Chapter Forty-One

Boot Camp

Part Four

"Forgive me if I'm having a hard time understanding this," Artemis said as she stared at Surtr, Fenrir, and Jirou with a dumbfounded expression. "You want me to inject her with something that would give the ability of a mage?"

"I mean yeah, you're saying it's impossible to do that?" Surtr said as the machine god pondered for a moment before speaking.

"Is there any particular reason why?"

"If you can scan her, you can tell that she doesn't have much going for her combat-wise. Sure she can run and all, but not so much when it comes to outrunning a demonic beast. And her powers…Well, isn't that effective if I can assume those weird ear jack things on her ears involve sound manipulation or something?"

"Jeez, did you have to be that blunt about me like that?" Jirou asked as Surtr shrugged.

"Well, I can't just lie about it. It's not in my nature to do so unless necessary." She answered before noticing Artemis pulling up a 3D model of Jirou's body.

"Hm, well…there is something I can do, but I would need you to keep it a secret until Lily's finished with the ascension process," Artemis said as Jirou noticed the divine spirit pulling out a syringe with metal liquid inside. "This is something that I injected into Mineta when we formed a contract with each other. What you see here is called Klironmia, or nanomachine in human terms."

"Wait, those are nanomachines…like the stuff you would see in sci-fi movies taking place in the future?" Jirou asked as the machine god nodded.

"Indeed, the only difference between what you see in movies and real life is that these won't run amuck and kill the user." She said before showing an image of Mineta with names of certain Greek gods around him. "The Klironomia are nanomachines made of a metal not found on Earth. They can greatly enhance or restore the strength, performance, and longevity of an individual or object they're applied to. In a sense, humans like her with little to no strength, can be on par with low-rank heroic spirits."

"Seriously!? Why haven't you said something about this!?"

"You never asked." She said which caused Jirou to deadpan.

"So if you were to inject her with those Klironomia things, then she'll have mana inside her body, which means she'll be able to use magic, right?" Surtr asked as Artemis nodded.

"Given how the Klironomia acts as a pseudo-perpetual motion machine, it should allow her to use magic, though it might be hard for her to grasp the concept of magic considering the era she lives in. But forming a contract with her shouldn't be a problem once injected. Just don't draw upon her too much, less she passes out from exhaustion due to mana depletion."

"And you're just giving this stuff to me?" Jirou asked as Artemis shook her head.

"I'm not giving you the Klironomia just out of obligation. Given how you're not in the stable mind frame, combat experience, and a quirk that doesn't do little to no damage. You'll be more useful being a walking mana factory for Surtr, than you would be a fighter in this fight…plus I'm pretty sure you'd be the first to die."

"...Wow….you're an asshole."

"I'm speaking on a logical explanation, and it only applies to this fight given how you're dealing with a monster, not a human you can reason with," Artemis said as she walked over to Jirou. "Given the current state of mind you're in, you would be a hindrance to the others, hence why I'm giving you the Klironomia so you'll at least have a fighting chance." She said before raising Jirou's right hand and injecting the nanomachines into the palm of her hand. The young girl winced a bit due to the slight pain she felt as she noticed magic circuit lines spreading across her arm. The moment they reached her shoulder, Jirou's eyes rolled into the back of her head and dropped to the ground like a ton of bricks.

"...Well shit, I didn't think that would happen…she's okay?" Surtr asked as she lifted the young girl and placed her on Fenrir's back.

"It's to be expected. Magic introduced into a human by other means will result in something like this. She'll wake up the next day, so you can form a contract with her to help boost your strength in battle."

"You need to work on your bedside manners."

"I'm a machine that was altered by a mad god of an Olympian lostbelt. It's…hard to get out of the mindset when you've been enslaved for the past 12,000 years or so…The concept of free mind and will…it's still new to me."

"Hm, I guess it's understandable, but you might want to work on your people skills, less it might cause some problems between you and lover boy." She said as Artemis raised her visor to stare at the ancient titan before pondering the idea. "Okay, let me put it in simple terms, if you want to have a smooth conversation with people, then learning some social skills will improve your odds."

"Hm…suppose having some social skills would help if I have to negotiate. I'll have to look into social skills later, right now take her somewhere to sleep. I'll have a meal ready for her when she wakes up tomorrow."

"Nice to see you can be reasoned with."

"I may be a machine, but I have feelings and emotions even though I don't show it to others."

"Could've fooled me." She said before motioning for Fenrir to follow her out of the room. "I'll be sure to inform the others about this."

"Please do," Artemis said as she watched the trio leave as Midoriya walked in after they left. "Huh, another surprise. It's rare to get a second visitor."

"Second? Who was here first?"

"Your classmate Jirou. She along with Surtr needed my assistance with something." She said as Midoriya was about to ask, only for the machine god to raise a hand. "You'll have to wait until she wakes up tomorrow, but don't worry, I did nothing to hurt her."

"I…don't know how I should feel about that."

"Pay it no mind. Is there a reason why you're here to see me? Do you need a medical check-up?"

"No, well at least not right now. Could you indulge me in something," Midoriya asked as the machine god nodded.

"I'm going to assume it involves Lily, correct?"

"More or less, but I have a strong feeling that this was all planned out by someone."

"Care to explain?"

"I talked about it with some of the other classmates, and I would like this to be kept a secret until we have enough evidence to prove that my hunch is correct. But I have reason to believe that someone from your world somehow managed to come to our planet before civilization could be established by humans." He said before taking a seat at a nearby desk. "Lily said that it was the planet that summoned you all here, but given the state and era we live in, it would be impossible for someone from my world to do that seeing how magic wasn't a real concept."

"Given how you live in the age of man, magic isn't a real concept in modern society or is treated as a fairytale of this world."

"Right, but in the past, this world used to be magical, right?" He asked as Artemis pulled up an image of Earth before humans existed. She would soon spin the planet around for a moment before stopping as an aura of magic engulfed it.

"Given the history, we were able to see thanks to the planet, there was magic during a certain period on earth, but about 1XXX B.C., that's when the planet's magic disappeared and was sealed away. Whatever remaining magic was left on this planet slowly vanishes or is sealed in certain items."

"Which brings me to another hunch that someone from your world came to this world. Because it would be impossible for someone from this planet to do it, and quirks didn't come into play until the year 20XX A.D."

"Hm, the concept of that happening wouldn't be impossible. Though they would have to be either the first pseudo servant to appear on this planet similar to a divine spirit."

"What do you mean?"

"A pseudo servant with a regular heroic spirit as their host can still age the same as a normal human to a certain degree, but those of a divine origin would be able to live longer so long as they're not killed by a weapon that can nullify their divine protection." She said before looking over at Lily. "Though it does explain a few things about Lily."

"Like what?" Midoriya asked.

"It makes sense that you all wouldn't know or notice, but Lily's not human, she's a homunculus," Artemis said as the young man tilted his head in confusion. "In layman's terms, she's an artificial human created without the use of a female womb." She answered which took Midoriya by surprise.

"So then that means this was planned out by someone."

"Given how patchwork the girl's body was when I first met her, yes, your hunch would be correct."

"Patchwork?" He asked as Artemis pulled up an image of Lily's body. More specifically, parts of her body that were damaged or oddly made.

"This was another reason why I had her inside the chamber. Different organs that aren't compatible, bone size, purple flesh on certain parts of her body, outstretched muscle fibers, the list goes on."

"Dear god," Midoriya said as he stared in shock. "Does Lily know about this?"

"I don't believe so, otherwise Artoria wouldn't have allowed me to do something like this. Were it not for her having the sheath of Excalibur's regeneration ability, she would have lasted a good year, two years if she's lucky."

"Why wouldn't Artoria tell her something like this? Aren't they partners?"

"My only assumptions are that at the time, she was not mentally prepared for the truth, or it wasn't relevant to her."

"...Are you going to tell her about this?"

"She'll find out eventually, for now like you said, we'll keep this a secret between us. Don't want any distractions before the final preparation after the third day."

"Right…."

"Is there anything else that you need?"

"You…um…wouldn't happen to have the means to enhance my hero costume?" He asked as the machine god looked at Midoriya up and down.

"Hm…I might be able to make something for you and the others…this might improve our odds when the final fight comes."

"You sure? I know you're busy and everything, this won't be too much for you, will it?"

"I can multitask, so this won't be an issue. Now please tell me what you need improvements on," Artemis said as a smile appeared on Midoriya's face as he went into great detail about his suit and ideas on how to improve it.

White…gold…black…purple. These were the colors that Lily woke up to the moment her eyes slowly opened up from her slumber. Upon waking up, her vision became clearer as she found herself floating in space. Her eyes widened in surprise as she quickly looked around in amazement at the scene she was seeing. Stars shooting across the vast darkness, a light off in the distance shining as bright as the sun, explosions that created more stars as they spread and lit up most of the darkness around her. To say she wasn't amazed by this is an understatement, this was something that most people couldn't experience in person due to the inability to breathe in space without a spacesuit.

"Wow…so this is what space is like…it's beautiful…and scary"

"It's understandable in your case," said a voice behind Lily as she quickly looked behind herself. The moment she did, she saw a young brown-skinned male, with long gold hair, blood-red eyes, and a white cloth covering his body. "Quite the marvel, isn't it?"

"...Who the hell are you and why shouldn't I kick your ass?" Lily asked as she tried to summon her sword into her hands, but was unable to due to the man preventing her from using her magic.

"I'm only here to talk, leader of the grand servants," The man said, which took the girl by surprise.

"I'm not a leader. How do you know who I am or what a grand servant is?"

"Suppose it would make sense that you wouldn't know who I am in this form," Goetia said before taking a few steps forward. In doing so, demon god pillars appeared around them which caused Lily to realize who she was conversing with. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Lily. My name is Goetia."

"Great, talk about getting caught with your pants down. If what Artoria said was true, then he has the same ability as King Solomon. So fighting him with magic is out of the question. She thought while trying to think of an idea to escape this place, but was cut off due to hearing Goetia speak up.

"If you're wondering what happened to your friend, I can assure you, she's not dead or anything. We're currently conversing in a pocket dimension within your body. It'll take her some time before she can get to us."

"I'll stall him for time, just enough so she can find a way to get here." She thought before taking a seat on what she could guess was the ground. "Alright, I suppose talking with you wouldn't kill me...I hope."

"Good, nice to see you're more level-headed than most people on this planet," Goetia said before making the images of the demon god pillars vanish and sitting in front of Lily. Before he could say anything, the beast snapped his fingers to create a cloth similar to his but black around Lily. "Consider it as a small gift for letting me converse with you."

"While I appreciate the garment, what do you want with me?"

"To get a possible better understanding of my enemy. Why is it that you choose to be a grand servant? Was it some moral obligation because you wanted to be a hero, or was it because you wanted power?"

"It was...because I was dying." Lily answered. "I wanted to live, she came to me with an offer, and I took it."

"I see...so it was more of you wanting to live than wanting to be a hero. Interesting answer, though not surprising."

"Mind if I ask you a question? I mean it should be fair seeing how you're asking me questions as well."

"I suppose that's fair, ask away and I will answer."

"Why do you want to wipe out the human race? I mean I get that you don't like humans, but what have they ever done to you?"

"It's not that I don't dislike humans...I love them...but it's the fact that they...flawed...imperfect...horrible." He said as Lily noticed Goetia gritting his teeth. "What God would create such beings that would kill, murder, and betray each other without even a second thought? What kind of God would allow their creation to commit horrible abominations ranging from mutilation of babies, wars that would wipe out a nation, cannibalism, and the list goes on? I want to wipe away the human race to create a much better race of humans where the concept of death is erased."

"And you believe that would make things better?"

"I believe it will. I mean you must know how bad humans can be. Especially given this hero system you live in and experience, right?" he asked which caused Lily to flinch. "You've experienced the cruel hands of mankind firsthand."

"...Yeah...I don't deny that. People can be shitty when they want to be. But you seem to focus more on the bad aspects of the human race, but not the good parts of it. You know that there are people that can be good, right?"

"Yes, I know, but they can turn on you if pressured enough to do so. Humans are weak-willed, always looking for the strong to tell them what to do, always siding with the wrong, and always submissive to things that would make life easy. The humans on this planet are like that. When someone in power labels someone a threat or disposable, their personality will change. Am I wrong?"

"I...well...fuck you're not wrong about that," Lily said before hearing Goetia chuckle.

"Now for my next question, would you be willing to throw away your title as grand servant if I offer you and your selective group of friends to live in my new world?"

"I can't. Not that I don't want to, but I made a deal with Artoria, so giving up my title to someone that saved me and gave me a chance to live my life, would be a slap to the face and saying fuck you bitch," She said before leaning back a bit. "Plus, keep in mind that you placed me and my classmates inside of a singularity and half of them are dead. So trusting you is out of the question."

"Hm, suppose that's fair." He said before looking off in the distance. "If I were to offer you something better, would you reject it without hesitation?"

"You want to commit genocide on a grand scale. Do you think I'm going to join a demon god with a mindset like that?"

"A normal person would join, considering what I can do."

"Yeah, they would. But I'm not normal."

"You think of yourself as a self-proclaimed hero?" Goetia asked which caused Lily to laugh.

"I would make a horrible hero. I have trust issues to the point where I sleep with a gun or weapon under my pillow, social anxiety that I hide underneath sarcasm and witty remarks, and opening myself out to strangers without thinking is this guy or girl butt fuck me in the ass in my sleep or stab me if I take a shower!"

"...So basically the average teenager in high school," Goetia asked, unphased by the girl's sudden outburst.

"Possibly...I wouldn't know seeing how the school is full of people thinking they'll become heroes with their amazing quirks."

"Hm, I suppose that's a normal response. I think this is where we'll end the conversation." Goetia said before standing up. "You're nothing compared to the human I've fought before coming here, and I'm not saying this in a good way. If it weren't for the fact that your servant was keeping your emotions in check, you wouldn't be able to last this long. You're weak, a bundle of emotions that prevents you from developing, and a paranoid person who shouldn't be left alone with a child."

"If I wanted someone to be blunt, I would've asked Aizawa or Artoria to list that stuff off to me."

"I suppose the only thing that would say is a positive, you're quick to understand the situation you were in and a conversationalist. but besides that, nothing that impressive." He said before slowly fading out of existence. "Maybe as time goes on you'll improve, but as it stands, I doubt you'll be able to survive."

"You wanna bet?"

"I would, but I don't bet with dead people." He said before vanishing, leaving Lily alone in the pocket dimension. The moment he left, the feeling of drowsiness washed over the girl's body as she fell back and onto the ground.

"Great...not even the beast takes you seriously. Suppose that was a good thing he wanted to talk." She said before weakly raising her hand to see markings appearing on it. "I'm hoping I look the same after the change."