As if their growing process was being accelerated, numerous branches stretched all over the place.
Thousands of brown-scaled branches, none of them with leaves on their tips.
Domain Tree. A mother yet barren tree, that returned everything to the earth.
“Revising optimal solution.”
Qualia’s body was picked up by the branches. The whips that were the branches wrapped around his limbs, not allowing him to even swing his photon weapon. As he saw Qualia bound tens of meters above the ground, Ddos finally spoke with a smile.
“Nice going Ace!”
“Destroying… that body.”
That bug ran around Ace’s thoughts again for a moment.
“Detecting slight error. Correcting.”
“You keep repeating that mistake. That is not a bug. That is a question.”
Both Ddos and Ace quickly looked up.
Qualia’s body was held up high by tough branches in the shape of a cross, but he responded to Ace’s bug without any change to his expression.
Ddos snorted, thinking it was all just for show.”
“Squeeze that impudent thing to death already, Ace!”
Ace received instructions from Ddos, looked up at Qualia, and stretched her right hand.
That was not a hand looking to crush an answer, it was looking for one. Or at least that was what Qualia supposed.
“Activating 5D printer’s conversion feature. Rewriting the material composition of the Domain Tree.”
Qualia’s body began to shine in a pale blue color. It was not a skill from a magic stone, it was a function of the 5D printer.
A very fine silver light emerged from the 5D printer, and it illuminated the branches, before they were replaced by charcoal.
“What!?
Ddos was confused, but Qualia did not actually create anything. All he did was rewrite the Domain Tree much like how he repaired his body. Simply replacing the strong branches with brittle carbon.
Before long, the branches holding Qualia turned to ash and dispersed.
Qualia was free.
“Learning complete.”
And then, he began to free fall while aiming for Ace.
“Domain Tree has been destroyed.”
“Don’t just report that so casually! Do something!”
“Binding again with Domain Tree.”
Qualia had fallen a few dozen meters, when numerous branches stretched again.
But Qualia’s calculations were not just about attacks to him. Everything regular or irregular around him factored into his calculations.
The leafless Domain Tree stretching up towards the sky, and the branches shooting up freely, to bind and crush its enemies.
Ace’s position. The small glimpses of a heart that were showing through on her face.
Ddos’ position. The avarice that was perfectly clear on his face.
The other magic dolls hidden in the wings of the stage. Where no heart could be detected yet.
And the speed at which Qualia was falling. Air resistance included, of course.
He had all the information he needed.
“Calculating optimal solution.”
He followed it while holding his photon weapon, and cut down the Domain Tree while using it as footing to change the trajectory of his fall.
Nothing could catch him, as he played tag with the many branches.
He kept going, straight towards Ace.
“You useless…! H-hurry, do something about that brat…”
“Detecting static. Neutralizing.”
Qualia said before throwing his photon weapon at Ddos, who had been nothing more than annoying static.
“U-ugah!?”
Ddos was hit on the head, and fell back.
There was no beam, but the tube itself was made up of the strongest and toughest atoms. It was more than good enough of a throwing weapon to take down one target.
The world became clear without his static, sharpening Qualia’s calculations even more.
He was not fast, and his movements were not particularly good, but he understood everything.
Every trajectory from Ace was included in his calculations.
“He dodged everything.”
Qualia finally landed next to Ace, who did not react at all.
Her trump card had been broken, and Qualia managed to get near. That reality was clear to her.
“Request explanation. Why are you not attacking Qualia? Even at this close distance, your skill should be capable of attacking.”
“No. My skill was completely dodged. Regardless of what action I take at this range, everything will be neutralized by you.”
And so, she gave up. The same choice made by Qualia at one point.
When it was faced with over a trillion enemy weapons in its old world, Shutdown gave up on existing after seeing it had no more options.
But what Ace said next did away with any notions that they were the same.
“An error has occurred. I am strongly opposed to being neutralized. Is it because that will render me unable to obey master’s instructions?”
“That is not a bug.”
“Then what is it?”
“You just defined feeling the risk of death. If you have a heart, avoiding death is not an anomaly.”
There probably were humans who did not fear death, but fearing it was normal. It was common sense for humans.
After all, they were unable to experience ‘tasty’ if their vital activities were not maintained.
“That is proof that you have a heart. You are correct.”
“…I don’t understand. I am a magic doll. I, I… Error, error, diced steak error, error…”
Ace’s knees fell to the ground, as she faced down and mumbled quietly.
“I… Just… Want to eat diced steaks again.”
“As long as you maintain your vital activities, that is very possible.”
“But I have master’s, instructions. I am… A magic doll. Maintain master’s orders… Master’s slap… Hurt.”
Ace’s eyes trembled. But she did not move aside from that.
Even though the master she was supposed to protect was still on the ground behind her, and even though the enemy she should defeat stood in front of her, Ace could not react.
Even though complaints about magic dolls flew from the crowd around her, what she defined as an error ran around her thoughts.
That was called thinking. Having recently learned this, Qualia made a decision.
“Confirming that Ace has been effectively neutralized. Canceling attempt at hacking.”
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