Chapter 137
Chapter 137
Ch. 137 .｡.:✧ Engine Replacement ✧:.｡.
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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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“What in the world is going on here?”
Rain poured down on Cologne’s square, now scarred with massive craters and collapsed buildings.
Cern set down his toolbox.
He saw a bloodied young man, a weeping person holding him, and a familiar-looking man.
“You arrived just in time.”
“Why did you call me?”
“I told you already.”
“Yes, you said you needed help replacing an engine in a machine…”
Cern glanced at the young man with a hole in his chest, then at the man with the nonchalant expression.
His face paled.
“Don’t tell me…!”
“As expected, you’re quick to catch on. You’re right. It’s urgent, so please hurry.”
“No! No! Where’s the machine?!”
“Aren’t humans a type of machine? Just more complex and delicate.”
Cern was speechless.
He thought he had been called to repair a machine, but instead, he found a young man with a missing heart.
Was a heart a type of engine?
He felt a wave of dizziness.
“Are you really going to do this?”
“Yes. Please, Jill.”
“I don’t think I can hold on for much longer…”
The Saintess, her expression grim, approached and erected a barrier to block the rain.
She began to channel her magical power into the young man.
The golden light coalesced into the form of a winged angel and flowed into his body, healing his wounds and restarting his blood flow.
He was still unconscious, but not quite dead.
Solra, completely bewildered, blinked.
“S-Saintess! What are you doing? Xenon is already dead! Please stop!”
“Not yet. As long as there’s a chance, I can’t give up.”
It was like pouring water into a bottomless pit.
Even if she healed his body with magic, it was only delaying the inevitable.
Unless his heart started working again…
“Don’t tell me…”
Solra finally realized what they were trying to do.
They were venturing into forbidden territory.
“Don’t worry about hygiene or bleeding, leave that to me. Just think of him as already dead, and relax.”
“Even if you say so… Sigh! Oh, well! A body is a type of machine, you said! That’s not entirely wrong!”
Cern rolled up his sleeves and rummaged through his toolbox.
He pulled out several small engines and compared them to the hole in Xenon’s chest.
He selected one, put on the gloves Jill handed him, and began the surgery, or rather, the ‘engine replacement.’
“I… I don’t understand this at all.”
“I’ll guide you. This and this are the arteries, so connect them to maintain the blood flow…”
The collaboration between a Saintess and an engineer began.
Jill continuously channeled her magical power, stopping the bleeding and supplying oxygen to Xenon’s brain and vital organs, preventing further damage.
Cern inserted the engine into Xenon’s chest, replacing his heart.
‘This isn’t my first time combining organic matter with machines. I’ve operated on cyborgs before…’
Clockwork dolls had originated from an attempt to create self-moving dolls by combining cyborg limbs.
Cern had extensive experience attaching magically powered prosthetic limbs to amputees, but this was his first time replacing an internal organ, especially a heart.
It was a world first.
No one had ever attempted, or even dared to imagine, such a thing.
“What about rejection…?”
“We’ll suppress it with magic.”
“You’ll have to maintain that magic 24/7, 365 days a year? He’ll die the moment you make a mistake. How will you sleep?”
Jill was speechless.
She could charge the engine with magic power and periodically recharge it, but suppressing rejection was different.
Who could maintain a spell without rest?
It was impossible, even for simple spells, and rejection suppression was quite complex.
She wished there was a device that could cast spells automatically.
As she gritted her teeth in frustration…
“…A formation.”
Jill and Cern turned around.
A pale-skinned blood ghoul girl stood there.
She crossed her fingers, forming a hand seal, and inscribed a formation onto the engine in Xenon’s chest.
A 0th stage tetrahedron.
It evolved into a 1st stage cube, then Undecided frowned and changed her hand seal.
‘Like the bug did… just copy her movements… it’s easy.’
The cube formation destabilized and began to transform. Everyone held their breath.
Undecided focused all her concentration, and the formation shifted into a diamond shape, an octahedron.
A 2nd stage formation.
A formation that could apply curses.
Undecided had awakened to the realm of advanced curse formations.
“…I did it.”
“Here’s the formula for the rejection suppression spell.”
Jill immediately transferred the formula to Undecided using magical power.
The formula transformed into demonic energy in Undecided’s hand, and she applied it to the formation, suppressing Xenon’s body’s rejection of the engine.
‘Formations and magic are quite similar.’
Yoo-jin nodded.
Despite originating from the same source, mana, curses and magic seemed completely different, yet formations and magic could share formulas without any complicated conversion.
It proved that they shared the same fundamental principles.
“We’ll need demonic energy to activate the formation. If we connect an adapter that converts magical power to demonic energy… Gah! How am I supposed to connect this?! A magical formation made of invisible demonic energy combined with a machine?! This is ridiculous! I’ll have to resort to trial and error!”
“Please hurry. I’m running out of magic power…”
A frantic race against time began.
They had the engine and the formation, but connecting them was no easy task.
“So, if I supply demonic energy, the formation will absorb the surrounding demonic energy… then if I connect it like this… good…!”
After countless attempts, the blood vessels were connected, the adapter was linked to the formation, and the engine was charged with magical power.
Cern gulped and activated the engine.
Rumble!
The engine roared to life, then began to pulse rhythmically, like a beating heart, pumping blood through Xenon’s body.
“We did it…”
“Ugh!”
Cern stumbled back, and Jill intensified her magic, closing the hole in Xenon’s chest.
She reconnected the broken ribs, covering the engine, and new flesh and muscle grew over it.
Xenon’s chest was seamlessly healed, as if it had never been injured.
Solra gasped and burst into tears.
“Ah…!”
Jill, having pushed her magical power beyond her limits, collapsed, blood trickling from her nose.
Thud.
A familiar hand caught her.
The barrier dissipated, and the rain poured down again, but Jill closed her eyes, feeling warmer than ever.
“Sleep well. You did well.”
“Mm…”
They had saved a life.
There was a sense of accomplishment, but Jill cherished those words even more.
She wasn’t hated by Yoo-jin.
She had that assurance. She could finally relax and lose consciousness.
“Xenon! Xenon! Wake up!”
Solra pressed his ear against Xenon’s chest and shouted.
The engine, or rather, the heart, was beating strongly.
The surgery was a success. But that didn’t mean there wouldn’t be any complications.
Xenon might never wake up.
There was no way to know what went wrong, or how to fix it.
All he could do was pray. Pray that Xenon would open his eyes.
“Solra…?”
Finally, a raspy voice escaped Xenon’s lips.
He sounded weak, but he was breathing on his own, his eyes shining with life.
He looked around, bewildered, as if he couldn’t believe he was alive.
Solra stopped crying, chuckled in relief, and embraced his brother tightly.
“Thank goodness! Thank goodness!”
Solra sobbed, and the rain stopped.
The dark clouds parted, and sunlight streamed down on them.
Xenon was alive.
It was over.
Soon, the Holy Knight reinforcements arrived and began to assess the situation.
“Is this him? The one who attacked Cardinal Nicholas? Arrest him.”
“No! He’s innocent!”
“Vice-Captain Solra, you’re under investigation too, you know? Ignore him and take this man away.”
“I’d like to add something. He’s innocent. Cardinal Nicholas was already dead. His body was controlled by an evil spirit. You should be respectfully requesting his cooperation as a witness, not arresting him.”
“Even the Acting Mayor…”
Solra’s defense was useless, but thanks to Cornelia’s intervention, I was freed from my restraints.
The situation was so chaotic and confusing that I decided to cooperate with the Holy Knights and help them piece together the events.
It would be difficult for them to believe that Necromancer Luna had possessed the cardinal’s body and resurrected a spider monster in the rainwater tunnel using over five hundred corpses as sacrifices, without any evidence.
I decided not to mention Solra’s involvement.
If they found out he had collaborated with the enemy, he would be imprisoned for treason.
It would be a waste to lock up such a powerful warrior.
Of course, if his guilt overwhelmed him and he confessed everything, there was nothing I could do.
Once the facts were established – that I had protected the Saintess, destroyed Luna’s puppets, and saved Xenon – the Holy Knights’ attitude changed drastically.
I was promoted from a person of interest to something resembling an investigative consultant.
They came to me with every question and strange discovery, bowing and scraping.
“Thank you again… what was your name again?”
“Michael Jackson.”
“Mr. Ickle Jackson.”
“It’s all one name.”
“Ah, Mr. Michael Jackson. We found a survivor in the rainwater tunnel.”
“A survivor?”
This was unexpected.
A survivor?
There was nothing alive in the rainwater tunnel. I had dismembered every last corpse.
Puzzled, I followed them.
“This is her.”
A naked girl, wrapped in a blanket, was sipping hot cocoa.
Long black hair that almost reached her buttocks, and golden eyes.
I frowned.
This girl…
“Hey, are you Kali?”
“Hmm?”
She looked exactly like Kali.
More precisely, like the female torso attached to Kali’s spider body.
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