Three months had passed since Noah arrived in the world of Alita, and with Doctor Nova's death, the original story had completely collapsed.
Without the antagonist who was supposed to drive events forward, everything followed a different course. Alita continued living in relative peace alongside Doctor Ido, unaware that the destiny meant to sweep her away would never come to pass.
In Nova's laboratory, Noah sat on an operating chair. His open skull exposed his brain.
The reason Noah had his brain exposed was due to the final step of a project on which one of his clones had worked constantly during this time.
The enhanced mental chip took the form of a small purple crystal orb, smooth and translucent, speckled with tiny black dots scattered irregularly across its surface.
The implantation process was fairly simple. A robotic arm descended over his exposed brain and carefully separated the two hemispheres, causing no damage, creating just enough space to insert the orb. The chip was placed between them, and the arm withdrew, allowing the hemispheres to return to their natural position, trapping the orb between them.
Next, another mechanical arm took the upper portion of the skull that had been removed and set aside, and fitted it back into place with smooth, precise movements.
Noah opened his eyes, and his right eye—already reinserted into its original socket—gleamed with a golden flash.
A line of golden flames covered the circular wound on his skull and healed it in an instant before extinguishing, revealing a perfectly smooth forehead with no trace of scarring.
After the fusion, his Tenseigan could now generate and control the sacred flames with ease.
A few seconds later, the mental chip emitted a brief flash of light.
From the tiny black dots on its surface, hair-thin metallic spikes emerged, extending into the brain tissue and piercing it with microscopic precision, establishing a direct connection between the chip and Noah's brain.
His pupils dilated suddenly as a brief dizzying sensation swept through his head, a product of the newly established link. The dizziness lasted only an instant, and as quickly as it came, it vanished, leaving his mind clear and stable once more.
The original chip that Doctor Nova had implanted granted him the ability to invade the minds of others and force his will from within. It was a powerful tool but limited to normal humans without psychic defenses.
Noah had taken that base model and pushed it much further.
He not only refined that ability but expanded it entirely. Beyond that skill, the new chip allowed him to read thoughts, perform a full bodily diagnosis of himself or other entities, establish direct telepathic communication over any reasonable distance, and, perhaps most importantly, further enhance his mental faculties. This last ability was copied from the hat from the Sherlock Holmes kit, which had the same effect.
In practice, he had turned that primitive implant into a lower version of Professor Xavier's power.
The difference was that Noah did not rely solely on telepathy.
His telekinesis integrated naturally with these new mental capabilities, turning Noah into a very powerful psionic.
Rising calmly from the operating chair, Noah stretched slightly before pulling back the laboratory curtain and observing the city stretching out beyond the glass. By now, he had practically completed all the projects he had set out to accomplish in this world during this time.
The first clone to disappear had been the one in charge of developing the power absorption seal, which had dissipated a month ago after completing its work.
The second clone had also successfully created the new AI model.
Once the central AI creation work was complete, the original body took over from the clone in charge of developing the mental chip and continued refining it until this day.
The clone overseeing the Ancor Vantian's remodeling had also concluded its task a couple of days ago and, before dissipating, handed over the scroll sealing the floating fortress. With that, all the clones Noah had created fulfilled their functions and disappeared, leaving him alone with only one final task left: to pack up his things and leave.
Opening a portal to a cleared area, Noah unrolled the scroll he held in his hand. An explosion of dense smoke covered the area for a few seconds, and when it cleared, a colossal structure emerged from nowhere, suspended several meters above the ground. The Ancor Vantian before him no longer bore any relation to the original fortress.
Noah had completely dismantled the old stone structure and replaced it with a framework of metal plates. He removed the temples that crowned the fortress, and of the entire original Ancor Vantian, he only kept the central energy cannon and the anti-gravity system, though even those had been deeply modified. This world already possessed similar technologies, but Noah took the best of both and merged them to achieve a result far superior to either system individually.
In addition to a much more stable and efficient anti-gravity system, the new Ancor Vantian featured a central energy cannon capable of wiping an entire country off the map with a single shot.
The most important change, however, lay in its core. The original engine, which had lacked a suitable power source, had been replaced by a far more advanced energy source.
In this world, the creation of antimatter reactors was already a reality, and the core of the floating city of Zalem ran precisely on one such reactor. Noah took that design as a foundation and adapted it, creating an energy core for the new Ancor Vantian that far surpassed any previous limitations.
The new floating fortress integrated all kinds of technologies from this world alongside shinobi technology.
Inside, a complete assembly line operated, dedicated to manufacturing logistics robots responsible for internal maintenance.
Like a spaceship, the structure featured state-of-the-art thrusters and was designed to move effortlessly outside the atmosphere, capable of traveling through space without limitations.
The fortress no longer retained the oval shape of its original version. It now featured a more compact and circular structure, with a profile similar to a spinning top, designed for both stability and maneuverability.
Noah opened a portal and appeared directly inside the fortress, in a room at the center of which floated a gigantic blue orb, suspended without any visible support. This orb was the Ancor Vantian's central computer, the core responsible for operating and coordinating every system of the fortress.
—Welcome back, sir. From what I can observe, your surgery was a complete success.
A refined male voice echoed calmly through the room. Almost simultaneously, a compartment opened in the room's metallic walls, and from within emerged an elderly man dressed like a classic butler, with a refined bearing and a marked British accent.
—Though I must admit, the appearance you have given me is, to say the least, curious.
The old man raised his hands in front of himself and slowly shook his head, as if lamenting his own appearance. Noah watched him with a strange expression.
This old man was nothing more than an artificial body, a robot directly controlled by the Ancor Vantian's central AI. Noah had created it on a whim. The butler complained because his appearance and personality had been deliberately designed to resemble an elderly butler.
Noah had recreated him to the millimeter, taking as reference the Alfred from Nolan's The Dark Knight saga, portrayed by Michael Caine. From facial features to tone of voice and British accent, everything had been carefully replicated.
Not wanting to simply call him Alfred, Noah chose not to complicate things by searching for an alternative name and christened the Ancor Vantian's central AI with a simple and functional name.
—Sir.
—Hm? What is it, Vantian?
—According to my psychological analysis, I have concluded that you are extremely lonely. The reason you have given me this appearance is, with high probability, an unconscious attempt to mitigate that loneliness. This individual, with a marked accent and a measured way of speaking, seems to evoke a period of your life in which you did not experience such pronounced isolation. According to my initial diagnosis, I strongly recommend that you seek female companionship.
—…
Noah's mouth twisted uncontrollably.
Without bothering to reply, he turned around, left the fortress, sealed it back inside the scroll, and abandoned this world without looking back, opening a portal.