Devils & Artefacts c102 (Patreon)

The girls are discussing their findings and observations inside the recently built Outpost above the Super Ocean of Carboniferous Earth.

The outpost is slowly morphing into the Ouroboros-Class Assimilator, but for now, it's still a large floating fortress.

The meeting room looked like the United Nations National Assembly but with more sci-fi touch…

“Our Observation of Moon’s effect on Earth is staggering… Observe.” Artemis showed what she had captured with her suit’s recording capabilities.

What everyone saw was water rising… to absurd levels. Then, the camera switched to an aerial view and, lastly, from space via Satellites.

“How many miles do they go inland?” Hisako asked as she dumbly looked at how entire sections of Gondwana simply ceased to exist for a portion of a day.

It appears there are trees so high that they ignore the high tide!

“Depends on elevation. At lowlands, it goes inland up to several hundred miles.” 

“...That’s quite a tide,” Enterprise commented out loud as she inspected the footage.

“More like tsunami…” Jeanne grimaced as she saw it as well.

“Well, it's not a wave…” Le Fay intercepted.

“I know… but calling it a flood? Yeah, no…” Jeanne shook her head.

“Regardless. What we are seeing is what creates modern-day soil.” Athena chipped in as he proceeded to give a lecture on how Carboniferous Earth’s jungles would cease to exist. It's related to the soil.

Usually, one would be bored out of their mind listening to such a thing, but they look at it from the first person. It has a different feeling to it.

The process is quite simple. In the Devonian Period, instead of trees, there were big mushrooms. However, with several ice ages and some vulcanism, mushrooms were replaced by trees. Big trees dying and creating rot eventually allowed the creation of soil that could keep water in.

That process was what caused the collapse of Carboniferous Rainforests. Well, ONE of several things. Others are the lack of CO2 and falling sea and ocean levels.

Regardless of what it made them certainly excited to see… changes to climate… people aboard the Outpost felt detached from the planet below. In a way, it made regular people feel like… Gods?

Well, they were among the gods, but…

It was a strange feeling.

They are discussing floods, which could easily drown entire countries. But they are only excited to see what they will experience afterwards!

After discussing the climate, it was time to discuss the trees. How differently do they grow, and why don’t they have seeds and stuff like that?

However, their discussions ignored a key animal family! Bugs! There were no talks about bugs. 

[Sorry to interrupt. But I received a word from the Supreme Commander. Master requests that only ‘Cool’ animals are to be kept aboard Confiscator. The other creatures, like the bugs or ugly fishes, will be kept aboard the Outpost containers.] Aurora interrupted them as she showed that sections of the ‘Acorn’ were coming online. These are the containers for animals.

“Does he truly expect us to collect those…” Tiamat complained as she recalled massive primitive centipedes walking through the wetlands.

[Not necessary.]

“Why so?” Tiamat immediately asked as she had a sense of loss. Honestly, she wanted him to come over and try something to make her do it… The Dragon King didn’t realise yet, but she is becoming an M…

[Project Kang. Do read up on those.] Aurora, with a dull voice, reminded the blockheads to read the logs.

“Right… just tells us…”

Tiamat ignored the taunt and asked anyway.

[Upon completion of Ouranos Class Assimilator, Drones and specific platforms will collect all of the animals and then travel back and forth to collect all of the animals' genomes.

That means your game of collecting points will end.

That is until we arrive at the Permian Period.]

“...Why Ouranos?” Artemis asked with a pout. She didn’t care about the details! She got triggered by the name!

[Primordial of Sky. Why else?]

The Maid Goddess pouted as she crossed her arms and looked away.

“Well, apart from that—” Athena ignored her half-sister and instead addressed everyone who was in the room.

“You should fill up the roster as much as you can, as it appears we do have a deadline now.”

The Goddess of Wisdom realised that there was not that much time left. From what she can understand, the nanites are rapidly multiplying, and this Ouranos Class Assimilator is getting built up quickly.

“Let’s go back to swimming!” Atalanta quickly got up and was ready to get more ammonites and proto-sharks!

“Alright!”

Jeanne and Hypolita followed after her.

“Well, they can do that… It's not like I need those points.” Quinella sighed as she got up from her seat.

It appears she will postpone her discoveries.

But then she smiled as she placed her right hand on her chin. A knowing smile was on her lips.

‘I might as well do a private one in Marcus' room.’

Quinella was not the only one, as Sirin and Gu Yuena were thinking of doing similar ‘presentations’.

“Well, I am off to observe these tides.” Enterprise got up from her seat. Tirpitz followed her. They still have a few things to discover before returning to their creator’s side.

“I am coming with you.”

The pair left the meeting room, and other maids followed after. They still have some things to do before returning to basic work routines.

~~~

Marcus smiled as his Dragoon left Earth’s atmosphere. The air resistance is slightly different, thanks to the composition of the atmosphere. He has somewhat forgotten about stuff like air resistance since, well, the things he uses are anti-gravity, so having a mobile suit with air resistance is somewhat strange…

Regardless, as his machine left the atmosphere, the Dragoon flew towards the Navi point, where the package was waiting.

“Aurora, did you check the star alignments?” Marcus asked as he was looking around. The world where he was is so alien that he is having a hard time seeing this place as ‘Earth’ instead of some sort of alien world.

[Not yet; when we have a chance, we should check out the solar system]

Marcus slowly nodded. As long as he doesn’t change the trajectory of several asteroids, he is safe enough to explore.

After flying just beyond Moon’s orbit, he shifted from plane mode to humanoid mode and grabbed the container.

Once he acquired it, he turned around and flew back to the planet.

A short trip later, his Dragoon landed in hangar bay. He walked over and handed over the large container to the engineers and mechanics who were waiting for him.

With his job done, he brought the mech back to its parking place.

“I was wondering who took one of my knight’s machines.” Quinella walked over with crossed arms.

Marcus jumped out from the cockpit and landed next to her.

“It was just me having some fun~” He replied with an amused tone.

“You could just make one for yourself instead of overwriting the OS all the time.” Quinella sounded slightly frustrated that he was hacking the program he had made himself!

For ex-AI, she feels that he is violating it without proper reason!

“Relax~” He pulled her for a hug.

That was enough for her to calm down.

“How about this—” he pondered for a bit before explaining to her.

“Why don’t you make a mech for me?” He cupped her cheeks while saying that.

Her eyes sparkled for a second.

“Deal! You will have to use it properly, okay?” She asked with a serious tone.

“Of course~”

“It's a promise?” She requested while narrowing her eyes.

“Yep, a promise, I won’t be stealing your knight mechs.” 

“Then I shall design one!”

After saying that, she used that moment to hug him, saying that it was just perfect.

Marcus simply chuckled at seeing her act like that.

A short hug later, she slightly pulled back and proceeded to speak in a confident tone.

“Oh, we have reports ready for you~ we have a clear connection between land dwellers and ancient fish. Do you want to hear it?” The girl twirled her finger on his chest while saying that.

“Let’s go,” he said, wrapping his hand around her waist before walking towards the main lift.

“Okay~”

~~~

My lady, it's strange, don’t you think?” Hisako said to Erina as they looked down. They watched how flood water swallowed entire sections of forests.

There was a huge increase in the quantity of water. Something they have never seen before. It was like filling up and releasing a dam full of water. 

“It's our world, but we watch this without care.” The girl feels detached from what she is seeing.

“Yes, well… it's not truly our world, and what we are seeing is natural? No?” Erina tried to argue, but she felt the same way.

In her mind, she sees this as something Marcus could fix… 

“True… but still.”

Erina's somewhat nonchalant response made Hisako slightly uncomfortable. 

“Then it's fine. These floods are supposed to happen. We shouldn’t interfere. The plants and animals have been around for millions of years. Let them do their thing.”

Erina explained with a small smile before deciding to return to the outpost.

She finally got over her fears of diving and flying; the suit made her invincible, she is certain. 

“Let’s go, Hisako, I saw enough.”

“As you wish.”

The pair proceeded to fly back.

Their trip was not long.

As they flew, they stopped for a second to observe how enormous the outpost had become.

The nanites make the huge structure construction look insignificant. It was like paper printing.

“To think that this thing will encase the whole planet.” Hisako was not sure what to think of it. 

“Yes. With this thing, Marcus will be able to control the entire planet. So no more uncertain phenomena like droughts or volcanic activities which could end life on the world!”

Unlike Hisako, Erina sees this as a good thing. In her eyes, no one should die from freak incidents; if they can be controlled, then make them so.

The assistant to the chef girl was not so sure. She thinks they are invading territory that belongs to nature.

“Still… it's enormous!” 

“That is true… I think it's bigger than the space gun.” Erina was not certain about the sizes. By this point, they were simply enormous constructs.

The pair recalled Marcus' explanation. The inspiration for Ouranos-class Assimilator came from a movie called Independence Day, in which an alien mother ship splits, and smaller parts descend to the ground. 

It's similar to that. The big acorn would split up into five pieces, while four smaller acorns and the skeletal frame of the big one would remain as the main hub.

The smaller acorns would split up and encase the planet like a net.

The amount of energy needed to move and impact the planet is huge, but the Diamond Heart Engine can easily sustain it. 

There are five of them in total, alongside M.T.M auxiliary systems, as the net will move independently. 

In the worst case, if a freak incident happens, there are Graviton Triangle cores that cast the anti-gravity field.

In total, the Assimilator has three means to survive if something fails…

Honestly, the chef girls think he is too hardcore, considering Diamond Heart Engine makes the Ouranos-class Assimilator all but indestructible.

After observing how the nanites work, they flew back into the acorn-shaped construct.

They are ready to get back to work as dinner time is getting close.

~~~~~~Later~~~~~~

Marcus smiled as Ammonite tried to wrap its tentacles around him. The inventor pushed the sea animal aside as it was forced to swim around and try again.

Solomon's Successor was testing out the new aquarium he had built inside his room.

Thanks to the space expansion, it was more like a large swimming pool than an aquarium.

Apart from the distant octopus relative, there were Proto-sharks and other smaller armoured fishes.

The inventor had a large selection of ocean animals, so it was time to play with them and determine their intelligence. 

‘Try again~’

With a mental probe, the animals got annoyed and tried again and again.

Eventually, the animal got tired and swam away.

As he was having fun, a hologram appeared in front of him. 

‘It's time already…huh…’ 

The inventor had a pondering look. The whole week had passed, and the Assimilator was finally finished. 

That means once the deployment is done, he will activate the ‘Time Slip’ and leave to experience the Carboniferous-Permian extinction before leaving this Earth for another Permian Earth.

‘I do wonder if I will encounter some strange, smart alien life?’

One of the reasons he is moving in ‘timelines’ and going to different realities is to increase his chance of visiting an Earth with different possible animals or even smart beasts!

Different types of ‘sapient’ creatures.

As he pondered that, he swam to the corner where the ladders were. Once there, he got out of the aquarium and took a towel to dry himself.

“Having fun?” Sirin asked him as she was lazing on the couch with a bowl of handmade chips.

The chefs are spoiling his girls with their food. Marcus is slightly afraid they will stop eating regular food and only eat what Erina and Hisako make.

“Yeah, but the first Assimilator is finished.”

“...Already?” The girl was lying on her stomach while her legs were moving up and down. 

“Yep.  Once it's deployed, we will use Time Slip to see the extinction event before leaving for another Permian Earth.”

“...Hmm, I see…” She moved into a proper sitting position before getting up and then walking over to him and starting to dry him up.

“You do know that you can use your powers to get a quick dry.” Sirin reminded him of the obvious.

“Or just put your suit on.” She sighed.

“What for? I have you~,” he said, wrapping his hands around her waist and pulling her closer to himself.

“...You… be grateful that I am wearing my suit; otherwise, I would be wet!” She exclaimed angrily.

“...Oh?” 

He grabbed the triangle device on her chest, the core of the suit, and turned it off by simply pulling it off.

At that moment, all of her clothes disappeared as the nanites rushed back to the triangle device.

**Eep!**

The girl released a sound similar to a girly squeal as she realised that he had undressed her in an instant.

He casually threw the triangle device to the couch and then wrapped her hands around her.

“L-Let go of me, damn it!” She leaned at him as she tried to hide her naked body.

“Nope~ we will have some fun~”

As he said that, he kicked off and leapt into the aquarium with the girl in his hands.

“Nooo!”

The girl screamed as she realised what was about to happen!

The water was not the warmest, as the animals lived at an average of 10 to 15 degrees Celsius. It's quite cold for a regular person. Thankfully, the girls he is staying with are genetically enchanted, and such a temperature is all right. But that’s not the point…

It’s that Marcus did all that without asking…

Sirin started to smack her fists at his chest as she looked at him with an angry pout.

He completely ignored those fists as, instead, his hands squeezed her rear and pulled her closer to himself.

Eventually, Sirin needed to breathe, so they surfaced.

GASP

DEEP BREATH

Marcus looked with a small smile as he saw her gasping for air and breathing heavily. He kept on holding her.

After getting enough air, she looked at him with an annoyed look. She could feel his hands squeezing and playing with her ass cheeks.

“Didn’t you have it enough already?” She sighed in resignation. By all means, Marcus has been having his way with his harem daily. She is part of that routine; every day, two girls would be his bed warmers.

Except for the chef girls, Ship girls and Le Fay… Part of Sirin wondered when they would make their move. Not that she wants, of course! The more girls on the list, the longer the waiting time!

So, by all means, Sirin would end up in his bed at least once per week. So, his libido should be in check…

“Are you saying I should be tired of my Herrscher?” Marcus pretended to be offended.

“N-No! That is not what I am saying!”

She exclaimed angrily before realising that he was messing with her.

Her cheeks turned red as she started to feel warmer and warmer as he kept kneading those ass cheeks.

“What I am saying is that you constantly have your way with girls! Don’t you get tired?” she asked him as she placed her head on his chest. She stopped resisting and ended up cuddling next to him.

“Stupid question. How can I have enough of my ladies?” He scoffed at such an idea and proceeded to float out of the water, landing on the floor. Because of such abrupt actions, water is dripping everywhere from the pair.

“...Well? Will you let me go now?” She asked him. Standing naked like this is not something she wants to do!

“Nope…”

As he said that, he used his powers to dry himself and the girl.

Then he took her to the wardrobe, where he used his psionic interface to select a set of clothes.

“What are you doing now?”

She had some nervousness in her voice, as she thought he was going to force her to wear something indecent!

A few moments later, the creation of the clothes was complete, and he pulled out a sailor uniform from the wardrobe.

It had a short skirt…

It was basically a Japanese-style school uniform.

“You will be wearing these for the rest of the day~” He showed to her as the clothes floated out from the wardrobe.

Sirin internally sighed. It was not indecent or anything, so it was fine.

“Fine! Can you let me go now?” She asked him with a nearly begging tone.

“Yup~”

He let her go as the girl swiftly grabbed the clothes and was about to dress up…

But…

“W-Where are panties or bra!?”

She asked him as she checked the clothes!

“You won’t be needing them today, and besides, I am the only guy on this vessel~.”

The inventor smirked at her while explaining what she would be wearing.

“...Damn…you! Is this because of how I replied to you!?” She got all red, realising that she would be exposed like that!

“More or less, after all, I was very busy, and I need some distraction.”

Her eyes perked up when she heard that!

“H-How about this! I will pamper you the whole day, but at least let me wear panties!” The Angel of Death started to negotiate with him.

“Hmm, Fine. But I will choose what you will wear, AND you are not allowed to walk more than a few metres away from me~” He pondered on her proposal before adding some more.

“Deal!”

And so Marcus embarrassed Sirin some more as he went through a long list of panties… 

Until he found what he wanted, he gave the girl black panties with a ribbon as he saved a list of panties he would put on her later on.

Eventually, they left his room. The white-haired beauty sighed in relief as she dodged a bullet with this one!

Still, she was not out of the woods yet. Marcus could do something else… for now; he took her hand as they walked to the lift, which took them to the bridge of the Confiscator.

As they arrived there, everyone was already waiting for them.

Seeing how Sirin was dressed raised a couple of questions… What were they doing in his room?

“Sorry for the wait. You may send the word for them to start with the deployment.” Marcus instructed the ship's crew as he ignored the looks from maids, his creations, and the chef girls. They all wondered why Sirin was dressed like a schoolgirl.

Still, he ignored the gazes and went to take his seat on his throne. Sirin ended up sitting on his lap, cuddling closer to him, as she intended to pamper him for the whole day…

~~~

The upgraded Confiscator was in Earth’s Orbit as they looked at how the Assimilator proceeded to move. The massive acorn-like shaped vessel activated. Four sections of it started to move and split up into four directions, and then they began to move into position.

As the smaller acorn-shaped vessels moved, they started to split up even more, spreading out through the planet's atmosphere.

The process took a while, but as it made the net, people could see that it was not simply energy structures but actually gravitational forces. Before long, the segments spread out and created a net, casting a barrier through the whole planet.

“Does it actually encase the whole planet?” Sirin whispered her question into his ear as she was feeding him seedless grapes.

“Yes, look.”

A hologram appeared in front of them, showing how the net is encasing the whole of Carboniferous Earth.

“That’s some serious reach…” The girl was surprised by how far the platform's extent was.

“Yep, those four smaller acorns settle in the ‘corners’ of the four hemispheres, connected via graviton tunnels. It allows rapid transit from one side to another. Not only that, but I can freeze space for the whole planet now.” Marcus explained to her that, as he stroked her long hair, he was enjoying her company.

“By all means and purposes, the planet is ‘captured’. It will allow me to alter and change the planet’s surface. It's perfect for terraforming, even a dead world like Mars or extremely unstable like Venus.” 

He explained to her in quite an excited tone. 

“Most importantly… I could ignore the basic necessities.” He winked at her before clarifying. 

“It means the world doesn’t need to be close to the sun. I could play what Celestials did in Star Wars.

Imagine hand-tailoring the solar system to whatever I would want.” 

“...That is some power…” The girls mumbled with shock.

“No wonder you called it Ouranos-Class.” Athena chipped in as she walked closer to Marcus. 

“Why don’t we take a trip around the globe before time-slipping?” She suggested as she looked at Sirin and Marcus.

The Goddess started to think about whether she should dress up in some unique clothes just as Sirin did now, and Quinella did from time to time.

“Sure. I do want to take a train through the atmosphere of Carboniferous Earth.” Marcus swiftly agreed, then looked at Sirin.

“You should record all of this for your YouTube channel. Make a playlist and call it— ‘I went to the prehistoric past so that you wouldn’t need to.’ What do you think?” The inventor suggested to her.

The girl giggled for a second before nodding at him.

“Sure, and I have been taking videos since day one.” The girl explained to him that she was, in fact, recording all of it.

~~~

Erina looked at Marcus and Sirin, who were holding hands like a couple. She had seen this before, but the girl had no idea how this whole harem thing could work.

Even now, she is jealous. What would happen if she became his lover? She has no idea how she could watch him being with another girl! It would make her emotions explode!

Not to mention, she has seen how he takes two of them to his room at once, and they only leave the next day! That means he is doing stuff to two of them at once!

It’s crazy stuff! 

‘It appears it's Sirin’s time to get all those cuddles. The last time I saw it was Quinella, and then it was Gu Yuena. I even saw him flirting with those ship girls…

But it appears the maids don’t get as much action as I thought they would.’

The honey-blond girl has spent enough time aboard the Confiscator to understand some of the dynamics of the Harem life.

As she was pondering, she followed the group to the train station, which is at the lower levels of the T-shape skeletal construct. Since the smaller Acorns left, all that was left of the ‘mothership’ was a T-shaped construct which works as a transit hub, shipyard, and comms network.

“Amazing, it looks like a legitimate train station!” Hisako exclaimed as she saw trains at the platforms.

“Yes, but the only issue I see is that we will be going into nothing…” Erina complained as she saw no tracks in front of her… Nope, in front of her were the clouds of Carboniferous Earth.

“You can’t truly see gravity, you know, don’t you?” Athena commented with a small chuckle.

“I know, Goddess Athena, while my mind knows, my eyes don’t,” Erina commented with a strained smile.

“Well, we need to test it out. If it fails, it's only a 20 thousand-mile drop to the Super Ocean below. “ Marcus joked as he turned around and looked at the concerned girls.

“Not helping to calm my nerves.” Erina sarcastically replied.

“Sheesh, just put on your suit if you are afraid.” He rolled his eyes.

“What about me? I don’t have my suit!” Sirin pulled him back and looked at him with narrowed eyes.

“Relax. The tech is tested and is already in use at my house.” He sighed at her while pulling her closer.

“Now, let's board the train for the round-the-world trip!” He pulled his Herrscher to the train, the doors of which opened.

The train station was quite unique as it was built in the long part of the ‘T’ while the horizontal part is the comms tower—the controls like the bridge and the shipyard at the sides of the horizontal part.

Most of the containers with animals will be in the smaller acorns, as the central hub is more like what is holding the entire net.

Of course, Marcus, Aurora and Quinella didn’t show to anyone the weak spots of such a massive construct. 

It's not that easy to exploit as it's built from Sacred Gear metal. That means that as long as power is flowing through the whole net, it's strong as the power source… a.k.a the Diamond Heart Engines, which are five in total.

As Marcus plopped into the seat, he pulled Sirin onto his lap. The girl swiftly got comfortable as she looked around. The interior was exactly the same as the one at home. 

With the girl looking around, the other girls walked in and inspected the train. 

They took their seats after looking around and finding where to sit.

“Why does it look like there are no walls or flooring!?” The pair of chefs looked concerned.

“Realitus crystals are installed throughout the whole interior of the train. With these inside, it will look like you are not even on the train.” Athena explained as she got comfortable as well. She will be able to see the Carboniferous for one last time at its peak before travelling to the Carboniferous-Permian extinction event.

“Doesn’t help either…” Erina complained again.

“Please, I already thought you were over these things.” Athena scoffed, seeing how the chef girl was acting all skittish.

“In a way?”

The girl pulled out the triangle device and placed it on her chest. Soon enough, she was encased in the armour.

**Scoff**

Some of the maids scoffed or laughed seeing that. The girl should have some faith in the tech…

Even though they were thinking like that, they clenched their triangle devices… just in case.

However, it was not needed soon enough. The train left the platform and proceeded to accelerate rapidly through the sky. None of the clouds touched it, as the train’s graviton field made the clouds simply move around the ‘tunnel’. 

Not long after, they blasted through the first platform, a small outpost-like structure that worked like a dock for collection platforms shaped like saucer discs.

The girls only had a second to see how it looked, as they only had a glimpse. They saw the saucers leaving the platforms as they had work to do.

“Is it just me, but was that a UFO?” Jeanne asked Le Fay as she saw something familiar to that.

“Because it was… Master has decided to troll people with those once we are in modern times.” The witch explained with an eye roll.

“Hoh.. maybe there is a paradox of some sort? Don’t you think? All those sightings in the USA? Maybe it's Master from the future!” Jeanne had her conspiracy face on as she was thinking of some outlandish ideas!

“Doubtful they are even real. There hasn’t been a sighting of them for years.”

“That’s because Master’s rise to power!” Jeanne reasoned with her.

“...”

Le Fay had nothing to say to that as she was not certain and didn’t want to fall into this rabbit hole.

Marcus, at the front of the train, smiled at hearing that. He promised himself that he would not check the future. Because it's boring, but checking the past? Now, that is a possibility.

Those saucers being his creation… that is a big possibility.

Soon after, the train arrived at the first major hub, where they saw some of the ‘Knight Handlers’ already unloading the first containers from a train.

It appears they have already collected new animals. After all, there are many bugs that were not touched.

“They already have something!”

“Yeah. You girls remember that we are in the era of the bugs, which is around 80% of all land dwellers. They have quite a bit to collect.” Athena commented. There was some sassiness in her tone. She is hinting at the girls' inability to collect those bugs.

“Considering you girls wanted those points. Collecting a bunch of bugs would have made you girls rich~.”

“What about you?” Artemis countered since she didn’t like that sassy tone.

“I don’t need those points~”

The girls started to mumble under their breath about ‘marrying into wealth’.