Second Genesis

’... Shit. This stingy bitch.’

Grey had obviously been talking out of his ass. He didn’t need the iron jaw to craft mechs, and this witch obviously knew that. Whatever ability she had used just now probably confirmed that to be the case.

He needed that energy to stay alive and give himself another chance. But if he couldn’t prove an obvious lie, he was finished.

Maybe the worst part was that he had nowhere to vent how clearly fucked he was. Esmeralda was practically staring into his soul, the gentle smile on her face becoming more annoying with every passing moment.

It didn’t actually change at all, but that didn’t stop Grey from wanting to rip her lips off her face so she could never smile again.

"Right... sure."

—

Energy Reserve: 0.1/10.1

—

Grey glanced at his Energy Reserve. Even if he did have the ability to use his mech to help him craft something, what was he supposed to do with 0.1 units?

This was bad. Very bad.

If his Energy Reserve hit zero, the iron jaw would shatter apart. If the iron jaw broke, then Prometheus’ Spirit would have nowhere to be stored. And if Prometheus had nowhere to be stored, there would be nothing to house energy for him.

Even if he managed to rush to the Cyber Core he would just be dead. Where was he going to direct the 10 units of energy he needed?

’Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.’

It was just like he said, this woman didn’t care at all about his success or failure. What was a single little Cyber Core of the Proving Class worth to her anyway? Even if he wasted it, it was no skin off her back given the sheer number of materials she had.

She just wanted an excuse to kill him and take the Mechanical Jaw Lineage for herself.

There was no getting out of this.

This first and simplest iteration of the Mechanical Jaw was only designed to be defensive and almost entirely aesthetic otherwise. The fact it could help him eat metal was purely coincidental, and probably more due to the Prometheus Spirit rather than it.

But every time the Prometheus Spirit was used in that way, it consumed more energy than it gained—if it was meant to gain energy at all. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

Grey couldn’t help but chuckle.

"What’s so funny?" Esmeralda asked innocently.

"Nothing at all." Grey said. "You want to see? I’ll show you."

A flicker of madness formed in Grey’s eyes. If he was going out, then he was going to take this witch down a peg.

His hands moved and he organized the blueprints. He moved fast and with precision. He had already done it several times before, and there were only a little over a dozen total blueprints that were worth much of anything. All the other ones were fake.

After arranging all of the real blueprints into a neat little pile, he began to roll them up.

"What are you doing?" Esmeralda asked with a frown. She somehow felt even closer than before. Her ability to hover around him without tipping over or losing her balance would have made her the perfect helicopter mom.

’If anyone’s psychotic enough to put their dick in that kind of crazy. Who the hell am I kidding, there are too many degens out there.’

Grey didn’t reply, his movements looking practiced and confident.

"I asked you a question." A biting edge came from Esmeralda’s words.

"You asked to see how I use it, didn’t you?" Grey asked.

"What does that have to do with what you’re doing?"

Grey blinked. "Why are you so worried? There are so many blueprints left."

Esmeralda was about to say something about how Grey had taken up all the real ones, but she hesitated for a moment. In this loop, she had already said that she didn’t know how to differentiate between them.

Now, she was stuck between ripping her mask off early and protecting the blueprints she had spent so long gathering together.

In the moment she was hesitating, Grey had already rolled up all of the blueprints and lifted them up. They were quite a thick stack. Not quite as wide as a pillar, but at least a little shy of half of the diameter of a good one.

"Stop!"

Esmeralda was right next to Grey, and her speed was so much greater. She caught his wrist instantly even as Grey’s jaw unhinged.

’Dammit.’

It was the only thought Grey had had. He had been hoping that in her lag she’d be too late to act.

It seemed they lied to him about this as well. Didn’t they say that 90% of the world was built on confidence and false bravado. If you strolled into a place like you owned it, you had pretty good odds that no one would bother you.

Why couldn’t Esmeralda have just trusted the process until it was too late?

Frustration billowed up in Grey’s heart. It was right there, just a half foot from his mouth. If only he could just make it.

His head snapped forward toward it, but Esmeralda yanked his wrist back and away with so much force she snapped it.

His mouth snapped at nothing but air.

"Didn’t you say you wanted to see? What are you doing?" Grey’s rage seeped into his voice. If he wasn’t going to get out of here alive, he wanted to ruin this woman’s chance at ever having her prosthetic.

She wouldn’t find the lineage and she wouldn’t have the blueprints. She could go fuck herself.

Amunet seemed to realize that something was about to break and she took a step forward and toward Esmeralda’s back, hoping there might have been a chance to take advantage of.

But right when Grey’s jaw snapped at air, hitting nothing and grinding his own teeth and steel together, a spark flew from his lips, the ember arcing through the air.

This time, Esmeralda was too late to stop it.

The ember landed on the roll of blueprints.