#038 Proof
#038 Proof
During the few days I spent in Normance, I gathered as much information as I could.
While collecting material related to Acedia in particular, I noticed something strange.
-Steel golems firing more than twenty magic bullets per second.
-Lethal rounds bursting outward in all directions with a flash of light.
-Mana Stones floating through the air before exploding.
They were familiar technologies.
The crowning touch among them was, of course, the 'mechanical golems' that used such highly unusual things.
The mechanical golems, which were said to have killed many adventurers before they could even put up a proper fight, were all objects I knew far too well.
'Why are Mammon's toys showing up here?'
Mammon's creations were killing adventurers.
On the outside, they looked like toys children might play with, but inside they were murder weapons—dozens of rotary saw blades would spring out, and so on.
Human adventurers were being killed by strange beings wielding Mammon's technology.
'Why are they using Mammon's technology?'
What was Mammon's technology?
Magic engineering.
A discipline that fused alchemy and magic into one. Its most representative weapon was the gun used by the Holy Sword Village chief.
Objects that allowed anyone to easily wield the power of magic.
The fact that these were mainly used as weapons really showed human nature, but it was true that magic engineering had benefited both the Human Realm and the Demon Realm.
In other words, magic engineering was a technology reverse-imported from the Human Realm into the Demon Realm.
Similar technology had existed in the Demon Realm before, and the concept of 'firing' something with 'stored mana' using an object had existed before as well,
but the introduction of products of magic engineering like guns and bombs was clearly thanks to Demonfolk who had visited the Human Realm.
If so, one puzzling question arose here.
-Was the Human Realm's magic engineering the same as the Demon Realm's magic engineering?
Over a few decades, they could be considered similar, but once a century passed, the technological context would diverge greatly.
-What's this?
-Ah, that? A bomb that could blow away the Demon King's castle in one shot.
-It's an egg, though?
-A bomb shaped like an egg. The moment you crack it open to cook something, whether baking bread or whatever—bang! Heh heh, how about it? Fun, right? You'd die of excitement, wouldn't you? Hahahaha!!
-.......
Humans were fundamentally different from Demonfolk in disposition, and Demonfolk likewise viewed technology through a different lens.
Even if high-ranking demons or Demonfolk had been summoned to the Middle Realm and learned its technology, whether by glancing sidelong or whatever, magic engineering in the Human Realm and the Demon Realm should have been essentially different.
'So why is Demon Realm technology spread around here?'
'Looking at the records of adventurers wiped out in dungeons, it feels exactly like they were killed in one of Mammon's dungeons in the Demon Realm.'
'Did Mammon ever release her technology into the Human Realm? She's not the type to do that recklessly.'
'In the first place, Mammon is a Demon King-class being. If someone like that spread her technology in the Human Realm, wouldn't that mean she was summoned here too?'
'Then someone would have stepped up to deal with her. So why is it spread around like this?'
Even if the concept of magic engineering could exist in the Human Realm, 'Mammon's magic engineering' should not exist in the Human Realm.
And yet it did.
That was what I couldn't understand most of all.
As I headed toward the black mage's abandoned dungeon, my confusion deepened with every step forward.
And then.
"Stop."
I raised my staff to the side and halted the party.
The distinctive sound coming from beyond that passage was definitely 'it.'
"Examiner Morgen. I'm sorry, but I don't think the examination is what matters right now."
"Pardon? From the very start, what...?"
"It's coming. Earth Wall."
I raised a thick wall of earth from the ground and took cover behind it.
"Master, is it an enemy?"
"An enemy. A very dangerous one."
Even though I had moved without any warning, the three of them immediately pressed close to me, and soon red light began bursting from beyond the passage.
RATATATAT!!
The sound of gunfire.
The sound of something spinning.
And the sound of something running, feet pounding rapidly against the ground.
"Morgen. If an automaton appears, what danger rank would that be?"
"An automaton? That would be at least C—"
RATATATATATAT——!!
"It seems the enemy we saw at the Guild has shown up."
The sound grew rougher and closer.
I signaled the three flustered companions to stay quiet, and while hidden behind cover, I conjured a fireball.
Direction, distance, angle.
Calculation complete.
"Brace for impact."
I gripped my staff tightly.
The mana that left my body infused the fireball, and soon my consciousness linked with it.
SWISH!
"Fire."
The flame flew swiftly over the cover.
The enemy's gunfire aimed at the fireball that had suddenly shot out, but I moved my fingers and changed the fireball's trajectory.
-Slider.
Fwoosh!!
Dodging the gunfire, the fireball curved like a swallow in flight and struck the enemy.
At the same moment, a 'boom' rang out as the flame exploded, and I immediately raised my staff and dashed forward.
"Intercept."
Swish.
I placed one foot on the cover, swung my staff in a wide arc, and aimed the Mana Stone-studded tip toward the opposite side of the passage.
'Sorry, but I'm quite accomplished in this field too.'
Sniping.
Bang——!!
A flaming arrow burst from the tip of the staff, becoming a beam of light that drove into the enemy.
The arrow lodged in the exploding automaton's body, and the thing erupted once more before breaking down.
"......."
Time until the enemy's 'function ceased': 7 seconds.
I retrieved my staff and observed the enemy's state.
"Morgen. Even after blowing it up like that, it won't revive, right?"
It wouldn't.
I knew that since its power unit had been destroyed, it couldn't move even if it wanted to.
"That's what it said on the Guild bulletin board."
"Ah, y-yes. Yes. That's right. You really did your homework...."
"One must prepare for anything."
However, I pretended I'd identified the newly appeared enemy through research and preparation at the Guild.
I wasn't sure if it was working, but at least I wouldn't hear something like 'how do you know that'—
"Amazing, Witch. How did you know?"
"...Intuition."
Since Rosemas was pressing the point, claiming I'd detected it through hearing or mana would have been a stretch.
So I decided to just brush it off as intuition.
"First of all, is it all right to approach that thing and inspect it, Morgen?"
"...That can't be. Why is there an automaton here...?"
Morgen was in shock.
The person who was supposed to lead us seemed to have fallen into panic and couldn't make sound judgments, so I grabbed her by the collar.
"Examiner Morgen. I asked whether I may approach that thing and inspect it. Do you not know?"
"Ah, ah... no. If it's destroyed to that extent...."
"Are you certain?"
"Master."
Lucius approached me from the side, and since Morgen seemed to be slowly regaining her composure, I let go.
"First, Examiner, the situation has become strange. Let's get out of here first and then—"
Screeeeech.
The sound of something moving came from beyond the passage.
Rosemas, face pale, turned her head toward the entrance we had come through.
"The entrance...?!"
It was blocked.
"...It seems the owner of this dungeon has appeared, or something like that."
We might have to fight at full strength.
'Damn.'
If these were the automatons I knew, they were the worst possible enemy for me.
'Those things don't have Mana Stones.'
An enemy that gave me no way to replenish the mana I spent....
This was the worst.
But there was one thing I had gained.
"That thing—may I inspect it for a moment?"
"Master?"
The thing that had flashed momentarily in the firelight.
It was definitely a crest I knew.
I ran straight to the destroyed automaton and checked the burning traces.
'As expected.'
This machine.
I'd thought it was no ordinary object, but I never expected to find a clue here.
-Killing Spider Mk-IV. SN: 1Q2W3E4R018
A model name and serial number.
And below them, the emblem of 'Acedia.'
'Found it.'
A trace of Zepar—a trace of the Demon King Army.
* * *
"Hmm...."
Shax, the dungeon's owner and a demon, was a bit flustered.
"A Killing Spider was subdued that easily?"
Skritch, skritch.
The automaton with a spider's appearance, the Killing Spider, had been destroyed far too easily by the enemy's attack.
"Hmm...."
The Crimson Witch.
She had looked flustered, but she had skillfully dealt with the enemy that appeared inside the dungeon.
"She's no ordinary one."
While everyone else was panicking, she alone had raised a wall from the ground for cover and launched a fireball.
"Is that woman the party leader?"
He'd assumed the man was the leader, but it seemed the red-haired witch was actually the party's leader.
"Then I'll have to separate her. The small fry... well, I'll let them see the dead ones and deal with it themselves. Now then, Raging Undead."
Bang!
As Shax fired his shotgun into the ceiling, the countless skeletons strewn about the cave began rising one by one.
"As expected, they noticed right away."
He'd deliberately fired the shotgun so they could hear it beyond the passage, and the enemy's movements had become unsettling.
Fwsss.
Shax grabbed a skeleton beside him and laid it flat next to himself.
Then, still holding the shotgun, he quietly waited for them to approach.
Click, click-click.
The skeletons twitched their vertebrae and one by one picked up weapons.
Some took bows, some spears, some axes.
One thing they all had in common: every skeleton wore similar armor.
STEP, STEP.
From deeper in the cave.
Four adventurers came into view.
Shax smiled brightly at them and greeted them.
"Greetings, trespassers."
"You are...?"
"The black mage who owns this laboratory. Shax."
The adventurers began exchanging glances.
Shax found their behavior—as if they intended to fight him—absurd.
"Do you intend to fight me?"
"...I am Hora Morgen, deputy of the Adventurers' Guild Response Team."
"The Adventurers' Guild, is it."
"This place was a black mage's laboratory abandoned for about thirty years. The Adventurers' Guild periodically disposes of the monsters that appear here...."
"I'm still alive, so why have you entered someone else's home and started waving weapons at the owner? How absurd."
Sneering, Shax aimed his shotgun at the adventurers.
"You lot. Those who enter another's home without permission...."
Clack.
As he chambered a round, Shax aimed the muzzle precisely at the red-haired witch.
"For trespassing, summary execution."
"Wait. Let me ask one thing."
"Oh."
Shax let out a hollow laugh at the red-haired witch's boldness in not averting her gaze, but since she said she wanted to ask, he decided to answer as her last words.
"Ask whatever you like. I'll answer anything. Just one thing. Don't beg for your life."
"How about trying this: 'Belphegor, you son of a bitch'?"
"......."
"You blasphemous wretch!!!"
Bang————!!
The moment the shotgun's trigger was pulled, the battle began.