Chapter 103
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 103
He recalled reading about it once in a book on the 36 Masterpieces of old.
The weapon’s design was based on the guillotine—a blade that hangs high in the sky, seeming small at first, only to grow larger and larger as it falls.
—Its size could be adjusted at will. The wire attached to Guillotine's Tooth also seemed capable of stretching freely for dozens of meters.
'It's pointless.'
Realizing the battlefield he had constructed with his two high-level spirits was useless, Gwyn canceled his command. The earth stopped rumbling, and the wind died.
Standing there was the Blade Maid—Rene Rellow. She had a few scratches from the tearing wind, but that was all.
Just then, the monster smiled, having retrieved her blade. As if showing him some consideration, she spoke while reeling it back in.
"Rene's assigned mission was to destroy this device and deal with the suspicious humans, you see."
Pretending to listen, Gwyn wracked his brain. He had no confidence he could dodge a blade that could stretch for tens of meters.
He had to make a cold, rational judgment. What was the countermeasure?
There was none.
And there was no way to survive, either.
"I was bored, human."
The next voice that spoke was as cold as if it belonged to an entirely different person.
*
Phase. 6
The streets of Knecht.
In one corner of the city, the battle was drawing to a close.
The homunculi, which had been wreaking havoc everywhere with their swift movements, were all dead.
Only after hastily constructing a temporary camp did the survivors begin to count their numbers.
Among them was Birkus, a swordsman from the Diana Silver Deer Subjugation Squad.
Inaccurate tallies were passed around as loud cries, a mixture of sobbing and screaming, echoed from all directions.
Many had died. Truly, so many.
Most of the deceased were powerless citizens and members of the most mediocre C-rank subjugation squads.
Their corpses were still scattered everywhere, not yet properly recovered.
"Ugh, blegh..."
Birkus retched repeatedly in a corner. The priestess beside him held him steady, her eyes filled with worry.
The moment his tension eased, the drunkenness he had forgotten in the chaos rushed back, and his stomach churned violently.
"Ugh… damn it… what is this…"
His stomach burned. The acid he kept throwing up felt like it was scorching his esophagus. Even though he had vomited all the alcohol, his head was still spinning.
Just as he finally managed to calm down, a piece of tragic news stirred his stomach once again.
"They say all the A-rank subjugation squad members who went out earlier, including the Ursus Red Snake Subjugation Squad, have gone missing."
Furthermore, word spread that the person sent to check on them was also dead. Despair washed over everyone's faces.
"Missing" was just a euphemism. It meant they had died so horribly that not even their bodies could be found. Worse, clear traces of a fierce battle remained at the scene as proof.
"What the hell is happening all of a sudden?! What is this?!"
No matter how suddenly death came, this was too much. It was supposed to be a good day. It was the day of the festival.
But he wasn't even given time to complain.
The sudden raid had cut off communication with other areas, so the subjugation squad members who were still in relatively good shape had to clear out the remaining enemies and assess the state of the city.
With only three casualties, the Diana Silver Deer Subjugation Squad was the most intact force in the hastily established camp. They had no choice but to act.
As the members of the Diana Silver Deer Subjugation Squad drew their weapons and cast their buffs, Birkus gripped his own sword with trembling hands.
"Birkus, you're in no condition to fight! What are you going to do if you fight like this? Don't push yourself, just stay here and…"
"I'm going."
Despite the priestess's heartfelt concern, Birkus was stubborn.
As the priestess's voice grew louder in her attempt to stop him, their captain approached to resolve the situation. He stared at Birkus with sharp eyes, and their gazes locked.
After a moment of silence, the captain turned away.
"Everyone, we move out now."
What filled Birkus’s eyes was not resolve or fighting spirit, but the raw terror of a coward. His pupils were completely painted with fear.
Birkus simply wanted to live. Even amidst the chaos, he judged that following his squad gave him a higher chance of survival.
It was a highly rational decision.
"There is a high probability that other subjugation squads have set up camps near the Magic Tower and the Subjugation Agency. We will prioritize securing the path to those two locations."
Just as the captain of the Diana Silver Deer Subjugation Squad finished speaking to the survivors and began a final check of his members' conditions, a deep rumbling began.
Thud. Thud.
The ground trembled. The vibrations grew louder.
At first, everyone trembled in fear. But as the sound drew closer, cheers began to erupt from behind them.
When Birkus turned his lifeless eyes toward the source, he saw a massive figure approaching.
It was a Golem, the entity the residents of Knecht called their "guardian deity," which protected the city.
"The guardian deity! The guardian deity has come!"
"He has finally come to save us!"
Everyone's withered fighting spirit surged. To a man, they let out sighs of relief.
And why wouldn't they?
The deity protecting their city had descended in person. They could only interpret it as the guardian appearing to save the city in its time of crisis.
"..."
Only Birkus, the moment he saw the Golem, tightly grabbed the priestess's hand.
"Huh? Birkus, why are you suddenly holding my…"
Without even looking at the slightly flushing priestess, Birkus broke from the front line and bolted.
"What is it? Why are you acting like this all of a sudden, Birkus? Birkus!"
Even in her confusion, the priestess did not let go. Dragged along by Birkus, she ran with him. Only after they had put a considerable distance between themselves and the entity did she look back at the Golem.
And then,
"Ah… th-that…"
Only after seeing the Golem from afar did the priestess also begin to tremble violently, running for her life.
In the frenzied atmosphere, there was a fact that most had failed to notice.
—The Guardian Golem's massive stone fists were covered in blood and debris.
The debris was human flesh.
Appearing on the street to the enthusiastic welcome of the survivors, the Golem raised its arms high, as if to repay their passionate support.
The shadow of the massive stone fist swallowed the people below.
It came crashing down.
With a sickening splat, it was only after the Golem declared with its actions that it was no ally that everyone finally understood the situation.
*
"Well, that's what happened."
[Be honest, Boss. You didn't just make all this up because you made a mess and couldn't clean it up, did you?]
"Are you seriously doubting your own boss now?"
[...Just kidding. I think I get the gist of the situation. We'll need to look into the details, but for now, it's a given that the Empire is involved.]
"Does it really point to that?"
[The Imperial Alchemy Society is the only place capable of creating anything that could be called a homunculus. Besides, Boss, didn't you say earlier that 'Marmolia, who was perfectly fine just a few days ago, suddenly appeared as a homunculus'?]
"Yeah, I did."
[That means there was contact with humans during those few days. But no matter how much that Demon King hated Miss Melju, she would never have begged humans for help.]
"True. Demon Kings are inherently a race that loathes humans."
[They are a race with absolutely no history of begging humans for their lives, even at the moment of death. Marmolia must have intended to use the humans at first.]
"...And in the process, a conflict arose, she was defeated, and ended up as a homunculus. Is that it?"
[You need to focus on the humans here, Boss.]
"The humans?"
[Normally, if humans subdued a Demon King, they would behead them and either send the head to the other Demon Kings' forces or hang it in a grand plaza. The effect of either lowering the enemy's morale or boosting their own is clear. Yet, they gave up such an effective method and chose to make a homunculus instead.]
"..."
[They must be up to something.]
"There certainly are a lot of suspicious things… Ah, now that I think about it, when I went to Riaze a few months ago, I saw a flying homunculus there too."
[Are you referring to the Heavenly Wings of the Sky Carriage?]
"Yeah, those. But those were obviously crudely made."
[...]
"Compared to that, this homunculus seemed to be of a pretty high level."
[If they're using a Demon King as a test subject, they must have made a massive leap forward… Boss, do you remember when we recruited Miss Rene? Didn't you destroy everything related to homunculus research? All the humans involved, and all the knowledge.]
"I did."
[But even after that, the Empire wouldn't have given up on alchemy research. They probably restarted it from a virtually blank slate. The newly made ones would be the 3rd generation, the Heavenly Wings.]
"Hmm."
[So we have to assume they've already brought their homunculus manufacturing level up to this point. At this rate, it won't be long before they produce even more advanced ones.]
"Ah, this is starting to sound complicated."
[Just as you said. In a few years, another 'result' like Miss Rene might appear.]
"..."
[...]
"..."
[Shouldn't we look into this as a preventive measure, Boss?]
"Oh, please."
[What kind of attitude is that? You're the one who said it was suspicious, but now you refuse to deal with it?]
"It's a pain."
[I won't ask you to track them down and exterminate them. But shouldn't we at least be prepared for when trouble brews later? You just need to find out what level their research has reached.]
"Easy for you to say. How would I even find out right now? We have neither suspects nor evidence."
[From a human perspective, a Demon King would be a highly valuable specimen. There's no way they would leave such a specimen unattended. No matter why Marmolia appeared in Knecht, there must have been a human faction observing her from somewhere.]
"Are you sure?"
[Yes. The researchers would never fail to monitor their creation. They must have been watching Marmolia from somewhere.]
"...Then they must have seen me too."
[Probably.]
"...But Knecht is huge. How do I find someone when I don't even know where they were watching from?"
[...That's why.]
"Hmm?"
[In any case, the creation made by those humans laid hands on Miss Melju, and there are witnesses who saw you, Boss. We can't just let this slide, can we? Besides, it's not like Knecht is very close to the Primordial Core, nor do we have a close relationship with them.]
"You don't mean..."
[There is such a thing as the crime of insolence, after all. Weren't you the one who taught me not to just take hits, Boss? And think about it carefully. The humans who made the homunculus just dumped their mess on you and ran away. Are you really going to let them off just because it's a pain? Well, considering all the complex factors, it's not particularly helpful to our dungeon, but…]
[If worst comes to worst, why not just flip the whole city upside down?]
"My, my. Sir Patrick has graciously given his permission to smash everything to pieces."
The building was quite tall, and just looking down from the rooftop gave a rough view of the city's situation.
With a sharp, irritable look in his eyes, Swallow gazed down at the ground. It had already been thoroughly devastated by the homunculi.
That actually made things easier. Since the people were all gathered together, it was easy to track their movements.
"Melju."
"I am monitoring everyone trying to escape through the city gates. We have many eyes, so you need not worry about blind spots."
Looking up at the sky, he saw black butterflies created by Melju fluttering in all directions. Swallow watched them as he lightly warmed up his body.
He had lived with a terribly crooked posture for so long that when he stretched, a series of pops echoed through his entire body.
An explosion boomed in the distance. It was coming from near the Teleportation Hub, where he had sent Rene to block the escape routes. Soon, he could feel the mana of spirits spreading out in waves.
Focusing his senses, he realized it wasn't just one, but two. Swallow grinned.
"For a high-and-mighty bastard to be acting up like that over there, there must indeed be a lot of Imperial higher-ups hiding around."
There was no need to worry about Rene. She wasn't in poor condition like last time, nor was she without a weapon.
Unless they summoned a Spirit King, there was no way she would lose. Actually, even if it were a Spirit King, he wasn't too worried as long as its true body didn't manifest directly.
From another direction, the rumbling of the earth continued endlessly. That was where he had unleashed the newly acquired Golem.
If the Golem died, he could just infuse it with mana again. He planned to leave it alone until it collapsed.
"Looks like everyone is doing fine on their own."
The plan was simple. He would start by smashing the major facilities, then destroy everything else one by one until the researchers came out on their own. If they didn't, too bad. He was planning to erase Knecht from the map anyway.
"Now, let's see how long they can hold out."
With one hand, Swallow picked up a boulder the size of a person that he had brought with him.
Wondering what to smash first, the Magic Tower caught his eye.