When I passed through the huge door, I found myself in a completely white space. There was a large black sphere floating in the sky, as if it were a substitute for the sun, and everything else was all white.....Beyond that space, a girl was standing there.
　She was about 150cm tall, with long, peculiar rust-colored hair. A beautiful girl dressed in a white dress embroidered with a geometric pattern similar to a gear and wearing a large dark brown cardigan.
　The girl with her characteristic extremely colored eyes and one wing of a machine made of gears and iron that existed only on her right back, looked at Alice and gave a soft smile.

''Shall I say welcome?　Or should I say it's been a while?
''........What a nostalgic sight. Other than the color of her eyes and her mechanical wings, she's still the machina I knew.
"Hmm.

　The girl.........Makina smiles happily as she looks at Alice, who mumbles with her eyes as if she is nostalgic for the past. Not as the god of one world, but as a mere machina, rejoicing at the reunion with her best friend.......

''Did you finish your question time successfully?''
By the way, unfortunately, Information Level IV doesn't seem to be able to satisfy Alice's intellectual pursuits.
Oh, well, that's a problem. I'm going to get a lot of questions.

　While exchanging words indulgently, both of them stepped closer, and after getting somewhat closer, they stopped as indicated.

''........So you're the Makina I know?''
Hmm, I suppose you could say that's true, or you could say that's not true. The thing that moves this body is definitely the Machina you know, but this body itself is a program called "Mother Brain", code name "Deus Ex Machina"... so to speak, it's the main one I'm always connected to. Sort of like a device, I guess.
I see........I see.......the one moving it is 'Machina-sama' and the body itself is 'Mother Brain Machina'.......So that's what Eden-san calls it.
'Well, that's what I mean. However, this body itself is a copy of my body. By the way, the real, real body of me is right over there.

　Saying that, Makina pointed to a black sphere floating in white space ... the core, which is her heart.

So it's exactly my life.
Do you mean to tell me that that sphere is your weakness?
'Not so much, by the way. Even though I can see it this way, that sphere is basically 'unable to interfere with or reach that sphere unless it completely defeats me, the Mother Brain'. That's right, 'even the omniscient and omnipotent myself'... and the Mother Brain is 'immortal as long as the core exists'... that extreme contradiction is my immortality, isn't it?
That's another head-scratching theory, like eggs first or chickens first.

　Yes, you have to destroy the core in order to defeat Makina, but you can't destroy the core unless you defeat her completely.

'Except for a complete non-sequitur like the end of the story (epilogue), there is no one who can defeat me... "except for one person".
...Me?
Yes, Alice is the only exception. You can use the 'key that only you can use' that I once entrusted to you to reach the core that even I can't reach. Well, in that sense, you could say that Alice is the only one who can defeat me in a straightforward manner.
Well, I don't have any plans to use it at the moment.
'I'd rather not have the chance to use it all the time if possible...'

　Caught by Alice, who smiles bitterly, Makina laughs too. As it was, they laughed at each other for a little while, and then Alice opened her mouth to switch the conversation.

''.........Speaking of which, I received various explanations until I came here, but it seems like you're holding a lot of pretty tumultuous iron balls in your arms. Are you trying to start a war?
"Tartarus"?　No, that's not starting a war... it's just 'reusing leftovers'.
Yeah?
'This was before I created my own world. After I left Alice, I went from place to place to study and improve my power as a god, but it wasn't always possible to live comfortably in every world. Sometimes I had to fight with the creator of that world. Well, I was pretty strong, so most of my opponents weren't a problem... but once I got into a fight with 'an incredibly powerful enemy'.

　Lightly scratching her cheeks with her fingers, Makina chuckles somewhat tiredly as she remembers the battle at the time.

'See, that's the one I used as an example when I explained to Alice before about the power of the Shallow Vernal.
'........a being with an infinite number of identical beings in an infinite multidimensional universe, and a power that ranks above the omniscient and omnipotent?
''Yes, that's right.......he really was the strongest of all the opponents I fought, by far. And in order to fight against an infinite identical being, I created the 'Infinite Almighty Soldier' and fought him...............but in the end, we never came to a conclusion.
'It's an infinite versus infinite battle, but that's a different dimension.
'They were both lacking in decision-making power. It's a good idea to have a good idea of what to expect when you're in a position to make a decision. In that case, the first to say 'Let's have a truce' would have been the one to sign a contract on unfavorable terms, so it was a game of patience.
...So you won the patience contest?
You already know that, but isn't that a nasty question?
Does that mean ... 'he's finished'?

　Yes, the end of that battle was also the same as the example I gave at that time. The opponent who was fighting Makina came to an end with the entire world due to the phenomenon of Sharovanal.
　In that sense, it could be said that Makina, who survived as a result, was the victor.

''........That's when I first learned of the existence of Shalovanal. When I learned of it by omniscience I was astonished and most of all I was terrified. An opponent who was evenly matched with me ended up in an assault, unable to resist in any way. I still shudder to think of what would have happened if Sharovanar had gone after me instead of him. From that moment on, I began to fear Shalovanal with all my heart, just like the other creators of the world.
I've been thinking about it for a while now, but I've come to the conclusion that the only way to counteract it is to have 'no opposition' to Sharovanal-sama. After seeing it at Kite's party, I thought a lot about whether there was a countermeasure, but the only conclusion I could come up with was 'I won't antagonize Shalovanal-sama', which is really ridiculous.
'By the way, if you look into it with omniscience, you'll only find the answer 'there's no counter-measure'... Back to the story, the battle ended in such a way that I just erased the abyss (Tartarus) that was damaged in any way, and I just used the one that was intact. Well, most of the individuals are 'stored in a dimension made specifically for them'. If you want it, 'shall I give you one?　It's a setting that reacts to hostility and fights back on its own, so it's perfect for a guard dog... if you don't adjust it properly, you'll wipe out the whole world...
No, you don't want the ball, you don't want the ball, you know.

　After lightly rushing into Machina's words, Alice shook her head lightly as if to change her mind, and then spoke again.

''........Well, I have other questions I want to ask you, but I'm running out of time, so I guess I'll break it off around here once.''
Yeah. That's not really what I wanted to do... so get a grip and get on with it and learn...
Shall we go to dinner?
Hmm?
'No~ I was thinking about it after hearing all that stuff, and it made me hungry. So please give me some good food!
Uh-huh.

　As soon as it seemed that the training would start, Alice demanded food first. Makina made a dumbfounded expression, but nodded, as if she understood that it was useless to say it.

''Ah, but it's an unappetizing view, and something like that should be changed to something nice, too.
Oh, so many orders.

　When Makina heard Alice's words, she moved her hand to caress the space in a roundabout way. Then the landscape, which was pure white, switched as if it were sliding.
　The landscape was a cloudy metropolis lined with skyscrapers, and the place where the two of them were located had changed to the rooftop of a huge skyscraper with a panoramic view of the city.
　It's a great deal higher than it should be, but I don't feel a strong wind, and I don't hear any noise in the big city, which is just the scenery.

It's not a good view, it's cloudy.
It was cloudy that day.
Wasn't it?
Yes ... yes.

　After exchanging a few light words, Makina made a paper bag appear in her hand and handed it to Alice. After receiving it, Alice, after a slightly dubious expression, sat down on the edge of the building's rooftop and checked the inside of the bag....................and smiled lightly.


You can't blame me. I don't know anything better than that.
'Oh, well?　You were omniscient, weren't you?
I'm telling you this because I'm omniscient. To me, the best food in the world is that hamburger.

　In response to Alice, who tells her to tease her, Makina smiled lightly and then made a paper bag appear in her hand as well, and sat down next to Alice.
　Then they both took out a hamburger from the paper bag and took a bite of it.

''.............It's a 'nostalgic' taste.
Yeah. The tastes, the scenery it's all so nostalgic.
I don't understand how that unworldly "young lady in an island" can be the god of the world now.
I'm out, I'm in, and Alice is the only one who talks like that.

　A warm air is flowing between the two of them as they eat while laughing at each other like that.

.........Hey, Alice.......do you remember the 'promise' from that time?
'I remembered...............so I used the phrase 'to save me~'
That's right.
What?　Do you want to talk about the old days?
That's nice too because I'm feeling really nostalgic right now...

　Looking up at the thick cloud-covered sky, the girls reminisce and reminisce... "The Girl Called Hero" and "The Girl Who Wanted to Be a God"... the story of their meeting and the promise they made to each other... .........