Otherworld Adventure

The binding process didn't last very long. All Gabriel did was place his palm on the control panel and the process was similar to the blood extracting process from when he first awakened the automata.

Once his DNA was registered, the white lights glowing within the room changed into a blue color, indicating that the sky fortress was now registered under someone's control.

It felt a little bit anti-climactic but now that Gabriel had bound the sky fortress to him, a complete map of the sky fortress was transferred directly to his mind. In that map were the locations of not one but 2 transfer gates that looked exactly similar to the trial's next stage's transfer gates.

"There's two transfer gates," Gabriel informed his little brother after taking in all of the new information that was suddenly shoved into his head.

Since he was now connected to the sky fortress, he was able to ascertain all of the sky fortress' functions and capabilities. Many of which were quite militaristic. This was a given since the fortress was created and designed specifically for war.

However, there was a function that enabled for fast transportation in the sky fortress that Gabriel quickly activated once he found it.

"Since there are two transfer gates, the rest can stay here for now while I go to one of them and see where it leads while the other one you big bro can go to. Once we find the correct transfer gate, we can all just go to the gate together," Cecil suggested after listening to his brother and finding the exact coordinates of the transfer gates.

They weren't in any places that were too far away. In fact, one of the gates was actually on the top most floor of the central spire that they were currently in. While the other gate was directly within the interior of the sky fortress, in other words, this gate was directly below or underneath the central spire.

One was at the top while the other at the bottom, the top gate was pretty direct, while the other transfer gate needed someone to navigate through the complex infrastructure of the sky fortress to get to. Luckily, they had Gabriel, the new owner of the sky fortress.

Using the map and the fastest mode of transportation that the sky fortress had which was a floating gondola, Gabriel could probably get to the gate quite easily.

Since it was decided, Gabriel would take a few of the automata with him to go to the sky fortress' inner transfer gate while Cecil would just fly up to the top of the spire and check out the transfer gate at the top.

Some of the others in the group, especially the leaders, didn't want to sit still and wait for Cecil and Gabriel to bring them news and wanted to go along with them. The sky fortress was still teeming with monsters so it was safer, at least for Gabriel, if he had a little more combat power with him.

Of course, the automata were powerful, but it was always better to have more people. Obviously, Cecil didn't need this, but he let the flight-capable automata, that his brother wanted him to take, to come with him.

The injured and exhausted members of the group naturally stayed back at the spire with the support model automata while everyone else set out.

Gabriel called for a gondola and a large open platform suddenly emerged from the ground. Gabriel hopped on and the others that were going with him naturally followed him on it. Once everyone was on, a dome-like transparent barrier enveloped the platform-shaped gondola and the thing shot into the distance.

Cecil had been observing the contraption and noticed that it wasn't just barrier magic which was used, but even gravity magic was used to anchor the passengers to the gondola so that they wouldn't fly off the platform when it shot forward with tremendous speed.

After it flew forwards for a bit, Cecil was able to see that the platform suddenly stopped before it descended out of his line of sight.

"Hm, I guess they'll probably get there quicker and safer than I expected," Cecil mumbled to himself after seeing off his brother and his group.

He turned towards the two twin automata that were waiting behind him and asked, "Shall we get going?"

"Yes, sir."

"Yes, sir."

The two automata replied in unison and this caused Cecil to chuckle.

"You two are really good children. It's really sad that you two had to go through something pretty inhumane to become what you guys are now..."

The two automata had a rather puzzled look on their faces when they heard Cecil's ramblings so when Cecil saw this, he didn't say anymore.

He had heard about the inhumane way the automata were created and didn't think that the technology and process used to create these human-based automata were so...evil. It couldn't exactly be termed evil if viewed at an objective stand point.

They were just the results of success from many countless failures which led to the process seeming to be evil. In a way, the creators had actually given these automata a very significant gift which could be used to defend themselves in this very cruel world and against the Fallen invasion which was inevitably going to happen.

At least, it was better than leaving these people helpless and defenseless against those monsters. The ancients gave them a sword and shield for them to use against those monsters and although they seemed to be programmed specifically to fight these monsters, from what Cecil had observed for the past few days, they did have their own will, though they chose to listen to Gabriel for instructions.

Their basic human nature hadn't been destroyed, it was still there so once their objective have been completed, the complete elimination of the Fallen threat, Cecil was sure that they could live the rest of their lives as normal people.

"Alright, why don't we race to the top?"

"A race?"

The two asked in unison and then replying together,

"That sounds boring..."

"That sounds fun!"

The two then looked at each other and the girl twin began pulling at the other twin's hair.

"Alright...let's go?"

Cecil said before immediately launching himself into the sky.

"Hey! That's cheating!" Helen cried before she quickly chased after him.

Her body armor began changing and turned into its 'flight' mode. At least, this is what Cecil called it.

Helen's brother, Pollux, only sighed and changed his armor before following after his sister. Cecil had been waiting for the two and was watching from high up in the sky how their armor changed.

With his Mana Eyes, he saw a very complex runic array activating on the armor when it was transforming. This very runic array was something he had been able to acquire from Hana, the leading automata, after Gabriel asked her for the blueprint of the transformable armor they wore.

It worked like an assault battle suit that he read from all of his brothers' comics and from the TV shows he watched when he was back on Earth. There was a particular superhero show that he remembered watching as a kid and it featured something similar to this but it used technology and science instead of runes and magi-tech.

The blueprints that Cecil acquired showed that the runic arrays on the armor were linked together to form a very complex interconnected network of arrays. The armor itself wasn't that hard to make as long as materials or their substitutes were prepared.

The runic system was the sole reason why the armor was able to transform not because of the armor itself. Although it did use a combination of materials that was unfamiliar to Cecil so that it could accommodate all of the transformations but without the runic system, the armor wouldn't be able to transform.

The creation of this runic system was much too complex and even for Cecil he had to admit that he wouldn't be able to replicate the array with his skills. He would need to polish his artificing skills a bit more before even attempting to make it.

The three quickly made it to the top of the spire in only a few seconds and they all landed on the platform floating just above the spire that held the transfer gate.

"Hahaha! I win by 0.1928 mm!" Helen joyously cried out.

"...wow, that's pretty precise," Cecil said in amazement.

He had tried to make it look like they both arrived at the same but it looks like Helen was quite adamant about determining a winner between them. Thankfully, she won, this way Cecil wouldn't have to deal with a potentially saddened Helen.

A few seconds later, Pollux arrived on the platform. Cecil noticed that this automaton had quite the lazy attitude which greatly resembled that of his brother who was also a twin. Of course, Gabriel was no longer his lazy self from the past.

Thanks to the new world they were in, Gabriel had become a little bit more outgoing which was a good thing of course.

Cecil looked around the platform and noticed that this transfer gate was inactive. He looked around and even scanned the gate and platform with his Mana Eyes but didn't see any sort of mechanism that activated it.

"Sir, there's no power source for this one," Pollux spoke up.

"It looks like this isn't the transfer gate to the next stage. So it's safe to assume that the other transfer gate is the real one?" Helen asked.

Cecil shook his head and replied, "This gate is merely inactive so we can't be certain that this isn't the one. It could just be that we haven't completed the task or quest that was given to us which will activate this transfer gate."

Helen nodded while Pollux remained silent.

Cecil turned to them and said, "Let's go to where Gabriel is. The other transfer gate could also probably be the—"

He was interrupted by his MID in the next second. It was vibrating which indicated that someone was trying to call him.

"Ah, this is probably Gabe," Cecil said and quickly accepted the call. "Big bro, did you—"

"Cecil!"

The voice was definitely his brother's but the urgency behind the tone alerted him.

"Big bro, is something up?"

The sounds of yelling could be heard from the other side and this caused Cecil to frown.

"Gabe?!"

"Cecil! We need help! The transfer gate here suddenly activated and it's pulling people into its portal!"

Cecil didn't reply and instead hung up. He jumped down the platform in the next instant and flew straight down. He flew in the direction where he last saw the gondola his brother's group was on and quickly found the opening which led down to the interior of the sky fortress.

"S-Sir, wait up!" Helen cried out.

"We need to get to the second transfer gate. You guys know the path right?"

"Y-yes!"

"Then lead on but make haste! They seem to be in some sort of danger!"

"The Commander?! Brother!"

"Let's go."

Pollux took the lead and shot into the opening leading to the sky fortress' interior. Helen followed after him with Cecil in tow. The two automata's armors began changing once again and this time, large openings formed on the backs and a few smaller ones formed in the front. Cecil saw it and likened the new additions to a jet engine. Then, the two automata's speeds picked up and they accelerated forward, nearly leaving Cecil behind.