It Started With Devils & Artefacts

As the evening was coming closer, since days are quite short in November in Europe, the sun was setting down even before 5 o'clock in the afternoon.

But this was the time when people could see the mammoth, which was the 'space gun' floating above Marcus' school. The anti-gravity projectors made the monstrosity light up the whole area like it was in the middle of the day. 

Since the classes were over, the teachers were gone around 4 o'clock in the afternoon, leaving only the management, who were also leaving soon.

The graviton projectors turned the school area into a 'bright sunny day'.

"That kid. He can't wait until I leave home." The principal complained out loud as he unlocked his 90s Audi. It was one of the first cars ever imported from Germany, the moment the Soviet Union fell. One could say it was old. But the old man didn't care as the car was still working, so he continued to use it.

The moment the engine ignited, the exhaust released a black cloud of smoke.

The principal took his time to leave the school. It felt that the massive floating station was waiting for him to leave. It was a pure gut feeling in the principal part.

The moment he left, small beams of light started to descend from the barrel of the space gun, which was pointing down.

Mark 2 of Ars Almadel Salomonis was designed to assist in construction just as much as it was created to erase Marcus' opposition.

The barrel can shoot one big payload and countless smaller ones.

It was like a cannon that could shoot one big round or a thousand smaller ones. But in this case, the smaller ones were Aurora Bots or materials needed for retrofitting the school.

"H-Holy crap!!!" The lone security guard looked petrified, seeing Aurora Bots being beamed down one after another.

His eyes went up as he saw enormous magic circles spinning. He was looking at the inside of the barrel of the space gun.

The moment he realised that his knees gave in, he comprehended that all it took was for this massive weapon to 'sneeze', and he was gone.

Regardless, he was ignored as Aurora Bots started their work on the school.

~~~

As the retrofits were happening for his school, Marcus was on his way to his father's auto shop. He had his dinner and change of clothes at home, so to avoid wasting time, he immediately went to his other garage.

When he arrived at the shop, his father was waiting for him. Even on the other side of the town, the older Goldman could see his son's 'toy' in the distance; it was emitting a lot of light.

"Son, your mother called me. She said your 'toy' was above the school. Some of the people are terrified, and others say it's interrupting their nap time as it's too bright." Roland 'Air quoted' the 'toy' part as he greeted his son.

"The space station is doing retrofits for the school on behalf of the minister of education. My hands are sealed. I am doing my duty as a citizen of our glorious nation." Marcus sarcastically shrugged his shoulders. They are going to need to deal with the lights for one night.

"Uh-huh, regardless. I will tell her that you are doing a favour for the government. She should understand it." The inventor's father didn't care about people around the school who wouldn't be able to sleep over the night. All he did was speak with him as his wife requested, and that's about it.

"Yeah. Do that. I am going back to work on my 'baby'."

With a nod, the inventor passed through his father's workshop and went to the back, where his recently built garage was. 

Once inside, the automatic lights turned on and LED support lights kicked in to give extra brightness. 

After the lights turned on, the holograms also turned on. Marcus' first task was to bring over his notebook and place it on the scanner.

Aurora immediately scanned the new content and displayed it on one of the hologram screens.

"Aurora, I want you to immediately start doing your quantum calculations and start integrating this new tech into my overall creations," Marcus instructed his AI as he walked over to the half-completed Mustang engine and started his work.

[Understood, beginning quantum calculations]

Less than half an hour later, Athena was in his workshop. She looked around. Her eyes ended up on the hologram, where she could see something was getting assembled.

"Is that what I think it is?"

"It's a Time machine, or more like a 'Time Engine' for a warship," Marcus replied to his Fiance. 

When he said that, other girls looked at the screen with slightly widened eyes; they thought this was a new type of engine that would replace the relic Nova thrusters.

Nova thrusters are basic among basics. Its mana energy used as propulsion, and it is nothing fancy compared to something like Graviton armours used by the knights.

"... 'Time Engine'?"

"Yep."

"The principal is similar to the Hyperspace jump used in Star Wars." Marcus stopped his work and looked at his fiance with a smirk as he finally understood how to travel back in time!

"You see, there are two things which we should be aware of." He started his explanation.

"It space, which represents a river and time, which represents the river's flow.

But like any river, there are patches where time flows differently. You have seen islands in rivers, yes? Those are parts where water doesn't touch.

The same principles can be applied to time.

For example, Earth moves extremely fast, but we don't feel it. It's like we are on one of those islands where water doesn't touch us."

"Yes, I heard about this before." Athena nodded at what she heard. The Goddess has heard this before.

"Indeed. It's the scale of things you need to have a specific size to feel different 'time'."

When he said that, Athena realised what he meant.

"...wait… so you are going to shrink… to small size. Such action will allow you to conserve energy and then allow you to travel back in time?" Athena fixed her glasses before crossing her arms and rapidly starting to think.

"Yes. I will also add a better version of cloaking technomancy to my Confiscator."

"...H-Hold it… you are planning to take your whole warship with you?"

For a second, the Goddess of Wisdom imagined the warship flying over primitive cavemen who were throwing rocks at the Confiscator out of fear.

"Well, yeah. Imagine going to the Jurassic Period with just a car. How am I supposed to collect samples and other stuff?" Marcus exclaimed with a huff. It would destroy the whole point of a journey!

At first, he thought about travelling with his BMW… BUT how would he collect a T-Rex, an Ankylosaurus, or a Stegosaurus?

In his car trunk!? Not enough space. Sure, he could use some space magic to increase size, but…  that's another can of worms.

"...True. I mean, I worried about just going there; I never considered anything after that." Athena slowly nodded as she had a thoughtful look.

If he goes there without anything, it would be a waste, considering even the Gods themselves are interested in a truly prehistoric era when creatures such as these roamed the planet's surface.

After all, gods are created from human desires, and humans themselves wanted to know about ancient times.

"Indeed. That is why my Confiscator is getting a retrofit. The engines, the runway and all of them will be taken out and changed into a 'survey & research' vessel."

He showed her schematics of the warship's hangar bay, which would look similar to Noah's arc, where living and breathing 'samples' could survive. Each one will have special containers just for them.

"Though I won't be able to have truly big ones like the Mosasaurus."

While the aquatic reptile is around 20 metres long, from what he remembers, he doesn't have a big enough water container to store such a thing.

He could try shrinking it down and storing it properly, but that's just… desperation. It's not that it's a life-and-death situation. For Marcus, this is just a hobby. He did shrink down those shipwrecks, but they were just metal. These are living, breathing animals he wants to keep as pets.

For that, he will keep them alive.

"If this is going to work, you can return it and collect aquatic ones later," Athena suggested.

"Yes. I know. For now, I need to cover all the angles before we can travel."

As he said, he sent a mental command to Confiscator. The warship started to fly back to the spaceport for retrofits.

"Good. If you need anything, you know where to find me." 

After saying that the Goddess kissed her future husband and walked out of his garage, she still needs to mark assignments and prepare for the next class.

The Olympian Goddess takes her work very seriously. She doesn't even allow Aurora to assist her in any way.

"SO…"

Sirin poked her head from his side the moment the Goddess was away.

"We are going to the past?" 

"Yep. We still need to run some tests and calculations, but we will be able to travel to the past."

"...Great, where did this idea come from?" The white-haired girl asked him as she wanted to know his train of thought.

One doesn't just commit to time travel randomly.

'Or does… considering he yanked me from a different reality.' Part of her replied to her thought.

"I was rewatching Jurassic Park with Sera and Latia. Sera suggested using Ankylosaurus to slap people away. I thought it was a great idea.

Then, on top of that, I thought, 'Why not make T-Rex into a riot police unit?' They could easily disperse riots and strikes once I rule the whole planet."

Marcus explained to her his train of thought. Midway, Sirin placed her hand on her face.

'And here I thought magic girls are stretch he is thinking of adding Dinosaurs to police units.'

Yet, she hasn't seen his other ideas, like creating his version of 'Jedi Order', but instead of Jedi, they will be knights, and instead of Force, it will be Dragon companions who can merge and create dragon armours and develop dragon arts.

But that's for the future.

"...So it was a 'boy thing'?" She commented.

"Well, you being here is a 'boy thing', so there is not that much of a difference." He replied to her statement.

"...Yes. I know." 

Regardless, she quickly got over this craziness. By this point, it was not the first 'rodeo'. She already saw an invasion of the afterlife. Time travel doesn't sound that impressive anymore.

"Great. So will I come along?" Sirin asked Marcus. The girl wanted to see what it was all about. It is not every day that they can travel 65 million years into the past.

"Why not? It depends on you. Confiscator has more than enough space for us to travel." He looked at her with a smile. His hands sneaked around her waist as he pulled her for a hug.

She looked at what he was doing, specifically where his hands were travelling.

"Then I will join you."

"Me too." Gu Yuena chipped in as she was sitting on a couch.

"I am going to the Space Port now." Quinella got Marcus' attention as she looked at the Herrscher with a slightly annoyed look. She swiftly disappeared from the Workshop.

"Someone jealous~" Marcus, noticed how his assistant was behaving.

When Sirin heard that, she wrapped her hands around him as well.

"Of course~"

The girl smirked; it won't be long after all. The Void Queen knows that she needs to pay attention to her 'hubby'.

Unlike Quinella, her situation is flexible; she is not an assistant or a 'battleship' like Enterprise or Tirpitz. She is more like a… support? Or a Queen to her King. As Gu Yuena said, he is her Emperor, and the Emperor needs his Empress or a Queen.

~~~

"It's finally happening!" Atalanta exclaimed as her tail was waging back and forth. Le Fay swiftly contacted all the maids the moment she noticed the news. The witch was one of the biggest fans of her Master, and the girl ferociously followed what he was doing. Apart from collecting an array of pictures of him, she is also following his research.

"Yes. It took him a while. But it is finally happening." Artemis nodded. She noticed how Atalanta was behaving. She understands this feeling very well. It is the excitement of the upcoming hunt… a hunt like no other.

"It's that stupid and meaningless war." The lioness huffed as she looked at her ex-Goddess.

"Those Evil Gods should have rolled over and surrendered to our Master." The lion girl huffed as all she saw was pointless fighting and giving more ideas and stuff to Marcus. More stuff means less attention to her and this time travel project!

As the maid was ranting, The Norse Goddess Hel grimaced at the back. She tried to look as little as possible. The key was not getting spotted as she was one of those 'Evil Gods' who tried to wage war on the Inventor.

"As if… We are too proud to do such a thing." Artemis didn't look offended while saying that. She experienced first-hand such a treatment.

"Not that it matters anymore. We are finally getting our trip to the Prehistoric world."

Artemis wanted to brush the whole war thing to the side. It's another embarrassing part of her very long life. It's awkward to call herself a Goddess nowadays, as Gods got beaten up by a 'human', especially since she is related to the one who caused the war.

"About that." At that moment, Grayfia entered alongside Quinella.

"The Confiscator is getting retrofitted for the trip. I want you all to prepare for it. I do not know how long it will last. It could be several days to several years to hundreds of years. I do not know. I suggest you prepare because this will be 'wild west'." The Assistant said with a thoughtful gaze. Her eyes swept the room full of maids.

"""Understood!"""

All of them respectfully replied before rushing out of the room, leaving only Grayfia and Quinella.

"I will oversee the whole retrofit while you can return to work. Make sure they all are ready… mentally."

Quinella knows well enough what this could entail. After all, watching things from the sidelines can affect one's mind. Such a thing happened to her as she was artificial, after all. She was self-aware when she was just an AI.

"I understand. I will… observe."

"Good."

~~~

[Congratulations. You have conquered the world.] Aurora's voice rang through the simulation room, and everything shattered like glass around Ravel.

When the blonde devil looked at herself, she saw that her physique had shrunk. She was once again a teenager.

'Just how powerful is the technology of this faction?'

Sweat rolled down her forehead. She was careful not to step out of her bounds the whole time while in the simulation.

And thankfully, she was right to do that.

Everything was watched and recorded by the AI of this place.

"What now?" She asked the Artificial Intelligence.

[My Creator is preparing for a journey through time. You are allowed to delay your training until the trip is finished.]

Ravel's eyes widened for a second as she was a little bit spooked. To think that he harnessed time travel while she was training.

"Umm, how much time has passed since I was in the training?"

[Over five days since your training has started.]

"F-Five…" The Phenex devil stuttered as her eyes trembled. She realised that her 40+ years of conquest had been compressed into a measly five days!?

[Realitus technomancy intercepts brain waves and manipulates your senses. In one of our latest patches, we added a sense of time flow.

You were the first one to experience it. It would seem it was a great success.]

Ravel's lips twitched as she realised she was a guinea pig.

"I understand. I hope Master Marcus can review my training." 

[He will review it when he has time. You shouldn't be worried he will see the highlights of your training. That much is certain, as he is looking for talent.]

The Phenex girl sighed in relief when she heard that.

[For now, you can leave the Entertainment Dome through this door and follow light indications to a room prepared for you. The Confiscator retrofits should be finished by tomorrow evening.]

"I understand my thanks." 

As she said, she noticed doors simply pop into existence on one of the walls.

The blonde walked over, and before she could do something, the doors opened themselves.

'Wait… wasn't I in a meeting room aboard a warship!?' 

The girl stopped in her tracks and didn't even realise she was moved!

A gulp escaped from her mouth as cold sweat washed her up.

'This faction is terrifying!' 

When reality starts clashing with fiction, when time itself gets muddled, things start making no sense at all. This is where she knows that death is the least of her worries. Losing herself just being in a faction, now that is terrifying.

"...say…Aurora, yes?"

[Correct, I am Artificial Intelligence; my designation is Quantum Computer 2.3.1.4. I am tasked with running day-to-day tasks. At the same time, I am the OS that runs all computers and handheld devices.]

Ravel palled when she heard that. 

'Another test…'

The blonde realised once again that this was a test, as there was no real reason to reveal this much.

"I see. Then what is the limit for this simulation?"

[Unknown.]

"...Excuse me?"

[Realitus technomancy at the base is a particle. With the current levels of energy we can produce, you can stay in the simulation until the sun runs its course. But there are variables which can negate the sun's death.

Thus, the limit of the simulation is unknown.]

"...What about the biological limitations of a living body?"

[Insignificant, we have technomancy which could give you another body when this one also runs its course.]

[Technocracy's standard protocol forbids half-finished tasks especially when variables are body limitations or failure of the planet itself.

The pursuit of greater knowledge should not be impeached by variables which we can overcome.]

'...When laws forbid death…' 

Ravel was speechless when she heard what AI had told her.

"I understand."

'In other words, I can abuse these simulations to gain more tactical knowledge and other things which I can then abuse in the real world.'

To think that Marcus had such a thing developed. What other groundbreaking things had he developed?

After pondering for a few moments, Ravel left the room and walked outside. What she saw was a corridor. The ornaments on the walls were emitting lights, which reminded her of LED technology. She couldn't see any other light source. 

Once the doors closed, she looked around, spotting a hologram pointing her to follow.

'I wonder where is everyone?'

As far as she remembers, this whole faction has quite a few people, from Gods to Devils to Fallen Angels.

After walking for a few short moments, she arrived at what looked like a living room.

'W-Wait! I am in Marcus' home!?'

She swiftly started to panic! To think that he brought her to his home!

Her panic lasted for a second as she swiftly took a deep breath and controlled herself.

'Calm down, Ravel! You conquered the whole world just for this!'

With steel in her eyes, she passed the empty living room. Her eyes stayed on the robots standing in the corners. They didn't look like mere statues to her.

After passing the living room, she poked her head into a room that looked like a kitchen and then a dining room. A sci-fi-looking library. It reminded her of Star Wars. Then—

"...Whoa…" A small awe escaped from her lips as she saw something amazing.

"...This is…" Her eyes bulged out as she saw what was deeper in this room!

It was full of relics! Not just any relics but Sacred Gears.

Deeper in this room, she could see an array of dragon armours!

There were over a dozen of them!

"...To think that he even collected dragons themselves."

As she stepped further, she passed through a spinning spear, which was THE Longinus spear, then three golden floating cups. 

Her eyes eventually ended up on the dragon armours—the iconic white and red, followed by blue, purple, brown, and others she had no idea about.

As well as a black one.

For a while, she wondered who they were, but then her eyes went down, and she saw names.

"...Tiamat, Tannin, Grendel… oh…"

She quickly realised that a lot of those were the EVIL dragons!

"...Wait… did he resurrect them and then seal them into Sacred Gears!?"

For a second, her head started to spin as she realised that he had nearly every single known famous dragon in the world!

That's quite a collection!

However, something got her attention more than the dragons. It was a hologram of a woman, and next to her was a hologram of a blue-skinned man with the lower half of a snake.

The girl walked over and noticed who it was.

"...Lilith… The progenitor of Devils… and Typhon, the King of Monsters."

She then realised that he was keeping them in… Pokeballs, of all things.

"..."

"I think I saw too much."

The girl turned around and walked away. 

Regardless, she understood the scale of things after seeing the vault.

~~~~~~Next Morning~~~~~~

"...Damn…"

"I didn't expect school to just triple in size." 

The students were standing outside the school's territory, which was surrounded by high fences and checkpoints.

To greet them were knights from Technocracy.

"Everyone line up properly. Each of you will get a fresh new ID card and tablet." 

The armoured men motioned for the teens to behave.

"...Did he just say tablet?"

"WHAT is a tablet?"

"I think it's something I saw being used by Goldman."

The teens talked among themselves as they lined up.

While some were talking, others looked at the school behind the fences.

There are a bunch of new buildings. 

And the school itself exploded in size.

Not only was it three times in size alone, but the entire area, which used to be empty grass fields, now is packed with buildings.

In addition, the buildings looked like they were ripped from the 23rd or 24th century. None of them could tell what kind of material was being used to construct them.

"This is the first time in my life that I want to study, " one of the lazy-looking teens said with a fascinated look, and it's not because of the massive space gun flying high above the school.

"Yeah… Imagine all the tech pumped into this place."

As the other teen said, he could see TV reporters from various TV stations arrive to see the school as well.

"Hahaha, Victor, they arrived to interview you again." Marcus' classmate teased another.

Victor was on TV, as he was the one to get the interview when Marcus gave away those phones. He was one of the lucky ones to get a cutting-edge technological phone from the 'future'.

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

The teen nervously replied. Not even a month has passed since then, but so much has changed.

"C'mon, as long as you don't say something bad about HIM, nothing will happen."

As the teen commented, the reporters parked their vans on the other side of the road, closer to Marcus' Mother's supermarket.

Yeah, the road is closed today. The knights of Technocracy closed the road just for this day. Did they ask the government? Or the current mayor? Nope, there is no need. No one will say anything to the one who did this.

The mayor is far too busy, and the same is true for the government. However, the Minister of Education decided to visit and see what he 'allowed' to happen.

"Excuse me, may I have a word…"

'Here we go again.' Victor sighed internally as the journalist approached him, whom she had recognised from the previous interview.

As he answered the questions, the guy beside him was snickering from amusement.

But then— 

All hell got loose as Marcus, with his array of silver-haired girls, ended up joining the end of the line!

"Excuse me…" the journalist said as she stopped the interview and looked at the lazy-looking Marcus at the end of the line.

"No, it's fine. As him, he is the mastermind, after all." Victor smiled brightly.

The journalist lady with a sweaty forehead and nervous look nodded at his words.

'Here we go… one wrong move, and I am not only fired but dead too…' The journalist lady sarcastically joked to herself.

The lady with shaky steps walked over to Marcus, who was inspecting the handy work of his faction first-hand.

He only had rough plans, but it looks amazing from what he can see. He wants to test out how his new interactive teaching system will work. He knows learning can be annoying as hell, but what if learning is more interactive and visual?

That's what he thought from his last life as well. He would have paid more attention in class if there had been a tech that deployed it better.

"E-Excuse me, Mr Goldman…may I have a moment of your time?"

"Hmm?"

The inventor looked away from the school, behind the fence, and towards the woman who had interrupted his daydream about observing World War 2 from the safety of his class table.

"Yes?" He looked at her. The Ruler of the Technocracy realised that he had seen this woman before, on TV and the news.

"I am Emily from TV3 news. May I ask a few questions?" She nervously introduced herself.

"Sure."

After hearing all clear, she took a deep breath of relief. She didn't get nuked! Or erased or something else!

"Then, may I ask what brought you to improve your school this much?" As she asked, the cameras started to roll.

"Mostly because school is where I get inspired to do something. Most of my designs were designed in school. So, it was a perfect opportunity to improve my school."

Marcus happily replied. He was quite delighted that the woman was asking about school and not the nonsense that happened in Washington.

"I-I see. So what does this school have now?" She swiftly went to ask the next question.

'I will never look at doodling the same way again.' Part of her felt a chill pass down her back.

"Most of my basic tech is in the place, from Anti-gravity technology to Atom manipulation. So parents who are sending their children to this school will now and forever receive free meals." The Inventor said that to the camera. He then decided to advertise himself.

"So don't forget to vote for me as I run for mayor in the next elections. I will add more places where people can save money for utilities and food." 

"..."

The journalist lady deadpanned when she heard that.

'I felt for that one.'

Well, that's the price she gets for wanting to interview the most notorious man on the planet.

"Apart from that, there will be an array of new clubs everyone can join as I will be bringing a variety of people from ancient times to semi-modern ones to teach in classes."

"...Such as?"

"Napoleon for P.E., and Einstein for physics as an example."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"...You are not holding back, are you?" She asked with a strained smile.

"Not at all. This school will be all you need. I say, why do you need college or university? It's a waste of time and resources. So, everything one can do is here.

Who will deny work when you say you have been taught by the greatest Conquerors or brightest minds in the world?" Marcus reasoned with her.

"...I see your point." She looked at the camera with a twitchy smile. She just remembered why she hadn't wanted to interview him before. Each time he appears on screen, something groundbreaking happens.

From declaring his factions' existence to announcing the end of the world... 

Now, he has declared what will happen in this school, and she is pretty sure the world at large already knows.

She will undoubtedly hear a mouthful from her boss as she adds more work to their government.

Soon, scientists, researchers and all sorts of people will go to this place to meet long-dead great people or study gravity or something else.

"Yes. However, some of it is still under development. I still have to collect dinosaurs and some samples."

"...Dinosaurs?"

"Yeah. I'm going to bring those beasts back. Like for classes, army and some other stuff."

"... Jurassic Park?" She asked curiously.

"Maybe? I do have plans for such a thing as well. Most likely after I terraform Venus." He motioned one of his girls to walk over as he said that.

As Gu Yuena did, he took her hand and brushed her right index finger down, summoning her interface.

He checked a few things from the console.

"Well, the colony I send to Venus started sending a signal around 4 hours ago," He told the reporter.

"In other words, it's not far before I start terraforming it into a tropical paradise suited for Dinosaurs."

'I didn't need to know that…'

She thought to herself before smiling at him.

"I see. Does that mean it will be open to the public?"

"In a way? Segments of it, yes. But mostly, it's for personal use. If you want something similar as well, you should study time and genetics." He replied with a small smile

She smiled back. Her smile was a strained one.

He did sound arrogant. No, he was very arrogant. He didn't care about their opinions. If you want someone to care, you should care back. At this moment, the world wants to save their hide, or… will greed consume them as they try to figure out time travel as well?

However, time travel is far more complex than deep space travel. They should first solve that hurdle before trying time travel, as that one is a very pricey adventure.

'Something like a five-star hotel or six-star hotel/resort kind of thing?'

For a second, Marcus imagined himself chilling on the beach on Venus while stroking his pet Spinosaurus and watching the live stream of how mundane people try to escape Earth.

'Sounds like a nice idea for holiday…'

At that moment, he ignored the reporter and started to think about how he would design his Venus Resort.

~~~

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