Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

A few minutes after Raltz and Lutz were gone, Mono heard the elevator door opening again. In the middle of making something out of the scrap, she didn't notice the sound of two tall machinas, made by the clone, getting closer and closer to her. It wasn't until the elevator rang again that she turned around and noticed a fleeting image of one of Shamisha's ex-students through the closing door of the elevator.

As the door shut completely, she finally noticed the tall humanoid automatons standing in front of her. Like worms with hands, they stood still with their just–as eerie legs spread apart. Eyeing them up and down, Mono lifted herself off the ground, her expression a mix of curiosity and confusion. But the confusion did not last long as the last few words that she'd heard from the clone made everything a lot clearer.

Hiding behind those stacks of metal strips that formed the body of the automaton were the bodies of humans, either still alive and being used as fuel or dead, with their souls being consumed by the machina to function.

'No mana, but there's a reason why we never went that route…' Glancing up at their singular red glowing eyes, Mono spread her arms apart and lifted herself off the ground with the new anti-gravity protocol jammed into her legs.

"YOU.ARE.A.DISSENET. YOU MUST BE REPOSSESSED AND DISPOSED!" Said one of the worms before stretching his metal arms forward. Like spring, the layers of metal uncoiled and reached for Mono's body, but before it could so much as touch her, the queen flicked a finger and flipped the automaton's body.

Floating upside down, the gyroscopic component of the machina was sent into a sudden shock. Unreliably, as it were, thanks to the scale of its body compared to a regular human's dantier form, the machine struggled to get itself back on its feet and simply thrashed about, even hitting its own partner.

Eventually, the other tried the same, but it too met the same fate. Spinning them in the air like a pair of giant fans, Mono rested her feet back on the ground and slammed the two together with enough force to crush their entire structure. Left conjoined into a ball, the automatons fell to the ground, lifeless, with the core of their body–a human heart, imploding upon itself.

"No protective barrier and the eventual exhaustion of the human body within," staring down at the pile of steel and gore resting at her feet, Mono kicked it once and whispered. "Using mana wasn't an oversight, it was a necessary step to keep the machine running on a fuel produced by thin fucking air."

Reminded of the insult her clone had hurled at her, Mono now knew that whoever this woman was, she was inferior to her in technical ability. As for the physical, the same could be true–after all, the woman had retained her true self with only half her body turned into metal.

'The only problem would be her version of Avarice, but if I can get my hands on my Model-US body, Aperion should keep me going for a while even if she does drain me of my energy." Still staring blankly at the bodies, her mind raced to find an answer to this mess. One after the other, they kept presenting themselves; it wasn't that hard, not when she knew what to expect. It was only due to the surprise last time the otherworlder had defeated her. 'I just hope Aperion managed to repair itself, otherwise this can definitely blow up in my face.'

Turning back to the machines behind her, Mono quickly returned to work. Making use of the many parts laid down before her, she was preparing for a war against the clone and her army all by herself. Not once did the thought of getting help cross her mind, for she'd been alone in her struggles, and the hands of others had only ever reached out to get something from her.

Even Raven, his party, and even Shamisha wanted something from her in return for her service. For the hero, currently, it was the extraction of metals from their ores along with the processing of other raw materials that would be used for the war effort. As for Shamisha, she was close to Mono and was yet no more than an apprentice. In exchange for her knowledge, she tolerated Mono, and that's all that was.

"I'm an idiot…" Heaving a sigh as her mind ventured into memory, Mono finally felt how stubborn and unlikeable she'd been. Clenching her fist to her heart while the other hand kept unscrewing different parts of the machine, she huffed and puffed. "This body, what's with it? I feel more human than before."

The vessel inhabited by a now-dead person was still holding better on its sanity than Mono's other model had thus far, leading her to realize what kind of a mess she'd dug herself into.

Even so, tearing through the ship's parts, Mono reinforced the body some more and began working on a one-shot weapon that could possibly take down the clone Avarice. If not, then there was always one other option…

'I'll try not to use it until it's absolutely necessary.' Despite having a metal body, a cold chill ran up her spine. She didn't want to resort to her last option, and thus keeping it in reserve, she kept on working on the anti-gravity canon. Merging the remaining three lift generators inside a metal tube, she put the weapon together-or at least the essentials of it.

"I'm not good with this." Clicking her tongue, she looked around at the parts lying in front. "Anti-gravity but without a better body, I can't generate enough mana to propel that much force to a point of concentration."

Getting the Model-Us was paramount to her success, but with it being held within the lab, there was little chance that she could sneak in without running into the clone or at least the more capable of her soldiers. Which, once more, made Mono consider that same dire option; however, even for that, she required her iron core.

'First, I need to handle Avarice, then I can get back into my body with the ironcore, and finally it would be time to confront that fraud.' Her plan, although near perfect on paper, what happens in practice–well, that remains to be seen.