Chapter 947: A shattered heart... A cruel scene...
Itogami Island is a sanctuary for demons, it's also a haven for researchers.
Aside from the demons, there are researchers from all over the world here. Some are pharmacists, some are mechanics working on complex machinery, some are highly-skilled technicians here to work on cutting edge tech, some are pure researchers, there are all kinds of brainiacs here. They are here mostly to derive scientific or magical breakthroughs using the knowledge generated from the demons here.
It's common to see research centers and outposts here on Itogami Island. There are also research districts with extensive capabilities from talent agglomeration.
There is an old research district here. It looked like it was built soon after Itogami Island got founded. Here, there's a certain company...
The outside of the building is composed of cold glass. Compared to the traditional buildings near it, it certainly stood out. Just like the buildings around it, this building is at least dozens of meters tall. Fortunately, sunlight couldn't hit the building. If it reflected sunlight, it would be hard for people not to take notice of it.
The Magus Craft is situated here.
It sounds like this company deals with magicians or assault mages.
However, it's just a company that manufactures robots and automata. It sells robots like cleaning bots.
However, this company is more or less a zombie company. The main headquarters is already abandoned for the most part.
The actual core business of this company is situated near the eastern end of the building, on top of a vessel...
That's a commercial vessel of the Magus Craft. Its role is to transport sold robots.
However, its true use is no longer the expedition of transport, it's involved in very intense research.
Kanase Kanon is currently on board.
Veiled in a glowing light, her eyes were open but they stared at the ceiling in a daze. She looked like a humanoid puppet as she didn't exhibit sentience.
Glowing lines were running across her body like intricate circuits. The light released appeared to be magical in nature. The lights flashed like vital signs in an otherwise normal human.
From her outwards appearance, she looked like a really well-made android. The circuits looked like it would belong on a really cutting-edge android. It gave off the feeling that if someone pressed a button or two, the circuits would open up, revealing the mechanical parts within.
However, she can no longer be referred to as a human, even the person herself identifies as something different.
She can sense it, her body and mind are slowly transforming into something foreign. It's a slow change but Kanon knows it is happening steadily. Her existence itself is slowly disappearing from this world.
Even so, Kanon isn't sure how she should feel. Strangely enough, she doesn't feel sadness nor fear of what's going to happen...
As for the reason...
A part of it is because of her current transformation, emotions like fear and sadness were slowly stripped from her.
The other reason was her innate nature to avoid harm to others. She already stained her hands with the blood of others. Her kind self acknowledged her fault and reckons that she lost her right to live by depriving others of life.
An artificial angel, it's basically a screwed-up experiment that gathers a bunch of spiritually enhanced humans, granting them magic circuits and then making them kill each other to obtain the magic cores of other experiment subjects. Upgrading themselves through slaughtering the other subjects. At the final stages, the apex faux angel will transcend mortal boundaries and turn into a real angel.
This is achieved through obtaining 7 magical cores.
If Kanon wants to become an angel, she has to kill 6 other experimental subjects. After consuming their cores, she would advance further along this transformation process.
She's already very close to that point of transition.
Although she only harmed a few subjects, the other subjects also killed a bunch of other subjects. Either way, she couldn't deny that her hands are stained with the blood of others.
Right now, she's a monster.
Even if she's called an angel, she's not deluded to think that what she did was divine or just.
Perhaps, disappearing like this is a fitting end for someone like her.
Kanon thought so. The longer she held such abandoning thoughts, the hazier her eyes.
Soon, her consciousness also started fading.
With her fading psyche, she recalled something that transpired yesterday night.
She was fighting in the sky, killing the other subject to devour their cores.
That subject also killed other subjects so she's got a few cores under her possession.
That subject is also very strong, stronger than any opponents she fought but she still held the superior edge in battle.
If the fight went on longer, she would have won. The other cores would have been hers.
However, she couldn't stop herself. Despite her faint consciousness and kind nature, she couldn't stop her emotionless self from killing the other fighter.
Then, a figure emerged within her field of vision. It was someone familiar yet distant.
He stopped her, he prevented herself from harming the other angel. For this, Kanon thanked him greatly. But, she also felt very guilty for what she did.
She harmed the person who saved her.
When he identified her, he didn't capture her like an animal, something he did to the other faux angel. Instead, he reached out to her, he even told her.
"I don't want to hurt you..."
With compassion, warmth, pity, and empathy, the person treated her monstrous self like a victim. Even when her hands and mouth were stained with the blood of others, he did so regardless. She almost broke down in tears when he treated her like that.
At that point, she already lost control of her tear ducts.
She thought she was already past the point of no return, becoming a monster was her inevitable end. For once, she felt the strong desire to return to her past self.
For once, she yearned to become Kanase Kanon again.
However, this wish lasted no longer than 10 seconds...
It's like she's watching herself through another POV, she saw her hand piercing the warm individual's chest, crushing his heart, and wreaking havoc on his flesh. Her heart died along with that move.
When she looked at him one last time, the warmth, pity, empathy, and sympathy were gone. He only gave her a very anguished smile.
She felt his warm blood trickling down her hand. She didn't shed a tear, her soul is already gone, tears are for those who are alive and she's dead.
And then there was no more. She couldn't remember anything after that.
Her circuits flickered and the last thing she recalled is the scene of that certain person smiling back at her.
In her misty eyes, a droplet of tear finally flowed down.