Quinella was confused. Holograms surround her. She is looking for breaches in the security network, checking for any errors and rewatching the footage.
She could not find anything! Something like 'Errors' doesn't exist with a quantum computer, which is self-aware. Aurora patches anything which could potentially pop up.
So, what she was looking at was something angels could just enter without worry. They bypassed the boundary fields. They bypassed airport security, which is under their control and easily evaded their surveillance.
It's simply absurd. All they needed was casual clothes and washing themselves from supernatural energies.
'I need to expand on security. I can't fail here.' After biting her nails from frustration, she proceeded to expand sequences on facial recognition.
Aurora will double-check any foreigners. Just pinging them with suspicion is enough to attract Aurora's attention. From there, AI will calculate the probabilities before audio surveillance kicks in.
Listening to mundanes is wasteful, but they have to do what they have to do. Marcus is pissed, and Quinella shall deliver what he wants without fail!
With new ideas in mind, she moved in to improve their grip on their territories.
~~~
Marcus and Rose were brought to heaven by Michael and Gabriel. The pair of Goldman looked at the place. At the same time, Rose was awed by the amount of bright 'good' colours. Marcus was feeling slight disgust for such an over-the-top 'good'.
As someone who prefers both good and evil, this place feels wrong to him.
"Mark! This place is falling apart. You must save it! This place is Heaven, after all!"
"Mom, I already own Elysian Fields. If you want a fantastic afterlife, I have already acquired it." The Inventor explained to her.
"Persephone will be more than happy to care for you," Marcus said with an eye roll.
"Marcus. I know that you own the Underworld. But this is different. You can't just ignore the plight of angels!" When Rose said that, behind her, Gabriel even prayed.
'I should have known! She is such a big sucker for the Biblical faction.'
At that moment, he recalled that she used to call them the pagan duo: he and his father. But that was in his previous life. He sort of forgot that fact. Considering this time around, he was always busy with his technomancy and faction building.
"I know, I know. I am doing this because you asked. Remember? I expect you to lower the grounding period by a week. At least." He reminded her of the deal they had.
"...yes-yes. I know. Once I see the Titanic, I will lower it by another week." She happily spoke about the Titanic.
"Good. Now show me where the control room is." Marcus asked Michael as he turned towards the Archangel.
"Right, follow me." The Archangel transported them to the highest layer. There was a golden, empty throne. Next to it was a clear ball with runes.
"...This is…"
"Our father's empty throne," Gabriel said sadly.
"...Wait…"
"Yes. He is not with us anymore." The only female Archangel said with a thin smile on her lips.
"...But…"
Marcus' mother looked like someone had taken the floor under her.
"It should have been clear by this point, Mom. I was the one who dealt with the Forces of Hell. If HE was around, then none of this could have happened."
With an eye roll, he walked over and placed his hand on the transparent ball.
He closed his eyes and focused on THE Heaven system.
It was just like he imagined. It was an antique computer with some serious power behind it.
'Heh, if I was weaker, I couldn't restart this even if I wanted to. But this does give me some ideas.'
The inventor was pleased with this trip. He got some insights into making cores for dimensions.
"Can you restart this?" Michael asked him with a hopeful voice.
"Yes. I doubt anyone else could do this. The amount of energy required for this is absurd. To think that he would fuse everything into one thing.
No wonder Lucifer was this arrogant. He inherited that from your creator. He never thought that someone could surpass him."
Michael ignored the jab and instead focused on the task at hand.
"Then, can you restart it?"
"Sure, place your hand. I will make you the owner of the system while I will restart everything." Marcus, with a nod, explained what he would do.
"Many thanks, Marcus Goldman." The Leader of Heaven thanked the inventor.
The Seraph has no idea that Heaven, by this point, is empty of souls and is utterly obsolete by all standards. All the functions have been fully taken by Marcus' Neo Heaven system, which has double anchors, one in his base and another in Persephone's domain.
They have an iron grip on the biblical and Greek 'worlds'. Marcus is even considering controlling all of the underworlds/afterlife. After all, he is planning a complete solar system and eventually the entire galaxy and cosmos control.
As a control freak, he doesn't have much 'faith' with other factions and pantheons. The recent war was one of the examples.
If he hadn't interfered, those evil gods and Primordials would have caused a massive amount of destruction in the world.
While some pantheons like Hindu and Shinto could have resisted, Angra Mainyu, by the end of the war, was a very formidable being.
Marcus easily won because of his infrastructure, but the rest? Angra Mainyu would have been consumed and plunged Earth into darkness.
As Marcus was thinking about the last war, he proceeded to pour energy into the ball, and the runes started to move. Slowly, one by one, the systems began to boot up.
The layers of heaven which were slowly eroding upon themselves stopped and swiftly started to return to how they were before.
In less than five minutes, heaven was functioning like before.
No, it was even better because Michael was the new owner.
But this is like being an owner of a server without any players. That's how the Inventor saw the 'restored' heaven.
Nothing incredible.
"Incredible! So this is what heaven's full control looks like!" Micheal, being like a new admin, was gushing about his admin rights.
"Yes. Anyway, anything else?"
"Yes. Is it possible to sign some sort of non-aggression treaty?" The leader of Heaven tried to pull Odin on him.
"We could sign a treaty where we won't attack each other." Marcus doesn't want to do anything with heaven. This place is just wrong in his eyes. Not that this matters anyway. Heaven doesn't have substance anymore.
The only thing they had which mattered to him as a collector was Sacred Gears. But now they belong to him. All of them will end up maintained and tagged. He will be able to pull a quick switch and turn them off.
And if humans piss him off, he will be able to take them back as well.
"Good enough!" Michael, high on his new admin, didn't think much. He just went right for the main part.
After signing the treaty, Gabriel was the one who let them back to Earth.
They returned to Confiscator, which was floating above the Baltic Sea.
"Many thanks for the help, Marcus! Heaven won't forget your kindness!" The big-breasted blonde hugged him before leaving the airship.
"Take me home, son. I need to get something to drink." Rose's voice brought him back from a stupor. Gabriel was weird.
"Sure thing." Marcus sighed, seeing how his mother looked. To think she cares that much about Big G. The inventor does have respect for the original computer creator. But the faction he made? After seeing it, he felt goosebumps rushing through his being.
The segregation of good and evil and all that stuff is not for him. He represents both. Taking one side over another is like enjoying 50% off everything! And the rest? Well, he would need to discard.
That is not human.
Maybe that is why he never wanted to become a 'God' when Persephone offered to him. It felt he would only care about the 'afterlife' and not 'life'.
'So no. I will stick with the human part.'
~~~
Michael smiled as he was sitting on his father's throne. He released a relieved sigh.
Finally! Everything is back to how it was! No! Even better!
He controls the heaven's system! Finally!
…
…
…
"...What? Why are no souls flowing to heaven!?" Michael panicked as he focused his attention on the gates. They are open! Souls should be flowing here!
With how many worshippers the Biblical faction used to have, there should be a new soul coming every second!
But nothing is coming!
In that panic, the leader of Heaven looked at paradise.
"..."
"..."
"..."
"...Empty!?" He whispered. An icy sweat went down his forehead.
Their heaven— is empty!
"...Impossible!" The Seraph, in that disbelief, teleported and inspected the layers—one by one.
Only the angels are here! Nothing else!
He then went to inspect the life and death cycle.
It doesn't exist.
There is no cycle. Their faction has no connection to the broader world anymore.
Michael, who was dreaming of the castle, finally got it, but he lost the nation in the process.
He then got a flashback. Marcus mentioned something about them— about his system.
'He-He took all of it. Without us even knowing!' At that moment, his knees gave in, and he collapsed to the ground.
"He conquered the whole Biblical faction. He defeated heaven without even waging war on heaven!" He paled as he placed his hand on his mouth. He was out of words.
"Father, I failed you. In the end, Solomon's spawn conquered all."
~~~
It took less than an hour. With angels out of his hair, he went to reheat his pizza and then walked to his room.
With all the downloads done, Marcus went to play.
It has been ages since he did anything like this. So, he was partially excited. He went to play Counter-Strike. After naming himself 'SolomonTheSecond', the Inventor joined one of the servers.
He had no opinion on the side he wanted to join, so he went randomly. After entering a game, he proceeded to buy weapons.
'Ugh… it has been ages. But I guess I can't go wrong with an AK-47.'
After taking the classic, Marcus started this match. After running around, he scored his first kill, second, and third.
His aim was precise, and his shots were all head shots.
Before long, the chat started to get flooded by people calling him 'hack' and 'cheat'.
[Random Player 1: Bro, turn off your aim bots!]
[Random Player 3: Fucking hack! Stop with this BS!]
[Random Player 5: Just KYS!]
Marcus' eyebrows twitched as, after a twentieth-kill streak, he got banned.
"...Seriously— well, we can cross out gaming from the bucket list. I should return to some of the older, less harmful activities." He said that with a sigh. He left the seat and stretched out briefly before walking to the wardrobe.
After going through the options, he selected something. It got printed out for him in a few moments.
By that point, Sirin stopped laughing from his misfortune of trying to play a standard shooter game. The guy sacrificed too much to be able to play regular Multiplayer games!
By sacrifice, it means that any–and all power comes with a price. She knows in person what it means. She found it amusing that he tried to play a shooter with regular people in the first place.
But now, since he got banned, he will do something else.
"What are you going to do?"
"3rd drawing."
"Oh…" She immediately got bored and returned to cuddling with the lion.
Marcus pulled out a 3rd drawing pad and proceeded to connect to his PC and download the program for the extension. Once that was done, he started drawing.
…
…
…
A couple of hours later. It was getting late, and the Herrscher decided to return to her room. But—
"Hmm!?" Her eyes ended up on what he was drawing!
It was her in her Herrscher clothed and striking a pose.
"W-What are you doing!?"
She walked over and grabbed his shoulders.
"Making a figurine out of you." He explained with a plain voice.
"Gah! Don't do such things!" A deep blush appeared on her cheeks as she was thinking of hiding in a closet by now!
"Why not? Sirin, you are gorgeous. Why would I make this if you are not gorgeous?" He was confused. Why is she complaining? He still needs to fill up those shelves he created!
"...Damn you… I know you are messing with me!" Sirin was blushing even more!
"Don't be ridiculous. I would have never brought you here if I wanted to mess with you." He said with a sigh as he returned to his work.
And just like that, her drowsiness was gone, and she looked at him drawing her.
Not that she could continue for long as she still ended up falling asleep. But this time, it was on his bed.
Marcus finished with the statue around three in the morning. He uploaded his creation to Aurora Network and made the wardrobe to print it out. It was a pure metal frame with a plastic coating.
It was the highest-quality action figurine any Honkai Impact 3rd nerd would drool over.
Once he placed it on his shelf, he proceeded to sneak into his bed, and with a casual hand clap, the lights were off. Marcus didn't need to touch his PC as Aurora placed it on sleep mode for him.
The Inventor ended up snuggling with Sirin. The Herrscher ended up wrapping her arms and legs around him and hugging him like a koala.
Such cute actions show him how much cuddling the beauty wants.
~~~~~~Next Morning~~~~~~
Sirin rubbed her head into something warm. She could feel the breathing of another person. For a while, she enjoyed this warmness overload, but then her eyes snapped open!
The first thing she saw was a T-shirt! Her head was leaning on someone's shirt!
She swiftly pulled her head away and looked who it was!
It was Marcus! The white-haired girl sighed in relief. She pulled back and pondered what was going on.
It took her a couple of seconds to recall what had happened, how she had ended up like this.
'Right, a statue. I watched him draw it. Then I fell asleep.'
However, this was not the worst as she realised that her slender legs coiled around his legs. It was very intimate!
"My beautiful Herrscher is awake~" Marcus commented as he didn't even bother opening his eyes. He just spoke to her.
"...Ugh…just let me go," Sirin complained as she realised she was tangled in!
"No. You need to ask properly~." He started the morning with a tease.
"...So annoying." The beauty started to pout.
"Come now. There is no need for that. Just from sleeping like this, I understand that you are hungry for cuddles. So that's what I am doing." Marcus spoke directly into her mind.
"You just want to abuse this situation!" She replied with growing embarrassment.
"Of course. Shouldn't it be like this? Didn't I tell you how much I spent to bring you here? I already told you how much energy I used and the effort I put into having you here. So, it should be obvious that I want my Sirin in such a position." He said that as his hand went to her back and pulled her into a hug once more. She tried to escape, but it was pointless. Not even gods could flee from his hug.
Not that he needed it, as the Herrscher's eyes trembled as she slightly smiled and eventually gave in and just sighed.
"You are unbearable. It would be much better if you had no harem." She pointed out his shortcomings.
"Hoh, is my Sirin confident enough to handle me alone?" He asked with a teasing voice. With psionic transmission, he is allowing her to feel his real emotions. One could say it's a better version of 'talking heart to heart'.
"On second thought, I would lose my sanity. No, I am fine like this." She swiftly reeled back. For a second, she realised that she was greedy. And greed like that is no good, nope! She can allow others to contain this guy's wild behaviour!
"Hehehe. I see. Sadly for you, I won't allow you to run away~."
He gently pulled her to his eye level and looked at her golden orange eyes.
"Your eyes are so pretty. Herrscher's sure are unique." He casually commented. His comments made her blush to return.
"You're just saying whatever comes to your mind!" She pouted at him. The white-haired girl realised that with psionic power, he could easily spin whatever he wanted with minimum effort!
"I do. I say what I see~." As he said that, he pulled her even closer. By this point, Sirin realised that he would kiss her! So she closed her eyes. This time, she won't just get neck kisses which tickle her to no end!
…
…
…
But nothing came!
So she opened her eyes and saw him smile at her. She realised that he had teased her!
At that moment, she turned completely red. He had teased her!
Sirin felt anger replace her embarrassment as she proceeded to kiss him! To hell with this playing!
Sure enough, her lips connected with his.
This time, he was slightly surprised. The kiss didn't last long as she pulled back and grinned at him victoriously.
"Hehehe~ I got back at you!" She joked with a cute voice.
"You did. Not bad."
He was ready to continue, but the Herrscher placed her finger on his lips.
"I request a date. I noticed that you don't take any of us out. If you want me to be yours, I request proper etiquette. I do remember you constantly mentioning that. I'm sure the entire Underworld heard you scream etiquette to Hades." She joked about when he was pulverising Hades throughout the Hades' Realm.
"Of course. I don't mind at all." He once again pulled her closer. She thought he would kiss her either way, but then he moved for her neck!
'D-Damn you!'
He proceeded to tickle her! It was brutal!
With his hold on her, she couldn't even move!
"F-Fine! I give up! I give up! Hnnn~" She slightly moaned as the tickling started to get unbearable!
He pulled back and looked at her teary look. She was all red, and there was a slight drool on her lips.
"Very cute."
"C-Can we just wake up already!?" She asked with a borderline begging voice.
"...fine." He gave in. She looked like she was about to lose it. As he released her, she dashed out from his bed and room like a rocket.
"Very Cute. Sadly, she didn't stay to see my figurine." He sighed in disappointment. He got up from bed as well. He looked at his shelf afterwards. It was a gorgeous statue of Sirin posing, ready to snap her fingers.
"All I need is the 'Befall' soundtrack." He mumbled that part to himself. The inventor wonders if that soundtrack will ever appear in this world. Hell, he even wonders if the Honkai game or Mihoyo will appear at all!
"I suppose I should remake some of the things." He said that to himself. His eyes wandered to his PC.
'Oh… that could work.'
Marcus could just make the game himself. With Realitus 2.0, he could share the glory of the apocalyptic world.
"I guess I have things to do even when I am grounded." He chuckled; even if he doesn't make weapons of mass destruction conquerors dimension or makes armies or mechs, he doesn't stop creating.
After concluding, he left the room and went downstairs.
When he got there, he saw his assistant already cooking up a storm with other girls.
"Master?"
The beauty noticed him. Quinella turned around and looked at him. There was a frown on her face.
"You didn't fix your looks! How can you look like a supervillain with that hair!" She swiftly walked over and proceeded to fix him up with her psionic powers.
"Supervillain? Me? I am just a guy who is grounded." He pretended to look shocked. He quickly explained himself.
"Uh-huh. I doubt anyone would believe that on this planet." Quinella sarcastically replied.
After a few moments, she finished with his hair. Marcus was right back at his supervillain hairstyle.
"There. Back to causing terror with style~." With a happy voice, she stepped back, appreciating his looks.
"Great. Now give me a cup of tea." He rolled his eyes as he sat down in his seat.
"One moment~!"
The beauty swiftly went over to pick up a warm kettle and then swiftly prepared some tea for Marcus.
As she was doing that, he asked about a few things.
"Did you upgrade the security?"
"Yes. I added extra layers when it comes to facial recognition. As well as listening-in functions on people who look questionable." She seriously explained while pouring his tea. The moment the cup was full, he gave it to him.
"It's quite challenging to add anything extra unless we plan to barricade certain routes." She said with a sigh.
"Good enough. Just continue to ponder on this occasionally." He replied with a small smile. He was satisfied that she quickly went to work on this.
"Concerning Ravel." Quinella proceeded to tell him about their devil recruit.
"She has talent. More so than Rias Gremory and Sona Sitri. I do think they are good at some levels, but Ravel takes the cake. She is perfect for any wannabe dictator or ruler. Ruthless, cunning and has a cute face when needed.
While those two are good at some administration positions, not as much as the little Phenex."
Quinella said something that Marcus already knew.
"Good. So it would seem the little devil is worth investing in."
"Yes." With a nod, she proceeded to bring over food to him. Other girls went to call the rest for the breakfast table.
It took a while, but his parents finally descended from upstairs.
His mother looked terrible. She was having a hangover.
Quinella looked at her with some concern.
She then looked at her Master.
He motioned to her with his hand that she had a 'couple' of drinks yesterday.
For a second, she was confused.
"We went to heaven yesterday."
"Oh–OH."
She finally connected the dots. Before she could comment, the Goddess jumped the boat.
"I didn't want to tell. At the same time, no one talked about it," Athena said with a strained smile.
"It's okay. Athena, I should have known that something was happening. It was obvious then that Mark went to the Underworld." Rose frowned while thinking from a different angle. Now that she understands. That means that her son saved humanity as a whole! If those things left the underworld and came to Earth!? It would have been a bloodbath!
Still, he blew up a country. So, it doesn't quite balance everything out.
In her eyes, anyway. He killed a bunch of innocents.
"I will bring some medicine for your hangover!" Quinella, being a good girl, swiftly walked over to the closest automated assembly line and proceeded to check for tablets.
"Thanks, Quinella. It's good to have you back. I hope my son doesn't work you to the bone."
The Assistant immediately got flustered. Her Creator's parents like her!
"I-It's fine! I am doing some basic tasks! Nothing difficult!" She brushed aside her encounter with Lilith and leading frontlines and focused on her newest ones!
"That reminds me, mom. Dad and you should get some basic DNA sessions. It would fix some basic genetic issues." Marcus commented after swallowing his food.
"Oh, now that you mentioned Mark, so that's what is going on. I noticed some changes to you." Roland commented as he looked at Marcus. It was not just hairstyle but his body as a whole!
"Hmm, yeah. I adjusted my genes and removed shortcomings. That progress unlocked Psionic powers." As he said, he made his cup float and the tea rose from the cup and moved like a snake before returning to the mug.
He then pointed at his head and his father's.
"I won't get bald if you are wondering," Marcus said with a slight grin. His father's eyes perked up when he heard about the 'holy grail'.
"...Sign me up!"
*Sigh*
"I guess I will accept this as well." His mother agreed as well after seeing her husband decide to do this.
After hearing that his mother agreed, the inventor went into a few details about the process. He didn't explain THE augmentations he went through. Those could potentially spook his parents.
Eventually, the conversation went to superpowers, and he mentioned Sacred Gears. One of Biblical God's creations. Something he has been collecting.
He did intrigue his father about draconic armours. Marcus might be able to sell the bag on that one. He might give him a custom one, probably.
"Maybe, but first I want that transformer!"
"Roland!" His wife immediately complained.
For a second, it looked like she would complain about him having a 'space' robot for a car, but it wasn't so.
"My Titanic first!"
"Dear, it's not that our son only has one workshop!" Roland tried to reason with her.
"True." Rose then pondered on something else. The inventor's mother recalled meeting his son's homeroom teacher in the supermarket.
"You should return to your school."
"...Huh?" Marcus nearly choked on his food when he heard that!
"I spoke with your homeroom teacher. She wonders if you are leaving the school since they have to do something with you." She said while taking a sip of water with aspirin.
As she was speaking, the ship girls looked at Marcus. They were imagining him in a school uniform. Since the pair have no idea what the uniform looks like, they picture him in an admiral uniform.
*Gulp*
It made them feel a certain excitement!
"Mom, you do understand that they will run for mountains the moment they see me. I can already imagine all the complaints about how 'unsafe' everyone feels." Marcus proceeded to imagine the scenarios in his head.
"On the contrary, you are in the polls for the mayor position next year." Rose pointed out.
"Excuse me?" For a second, his train of thought stopped, and he looked dumbly at her.
"Yep. They know you wouldn't do anything to this town. They do know. After all, there has not been a single robbery or incident in this place for over several weeks. Such things magically don't happen.
Well, it could, but you know better." Rose smiled before looking at his girls.
"Besides, it would be a good time for you ladies to interact with people." She explained to him.
"I don't mind." Athena chipped in.
"I have several teaching degrees. It has been over fifty years since I taught history at Athens University." The Goddess reminded that she is a Goddess of Wisdom.
"History? Not maths?" Marcus, for a second, was confused.
"That too. However, history was a necessity as people perverted it in some way. So, I spent years teaching the population how it happened in truth." The Olympian explained her reasons.
"Cool, how many people were clueless about your real identity." Solomon's successor joked as he returned to his food.
"Yes. It's good to know that you can be a teacher, Athena. But we still need to send my son back to school if he wants to be a mayor." Rose's eyes rolled. She was fully on the idea for him to be a mayor.
"...Fine. I will return. Besides, I want to see my girls in uniform." Marcus smiled as he looked at Sirin, who sneaked at the breakfast table.
"I don't wanna!" Nyx was the only one who complained.
"No problem, I will send you back to the base. We can find some things for you to do. Maybe oversee the Devil Continent and the progress they are making there?"
"Fine! I will do that!" The Primordial Night happily agreed with her new assignment. She didn't want to argue as he could have assigned something worse. Like laying down pipes or something!
'Oh, right. That's what the current Leviathan did!' Internally, she chuckled with realisation.
"Gah! I didn't agree to this!" Sirin finally understood what was going on!
"Come now. You asked for dates. After-school hours are the best for that kind of thing." Marcus pointed out the cliche thing when it comes to dates.
"Dates!? I want one, too!" Athena chipped in.
"Same! I liked the dinner we had in the submarine!" Gu Yuena reminded him of that, too. That comment made Athena look at the Dragoness! Is she the only one who didn't have a romantic thing going on!?
"Relax. We can have those after school. Still, Mom, how long am I grounded for?" He asked his mother for the exact date.
"If you go to school, it will be a month."
'A month for blowing up a country? I suppose it's okay. I will use that time working on that Honkai project.' Internally, Marcus started to grin. He is going to revolutionise the world of gaming. He shall build an Entertainment Dome in his town, with Honkai Impact 3rd as the only place to play. Of course, it won't be a Valkyrie collection game. Instead, he is going to mix up the qualities of a shooter, the apocalyptic theme of survival, as well as telling the Honkai story.
It is going to make any other game look like Tetris. Yes, he has some ideas for implementing the Entertainment Dome experience. He remembered there was this LED dome thing in Las Vegas.
He will build that for maximum performance and show the power of Realitus to the plebeian masses. He needs to show Honkai to the world because he feels it won't happen with the amount of splashes he has done to the world.
"Very well. Month it is, and I am going to school. We are going to have fun. I need to call Serafall to return. I want her sandwiches for the long break." Marcus remembered her delicious sandwiches.
"I can do those for you!" Quinella swiftly chipped in! There is no need for that devil klutz!
~~~
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