A Few Days Later
"...why are you here?" Phil moans as he and Caelus are both in his room, dismantling a bunch of military grade weapons. Seed sits between them while watching them.
"Because I am curious," Seed says honestly. Caelus was honestly surprised to see Seed wearing a casual outfit and even covering her feet. She was very controversial in the ZZZ community and this universe's internet, given how every video with her in it always had an excessive amount of her feet displayed in it.
Seriously, whoever thought that was a good idea should get fired.
In these few days, things have been very interesting. As Seed promised back then, she truly had joined in the mission and even disguised herself as a student, who 'somehow' had the same schedule as Phil. Her introduction was truly something, with her being super affectionate towards Phil, which led to a rumor of Phil somehow gaining a girlfriend.
Phil was lucky she's around his age, or else the rumors would have caused everyone to question 'his choice'. (Not that he had any)
One good thing about Seed's appearance is that it helps keep the bullies away from Phil. At first, Caelus had questioned why, but Seed casually admits that her forged backstory says she's the adopted daughter of the leader of the Defense Force.
'In a way, Phil had hit a jackpot.' Caelus admits as he uses his 'Eyes of Nous' to gain more information on the tools he's dismantling. Using some of the pieces, he continues to fix his W-Engine, and after a long day, he finally finishes it!
[Old Pocketwatch (Fixed)]
[Base Stats: +700 ATK]
[Passive: Synchronize - Allows the wielder to tap into the Path of Harmony easier. Increases the EXP gain for Path: Harmony and any attack dealt using the power of Harmony by 30%.]
'.....oh, screw you, you dumb watch!' Caelus groans in disbelief as he looks at the passive of his newly acquired W-Engines. In some way, the passive does make sense given that Music is literally used to explore Hollow and combat Ethereals, but he was expecting more.
It didn't help that it only benefits one Path, and said Path is the one he has yet to unlock. Hell, he didn't even make any progress with it!
[Harmony (LVL 0): 0/1000]
'...like not even 1!' Caelus moans inwardly, slumping down.
"...you okay?" Phil asks in a blank tone, somewhat used to Caelus's weird antics.
"...M'fine," Caelus grumbles before placing the W-Engine into his pocket.
"...I never saw anyone use military guns to fix their W-engines." Seed says honestly as she glances at the pocket-watch, and her eyes glow purple for a moment before she winces a bit. "...that's strange."
"What's strange?" Phil asks in confusion as Seed shakes her head.
"Ah, nothing," Seed says before glancing around. "...I noticed you seem to build a lot of mini-drones..."
"I did," Caelus says honestly before grabbing one of the dismantled guns.
"...they lack any energy source," Seed says with a frown, her eyes glowing purple slightly.
"Yeah, and I plan on fixing that," Caelus says as he plucks out the energy core and uses the 'Eyes of Nous' to see the details.
[Ether Energy Core (Small + Damaged)]
[A purified Ether energy core built by the Defense Force's Engineer, @%^&@, and heavily modified by Mr. Mole to generate more energy, which made it more unstable. Click down to see the details on damage, caution, and solutions.]
'Yeah, I really love these eyes. It's a wet dream for all engineers.' Caelus thought with a smile before grabbing his tool and starting to fix the core. Seed and Phil can't help but watch as Caelus tries to handle a core equivalent to a hand grenade on the verge of exploding.
Seed had a lot of experience with technology, being the squad's artillerist and mechanic. But she never saw someone fixing tools like Caelus. From the outside glance, he seems very reckless as he casually dismantles the core's shell like it was a broken car. But, she saw him quickly replacing the shell with a new and better one, doing it before the Ether energy could even leak.
She might have missed something, but during the process, the energy core had started stabilizing as well. It was very clear that the heavily modified core was unstable, all for the sake of raw power to fight against the Defense Force. But whatever Caelus did, he not only stabilized it but also maintained the raw power the rebels desired.
If Mr. Mole watches this, Caelus is basically taunting him, showing him that he did a much better job than the traitor. If Seed is Soldier 11, she would grab a phone, record the scene, and use it to taunt Mr. Mole in prison.
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In an unknown area, Soldier 11, who is on a mission to catch more rebel armies, can be seen fighting more rebel soldiers before she suddenly sneezes.
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Back with Everyone
"Done," Caelus says as he shows the newly modified and fixed Ether core. Seed's eyes sparkle a bit, quite amazed at the quality of the core. What amazed Seed even more was the speed required for Caelus to produce such a high-quality Ether Energy core.
"... I'm seriously wondering if you're secretly a graduate from the university," Phil says in a deadpan manner.
"Phil, if I am, I wouldn't be acting like a lost dog while walking around the city," Caelus deadpans.
"You adapt to city life faster than anyone supposed to," Phil points out. "Also, that doesn't explain your knowledge of space gods."
"It's my family's religion," Caelus retorts.
"It's the weirdest religion I have ever heard in my entire life," Phil deadpans. "Speaking about it, what did you guys report to the higher-ups? Caelus' new powers or the cosmic gods?"
"Both, but the higher-ups believed the Ether corruption had affected Trigger badly, and they also believed I was the one making things up, so they didn't take our words and harshly scolded us to do our job properly," Seed says cheerfully, causing Caelus and Phil to wince. Sure, Caelus feels a bit annoyed that they told the higher-ups everything, but in the end, it was his fault for opening his big mouth, and the soldiers were just doing their jobs.
It didn't help that they were being scolded unfairly, so Caelus could only sympathise.
"I hope you didn't feel disheartened by their harsh scolding," Caelus says as he gently pats Seed's head. "That was uncalled for. You were just doing your job."
"Nope," Seed says as she leans into Caelus's hand. She had noticed a few times that Phil always wagged his tail happily whenever Caelus pats him, and now, she understands why. "Trigger and I agree not to report everything as payback."
"...wouldn't that get you guys to even more trouble?" Caelus asks in concern.
"Trigger says we're too valuable," Seed says with a cheerful, smug tone, earning a chuckle from Caelus while Phil merely rolls his eyes in amusement.
Out of nowhere, Caelus' newly fixed core suddenly glows dark blue. The trio blinks in confusion as the core slowly stops glowing. Caelus glances at the energy core and furrows his brow as he sees a familiar-looking energy in it. Using the Eyes of Nous, he tries to look for more details, and he is glad he didn't drink anything, or else he would spit them out.
[Quantum Energy Core (Amplified)]
'...I convert Ether into Quantum energy...what the fuck!?!' Caelus was in disbelief. How is this possible!?! A new type of energy appears out of the blue just like that!?! He knows he shouldn't be questioning logic, the world of ZZZ, and all, but this is just plain ridiculous.
'...did the path of Erudition cause this?' Caelus thought as Seed leaned closer.
"I have never seen this type of energy before..." Seed mutters before she pulls out her phone, which looks as heavily modified as the one belongs to Phil's but more refined. She uses it to scan the energy. "...oh wow... not only is this unknown energy flow stable, but its output is 172.98% more than that modified Ether energy core!"
"...okay, this is just ridiculous!" Phil exclaims incredulously. "It's one thing to be good at engineering, but creating a new type of energy out of nowhere!?! It'll require several PHD and years of research, and this guy did it in an apartment room!"
"I mean, the Eyes of Nous did help," Caelus adds unhelpfully, causing Phil to twitch before he pulls out his own pair of pliers.
"Give me those eyes, Caelus!"
"Get the fuck away from me!"
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Later
Coff Coffee
"...that was exhausting," Caelus groans while waiting in line. After the entire fiasco again, he and the others decided to get some cups of coffee.
"I can't believe Belle's madness had infected Phil of all people. I'm glad Seed was there to stop him," Caelus mutters before he pulls out one of his drones with Quantum Core implanted in it. "Honestly, I wasn't expecting this at all..."
'...speaking of machines, why do I feel like I have forgotten something?' Caelus ponders as he scratches his head. 'What was the event after the Mr. Mole incident that involves the machine...?'
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Meanwhile
"Hey, you must be Phaethon!" A tall guy with spiky dark brown and red hair wearing a construction uniform can be seen waving at Wise, who was frozen in shock. He can't help but wonder how a random dude he has never met in his life knows his secret identity.
"Sorry for suddenly calling you out, got a bit excited here. I got an information from someone who offered us information regarding you at quite a high price. Given our desperate situation, we had no choice but to accept. But, from your reaction, I say the information is spot on." The guy says with a wide grin as Wise merely smiles nervously, his left eye twitching in annoyance.
"May I ask who's the one giving this information?" Wise asks.
"Hmm...boss didn't ask for her name, but she remembers having long pink hair."
'Nicole!'
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Back with Caelus
"Meh, I'm pretty sure it was nothing." Caelus shrugs before he orders some cups of coffee for himself and the others. As he walks out of the line, he blinks upon facing a familiar face.
"Oh," The familiar blackish-green-haired girl wearing a pair of sunglasses blinks as she lowers her sunglasses. "What a coincidence. To think I meet you here again."
"A-Ast-!" Caelus was cut off by the woman pressing his lips with her finger and winking at him.
"I hope you have a bit of time to talk~" Astra says with a cheerful voice.
"...y-yeah, of course."
To be Continued