Ancient Gear Ruby (1)
For several hours after we stepped into Yeon Moon-woo's mountain hermitage, the two of us talked without pause.
"Wait—so in that defensive array... what did you just say?"
"Yes. If you account for the blind spots in that section and install additional radial traps like this..."
"By heaven, you're right! So an approach like that is possible too!"
Yeon Moon-woo marveled. I found myself awkwardly scratching at the back of my neck. At first, he hadn't believed a word I'd said.
He dismantled every last one of my Strange Gate Formations on his own? Without smashing through them with the Yeon family's martial arts?
But I had told him the truth. A few of the formations would have taken too long, and Soso had wanted to simply break them apart. I'd stopped her and dismantled those traps myself as well.
That was how I was able to walk Yeon Moon-woo through the method for cracking every single formation. Among those methods were approaches even he, the original architect, had never considered—which was precisely why I now found myself held captive by the old man.
I also laid out for him a theory on how a Strange Gate Formation might hold even against raw physical force on the level of Soso's Heavenly Demon Divine Art, organizing my thoughts as I spoke.
When I finished, he stared at me as if he'd just seen a ghost.
"You said you were Soso's classmate at the academy? Then you're barely past twenty. And yet you've grasped principles this profound... Young man. Young man, would you become my disciple? I will pass on to you every secret of the Strange Gate Formations I have learned in my eighty years of life!"
The offer was tempting. I had dismantled them, yes, but Yeon Moon-woo's formations were of an extremely high caliber.
This is a place the Yeon family visits, so he hadn't installed anything truly vicious. Complicated in structure, but not lethal.
If I could learn the kind of traps he built when he actually intended to kill someone, it would be an enormous help. But Soso answered in my place.
"Um... Great-uncle! We came here for something more important than Strange Gate Formations."
"Something more important than Strange Gate Formations? Wait. Come to think of it—why did the two of you come to this hermitage in the first place?"
Only then did Yeon Moon-woo seem to have the leisure to ask about our actual business. He looked from Soso to me and back, then nodded as if he'd figured it out.
"Ah, I see. I'm treated as a discarded member of the Yeon family, but Se-hwi was always a well-mannered boy. So you've come to pay your respects before the girl is married off, is that it?"
He then looked at me with a thoroughly pleased expression.
"Well, the Heavenly Demon's line will be carried on by you, Soso, with the Yeon family's blood. Having a young man this talented in other fields come in as a son-in-law would be a fine thing for the family's future..."
"Th-that's not it! Minsu is a new hire at our company... and we came here today for something else entirely!"
Soso startled at the words married and son-in-law. Her face flushed a deep, vivid red. But it wasn't embarrassment from dislike—it was the look of someone so happy she didn't know what to do with herself.
"Ahem. Is that so? Well, I understand for now. What is this business of yours, then?"
At last it was my turn to speak. I answered Yeon Moon-woo in a serious voice.
"We've come because I have questions about an Ancient Gear. About an ancient divine implement."
The three of us went inside the hermitage.
For all that the exterior looked shabby and small, a spacious research chamber opened up within. Delivery boxes were visible here and there, so for all his reputation as a famous craftsman living in isolation, he didn't appear to be entirely cut off from the outside world.
"So something like this is possible..."
After examining Professor Seong Chaerin's diagnosis and medical opinion, along with the MRI scans of my mana heart, his face filled with astonishment.
"I have handled ancient divine implements my entire life, and yet this is the first time I have ever seen a person fused into one with them."
As befit an expert on Ancient Gears, he grasped my condition at a glance.
"A human who still lives even with his dantian destroyed... and an Ancient Gear standing in for that dantian. An Ancient Gear is, in itself, a pure congregation of inner power, so at a glance it might seem possible. In truth, it is not."
He went on to give a brief explanation of Ancient Gears. An Ancient Gear and its wielder exist in a relationship that is both a contract and a symbiosis.
"If it were an Ancient Gear that had never chosen a master, that would be one thing. But an Ancient Gear that has already chosen its master cannot survive without that master. So if you, as you have, stood at death's door with a destroyed dantian, the Gear would revert to its initial form in order to seek out a new wielder."
Ancient Gears are evolving superweapons. Their performance develops through to a final, third form.
"And yet this Ruby of yours, far from reverting to its initial form, has changed its shape and fused with you. Well. Ruby is exceedingly special even among Ancient Gears. It is less a weapon than a spirit beast among spirit beasts."
As expected, Yeon Moon-woo knew Ruby's lineage and origins in exhaustive detail.
"A spirit beast, you said?"
"Ruby is unique. The Eastern Empire, which was the predecessor of Martial Nation—in that age there existed a spirit beast among spirit beasts. The Vermilion Bird's Egg."
"The Vermilion Bird..."
And he was right. When I had collapsed my own mana heart to take down the Doubtful Monster, Ruby had evolved into its final form.
That form had been a firebird burning of its own accord. The shape of the Vermilion Bird.
"But if it has returned to the form of an egg like this, then considering the final form, the seals ought to have been maintained at three stages. According to these images, however, there are five seals. Hmm. And what that means is..."
He was right about that, too. Professor Seong Chaerin had also found it strange that as many as five stages of seals had formed.
"The professor who performed my surgery estimated that the seals increased to five as part of the fusion, in order to keep the mana heart in a stable form."
"That does have a certain logic to it. No—more than that, the fact that this surgery succeeded at all is something that defies common sense. I'd heard there was a brilliant young professor, barely more than a girl. So the rumors about her were true."
After a brief exchange, the two of us at last arrived at the heart of the matter.
"So. You wish to undo Ruby's seals, is that it?"
"Yes, sir."
For a moment, Yeon Moon-woo's gaze met mine. He seemed to read something in my eyes, and he nodded calmly.
"Soso. Step outside."
Fortunately, he was quick on the uptake. If he had already guessed the state of my mana heart, then he also understood that it was not something to be discussed carelessly in front of Soso.
Soso looked puzzled, but she was speaking with an elder of her own family, and she obeyed without protest.
After checking the door so that no word would leak outside, he spoke. His face was full of pity.
"No. If you undo the seals, that life will grow even shorter. And you still insist on unsealing them?"
He seemed to have read the meaning of the seals. I answered.
"Yes. No matter what happens, I have to undo them."
"Ruby is the Vermilion Bird's Egg. And the Vermilion Bird is a divine beast that stands beyond even spirit beasts. That the Vermilion Bird has barred the way with five stages of seals means it is determined to keep its master alive by any means. Ruby will lament this. It went to such lengths to save you, and now its master is rushing toward his own end."
"This body was never going to last long anyway. Shouldn't I at least spend what's left of it on something that matters? Please help me, sir."
Yeon Moon-woo fell silent for a moment. I had even brought a letter from Yeon Se-hwi, lord of the Heavenly Demon Cult, for this very purpose—but the instant I met Yeon Moon-woo in person, I knew.
He isn't the kind of man who moves because of a letter like that.
The stubbornness of a master craftsman. The only thing that would move him was his own will. If he refused to help, even Yeon Se-hwi would be powerless to compel him.
Even so. I have to persuade him somehow.
Ruby's seals had to be undone. Yuri and Soso. Those two alone could not fill the void Si-woo had left behind.
Even if it costs me the rest of my life. That is something I have to do myself.
The brief silence stretched long. I steeled my resolve even further.
Fortunately, Yeon Moon-woo studied the look in my eyes, then spoke at last as if he had given in.
"I am no martial artist, but I have watched martial artists my whole life. Men with eyes like yours have never been moved by any persuasion."
"Will you help me?"
"Even if I refused, you would have used every means at your disposal to convince me, would you not?"
He had seen straight through me. As I put on an awkward face, he smiled and went on.
"But this, too, is a kind of fate. If I am going to help, I will do everything that lies within the reach of these hands. So that you can use Ruby's power once more."
And then the explanation of Ruby's seals—their precise structure—began.
Night fell.
Yeon Moon-woo had agreed to perform the secret art that would undo Ruby's first-stage seal.
Undoing the remaining seals will be up to you and Ruby. What I can help with only goes so far...
What he would attempt, as a master of Ancient Gears, was the stabilization of the seals.
He intended to rework that mana heart from which fire qi was leaking in all directions, wild as a detonated reactor core.
I cannot extend your lifespan. But you must not die in the process of undoing the seals that come after. At least as far as Ruby's third form—the one you already succeeded in reaching.
In other words, through Yeon Moon-woo's secret art, I would be able to undo the seals stably through the third stage. Ruby's final evolution was something I had already accomplished once.
So by optimizing the Ancient Gear and adjusting part of its structure, he said, the rampaging mana heart could be partially stabilized.
But the seals beyond that...
A fourth and fifth form that did not exist even among ordinary Ancient Gears, nor among S-rank Ancient Gears.
Those, he said, were not Gears at all but the true form of the divine beast, the Vermilion Bird—and even Yeon Moon-woo could not imagine what side effects they might bring.
Well. What's the worst that happens? I die.
For now, I decided to think only of this: the first-stage seal could be undone. If I could undo the second-stage seal after that, I would even be able to use some of the flame spells from my Eins days.
"Grandfather said the art must be applied to your body at sunrise. For the sake of stabilizing your fire-attribute Gear."
Soso was right. It was already night, and the art could not be attempted now. So what I needed to do in the meantime was cleanse my body and rest.
I finished bathing in the open-air hot spring the old man had built, and was resting in the room he had given me, when Soso suddenly walked in.
"I know that already, but... Team Leader Yeon, why are you...?"
At that, Soso grew thoroughly flustered.
"Th-this is absolutely not for any improper purpose! Grandfather said... that I... I might be of some small help to you... that is why I came in... so I'll thank you not to get the wrong idea!"
I had no idea what she was talking about. Soso was still dressed in the same Chinese-style woman's robes she had worn on the way here, but her cheeks were flushed, as if she too had only just finished bathing.
She hesitated for a moment, then finally stated her business.
"J-just lie still on the bed!"