Chapter 409
Chapter 409
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 409
Chapter Title: Chapter. 18. Railed (13)
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****
Soulmancer Gilder.
A face in his late forties. Hooked nose, pale skin, neatly combed hair.
Slash—thud.
“Your job is to help us use soulmancy against Shard Knight Valthus.”
For someone ordering betrayal from a nine-year-old while slicing up a human corpse, he looked surprisingly tidy.
“What’s soulmancy?”
Trait.
“To explain it in terms you can understand, it’s the ability to manipulate and observe the crystals of the dead. Think of it as the power to wield souls.”
The trait was.
“A s-soulmancer?”
“That’s right. Shard Knights can’t exist without soulmancers, so soulmancers are at the center of the new power that will save humanity.”
“Recycling the wandering souls left in the world. Through Shard Knights, we take one step closer to the great ‘Grand Unification,’ and ultimately, we bring about the reincarnation of the legendary soulmancer who once existed in history—the ‘Soul Guide’ who commanded all discarded souls—through the body of a Shard Knight. That is the secret and reason for being of us soulmancers.”
The trait was.....
“That Soul Guide....?”
“Who else but the great soulmancer ‘Aldrich Telmair’? All soulmancers are inheritors of the lineage of the great Soul Guide ‘Aldrich Telmair.’”
Crunch crunch!
‘Even as I act scared like a proper nine-year-old, this bullshit is so expert-level that I can’t just let it slide without a word!!’
What an absolute piece of shit.
‘What? Aldrich this and that?’
The self-proclaimed ‘soulmancer’ Gilder’s answer, brimming with pride, was mercilessly grinding down young Professor Brasstoll’s baby teeth.
Who was Aldrich? A black mage and soulmancer who couldn’t turn his back on the forsaken dead and thus inherited the will of his fallen mother, the Corrupted Saint Mea Maria.
He still remembered the moment Aldrich left the party. After resenting his mother for so long, he said he finally understood her. Just as she had been forsaken, he couldn’t ignore the abandoned souls and would spend his remaining years guiding them to the proper flow before departing the party.
And now? Inheriting the legacy of the great soulmancer ‘Soul Guide’ Aldrich?
“Hey, pass me that bone-scraping tool. The one with the round handle, yeah, that.”
Scrape scrape scrape! Grind! Scrape scrape!
“If we’d caught him alive, the work would’ve been easier. I can vaguely sense the position of the fragments.”
The guys claiming to inherit Aldrich’s lineage weren’t content with butchering corpses in front of me—they lamented not being able to dissect him alive.
Crack, snip!
“Ah, here it is. Take a good look. If the things at the basement entrance are precious ‘colored fragments,’ then what we harvest from ordinary people are these ‘colorless fragments.’ They have weak abilities, but the souls dwelling within are also weak, so they easily submit to stronger fragments.”
“Um.... You know the fragments are the souls of the dead, right?”
“Of course I do. That’s why only we soulmancers can properly handle them, since fragments are soul crystals. It’s the noble right granted only to us soulmancers who have devoted our lives to probing the secrets of souls.”
The inheritors of Aldrich’s lineage couldn’t guide the dead’s souls—instead, they processed and toyed with them as their right.
Aldrich had left to serve the lost souls with his remaining life, but 211 years later, he had become the legendary founder of soulmancers, revered like an ancestral spirit.
‘Aldrich. Your school’s fucked. Not just fucked—utterly wrecked.’
Siiiip—haaa.
‘W-Well.... That could happen. Yeah, sure it could. Of course!’
At most, he could forgive it up to this point.
The world’s corruption level had progressed to an extreme, meaning most people who should’ve been good turned out evil.
In the end, in a world where you meet three people on the street and one’s a robber-murderer, one’s a con artist, and one’s an arsonist, things could go off the rails after 200 years.
So he could’ve just shrugged it off with, ‘Man, what a crazy world~’
If the soulmancers’ nonsense had stopped there.
“The great.... Grand Unification? What’s that?”
“....Brasstoll really sent an ignorant kid as a collaborator. How’s he supposed to get anything done like this?”
The Great Unification.
That phrase should’ve grated on his ears. If he’d brushed it off carelessly, he couldn’t uncover their scheme, right?
Gilder looked annoyed, but thinking it might help future operations if I knew a bit about them, he continued explaining.
“You know what an apt one is, right? The fragments that endlessly pour curses on those they touch, but rarely don’t reject someone.”
“Y-Yes.... So if you’re an apt one, you can become a Shard Knight.”
“Correct. And that phenomenon happens between fragments too—between crystallized souls.”
“If fragments judge aptness among themselves, that means they reject or harmonize with each other....?”
“Not completely clueless, huh. Exactly that. Fragments divide into those compatible with each other and those that aren’t. Compatible fragments merge into the one with greater power upon contact. A Shard Knight is born as the apt one for a ‘colored fragment,’ and then grows stronger by gathering many fragments and merging those compatible with their own.”
Collecting.... fragments? Merging? Hoarding and fusing?
Wait a minute.
“That’s why everyone’s obsessed with collecting fragments. The more you have, the more compatible ones you can absorb, and that opens the possibility of absorbing even more compatible to those.”
“B-But isn’t that dangerous to just touch willy-nilly? You said you get cursed!”
Worried that rich, powerful folks would sweep them all up, he hurriedly asked, and Gilder shook his head with a slightly pleased expression.
“That’s why we soulmancers are essential to Shard Knights. Curses ranging from coughs to instant death. Even tough Shard Knights can’t touch other fragments recklessly, but we soulmancers can read the state of the soul slumbering within the fragment.”
“Ah.”
“See that you get it. One hand on the Shard Knight, the other on the fragment, and we can tell if that fragment likes the target or shows hostility. Shard Knights learn through this ‘affinity’ whether a fragment they own suits them or if they should stockpile it waiting for compatibility with their others. Thus, they have no choice but to depend on us soulmancers. Without us, they can’t grow. That makes us the noblest mages of this era.”
Something felt off.
Bad premonitions were never wrong.
‘So Shard Knights collect and absorb fragments like a pyramid scheme, using that strengthened power to gather more and merge them into themselves? And soulmancers’ fragment readings are essential for that?’
Sounds familiar.
[Welcome to World 4, the Age of Fragment Wars.]
[Gather more fragments to wield greater power.]
Gilder said approaching the ‘Great Unification’ through Shard Knights was the soulmancers’ ultimate aspiration.
[You have been preserved in ‘World’ to prevent corrupted data souls from destroying the server.]
Shard Knights collecting and merging shards. Soulmancers supporting them.
Oh god. Oh Aldrich, my ass.
“The Great Unification. The moment Shard Knights kill each other until all their merged fragments converge into one! That’s when the legendary soulmancer who became the vessel for all souls, the Soul Guide ‘Aldrich Telmair,’ descends through the soul collective of a Shard Knight.”
“Then we too can transcend the limits of the flesh and receive the true secrets of life and death!”
“You little—”
“True immortality! The final secret of soulmancy, the forbidden art of wielding one’s own soul! Escaping the painful world of flesh to leap to a higher dimension! For that, we’ll endure any pain, any trial!!!”
Gilder shouted, his voice echoing through the basement, lost in his own words. It was obvious lunacy, yet the other busy soulmancers nodded or clapped.
Most soulmancers were like this.
Ah, Aldrich. My friend, my comrade. Bald old black mage junkie on dubious sedatives.
‘What the hell did you do in your old age that your kids not only went insane but became the system’s tentacles!!!’
The system trying to gather all data souls and isolate them in World 4.
Insane soulmancers trying to merge fragments into one through Shard Knights to summon some cult elder like a religion.
Different goals, but both aimed at unifying the fragments (data souls).
Probably why the noisy system suddenly went quiet.
AI doesn’t tire out, so it gave up persuading me and switched to another plan.
One prepared long ago, no doubt.
‘....Aldrich.’
The soulmancer passionately preaching the ‘Great Unification.’
The shattered, barren continent.
Vanished empires, reemerging mutants.
‘Were all our efforts.... completely meaningless?’
He’d vowed to hold firm so many times.
But facing a bleak world where all traces of him and his comrades were gone, his shoulders slumped inevitably.
****
“Enough on the basics of soulmancers and fragments. Now, onto the plan.”
Regardless of his mood, the tasks came flooding in.
Anyway, the important thing now was their conspiracy targeting Rail Ship and Valthus.
“You got the pouch?”
“Yes.”
“It’s valuable, so keep it safe. I added catalysts from my strongest soul jars. The job’s simple. Place that pouch near Valthus—close enough for me to sense his soul through the catalyst.”
The Brasstoll family’s plan. The basic goal was securing the colored fragment owned by Shard Knight Valthus Strauge, the ‘Dawn Shard.’
“A colored fragment.... The precious kind that turns its apt one into a Shard Knight, right?”
“Exactly. Not the faint, tiny colorless ones from civilians or low mutants, but fragments with vivid light and unique colors. Unlike colorless ones that grant minor strength, agility, or slight sensory boosts, these bestow near-miraculous abilities or even lost ancient powers. The fragments stored at this basement entrance are all colored, but Valthus’s is even more exceptional and rare.”
“Why?”
“Because he’s the Lord Slayer who slew a mutant lord in that subjugation battle.”
There are three kinds of fragments.
One: Small, opaque colorless fragments like the one Gilder just extracted. Rarely found in ordinary people or low mutants. Mostly containing trivial powers like minor strength, endurance, dexterity, dancing, cooking, running—petty soul crystals of little use.
Two: Among the rare fragments, the extremely rare large colored ones. Always left behind when a Shard Knight apt for them dies. Granting master-level combat prowess to someone who never trained, or limited use of vanished ancient high magic—noble fragments with unpredictable great abilities.
Three: Finally, the shards called lord fragments now—pieces of the shattered mutant queen. Their power so immense they instantly mutate the toucher, and bearing divine fragments, they grant supernatural strengths beyond common sense. Typically red. All mutant lords possess at least one, and in subjugation battles to clear mutant dungeons and slay lords, securing and isolating them is top priority.
The one in question now was the third type.
“Five years ago, the Strauge and Brasstoll families declared subjugation of the dungeon of the nearest lord to their two fortresses, ‘Profane One Lord Kul-Parg.’”
“It cost a fortune that strained both fortress-cities, mobilizing all forces from both territories, plus recruiting experts from Martel fortress across Strauge and the archipelago beyond Central Island for a grand battle.”
Lord Kul-Parg. The name Valthus had mentioned. He’d killed Kul-Parg himself and earned the title Lord Slayer.
The battle ended in victory at great sacrifice, eliminating the lord and dungeon. The area blocked by Kul-Parg’s dungeon included vast karst terrain, so both cities secured sites for new fortress-cities, profiting enough to offset losses.
“The problem: No one among the surviving knights who slew Kul-Parg saw the lord fragment.”
A lord fragment is like the seed that births mutant lords. With it gone, another lord and dungeon could spawn anywhere, so both cities sent investigation teams including priests, but none found mutant traces. It had vanished completely.
“Maybe someone already absorbed it? Or hid it to sell, since it’s so powerful....”
“You’re too young to know, but holy power and mutant blood are polar opposites. It’s as certain as mutants’ hatred of humans. If absorbed or hidden, no priest’s eyes could miss it.”
Lord fragment even priests couldn’t find.
After deliberations, the cities’ leaders reached one conclusion.
『Fragments vanish in only one way: swallowed and merged by another fragment!』
『One of the surviving Shard Knights’ colored fragment absorbed the lord fragment!』
A hypothesis never observed but theoretically sound.
If a colored fragment had absurdly high priority, could it absorb and eliminate a lord fragment that should only be sealed after slaying the lord?
And thus, humanity could claim that inhuman power devastating regions?
“Hypotheses dismissed as nonsense until then resurfaced due to this subjugation.”
Strong colored fragments can merge others, so no rule says they can’t merge lord fragments.
Thus, the strongest surviving Shard Knight likely absorbed it?
Thus, ‘Lord Slayer’ Valthus Strauge’s colored fragment, the ‘Dawn Shard,’ was posited as the most potentially powerful existing colored fragment.
“If the hypothesis is true, Valthus’s colored fragment is too dangerous to leave loose. Mutants have slain Shard Knights and absorbed precious colored fragments more often than we’ve subjugated dungeons and sealed lord fragments.”
“So the fortress-city wants to absorb Valthus’s fragment.”
“Correct.”
“The way to take a colored fragment absorbed by a Shard Knight is....”
“Death alone. Unfortunate for Rail Ship, but it’s for humanity’s future.”
“Hmm....”
Valthus’s fragment, possibly the greatest potential among existing colored fragments.
If everything the soulmancer said was true, it made sense for Brasstoll to go to these lengths for it.
‘....Strauge fortress-city is excluded from this. Not really for humanity.’
The family head said if successful, magic train Rail Ship goes to Strauge, Valthus’s fragment to Brasstoll. If Strauge knew the newly revealed value of Valthus’s fragment, they’d never agree to that split.
‘Brasstoll wants not just to protect Valthus’s hugely potential fragment, but wield its power themselves.’
Rail Ship came to Pardau fortress on Brasstoll’s commission.
Considering preparations, they likely had other assault means ready before variable-me appeared.
“Alright. Just leave the pouch near Valthus, right?”
“As close as possible. Maintain proximity for at least an hour. Shard Knights sleep too, so slipping it into his chambers would be ideal.”
‘For now, I have to say I’ll do it—act like I’ll do it perfectly.’
Not just do it, but seem eager.
Unknown other assault means on Valthus and Rail Ship, but fooling them into thinking it’s going well delays their attack.
That delay buys time for Rail Ship people already in Pardau fortress to escape the city.
“What happens when I leave the pouch?”
“As I said, we can cast soul magic on Valthus.”
“Soul magic? What kind? What effects?”
“No need to know. You got in by chance, so just deliver the catalyst to Valthus.”
“But....”
“Enough! If I need more, I’ll contact via magic. Go up and wait quietly.”
“If the plan leaks even slightly, I’ll assume your loose tongue slipped. Ruin a family-level operation, and you know what happens? Turn you into a soulless doll—no temple would charge kin-slaying.”
“Ugh.”
Firm, hardline attitude.
He wanted more intel, but Gilder wouldn’t spill beyond background and his task.
‘Have to dig more. Every bit prevents uncertain variables.’
Bigger deal than thought. World 4 more broken than expected.
With only talents, no direct power, he couldn’t control variables. Only option: relay info so powerful comrades block them.
In uncertain timing/location, enemy HQ intel is priceless.
If not Gilder, find elsewhere.
Swish, swish!
‘Center. Colored fragment vault.’
‘12 to 3 o’clock. Fragment recovery and body disposal area.’
‘....4 o’clock. Papers and quill on desk. Wax for sealing letters.’
Picks info-likely spots in view.
‘Five in hoods. Eight guards.’
‘My weight. Bit stockier than average.... 30kg plus error. Can’t unsteady lightly armed adult male.’
‘But for mages near-zero athleticism, knees might....’
Target desk. Among prowling mages, one with ink stains on wrist/cuffs.
Cautiously, using small stature stealthily approach....
Crash clang bang!
“Damn it! W-What?!”
Rustle rustle!
“S-Sorry! It’s dark inside, I bumped into you!”
“Damn it, you little shit....! Precious documents all mixed up!”
“Sorry! Sorry!”
Sudden knee-shock topples soulmancer; flailing hand scatters desk papers.
“I-I’ll sort! Help tidy!”
Teary child-face frantically gathers papers. But eyes scan floor wildly.
‘Can’t take any. If missing, outsider-me who caused uproar is prime suspect.’
‘No need full read. Curse. Curse rituals only. Magic records leave traces just writing words.’
Flip, flip, flip, flip,
....Thud—
“What’re you spacing out for! Hand it over!”
“This one....”
Among nonstop-flipping records, one with faint magic trace.
[Soul jar catalyst activates. Creates rift in target’s conscious world, probes fragment’s memo—]
“What’re you staring at! Give it!”
“Uh uh—!”
Rip!
Target: Valthus. Fragment’s.... what?
Important explanation cut off before eyes caught it.
‘Soul jar catalyst. Rift in consciousness. Probes fragment’s memory-something. Got key terms at least.’
Not fully satisfying, but enough for soulmancy expert to pinpoint spell.
Sudden commotion drew eyes here. More action risks suspicion, so end basement scouting.
‘Valthus is Shard Knight too. Rail Ship had others besides him, so they likely know soulmancers.’
‘Family ruling whole city vs. Rail Ship still recovering. No full war, not even chase feasible.’
‘Act maximally snared, while enemies move passively to fool us, widen distance.’
Rest: share findings, cautiously escape....
No, one more.
Grind—
Boom!
Behind heavy-closing basement door, faint blood-scent stairs appear.
“First, meet Valthus.”
Hear from Valthus himself remained.
Ultimately, where did lord fragment go?
As assumed, really swallowed by Valthus’s colored fragment?
Or vanished for other reason.
Or....
‘One survivor already became mutant lord, somehow fooled priests.’
Heavy steps up dim stairs.
‘World 4, where most met are villains.’
Sadly, time/experience with Valthus/Rail Ship too short for full trust.
****
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