Ange and Lucia searched for “something”, but that was difficult when they did not know what it was. They checked all around the field, but it was only a hologram.
Once accessed, it disappeared to reveal a hall with playing card patterns on the floor. That was the place Ange had burned before.
The only thing that remained unchanged was the table. Ange and Lucia ran over, assuming there was something in the tea set or chess set.
At the same time, a hole was blasted in the wall rather than the bound door.
Misses B, C, and D rushed in.
“Kh.”
They were trapped. They would have to fight, even though they had already been shown how outmatched they were.
Ange, Machina, and Lucia stood side by side and the three Witches faced them.
“Myrddin.”
Ren’s lance returned to being a short sword.
“Prominence – Loop!”
Ange split her large sword into two blades to fight back.
“Shut up.”
“!?”
A third party’s voice was suddenly heard in the sanctuary.
It was a quiet, mumbled voice. Ange and Lucia did not even hear it. Ange rushed to strike Ren with her dual swords.
But Ren did not even raise her weapon.
In fact, the three Witches – no, all four Witches including Machina – had stopped moving altogether.
They could not move. They could clench their teeth, but changing their expression was about all they could do.
Their clothes had suddenly become as hard as rock. They had received a fair amount of muscular modification, but witches were generally powerless without their tools, so they were motionless.
“Yahhhhhhhhh!”
But Ange did not notice and continued rushing in.
“Stop that, you savage!”
Ren’s short sword flew from her hand like it had a mind of its own and it blocked the slash.
“Wait, eh!?”
The scabbard flew toward Ange as well, and with enough speed that she needed both swords to block them. She panicked.
But Ren was even more surprised.
“Excalibur!? Impossible! That’s a hidden code!”
This interception did not seem to be her idea.
Ange put some distance between them and the sword returned to its scabbard, which then reattached itself to Ren’s hip as if to say its job was complete.
The battle ended calmly.
“You?”
Lucia was the first to realize who was speaking.
The stuffed rabbit on the table had an obvious red light in its eyes.
“What is all this hubbub about? Oh, an angel and demon have gotten in. Do something about that, will you? I really would prefer not to be burned like last time.”
There was no tension at all in its voice, but it had also kept the four Witches frozen from the moment it began moving. All six people there were dumbfounded.
“Who are you? Was Miss A…telling us to meet you?”
Miss A had always had this partner by her side while having tea here. She had also sometimes played chess with it. But none of them had known it had a mind inputted into it.
The four Witches were confused and the rabbit blinked its red eyes.
“Miss A? Oh, yes.” It must have realized who they meant. There was a hint of sadness in its voice. “Henriette… Yes, she is dead. She held out for quite a long time, but it seems her time finally came.”
“Dead?”
Machina had not been there, so she alone gasped. The other three seemed to have already accepted it in some way, but hearing it stated so bluntly must still have been hard. A shadow fell over their faces.
The rabbit picked up on the situation based on the differences in their expressions and its red eyes flashed.
“Ugh.”
With a quiet groan, Ren, Schwarze, and Makoto fell to their knees.
At the same time, Machina could move once more and stumbled in place.
“What did you do to those three?”
They had fallen and she had been freed. She appreciated that the rabbit had taken her side, but she was still worried about those enemies who were like big sisters to her.
“I injected them with wormwood. They have simply fallen asleep with a nice, lightheaded feeling. They will wake back up in two or three hours.”
A close look showed the three of them were indeed only sleeping. They had apparently been given a knockout code through their hardened clothing.
Even with the boost from Adam’s power, they had been defeated so easily.
Ange and Lucia had no idea what was going on, but they knew enough to be cautious of this extraordinary newcomer.
“I detected abnormal values in the sleeping trio’s physical abilities. And here we have an angel, a demon, and the child who left surgical scars on Henriette’s stomach. I can only conclude that the time of Adam is upon us.”
“At least we don’t have to explain that.”
“Please have a seat. But given my form, you will have to prepare your own tea.”
The previous hologram rebooted and the grassy field returned.
Miss B and the other two collapsed Witches were left behind and did not enter the field. Ange and Lucia put away their weapons for the time being.
The three of them sat at the table.
The stuffed rabbit’s eyes continued to flash. It was apparently using the network to gather information on the current state of the world.
“Who are you? I don’t know much about computers, but are you what they call an AI?”
Ange and Machina remained cautious, but Lucia spoke casually to it since he could shrug off an attack from a machine.
“I am nothing as old-fashioned as artificial intelligence. The evolution of life inevitably approaches a breaking point and intelligence is no different. Creating intelligence means creating a child that will eventually take its own life.” The rabbit’s eyes shined as it opened a tin of cookies. “In the end, all human actions – be it going to space, creating people, or constructing a virtual intelligence – comes back to earning their daily bread. By growing and harvesting wheat. Civilizations role is to develop the techniques and intelligence needed to mix that wheat with sugar, bake it, and create delicious cookies.”
It was apparently multifunctional because it picked up a cookie and bit into it with its front teeth. Whatever the structure of its mouth was like, it ate the cookie up.
“Henriette loved to find out what kind of soil would produce the most wheat. On the other hand, I preferred creating the most efficient sickle for harvesting that wheat.”
“!”
Machina reacted to that.
The rabbit referred to Miss A as Henriette. That was a name that 600-year-old Alice Arc had used for about 100 years during the 17th century. That was right about when she had established FeTUS.
Machina knew the name of the Witch who had helped her do that. While Alice had worked hard to create the soil that was FeTUS, that individual had been in charge of combat and had developed Witches’ wisdom and weapons, such as the springs that were much like the sickles to harvest the wheat grown from that soil.
“Are you…Miss Y?”
“Miss Y? You mean of that Y Device?”
Ange recognized that name. The Y Device had given them the most trouble in their fight against FeTUS.
“You could say I am a copy of a someone’s memories. I have no way of saying how similar I am to the original, though. …Oh, could you bring me some chocolate?”
“Yes, yes. …Wait, this box is nothing but hard candy.”
“Really!? Oh, Henriette, you ate my chocolate, didn’t you? You always would eat everything and replace it all with hard candy.”
Lucia was relaxed and seemed to get along with the rabbit fairly well, but…
“But enough about who I am. I am more curious about who you are.”
The red eyes directed at the boy were unliving balls of glass, but they held a sharpness that seemed to see right through him.
“You have the same DNA sequence as Eve’s womb, the Holy Grail that Henriette spent her entire life creating. Since you appear to be a demon, could it be?”
Machina’s eyes widened upon hearing he had the same DNA sequence as Eve.