To Reach the Lights Beyond the Heavens (High School DxD - Essence CYOA SI - FGO Reincarnation Chapter 2)
"So communist memes can even scare away a Satan." Michael Chaser snorted to himself once he was safely back in his room. He had to say he didn't expect The Devil to look so...normal. Well, he was a bishonen and had a cute sister, but he wasn't some sort of Eldritch Abomination, and that was the surprise.
Naturally after that encounter, Michael cleared up the basement of any sign of the occult, and filtered out the magical energy of the devils, so he doesn't get some stupidly enthusiastic Exorcist coming after him.
He had to say, he really lucked out on this summoning. Even if did get hit by a memory spell, he compared his memories to the magical mental copy he saved in his grimoire and only saw that he was missing the design on that devil contract seal flyer. Not really a big deal, and he could always study the spell till he eventually breaks it down.
The fact that he got quite the wealth of information about Devil society and the Three Biblical Factions as a whole was, in word, god sent. That it only cost him a single month of allowance, might as well be a miracle.
Yes, he could have gotten all that information from conventional means, such as contacting other magicians, but that would have taken longer and verification on information authenticity would have been a bitch and a half. Maybe getting all the information he had now, would have been easier when he was older, but it would have been time wasted on wondering what was the world truly like, probably causing him to fall to indecision.
Knowing all that info now was more than helpful, and saved up on a lot of time and energy. Given how lucky this summoning turned out to be, Michael figured he would have to give Drunk Magician Joe some expensive beer as a gift.
Drunk Joe was the one who taught him that magic existed, and who first introduced him to the supernatural world. He is way less cool than his name implies. Drunk Magician Joe wasn't some master archmage who got stronger the more drunk he was, like a Drunk Kung Fu Master. Rather he was an old and retired magician who drinks a lot.
It might seem odd for an 8 year old to venture into the dangerous world of the supernatural, but Michael Chaser wasn't really eight. He was a reincarnator, someone who was reborn into a new life.
Except Michael can't remember his past life. He's not sure how old he really is.
He is sure that that past life is there. From when he could first form thoughts, he just...knew things without being taught. Not many, nothing that would label him genius or gifted, but he just picked up on things faster than most kids. And every once in a while he would get a flash of knowledge about a concept, or an idea about the world or pop culture that once researched turned out to be right. Like how this world has many tropes from anime come to life.
Thinking about his past life felt like...
...
...
Michael sighed. It was difficult the thoughts into words. As if try the past memories actively eluded him.
No, rather, it was like he had a lot of feelings about his past life, but no image to put to them. The only concert thing he felt he knew was that he maybe lived in a world where the supernatural didn't exist. A world were he knew a lot of story narratives and tropes from pop culture and anime.
Then...
Nothing.
Vague feelings of pain, loss, madness, grief, hope, rage, melancholy, resolve, resignation, determination, love, joy, acceptance and a mix of others, and not necessarily in that order.
Maybe he was reincarnated incorrectly. Not having his past memories completely deleted, allowing him to know he had a past life, but nothing else. It fits.
This life should have been a new start, a blank slate. Except, he wasn't born completely blank. Without factoring in nature and nurture.
Still, since dwelling on the past didn't bring him answers, he would try to live this life to the fullest, and maybe do something good with his life.
Above all, he had this...drive within him. That was the one thing he wasn't confused about and couldn't let go of.
A drive to help mankind become better, become more. At first he didn't feel that such drive was warranted. After all, who was he to impose his will on humanity. The most he could do was maybe try and help with some scientific discovery and hope that humans survived long enough to use it for good and to improve the quality of life over all.
Yet, the more he learned of this new world he was born in, of how the supernatural existed, and started to gain a clearer picture of humanity's place in it, the more he felt that drive rise up. He needed to uplift humanity. He needed them to become more so they can live as more than pets to the supernatural beings.
Because when one gets right down to it, that's what mankind is in this world, even if everyone never directly says that, or even implies it. It's just a thing in the background that no one acknowledges, like a fish not acknowledging water.
Devils pluck which ever human that meets their fancy, like pokemon collectors. Yes, just like humans, some are good, but the very nature of even the most altruistic of them would place their species above humans. That's not evil, that's only natural.
Thus humans need to be on equal footing with the devils collectively if they were to have an alliance in the future. Michael let out a long sigh. That is likely to be the far future as centuries of propaganda will likely make any interaction a very wary one at best. There is also the worry that the devils might backslide to their behavior and attitude before their Civil War.
The Fallen Angels might be the most amicable to work with, if humans got better enough to remove any idea of our inferiority on their side. From what Drunk Joe told me, most common fallen angels see humans as beneath them and themselves the superior race to all magical beings.
Michael though that is humans weren't around, fallen angels would be the humans analogue. They are magical enough to be significant and not have any specific weaknesses, but are generally mid-tier when it comes to power. They have an advantage over the Angels on not worrying about Falling as they already did, and have a power that's an intrinsic weakness to Devils. Like all magical beings they are long lived, and grew in power with age, and do not have the same population problem of the other two biblical factions. They are technically weaker than the other two factions however, as it is difficult for them to grow in power due to losing access to the Heavenly Host, and weren't like devils who had emotional power-ups.
Then there are the fucking Angels. Michael's mood soured down at the thought of them.
It's kind of ironic that the phrase "the road to hell is paved with good intentions" embodies the Angel Faction. When they act to help, they aren't forceful enough to curb people's vices, or to help them not fall to their self-destructive tendencies. And situations where they really should act to tell people not to commit atrocities (like that little historical event called The Crusades!), they don't due to respecting free will or some shit.
They should have either been hands on, interacting with humans in very active and even visible matter if they can (since the masquerade is a thing everyone is holding on to). Or completely cut off communications with humanity, letting up fend for ourselves and figure shit out on our own.
This middle of the road bullshit was causing more harm than anything else.
How they act now, was more like mankind's neglectful owner, as though we're a pet, rather than guardians, or a sibling race worshiping the same god.
Speaking of God, Michael felt skeptical about the Abrahamic God being, well, 100%, really really real. Like none of that agnostic stuff, but a proveable thing. That He was real.
After an hour or so he gave it some thought, and came to the conclusion that, logically if the Three Factions where real, then by default YHWH was real and present too.
So where was He? Why wasn't He more active in the world?
There aren't any supernatural wars, no matter who Michael asked. The current situation with the Three Factions had been the cold war situation for about a thousand years now.
There was only one answer to that.
God had left.
Or something along these lines. This world seemed like that kind of setting.
So, humanity can't just collectively come together and ask God to fix our shit for us. We have to do it ourselves.
Michael can't do it alone obviously, but he can start by learning as much as he could on science and magic, and gather others to make a research team, and then...
Hmm, not sure. I'll figure it out as I go.
The important end goal is to reach the moon and make it habitable, find a way for humans to survive the harshness of space, and then...
Reach out and grab the stars.
x=
It took two years for Michael Chaser to reach an actual possible success on making an Artificial Intelligence.
It simply wasn't feasible to make one through physical computations along. Michael did not have a quantum computer, the money to buy a quantum computer (he wasn't even sure a private citizen was allowed to own one), or the materials to build a quantum computer.
And if it comes to the point of synthesizing the materials and equipment for a quantum computer using magic, then he might as well go buy one, as it would be easier and less time consuming. Yeah, turns out Magical Crafting was hell of a deep hole, that would take Michael a few dedicated year to be good at to his desired level, even with his odd...gifts.
It was something he was beginning to notice over time. That there was something to him beyond having proficiency in subjects he studied due to past life experiences.
For example, Michael felt this intrinsic...need was a strong word, rather he had to be good at summoning magic. He didn't know why, but it felt right that he be good at it, even if he doesn't really use it as much anymore.
Hell, the last summoning circle he draw out of theoretical principles to summon spirits and empower them with magical gifts they didn't inherently have, or strengthen what they do have, was left to the way side in his room with other stuff, like boxes or his guitar that he never plays, stacked on top of it.
Michael shook his head, focusing back on his last checks on the A.I. code. For the sixth time.
After all, he needed to make sure the magical equations integrated seamlessly with the overall program. The reason to add a magical property to the A.I. make-up, was because Michael worried that even if the A.I. we to operate correctly from physical computations alone without any magic, he worried that logic errors down the line could cause the A.I to malfunction.
Or worse, reach logical conclusions to go skynet on this world. Or just see people as ingredients to use for it's tasks. Or so many other Bad End scenarios for the world.
So far, all his experimental tries within the closed system he made for the A.I. to test and observe before taking it as a researcher aid, did not bear fruit. The program can't run to completion. Or broke down and crashed when it failed tasks, or reached logic paradoxes. The two times it seemed to work, well...it only seemed to work.
It did the tests, it learned and improved. ...But it wasn't right.
There was never a genuine Mind forming there. Michael had the spells to check after all.
That's why he started to integrate magical equations into the A.I. code. He hoped it might spark some sort of genuine sentience, rather than the imitation of one.
After all, for his goal of uplifting humanity, A.I.s were needed. Rather, they will be essential for galactic travels. As the sheer computations for space flight and future engines like hopefully warp-drives would have to precise to the digit every single time.
Humanity will need these companions one our space journey.
Michael check the A.I.s code for the seventh time, before he finally decided to run it.
However what ended up happening was not something Michael Chaser, or anyone on this world could have predicted. This was due to a sequence of events completely outside of Michael's knowledge, and in no way he could have prepared for.
x=
The skies above the city of San Francisco were quiet and peaceful.
Truly it was a beautiful day where nothing could have gone wrong for anybody, human or otherwise.
Then the interdimensional/intergalatic travel spaceship Dun Stallion 2.8.9, burst through the dimensional walls of this reality ruining everyone's day.
Yes, the ship was under an invisibility field, it's pilot Mysterious Heroine X, MHX for short, or just X (who is secretly Artoria Pendragon. Shoooosh) having learning that just bursting into existence in another universe uninvited and without warning tended to have a drastic response.
She had learned that the last three times she entered a different Earth and ended up fighting the humans and the alien invaders attacking them, at the same time. Stupid misunderstandings.
That last dimension with those things called Novas was especially annoying. Not the aliens those were easy to kill. It was the humans there in authority positions who were just fucking assholes to deal with.
Now, MHX has finally reached the world were her long time friend would hopefully be.
[Signal trace confirmed. Designated Earth #80085-69 holds signal origin. Master of Chaldea confirmed in current world.]
Oh, and her spaceship can talk now.
"Thank you, Dun Stallion, please re-route on where Michael is."
[Unable to comply with current request due to structural damage to the ship from repeated dimensional wall bashing, and current low energy tanks. Suggestion: Dispose of extraneous non-functional Spirit Origins to re-route energy to flight system?]
Of course, nowadays MHX wishes her ship went back to being a silent tsundere.
"NO! Stop trying to kill Nobunaga or throw her off the ship. I finally managed to heal her. Her Spirit Origin is complete again, so just leave her to re-manifest her body. It shouldn't take that much energy now." MHX felt her eye twitch again.
Seriously, Nobu got drunk on the ship once, trashed it a bit, took it for a joy ride and then attacked pieces of her Noble Phantasm to it. MHX already took Oda to task for that stunt, even if it did help them a lot in the end in that Campione world. Dun Stallion 2.8.9 however was just not letting it go. Geez, live and let live already.
[Alternate Suggestion: Brace for impact due to imminent crash landing.]
"Wait, what!? TELL ME THAT EARLIER! AAAAAAAAHH!!" MHX barely had time to scream as the spaceship crash landed in Mount Tamalpais.
Dun Stallion 2.8.9, despite it's animosity toward the infamous Japanese Warlord, did try it's best to continue healing her due to it's Pilot's request. However the ship could not protect it's Pilot (who was heavily injured from that last world they were in, and the intense dimensional travel), keep it's structural integrity and not go offline, and finish up the healing of Nobunaga at the same time, all on its last energy tank (it would need to restart it's energy regeneration cycle after all this).
However, due to finding the link to the Master of Chaldea, the ship just simply decided to use him as the anchor for Nobunaga to take the metaphorical weight off its energy storage, since doing so would allow the Servant to fully manifest and meet up with the Master. Two asteroids with one X-Cannon Shot.
And as luck would have it, the Chaldean Master had a fully functional summoning circle near him. Thus all Dun Stallion 2.8.9 had to do was sent the Japanese Servant's Spirit Origin along that connection, and everything would be A-Okay.
Now to make sure it's Pilot does not become flattened pastries in the next bit.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAA!!"
CRASH
x=
Right as Michael ran the A.I. program two things happened.
One, the program began absorbing the ambient magical energy, mainly Michael's for it's creation.
Two, the forgotten summoning circle in the corner of the room began to shine.
Then the computer screen began to shine. Michael shielded his eyes.
Then there was a odd sound like a wall of wind crashing.
"WHAT THE HELL?"
As everything dimmed again. Michael look up to see his room a bit in disarray as it a hurricane went through it.
The only thing untouched was the computer that had a loading screen.
[95%...96%...97%...98%...99%]
[100%]
It's finished. Michael's eyes widened in excitement.
[Unit Horizon Onl...]
"What? Oh come on, you can't crash after working before any tests!" Michael sat up and leaned forward.
[Unit Horizon On...]
[Unit Horizon On...]
[Unit Horizon On...]
[Unit Hori...]
[Unit Ho...]
[Unit Ho...Ho...Ho...Ho...Ho...]
"Ooooo...kaaaaay." This was going into weird territory. Fuck please don't tell me I made Skynet! I mean, it's in a closed system but still.
[Rebooting]
"Fuck!" Michael slammed his hands on the computer desk.
[Rebooting Complete]
"Yay!" Michael pumped his hands in the air. Fuck it, magic was involved in this try, so might as well go with the flow.
[N.I. Activated. Unit Online.]
Michael blinked in confused for a new minute.
"N.I.?"
[Nobbu Intelligence. Commencing communication with User...]
Michael leaned away.
[MWAHAHAHAHA!]
"Aaaaaw shit." Michael feared the worst.
[To think the Great Me would venture into the realm of cyberspace. Truly there is no end to the frontiers I can go forth and conquest.]
"Uuuh...hello?" Hopefully, it's friendly? Michael quietly reinforced the protections and isolation of the closed system.
[Hello Master! To think we would meet in these circumstances! Then again our adventures have always been bizarre. However that doesn't mean experiences like this shouldn't be savored. Mwahahahahaha!]
"Umm, who are you?" Michael was confused on the A.I. behavior. Did...did adding magic caused it to be born insane? The spells for sensing Mind or Soul, but right now it only increase the dread he had.
[Have you forgotten who I am, Michael Chaser!? It is I, the one and only Demon King of the Sixth Heaven, ODA NOBUNAGA!]
The computer screen was outlined with fire. Not an image on the screen, but actual fire came out of the edges then snuffed themselves out.
For a long while Michael sat in silence, taking in the situation before him.
Finally, he came to the only logical conclusion.
"Oh fuck, my computer is possessed."