Ex-Machina on Dimensional Travel

Through her Angel, Nia had learned everything about the Xiu Er she believed she knew, while Xiu Er had also learned everything about Nia. That was why the two of them shared a small, tacit joke at that moment.

Nia clutched her chest and staggered over to the bed before unhesitatingly throwing herself onto it, her face full of exhaustion.

"But I really can't do it right now. How about you wait a day?"

It was rather shameless, but Xiu Er was not dissatisfied. What Nia said was indeed true.

After years of Isaac's torture, Nia's mental state was not actually as good as she made it seem.

The energy she had shown earlier had been forcibly squeezed out of herself after seeing Xiu Er.

Moreover, the spiritual power in her body was scarce, nowhere near enough for her to display her abilities before Xiu Er.

So, only a few seconds after lying down, she fell into a deep sleep.

"..."

Looking at how she acted as though he were not a stranger at all, sleeping on the bed without a care in the world while wearing clothes that could easily expose her—was she not afraid he might do something?

Though it seemed he really could not do that sort of thing. Never mind, then.

Besides, perhaps it made sense that she was not wary of him when his body had a completely feminine appearance.

Xiu Er forcibly suppressed the urge to complain in his heart.

After all, she had truly suffered terribly these past few years. Since he knew the plot, he naturally knew what Nia had been through.

Fortunately, she was a Spirit. Otherwise, she could never have endured such double torment of body and mind. Though if she were not a Spirit, she probably would not have gone through that in the first place?

Forget it. No point thinking so much.

He would let her have a good sleep today.

The day after Xiu Er took Nia away.

Isaac finally discovered what had happened.

How should he put it? His current mood was difficult to describe. The Spirit Hunter had indeed acted against DEM, but the situation was different from what Isaac had expected.

The good news was that the other party had not blown up the building or done anything to threaten his life.

The bad news was that the other party had silently taken Sister away.

And she had been taken without anyone noticing, which also meant the other party possessed technology beyond copying Spirit Angels that he did not understand.

Although Isaac's nerves had been tense the entire time, his thinking had not been affected.

The ability to silently take Sister away seemed to be technology related to spatial movement.

However, the current plan had already entered a new phase, and he could use this opportunity to proceed with the next step.

Xiu Er taking Nia away had happened to help Isaac. Although he was wary of the other party's strength, that did not prevent him from including her in his plan as well.

I hope the plan succeeds. Isaac looked at the sky outside the window and thought so.

The Incomplete Angel, Part Two

"Hmm... is this the thing?"

Sitting beside the bed, Xiu Er scanned the still-sleeping Nia.

Since he knew some of the original work's settings, he also knew Isaac's plan. Isaac had implanted a device similar to a Territory in Nia's body, allowing it to interfere with her memories of the torture she had endured over the years.

In the original work, Isaac had deliberately allowed Shido to rescue Nia. Then, later in the story, he activated the device in her body, making her recall all her memories in that instant.

Under the impact of those years of torture, Nia successfully inverted just as he had intended. Then Ellen, who had waited for so long, stepped in and took the inverted Spirit Crystallization from the inverted Nia.

That Spirit Crystallization was then acquired and used by Isaac.

Now that he had already brought Nia out, Xiu Er believed in seeing good deeds through to the end. He decided to help her solve this small problem as well.

After conducting a full-body examination of Nia, Xiu Er successfully found the location of the Territory device.

This mechanical trinket was child's play to him. On the premise of ensuring her memories would not return, Xiu Er safely and completely removed it from Nia's body.

After briefly analyzing the device, Xiu Er casually crushed it.

Nia was sleeping deeply. She had been asleep for nearly a whole day and still had not awakened.

At that moment, Xiu Er really wanted to drag her out of bed, but after thinking it over, he decided against it.

Just as he had said before.

She had already suffered enough. There was no need to do that.

Fortunately, although Xiu Er did not intend to wake her, Nia woke up on her own just before dinner.

Nia sat up and stretched her body, which had grown stiff from sleeping too long.

Her graceful... well, she did not have that kind of figure. There was not the slightest hint of allure about her.

"Mm—~~ It's been so long since I slept that comfortably."

"...Huh?"

Nia turned her head and saw Xiu Er standing beside the bed, staring coldly at her.

"Ahaha... I slept a little too long."

Nia scratched her head and spoke awkwardly.

"But some of my spiritual power has recovered, and it's enough to fulfill our agreement now."

With that, Nia summoned her Angel—the Codex of the Whispers.

A gigantic book resembling a Bible and bearing a cross appeared in her hands. Watching the scene before him, Xiu Er began a preliminary analysis of the Angel before Nia could take the next step.

Seeing Xiu Er's eyes light up, Nia naturally knew what he was doing. So she was in no hurry and simply operated it according to her usual habits.

As Nia operated it, Xiu Er conducted a deeper analysis.

There was not much to say about the process. Compared with destructive Angels like Tohka's Gokurokugai, analyzing a support-type Angel like the Codex of the Whispers was relatively more tedious.

Ten minutes later...

To be honest, analyzing this kind of support Angel took quite a bit of time. Unlike offensive Angels, their data could not be directly sensed.

The Codex of the Whispers' activation process was somewhat abstract, but fortunately, Xiu Er ultimately succeeded in copying it.

"—Codex Opening—Pseudo-Codex—Codex of the Whispers—"

A massive book appeared before Xiu Er, identical to Nia's Angel except for its more numerous golden borders.

"You copied it so quickly? Your ability really is absurd."

Xiu Er ignored Nia's remark. He was thinking.

"Heh~ Throwing me away after using me? You really are heartless."

"Warning: Don't make noise. I'm thinking."

Looking at the Pseudo-Codex of the Whispers before him, Xiu Er had many hypotheses that needed verification.

Then Xiu Er looked toward the idle Nia beside him.

Skipping the boring testing process—

"How could this be...?"

Xiu Er stared at the book in his hands, and his mood at that moment could not have been worse.

Only after the previous tests did Xiu Er understand the extent to which his Pseudo-Codex of the Whispers had been restored.

First, aside from being unable to alter the future, it had fully acquired every other function for searching and observing the future.

However, observing the future was actually only possible because Xiu Er combined his own calculations with the Codex of the Whispers' abilities to barely calculate future events. Even with the system's assistance, observing more than seven days into the future was already the limit of Xiu Er's computational capacity. Going any further might burn out his CPU.

After all, as a standalone Ex-Machina, he could not compare to the computational power available after connecting to the entire Ex-Machina collective.

From now on, in this world, no matter whom Xiu Er wanted to find, he could obtain all of that person's information and coordinates through this. This function greatly improved his efficiency in locating people.

However, when he tried to search for "Mio," the search failed for unknown reasons.

Still, it was nothing. In the original work, Nia's Angel had also been unable to search for information on Mio, as Mio could use her authority to block it unilaterally.

Not bad. Overall, it could still be considered a gain. The result was barely acceptable.

"The transaction is complete. We're even."

Since he had achieved his goal, Xiu Er naturally had no reason to continue interacting with Nia.

He now had to find the next Spirit.

With the Codex of the Whispers, his intelligence-gathering abilities had greatly improved, saving him even more time in finding people.

So, did Xiu Er already have his next target?

The answer was yes.

You're next, Miku Izayoi!

Just as Xiu Er was preparing to leave, an ill-timed sound rang out in the room.

Grrr—

Ever since becoming a Ex-Machina, Xiu Er no longer had any material needs. But he naturally had not forgotten that someone like Nia still needed food to replenish her body's energy.

But he had no obligation to do that much for Nia. Besides, he had already rescued her from that place—what more did she want?

Therefore, seeing Nia blush as her stomach protested from hunger, Xiu Er did not want to concern himself with it.

"..."

"Thank you very much!"

At that moment, Xiu Er had once again returned to his disguised state, and Nia's stomach had let out a mournful cry.

Originally, Xiu Er had not wanted to bother with her.

But she actually had the audacity to brazenly hug his thigh. Faced with her shameless behavior, Xiu Er ultimately did not remain too heartless.

So, he found the nearest restaurant on an online map and brought Nia there to replenish her lost energy.

"I'll definitely pay you back once I have money!"

Nia's attitude toward her savior was still very proper. She would not do something as ungrateful as that.

Looking at Nia like this, Xiu Er said nothing. He merely reminded her to be more careful around DEM and AST personnel, lest she get captured again.

Xiu Er stood at the gates of a school. Since it was still a workday, the voices of teachers giving lessons could occasionally be heard from within. It was no different from any other school.

Yet this school was precisely the destination of his trip—

Rindouji Girls' Academy.

You're the Diva, Aren't You?

Rindouji Girls' Academy.

It was the school attended by Miku Izayoi, the Spirit from the original work.

As for Miku Izayoi, her code name among the original work's Spirit girls was Diva.

Since Miku was already active in the world as an idol, looking up her information was extremely easy. Xiu Er did not even need to dig up her personal details.

Speaking of digging up personal details.

After Xiu Er had directly come to her door last time, Kurumi had not chosen to keep living there. Yes, she had moved, choosing to relocate in order to keep Xiu Er from coming to her door again.