Chapter 1207: Truth of the Radiant Knights

After her shower, Shiro dressed herself in some casual clothes which consisted of a black dress, white jacket, black tights and a pair of boots. Compared to her usual outfit, this was something she would probably wear on a day out.

Drying her hair, she tied it into a pony tail before making her way to the labs.

"Let's see… Where are the labs again." Shiro muttered. After making the main tower of Asharia, she created several labs for experimentation on foreign elements such as the crystal. For something like these nanobots and the Radiant Knights, she would use one of the better labs that she had created.

Sending out her senses, she noticed that one of them seemed to have a barrier around it, stopping her perception from entering.

"Ohya?"

Closing her eyes, she activated Analysis EX and realised that the barrier was also speeding up time within the lab. It was similar to the training rooms that she had made but more stable. Realising that it must have been Aarim since she was the only one with the talents in space magic to stabilise her training rooms, Shiro wondered what they were doing inside the lab to warrant such a barrier.

Looking deeper, she sensed both Nan Tian and Aarim experimenting on portals and the armour he had brought back.

Realising that they must have started without her, Shiro chuckled and made her way over.

Just as she approached, the lab doors opened up.

"How was your rest?" Aarim asked as she gestured for Shiro to come in.

"Relaxing. Though it seems like you two have started without me. Kind of makes me sad you know?" Shiro joked as she watched the doors close.

Waving her hand, she summoned Iriel and snapped her fingers.

Jormungandr's crest appeared on the blade as green runes lit up, upgrading room so that time moved a little bit faster. Now that she had Jormungandr's help in regards to mana, the time dilation was now roughly 1 to 36. One hour in here was equal to one and a half days outside. But that was an estimate since even with Aarim's help, her control over time was still lacking. The actual dilation would fluctuate with one and a half days being a generous estimate.

"Do you have any new discoveries that I should know of before we start?" Shiro asked with a smile.

"Somewhat. We tried to see if we could track a signal back to its source through one of Aarim's portal but the connection was cut. Either they made some changes on their side or it's a bit harder to establish a connection than we expected." Nan Tian said as he moved away from armour that he was experimenting on.

"Since nanobots naturally receive a signal from a controller, it should have provided us a way to reach them. But it seems like these nanobots work a little differently. While they still receive a signal, it seems like they have their own A.I as well. For example, if I cut my connection with the armour and do something like this…"

Standing next to Shiro, Nan Tian created a barrier before having the robotic arms place some nanobots in front of the armour.

Suddenly, the armour changed colour as the blue glow between the plates turned red.

Transforming itself into a writhing mass of metal, the 'armour' attacked the nanobot samples before trying to breach the barrier.

Quickly re-establishing connection with the armour, Nan Tian froze it in it's current form.

"As you can see, once I release my connection they attack anything and everything. Especially things with a stronger connection to you. But, that's only the case when I use something weaker. Once we use a stronger sample than the armour, it backs down and enters a defensive form to protect itself while trying to send a signal to the source. The A.I is there but less developed than one would think. If anything, it's similar to a child who's hostile against anything weaker than it while fearing something stronger. I don't know about the other subjects that you've captured but the ones fused together to make the armour are undeveloped." Nan Tian said as Shiro observed with slight interest.

"Hmm… I see. Well I can make A.I as well but it's more of a program than actual A.I. Making an A.I 'think' and learn is a lot harder than many would think. It's not a matter of trial an error that makes them grow. Even if the outcome makes them feel like 'A.I', real artificial intelligence actually have free will. It's very difficult to pull off and even back in Aria, where they made nanobots, there was only one proper A.I while others are advanced programs that follow a giant library of instructions. As for this suit of armour, I'd say it's more of a program that attacks everything it's coded to attack. If I was to let say coat this sword with Error and have him mask the feeling of creation, it shouldn't attack it." Shiro said as she controlled the nanobots through a tablet and made a sword.

Holding the sword, circuits appeared on her arm and wrapped around the blade, dying it completely black with red circuits.

Gesturing for Nan Tian to release his control for a moment, Shiro approached the suit of armour.

Throwing the blade that's simulating Creation Energy, the armour did not attack it despite being made from 'Destruction' nanobots. Instead, it allowed it to do whatever while still trying to attack everything else.

"If it was a proper A.I, the reaction would be different but as you can see, that's not the case." Retrieving Error from the blade, the armour immediately attacked the sword that now lacked the 'aura' of Creation.

"If it was a proper A.I it would have been confused rather than attack it if it was undeveloped." Shiro shrugged.

"However, there's a benefit to this. Since it's only a program, Error can give me a proper scan of it."

Flicking her wrist, a strand of circuits shot out and started to override the armour. The nanobots tried to fight back but were supressed quickly as Error already had experience in fighting against them thanks to the ones within Shiro's body.

"While Error deals with them, shall we look at the other subjects?" Shiro asked with a smile.

Nodding their heads, they watched her pull out ten orbs.

Throwing one into a make shift prison, Shiro chained it us and had error disable its processes for now. Limping over, the Knight was no different from a dead person but she knew that the moment she undid its bindings it would most likely kill her. Especially in her current state.

"Let's throw it onto an operation table for now. I want to obverse what it's made from and how the nanobots work inside their body. Hopefully it should give me a rough idea on how to achieve the creation variant of the nanobots." Shiro shrugged as Nan Tian nodded his head.

Giving her a hand, he hauled the Knight onto the table and pinned the limbs down through shackles made from the armour. They knew that destruction nanobots won't work against them so the best way would be to use the creation nanobots.

Cutting the Knight open with a blade, Shiro started to dig around while its regeneration was being hindered by Error.

Furrowing her brows, Shiro felt something off but couldn't quite put a finger on it. Pulling out a few samples, she placed it into a small container before activating Analysis EX.

Focusing her gaze onto the sample, she zoomed in as much as she could so that she could observe each individual nanobot on its own and see how they were made.

While she was observing the nanobots, Aarim was still trying to establish a one way connection from their side and Nan Tian was observing the overall composition of the Knight. Its body was made from a strange tangible energy that was cool to the touch but was strangely soft. It was as though it was a water balloon yet it felt almost impossible for him to 'pop'. The wings on their back was made from the same energy with the armour protecting the soft body.

"The f*ck." Shiro suddenly muttered as the two turned their attention towards her.

Before they could even ask what's wrong, Shiro displayed a hologram of what she was seeing.

"You know what, I'll retract my previous statement of them being programs. They're not, they're not even A.I. They're actual 'beings' just merged with a ridiculous amount of nanobots. All that remain are their mana.

"Each Knight is made up of thousands of 'people' I suppose. Think of them being thrown into a blender so that they can be used for their mana. Their flesh served as a catalyst for the nanobots to multiply. They're not undeveloped A.I or programs, there's simply too many voices with one 'main' voice dominating them. Without that voice commanding them, they can only follow their last order."

Supressing her anger, Shiro pulled out a familiar lantern.

"This suit of armour is a cage for thousands of souls that are burned to power it. The Creation energy within the armour render the souls to pure mana which completely counters my destruction energy. If I was to remake my lantern from nanobots, capture thousands of souls and forcefully forge it into a body, I would essentially make one of these Knights."