Soul of Burning Steel

The moment the magic projection that claimed to be No. 3 appeared, Joshua raised his vigilance to the highest level.

He swept his eyes to observe the direction of the surrounding magic power, and began to build a model in his brain to speculate on the source of the opponent's magic power. The warrior's eyes, which are comparable to professional equipment, can clearly see that the power source of this projection comes from the tallest and largest machine building in the Iron Rune City. On the silver-white steel template on the top of the huge building, there are countless runes. The radiance flows, projecting an endless stream of magic power here.

The moment he confirmed the source of the other party, Joshua's right hand condensed an astonishing fighting spirit, firmly locked in that direction, and Rin at the side also tacitly walked to his left hand, ready to be magical at any time.

This is not an overreaction. You must know that Joshua is now wearing a full set of armor that Moria forged for him, but the artificial intelligence in front of him can easily pass through the armor and body protection without him noticing. You must know that he has the Azure Orb, a sage relic, in his hand.

In the face of such an existence, raising one's vigilance is never too much. Joshua has always believed that communication only exists in an equal existence.

"There's no need to act hostile."

No. 3 sensed Joshua's hostility. Unlike the soul-oriented alchemy creatures Yingying and Rin, as a machine-oriented artificial intelligence, although she has lost some emotional abilities, she has an extremely high pure reaction speed. With a huge advantage, she quickly said: "I have no ill intentions towards you. In fact, it is because of my arrangement that you can come here so smoothly all the way."

When he said this, the voice of No. 3 was still so calm and indifferent. On his delicate face, the gray-blue pupils seemed to be frozen, as if everything had nothing to do with him: "Otherwise, the automatic defense measures of the fortress would have been activated long ago. Now, even if you can break in by force with your strength, it will definitely not be uncomfortable."

The facts were indeed so, and there was no need for the other party to lie. Joshua felt the terrifying power contained in the magical lightning above his head, which was enough to threaten his life. He nodded slightly, accepting the explanation.

But there was one thing he didn't understand.

"You call yourself No. 3... Then No. 3, let me make a long story short."

Joshua looked around at the flow of magic power. He knew that the opponent's body was actually inside this piece of steel rune machine. The projection in front of him was just a humanoid terminal for easy communication. He said in a deep voice, "Why are you so friendly? But not from Karliss, a clear outsider, even an invader."

"If you communicated with us from the beginning, it makes sense. Why did you wait until we came to this central dogmatic area to meet us?"

Moria and Clare at the side looked at Joshua and the outsider's magic power projection in a language they couldn't understand with puzzled and puzzled faces. The elves could barely distinguish Some traces of astral language are still meaningless, the two of them have no idea what the two of them are talking about.

"When did Joshua know the foreign language..." Clare murmured, "From his great-grandfather's generation, I have never seen anyone in his family who can speak more than two languages."

"No, they can at least learn a little dwarf and elf language." Moria subconsciously retorted, but he also shook his head, not knowing how to express his feelings: "This guy..."

"Master, what are they talking about..."

Rin softly talked to himself, he can understand the meaning of the other side through the spiritual communication with the warrior, but the magic boy was awakened recently, he only knows about the things on the mainland of Mycroft, he can't learn from Joshua and 3 Get the information he can understand in the conversation of the number.

"Race has no meaning anymore. The Karlisians never distinguish people's identities by blood."

No. 3's magic power projection has obviously been carefully designed. When she speaks, every detail is done very well. Whether it is the movement of the lips or the flapping of the wings behind the waist, it is so real. She blinks her eyes, He calmly said: "What's more, the world has long since been destroyed, the civilization of the Karlisians has been buried in the dust, the fire has been extinguished, and in this dark world, only meaningless lives like me exist... You invaded Whether or not it doesn't matter, because I have nothing to protect."

When she said this, the projection of No. 3 bent her waist slightly, and her tone changed for the first time. She seemed to say from the bottom of her heart: "You... only you are different."

"Me?" Joshua frowned, and said in displeasure while being on guard.

He likes to be admired by others, and he also likes to hear words of praise, but soldiers don't like this kind of special treatment for no reason, especially in the face of 03, who manipulates and threatens his power: "My partner and I Why is it different?"

The projection of No. 3 looked around the old dwarf and elf in an extremely humane manner. Her eyes stayed on Rin for a while, but then turned away quickly.

"Two alien creatures, they don't have the power of order, and an artificial life that is similar to me but different, although it has the power of order, it comes from others..." She said slowly: "Only You, the person who holds the relics of the sages, you have the sun, flames, and traces left by the sages on your body—the power of order is on your body, and it is extremely strong."

No. 3 said softly, and the way she spoke was to vibrate the atmosphere with magic power and send out sound waves: "For me, an artificial intelligence that has been programmed already, this is the most important thing—the Karlisians have long been wiped out, civilization Cut off, although I don’t know where you came from, but you are the only creature in this world——and the only holder of the power of order that I have seen. For me, you are the new authority holder The latter is the key to fighting the enemy."

"...it makes sense, but it's far-fetched."

Joshua reluctantly accepted this explanation, but he was still vigilant, and said bluntly: "But number 3, your intelligence is beyond my imagination. I am not ignorant, and I have seen many artificial intelligences. , for an artificial intelligence of your level, the so-called written program is no longer a reason to restrain you."

"You have wisdom." The soldier said, with a low voice: "With wisdom, you are a human being, but human beings can lie and betray the existence of oaths."

"You are right. Logically speaking, when I met you, I should have directly given you a full set of permissions, but because of my wisdom, I didn't. Although according to my thinking and judgment, this is not the best choice. But I did it anyway."

After silently listening to Joshua's words, as if to refute, No. 3 expressed his thoughts as if he didn't know how to lie at all, with his expression unchanged: "As for why I'm still doing things according to the procedure, the reason is very Simple."

After a while of silence, the voice sounded again.

"Because I don't know what else to do."

No. 3 raised her head, and she looked at the top of the large vertical pothole. The bright golden light was flickering, which was the energy core of the entire fortress, and countless magic power gathered above everyone's heads.

Seeing this light, No. 3's expression finally became more vivid. She looked a little sad. This was the first time she showed such an obvious expression: "The world has fallen into darkness, and the people from Karlis who wrote the program for me have also fallen into darkness." They were all dead, I was driving alone in the barren wilderness, fighting against chaos, absorbing the remaining power of existence in the world, just like this day and night, for thousands of years... My wisdom is useless, except for mechanical follow-up What else can I do besides the program?"

Laughing as if laughing at herself, Number Three looked at Joshua. The gray-blue eyes were obviously just projections, but they seemed to contain a soul. She said calmly, "I was originally just a program without wisdom to maintain the fortress. However, in the last days of the Karlisian civilization, in order to maintain the power of the crystal sun, people put their lives into the body of 'I', and the power of countless souls made me who had no soul and wisdom become It took its current form—a fortress with a will of its own."

"Thousands of years have passed, and I can no longer express other emotions. I finally had a soul, and watched it get damaged bit by bit in unbearable loneliness. This is my experience."

Joshua remained silent. He looked at the magic power projection in front of him and sensed that the energy flow in the entire fortress was trembling with the artificial intelligence's words.

"In my body, there are the roars of countless Karlisians—revenge, revenge towards chaos, order, the pursuit of the most powerful order—this is the only purpose and criterion of my actions."

Speaking of this, No. 3 suddenly remained silent. She looked directly at the pair of red pupils on the back of Joshua's helmet, and said softly, "I've talked too much, a warrior with the power of order." She nodded slightly and said: "What do you want?"

I never expected that there would be so many things around the Mid-Autumn Festival... This chapter will be revised later, and I will try to write the second one.