“Holy shit! I knew I recognized that voice from somewhere! Dude, the best part in that whole movie was when Kana-chan gets gang-raped by like, fifty demon tentacle raptors, but then her brother shows up and saves her… Actually, I change my mind; the best part was when Kana’s brother, who’s a tiny Asian boy, ends up having weird, inter-species incest with her afterwards!” The ‘robot’ on the right was immediately convinced by Michael’s absurd and unbelievable story.

However, ‘Rick’ was still pointing his assault rifle at the ‘girl’ who was riding a giant tiger-sized white-furred wolf. He shouted “You look awfully small to be a human… Take off your helmet! If you’re an elf, I’ll blow your fucking head off right now!”

“Kyaa~! Robo-san’s so kowai~! It’s so cold though~! Does Robo-san want Minari-chan to freeze to death?!” The ruse continued onward, as underneath that mask, the little Nephilim’s irises turned brown and his facial features became ‘altered’. In order to match his claims, he was shape-shifting into a form that greatly resembled Jasmine. It was unnecessary to become a woman and he wasn’t too familiar with that level of transformation, so he just focused on his head.

Sarah whispered into his mind: “Mike, what’s the point in all this bullshit anyway? Let’s just kill em and Shadow-Step in there! With a bit of invisibility, it should be easy to avoid detection… Then we can go on a rampage and really have some fun! Hahaha~!”

The armored giant on the right walked forward and slung his assault-rifle behind his back. He complained “Seriously Rick, calm down! We haven’t had any new arrivals in months… Look, I’ll just give her a mana-neutralizer and even if she really isn’t human, she won’t be able to cause any trouble. Here, swallow this pill and get your dog to take this one…”

After receiving the two tiny white tablets from the enormous mechanized gauntlets, Michael placed the first one into Inari’s mouth. However, it instantly vanished and was sucked into their combined ‘inventory’. When he swiftly removed the rebreather-like part of his mask, he performed the same ‘sleight of hand’ trick.

Then he began focusing on ‘restraining’ his own aura and all of his Companions did the same: Except Jasmine, who was sleeping in their Soul Realm. Once the residual mana that was radiating from the ‘little girl’ and very large ‘dog’ had completely vanished, Rick finally lowered his weapon.

He let out a sigh of relief and grumbled “Hiro, you really need to start being more careful… You weren’t in the NJSDF back when shit hit the fan three years ago. Hell, even last year there was a huge influx of magical terrorists…”

Rick suddenly asked “Oi, now that I think of it, I totally forgot the most important question. Minari, was it? Anyway, answer me this honestly and don’t lie, cause I’ll be able to tell. Are you an Atheist, Agnostic, or one of those crazy Arcanists?”

After thinking for a moment, Michael nervously replied “Eto~, I’ve never really been ‘religious’… but, I do believe that there is probably some sort of super-powerful being out there. Arcana-chan is definitely godlike, but I highly doubt that she’s ‘omnipotent’. It’s not that I don’t know what to believe either; I do have my own personal belief system, but since I didn’t have it forced upon me and I don’t try to shove it down people’s throats, I don’t consider it a ‘religion’…”

Hiro sighed, “Good answer, but in the future, if someone asks you that question again… just go with either Atheist or Agnostic depending on where you’re at. There are some pretty fanatical Atheists and Agnostics in New Japan and well, it’s just safer to lie sometimes… Anyway, I’ll escort Minari-chan inside now.”

Rick nodded his metallic helmet-like head, which had a singular glowing crimson ‘eye’ camera at the center of its face. Then Inari casually followed the ‘robot’ towards the colossal, hundred-meter tall pykrete wall. Of course, rather than gargantuan gates, there were plenty of doors along the sides at one-mile increments; those hatches were made out of a silver metal, similar to the armor on those ‘robotic’ bodies.

Once Hiro had the bar-code on his right hand scanned by some lasers, the magnetic lock released and there were a bunch of loud mechanical noises, as the door slowly slid down into the ground. Michael stayed on the white wolf’s back and without even telling her what to do; she continued following the giant through an extremely chilly tunnel.

It wasn’t long until they reached another metal hatch, which separated into two halves and opened sideways. When the door slammed shut behind them, the room was suddenly brightly illuminated. The ceiling was barely four meters high and the floor was roughly twenty square-meters. There were one-way mirrors on all of the walls and the ceiling had a lot of vents on it, which sprayed out a reflective fog, saturating the entire room in moments.

Two minutes of relative silence passed, until Hiro explained “Don’t worry, this is just the typical decontamination procedure. The air is currently filled with loads of nanites that are programmed to exterminate any mana-borne viruses, bacteria and microorganisms. This is the preliminary cleansing…” Then there was a loud beeping noise and all of the thick smoke was sucked out of the room.

The center of the floor opened up and the metallic giant stepped into a large pod. Reaching his arms out and grabbing some handles, his entire robotic suit of armor started being deconstructed by dozens of mechanical arms.

Michael muttered “Ah, lame… He was just a guy in a suit? Well, at least he’s a cyborg?” as he watched the five and a half foot tall Asian man walk out of the pod. He was wearing something that appeared similar to a black diving suit over his entire body, which covered everything but his head. However, his left leg and arm were both totally mechanical; he even had a synthetic glowing red camera-like eye and the skin on the left side of his face was severely burned. His hair was medium-length, straight and black, while his right iris was dark-brown. It was easy to see rippling muscles on most of his body though, regardless of his thin prosthetic limbs.

After stretching a bit, he asked “Do you need some help taking off your helmet and other gear? Hmmm, what design is that anyway? Not Azriel-Tech, maybe Ariel-Corp? No… looks way too advanced and practically seamless… Holy shit, is that an actual Archean Artifact?! How is it functioning without radiating any mana though?”

The Nephilim giggled, as the re-breather, goggles and the rest of his helmet transformed into an unassuming pair of black, thin-frame glasses. They fit perfectly on his small and feminine face. Sarah’s hooded cape turned into the tattoo of a bright-blue spider on the back of his neck, which was covered by his extremely long and black hair. The coat of bronze armor protecting his arms and the gauntlets on his hands, melded into his flesh and vanished completely. Next were the obscured leg and chest gear, which also disappeared rather swiftly. Those pure-white metallic boots were replaced with a pair of golden sandals, while the dove that was hiding in his crimson robe fluttered out and landed Inari’s head.

As for ‘undergarments’, Michael was wearing Jasmine’s ‘panties’ in their activated mode, so he literally didn’t have any genitals or even an anus. He quietly grumbled “Ugh, this feels really fucking weird…” before gazing up at the gasping cyborg and explaining “Ah~, I kinda lied earlier… My name is actually Minari, but I’m not really the voice actor for ‘I Thought My Sister Was a Kawaii Dragon-Girl, but It Turns Out She Was Actually a Dinosaur From Saturn!’ Anyway~, yeah, these are magical items, but not ‘Artifacts’. They’re probably closer to ‘Legacies’, but I’m not completely sure…”

Hiro frowned, whispering “Are you a… Psycher? Cause even if you are, once you’ve been exposed to the mana-neutralizer in that pill I gave you or the nanites in this room, you’ll become ‘human’ again. Just make sure not to tell anyone… They’ll imprison you and basically use you as a lab-rat for the rest of your life.”

That dove gazed up at him and murmured “You’re a good person…” but it just sounded like “Guh-guh-ou~ ouh~” so he didn’t find it particularly suspicious.

There was a smirk on Michael’s hot-pink lips, as he shrugged and asked “I wonder~? Hmmm~, capturing and experimenting on people just because they have superpowers… Pretty cliche, don’t ya think? Aren’t they worried about Arcana placing a bounty on this place?”

The cybernetically enhanced man sighed, “As long as no one’s being ‘raped’ or ‘enslaved’, Arcana doesn’t really seem to care what happens to people. Also, even though we don’t have any conventional Psychers… Well, there is still plenty of magic-tech out there now days. Hell, I even have a mana-sink implant in my brain, which lets me cast some spells. There are also ways to convert electrical energy into mana and vice-versa… This is basically the center of the world when it comes to technological advances. Everywhere else, they just rely on Archean Artifacts or their physical capabilities. Besides, if Arcana wants to destroy the planet… she’s going to have to get past ‘Azriel’ first. Although, with the way things are going, ‘he’ might end up beating her to it. Ugh, anyway, it’s not like what I just told you is some secret… Just thought I’d give you some general information while we wait for the secondary decontamination procedure to begin.”