Chapter 296: A World Made of Gears - 3
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 296: A World Made of Gears - 3
A giant steel arm descended upon me, its weight so overwhelming I could feel it in my bones. My body trembled in fear.
‘Let go of the saw blade, or hold on and take the hit. A binary choice. How will you respond?’
If I let go, it would smash my head. If I held on, the steel arm would crush me. There was no right answer to the choice he'd forced on me.
I chose a different option.
I hooked my fingers on the inside of the saw blade. The outer edge was sharp, but the inner circle was dull. Gripping it carefully to avoid getting cut, I stole and used Maximilien’s Unique Magic.
Unique Magic, Gear Maiden.
A world made of gears. Touch one, and all connected gears move in unison. In this world, ‘imperfect’ concepts like power sources, friction, or the wearing down of teeth didn't exist.
In the world of gears, there were only two states.
It turns, or it doesn't.
While Maximilien’s attention was on his arm, I spun the saw blade in the opposite direction. My body was yanked upward with a jerk. My arm shuddered under the excessive pressure. Though the edge wasn't sharp, the sensation of my fingers being crushed was vivid.
Fortunately, thanks to the drugs, it didn't hurt. Thanks, drugs. I'll be counting on you again in the future.
‘Skillful. But that power was originally mine.’
Maximilien didn't just stand by and watch. The moment he glared at me through his monocle, the saw blade stopped dead. My ascending body was thrown into the air by inertia.
A dizzying sensation, as if gravity had vanished. But this was far enough. I pulled two cards from my coat.
The 2 and 8 of Diamonds. The multipurpose hook and All Things Long and Thin.
I connected the wire to the hook and threw it toward the Steel Beetle. As the hook caught on a gear, I pulled with all my might. I didn't have superhuman strength, but it was enough to adjust the trajectory of my fall.
My body traced a parabola, landing on the side of the Steel Beetle. Just before impact, I extended both feet and landed on a gear. The instant my feet touched it, I used Maximilien’s Unique Magic to move the gear—making only the one I stood on turn upward.
The gear faithfully performed its duty. The massive, water-wheel-like gear spun, carrying my weight with it. It felt like the ground beneath me was trying to fling me off. I maintained my balance and leaped up, stride after stride. After a series of acrobatic feats, I reached the back of the Steel Beetle.
Maximilien’s voice came from behind me.
“Your combinations are skillful. That’s a feat not easily replicated just by turning a gear. Are you doing more than simply stealing my Unique Magic?”
Immediately after he spoke, a giant hand slammed down beside me. The impact shook the ground beneath my feet. I quickly backed away and saw a hand made of scrap iron and gears scraping against the Steel Beetle. Sparks flew as protrusions locked with indentations. After a moment of friction, the steel hand became one with the Steel Beetle.
Maximilien pulled on his arm and leaped up in a single bound. He had caught up in one second to the height I had struggled so hard to climb. It was almost disheartening.
“Even so, I’m still no match for you.”
“I have lived my entire life with gears. You, on the other hand, used this ability for the first time just moments ago. Is that also a power of the King of Humans?”
It was thanks to my mind-reading, but I wasn't about to tell him that. I nodded.
“Humans are animals that use tools, after all.”
“The King of Humans is one who uses all tools skillfully. I see it’s not just limited to tools, is it? Your alchemy, your Qi Arts… all of it is remarkably proficient.”
His gaze fell upon my cards. Being an alchemist, he had grasped the essence of the alchemy imbued in them at a single glance.
“But for all your skill, your creations are disappointing. You’ve merely shaped alchemic steel without granting it any function. Is that all there is to it?”
Tch. Did he have any idea how much mana it took to imbue functions through alchemy? Ah, he probably did. He was the Military State’s strongest alchemist, after all.
If you’d lend me some of your mana, I could make them much better, I grumbled internally as I fanned out another set of cards.
“Want me to show you something else?”
“You’ll have to. If you wish to survive this intact.”
If that’s what you want. Now, let’s start the magic show again…
I was about to, but Maximilien extended his arm without warning. The giant steel hand, obeying his command, moved to grab me. If I got caught in that, I’d end up looking like ground meat fresh from a grinder.
But I was standing on the Steel Beetle. My footholds were all gears. Just like before, I could turn them to move my body…
I tried, but the gears wouldn't move. My body, unable to follow my thoughts, staggered.
‘You won’t escape the same way twice. Just as you did, I too can stop the gears you move.’
His situational awareness and reaction time were too fast. As expected of a Six General. Despite possessing overwhelming power, he was methodically cornering me, stripping away my options one by one.
In the blink of an eye, the steel hand filled my vision. A glancing blow would mean serious injury. Getting caught would mean no future. I had to evade, but having lost control of my footing, I was already stumbling.
With my plan disrupted, my judgment faltered in my panic. Against a strong opponent, even the briefest hesitation is fatal. I missed my only chance to overcome the crisis, and the steel hand swept over me…
‘Is that all you’ve got?’
The moment he thinks that is my chance.
Now, with his guard down and my vision obscured, I reached out as if I’d been waiting for this moment.
Hundreds of gears lay before me. Most were just added to increase destructive power, but some were crucial gears that formed the basic framework. An uninformed observer could never tell them apart, but thanks to reading the designer’s thoughts, I knew exactly which was which.
I locked onto my target and drew a card.
The Ace of Diamonds, the Pickpocket’s Skewer. I held it in a reverse grip and thrust it in at an angle. It slipped into the gap between the gears, then, under the pressure from the steel arm, it bent like a fishing rod and sprang out with a twang. Blood seeped from my torn palm, but thanks to that, one gear had been dislodged. I could see the framework beneath the skin.
It was no different from pickpocketing. You peel back the shell to get your hands on the most important item. Without a moment’s hesitation, I plunged my hand inside.
Maximilien could turn the gears as he pleased, but if that was all, they would just spin uselessly. To wield real power, he needed a fulcrum.
Naturally, that fulcrum was his own body, and to that end, Maximilien had embedded gears throughout his body.
In other words, that steel arm was connected to his body.
Which meant I could destroy his body through the gears connected to him.
Reach it.
A flood of gears. A wave of steel swept over me. I could stop their rotation, but I couldn't negate their inertia. The speeding steel hammered against my body with heavy thuds.
Any later, and my entire body would be crushed. Before that happens.
My fingertips touched the framework.
A steel hand, made in imitation of a human body. From the extremity to the core, his own power traced back along the skeletal frame. The moving gears stopped, one by one. Fingers, wrist, elbow, shoulder… I sequentially halted every mechanism turning at the joints. And that was the end of the steel arm he had created.
But the gears did not end there.
To attach his prosthetic, Maximilien had seared his own flesh and embedded steel into his shoulder. On the surface of the joint was a gear for controlling the prosthetic. From there, I detected a new beginning: the network of gears that spread throughout Maximilien’s entire body.
“Found you.”
Even as the steel crushed me, I clenched my fist.
Unique Magic, Gear Maiden.
‘What’s happening? My senses…?!’
By the time he realized, it was too late.
My target was every gear connected to me. Including those inside Maximilien’s body, I gave them all a single command. A command as powerful as it was simple.
Turn in reverse. Until you break.
‘----!!!!’
The steel arm exploded.
The parts that made up the arm spun wildly in different directions. Misalignment, torsion, malfunction, and overload. The steel arm, plagued by every conceivable mechanical problem, shattered into pieces that flew in all directions.
The steel arm that had been about to crush me was now thousands of gears raining down on me. Though small, they were all Grade-3 Alchemic Steel or higher. The high-density metal tore at my skin and battered my head. Some gears even tumbled over my body.
The impact sent me flying backward. My back slammed against the ground, aching, and my arms throbbed from the pressure. The drugs I took earlier should still be in effect, but it felt like my body was screaming in alarm.
It’s fine.
I’m still alive, after all.
The explosion of the steel arm at the last second was a huge help. Its structural integrity had weakened, dispersing the impact. Thanks to that, the threat of being crushed to death was reduced to the mere agony of a throbbing body. A very positive outcome.
The problem was.
“Yes, I see! I finally understand!”
Maximilien was alive, too.
I had failed.
No, I had half-succeeded. Maximilien’s prosthetic arm was gone, and his exposed left side was stained crimson. The bleeding caused by all the gears in his body going haywire was visible even through his skin.
But he wasn't dead.
Maximilien had seen through my attempt and reacted swiftly. By severing the connection before the gears could grind his body to pulp, he had barely managed to save his own life. For that to be a reflexive action… what a monster.
He opened his mouth. Seeing the vivid trickle of blood from his lips, it seemed he was still very much alive.
“You can only control the gears you are touching. Isn’t that right?!”
…He figured out my weakness even while on the verge of death.
His earlier words about power needing a center applied to me as well. My body had to be in ‘contact’ with his Unique Magic to steal his ability; otherwise, I couldn't use it.
Still, I didn't feel like telling him that. I decided to play dumb.
“Nope.”
“Are you trying to deny the obvious?! If you could control gears without touching them, my own limbs would be strangling me right now! Just as you attempted a moment ago!”
Tch, he’s sharp. More than anything, his ability to make split-second decisions and act decisively is what makes him so difficult.
“You climbed onto the Steel Beetle for that very reason, didn’t you? If you were to step away, the now-distant Steel Beetle would obey only my commands! You pretended to flee to deliberately move the battlefield here! Am I right?”
There was no denying it now. I nodded obediently.
“You didn’t become a Six General on strength alone, I see. Unlike Historia.”
“Haha! I could say the same to you. The King of Humans, even having lost most of your power, you are by no means an easy opponent! It feels as if I’m fighting myself!”
“I feel the same way. When it comes to the concept of gears, you are more brilliant than anyone.”
I said it with a measure of sincerity.
He was growing with every moment. When it came to the concept of gears, Maximilien had reached the pinnacle of humanity. I thought there was no further he could go, yet he was still evolving.
“In a world made of gears, you are the apex of humanity. Every step you take is a step no one has ever taken before. When you break new ground, that becomes territory conquered by humanity. At least, in the field of ‘gears’.”
It was the highest praise I could offer. And it was the unexaggerated truth.
Maximilien listened with a momentarily blank expression before bursting into laughter.
“Hahahaha! How moving! I have never needed anyone’s approval, yet this brings me more joy than any praise I have received in my entire life! So this is the King of Humans!”
“Well, I’ve been kicked out of my position as the representative of humanity, so my word doesn’t carry much weight.”
“Then you need only reclaim your power!”
“Ahaha. I told you, I don’t want to. And even if I did, I wouldn't do it with you people. How do I know what you’d do to my body?”
Even if it was their wish, I couldn't grant a wish that involved them doing as they pleased with my body. It was the most basic instinct of any living creature. The drive for self-preservation was as strong as ever.
Before being a king, the King of Humans was an animal.
“And there’s something else I have to say… but I’ll tell you right before I kill you.”
“You won’t get the chance. I have grasped your ability. All I need to do is prevent you from getting close.”
Maximilien awkwardly raised the prosthetic on his left arm. Click, clack. The arm-shaped prosthetic reassembled itself, and a long groove was carved from the elbow to the back of the hand. The end split open, taking on a shape much like a bowgun.
No, it was a bowgun.
A single, fingernail-sized gear rolled on its own and settled into the groove. At Maximilien’s command, the small gear began to spin freely while attached to the groove. Whirrrr. The sound of the wind was incredibly loud for something produced by such a tiny gear. If it were to accelerate along that groove, the gear would fly at me with the speed of a crossbow bolt.
Maximilien aimed the makeshift bowgun at me.
“Can you use Qi Deflection? Well, it matters not. I have plenty of ammunition. I’ll simply fire until you’re spent. Now, if you have something left to say, out with it.”
My Qi is too low to use it in the first place. Threatening someone with a gun pointed at them… what a proper way to have a conversation.
I grumbled and stacked my cards. One diamond and ten clovers. I made a deck of eleven cards and gave it a light shuffle.
“No can do. A magician should never reveal his tricks, even with a knife to his throat. That’s why I only tell people who have tight lips. Like Lieutenant General Ebon, for example.”
Maximilien remembered Ebon, a member of the Human Regime. He asked back.
“Lieutenant General Ebon. A nostalgic name. I heard he was in the Abyss…”
He trailed off. As the information came back to him, Maximilien’s eyes grew cold as he stared at me.
“The tight-lipped person you speak of is a dead person, I presume. Did you kill him?”
“I didn’t kill him, but I was there. If you’d like to hear my eulogy, then please, die by my hand. I’ll recite it for you until you do.”
“…Conversely, if I torture you to the brink of death, I might hear it then.”
“That’s a fine attitude. Give it a try.”
As I spoke, I gripped the top card with both hands and pulled it apart.
The Queen of Diamonds. The Queen of Fabric.
It was as if an impossibly small, folded blanket was unfurling. I draped the Queen of Fabric over my shoulders like a cloak. A cozy warmth enveloped me.
The Queen of Fabric. A top-quality cloth that was a little warmer, a little tougher, and a little better at concealing. However, that wasn't all. If that were all, there would be no reason to praise it as the Queen of Fabric.
The true power of the Queen of Fabric was its ability to contain mana. It could perfectly trap anything made of mana, even light itself, providing a darkness as absolute as pitch black for vampires who loathed the light.
I fastened the collar and declared.
“Because I’m going to resist with everything I have.”