I was back in my underground prison cell, stripped of all my items including my unisuit. Petra and Justin were sitting in metal folding chairs on the other side of the bars, Justin looked slightly uncomfortable, and Petra looked like she was in her element.

At Justin’s side was Tino’s Sword. Justin wore it proudly—despite the fact that all of his other equipment was D-rank, and the sword was F-rank. It warmed my heart, slightly, thinking how Justin trusted me that much. If I said he should use an F-rank sword, and that it would eventually rank up, then he believed me, even though the sword’s description didn’t mention this possibility.

“When you’re ready, walk me through everything that happened during the Infinite Tower. Don’t leave anything out. Take your time—the sea monster invasion is under control, and I’ve cleared my schedule.”

It was strange, hearing Petra say that she had cleared her schedule. Petra had a schedule to clear.

Why didn’t I have a schedule? It just felt like I kind of went around from place to place, messing around, killing Zone Lords.

I stopped delaying, and recounted everything that had happened, as best as I could remember.

“Alright,” Petra said, once I had finished. “Let’s do things a little differently today. I picked up a theme, as you were talking. A theme of dependence versus independence. Let’s lean into that thought process. You won’t always have me here to tell you how Samantha has influenced you. So maybe this is something you should practice without me first. Looking back, where do you think Samantha influenced you?”

She spoke with a smile, and for a minute, I felt like she was playing a therapist role. But I was also pretty sure that therapists didn’t come with an element or threat of torture as well.

Petra had a point, though. I was always looking for someone else to solve my problems. Samantha to tell me what to do, or Petra to tell me how Samantha has messed with my brain.

“I was very quick to give Samantha the reins during the Infinite Tower. And I think I enjoyed giving over control a bit too much,” I said.

Petra snorted. “Character flaws don’t count as mind control. I know very well that you love passing responsibilities on to other people. Frankly, I’m surprised it took so long for something like this to happen. It actually speaks well of Samantha, that she waited so long before taking control, and that she never fought you for control.

“That said, we need some hard boundaries. Don’t let Samantha take control again of your body—not counting this unisuit, I suppose—unless your life is literally threatened.

“To simplify things, let’s call this Petra’s three laws,” Petra continued. “Samantha may not alter your brain or take control of your body without your permission. Samantha may not lie to you or me. Samantha must support you as you strive for your heroic ideals.

“Any other instances where you think Samantha mind-controlled you?” Petra asked, again.

“I felt…sad when she disappeared?” I said.

Samantha said.

“Noted,” Petra said. “Anything else?”

“No.”

“Alright, Jarek, hand it over to Samantha. Samantha, have you affected Jarek’s brain at all since last we talked?”

“No.”

“Well,” Petra said. “She’s telling the truth. Looks like you’re a softie, Jarek. But we already knew that. Unless… Samantha, at any point, have you made any long-term changes to Jarek’s brain that have affected him in the last few days?”

“No. I started doing something like that early on, but after our previous conversations I removed any lasting affects.”

“Alright,” Petra said. “Good call. Have you lied to Jarek or myself or misled either of us since your last interrogation?”

“No.”

The questions continued, and Petra didn’t catch a single lie from Samantha’s responses.

“Alright, let’s get out of here,” Petra said, opening my cell and passing my equipment over. “We all have a lot to do.”

We left the prison.

What now? I asked Samantha.

It was a strange feeling, working on constructing a flying vehicle while my friends and allies were fighting a war. But everybody was assuring me that they had the situation well in hand—a fact which Samantha continued fretting about. The sea monster invasion should not be easy to defeat. But it was.

Well, while I had the time, I would start working on this Aviaton. As usual, Samantha started with her long-winded explanation of the blueprint as we got started.

It was something that I was starting to appreciate more and more. If Samantha had been planning to take over my body, she probably would not have bothered trying to explain things to me from the very beginning. Maybe there was some good in her.

Abelino’s blacksmith was fast. I didn’t have a complete set of Aviaton parts yet, but they were coming in quickly in discrete parts that I would be able to piece together fairly easily.

Compared to a car, the mechanics of an Aviaton were incredibly simple. There were actually very few structurally complex components, besides the levers, sliders, and other controls. All of these controls effected the mana circuits in some way, and the circuitry then fed mana into the respective rune patterns that powered the Aviaton.

As a result, the actual physical production of the Aviaton was simple. The Rune Patterns, on the other hand, were increidlby difficult.

Samantha had me starting on the internal control panel first. It was basically a sheet of metal, sized and curved carefully so that it would be able to fit inside the Aviaton in front of the pilot.