...

The aspect of creation coughs and stands on her two feet.

Dizzy and fearful of her surroundings, she carefully looks around. Her body feels really heavy.

It seems that she is in some kind of glass chamber.

Something touches her feet.

Claire "Holy Jezus! Dave, what the fuck?!"

Dave "A...Cla'bro... where are we, dude? What happened?"

Azan "We can tell you that."

Claire and Dave look at the left wall of the room.

Over there, leaning against the wall, they see Azan and Mina lying down on the floor.

Mina "Yo, hi. We are... a bit tired. Just need a bit of rest. And we'll be good in no time!"

Dave "Yeah, we can tell dude! So what happened?!"

Azan "We should wake everyone up first."

Dave and claire look at each other and nod. They begin going around the room, shaking the rest of the group to wake up.

The others rise to their feet and for some reason, they can feel that their bodies feel heavy as well.

As everyone approaches, Azan and Mina begin to tell everyone what had occurred while they were unconscious.

BEEP BEEP BEEP

Everyone jumps back in response.

A thick shroud of gas enters the room.

They all cover their mouths.

?? "Relax. It's just sterilizing gas made of 50 percent nitric oxide and 50 percent oxygen, safe for human respiration. It looks like you guys contracted plenty of ze Morpharabots in there, this gas will help. It's their weakness after all."

Kanji "Morpharabots? Wait... I know this voice."

The sound of glass ticking is heard.

The group stares to the northern side of the room and sees someone peering at them beyond the glassy boundary.

A graceful young lady dressed in an open white lab coat, she wears a sky blue t-shirt with saddle shoulders. The shirt has a purple design of a cartoonish hand crushing a Conical flask in its palm. She also wears a jet-black skirt along with a lighter shade of black pants underneath.

Looking toward her feet. Wait, are those...

Dave "Muahahaha! Holy crap, dude! You actually wore those stupid green crocks I bought you for last Christmas!"

?? " Well, I too thought ze crocks were stupid... but I have grown to love them unironically, Dave."

Claire looks at the mysterious girl's face and her own face grows with joy as she sees those tomboyish looks and short amethyst-colored hair.

Claire "OMG! G-

?? "Hold that thought, Claire. I too, am happy to see you. Especially in person.... but right now, I recommend everyone to remain relaxed and avoid screaming as much as possible. I'm going to blast a wave of radiation into the chamber."

Diana "What?! Hold on! Why?!"

?? "You guys are all also infested with toad spider babies. This calls for greater measures."

Amelia "Eww gross! When in the bloody hell did we get those?"

?? "When you were unconscious and cocooned inside ze creature's nest."

Azan "Wait! But me and Mina weren't there! Why do we need the radiation?!"

?? "Oh, Azan. It isn't always that easy. You see ze spider's babies are microscopic and like to balloon themselves with tiny strands of webs around ze air above ze mother's nest. They seek out prey and enter their orifices. Yes, including ze pores. Once enter ze body ze little bastards inject ze prey with nerve numbing neurotoxins which prevent the feeling of pain. And then they proceed to eat ze prey inside out."

Azan "Wait a minute! I thought that we are immune to toxins. Me and Mina would have felt the little bastards in our body."

?? "Oh right! Ummm, your powers also increased your pain threshold. So basically, you couldn't feel it. I tested this while stabbing a needle into you while you guys were sleeping to see if you guys have the toad spider babies.

Mina "Okay that's it! I'm gonna fa-

Her mind goes numb and her body falls, but Azan catches and lays her properly on the floor.

Azan "Damn! Looks like that did a massive blow to her trypophobia."

Sarah " I don't know what... her problem is but ... wow! That sounds rad! Tell me more about that place!"

Noah "Yeah." "OH HELL NAW! IGNORE MY WORD PLEASE!"

?? "I would love to but you may want to brace yourself first. It's coming in 1... 2... 3..."

A pulse of radiation travel through the chamber, causing a slight tingling sensation in their chest as the millions of baby spiders are wiped from their bodies.

Kanji "That went well. My body feels lighter. I guess all the weight came from the spiders. But looking at your face...We aren't done yet aren't we?"

Gwen "Of course, my other half. You see I have to apologize. I have been spying on you and everyone ever since you were lying on your bed eleven days ago."

She snaps her fingers, a small fly flies out of Kanji's lab coat.

Kanji "Seriously! But how did it get past my spyware device?!"

Gwen "Well, it actually did trigger it... but back then it was mechanical. A metal fly that emits various frequencies that prevent it from being detected, but ze cost is that there was no audio and I had to manually adjust ze sound waves for it to work."

Kanji "But you changed it. Was it because of technical error?"

Gwen "No, it was a physical one. Controlling ze little guy was too much for me to handle. This resulted in me making one fatal mistake... that time when your device got triggered. It was actually my fault."

Kanji "Now, that's cleared up a few things in the back of my head. Please, continue."

Gwen "So I had to withdraw, and modify it to be biomechanical which bypassed your device no problem. In summary, I couldn't hear anything you said in ze first two days and didn't see anything on ze second. However, from ze third day onward I managed to grasp the current situation quite clearly."

Kanji breathes a sigh of relief.

Kanji "Good. She doesn't know about "that"."

Gwen "... However, I'm curious about what you and Claire did on that day. All I know from you retelling ze others about that day is that you two went for coffee, got into trouble with some punks, you told her and AN about your involvement in World War 3, and then ze two of you played games until you both fell asleep. I feel like something is missing here."

Kanji and Claire feel hesitant to answer... but they have no choice. One of them steps up to Gwen.

Claire "There's an attack on the town square!"

Gwen "Oh, that's it. Really? Looking at how nervous you guys look right now, there must be more."

She thinks for a bit, her right hand on her chin. Then she remembered a certain news broadcast from a few days ago.

Gwen " Ze Void Square incident. So many casualties, you two didn't go and stop it but let ze police do it instead. You must've felt very guilty and that's why you didn't want to tell everyone."

Claire "Yeah...Yeah! That's right! It is a bit fucked of us... definitely" "Nice, our secret is safe!"

Gwen "Nonsense! What you did was smart! At the time Kanji was ze only one awakened, so fighting them that day would be suicide. Anyway, knowing this I'm quite satisfied."

Gwen moves to a chair positioned in front of a desk leaning on the wall.

Gwen "You guys must have plenty of questions about recent "events". Feel free to ask anything while ze gas do their work in cleansing you. The process may take a while after all."

Gwen said as she gets closer to the desk, she smiles at a strange computer.

The group squints their eyes to take a better look at it.

It looks wacky, but Kanji knows what it is. It's a quantum computer, but most of its important circuits are contained within a small glass box.

But its parts are made of branches...and roots? They are covering something in there that Kanji doesn't recognize.

The glass box has holes on its side in which the branches and roots go out and attach themselves to a small monitor. The frame of which is also made of branches and roots.

It looks like it is moving.

Gwen puts her right hand on the computer and begins petting it.

It starts emitting a type of purring sound.

Noah "What the fuck?" "What the fuck?!"

A pixelated cat face appears on its screen and begins to talk.

|Good Morning Nya! My Master Gwen Fischer UWU|

Gwen "Good morning. Are you doing well?"

|Nyes! Doing Pretty Well Nya. What May I Assist You With Today Nya|

Gwen "Please initiate total nuclear deconstruction of sub-space "Germmany."

Claire "Wait, do you need "Germany"?"

Gwen "No, I mean Germ-many. Germmany. It is ze place you guys were in."

Sarah "Awwww man! Why?! That place is cool."

Gwen "You know your obsession with ze eldritch and appalling things always disturbed me. But if you have to know why is because ze place is becoming too dangerous, too intelligent, and has outstayed its use."

Kanji "Care to elaborate on the grander details."

Gwen "Why of course. Let's begin from ze start. Did you remember six years ago when we traded our technology?"

Kanji "Yes, I remember that it was my nanobots and sub-space portal tech for your neural link tech. I see that you used the sub-space to perhaps construct a replica of your country and cleverly name it Germmany. But with the number of nanobots I gave you, It would've taken more than a decade to finish it. But even if you had a way to get more nanobots, the sub-space at that time only allowed 5 kilometers of land!"

Gwen "Kanji. You know I don't do things the way you do with your chemistry and physic shenanigans. I used ze biological path of science."

Adrian "I'm no scientist but I can say that makes no sense. Sorry... was that a bit rude? I'll just... I'll... go to the corner then. Sorry."

Adrian moves to the left corner of the room out of shame. Diana moves there as well, she isn't interested in hearing science bumbo-jumbo, it confuses her.

Gwen "Okay, Adrian and Diana left. I guess my audience decreased to 8. Oh well! Let's move on! You see I didn't actually order ze nanobots to construct the entire thing, just its styrofoam structure."

Kanji "Oh, that makes sense! It explains the time to construct it! Now about the creatures, fleshy buildings, and the actual space."

Gwen "Before going there, I'm going to tell you a little secret. Something I swore not to tell anyone while being under ze German government. I created a new creature! Not an animal, insect, plant, fungus, or anything you have seen in the past. A new biological entity."

Kanji "Let me guess. It's the morpharabots. You have captured my attention. I'm a bit intrigued. Go on."

Gwen "Well.... technically I didn't invent "invent" it. I picked it up after ze creation of ze Zenobots, 25 years ago. Ze scientists working on it gave up after failing to make it do anything else besides spinning it."

Kanji "So what did you do to turn them into morpharabots?"

Gwen "What I always like to do. I test and test until I get results. First, I tried exposing it to a number of organic substances and non-organic substances, but that lead nowhere. So I consulted ze periodic table for answers and started exposing it to each element. Failed results after failed results, I felt hopeless... until one element stood out. This element is Oganesson."

Kanji "Atomic number 118! It's the most expensive thing on the planet! How did you get your hands on it?!"

Gwen "I had to spend all of my deceased parent's assets to get just one molecule of it. My parents owned an entire bank company. Just to let you know."

Dave "Ayo, isn't that a bit messed up dude?!"

Sarah "Nah, I don't think so. If they left it for you to use it, then I don't see the problem."

Gwen "Sarah's right! Also leaving it around just ignores its value which doesn't sit right with me."

Claire "But Gwen! To spend all that... that's too destructive."

Gwen "Sorry, but you know me by now Claire that I don't linger with past actions."

She looks at her computer, the count down has reached its 25 percent mark.

Gwen "Moving back on topic, the Oganesson at first didn't do much to ze zenobots. However, when I started moving ze element near them, they began to shake uncontrollably. I was really motivated and so I had an idea. I put a dozen zenonbots on a floating platform inside a small spherical glass chamber. I then used Kanji's nanobots to carry and spin the Oganesson around the space within. And low and behold, ze morpharabots were born!"

Kanji "Wow, spoken like a true scientist. Trial and error truly is the correct way of expanding the field of science as a whole. So what do these morpharabots do? My prediction is that they have a special interaction with biological substances which causes them to create Germmany."

Gwen "That's 100 percent right. But before I get there, I should tell you about its default properties. On the microscopic level, these guys are like tiny slimes that would scramble about, touching anything nearby. They are super sensitive to "any" large biological materials and would go immediately to them. Then they would mindlessly absorb ze target's molecules and inherit its traits and exponentially grow to the material's original size. I don't really have a name for these transformed beings, so I'll just call them Instances."

Dave "Okay! Wtf does that mean, bro?! Like the growing part."

Gwen "It means what it means. Like say it absorbs a chicken drumstick then it would become a full chicken."

Dave "Woah that's cool. But doesn't that means it created more food than before bro?"

Gwen "Yes, but no. If we were to kill, cook, and eat ze creature. Ze nutritional value would still be ze same as a single drumstick."

Claire "Wouldn't that be good for dieting?"

Gwen "Those were the exact same words that the government asked when they learned of my invention. So they started testing it which lead to a couple of problems. It turns out that within ze flesh of the chicken are clones of the original morpharabot which became activated and started devouring the test subjects. This caused an incident called "Merge day", hundreds of people were joined together into a massive blob of human flesh which now sits in a secure steel container in a secret military base right beneath this city."

Kanji "You said, "joined together ". Is this another property of the morpharabots?"

Gwen "Yes. Might as well tell you about four of its other properties. First of all, Instances that consume ze same biological materials like to group and sometimes merge. Secondly, it is also ze creatures' way to reproduce because after being merged a certain amount, ze mass would stay dormant and then split itself until there is double ze number of original Instances. Third, they hate Instances that are made of different biological materials and would most likely fight them unless they are stronger. Lastly, they can take traits of two or more materials if ze materials are piled together."

Azan "That explains all the fusion creatures in that place. Why the hell would you create that fucking hell?!"

Gwen "For research, of course. I started with a pile of various meats I got from my local butcher. However,... I might've gotten a bit overboard with ze amount. It lead to ze creation of a massive shifting blob of flesh that started wrapping and expanding, ze creature covered every single road and building. When it reached the edge of subspace, something miraculous happened. It started pushing the space to increase it. A strange interaction that I, unfortunately, forgot to research to this day. What's stranger is that ze creature started protruded pillars, crude replicates of the buildings it covered, in the expanded space."

Azan "But what do you gain?! Knowledge?! Some strange kick!"

Sarah "Chill Azan! She never intended for people to get trapped in it."

Azan "Ah... you're right! I'm sorry... Gwen."

Gwen "It's alright. Let's move on."

She shows no reaction and taps the computer's screen, it now shows a past state of Germmany.

Gwen "So after the flesh creature covered ze entire city of Germmany. I ran some tests and most of which just involved me sending in other Instances made of different materials and seeing what happens. Unexpectedly, they didn't try to attack ze buildings or each other for a fact. Instead, they treat ze place as a place for living and started creating territories like what animals do in an environment. This caught my interest, so I tried to add more and more, but nothing new happened. But then, one day out of my usual schedule, when I opened to check on the place. That was when I saw it, ze center of the city. It was a mass eye with a slit pupil and a bottomless gaping mouth next to it. But when ze thing saw my recording drone, those parts closed and hid themselves. I was terrified but not of ze creature's eye and mouth but of...."

Kanji "... it's intelligence which explains its ability to create those replicas."

Gwen "Yes, and it was aware of my existence. After that, ze creature began growing new parts like ze bones on its roads and more eyeballs on ze buildings. I finally learned ze truth that all that pile of meat ze creature consumed resulted in it getting all the traits, including intelligence. When I introduced those all Instances, it knew of ze danger and did something to them. It turns out that some of ze meat were infected with a brain-controlling parasite, granting ze creature that ability as well."

Kanji "Let me guess. It then controlled the other instances to jump into its mouth so it could grow and evolve."

Gwen "Precise! But it shouldn't be able to. It was against its biology! So I sent in a drone to collect samples of ze creature to look under a microscope. I found out that ze creature was altering its DNA constantly to support its dramatic changes. I was impressed but also more frightened and knew that if this keeps up, it could become smart and powerful enough to leave ze dimension. This realization forced me to construct disguised nuclear bombs in an attempt to one day blow up ze entire city. To trick ze creature, I made ze bombs to look like giant flying brains and made them fly just in case it became aware."

Azan "Oh, so that what those were. No wonder they weren't attacking us."

Gwen "Yeah, but sadly the disguise didn't work and ze creature eventually knew. It began to grow legs in an attempt to reach high enough to disable my explosives."

Azan "But why didn't you blow them up?"

Gwen "Because there was still more research to be done and no one was being hurt back then. But now... I guess Germmany has crossed that line. For that, I'm destroying it."

|Destruction Initiating Nya! Prepare Yourself For A Spectacle!|

Sarah "Wait! Seriously! No, keep it! You can't just get rid of all that work for nothing."

Gwen "Yes I can because it became nothing. I believe there's no point in keeping something that is no longer of use. Sometimes in life, you have to destroy certain factors to gain the results you want. That is the way of humans."

Kanji "I see, you truly are a perfect fit for % The Aspect of Destruction %. Also awesome quote, by the way. Did you create that?"

Gwen "Well, I shouldn't get all the credit. But yeah, it is technically my quote. Also, I believe Germmany is going to die anyway."

Sarah "What do you mean?!"

Gwen switches the screen to show the current status of the creature.

Sarah "Wha... what is this? Why does it look so grey and dry as fuck?"

Gwen "Apparently, Mina's powers were stronger than anticipated. Her influence caused a massive decrease in the creature's lifespan enough to make it die of old age. Luckily, it managed to survive by a thin thread by sacrificing about all inhabitants within it. Leaving the creature just a few days to live."

Sarah "Well, shit. So if it is going to die soon. Then I guess, it's alright to put it out of its misery."

Noah "Sad, but I too agree." "Thank god that thing is going to be gone."

Gwen puts her hand on the screen, and it switches.

She sees the numbers slowly counting down. Her face shows no sadness, no sign of empathy or regret, only disappointment.

She believes that it could've been more than she hopes, more to research. Atlas, the time has passed.

Gwen "Perhaps, in a different timeline."

|5....4....3....2...1|

The group sees the flying brains' outer shell begin to crack, revealing the nuclear device within. One by one, they drop down like raindrops in a sun shower.

They land.

The city burns and crumbles before being enveloping a super enormous white light.

The next moment, there was nothing. No buildings, no creatures, no artificial sky, no sound, not even a single speck of dust.

There's now only a white void.

Gwen "Farewell... my creation."

She turns to check the clock above the door of the room.

It's broken. She looks at her friends embarrassed.

Gwen "Umm... can you guys tell me...the time?"

Sarah "What? You don't have anything that shows the time. Dude, you're like a scientist."

Gwen "I know! It's just that... I have a habit of destroying clocks."

Kanji "Why?"

Gwen "Time stress. I just can't handle it when I don't meet the time I aimed for."

Kanji "Oh yeah. I can see why that would be frustrating. In that case, the time is about 3 pm."

Gwen "Thanks, Kanji. We have plenty of time before the government's daily checkup."

Dave "The what now?! The government! what the fuck?"

|His chat types monkaOmega|

Gwen "Yes, ze German government. You see they don't really trust me that much unlike how the Japanese government trusts Kanji. It is to make sure that I don't get into any sort of "business" and so they normally inspect my lab and even my bedroom."

Claire "Hey, that's a bit rude. Can't a girl get her privacy?"

Gwen "It's ok, Claire. It is the price I pay when most of what I own is funded by them."

Claire "Oh, that's a bit fairer. But it's still awful. Do they leave you alone once in a while?"

Gwen "Nope. It has been happening for 4 years now. Not a single day without a checkup."

Noah "Yikes. That's cringe." "That's messed up."

Dave looks toward the computer, it twinks at him which catches him off guard.

Dave "Ayo, dude! What is that thing?! You know the fucking cat computer!"

Gwen "Wait... shit. I forgot to you guys how made her. Basically, she is my greatest invention/companion. Her name is Izzybot."

Claire "Awww! Hi, Izzybot!"

|Nya! Nice To Meet You, Miss Claire Nya!|

Kanji "So is she an AI? Why are there so many roots and branches?"

Gwen "Ok, I'll explain. Last year, I had a breakthrough with the morpharabots. It turns out you can trick them into consuming non-biological objects by covering the objects with biological materials."

Azan "And what did that do...exactly?"

Gwen "It created a much more stable version of those Instances. In fact, they took on more traits of the non-organic than the organics. I once tested three objects, a sofa covered in bacon, a chair covered in cocoa beans, and a table covered with leaves. After putting one morpharabot for each one of them, they eventually consumed and turned into ze furniture but they were made entirely out of organic materials. What's even more interesting is that they weren't moving, weren't infested with more morpharabots, and are completely edible. Well, the bacon one at least. It was exactly what the government want, so I destroyed them and never looked back."

Kanji "Why did you do that? Is it because you don't want the government to get them?"

Gwen "Yes, I fear they would do more bad than good. Also, I already learned everything I need to know. That's when I created "Izzybot"."

Gwen continues petting her companion, Izzybot keeps purring in a mechanical voice as Gwen's doing it.

Gwen "I used a small quantum computer with a little screen and an AI that carried ze behaviors of my deceased childhood pet kitten named "Izzy" and I covered it with branches and roots. Low and behold! An entity that can act like a cat, a computer, and can use roots and branches to move! Well sort of, but I'll explain that later. Anyway, I was excited beyond belief. But then I ran into a certain problem. Since Izzybot was a cross between a computer and a tree, their normal necessities won't work. I tried for days on end to look for a way to sustain her before she dies while hiding her from ze government. Having no other choice, I requested her to absorb the morpharabots-creating sphere and asked her to somehow make use of it to keep herself alive. It worked!"

Kanji "So that's what's in the center of that case. Simply, she managed to take the created morpharabots into herself to continue thriving. I would like to understand more about how that works in detail but I guess it's too late now."

Dave "Wait, isn't she a cat AI. Shouldn't she not know how to do that or speak at all bro?"

Gwen "Well, if she were a cat's body she wouldn't know how. But in a quantum computer, Izzybot can learn and adapt to a greater capacity."

Diana and Adrian rejoin the group.

Gwen "Good. The two giants have decided to climb down to beanstalk and fall into our conversation. Would like a replay?"

Diana "Haha, good one boss 2. But me and Adrian here can hear you from back there. We got the gist of it, most importantly about the government checking up on you."

Gwen "Right. I guess I can hide you guys early. Please exit and follow me through the door. Also, I recommend you guys restrain yourself from engaging in bodily interaction with me as the radiation may still linger."

Claire "She means hugs lol."

Gwen puts on a face mask and gives the okay sign to Izzybot.

|:3|

The glass wall slides into the floor.

The group follows Gwen out the door. They are now in a hallway, its design is similar to the ones in hospitals. She points to the room in front of them.

Entering it, they find it to be very cold. Like freezing cold. Looking at their beds, they recognize their shape instantly.

Dave "Bro seriously cryo pods!"

Gwen "I thought you guys wouldn't get used to real beds after how many times you spent in cryo pods or cryo crystals? I guess."

Diana "I don't mind it one bit! A bed is a bed! I'm more surprised that Mina didn't wake up yet. Azan, better explain to her what boss 2 told us today when she wakes up."

Azan "Okay, I got it. I'll tell her first thing in the morning."

They enter their pods, the lids begin to close. Meanwhile, Gwen goes back to Izzybot.

Gwen "Are they all asleep?"

|Yes, Nya! All Super Sleepy Heads.|

Gwen "Excellent. You know what to do next."

|Aye Aye Nya!|

Izzybot's screen changes to display readings. They look like the infrared signatures of ten individuals.

Gwen "Commencing temperature alteration and global decoy dispersion!"

|On it! Nya!|

The signatures undergo rapid changes and then a map of the world shows up.

Gwen cracks her fingers and starts tapping a bunch of spots on the globe. Each spots lights a pulsing red dot.

Gwen "Alright! Just one last thing to do."

She phones the German government. They pick up immediately.

Gwen "I'm ready for today's check-up."

"No need. We have been doing this for 4 years and have decided to let you go. We trust you now and we are sorry for causing your breach of privacy. Please take care, Gwen Fischer. May you serve your nation proudly."

Gwen "Huh. That's quite odd. In retrospect, it makes sense. But something.... no I shouldn't worry about it. This is a good thing. I should really get some sleep right now. Izzybot. Bed mode!"

Izzybot's branches stretch to form a bed frame. She also grabs a bed mattress, a blanket, a pillow, and an eye mask from a hidden compartment under the floorboard.

Gwen tucks herself in and the lights shut off.

|Good Night Master Nya.|