Chapter 241: The God Who Descended on a Gear
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 241: The God Who Descended on a Gear
I could see water flowing beneath the severed road. It was an aqueduct that supplied water to various parts of the Inner Circle.
It wasn't particularly wide, but regardless, the automaton carriage couldn't make the jump. Amidst the sudden chaos, the Regressor shouted.
"The road's split! What's going on? I didn't sense anything strange...!"
"Leader! Your orders!"
"Only in times like these do you call me leader...! Tch, hold on!"
The Regressor spun Jizan in her hand and slammed it into the floor of the automaton carriage. The vehicle lurched violently as Jizan pierced through its underbelly and struck the ground. A harsh, scraping sound echoed as the sword dragged against the earth.
With this unintended, extra brake, the automaton carriage lost its mind. I gripped the wildly shaking steering wheel and yelled.
"Aaaah! You're going to wreck the car!"
"This is an emergency! Don't talk to me!"
With Jizan still embedded in the ground, the Regressor stirred it in a small motion. A small, round circle bloomed from the tip of her sword. The ground rippled. As the heaviest sword in the world undulated gently, the earth swayed along with it.
I stomped on the pedal and shouted even louder.
"Everyone, hold on! We're gonna fall!"
"We're not falling! We're rising!" the Regressor shrieked back, then instantly released the earth she had been pulling.
Terra Firma Arts, Ground Surge.
I glanced back and saw that the road we had just passed over was warped into a bizarre shape. It looked like a plush blanket that had been bunched up by a long pole. In any case, the crumpled earth, centered on the Regressor's Jizan, was lifted all at once at her command.
In that moment, the front of the automaton carriage—the passenger and driver's seats, which had seemed destined to be together forever—suffered a permanent separation. The Regressor's Jizan had torn right through the middle.
But I couldn't complain. Thanks to her swing, a temporary bridge had risen over the broken road.
"Floor it...! Huh? You're already flooring it?"
You should have told me to step on it sooner! If I couldn't read your mind, I'd be struggling to slam on the brakes right now! How about you feel a little fear, too!
"Oops! This was the gas pedal, wasn't it?"
"What have you been doing this whole time besides driving?!"
"Accelerating! Anyway, that aside! Azzyyyyyyy!"
"Roooooff!"
Grroooaaan. The automaton carriage screamed as it reached its limit. It prepared to leap, testing its own boundaries as it hurtled toward the hastily made ramp.
The good news was that because the Regressor had split the front, the wheels were slightly lifted.
The bad news was that because the Regressor had split it, the vehicle's speed had decreased.
Thwump. The automaton carriage experienced a moment of levitation it would never feel again. For an instant, it was as if gravity had vanished. The world seemed to slow to an agonizing crawl.
The automaton carriage, built on the premise of a systematic and sturdy road network, crumbled pathetically once that premise was shattered, just like any other logic.
It had approached with terrifying momentum, but at the apex of its jump, it was hopelessly slow. It was sure to plummet into the aqueduct before reaching the other side.
Just before the Regressor was forced to use another power at a great cost, I desperately called for a different source of propulsion.
"Azzy!! Push! It's a dogsled!!"
"Woof woof woof!"
Answering my call, Azzy kicked off the ground and leaped into the air. Then, with a loud thwack, she kicked the vehicle's cargo bed with all her might.
Powered by a charging dog, the automaton carriage achieved a dramatic burst of acceleration. With a crack, the truck shot forward horizontally by about a meter. My neck and back jolted like a poorly made doll.
But... we had definitely cleared the aqueduct! I turned only my head to look back at Azzy, who had accomplished this feat.
"Woof?"
Having used all her strength to push the carriage, Azzy was left flailing in mid-air, with nowhere to land. Our eyes met as she began to fall. The sight of her paddling her unreachable limbs was quite pitiful.
"Farewell, my stepping stone..."
"Rooooooofff!"
Azzy plunged straight into the aqueduct. Well, she'd probably pop back out soon enough.
Right now, we were the bigger problem.
"Brace for impact!"
I shouted and hid myself in the shadows beneath the driver's seat.
Dodging into a tight space right before a crash is a stupid move. Unless, of course, there's a vampire nearby who can control the darkness.
As I pushed myself into the sunless shade, a soft darkness enveloped my body.
That wasn't just a figure of speech. This darkness was, quite literally, 'soft'.
Crash.
The vehicle jolted with the feeling of landing. But aside from a slight dizziness, there was none of the expected impact.
The darkness that gently wrapped around me whispered in my ear.
[What a brutish method. Hmph, did you truly have to land like this?]
"A long fight is expected. This is better than you using your darkness in broad daylight. Is the cargo bed okay?"
[Worry not. The darkness is my domain. They haven't been harmed in the slightest.]
It seemed Nabi and Shiati in the back were fine. I nodded and sat back up.
[But what happened? Did the road suddenly break?]
"It wasn't so much broken as it was cut."
[By whom?]
I didn't need to answer. The Regressor did it for me.
"Warforger!!"
About 2.4 kilometers away from here, in a space where even my mind-reading felt faint, someone wearing a monocle was watching us. I couldn't see him clearly, but the Regressor's Seven Colored Eyes saw him perfectly.
The creator of all weapons, the designer of all arms. The Monster of Logic. The Creator.
The alchemist closest to the Philosopher's Stone. The King of Gears.
Warforger, Maximilien.
He, who looked like an innocent child, twisted his lips into a smile and spoke silently to the Regressor who was watching him.
'Level 1, pass.'
The Regressor was enraged by his testing smile. She stepped onto the automaton carriage and shouted.
"That bastard...! He set a trap!"
"A trap? You mean he cut the bridge in advance?"
"No! That guy...! From that distance, he saw us and then cut it!"
The answer to how he could cut a bridge here from so far away came immediately.
"With the gears he installed in the ground here!"
Clack. Clack.
Perhaps it was because perception influences sensation. The moment the Regressor said it, the sound of interlocking metal seemed to ring in my ears. No, it was ringing.
It was just that the sound was so pervasive, filling the air from every direction... like the rustling of tens of millions of ants, that it hadn't been distinct until now.
We had, at some point, arrived on land made of gears.
The Military State was a weak nation founded through a civil war. To save this fledgling country, the hero of the Military State who led the coup, the supreme general Warlord Valiorant, gathered talented individuals from all over the world.
Sunderspear and the Mage Marshal had been key figures since the kingdom era, and the Gunmaster was a pure product of the Military State. Those three of the Six Generals were, in any case, homegrown talent.
In contrast, the other three of the Six Generals were outsiders from other nations.
Warforger, Maximilien.
Camarilla, Zigrund.
The Envoy, Eimeder.
They were the Six Generals shrouded in mystery, their identities, reasons for coming, and even their powers largely unknown.
However, after 25 years in the Military State, it was impossible for rumors not to spread. Based on their actions, one could roughly guess their abilities.
Warforger Maximilien was the director of the Military State's Bureau of Arms Development.
A master of Standard Magic, a Qi Practitioner who had realized the Axiom, and an alchemist who had reached the pinnacle of his craft.
Because the weapons and equipment he created were common in the market, every citizen of the Military State had likely seen his name on a tool they used at least once, marveling at its complexity.
The maker of all things. His ability was...
"Gears! As long as a gear doesn't break, he can make it turn! No matter what!!"
"What do you mean, 'no matter what'?!"
"It's literal! No matter how big the thing on the other side of that gear is, it will mesh and turn! As long as the teeth don't break!"
Imagine a small, palm-sized gear. By meshing a few of them together, then progressively adding larger and larger gears, one could create a massive change, like moving a giant's arm, just by turning the initial small gear...
That story is only valid under the childish assumption that there is no friction and that the gears are light and strong.
But there was a being who could make that childish assumption about half-true.
Warforger Maximilien could turn a gear right up to its breaking point. Therefore, the stronger the gear—the higher its alchemical grade—the more force it could generate.
And the Warforger was the Military State's greatest alchemist. When limited to the field of gears, he might have been the best in the world.
A simple, one-dimensional power. The ability to turn a round, toothed, steel wheel. It was such an ambiguous ability that one might question if it could even be called an Axiom.
But when supported by his talent as an alchemist and his understanding as a grand designer...
'If it were a combat-related ability, I might know... but he solves everything with gears, so I have no idea what form it will take in this timeline!'
He could create anything with gears.
Screeeech. A dissonance, like something being forcefully pulled, echoed from the metallic shriek of the precisely designed gears.
The Regressor sensed it. At the same time, I felt a sense of foreboding and moved the steering wheel.
"Watch out!"
But it was too late. The moment I tried to comprehend it, the change that began with his gear passed through dozens of other gears and steel rods, culminating in something erupting from beneath the road. I swerved sharply, but the controls were sluggish from the damage the Regressor had caused earlier.
No, what good would my reaction do? The automaton carriage couldn't respond.
Craaack.
The front wheel was completely crushed by an instant barricade that shot up from below. In human terms, it was a perfect uppercut. The automaton carriage, having taken a direct hit, shuddered violently.
The only silver lining was that the force was lessened because the Regressor had already split it in half. A rag, when pulled, will only tear further; its whole body won't be yanked along.
Phew, that was a relief...
"It's too early to be relieved, Huey."
I glanced to my side where the voice had come from. Unlike me, who was on the verge of death, Historia and the Princess calmly rode past us on Selphy.
Historia and the Princess, on their white horse, hadn't had as much trouble as we had. The aqueduct was too narrow to be called a river. Upon reaching the edge, Selphy had simply hopped over it and trotted to catch up with us.
A horse, unlike an automaton carriage, can jump!
"Horses have it so good! The automaton carriage I'm struggling to drive is literally on a path of thorns, but the horse is just cruising along!"
With both arms tied, Historia looked like she could slip off at any moment, but she rode the horse with an exquisite sense of balance. I guess this was nothing for a martial artist who had reached her level.
Despite being on a wildly bucking horse, Historia seemed more worried about me.
"...I told you, Huey. The dark side of the Military State will be even murkier, and more powerful, than this."
"I'm feeling it right now!"
"Warforger... Director Maximilien's hobby and specialty is fitting things together with gears. Within his domain, even Uncle Patraxion would have a hard time predicting the outcome of a fight. Not that he's an easy opponent outside of it, either."
"Hey! Stop stating the obvious and give me a solution!"
'It's fine. It should still be fine. The position of a Six General isn't earned for nothing. At this level... there's still room for negotiation.'
What's this about negotiating by yourself? You should be aware of your own situation first, trailing along with both arms tied up. If you want to negotiate, do it with us first, not the Military State!
"If you need me to mediate."
"If you don't tell me right now, I'll spread a rumor all over town that the mysterious perverted female master who fights with her arms tied up when we leave this country is actually you."
My stern warning shut Historia's mouth. That alone wasn't quite enough to provoke her, but fortunately, I had an ally nearby.
"What? A p-pervert? Hey! Take that back! The Gunmaster isn't a pervert! She fought for us!"
"Fighting using only your legs with both arms tied up is a sufficiently perverted and bizarre act."
"Bizarre? It was so cool! Her upright posture, her long, flexible legs! Her amazing sense of balance! If you knew anything about martial arts, you would have been impressed!"
"I don't know much about martial arts, but I am impressed by her nerve. To be so dignified in that state. Is that rope supposed to be a mask?"
"Both of you, stop."
The Princess argued passionately, but it's often the words without malice that cut the deepest. The liquid that seeps deepest into the body is clear, pure water. Historia couldn't take it anymore and declared her surrender.
"...It's simple. The easy way is to get out of the gears' range of influence, and the hard way is to destroy the gears themselves."
"Oh...! Wait, isn't that obvious? Run or break them? That's your advice?"
"Even Director Maximilien can't easily forge Level 5 alchemic steel. For Level 4, he needs materials prepared in advance. The alchemic steel he creates on the fly is mostly Grade-3."
"Grade-3 Alchemic Steel is still steel! It's more than enough to crush a person!!"
While we wasted time on this less-than-helpful advice, the day of reckoning arrived. The clattering Thundergear of the automaton carriage let out its final death rattle.
One of the Seven Major Inventions of the Military State, the self-turning Thundergear. A device commercialized out of desperation in the water-scarce Military State, even at the risk of displeasing the Sanctum.
It gathered the power of lightning to turn on its own, positioned in the center of the automaton carriage to move both the front and rear wheels simultaneously. A single Thundergear was responsible for the vehicle's entire power.
In any case, the Thundergear, which had somehow kept turning despite being battered until now, finally fell silent after taking an impact from below at an angle.
The automaton carriage now moved forward on inertia alone. I could tell it was gradually slowing down by watching Selphy slowly overtake me.
Historia added, as if she had just remembered.
"Ah, the Director also made the automaton carriage. If he did something to it, it might have broken down."
"You give the most useful piece of advice you've offered all day at the most useless possible time?! You really are a spy!"
Spy or not, she was one of the Six Generals to begin with.