"What kind of gun is this? It's something I haven't seen in the database."
I asked the Hermit as I was inspecting the gun that she used.
"Don't touch that! That's the only thing my father left me…"
After taking her down, though our roles from earlier were reversed, I only restrained her arms. I don't know what's her ability so I used the restraining cuffs that were also used to the triplets and Delares to prevent her from activating any abilities. I'd rather interrogate her than have her demonstrate it to me.
Despite her shouts, I acted calmly as I continued to inspect the gun. My Adaptability only told me the function of it that instead of bullets, it's using Meta Energy to shoot a destructive energy-based attack. However, it wasn't supposed to be that strong. In fact, it's force should be only a little higher than my Air Bullet.
Looking at the damage it caused earlier that was still visible, the trees where it passed through all turned to ashes and it reached at least 100 meters from the location where she shot it.
"Your father? Does he have the same skin as you?"
"Why will I answer you?!"
My questions were only met with another question from her that she even shouted it.
Is it hopeless talking to this girl? But her origin was really something I was curious about. The Order might've been working with the Anzeans but there's no mention about a hybrid like her. Also, I don't know what's their real purpose in this world. Colonization or Migration? Then why aren't they building bases or settlement on the places not occupied by the three factions? There's a huge empty land.
Do they also coveted the Regenium? Haa... I don't know. Maybe that Emperor know their purpose given how he could even had them work with the Order.
If I have to guess, this was brought by her parents to hide her from the eyes of common people. Are her parents really dead or not?
"Because I don't have any desire to hurt you. Despite you trying to kill me just now, I still don't."
"You're lying."
The girl tried to sit up from her current position, aside from putting that restraint on her, I didn't do anything that would hurt her.
Well. I could hurt her if I want to but if she's really keeping those ethnic tribes safe somewhere, it would look bad on me. I only thought of becoming a Transcendent in this place, encountering this girl was something unexpected.
"Ever since our meeting earlier I never once uttered a lie. It's you who kept on lying. If you keep this up, even my patience will run out."
Changing the tone of my last sentence, the girl finally showed a bit of a reaction. She looked fearless alright but she's still a bit naive. Is she still young? It's hard to gauge if I consider the biology of a half Anzean.
"… Please give that back first. That's really important to me."
"No. I saw how you used it and almost died from it. I will be an idiot to give this back to you. I'll hold onto this until I leave this place. If you don't want to answer me then don't. I'll continue my search for the ethnic tribes and leave you here."
After saying that, I put her gun inside the Necklace and stood up. When she saw me turning around, she also tried standing up from where she was.
"Wait! Don't leave me here, I'll answer you, I'll stop lying and tell you the truth."
"How will I know you're not lying again?"
"The tribes, I know where they are. I will show you."
"Alright. Show me. Only by seeing them will I believe you."
"How can I show you? I wouldn't be able to move fast with this."
She raised her restrained arms hoping I would remove it from her.
"You don't need to move. I have this"
Taking the Purple Haze, the girl watched as it expanded from a single small sphere to a towering giant of a robot. Unexpectedly, her eyes shined as if it's the first time she was seeing a Metagen.
If she already encountered other people why didn't they use their Metagen? And what's their goal here? Is there some secret in this forest?
Haa… only this girl could probably answer that.
I picked her up despite her resistance and jumped inside the Purple Haze's cockpit.
Upon seeing the interior of the cockpit, her struggle stopped as she started checking out everything that could be seen inside.
"W-what is this thing?"
"A Metagen."
After activating it, the screen and interface appeared and the surrounding became visible from the screen.
The girl's eyes were shining brightly as she watched everything in interest. The previous wariness she had was gone.
"I heard something like this from my father. But he said they needed five to activate it. How can you make this work with only one of you?'"
From her words, her father was now confirmed as an Anzean. He's probably a Pentacom pilot or maybe just a normal Anzean ground soldier. The ones who were responsible for fighting those in Powergens and taking out the Operators.
In a standard battle where numerous Metagens were deployed. Specialized and Standard Metagens will only be few in numbers while those mass-produced Metagens that will be remotely controlled by Operators will be numerous and sometimes they're the key to winning a battle.
Being surrounded by those, even a Specialized Metagen can be destroyed.
During the Virtual Simulation, I once thrust into that kind of scenario.
With Pentacoms fighting off the Metagens, though they're inherently stronger due to having 5 pilots, a standard Metagen and a group of remotely-operated Metagen could block it and destroy it.
That's why they're also dropping normal Anzean Soldiers to kill civilians and find the lair where the Operators were located.
However, the last time that kind of battle happened was at least 5 years ago. From her external appearance, she couldn't be someone as young as that. She's probably already here when Nysia became a Transcendent here.
"Your father was probably an Anzean. What they have isn't like this. They're called Pentacoms. Anyway. What's your name? And were your parents really dead or was that also a lie?"
Somehow, after entering the Purple Haze, I became the one targeted by her questions… Am I being too lenient on her?
"… Dannae. Father left years ago, I couldn't remember when exactly, I'm still young at that time, Mother is in the tribe."
"Dannae. Great, you're really good at lying earlier. So they're both still alive. Show me where the tribe is, I already lost a lot of time."
Ah. Of course, I didn't really lose a lot of time. In fact, I still have plenty of it. If I didn't get curious of her origin I would've just killed her when she pulled that trigger but my guess from earlier was true. She really knew where they were and most of what she answered earlier were lies. I might be right about the gun but the strengthened Mutant Beasts were probably a natural occurrence.
By using the Purple Haze, we arrived at the location where she appeared earlier in less than 20 minutes.
During it, she kept on asking me about Anzeans, Pentacoms and Metagens. The appearance of the Purple Haze and experiencing what's happening inside it really sparked her interest that she didn't even bring up about being restrained again. Even her wariness lessened.
Though I never answered any of her following questions, she didn't stop at her questions. She's reminding me of that curious girl in the World of Spirits that upon seeing something that sparks her curiosity, she'll be instantly lost in it.
That's why I took advantage of it. Instead of answering her, I questioned her which she had no choice but to answer. I learned about why she was out there and the history of this Scorched Forest.
Nysia only stayed here for a week so even she failed to understand what was really happening here.
According to her answers which I didn't really take in face value, the ethnic tribes moved out of their previous settlement because of the increasing Mutant Beasts. It's not really about them being strengthened to that degree, the people of the tribes also grew in strength and she's the living example of it. A Rank 4 Mortal in strength but her Meta Pathway was probably only Silver or Gold-rank. Something really strengthened them. Was it the environment of this Scorched Forest?
Through my questions, I finally learned about the gun and the unusual destructive force it could exert.
Her awakened ability is called Amplification however it was painfully limited. That gun was first charged by Meta Energy just like how it was supposed to be and after that, her abilities continuously Amplified the loaded Meta Energy in it.
She could stack the use of her ability in objects but the Amplification only added 1-2% each time she used it.
And that's when I caught on to another one of her lies. The gun was being Amplified by her ability every day and it hasn't been used for years until today. Even she was shocked by the destruction it caused but because of my swift actions, she failed to express that shock.
The people she mentioned that attacked her because of her dark green skin were tribe members who were discriminating against her because of how different she was.
This was her first time leaving the tribe and the first time encountering another person outside the tribe. Wasn't that too much of a coincidence?
"Why did you pull the trigger?"
"I only thought of scaring you like how I scared them years ago, I never thought it would already be that strong."
This time, she looked apologetic enough but yeah, it's just her words. Without really seeing the tribe she mentioned or her mother, it's hard to believe her.
"But your words when I asked you the same question earlier were different. Are you lying to me again? That one sounded real."
"That's not a lie... I'm talking about the tribe members at the same age as me and this time I went out of the tribe because of them and you're the first person I saw. The tribe. There's a passage below that will lead us to it."
Dannae confessed and pointed somewhere at the screen.
That's where I was standing when she suddenly appeared. Was it that simple? I was careless that I didn't expect her to appear from underneath the ground?
A few seconds later, from where she was pointing at, three figures holding spear-like weapons emerged from it and judging from their outfit, they matched Nysia's description of them…
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