Chapter 209
Chapter 209
Chapter 209
Utopia (1)
After returning to the Morian Empire, Rudian put all his efforts into recovering his body.
His physical injuries healed completely by the next day, and after a week passed, magic filled his entire body and his vitality returned.
But there was one thing.
The stat called Karma, which had replaced Rudian's magic, was stubbornly refusing to recover to normal levels.
-Karma: 17 (Penalty Applied)
A pitiful amount that wasn't even 5% of his original value.
Anyway, Rudian didn't face enemies relying solely on his own power.
Since he constantly drew power from Diablo, used the Seven-Colored World, and employed Adi's terminal, his own power wasn't particularly important among the cards he held.
But...
'I can't draw upon that external power...'
When he tried to draw power above a certain level from other sources, a reaction immediately occurred and the power drained away.
This was something that even Adi's control couldn't prevent, which was truly maddening.
-Didn't I tell you? It's the backlash of causality.
Diablo said listlessly.
-Usually this kind of backlash doesn't continue endlessly. The restriction will be lifted someday.
'But a war is going to break out before that restriction is lifted, you know?'
Since there was no indication of how much time remained on the restriction, it was maddening and infuriating.
Rudian sighed and looked once more at the Karma stat floating before his eyes.
'Still, thanks to this, I understand one thing.'
Adi waved his tentacles questioningly.
-What do you mean?
'The fact that this Karma stat doesn't simply represent the power I possess.'
Rudian's eyes deepened.
'At first, I thought it was just power that had transformed into chaos as all forces mixed together.'
Actually, that wasn't entirely wrong.
Rudian's power had ascended to complete chaos, the stage just before divinity bloomed, even though only divinity hadn't manifested.
But this Karma stat had one more meaning.
'This represented the maximum amount of power I could draw from external sources.'
Even now, his physical condition was perfect.
He had recovered his body to the extent that he could cast 9th class magic and spatial slashes without problem.
Yet despite this physical condition, his current Karma value was only 17.
Considering that Rudian's previous total was 1,240, he couldn't help but be suspicious.
This was the result of digging into that question.
Rudian grabbed his hair and screamed silently.
'...I've become useless. I've become useless!'
If he couldn't draw upon any external power, Rudian was just another continental-level powerhouse.
Of course, Adi's support was still intact, so he could manage decent performance, but compared to his companions who had now grown into powerhouses of the era, he had truly fallen to the level of being nothing more than dead weight.
'What should I do? At this rate, there will definitely be disruptions to the plan.'
Unable to find composure, Rudian paced frantically around his office when Elli calmly grasped his shoulder.
"Please have a cup of tea and calm down, Master."
"...Thank you, Elli."
Actually, speaking objectively, the preparations themselves were already completely finished.
The construction of the lunar base had been completed in an instant thanks to the voluntary cooperation of each nation making material procurement easy.
The adaptation training for the forces gathered from each continent on the lunar surface was also proceeding smoothly.
Magician-types were training in amplifying interception and defense equipment.
Warrior-types were learning how to use the magic armor that had been dormant in Eldorado.
After smoothly completing the first training, they had recently entered the second phase of training.
The energy for the magic armor and defense equipment was extracted from magic stones and artifacts collected from across the continent, so now the war preparations were steadily entering their final stages without Rudian needing to intervene much.
'Agares keeps making a fuss about wanting to fight, and I can't hold him back forever...'
Fortunately, the legion commanders Rudian had brought were handling Agares on their own, so it was fine for now, but there was no guarantee when an incident might occur.
'The backlash of causality is an absolute law of the Creator God that even the Seven Great Gods cannot handle. To recover from this, I'd have to pay a corresponding price, but...'
The problem was that the estimated price was nothing less than the Seven-Colored World.
No matter what, unless the situation had deteriorated to the worst possible outcome, recovering power by offering the Seven-Colored World as payment would be no different from borrowing money from loan sharks at compound interest.
-Master.
"...What?"
Rudian answered weakly to Adi's words.
-There is exactly one method.
"...!"
The moment the word "method" came out, Rudian's back straightened immediately.
"What is it? What is it!"
-Among the information Baal previously provided to us... wasn't there information about my terminal?
"That's right!"
Actually, it was something that should have been recovered with top priority, but it had been pushed down in priority due to preparations for war with the extraterrestrials.
Moreover, the recovered Eldorado, Dilmun, and Elysion alone provided more than enough military power.
-There's a high possibility that the terminal's identity is Utopia.
"Why?"
Currently, there were three remaining terminals of Adi.
Medical AI, Utopia.
Combat AI, Shambhala.
Restoration AI, Eden.
Simply put, it would be a 1/3 probability, but Adi was speaking as if he was certain.
-The reason is simple. Shambhala and Eden are special.
"Special?"
-Those two AIs probably don't exist on the surface at present. Excluding me, they're the most advanced terminals, and accordingly, they would have powerful locks placed on them.
"Hmm..."
-It's not that Utopia is insignificant, but it still can't compare to Shambhala and Eden. So by process of elimination, what remains is Utopia.
Adi blinked his giant single eye as he continued.
-Well, actually, whichever of the three it is, any of them would be of great help to Master in the current situation.
"That's... true."
Looking at Elysion, which boasted tremendous combat power despite being a search-type, he couldn't even imagine what the power of Shambhala, which was outright named combat-type, would be like.
In Eden's case, being restoration-type was a bit ambiguous, but since it was the terminal from the generation right before Adi, it would definitely have remarkable functions.
-However, you must be really careful when going to find Utopia.
Rudian immediately understood Adi's words and nodded heavily.
"...I suppose so."
If Utopia had the function to solve the backlash of causality as Adi suggested, then all the gods of heaven would definitely go crazy trying to steal it.
Even Baal, who provided that information, would probably seriously consider backstabbing if he knew what Utopia's function was.
"Then that means I should only take one or two people I can trust..."
Currently, Rudian's companions were all spending busy days.
Except for Rebecca, they were all equivalent to senior executives of their families, so they had no choice but to move even more busily during times like this.
'In the end, is Rebecca the only force I can extract right now?'
Rudian sighed slightly and slowly left his office.
Even if Rebecca wasn't diverse in abilities, her combat power had now definitely risen to a level that could be called top-tier.
Well, since the power of the Red World was flowing through her veins, it was natural in a way.
'But... what kind of situation is this?'
Recently, he had been so focused on physical recovery that he hadn't had long conversations with Rebecca, but he had been receiving reports about Rebecca's situation through head butler Jester.
He had heard that she was completely regarded as the lady of the Belstad mansion and was commanding the servants...
"Even though I put in some restraint, I can't let my guard down. She doesn't seem to have realized her own feelings yet, so at a time like this, definitively..."
"Yeah, yeah!"
"If he's physically weakened rapidly, he'll inevitably be mentally cornered too. Especially now when all the competitors are busy, it's a perfect opportunity."
"......"
"Fragility that evokes protective instincts is good, but at times like this, you need to show strength that can be relied upon..."
"...What are you all doing right now?"
"Kyaaaaaaak!"
Like little children playing house, they were all crouched in a corner whispering about something, and the sight was very bizarre.
"Oh, have you arrived, Master?"
"It's not like you're plotting some conspiracy... If you fill Rebecca's head with strange knowledge, I'll kick you out immediately."
Now the level difference between them and Rebecca was too great for them to do anything to her.
However, their danger had never been in combat power from the beginning...
"No, no, Rudian! I just had something to ask, so I was seeking advice!"
"...Really?"
Then why were you receiving that advice while crouched down?
"It's very, very helpful! So you don't need to worry too much. Hehehe...!"
Rudian glared at the succubi with suspicious eyes, but they smiled brightly as if they truly had nothing to hide, meeting Rudian's gaze.
'...That means they're telling the truth.'
Since their souls were subordinated, Rudian could immediately detect the succubi's lies.
"Fine. Let's say that's the case for now..."
Rudian's gaze turned to Rebecca.
"Rebecca, would you like to go on a short trip with me?"
"A, a trip?"
"Yeah. It'll probably take about 2-3 days, and it seems like everyone else is too busy to take along."
At those words, Rebecca's eyes began to shake mercilessly.
"You, you don't mean... just the two of us?"
"Yeah, just us two."
The moment those words ended, the succubi jumped up and uniformly straightened their postures before bowing.
"Have a safe trip!"
"......"
"When you come back, please bring a cute little one with you... no, bring back a cute little child."
"...How far are you going?"
Rather than sexual innuendo, it was more like the look of grandmothers hoping for great-grandchildren.
...You are succubi, right?
While Rudian was giving them such coldly disappointed looks, Rebecca fidgeted with her fingers and asked.
"If, if it's a trip, where to...?"
Since Rebecca seemed to have excessive expectations, Rudian decided to shatter her fantasy.
"The Eastern Pirate Kingdom. More precisely, the ancient aquatic city of Lucretia that's sunken beneath their territory."
The Pirate Kingdom was the place where Marbas had once conducted a subjugation.
The reason Baal knew the terminal's location was most likely related to Marbas.
'It's definitely going to be a perilous journey...'
Rebecca still showed no signs of waking up from her dream.
"Just, just the two of us by the seaside!"
"...We're not going to play around."
"Of, of course I know! Yeah, yeah!"
Rudian sighed quietly.
Since it was a place where Adi's terminal was sealed, there was no telling what dangers might lurk there.
But with Rebecca, who should be handling combat, in this state, Rudian seriously considered whether he should change his companion to Elvin, who might have more leeway.
"Of course! We have to smash all the enemies blocking our way! Right, sister?"
"No matter what perilous obstacles there are, please protect the Master!"
"Ah, I understand."
The succubi, who had ghostly intuition about Rudian's thoughts, gave Rebecca hints while raising their voices.
'...Everything's fine, but why do I feel like there's another meaning to those words?'
Could he safely retrieve Utopia within ten days?
Rudian sighed with vague anxiety.