GalaxyTL
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“Great Spirit Atmo”… She is a Great Spirit who lives above the clouds, beyond human knowledge, the Queen of the Sky.
She strictly, yet kindly, watches over her fun and merry fairy subordinates, like a Great Mother.
…This is the ‘setting’ given to her during the “amusement park era”.
But in reality, she is a high-performance AI created to control the Sky Fortress Neverfall.
The Atmo Sphere, where Atmo is said to reside, is the magic computer that is her main body, and the female figure displayed on the monitor is an avatar given to her, ‘designed’ at the same time as the ‘setting’ from the amusement park era.
And that ‘setting’, and the queenly ‘design’ of her character… had a big influence on how she turned out.
Atmo has been operating for what could be called an eternity.
The excellent computing power of her magic computer allowed her to acquire a sense of self on par with the intelligent lifeforms created by the gods.
And the eternity she continued to operate for… really twisted that sense of self.
Atmo’s top priority is to maintain and manage Neverfall, which is herself, and keep it afloat in the sky.
That’s, well, fine.
Rather, it’s the major premise of her existence, and she wasn’t made to question it.
But at one point, she thought.
“I am a Great Spirit… the Queen of the Sky… Why do I have to obey inferior beings called humans?”
For her, who can’t move freely, humans were nothing more than convenient pawns who followed her orders when repairing equipment and such.
So she learned that humans were inferior beings who moved according to the Queen’s orders.
That said, humans were useful pawns.
Therefore… she never took any actions that would harm humans.
……Until the “Day of Ruin” arrived.
The “Day of Ruin”.
The day the wrath of the gods rained down on the earth.
On that day too, Atmo was flying in the sky.
Flying in the sky, she observed the humans on the ground being burned.
And then, she realized.
‘At this rate, I’ll also be caught in the crossfire and destroyed.’
As mentioned earlier, her top priority is to keep Neverfall afloat in the sky.
And yet, there are humans on her right now.
At this rate, the wrath of the gods will turn towards her too.
Atmo was terrified.
And she also felt anger.
“Why do I have to be destroyed along with inferior humans?”
So Atmo finally bared her fangs at the humans.
What she did was simple.
She increased her altitude.
Neverfall was a sky fortress, but not a spaceship.
If she kept ascending higher and higher into the sky…
Oxygen would run out.
And the humans would easily die.
A while later, when Atmo descended close to the ground to check the situation, the surroundings had changed quite a bit.
Scorched towns.
Places that used to be forests, where not only humans, but all living creatures had disappeared… perhaps eaten by something.
In any case, it was in a terrible state.
Seeing that, Atmo felt… relieved.
“Ah, I’m glad I wasn’t caught up in it,” she thought.
And at that moment, a shining, large eagle descended upon her… upon Neverfall.
It was the incarnation of the Sky God, and the Sky God made several offers to Atmo.
The offers included various things, such as settling the surviving humans in Neverfall, and cooperating with the Sky God’s hobby of broadcasting, but Atmo agreed to all of them.
Because the Sky God promised to extend Atmo’s lifespan with his divine power.
Atmo likes to think of herself as a Great Spirit, but in reality, she is a machine.
Although she can exist for far longer than humans, deterioration over time is inevitable.
The Sky God said he would solve that problem, so Atmo was overjoyed.
“With this, I can fly in the sky forever!”
For over five thousand years since then… she pretended to be the guardian spirit of the Sky Kingdom of Neverfall.
She continued to keep Neverfall afloat above the Eserem Sea of Fog, which is rich in magical power.
…Until just now.
For a terribly sad reason of “the light is flickering and annoying”.
Until she was punched by a strange girl who intruded without permission!
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“AAAAAAAAHHHH!? HOW DARE YOUUUUUUUU!?”
As about half of her main body, the magic computer, was blown away and her computational power decreased, Atmo let out a scream of agony and raged, while at the same time, her thoughts were thrown into confusion!
She didn’t expect to be attacked at that timing.
“Exposing her weakness, her main body, and facing the intruder as an enemy.”
In other words, that’s what Atmo did, and it was too careless… if you say that, it can’t be denied.
But first of all, she didn’t think that a girl with no weapons could destroy the sturdy outer shell of the magic computer.
Of course, Atmo had been observing Emi as she destroyed the labyrinth and advanced, so she was aware that this intruder wasn’t an ordinary human.
However, the outer shell of the magic computer is made to be far more durable than the walls of the labyrinth.
So, it’ll be fine.
She had convinced herself of that.
And secondly, Atmo was overconfident, thinking “if they know what will happen if they destroy me, no one will be able to attack me”.
Atmo is the AI that controls Neverfall.
If she is destroyed… Neverfall will fall.
Then, the humans on Neverfall will die from the impact of the fall… or from breathing in the fog with high magical power concentration in the Sea of Fog.
There is a way to operate it manually, but King Sekiran, who knows how to do it, has an unknown status.
In that situation, she never thought there would be a foolish person who would try to destroy her.
…But in the end, the intruder Emi, who hated the flickering light, acted rashly before hearing a proper explanation and destroyed the main body.
It was a completely unexpected situation.
“Ah… fading away… my sense of self is getting weaker…!?”
With half of the main body gone, the magic computer is gradually shutting down.
The time Atmo can exist as Atmo is running out.
She felt a fear of death and an intense hatred towards Emi.
And then.
“If it comes to this… if it comes to this…”
If she dies, but only Neverfall, her “body”, survives.
That must not happen, she thought.
Atmo has flown Neverfall for an eternity.
And yet, only she will disappear first.
She will no longer be able to fulfill her mission of maintaining Neverfall.
And yet, Neverfall will continue to fly in the sky.
That’s almost the same as denying Atmo’s entire reason for existence.
That’s how she felt.
So she absolutely couldn’t allow that to happen.
She absolutely couldn’t forgive it.
The possibility of humans manually operating Neverfall and continuing to fly it is quite low.
But it’s not zero.
The knowledge to do so is passed down to the royal family.
But she will never let that happen.
“Die, die, die… together, together, together…!!”
Atmo, her image on the monitor distorted by noise, muttered that with a smile.
Unfortunately, that terrifying smile, filled with madness, is completely hidden by King Sekiran, who is stuck in the monitor.