Chapter 245: Steel Has No Eyes
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 245: Steel Has No Eyes
Maximilien is a master of alchemy.
He can transmute any alchemic material of Grade-3 or lower at will. The moment his fingertips touch a transmutable substance, his mana instantly permeates it, shatters its structure, and reassembles it into any form he desires.
But this in itself is not particularly remarkable. The scale and speed of alchemy are purely a matter of mana control. As long as one has the minimum foundational knowledge, alchemy is an honest, uninteresting craft that responds only to the amount of mana invested. Moreover, it’s powerless against objects imbued with another’s qi or mana. How utterly feeble.
Maximilien’s alchemy, however, is special. It stems from a talent entirely different from his mana capacity or physical strength.
A perspective that sees the world as an assembly of gears. An intellect capable of building it up from the ground floor. A will that seeks to replicate all of creation—even reason itself—with gears.
The man born from this combination was a titan capable of erecting a castle from bare ground, all by himself.
“Tch. What a terrible naming sense…!”
The Regressor gripped Jizan and charged forward. Her intent was to strike down the rampaging gears, but her trained intuition sensed danger.
Something was falling.
The Regressor looked up. A colossal shadow fell over her.
“An Arm of Steel?”
Tiny gears crawled over Maximilien’s body like diligent ants. They ranged from the size of an ant to as large as a human head. Gears emerged from all over his body, clanking and locking together to form a giant, grotesque arm.
Gears that served as muscle, gears that served as joints, gears that served as bone.
Gears of all shapes and sizes were exquisitely assembled into a single form. It was a bizarrely beautiful sculpture, as if someone had tried to mimic the human body using only cogs.
The shoulder-gear turned. Tick, tick, tick. The rusted shoulder screamed as a massive mechanical pillar, easily three meters long, moved like a human arm.
A mechanical arm, striking in its crude beauty. It produced a metallic clamor, like the sound of waves crashing in a sea filled with iron nails. There was no chaos in this metallic foam; even the sound was heavy and profound.
Raising the Arm of Steel, Maximilien shouted with glee.
“Dragon Slayer, was it? How novel! You've given me a wonderful idea! Now, let’s test it out!”
The gears spun, and the Arm of Steel slammed down on the Regressor. A massive saw blade fell toward her head.
“That’s nothing like Dragon Slayer!”
Facing the giant, saw-toothed steel arm, the Regressor swung Jizan up to meet it. It looked like a reckless attempt to block a tidal wave with a stick, but Jizan was a stick capable of such a feat.
The impacts crashed into each other. Shattered gear teeth rained down on the Regressor, and the steel arm, repelled by Jizan, sent a shockwave through Maximilien’s entire body. With a deafening roar between them, both sides took a step back.
Maximilien altered the shape of the steel arm and yelled.
“The power of the Divine! Wonderful. Absolutely wonderful!”
“Well, I hate it!”
“Let us wager our lives and mesh together!”
“You can wager your own life! I have no intention of dying by your hand!”
The Regressor shouted back, tightening her grip on Jizan. In her peripheral vision, the Newborn of Steel that Maximilien had created flashed past. The sound of it scraping against the ground was deeply menacing. If this continued, that saw-toothed steel wheel would attack the automaton carriage.
For a brief moment, the Regressor hesitated.
‘I don’t have the leeway to deal with the Warforger’s toys! Right, I’ll trust my comrades! A toy like this can’t even scratch them!’
Huh? Trust us?
Well, thanks, I guess.
The Regressor’s faith manifested in the form of a giant steel gear-wheel, rolling violently toward me and the automaton carriage.
“Whoa. What is that thing?”
The steel wheel, glowing red from friction with the road, rolled forward as if to crush the world. Its overwhelming presence, which stirred a primal fear, inspired in me a powerful urge to flee.
The Regressor’s faith is so heavy it’s terrifying. At this rate, I’d rather she didn’t believe in me at all.
I checked the automaton carriage’s condition. Thanks to the Regressor forcing it forward and wrecking it earlier, the front was a complete mess.
Fortunately, the carriage was designed for combat; as long as the power source was intact, it could run even with its front smashed in. And that power source was currently being provided by Tyr. In other words, it was inexhaustible.
“Sticking one more thing on it won’t break it, right?”
I muttered, twisting the controls.
Straight toward the approaching steel gear.
“Huey?! That’s dangerous!”
Historia, who was on the carriage, shrieked at me, but I ignored her and pushed forward. The steel gear repeatedly scraped against the front of the carriage. A series of sharp clangs echoed as alchemic steel struck alchemic steel. Clang-clang-clang-clang!
But the automaton carriage, though slightly damaged, easily withstood the steel gear’s assault.
“It’s fine. The alchemic steel is reinforced by Tyr’s power, making it roughly Grade-4. A hastily made Grade-3 alchemic steel toy like this can’t even scratch it. You’d need something like an Azzy missile to break it. Like over there.”
“Woof!”
Azzy was in the middle of blocking another steel gear-wheel with an Azzy missile. She had quickly run over and slammed into its side, causing the world-devouring gear to wobble precariously. Azzy puffed out her chest proudly, as if she had protected us perfectly.
“Rotation is power in itself. A wheel spinning that powerfully has more inertia than its weight suggests. It’s much easier to block it from the front than to knock it from the side.”
“Woof?!”
Azzy, unaware of the power of rotation, was flustered to see the gear-wheel still maintaining its balance even as it staggered.
She was so flustered, in fact, that she had to resort to planting her front paws on the ground, spinning her body, and delivering a roundhouse kick with her hind legs. Even the spinning gear-wheel was no match for Azzy’s full power—the strength of all four of her legs—and it crumpled pathetically before flying into the air.
See, if you’re strong enough, you don’t have to be smart.
“Well, same goes for us. Tyr, are you holding up?”
[No problem. However, a wheel that rolls on its own… What a peculiar object. I cannot fathom its purpose. What is it used for?]
“To crush us.”
[Hoh. I see.]
Screeeeech.
A battle between the automaton carriage and the gear-wheel. Normally, a collision on the road would inflict severe damage on both parties, but the one-Tyr-power automaton carriage, its chassis reinforced by an Arcane and its engine a vampire, pushed steadily onward, unfazed by the impact.
The saw blade tore into the space between the driver and passenger seats, but it failed to break through any further and fell silent.
Its power spent, the gear-wheel became a mere ornament stuck to the front of the carriage. However, it seemed to have lodged itself too deeply; the steering wheel wouldn’t work. It looked like the front axle, which had already been on its last legs, was now completely crushed.
Hmm. Since the front wheels are already busted anyway, maybe I can fix it up a bit.
“Alright. Historia! Come over here and pull this steering wheel out for a second.”
“…Wait! Hold on!”
The best way to get someone else to take the wheel is to let go of it yourself. The world needs someone to be driving, so if I abandon that duty, someone else is bound to take it on.
The moment I let go and got up, a frantic Historia slid into the driver’s seat to fill the empty space.
“Hey! What are you doing, letting go of the wheel!”
“It’s fine. Someone else will grab it. Like you.”
“You’re so reckless…!”
“Oh, and the steering is broken, so I’m going to do a quick fix. Could you pull that out for me?”
“You’re going to fix the steering while we’re moving? When it’s this broken?”
Though half-doubting, Historia obediently did as I asked. She crossed her legs, wrapped them around the steering column, and then straightened her knees, yanking it out in one go. The front wheels, now without control, began to rattle wildly.
Meanwhile, I pulled out my skewer and headed to where the spinning saw blade was embedded.
It wasn’t an incredibly complex structure. Maximilien was a master of gear-craft, and he understood the truth that simpler structures offered greater durability and utility. Whether he actually liked simplicity was another matter.
“This should be doable.”
I inserted the skewer into a joint between the gears. They say the eye of the storm is calm, but it’s a stillness pregnant with immense power. The skewer trembled like a sailboat adrift in a tempest.
“That’s a gear-wheel created by Director Maximilien. Not even you could figure out its structure in such a short time…”
She would have been right. If I had encountered this device on its own, in the middle of nowhere.
But this gear-wheel was made by Maximilien. He had alchemically transmuted the gears and assembled this structure in an instant.
Thanks to that, I, who had been reading his thoughts, learned a little about its structure. I didn't have enough mana to recreate it from scratch, but I could certainly modify what was already there.
“Realke.”
Infusing mana caused the structure to crumble. I forced the skewer into the gaps, shaping it. I removed a few gears and fitted the power unit into the center of the shattered axle. The specifications didn’t match, so it was misaligned.
But forcefully adjusting such minor misalignments is the essence of combat alchemy. I gathered my remaining mana and forged it. I wasn't creating it from nothing, just modifying an existing object, but it still drained my mana completely.
Must be nice to have a lot of mana, I grumbled inwardly as I jammed the broken axle in hard. I heard a thud as it locked into place.
It was just a makeshift repair, but with it, the automaton carriage had been transformed into a romantic machine of death, sporting a massive saw blade instead of front wheels.
Historia grimaced, reinserted the steering wheel, and gave it a twist. The saw blade turned left and right in response. She muttered in disbelief.
“…Combat alchemy. But you shouldn’t be able to use it without knowing the structure.”
“The structure is surprisingly simple. It only looks complicated because there are a lot of useless gears. The truth is, as long as there’s enough power, it’ll run one way or another. Even if it’s only 10% efficient, you just need to apply more force.”
And right now, this automaton carriage was running on a Tyr engine.
The saw blade began to spin again. This time, not toward us, but toward them. Gears have no eyes; they don’t recognize their creator. They just function.
“So. What are you going to do with this saw blade? Ram someone with it?”
“Wow, that’s a great idea, Historia! I never would have thought of that!”
“What?”
She meant it as sarcasm, but Historia had hit the nail right on the head.
That was exactly my plan: to hit Maximilien with it.
“The Director has wheels on his feet. He’s faster than the carriage. We can’t catch him.”
“Then we just increase the output.”
Unlike other power sources, ours gets stronger the more you push it.
“Tyr! It’s time to move to the next stage! Make it go faster!”
[…Faster, you say? But Huey, no matter how much force I apply, I am still turning this with my own hands. As long as my body is that of a human, I can go no faster.]
True. Being strong doesn’t necessarily mean being fast. Tyr’s power is only effective within her own body, which is probably why she isn’t very fast.
To move quickly, one must either expel energy to propel the body or apply force by grabbing the ground and pulling. Just as you can’t jump by pushing off yourself, no matter how strong Tyr is, her slender limbs can’t generate incredible speed. It’s structurally inefficient.
The whole reason we took the automaton carriage in the first place was to overcome Tyr’s slow movement speed and her racial weakness to the midday sun.
Still. There was more we could do. This wasn’t the carriage’s limit. Look at Maximilien. He was keeping up with the Regressor’s swift movements by manipulating the gears that covered his body.
Not only did the gears spin to transfer power, but every single gear had its own power and moved independently, allowing him to move far faster than his natural speed.
“The same goes for us! Tyr! If you think of this carriage as a body, then each of those gears is like a muscle! Try to move them by gripping them, just as you would move your muscles by infusing them with blood!”
[Oho. I see what you mean. I shall give it a try.]
Immediately after Tyr’s reply, darkness seeped into the vehicle’s chassis.
Until now, Tyr hadn’t understood this structure and had only been reinforcing the chassis, never thinking to move it with her power. Well, I couldn’t blame her. I hadn’t fully understood it myself until then.
But now that I was reading Maximilien’s thoughts, things were different.
“And spin everything! From the central axle to the edge of the wheels! All at once!”
[Retainers of darkness, I command you.]
A dark energy surged from within the chassis. The automaton carriage accelerated sharply. The headwind against my forehead in the front seat grew stronger.
I squinted, aiming for Maximilien up ahead. He was just about to clash with the Regressor for the fifth time.
“Historia! You’re the one at the wheel! It’s time to decide who you’re going to hit!”
“…Huey, do we really have to do this? If we attack, there’s no turning back.”
“It’s already too late for that! You have to choose. If you don’t, we’ll just fight recklessly and die!”
The figures of the Regressor and Maximilien, locked in their frantic battle, grew closer. The automaton carriage, now under the control of a vampire, charged with a ferocity far greater than before, a vicious steel saw blade mounted on its front.
Historia gritted her teeth.
“…You, Shiati… all of you just push things to the absolute limit… You always have to see things through to the bitter end! Why don’t any of you know when to stop…!”
“Didn’t you know? People always push harder when someone’s trying to hold them back!”
We were almost upon them. There was no more time to hesitate. If she didn’t change course, we would hit them both.
After a moment of indecision, Historia yanked the wheel hard.
The direction… was toward Maximilien.
‘The Director will kill Huey and Shiati without question. But Cutie… at least she won’t do that… If I have to stand on my own two feet… I have no… choice.’
The spinning saw blade, mounted in place of the front wheels, surged forward with terrifying momentum. In the middle of his duel with the Regressor, Maximilien’s eyes widened as he spotted the saw blade bearing down on him.
“My… my Newborn of Steel… coming for me?!”
“Heh! How does it feel to have your precious gear stolen?”
Maximilien tried to dodge out of its path. But the Regressor, who had been locked in a tense stalemate with him, did not miss the opportunity.
“Where do you think you’re going, you scrap heap!”
The Regressor slammed Jizan into the ground.
Terra Firma Arts, Magnetic Edge.
The earth is the world’s largest magnet, capable of pulling and swaying even things akin to light. Jizan, the sword of the earth, possessed this same quality.
Fallen gears, iron filings from the impacts, and fragments of alchemic steel rose into the air around Jizan. The metallic debris floated near the sword, as if connecting its hilt and tip with loose threads.
The Regressor extended the magnetic force to bind Maximilien. The gears covering his entire body responded to the magnetism and were pulled toward the sword.
“Stay right there!”
For a moment, an immense force bound his entire body. Trapped by his own gears, Maximilien couldn’t escape in time. The automaton carriage, armed with its steel saw, crashed into his frozen form.
The spinning saw blade slammed into his shoulder and chest. THUD! I felt a heavy weight at the front of the carriage, and torn scraps of his uniform scattered into the air.
I clenched my fist and yelled.
“Did we get him?”
Not a chance. The saw blade was still spinning, yet Maximilien was moving perfectly fine even as it ground against him.
It seemed the gears attached to Maximilien’s body were also… Grade-4, no, nearly Grade-5 alchemic steel.
“Ughhhhh…! Realke…!”
Amazingly, Maximilien didn’t fall even after being hit by the automaton carriage. Though his mass was surely far less, a member of the Six Generals had the ability to withstand even the charge of a carriage.
Even as he was hit and dragged along, he unleashed his mana throughout his body. The instant the saw blades repeatedly struck him, the infused mana disintegrated the gears, causing them to fall to the ground in pieces.
Historia muttered as if she had expected it.
“Director Maximilien is known as the God of Gears… An attack with gears like this was never going to work.”
Maximilien gasped for breath. Each time he inhaled, the golden gears visible through his torn clothes spun with an irritating noise.
Tick, tick, tick.
The sound of the gears subsided for a moment. Having assessed the situation, he looked up, his eyes blazing. Maximilien, thoroughly excited, identified the object that had attacked him and the individuals controlling it. Then, his face twisted.
“How dare you…! To modify my gear without permission and attack me with it…!”
Somehow, his lens focused precisely on me. Sensing danger, Historia lowered her voice and whispered.
“Huey, get behind me.”
‘The Director despises it when a subordinate with no power or authority interferes of their own will, rather than simply relaying an order. No, he doesn’t even acknowledge that subordinates should have a will of their own. If he attacks Huey… I’ll have to block it.’
The fight against the Regressor was already a difficult one for Maximilien. Jizan was far heavier than all his gears combined, and his vaunted strength was useless against it. If not for his ingenuity in creating whatever he needed on the spot, Maximilien would have fallen long ago.
To be interrupted during such an inspiring, tense battle… he must be furious, Historia thought.
But she was mistaken about something.
This madman was a being who sought to replicate even reason with gears. Not even I could read him perfectly, but if I at least fit him into that formula…
“My gear…! To disassemble it piece by piece, and attach it to this cheap automaton carriage…!!”
Maximilien, growling as he replayed what had happened, turned to me and broke into a wide grin.
“Incredible! Absolutely incredible!”
He was acknowledging me.