EP.246 Maji Tensi
Screech.
The automaton carriage that had been charging forward came to a halt after hitting a person. Maximilien, who had been dragged for nearly 50 meters while being shredded by the rotating saw blades, was now clapping his hands in joy. Visible through his torn clothes was not soft skin, but gears covering his entire body.
In many ways, only situations beyond common sense were unfolding.
"Is that so! It's you. Yes, come to think of it, you had the potential. Not the qualification, but only the potential!"
Maximilien was so nonchalant that it was hard to believe he had been engaged in a fierce battle just a moment ago.
"Children born in the year the kingdom fell. The two who remained even after being weeded out. But, weren't they both gone? Don't tell me. You, who were known to be dead?"
'Dear me! There was an error in my judgment. We thought he was dead. Even if he were alive, we ignored him because he didn't show any distinct characteristics. But, he was merely unseen. If he was the one who gathered all of them? The Progenitor Tirkanjaka, the boy who wields the power of the Demon God, from the King of Beasts to the royal family's end. If he was the one who led them!'
Maximilien's eyes flashed with anticipation.
In his view, most humans are incomplete.
Humans all have the same components. Blood, flesh, bones, muscles. The qi and magic power that fill the inside. Maximilien, an alchemist, knew that painfully well.
However, depending on how they are combined and how they operate, their form and abilities differ. Whether it's a wretched cripple begging for food, or an absolute sovereign standing tall alone in the world. They are the same humans made by molding flesh and blood and filling them with magic power and qi. Even if they don't look like it at all.
Therefore, in Maximilien's view, most humans were merely defective products ruining their own talents.
It's understandable that items made from high-quality materials exhibit better performance. Since their origins are different from the start, it's natural for them to have different capabilities.
However, if their performance varies vastly depending on how they are arranged and combined, according to their structural precision.
Wouldn't it be possible to eliminate the defects and draw out their original performance if a great person like Maximilien 'corrects' them?
Thus, he sought the King of Humans. To understand the essence of humanity, and the human traits beyond that.
"Are you the King of Humans? Truly, are you the stern evaluator who descended upon this land to judge the newly appeared military nation in this world!"
If one were to only read Maximilien's thoughts, he shows the aspect of a bold revolutionary agonizing over human limits and trying to overcome them. But well, his true goal is....
Finding the King of Humans....
'The perfect thought gear. To possess the universality applicable to all people, the King of Humans is necessary. Because the King of Humans represents all humans!'
He wants to drive a gear into his head.
He's truly a madman.
The King of Humans is also a human, you know. It's not compatible with gears.
"Perfect. It's perfect! Can there be such a perfect combination? You have both the qualification and the potential! If the King of Humans does not exist among them, that would be even stranger! Hahaha. For the opportunity to achieve my long-cherished wish to come to me on its own. I am a lucky man!"
Maximilien was spouting his monologue as he pleased, but I didn't have the power to make him shut up. I turned my head to look at the only capable person who could make that man shut up.
"Ms. Shey."
The regressor, who had been standing quietly and silently listening to Maximilien's monologue, reacted to my words.
"Huh? Why?"
"What are you doing? We have a long way to go. Are you going to listen to the whole cultist's ramblings?"
The regressor nodded her head and looked back and forth between me and Maximilien. From her mouth popped out an absurdly confident remark.
"I was curious about what he was saying."
"You're curious, so you're leaving alone a dangerous figure we were fighting just a moment ago, plus a guy preaching a weird religious view? Is information that important? More than our safety?"
"Ah, no. That can't be. Just."
'Tch. Let him speak a little more. It's not often that a lunatic gets so excited and spits out information from his own mouth.'
For some reason, she fought like she was going to kill him until just now, and then she's just standing there. Was it again to get that information?
I've read all his thoughts, so we have no more business with him! Let's clean this up and go!
The regressor, slightly intimidated by my fierce demeanor, added a half-hearted remark.
"You have to listen to their last words before killing them."
"Please listen to our words! Why do you listen to the enemy's words better than our ally's!"
"Okay, okay."
'Still, I've heard enough of the story. Children born in the year the kingdom fell? Good grief, the guy who thinks he's the brain of the lord of all creation believes in baseless rumors. It's no wonder he repeated such pointless antics every iteration. Anyway, we cleanly dealt with the military nation guys this time.'
At my urging, the regressor stepped back in between us and Maximilien.
"Is that all for your last words? If you have more to say, say it quickly before we kill you. We don't have that much patience."
Maximilien replied with a faint smile.
"Aah. I won't kill you. I have something to confirm."
"I'm sorry, but it's not that you won't kill us, it's that you can't. You alone can never beat me."
"Certainly, you who wield the power of two Demon Gods at the same time are overwhelming to face. I don't know what the Demon God Cult guys are doing. While a single boy got his hands on two Demon Gods, those who call themselves a secret society are in that state. Tsk tsk."
However, even in a desperate crisis, Maximilien was calm. It wasn't the leisure of someone hiding a trick up their sleeve, nor the attitude of someone confident that reinforcements would come.
He simply had no fear of death.
Click, clack. The gear planted in his head rolls. Separating reason and emotion, and only meshing them together when their combination is necessary. Just as a machine doesn't worry about breaking down, Maximilien didn't fear the end that would befall him.
...Well, it wasn't like Maximilien had absolutely nothing to rely on.
But it was already too late to stop it.
The first to sense the anomaly was Tir's darkness. The darkness that had been hiding in the shadow of the automaton carriage, preserving its strength, flinched greatly. As if getting hives on its pitch-black body. It shrank and deepened its color even more.
[This is....]
Tir, who felt something, rose to her feet. At the same time, the regressor instinctively realized something and gripped her sword again.
Crackle. A spark flew in the empty air.
In a place where there was nothing, square hues flashed like a mosaic and then disappeared.
Where the light disappeared, there was no object. Only the afterimage imprinted on the retina gradually formed a single shape.
But something was definitely there. Something whose existence could be perceived but not recognized.
The regressor muttered lowly.
"This energy...!"
A pressure crushing the whole body. An overwhelming presence hard to even face, a distant sensation as if a being of a higher rank than humans has appeared and is looking down on us. Under the gaze looking down from an endlessly high place, humans are infinitely insignificant.
In the meantime, Maximilien, who had driven a gear into his head, was unaffected.
Because his reason was operating mechanically.
"But since I've realized that your qualifications are sufficient. There's no need to worry about someone dying. Rather, it's a situation where I should worry about my own life. So, I'll have to use a foul play as well."
The cluster of light took form. It was a person. With two arms and two legs. A pure white void with a face attached above its neck slowly raised its body.
But the only thing similar to a human was its shape. I tried to read the thoughts of the suddenly appearing entity with telepathy.
Its thoughts couldn't be read.
No, in the first place. Is this even a person?
[Control observation complete. Manifestation rate 14%. Attention, requested. Current location is an area where control observation is not easy.]
Its entire body glows. A white light that can't even be properly faced envelops its body. Its eyes are hidden because of the pure white helmet pulled down over its head, and not even a trace of expression can be seen on its face.
Its calm mouth, made of a single black line, looked as if it was drawn in late just to make it look similar to a human.
Because I couldn't read its thoughts, I didn't know what that entity was. I only belatedly recognized what kind of existence it was from the thoughts of the regressor and Maximilien.
"...Aimeder!"
Historia made a surprised expression.
"What? Cheontong? That... thing?"
I asked in disbelief.
"You're one of the Six Lords, how do you not know?"
"I don't. Cheontong has never officially revealed its appearance. But, even if it had revealed itself...."
'That appearance, no matter how I look at it, it's not human. Even its presence is faint!'
Amidst everyone's confusion, the entity radiating a bizarre presence scattered its arms. A white blade, unknown when it was gripped, appeared in its pure white arm. It didn't look like it was drawn from somewhere, but as if it had been there from the beginning.
[Emergency sequence. Executing.]
The cluster of light scattered like a broken glass window. When the flashing sword remained like an afterimage, the pure white shadow was already charging at us in an instant.
Humans are slow to react. Because the opponent was beyond the level of a normal human, it was hard to grasp the precursors of the attack, read the killing intent, or feel the hostility. Since telepathy didn't work, even I only realized it was attacking after it left an afterimage.
"Dodge!"
The regressor reacted with Cheonbangyeong, but the blade of light wasn't aimed at her in the first place. The pure white shadow precisely thrust its blade towards the automaton carriage.
But there was another entity hiding here.
[Impudent! How dare you. Bring out an Angel in front of me!]
Right after Tir shouted that. Darkness burst out from the inside as if exploding.
Originally, Tir was supposed to hide her body inside the trunk. The more she was exposed to sunlight, the more the darkness was consumed, so it was a plan to preserve her strength.
But Tir, whose eyes turned red with rage, inflated the darkness without caring about such a plan. A localized night fell centered on the automaton carriage.
The blade of light split the darkness. Through the gaps where it seeped in, light filtered in like pigment. Even in the darkness where one couldn't see an inch ahead, the Angel's head was thrust in.
But the pitch-black darkness rushed in like a wave and filled the empty space. From within, a pitch-black parasol popped out and struck the Angel.
It seemed the pure white body also had a physical form. The white body hit directly by the parasol was blown far away. Tir, who burst out flipping the front and back of the automaton carriage, glared at the entity called an Angel with a furious face.
[This insolent pest, how dare you...!]
Even after being hit by Tir's parasol and flying away, the Angel scattered its body and stood up smoothly like a fish swimming at the bottom of a stream. No matter how you looked at it, it was an inhuman movement.
The Angel, who rose as if swimming in the air, scattered pure white light and spoke.
[Director Maximilien. Return immediately. With the Director's personal power, you cannot withstand them.]
"Haha. You've finally appeared, Cheontong! Did you see? I think I found what I was looking for!"
[I did not ask for the Director's opinion. Regardless of the Director's personal goals, now is the time to combine our strength. Return immediately. Otherwise, we cannot stop them.]
"Alright. Alright! I heard you. I will follow your will!"
[Where are you trying to run to?]
At that moment, the darkness surged like an explosion, trying to engulf the two. The Angel swung its sword to shake off the darkness, but the darkness did not give up and continuously approached.
As if stalling for time, waiting for someone to join.
[A toy of the Holy Imperial Court. I didn't expect to see it here... You're doing something amusing. Or are you provoking me?]
Tir walked out with heavy steps.
Vampires have no life. They are beings that control even their own blood, and since they are already dead, their instinct for life is also faint. It is quite difficult to provoke the anger of someone who neither gets hurt nor dies. Because even punches or attacks that would be threatening to humans are merely slightly rude behavior to them.
But there is one exception.
Things related to the Holy Imperial Court are different. After the Progenitor Tirkanjaka lost her father, herself, and her kin at their hands. The Holy Imperial Court earned the innate hatred of vampires.
All vampires rage against the Holy Imperial Court. Tir stands at that extreme.
The Angel looked at Tir approaching and spoke calmly.
[I will draw the Progenitor's gaze. Director Maximilien, I repeat my order. Return immediately.]
"Haha! Consumable resources are truly great after all!"
Maximilien stepped back with a hearty laugh. The gears attached to his feet rolled fiercely, and his body quickly distanced itself along the road. He hastily fled.
Even though the enemy they had caught was running away, the regressor couldn't easily dare to go after him.
Because the entity called Cheontong, and the entity Tir called an Angel, remained right before her eyes.
[Did you think I would let you go so easily?!]
The darkness inflated its body. Tir herself wasn't very fast, but her essence lay in her mighty spatial dominance. The inside of the darkness was no different from the inside of her body, so she exerted absolute influence within it.
I shouted.
"Tir! Don't waste your power too much!"
But it was daytime now. The darkness was continuously consumed to block the light, and even if a small gap appeared, it collapsed quickly.
Sprinkling darkness in the daytime was, metaphorically speaking, like guarding an air bubble underwater.
The Angel targeted that point.
The sword split into dozens of branches. Each strike wasn't strong, but sufficiently fast and sharp slashes continuously cut through the darkness. The sweeping sword strikes pushed back the darkness that blanketed the area. As long as a slight gap formed in the darkness, the sun still floating in the sky would eagerly pick at the wound.
A fight between darkness and light. Within it, the regressor moved.
The regressor, confirming that Maximilien had distanced himself enough, quickly intervened.
"That's far enough! Aimeder!"
The regressor's eyes momentarily dyed in seven colors. Instead of opening the Eye of Destiny, she sequentially opened the Seven-Colored Eyes to observe the light. At the same time, the regressor held Cheonaeng diagonally and looked at the Angel beyond it.
Heavenly Sword Qi, Seven-Colored Eyes Linked Technique. Rainbow.
Cheonaeng, extending like lightning, diagonally slashed the Angel.
The Angel, having noticed the presence, countered with the sword of white light, but the moment Cheonaeng and the sword of white light collided, the pure white light was decomposed into seven colors. The rainbow created by dismantling the white light dyed the trajectory of Cheonaeng. A long rainbow rose along the regressor's sword.
Although no emotion was revealed, the Angel seemed slightly surprised.
[I see. This is the Demon God's. The heavens'....]
The Angel couldn't finish its words.
The regressor pushed that power straight in and slashed the Angel's neck. A flash of light flickered, and the light left a long afterimage. The regressor, who pierced through the Angel's body, shouted violently.
"Tirkanjaka! Finish it off!"
Glass can shatter light, but it cannot erase it. The Angel, which momentarily became blurry, flickered and tried to form its shape again.
At that moment, the darkness enveloped it. Tir's darkness, rushing in like a wave, finally caught the Angel. The enraged Tir swung her fist without a word.
Instantly, a massive texture dropped with a thud from within the darkness. The materialized darkness crushed the white light.
[Observation, limit.... Danger.]
[It's over.]
Tir clenched her fist. At that moment, the darkness rushed in and gnawed away the light.
Tir's power is not physical force. Lately, as her power has grown too strong, it has been emphasized, but that power is closer to a curse or domination. Once caught, the Angel is finished.
The body of light, veiled in mystery, looked at the corroding darkness and muttered calmly.
[Self-destruct sequence. Activating.]
Right after that.
A pillar of light soared.