Building a Mystery
The part is from Gilda's point of view.
Most of my mind was currently inside a simulated design environment. My eyes and fingers rapidly moving over various virtual design surfaces, assembling a unique custom digital systems interface from the inside. However, a sliver of my consciousness was occupied with something very different, if also related.
That sliver of myself watched as a familiar young man dispatched goblins and orcs with ease while looking handsome in his signature jeans, boots, and cowboy hat. However, he wasn't alone. He was assisted by an ever-growing flock of ravens. I had considered this boy only a test subject when we met, designated subject 00976. Ever the dispassionate researcher, I only saw him as a tool to help in my quest to prove my unorthodox theories on the nature of magic and mana. His value to me was limited to assisting me in my goals of proving myself right and reasserting my rightful position as a leader in the field of magical research.
Somewhere along the journey, my perception of the boy changed. In a turn of the tables, the ruse of sexual attraction I used to control him instead became my reality. I could no longer see him as simply a test subject, even if I was still fascinated with observing his development. In unexpected ways, his presence in my life overturned everything I thought I knew. Each revelation was more powerfully destabilizing than the last. Until I was left with no choice but to see him as an equal, and more importantly, as a partner. Now, I saw him not as subject 00976, but as Willie, an earnest and simple young man. All the more attractive to me for his lack of complexity. My own mind never rested. Forever analyzing, seeking answers to problems others often did not even realize existed in the first place. Having a pleasantly uncomplicated person stand beside me was like finding a solid rock to cling to in the middle of a churning ocean. That little bit of stability was like salvation I never knew I wanted.
However, being saved is no simple thing. And, though Willie was uncomplicated, the situation around him only seemed to get more complicated as our time together passed. Even as I found some peace in his presence, I was also consumed by worries that I could not share fully with anybody. Both of my current activities revolved around trying to find the best, or perhaps only, path forward for us both.
I had been concerned about Willie's behavior since the incident. Observing him and Arthur as they made their way through the early stages of Cordelia's specially prepared training dungeon confirmed many of my fears.
Decisively killing sapient humanoids without reservation. Using minimal force to conserve stamina and mana as if it were second nature. Taking stock of battlefield conditions and adapting his approach to the opportunities it presented. These could all be considered positive developments. However, the Willie of just a few weeks ago would not behave in these ways. That Willie was prone to using his strongest attacks first, without care for conserving resources. Given to trying to talk his way out of hostilities with sapient beings. And most of all, beset by tunnel vision that limited his adaptability and strategic planning in battle.
By all rights, Warrior candidates should be only the most proven of fighters. However, Willie was not any kind of warrior at all when I choose him. That was intentional because my initial goal was to have him be a blank slate without preconceived notions, which might get in the way of my experiment. However, because of that rawness, I needed to manage his growth carefully if he were to have any chance of surviving as a magical warrior. True, my plans had become derailed with the sudden arrival of Millie and Cordelia. But at the time, I still saw the resulting shifts as manageable enough. However, with the unexpected arrival of future memories of a civilization-consuming threat, my plans for managing his growth had been utterly destroyed. It was clear that he was already operating as a much more experienced warrior without the need for my guidance. Oddly, I felt a sense of loneliness from this realization.
While Willie retained very little conscious memory of the doomed future, his personality has been altered significantly. Nearly every aspect of his behavior shows this. While, for the most part, these are indeed subtle changes, I was surely not the only one who had noticed. Physically, he may still appear to be the same age, but he now carried himself as if he was mentally aged. There was a sharpness to him now that was never there before, especially noticeable in battle. Which seemed to be the mark of him becoming a real warrior somewhere out of my sight. Furthermore, these changes did not go entirely the direction I would have chosen. I had begun to question how much room there was for me to continue to guide his growth now, assuming I even wanted to.
These were the last lingering concerns of my former goals. After all, my research was all but forgotten. What once seemed so all-consuming to me now pales into insignificance. The truth is I knew absolutely nothing. The betrayal and deceit started long before I became involved. A most unexpected result of the unforeseen direction Willie's abilities took was the revelation that almost everything I thought I knew was a lie. There was no war against the Demon Lords. We were, in reality, always the Demon Lords. If anything, it was really some sort of covert civil war between those who knew the truth and those who did not. Nothing more than an ideological power struggle amongst ourselves, which happened to drag the bulk of the galaxy into the swirling vortex of our darkness.
Even when the war seemed straightforward, as a noble defensive battle against vile conquerors, I still had many reservations about choosing to involve Willie. My misgivings had only multiplied now that the truth had become known. If I delivered Willie as a warrior candidate, I would only be serving him up on a platter to the Demon Lords... not to mention Millie and Cordelia. The Demon Lords would likely use every tool at their disposal to recapture or destroy those two. We all know too much now. And thanks to the hardware upgrades I so foolishly put into them, we would all be vulnerable to mental invasion if I didn't work to prevent it.
If I thought there was any reasonable chance of the Demon Lords leaving them alone, I would immediately take Willie and the others back to Earth. However, we made them focus on our presence by choosing to send out the warning to the others. As a result, the Demon Lords will likely continue to hunt us down to discover what else we may know before disposing of us.
No. The only feasible way continues to be forward, into the mouth of the beast. However, that does not mean that I could not prepare. I would create a path to freedom. I would open the way for these children to defeat the Demon Lords, even if it meant the destruction of my people.
Ironically, the way forward was shown to me by none other than the former, captive slave, succubus princess, and potential civilization devouring nightmare, Millie. In a show of savant-like genius, she sealed her mind from outside interference. She could access the system data at will but was all but invisible to the system otherwise. At first, I perceived that resistance to be both a curiosity and annoyance, but now I had come to see it as a ray of hope. Using her strategy and techniques as a template, I recreated the onboard AI aspect of the hardware for Willie from the ground up. It would be difficult for Willie to accept the changes, but I had come to believe this was the only way. I had to create a scenario where the council and Demon Lords think that only I know the truth and that Willie and the others were simply my unwitting captives.
As a byproduct of what seems to be his preternatural luck, Willie's direct control of mana and Cordelia's nature were perfectly matched to one another. She was rapidly evolving into what appeared to be an entirely different lifeform due to their interactions. I remained unsure as to precisely what the resulting being would look like. With luck, she would become distinct enough from a traditional dungeon core to allow for the fabrication of a new identity. We had privately discussed some aspects of my plan, and she was willing to proceed, even if only for her own reasons.
Complicating their situation is another aspect of the recent changes in Willie. Without even noticing it, he approached me now as if we were already long-time lovers. And, as much as I would like to indulge during the brief time remaining to this body, I have taken my distance to prioritize securing some modicum of safety for him and the others. I bear too much responsibility to all the lifeforms I brought here from Earth, not just Willie. I dragged them all into a messy situation due to my ignorance and for purely selfish reasons. I needed to make it right with whatever power remained to me. My only comfort was once this was done, I would not be easily separated from Willie again.
Millie, for her part, has mostly remained out of contact. She has, however, secretly spent most of her time inside the training simulations. I had been unable to access the records of the simulations due to her interference. However, by tracking the times she entered and was ejected from these forays, it was clear she had died many hundreds of times in the period of just a few days. Many hypotheses could reasonably be formed from that information. However, I decided to act based on the two possibilities I consider most plausible. Either she was letting herself be killed repeatedly as some form of penance, or she was attempting to train new skills she had little aptitude for.
After careful consideration of the potential danger she still represented, I implanted a segment of my consciousness into her current simulation to forcefully make contact with her. However, it did not go as well as I hoped. She annihilated that portion of me and sealed the simulation from further interference. However, several days later, I received a signal that she had agreed to my plans. As a result, I could proceed without fear of resistance from anybody besides Willie, as all other parties involved have agreed to my guidance. Willie himself would never agree to my plan, and his new ability to peer into the future presented a real danger of being found out before I was ready. However, the easiest solution was to simply keep my interactions with him to a minimum. His ability is entirely self-centered, meaning he can only see futures where he is present. So, if he is kept distant from the events, he will have no knowledge or ability to avoid them.
I had continued frantically working on the new design while he was training inside Cordelia's dungeon. I maintain the portion of my consciousness watching Willie's progress and actions to appease my researcher's curiosity, and perhaps I simply enjoy observing him. However, the bulk of my attention was focused on developing this new hardware implant. There was no room for error. Cordelia and I had worked together to move all training and skill development to be magically delivered rather than technology-based. This would allow Willie, Idomu, Byakuren, and now Arthur some insulation from future interference from the council. They could seal technology-based skills, but not magic-based ones. Additionally, my work on the hardware was an effort to reinforce those safeguards as much as possible without raising suspicion any higher than it would already be.
At last, I finished the new design with a sigh. Ironically, the new design outwardly appeared to be the standard design warrior candidate onboard AI hardware component. However, hidden in such a way as to be almost entirely undetectable was the system's actual function. Only if you knew what to look for in the first place would you ever suspect that this system was meant to contain a true mind rather than a simple AI.
Exiting the design simulation space and starting the fabricator, my anxiety increased. What I was doing was punishable by deletion among my people, the most taboo of taboos. However, I steadied myself, re-centering around my resolve to stand by Willie's side against them all.
The fabricator quietly finished its work. I immediately deleted all records of my design and fabrication. The entire process was encapsulated within a protocol Millie had designed for this task. To ensure his safety, nobody else could know what had transpired here, especially not Willie.
There was still much to do and little time to do it in. But, as a reward to myself, I allowed more of my consciousness to indulge in continuing to observe.
