Chapter 76 – The Silence of the Machine.

Midnight at the Bastion of Greed brought an absolute calm.

On the manor's second floor, the lights in Rhea, Kael, Aurelia-Elysia, and Seraphina's bedrooms had been out for over two hours. The entire house rested beneath the comfort of new wool mattresses and the gentle warmth of the basement thermal pool.

In Diana's office, however, the crystal lamp on the mahogany desk remained lit.

The Commander sat in her leather armchair, holding a glass quill between her fingers, but she wasn't writing. Her dark eyes stared at the empty space in front of her with an icy, suspicious intensity.

Something had been bothering Diana's Intelligence 151 mind for days.

The System was far too quiet.

In her early days in the Dust District, the black-gold interface popped up every ten minutes to crack ironic jokes, criticize her purchasing decisions, or mock her leadership posture. But during the expedition in the Amethyst Labyrinth, after the battle against the Level 38 Emperor and during the home renovation shopping, the voice inhabiting her soul had confined itself to short, objective mechanical notifications.

To Diana's paranoid, analytical mind, sudden silence was never a good thing.

In Hell, silence meant hidden traps, internal mana corruption, or some hidden soul penalty the System was withholding from her prior to reaching Level 40.

Diana set the glass quill on the table with a crisp snap.

She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and channeled fifty points of pure mana straight into the spiritual center of her chest, forcing the interface to manifest.

“Show yourself, System.” Diana spoke aloud in the dark office, her voice slicing through the silence like a blade. “Enough disappearing. What are you hiding from me?”

***

The air in front of the desk crackled with lazy sparks of black gold.

The floating interface materialized slowly, the borders of ancestral runes flashing somewhat tremulously, as if being awakened from a deep sleep in the middle of the night.

—Yaaaaawn…

An audible yawn in text and sound resonated directly in the center of Diana's brain.

—What time is it in the Second Circle, Diana? Why are you burning fifty mana just to yank me out of rest at this hour of the morning?

Diana didn't move a single muscle on her face, keeping her arms crossed over her chest.

“You barely spoke during the last three days.” Diana fired off, her clinical gaze locked on the screen. “You didn't make jokes about the 'harem' when we bought Madame Vespera's overcoats, you didn't comment on a thing during the thermal baths, and you barely opened the interface during forging with Master Volkan.”

She leaned forward, resting her elbows on the mahogany desk:

“What is happening with your internal structure? Did Malakor's Soul Fragment corrupt your database? Is my Intelligence 151 overloading the interface channel? Or are you hiding some Level 40 penalty from me?”

The black-gold screen floated in silence for five full seconds.

Then, a series of blinking ellipses began flashing in the center of the window:

—…

—…

—Did you really think your soul was undergoing magic corruption?

“I'm a strategist, System. I analyze patterns.” Diana hissed. “And you broke your behavioral pattern. Tell me right now what's going on.”

***

The System let out a heavy, almost embarrassed sigh that caused the runes around the screen's border to quiver in a orangey hue.

—The answer is far stupider than that mind of yours filled with conspiracy theories is imagining, Diana.

“Explain.”

—First technical reason: The System began, adopting an explanatory tone. Your Intelligence reached one hundred fifty-one points and your Perception hit seventy. The speed at which your brain calculates the battlefield now is so absurdly fast that you make decisions before my interface generates warning text boxes. I don't need to warn you a monster is gonna attack from the left because you already saw its mana line before me.

Diana furrowed her brows slightly. “That explains the dungeons. What about the last three days at the Bastion?”

The black-gold screen gave a light crackle of static, as if the ancestral guide were clearing its throat awkwardly.

—The second reason… is that I was busy using my idle processing cycles.

“Busy with what?”

—With the memories and entertainment archives locked in the depths of your reincarnated soul.

***

The silence that fell over the mahogany office lasted ten full seconds.

Diana stared at the floating screen, her mouth nearly parting in pure shock.

“You were… what?” Diana asked, thinking she had misheard.

—You spent seventeen years on Earth before dying under that crane, didn't you?

The System spoke, its voice acquiring an excited, gossipy tone.

—Your human soul brought to Hell your entire baggage of unconscious memories. I discovered that in the depths of your brain lay complete records of dozens of corporate economics manuals, Adam Smith's monopoly treatises, financial Machiavellianism theories… and about one hundred chapters of that manga about the fullmetal alchemist you read hidden in math class.

The screen flickered with a crude animation of a book being flipped through:

—I am an ancestral interface that spent three centuries dormant in the void after Mammon's fall. I was bored! That story about the two alchemist brothers is top-tier! And those compound interest theories from Earth are the sickest, most greedy shit I have ever seen in my entire cosmic existence! I spent the last three days reading your old books while you took baths!

Diana brought her hand to her forehead, rubbing her temple with her fingers, feeling an indescribable mix of absolute relief and an uncontrollable urge to throttle the magical entity inhabiting her chest.

“You… an ancestral entity of a Deadly Sin…” Diana whispered, her voice squeezing through gritted teeth, “…were binge-reading manga and accounting textbooks from my old school in the back of my mind?!”

—And why the fuck not?! The System retorted with pure shamelessness. That human world economics of yours is a masterpiece of modern extortion! Not even Fourth Circle demons thought of charging maintenance fees on empty bank accounts! I learned a lot from you, Diana!

***

Diana released a long gust of hot air, leaning back into the leather armchair and covering her eyes with her right hand, nearly laughing at the absurdity of the situation.

The paranoia of having her soul corrupted by Malakor had been dismantled in the most ridiculous way possible.

After a few seconds breathing the cool night air, Diana removed her hand from her eyes, looking at the screen with her usual pragmatic seriousness:

“So there's no structural damage to my soul? No lock that's gonna blow up when I hit Level 40?”

The black-gold interface reclaimed its solemn posture for an instant.

—Zero damage, Diana. Your physical vessel withstood those one hundred fifty-one Intelligence points perfectly.

The System explained in a serious tone:

—However, be aware of a rule coming up ahead: when you reach Level 40, the mana flow you will manipulate will be so dense that the System interface will undergo an automatic recalibration to unlock your Fourth Official Class Skill and the groundwork for the Sin Domain at Level 50.

“I will be ready for that recalibration when the time comes.” Diana said firmly.

—I know you will. The System let out a low laugh. Now, if you'll excuse me, I was in the middle of the warrior tournament arc from that martial arts manga of your childhood. Go to sleep, Diana.

“Get out of my face, you freeloading System.” Diana grumbled with a small ironic smile.

***

The black-gold screen dissolved into soft sparks that sank back into her chest.

Diana rose from the armchair, extinguished the crystal lamp on the mahogany desk, and walked to the office's open window.

The early morning wind blew cold over the marble towers of the Ivory Citadel.

The balance of 310 Silver Coins (31 Gold Coins) remained intact in the vault. Her squad was rested, armor was reinforced, and Diana's mind was completely purged of doubts and groundless fears.

The Commander looked toward the dark horizon where Level 38 to 40 dungeons awaited.

Rest was over. And the march of the Arcane Greed Faction toward Level 40 would begin in full force.

Final Notes:

Yes, Diana is a Fullmetal fan, lol.