bringing her to tears.
“Ark made a deal with us, the True Ancestors. They handed over the lower layers as our backyard and farm in exchange for not antagonizing us further.”
“What does that mean?”
“Do you think we True Ancestors want humanity to go extinct?”
With a flick of the True Ancestor’s hand, a human impaled by a spear of blood flew toward her.
-CRACK!
The True Ancestor sank her fangs into the neck of the powerless figure without hesitation.
It took mere seconds to drain the blood from the victim completely.
“Pwah. Gulp. Humans are our sustenance. Without humans, we would also perish.”
Agatha tossed the lifeless human aside without a second thought.
It was as casual as throwing an empty coffee bottle into a trash bin.
“Did you not understand?! You made the artificial sun, I was provoked by it and came here…!”
“And then you killed a bunch of people you didn’t even need to kill, all to look impressive or something, and maybe you tried to guilt-trip me. But in the end, you’re the one who killed them, not me. That’s not my fault.”
“What… what?!”
How could someone’s thought process be so twisted?!
Agatha ground her teeth in anger.
In truth, Alice’s hardened expression earlier wasn’t due to guilt over the deaths caused by her actions.
It was just… too cliché.
Too predictable.
As if I wouldn’t have already considered that scenario during my thought acceleration and partitioning.
If we’re assigning blame, sure, it might be my fault for creating the artificial sun… but is creating the sun a crime?
It’s not a crime. It was a sun created with my resources, my energy, my technology, and my power.
There’s no problem with it at all.
It’s not as if Ark’s Prohibition Decree explicitly states, “Creating a sun in the lower layers is strictly forbidden.” Even if it became an issue, it would mostly be handled at Rilstia’s level.
So, the mosquito hag who crawled up from the abyss just because she was irritated by the sun, killing people and picking a fight with Alice, is the one at fault.
Exactly.
Alice wasn’t at fault.
It was that mosquito hag’s fault.
“And what? Childish dreams? So what if I have them? Dreams and romance are a thing, too. Ah, or maybe it’s this?”
Alice’s face twisted into a mocking grin.
“Is it because you’re a decrepit mosquito hag whose senile brain has already forgotten all about childhood dreams and romance?”
“…….”
The True Ancestor’s head tilted sharply.
It seemed she was angry.