Once Jin had been whisked away to parts unknown by the destination-less Warp Gate, the automata followed suit, utilizing the same gate to begin her search for him.
A momentary malfunction occurred, and she found herself cast out over the open sea.
She hit the water and began to sink. While her body possessed a specific gravity nearly identical to a human's, making swimming a simple task, the weight of the materials she carried for a return Warp Gate proved a burden. That mass—roughly twenty kilograms—threatened to drag the thirty-kilogram automata toward the lightless seafloor.
Yet, she was no ordinary automata. She was a Super Automata, reconstructed by Jin without compromise. With strength far exceeding human limits and nearly infinite stamina, a few strokes of her slender limbs sent her gliding easily back to the surface.
"This place is..."
She scanned the horizon and spotted a single island in the distance. She set off immediately, swimming toward it with purpose. Despite her clothes and her twenty-kilogram load, she surged through the water at over sixty knots—more than a hundred kilometers per hour. There was likely no aquatic creature alive that could outrun her.
In about an hour, she reached the shore. Though she called it an island, it was massive.
"Is this... the island with the laboratory? No, it couldn't be..."
Upon landing, she was genuinely surprised to realize she had returned to her point of origin. The "island" she remembered was much smaller. In her memories, it was a volcanic isle where the central peak always belched smoke. Now, the smoke was gone, and the mountain had grown a thousand meters taller, its summit well over three thousand meters in elevation and capped with snow.
"I can only assume it has uplifted over the past millennium," she murmured, her voice flat and devoid of emotion. She began trekking toward where the laboratory should be. The island was covered in sparse forests and grasslands, making travel easy. Since the region was not tropical, it had escaped turning into an impenetrable jungle.
"There seem to be no large animals, either."
The creatures she encountered—insects, birds, small mammals, and reptiles—were much like the fauna of the original island.
The laboratory was hidden beneath a plateau at the center of the isle. Based on the time it took to reach it, the automata estimated the current scale of the land.
"It has grown over a hundred times larger... Though I don't suppose that will cause any issues."
What had once been roughly the size of Miyakejima in the Izu Islands had expanded to an area comparable to Tochigi Prefecture.
Unfazed, the automata pressed on until she reached the entrance of the laboratory. Though vines choked the opening, she was a native of the facility and found it instantly. To her, the tangled growth was as flimsy as roadside weeds. She forced the door open and stepped inside.
"Let us try again."
Untiring, she stepped onto the Warp Gate once more and triggered another malfunction.
This time, she emerged in a desert.
"A desert. Now, in which direction might I find people... That way, perhaps."
Sensing a faint trace of mana, she began to walk. She took no heed of the scorching days or the freezing nights, reaching a town in just four days.
"Father... is not here."
She could never mistake the magical signature of Jin, her creator. Judging that he was absent, she made a decision.
"I shall install this Warp Gate and return to the laboratory."
She chose a cave halfway up a rocky mountain far from the town. She sealed the entrance with boulders to keep intruders out and added a protective barrier. Since the gate featured a mana identification function, it was useless to anyone but Jin and his associates.
"Teleport."
With that, she returned to the laboratory.
On her third attempt, she appeared in the middle of a wasteland. It took seven days to reach the nearest settlement. She installed another Warp Gate nearby and returned to the lab.
The fourth attempt dropped her into a territory teeming with magical beasts. While most of the creatures ignored her, she was forced to repel those that attacked. Among her kills was a Sham Dragon. Knowing its skin, wings, fangs, and bones were high-quality materials, she harvested every part before setting up another gate and returning. Back at the lab, she sorted and stored the haul for future use.
In this manner, never once entertaining the possibility that Jin might be dead, the automata set out to search for him again and again.
Eventually, after a number of attempts she had lost track of, she emerged in a world of white. The weight of her gear caused her to sink deep into the snow. It was dry powder, offering no purchase for her hands or feet.
"It seems I have little choice. Heat."
She activated the Heat command, her body beginning to glow with warmth. Keeping the temperature low enough to protect her cargo, she began to melt the snow. Because some Warp Gate components were vulnerable to high temperatures, the process was slow, but after a full day, she successfully extricated herself.
"Where am I, exactly?"
She climbed a rock and surveyed the land. She was high in the mountains.
"The snow should thin as I descend. But which way..."
Perhaps due to the distance or the terrain, she could sense neither human presence nor mana.
"I must have him Reinforce my sensors when I find him."
It was a circular problem—she needed Jin to upgrade the very functions required to find him—but she accepted it with her usual calm.
"South is the logical choice."
The season was winter. Judging it better to head toward warmer climates than north, she descended along a ridge where the snow was thin. She fell into snowdrifts several times, forced to use Heat to escape, which slowed her progress. It took three days to reach the lower slopes.
Before her stood a mountain in the three-thousand-meter class. Glancing back, she saw the massive six-thousand-meter peak she had just descended, its glaciers glinting in the sun.
"This will take more time. I will find a place for the Warp Gate further ahead."
She moved toward the next range. She had no need to cross the actual summit, so she aimed for a col—the lowest point between peaks. Even so, the ridgeline was buried under more than a meter of snow, and it took another two days to complete the crossing.
"The rest should be manageable."
From the high ridge, she had seen that the remaining terrain consisted of rocky mountains under two thousand meters. She planned to install the next Warp Gate near one of those peaks. Without snow to slow her, she could reach the top in half a day.
The sun had set by the time she arrived, but the darkness was no obstacle to her eyes. The summit was broad, and she found a cave that seemed ideal for her purposes.
"That should serve well."
As she approached the opening, she suddenly leaped backward. The spot where she had been standing an instant before was violently gouged out.
"...A Hekatonkheir?"
A twenty-meter-tall giant with a hundred arms had ascended from the opposite slope and hurled a boulder at her without warning.
"A type of magical beast that stores mana internally. That is why I failed to detect it."
She analyzed the creature with cold precision. Most giant-class beasts were unable to cast magic because they consumed their mana just to maintain their massive frames. Because very little mana leaked from its body, she hadn't sensed it.
"If I were not carrying this cargo, I could engage it directly. As it stands, I have no choice."
Muttering with a hint of resignation, she increased the operating rate of her internal ether converter from five percent to twenty. Simultaneously, she ramped up her mana driver, refining her power in a single burst.
"Mana Explosion."
She unleashed her most devastating offensive magic at twenty percent output. The impact resonated with the Hekatonkheir's own magic core, triggering a massive chain reaction that vaporized the giant's frame in an instant.
The advantage of this spell was that it annihilated only targets possessing mana. The terrain remained untouched, and the cave she sought was perfectly intact.
"...Target eliminated. A waste of materials, perhaps, but unavoidable. More importantly..."
She felt a minor pang of regret for destroying the creature entirely without leaving anything to harvest, but a much more vital sensation took precedence.
"...This mana. There is no mistake. It is Father."
Finally, she had caught his scent.
"I must install the Warp Gate at once."
She set to work inside the cave that had served as the giant's lair. The bones of forest bears—the beast's former meals—were scattered about, so she cleared them out by tossing them into the valley below.
She assembled the Warp Gate with meticulous care and verified its operation. To be certain, she used it to return to the laboratory and back again. Everything was for Jin's sake. If the gate were to fail while she was bringing him home, she would likely have dismantled herself in penance.
By the time her preparations were complete, dawn had broken. The automata hurried down the mountain, aiming for the land beyond the next low ridge.
As she crested that final hill, she saw a small village. Standing near a fence on its outskirts was the person she had spent months yearning to see: Jin.
The moment her eyes landed on him, she pushed her output to one hundred percent.
That surge of power propelled her at a speed approaching sound itself, closing a hundred-meter gap in the blink of an eye. And then, appearing before him:
"Father!"
After six months of searching, she had finally found her creator. Jin stood there, frozen with a look of pure astonishment on his face.