Chapter 124
Chapter 124
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 124
Chapter Title: Battleship Base
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The Battleship Base lived up to its name and legends exactly as described—a half-sunken warship renovated into a base.
Even though it was severed at the waist, its sheer size was hard to believe, dwarfing even the grounds of Delaiten.
Is this the warship of the gods...?
“The Captain wants to see you.”
Even if they could borrow the ancient facilities somehow, perhaps they couldn't actually operate the technology.
The entrance that Prisvia's subordinate guided us to looked pathetically shabby compared to the base's grandeur. It was nothing more than a makeshift door slapped over a crack in the ship's waterline.
“Hmph.”
As soon as we passed through the entrance, an intricately constructed steel chamber appeared, where Prisvia was waiting for us.
“To come in so obediently when I told you to enter... Are you fearless, naive, or hatching some devious scheme again?”
Prisvia, with her emotionless sneer, was dressed in casual clothes unlike before.
As we drew closer to the Battleship Base, Kasena had been murmuring in awe, but now she seemed overwhelmed by its majesty, falling silent for a moment.
What is she saying...? I was trying to gauge Prisvia's intentions when Kasena's eyes suddenly lit up brightly.
“You're really Prisvia? I've always wanted to meet you!”
“?”
“I've read about you so many times in books! You analyzed ancient ruins and technology discovered in Harbadonia and taught it to people!”
“Oh, that.”
At that, Prisvia let out her signature horrific smile, the kind that instantly put people on guard.
“I needed money back then. I tossed out tech I no longer needed, and the stupid humans went wild with their 'sponsorship' and 'support,' throwing cash at me... Heh heh heh.”
“Huh...?”
As Kasena blinked in confusion, I cut into the conversation.
“Sorry, but we don't have time for that right now.”
Prisvia fixed me with a cold stare, then snorted a laugh and turned away.
“Well, you're here to charm me just like you did the beastkin and wolves. I know. I'm actually a little curious how you pulled that off.”
“......”
“If you want to talk, follow me. This isn't a good place for it.”
Frustration clawed at every cell in my body, but for now, I had to yield. Prisvia held the decision-making power in this negotiation, not us.
“Do you believe in gods?”
Prisvia asked abruptly as she stepped onto the steel staircase leading upward.
“My kind are so rational it brings tears to our eyes—we don't believe in gods. Heh, we only believe in visible science and technology.”
“......?”
“Do you grasp the meaning behind us revering and worshiping the [Ones Who Came]?”
The steel staircase led to a workshop on the lower deck, lit by lighting far inferior to the ship's original structure.
The moment we entered, thin goosebumps prickled across our skin.
Huge flasks lined the walls, filled with unidentified culture fluid containing humans or beasts.
“The technological prowess of the [Ones Who Came] is truly unknown territory. Heh, it's terrifying enough to inspire awe. A thousand years? No, probably two thousand years ahead.”
“......?”
“You've probably heard it simplified as the gods granting beastkin the power to face the Abyss, like some blessing. But that's not the reality.”
Prisvia sneered chillingly and pounded on one flask so hard it seemed it would shatter, but not a single crack appeared on the glass.
“The beastkin race can be called bioweapons created through biological experiments. This place was their lab.”
What in the world...?
Unable to comprehend, I just blinked, and Prisvia nodded toward a row of flasks over there.
A cold shiver ran down my spine. Like preserved specimens, things with beast traits grafted onto human bodies writhed in the culture fluid.
“So... you're saying the [Ones Who Came] weren't actually gods, but beings from a highly advanced civilization?”
“Heh heh, it's true they possessed what you call divine miracles, probably. And that means they had technology to match. This place is that treasure trove.”
Prisvia soon passed through what was called the engine room and climbed a second steel staircase to the deck above.
On the deck stood a structure not just like a bridge but rivaling the size of our Bellwin estate, which Prisvia used as her personal control room for the Battleship Base.
The moment she opened the door, a pungent, nauseating chemical stench assaulted our noses. Kasena gasped and clutched my arm tightly.
“Sorry, the corpse smell is a bit strong, huh? Heh heh heh.”
Prisvia turned back to us with a chilling sneer.
Corpses were everywhere... Some covered in tarps, others dissected on tables with organs removed.
There were beastkin, humans, and plain animals—the gruesome sight was enough to instantly put our bodies on combat alert.
“What the hell were you doing here?!”
“Nothing much, heh heh heh heh heh. Just experimenting to create bioweapons, exactly like Karenden said.”
Prisvia began donning a mechanical suit of armor from a rack in the corner of the room. Breastplate, backplate, fauld, greaves...
“Too bad I couldn't get it quite right. Truth is, I haven't even scratched one percent of the tech here.”
“......?”
“But you lured an ancient being here, so now I have to abandon this base? Sending the beastkin here—you figured you could use me however you wanted, right?”
Prisvia's smile was so razor-sharp it made my entire body shrink in fear.
“Th-that's not...! This is an emergency right now! I thought we needed any help we could get!”
“Without even asking consent? Your logic doesn't hold up at all. Heh, then you should've just brought the beastkin straight to the barrier from the start. Negotiate with the wolves after.”
I couldn't muster any counterargument and had to shut my mouth. It was true that thought had crossed my mind at the base of my judgment...
“Good thing Alakishi's dead. Heh, if she'd still been clinging to you for 'protection,' I wouldn't have even been able to vent properly.”
“What did you say?”
“Heh, heh heh, heh heh heh heh heh, you didn't know? Or were you in denial even though you suspected? Humans really aren't rational, after all.”
Prisvia's lips stretched into an even longer tear as she stared straight at me, my face draining of color.
“What nonsense is that?! Alakishi didn't die! She's alive, I tell you!”
Ignoring Kasena's fierce outburst, Prisvia kept staring at me.
“Human brat, why do you think she gave you that basket? Huh?”
“Th-that was... because she thought it was a hindrance... We needed to fight at full strength.”
“Heh heh heh heh heh, Alakishi never once removed that dragon egg from her body. Not once in the twenty years since I came here. But she gave it to you, someone she just met?”
Her bottomless, pitch-black eyes bored into me without a single blink. It felt like invisible tentacles were slithering out from those eyes, strangling my throat... I can't breathe.
“She judged she couldn't win. She was certain she'd die here. Heh, true dragons are said to see the future through fateful intuition.”
“......”
“Why act so despairing now? Heh heh heh heh heh heh, you knew all along, didn't you?”
My chest throbbed and ached, my breath coming in sharp gasps on its own.
That final smile from Alakishi... And the ominous premonition I'd kept shoving down despite it rearing up in my mind...
The basket of dragon eggs on my back felt unbearably heavy, defying description.
“Or what, you just don't want to admit you abandoned her, so you're playing dumb?”
By then, she'd closed in and grabbed my chin, forcing my gaze to hers, when Kasena seized Prisvia's wrist.
“Just one more time... say that bullshit about Alakishi being dead... I won't let you off, I won't let you off, I swear!”
Prisvia released my chin and turned to Kasena, who was half in tears, with intrigued amusement.
“You won't let me off—how exactly? I'd love to see it. I'm really curious.”
As Prisvia donned her optical helmet, the mechanical armor's gears meshed with a whir, spewing fierce steam.
Then... an overwhelming pressure made my bones ache and my heart flutter.
The blatant killing intent from the number one Platinum rank adventurer—the second strongest adventurer alive—was far beyond what Kasena could handle.
“Show me everything you've got. That way, you won't have regrets when you die.”
“What...?”
“Time you caught on, right? Heh heh, I'm going to snap your necks here. I'm really, really pissed off for the first time in ages.”
That was the moment the vague anxiety and suspicion I'd felt since entering turned real... Kasena and I backed away almost simultaneously.
This is bad.
Really bad.
I'm not afraid of fighting Prisvia. Even without certainty of victory... The problem is the real enemy is someone else.
“You're a descendant of Emita, right? Heh, the genes of the being Karenden cherished—I really want to peek inside that.”
Cold sweat poured down as a bizarre arrowhead-like weapon protruded from the wrist of Prisvia's mechanical armor.
What is that?
What weapon is she using?
If you don't know your opponent's weapons, you can only improvise countermeasures. But Prisvia knows we're mages, so she knows our counters.
“Start with the weak one.”
With a boom that dented the deck plating, Prisvia charged at Kasena's face with blinding speed, leaving an afterimage.
Bzzzt────!
But that deadly grasp was repelled by a blue barrier of crackling lightning.
“Miss!”
In that instant, it was Rain's lightning barrier constructed from the beastkin, and he immediately pulled Kasena back while hurling a fireball.
“Hmm?”
Instead of dodging the fireball, Prisvia swatted it with some device on her gauntlet... My eyes widened.
What is that?
The fireball exploded powerlessly against the rotating mini-sawblades on the gauntlet. It left only a black scorch mark—no real damage.
“A mage reacting to my speed—first time.”
Damn it all, we don't have time for this... As the intense exchange teetered toward the next clash, suffocating me—
- Warning, warning. User's danger detected.
A strangely archaic feminine mechanical voice rang out, followed by pulsing red emergency lights from the control room ceiling.
- Engine activation. Defense control systems engaging.
It was the moment the Battleship Base, dormant in this snowy plain since the age of the gods—through eternal time—awoke.
Over a hundred windows appeared above the long table Prisvia used for dissections, providing perfect 360-degree surveillance of the base exterior.
I knew it looked familiar—this was just like the one in Backbone's command center...
- Insufficient power for engine activation positioning. Please link the Celestial Measurement Core.
Then, a dazzling black light burst from my chest, piercing my fur coat, accompanied by unbearable heat.
Startled, I pulled it out... It was the Black Yangrin. At once, Kasena did the same and stared at me blankly.
Watching all this in bewilderment, I made my judgment amid a shiver of thrill.
Now.
Only now.
If there's a chance to turn this formidable foe into a solid ally, it's now or never.
“Let's make a deal, Prisvia.”