A girl walked through a metropolis lined with towering high-rises. The city was gripped by an inorganic stillness, for it was an hour that could still be called early morning.
Her wavy, blonde hair was cut into a semi-short style, and her eyes were a deep blue. Dressed casually in navy jeans, a white shirt, and a brown jacket, she stopped in her tracks and approached a large machine installed by the side of the road.
After operating it with a few button presses, she held up a palm-sized card. A moment later, a freshly made hot dog emerged from the machine.
She took a bite and began walking again, muttering to no one in particular.
"Hmm... it’s convenient, I’ll give it that. But everything is an automated vendor now, and every payment is electronic. Hardly anyone carries cash these days. I don’t know. Technology is definitely advancing, but in a way, it feels like things are declining. Back in the 20th or 21st Century, you saw utopian blueprints for the future everywhere, but now that the future is actually here, this is all it amounts to."
She let out a small sigh and came to a halt. In the next instant, her form blurred and vanished. Even in the early morning, there were a few people around, yet strangely, not a single person noticed her disappearance.
In the blink of an eye, she was standing atop the roof of one of the city's tallest skyscrapers. Looking out over the cityscape as it bathed in the colors of the sunrise, she spoke as if addressing someone.
"Iris... a lot of time has passed. The world has forgotten magic, and the era we lived in has become nothing more than a fairy tale. Even so, I still haven't been able to fulfill your final wish. Romance is a difficult thing, isn't it? Well, I’ll keep looking. It’ll probably be a while before I can go to where you are, but I’ll bring plenty of travel stories with me as souvenirs when I do. So... wait for me."
Alicia, the Hero of Hope who once saved the world from the Great Evil God, was still traveling the globe to fulfill the dying wish of her best friend.
She journeyed through the shifting world, weaving bonds and losing them in turn, yet she continued to walk forward. She moved as if to stay one step ahead of the resignation slowly welling up in her heart.
"Well, I’ve been in this city for about five years now, haven't I? It's probably time to move on. Where should I go next?"
She pulled out a card-shaped mobile terminal and activated it. A display projected into the air, showing a map of the world.
"Come to think of it, I haven't been toward Asia in a long time. Let's head that way. I took a plane last time, so maybe I'll try a ship?"
A few days later, Alicia sat on the deck of a luxury cruise ship, idly watching the ocean.
"The first day of a long voyage being this clear is a good omen. The horizon is sharp, and it looks like it’ll be a pleasant trip."
She leaned back, soaking in the sunlight that made the sea sparkle brilliantly. The ship had been at sea for several hours, and land had long since vanished from view, leaving nothing but an endless expanse of blue.
She narrowed her eyes, enjoying the sea breeze against her cheeks, and was about to head inside to the restaurant when her gaze suddenly sharpened.
"Hm? What’s that? An island?"
Alicia’s vision operated on a dimension far beyond that of a normal person. Even at a distance where binoculars would fail a regular human, she could see clearly.
What her eyes captured was a small island on the far horizon. Ordinarily, such a sight wouldn't be unusual.
"I wonder... something about it feels off."
The intuition she had sharpened over centuries of travel sensed something peculiar about that island. She could have dismissed it as a whim, but she chose to trust her instincts. She pulled her terminal from her pocket and checked the map.
"That's strange. This island isn't on the map. In the old days, that might happen, but for an island to be missing from the most modern maps of this era... This smells like something interesting for the first time in a while."
A grin spread across her face. She tucked the terminal away and stretched her limbs as if warming up.
"It’s a bit of a waste to leave such a high-end ship, but this looks like more fun. Well then, I’m off!"
The moment she muttered those words, Alicia vaulted over the railing. Not a single passenger on the deck noticed her jump—or rather, they were incapable of noticing. Furthermore, every record and memory of Alicia ever being on the ship, including those of the crew, vanished in an instant.
Running across the surface of the sea, Alicia reached her destination in moments. She stopped to look up at the island—or the object—towering before her.
It looked like a mushroom—specifically, a king trumpet mushroom. It was a 360-degree pillar of rock, its cliffs curving outward in a way that made a natural landing impossible. It was clearly not a product of nature.
"I see. An artificial island. And it’s the largest one I’ve ever seen. Incredible... those cliffs are packed with machine guns and laser cannons. It’s practically a fortress."
The cliffs were roughly a hundred meters high and appeared to be normal stone at a glance. However, when Alicia used magic to peer inside, she saw a terrifying array of heavy weaponry concealed within the rock.
That meant the island held something so valuable it required this level of protection.
"I have a feeling this is a big catch. I’m actually getting excited. It’s probably not treasure, but maybe a secret military facility? This should be fun."
With a laugh, she began walking up the cliff. She moved as if gravity didn't exist, bypassing every sensor without triggering a single alarm. When she reached the top, she was met by a massive iron wall.
"This is quite the setup. Heat, sound, vibration—the ground is thick with sensors and landmines. And even if you get past all that, you’re blocked by a seamless iron wall. I suppose they intended for the only entrance to be from the sky. Not that it matters to me!"
Alicia wasn't the least bit deterred by the extreme security. With a light tone, she leaped, soaring far higher than the towering iron walls.
"Now then, I wonder what sort of surprises are in store. Will it be a demon or a serpent? Wait..."
As she reached the peak of her jump, she saw two more iron walls spaced further inward. Beyond them lay a small meadow that looked like a private garden. In the center stood a single building, shaped like a large box.
And standing in front of that box, looking up at Alicia with a stunned expression, was a beautiful girl. She had striking, rusty-colored long hair, gray eyes, and wore a simple white dress.
Alicia scanned the surroundings with magic while still in the air. There were no other biological signatures on the island. This girl was the sole inhabitant.
Alicia tilted her head, confused by this turn of events, and landed softly in front of her.
"The security was so tight I thought there’d be treasure, but it’s just one girl? What is this situation?"
"I could ask you the same thing... Who are you, appearing out of the sky like that? An angel?"
The girl asked back, her expression still blank with surprise. It was the encounter that served as the beginning of everything.
"I’m no angel. Explaining it would take a while, so let's start with names. I'm Alicia. I’m just a humble traveler and a slightly strange monster."
One was a girl who had become a transcendent against her will—a hero who wielded powers that had long since vanished from the world.
"Hehe. I'm... Machina. To put it in your terms, I've been a caged bird since the day I was born... and a sheltered monster."
The other was a girl born with a singular power who had chosen to become a god. This was the promised story of these two, woven with them as the protagonists.