I woke up feeling aches all over my body. It wasn't a mild ache like when you sleep with bad posture, it was the sort of burning ache you would get after doing sports. I tried to relive myself of the ache by stretching but quickly stopped.
Resistance. Thats what I felt. Resistance like when you try and run underwater. Except the air felt even thicker than water, like honey.
[Correct, you are not submerged in water.]
I froze. Limbs locked in place due to shock. The voice that had just spoken was one I had heard before. More importantly though, it had spoken inside my head.
It was the voice of the lord of wisdom, Raphael. Perhaps the most broken skill from the light novel That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime.
[Correct.]
I didn't even register Raphael's affirmation. My mind was a chaotic mess. Where was I? Why was Raphael in my head? Why did everything ache? Why was I submerged in honey?
[Notice. According to your memories it is likely you have been reincarnated.]
The chaos in my mind screeched to a halt. Reincarnated. That would explain a great many things. Raphael in my head. My body aching. Submerged in a viscous fluid.
Yes, reincarnation would explain that. Specifically, reincarnation into the character I had designed for our word game last night. Raphael would be the starting ability I had chosen. The aches and the viscous fluid would be from the setting for my character, specifically an artificial devil hybrid created by Rizevim Livan Lucifer.
My thoughts froze once again. Forget about figuring out reincarnation, there were more important things to worry about.
I was a test subject.
Not just any test subject, but one for a mad man who only wants to see the world burn.
Thats not good.
Even though we were sort test subjects back in the research facility, it was entirely consensual in the hope of finding a cure to our disease. According to my character setting, Rizevim was trying to make a human *cough* devil weapon, he definitely wont care about my wellbeing beyond keeping me alive.
He may even try to use brainwashing to erase my free will if he realizes I'm conscious.
These thoughts flashed through my mind at an insane pace. Since our bodies were breaking down back at the facility we decided to exercise our minds instead. I couldn't be considered a genius, but I was definitely a quick thinker.
I quickly came up with a rough action plan to get out of this situation:
1: Find out my body's condition
2: Figure out if I could access magic
3: Determine the layout of the location I'm in
4: Get out. (Teleport if possible)
5: Find a safe place to avoid trackers
6: Ponder over reincarnation
'Raphael?' I thought with intent. I definitely wasn't going to open my mouth and get drowned in this honey stuff. That thought just brought my awareness to my mouth, and I have to say, having a tube stuffed down your throat is quite uncomfortable.
[Analyzing body condition.]
Oh I can just think to Raphael, good.
[Age 5. DNA suggests Masters body is a hybrid of multiple species. Raphael has optimized Master's DNA to prevent genome collapse. All motor functions are operational. Strength parameters are 6 times greater than Master's previous body. 3 times greater than a healthy human adult.]
[Analyzing magic capabilities.]
[Masters cells contain multiple energy signatures. An energy reservoir has been detected. Connection to energy reservoir operational. One of the energy types contained within Master's cells match the energy contained within the reservoir.]
Ah, thats good I have magic of some kind. The problem is though that my Raphael is not like Rimuru's. It is clearly a blank slate. Which is a problem considering Raphael's amazing analytical capability's can only be fully utilized when it has an abundance of knowledge to draw on. So it only has access to my memories, and whilst reading about magic in novels or watching anime is great for inspiration, they don't exactly explain the details of how to do the magic.
'Raphael, can you access any technology around me?'
[Negative, Raphael's area of influence is confined to the Masters being.]
As expected. Rimuru's Raphael is able to analyze many things using his senses and magic but my Raphael cant do any of that yet. Well it could analyze through my senses but that doesn't help in this situation. I need to get Raphael to use my magic to interfere outside my body.
The problem is though, there might be sensors within this room considering you typically want to observe test subjects.
'Raphael, run through all of my memories and use them to compile a method to interact with the outside through that energy.'
[Understood.]
There really isn't much else I can do here. I can only place my trust in Raphael's computing capabilities to somehow create a technique for magic manipulation based just on fantasy stories.
Though perhaps they aren't all fantasy stories considering where I am.
[Energy Manipulation technique created.]
There we go. Raphael's ridiculous computing power went through 18 years of memories and generated and simulated a technique in a few seconds. Clearly, Raphael's title should be 'lord of miracles' to be able to generate a viable technique from stories.
'Raphael, for now just label the energy as demonic energy since thats what devils use until we can get more information.'
[Understood. Renaming technique: Demonic Energy Manipulation.]
Good. Now use that technique to explore the surroundings. Remember to try and keep it as stealthy as possible, we don't want to trigger any sensors.
[Understood. Scanning.]
All this time I had been keeping my eyes closed, as naturally, I don't want them filled with the honey stuff, which was probably some chemical concoction. I could feel a small pull somewhere deep in my chest, presumably my demonic power flowing out, which was actually quite the pleasant sensation.
I could feel my demon energy spread out like a ripple, clearly Raphael had referenced sonar to generate this technique. Though I could only feel my energy spread out, Raphael was clearly able to get much more information as it was constantly feeding me an expanding picture of the surroundings.
It was sort of like looking at a CAD model being built in my head. As the design expanded in my head, my focus was immediately drawn to the glass pillar I was in. I had expected to be in some sort of sci-fi bio-chamber thing and I wasn't disappointed. The capsule was essentially a clear tube topped at the top and bottom with lots of switches and dials and a screen in the middle.
I could now see myself floating in the fluid in the tube with lots of cords and pipes connected to me. Some directly entered my orifices like the one in my mouth, others seem to directly connect to my blood vessels through a small hole in my skin.
The image expanded further and now other pods were appearing next to mine, each containing their own small body. This caused a sinking feeling to appear in my stomach.
When I had been designing my game character I had placed it in this situation so I could kill it off easier to focus solely on being the story master. If I had known I would be reincarnated into the character I would have given it a nice background and I wouldn't have been at risk.
The sinking feeling in my stomach came from guilt. Perhaps, my character background had also caused these other children to be in this situation. Had I chosen a different background would they have been spared?
I quickly cleared my head of those thoughts. They weren't important for now.
'Raphael, are any of the other children alive?'
I don't know if I even wanted to know the answer.
[One test subject still shows signs of life, though they are weak.]
One of the body displayed in the mental display Raphael had been feeding me turned green. Now I had a problem. I would like to take that child away with me when I escape but if my original plan of teleporting (still need to figure out the how) doesn't work, I doubt I'll be able to sneak out carrying a second body.
I doubt I could sneak out on my own actually.
[Master, a laptop has been discovered.]
'Raphael can you hack it?'
Asking this was a long shot. Although Raphael is like a computer, I doubt it has knowledge of hacking. I had done some online programming courses online whilst at the research facility trying to ease my boredom, but I doubt those are enough. However, the biggest problem was how Raphael would use my energy to control a computer.
[Using knowledge from Master's previous life. A technique has been created to allow Raphael to manipulate electrons in the laptops circuitry using demonic energy.]
As expected of Raphael, as soon as a problem comes up it is already trying to solve it.
'Raphael experiment with the laptop and attempt to hack into whatever network they use around here. Once thats done extract as much information from the system as possible focusing especially on magic techniques.'
[Understood.]
I floated in silence for an unknown amount of time. Although Raphael has the greatest processing speed ever, the laptop would not be able to keep up, so it was taking some time. My mind began to wonder to my reincarnation. I would have considered it a dream, but I'm far to lucid for that. This does raise some questions though.
Who reincarnated me?
Why was I reincarnated?
Was I reincarnated into the original Highschool DxD or the crossover one we had made to be our game setting?
Did the others get reincarnated as their characters too?
Sadly I didn't have any answers. The being who reincarnated my didnt meet me like in some storie that include reincarnation, this also meant I wasn't given a goal or objective. The answer to the second question should be answered after Raphael finishes its hacking. The last question though thats what worries me.
I'll assume the worst that the others reincarnated as well.
Actually, I guess its not the worst in comparison to our previous life's grim circumstances. A new chance at life is something most of us wanted on second thought. Although being reincarnated in a story world is a big twist to that wish. If we've all been given a new chance at life and it follows the characters we designed then my name should be Cain.
A rush of unexpected excitement flowed through me at that moment. It felt as if by having given myself a new name, some unnoticed shackle had been released in my mind and my acceptance of the situation grew firm.
A new life.
A chance to live properly this time.
My wish had been granted, though the perpetrator and reason remain unknown, I will fully embrace this gift as Cain.
My thoughts turned back to the others once again as the feeling of excitement subsided again. If they had been reincarnated in their character they should be fine. The ones reincarnated as Ellena Valac; Arlen Nonaka; Miharu Ayase; Roxanne Phenex; and Artoria Pendragon should be fine as they would reincarnate into complete families.
Madeline Collier and Amira Leviathan Boran are the ones who could be in trouble, besides myself obviously. The background for Madeline was a half fallen born between Azazel and a prostitute who is found by Azazel when she's 3. Since whatever being reincarnated me here complied with my character background, I will place my trust in it to enforce Madeline Collier's background too.
We must have been reincarnated with some purpose, so presumably we wont be killed off by our background setting so Madeline Collier should at least survive until Azazel finds her. The only problem is Mira didn't give herself a specific background, she just specified her lineage, so she could be in any situation. Thankfully she made a character combining too powerful lineages so hopefully shell be fine.
This does raise the question of if the others will regain their memories at 5 years old like me. As well as, when they were born as we never specified birth dates when designing the game. Naturally because we were going to skip to when we were in our teenage years to begin the story. Sadly real life, even if its within a fantasy, is different.
I had significantly calmed down, having explored that train of thought. It reassured me that if the others where here they would hopefully be alright. I dropped the thoughts from my mind and just focused on feeling my new body whilst waiting for Raphael to finish.
[Hacking complete. Data collected. Traces covered. Warning, it may be possible to uncover traces of hacking through magic unknown to Raphael.]
'Can you make a teleportation spell to help us escape?'
[Affirmative. Generating teleportation spell.]
[Generated.]
'Can we take the other living test subject with us?'
This was important to me, even though I had quashed the feelings of guilt they would come back in full force if I had to leave the other living test subject here.
[Modifying teleportation spell.]
[Modification complete.]
'Raphael can you use the demonic energy spread across the room to shatter these test tubes.'
[It is possible but the demonic energy will be detected by the sensors within the room found through Raphael's hacking.]
'We'll still be able to escape even if the sensors go off right?'
[Affirmative.]
'Good prepare the teleportation spell so that we can escape as soon as I touch the other test subject.'
[Affirmative.]
I took a quick mental breath before giving Raphael the go ahead.
I felt my extended demonic energy shift rapidly before the sound of a dull thunk reached me. I felt the liquid I was submerged in drain away and immediately moved my arms to rip the various pipes and tubes off myself.
I collapsed to the rapidly draining puddle of fluid left at the bottom of the giant test tube, trying to take a deep breath of air whilst my body reached at the sensation of pulling the tube out of my throat.
My ears were bombarded by the whirring of sirens. I rubbed my eyes to clearly them of the fluid. I had to shut them immediately after opening them as the room was flooded with light.
It took me a few seconds to gain sight of my surroundings. Once I did I looked down at my body and began ripping the smaller tubes out.
I ignored the sharp pain and the spurts of blood as I untangled myself from the pipes. Staggering to my feat I tried to gain my balance. Although I knew how to walk, this body had no muscle memory of it so I quickly fell back down.
Cursing in my head I tried to stand again, only managing after another few falls. I staggered over to the other living test subject, having memorized their position relative to me.
I ignored the shards of glass, or whatever material it was, cutting into my feet. Adrenalin was rushing through my body and my mind was hyperfocused.
This was my chance.
My only chance to get away.
Who knows what Rizevim would do to me after this if I didn't get away.
I had finally staggered over to my goal and practically threw myself onto the other test subject as my legs gave out. I felt the tug of demonic energy leaving me again as Raphael began the teleportation spell.
My sight was blinded by a flash of light. The sound of sirens had disappeared and relief flooded through me as my body relaxed. Before my eyes recovered and I could asses where we had teleported too, a wave of pain crashed into my mind.
My mind flashed white as it was overwhelmed.
Before promptly shutting down.