It Started With Devils & Artefacts

P.S: Keep on flooding with reviews and comments the faker, use it as a way to release all that pent up frustration, or practise writing xD.

Regardless, the next arc begins, (Darling in Franxx/HI3/HSR) we start it with first half of Erina's lemon ^.^

~~~

Marcus gazed at the storm clouds below as he sipped his tea. According to preliminary data, the storm could last three times longer than any storm recorded in modern times.

With such revelation, he decided to take it easy.

[Sir, I have detected a time ripple. It has frequency as a container.]

"I don't remember requesting anything." The Inventor looked confused as he mentally summoned the camera and checked the data the time flow readers showed. 

"Send someone to pick it up." 

[Relaying orders] 

"Isn't it strange? A random package?" Sirin commented, her voice had hints of suspicion.

"It could be from Ars Almadel Salomonis." Quinella chipped in as she was gazing at the world below.

"But the space station would reply if we send word first." Herrscher reasoned.

"We will see."

As the group discussed the weirdness, a gunship went to the moon's orbit, picked up the package, and brought it back to the Assimilator.

The engineers and mechanics proceeded to work on opening the crate.

Aurora checked the data after following the protocol and realising it was secure.

[Sir, this is a short message from Carboniferous Assimilator. It says they have finished the task and are waiting outside the time for the next objective.]

"Hmm? Isn't time flow linked? How could they finish the task?" He sounded confused for a second.

[The time flow for Assimilator is linked with the planet below; the anchoring is set to the Earth, not us.] 

"Then… oh… and since the Assimilator is set…" Marcus realised that the amount of time that had flowed was… a lot.

"Aurora, ensure this Assimilator is set properly and prepare the Confiscator. We are leaving for Outside of Time." The inventor stood up.

"Record this storm properly before returning to normal procedures." After instructing them, he motioned for the girls to follow; they were leaving.

Marcus is excited to see several million years of recorded evolutionary history.

"Roger!"

The operator saluted before seeing Marcus leave with his girls.

The group walked to the docks and took escalators to the docked Confiscator.

The inventor remained quiet the whole time, pondering what he had gotten from that Assimilator. He didn't expect a large chunk of data so early.

However, one small miscalculation over time could cause thousands of years of progress elsewhere.

"Ugh… after this, I will stick with making girls instead of this," Marcus complained as he scratched the back of his head. 

"What will you do with that Assimilator in the area outside the time?" Sirin asked with a small but very concerned voice.

"Make more Assimilators, then send them all out to all the time periods needed. I won't need to check all the timelines." He shrugged at them.

"But, I thought you wanted to see…things!" Erina joined them as she heard the command to return to Confiscator, so she needed to ask him. 

"I do, but I just got millions of years of data on evolution! I need to check it out. I still plan to observe extinction events and get my dinosaurs on my own, but I can do it anytime if I have a base secured. 

And next time, I can visit with Ars Almadel Salomonis." He said with a small smirk.

Moments later, they returned to the Confiscator, and her secretary jumped on Erina.

"Erina-sama!" 

"Hisako?" The cherry blonde was slightly confused by the affection shown by the fellow chef.

"Erina-sama, there was this huge shark-like creature with saw-like teeth! That thing tried to eat me, but Goddess Athena was able to smack it away! It was an enormous thing! Around 8 metres long! A-And there were more strange things at the bottom of the ocean—" 

The girl unleashed an avalanche of words as she was traumatised by the weird creatures she encountered in the ocean.

Erina started to sweat hearing all that. She needs her to stop.

"Relax! Hisako!" The cherry blonde chef shook her shoulders.

"R-Right!"

"It's fine. We are leaving Permian for now." 

"O-Okay… I saw too many frogs anyway." Hisako smiled while saying that.

"Yes, anyway. Something happened to the other Assimilator Marcus left behind, so we are returning to an area outside the time." 

As the pair caught up, Marcus sent them to their room to relax. He then went to the bridge and instructed the crew to set course to the coordinates they acquired from the data package.

"Set course. We are leaving the orbit."

"Setting route, initiating time engine, preparing for construction of Byfrost bridge." The officers scrambled to start setting up the leaving point.

The spaceship rushed out of Permian Earth's atmosphere. Graviton projectors on the ship's hull glowed and began creating the rainbow-coloured bridge. At the end of the bridge was a greenish-blue circle building by itself. 

Once ready, Confisfactor accelerated into it and disappeared upon the contact.

~~~

A day later, the warship blasted out from a green nebula-like cloud and rushed towards an acorn-shaped construct floating above the green moving clouds.

Marcus, who didn't leave the bridge the whole time, gazed at the Assimilator with a curious gaze. He wonders how much time has passed for the AI in the Assimilator and how many animals it has collected.

Moments later, the exploration vessel docked with Assimilator.

[Sir, it will take a while for me to process the data. According to the data I received, 566 thousand cycles and over two hundred million daily data patches need processing.]

The inventor's eyebrows went up when he heard how many cycles there were.

Cycles, as in solar rotation cycles. Since they didn't have a beginning point for years, they went with solar cycles. How many times does the planet circle around the sun?

And they have over 566 thousand years. 

This is how many years Assimilator worked, moving back and forth through the Carboniferous to collect all the samples.

'Thankfully, the AI models I use never advance beyond set boundaries. That many years is enough for one to go rogue.' 

As someone who already has AI turned human. Quinella is territorial enough to set AIs in a way that they can't rebel. 

When Marcus and the crew walked out from the Confiscator, they were greeted by shocked knights.

"S-Supreme Commander!?" 

"H-He finally visited us!"

The handlers, the knights, the hangar workers—they all looked like they saw a celebrity for the first time, or in this case, they saw him again in over half a million years…

"You know, I am happy that this is the reaction we get, not plasma pikes in our faces," Quinella whispered to Marcus.

"Yeah…"

The group passed by the saluting Assimilator's crew and went deeper into the station.

Eventually, they arrived at the control room.

"Supreme Commander!!!" A bunch of girls rushed towards Marcus, whose eyes widened to a massive degree. He didn't expect tens of girls to jump on him.

Quinella, Sirin, Gu Yuena and the rest looked at this with complex emotions. 

"When I designed females for the crew, I didn't expect this…" Quinella explained as she massaged her forehead.

"So it was your idea." Herrscher frowned when she realised that his assistant was actively making Marcus' harem bigger each time he made a new vessel or a new station.

"I wanted to make the bridge more eye-pleasing at that time." The plantinum haired assistant clarified her intentions for such a design choice.

"Well, you wanted one thing, but it devolved into something else," Sirin said with crossed arms.

"I never thought we would travel through time. We were hunting vampires for golden cups a couple of months ago." Quinella shrugged. At that time, having cute girls on the bridge looked like a good choice.

Eventually, Marcus moved the affectionate girls away. He is still trying to understand how they were over 500,000 years old.

Thankfully, he had a system so they would not get insane for living that long.

"I'm sorry. There was a mishap. I won't leave you girls behind like this again, " he clarified. 

"It's okay! We have more than 50 million years of data for you to look over!" the captain puffed her chest.

Marcus' lips slightly twitched when he heard that. He was not expecting such a large chunk.

"Yes. For now, order the nanites to begin building Assimilators for the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous, and the rest all the way to the modern era, and prepare three for Venus, Mars and Titan.

Once you have those, we will launch the ones for prehistoric eras. 

With those secured, we can accelerate the acquisition of my top listers."

Marcus issued orders as he walked to his seat, which he hadn't sat for around 566 thousand years. It's weird, to say the least.

The way he build his stuff, which doesn't age normally, he made sure his stuff was around for many, many years to come.

That is why his seat was the same as the one he had just sat in the other Assimilator when he sat down.

After thinking about time, he mentally summoned the data packages.

His eyes widened as he saw hundreds of thousands of folders started to pop up.

"Holy…shit…"

He swore under his breath, overwhelmed by all the data. Thankfully, everything was sorted properly. All he needed to do was read it.

'Well, this is good. Once I read all of this, I will have a concrete understanding of how nature evolves.'

~~~

As Marcus barricaded in the Control Room with all that precious data, the girls were bored out of their minds after just a few days.

At first, they thought about checking all the animals the Assimilator had and their natural habitats. Still, these were carboniferous animals… a.k.a. bugs—that's 80% of all animals, and they come in all shapes and sizes.

"So boreeeeddd!" Jeanne complained as she had nothing to do. Even after doing all of her maid work, she was bored. She could enter the entertainment dome, but that's a commitment once she starts. She will stay there the whole day, and then Grayfia will be on her butt.

"Same." Hippolyta was in a similar situation, alongside other maids, but they didn't have the guts to express their dissatisfaction.

But then… Atalanta decided to do something about it. She is still waiting to visit the Jurassic and Cretaceous for the ultimate prey in the shape of Therapods, the likes of T-Rex and Allosaurus. 

"Master!" The lioness sneaked into the Control Room.

"What is it?" He sounded a little bit tired. The huntress looked around and saw floating folders full of data.

"The Assimilators will be coming online soon, and we are getting tired. I was wondering if we could hunt and collect some animals for you." Atalanta walked over and stood in front of him.

For a second, he placed his hand on his face and rubbed his eyes.

"Sure… Aurora sent the list I compiled a while ago, And I mean all of the list, including Cenozoic stuff." Marcus instructed his AI as he released a tired sigh.

[Uploading Data]

"You want us to get dire wolves and Smilodonts?" Atalanta's interest perked up at the chance to hunt woolly Mammoth and other ice age animals.

"And a Meg… Just remember the butterfly effect meter." He reminded her.

"I know." The lion maid rolled her eyes at that reminder.

"Good, now off you go." Marcus motioned for her to leave.

"Some of the girls will be coming with me. Is it okay?" Atalanta quickly added a few bits.

"It's fine. I have Athena with me." He motioned at his fiance. Who was reading stuff and completely ignoring everyone…

"...Very well." 

The Lion Maid is certain that Athena is in her little world and doesn't care about anyone else.

"I am certain that other girls will remain… but we will take one of the chefs."

"Sure." Marcus shrugged at her.

"Take Hisako; I will keep Erina. She already has an idea of what I like and my style." 

"That is fine with me."

After finishing their talk, Marcus returned to his data, but this little incident released a 'storm'.

Atalanta went to see the girls right after the meeting.

She dropped the bomb right after.

"H-Hold it! You will take me with you!?" Hisako squeaked her sentence. Her eyes were wide as saucers as she realised that she would be away from her Mistress for an extended amount of time.

"Yes, we will fill up this list for our Master." With a hand motion, Atalanta showed everyone the hit list.

Jeanne's eyes bulged when she saw the numbers next to the names.

"...T-Rex is worth 10 thousand!"

"...I might join you this time around." Le Fay looked at the numbers with wide eyes as well. Before this, she would barely do such tasks as she preferred a more elegant approach to earning money, but this… even the witch's greed has been poked.

"Heh, that's good to hear. But for now, we will work in a single time period as the infrastructure is being built." Atalanta showed them what she picked up from Aurora.

"One could say the highway is being built for easy access to leave and enter the timelines." She showed some sort of relay points above the green cloud, which will be built by the nanites that are right now building Assimilators. Three are already completed, but more are being built by the minute.

Since the first Assimilator is so huge, the number of nanites it can produce is simply absurd. Like a snowball effect, the number of nanites keeps increasing until it can build several Assimilators simultaneously.

"...This project…" Le Fay's eyes bulged… as she realised they had skipped a couple of steps in Project Kang.

"I know, Master didn't intend for one of the Assimilators to become able so quick." Quinella chipped in with crossed arms.

"But these are the moveable objects. Don't forget the Central Hub. Its size will dwarf these Assimilators. For now, I am designing how it will look, which leaves us to live inside one of the 'acorns'." She air-quoted the acorns part, as that's what Marcus is calling them.

"Yes!Yes! It's big! But what will Erina-sama will do!?" Hisako got everyone's attention back.

"She will be cooking for Master." Atalanta dismissed the hit list window and looked at Hisako.

"But he didn't leave the bridge for days now!" The secretary complained.

"Then make him leave." Sirin rolled her eyes as she listened to the conversation from the back. 

She started to feel that her video-making journey had reached a dead end. Herrscher realised she needed to join this trip to create better content. Thankfully, the journey should not be long.

"You are a good cook. Then use that to make him take a break." Herrscher shrugged as she closed her manga book and got up from the couch since they were in one of the resting lodges.

"I suppose I will join you, as I need to document these periods for my YouTube channel." She explained to the maids.

The rest were surprised to hear that. They hadn't expected Sirin to leave Marcus for an extended amount of time, but they didn't realise that she was managing her time.

Since he is busy, she will do her tasks as well. Once she has her footage, she will spend an extended amount of time editing it with him, like they did before. 

"That is fine with us. We have more than enough things to do." Atalanta was switching into her 'huntress' mode; as someone who had managed members of a hunt for years, it was a natural switch for her.

"I am going as well." Artemis entered the room, dressed in hunter armour made from nanites. 

"In that case, we will remain here." Grayfia interrupted. She had Tiamat and Hel with her. 

"We still need to manage a couple of things." 

Not that there is much to do, considering there is no dust and Marcus is 'hibernating' in the control room.

~~~

As the maids and a lone creation of Marcus left the Assimilator aboard another meant for the Jurassic Period, Quinella decided to arrange work for the remaining members.

"Everyone, come to the meeting room." 

A couple of minutes later, everyone gathered in a large meeting room. 

Quinella summoned a hologram showing what the remaining members would do.

"Let's start. I want everyone to pay attention to this." She showed a huge space station. Next to it was the Assimilator, which was shaped like an acorn.

The acorn was three times smaller and could allow four acorns to connect to it. It showed that connected acorns could spin around the station, which should be creating gravity? Or at least that is why it's spinning…

The huge station was similarly shaped to a cone. The tip is small, and it grows bigger towards the top.

The girls noticed that the tip was shaped like a barrel, similar to the Ars Almadel Salomonis. It couldn't be a weapon, could it?

But knowing Quinella, she made it a weapon. Considering the size of this cone-shaped station… it's a weapon of planet-bursting proportions. 

No surprise there.

"The top of the 'Temple of Time' will have drydocks in a circular fashion; it will allow mass production of warships of all shapes and sizes.

The dry docks can alter and rotate, so their sizes can change. This is where ship girls will work; you girls will be quartermasters per se. Next is the core area in the middle. This area allows other assimilators to connect and interchange." Quinella explained and mentally highlighted the areas.

"These areas are logistics, so the responsibility falls on the maids." 

"U-Us?" Hel hissed. She has no clue how to run logistics! She is all about killing and collecting undead! The Goddess has no clues at any of this!

"Relax, we can leave the difficult parts to the Head Maid." Tiamat shrugged while replying.

"You two be silent." Grayfia coldly reminded them not to make a scene.

"Y-Yes."

"Understood."

"Next are the lower levels, which have barracks, assembly lines, and what one expects from a military base.

"Gu Yuena will oversee this part." 

The Dragoness nodded when she heard it.

"How many soldiers this Hub will be able to produce?" The Silver Dragon Empress asked with a curious tone.

"Around 2.5 million per hour." 

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

The bombshell made the gathered people speechless. With numbers like these, they can overrun worlds in hours!

And such a thing will happen soon.

"It's just the knights, but the Mechanised Infantry is in a similar situation.

"If Master wants to invade a world of his choice, he will only need to ask," Quinella said while brushing her fingers through her hair as she said that in a smug voice.

"True." Gu Yuena agreed.

"But this is only the beginning, isn't it? I can assume these stations can join each other and make an even bigger one, right?" The Dragoness asked with a knowing grin. 

"You know us well, as expected from a fellow creation." The platinum-haired beauty commented in a knowing tone as the hologram was replaced by another one.

What appeared instead is an overview of how the base will look.

"The end desire for our Master is complete control of the time and space continuum expanse. Such a conclusion was confirmed after we confirmed the discovery of such a realm."

As she explained, everyone saw countless hubs expanding above the green clouds of time. They could see something akin to a highway above the clouds, an actual Byfrost bridge expanding for a very, very long distance.

"This here is what will allow us to travel back and forth through large amounts of distance in time. Hundred million and more years will be crossed in a short amount of distance." Quinella highlighted the bridge.

"Like any successful Empire, infrastructure is the key component that makes it happen." 

"The difference is that instead of the road on the ground, this is a road which connects timelines and allows rapid travel."

'These people are mad. She is planning to spread their rule through the entire fabric of reality…' Tiamat realised how crazy these Technocracy people are. She was here less than a month, but it was enough to see what they could do.

Not even Dragon Kings and Gods are this nonchalant about other people's opinions. How many worlds and people will they enslave to their desires?

"I see, as expected, though I never thought Allfather would see such a massive use of Byfrost to such an extent," Hel commented with crossed arms. As a Norse Goddess, she is aware to some extent of what Asgard's Byfrost can do. But what she is looking at is ten, if not a hundred times more extensive.

"Well, we don't know if this is the correct way to showcase Byfrost since Odin never showed it to us," Quinella said with a shrug. Thankfully, Hel confirmed that it was similar if not exact, tech… talking about tech convergence… 

"It is the same thing. The rainbow colours represent the bridge." Hel confirmed for the Assistant.

"That's Good. Now that you know what we will be doing until Master finishes his thing, you can start working on these assignments." 

"...One moment, you said we will be doing warship logistics… There are no warships." Enterprise raised her hand while speaking out what she was thinking.

"That's because the drydocks are not finished yet. Once they are online, the creation of the most advanced fleet will begin."

Quinella showed the models on the hologram.

There were five warships in different shapes and sizes… the biggest one was 7 kilometres long.

"These…"

"Master finished the designs?" Gu Yuena remembered Marcus doodling in one of the classes as he was adding things to these.

"I joined in and finished the initial sketches." The assistant smiled while saying that.

"Of course, we needed to run some simulations for plausibility and adjust to make them as efficient as possible."

'Damn…this is madness…'

The recently recruited maids, especially Hel, were sweating buckets seeing these. She witnessed firsthand what the 'smallest' of the warships could do on a battlefield—now add 70 times to that!

Thankfully, Erina and Hisako were not here to see these reveals, as they were having their last talk before separating…

~~~

Erina looked through the window as three Assimilators plunged into the green clouds of time. By this point, she was no longer mesmerised by these clouds. Hell, she noticed that she could instinctually tap into the flow of time. This helps her extremely well in cooking, as she can improve or lessen the effects of the ingredients.

After seeing three Assimilators fly into what is considered the era of Dinosaurs, she took a deep breath.

"It's up to you to ensure Master is well-fed and rested." Quinella walked over and looked where the Super Constructs descended into the flow of time.

 "I will make sure the projects are right on schedule while he catches up to the data collected by this Assimilator."

"Umm, I might be a cook, but I don't know if I can distract him long enough to take a break." Erina nervously commented.

"Please, we already tested this on our way to Carboniferous." Quinella eye rolled at her.

"I am giving you a chance to have him for a while." The Assistant finally revealed what she was scheming.

"...W-W-What?"

*Snort*

"There is no need for embarrassment. Marcus has given you a very soft treatment. He… likes your work ethic and your passion for your craft. As humans say, birds of similar feathers flock together. Or something along those lines."

"Its birds of feather flock together." Erina smiled while correcting what the Assistant meant.

"Yes, you get my point. Now, do your part. After this, I will start learning to cook. I feel that your… kind can be dangerous if left unopposed." After saying that, she turned around, brushed her hair with her fingers and walked away to continue overseeing the construction of the Hub.

'I do need to come with a proper name.'

She pondered while walking away.

Erina watched how the Platinum-haired Assistant walked away before turning back to look at the window.

'Well, let's see how it goes.'

This situation was one in which the cherry-blonde girl didn't have much confidence to deal with. However, part of her was getting excited to think that she had been given such an opportunity.

~~~~~~Later~~~~~~

"Umm…" Erina poked her head into the Control Room. She quickly realised that the automated doors and the throne were some distance away from each other. There was no way to speak normally when she was that far away…

The cherry blonde walked into the room and walked towards where Marcus was sitting. She could see he was reading through files, checking data, and other schematics. It looked far too complex for the chef girl…

"Marcus, I prepared dinner for you." Erina slightly raised her voice to get his attention.

"Umm?" The inventor turned his head and looked at the girl.

"Erina? You have food ready for me?" He asked her.

"Yes, your Assistant said that you haven't eaten anything for a while now."

"I guess…" He dismissed the windows and stood up, stretching out for a bit before looking at her.

"Ok, let's go." Marcus motioned for her to show the way.

"Then follow me."

~~~

Marcus looked at Erina in front of him. He could see that she was dressed in a miniskirt similar to her old school and black stockings reaching her thighs.

The girl looked sexy, to say the least. He wonders if she is planning to give him actual food, herself… or both.

As they entered the living room of the Assimilator, which had a design similar to the ones found in Confiscator, the Inventor saw a line of food on the table.

The girl was not holding back with her preparations.

"There is no set order. You can start with whichever you want." Erina explained to him.

"Hmm, then how about this… you shall feed me in the order you think is the best~" He teased her as he sat down at the offered seat.

The girl's cheeks exploded, and she didn't need to think for long. She bashfully smiled.

"...Umm…o-okay…" 

Seeing her agree in mere seconds made Marcus smile as well, and he motioned for her to sit on his lap.

The girl slowly walked to his side and very slowly sat down on his lap. He could feel her amazing ass touch his thighs.

Marcus' hands slowly went on her waist before moving slightly up and grabbing her impressive burst.

"!"

Erina's cheeks exploded in deep red as she didn't think he would do that!

"W-Wait!"

"For what? You have been trying to seduce me with your sexy clothes for a while~" He whispered into her ear as he squeezed her impressive breasts.

A soft gasp escaped from her lips.

"...I-I don't know…" She tried to explain herself but had no idea how to describe her subconscious choices.

"Don't worry, we can eat your food after we satisfy your urges~" He whispered to her as he moved her face to the side to face him and then kissed her lips.

Erina's purple eyes trembled as she just got her first kiss!

Slowly, her eyes turned glassy, and she started to feel strange.

"Hnnn~~~" 

The beauty moaned into his lips as she started to feel hot.

Before they could continue, he picked her up, took her to the closest wall, and leaned her against it.

Behind him, the food was encased in a bubble of frozen time as he made sure it stayed food. After all, he doesn't want her hard work to be wasted.

But for now, he focused on the most important part as he looked at Erina, who had a mystified look on her face. She looked out of her depth.

Not that it lasted for long as he grabbed her left leg and picked it up. Since she had a mini skirt, he saw she had thin-looking white panties.

'Well, there is no need to remove the suit devices. I do want to have fun with her wearing clothes.'

Marcus licked his lips as his hands went to her snatch and stroked through the special place.

Erina's mouth slightly opened as she felt his warm fingers.

She looked at him and tried to look down, but she could only see his hand.

He played with her pussy for a bit before pushing the panties aside and slipping into her tender cave.

"N-No… t-that place is not for fingers!" She panicked for a second. It looked cute.

"Don't worry. I am only testing~" He teased her back before ordering the nanites to make his pants drop and reveal his rod.

"Eep!" 

Erina squeaked, seeing his rod in the flesh and close to her pussy.

He moved forward and made his cock brush around her special place before pushing inside.

"OHHH~~"

The cherry blonde grimaced for a second before he fully pushed inside of her.

A strong smack reached the depths of her cave, and Marcus claimed her lips. She slowly started to move inside of her cave.

Slowly, he started to pick up speed, and as Erina's special place started to gush with love juices, she started to feel it.

A lewd sound started to spread through the dining room. It got louder and louder until it reached its climax, with Erina releasing a long-minded moan at the end.

~~~

At the end of the lewd session, the pair proceeded to eat, and the dynamic between those two changed…

It became quite similar to being a girlfriend and a boyfriend. But at the same time, it was not. One thing is for sure: Erina fulfilled what her grandfather requested of her.

Not that this quiet moment lasted for long as Aurora made an announcement.

[Sir, the Assimilator in Cretaceous has discovered something strange; you should check it in person. We might find a unique alternative Earth.]

"Oh? Then prepare the Confiscator for departure."

[Already on it.]

~~~

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