The Eye of the Storm

Walls of dark thunderous clouds slowly make their entrance on the horizon where the light is taking me towards. A repeated symphony of lightning and thunder is seen and heard from this distance. The layer of clouds thicker than the mist where we have currently entered surrounded me as I entered. Once my entire body managed to pierce the unknown, I began to feel the heavy rain hitting me. It’s cold, much like when I used to be in storage under the islands. The light beam still defies logic, my logic for piercing a fog as thick as this.

Speaking of which, the light that is coming from the storm is pulling me from a weird angle. The more I get closer to wherever the light is taking me, the more the angle increases as if it was coming from something high up above. A cliff? A flying island perhaps? More of these questions go unanswered only for a short duration after the heavy rain instantly stops.

“.... A literal wall of rain?” I uttered after my visibility drastically increased. It was not like we were out of the fog yet, the fog is still present everywhere yet sunlight pierces this area forming a glow among the grey clouds above. The scene is almost as if it was a beachside with grey clouds covering the entire sky. There my questions were immediately answered.

A gigantic tower, strikingly similar to the ones I had in my past life located in a certain Arabic country is generating light at its tip. The yellow light is coming from what appears to be a sphere of light that I would assume to be magical due to the visible runes encircling it. Buildings that form the shape of a semicircle with a roof design almost as if it were a pyramid are pointing directly towards the tip of the tower. All of this modern infrastructure is located on top of an island similar to the islands back outside the West of the Aiyan Sea. Avia Abyssal Islands… if I remember correctly is what the Arika said during our perilous escape away from those islands.

“Did you know this thing existed, Arika?” Arika looks baffled but not as I am as I have seen buildings like this before. She looks at it from the viewscreen in awe of its size and characteristics being modernized. This is probably the only place she has seen looking futuristic compared to the usual medieval architecture this world is stuck with.

“...I only know of a place that seems to have been used by the ancestors that have built you. I did not expect anything in here to still be intact as much as that tower. This is in the middle of the Aiyan Ocean. None have ventured out this far.” Arika returns to face the screen showing the tower once more.

Curiosity took the better of me as I need to know what we are dealing with. The absence of their intentions still clouds my judgment on whether to escape or die fighting while Arika escapes. Neither I nor the demon queen knows if they are friends or enemies. Just because someone or something saved you from a squid trying to assault you does not mean they are immediately friends of yours. Sometimes the ones that saved you are the ones that are looking for you as their prey. What killed your enemies may very much be your enemies as well. One can never be too careful ya know?

[ Digital Scan: Mk.1 - Target: Structure ]

▲ SCAN BLOCKED▲

“....” My soul just came out of my engine exhaust… The Digital Scan skill did not work as it got blocked. Heat came up throughout my body as my internals were preparing to do the unthinkable. I begin to reactivate my cannon but to no avail. Only the digital hologram of the weapon is seen on top of my body, unfinished and inoperable. I begin to question my tactics and in a panic, repeatedly activate the digital scan but the same text appears in my view.

The light coming from the tower halts to a standstill putting me in place some 1-2 kilometers away from the island. This light kept aiming directly at me for a good minute before the tower began to turn some of the devices on its tip. Heavily elongated diamond-like crystals then floated on the several tips turning a reflective glow towards me. The yellow light coming from the runes in the middle began to turn its beam toward the crystals. A white, beamless light then increased its intensity and with haste turned its sights towards the remaining pieces of the Kraken stuck on top and around my metallic body. I felt no heat from the beams despite their intensity. Once the crystals stopped searching for the remnants of the creature, they rapidly spun and nudged back in place to where they were hidden.

The sphere of light at the central tip of the tower changes its color to red and puts another beam of light towards the base of the tower. The red beam moves around wandering and aiming randomly on the shore facing my direction. The light stops at the base of the tower where it faced me directly and turns green in an instant. This beam then switches once again to turn blue and places a hologram similar to what I had made my searchlight earlier. I couldn’t quite grasp the design of the structure but it appeared to have metallic clamps matching the size of my self. The shore to which the tower placed the structure started to part in half as if to make way for my size. I am at least 2 kilometers big, you know? Are you even sure about that?!

Even with this tower trying to take me alive and store me inside, I simply cannot fit in there! I went on to clear my head of these thoughts for a bit because I believe it read my mind… The parting of the beach slows down and halts to fit only a ship the size of a destroyer at around 150-200m. The structure then finishes revealing what looks like a covered dock, more like a bunker entrance heading straight inside the tower at this point but metallic and with minimal white neon lighting. Looks like someone gave up on capturing and storing me, what are you gonna do now eh?

Knowing quite well that when the sphere of light made the docks, it released me from its beam allowing me to move freely. Despite that window of opportunity to escape, I could barely move away, knowing better than I have the chance of living in the eye of the storm than at the edge of it. The metallic clamps outside the dock entrance were accompanied by several searchlights and started to activate. Multiple yellow beams of light hit me straight to my face, preventing me from moving once again. The door inside the dock entrance begins to open and lights all over the dock went yellow light indicative of caution. I don’t know what is going out of that tower, but I already prepared for the worst. I am going to use all my remaining power to ram the tower. That way I prevent being captured by anyone and taking down that tower with me. I would do the same thing again the last time I died once if it goes down to that!!

Along the white light inside the opening dock doors, I could see a figure standing inside waiting for everything to fully open. As the doors show everything inside, I scanned the figure that looks to be human, or humanoid in this case because there might be elves or demons or whatever mythical thing to have existed.

[ Digital Scan: Mk.1 - Target: Structure ]

▲ SCAN BLOCKED▲

Digital scan shows the same thing, even with repeated scans it would still be blocked. The scan still shows that I am scanning a building despite literally aiming for a person… Wait

Before I could even finish my thought and analysis, the person vanished into thin air. Radars and scanners show nothing detected, she just… disappeared?! A loud knock banged directly at my ears or whatever audio scanner or microphone on my bridge. I turned around only to see the figure standing directly beside my bridge and on top of my hull. What I see is a woman about the same age as Misaki when I last saw her in my world. I did not want to remember that fateful day so I continued to fill my thoughts with the description of the woman I see right now. Short, black hair with a ponytail behind her head, with the eyes glowing in yellow. Short in height and short on the important bits as the men would call it back in the Shimakaze. She is not like the Misaki I know, which saddens me a bit knowing that I might probably be the only one who is reincarnated in this world. That was just a hasty generalization after all. My hope to find other reincarnates, especially Misaki, remains untainted.

Her arms slowly raise and touch the surface of the hull, putting each about a meter apart as if trying to carry it. The warm embrace of the force of her body begins to react to my senses and I prepare for the attack.

“Welcome back, Mother! It has been a long time!”

“...” A deafening silence filled the area for a moment until the thought crossed my mind. WHAT?! Mother?...Me?!.What the hell is even happening? Out of all kinds of threats, I was expecting, I was instead greeted with a welcome.

“Huh…” Arika exclaims in confusion inside my bridge hearing everything from the topside. “I suppose even I as the demon lord couldn’t even bear a child, let alone find someone significant,” Arika added with another sigh and began to sob.

“HEY! This is not my child! How could a machine even bear one in the first place?!” Arika then continues to sob mockingly while questioning if she could have one too. I respond with her calls to shut up as it is not my child!

With the turn of events going somewhat in our favor, I began to ask the person on top of me who claimed to be my daughter.

“I’m sorry. I believe you are mistaking me for someone else! Who are you?”

“You don’t even know your daughter anymore?! How rude!” Well if I was indeed the person you are referring to as your mother then it would be, but I am not you know? I just got here like half a day ago.

“Well, I suppose it has been around… like what… 3000 years? since you left me here to deal with something the higher-ups called a ‘dragon’.” Her mother left her here for 3000!? How did she even survive after all those times? That would mean she is older than both the demon lord and me! Around 3000+ years surviving alone!

“Allow me to reintroduce myself to my forgetful mother, and the demon queen she is currently holding inside her. I am Black Angel - Industries Research Facility. Tower 9th of the 9 across the world. Daughter of A1-Magicnet. First of the Structure Race. I may look like a human but that is just a second body. My real body is what you see behind me.”

How did she know Arika was here? I guess that she also had scans since my name is there. That would mean she learned that skill from her real mother. Structure race? Like actual infrastructure?! She is that tower taller than me?!

“Well then, Miss Black Angel. I’m sorry I really don’t know who you are. I am not the mother you know. I will explain everything later about how you are mistaking me for someone else. At least it was good to know that you are not our enemy.” I replied to avoid further confusion.

“... is that so?” The joy in her eyes and movement disappeared for a brief moment, probably trying to process what she just heard. This face of depression lifted into a face of seriousness. The sphere of light on top of the tower begins to glow bright red and a hologram of a cannon appears behind her back and instantly materializes into a real one. The cannon begins to charge bright red the same as the tower.

“I’ve been waiting all this time. If you are not my mother, then who is controlling her in there?” Whoa..whoa time out! Let’s just calm down for a bit. I know you just became instantly denial of me not being her but let us keep it civil.

“No one is controlling me!”

“Huh!!?” The cannon begins to charge faster with more of its lights beginning to fill up with bright red.

“I am Kato Aori. A reincarnation from another world. I had just awakened from an island not far from here. The demon lord inside me is a refugee and probably the last demon in the world. Please… We both need your help escaping from the pirates. I am low on power!” Crap. I just said everything, have I? I even mentioned my reincarnation thing just not to be killed again by pure misunderstanding.

“...!” When I mentioned it, Arika looked at my camera in the bridge with pure surprise. She may have not seen or heard about reincarnation before but that is probably about it.

“Well, if that is the case. I have you stay inside me, the tower you are seeing right now. In exchange, you will have to tell me everything.” The cannon behind her and the tower powered down, and the red light began to glow white. I had just avoided being obliterated, maybe for Arika as well.

“Thank you… If you could please power me u…………….” My vision fades into black and I feel most of the systems in my body powering down. The last vision I see before being knocked out is Miss Black Angel looking surprised and looking like she is about to cry, I couldn’t confirm it as it was all too blurry when I went out.

▲ Warning. General System Power Failure. Remaining power at 1.0%. Forced Shutdown Initiated ▲