EP.301 The World That Cannot Be Made with Gears
Maximilian was from Yeolguk. In that nation where birth itself was a curse, failure to promptly solve the constant onslaught of problems meant being weeded out.
Fortunately, aside from the minor issue of having no arms, Maximilian's talents were outstanding, and he wisely handled the countless problems that struck his life.
Even when the vested interests of Yeolguk banded together to execute him, he remained rational. Beneath his steel wheel, awakened through his Inherent Demonic Art, two companies perished, and Maximilian leisurely left Yeolguk.
Although he had overcome the greatest crisis of his life, Maximilian was not satisfied. There still remained a problem that was far too large for him.
A massive problem that even he, who was like a god of gears, couldn't see a hint of solving.
The world Maximilian lived in was not perfect.
To him, the world was a broken piece of work. It was a lump of noise filled with discord, rolling precariously while creaking and broken.
Some things had room for improvement. Inefficient structures could be improved. Broken machinery could be repaired.
However, humans could not be fixed and used.
Humans are irrational. Blinded by greed, they reject, envy, and resent outstanding artifacts like gears. Even when looking at the same thing, they interpret it differently, and sometimes attack for no particular reason. Like the bastards of Yeolguk.
The defective products with unevenly carved gears are the biggest problem in this world. Because of them, 'those who are qualified' like Maximilian must live creating unnecessary friction.
It must be fixed. But how?
He had an awareness of the problem, and a solution. But he lacked the means.
To realize his ideals, he had to create a community comparable to a nation or a city, but a runaway fugitive from Yeolguk had no foundation to accomplish a task of that scale.
It was around the time Maximilian's worries deepened.
Suddenly, the heavens opened and an angel descended. The angel, who brought up that he had been watching him, made a proposal to Maximilian.
Would he like to try building a nation?
Maximilian did not believe in gods. Because a god had not given him two hands to clasp together.
However, the angel before his eyes was not a god. It was merely a weapon of the Holy Emperor's Court that had fallen, tainted by the secular world.
He didn't believe in gods, but he could believe in weapons. Maximilian took the angel's hand.
Cheontong was the monarch. From his seat, he saw everything, evaluated, and gave orders.
Yeonggwi was the executioner. The closest to Cheontong, she was Cheontong's blade, a ruthless gardener who pruned Gunguk as much as necessary.
And Gwabyeong was the designer.
Various facilities, inventions, and policies of Gunguk came from his head. From the auto-carriage he designed himself to the large-scale Alchemical Steel refinery, there was nothing his hands hadn't touched. Even the Meta-Conveyor Belt, praised as Gunguk's masterpiece, was created from Maximilian's proposal.
The original plan was not to use Earth Arts, but to surround Gunguk with tens of millions of gears, and if asked if that was realistic, one could only tilt their head, but regardless, the achievement must be highly evaluated.
Among the Six Generals who came from the outside, the one who did the most work was none other than Maximilian. It wasn't a matter of diligence, but simply because Maximilian purely enjoyed working. To him, Gunguk was the largest and most intricate toy, and also an experimental ground to unfold his ideals. Maximilian took advantage of the chaotic period unique to a newly founded nation and even forced through somewhat radical actions.
Hatred for the kingdom, hope that bloomed from the land burned by hatred, the outstanding leader named Gunung, and the three he brought with him. Amidst a miracle-like opportunity, Gunguk prospered greatly. Some were discarded, but there were plenty of gears to insert back in. To Maximilian, it didn't matter much.
Clearly, Maximilian succeeded.
But fundamentally, he failed.
He tried to use humans like parts, but the parts wouldn't move as he wished. If pressed forcefully, they tried to spring back out, and even after being told that they would be discarded if they broke away, they committed all sorts of bizarre acts. No matter how carefully he ground and polished them, defective products would hide their jagged edges, sneak into the machine, and cause fatal malfunctions, resulting in immense losses.
Maximilian couldn't tolerate the losses. As long as such losses existed, the ideal mechanical device he desired could not be created.
Unless 'humans' were fixed.
"Congratulations, Maximilian. You found me wonderfully. To think of creating ground to step on in the Bottomless Pit, and putting the King of Dogs there. You were perfectly hooked."
Sheesh. This guy is finally showing his life flashing before his eyes. It took a while.
The expression is a bit strange, but Maximilian was 'pierced' by Historia's bullet and blown away. He is literally on the verge of death.
But he is still alive, and he is a powerhouse who could kill me with just a flick of a finger.
I need to go and confirm the kill quickly. But Historia collapsed from exhaustion. I'm the only one who can do it.
I looked down at the ground from the edge of the Steel Beetle. The body height of the Steel Beetle was 4 meters. Jumping straight down to the ground below, littered with broken concrete fragments, seemed too dangerous.
If I were in perfect condition, I could mobilize items and falling techniques to land beautifully. But right now, I was also a wreck.
'The ground' is the largest magnet. I utilized that to maximize the magnetism of Clover 6. It was a powerful force enough to bend the trajectory of the flying steel, but there was one problem.
I could grant magnetism to the steel and pull it, but I couldn't push it away.
In other words, all those blades flew towards the card I was holding. Even though I wrapped my arm tightly with the Queen of a Thousand, my arm, grazed by dozens of blades, became a rag along with the Queen of a Thousand.
It was a relief that most of them flew in arcs and missed. If something like a spear had hit directly, I would have had to ask Maximilian to make me a prosthetic arm.
It seems I won't be able to use my left arm for a while. After tightly tying the Queen of a Thousand to stop the bleeding, I carefully stepped down the gears arranged like stairs.
"That's why it's even more regrettable. Your desire is intense and interesting, but unfortunately, I cannot grant your wish. I am the King of Humans. Even if I was the spokesperson for all humans... right now I have no power and cannot represent them. All that's left for me now is to grant the wish of the one person before my eyes."
Maximilian blinked. His state was miserable.
There was a large hole in his chest. The blood-soaked gears, carefully packed inside his skin, revealed themselves grotesquely. Even in this state, the gears kept turning without rest; most were catastrophically damaged, and some were crushed, gouging out his flesh every time they turned.
"In contrast, your desire targets all of humanity, right? But since you can't persuade all humans, you tried to persuade a single entity, the King of Humans. That's why you needed me, right?"
No matter how much he ordered, his muscles wouldn't move. Instead, only the gears spread throughout his body obeyed his will. Click. His prosthetic arm forcefully raised his ruined body. Viciously, ignoring the screaming muscles and the blood arbitrarily leaving its proper tracks.
"Anyway, you're closer to being the King of Humans than I, who am incompetent. Want to be King instead of me?"
Maximilian opened his mouth. After first spilling a lump of blood-tinged foam, he spoke with difficulty.
"...If you can give it, cough, I would accept it gladly."
"Haha. Just kidding. You can't be King. Setting aside what you can't give, what you're trying to become isn't a king, but a god. A god who tries to arbitrarily change the species known as humans, that is."
"Deception... What you just used... was definitely the power of a Demon God. Aren't you the one, cough, who is a god?"
"No. This is the Inherent Demonic Art of the Church of the Earth Mother Goddess. I told you. I can steal and use others' Inherent Demonic Arts."
"Isn't that... just being a god?"
"I said no."
I shook my cloth-wrapped arm up and down. Blood seeped out from the violent movement. Considering my injury, it was an action I should never take, but so what. Maximilian before my eyes forced himself to stand up despite his state. I should show some sincerity too.
"Some Inherent Demonic Arts reach the gods. They give a revered name to a god that didn't exist until now and bind them to reality. The named god watches over this world, and humans enjoy its grace. That's why it's called an Inherent Demonic Art, and at the same time, a Demon God. It is truly a god. Because it causes an irreversible change to all humans."
At the bottom of the Bottomless Pit. In the underground where not even light, let alone logic, could reach, I discovered the memories of the Grandmaster that the Holy Emperor's Court had sealed away.
Before the Grandmaster, the Earth Mother God was merely a branch of folk belief, but after the Grandmaster, it became a god that listened to the calls of humans. Because the Holy Emperor's Court sealed this secret, Earth Arts could only be used by the Earth Mother God Priests, but it was still a human technique. Thanks to the existence of Earth Arts, human life changed.
"That is the reason you are ordinary. Maximilian. Your gears cannot change humans."
But what about gears?
They are certainly useful. According to the design, they can exert several times the force or make movements several times more precise. They can convert force into rotation, and vice versa.
Useful. That's all.
"Your prosthetic arm replaces a human arm, and the Steel Beetle imitates an insect just as its name says. Launching spears with a ballista, drawing a bow with a cranequin. They are all functions that humans discovered first. Imitation. That is the essence of your ability."
I mercilessly poked his sore spot.
"Your ability to assemble tiny gears to create something enormous is outstanding. Enough to admire. But you didn't create the gears. They were already there. The principle of gears isn't something new that didn't exist in the world either. It's just what you handle best."
He is a giant standing on the shoulders of a giant. Big, strong, and he will see further than anyone else.
But he will never reach the gods. He probably knows this better than anyone, bone-deep.
Even if both of them know it all too well, there are times when it must be honestly spat out. Now was that time.
"You are a giant, you cannot become a god. Know your place, beast."