Eminence in Technomancy c12

With a swipe of the clawed gauntlet, a body collapsed. A girl dressed in armour with a panther head looked at her handy work.

For a second, she looked furious, but then she calmed herself.

She took a deep breath and controlled her urges to go on a rampage. This outing was her first proper assignment; she can't mess up!

“This is Zeta. The front is secured.”

[Understood, we are moving from the back. You can cause a scene at the front.]

Alpha instructed through the comms.

The new function their suits have is the ability to communicate via distance.

‘As always, Lord is excellent, but he should stop with his tests! Okay!? I get it! I messed up! But can you just calm down a little!’

Zeta just knows that he is testing her! The front has the most minions, and she will go on a killing spree; he wants to see if she can control her rage.

If she messes up, he will make her do some chores again. It's annoying!

“It's one of those freaks Saint Victoria has mentioned about!”

‘Heh, so they already know about us. Well, that's fine. You won't live long enough to tell anyone!’

Zeta’s expression morphed into a predatory smirk. She pointed her palms, and a beam of energy erupted towards the enemy, disintegrating the church’s knight.

“Unlike last time, this time, I am the one with power!” The girl exclaimed as she proceeded to walk into the den of the cult.

This place was the last safehouse they located in Kagenou family-controlled territory.

Even as a Barony, they have a lot of land. A lot of useless land; this is why they have so much. But it's suitable for the cult and their shady work, from contraband to slaves to possessed people.

Marcus girls are hitting them hard, and the cultist can't reel in time. They never had such challenging opponents before!

“Aghh!!!!”

A knight rushed at Zeta with a sword, but the Panther girl caught the blade with her gauntlet.

“N-No way! Even with a magic imbued blade!?”

“Naive, I thought you ‘Saint’-” Blonde panther said ‘Saint’ sarcastically.” Explained that conventional weapons don't work!”

As he said that, she squeezed her hand, and the runes on her gauntlet glowed brighter, crushing the steel weapon into bits.

“Hiiiii!!!” The Knight squeaked from fright as he dropped on his ass and looked at his sword, which was missing half of the blade!

“Now bask in the light of my Lord.” She pointed her palm, and the rune projector on the gauntlet glowed, creating another mana beam and erasing the stupefied knight.

~~~

The rest of the girls entered from different entrances and killed off all of the cultists. This time around, Delta didn't go with them as they wanted to try some stealthy methods.

This method was to make sure no one escaped. These tunnels and underground bases can be tricky. They know that from experience and the teachings they got from their Lord.

“Aghh!!!” A priest lost his head as Alpha sliced it off and walked into an underground room.

‘Ugh…’

“All of you get lost!” The elf girl commanded all the naked girls to escape. It appears this was some sort of brothel as well.

“Damn that Baldy! He never mentioned anything like this!”

Claire complained as she saw this as well. Why did no one tell her that something like this was happening in her lands!?

“Epsilon, make sure they get away properly.”

“I am going as well! I need to investigate this!”

Claire joined the light blue-haired elf as the pair proceeded to walk with the girls they found in this hideout.

“Fine, use your ‘public persona’.”

“That’s the idea.”

After dealing with that, Alpha and the rest proceeded to ransack the place. They eventually scored big!

Another possessed person!

Apart from that, they found some interesting stuff.

“Alpha! Check this out! They have some sort of plans with the Princess of Oriana kingdom! They were syphoning funds towards some sort of bandits who would kidnap this princess!”

Beta exclaimed with an excited tone. If they can get a princess under their wing, this could lead to so many developments!

Most importantly, their Lord would be pleased with his information!

Mostly, that's what Beta is thinking about.

“Wonderful. Is there anything more on this?”

“Sadly, no. But the only reason the church would care about a Princess like this is because of the cells.” Alpha pondered on that.

“I guess so.”

After collecting all of the material, the girls decided to destroy this disgusting place. So the moment they were out, they started to throw mana attacks one after another until the whole place caved in.

~~~~~~Back at the Base~~~~~~

“I see.”

Marcus nodded at the report Alpha gave to him.

“Tell me more about the Kingdom of Oriana.” The Alchemist asked the girls. Since Claire was busy, there was no one else to give info.

“Oh! Let me!” Epsilon raised her hand.

“Well?”

“The Kingdom of Oriana is called the Kingdom of Arts. From painters to musicians, everyone goes to live there.

They look down on ‘barbarians’ of Midgar, yet they rely on them for security.” The light blue-haired elf explained to him.

“This sounds like the perfect place for the cult to fester and grow.”

“How come?” Epsilon asked curiously.

“Lack of proper military and security.” Alpha chipped in.

“Lax discipline like this allows easier bribery and corruption. I am not saying that bribery and corruption can't exist in a military-driven society.

What I mean is men are less corruptible when they are proud.”

“But artists ARE proud!” Epsilon said with a knowing look. She comes from a noble bloodline, after all!

“Indeed, that's where lifestyle choices come into play. When you pay a painter, he is still a painter, but when you pay a soldier for his services, now that's a mercenary.

Nobles of Oriana are most likely snobs who barely, if not at all, care about their Kingdom, but nobles of Midgar? I can bet they care more. But then again, for how long the cult was here, they most likely destroyed everything that is ‘beautiful’ in this place.” Marcus explained to them.

“Don’t worry, My Lord! We shall destroy this cult and allow beautiful things to exist again!” The blonde elf with flames in her eyes said to him.

Her desire to destroy the cult went from 150% to 160% or something like that.

The Grand Alchemist chuckled at her enthusiasm before looking at the blob of rotten flesh in the room.

He pointed his hand at it, and his mana started to bombard the ‘possessed’ girl.

Slowly, the blob shrunk and turned into a girl. She had long brown hair and purple eyes. Her front bangs were cut similarly to the Japanese ‘Hime’ style.

“...You undid the possession? How?” The girl spoke in a plain tone. She sounded emotionless.

“Mana frequency.”

“...Mana…Fre-que-cy?” The girl tried to understand what he meant by that!

“Are you perhaps interested in learning more?” Marcus asked with a small smile. He noticed THAT spark in her. Oh, yes, the spark of over-the-top curiosity, the same curiosity all future scientists and researchers have.

It appears his ‘seventh’ pull was a success. His gatcha gods were on his side.

Now, all he needs is to develop her in the right way. He has seen enough nutcrackers who lost their way regarding science and research.

“...Yes… but who are you?” She asked while moving her head to the side.

“I am a Grand Alchemist.”

Reaction to his identity was more extreme than any girl before this. Not even Alpha, Beta or Epsilon reacted like this!

The naked girl stood up, walked over to him, and placed her hand on him.

“...You are real. But this is impossible. Your kin died out long ago.” She was confused, perplexed and excited at the same time.

Instead of saying anything, he pointed to the side where the armours on the mannequins were resting.

“Look at them yourself.”

The girl’s gaze went to the armours. Her eyes bulged out, and she swiftly nearly tripped but walked over and started to touch them.

“A-Amazing! What metal is this!? A-A-And are these runes!?” The girl lost all of her stoic looks and instead sounded like an excited little girl.

Her happiness made other girls feel strange. They were reminded that Marcus’ stuff is out of this world.

Then, out of nowhere, she collapsed on the ground and proceeded to beg.

“Oh, all mighty God. Please teach this little one how to build as you do!”

Marcus, for a second, scratched the back of his head. He was afraid of this. He wanted a fellow intellectual, but he was always worried they would get shocked so hard they would start worshipping him like a god.

Regardless, he can't just say nothing.

“Then do you agree to follow my every single command? Obey me? Because if you start derailing and interfering in my work, I can respond with hostility.”

He doesn't want to share his stuff with someone who starts thinking away from what he wants and works towards.

“Yes! My life is yours! To show my allegiance, I request you to give me a name.” He was expecting that, so he already had a name ready for her.

“Very well. From now on, your name is Eta.”

“...Eta…” She mumbled to herself as if it were the greatest treasure in the cosmos.

“...You might have competition,” Epsilon whispered to Alpha. The blonde looked at her with annoyance.

It's not a surprise that Alpha is the closest one who thinks that Marcus is a God. Now they have Eta, who was basically praying to Marcus.

~~~

With Eta joining Marcus’ group, the Alchemist proceeded to teach her. Faster than anyone, the brown-haired elven girl absorbed the information like a sponge.

Seeing this, the Iron Wolf swiftly made a laptop for her and started to teach coding—the sheer leap in understanding even terrified Alpha and the rest of the girls.

It's like the girl was made to be Marcus’ research assistant.

However, there was one significant fault in Eta. The girl had a sleeping disorder.

To fix that, Marcus made sure she got her sleep. He would simply knock her out and make her sleep those eight hours.

Regardless, with his new assistant, the development of Mark II was advancing rapidly.

Sections of Matter Convertor and Assembly Lines got online, and basic Mithril Alloy creation was possible.

On top of that, with metal rolling in, microengineering of small parts is possible with assembly lines. The joints and segment alignment were possible with computer precision. That means Mark II can roll out!

…

…

…

A new suit was placed on a mannequin; the elves, a pair of Therianthropes, and a single human came over to see it.

“Is that it?”

“It's so smooth!” Beta gushed as she stroked the metal

“Look at the body lines! Wow!” Epsilon was pleased! Once she has one of these, she will look hot in it!

“With this, you can fly high and even dive into water around 80 metres deep…” Eta said with a lazy tone. She checked her clock. Making sure she doesn't miss her bedtime.

“I see…say…when we are getting these?” Epsilon asked with a small but greedy look.

“Hnn…”

The brown-haired girl shrugged her shoulders.

“Our Lord will be testing this out himself first. Then we can start with production for you all.” Eta said after thinking.

“The OS still needs work. Some of the functions are not fully implemented.” She said while looking away thinking.

“And the suits we have now?” Beta asked the vital question. Other girls who got attached to the Mark I looked interested in as well.

“Whatever you want. It's obsolete.” The assistant said with a careless shrug.

“...”

“...”

“...”

“Okay, then we will keep them in our rooms.”

“Sure, just don't forget to dust them. You don't want Our Lord seeing dusty suits.” Eta said with a nod. She experienced it first-hand. As his assistant, she is on cleaning duty all the time.

“I thought he would add self-cleaning runes by this point?” Alpha pointed out.

Then they all looked at Zeta.

“Right. Thanks to her, we can’t do that.”