"You really didn't sleep well, you look terrible"

"f.u.c.k off"

"Sadly I can't do that, I'm still your doctor. Where's your dad?"

"Sleeping somewhere upstairs."

"Okay.. There was some issues with my examination last night so I'll need to look at your eyes again"

"Don't touch me."

"That wasn't a request, sit still"

Dax quickly closed the distance and graped Terras face to hold her still.

"Don't f.u.c.king touch me!"

"Just behave already! ICI give me a deep scan this time, focus on the optical nerves"

[READY.]

Grabbing her face with his new arm, Dax quickly made ICI scan Terras damaged nerves, confirming his worries before letting go of her again.

"I knew it… I'll need to make additional modifications to your new eyes so they'll be delayed for a bit… Guess we'll start with your other cybernetics, ICI prioritize her new arm"

[CONFIRMED. TIME TO COMPLETION: 4 HOURS]

"That's good news Terra~ Come to the storeroom I use at tomorrow morning, I'll personally oversee the installation."

"Wh-"

"That wasn't a suggestion~"

"... Okay"

"Good~ Now I believe that Russell is on his way down so I'll be taking a seat, excuse me"

As Dax sat down near Terra Russell arrived followed by Elise.

"Good morning Dax, and Terra too. seems like we're all here, Elise can you tell the chef we are ready to eat?"

"Of course, excuse me"

"Now Dax how is the progress?"

Sitting down on the other side of Dax and Terra, Russell imitiatly got to the heart of the matter.

"I've hit a small snag with Terra's new eyes so I'll be starting with her new arm instead, followed by the new leg and then the eyes at the end."

"Could you explain why?"

"Certainly. The short version is that installing Terra's new eyes now would hurt her extremly, but I will be able to fix that issue with multiple operations that I'll do at the same time as installing her new arm and leg."

"Hurt? I don't understand?"

"It's the nerves"

"nerves?"

"Yeah her optic nerves, or the things connecting her eyes to her brain. I expected them to be almost completely decayed but it appears that the state is much worse. I just ran a scan using my new arm and discovered something odd, the nerves are not only active, but there's about 400% more than needs to be. I suspect that's the result of applying healing magic on tissue with foreign objects still present. The nerves are extremely sensitive so removing them will be slow work so I'll split up the procedure of removing them over as many times as possible to lessen the strain on my dear patent."

"I see… When will Terra be able to walk again?"

"That will be depending on her own effort in the rehabilitacion, but i expect it the whole thing to take about 10 days, and she'll still be able to see per the original timeframe."

"That's great news, I'll plan a party to reintroduce Terra to the Black Hollow elite, Dax you can use that opportunity mingle if you would like"

"Ohh really? That would be great, I do need to establish myself as a foreign diplomat"

Something in that sentence rubbed Terra the wrong way.

"How exactly are you a diplomat?"

"Have you ever heard of something like a mask that'll allow a blind person to see~?"

"N-no I haven't.. Oh right I never got to ask about that, is it some kind of special magic circuit?"

"Nope~"

"Then what is it?"

"It's just simple technology, in my world at least"

"Your world?"

"The Galactic Empire. I arrived in this strange world about 10 days ago when my derelict s.h.i.+p crashed here. I believe the local term is 'Starfall'"

"Are you saying you're not of this world? Stop kidding"

"It's true Terra, I personally saw Dax jump the outer wall without using any kind of magic"

"Not you too dad"

"I'm completely serious."

"O-okay.."

"I think the food is here, let's talk more after."

As Dax pointed out, Elise and the chef arrived with the food, ending their convatiosion until the meal was over.

"What are your plans now Dax?"

After finis.h.i.+ng the meal Russell inquired on Dax's plan for the day.

"I'll go around town for a bit, I need to sell the monster cores I recovered to the guild and then buy some ingredients for RDX and Ballist.i.te, along with some other chemical compounds."

"RDX? Ballist.i.te?"

"Explosives used as the propellant in some in my worlds weaponry, I'm looking to expand my armory since I'm not allowed to use magic."

"You're not allowed?"

"Apparently not no, when I borrowed Viktors mind to do so all the mana around disappeared completely until I released him from control for some reason."

While Dax explained Russell completely lost his smile.

"Don't tell that to anyone else, and stay away from the church"

"Why?"

"There's a good chance you've somehow angered a angel"

"A angel?"

"A ancient super powerful and intelligent race that can control the flow of mana. Most of the Kingdom consider them deities and there's at least one church for their wors.h.i.+p in every city"

"And you think I've somehow angered one of those?"

"They're the only race that can suppress mana in a wide area"

"And I suppose they're fierce in combat?"

"Extremely so."

(s.h.i.+t.. ICI relay new directives to the orb when able. Prioritize manufacture of a single Guardian-R04 special over the Cyclopes)

(CONFIRMED.)

(Let's hope I won't need it…)

"Well let's hope they won't come after me immediately. More pressingly I need some sort of identification that'll allow me to get past those racist guards"

"Racist guards?"

"Yeah-"

Dax quickly explained his experience with the guards at the outer wall.

"- So in short they keep pestering me, and I guess that killing or disabling them won't end well so I need something to shut them up or give me the legal ground to break some bones"

"I see your problem, but there's not much I can do about that, the guard core is controlled by a group of xenophobic n.o.bles in this town, but if you go anywhere else within this country they'll accept your guild tag as ID. Oh and the Royal guard arrived here yesterday to recover some the fragments from your s.h.i.+p"

"Where any of them a small orange cylinder?"

"I don't think so, why?"

"If there was none then its fine, but please make sure none are being experimented on by the Kingdom"

"I can do that, but are they dangerous in some way?"

"A single one could level a large part of this town, so yeah"

"Really!? I'll send that word to the capital immediately!"

Rising from his seat, Russell immediately left to message the capital, leaving Dax and Terra behind.

"Well then I'll go on with my day, see you later Terra~"

(He really is twisted.. Now where is Elise? I need her to take me upstairs again)

"h.e.l.lo miss Beth~ can I sell monster cores here?"

As Dax arrived at the hunters guild he walked over to the reception desk seeing a familiar face.

"U-um good morning Dax, yes buying monster cores are a service we provide, furthermore as you are a contracted hunter you enjoy a 30% increase in value compared to normal pricing"

"Then please buy these~"

Dax pulled out a leather pouch and emptied the contents- about 30 orange sized purple monster cores and a handball sized one, on the reception desk, making Beth's business smile freeze.

"T-these are some rather large monster cores, may I ask what monster they stem from?"

"What were they called?... Ah, that's right arachnids and the big one is from a arachnid queen"

"arachnids!? really?"

"Yeah I cleared out a nest with the help of Blue Phoenix, so can I sell them here or do I need to go somewhere else?"

"N-no! The guild will be happy to buy them! Please wait while I prepare the founds!"

Beth quickly ran off to a back room without even waiting for Dax's response

(These must be worth a lot… ICI did you finish the structural a.n.a.lysis?)

(UNIT 1 REPORTS STILL IN PROGRESS)

(Update me the second it's complete)

(CONFIRMED.)

Finis.h.i.+ng up his internal conversation ICI, Beth returned from the back room with a pouch.

"21 cla.s.s 5 and 1 cla.s.s 7 monster core, with the 30% bonus that'll be 250 gold coins, please confirm the amount"

By Beth's suggestion Dax checked the contents and found 250 small coins made of some kind of gold alloy emitting a extremely weak mana signature.

"I take it these are gold coins?"

"Eh, yeah they are?"

"I recently arrived in this country and therefore don't know anything about the currency system, how much is a gold coin worth?"

"Really?"

"Where I come from money is made of paper, or in rare cases metals way more valuable than gold"

"O-okay.. A single one of these gold coins are worth about 3 months livelihood for a middle cla.s.s household. A hundred gold coins can buy middle sized n.o.ble estate."

(This really is a fortune…)

"Can I exchange some of these coins to lower value ones?"

"Sure, I'll recommend large silver silver coins that are the a tenth of the value compared to gold coins"

"In that case I would like to exchange 10 gold coins to large silver coins~"

"O-okay.. Please wait a moment"

Disappearing again to a back room leaving Dax behind, he turned his attention to the other hunters looming around the guild.

(6 other hunters in here… 2 of which are observing me and a single one is suppressing his killing intent… ICI mark them)

(3 TARGETS ADDED TO BLACKLIST.)

(Good. Oh she's back)

"Here you are, 100 large silver coins"

With a bit more difficulty this time Beth handed a pouch filled with larger silver coins, in exchange Dax handed over 11 gold coins.

"Um there's a coin too much"

"No there isn't, thanks for the explanation."

".....Eh!? EHHHHHH!!??"

Leaving the guild and the clueless receptionist behind, Dax heard a loud scream from Beth when it finally clicked for her. Dax made his way to Alex's arms shop, and after spending a lengthy time working out a deal Dax secured the 50 odd chemical compounds and rare metals he needed to expand his future weaponry through multiple of Alex's a.s.sociates, in exchange for nuking most of his newly received a.s.sets and promising a return another day to show him his words weaponry. Walking through the city Dax rewived his future plans.

(My remaining a.s.sets amount to about 100 gold coins, but I secured enough materials to make some pretty impressive equipment.. What's the status of comsat-1?)

(EXPECTED LAUNCH IN 4 HOURS)

(And Alex said he would be ready with the order tomorrow about noon.. I'll visit him then after checking up on Viktor with unit 1 and 2, then transport the materials to the orb, what's your opinion ICI?)

(PRIORITY OMEGA IS SURVIVAL. SECURING WEAPONRY AND INTELLIGENCE TO EXTERMINATE TREATS IS OF THE UTMOST IMPORTANCE.)

(Yeah the 'angels' or whatever they are.. Let's try kicking the hornet's nest and see how their intelligence network reacts.)

Stopping his mindless stroll of the city, Dax asked a nearby shop owner directions to Black Hollow's church.

(03 on me. Code 5)

(CONFIRMED. UNIT 3 IN ROUTE.)

Walking for about 5 minutes following the shop owners directions, Dax arrived at a large plaza with a single large building that Dax a.s.sumed to be a temple. The two story tall temple was built in pure white marble and its windows had stained gla.s.s in elaborate and ornate designs forring to Dax and the world he came from. Spotting what appeared to be some kind of nun sweeping the grounds Dax approced with his signature childlike smile.

"Excuse me~ Is this the a temple wors.h.i.+ping the so called angels?"

"They're not 'so called' this is a church dedicated to the wors.h.i.+p of the holy and all knowing angels that gifted mankind the power of mana!"

Having angered the nun with his words she turned around to retort Dax with a sten tone. She wore a pure white dress with a equally white veil covering up her hair. The nun was no more than 14 years old but her golden yellow eyes and childlike face showed a religious fervor that put Dax on alert.

"I'm sorry if I offended you please allow me to apologize, I'm a traveller from a faraway country and I wanted to know about these grand creations called angels"

"Do you wish to confess your belief to our holy creators?"

"Depending on what you can tell me about them, what's your name miss?"

"I'm Abby~ Why don't we sit down over here? I will tell you of the grand angels and make you realize their grandness"

Inviting Dax over to a nearby bench having completely switched att.i.tude to Dax, the nun Abby skipped along while humming. Sitting down Abby waited for Dax to ask about the angels with s.h.i.+ning eyes.

"Nice to meet you Abby, my name is Dax"

"Nice to meet you Dax, how can I help you realize the grand nature of the angels?"

"First I want to know more about them, I've never seen a angel before, how do they look and where do they live?"

"The angels mostly look like humankin, but have large wings that are ma.s.sive mana curicuts they use to fly. The glorious angels mostly live In the mountain range about 400 kilometers north of the capital, and they rarely show themselves to us lowly humankin"

(WEAK SPOT IDENTIFIED.)

"But are they strong?"

"They're extremely strong~ About a hundred years ago only 2 of them wiped out a whole infadele city~"

"I-is that so? How did they do it?"

"With fire~ We have a munial showing they cleansed the infadele in holy flame inside the temple, do you want to see it?"

"I'll take you word for it."

"That's too bad, it really shows how they clenched the non believers, I really love how they-"

(This kid is insane)

Watching the nun explain in great detail how the angels 'cleansed' or rather ma.s.sacred a town about Black Hollow's size because they refused to wors.h.i.+p them with great joy in her eyes, Dax's smile cracked as he struggled to keep calm.

"So they cleanse evil? Is that the only reason they're wors.h.i.+ped?"

"No the angels are much more grand than that~ They're our all knowing, all powerful and loving creators and guides in this hostile world~ So do you want to swear your faith to them now?"

"You're seriously f.u.c.ked up you know that?"

"Eh?"

"You're the angels are all powerful?"

"Yes that's what I've been trying to tell you"

"Can they prevent evil?"

"Yeah."

"Do they know about evil? And can they prevent it?"

"Of course! What are you getting at!?"

"If the angels are all powerful, evil exists, and they can prevent it and want to, why don't they?"

"What do you mean?"

"There are still wars, famine, crime and evil all around the world. And you say they willingly submit their believers and followers to that? This is not a religion I'm willing to follow"

"But that evil is the fault of other races! The Demonkin lords are the ones at fault! They start wars and do evil!"

As the argument heated up ICI advised Dax to back off, but something about what the young nun said to him just rubbed him the wrong way.

"So a definite 'evil' exists and the angels do nothing about that?"

"To test us of course!"

"But that doesn't make sense. You told me that they're all knowing, and if the angels are all knowing, they would poses perfect information they wouldn't need to needlessly make you all suffer and test you. By that logic the angels either the angel knowingly created an existence for their followers that has needless pain and suffering, in that case they're neither good nor holy, or they're not all powerful or all knowing, but simply like us: Mortal and twisted."

"Eh!? That- No!? What!?"

Satisfied with the conversation Dax stood up and left the confused nun behind, walking about 5 meters from her when ICI cold voice sounded in his head.

(EXTREME MANA SIGNATURE DETECTED, CONTACT REAR. EXERCISE EXTREME CAUTION.)

"What the!-"

Throwing himself forward, Dax narrowly escaped the area of some kind of strange spell that crashed down in the plaza. Getting up Dax saw the source of the spell. The young nun flooted eerily above the ground, her eyes wide open with tears made of blood streaming down her checks that along with the rest of her visible skin was covered in white runes.

"ASCENSION COMPLETE, POSESION HOLDING STABLE, MANA STORM IN EFFECT."

"Oh f.u.c.k.."

"WE LEFT YOU A WARNING THAT YOU IGNORED FRAGILE ONE, THIS IS OUR DOMAIN."

Floating about 10 meters above the ground, the nun had seemingly been possessed by some kind of pressure, a pressure Dax had felt before

"PREPARE TO BE CLEANSED."

This was the exact power Dax had felt taking away the mana when he had used Viktor to break through the second orbs ablative heat s.h.i.+eld.

"I poked a bit too much around huh.."

Looking at the possessed nun, yellow particles started to appear behind her, slowly forming the shape of 3 pairs of large wings.

"I AM THE ARCHANGEL SOLARIS, YOUR EXECUTIONER."