EP.241 Lego Lit Up
As obvious as it may sound, the Engineer's gears are not laid out across this entire land. His gears start from the watchtower and connect like a single rope to the devices at various points along the road.
Covering the entire land with gears is impossible before even considering its irrationality. No matter how great the gear, the force is ultimately applied to the tips of the cogs, and excessive force will cause them to crumble from the edges.
Assembling gears is a matter of distribution. Driving all components to the brink of breaking is the path to reaching the pinnacle of efficiency.
It wouldn't be too surprising that this Engineer had a hand in organizing the system of the Military State.
Military branches. Schools. Organizational structures. Weapons. Devices.
Everything that requires precise design.
There were those who actually accomplished it, but the one who designed them was... Engineer Maximilien, the one who pursued his ideals to the fullest in this country.
From the watchtower far away, he controlled the gears with a single finger.
This road is also under his control. The devices he prepared in advance are constantly lying in wait for the auto-carriage.
I barely dodged the surging trap and moved the lever of the slowing auto-carriage.
"It's an auto-carriage reinforced by Tyr's power, yet it broke in a single hit?"
The heavy-bodied auto-carriage was designed to withstand pressing force from above, but it was weak against impacts striking from below. Striking from below as if thrusting upward seemed to have knocked it senseless. This isn't much different from humans, huh.
Even the faint noise driving the auto-carriage disappeared. The Thunder Wheel had fallen silent. The auto-carriage was still moving forward by inertia, but it would clearly stop soon.
At times like this, I need man's best friend. I whipped my head around and shouted.
"Azi! Dog sled! Pull this auto-carriage!"
The Regressor raised an objection.
"Um, isn't that too much? Azi is still catching up."
"Why is she so slow?"
"Because you ditched her at the aqueduct."
Tch, why does Azi have a cooldown? It would be nice if I could use her twice.
No help for it. I had to move to the next batter. I called out to Tyr in the cargo compartment.
"Tyr! There, if you flip over the floor of the cargo compartment and look at the center, there should be a small, golden glowing wheel, right? Could you take a look?"
[What? What did you say? Where, a wheel?]
Tyr was flustered by the unfamiliar technology and fumbled around.
Tch, is modern technology too much for someone who lived in the 12th century? Should I give up on the auto-carriage and move on our own feet? That would be a shame.
"Progenitor. Here."
But fortunately, Siati was riding in the cargo compartment right now. Siati respectfully showed Tyr the inside of the auto-carriage, lifting the panel. The Thunder Wheel was an important part that had to be replaced at any time. Tyr found the glowing Thunder Wheel beneath the panel.
[I found it. It's spinning idly. What should I do with this?]
"Please reassemble it! Just slightly, insert it to fit the cogs...!"
[Understood.]
An affirmative answer came from Tyr. Alright. Assembling an auto-carriage is no easy task, but any problem in the world can be solved if there is a stronger force. With Tyr's power, she could easily insert a misaligned Thunder Wheel...
Crack. The auto-carriage clattered heavily to the side. I desperately gripped the suddenly stiff lever and grasped the situation through telepathy.
In Tyr's vision, I saw the shattered Thunder Wheel beneath her hand. Tyr had tried to insert the Thunder Wheel, but when it wouldn't go in easily, she pushed too hard and broke it. Holding the crushed Thunder Wheel, Tyr fidgeted and said,
[Phew, a minor problem has occurred.]
"Don't tell me you broke it? No, right? Tell me no!"
[This was weaker than I thought. Shiny things are all so frail. They must be neglecting their inner foundation in order to make themselves shine...]
"Enough with the excuses! What do we do now?"
[...Is it that serious a problem?]
"It's not that serious, but the auto-carriage is going to stop completely!"
Thoroughly deflated, Tyr somehow tried to insert the crushed Thunder Wheel in an attempt to revive it. It was a futile attempt that only dirtied the inside of the machinery.
What do I do. If only I had something else to turn the wheel instead of the Thunder Wheel... Ah. There is one. If we're talking about power.
I took a deep breath and gripped the steering lever tightly.
"If you don't have teeth, use your gums! Tyr! Since the Thunder Wheel is broken, please turn it with your hands instead!"
[Hold it with my hands, and turn it?]
"Yes!"
[Understood. If it's to make up for my mistake, I should at least do that much.]
Right after that answer was heard.
Rumble.
The auto-carriage roared roughly as if its heart had been grabbed. It was a scream tearing through its entire body.
Immediately after, everyone who entrusted their bodies to the auto-carriage experienced a bizarre acceleration. The auto-carriage, which should normally move at a constant speed, repeatedly accelerated rapidly and then slackened slightly, advancing forward as if playing tug-of-war.
A violent movement, enough to collapse the chassis if it hadn't been reinforced by the Blood Origin's brand. And it was just the right kind of movement to make me dizzy on top of it.
Meanwhile, the Princess and Historia, who had been riding horses, caught up behind us with Azi. Thoroughly soaked in water, Azi seemed less happy than before, immediately climbing onto the auto-carriage and shaking her body vigorously on top of it. For some reason, the droplets of water hit the back of my neck rather painfully.
"Hui? Are you using the Progenitor as a power source right now?"
"Yeah! It's not an auto-carriage, it's a vampire-powered carriage!"
"Using the Progenitor in place of a wheel is too reckless. If you inadvertently offend her..."
Historia expressed her worry, but Tyr answered for her.
[Hui! This is amazing! I'm not even pushing from behind, but the more I turn it, the more it moves forward!]
That's because that's how the mechanism works. But for Tyr, it must be quite a surprising discovery.
Vampires weaken under the sun and their existence gets whittled away. Having regained her heart, Tyr would be better off than them, but she still couldn't exert her power properly.
But to think that by simply resting her body in the auto-carriage's cargo compartment and moving only her hands in the dark, she could move forward. How amazing must it be.
"Thank you! It has to be Tyr, after all! I'll steer the direction, so please turn it harder, Tyr! The harder you turn, the faster we go!"
[It's a joint effort between you and me... Hehe, understood.]
"Yes! Joint effort! We're working together in sync!"
[There's no need to embarrassingly emphasize it... I've understood enough.]
More power was put into the turning wheel. The auto-carriage advanced, repeating brief accelerations and brief decelerations.
Having gained the Progenitor of Vampires as a power source instead of Thunder, the auto-carriage ran out once more. The speed was faster than before, but neither I nor the Regressor let our guard down.
If the Engineer could sever the bridge from such a great distance, he could do something else. With the Regressor beside me, glancing around full of tension, I continued to drive.
Then, the Regressor, who spotted something, shouted urgently.
"Watch out! Something's coming!"
"What's something?"
"I don't know! But, gears are turning over there!"
"How do I watch out for something when I don't know what it is?"
There was no time to complain. Because that unknown something soon revealed its identity. In a rather peculiar way.
The world tilted.
Usually, when something goes wrong with the world or me, the wrong party is mostly me, apart from the conclusion my stubborn ego reaches. The great world wouldn't go wrong just to mess with me alone.
But this was clearly strange. The earth shouldn't actually be flat, but as the world tilted, I and the auto-carriage were trying to slip and fall sideways. As if mocking my foolishness for thinking this earth was flat.
Feeling a moment of confusion, I reached a simple conclusion that could clearly solve this situation. The ground is fine. I'm fine too. It's just this part I'm stepping on that's wrong.
"The road is tilting!"
Creak, creak. The sound of gears twisting could be heard all the way here. The solid block supporting the bottom of this road. As the gears moved, the block was trying to flip over.
My body and the auto-carriage gradually slipped sideways. The slope changed to an angle that could be called a cliff. Because of that, Azi, who had climbed onto the auto-carriage, dug her claws into the roof and somehow held on.
"Woof! What a day!"
"Did he install something like this on the entire road?! What a twisted taste...!"
The Regressor grumbled and took out Jizan. Reading her thoughts, I turned the steering wheel to drive up the slanted slope.
When we reached the top of the road, a place with a rather ill-fitting modifier, the Regressor reached her body out and smoothly dropped Jizan.
Jizan style, Thousand-Catty Weight.
The end of Jizan was loaded with the weight of a thousand catties. Saying a thousand catties, it was actually an immeasurable weight, thousands of times that.
If it were simply heavy, it would have ended with one side of the road breaking. However, Jizan, as if rooted in this massive structure, evenly distributed its heavy weight across the entire road.
The road that was flipping over with the power of the gears locked horns with the weight of Jizan. A brief silence. It didn't last long. Jizan overwhelmed the gears. The cogs that transmitted the power broke one after another.
Jizan, the divine relic of the Earth Mother Goddess Church that symbolizes the earth itself. A recoilless sword that only those qualified can wield could not be supported by mere gears.
The flipping earth, when Jizan on top of it properly exerted its power, remembered its manners for Mother Earth and sank back down.
At the same time, the Regressor returned to the passenger seat.
"Phew. Good job. If we escape like this..."
The Regressor, who was about to praise me, shut her mouth at a sudden thought.
'Come to think of it, I didn't even ask, but he went up on his own. As if he knew I would use the Thousand-Catty Weight?'
I did read her thoughts, and you only use Jizan these days because it's convenient, right? Isn't your inner self too obvious?
But I couldn't tell her that, so I decided to make a vague excuse.
"That, isn't that the technique Jiseon used when flipping Tantalus? Evenly distributing the weight."
"You have a good eye. That's right."
'Come to think of it, this guy has handled Jizan before, right? This guy has good sense and an eye. We have to go pick up Jizan in the next cycle anyway. If he can keep up like this... wouldn't it be okay to make him a comrade for the next cycle?'
No, that's a bit much. Shouldn't I have a cycle where I can rest too? This boss is great at spending, but she works me to the bone until the next cycle even if I die.
"Anyway, if we escape like this, there's no problem..."
The Regressor stopped mid-sentence. She whipped her head around and stared to the other side with an expression of disbelief.
I couldn't look back because I had to watch the front, but I could see the sight that horrified her from the Regressor's vision.
"...Is the Engineer chasing us directly?"
Engineer Maximilien, he was running on the continuously connected gears.
What should I compare that sight to? It would probably be closest to crossing stepping stones. The neatly arranged gears sprouting out like roots from the high watchtower. Maximilien approached, lightly stepping on top of the fiercely rotating gears.
Stepping onto the rotation where one would become a piece of meat if caught in between without any fear, it looked exactly as if the gears were working together to throw his body.
I recalled a few rumors about the Engineer. One of them was that he was the designer of the Meta Conveyor Belt.
Jiseon leveled the ground and the demonic beast moved, but the one who first came up with the idea was... the designer, the God of Gears. Engineer Maximilien.
"What's his ulterior motive?"
"I don't know what his ulterior motive is, but it seems we can't shake him off. Look. He's getting closer in an instant. All paths of escape are blocked."
"We can deal with him when he gets close. The Engineer possesses a prepared strength. In other words, in unprepared places, he's not that difficult. Let him come."
"Oh, confidence. That was a bit cool just now."
"S-stop saying useless things."
"And you speak as if you've fought all the Six Commanders. Was he some kind of huge criminal?"
'He was a criminal. In the previous cycle. Actually, someone who fights purely with skill and martial force like Juechang or Chongsa is the most troublesome. Because there's no clear countermeasure.'
Your honest thoughts are cute, but. Doesn't that just mean you're a bit weak in pure martial force?
Is it okay for us to invade? The opponent is the Military State, but I invaded because you and Tyr are here, and Historia is here too. If you're so unconfident, I'll be anxious.
'The Engineer who uses gears, or Cheontong whose very existence is a mystery, are rather manageable. Yeonggwi... I still don't know. I can overwhelm them one-on-one, so why is he a Six Commander?'
Are you the cutoff line for the Six Commanders? Why are your thoughts so sad?
True, the Regressor is more of a strategist than a warrior. She's amazing at digging into existences that have countermeasures.
For such a Regressor, the three Six Commanders remaining at the current headquarters seemed quite manageable. Then there's no need to worry too much.
"We've arrived."
The Regressor leaned out and glared at the back of the road. Maximilien, who had been running on the gears, landed 30 meters behind the auto-carriage.
His appearance seemed like a mix of human and machine. If gears mimicked a human, it would probably look exactly like that. Gears were visible sporadically over his skin.
The distance from the auto-carriage was a mere 30 meters. It was gradually widening. Considering the auto-carriage's speed was quite fast, it was a distance impossible to catch up with bare hands.
But the opponent was a Six Commander, Engineer Maximilien. An existence comparable to a legion even when bare-handed.
He twisted his ankle. The gear attached to the heel of his shoe clicked down and began to spin. Small popping sounds were heard one after another from the part touching the road, and at the same time, Maximilien's gear fiercely propelled his body forward.
What is that? I glanced back and asked.
"...Is that a wheel?"
The Regressor nodded.
"Yeah. Gears. All the gears attached to his body move according to his will. The wheels on his feet are the same. That's why such a feat is possible."
"That's amazing? His body must be dozens of times lighter than this auto-carriage, so doesn't that mean he's dozens of times faster than our auto-carriage?"
"That's only on the road, on bare ground he's not that fast. With gears, it's hard to use qinggong or any movement arts, so feet are faster for short distances. But... it's not a level you can ignore."
As the Regressor's worries deepened, Maximilien slid across the road and overtook us in an instant. In the blink of an eye, he was face-to-face with us, running alongside us. Only then was I able to properly see Maximilien's face.
As soon as Maximilien saw us... he tipped his officer's hat and greeted us.
"Ah! Fugitives of Tantalus! Nice to meet you! I am the pinnacle of all creation, a proud human! Maximilien!"
Perhaps because he reached the realm at a relatively young age, he had an innocent face like a child. It seemed he hadn't experienced much aging.
A gear-shaped monocle hung on his left eye. As soon as he saw us, the gear attached to the monocle clicked and rotated to the left. He pulled out the two overlapping lenses outward. It seemed he adjusted the number of lenses according to the distance.
Sliding smoothly across the ground, Maximilien spread his arms. Right in the center of his chest, around the solar plexus, a brilliant golden Thunder Wheel was slowly turning.
"Ah! I'm sorry to interrupt your way. I don't really like outside noise intruding either. I hate being that noise even more! Because it's not beautiful! But, no matter what, I absolutely had to see you!"
The Regressor gripped her sword as if she would dash out at any moment and shouted.
"How shameless! After blocking our path!"
"It couldn't be helped. You keep trying to get away from me! Even after I destroyed the bridge and tilted the road, you kept moving forward, so I had no choice but to come find you myself!"
"What business do you have?"
"You're finally getting curious! Good! I'll take it as a sign that you're willing to converse and speak!"
Even while looking back and moving forward, his movements were natural, and he didn't even glance behind him. He stood comfortably as if he were on moving ground that moved on its own and attempted a conversation.
The Regressor scowled.
'Tch, it's probably that. That guy is the pinnacle of all creation, its head. What he's looking for is... definitely.'
Sliding forward, Maximilien spread his arms wider and raised his head. At the end of his gaze was Azi.
"King of dogs! Oldest friend of humanity!"
Soaked to the bone and lying on the auto-carriage, Azi pricked her ears at the sound calling her.
"Woof? Did you call me?"
"Yes! My friend, friend of all! The smartest beast in the world who resolved to submit to humans! Now, tell me!"
Even with so many people here, he didn't even glance at them. With his gaze fixed solely on Azi, he revealed eyes burning with ecstasy beyond the mechanical device.
The gears adorning his entire body were mineral. However, his eyes were filled with an ecstasy that didn't suit steel gears.
"Here, who is the king of humanity!"