Chapter 300: A World Made of Gears - Finale
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 300: A World Made of Gears - Finale
I shook his arm off. I had already taken out my Clover deck. Eight cards remained in my hand, excluding the Ace I used to escape Amitengrad and the 6 I had just thrown. I ran my finger along their edges, carefully selecting my cards.
It hurt my pride, but I had to admit it. No matter what card I used, I couldn't land a meaningful blow on Maximilien. Maybe if I shoved the entire deck down his throat and detonated it, I might have a chance of killing him. Of course, if it came to that, I would have already won.
Alright. Time to change the objective. I needed him to show an opening, just for a moment. An opening as thin as a thread, but a definite one.
Fire? Not a chance. Wind? He’d probably build a fan out of gears and blow me away. Alchemy and deconstruction magic? My opponent was an alchemist several times more skilled than I was. A simple explosion of the mana in my cards wouldn't work. You don't mess with an expert in their own field.
That left only one option. I made my decision.
I slid one card out with my finger, then another. At the same time, I unwrapped the cloak from my shoulders and wound it around my hand to hide the cards, hoping to lower his guard, even if just a little…
‘Was it a card? It definitely contained magic. The magic itself isn't very dangerous, but I must prevent him from getting close regardless.’
Humans are creatures that learn. Maximilien didn't let his guard down for a second.
He no longer insisted on using only gears. He chose a more direct, if cruder, method.
He crushed a handful of gears, pressing them thin. A simple form of alchemy performed in the palm of his hand. The small gears were sharpened into shurikens.
With his other prosthetic arm, he splayed his fingers and scraped the back of a Steel Beetle. His five fingers split the steel carapace vertically like bamboo. Maximilien then forged the long strips of steel into a spear.
‘Until now, I have intentionally avoided blades, worried you might die too easily… but now, I will no longer hold back.’
The Director of the Military State’s Bureau of Arms Development created every weapon within his power. Shurikens, blades, spears, and the remaining gears. Then, with all his might, he launched them at me.
He used a gear-driven launcher to throw the spear and flicked his fingers to send the shurikens flying. Each one was thrown with his full power.
‘If you are truly the King of Humans, you won't die here. And if you do… so be it. Otherwise, it will be my death!’
The blades flew toward me, their sharp glint filling my vision. It was too much to block or dodge.
Historia rushed over to help me. Her plan was to grab my cloak and throw me out of the way. It was a reasonably sound method.
But it wasn't enough. Just before Historia’s fingers reached me, I gave her an order.
“Move 8.”
The same maneuver as before, where we brushed past each other and switched places.
Historia reacted instinctively. Pushing thought aside, she ran toward my back as we had planned. I twisted my body to make way for her. Like flipping one’s hand, Historia’s and my positions were reversed.
For a split second, a clear path opened between Historia and Maximilien. At that same moment, the steel weapons rained down on her.
Historia’s thoughts caught up a moment later.
‘If we switch places like this, I’ll have to take the full force of that attack with my body to save Huey. I might be able to block it all with Qi Deflection, but then…’
Not only would she lose her momentum, but she would also exhaust the Qi needed to use the Consensus of Gun and Sword. The faint chance of victory she had would drop to zero.
There was only one way to win.
Historia focused her strength into the hand holding the gun. Qi coiled around the weapon. Behind the hastily made bullet, the Explosive Discharge Domain swirled into being.
She disregarded defense, gathering every last bit of Qi from her body and pouring it into the gun. The highly condensed energy swelled unnaturally… and reached beyond the Axiom. The impossible image of a bullet’s slash was dragged into reality.
Having just expended his gears to create and launch his weapons, Maximilien’s defenses were thinner than ever. A natural-born warrior, Historia had spotted that opening.
And she also realized why I had ordered Move 8.
‘Was this your plan, Huey? You’re really something else.’
Without her Qi, Historia’s body was little more than that of a slightly durable woman. Red-hot shurikens, crudely made but all the more menacing iron spears, blades forged from split steel plates—if they hit, she wouldn't be unscathed. No, she would surely die.
But I was the one who had suggested using the Consensus of Gun and Sword. I had offered myself as bait.
Historia didn't overthink things, but she wasn't a fool. A faint smile touched her lips as she whispered.
“Alright, I’ll do it, Huey. But this is the last time, okay?”
‘…Probably. Because there won’t be a next time.’
No. There will be a next time.
What do you take me for? I may not be picky about my methods, but I still have my humanity. There’s no reason to let you die here.
She’s more useful to me alive, isn't she?
One of the cards I had drawn was the 8 of Clubs. A simple compass magic. In the Military State, during military training season, they would gather the children and teach them compass magic. To read a map, you at least had to know which way was north, south, east, and west.
And it’s a fairly well-known fact that a compass is, in fact, a magnet.
With that, it was complete. A heretical spell, modified by pouring in all the mana I had, far removed from its original purpose.
“Compass Gauss!”
I released the contained mana.
The mana that erupted from the 8 of Clubs was reminiscent of a vortex, yet different. It was hard to describe, but its form, where the beginning and end met, was similar to a swirl. The spiraling mana spread out, was amplified by the Queen of Fabric, and surged even more violently until it touched the steel.
‘Did you truly think that a spell, merely amplified in scale, would work on me? Regardless of its type?’
Maximilien thought.
‘It won't work. All the alchemic steel I possess is high-cost Grade 4 material or higher. It has a basic resistance to enchantment magic. Magic will not work on me. Not unless you are a more powerful alchemist than I, or you can touch the Axiom itself!’
I know. Magic isn't omnipotent. It’s merely a force that accelerates changes that already exist in the world, and even then, it often faces desperate resistance. This alone couldn't defeat Maximilien.
That’s why I drew one more card.
The 10 of Spades.
I layered the two cards together.
*
The iron, once one with the earth, recalled an ancient longing. It was a nostalgia that could only be remembered when it came upon you suddenly, like a childhood dream, and a void that, once forgotten, might never return.
The iron struggled to grasp this faint longing. It was a struggle that craved wholeness, as if it had left half of itself somewhere in the world.
Then, like a gift, ‘it’ appeared in the world.
Found it. Found it. Found it.
All the iron that discovered ‘it’ changed its target. Instead of flying to tear the skin of a fragile beast, it twisted its path to quench a thirst that could never be sated.
To become one with ‘it’.
*
The blades heading for Historia began to change direction all at once. Their speed increased, but since they were now off-target, they were no longer a threat. Thanks to that, Historia’s view was clear.
‘…I guess this won’t be the last time after all. Honestly, you play with a person’s heart.’
Historia didn't see what trick I had used. Even if she had, she wouldn't have understood.
But the ‘how’ didn't matter. What mattered was that I had solved the problem. And now, it was Historia’s turn.
‘Huey did his part, so I have to do mine. But I’m a little… short.’
Historia was in a bind. She had said she could manage, but she was more short on Qi than she’d expected.
It couldn't be helped. It was impossible to make an accurate judgment in such an extreme situation, especially while high on mana herbs. Even if I read her mind, it would be useless if her own judgment was impaired.
‘How, if I just gather… gather it all and somehow focus it.’
But the new Li that Historia had awakened, the Consensus of Gun and Sword, couldn't be formed with ordinary amounts of Qi.
The first Li, Zero In. The fourth bullet would be a guaranteed hit on its target. It was an Axiom Historia had reached after endless training to hit her targets with her primary weapon, the gun.
The second Li derived from it, the Consensus of Gun and Sword. The target of the ‘guaranteed hit’ became a line instead of a point. It was an image Historia had conceived during her fight with the Regressor, while pondering the difference between Chun-aeng and her gun. But to bring that result into reality, Historia had to swing her gun like a sword, and it cost several times more Qi.
Here, Historia had an inspiration.
‘Does it have to be a line? What if I focus it on a single point instead?’
Wait. Then how is that any different from a bullet? How is that different from Zero In, no, how is that different from just shooting the gun!
I went through all that trouble to be bait and clear the obstacles, and this is the stupid idea she comes up with!
‘Do humans really awaken in the face of death? That’s a great idea… Let’s test it right now.’
That’s not an awakening, it’s the effect of the stimulants! This is why you can't trust people on drugs!
But I couldn't move right now. Countless blades were changing course toward the 10 of Spades in my hand. If I let go of the card before their trajectories were completely altered, the Gaia Ego would dissipate, and Historia would be attacked.
I could only watch helplessly, but then I saw Maximilien covering his front with his cloak.
What was that thing called again? The Infinite Gear Cloak? It was the cloak that had blocked the Regressor’s slash.
A cloak where countless gears meshed together flawlessly, actively defending against attacks by rotating. Because the meshing disturbed space itself, it was specialized in blocking spatial or wind attacks. Of course, just because it was specialized didn't mean it couldn't block other things well.
Could a weakened, drugged-up Historia break through that? This, too, was information that was difficult to ascertain with mind-reading. Even if I read his mind, I wouldn't know until it happened.
However.
‘Consensus of Gun and Sword. Pierce.’
For some reason, I felt like I already knew.
Historia pulled the gun back sharply, then thrust it forward as she pulled the trigger. A posture like pushing a sword in, or thrusting with a spear.
Simultaneously, the drawn-out gunshot characteristic of the Consensus of Gun and Sword rang out. A blurry afterimage connected the muzzle of the gun to the cloak.
It hit.
And it was blocked.
Maximilien’s cloak dented inward, and a few cracked and broken gears flew in all directions. Perhaps because a real bullet was involved, it seemed to have inflicted more damage than during the fight with the Regressor.
Even so, it failed to penetrate the cloak. Historia’s Li was also a type that interfered with space. Even with a physical bullet, it was at a disadvantage against a cloak that disrupted space with countless meshing gears.
Of course. Just as I was feeling disappointed, I noticed something strange.
The gunshot wasn't over.
Not a volley, but a continuation. A single shot that continued indefinitely.
It wasn't that the bullet had elongated, nor that she had fired dozens of rounds. The cloak was continuously pressed, and the gears shattered until there was nothing left to break. The crack that started as a point gradually widened. The force that followed continuously added to the power of the initial impact.
At this point, it was neither a gun nor a sword. It had finally become a spear.
Gun and spear. Which was superior? The answer to Sunderspear’s long-held question was revealed here.
The answer was a bit cliché: all paths lead to the same end.
Finally, the cloak was pierced.
CRACK-SHATTER.
Maximilien’s body was skewered by the invisible shot and sent flying through the air. The gears that were both his power and his life scattered like blood.