The moment Tager returned, she immediately began to examine Sector Seven's defenses. The man had the ability to employ sorcery, so precaution had to be taken to avoid cases of teleportation or breaching attacks.
In the middle of double-checking the code encrypting the barriers, something interrupted her. A strong rumbling shook the place. "Ack!" Kokonoe lost her balance, catching herself against a wall nearby. "What's happening?!"
Alarms blared as the warning system made an announcement about what was going on below her feet.
The cauldron lying at the very bottom of the complex had been forced wide open, causing a dangerous influx of seithr. Because Sector Seven's facilities never employed ars magus to generate power, they barely consumed the seithr normally present in the air. With the cauldron opening up without prior notice, it was easy for it to accumulate in an out of control fashion.
Within a few moments, the lower levels went into emergency containment mode as voices appeared on the general communication line.
"Professor, I've manually started the emergency pumps!"
"All clear! No personnel unaccounted for."
Much against standard protocol to wait for the seithr to reach safer levels, Kokonoe headed to the elevator that would transport her to the lower floors. Her heritage provided an increased tolerance to what would be dangerous for normal humans.
On the way down, she gave out an order through her phone. "Tager, I'm heading to the cauldron right now. Once you're done with evac, stay put. I'll handle things down there."
"Got it. Be careful, Kokonoe."
The doors opened right as she ended the call, prompting her to step out. After traveling through the main corridor, she arrived in front of a set of reinforced steel doors. Once she inputted the appropriate clearance codes, the hermetic system opened to let her enter the area where the cauldron's sealed entrance should be.
Immediately, who greeted her was the Mad Puppeteer whom she had already suspected to have unsealed the cauldron from within the Boundary. The camera feed inside the secured chamber had shown no signs of any person present beforehand.
"Ugh…" Kokonoe kept her distance from the edge of the gaping hole where seithr spewed out in such a heavy amount that even she began to feel a little dizzy. "Relius, you better have a damn good reason for showing up like this!"
And he would have to return through the way he came in. She had told Tager to stay within the compounds rather than resume his patrol duties to make sure the man didn't make his way deeper into the base.
Noticing her arrival, he turned around. "Ah, your timing is perfect." The glow coming out close behind him outlined his silhouette as the same vaguely self-satisfied smile from before plastered on his face. Not a single hint that the presence of the Boundary affected him, when most would lose themselves both physically and mentally.
Her breath hitched for a split second, having noticed something missing—Relius' Detonator, usually awaiting orders nearby. But Kokonoe didn't have to wonder where it was for long.
From the horizon line marking the edge of the cauldron, a large figure slowly emerged. The doll floated up from the Boundary, dragging something out with her. Gripping the object by hooked claws, she fully brought it out and set it onto the floor.
Kokonoe tried to open her mouth to speak but became lost for words at the sight.
"I don't like this one bit…" Kokonoe muttered, sinking her teeth into one sweet after another. How could she have forgotten something as important as a backup data of her own memories?
All of her research notes pointed at nothing of the sort existing in the Boundary. If Relius' actions hadn't given her the hint, then it would have taken her forever to discover the backup data she supposedly had stashed away at one point in a lost 'continuum'.
Taking the lollipop out of her mouth, she went to the observation deck. The lights switched on upon her approach, allowing her to look down at the thing Relius had left behind after claiming to have finished studying it.
A tall, humanoid figure stood beyond the glass, sealed inside a chamber space a floor below. With a body covered in white armor plates, it had a face devoid of features and a mane of silver hair tied at the back of its head.
The moment she had laid eyes on it, she recognized what it was—the Susanoo Unit, one of the god-like beings that governed the world's timeflow, and a well-known heroic figure. Had he been veritably alive, she would've felt more inclined to call it by the name people commonly knew him as. Regardless, the unit itself was intact, but nothing indicated that it contained a living soul.
But according to Relius, the soul residing inside the armor still lived. This led her to believe that either the man had been mistaken or the soul's existence hung on by a microscopic thread. Still, considering his level of expertise, she highly doubted he could make such a major miscalculation.
In the likelihood where Relius was correct, it presented a problem for her.
What she had hoped was for the vacancy to offer the chance to gain control over the Susanoo Unit, something her 'other' self apparently couldn't do. The presence of unknown factors would influence the mathematics. She needed absolutely precise calibrations and studies.
Out of curiosity, Kokonoe had briefly consulted with her backup data to check for discrepancies in the current reality. Surely enough, there were more than she had anticipated. As a case in point, her current memories had no recollection of conducting a salvage operation of the Susanoo Unit, among other things.
Her eyes glanced down at a screen displaying strings of numbers scrolling down from her machines recording new readings. She stuck the candy back in her mouth, feeling the sugar helping her mind process the meaning behind the fresh data.
"This is…the real thing?"
The Susanoo Unit currently stored inside Sector Seven was the genuine article, not the partial existence she supposedly had pulled out before. No wonder its physicality could be maintained without needing any kind of Observation.
But another dilemma arose.
If during this 'missing' reality the soul residing in the unit were to be completely destroyed, then a part of it should still remain intact floating inside the Boundary until now. Only a fraction of it should be missing at most, no matter what events transpired.
"Just my luck…" The true body of a Sankishin sat within her reach, yet an undetectable speck held her back from researching a method to use the unit. It almost seemed like a prank done in poor taste from Relius. She couldn't deny that he could have also lied about the soul still being alive.
A beeping sound drew her mind away from the unit. Kokonoe pulled out the communicator phone stashed inside her sleeve. After a glance, she pressed accept on the incoming call.
"Master Kokonoe." A gentle voice spoke through the speaker.
"Lambda, what's got you calling?" Unless it was for maintenance or health checks, she mostly left her alone to be with her sister.
"I'm calling to report something. Number 13 has awakened. Noel asked that I relay that information to you right away."
"Huh. Well, that's certainly interesting news…" Last time she checked, Nu's vegetative state appeared deep enough to last indefinitely. Kokonoe scratched the side of her head as she made a mental note. "Alright, I'll drop by later. Lemme know if anything changes and keep Nu within the premises. Don't let her out of your sight until I say so. Got all that?"
"Understood, Master Kokonoe. Orders received. I will be on standby."
With that said, the line was cut.
Kokonoe mused about Lambda's speech pattern and how it sounded less mechanical than before, but the girl still couldn't let go of old habits.
Her thoughts went back to her work. She needed to look through her backup data again to find a solution. However she had to proceed with caution. The man would never hand over such a valuable thing to her of all people without a good reason. Her workshop couldn't be the only place capable of hiding the Susanoo Unit.