Levia mentioned earlier that Abyssa was made to feel just like any other home would. Do I agree with that? I don't. It was most definitely made to look like a luxurious penthouse, and not just any penthouse.
The section we're in right now is in the front of the ship and it's sight is enough to make my jaw drop. It's a sort of living room you would find in any penthouse, merely it's much larger than you would expect, and the way it is built, with a whole meter thick walls visible on the sides of the huge, curved windows... or more like single, oval window on all three walls and large part of the ceiling, makes it look almost surreal. Add to that much wider armor of the hull behind it, visible on the sides, and you have the idea of living on a destroyer, I guess.
By the way, the view behind the glass, being the starry sky and a light yellow star shining brightly, is a wonder in itself. Mostly because I don't remember any blue star near Gaia. Last time I checked it had a red-orange star, called Hel, shining on it.
Anyway, the whole room is roughly half of a stretched circle, with a thirty meters long wall in the back and twenty meters of glass to the front and to the sides. The whole room is around five meters high and I can see black half a circle on the top from which metal beams extend. If someone said this place is the top deck of a luxurious cruise ship, you would just need to add some furniture typical for it and I would believe them without a shred of doubt.
As a side note, the ship is built similar to how most cruise ships are, that is there are two corridors with rooms on the outer sides, and between them there is either free space or some other rooms. On the top two decks, because I have learned the ship has two decks as a living space, there is literally nothing between the two corridors, and that resembles cruise ships even more. There are two long terraces with rooms to the sides and large space in the middle occupied by various exotic plants.
Levia's deck, by the way, is separated, and being large enough to fit an apartment, a workshop, and a small dock, it's barely a small part of a double deck. That should be enough to imagine the scale of the whole ship.
Well, there is also the command room, if it can be called this way with two people piloting the ship, which is actually a deck higher along with a lot of armaments. The captain's and pilot's seats are in a room directly above the black half-circle on the ceiling of this room. I can see it with magic sight, by the way.
All the lower decks, and there are eight in total including the aforementioned, so it's no joking matter, are wholly dedicated to workshops and various systems like the reactor or engines. Plus cargo hatches, docks, weapons, shield generators and a whole lot of other shit I can spot with my magic sight. I won't be even trying to guess what the function of each one is, because I can easily see hundreds of mechanisms merely in the range of my magic sight, which doesn't even show me twenty percent of the ship.
This thing has at least forty or so meters in width and even more in height, so I don't even see its full cross-section.
Anyway, I'm getting derailed. The room I'm in has a large, modern looking, soft sofa by the creamy yellow wall and a table in front of it, and it's all decorated with a lot of large exotic plants by the same wall. The center of the room is empty, but knowing the technology on this ship I would bet there are at least four different things under the black floor that can be revealed if needed. Even without magic sight that tells me there are at least six.
Now only the pool is missing, heh.
I wonder why these particular colors were used. Black for the floor, creamy yellow for the walls and lighter shade of it for the furniture. Quite like a bee, to bee honest. I wouldn't say the colors don't fit each other, but that certainly is not a common combination. But, well, not like I can do anything about it.
Instead it would be much better to focus on the two people sitting on the sofa, seemingly waiting for me and Levia. I don't need any hint to guess they are Levia's parents, and their looks are... interesting, let's say. Not in the way they are strange, because just about anyone seeing them would assume they are humans, but definitely not ordinary. Interesting thing to note is that they are both full of the same energy Levia has in her head, and I mean their whole bodies, not only the heads.
First is a small woman, almost a girl judging only by her looks, with tanned skin and wild shoulder length golden blonde hair. She looks just like I would imagine an engineer. Her curves are there, but they are nothing impressive, and frankly, I think if you combined mine and Levia's looks, you would get a body very similar to hers. Rather wide hips, small chest, and visible muscle on the five feet six inches of height or so. Her pretty face meanwhile is a little bit rough, with small nose, thin lips and sharp, vibrant green eyes.
As a side note, she is looking at me with that kind of playful, accusatory glare. I wonder why~.
The second person is a rather slim man with pale skin and short, black hair. He is a few inches taller than the woman and funnily enough he seems to have almost no muscle, making the pair look almost comical with the smaller girl being much bulkier and more packed than him. Either way, the first impression he gives me is a scientist. Not mad scientist, mind you. He has a sharp face with triangle jaw and azure eyes, and he would look quite handsome put side by side with men from Gaia. There are only glasses missing, those with barely more than metal wire for their frame.
He looks at me with a kind, genuine smile and nods when I enter the room hand in hand with Levia.
"Hello." He says, standing up as I look around quickly and focus my eyes on him. "My name's Proton, and this is Dragha." He waves his hand at the sitting woman who starts almost grinning. "I would introduce Vela, Abyssa's AI, but she's right now undergoing a little maintenance and she's inactive." I nod lightly and his smile widens as he glances at Levia on my side. Or rather, glued to my side. "Good to finally meet the girl Violet was talking about so much."
I blink in surprise. Violet? I turn to Levia and I see her averting her eyes with her lips in a thin line. Oooh~, how lovely. I almost burst out laughing then and there, but I still need to introduce myself, so I only smirk lightly and keep the laughter in.
"I'm Helia. It's nice to meet you." I reply with a smile and a polite nod. No comment about my looks and... inhuman features? Maybe they have seen weirder things.
Proton nods in response and waves his arm in a relaxed gesture to come closer. "Please come sit. We'd like to talk for a while. Don't feel stressed, please. Vi has already made herself clear, and we won't be denying her. And we won't be limiting you, though do understand there are things we would rather not share with you, at least yet." He says as Dragha, interesting name, by the way, brings out a small panel from the side of the sofa and taps on it a few times. I notice with my magic sight as one of the parts starts moving and a moment later the floor flips around and another same sofa emerges. Wow, neat.
I walk forward as said, Levia trailing behind me, and sit down on the sofa. "Sure. Thanks for that. Saves a lot of trouble. And, well, neither do I want to share my secrets, so we're even." I say with a smirk.
"When I went up yesterday, I thought we wouldn't see you two till morning. I was quite right." Dragha comments offhandedly with a smirk and I blink, then grin as I understand what she means. Levia meanwhile stops in place just before sitting down, looking at her mom with confusion, and glances at me, unsaid questions in her eyes.
"Well." I begin. "Playing with Vi is something I'd prefer to do in as good circumstances as possible when there is nothing nagging at me behind my ear, but there is only some time I can endure. And I figure neither of us will go away anytime soon, so I wasn't in a hurry." I curl my lips into a smile and raise my eyebrows almost provocatively, and the woman bursts out laughing loudly. I notice that Proton chuckles and smiles wryly as his head turns to his wife, his eyes shining with mirth.
"I like it!" Dragha says with a bright smile. "We can get along~."
I grin in response and glance at Levia who flops down onto the sofa and turns her head to the side in embarrassment. Intersting it's my side, so she's closer to pressing her face to my shouder than actually hiding anything.
"So." Dragha begins. "Sorry for bluntness, you went through shaping, right? You look... impressive, and I can see why Letty would hide you. Not like I mind it, it's really intersting actually." Okay, that's it for the lack of interest in my body. Also, Letty? Ah, she's Violet, so from the second part of her name. Works, I guess. Sounds softer than Vi. Either way, I'll be calling her Levia in my mind for now, at least until she tells me otherwise. No idea if she forgot or just didn't consider it important to tell me about her name out of VOW, but for now I'll stick to Levia.
I stay silent for a moment, considering the options. I can pretend I went through shaping, but that would be a high risk low reward game. Despite knowing about the procedure and thinking about getting it for myself, I never actually got to know any details past what's known to just about everyone, and that's likely to slip. On the other hand, if I don't hide the magic going on, the initial risk is huge, but potential benefits even greater. First of many would be that we wouldn't have to be paranoid about doing magic in fear Levia's parents would notice.
I glance questioningly at Levia and she shrugs with a small smile. Does she even realize she is almost leaning on me right now?
"Is there something wrong with it?" I ask tenatively, deciding for a small safety measure.
"No, of course not~." Dragha replies reassuringly in a lively voice. "It's just that such... large additions to one's body..." She hesitates for a moment and props herself up, looking at me with seriousness in her voice. I'm not sure if she notices the frown I involutarily make and quickly hide as my wings and tail and horns are referred to as additions."No, I'll say it simply. No method of shaping I have ever seen allows for such extensive modifications to one's body, not to mention it would require a brain surgery as well, which is really troublesome even using nanotechnology. As a scientist and engineer, I am very interested in the method you used to achieve that. I understand if you don't want to say, but I would be really grateful if you could share."
"Sure." I nod and pause for a while. "I don't mind explaining it, though I'd like to go back in time a bit for that." I glance at Levia, who is looking at me with a small smile and nods barely perceptibly. "And that might change how you see the world a large bit."
Dragha wiggles her eyebrows at that. "Color me interested." She grins as Proton frowns lightly.
So I roughly describe to them everything we went through with Levia and what happened before that, including the fact my body was completely different before. I begin with creating my character, including the warning I received from Shiva... from my mom, though I don't mention it was actually a person who gave me this warning. I believe it was a person, at least, because with recent events happening I realize that Shiva might be an actual person. A goddess, maybe? Certainly wouldn't be a surprise.
It also made me really emotional for some reason. The realization that Shiva is actually most likely a living person. But, well, that's not the topic now, so I push it aside for the moment. If she's a goddess or something simliarly powerful, she surely won't disappear anytime soon, so I have time to tackle this topic.
Anyway, Levia supplies my description with her own character creation, and then we describe briefly how we met and what we did afterwards. The story is not important for answering the question, so we're speaking in very general terms and we omit a few unnecessary details, but I take over as we get to the part about logging out. Levia's parents stay silent, likely realizing it's something very important and not wanting to interrupt us.
"So... when I logged out..." I take a deep breath. "It was awful. I'm sure you know about dysphoria, but that was... I almost had a panic attack when I got out of the pod, so that says a lot." I look up at Proton and Dragha and notice the woman's understanding expression. "But the thing is, it wasn't that I wanted to go back to being a girl. I mean, it was, but... it wasn't all, I wanted to go back to being a Demoness, not just a girl." I say with a sigh and I see Dragha frowning deeply.
"Sorry that I interrupt, lemme make one thing clear." She says softly. "You missed... wings, horns, tail? Is that right?"
"Yes." I nod with a small smile. "Feet as well." I wiggle my toes, or maybe it would be better to say claws, to attract attention to them. As Dragha's eyes fall to them, she scratches her head with a frown and exchanges glances with Proton.
"Well, okay. Continue." She nods and leans back in the sofa.
I have a sudden urge to refuse, but I don't heed it and continue speaking, despite the fact it seems like listening to an order. Hm. Is that my Flame speaking? Anyway.
I describe in a bit more detail how I felt about the whole thing, and after that Levia says how it was from her perspective. She mainly explains why she insisted on flying to Gaia and docking there if it wasn't already obvious with me here, and apologizes to her parents about it.
It's so... endearing. I mean, I knew from the beginning that she came here with her parents, but it's only now that I got to know that Levia travelled from a neighboring star to this place.
Likely using some sort of faster than light engine, though considering all the technology here I wouldn't be surprised at all if it wasn't the bubble drive used normally. And neither the travel was through a wormhole, because I know there is no wormhole close enough to Gaia to arrive here so fast from any neighboring star. The closest is, quite similar to Earth's case, in the comet cloud far past any planet.
Well, either way, as Levia leans on me, showing without any doubt our status, we quickly describe what we did in VOW after getting back together and go to the most important part after we logged out again. At this point Proton's uneasiness is already visible on his face and Dragha is listening attentively, biting her lip nervously.
"So, as you know, I took the hoverer and went down the lift to Gaia." Levia begins recounting things from her side and I as well listen attentively to the girl with her head on my shoulder, since she hasn't told me in detail what happened back then. "I wanted to get to Helia and... see her, I guess. I was planning on leaving her a message, and whatever I would do later would depend on the response, but it didn't quite go as planned. When I arrived, there was this woman who went inside furious, shouting already from the door, and I... okay, I know it was stupid, but I went inside." She says and her mother's brows shot up to the sky.
"That's quite straightforward of you to enter your love's home unnanounced." She comments with a smirk. "What could have happened, I wonder?"
I snort at that, even though it brings back unpleasant memories and feelings. This woman seems... very casual, let's say, and it's really amusing to see Levia burying her face in my shoulder in embarrassment and unsuccessfully trying to come up with a retort each time she makes a comment.
"You might already have an idea what happened seeing that we're here." I begin as Levia continues to wallow in embarrassment and is incapable of forming coherent sentences. "I was talking with a friend at the time, she is also... demon trans, by the way, just like me."
"Wait." Proton interrupts me, raising his hand. "So it's not just you? There are others who... let's say... are demons in human bodies?" He asks uncertainly.
I stay silent for a while, considering what I should say. "We'll get to it in a moment, but I believe there are. I have no idea how many, but definitely quite a bit. And I doubt it's only demons." I say and he nods with a heavy frown. The reason for that is Space-Time Linking Crystal. The little shit that is supposed to trigger in two batches in three and in six months. In hindsight, that name is hella suspicious, and I wouldn't be surprised if it was linking real body with that in VOW or some other weird shit.
"Anyway, my mother somehow heard what we were talking about and she came back furious with some ideas about me being trans and all that. Fixing me, whatever. Doesn't matter. I got genuinely furious and opposed her, I hit her in the face, and at this moment Levia came in and knocked her unconscious. And, um, my brain kind of short-circuited back then. I don't remember much of what happened afterwards till we were flying through the Wastes." I turn to Levia and nudge her with my elbow, indicating her to continue after me.
"Mhm, so, after I knocked that woman out, I also knocked out the girl, hopefully she thinks she was a victim, but we'll clear that up soon, I removed all the recordings, then retrieved and fried Helia's pod and all her data in House AI. I should have removed any evidence, or at least I don't think I missed anything. After that I took Helia to the hoverer and we departed back to the lift." Levia says, still with a hint of embarrassment, though likely for a different reason.
"Well, alright. That could have been done better, but it's already good you did what you did in the hurry you were in." Dragha says with a smile. "So you basically kidnapped Helia." She adds with a grin.
"No! I only... uh..." Levia attempts to deny, but in the end deflates and hides her face in my shoulder.
"As romantic as it sounds," I say with a smirk. "It was much more of a rescue than kidnapping. If it wasn't clear from what I said, if Vi didn't take me out of there, my parents would make it hell for me. I mean, I guess I would make it hell for them in more literal meaning if they pissed me off enough, but the point stands."
"Fair enough." Proton nods. "But you were still in your... previous body back then, right? So that's barely two Gaia's days of difference between then and now." He says, leaving the question unsaid.
"Yeah. Now we're getting to the most important part." I nod, adapting a more serious attitude. "Nothing noteworthy happened on the way to the lift, we just spent time together and explained things to each other. We got on the lift without trouble and on the way up there were three people who approached the hoverer. They threw an EPB, I think..." I glance at Levia.
"Yeah." She nods, propping herself up. "The EPB disabled the ship and my body, the spare one as well. They went onto the ship and wanted to bring me out, but Helia engaged them." Levia says and her eyes unfocus as she stares forward.
I wrap my arm around her and pull her closer, and I see her snuggling to me as she squeezes her eyes shut.
"I won't be mincing my words." I say. "I killed the first two, but I got badly wounded. The third, a woman, probably their leader, shot me and cut me in half, basically. She snapped Levia's head off her body, and, hm. In VOW, I got an ability that allowed me to transform into True Demon form. It's first use needed to be driven emotionally." I pause and look at the two with raised eyebrows.
"...You mean, you turned into your... True Demon form." Dragha says with a frown, not really poising it as a question.
"Mhm." Levia nods. "She killed the woman. She splattered her on a wall, basically."
"I don't remember what happened back then." I say. "I passed out shortly afterwards anyway, and Levia took care of things before you came. She cleaned up most of the mess and the rest, I assume, you already know?"
"Yeah." Dragha nods solemnly. "Well, that's... a lot." She says finally. "Just to be clear, your body is right now the same as it was in VOW? And... shit. You can use magic and all that, can't you?" She asks with eyes wide open and some emotion I can't really identify hiding deep inside.
I don't bother to answer and instead raise my arm and bring out an ember of flame from my fingertip, its purpose to show the reality. Heh. A small ball of flame appears on my fingertip and burns there calmly for a while till I will it to come back to my body. I look at the pair with a small smile and I see them looking between each other with conflicted expressions.
"Before you ask, nothing of the game systems work, like the inventory or the skill trees." Levia quips from the side and I nod lightly.
"Well, alright. Say, Helia." Dragha looks at me seriously. "What do you intend to do with it?"
"Frankly, I have no idea." I reply with a sigh. "I need a long while to make up my mind about that, and much more information. We have reasons to believe there will be much more people who will be going through the same as I did, and in that case I would like to take part in what will be happening. Maybe make some sort of safe haven for them? I don't know. It's much too early for me to answer that." I shrug. "If you're asking about short term plans, I need to check some things. My True Demon form, the reason for my transformation, if there will be others."
"Alright. Speaking about it." Dragha looks at Levia, biting her lip anxiously. "What about Letty?"
Levia perks up at that and looks at her mom with conflicted expression. "We think we know the indirect cause of Helia's transformation. If we're not wrong, there will be a lot of people transforming in three months and in six months in game, so a bit less ship's time. I, um..." Levia hesitates for a moment. "Iwillprobablybetransformingintwodays." She rapidfires quietly, nervously, and Proton sucks in a cold breath.
"That's... hm. Alright." He nods. "I am a bit conflicted about it, but nothing we can do about it, can we? And you will probably be much stronger, right?" He says and looks at Dragha, who meanwhile stares into space with unfocused eyes.
She shakes her head and looks at Levia with a smile. "Frankly, I kinda hoped you would have a normal life." She glances at me and grins, though I can distinctly see a hint of pain in her expression. "But if it's with Helia, I can only wish you good luck." She pauses and takes a deep breath, closing her eyes for a while. "The norm for Mechanical is that they turn into adults and are told the full truth about us when they are three cycles old, but I think we should tell you that now."
I chuckle with amusement at that. "Frankly, I'm also interested in what I feel inside you. Would you mind if I stayed for that?" I ask and they both look at me with confusion. "The radiolarian fluid, I mean. Levia has it in only her head, but you're both full of it." I raise my head lightly and smile as I see both of them freezing in their places.
"...Well." Dragha says a bit uncomfortably and rotates her shoulders, then looks back at us with a kind of resolution in her eyes. "I guess you also should hear that, and not only because of Letty. It has quite a lot to do with magic, though it's a bit more complicated than that. For that, we've got to go back to The Mechanical War, and, just so you know, there are around five people across Milky Way who know what really happened back then." She says with a sad smile and looks to her husband, who takes a deep breath and starts speaking.
"The very origin of Mechanical is quite ugly and very different from how they are now. What I am about to say is something we wouldn't normally tell you, but I think you should know about it with what has happened to Helia." Proton says slowly as I and Levia sit on the sofa and listen attentively. "I will spare you the unnecessary details, but, to put short, Mechanical War, which lasted from 2312 to 2315, wasn't a war with Mechanical, or with humans."
He pauses for a while as both me and Levia look at him in confusion.
"According to the explanation we later received, what made the war possible at all was that our world got very close to another world in another plane so that they started seeping into each other in small bits. However, as they were still separated, nothing material could go through. The only thing that could was radiolarian fluid as we call it, or actually what turned into radiolarian fluid when crossing here." Proton says with a chuckle and raises his hand, and I see a little of the energy filling him rush up to his palm and flow out of his body. I see a small pool of thick, viscous liquid on his open palm.
"This, as we discovered, is a supernatural energy that can contain a mind of a person. The bits of it that seeped into our plane contained entities from another world. The true reason behind the Mechanical War were those entities, and the first Mechanical were merely vessels for them, incapable of independent action." I see. So I assume the idea is that aliens are invading our world and we show them the way out while keeping their achievements with us.
"I won't be describing the war to you, but we managed to drive out most of those who infiltrated governments and other places, and with help from someone who called herself A'ella the planes were pulled apart so no more of those entities would seep into this one" Proton says with a bit of melancholy audible in his voice. A'ella? Hm. "I don't know who she was, but she was extremely powerful. We haven't met her since."
"Right now." Levia's father shakes his head lightly and continues. "Mechanical hold only human consciousness and there is no trace of what the fluid contained before. The process of obtaining this fluid." He waves his hand lightly with the radiolary clinging to it. "Is, in short, frying the mind inside. After that there is no danger in implanting a human mind, and that's how the Mechanical are currently made."
"Is this a hundred percent safe?" Levia asks uncomfortably and I squeeze her harder. I feel her relaxing a little bit as she turns to me and gives me a small smile.
"There is absolutely no danger." Dragha says with a confident smile. "As far as we know, the only thing that might endanger your mind directly would be another one touching yours, which would result in a battle of minds. But, if the fluid is isolated in your head, this possiblity might as well be discarded entirely."
"I see." I nod lightly as Levia visibly relaxes. "There are no those entities in this world now, right?"
"As far as we know, yes. We can't be sure, but past five hundred years we've been keeping watch for any signs and we've had only some suspicions that turned out to be false alarms. Nothing confirmed." Proton explains. "With that said, as the worlds are right now far away from each other, there is no more of this fluid seeping through the boundary and no more of those entities appearing in our world. So, if there are any, I believe they have no way to increase their numbers."
"Oh, alright. So whatever the thing with VOW is, it's the only... let's say danger, for now at least." Levia says thoughtfully.
I snort lightly, unable to stop myself. "Danger it is definitely."
"Why?" Proton asks.
I shrug in response. "Give a bunch of kids dangerous toys, and sooner or later there will be conflict. I say it will be less than a month for some self-righteous bunch to make an organization opposing the people who try to do good and labelling them as villains."
"...Yeah." Dragha nods with distant expression. "Just how it was during Mechanical War, huh?" She sighs deeply. "Well, there is one more thing we'd like to tell you about radiolarian fluid." She looks up with a serious expression.
"Radiolarian fluid is not just a container for the mind, but it can also be heavily influenced by it." She looks at me. "You said our bodies are full of it? Our bodies are, in fact, made out of nanobots. Now please don't freak out." She tilts her head with a bemused expression. "Not like you haven't been through worse, I presume."
She stands up and I and Levia look at her with interest, my girlfriend also with nervousness. I notice the energy in Dragha's body starting to move and a moment later her whole body becomes a uniform sheen gray with blue tinge. She extends her arm to us and it melts into a gray swarm swirling around her body.
"Technically, we don't even have brains, at least not in the sense humans do. Every single one of those nanobots has a bit of radiolarian fluid in it. We're technically something akin to hive minds." She says, her voice completely normal, and rebuilds and colors her body back then sits down and looks at Levia apologetically. "We wanted to tell you that when you turned three cycles old, but, in the current situation, I believe we should let you know earlier."
Wow. That's... holy shit. I glance at Levia, who is looking at her mother with dumbfounded expression and visibly doesn't know what to say.
"As for you, Helia." Dragha says and I turn back to her. "There are quite a few reasons why we're telling you all that, and I believe you can guess most of them, but another thing is that I don't want any discord between us, you and Letty, both as her parents, but also because of what you are for the... new world, let's say. The way I understood it, you two are sort of vanguard? You are the first to be... transformed, let's say?"
"Yeah." I nod. "Though we can't be sure how much more people like us there are."
"And there you have it. No matter how you look at it, I wouldn't like to have you for an enemy."
"Can't deny it." I nod with a lopsided smile. "Am I correct in assuming that your bodies are like that since the Mechanical War?"
"That's right." Proton says with a nod. "More specifically, I have this body since a bit before its beginning, and Dragha from its last year. We both had completely different bodies at first. Also, you should know this is my invention. I don't think there are other Mechanical like us. There might be some with similar technology, but none that we know of."
"I see." I glance at Levia and see her thinking intensely with a huge frown on her face. "Why are you telling it to us though?" I turn to Dragha in confusion. "We could make do without that knowledge, and you don't really need to tell us that since it's your private business what's your body like."
"Well." Dragha drags out the word. "I won't be beating around the bush. Initially we wanted to transfer Letty's mind into such body when she turned three cycles old." She says with serious expression, looking at her daughter, nervousness and anxiousness distinct in her voice. "Now though, with what's happening, I think you should... just know about it. You, especially Letty, deserve to know about it."
"Yeah, alright." Levia says softly and leans on my shoulder. "Thanks for telling me that. I'll need some time to process it properly though." She mumbles.
"Do you want to retire for now?" Proton asks. Very sensibly. "If you've any questions, you can ask later after you think about the issue."
"Alright." Levia nods lightly and starts standing up.
"Oh, and Helia." Dragha says and I look at her. "If we haven't made it clear before, as long as it's Letty's decision, she's yours. We don't have anything against you. So take care of her."
I feel my lips curling into a smile involutarily and I notice Levia visibly getting redder on her cheeks. "I will."
Levia mentioned earlier that Abyssa was made to feel just like any other home would. Do I agree with that? I don't. It was most definitely made to look like a luxurious penthouse, and not just any penthouse.
The section we're in right now is in the front of the ship and it's sight is enough to make my jaw drop. It's a sort of living room you would find in any penthouse, merely it's much larger than you would expect, and the way it is built, with a whole meter thick walls visible on the sides of the huge, curved windows... or more like single, oval window on all three walls and large part of the ceiling, makes it look almost surreal. Add to that much wider armor of the hull behind it, visible on the sides, and you have the idea of living on a destroyer, I guess.
By the way, the view behind the glass, being the starry sky and a light yellow star shining brightly, is a wonder in itself. Mostly because I don't remember any blue star near Gaia. Last time I checked it had a red-orange star, called Hel, shining on it.
Anyway, the whole room is roughly half of a stretched circle, with a thirty meters long wall in the back and twenty meters of glass to the front and to the sides. The whole room is around five meters high and I can see black half a circle on the top from which metal beams extend. If someone said this place is the top deck of a luxurious cruise ship, you would just need to add some furniture typical for it and I would believe them without a shred of doubt.
As a side note, the ship is built similar to how most cruise ships are, that is there are two corridors with rooms on the outer sides, and between them there is either free space or some other rooms. On the top two decks, because I have learned the ship has two decks as a living space, there is literally nothing between the two corridors, and that resembles cruise ships even more. There are two long terraces with rooms to the sides and large space in the middle occupied by various exotic plants.
Levia's deck, by the way, is separated, and being large enough to fit an apartment, a workshop, and a small dock, it's barely a small part of a double deck. That should be enough to imagine the scale of the whole ship.
Well, there is also the command room, if it can be called this way with two people piloting the ship, which is actually a deck higher along with a lot of armaments. The captain's and pilot's seats are in a room directly above the black half-circle on the ceiling of this room. I can see it with magic sight, by the way.
All the lower decks, and there are eight in total including the aforementioned, so it's no joking matter, are wholly dedicated to workshops and various systems like the reactor or engines. Plus cargo hatches, docks, weapons, shield generators and a whole lot of other shit I can spot with my magic sight. I won't be even trying to guess what the function of each one is, because I can easily see hundreds of mechanisms merely in the range of my magic sight, which doesn't even show me twenty percent of the ship.
This thing has at least forty or so meters in width and even more in height, so I don't even see its full cross-section.
Anyway, I'm getting derailed. The room I'm in has a large, modern looking, soft sofa by the creamy yellow wall and a table in front of it, and it's all decorated with a lot of large exotic plants by the same wall. The center of the room is empty, but knowing the technology on this ship I would bet there are at least four different things under the black floor that can be revealed if needed. Even without magic sight that tells me there are at least six.
Now only the pool is missing, heh.
I wonder why these particular colors were used. Black for the floor, creamy yellow for the walls and lighter shade of it for the furniture. Quite like a bee, to bee honest. I wouldn't say the colors don't fit each other, but that certainly is not a common combination. But, well, not like I can do anything about it.
Instead it would be much better to focus on the two people sitting on the sofa, seemingly waiting for me and Levia. I don't need any hint to guess they are Levia's parents, and their looks are... interesting, let's say. Not in the way they are strange, because just about anyone seeing them would assume they are humans, but definitely not ordinary. Interesting thing to note is that they are both full of the same energy Levia has in her head, and I mean their whole bodies, not only the heads.
First is a small woman, almost a girl judging only by her looks, with tanned skin and wild shoulder length golden blonde hair. She looks just like I would imagine an engineer. Her curves are there, but they are nothing impressive, and frankly, I think if you combined mine and Levia's looks, you would get a body very similar to hers. Rather wide hips, small chest, and visible muscle on the five feet six inches of height or so. Her pretty face meanwhile is a little bit rough, with small nose, thin lips and sharp, vibrant green eyes.
As a side note, she is looking at me with that kind of playful, accusatory glare. I wonder why~.
The second person is a rather slim man with pale skin and short, black hair. He is a few inches taller than the woman and funnily enough he seems to have almost no muscle, making the pair look almost comical with the smaller girl being much bulkier and more packed than him. Either way, the first impression he gives me is a scientist. Not mad scientist, mind you. He has a sharp face with triangle jaw and azure eyes, and he would look quite handsome put side by side with men from Gaia. There are only glasses missing, those with barely more than metal wire for their frame.
He looks at me with a kind, genuine smile and nods when I enter the room hand in hand with Levia.
"Hello." He says, standing up as I look around quickly and focus my eyes on him. "My name's Proton, and this is Dragha." He waves his hand at the sitting woman who starts almost grinning. "I would introduce Vela, Abyssa's AI, but she's right now undergoing a little maintenance and she's inactive." I nod lightly and his smile widens as he glances at Levia on my side. Or rather, glued to my side. "Good to finally meet the girl Violet was talking about so much."
I blink in surprise. Violet? I turn to Levia and I see her averting her eyes with her lips in a thin line. Oooh~, how lovely. I almost burst out laughing then and there, but I still need to introduce myself, so I only smirk lightly and keep the laughter in.
"I'm Helia. It's nice to meet you." I reply with a smile and a polite nod. No comment about my looks and... inhuman features? Maybe they have seen weirder things.
Proton nods in response and waves his arm in a relaxed gesture to come closer. "Please come sit. We'd like to talk for a while. Don't feel stressed, please. Vi has already made herself clear, and we won't be denying her. And we won't be limiting you, though do understand there are things we would rather not share with you, at least yet." He says as Dragha, interesting name, by the way, brings out a small panel from the side of the sofa and taps on it a few times. I notice with my magic sight as one of the parts starts moving and a moment later the floor flips around and another same sofa emerges. Wow, neat.
I walk forward as said, Levia trailing behind me, and sit down on the sofa. "Sure. Thanks for that. Saves a lot of trouble. And, well, neither do I want to share my secrets, so we're even." I say with a smirk.
"When I went up yesterday, I thought we wouldn't see you two till morning. I was quite right." Dragha comments offhandedly with a smirk and I blink, then grin as I understand what she means. Levia meanwhile stops in place just before sitting down, looking at her mom with confusion, and glances at me, unsaid questions in her eyes.
"Well." I begin. "Playing with Vi is something I'd prefer to do in as good circumstances as possible when there is nothing nagging at me behind my ear, but there is only some time I can endure. And I figure neither of us will go away anytime soon, so I wasn't in a hurry." I curl my lips into a smile and raise my eyebrows almost provocatively, and the woman bursts out laughing loudly. I notice that Proton chuckles and smiles wryly as his head turns to his wife, his eyes shining with mirth.
"I like it!" Dragha says with a bright smile. "We can get along~."
I grin in response and glance at Levia who flops down onto the sofa and turns her head to the side in embarrassment. Intersting it's my side, so she's closer to pressing her face to my shouder than actually hiding anything.
"So." Dragha begins. "Sorry for bluntness, you went through shaping, right? You look... impressive, and I can see why Letty would hide you. Not like I mind it, it's really intersting actually." Okay, that's it for the lack of interest in my body. Also, Letty? Ah, she's Violet, so from the second part of her name. Works, I guess. Sounds softer than Vi. Either way, I'll be calling her Levia in my mind for now, at least until she tells me otherwise. No idea if she forgot or just didn't consider it important to tell me about her name out of VOW, but for now I'll stick to Levia.
I stay silent for a moment, considering the options. I can pretend I went through shaping, but that would be a high risk low reward game. Despite knowing about the procedure and thinking about getting it for myself, I never actually got to know any details past what's known to just about everyone, and that's likely to slip. On the other hand, if I don't hide the magic going on, the initial risk is huge, but potential benefits even greater. First of many would be that we wouldn't have to be paranoid about doing magic in fear Levia's parents would notice.
I glance questioningly at Levia and she shrugs with a small smile. Does she even realize she is almost leaning on me right now?
"Is there something wrong with it?" I ask tenatively, deciding for a small safety measure.
"No, of course not~." Dragha replies reassuringly in a lively voice. "It's just that such... large additions to one's body..." She hesitates for a moment and props herself up, looking at me with seriousness in her voice. I'm not sure if she notices the frown I involutarily make and quickly hide as my wings and tail and horns are referred to as additions."No, I'll say it simply. No method of shaping I have ever seen allows for such extensive modifications to one's body, not to mention it would require a brain surgery as well, which is really troublesome even using nanotechnology. As a scientist and engineer, I am very interested in the method you used to achieve that. I understand if you don't want to say, but I would be really grateful if you could share."
"Sure." I nod and pause for a while. "I don't mind explaining it, though I'd like to go back in time a bit for that." I glance at Levia, who is looking at me with a small smile and nods barely perceptibly. "And that might change how you see the world a large bit."
Dragha wiggles her eyebrows at that. "Color me interested." She grins as Proton frowns lightly.
So I roughly describe to them everything we went through with Levia and what happened before that, including the fact my body was completely different before. I begin with creating my character, including the warning I received from Shiva... from my mom, though I don't mention it was actually a person who gave me this warning. I believe it was a person, at least, because with recent events happening I realize that Shiva might be an actual person. A goddess, maybe? Certainly wouldn't be a surprise.
It also made me really emotional for some reason. The realization that Shiva is actually most likely a living person. But, well, that's not the topic now, so I push it aside for the moment. If she's a goddess or something simliarly powerful, she surely won't disappear anytime soon, so I have time to tackle this topic.
Anyway, Levia supplies my description with her own character creation, and then we describe briefly how we met and what we did afterwards. The story is not important for answering the question, so we're speaking in very general terms and we omit a few unnecessary details, but I take over as we get to the part about logging out. Levia's parents stay silent, likely realizing it's something very important and not wanting to interrupt us.
"So... when I logged out..." I take a deep breath. "It was awful. I'm sure you know about dysphoria, but that was... I almost had a panic attack when I got out of the pod, so that says a lot." I look up at Proton and Dragha and notice the woman's understanding expression. "But the thing is, it wasn't that I wanted to go back to being a girl. I mean, it was, but... it wasn't all, I wanted to go back to being a Demoness, not just a girl." I say with a sigh and I see Dragha frowning deeply.
"Sorry that I interrupt, lemme make one thing clear." She says softly. "You missed... wings, horns, tail? Is that right?"
"Yes." I nod with a small smile. "Feet as well." I wiggle my toes, or maybe it would be better to say claws, to attract attention to them. As Dragha's eyes fall to them, she scratches her head with a frown and exchanges glances with Proton.
"Well, okay. Continue." She nods and leans back in the sofa.
I have a sudden urge to refuse, but I don't heed it and continue speaking, despite the fact it seems like listening to an order. Hm. Is that my Flame speaking? Anyway.
I describe in a bit more detail how I felt about the whole thing, and after that Levia says how it was from her perspective. She mainly explains why she insisted on flying to Gaia and docking there if it wasn't already obvious with me here, and apologizes to her parents about it.
It's so... endearing. I mean, I knew from the beginning that she came here with her parents, but it's only now that I got to know that Levia travelled from a neighboring star to this place.
Likely using some sort of faster than light engine, though considering all the technology here I wouldn't be surprised at all if it wasn't the bubble drive used normally. And neither the travel was through a wormhole, because I know there is no wormhole close enough to Gaia to arrive here so fast from any neighboring star. The closest is, quite similar to Earth's case, in the comet cloud far past any planet.
Well, either way, as Levia leans on me, showing without any doubt our status, we quickly describe what we did in VOW after getting back together and go to the most important part after we logged out again. At this point Proton's uneasiness is already visible on his face and Dragha is listening attentively, biting her lip nervously.
"So, as you know, I took the hoverer and went down the lift to Gaia." Levia begins recounting things from her side and I as well listen attentively to the girl with her head on my shoulder, since she hasn't told me in detail what happened back then. "I wanted to get to Helia and... see her, I guess. I was planning on leaving her a message, and whatever I would do later would depend on the response, but it didn't quite go as planned. When I arrived, there was this woman who went inside furious, shouting already from the door, and I... okay, I know it was stupid, but I went inside." She says and her mother's brows shot up to the sky.
"That's quite straightforward of you to enter your love's home unnanounced." She comments with a smirk. "What could have happened, I wonder?"
I snort at that, even though it brings back unpleasant memories and feelings. This woman seems... very casual, let's say, and it's really amusing to see Levia burying her face in my shoulder in embarrassment and unsuccessfully trying to come up with a retort each time she makes a comment.
"You might already have an idea what happened seeing that we're here." I begin as Levia continues to wallow in embarrassment and is incapable of forming coherent sentences. "I was talking with a friend at the time, she is also... demon trans, by the way, just like me."
"Wait." Proton interrupts me, raising his hand. "So it's not just you? There are others who... let's say... are demons in human bodies?" He asks uncertainly.
I stay silent for a while, considering what I should say. "We'll get to it in a moment, but I believe there are. I have no idea how many, but definitely quite a bit. And I doubt it's only demons." I say and he nods with a heavy frown. The reason for that is Space-Time Linking Crystal. The little shit that is supposed to trigger in two batches in three and in six months. In hindsight, that name is hella suspicious, and I wouldn't be surprised if it was linking real body with that in VOW or some other weird shit.
"Anyway, my mother somehow heard what we were talking about and she came back furious with some ideas about me being trans and all that. Fixing me, whatever. Doesn't matter. I got genuinely furious and opposed her, I hit her in the face, and at this moment Levia came in and knocked her unconscious. And, um, my brain kind of short-circuited back then. I don't remember much of what happened afterwards till we were flying through the Wastes." I turn to Levia and nudge her with my elbow, indicating her to continue after me.
"Mhm, so, after I knocked that woman out, I also knocked out the girl, hopefully she thinks she was a victim, but we'll clear that up soon, I removed all the recordings, then retrieved and fried Helia's pod and all her data in House AI. I should have removed any evidence, or at least I don't think I missed anything. After that I took Helia to the hoverer and we departed back to the lift." Levia says, still with a hint of embarrassment, though likely for a different reason.
"Well, alright. That could have been done better, but it's already good you did what you did in the hurry you were in." Dragha says with a smile. "So you basically kidnapped Helia." She adds with a grin.
"No! I only... uh..." Levia attempts to deny, but in the end deflates and hides her face in my shoulder.
"As romantic as it sounds," I say with a smirk. "It was much more of a rescue than kidnapping. If it wasn't clear from what I said, if Vi didn't take me out of there, my parents would make it hell for me. I mean, I guess I would make it hell for them in more literal meaning if they pissed me off enough, but the point stands."
"Fair enough." Proton nods. "But you were still in your... previous body back then, right? So that's barely two Gaia's days of difference between then and now." He says, leaving the question unsaid.
"Yeah. Now we're getting to the most important part." I nod, adapting a more serious attitude. "Nothing noteworthy happened on the way to the lift, we just spent time together and explained things to each other. We got on the lift without trouble and on the way up there were three people who approached the hoverer. They threw an EPB, I think..." I glance at Levia.
"Yeah." She nods, propping herself up. "The EPB disabled the ship and my body, the spare one as well. They went onto the ship and wanted to bring me out, but Helia engaged them." Levia says and her eyes unfocus as she stares forward.
I wrap my arm around her and pull her closer, and I see her snuggling to me as she squeezes her eyes shut.
"I won't be mincing my words." I say. "I killed the first two, but I got badly wounded. The third, a woman, probably their leader, shot me and cut me in half, basically. She snapped Levia's head off her body, and, hm. In VOW, I got an ability that allowed me to transform into True Demon form. It's first use needed to be driven emotionally." I pause and look at the two with raised eyebrows.
"...You mean, you turned into your... True Demon form." Dragha says with a frown, not really poising it as a question.
"Mhm." Levia nods. "She killed the woman. She splattered her on a wall, basically."
"I don't remember what happened back then." I say. "I passed out shortly afterwards anyway, and Levia took care of things before you came. She cleaned up most of the mess and the rest, I assume, you already know?"
"Yeah." Dragha nods solemnly. "Well, that's... a lot." She says finally. "Just to be clear, your body is right now the same as it was in VOW? And... shit. You can use magic and all that, can't you?" She asks with eyes wide open and some emotion I can't really identify hiding deep inside.
I don't bother to answer and instead raise my arm and bring out an ember of flame from my fingertip, its purpose to show the reality. Heh. A small ball of flame appears on my fingertip and burns there calmly for a while till I will it to come back to my body. I look at the pair with a small smile and I see them looking between each other with conflicted expressions.
"Before you ask, nothing of the game systems work, like the inventory or the skill trees." Levia quips from the side and I nod lightly.
"Well, alright. Say, Helia." Dragha looks at me seriously. "What do you intend to do with it?"
"Frankly, I have no idea." I reply with a sigh. "I need a long while to make up my mind about that, and much more information. We have reasons to believe there will be much more people who will be going through the same as I did, and in that case I would like to take part in what will be happening. Maybe make some sort of safe haven for them? I don't know. It's much too early for me to answer that." I shrug. "If you're asking about short term plans, I need to check some things. My True Demon form, the reason for my transformation, if there will be others."
"Alright. Speaking about it." Dragha looks at Levia, biting her lip anxiously. "What about Letty?"
Levia perks up at that and looks at her mom with conflicted expression. "We think we know the indirect cause of Helia's transformation. If we're not wrong, there will be a lot of people transforming in three months and in six months in game, so a bit less ship's time. I, um..." Levia hesitates for a moment. "Iwillprobablybetransformingintwodays." She rapidfires quietly, nervously, and Proton sucks in a cold breath.
"That's... hm. Alright." He nods. "I am a bit conflicted about it, but nothing we can do about it, can we? And you will probably be much stronger, right?" He says and looks at Dragha, who meanwhile stares into space with unfocused eyes.
She shakes her head and looks at Levia with a smile. "Frankly, I kinda hoped you would have a normal life." She glances at me and grins, though I can distinctly see a hint of pain in her expression. "But if it's with Helia, I can only wish you good luck." She pauses and takes a deep breath, closing her eyes for a while. "The norm for Mechanical is that they turn into adults and are told the full truth about us when they are three cycles old, but I think we should tell you that now."
I chuckle with amusement at that. "Frankly, I'm also interested in what I feel inside you. Would you mind if I stayed for that?" I ask and they both look at me with confusion. "The radiolarian fluid, I mean. Levia has it in only her head, but you're both full of it." I raise my head lightly and smile as I see both of them freezing in their places.
"...Well." Dragha says a bit uncomfortably and rotates her shoulders, then looks back at us with a kind of resolution in her eyes. "I guess you also should hear that, and not only because of Letty. It has quite a lot to do with magic, though it's a bit more complicated than that. For that, we've got to go back to The Mechanical War, and, just so you know, there are around five people across Milky Way who know what really happened back then." She says with a sad smile and looks to her husband, who takes a deep breath and starts speaking.
"The very origin of Mechanical is quite ugly and very different from how they are now. What I am about to say is something we wouldn't normally tell you, but I think you should know about it with what has happened to Helia." Proton says slowly as I and Levia sit on the sofa and listen attentively. "I will spare you the unnecessary details, but, to put short, Mechanical War, which lasted from 2312 to 2315, wasn't a war with Mechanical, or with humans."
He pauses for a while as both me and Levia look at him in confusion.
"According to the explanation we later received, what made the war possible at all was that our world got very close to another world in another plane so that they started seeping into each other in small bits. However, as they were still separated, nothing material could go through. The only thing that could was radiolarian fluid as we call it, or actually what turned into radiolarian fluid when crossing here." Proton says with a chuckle and raises his hand, and I see a little of the energy filling him rush up to his palm and flow out of his body. I see a small pool of thick, viscous liquid on his open palm.
"This, as we discovered, is a supernatural energy that can contain a mind of a person. The bits of it that seeped into our plane contained entities from another world. The true reason behind the Mechanical War were those entities, and the first Mechanical were merely vessels for them, incapable of independent action." I see. So I assume the idea is that aliens are invading our world and we show them the way out while keeping their achievements with us.
"I won't be describing the war to you, but we managed to drive out most of those who infiltrated governments and other places, and with help from someone who called herself A'ella the planes were pulled apart so no more of those entities would seep into this one" Proton says with a bit of melancholy audible in his voice. A'ella? Hm. "I don't know who she was, but she was extremely powerful. We haven't met her since."
"Right now." Levia's father shakes his head lightly and continues. "Mechanical hold only human consciousness and there is no trace of what the fluid contained before. The process of obtaining this fluid." He waves his hand lightly with the radiolary clinging to it. "Is, in short, frying the mind inside. After that there is no danger in implanting a human mind, and that's how the Mechanical are currently made."
"Is this a hundred percent safe?" Levia asks uncomfortably and I squeeze her harder. I feel her relaxing a little bit as she turns to me and gives me a small smile.
"There is absolutely no danger." Dragha says with a confident smile. "As far as we know, the only thing that might endanger your mind directly would be another one touching yours, which would result in a battle of minds. But, if the fluid is isolated in your head, this possiblity might as well be discarded entirely."
"I see." I nod lightly as Levia visibly relaxes. "There are no those entities in this world now, right?"
"As far as we know, yes. We can't be sure, but past five hundred years we've been keeping watch for any signs and we've had only some suspicions that turned out to be false alarms. Nothing confirmed." Proton explains. "With that said, as the worlds are right now far away from each other, there is no more of this fluid seeping through the boundary and no more of those entities appearing in our world. So, if there are any, I believe they have no way to increase their numbers."
"Oh, alright. So whatever the thing with VOW is, it's the only... let's say danger, for now at least." Levia says thoughtfully.
I snort lightly, unable to stop myself. "Danger it is definitely."
"Why?" Proton asks.
I shrug in response. "Give a bunch of kids dangerous toys, and sooner or later there will be conflict. I say it will be less than a month for some self-righteous bunch to make an organization opposing the people who try to do good and labelling them as villains."
"...Yeah." Dragha nods with distant expression. "Just how it was during Mechanical War, huh?" She sighs deeply. "Well, there is one more thing we'd like to tell you about radiolarian fluid." She looks up with a serious expression.
"Radiolarian fluid is not just a container for the mind, but it can also be heavily influenced by it." She looks at me. "You said our bodies are full of it? Our bodies are, in fact, made out of nanobots. Now please don't freak out." She tilts her head with a bemused expression. "Not like you haven't been through worse, I presume."
She stands up and I and Levia look at her with interest, my girlfriend also with nervousness. I notice the energy in Dragha's body starting to move and a moment later her whole body becomes a uniform sheen gray with blue tinge. She extends her arm to us and it melts into a gray swarm swirling around her body.
"Technically, we don't even have brains, at least not in the sense humans do. Every single one of those nanobots has a bit of radiolarian fluid in it. We're technically something akin to hive minds." She says, her voice completely normal, and rebuilds and colors her body back then sits down and looks at Levia apologetically. "We wanted to tell you that when you turned three cycles old, but, in the current situation, I believe we should let you know earlier."
Wow. That's... holy shit. I glance at Levia, who is looking at her mother with dumbfounded expression and visibly doesn't know what to say.
"As for you, Helia." Dragha says and I turn back to her. "There are quite a few reasons why we're telling you all that, and I believe you can guess most of them, but another thing is that I don't want any discord between us, you and Letty, both as her parents, but also because of what you are for the... new world, let's say. The way I understood it, you two are sort of vanguard? You are the first to be... transformed, let's say?"
"Yeah." I nod. "Though we can't be sure how much more people like us there are."
"And there you have it. No matter how you look at it, I wouldn't like to have you for an enemy."
"Can't deny it." I nod with a lopsided smile. "Am I correct in assuming that your bodies are like that since the Mechanical War?"
"That's right." Proton says with a nod. "More specifically, I have this body since a bit before its beginning, and Dragha from its last year. We both had completely different bodies at first. Also, you should know this is my invention. I don't think there are other Mechanical like us. There might be some with similar technology, but none that we know of."
"I see." I glance at Levia and see her thinking intensely with a huge frown on her face. "Why are you telling it to us though?" I turn to Dragha in confusion. "We could make do without that knowledge, and you don't really need to tell us that since it's your private business what's your body like."
"Well." Dragha drags out the word. "I won't be beating around the bush. Initially we wanted to transfer Letty's mind into such body when she turned three cycles old." She says with serious expression, looking at her daughter, nervousness and anxiousness distinct in her voice. "Now though, with what's happening, I think you should... just know about it. You, especially Letty, deserve to know about it."
"Yeah, alright." Levia says softly and leans on my shoulder. "Thanks for telling me that. I'll need some time to process it properly though." She mumbles.
"Do you want to retire for now?" Proton asks. Very sensibly. "If you've any questions, you can ask later after you think about the issue."
"Alright." Levia nods lightly and starts standing up.
"Oh, and Helia." Dragha says and I look at her. "If we haven't made it clear before, as long as it's Letty's decision, she's yours. We don't have anything against you. So take care of her."
I feel my lips curling into a smile involutarily and I notice Levia visibly getting redder on her cheeks. "I will."
