Chapter 302: The Gears in My Head
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 302: The Gears in My Head
Maximilien calmly caught his breath. With his mind, he mulled over my words; with his body, he brought his broken form under control. The gears within his body slowly began to realign.
His joints creaked as they resumed function. What little blood he had left pooled in his head. His reason, once clouded as if by fog, flickered as it tried to reclaim its light.
‘He says I tried to become a god?’
Maximilien scoffed, and the impact sent a wave of pain through his head. He was in such a state that even his own breath could damage him.
Yet despite his wretched condition, his thoughts did not cease. Tick, tock. The gear in the center of Maximilien's head began to turn slowly.
‘I have never believed in gods. From the moment I was born without arms, I never once relied on the unseen. My prosthetic arms supported me, and alchemy guided me. The gods never watched over me. It was only ever me.’
No matter how fatal the crisis, his brain kept working. It wasn't a matter of will, but of function.
This was because Maximilien had embedded a gear in his own head.
This small mechanical device, which he called the Gear of Thought, did not, despite its name, think for him. It was more akin to a whip for the brain.
It forcibly shoves blood into the head, compressing the brain. It blocks off the parts that cry out in fatigue and connects emotion and reason as needed.
Therefore, whether he was exhausted, hungry, or in pain, his mind would not dull. Fear, anger, and confusion could not interfere with his thoughts. Even if the Beast King roared, his body would move, ignoring even the Princess's power. If it was necessary, he would act. Even if that act bordered on an Anathema.
With it, Maximilien had earned the right.
The right to move by his will alone, regardless of fate or limitations.
‘…You are wrong, King of Humans. I have no need to become a god.’
“Because I am already the god of my own life!”
Maximilien exercised the right he had earned. Following his own will, he stretched out his prosthetic arm, its grotesque frame exposed.
“I was merely trying to give an opportunity! To others who lack that right! The opportunity to become masters of themselves!”
Even with a shattered body, one could use their Unique Magic if they had the will. Maximilien focused his mind, and the gears that had stopped all began to turn at once.
The Steel Beetle broke its long silence and twisted its body. I had been suppressing it until now, but since I had stepped away, there was nothing to stop it. The colossal weapon, which could overwhelm even the Dog King with sheer force, creaked as it prepared to unleash its unfinished power…
And that was all.
“‘Opportunity’ is a nice word, but don't you think you're twisting it to your own advantage? To put it simply, you were trying to shove gears into other people's bodies, weren't you?”
I shrugged.
The Steel Beetle’s stretch stopped with a creak. If a machine could suffer from full-body paralysis, it would look exactly like that. The Steel Beetle convulsed in agony, unable to use its immense power.
Maximilien tried again and again to move the Steel Beetle, but he failed as many times as he tried. The exoskeleton surrounding it wouldn't move at all.
“I just showed a normal reaction to that. What person would stand by while someone tried to shove gears into their body? They’d resist with all their might. And it wouldn't just be out of fear.”
I pointed at the Steel Beetle so Maximilien could see it clearly. Between the massive gears that formed its exoskeleton, tiny gears had been wedged.
Two interlocked gears turn just fine. But what if you wedge in a third gear so that it touches both of the smoothly turning gears at the same time? What happens when three gears are interlocked with each other?
They don't turn at all.
If one gear turns clockwise, the gear it meshes with must turn counter-clockwise. That is the basic principle of gears. But if a third gear meshes with both of them, it would have to turn both clockwise and counter-clockwise simultaneously.
A contradiction.
“Look at the Steel Beetle. When an odd number of gears form a loop, they lock up like that. Such a simple trick is all it takes to render your gears useless. Only you would use them. Other people can't. No, they won't.”
“Grk…!”
“Give up. You have no moves left.”
A moment ago, he at least had gears to throw. He had the mana to use alchemy. He had protective equipment to defend his body.
That was all before he was hit by Historia's Consensus of Gun and Sword. Now, he was nothing more than a living corpse with prosthetic arms.
I walked steadily toward him, now stripped of any means to resist. There were a few gears scattered around, but such a small number posed no threat. Gears, after all, are just scrap metal until they're put together.
He had no way to stop me. He could crush an ordinary person with just his prosthetic arms, but his opponent was, unfortunately, me. The moment my hand touched his body, I would use his Unique Magic to reverse every gear inside him. Including the Gear of Thought.
Maximilien hung his head and faltered, as if he had given up all hope.
Just two more steps. That was the distance between Maximilien and me. With two steps left to death, Maximilien grabbed his right arm with his left. The prosthetic vibrated violently. At a glance, it looked as if he were trembling in fear.
“No! I will not stop!”
Of course not. The vibration of the prosthetic was a death rattle, a final tremor before it broke. CRUNCH. The connection between his right arm and shoulder gave way, and his left arm finally tore its lifelong rival—the right arm—from his body.
Clutching his own arm as a weapon, Maximilien let out a desperate cry and swung.
‘If something is lacking, fill it. If it's broken, fix it. If it's inferior, improve it. If it's impossible, make it possible! I will not stop!’
Who would ever think someone would rip off their own arm and swing it? It was a surprise draw that struck at a blind spot in my consciousness. No matter how injured, Maximilien was a powerhouse who had reached the rank of the Six Generals. The speed at which he swung, using his own arm as an axis, was immense. The gears on the prosthetic arm clattered, as if trying to tear me to shreds.
But I am a mind reader. A meticulously calculated move is all the more transparent to me.
Instead of dodging the swinging arm, I reached out my own hand to meet it. Compared to his prosthetic, my hand was laughably slow, but speed is relative. My fingers would reach him before his arm reached my face. The prosthetic and my hand crossed paths, and the tip of my fingernail caught on a gear.
The long, tiresome battle ended there. Maximilien's body froze, as if he were a figure in a photograph.
Inertia carried the prosthetic to my cheek, but that was it. Feeling the cold metal against my skin, I muttered.
“…I was going to reverse them all and break you, but you somehow managed to stop the gears even then.”
Just as I could stop his turning gears, he, too, could do the same. The moment Maximilien sensed the gears in his body malfunctioning, he halted all of their movement.
It was the best possible response. Not that it changed the situation.
“Even so, with gears spread throughout your body, you can't move. All this does is buy you a few seconds before you die.”
And just as I expected, the strength drained from his body. With the gears stopped, his body couldn't hold itself together.
I had no intention of dismissing him. In fact, I wanted to applaud him for exhausting every possible option until the very end. But since I couldn't let go of his arm, lest he start moving again, I made a clapping sound with my mouth instead.
“Clap, clap, clap. You truly are incredible. I'm not being deceptive or mocking you; this is from the bottom of my heart. You were a truly incredible and honest person, right to the very end.”
Objectively speaking, it was impossible for me to lose.
Besides his prosthetic arms, Maximilien had filled the inside of his body with gears to strengthen his physique. Thanks to them, he was incredibly durable and could move on par with the Qi-wielding Generals. He must have found that part too bothersome to explain, as he seems to have passed himself off as a master of Qi Arts, claiming his ability to control gears was a power known as ‘Li’.
In any case, thanks to that, I started with an advantage so unfair it was almost cowardly: I only had to touch him to win. Powerful allies like Azzy and Historia were just a bonus.
No matter how weak I was or that he was one of the Six Generals, this fight wasn't just tilted in my favor; the board was completely flipped. That he had dragged such a disadvantageous fight this far was entirely due to his skill.
“It's just that your direction was too skewed. Those who reach the level of the Divine naturally change other humans; they don't struggle against them. You, on the other hand, tried to struggle against all other humans. Even to the point of fighting a proxy war with me.”
While holding his prosthetic with one hand, I drew a card with the other. The Ace of Diamonds, the Pickpocket's Skewer. I used my remaining mana to perform an alchemical transformation. A familiar texture filled my palm.
I gripped the skewer in a reverse hold and raised it to the height of Maximilien's head. Though his thoughts had all but stopped, his bloodshot eyes unconsciously followed the tip of the skewer. Even in this state, life instinctively guards against death.
“Farewell, Maximilien. I will affirm your wish alone. I will remember your impossible dream. I cannot grant your wish, but I will write that such a wish existed and keep it in a corner of a crypt. The King of Humans acknowledges you. Maximilien, you were no god, but you were not a cowardly warrior.”
After offering him a brief eulogy, I moved my hand. The skewer plunged toward his temple.
Thunk. The sensation of striking something hard traveled up my arm….
I tilted my head. The skewer, which I had definitely aimed at his head, had struck something else.
A tree was growing there.
A single tree, having somehow burst through the concrete floor, was blocking my skewer. Its branches swayed gently.
The scene was so still that it felt as if the tree had been there all along, and I had simply failed to notice it before swinging the skewer.
But that was impossible.
This is the Military State. This is the command center of the State, a place where the ground is covered in concrete, where useless trees that can't even be used for firewood were cut down long ago. There couldn't possibly be a tree in this land, where concrete is laid instead of soil and bricks are stacked instead of wood.
Even if there were, it would be a rare species that could grow through such thick concrete. And even if it were such a species, there's no way it could grow to a person's height in a matter of seconds!
This was clearly an artificial phenomenon. Someone made a tree grow to protect Maximilien. Setting aside whether that's even possible!
But who?
"Forgive me, my king."
The answer came from beneath the ground.
First, it was a sprout. Then, a sapling. In a few seconds, what had been a sprout stood before me as a massive, thick-trunked tree.
It was the world's most silent explosion. An explosive of nature, with green smoke and brown flames, engulfed me in the blink of an eye.