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Chapter 043: The Mechromancer Project

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He knew that perhaps it was only him who knew of the origin of this masked organization in the entire gamer population and so to minimize all kinds of possible complicated misinformation, Siva sent a message to Matt and the rest to inform them of the grave situation.

He feared that Dakar might be suffering in this so he sent a message pleading for assistance. After all, Cardinal Hossain said it himself that the Blood Dragon God Church held the higher echelons of the Enchantment Temples in Dakar.

Who knows if every member of those temples are already red coats of the Bloody Church.

And what more, now that the situation is somewhat, or at least, stable here, perhaps it was already time for him to inform Gabriel that he'd already finished his given purpose to be sent in Anazon Forest.

But then again, it might not be the end of it yet.

What if Maria was also under attack?

It's possible! Siva feared.

"Shit."

He cursed the Bloody Church endlessly.

He thought then, Should I move the Asgard here or at least in Anazon Forest?

"I'll be back." He told Mohindra. "Electra will come with me to the surface and finish the job. I will also ask for reinforcements to help you defend Horbe."

"Then I'll wait here."

Siva gave a nod and gave Mohindra some items he thought might help. There were over a hundred of different boxes of Red and Blue Potions, Plasma Smoke Screen Grenades (instructions included), and a few more that will be of aide if an emergency happens during the time he was away from here.

Then he looked over at Electra, "Fly at your fastest speed. Meet me at the surface, in Anazon Forest, in the capital ruins where you led me over. Wait for my contact."

Electra stared at him intently and nodded, giving him the two finished Mini Realms full of Lightning Energy, and then flashed off at her fastest speed towards her destination.

Soon, the two had already disappeared... but Siva appeared directly above Anazon Forest more than a hundred or so kilometers away from the borders of Walled City Maria to its west.

*****

Siva quickly left the Mini Realm in this place and let out a gasp as he realized where he was.

Sky Wyverns were everywhere around him and a few flocks of Herons and other monsters are also below, going on a hunting expedition.

"I should place this Liberty Drone to the ruins."

As he thought of this, now that he had finished the tune-up and retrofitting of all his 1st-Gen Puppets, he quickly pulled out 10 of them and also pulled out [Tai Long], fitting it with the faceless mask —as all of the BM-Puppets— and then giving it Lancet Imperious... and the different spear, sword, and martial arts programming as its 'skills' for what Siva had intended to use him.

It's already been programmed by Cortana with the temporary Mechromancer Program Settings. It's going to act as according only to how it was told, or how Siva orders it to, reactively, through the Mini Realms that connected them.

Siva recreated the [Smasher], the [Gunslinger], the [Destroyer], and a new addition —a [Sword Master] BM-Puppet. This time, the puppets were fitted with their own SS-Generators to be self-sufficient.

Along with the fitting of their own SS-Generators was the expansion of short and simple executable commands that included all Martial Arts thinkable in accord to the usage of the given sets of equipment specializations on them.

—now comes the secret of the Mechromancer Project...

Siva haven't tested this idea and this was actually going to be the first test, as he couldn't help to be a little doubtful if this was going to work.

"The Mechromancer Project... the ultimate form of my pursuit for Puppetry... I hope this works."

Siva had left eight Liberty Drones in the borders of Horbe to serve as a scanner for the defense of the city going a fixed orbit scanning, and then also left two roving Liberty Drones inside it just in case the Bloody Church or any other force dared to sneak-in inside the city.

There was one with the agent going to Terrafirma; three with Electra, the Guard Captain, and one with Mohindra; there's one in the exit in the large hole connected to the Anazon Forest; also one that he sent to the direction of Laurasia along with the one he left in that exit when he first came in the Inner Continents; and then there's this one he attached into the Liberty Drone he left when he was still the hostage of Electra.

(AN: Siva gave four Mini Realms to Electra to fill it up with Lightning Energy. Two were finished within the time he was collecting dragon carcasses and so she was left with three, with the last being used as the means for communication.)

Excluding the ones that got destroyed during that entire scuffle with a cardinal, Siva only had thirteen Mini Realms left in his arsenal.

Although he can change the [Rules] of the Cabinet at will anytime, Siva discovered he can't change the slot allocations once it was already given to the Cabinet. Thus, he was careful with how he allocate slots and also with how he uses them.

After all, slots were hard to come by and he can't get them back once they were used or the Mini Realms are destroyed.

'I just hope my idea works...'

Siva was still concerned with the lack of time to test all of his hypotheses in the limits of the usage of the [Time-Space Cabinet] of Inventory Plus Ultra...

Enables the Inventory Plus Ultra to or the local time flow of an item stored within the space of the Inventory Plus Ultra.

>Enable Time-Space Cabinet [UNLOCKED]

>>Enable Rune Support [LOCKED 1/9999exp]

· Limited to use 5x/day

· Unused "uses" will be stacked if not used (max 50 stacks)

· Opening and Closing cabinets costs 10,000slots

§ Closed cabinets are permanently lost and slot points lost will not be recovered

· Owner of the «IPU» is sole controller of cabinets unless cabinet options are specified

· Cabinet's internal capacity will conform to slot allocation ratio (1cubic meter 3slots)

· Can only set MAX of 3 rules per Cabinet

Siva was relying on the fact that the [Time-Space Cabinet] functionality of the IPU does not have a specified limitation on indicating the "rules" for the created cabinet. The only limit it has is dependent on how many slots you have.

'Let's set up rules...'

Siva began to edit the first Mini Realm, and even naming it as for the purpose of its function in the things he was trying to accomplish.

Slots Allocated: 10,000slots

Rules:

1) Those who hold this Cabinet, with ownership rights allowed and entitled by the creator or the current owner of the Cabinet, shall be designated the status of "Mechromancer"

2) Anything that passes through this Cabinet shall be granted the status of "Lich Exalt"

3) "Lich Exalt" can use "Lich" Cabinet as much as the allotted slot limits are reached

This was the first Mini Realm and this was going to be on Siva's possession.

It should be noted that carrying a Mini Realm in the open carries its own risks aside from the fact that it uses one hand that could be used to hold weapons and fight more proficiently.

And so since it wasn't bound to any item, Siva used another Mini Realm with a small slot allocation just to 'house' it in, and then anchor it to another item.

.....the Orbiter Bracelet.

It's just how the Mini Realms were bound with the Liberty Drones, like a passenger on a plane.

The third rule is the most important.

While the first two rules were indication of title and its corresponding designations, the third rule sets up the limitation and use of the Mini Realm.

This is the [Mechromancer Mini Realm].

It stores and summons "Lich Exalts" as long as its slot allocations permit it.

Each "Lich Exalt" can summon many [Lich] through the Lich Mini Realm bound to it.

In other words, the Mechromancer Mini Realm gives Siva an offhanded non-system ability that can only be called as "Mechromancy" —ability to summon the BM-Puppets with systemized echelon and ranking organizational structure.

In the end, these 'Lich Exalts' and such are nothing more than just titular labels indicating the quality of the BM-Puppets placed on the ranking echelon.

For example... Tai Long is bound to be the first "Lich Exalt" as it was the best BM-Puppet Siva had in his current arsenal.

Siva continued.

Slots Allocated: 20,000

Rules:

1) Anything that passes through this Cabinet shall be granted the status of "Lich"

2) "Lich" is bound to "Lich Exalt" Cabinet

3) "Lich" can use "High Class Minion" Cabinet as much as the allotted slot limits are reached

Following the trend...

The [Mechromancer Mini Realm] gives Siva the ability to be a "Mechromancer" that summons the [Lich Exalts].

[Lich Mini Realm] is bound to the [Mechromancer Mini Realm]. The [Lich Mini Realm] summons [High Class Minions] as long as its slot limits permits it.

Slot limits are, of course, the 1cubic meter = 3slots ratio... meaning..... if the Lich Exalt is worth 9slots, it means it has a size of at least 3cubic meters in Siva's the Inventory.

Following this trend, Siva created the echelon that will follow the Superior-Subordinate relationship...

Slots Allocated: 30,000

Rules:

1) Anything that passes through this Cabinet shall be granted the status of "High Class Minion"

2) "High Class Minion" is bound to 'Lich' Cabinet

3) "High Class Minion" can use the "Low Class Minion" Cabinet as much as the allotted slot limits are reached

Slots Allocated: 100,000

Rules:

1) Anything that passes through this Cabinet shall be granted the status of "Low Class Minion"

2) "Low Class Minion" is bound to "High Class Minion" Cabinet

3) Each "Low Class Minion" raise summon range of "Lich Exalt" by 1sq.m

The third rule serves like an augmentation to boost the ability range, pertaining to summoning ability of the [Lich Exalt] to summon a Lich.

As example, if the Lich Exalt has 1000 Low Class Minions, then it can summon a Lich in any place in the 1km area around it —a frightening ability.

Since this 'augmentation' doesn't go outside of the spatial aspect of the Mini Realms, it doesn't break any rules and thus becomes a legitimate 'rule' that augments the capability of the Mini Realm.

It was an overpowered system, the Inventory Plus Ultra that Gabriel lent him.

Currently, this prototype Mechromancer Ability of Siva can only summon as many Lich Exalts at one single time.

......Lich Exalts that can summon a Lich...

A Lich that can summon High Class Minions...

The High Class Minions that summons many Low Class Minions...

And Low Class Minions that augments and boosts the summoning ability of their Lich Exalts.....

In the end, it would depend on what kind of BM-Puppets Siva will place in it because in the end, as powerful and overwhelmingly plausible this ability is, just one BM-Puppet costs so much time and so much resources to create. If Siva doesn't use all of those 'corpses' he collected from Jeremiah and in the underground cave, and those thousands upon thousands of Mobile Suits he plundered brazenly in front of the eyes of the world... he wouldn't be able to even get close to utilizing this new ability.

*****

And so, they were made.

Viewed in a pyramid structure, the Mechromancer is the one on the top with the Lich Exalt below him, then the Lich, and then there were the subordinate units.

Since these Mini Realms are nothing more than an indication of "status" in the echelon within the Mechromancer Project, the sets of actions and all executable commands are still dependent on the "unit" —the puppets— on how they were encoded during their final phase of creation.

The [Mechromancer Project] depends on the kind of puppets Siva had and he himself was aware that there were so many weaknesses in it contrary to the promise of its overwhelmingly OP-potential.

This was the reason why Siva was reluctant to use his first Tai Long BM-Puppet because it was yet to finish its proper programming that fits to what Siva have been planning to use it for.

But given the current situation, time is once again his enemy and so he settled on an inflexible set of commands and protocols for Tai Log to follow...

......for now.

In the end, it will still depend on him to mentally issue the commands and Cortana to send them as prompts for Tai Long to follow and 'control' the designated lower-level units.

But at least, as much limited as the on-board CPU on the available BM-Puppets on his arsenal right now, they are still at least ready to be used for the meantime's goal and objective.

Now, Tai Long became the first Lich Exalt...

The [Destroyer], [Smasher], [Sword Master], and the [Gunslinger] BM-Puppets were set to be Lich...

And with the rest of the BM-Puppets, they were given other weapons that Siva looted from all those Acolytes he defeated in the underground cave.

They were all regarded as High Class Minions.

*****

"At least for now, they should do."

Midair in Anazon Forest, Siva proceeded with the test and "summoned" Tai Long through the Mini Realm bound to the Orbiter Bracelet.

Tai Long had an impressive appearance wearing the White Knight Set of the BMA and a spear-lance —the Lancet Imperious— on his right hand.

Its eyes were like that of a person's but although it looked alive, Siva knew that it was only following a set of protocols to make it look like it was a real living person. Its entire body, after all, was made of WhiteTech and can be said to be an Android Body equivalent in the real world.

In fact, in general, Tai Long and Maxima were both "items" having elaborate descriptions on them. Siva had already finished relaying the programs he wants with them and right now, after many minutes, it was finally done.

"Cortana..."

It was the final prompt from him.

Tai Long and the rest of the BM-Puppets already had their basic reprogramming.

Just giving out the 'objective order' to Tai Long will be an action enough to trigger a series of encoded commands that will disseminate to the rest of the BM-Puppets below it.

Even though it was still far from enough, Siva was still satisfied with this result.

With the translation of his mental commands, Tai Long didn't move but around him came the ripples of the fabric of space. A second later, Siva's four manifestations of his personas were summoned at the same time.

Siva then checked their "status" as items and there it was, in their [Item Descriptions], the four were all designated with the title of "Lich" and were minions to the one designated as Lich Exalt, Tai Long.

After the four came the 16 other BM-Puppets.

They were summoned through the four Personas, four subordinates for each Persona.

All in all, Siva used five Mini Realms for the entire prototyping project. it didn't matter if there are so many Lich with only one [Lich Mini Realm] because in the end, it was all still Siva the Mechromancer.

These puppets... were nothing more than just the extensions of himself through the [Rules] thru the Time-Space Cabinet.

He felt satisfied by his work. It was a tiny success.

"But it's still a trouble that instructions would have to depend on Cortana to be given out."

[I don't mind boss, I'm barely using my hardware's processing capability with all these multitasking job anyways.]

"That's what I'm actually worried about. Because I am sure that there will be a time when connection to the BM-Puppets will be hampered by something that by then, I'm lost at what to do? If they were dependent on live instructions, they can be stolen by people who would discover this big weakness of them. I can't afford that risk!"

Again, this was Siva's sense of insecurity kicking in and Cortana knew it as well.

Because of his disastrous experiences all these time, Siva —no— Rex Kingsley is slowly becoming something else. He wanted to have control over all things... to make sure that the protections of those things important to him were foolproof in different kinds of angles and circumstances.

And here she was nothing more than his 'support', as how she was programmed, as how she was first made to do.

[For now, priorities are set. Let us make use of the existing arsenal to maximize result in resolving our current circumstances.]

Siva was hit by a realization.

"You're right. Let's go."

The entire preparation took at least 10 minutes and it was precious time spent with just his preparation.

Siva gave a mental command and the Smasher and Destroyer with four of their 1st Class Subordinates each, took the Liberty Drone in the air and went in deeper in the Anazon Forest. They were tasked to deliver it back to the ruins deep in the forest.

When everything was done, he pulled out a T-Device and then Teleported to Maria.

Siva didn't waste time and quickly flew in the air to release a Liberty Drone to survey the surroundings but at the next instant was met with an awful sight.

It made him curse intensely.

"You motherf—!!"

Maria is half-fallen to the Church.

*****

It was a chaotic scene of wanton destruction and murder. Similar scenes were also happening in all cities of Terroa —brought forth by the red-cloaked sad-masked group of lawless executioners.

Maria has four enchantment temples in each of the major directions but all of them had already fallen, with their respective Elders-in-charge already in the Sacrificial Magic Circle or were dead trying to resist the invasion of the sad-masked insurgents.