Once we entered the room I stared up in a lull, fully glimpsing the source of that voracious Reverse Flauna.
And what I could only reckon to is Tyvetta's will — extraordinary antiquity of an item that stretched to the top of the room.
It was a large machine placed near the end of the room, it was leaking Reverse Flauna as it was decorated with compartments, buttons, and levers.
Behind that large machine was the giant frame of an old yet exquisite door. The frame held no door but it felt like one could appear at any time.
The frame was made of many different types of metal and other minerals as it shone with a mysterious sheen, while the animal engravings and plant carvings gave off a sense of life.
I gazed up for only a moment before my senses started to get overwhelmed — I leaned more on Tyvetta's shoulder.
Tyvetta supported me to the center of the room as she softly spoke to me.
"This, Veltae, is my will. The key to you fully utilizing the Tricuds Ring, and the inheritance that is meant for you — my successor."
"I'm your successor? But you're still alive and kicking, what need do you have in me succeeding you?"
I questioned her words due to them not making a lick of sense. Successor? Who, me? Never. I didn't understand the thought process behind her actions.
Neither did I understand the place we were at. I felt like I was continuously being strung along, and I didn't like that.
The thing in front of us, even though it was currently suppressing its aura; I could tell that it was both the thing that choked me as well as sentient.
A machine that didn't feel like a machine, that's what it was.
I stared at it with a blank gaze for however long, I couldn't tell. All I could think of was that it resonated with me — I was feeling that a lot recently.
My senses were no longer being overwhelmed as much as they were the first time I started at it — I was getting used to it
Even without her saying so, It made me subconsciously believe that this was indeed her will.
"You're right but you're also wrong. It might seem like I'm alive — which I am, but I'm not alive."
"What?"
I blanked out after hearing her speak, she just spoke a whole lot of hoopla. She's alive but she's not alive? It made zero sense.
"Tyvetta... Please, make it make sense. The way you talk is confusing sometimes."
"Oh! Sorry about that."
Seeing me rub the bridge of my nose she laughed sheepishly before apologizing.
"Ah, um, my physical. Yeah, my physical body is dead. That's why there was a coffin back where we just were."
Pausing for a moment she dawned on her face a thoughtful expression.
"Flauna is what makes up my entire being... along with all the Detrids on this planet."
"What!?"
Even though she had said it under her breath, I was able to hear her words as clear as day.
"Nothing, anyway, as I said before, my body is dead. Therefore I can no longer physically affect the world outside here.
The only places where I would be able to interact with you would be in places deeply connected with Reverse Flauna — such as my temples."
Seeing how Tyvetta had merely brushed off what she had just said, I could only silently glower before sighing.
"...So you're dead, and you need me to succeed you, but succeed what? As far as I'm concerned you're pretty infamous and barely anybody cares for you."
Saying this I stopped as I thought about my last few words.
"You know what, I don't think you have even a single worshipper, period."
"Hah! It's not like I need worshippers in the first place. I'm not a god, I don't need worshippers to live, I sustain myself."
Tyvetta scoffed at the mere mention of worshippers as she spoke of gods in a mocking tone.
"Right..."
"Yes, mhmm, sorry about that."
She coughed and apologized upon realizing what she just said as she gently led me to sit on a nearby chair.
"Since you're so focused on my worshipers, dear, how about you become my sole worshiper?"
"You, you... haaa."
I sighed at her suggestion. I was never a religious person.
My father, before I had reincarnated, was a religious person. Due to that, I was often forced to go to church.
There were times when I believed that I was religious, but that wasn't true.
Often when you do or are taught something from childhood it becomes ingrained into your head — that was the situation with me.
I started to think more for myself the more time passed, and due to that, I figured out my lack of interest, my lack of belief.
At first, upon hearing my realization, my father couldn't accept it; even threatened to kick me out of the house if I didn't believe in the big G.
Of course, me being the stubborn bastard I was, continued to deny my belief. Eventually, the old man relented and told me to believe what I wanted — thankfully.
Heh, I wonder how the old man is doing now.
I smiled at the thought of him, before returning my attention to Tyvetta.
"Sorry, I'm not a religious person, I can't devote my entire being to another person."
"You mean you won't, right?"
"Whatever. I don't do religion.'"
"Then it's technically fine, right? I mean, you know that I exist, you've met me. Now you're free to believe me as much as you want, eh?"
"Tyvetta..."
"Alright, alright. I'll stop annoying you, dear."
"Thank you, now can we please return to the subject at hand?"
"Right, yes. Sorry, I got distracted."
Apologizing for a moment. She went silent and walked over to the unnervingly silent machine.
It differed from the machinery in the outside city and the tunnel we had just exited from earlier, they were all quite noisy and loud, yet this one was the opposite.
It gave off a sense of individuality while also releasing a threatening feeling, and the only thing that was holding it back was Tyvetta's presence.
I could see the vibrant Reverse Flauna oozing out of it trembling under her gaze, unlike its pretentious display earlier when it tried to choke me.
Looking at the scene before me, it was laughable. Something so threatening to my feeble life was forced into submission so easily.
Although I was grateful for it, the number of powerful people around me was disheartening — especially when they easily deal with things that I've found entirely difficult.
Sometimes seeing them in action made me feel like everything would honestly be better if I just remained at home and indulged in my art.
Though, unfortunately, grandma and mom wouldn't allow me to do that. They said it would be better for me to know how to defend myself.
Which was... true, but that didn't make me any more agreeable though. No matter how much I trained I would never be able to fight effectively against beings such as Norten, or even the wild Trirons.
I was watching Tyvetta operate the machine before a small compartment opened on the bottom of it.
Once this happened, the machine attempted to flare up its Reverse Flauna but once Tyvetta slammed her first on it, it quickly receded.
Sighing to herself, Tyvetta pulled a strange key out of the small compartment, it had a strange metal disk with lines engraved on it connected to its key chain.
Inspecting the key for a few moments, Tyvetta walked back over to me and outstretched her arm — pointing the key towards me.
"Veltae, this here, is the key to controlling the Rings, well Ring, the other one..."
Once she spoke of the other Ring, her voice trailed off as if her thoughts were elsewhere.
"The other one? What happened to the other one?"
Asking her this I turned my gaze to the key that she had stretched out to me with mild curiosity.
I knew that this key was important to me, and my future but I couldn't help but feel reprehensible towards it.
My life was already plagued by constant death threats, but now I was expected to dive into even more trouble willingly, crazy!
But alas, I grabbed the key out of her hands with great reluctance. I was sure that it was visible on my face how much I didn't want this.
Once I took the key, Tyvetta dawned a conflicted expression and scratched the back of her head. Sighing, she looked into my eyes with a somewhat serious expression before turning back to the machine.
She once more operated the machine as virtual images of varying places appeared all around us, lighting up the room.
A few images, in particular, showed a large rift going through massive parts of land and sea.
"Well, the other key. It should be obvious where it is..."
I stopped myself from coming to any conclusions before making my guess. Quite a bit ago I had heard of the Kritol using a large Ring on the day when they attacked our planet.
"You mean... the Kritol right?"
"... Yes."
Tyvetta begrudgingly nodded her head.
I thought to myself upon seeing her nod. She was visibly upset at the mere fact that they had one of the Rings and it was understandable.
The Rings, as she had previously mentioned, were objects given to prove their succession. That also meant that they could only be— wait!
"Doesn't that mean that— no, who is it that is controlling the Ring in their hands!?"
As I came to the sudden realization of the meaning behind their possession of one of the Rings, I exclaimed at Tyvetta, questioning her.
"..."
This time Tyvetta responded in silence. Her movements had come to a pause at my simple inquiry, which I wasn't expecting.
Was my guess right? Her reactions seem to tell me that it was.
"Tyvetta?"
Blurting her name, I once more waited for her to say something. I couldn't see her expression as her back was facing me, so, therefore, I couldn't tell what she was thinking.
"...Ask..."
Tyvetta spoke under her breath, not even uttering a full sentence, as she was hesitant to even speak.
"What?"
I questioned her, my ears twitched as I lurched forward, anticipating her words.
"...Ask your grandmother!!"
"..."
Tyvetta's angry yell spread and echoed within the large room.
Although I could tell that none of that anger was pointed at me, I couldn't help but be hushed into silence as I gaped at her with a blank gaze.
Ugh — "I'm... sorry, dear... I'm calm now, I've just been on edge for a while now, and a lot of frustrating things are happening; it seems that it was all starting to get to me."
With a grunt, she turned to me with a somewhat forced smile as she apologized.
I didn't know what it was that was bothering her but I could make an educated guess. One was certainly the Ring that was in Kritol hands.
And the others could have been many other things. Tyvetta was involved with so many other things, not convention that she seemed to have many responsibilities.
She had to handle the abuse and killing of her children over the centuries all while not even being able to interfere with them.
Then it also seems like she has to oversee this mechanical city, empire? Whatever it was, she had to oversee it.
Also just going on the fact that there are Assault and Defense Automatons I can only assume that this place wasn't as peaceful as it looked.
"It's... fine. Don't bother worrying about me, Tyvetta. I can at least somewhat handle a bit of yelling".
Saying this, I dismissed the entire matter and looked at the bitter smile that had taken a hold of her face.
"So, I guess this is it right? Is this the bit where you send me off?"
"No, there's one, no two more things. Did you want to leave me that badly, dear?"
She spoke while imitating a sullen expression on her face, her hand clenching at her heart.
"Oh come on, don't twist my words. What are these last two things of yours?"
I chortled at her behavior, waving her words off.
"Fine, you're no fun."
"Yeah, yeah, get on with it."
"Alright, first things first, this violent machine of mine."
Announcing this, Tyvetta walked over to the machine once more, while I observed and listened from my seat.
"This machine is the, uh, control center?"
She spoke in a questioning tone while staring at it.
"Why are you asking me?"
"I'm not!"
She exclaimed before she began to mumble a few other terms that could be used for the machine.
The machine was flaring its Reverse Flauna, probably in anger at her for not knowing what it was.
"Stop."
With this single word the machine once more succumbed to Tyvetta's will.
"Ah! Got it!"
She gasped out in joy as she remembered exactly what it was now.
"It's the Reverse Flauna Center! All of my Reverse Flauna that is sent here is cycled through this machine and spread out across the entire place.
It's also a part of what you're succeeding, I guess. With this, you'd practically have complete control over this mechanical city, er, empire. You'd have it all to yourself!"
Tyvetta explained this to me with great enthusiasm.
Her words were like a match as a flame in me was lit upon hearing her, an entire world to myself! But it sounded too good to be true, that's why I asked.
"Where's the catch?"
I didn't want to get my hopes up too high from her words alone, so I had to get the facts.
"It's not necessarily a catch; it's just that one this guy is quite a bit difficult to handle as you experienced earlier."
Hearing that I Silently gulped at the mere reminder of its attempting to suffocate me.
"And two, you have to find a way to get here by yourself. Overall! It just entirely depends on your capability."
I stared at her without uttering a single word. How was she going to say something like that like it was as simple as pie?!
I didn't even know how to get here in the first place, this was only my second time being here — in both of which I was suddenly transported here.
"Are you going to tell me how?"
"Oh no, no, no. That would ruin the exact purpose of it; how would you prove yourself without doing it on your lonesome?"
"I thought I only needed to prove myself once!?"
"You did?"
"Yes!"
"Oooooh, I'm sorry that you thought that, but no. You'll need to prove yourself maybe, once or twice more."
Ugh — I visibly showed her my annoyance at that fact as I smacked my face into my hand. Cursing myself for getting into this situation.
Tyvetta Chuckled at seeing this, before pausing. Looking up at her, I caught her looking at my torn-up arm.
"Now for the last thing, after this, you'll go home, they're all, waiting for you, after all, you know."