Darius landed in the Grandmaster section of the underground with his two Branded Servants. He observed the area and noticed that it was far larger and more complex than the areas above.
The map he had found in the Great Library of Krona ended here as well. Most of those who saw what was deeper within never got a chance to go back up.
Darius spread out his senses over the area and drew a mental map of the tunnels. He turned to Gunner and Xela then smiled.
"This time, we won't rush forth, for there is no need. We'll head back up to the surface while we wait for Miranda to establish herself throughout the remaining levels."
This surprised the duo, as they thought they were about to go all out in this eradication endeavor. It turned out that they were rather going to relax.
However, wouldn't doing so give Beelzebub and co time to recover?
Still, they followed Darius in teleporting back to the surface. What the trio saw left them shocked and speechless. What had been an abandoned city had now turned into a city of metal and robots.
Guard Androids in different forms moved about, patrolling the area. Each squad was accompanied by a chromatic tank with a horizontally cylindrical barrel. Gunner and Xela were unaware, but Darius recognized them as seemingly modified Rail Tanks, which were like mobile railguns.
Darius wondered how Miranda managed to get the fuel necessary for such things when he noticed the Source Energy flowing through all the metals and the entire city itself.
It was then that he understood that Miranda had dropped all other forms of energy, to completely rely on the ever-present and never diminishing Source Energy for power.
In other words, Miranda had accomplished what would set humanity as a Grade 1 Intergalactic Civilization back on Earth, which was achieving a source of clean and limitless energy.
To any native of Faust, this was not really a big deal. However, to any person from Earth, they would know that this was a game-changer, a complete upheaval!
What even left Darius all the more speechless was the fact that the ideal 'clean and infinite energy' usually still had some costs involved, though very minor so as to make it portable.
However, Source Energy used in such a way had zero costs to him or Miranda!
Miranda happily let the trio take in her hard work, before a young girl with twin tails and lovely dark skin bounced over cheerfully. Her little frilly dress swung about, softening the heart of all onlookers.
"Hehe, Daddy what do you think?" Miranda asked with a wide grin.
Darius was shocked to see the form of his daughter when she was young in the flesh. He couldn't help but kneel down and touch her hair, caressing it gently, surprised that it didn't feel like touching air, or metal, but actually hair and flesh.
Miranda happily enjoyed the pampering before boasting. "I found some memories from you visiting a subsidiary company, Realtech Robotics and co. They had once taken you on a detailed tour of their Research and Development lab where they showed you the schematics for a humanoid robot."
Darius had an eidetic memory which was further boosted by his high Intellect, so he instantly remembered what Miranda was talking about. At that time, he had been around 55 years in age, about 15 years before he died.
Martin had only been around 9 years old at the time, far from being ready to lead the company. Darius had been in charge of pretty much everything, and so he had gone there with high hopes.
However, as humankind had only solved the problem with clean nuclear energy but hadn't achieved portability, it had been impossible to power such androids, at least at an affordable cost.
The whole range of human functions meant the sheer energy they consumed per second could only be provided by a miniature nuclear reactor in their bodies, functioning as a Pseudo-Heart.
As such, even though he had granted them some preliminary funding, that had only been done to keep the idea alive. Darius definitely saw the massive profit and how it would revolutionize the world.
Around the time he died, nuclear energy portability had almost been achieved, so Martin and co should have checked his leftover instructions and picked up on that project.
He was utterly confident in his children, knowing that he didn't have to worry about his legacy on Earth due to their competency.
Darius put that thought aside when he realized what Miranda was getting at. With a curious smile, he asked. "What about Solena and Martin?"
Miranda scratched her head. "I only just perfected the technology's, and those two are still within the Safemoon sector. It will take me a while to build connectors with a powerful enough signal to reach Fallon."
Darius blinked. "Are you saying it's possible to actually get a signal that far away?"
Miranda laughed as she hugged Darius around his waist. "Of course, Daddy! Have you forgotten about satellite technology?"
Err… Darius's expression froze. He had not forgotten about it per se, but he had long adapted to the nature of Faust, especially Fallon's.
He had forgotten that since there was gravity and space, this world should likely be a planet just one that was very big.
As such, it was not impossible to deploy satellites. However, there were other concerns in Darius' mind.
"What about protection? On Earth, we did not have space monsters destroying satellites, but I wouldn't be surprised if such things existed in Faust."
Miranda nodded. "That's why despite constructing hundred so satellites already, I haven't deployed them into space yet. I'm still working on trying to merge the weapon systems of this world with ours, to create something powerful enough to ward off anything."
Darius smiled with approval and rubbed Miranda's head again. "Good girl, you have done well."
"Ehehehe~" Miranda giggled foolishly as she enjoyed the praise.
Darius then thought of something. "Right, continue to spread connectors all over the land. It's best we keep the illusion that we need such constructs in order to expand and maintain our network, as many would find out about it when we go global."
Darius rubbed his chin with a thin smile. "That way, if any opposing parties attempts to harm us by cutting off our network, they will waste their time destroying our connectors in such an area and assume we will be blind there."
"However, with our satellite still in place and sweeping the entire planet, it will be futile. You should also cooperate and pretend as if we cannot see such parties in order to reinforce the misdirection!"
"When the time is right, we will then strike with precision, knowing everything about their plans while they know nothing of ours."
Miranda was surprised by this, but nodded obediently. "I will do so at once! Right now, I have covered about 70% of Pokterr. I have also constructed new cities and outposts near many resources so I could increase the rate of production."
"I estimate that in two years, I should be able to build a mechanical army strong enough to invade all of Faust."
Darius was pleased by this, but shook his head. "Invasion is not our goal, instead it should be gentle subjugation. Like Earth's companies have turned the populace of my old world into mindless consumers, so too will we turn the denizens of Faust."
"Build your army, but rather than invade the lands…" Darius turned to gaze at the horizon. "…I'd rather we start developing in the sea."
Miranda seemed to understand. "It is Faust's biggest goldmine and secret. I will begin making underwater specialized troops, carriers, and submarines. I only need a few weeks to construct a vanguard army to check the sea, so leave it to me!"
"I trust you, my dear. Keep expanding below ground, and inform me when you reach the area of the Grandmasters. I want to head over to Ludo to investigate something." Darius explained with a nod to his two Branded Servants, who had been listening in with interrupting.
Hearing that their master wanted to travel to another continent when he was still in the midst of their Quest, with less than 2 months until it would elapse, they were shocked.
However, knowing that Darius likely had his reason, they came to stand beside him as he activated a Cross-Continental Temporary Spatial Array. The group then disappeared from the city in a flash of yellow light, beaming towards the destination Darius chose.
As for Miranda, she seemed thoughtful for a bit. Since her main routine was in Darius' HoloBrace, she had to leave behind a subroutine to take charge, so this was no longer her 'main body'.
The subroutine got to work fulfilling Darius' mission, planning to copy the array using technology so she could send over some help there.
Not only that, but she would be able to start constructing a network of Ludo silently from that point of entry.
Well… as long as she found some natural resources to that end.
Pokterr had been ruined by the Insects, but its metallic resources were truly endless, especially the Holy Metals.. The Insects had been unable to eat them, otherwise they would have long since broken into the Vaults before Darius ever had a chance to suss them out.
