Chapter 297: A World Made of Gears - 4
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 297: A World Made of Gears - 4
Whirrrr. The bullet-gears spun violently, scraping against their grooves. They accelerated in an instant, following the uniform tracks, and shot toward my face in the blink of an eye.
Still, the fact that I could see it meant it wasn't as fast as Historia's Qi-infused bullets. The impact from one of those heavy gears, however, would be immense.
‘Shoulder.’
But my ability is mind reading. I identified his target and dodged a step ahead. The gear whipped past the space where my shoulder had been, stirring up a small whirlwind.
If it had been Historia, her shots would have hit the instant she fired, making them impossible to dodge. But against Maximilien, who didn't specialize in ranged weapons, this much was manageable.
‘So you can dodge one. Decent skill... But what about a hundred?’
Huh?
Dozens, no, hundreds of gears crawled up Maximilien's entire body, like a swarm of insects. The gears that reached his shoulders traveled down the contours of his arms. Arriving at his wrists in neat rows, they loaded themselves one by one into his bowgun and accelerated along the grooves.
Whirrrrrrrrrrrrr.
There was no specific target anymore. He was just going to swing his arms and spray the gears everywhere. An indiscriminate barrage relying on pure power, with no psychological warfare. My mind reading would be useless against that.
Tch. A specialist should fight with intense mind games and a hidden ace, not this kind of brute force! Instead of fighting a battle I couldn't win, I called for my faithful punching bag.
“Azzy!”
“Woof!”
The Dog King answered my call.
Azzy, who had been scrambling up the Steel Beetle, leaped toward me without a moment's rest. As she landed in front of me, her head whipped around, and the incoming gears vanished as if sucked into her mouth.
A crunching sound echoed every time Azzy chewed, sparks flying from between her teeth. Each of Maximilien's gears was made of at least level 4 alchemic steel, but to Azzy's teeth, they were nothing more than slightly tough chew toys.
No matter how many he fired, Maximilien only had two hands. Azzy unerringly picked out the ones flying toward me and chewed them to bits.
The barrage ended. Spitting out the last gear, Azzy stiffened her tail and let out a long howl.
“Awoooooo!”
The Dog King. Man's oldest friend was still on my side. She might not be able to bite Maximilien, but she would at least keep me from dying.
How about that. This is the power of the King of Humans...
“A half-wit who can't even properly reveal it.”
Maximilien muttered under his breath and spread his hands.
Rumble... The ground beneath my feet trembled. The Steel Beetle began to vibrate violently. The sudden earthquake terrified Azzy.
“Woof! Woof woof! Ground, moving! Earthquake!”
“It's not an earthquake! The Steel Beetle is shaking!”
“Woof? Beetle?”
“No, you're right. It's an earthquake!”
After roughly placating Azzy, I searched for the source of the tremors. The Steel Beetle itself wasn't moving.
For someone like me, who lacks raw power, a weapon of sheer mass is the trickiest thing to deal with. Maximilien hadn't tried it yet because he'd been careless, but if the Steel Beetle were to simply charge at me, my life would be in grave danger.
That was why I had climbed on top of the Steel Beetle—to restrain it and keep Maximilien from moving it.
“I'm definitely stopping it, so how...?”
Maximilien kindly provided the answer.
“The Steel Beetle stores numerous spare gears for emergencies. It seems you, unable to reach them, can't control those.”
The only gears I was permitted to control were those I was ‘in contact with.’
If two gears are interlocked, they are effectively no different from a single, larger gear, since their principle of operation is the same. That's why I could control interlocked gears, and I even used that property to attack Maximilien.
However, my influence didn't extend to those that were just lying around unconnected. They had no relation to me at the moment.
Maximilien, however, who wasn't bound by the same conditions I was, could command them. For instance, like this.
“What kind of way is that for gears to move!”
The source of the tremors soon revealed itself.
Hundreds, thousands of gears came rolling up the sides of the Steel Beetle. They weren't interlocked; they were simply rolling like ordinary wheels, without any complex control.
It looked like a swarm of thousands of ants—violence by sheer numbers.
“Indeed. I wonder if the Dog King can save you this time as well?”
Damn it. If I could touch them, I could stop their rotation, but there were far too many, and the momentum they'd built up would still hit me full force. I had to intercept them before they got here.
Grasping at straws, I shouted.
“Azzy! Kick them all away!”
“...Woof.”
Azzy gave me the dumbest look imaginable. So she just zones out when faced with an impossible request. A dog's intellect couldn't possibly devise a solution for this.
Looks like it's up to the human to shine here.
I took out a card. A Clover, the suit that contains single-use magic. This was the final ace up my sleeve, the one I'd saved until the very end to protect my life.
Magic is irreversible. Unlike with tools, spent mana cannot be recovered. Using a Clover card meant a permanent loss of my assets. My hands trembled just thinking about it.
Still, it was better than dying. It's not like I could take it to my grave.
I imbued the card with mana and swiped it. The sealed mana responded to my own, and the card began to glow. I pinched the card, now emitting a bluish magical light, between two fingers.
“Set.”
The State’s standard magic is based on black magic, which uses the body as both a medium and a sacrifice. It harms the caster, but its activation is simple and fast. A brief incantation consumes one's internal mana to create a useful phenomenon.
And then there is white magic, its conceptual opposite. This is a more classic form of magic that uses a mana-infused object as a medium and a magic circle to manifest a phenomenon.
True to its 'classic' nature, it looks good on paper but is difficult to use in actual combat. Because it requires drawing mana from an external source, its activation is slow and requires a complex formula. Add to that the expense of mana-infused objects, and the term 'classic' becomes quite fitting—only those with an abundance of money and time can afford it.
However, there are people in this world who value their bodies more than money, and I happen to be one of them.
Just before the light erupted, I threw the card—the Six of Clubs. It cut through the air and landed right in the middle of the gears. For a moment, it spun in place like a top, as if defying the metal tide.
But a single, thin card was too fragile to fight against steel, especially when so outnumbered. The spinning card was soon buried under the wave of metal...
Now. I pointed my finger and shouted the activation word.
“Aqus Ritter!”
The Six of Clubs contained an enhanced version of the condensation spell favored by the Military State.
It gathers water from the atmosphere in response to mana. A normal condensation spell is lucky to gather enough water to quench your thirst, but mine was a special product and thus a bit more forceful. Forceful enough to instantly crystallize even water vapor.
After a flash of light, a pure white storm erupted. Mana spread out in all directions like a spiderweb, pulling in all the moisture it touched. Instantly formed ice crystals seized the rolling gears.
It contained enough mana to turn a person into an ice sculpture. Using it to restrict the gears' movement should cause him a fair bit of trouble.
As I expected, Maximilien was quite flustered.
“Magic?! It can't be...!”
...Though not for the reason I'd thought.
'Is that all?'
The sound of grinding ice came from all directions. Though covered in ice, the self-rotating gears hadn't stopped. They scraped and gnawed away the ice blocking their path, sending glittering shards flying.
Before long, most of the gears had broken through the icy patch.
My magic bought me about three seconds, and that was largely thanks to the gears slipping and spinning uselessly on the ice.
Maximilien shouted, hiding his disappointment.
“Is that your hidden ace? Mere magic? You should know that magic cannot defeat a Unique Magic!”
Do you think I don't know that? I used it because it's all I have! I don't have a Unique Magic! How could the King of Humans possibly have something unique to himself?!
Hmph, I guess petty tricks don't work on one of the Six Generals. I'd have to be satisfied with the three seconds I'd bought. In that time, I bolted, leaving the rear to Azzy.
“Azzy, I'm leaving the rest to you!”
“Woof! Yelp! Woof!”
I heard pained cries from behind me, but I don't know anything about that. Azzy was snatching up gears like she was catching mice and occasionally howled when one of Maximilien's shots got through, but since I didn't see it, I have no idea what was going on.
The greatest danger to me was the gears Maximilien was firing, so getting out of his line of sight was my top priority. I reached the edge, threw myself over, and clung to the side of the beetle.
Just as I breathed a sigh of relief, I heard the clatter of turning gears. Looking up, I saw dozens of them chasing me along the edge.
Azzy, you useless mutt! You missed a few!
“Tch! So persistent!”
The gears rained down on me. They were simply dropping, letting gravity do the work, but even that was tricky to handle. Not only would it hurt, but if the impact knocked me off, the Steel Beetle would fall under Maximilien's control again.
I had to prevent that. If Maximilien regained control of the Steel Beetle, not even Azzy would be able to stop it.
I ran, using the uneven surface for footholds as gears poured down behind me. I barely dodged, but a few landed on my cloak, their spinning motion yanking me backward. As I lost my balance, more gears rolled down toward me.
I quickly raised a hand and caught one.
A rapidly spinning gear was no different from a throwing star. Catching one bare-handed would shred your palm. They had already completely tangled up my cloak.
Before its teeth could tear me apart, I used Maximilien's Unique Magic to nullify its rotation. The gear, which had been rampaging and pulling at my cloak, went still the moment it touched my hand, settling neatly into my palm with a soft click.
But while I could cancel the rotation, I couldn't cancel its momentum. A heavy impact shot through my arm, like catching a ball someone had kicked with all their might.
“So I can freely control the rotation but not the inertia. As long as it follows the concept of a gear, nothing else matters? It seems irrational, but...”
That's what makes it a Unique Magic—it's irrational. Tch. Compared to a Unique Magic that imposes its own rules on the world, mind reading feels like a joke. Can't someone give me a better ability...?
Wait. Rules, huh. I might be able to use this.
I fiddled with the gear in my hand. I considered just throwing it away, but it would only keep chasing me. Grumbling, I jammed the gear into a suitable spot on the wall, and it went still. I continued to flee, dodging or catching the gears that fell one after another.
As I was running for my life, Maximilien's thoughts reached me from above.
‘The Dog King... this is certainly a nuisance. She doesn't try to attack me, but she meticulously destroys every single gear. If I make contact, the King of Humans will turn it against me. If I don't, the Dog King blocks the way. How tricky.’
So I'm not the only one finding this tricky. That's a small comfort.
‘Without the Steel Beetle, I have no way to subdue a Beast King, yet the King of Humans has it sealed... Was a Beast King always this troublesome...? Wait, a Beast King?’
The one piece that could break this stalemate. Maximilien belatedly remembered her existence.
The Cat King, Nabi.
“The Cat King!”
Took you long enough to realize, Maximilien.
I hadn't forgotten about Nabi from the start.
“Nabi isn't coming.”
Clomp, clomp.
The sound of hobnailed military boots echoed on the concrete floor, joined by the slightly drawn-out rhythm of steel striking the dry ground.
Long, jet-black braided hair swayed behind her. She approached with a languid, tired expression and a strangely listless gait.
Her eyes looked weary, steeped in fatigue and stress. But at this very moment, she was probably ecstatic.
“Fuuuh—”
Because a magic herb cigar was held between her lips. Not just any ordinary one, but a special blend made from the leaves of the World Tree.
Exhaling a long plume of smoke, Historia murmured with a hazy expression.
“Ah, this is nice... My arm doesn't even hurt, and my head feels clear. I feel my energy returning...”