Descended from the Sky (1)
Descended from the Sky (1)
- Clank... clank...
As I stood there dazed, fresh out of the Tower.
A heavy, metallic resonance began to echo in my ears.
It was the Golems installed throughout the Floating Island.
'Mm...'
I tracked their numbers with Observation and rubbed at my furrowed brow.
The Authority of Knowledge.
Ever since receiving it, the sensation in my head had felt distinctly off.
It wasn't exactly uncomfortable; it was more like my previously jumbled memories had been sorted, crisp and tidy. In its own way, that was convenient.
But it was still an awkward sensation. It would probably take a bit of time to adapt.
If I intended to wield it proactively... that adaptation period would only grow longer.
Of course, it was a hundred, a thousand times better than when I received the Authorities of Space and Observation.
Back then, I'd undone all the restrictions the Tower Masters had placed on me in an instant and unleashed them at maximum output. Nearly had my head explode and died...
'Hoo...'
I shook my head briskly.
The Golems had already closed in.
They had formed up, encircled me, and raised their armaments in a full alert posture.
Ordinarily, those Golems were supposed to escort me as an honored guest, but—
I had left them primed for combat because there was something else I needed to test right now.
From Lady Ariel, I had received the Golems' blueprints, operational protocols, and overarching command authority.
Immediately, one Golem rattled forward from the line.
'That Golem, huh.'
The one with the thickly reinforced gauntlet-like armor over its arm.
The same unit that had thrown the first punch at me.
Judging by how it always took the vanguard behind its shield, that one seemed to function as a meat shield.
[Engaging alert posture... Enemy, subjugation command.]
After a brief, stuttering pause, the Golem righted its stance in response to the command I had issued.
Within its helm, a fierce blue gleam blazed to life.
Wooong... The sensation of magic activating prickled across my skin.
[Executing subjugation command.]
Boom! The ground burst apart under its weight.
The Golem surged toward me, hurling its massive frame into the charge.
I felt the very air shudder and part before it. I released my staff—Purification—letting it hover midair for a moment, and reached out with my hand.
A charging Golem thrusting its fist, and me reaching out with my hand.
The same stance as when I first arrived on the Floating Island.
Back then, had my limit been to just parting the fist slightly and deflecting the arm back?
I drew up my mana.
Constructed the spell formula and poured mana into it, packing the structure full.
The process was identical to before, but now it came so much easier, so much swifter.
- Screeee...
'Mana Strike.'
- Slice!
And the result was different too.
The strike blade overlapped with the incoming fist.
The fist split left and right. Without stopping, the strike carved through the wrist, the forearm, the upper arm in quick succession.
Thud! Half an arm dropped helplessly to the ground, cleaved like tofu beneath a blade.
- Skreee...
Unable to overcome the shock, the Golem's charge ground to a halt.
It had stopped at a perfect distance.
I arrayed the mana I still had drawn up.
'Mana Strike.'
- Kwa-ga-ga-ga-gak!
Dozens of strikes rained down on the stopped Golem from all directions.
With each slash, chunks of its body were carved away clean.
The fired strikes didn't end there. They arced back like boomerangs and impaled the Golem anew.
In moments, a lump of iron reduced to hundreds of fragments tumbled across the floor—as though it had been fed into a blender.
[Executing subjugation command.]
[Executing subjugation command.]
[Executing subjugation command.]
At that sight, the other Golems that had been holding their perimeter launched their own offensive.
The foremost Golems charged with shields raised high, while the Golems behind them fell in line, gripping their weapons tight.
'Manifest.'
Earth Magic.
Within that, metal-manipulation-type.
Grind... The Golem wreckage twisted, compressed evenly, and was woven into sharp spikes.
Since the Golem was already enormous, each spike was sizable, and there were dozens of them.
'White Scale.'
Fire Magic.
Fwoosh! Pale yellow flames wrapped around the spikes.
I manipulated the flames meticulously, pushing the fire inward to heat the spikes from within.
The blaze subsided, and the spikes took on a bright, glowing yellow.
'Manipulation, Wind-Pressure Explosion.'
Wind Magic.
I wound currents around the spikes and rotated them at high speed.
At the tail end of each spike, I compressed air and wind, then detonated them.
Simultaneously, I used Manipulation to launch the spikes.
Within a single instant spanning countless processes, dozens of lightning-like streaks were drawn through the air.
One of those streaks embedded itself in the leading shield-Golem.
Boom! The shield was obliterated.
The first impact point was punched clean through; then cracks spidered across the shield, and it shattered to pieces.
The spike lodged itself in the Golem's waist.
Boom! A delayed explosion erupted.
The Golem's body split around the point of impact—its waist. The lower half tumbled along the ground; the upper half sailed into the sky.
- Kwa-ga-ga-ga-gak!
The same scene played out across most of the Golems.
Trajectories calculated perfectly by the Authority of Observation.
Not a single one missed its mark. Every Golem that had kicked off the ground to rush me was smashed to pieces and sent rolling across the floor.
'Hmm...'
Wave 1, cleaned up with ease.
I reined in my mana for a moment and checked the situation.
- Clatter!
One of the Golem fragments littering the floor twitched and flinched.
The tricky thing about this Golem legion was that simply smashing them up wasn't the end of it.
The entire Floating Island was practically Lady Ariel's personal spell workshop.
Those scattered fragments were no different from raw materials, and they would soon clump together to form entirely new Golems.
- Screech...
The fragment flinched. It trembled and then skittered and rolled across the floor with a clatter.
That was all. Many fragments were twitching the same way, but they couldn't quite merge together and reassemble into a new Golem.
'It worked.'
Having confirmed that state of the battlefield, I gave a small, satisfied nod.
Spell Break.
A technique for disrupting a spell formula in one way or another to neutralize the magic itself.
Those Golems were ultimately animated by magic. So if I simply erased the inscribed magic, that would be the end of it.
But that was far easier said than done.
I had tried to mix in Spell Break before to neutralize them, and I had failed.
This was magic inscribed personally by Lady Ariel.
Even if she had been taking it easy on me, most amateur attempts at breaking it would just be scoffed at and countered.
And even if it somehow did get broken, that act itself was pretty meaningless.
'Because no matter how many times you erase it, it just gets inscribed again.'
Normally, a spell formula branded onto a surface has a definite lifespan—it's consumable.
Armament-type gear, which takes heavy impacts and is in constant use, is particularly notorious for its short lifespan.
That was one of the limits of a Magic Tool, as opposed to an Artifact.
Pound on one of those Golems for long enough, and its formula should eventually degrade on its own, turning it into a lump of scrap iron.
But these Golems were different.
Technically, they were Magic Tools, yet their functional lifespan wasn't defined.
Because their formulas were being inscribed in real-time.
Even if the formula got damaged, the 'spell workshop' interwoven with the floor would immediately restore it.
And since the floor itself was made of the same material, if a body part was heavily damaged, it could just be resupplied on the spot.
Owing to all that, disabling a Golem on this Floating Island was plagued with a multitude of difficulties.
'Success.'
So I'd used a bit of a trick.
With my improved magical skill, I damaged a significant portion of its formula, and before restoration could kick in, I injected my own mana into it.
I forcibly shoved aside the mana trying to repair the formula, dyed it in my colors, and seized dominion over it.
In short, I stole the ownership rights.
The plan had worked.
That thing was now nothing more than a chunk of iron saturated with my mana.
And because my mana's purity and density were exceptionally high, it would stick around for quite a while without any extra mana added.
- Boom! Boom! Boom!
Through both my ears and the Authority of Observation, I sensed more Golems rushing toward me in a mass.
Still, with the sheer numbers they had, this might as well be like trying to block a tidal wave with my body...
'Hmm...'
I tapped the floor repeatedly with my toe.
Wooong... The manifested magic spread out in all directions.
Soon the wreckage of the Golems rose into the air in a flurry, and just like before, I wove all of it into spikes and set them hovering in the void.
The sky was filled with enormous spikes, dozens of times more numerous than before.
It was a thoroughly menacing sight, but the Golems—utterly devoid of any concept of fear—kept advancing without a care.
'This is... how I use it, I think.'
I grasped Purification, which was still floating right beside me.
How to wield it.
I had heard the explanation from Lady Ariel, and the moment I held the Artifact... much like the moment I first held the Proof of Protection, the knowledge of how to use it had naturally branded itself into my mind.
Wearing a strange expression, I stroked its cool, sleek shaft, then gave a nearby spike a light poke with the crystal orb.
At once, the floating spike was sucked cleanly into the crystal orb with a shloop.
'Oh.'
I let out a small exclamation of wonder and channeled my pure-white mana into Purification.
- Woom!? Woom, wooong...!
Simultaneously, the staff emitted a series of resonant thrums.
In the moment that the rather violent reaction had me worrying that I'd messed something up—
- Bzzzzt!
'Oho.'
—a blade suddenly jutted out from the crystal orb, as if to put all my worries to rest.
A quick Observation of its material confirmed that it matched the spike that had been absorbed moments before.
At the same time, two streams of light shot out from the upper portion of the rod near the crystal orb.
They extended to encase the crystal orb on its left and right, shaped almost like ribs wrapping around a heart.
Thanks to the blade now protruding from the crystal orb, the staff had transformed into something resembling a spear.
Though with the blade simply stuck to the orb, the silhouette admittedly looked a little ridiculous.
From outward appearances alone, it seemed like if you tried to use it as a spear and struck something, the crystal orb would just shatter into pieces.
But this was a top-grade Artifact—I knew full well that would never happen.
With that in mind, I swung Purification toward the Fire Magic spell that had just been hurled at me.
Slice! The oncoming flames split cleanly around the blade.
Immediately after, the two streams of separated fire were shloooop absorbed right through the blade and into the crystal orb.
'Wow!'
My eyes lit up.
I had Observed the absorption process in meticulous detail.
In the instant the blade and the crystal orb had cut through the magic, they had absorbed not just the mana composing the spell but the spell formula itself—wholesale.
I Observed that the absorbed material was being stored within the crystal orb.
'If I pull out what's stored here...'
- Fwoosh!
Fire wreathed the blade.
It was a portion of the magic absorbed just moments ago.
I dodged the warhammer swung by a now-charging Golem, stepped boldly into its guard, and plunged Purification deep into its torso.
The spear-tip ripped straight through the armor and bit solidly into its body.
Immediately after, discharge.
- Kwa-roo-roor!
A fierce torrent of flame erupted from the blade's tip.
Fire burst out from the seams in the armor.
Kwa-du-du-du-deuk! Then the blade itself exploded, mercilessly churning up the insides.
- Kwa-aang!
The Golem's melting body collapsed feebly in a final blast.
'Oh-ho.'
I leaped back to open the distance, once again murmuring in admiration as I gave the now-blade-less Purification a few test swings through the air.
Absorption and Discharge.
Store what is absorbed within the crystal orb, then either shape a blade out of it or discharge it raw.
In a sense, it was a simple function. But an Artifact capable of such a "simple" thing was rare indeed.
And from what I could tell through a rough Observation, the capacity of this crystal orb was monstrously large.
I could stockpile magic or special materials in bulk, then rapidly extract them whenever I needed.
In a pinch, I could just swing it around like this and swallow an enemy's attack, then spit it right back.
Of course, exactly how much I could absorb and discharge would depend on my own skill... but I was confident I could handle it proficiently.
'A truly fine Artifact.'
There were several other functions besides this one.
But even setting those aside, this Absorption and Discharge alone was more than enough to warrant its top-grade status.
As expected of an Artifact that Lady Ariel had once used herself.
Still brimming with admiration, I gave Purification a gentle stroke with my left hand.
- Wooong...!
- Wooong...
At that, Purification, which had just been stroked, and the Proof of Protection, which had just done the stroking, both emitted resonant hums as if in resonance with one another.
'...?'
Sensing those reverberations, I tilted my head.
One sounded almost like it was showing off.
The other sounded almost... satisfied.
'...Am I imagining that?'
Utterly clueless as to the meaning, I put on a slightly perplexed expression.
* * *
"Really... such a clear sky."
Ellia, having just finished a lecture and stepped outside, suddenly tilted her head back to look up.
Just a few tiny clouds drifted lazily by, while an otherwise wide-open, unbroken sky filled her view.
"Ahh..."
Gazing up at the refreshing sky—the kind that seemed to make your heart feel wide open—Ellia let out an uncharacteristically deep sigh.
"I wonder if Ha-yul might fall from the sky..."
"If a person falls from the sky, they usually die, Ellia."
"Ha-yul has magic and spirits and Artifacts, so he'd be fine."
"Ohh... Yeah, with that lineup, he'd definitely survive."
"Right?"
At the retort from the female cadet walking along beside her, Ellia giggled, then looked back up at the sky once more.
She realized that lately she'd taken to glancing skyward far more often than usual.