"Alive?" she asked in confusion.

"Of course not," she said. "They're just machines."

Cipher nodded. "But how come the robots from Gate 2998 are alive?" he asked.

"Ah." She showed a knowing expression. "You mean those ones? Yeah, they're alive. But they're different from what I make."

"How so? Isn't the difference just a mana core?" he asked.

She shook her head. "It's much more complicated than that."

"How so?" he pressed.

"I don't know how it works," she admitted. "It's like a machine but also different. When it's working like normal, there's this energy it lets out. But when you kill it, that energy disappears and doesn't come back even if you put it back together."

Cipher fell into deep thought. How did such a thing even work?

"Now that I think about it, the mana composition is similar to Elaine's holy magic," she added.

"Holy magic?" he muttered.

"That's right. Maybe they're using some sort of high-level holy magic to keep them alive. Similar to how the Immortal King's undead can still be 'killed.'"

"Hmm. But why would they need to keep them alive? Am I missing something?" He wondered.

"~Did you notice something?" Cipher asked internally.

[Yeah. Although it's thin, there is that strange aura. It's different compared to Elaine and Elara and is also very light, almost nonexistent, so I didn't bring it up] she said.

"~I see." Maybe it was another god, probably unrelated to the Love and Death gods. He glanced at Iris. It was surprising that she could detect such thin mana and notice the similarity with Elaine's mana.

"Do you think you can reverse engineer this holy magic if I found you a live robot?" he asked.

She shook her head. "It's probably impossible. Going through the ones we captured, I noticed that the unique magic signature is extremely thin. I was actually lucky to discover it. Although this signature increases with the rank of the robot, you'd need at least an SSS-rank robot to have something that has enough magic signature for me to study."

Cipher nodded.

"My current theory is that they're not actually robots. Well, they are, but like, maybe they're creatures born as technological lifeforms," she said. She noticed Cipher's expression and began gesturing with her hands. "You know how there are thousands of worlds out there, right? Is it really that surprising that a species based on just technology emerged?"

Cipher nodded. Maybe it wasn't that far-fetched.

"Are you saying that someone is summoning the robots as summon creatures?" he asked.

"Summon creatures? Aren't they the apocalypse?" she asked.

"Ah, about that..." He realized that Iris and the rest had yet to find out the true apocalypse of Gate 2998 and still believed it was the robots. He proceeded to explain to her about the creature eating the world.

"Hmm, if that's the case, then the robots were made or summoned to protect the world from the true enemy," she said thoughtfully. "Seeing as the threat hasn't been neutralized yet, then we can assume that the one making or summoning the robots doesn't have access to SSS-rank robots. Meaning it's much easier to reverse engineer the magic by looking for the source than trying to capture an SSS-rank robot that might not exist."

Cipher nodded. The one making or summoning the robots was probably a saintess just like Elaine and Elara. He needed to know which god she was under and see if he could get some valuable information out of her.

But could they still be alive? That entire world seemed abandoned. And the apocalypse started long before their start checkpoint.

He sighed. He would look for her the next time he went for inspection.

…

"Anyway, did you manage to get the materials?" Iris asked.

"Of course," he said. "But I didn't get any raw magi-steel. I figured the bodies of the robots would do. Will it work?"

"It's perfect. It's even better since it's processed," she said.

"Alright. The blueprints..." he began.

"I got them right here." She extended her hand toward him and handed him a folded paper. He unfolded the paper and there it was - the blueprint.

"Will this thing really work?" he asked.

"Of course, I've perfected it," she said. "Now quick, show me that instant creation magic." She jumped in excitement.

"Alright, calm down. Let me read the blueprint first." Cipher began to read the blueprint. A few seconds later, "Mhhh, mhhh, mhhh, I see... I don't get it," he thought. He was reading, but it was as if it wasn't registering in his mind.

"Ahem." He cleared his throat. Iris, who had been staring at him, blinked. "Is something wrong?" she asked.

"Umm... is there a simplified version?" he asked.

"Yeah," she said.

He exhaled in relief. Although he was a little embarrassed to say this, he had no choice. "Give me the simplified version."

"Give?" she asked in confusion.

"Yeah, give me that one," he confirmed.

"But it's that one," she said, pointing at the paper in his hands.

"-_-"

"I see. Nevermind." He turned his attention back to the paper. He decided not to bother comprehending and just skim through it. Maybe he didn't need to completely understand.

About a minute later, a notification appeared.

[New blueprint acquired: Null Core]

"It actually worked?" he thought in surprise. It seemed he was thinking about it too much. He just needed to store the information in his head, not understand what it was fundamentally.

"It's done," he said, turning to look at Iris.

"Really? Then let's make it quick," she said.

"Alright. Focus on me." He waved his hand and instantly, the item was created.

She walked over and picked up the item. It was perfect, just the way she pictured it in her head.

Usually, due to her own human limitations and other external factors, she couldn't make the items she wanted the exact way she pictured them in her head. To think that this magic was so impressive.

She turned to Cipher. The only problem... she couldn't detect any magic at all. Meaning she couldn't recreate it.

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