It Started With Devils & Artefacts

"Hi" Regular Speech

'Hi' Thought

"(Hi)" Marcus's mechanically synthesised voice

[Hi] Aurora's notification

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*Sigh*

"Just like I thought… this is basic…" I sighed out loud as I looked at the screen. The scan for the Sword birth was done.

Whereas Boosted Gear was like a primitive computer, the Sword birth is like a tv remote. Some very basic functions and that's about it.

No wonder it's such a common gear. I could make better energy type gears for example: a Dragon energy-type Sword birth, or even a Greek Divine-energy-type Sword birth.

It's so simple… I wonder why Big G never did it?

Well, it doesn't matter. Now that I have this scanned and the information is stored I no longer need this…

Looking around for a moment I left the Sacred Gear orb on the table and picked up a book on genetics.

It's time to continue reading on genetics. What I found is quite fascinating. Genes are like closed systems. Very, very complex systems. You pull just one atom away and it breaks apart. It's also the same with tempering. If you change even the smallest thing like a hair colour then it can cause a chain reaction, resulting in the whole thing breaking apart again…

Very much fascinating… and very...extensive science.

"Right… I need to find some tech that people use to study genetics…" Thinking of it for a bit I went back to my PC and booked a tour that they do for labs. While it won't truly be everything I need, I will be able to get the general idea.

I mean I already know that it's all about the micro world in one's blood…

But, I can't make stuff from just that… I could make a microscope, but that's about it…

~~~~~~Around Same Time~~~~~~

Serafall pulled Grayfia aside to talk, while their Master was reading about stuff on the genetics

"Grayfia listen. This is bad." The black-haired Satan started pacing back and forth.

"What is bad?"

"Marcus only left once to hunt! And he encountered Artemis's Hunt! He wiped the floor with her! The problem is that he even earned the right to marry the Amazon Queen!" Serafall said with a frown look.

"And...you think he will just marry her? Our Master doesn't care about this." Grayfia replied in an obvious tone.

"The problem is not whether he will marry her or not. The problem is that even the smallest of steps he takes shakes the world! The hunt is only the beginning. Artemis has no clue about the capabilities of Freedom mark II! She can't sense Marcus. So even if she lost she believes that it's because of the armour's ability to negate magic. My bet is she is on the hunt to find our Master as we speak." Serafall reasoned as she started to pacing back and forth, again.

"There will most likely be even more encounters, and our Master will humiliate her again. In return, they will most likely try to move in on him in his own hometown.

And as you know yourself… that's suicidal." Leviathan reasoned as she crossed her arms under her ample breasts.

"And what? He will capture her and enslave her? I do not know how Ars Goetia works but it can't enslave Gods…" Grayfia asked with raised eyebrows. She was trying to find the point of this conversation.

Serafall shook her head in denial. This was not what she meant.

"No. It's not about the enslavement. Artemis is one of twelve Olympians. Her capture would eventually be revealed and as you can imagine it would shake the whole supernatural world. Master will be under a magnifying glass. While it's nothing bad since not many people can do anything to him.

What I am concerned about is how many females will want his attention. Hippolyta is only the beginning. There are still Aphrodite, Athena. And other Minor Goddesses. And that is just from the Greek pantheon. Don't forget the Diamond Core Heart that is installed in Kuoh. The Shinto pantheon could easily find out about it and want his attention.

Then there's the Fallen Angels...they could easily send their females to seduce him and of course… that Bitch from the Heaven faction…" Serafall explained what she meant and Grayfia listened attentively.

"I see. So you are afraid that Master will forget about you...Us. I suppose it is possible since there are many different Goddesses around the world. But, none of them are Devils like us. We are beings of sin. Where they won't do certain things, we can do it without even caring. There is a reason why Solomon wanted to enslave us instead of thinking about those crude beings." As Grayfia was speaking, the Leviathan was looking at her with a different look. Serafall was quite impressed by what she just heard.

"Yes...yes...of course…For this one, I will need your help…" The black-haired devil lady had a smug look on her face. She recalled that a certain special day in February is close by…

She needs to get some costumes…

"My help? As long as its-"

"I know, I know! We are going to seduce our master together, for Valentine's day! What do you think?" Serafall asked with a smug look as Grayfia thought about it.

"Very well. Since I was the one who mentioned this." The silver-haired maid sighed in defeat. Well, she was the one who mentioned the sins… the only thing the gods can't brag about.

She doubts any Goddess would double team with another Goddess just to seduce a man.

That's why Devils are superior in this regard.

"Good, good we shall be victorious." Serafall clenched her fist as she declared that. It sounded like she just found The formula to win her Master over.

~~~~~~Back to Marcus, Later~~~~~~

The tour in the genetics lab was not so bad. While the techs were not the best. Since I saw some stuff over in America that is considered cutting edge right now. But then again my birth country doesn't quite have a substantial budget to begin with, so it's understandable.

Nonetheless, it did its job and now I can start the ground running as they say. As I now know where to start and what I need to do to start this.

Quickly entering some calculations onto the main computer after returning from the tour, I looked at the screen.

[Calculations done. With current computer parameters, this decoding will be done in 34 years 74 days and 23 hours.]

*Whistle*

"So… a 46 GB ram computer is only worth that much… well I guess a 16 quad-core processor won't be doing it…"

Thinking of it for a bit… spinning in the chair, I started to think about how to move forward from here.

"Open me the map of this area. I want a satellite image of it." I said after thinking for a bit. While I know the area to a certain extent, I wanted to confirm something else.

[Understood. Loading the map.]

Moments later I saw the map of the surrounding area. Up northwest there were some forests. Well, there are forests of various sizes in most of the areas around the city.

But if you go from Northwest to West where some open fields are, assuming there are some farmlands… and continue going further West, there is a Sea around 180 km away.

Changing some altitude readings, as well as the sea level and such…

"Hmmm… so the main processing facility is here. That open area will be the launch site… and then straight west… towards the sea…" doing some quick thinking about the ground compositions.

If my memory serves me right, then this area a long time ago was a delta of a massive river, then the ice age…

Working through the earth will not be so hard since I won't be doing it the normal way…

With the idea in mind, I closed the map and created a folder next to Engineering, Projects, and Systems. I named it Expansions.

But before I could focus on that, I went to the Projects folder and created another new project. It was time to create some grunts who can do manual labour for me.

Naming it simply Aurora Bot. I quickly opened the design app and started drawing a robot.

It was crazy how easy it is to draw one. Though, that was most likely because I have been doing upgrades for my Freedom, which requires extreme precision and with the whole barriers between armour laying. And also doing a lot of holographic manipulation of the design… And making manual labour robots? That's absurdly easy compared to that…

The OS for them was mostly done by Aurora. I only skimmed through it and then moved on with something more fascinating… and that is allowing mechs to use magic.

It was not as difficult as one would expect, the circles were not that hard to make, especially with the tools that I have.

Once the designs for the labour bots were done, I started working on my expansions. Now teleportation is fun and all. But travelling with something like a bus, train, or ship are good for a few things. From experience, I can say that travelling allows one to spend time thinking. Many of my ideas and designs came just from that, especially in my previous life.

And that's why I decided to make an underground railway network.

With perpetual energy and unlimited resources that comes with alchemy and a tireless labour force, I can easily create whole networks throughout the whole nation.

The best part is that it can also rapidly grow with barely any maintenance or attention needed. I can go and do different things simply knowing that my bots are still working either way.

My assembly line can create ten labour bots in less than two hours.

'Hmm, I still need to make some more specific circles for this…' Thinking for a bit I started working myself on the Labour bot software update.

~~~

When Serafall appeared in the workshop at her regular time she noticed that the place was empty…

The place where the design table and the computer were, is empty. Whereas the main area where the suits are stored has not been changed, Mark I and Mark II are still there.

The current Leviathan was confused that her Master was not doing something related to the genetics that he has started delving into.

Even to this day, she has no idea why he was working on that…

Nonetheless, she won't be questioning any of it. The black-haired devil lady knows better than to just ask things. Because for one, she will get lost in his explanation. And second, for better or worse she doesn't want to know, because it's most likely going to be very groundbreaking and she will need a couple of days to get over it…

So, she would rather just wait for his reveal…

Though, she still needs to figure out where her Master is. After several years with him, she knows his schedule like the back of her hand. So she should know where he is going to be.

But, today was different. She thought that he would start working on something with the Sword Birth he acquired or some genetic nonsense…

Besides she has some information on that Cao Cao fella he asked…

"Hmm, where are you Master~~~?"

Serafall started walking around the workshop main floor. She checked the main area, the testing room, the summoning/ritual room, then she walked to the back towards the kitchen and bathroom all of which were empty, there was not a single soul there…

'Strange… this is far too strange… he would have notified me with his connection through Ars Goetia…'  The older Sitri looked around for a bit more. She then tried to sense her Master to find out where he was and once again... the workshop is far too… magically amplified for her to find him!

This is one of those weird feelings that she gets whenever she is in the workshop, she feels human. Her power here means quite simply nothing… her master regularly makes things at the Ultimate class…

And even then, a tool of that level barely enters his radar.

'Well… I should probably check downstairs…' The black-haired devil lady sighed as she turned around and started walking to the back of the workshop where the stairs are.

She knows quite well that she is not allowed to go down there regularly.

For one it's where the Diamond Core Heart, the database and the assembly line is located.

The reason why she was not allowed there is that according to Marcus' words, a klutz should not be allowed to get there regularly …

Why he thinks that she is a klutz is beyond her…

Nonetheless, she will do a quick check and then will try to use their connection to contact him.

The beauty gently and quietly descended to the lower floor. She noticed something almost immediately…

The lighting in this area, more specifically the corridor areas, used to be almost nonexistent. Her master always loved the whole barely any light in the heart of the base thing. There was only ever some light on the floor so that people could see some of the path they were walking.

However, now that was gone, and the area had actual proper lighting.

Realising that yes, this is where he was, Serafall immediately gained her confidence and walked down at a much quicker pace.

Her eyes widened when she saw a brand new corridor! It was twice as wide! She looked around for more and saw that the corridor which led to the Diamond Core Heart and the rest was gone!

Instead, she found a door which appeared in an area far away from sight and was crafted from some sort of metal. She assumed a new brand of alloy?

'What on earth is he doing… more expansions? Is he building a supervillain base? I won't be surprised, in truth… With him anything is possible… It wouldn't be a shock if one day he wakes up and decides to take over the world just to find out how the nations around the world would act to his declaration of war…'

Serafall shook her head as she started walking down the wide corridor.

Soon enough a few moments later she heard sounds of hammers and the noises of metal cutting and melding…

Her eyes widened and she rushed forward with an extra step. She heard the sound of multiple people working. And she knows that Marcus is always doing things alone but now this!?

Once she arrived at the much wider area, almost as wide as the whole workshop upstairs…

'Is this…'  Her eyes scanned the whole area and saw… something akin to a railway station…

"This is a railway station…" She looked around assuming she was standing on the platform area, walking forward she saw the rails or she assumed they were supposed to be rails but it was more like a platform of some sort… like the trains are going to be sliding on it or something like that…

'He won't be making regular trains, that's for sure… assuming it will be floating or something like that…' Once she closely inspected the area, she saw… robots… humanoid robots using magic to drill the tunnel and more robots to assemble the rails…

This was… approaching realms of true sci-fi in her eyes.

Robots? As in real robots… making posh armour is nothing new to her. Well, not at Marcus's level, but armours are nothing too fancy… but properly functioning robot-like workforce?

'Marcus… he is building his faction… with his bare hands… this is like the Biblical God all over again!' Serafall thought with sweaty forehead, this was something she expected. But she thought he would only start doing this when he was in his twenties or thirties. But he is moving way faster than she had predicted!

How did genetics push him to expand? Making robots? This doesn't make sense to her at all!

Eventually, she found him at the end of a platform with a tablet in hand, doing something. He even had his glasses on. From the looks of it, he was in his designing mode. Only this time it was designing…on a grander scale…

Serafall quickly tried to sneak up on him… keyword 'tried'…

As her instincts already told her that he was aware that she was there.

"Master! I wasn't around for a day and this is what I found~~~? You're building railways!?" The current Leviathan hugged him from behind as she was now smaller than him so she was leaning onto his back.

"Yep. I will need a much bigger facility for processing information. Genetics needs a lot of processing power. It will take 34 years just to process mine. Not to mention, altering and improving. So, I decided to finally expand. I will build a processing facility, a space launching platforms and docks areas." He explained casually to her.

"Maybe even build up a new workshop along the way. Since having my place so close to my parent's is quite dangerous." He added more on top.

"I see…" Serafall slightly sweat dropped hearing that. Space launching pads? He was planning to go to space?

This was the first time she heard that!

"Space launching pads… and docks? You never mentioned those! And here I thought you were telling stuff to your girlfriend!" She said with a pouty tone.

"Just came up with the docks recently… I am thinking about diving as the suits' pressuring tests are much better deep underwater than in space. Besides, there are so many sunken ships… just itching to be rediscovered and brought back up for fixing!" He said the last parts excitedly.

This reminded Serafall about how males sometimes have weird tendencies to collect things… Does her Master have a thing for ships? Or more specifically sunken shipwrecks?

'Well, it's better than world domination… still through… will he bring back the Titanic? It's a kind of symbolic ship…'

"Like the Titanic? Are you planning on bringing it back to the surface and fixing it?" The black-haired devil asked him curiously. Pity that she wasn't there when that ship sailed for the first and last time. The movie however was quite good.

"One of them, yes. I am thinking of bringing back the Titanic, Bismarck, Musashi, Yamato… those are the first." He mentioned from the top of his head.

"I only know the first one. How are the other three special?" Serafall asked with a curious look. Especially hearing the Japanese names.

"They were the world's biggest battleships. They were really big, no nation builds that size anymore. Instead, they build aircraft carriers. That's why I want to get them." He said with a shrug.

"Men… and their toys…" The beauty sighed hearing that they were military ships…

"You have no idea… I was thinking of doing that with cars… but meh… diving into the depths of the deep sea. Pulling up wrecks and then rebuilding it with state of art magic and technology...now that is beautiful…" Marcus said with a dreamy tone.

And Serafall instantly felt a chill going down her spine…

'Is he planning on making them like Sacred Gears!?' She paled for a second imagining those ships turning into massive Japanese mechs…

'My imagination is running wild… I should lessen the amount of Gundams I am watching…' The current Leviathan shook her head internally; she was imagining far too much…

There was no way her Master would turn those ships into mechs!

"I see… Well, I suppose it's not a bad hobby to have. Anyway, on another note, I have the information you wanted!" Serafall smugly pulled out an envelope from somewhere and handed it over to him.

"Hoh? Stuff on Cao Cao? Let's see how many people he has recruited." He replied and with an excited face he opened the envelope and checked the information that the Leviathan had gathered in detail .

'Jeanne, Hercules, Sieg, Arthur, Le Fay… Heh? The Pendragon pair have not yet joined Vali… interesting… the last location was around Greece… assuming they will be recruiting Perseus soon…'

While Marcus read through the papers Serafall was closely looking at his expression. She saw him being quite excited and happy with the amount of rarer Sacred Gears these people collected just for him.

"You will be collecting them then? The True Longinus… it will...attract the attention of Heaven." The Black-haired beauty said to him as she looked at Cao Cao's picture.

"Good for them. They had years to recover it."

"They did. Many previous exorcists had it and they were under Heaven banner. But like any other gear, the Heaven system is quite random with the gear placement. The Angels didn't expect someone from China to receive the spear." Serafall explained to him.

"As I said they had years. Years to patch the system, years to upgrade it and perfect it. At this point, I see nothing more than the fact that they don't care who has the True Longinus. It's not my problem that they are incompetent in fixing and running the system."

The current Leviathan could hear her Master's distaste towards Heaven's faction. Assuming he doesn't like them because of how they can't run Heaven's system.

'This is too early for me to decide if he is going to have a cold relationship with them or not. There is still a chance of that bitch pulling something out of her large tits!' The black-haired beauty furrowed her eyebrows for a moment, thinking about that woman who wears a mask more than she ever does!

"Not everyone is at your level, Master. If my guess is right, then that blonde has tried many times to fix the system. But unfortunately for him, he wasn't created to run it…" She used the moment to jab some at the current leader of Heaven.

"...I suppose so. Nonetheless, I will be leaving for Greece. I will be back shortly." He said after giving another glance at the envelope.

"Be careful… It's the home of the Greek Pantheon. There is a chance you will encounter another one of their Deities." Serafall said with a little bit of concern. Not for his safety or anything like that. Well, she was a little bit concerned about it. But she was more concerned about what kind of things he could pull. She doesn't want the most eccentric Pantheon to start having weird ideas about her Master.

"Irrelevant. I don't care about them. I have no interest in them at this moment. I will leave them alive." He said casually as he started walking back to the main floor.

Serafall grimaced hearing that. He is treating them as something as if they were a nuisance. Like they are no threat and he is the one deciding their fate.

Then again if she had such a gear like he does, she wouldn't be afraid of anything…

"I see… while I don't care or anything…" that's a big lie and he saw through it as he looked back at her with a raised eyebrow.

"You shouldn't just provoke them… their egos are fragile…"

"As I said, it's irrelevant. For one I know their power and their scaling. I already scanned their divine energy. And I even have their DNA. My magic negation system is attuned to their energy As much as I have towards regular humans, dragons, devils and now Greek Gods." He explained casually while shrugging his shoulders.

"If… you say so. I don't want you to cause any incident which will cause them to move."

"Move? Move where? Even if they discover my home location by some miracle, there will only be less pantheon in the world by the end of it.

I am not going to take their mountain or anything like that, I am only going to collect and purge wanted criminals." He simply told her what would happen to the Greek Gods if they were to get any 'funny' ideas of trying to find him.

Serafall could only gulp down nervously. She doesn't want to know what the devil council will do once they find out that their P.O.D has been recreated by a human.

She can already imagine egos flying high and Marcus not caring about at all. Which could easily lead to devil extinction…

~~~~~~Evening~~~~~~

[Aurora OS boot up]

[Boot Complete]

[OS Start-Up in process…]

[Aurora Battle Support Online]

[Aurora H.U.D online]

[Exoskeleton System online]

[G-Force MAX support online]

[Diamond Triangle Core Stable]

[C.E.F.S on online and on standby]

[S.N.M.S.S on online and on standby]

[Synchronising Systems…]

[Synchronisation Complete!]

[Freedom Scale Mail MK II is ready and Standby!]

Marcus checked the system of his suit before walking towards where the ceiling was lowered and the driveway could be seen.

Moments later he was outside

"Deploy wings, time to fly south."

[C.E.F.S deployed]

The whole wings ignited on his back as Marcus rushed high into the air.

A few seconds later he was already very high in the air and the scale mail was connected to a GPS satellite to assist him in flying towards his destination.

Less than an hour later the visor changed into a magic view and the teen inventor started looking around for his targets.

'Hmm… well this is going to be quite annoying…'

…

…

…

Several hours later Marcus finally found multiple Sacred Gears signatures in a single area. His eyes lit up as he flew there.

Soon enough he found several bunch of people resting in a makeshift looking warehouse.

Assuming they don't want a high profile because of the Greek Pantheon.

'Hmm? What's this… there is a layer of some sort of energy in the air.'

"Scan the energy in the air."

[Scanning…]

[...37%]

[71%]

[91%]

[Scan complete]

Moments later, a portion of Marcus' vision was covered by the new window.

"Heh… Georg's Sacred Gear. So instead of hiding themselves in a dimension, they use this as an early warning alarm.

As anything bigger would attract the pantheon. Quite smart."

Reading a bit more on the barrier, the teen inventor found out how it worked…

"In the end, I don't have to worry about this…"

Marcus lifted his right arm as Phobos appeared in his right hand.

He pointed it towards where Georg was sleeping.

"Deploy negation magic field target Sacred Gears signature."

[Deploying S.N.M.S.S]

With a burst of light from the energy wings, the whole Warehouse area was bombarded by the Solomon Negation Magic. Marcus pressed the trigger and a large bolt of electricity rushed forwards from the barrel.

*BOOM*

*Electrical Crackle*

"WE ARE UNDER ATTACK!!!"

The teen inventor heard a male voice shouting from inside the warehouse.

Marcus didn't stop as he started shooting more with both Deimos and Phobos. Bolts of lightning-like strikes of thunder descended onto the warehouse disabling the majority of the hero band members. The teen didn't stop there. As he continued before the majority were out, he then descended into the warehouse, most of the roof was already disintegrated so he could easily do that now.

"(Preemptive strike success.)"

Marcus said as he descended into the half-destroyed building.

"Who the fuck are you?" A big burly man said with an annoyed look as he slowly got up pushing away the debris from himself.

"(An inventor, engineer, enthusiast, Sacred Gear creator and collector. And you Cao Cao did a great favour to me for collecting so many rare gears.)" Marcus happily said as he lifted Phobos and pointed at the sweaty looking Chinese guy.

"Oh yeah!? Let's see how you're going to like thi---ahhhh!" A clap of thunder followed by a ball of lightning smashed into the tall muscular guy which should be the descendant of Heracles.

"(You are irrelevant. So be silent.)" The teen inventor said as he shot into the guy without even looking at him.

"You… who are you? I have never seen Sacred Gear like those…"

"(Did the part where I said an inventor, 'engineer and sacred gear creator' escape from you? Nonetheless, it doesn't matter. I am only talking with you since you did a favour to me. So, pick an underworld you want to go to and pray to the deity governing it.)" A rifle pointed at the Chinese guy who was sweating buckets. By this point he was looking around looking for a way to get out of this.

While also trying to call forth his True Longinus…

"Wait! we can discuss this! You are human! Right? I am trying---" A ball of lightning smashed into the guy as he didn't finish explaining.

"(I don't care what you are trying to do. Science is a priority. Your gear is the peak and The Longinus… unless you have something equivalent to that, there is no dialogue…)" The genius inventor said as he approached the downed man… magic circles appeared around him as moments later a translucent orb with a golden spear inside of it came out.

It was quickly collected. He then pointed Deimos at him and a pitch-black beam with red wisps erased the guy.

That moment a girly squeaked spread throughout the warehouse as Marcus quickly looked at the source and saw a blonde girl with blue eyes staring at him with a pale look.

He points Phobos at her.

"W-Wait! D-Don't shoot! I surrender! I surrender!" The girl did a Japanese style dogeza... going on her knees and touching the ground with her forehead.

"(You… are Jeanne… you have a Sacred Gear which creates Holy Swords…)"

"Yes! I can do that! I can create as many as you want! Just don't kill me!" She begged with a terrified look. Jeanne just witnessed how their strongest member turned into nothing right in front of her eyes.

"(Hmm… very well… tell me… is it true that you are the reincarnation of the Saint Joan of Arc?)" He asked her as he approached her.

The girl had to look quite high as the Scale mail made the inventor look almost like a giant.

And those glowing blue eyes from the helmet made him look even more monstrous.

"Yes! I am! The sacred gear is deeply connected to her soul. So, it became a generation thing. Not only that but according to the church we look extremely similar as well! All the reincarnations of Joan of Arc had the same Sacred Gear."

"(I see… very well. It is quite fascinating how the Gear doesn't detach after the user's death. Probably an extra system in place.)"

Jeanne gulped down when she heard death being mentioned so casually. She quickly realised that she ended up with a bonafide cold researcher…

"(I have decided. You will be coming with me. I will make you one of my maids. It will be a beautiful way of showing Heaven that, yes… their Saint is nothing more than a maid to me.)"

The blonde slowly nodded with a gulp. Yes, this is better than just dying!

"As you wish…" she said while bowing again.

Marcus nodded before turning around and starting to collect the other gears.

Once again Jeanne could only twitch each time she saw members of her old group cease to exist one by one…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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