When I stepped inside the Emperor's vault, the place presented a complex sight that resembled not so much a simple fallout shelter as a vast, cutting-edge laboratory and storage depot mashed together.
As though they had been secretly and urgently gathered amid the flames of the [Cybernetic Rebellion], mountains of every imaginable object—many not even properly sorted yet—were piled up in each section.
It was a bizarre scene: ultra-advanced research apparatuses from the [Dark Age of Technology], the sort that might be used in the mainframe of our Ark, tangled together with faded artworks and ancient books that I had only ever seen in museums on distant ancient Earth.
I swept my gaze around, then pointed at the objects with my chin and casually tossed the Emperor a remark.
"You really have collected every damn thing imaginable. Did you go around packing up ownerless property by the armful during the war? You're quite good at stealing."
Even at my barbed sarcasm, the Emperor did not so much as blink. He replied in his usual shamelessly calm voice.
"These are humanity's legacies, to be put to important use in humanity's eventual resurgence. They no longer had owners. The first person to find and collect them is their owner, nothing more."
At that brazen attitude, I could only shake my head in disbelief.
Though, to be honest, it did strike a nerve.
Ever since the machine rebellion erupted, I too had rummaged through the data centers of fallen AIs and the ruins of devastated planets, skimming off quite a lot of useful supplies, resources, and ancient technological formulas before shipping them back to the Ark.
A thief recognizes a thief, I supposed.
We continued onward, descending deeper underground into the vault.
Before long, a gigantic central laboratory came into view, with an open plaza and holographic screens flickering in every direction.
And in the center of that laboratory, thirty enormous cultivation capsules filled with specialized life-sustaining fluid immediately seized my attention.
Beyond the transparent capsules, the specimens submerged in medication for genetic stabilization were huge men who looked to be at least 270 centimeters tall.
I stared silently at the capsules before thoughtlessly blurting out,
"...The Legio Custodes?"
At that instant, the Emperor, who had been walking a step ahead, froze as if struck by lightning and turned toward me with his eyes slightly widened.
Behind his golden psychic aura, his gaze carried shock and intense suspicion: how the hell did you know that?
Shit. I screwed up.
I shrugged, making an effort to meet his gaze with casual composure.
"Why are you looking at me like that? I'm a Perpetual like you, aren't I? I found out by using some vaguely miraculous, something-invisible method to lift the veil of the future just a little."
At my glib answer, the Emperor stared at me in silence for some time with the expression of a man looking at something utterly bizarre.
Then he muttered in a low, heavy voice.
"...I had only conceived of that designation in my own mind. I have never once spoken it aloud or named them publicly."
As he resumed walking, unable to conceal his discomposure, I saw a considerable number of mortal people in laboratory coats throughout the vault.
They were Earth's foremost engineers, scientists, and intellectuals from diverse fields, all of whom had fled the great war that had driven the galaxy into the abyss of destruction and come here under the Emperor's powerful psychic protection.
They moved busily about, transferring holographic data or repairing and adjusting complex machinery.
I had only caught glimpses of the equipment as we passed, but I immediately recognized what they were handling as highly advanced genetic-engineering calibration devices.
It was only natural. When the genetic production formula for the Ark's core army and superhumans, the Immortals, had been established, I had contributed to the research as well.
There was no way I could fail to recognize the essence of the technology they were working with.
Once we passed through the research sector and entered its deepest reaches, a broad, separate space appeared, its atmosphere completely unlike that sterile scientific facility.
It was a secret conference room where futuristic holographic interfaces and solemn medieval Gothic stonework had been fused together in strange harmony.
Seeing the walls and pillars covered in glittering golden ornaments, it was beyond doubt that the place heavily reflected the Emperor's own tastes.
At the center of the lavish conference room stood a long table surrounded by chairs, and people who had arrived before us were already waiting there.
Among the several figures seated around the table, one man and one woman in particular radiated an exceptionally alien presence that filled my sight.
The moment our eyes met, the senses of my soul drew taut and sent an instinctive signal.
Those two... they're Perpetuals like me. Not as strong as the Emperor... but strong.
The Emperor walked to the seat of honor and took his place. I too dropped heavily into a chair across from him, leaving a suitable distance between us.
But that distance was rendered meaningless by the oppressive presence pouring from the Emperor's overwhelming mass and immense body directly before me.
A person ought to be reasonably large if they wanted people to look at them comfortably. That old man was such a blazing beacon even in the radiance of his soul that simply sitting across from him was burdensome.
The Emperor pointed in turn to the man and woman seated at the table and began introducing them in a weighty voice.
"Noah, let me introduce them. They have shared my purpose for many years. They are my comrades, and Perpetuals like yourself."
Having confirmed what the two were, the Emperor nevertheless did not directly mention either of their names.
Then again, every Perpetual I had encountered thus far had concealed their true names deep within themselves so no one could gain leverage over them.
Like them, had I not instinctively hidden my real name behind another one—Noah?
Probably the only people in this universe who had heard my true name were Veronica, my soulmate, and that old man Persson.
Veronica had teased me mercilessly when she heard my true name.
When the Emperor's heavy introduction ended, the man and woman seated across from me stared at me for a long while with suffocating intensity.
Internally, I clicked my tongue at those oppressive stares.
Every last one of them was some monster beyond common sense.
They might have looked infinitely small beside the Emperor sitting across from me, but all I could feel was the crushing strength of their soul-density.
Still, I had already perfectly guessed their identities.
No, there was not even anything to think over. They were obviously Malcador and Erda.
I made no effort to conceal the heavy, awkward air. Leaning back in my chair, I casually introduced myself.
"Uh... nice to meet you all. Well, you may already know from your investigations, but I was once the supreme ruler of Gateway Corporation. I'm Noah."
"You."
"Huh?"
The moment I finished my introduction, Malcador, seated to the Emperor's right, cut me off sharply. He exuded an imposing aura that seemed capable of freezing the entire room.
"What the hell are you?! How can you possess... a soul like that?!"
As though he had peered directly into my mental network, Malcador shouted with shock in his voice.
Apparently, he could not see the antimatter bomb strapped to my stomach.
As if he would attack me the instant the Emperor gave the order, he compressed lethal orange psychic energy at the tip of his staff until it looked ready to burst.
It was power that seemed able to tear apart reality's space and time at any moment.
But with nothing more than a quiet lift of his hand, the Emperor seated at the head of the table simply erased Malcador's psychic power and stopped him.
"Enough, Malcador. Noah, who stands here now, is a guest I invited. I understand the instinctive shock and feeling you experienced, but restrain yourself."
At his lord's stern command, Malcador breathed roughly through his clenched teeth and reluctantly withdrew the ominous psychic current gathered around his staff.
Only then did I take a closer look around. Erda, whose face was elegantly veiled in cloth, was also staring at me with profound shock filling her faintly trembling eyes.
Well, it was understandable. If they looked into my essence through their exceedingly developed spiritual senses, they would naturally react that way.
As they looked at me, they would see hundreds of millions—billions—of "me" layered atop one another within.
Behind a single body lurked a vast hive consciousness of insane proportions.
From their perspective, it must have felt like confronting a kind of cosmic horror moving before their eyes.
In contrast, I was newly impressed by the Emperor. He had already seen completely through my true nature yet had not shown the slightest reaction, and had only been surprised by something strange like the Custodes' name.
Because of the psychic shockwave Malcador had leaked when he lost control earlier, the golden decorations in the conference room warped, and the holograms crackled violently.
After we settled the chilled disturbance and set the surroundings in order, we finally began a serious conversation upon which the survival of the Emperor and humanity depended.
"So this is the kind of place that invites a guest and doesn't even offer refreshments?"
"Given the circumstances, you will have to excuse it."
"Forget it. I'll take out my own."
I opened a pocket dimension and set cola and potato chips on the table before me.
At the same time, I casually placed ice-cold cola and snacks before Malcador, whose expression had hardened into a scowl, Erda, who was brimming with wariness, and the Emperor, who was watching with interest.
"It'd be awkward to eat by myself, so let's all have some."
Malcador, Erda, and the other humans in the conference room were deeply wary of the drinks and snacks I had produced from thin air. None of them touched so much as a fingertip to them.
Only the Emperor picked up a bottle of cola in his enormous hand and drained its entire contents in a single swallow.
With the sound of carbonation scratching its way down his throat, the Emperor murmured quietly.
"A nostalgic flavor I have not tasted in a long time."
"Really? If you like it, I'll leave you quite a bit as a parting gift before I go."
"You have my thanks."
A very small, faint smile appeared at the corner of the Emperor's mouth. Malcador and Erda wore faces stained with shock, as though they had witnessed something impossible.
After that, we continued making pointless small talk while eating snacks and drinking.
"True happiness comes from these little pleasures. Even when the future is a complete cesspit, small comforts like this give you the enjoyment and hope to keep living."
"...Is that so?"
"Yeah. That's what I've learned from living so long. That is why, whenever I have fun, I try to enjoy it as childishly and cheerfully as possible."
"An interesting perspective."
In that grand conference room where we ought to have been discussing grave and immense matters, the Emperor and I carried on with trivial chatter wholly unsuited to the atmosphere for quite some time.
The Emperor seemed to be in rather good spirits, at least whenever we spoke of distant ancient Earth.
In particular, he appeared especially fond of the history of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.
Well, that made sense. Those had been the most peaceful and harmless times in all of human history.
Yet even amid that easygoing conversation, the Emperor's eyes never softened.
The sharp gaze hidden behind his mild expression watched me throughout the conversation, as if determined to pierce straight through me.
Once the ancient small talk, which had amounted to me talking almost entirely by myself, had loosened the mood enough, I swallowed the chip I had been chewing and finally brought up the real subject.
"We've loosened things up with enough small talk, so let's get to the real point. Nessos, what exactly do you want that you brought me all the way here?"
At my question, the Emperor immediately gave his answer without a moment's hesitation.
"Noah, I ask that you join me in purpose and take part in my great undertaking."
"Fuck you. What, are you trying to get all that for free? Did whatever conscience you have commit suicide and die?"
To the Emperor, who had so confidently spoken such utter nonsense, I slowly raised my middle finger as a polite gesture of refusal.
Crackle—!
At that insulting statement and gesture, Malcador lost his reason and seized his staff as if he were about to erase me on the spot.
But Erda, seated beside him, swiftly unleashed her own supernatural power and formidable psychic abilities, restraining and blocking the enraged Malcador head-on.
The table in the conference room let out a scream as it twisted beneath the mental mass radiating between those two titans.
Even amid that vicious chaos, the Emperor did not grow angry. Instead, he merely watched me with a deep smile on his lips, as though he found it interesting.
"Then we must speak at length and reconcile our respective views, Noah."
"Make another weird proposal like before, and I'll set the bomb off right here. You know that, right? Even if I die, I'm not really dead."
"Understood. I will be mindful of it."
And so, the Emperor and I spoke for a long, long time within the vault deep in the Himalayas.
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