Does the mechanical girl dream of the Messiah?

The only thing that exists here, besides silence, is death.

Interlude Log (Part 2)

[Unintelligible] Year, Month Mao, 26th Diary:

[Omit irrelevant content regarding the ship's condition]

……

Today, the agency department reported that "testing has begun".

Why set up such a strange and unlucky department? They are out of place on this ship. The king and the cabinet have repeatedly claimed that they should be cautious about the technologies from the eastern continent and the northern islands. I also know that these people called "agency departments" have nothing to do with the "steam engine". After all, without orders from my superiors, I will not allow those white smoke, gurgling, gears and pipes to appear on my ship, but their existence still makes me feel uneasy.

They had the document signed by the king himself, which gave them a high degree of autonomy. They could ignore the normal superior-subordinate relationship on the ship to a certain extent. It can be said that their authority was higher than any other department, and even I could not interfere. Their request to talk to the big man who was nominally their leader was also rejected by them. According to them, this period of time was crucial for them and they could not be disturbed for any irrelevant reasons.

What is this?

At least I personally have no better reason and can only let it go. For now, they are not doing anything that is detrimental to navigation.

After handling this ship, I confirmed it several times and came to the conclusion that this ship was built around [Unrecognizable]. That thing is the [Unrecognizable] of this ship. The modular design is probably based on this reason. They said "testing begins", which is a test of [Unrecognizable]. If the test is successful, new modules can be added without drastically changing the existing structure, and the ship will become even bigger - powerful - [Unrecognizable]

Is the military planning to create a fortress that floats in the sky, a mobile Kritlik Line?

……

Lately, something weird has been happening.

The weather observation instrument gave the conclusion of "clear", but the results observed by the naked eye by other crew members and myself were far from the instrument. No one said this publicly, probably to maintain emotional stability, and attributed this to instrument failure or misjudgment. I talked to [Unidentifiable] in private, and he said that no matter how you look at it, it's foggy outside.

Foggy day.

It can't be sunny outside unless I'm blind.

[Unrecognizable].

Maybe I should retrieve the previous data of the observation instrument and ask the mechanical department to check it out.

Recorder: [Unidentifiable]

Chapter 11: Girls and Sora

“Dizzying…”

"Mrs. Luna?"

"Look, there, Ella, look up."

"That's——"

"It's higher, higher, and farther away than Luna's fingertips. The machine is holding your palm. Lift your fingertips and look along that line. Look to the other side of that line. That's what your beloved savior sees."

"…Don't touch other people's hands casually."

There, it is the highest point of vision, far above, with endless boundaries.

"Especially the girl's hand?"

"Nothing in particular. And—"

"And you're a girl too, Ash."

"That's not necessarily true based on age."

If you look around, you will be blocked by those towering pale structures, overlapping, piling up, trampling on each other, over and over again. They are like ups and downs of waves, a maze, a white fence, an ancient and absurd maze. They stand there - swaying, one after another. They are objective existences, but also subjective existences that make it impossible for people to escape from this place. They are the shadows of nightmares, the cages of beasts that bind people here and prevent them from escaping.

You are there, I am there, and they are there too.

"Whether or not a girl is determined by age, right?"

"Lady Luna, if you praise her too much, this woman named Ashlee might become overwhelmed and lose control of herself."

"After all, I am not young anymore—"

"You are a girl, a girl of course."

"is it?"

"Don't make such frivolous comments about Lady Luna."

"Of course, she is a girl, not a princess, a clergyman, not a woman. Before everything else, she is first and foremost a 'human'. Age will not bring you trouble or suffering, and gender is a vague existence to you. You are an objective 'human', Lunicia, but you lack a definition of yourself."

"Is this a compliment?"

"That sounds more like a rude criticism. Ashethelyn, you are responsible for setting up camp tonight."

"Of course, with great pleasure. Are you there, Lunetia?"

"Ah, huh?"

Are you there?

There was no response from the other side of the sky.

There is nothing there either. Your eyes have already told you this conclusion, and your brain has given such a result from analyzing the visual signals. Your will cannot influence the world. All you can decide is whether to accept it or not. Are invisible things real? On the top of the tallest bell tower of the Central Cathedral lies a giant dragon. This dragon has a transparent body, a silent roar, a structure that can be penetrated, and can spit out flames without temperature. So, is there really a giant dragon on the tallest bell tower of the Central Cathedral? This question does not have a real unique answer. All you can do is convince yourself to accept it, or refuse to accept it.

Just as you can see.

There was nothing there.

There are no clouds, no gray fog flowing with industrial poison, no thunder, no sunshine, no stars, no shining bright things, no birds, no dragons, no you and me, no ships, no airships, no islands, no corpses, no floating cities, what is there, the sky? The moon? There is neither sky nor moon, no air, no things - no existence.

Is it black there? It is not black there. Is it square or round? It is formless, formless non-existence. The void of non-reality, the absence of being.

You should be able to understand the meaning of these words.

"Where should we go next? Does Ella have any ideas?"

"Everywhere here looks unsafe. In the absence of intelligence, I would recommend choosing a direction that is at least relatively more structurally stable."

"Where's Ash?"

"If you fall, the individual Ashetherin will use flying to pull you back."

The girls' words avoided its existence.

Under the premise that each of them witnessed what was happening above and around them, they finally chose not to talk about it. The second reason was that it was difficult to understand, or even if they understood, their instinct made them choose to ignore it. It was not a very important thing. Ignoring it, ignoring those abnormalities, was more beneficial than asking questions. One could understand it, but the other didn't care. She was more interested in those living lives.

What exists there is non-existence.

It's incomprehensible, right? When you close one eye, do you think that what you see with the closed eye is black? In fact, you should be able to understand it yourself. It is different from the situation when you open your eyes and are covered with something. Visual obstruction will make you see the obstruction, while visual deprivation will make you see "nothing". This does not mean that there is nothing in front of you, but if you are asked "what you see", the only answer you can give is "nothing" - things that are not seen, cannot be seen, but are indeed presented in front of you are nothing.

Everything that permeates the surroundings is "nothingness".

There is nothing there.

"The terrain here is too complicated..."

Lunicia's agile actions did not contradict her complaints.

"Like climbing a mountain? Let me give you a hand."

"No need, this level is no problem for me at all - you are the one whose forehead is sweating, is that okay?"

"It's a little bit strenuous..."

Even with the climbing equipment, safety ropes and climbing picks, plus some magical enhancements, Ella Hepper still found it a bit difficult. After all, this was not a mountain wall, not a cliff made up of rock walls and branches. It was just an airship with a strange name. At the same time, the girl named Ella was not a warrior with outstanding physical fitness and strength. Rather, even if she could use a sword to split bricks and steel ingots, she was more suitable for books than climbing up and down corridors.

Everything here seems too strange, out of the familiar style and architecture, making it difficult to judge whether a road is useful or useless, whether a direction is smooth or congested, whether a plane is a wall or a floor, the interlaced corridors and the towering walls, these things may have been able to move, but now they are nothing more than gray, dark and gilded corpses, stagnant obstacles. It is unpleasant, but there is nothing you can do about it, unless someone is willing to stop and choose a suitable angle to appreciate the kaleidoscope-like beauty.

"Can we use those dragon crystals, that is, the crystal-like decorations, to make this place move... or something like that?"

"Perhaps there was..."

Ella's breathing sounded a little labored, as if she was forcing herself to exercise after recovering from a serious illness.

"…But now it seems that it is basically useless."

"That's a pity—"

Moving towards the tangible direction, towards the connected branches, this is clearly a man-made sky corridor, but it has a jungle-like feel, making it difficult to distinguish. One may even find such a strange idea ridiculous, and feel creepy after a short laugh.

Above was the empty sky, and below was a network of intricate corridors. This was clearly a place ten thousand meters above the sky, a world above the canopy, where there should be howling winds, islands in the sky, dragons, and flying birds. However, in this palace built by human hands to hold the lives of fellow humans, there was only an unspeakable silence. There was no sound of wind. The magic shield would block the cold winter wind and the harsh temperature ten thousand meters above, but it could not block the howling of the wind. There was still no trace of wind here. There was no trace of human beings. In this huge space, only everything left after the disappearance of human beings was left. Was there really nothing there? Under that corridor, behind that wall, in those crystal doors that led to nowhere, behind those shadows, was there really nothing and no one?

Only dead silence remains.

"Hey, Ash—"

"What is it, my bright moonlight?"

"..."

Ella couldn't help but look away.

What was she about to say? The name was full of teasing, mockery, and a bit of real emotion - could there really be such a thing as a mechanical puppet? Could there be such a thing as real emotion in the mental plane? - Ella's brain almost crashed for a moment, and then she involuntarily turned her thoughts to the side of anger and shame, and then she finally remembered what she wanted to do just now.

"No, there's nothing. Just float slowly like that."

Indeed, Ashlee was probably the most relaxed of the three. She didn't need to use her physical strength and auxiliary equipment to climb like ordinary people. She only needed to turn on the thrusters on her legs to float in the air easily and look down at the mortals struggling. She didn't even need to consider the issue of energy. It wasn't solar energy, wind energy, or geothermal energy. There was no power furnace on her body. All she could see was cold, hard black iron. It seemed that as long as she wanted, she could fly forever.

"Oh?"

"So there's nothing to say! Stop staring at me and keep exploring!"

"Ella is getting excited..."

Lunisia's sound was so small that it could be completely covered by a slight noise. Unfortunately, there was not even a trace of wind here. The most that could be heard was the friction sound caused by the collision between the hook and the fulcrum above, which was far from enough.

"No, no, not at all, Lady Luna. I am very calm now."

"Y-really?"

"I see. This machine has almost figured it out. Do you want it to carry you up?"

"You've never thought of that at all!?"

"Don't be shy. Just think of it as watering the roses. Hold the kettle like this, bend your fingertips, and the dewdrops that fall will -"

"Absolutely not!"

"Eh, no? Then when Ash is holding Ella, please hold me up as well."

"Luna-sama?!"

"As you wish, Miss Paladin."

……

"You look so bad."

Even though Lunicia poked her cheek with her fingertips, Ella's face didn't change much. It was originally rosy, and it was still rosy now. In other words, she was angry and embarrassed but couldn't show it.

"Yes, yes, yes? No, um, it's normal, it's okay, Lady Luna, I'm just a little dizzy."

"Luna, her heartbeat has quickened."

"It seems that I was a little too self-willed..."

They chose a relatively intact and spacious passage, a twin bridge suspended in the middle and lower part of the deck. The symmetrical white bridge, divided into the left and right sides, now showed a sense of decadence and asymmetry. Unexplained damage could be seen everywhere on it. Only the side where the group stepped on was relatively intact, while the other side was basically completely broken into two parts, leaving a hole in the middle that was difficult to climb over. If they fell down, they didn't know where they would fall.

Without a map, you can only move forward in the dark, choose a path that seems to work, and leave the rest to luck. This is also one of the adventurer's survival strategies.

Just how huge and complicated is the interior of this airship? Even Lunicia, who had just climbed a considerable distance, couldn't tell. Judging from the visuals alone, the height of this airship was probably more than a hundred meters, and the length was completely impossible to measure. It was simply a small city flying in the sky. The long years of disrepair brought it countless dangers, but so far the group had not encountered any problems.

"What is our next goal, Lady Luna?"

As if she was eager to exonerate herself, Ella Hepper immediately chose one of several topics to bring up. Of course, this was indeed something that needed to be considered carefully at this stage.

Regardless of the cause, whether it is a mission or an accidental mistake, for adventurers, when exploring large ruins and dungeons, controlling the pace of exploration is undoubtedly extremely important and must be given priority. The inventory of supplies determines the total length of exploration that can be carried out, the reserves of equipment and props determine the situations that can be dealt with, and the surrounding environment affects the timing of camping and rest. If all of this cannot be allocated reasonably, adventurers can easily run into danger due to exhaustion of supplies, inability to fight the enemy, lack of physical strength, loss of direction, etc., and have to retreat, or even endanger their lives.

In order to control the rhythm, the necessity of setting long-term goals and phased goals becomes prominent - whether it is to defeat enemies deep in the maze, to find lost treasures, or simply to find a way out and direction, different goals mean different strategies. If possible, it is best to sort out all of this before the expedition begins.

"As for the target..."

After Lunicia thought for a moment, she continued, "Let's find a way out of here."

"Departure? I see. Then the policy is to focus on exploration."

"You can say that, but we know nothing about the situation here, so we can only take it step by step."

"Leave——"

Ashlee's voice also rang out.

With her arms made of complex mechanisms, she gently hooked Lunicia's neck. She half-lay behind Lunicia, drawing the heat of life from the body of the holy warrior to warm her remaining cold torso.