Chapter 2: Fantastical Lifeforms

Thanks to the nanosatellites, I detected a large amount of life signatures a few hundred kilometers away. Due to the Singularity suit low on energy, I decided to go in foot so travelling will be much slower. But that wouldn't be a problem as it's been a long time since I've ever admired the beauty of Earth's flora and fauna. No planets were able to match the beauty of Earth, not even Mars or any Terraformers could replicate its beauty.

Earth's greeneries were exclusive to its own, there were only a few of it saved in the database but of course, when the stars began to die, none of those documents was able to escaped the clutches of entropy. And even if they did, it wouldn't go pass the Black Hole Era. It's a miracle really, how I survive and managed to replicate the universe. All those effort makes it all worth it in the end...

As I admire the long forgotten flora of Earth, my sensors managed to pick up a few hostile life forms nearby. I took out my Materializer and switch it to combat mode as combat goggles collapses onto my eyes, covering my vision in a combat-ready interface.

The goggles let me see the hostile life forms, "About 12 of them, nerves and bone structures; humanoid. Weak points analyzed, engaging." I commented as I tap the side of my goggle to observe their behavioral patterns. "Looks like they're attacking something..." In that moment, I detected a neutral life form getting injured. "Well, here goes."

[Initiating combat mode.]

I ran into the scene as I wasted no time in shooting the hostile life forms, finding myself not caring for their appearance. One of them grabbed my arm and I just swiftly used my elbow to manipulate its joins, locking it into place and shoot it in the head. I ducked down, dodging an incoming lunge and shoot another one recklessly charging from behind before deftly using my leg to sweep the ground behind me to put off balance at the one lunging. It feel down and I lay on my stomach after the sweep before quickly shooting its head.

I turned around and shoot at one that tries to lunge at me before rolling to the side as a couple of them tries to pin me down. Using the momentum, I push myself off the ground before performing backflips and landed on the ground, crouching. With the current seating, I took advantage of it and shoot a few of them. It didn't take long however before about four of them rush towards me. I shoot one on the leg as it stumbles, followed by two but one manages to grasp the situation and jumped over.

Spinning around, I used the momentum to do a complete roundhouse kick as the back of my foot landed perfectly on its jaws, completely dislocating it. I shoot it along with the others that stumbled.

Unless you have the armor level of Aurum Magnatus which is an outdated suit version of my Singularity, you wouldn't survive the blast from the Materializer as it does dematerializes whatever it shoots into subatomic levels. It can even erase energy which makes it a very deadly weapon had not for the existence of dark energy or cosmic energy. Although humanity weren't able to unlock the utmost potential of the energy, it is surmised that the cosmic energy can manipulate laws of physics or destroy it which is why I was able to replicate the universe using it.

Yet, even after having to be able to harness its energy, the entropy couldn't be reversed as it too was powered by cosmic energy so the only way was to escape into a universe I made.

I continued shooting until every single one of them was eliminated. Once I was done, their body littered across and the goggles collapses back, uncovering my vision. I let out a sigh as I look around, whatever I killed seem humanoid enough to be a bit familiar to me. However, their skin are green, they have elongated ears and their clothing suggests that they live primitively.

I raised my eyebrows, "Strange. They're clearly not humans, what are they?" I questioned as changing the mode of the Materializer into scanning mode.

Before I could scan however, I heard a gasp from behind. It was the neutral life form I had detected earlier. Now, what kind of creature does this planet have? I assume they'd be nearly similar to humans in appearance but with the new type of energy, they have undergone a different evolution. So what-

"P-Please don't hurt me..." I blinked, surprised at not only the language used being familiar but also the appearance the creature possesses.

I narrowed my eyes, the creature looked to be a human female at the age of 15. She had white hair and red irises, albino? The strangest thing I picked up was the two black horns protruding from her head. It is a pair of spiraling horns but the short length suggests that it is still a youngling.

And the language it was using, I know that language. "Japanese, was it?"

One of the oldest language to exist along with English, it's a surprise I would hear it again after telepathy became commonplace much less in this universe. I was expecting a foreign language that I wouldn't be able to understand without further research but it seems I was wrong. How strange, a new universe should entail a new way of conversing.

"Ahem," I cough into my hand and went towards what seem to be a girl with horns. "Hello there, I come in peace." I greeted in Japanese.

My eyes narrowed, observing that she was currently in rags as shackles and chains were on her ankles, wrists and neck. From this alone, I can surmised she had escaped from whatever place was to deem her a prisoner or something else. For now however, her mood is neutral so I won't have to apprehend her in case she does something rash. A peaceful contact aside from the things that attacked her, good.

"E-Eh...?" She looks baffled, "You...seemed h-human but you don't feel like one...w-who are you?" She asked, still scared of me and I just frowned.

Humans? A familiar term. And by the looks of it, evolution did not change the inhabitants as much as I thought it would. There seems to be classifications of beings or races and there still seem to be humans that looked like the humans of my reality though there seem to be more as to what defines a human than appearance alone. Looking at her, I can surmise that there are a variety of evolutions had undergone around this planet.

"I'm a human, honest." I crouched, she was still on the ground and injured from the attack. "I was just passing here to search for any settlements when I heard...them."

"Y-You mean the Goblins?" I raised my eyebrows, Goblins? "They...they caught me off guard since I ran out of Mana. I couldn't cast any Magic."

Mana and Magic? Hm, interesting.

"I see." I nodded before placing down my bag. "Hold on, let me see if there's something I can do with your injury."

Once I placed down my bag, a hologram pops up showing an interface which currently showcases what's currently occupies the space of the bag. I navigate through the inventory until I found what I was looking for, a medkit. Tapping on it, a square hologram pops up. I put my hand into the square hologram as it enters a separate space and took out the medkit.

The girl looks at me with a bewildered look on her face. "W-What is that?"

"Well, it's complicated but I'll satiate your curiosity anyway." I smiled as I took out a small scanner from the medkit to scan her injury. "It's a new technology I developed that uses various energy sources but mainly the cosmic energy to create a different space to store items. It doesn't just store items, it also freezes the state of those items so if you place food inside and leave it for say about six days. When you take it out, it would be in the same state as when you put it in."

She looks at the bag in amazement. "Wow, that's very handy!" She smiles innocently, still a child alright.

"Yes, indeed it is." Once I finished scanning, I used the disinfectant cream and apply it to her wounds. "Well, your injury doesn't seem to be serious." Once I apply it, I took out the Nanoregen Syringe. "But just in case, I'll use this."

"What's that?" She asked.

"It's Nanoregen Shot. It'll help the cells inside your body to greatly accelerate your healing rate and improve upon it immensely. It will heal your wounds in seconds and leaves no scars." I replied and used the injection.

Although the Naos doesn't need it, people like me who decided to use organic body does. Although quite rare for us to use, it is helpful. Nanoregen Injection had improved over time from merely healing capsules to instant-healing injections. It makes fatal injuries look like small scratches in comparison with how incredibly fast it heals.

"It...doesn't hurt?" She said, surprised at why the needle didn't hurt her as it should be.

"Well, the injection used to be painful but after trials and errors as well as complaints from customers, they managed upgrade it to be painless." I replied, seeing the injection doing its work. "It's made from a special metal called Frigidium. It dulls one's sense when it enters flesh which is why you didn't feel a thing. Well, the few prototypes I've heard made a few people lose their sense of touch all over their body." I chuckled, remembering the experimentations done as well as feedbacks from willing volunteers.

Once again, she looks dumbfounded as she could not make any sense from my explanation. It made me chuckle again, it's been quite a while since I interact with someone actually alive so I may be too excited with the explanations. This Earth is still in its early stages and the inhabitants is primitive in its technology uses. Added in with the fact that there's a new type of energy which this little girl calls "Mana" which can be used to cast Magic...

This world seems to be more of those fantastical novels of old, they're quite popular during the modern ages. However, after humans advanced into space colonization phase, such things were forgotten but some still did appreciate the creativity. Historians and Scientists had been debating on the topic of Magic for a very long time but such existence was long forgotten after space travel became commonplace.

So to see it become real in this universe is...well, it should've been expected considering I replicated the same universe albeit with slight differences since two universes having completely identical laws of physics would cause a major disturbance in the stability of the multiverse so I tweaked the creation a bit. After all, even after the universe ended, it's still there, empty, unchanging forever.

"Whoa..." The girl was bewildered again, she looks at her injury and it was gone. "It's like Healing Magic but it works much faster..."

Healing Magic? I see, that would be convenient but the fact that it relies on one type of energy source is its biggest weakness yet. I could discern that Magic of this world relies on Mana too much, such information would greatly benefit me if things get ugly.

"U-Um..." I look at the girl, she smiles softly. "I don't really understand how it works but...thanks. I-I thought humans were bad people..."

Bad people, huh? Well, human history hasn't always been really pleasant to look at. Humans' barbaric nature since the dawn of ages has always been the worse aspect to date. Although gradually, humans grew empathetic by time, it took quite a while before humans all understand each other and ceased their cruelty. Wars were humans' specialty after all and it didn't stop until World War III devastated Earth back then.

Unification was formed and humans were ruled under one person, wars became a thing in the past as technology became our first priority. Technological Singularity happened and the advancement speeds up greatly as we reached the first level of civilization. Honestly, that was the greatest turning point for humans. It still remained in people's memories, even me.

I smiled as I placed all the things back into the medkit and put the medkit back into the bag. "Well, not all humans are the same." I shook my head, since humans of this world does not connect under one cyberpath which allows telepathy and greater understanding of one another, I doubt people's mindset are the same so differences of humans in this planet are far greater much like humans of old. "My advice; don't expect all humans to be as nice as I am, alright?"

She nodded, "Alright..." She grabbed the hem of my shirt, pulling on it as she seem she has something to say. "W-What's your name?"

I laughed a bit, seems like with the lack of interactions I had, I even forgot common etiquette. "Ah, right. Forgive my manners, it's been quite a while after all." I pat her on the head, smiling. "My name is Orion Colt Maximus. You can just call me Orion." I placed my hand on my knees as I urged her to introduce herself. "What's yours, ojou-chan?"

"I'm Kiria...I'm a slave but my master was killed by bandits when we travelled so I have nowhere else to go."

My eyes widened, "A slave...?"

"Y-Yes..."

Tears form in her eyes, of course slaves aren't treated nicely. They are people without rights, an item. The concept and uses of slaves are of course common during the middle ages but I didn't expect this. I'm completely appalled, things like that are greatly look down upon after the middle ages. It's because things like that wars became common, people treat other people like tools meant to be used and abused. It's disgusting really, I should've expected such things also exist here since this world does seem to be currently in the early middle ages.

This is utterly revolting.

I sighed, "Kiria, you're already free now. Your master died, right?" I asked.

She shook her head, "No, I'm not." She showed me her chains and shackles as suddenly, few letters I don't recognize glowed on her choker. "These chains are a sign that I'm a slave. As long as this Enslavement Collar is on me, I will have to obey my master..."

"What the hell...?" I spoke in English, I was frowning. "This...this seems like it was powered by Mana...right?"

Kiria nodded, "Yes. It's a special kind of magic and no matter what I do, I can't disobey my master..."

I touched her choker and it immediately lets out sparks which electrocuted me for a bit. "Shit!" It hurts too, what the hell?

"N-No matter what you do, you can't break these chains. Only my master can but..."

I sighed, "Right, he's dead." I shook my head, what kind of joke is this? "Still, if it's done by Magic, I can do something about it."

"B-But..."

I smiled as I pat her again. "Hey, no worries. I know just what to do." Kiria looks at me, a bit unsure but nodded nonetheless. "There you go." I stood up, "What's the current energy percentage of Singularity?"

[8% and recharging.]

I heave a sigh of relief, looks like the system implementation of the energy recharging itself works fine though incredibly slow. I would need to work things more if I ever want to improve its recharging rate. Then again, I won't since I just want to live my life away from research for a bit. This is just a one-time case.

"Is it enough to use Chronos?" I asked and the system began to calculate.

[Depends on the task provided.]

"Calculate the specific percentage to reverse the effects of this shackle."

[Calculating...about 3% needed. Would you like to reverse the object's effects?]

Reversing staes, huh? That manipulates the flow of space and time to return objects to previous states. Yes, that does seem ideal for this situation.

"Alright, do it." I nodded.

[Raise your hand at the object.]

I did as it asked and my hand was covered with a part of the Omega Paradox. Yes, this would save energy as it doesn't need the full extent of the power suit.

[Reversing the effects...]

Spatial mist emits from my covered hand and the chains on Kiria's body were highlighted by the same mist. Then, progression of time and space of the chains' state was completely stopped before it cracks. Of course, bending the laws of physics requires it to break the natural laws. The chains' existential properties broke before the Singularity manipulates it and returns it into the previous state–simply normal chains that doesn't have anything powering them.

[State Reversal, deactivated. Analyzation complete, no side-effects. Retracting armor.]

The Singularity collapses back onto my chest. I smiled as the Enslavement Collar was nothing more than chains.

"W-What...?"