The low hill once covered in dense trees had completely changed its appearance.
An area about one kilometer in radius around the hill had been cleared, and the entire surface was covered in thick concrete.
The outer edge rose slightly, and numerous mobile batteries had been deployed inside it.
The openings placed at regular intervals were connected to underground passages so heavy machines such as multi-legged tanks could immediately rush out depending on the situation.
Most of the hill’s interior had been divided by concrete walls into movement corridors, creating a system that could send large numbers of automated machines in from the central section.
Even if monsters invaded underground, their movement would be obstructed by the gaps and metal shutters built into the structure, and they would be caught in crossfire from the many weapons gathering around them.
Furthermore, near ground level, in what corresponded to the middle layer of the position, living spaces had been prepared, and the Chimiya Family stationed there was living in them.
If a threat organism was detected, the waiting members of the Chimiya Family were ready to rush out.
And then, at the center of this fortress.
Numerous large guns and missile launchers had been installed there.
Also, in the central underground section, a fusion reactor was operating in a heavily sealed and shielded state.
That reactor supplied abundant energy to the entire fortress while suppressing its effects on the outside as much as possible.
“Hmm. It’s finally time, then?”
“Yes, Big Sister. The cargo will arrive in about five more minutes.”
The front-line fortress of the <Demon Forest>. <Iris>, who managed it, was using a doll-machine communicator to explain this important event to Eve.
“But... we really are relocating that thing.”
The “that thing” Eve meant was the giant <Magic Stone> and its structural tissue, which had continued generating the magic barrier that protected the Holy Capital of the Prava Divine Kingdom.
The biological tissue that had been spread throughout the entire Holy Capital had been dug out without leaving any behind, then carefully packed so the tissue would not adhere together during relocation.
At present, it had been loaded onto a freight train and was being carried into the front-line fortress.
Footage of that freight train appeared on the projected display in front of them.
Vehicles with heavy armor, wary of attacks from monsters and threat organisms, ran along the steel road while fully loaded with various supplies.
Inside the Prava Divine Kingdom, a railway network was currently being built at a tremendous pace.
Border security. Transporting supplies to various regions. Long train formations loaded with large amounts of excavated resources and carrying them to large-scale production sites.
And refrigerated freight cars that went around each village collecting agricultural products.
Within the Prava Divine Kingdom, this railway network had become the bloodstream that activated the entire region.
In the footage, the slowing freight cars entered the front-line fortress.
They were fully loaded with massive quantities of supplies, but the main items were, of course, the giant <Magic Stone> and its structural tissue.
From here, that <Magic Stone> would be set at the center of the fortress, and the tissue would be spread throughout the entire structure.
Pipes for running the biological tissue had already been installed inside the fortress. Inside those pipes, ultra-fine work machines were standing by.
Those cord-like automated machines would grip the ends of the biological tissue, crawl through the interior of the pipes, and reliably embed it inside the fortress.
And during future operation, similar cord-like automated machines were planned to monitor and manage this biological tissue.
“Hmm... It still doesn’t look pleasant, does it?”
“This biological tissue produces that magic barrier. Hard to believe.”
Apparently, <Iris> also found this magic-barrier-generating device unpleasant.
Well, it was effectively like holding some mysterious organism whose principles were unclear inside one’s own stomach.
It was perfectly natural to find it disgusting.
“If there’s anything you don’t understand, make sure to ask the Chimiya Family properly. They should know best how to handle it.”
“Understood.”
The stopped freight cars opened, and the cargo loaded inside was carried out one item after another.
As she watched the scene, Eve stroked the back of <Iris>, whose expression looked rather complicated.
◇◇◇◇
“Hm-hm-hmmm-hm-hmm-hmmm.”
Humming in high spirits, the fantasy authority, No. 6 Asahi, restlessly paced around the control room.
This was inside a base constructed near Fratara City in the United Kingdom of Aphrasia.
Asahi had come to this place, where permission had somehow been obtained, in order to connect directly to the large research facility near the royal capital.
In terms of distance, this was right at the limit where direct connection was possible. Asahi herself had wanted to get closer, preferably to go to the site itself, but that had been rejected, as expected.
And what Asahi was about to carry out was the disassembly of the preserved wyvern.
“At last. At last, at last! At last, permission has been granted!”
Asahi’s excitement shot through the roof, and she flung both hands up with all her might.
“Wyvern disassembly! Experimentation! Research! I’ve built enough hypotheses to choke on, and now, finaaally, it’s time for practice!”
Small-scale experiments using threat-organism corpses had continued, but the large-scale experiments Asahi had proposed had kept being rejected because they involved too many uncertain factors.
But this time...
With the precedent of installing the magic-barrier-generating organ, a lump of uncertainty, in the front-line fortress, permission to use the corpse had finally been granted.
“That said, this is the body of a precious threat organism. I think it would be best to trace the actual structure and consider ways to turn it into something like a barrier generator organ...”
While connecting to the research facility and exchanging information, Asahi paced around the room.
Because she was accessing the network wirelessly, there was no need for Asahi to operate equipment directly.
The other initial five sisters usually sat quietly in chairs while working, but Asahi fundamentally moved around. According to Asahi herself, stimulating the motor cortex improved the operating efficiency of the entire brain unit.
Whether that was true remained unknown.
“In that case, blood vessels really do seem best. Splitting the muscle into thin strips and using that doesn’t seem bad either. And then there’s skin, perhaps? It seems like we could use it as ordinary leather by cutting it into long, thin ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) strips.”
Asahi murmured to herself while skimming over the measurement results again.
“Still, connecting different types of tissue to each other seems rather difficult. To begin with, if we connect them that way, they may be recognized as something else and rejected.”
At Asahi’s connection destination, the <wyvern>, which had been left alone because it showed no sign of rotting, was carried into the work area.
A huge mobile machine prepared for this day was moving with the <wyvern> loaded onto it.
“Hmm, it really hasn’t decomposed at all. Well, I knew that because we observed it regularly. Was it a waste to let the blood leak out? That said, it’s full of holes, so trying to seal them would be far too much wishful thinking.”
As she said all this, the <wyvern>’s body was lowered into its designated position and secured.
“Good. Well then, well then. Now it’s time for that!”
And what Asahi instructed the local control AI to bring over was the <Cutting Sword>, obtained in the adventurer town of Northend City.
Normally, <The Tree> used high-energy devices such as plasma cutters to disassemble threat organisms. Without applying that level of effort, cutting them was barely possible, but because those devices became extremely hot, they had the problem of altering the tissue.
So they had acquired a magical tool confirmed to exist in Northend City, one with high cutting ability.
“Now, let’s use this to take it apart slowly and carefully! First, let’s expose the blood vessels!”
