"Your legs were a mess but... the rest wasn't much better," Larry spoke as he wrote something on a tablet. "Your body had been put under a lot of strain. Good thing it stopped when it did. If it went any longer, you would have turned into mush."
"Patching you used a bit of Nanomeds. You should be fine now, but it would be for the best if you avoided exerting yourself for a couple months."
From the scans the doctor showed him, Dante learned that everything from his bones to his muscles and blood vessels was damaged. The injuries were small enough that they wouldn't have caused much trouble on their own, but together they were serious enough to put his life in danger.
Thanks to the wonders of modern medical technology, most injuries can be healed in just a few days. All one has to do is inject some Nanomeds -medical nanobots- into their bloodstream, and depending on the injuries it could take anything from a couple hours to a week to make a full recovery.
There was only one problem with that solution. Nanomeds were ridiculously expensive. Dante was thankful to be alive, but knowing he would be in debt for a while took away any relief he could've felt.
"You can grab anything from the closet over there," Larry said as he stood up to leave. "I got you a gun as well. That one isn't free, though."
Left alone, Dante sat in silence, not doing or thinking anything. A few minutes later he activated his OAM and checked his inbox. He had a bunch of missed calls and a lot of answered texts. Not knowing who to reply to first, he simply closed the notifications and turned his focus to other things.
After much hesitation, he began going through some of the most prominent news sites. Most people -the smart ones, at least- knew better than to believe those propaganda printing machines, but Dante wanted to see how they would spin what happened that one night.
For the past week only one topic had been the center of attention, and learning what it was gave Dante pause.
{To the stars! Top hero Aegis takes off on a deep space exploration campaign!}
All news articles were some variation of that headline. The departure of Flame Guard's leader took the world by storm. Apparently, Eidolon had been preparing for the expedition this whole time, and since Aegis' abilities were the most suited for it, they chose him to be its lead.
The announcement came out of nowhere so it should have aroused a lot of suspicion, but, as expected, very few saw anything wrong with the story. Eidolon wasn't a stranger to dropping big news out of nowhere, always using the excuse of having to avoid alerting those who might plan to cause trouble. They owned a lot of the big media as well which allowed them to dominate the narrative.
There was no shortage of disbelievers, of course, but most were shrugged off as conspiracy theorists. Not a single person would think that a Level 5 Prime was killed in a dark road somewhere.
[Sometimes propaganda is a necessary tool for every society. This Aegis person seems to have been an important figure. News of his demise was sure to cause a lot of chaos.]
For a second Dante almost forgot about the voice in his head. He closed his eyes and heaved a long sigh. It seemed he was in the clear for the time being, though there was no way to tell for sure. Right now, he had more pressing matters to deal with.
'Are you the relic?' He asked internally.
[The relic?] Asked the voice. [You mean this?]
A screen appeared in Dante's field of view. On it was the disk that was inside the suitcase he and the others stole from the corpos.
[This is my dormant form. I believe this is the state you found me in before the integration happened.]
'What... what are you?'
[I believe I have already answered that question.]
'Yeah, and I still don't get it.' Dante sighed again.
Thinking for a moment, he looked down at his bare chest, half expecting to see a scar where the relic had pierced him. Nothing seemed to be amiss, however.
Since Larry liked to charge people for every minute they sat on his beds, Dante decided that it was time to leave. He made his way to the closet in the corner of the room and put on a pair of pants and a simple shirt. The only pair of shoes he found were slightly oversized, but he took them anyway.
'So... you are a weapon?'
[A hyper adaptive tactical defense system.] The voice replied. [In short, yes. I function mainly as a weapon.]
'And you're the one who defeated Aegis?'
[That would be you, Master William.]
'... where did you get that name?'
[From your personal ID. You are William Cipher Alistair, correct?]
'... I no longer go by that name.'
[I see. In that case, what designation would you-]
'Dante. Just Dante...'
The gun Larry left for him was barely average, but it had to do for the time being. Looking inside the closet once more, Dante spotted a dark red jacket in the corner. He wore his armpit holster then put it on before walking out. Once he was outside, he breathed in the dusty air and exhaled.
'You.. you said I was the defeated Aegis...' He thought internally. 'What did you mean by that?'
Dante was hardly a Level 0, barely above the average for his age. Someone like him would never win a direct battle against a Prime, let alone a Level 5 like Aegis. That meant someone else, or something else, had defeated the hero that night.
[Ah, I believe I understand now. Your people lack even the most basic knowledge pertaining to me. It is only natural that you are having trouble understanding our roles.]
'That's... you could say that...'
[Allow me to explain, then.] The voice spoke in a perfectly even, solemn tone. [As you have concluded before, I am a weapon. A tool, in other words. I do not have a will of my own and so I am incapable of taking actions without receiving commands from my host. As you are my host, you are entirely responsible for decision-making.]