C335: The 9,800th Automaton’s Dream, Destroyed

My name is Mariage, a genius demon researcher.

I was born with a talent, a talent revolutionary enough to defy conventional wisdom and start a new way of thinking.
I was born to change the world.

To substantiate my talent and spread it to the world, I need the backing of someone influential.
So, I went to the Demon King to appeal to him, but…

“We have no need for pipe dreams.”

…he said, and ordered me out.

What a moron!
Can’t he see what a loss the world has suffered by not understanding my genius?

Something’s wrong with the world to worship such an incompetent person as the demon king.
The world must be wrong if it doesn’t acknowledge me!

No, this is more like a divine revelation, if anything.

I’m going to destroy this wrong world and build the right one.
That’s why I have my genius.

I’ve realized how to use my talent.

In that sense, it was a memorable day.
In order to create a world that acknowledges me, I will destroy today’s world with this genius of mine!!!

It has been thirty years since I made up my mind.
Alas, my dream wasn’t realized.

An automaton based on the practical application of my theory took me thirty years to make just… one.
Thirty years!

When I reached this point, I thought, “Huh? Maybe I’m not a genius after all.”
I was able to believe in myself without reason because I was young. But that youthfulness is long gone.

The original plan was to complete this in a year.
These thirty years only brought out my ineptitude.

An automaton.

It’s true that it’s a crowning work of my talent, but I can’t change anything with just this one doll.
At the very least, I need an army of 10,000 to even fight the Demon King’s Army.

Make the rest of that 10,000 army now?

It’s impossible.
I’ll be dead before I accomplish my goal.

Is this the limit of my talent?
Am I just a mediocre genius, incapable of changing the world?

No, if I give up now and accept reality, the thirty years I’ve spent making this one doll will have been for naught!
Anything but that!

All right then, let’s make a new plan.

If my lifespan isn’t long enough to complete the plan, I should just extend it.
Then, why don’t I throw away my aging and decaying body and replace it with a new one?

Fortunately, I have one nearby—the automaton.
All I have to do is transfer my memory and consciousness to the soulless mechanical body that my genius has created.

With my talent, it’s a cinch!

This new body should be the strongest.
With the completion of the first model, I have all the data I need to develop an automaton.
Using this as a foundation, I will make further improvements and optimizations, then make my new body the strongest combat-ready automaton!
Once that’s completed, I’ll use my superb power to destroy the Demon Kingdom and build the world anewwwwwwwwwwww!!!

…Another forty years have passed since then.
I’m all decrepit.
My back hurts all year round, it’s hard to walk. My teeth have fallen out too.

In spite of this, I am able to live alone in this lab deep in the mountains because Automaton No. 1, which I completed 40 years ago, takes care of me.

Thank you, you’ve been a great help.
…You prepared food earlier, right?
It’s a prototype that constantly repeats the same instructions. I said to scrap the plan to produce 10,000 other automatons, but it continues mass-producing its own kind at odd moments.

But this is the last time it’ll look after me.
After forty years of work, I have finally completed my new body!
An automaton variant that is far more high performance than its prototype! The best of the best!

…It took even longer to make than the first one because I added so many new features that I had to keep expanding it to make it consistent, and before I knew it, it was as big as a dragon!
…Oh well.
Big is strong. I can picture myself in the future as a giant automaton, destroying the Demon Capital!

All right!
Now for the final step—transferring my consciousness!
Once this is accomplished, the giant automaton will be completed as myself, Mariage.
I’ll sit on this transfer pedestal and…

Begin transfer!
Estimated time of completion: Eighty years!!!

…Why didn’t this cross my mind before I started?
Transferring human data takes too long.

I guess that’s just how large the data capacity of a body’s memories, emotions, consciousness, etc., is…

My original body stopped its bioactivity as soon as the data transfer started, so there was no turning back.
Once my consciousness is stored in the transporter, whether the original body rots or dries out doesn’t matter.
Why does it take a moment to extract it, but decades to transfer it into a new body?

Forget it.
What’s done is done.

Because today, the work of transferring human data across eighty years of time has been completed.
Here comes Giant Automaton Mariage 2!!!

It took me thirty years to create an automaton prototype, forty years to create a successor model to be my new body, then, eighty years to transfer my data into that body!

…It took 150 years, all in all!

No matter.
What’s important is now!

Now’s the time to exact revenge against the Demon Kingdom.
This rotten world will be replaced by a new one.

I, a mechanical giant, have been resurrected for this purpose!

Now, let’s crawl out from the lowest level of the lab where my body is installed.
This place is useless to me now, so I don’t mind it collapsing.

…Hm?

There’s an awful lot of broken remains here. Wait, aren’t these the automatons?
No. 1 was still mass-producing even after I started the data transfer process?
But why are they broken?

Anyway, I went to the surface and found things were much different than expected.
There are a lot of people.

Demons, orcs, goblins…and even humans?
What race is that winged woman in the middle?
I don’t understand.
What’s with this lineup of people?

Oh, well.
It’s nothing but misfortune for them, meeting me in my full-scale operation.

Die for the mechanical giant, Mariage 2, as an advanced celebration of the creation of a new world!

My arms have the strength of four hundred orcs!
With just one swing, it can scrape off the earth’s entire surface!
Including you demons, humans, orcs, goblins, and other anthropomorphic monsters!
Hundreds of you would be no match for me at all!

That winged woman also piques my interest a little bit, but what does it matter?
It’s only a trivial matter in front of my genius feats.

I’m going to kill everyone and everything that lives!!!

…Or so I thought.

“Mana Canon Fusillade.”
“Hellfire Spirit Breaker and Blue Heavenly Bolt Ray!”
“Saint Orc Fist!”
“Have a taste of my original explosive potions!”
“Bean power lariat!”

A staggering barrage of attacks turned me into smithereens.

Why?

Is this the end result of all my painstaking efforts?!