Chapter 242: I Stepped on a Lego
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 242: I Stepped on a Lego
It goes without saying, but the Warforger’s gears don’t cover this entire land. His gears simply extend from the watchtower like a rope, connecting to various devices along the road.
Covering the entire ground with gears would be impossible, not to mention irrational. No matter how impressive a gear may be, the force is ultimately applied to the tips of its teeth, and excessive force will cause those ends to crumble first.
Assembling gears is a matter of distribution. The pinnacle of efficiency is to work every component to its limit, just shy of the breaking point.
It should come as no surprise, then, that this very Warforger had a hand in organizing the systems of the Military State.
Military branches. Schools. Organizational structures. Weapons. Devices.
Everything that required precise design.
Though others carried out the work, the one who designed it all… the one who pursued his ideals to his heart’s content in this nation, was Warforger Maximilien.
From the distant watchtower, he controlled the gears with a single finger.
This road, too, was under his dominion. A device he had prepared lay in wait, ready to pounce on the automaton carriage.
I narrowly dodged a trap that shot up from the ground and gripped the controls of the slowing carriage.
“This carriage was reinforced with Tyr’s power, and it breaks down from a single hit?”
The heavy-bodied automaton carriage was designed to be strong against pressure from above, but it was weak to impacts from below. Getting hit with what felt like an uppercut from beneath seemed to have knocked it senseless. In that respect, it wasn’t so different from a human.
Even the faint hum that drove the carriage had vanished. The Thundergear had fallen silent. The carriage was still coasting on inertia, but it was clear it would soon come to a stop.
Times like these call for man’s best friend. I whipped my head around and shouted.
“Azzzyyy! Dogsled time! Pull this carriage!”
The Regressor immediately shot that down.
“Hey, don’t you think that’s a bit much? Azzy is still trying to catch up.”
“Why is she so slow?”
“You’re the one who left her in the aqueduct.”
Tsk, why does Azzy have a cooldown? It would’ve been great if I could use her twice.
No choice. I had to move on to the next option. I called out to Tyr in the cargo hold.
“Tyr! If you flip over the floor of the cargo hold, you should see a small, golden, shining wheel in the center. Can you take a look?”
[What… what did you say? Where, a wheel?]
Tyr, flustered by the unfamiliar technology, fumbled about.
Tsk, is modern technology too much for someone from the 12th century? Will we have to abandon the carriage and move on foot? That would be a shame.
“Progenitor. Over here.”
Fortunately, Shiati was in the cargo hold with her. Shiati respectfully lifted the panel to show Tyr the carriage’s inner workings. The Thundergear was a critical component that needed to be replaceable at any time. Tyr spotted the glowing Thundergear beneath the panel.
[I have found it. It is spinning freely. What should I do with it?]
“You need to put it back together! Just gently, pop it back in so the teeth line up…!”
[I understand.]
Tyr’s affirmative reply came through. Perfect. Assembling an automaton carriage was no simple task, but any problem in the world can be solved with enough force. With Tyr’s power, she should be able to pop a misaligned Thundergear back into place…
CRUNCH.
The automaton carriage lurched violently to the side. I desperately gripped the suddenly stiff controls as I used my mind-reading to assess the situation.
In Tyr’s vision, I saw the Thundergear, shattered to pieces beneath her hand. She had tried to put it back in, but when it wouldn’t fit, she used too much force and broke it. Holding the crushed Thundergear, Tyr spoke, flustered.
[Hmph, a minor problem has arisen.]
“Don’t tell me you broke it. You didn’t, right? Tell me you didn’t!”
[This thing was weaker than I thought. All glittering things are frail. It seems they neglect to build inner strength, too busy making themselves shine….]
“Spare me the excuses! What do we do now?”
[…Is it such a serious problem?]
“Not that serious, just that the carriage is probably going to stop completely!”
Thoroughly dejected, Tyr tried to jam the crushed Thundergear back in, hoping to salvage the situation somehow. It was a futile attempt that would only dirty the machinery’s interior.
What now? Besides Azzy, what else could turn the wheels… Ah. There was one thing. When it came to power.
I took a deep breath and gripped the controls tightly.
“If you don’t have teeth, use your gums! Tyr! Since the Thundergear is broken, I need you to turn it with your hands instead!”
[Grip it with my hands, and turn it?]
“Yes!”
[Very well. To atone for my mistake, I suppose I must do at least that much.]
The moment she answered.
GRRRRRRUMBLE.
The automaton carriage roared violently as if its very heart had been seized. It was a scream that tore through its entire body.
Immediately after, everyone on board experienced a bizarre acceleration. The carriage, which should have moved at a constant speed, now lurched forward, surging and slackening as if in a game of tug-of-war.
The movement was so violent that if the carriage hadn’t been reinforced by the Sanguine Mark, the chassis would have collapsed. It was also the perfect motion to make me, the driver, dizzy.
Meanwhile, the Princess and Historia, who had been on horseback, caught up to us from behind with Azzy in tow. Azzy, soaked to the bone, seemed less cheerful than before. She immediately leaped onto the carriage and shook her body with all her might. The water droplets pelted the back of my neck with a surprising amount of force.
“Huey? Are you using the Progenitor as an engine right now?”
“That’s right! This isn’t an automaton carriage anymore, it’s a vampire-powered carriage!”
“Using the Progenitor as a wheel is far too reckless. If you get on her bad side…”
Historia voiced her concern, but Tyr answered for me.
[Huey! This is fascinating! I am not pushing from behind, yet the more I turn this, the more we move forward!]
Well, that’s because it’s a machine designed to do that. But for Tyr, it must have been a rather astonishing discovery.
A vampire’s strength wanes under the sun, their very existence eroded. Tyr, having regained her heart, was better off than most, but she still couldn’t exert her full power.
But now, tucked away in the darkness of the carriage’s cargo hold, she could propel herself forward just by moving her hands. How amazing must that feel?
“Thank you! You’re the only one I can count on, Tyr! I’ll handle the steering, so you just keep turning it as hard as you can! The harder you turn, the faster we go!”
[So this is a joint effort between you and I…. Hehe, I understand.]
“Yes! A joint effort! We’re working in sync!”
[There is no need to emphasize it so brazenly…. I have understood you well enough.]
More power flowed into the spinning wheel. The carriage continued its advance, alternating between brief bursts of acceleration and deceleration.
With the Progenitor of vampires as its new engine instead of a Thundergear, the automaton carriage sped on. It was faster than before, but neither I nor the Regressor let our guard down.
If the Warforger could destroy a bridge from such a distance, he could do something else. With the Regressor tensely scanning our surroundings, I kept driving.
Just then, the Regressor spotted something and shouted urgently.
“Watch out! Something’s coming!”
“What is ‘something’?”
“I don’t know! But the gears are turning over there!”
“How am I supposed to watch out if you don’t know what it is?”
There was no time to complain. That unknown ‘something’ soon revealed itself. In a rather peculiar way.
The world tilted.
Usually, when something is wrong with either the world or me, my stubborn ego aside, the one at fault is almost always me. The vast world is unlikely to go wrong just to mess with one person.
But this was undeniably strange. The ground, which I knew wasn’t actually flat, was tilting, causing the carriage and me to slide sideways as if to fall off. It was as if the world was mocking my foolishness, declaring that this patch of land had, in fact, been perfectly level.
After a moment of confusion, I arrived at a simple conclusion that clarified the situation perfectly. The ground was fine. I was fine. It was just this specific section I was standing on that was wrong.
“The road is tilting!”
Krr-krr-krrk, I could hear the straining of gears from here. A solid block supported the roadbed. As the gears turned, the block was trying to flip itself over.
My body and the carriage began to slide sideways. The slope steepened to an angle that could be called a cliff. Azzy, who had been on the roof, dug her claws in and held on for dear life.
“Woof woof! Never a dull moment!”
“He installed something like this in the entire road?! What a twisted…!”
The Regressor grumbled as she drew Jizan. Reading her thoughts, I turned the wheel, steering the carriage up the slanted surface.
When we reached what could be described by the ill-fitting phrase ‘the summit of the road,’ the Regressor leaned out and swung Jizan down smoothly.
Terra Firma Arts, Iron Root.
The weight of a thousand catties settled on the tip of Jizan. A thousand was just an expression; in truth, it was an immense weight, thousands of times greater.
If it were merely heavy, it would have just shattered a piece of the road. But Jizan, as if taking root in the massive structure, distributed its heavy mass evenly across the entire road.
The road, which had been flipping over by the power of the gears, met its match in Jizan’s weight. A moment of silence. It didn’t last long. Jizan overwhelmed the gears. The teeth transferring the force shattered one after another.
Jizan, the divine instrument of the Order of Gaia, symbolizing the earth itself. A sword that could only be wielded by one with the right, its recoil-less blade could not be supported by mere gears.
The flipping ground, once Jizan exerted its true power upon it, remembered its manners toward Mother Earth and settled back down.
At the same time, the Regressor returned to the passenger seat.
“Phew. Good job. If we can just get away like this…”
The Regressor, who was about to praise me, suddenly fell silent as a thought occurred to her.
‘Come to think of it, he drove upwards on his own, without me even telling him to. As if he knew I was going to use Iron Root.’
Well, I did read your mind, and besides, you’ve been using Jizan for everything lately because it’s convenient. Aren’t you getting a little predictable?
But I couldn’t tell her that, so I decided to play it off.
“That was the technique the Earth Sage used to flip Tantalus, right? The one that distributes weight evenly.”
“You have a sharp eye. That’s the one.”
‘Now that I think about it, this guy has handled Jizan before, hasn’t he? He has good instincts and a keen eye. I have to go pick up Jizan in the next timeline anyway. If he’s this good just by matching my rhythm… maybe I should make him a companion in the next timeline?’
No, I’ll pass. Don’t I deserve a timeline off? This boss pays well, but she’ll work you to the bone, even into the next life.
“Anyway, if we can just get away, there won’t be any prob—”
The Regressor stopped mid-sentence. She whipped around, an expression of disbelief on her face as she stared into the distance.
I had to keep my eyes on the road, so I couldn’t look back, but through the Regressor’s vision, I saw the sight that had stunned her.
“…The Warforger is chasing us himself?”
Warforger Maximilien was running toward us on a continuous line of gears.
What could I compare that sight to? It was probably closest to crossing a stream on stepping stones. A single line of gears stretched out like a root from the tall watchtower. Maximilien approached, stepping lightly atop the furiously spinning gears.
The way he fearlessly leaped across the spinning mechanisms—which would turn anyone caught between them into mincemeat—looked as if the gears themselves were conspiring to launch him forward.
I recalled a few rumors about the Warforger. One of them was that he was the designer of the Meta Conveyor Belt.
The Earth Sage had paved the ground and the Mage Marshal had moved it, but the one who first came up with the idea… was the designer, the God of Gears. Warforger Maximilien.
“What’s he planning?”
“I don’t know what he’s planning, but I don’t think we can shake him. Look. He’s closing in fast. And all our escape routes are blocked.”
“We can fight him when he gets close. The Warforger’s strength lies in preparation. In other words, he’s not that difficult in an unprepared setting. Let him come.”
“Ooh, confident. That was pretty cool just now.”
“I-I told you to stop with the nonsense.”
“By the way, you talk as if you’ve fought all the Six Generals. Were you some kind of super criminal?”
‘I was a criminal, in a previous timeline. To be honest, people like Sunderspear or the Gunmaster, who fight with pure skill and martial prowess, are the most troublesome. There’s no clear strategy to beat them.’
Her honest thoughts were kind of cute. But did that just mean she was a bit weak in terms of pure martial power?
Are we really okay to be invading like this? Our opponent is the Military State, but I charged in because we have you, Tyr, and Historia. If you’re not that confident, it makes me nervous.
‘The Warforger, who uses gears, or the Envoy, whose very existence is an Arcane, are more manageable. As for the Camarilla… I still don’t get it. I can overwhelm her one-on-one, so why is she one of the Six Generals?’
Are you some kind of baseline for the Six Generals? Why are your thoughts so sad?
Then again, the Regressor was more of a strategist than a warrior. She was brilliant at exploiting any being that had a weakness to be exploited.
To her, the three Six Generals currently remaining at the command center seemed quite manageable. In that case, I suppose I didn’t need to worry too much.
“He’s here.”
The Regressor leaned out and glared behind the carriage. Maximilien, having run across the gears, landed about thirty meters behind us.
He looked like a mix of human and machine. If one were to mimic a human form with gears, it would probably look just like him. I could see gears dotted here and there on his skin.
The distance between us was a mere thirty meters, and it was gradually increasing. Considering how fast the carriage was moving, it was a gap that seemed impossible to close on foot.
But this was one of the Six Generals, Warforger Maximilien. A being comparable to an entire army even when unassisted.
He twisted his ankle. A gear attached to the heel of his shoe clicked down and began to spin rapidly. A series of small pops echoed from where it met the road, and at the same time, Maximilien’s gear propelled his body forward with great force.
What the hell is that? I glanced back and asked.
“…Is that a wheel?”
The Regressor affirmed.
“Yes. A gear. Every gear on his body moves according to his will. The wheels on his feet are no exception. That’s how he can pull off stunts like that.”
“That’s incredible. His body must be dozens of times lighter than this carriage, which means he’s dozens of times faster, right?”
“Only on the road. He’s not that fast on open ground. It’s hard to use any Gon Qi Art, including Qinggong, with gears, so his own two feet are faster over short distances. But… he’s not to be underestimated.”
As the Regressor’s thoughts deepened, Maximilien slid across the road and overtook us in an instant. In the blink of an eye, he was facing us, running backward. Only then did I get a proper look at his face.
As soon as Maximilien saw us… he tipped his officer’s cap in greeting.
“Well now! Fugitives of Tantalus! A pleasure to meet you! I am a proud human of The Human Regime! My name is Maximilien!”
He must have reached his peak at a relatively young age, as his face was as innocent as a child’s. He didn’t seem to have aged much.
A gear-shaped monocle hung over his left eye. The moment he saw us, the gear on the monocle clicked to the left. It slid two layered lenses outward. It seemed he adjusted the number of lenses based on the distance.
Gliding smoothly over the ground, Maximilien spread his arms wide. In the center of his chest, right around his solar plexus, a brilliant golden Thundergear was spinning slowly.
“Well! Sorry to interrupt your journey. I don’t much care for outside noise myself. And I hate being the source of that noise even more! It’s not beautiful! But, I absolutely had to see you, no matter what!”
The Regressor gripped her sword, ready to leap out at any moment, and shouted.
“How shameless! After you’re the one who blocked our path!”
“I had no choice. You kept trying to get away from me! Even after I destroyed the bridge and tilted the road, you kept going, so I had no choice but to come find you myself!”
“What do you want?”
“It seems your curiosity is finally piqued! Excellent! I shall take that as a sign you wish to talk!”
His movements were natural even as he moved backward, and he never once glanced over his shoulder to check behind him. He stood as comfortably as if he were on automatically moving ground and attempted to converse.
The Regressor scowled.
‘Tsk, it’s probably that. That bastard is the leader of The Human Regime. What he’s looking for is… undoubtedly.’
Maximilien, still gliding, spread his arms wider and lifted his head. His gaze fell upon Azzy.
“Dog King! Humanity’s oldest friend!”
Azzy, lying drenched on the carriage roof, perked up her ears at the sound of her name.
“Woof? You called me?”
“Yes! My friend, and the friend of all! The cleverest beast in the world, who vowed to obey humans! Now, tell me!”
Despite the many people present, he paid them no mind. His eyes were fixed only on Azzy, his gaze burning through the machinery.
The gears that adorned his entire body were inorganic. But his eyes were filled with a joy that didn’t suit the cold steel, a fervent heat.
“Who here is the King of Humans!”