Strawberry Devil in a Fantasy World

The facade continued until late into the night.

Smoothie isn't in the capital.

That was my conclusion after hearing all the intelligence being passed around within the city. That in a way was a relief. It meant that I didn't have to make a scene here, at least not yet.

I was able to catch a message passed onto the Hero King. Apparently, a special cargo had arrived in a military base some distance outside of the city. Strictly speaking, it sounded more like a research facility than a military base. Either way, it was controlled by the government and couldn't be accessed by the public. As for the cargo's content, I couldn't figure that out because everyone was using code words.  

Tch, hide and seek, I'm not in the mood for that but I guess I'll have to play along.

By the time most of the shops and vendors had closed for the night, I was approached by the one tailing me. A letter of invitation was passed onto me from the Hero King. The date was the coming afternoon. Of course, I gladly accepted it before vanishing without a trace. A direct confrontation could be avoided with this.

I was now at my next destination accompanied by Oortez.

"Secret bases with strange researches, I dislike them. There's too much secrecy. Nothing good ever comes out of these places." I remarked while inspecting top secret facilities.

"I disagree. This is the frontier of innovation and new knowledge, a true haven for all scholars alike! This is where we advance civilization to the next level."

"Alright, whatever. That reminds me, why were you sent to my subspace? You're not even fit for combat."

"It was truly a miscalculation."

"It must have to do with Vorte, right?"

"Yes, we knew he was with you but we didn't think he could break through this time, and that quickly." He shook his head while holding his forehead with two fingers.

Looks like time manipulation was a success. Well played, past me.

"Even so, does he not have better combatants to deploy? Your partner was strong but sure there must be others of equal or higher caliber?"

"Juus wasn't my partner."

"Oh? Do demons normally work alone?"

"Yes. That is my understanding."

I guess that's true for a scholar but I'll take it with a grain of salt. There's bound to be more powerful demons out there aside from De Planck.

Only after I pressed him for more answer did he reluctantly told me that he tagged along with Juus so that once I was out of the way, he could study my subspace to his heart's content. I didn't even how to reply to that.

"No way, magitech airships? To think they stole our technology!" He barked exasperatedly.

Thank goodness I have a barrier around us to cloak us completely... Hah...

"Oh, that. It seems like they did, didn't they. What will you do about it?"

I had already seen it remotely through my phantom scouts or petals upon my arrival. In fact, this was one of the least hidden project they were working on.

One of the underground facility here was a ship dock, with a partially constructed magitech airship seemingly in its final stages. It was majestic and a work of art but by itself, it just didn't look as grand as the reptilian fleets.

"There's nothing I can do about it. That's the thing."

"If you are still a mortal, would you try to sabotage it?"

"Of course not! Why would I do that? That would be such a waste."

"I guess we don't see eye to eye. Eventually, they will bare their fangs toward the reptilian race. I would rather nip the bud before it's too late."

"That's a shame."

"I've been curious. Where do reptilians get all that mana to fuel their projects? Do they take it from civilians as well?" I said while holding a dodecahedral crystal capable of absorbing mana en mass.

I had noticed these strange crystals in some of the government official's households but didn't pay much attention to them until now. I just thought those were magic devices for their daily life. However, using my tactical sight, I could see several floors below, something nefarious was happening.  

"That is true but they are done voluntarily with monetary incentives. Their main source of mana comes from naturally occurring mana fountains."

"I haven't seen a mana fountain before. Do mana just pour out from ground?"

"Precisely."

"Interesting..."

Apparently, in some locations, mana simply gushed out of the ground like water fountains, except invisible to the untrained eyes. One might think that was great and all but too much mana would corrupt the land and create anomalies. From what Oortez recalled, there was a region in the beastfolk empire that was completely uninhabitable. The mana contamination was so strong that even the landscape became warped. That was the location of floating islands I had witnessed not long ago.

Ah, so it wasn't because of a guardian. Mana contamination sound almost like radiation contamination but worse.

"Is that why the humans and reptilians wanted to conquer that place? For the energy resources even if it's that dangerous?"

"Sacrifices must be made for advancements. Our dream to travel among the stars is only one of many." His arms and hands moving around as if describing a beautiful dream.

"I see, why didn't they all just negotiate for it? It can't be for some occult reasons, right?"

"The fault lies on all sides."

No country is willing to compromise I suppose. It's the same everywhere, isn't it.

"Perhaps that is a good reason why humans have turned to other methods of harvesting mana. Allow me to show you, perhaps you'll gain something from this."

I teleported us to the area directly below us.

This was another section of this overwhelming large facility. If I had not personally witnessed those mana powered boring machines, I would not have believed a structure this big could be built by humans. Technologically speaking, the humans was already beyond their neighbors, the beastfolks. As for the reptilians, due to a lack of knowledge on my part, I couldn't make the comparison.

"This... Fascinating." He was lost for words.

Yep, he's a lost cause.

Here, mana was being funnelled from across the continent into a room in front of us on the other side of a glass wall.

A map of the world was displayed on a room sized holographic screen. The spider nest like threads were the tunnels spread out across the continent. At each location, I could see the amount of mana being transferred in and out. Some of them were even within the reptilians' country to the north.

Researchers dressed in black or white coats were moving about as the two of us observed the situation from a corner.

The amount of mana here if not controlled properly could set off an explosion enough to wipe several cities off the map. It was basically like a fusion reactor imitating a stellar core.

"Does he know about this?"

"He... He must know about it..." I sent him a glare to have him continue.

"I don't remember..."

"I see, I'll return some of your knowledge."

"Thank you."

After I had returned some of his knowledge or soul energy, he began to explain the scheme that was concocted by De Planck. It wasn't anything grand in my eyes but rather it was just unnecessary evil, a plan to raise himself to a true god although unrelated to the scene in front of us.

As a demon, he couldn't generate unlimited mana the way I did nor could he convert mana into soul energy. For divine beings, or in our case, lower divine beings, soul energy was required to level up. De Planck couldn't just eat anyone's soul without some type of exchange therefore he needed to use contracts to secure soul energy because there was something built into the system that functioned similarly to a Divine Edict.

The part Oortez played was preparing countless soul contracts. In each era, during tumulus times such as wars and famine, he would offer soul contracts and magical contracts to those who were desperate. Needless to say, demons were usually the instigators behind the scene. Mass casualties wasn't their concern, in fact, that was their modus operandi, because the more dire the situation was, the easier it was to get people to accept soul contracts instead of magical contracts. This saved Oortez the effort of later upgrading the contracts through his ability [forger].

However, there were times when demons would want a soul contract from the start. Those were the clients who were exceptionally powerful or had potential of becoming powerful beings. In these cases, they would try to obtain a piece of their soul to secretly upgrade the magical contracts to secure an unbreakable deal.

Through this, I learned that De Planck himself couldn't upgrade contracts. To do so, he had to go through someone with the [forger] ability. However, my [creation] ability was able to do the same. Although this information wasn't important, it meant I was bit by bit learning about his limitations. As for the matter where demons disregarded living beings as merely toys and games, I could understand that. After all, I knew that I had taken many lives without a hint of remorse.

If I had guessed correctly, the demons had done something to facilitate human's technological advancement in a dangerous manner.

Looking at the mana being gathered, I murmured, "I could snatch all of that, but I shouldn't."

"I admit you are powerful, but you are not invincible."

"I know. There are heavens beyond heaven." And I don't want to test my limits just yet.

I was sure there were many others who could create subspace or at least interact with one on the demon's side. As for guardians, I could only guess. Then, there were heroes who were the least predictable ones with hidden statuses.

"The speed at which they built this place is certainly not to be scoffed at. I assume the reptilians had a hand in all of this."

"I suppose."

Smoothie, where are you?

There was a saying, "the deeper you go, the darker it gets."

The rabbit hole was certainly deep in this humongous research facility. It had multiple wings each ranging from hundreds of meters to several kilometers in diameter depending on their depth. The mana processing facility in the east wing a few kilometers away said it all. This was one of the locations marked on the holographic map.