Chapter 173
Chapter 173
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 173
Chapter Title: The City of Mechanical Devices, Hazat Ashin
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*
-Behind you, another one's coming!
‘I know!’
Fernandez spun his greatsword in a circle, smashing the incoming steel with the flat of the blade. With a crunch, the mechanism crumpled, and a heavy weight slammed into his forearm. The bodies of these steel constructs were incredibly dense, and the mass of the flying objects translated directly into impact force.
‘We can’t keep fighting like this forever.’
Fernandez narrowed his eyes and grumbled. A low whirring and grinding filled the air as the steel monsters lifted into the sky, each emitting an ominous mechanical hum.
Metal wings coated in layers of levitation spells and momentary weight-reduction enchantments flapped with a clanking rhythm. Their bodies were intricate tangles of gears and blackened plywood. Hot circuits flowed with lava, and exhaust vents hissed periodically to cool their overheated frames.
These monsters, the pinnacle of mechanical engineering, looked from afar like women with wings. They raised twisted spears embedded with dense runeglyphs and glared down at Fernandez from the air.
‘It wasn’t this tough in my past life.’
-The circumstances are different now.
Feizashi clicked his tongue. The magic-engineering golems of the Steel Floor Seal were sluggish and heavy, slow to maneuver. No matter how refined their engineering, since they were fundamentally powered by magic, Feizashi back then could easily shut them down or kill them.
The golems moved leisurely, armed with projectile weapons designed to destroy intruders. It was simple: slip behind them, disrupt their mana circuits before they could react.
-Greeee!
One of the hovering golems dove like a falcon. Fernandez angled his greatsword defensively. The golem spun its spear gracefully and thrust at his head.
-CRASH!
Sparks flew. Fernandez deflected the spearhead with the tip of his blade in a near-miraculous feat of skill. In the instant the golem’s balance faltered, his gloomy blue eyes gleamed.
-Shink.
The Sword of King Dane wouldn’t break under such impact. What a relief that was—Fernandez cleaved the sturdy, heavy golem clean in half with one stroke and let out a sigh. A normal greatsword wouldn’t have lasted past the third hit.
-SPLASH.
Scorching lava sprayed everywhere. Fernandez quickly leaped out of the splash zone, and the next golems circled wide in the air before diving down.
‘One at a time!’
-CRUNCH!
“Come on!”
-CRASH!
Golem wreckage rained down around him. It had been a hellish day. Fernandez sighed, scanning his surroundings with weary eyes.
To understand how things had come to this, one had to go back three hours.
*
They crossed corridors, passed gates, descended stairs for what felt like ages. Now, with his feet on the scorching ground heated by lava, Fernandez walked while mentally mapping the city’s overview he’d glimpsed from above.
‘There are four paths to the central nexus.’
-One is a life gate, three are death gates.
‘And they cycle clockwise.’
With the magic circle active, the city’s roads and buildings had to be viewed as magical constructs. It was a precise formation, arranged with the meticulous intent of chess pieces on a board.
At this point, it was no longer just a simple sealing array. This was a barrier. One obsessively designed to block entry and exit. Meaning this seemingly ordinary street could turn into a corner of hell at any moment.
-Clank, rumble.
The sound of chains winding echoed. Every ten minutes, then seven, then two. From three directions, in distinct rhythms, came the sounds of chains and hammering.
“Phew…”
A marker pinned itself to the mental map of the city in Fernandez’s head. One rune forge activating its mana conduits every ten minutes.
-Thud, thud, thud.
Then, one hammering every seven minutes. A discordant rhythm repeating independently, but soon…
‘One step back. Turn into alley three.’
Fernandez moved swiftly. At the same moment—
-Thud, clank.
With the sound of chains winding, mana erupted from the rune forge that made noise every two minutes. Lava swept over where he’d stood. Searing heat scorched his face.
The lava’s flow shifted, twisting the massive vortex coursing through the city. Fernandez updated his mental map in real time and pressed forward. The road that had been a life gate moments ago was now a death gate.
To the next corner, the next alley. Fernandez walked with a hand on his sword hilt. A terrifyingly complex and intricate barrier.
*
At the heart of the barrier—according to the pattern he’d mapped, approaching the third central nexus—an anomaly occurred.
-Kreeee…
From the rune forge in the city’s center, far off, came a noisy racket utterly unlike before. Fernandez stopped, frowning.
‘Did we step on something we shouldn’t?’
‘Looks like there’s an additional proximity-detection barrier. Damn well hidden.’
Fernandez paused in what seemed to be a market street. Kreeee, grind—the harsh friction echoed through the city.
Then, suddenly, a human voice spoke.
[Warning. Unauthorized access detected.]
The clipped, word-by-word delivery let Fernandez barely recognize it as ancient northern tongue.
[Warning. Unauthorized access detected.]
[Suppression rapid-strike unit authorized.]
‘Not exactly welcoming.’
Fernandez chuckled dryly at the sound of wings whipping the air from afar. What could they be protecting with guard golems like these? And with such poor taste in design, no less.
‘Feminine golems.’
The dwarf magic-engineering golems he’d seen before were massive, armed with huge shields, culverins, or other heavy artillery—mobile siege towers. But these dungeon golems were elegantly sculpted, moving with fluid grace.
Tasteless. Fernandez smirked at the complex gears whirring within. Steam billowed from their backs—lava boiling inside?—and red glows flickered from within.
Lava-infused mana gleamed in the mechanisms’ crevices, making them look like steel dolls infused with hellfire. Hardly a friendly appearance.
-Shing.
“Let’s see if you’re as capable as you look.”
Fernandez raised his greatsword in his right hand and grinned.
*
Feminine aerial dwarf magic-engineering golem… As a scholar of magic, Fernandez couldn’t accept such an awkward term, so after crushing the seventh one, he’d been pondering what to call them.
He was nearing the first central nexus. That meant he was close to the rune forge’s mana output and the barrier’s core—magic density was spiking.
Simply put, in a barrier powered by lava channeling mana, the forges where it erupted would trigger the effects first. Which was why Fernandez couldn’t stand still for even a moment, constantly leaping between life paths.
-Kreeee!
[Warning. Unauthorized entity approaching. Warning. Unauthorized entity approaching.]
The staccato warnings blared from all sides. And that meant the winged monsters were swarming again. Now, Fernandez couldn’t even rest his left arm.
-I’ve figured out what these things are.
‘Tell me.’
Feizashi spoke up after a long silence, right in the thick of battle. Fernandez was swinging his greatsword to shatter another golem. They’d started coming one or two at a time; now they moved in packs, and it was getting dangerous.
-Feminine models.
‘…You’re joking?’
-No. Feminine models. These are from the northern pantheon cultural sphere. Golems typically take the form the creator finds most threatening. What makes a feminine model threatening?
‘Gynophobia?’
-No. Mythical beings.
Fernandez finally narrowed his eyes at the charging golem. Fierce red glows bursting as they arced gracefully through the air. Their flight wasn’t that of winged creatures.
No way those small wings—two or three meters—could lift such heavy bodies. Levitation and weight-reduction spells? If that worked, why wings at all?
The wings were symbolic. Mythical female warriors with wings…
‘Valkyries.’
Fernandez let out a hollow laugh. It’d been ages since he’d faced angels.
One golem smashed into a wall from his greatsword swing and crashed to the ground. Thud—a heavy impact followed. Amid the wreckage, a steel arm twitched.
-Look over there.
Beyond the crumbled wall Feizashi indicated stood a rune forge. Somehow, amid the frenzy, he’d reached the seal’s center. Steel gears etched with runeglyphs churned noisily.
Complex machinery too intricate to parse clicked and whirred endlessly. Iron frameworks snapped on triggers, springs compressed, massive hammers slammed down. Glowing ingots stamped out on the anvil below.
A perpetual motion machine of sorts. Certain triggers ignited it with flowing lava, fueling the forge, which then used the heat and rising steam to run itself.
No need for such complexity just to seal someone. Overkill engineering. Fernandez stood in relative safety, peering through the broken wall at the device.
“It’s not for maintaining a seal or barrier.”
He’d seen something similar long ago—in his past life. Fernandez stroked his chin, lost in thought.
Similar style to the Steel Floor Seal’s structures, but a different mechanism. More like the dwarf dungeon where he’d first entered…
“A door.”
Insight flashed. Powered by mana as fuel, its design philosophy was inherently magical, and highly advanced magic transcended cultures into common forms.
The dissimilar shape had delayed the connection. Watching the rune forge operate, Fernandez realized. This was a gate.
“A gateway to another dimension.”
The words slipped out unbidden. The massive structure—sealing or barriers were secondary.
The obsessively tight defenses implied a dire external threat. The dwarves had faced something that made them plan for their city’s fall.
But no protection lasts forever. Hence, the door. They were trying to open a path from their city to somewhere else.
“A gateway staked on their race’s fate…”
No normal city could pour lava into its heart. This was a final bastion.
[Correct.]
Fernandez whipped his head toward the voice. Beyond the forge’s intricate machinery and roiling lava, deep inside. Amid the hazy steam. Structurally, that inner area was the city’s true center.
A whisper came from somewhere in there.
[I watched you fight. Impressive.]
“Who are you?”
[The mother of the children you slew.]
At those words, Fernandez’s hand spasmed to his sword hilt. The only ones he’d “killed” in the north were corrupted northerners or demons.
And the mother of demons, the Demidraco…
“Sadarkelia…!”
A stifled laugh echoed from the mist. Kek, kekeke. Amid the acrid sulfur and iron reek, an incongruously clear, beautiful laugh.
-Chances of winning?
‘Right now… none.’
He had ways prepared to face Sadarkelia, but his goal wasn’t confronting her directly—it was severing Eric’s tentacles and rooting out northern threats.
Thus, no winning odds now. Even if she were half as strong as Mumto…
[Ahaha, what an amusing child! Little one. Do I look like one of those lizards to you? Come, behold me.]
-Whoooosh…
Hot winds parted the steam. Amid gears and steel pipes, a strangely cool breeze tickled his cheek.
Between heat and steel, flowers bloomed. In a palm-sized gap, greenery, blossoms, and wild grasses flourished.
A bizarre sight. In the steel city without a ray of sunlight, at the heart of this violent, lava-boiling metropolis, a tiny garden unfolded—holy in itself, more shrine than seal or magic nexus.
And at its center, a woman knelt, bound in gleaming golden chains, gazing at him.
The woman smiled softly. A smile he knew.
[Now, what do I look like to you?]
-Thump, thump, thump.
His heart raced. He knew it was an illusion, knew the era, place, voice, aura didn’t match anyone real.
Yet that face, that smile still gripped his heart, tearing it. Fernandez bowed his head slightly against the dizzying rush of blood.
[Why so? Embarrassed to look at me?]
“Witch.”
Blue eyes flickered through raven hair. Fernandez glared, grinding his teeth.
“I’ll kill you for sure.”
-Shing.
The blade’s draw sent chills. At his words, the woman stammered in confusion.
[W-Wait. Hold on. Y-You’re so hasty. That can’t be? My form is always, always the one a man loves most! How can you turn your sword on me? H-Have you never loved anyone?]
He had. The problem: her form stirred not love or affection, but regret and remorse. And that was his reverse scale.
Aria. Fernandez couldn’t tear his eyes from her face. Since shattering Mumto’s illusion, he’d accepted he’d never meet Aria in this life.
If the world found peace, she wouldn’t need him. His own farewell, his atonement. How to explain that sealed pain? Fernandez bit his lip.
Even now, he wanted to touch, stroke, embrace her. His heart pounded madly. And that feeling transmuted wholly to hatred. How dare she, how dare she.
Her memory was the holiest icon he’d carry forever. And this woman had just dragged mud across his world.
[Wait! I-I’ll change form. Stop, just stop! Oh no!]