Chapter 241

A detailed investigation of the warehouses along the Tim Great Canal hadn’t yet gotten underway following the National Defense Research Institute’s destruction. A small group of soldiers had formally gone through the grounds to make the aftermath match up with the official “accidental explosion” explanation. In addition to the Institute’s very existence needing to be treated as a state secret, in the midst of the chaos following Rosclay’s death, the operation to slay Kia the World Word, an equally important state secret, had been given much more priority than surveying this area. Hiroto the Paradox receiving all this internal government information following his appointment as Aureatia’s Twenty-Ninth Official was a windfall for Morio. He needed to set about this matter before anyone else could make their move. Yukiharu the Twilight Diver had gone missing in this area. He needed to find a clue on what Yukiharu had left behind—or if he was still alive, where the man was himself. Needless to say, he hadn’t received any permission from Aureatia to enter the area. However, the end result would be that Morio hadn’t come to this location, at this time, at all. That was why he had accompanied Hiroto the Paradox halfway through his search, to make it appear that he joined Hiroto in investigating the strange deaths. He had three men with him. All of them were dressed in identical all-black clothing. They wore armor produced on the new continent with composite materials and had the latest muskets and handguns. Short swords, as well. It wasn’t a full squad in scale, but they were still enough to respond to most of the dangers they would face. While Aureatia had already introduced equipment from the Beyond, flowing out from the Industrial Ministry and performing far better than the equipment of the new continent, into real combat, Morio didn’t utilize weapons from unreliable origins without guaranteed supply of additional parts or ammunition. All right, this massive security setup’s broadcasting that there’s something here. I figured Aureatia wouldn’t have a poorly placed surveillance detail, but… The warehouses, now transformed to mountains of rubble, looked totally abandoned as far as he could see. There were no signs of any guards, either. The area was blocked off with a long chain, and an emblem signifying no one was to enter was engraved on a sign. This was certainly enough to make a civilian think twice, at least. “Master, there are no physical traps.” They were hiding their true identities for this mission, and thus no one went by their real names while it was ongoing. “Master” served as Morio’s code name. The three soldiers with them each had their own code names of Alfa, Bravo, and Charlie. Morio preferred to use the phonetic alphabet from the Beyond for code names. “If this is it, we should be fine to undo the chains and enter.” “Still, they needed to pretend that this was just the site of an accident… There has to be something set up here. I’ll take a look.” Morio surveyed the scene without moving from his position, as if bringing everything within his line of sight. He only needed the span of two breaths to see through the trap. “That’s it. The chain’s connected to a tamper-detection sensor. The instant that this chain’s taken off or cut and the continuity’s severed, it’s probably set to send a radzio signal to whoever set it up.” “Tamper detection?” “It’s a security device from the Beyond. The armaments of Iriolde’s troops during the coup was another example, but…these Aureatia guys’ve figured out a way to produce Beyond machinery—and have begun learning how to use it, too. Real uncanny if you ask me…” This world had constantly dealt with interference from the Beyond’s deviants from long in the past. By rejecting excessive changes caused by influence from the Beyond, and integrating a select bit of knowledge and technology, the world had maintained the authority of the kingdoms and ensured it persisted through time. However, after experiencing the terror of the True Demon King, this world had begun absorbing the weapons and technology of the Beyond without restraint, like a starving organism. This world might one day overtake Morio’s own, all in the pursuit of war and killing. “They put up a real dense wall of chains. It’ll be hard to slip through one of the gaps with all our equipment on. We’ll make a makeshift step stool outta the rubble here and hop over it. Time to get to work.” “Roger.” “Roger.” “Roger.” Morio and his men finished their work with coordinated precision, as if the four of them were one single organism. They made sure to be on guard not only against Aureatia’s surveillance apparatus, but for any civilian witnesses as well. They had to finish everything without anyone being the wiser about their infiltration. “We’re searching for Yukiharu the Twilight Diver’s corpse and what he left behind. The target always carried a camera with him, in particular. I’d like to salvage it, if possible, but if that doesn’t seem doable, I want it destroyed beyond repair. Though unlikely, there’s a risk that he had a recording device from the Beyond on him that would be impossible to discern by appearances alone. I want to salvage any sort of ornaments or accessories the target had on him, no matter how small.” “What should we do if the target is still alive? Another position could be that he has been confined and unable to get in contact.” “In that case, kill him.” Morio’s lips twisted into a smile. Yukiharu the Twilight Diver wasn’t an outright friend, but he was still a visitor who had acted as part of the Gray-Haired Kid’s camp, just like Morio. Morio had also promised Hiroto that if he was alive, he would save the man. “—But really, don’t go that far. I’m sure we’d be able to get some of the demands through in exchange for saving him. The absolute worst possible outcome is if our target isn’t here at all, regardless of whether he’s dead or alive.” That would result in an extremely inconvenient state of affairs no matter if Yukiharu’s body had been secured by some other party, or he had simply feigned his death to break away from Hiroto’s camp. “We need to do a thorough search to confirm what happened to him. Everyone, stay sharp and roll out.” “Roger.” “Roger.” “Roger.” The mercenaries spread out to the different areas they were assigned. Morio once again dived silently into the depths of the black of night. After deserting the Krsnik Project, Nihilo the Vortical Stampede didn’t have any specific destination. While she accompanied Yukiharu during all his activities in Aureatia, Nihilo had a one-sided familiarity with many people in name only, but none of them had any way of knowing what was really in the box Yukiharu always carried on his back. Excluding those involved in the Krsnik Project, Nihilo’s only other acquaintance had been Yukiharu the Twilight Diver. Therefore, the results of her aimless wandering ultimately led her to the National Defense Research Institute. With Nihilo’s physical abilities, she was able to clear the chains blocking up the scene with a single jump. “…This is where Yukiharu died, right?” The second floor of the biological experiments building. The laboratory assigned to Viga. The biological experiments building itself was slanted, perhaps from the Aureatian military clashing with the multitudes of constructs within. She identified the marks left behind of someone crawling while losing blood. This definitely had been where Yukiharu had died. As if to prove that the carcasses of the Aureatia soldiers she had scattered about the room were in the exact spots she remembered. “Who collected his body? There’s no way he survived…” Despite her suspicions, she walked around Viga’s lab. There were all kinds of records left behind, drawings, pictures, and notes written in a script only used in Viga’s village. Nihilo was able to comprehend a large majority of the records, too. Nihilo was by no means an uneducated woman. Even before her attack on Aureatia, she had acted as the assistant to Viga the Clamor, a genius who had mastered the Life Arts exhaustively pursued by a secret hidden clan. The techniques and knowledge she had accumulated from countless experiments were then put to use as a weapon of Aureatia, and even after reviving herself into a different body, she still remembered it all. From among the many horrific records Viga had left behind, Nihilo picked out what she was after. “…Here you are. Helneten…” “Helneten’s carcass was inspected by yours truly.” “Instead of creating a new revenant, it really is much better to repair the one that already achieved such a high level of perfection, don’t you think?” If she was going to repair me…repair Nihilo the Vortical Stampede, the weapon, just repairing my body wouldn’t complete the process. Knowing Mom…she must have restored Helneten to full operation, too. Nihilo had found the records of Helneten’s reconstruction. It would have been impossible to restore a massive revenant like Helneten away from the eyes of Aureatia anywhere else but here, within the National Defense Research Institute. “Hee-hee… If she brought out something conspicuous like Helneten, she wouldn’t have even gotten to the krsnik project at all… Or maybe she thought once I got Helneten back I would betray her?” Exiting the lab, Nihilo murmured to herself as she descended the stairs. She was convinced that there was an underground building within this stretch of warehouses to house large-scale constructs. When Yukiharu and Nihilo got caught in the raid on the institute, they encountered a wurm that had appeared from a space underground. If she traced the aftermath of that destruction backward, it should then lead her to the hidden underground cavern. Nihilo simply descended. After going all the way downstairs, she continued down deep into the massive fissure opened up on the surface. In the pitch black, devoid of any light source, she used her nerve fibers to get a sense of the geography as she searched. It was a twisted pit without any footing, but with her excellent physical abilities, she used the undulations in the wall as handholds to descend farther. Someone besides Nihilo likely would have required large machinery to clear out the debris that blocked the way as well. “…This must be where they stored the weapons.” It was a massive underground area. It must have originally been a cavern shaped by the erosion from the Tim Great Canal. In the era of the Central Kingdom, the entrance had been filled up during the riverbank protection works project, but for the select few with Iriolde’s wits and resources, it was possible to consider utilizing the space. It was so vast that even the oscillations in the air she felt with her nerve fibers weren’t enough to perceive the opposite end of the cavern. In a surprising turn, the cavern had a source of light. A colony of mushrooms faintly glowed with the colors of the evening sun. An abandoned strain of fungi had proliferated unrestricted. The spores were probably fatal. Nihilo wasn’t aware of the whole picture, but this massive cavern originally housed a total of nine wurms and a great number of revenants and fungi, including a dragon revenant based off the body of Vikeon the Smoldering. Some percentage of these constructs had been corroded by the overgrown fungi and completely rotted away, without ever seeing a chance to mobilize. However, there was one revenant covered in an armor that would never decay. “Helneten.” Helneten the Burial. A heartless revenant created using a mighty tarantula. The deep celestial charsteel that covered its whole body was the ultimate mineral, boasting the greatest solidity and stability out of all the minerals yet discovered. After the monster had destroyed Lithia and stopped functioning, it was salvaged by Aureatia and dismantled to both neutralize and analyze it. With his teeth sunk deep into Aureatia, Iriolde the Atypical Tome must have been able to recover the carcass for himself. Though there had likely been less than half of Helneten’s original model left behind, Nihilo never stopped feeling her connection to Helneten, their shared curse. Loaned to her once to destroy Aureatia, then to destroy Lithia, it was the other body of her now-free self. “So tell me—if this is the last time…” She pressed the button. She began stripping away her minian clothes. Her skirt fell to the ground, and the orange light that filled the cavern illuminated Nihilo’s pale naked body like a phantasm. Her new body had much smoother undulations than her last—and fewer suture marks that ran across her skin. “…it’s fine for me to choose what to destroy for myself, right, Helneten…?” As if to answer Nihilo’s will, the back of Helneten opened up. Nihilo’s body slipped inside the interior, like a peaceful casket. Connected with Helneten through her nerve fibers, Nihilo shuddered and gasped without respiration. “Ahhh… Let’s go. We can go anywhere we want.” Right now, there was nothing tying Nihilo down. She had no country, no friends, not even a mother. Driven by her instincts and inherent power, Nihilo could live freely. At the same moment, Morio the Sentinel had arrived on the second floor of the slanted biological experiments building, tracing faint tracks. A normal person likely couldn’t have walked along the heavily slanted floor, but for a deviant visitor like Morio, it didn’t hinder him whatsoever. Bloodstains. The locations of the injuries… The numbers don’t add up. All over the room were the shriveled corpses of what he assumed were Aureatia soldiers that had broken into the lab, but Morio’s eyes landed on a wide bloodstain in an area away from the other corpses. There had definitely been a fatal amount of blood loss. He then discovered an even more conclusive mark. Those are Yukiharu’s shoes, all right. There were clear footprints left behind in the dried pool of blood. Morio had accompanied Yukiharu the Twilight Diver on more than one occasion. Even Morio himself was fed up with his habit of remembering the shoes and fingerprints of anyone on the battlefield worthy of his attention. Regardless, there were several things he could glean from this circumstantial evidence. One. Yukiharu the Twilight Diver is dead. Two. Someone recovered his corpse. Three. This person isn’t on Aureatia’s side—or has some personal reason for collecting the body for themselves. If he assumed that Aureatia’s official investigation came before Morio and recovered Yukiharu’s body, then it wouldn’t make sense for them to then leave behind the corpses of the Aureatia soldiers who had carried out the secret operation to raid the Institute. It was either someone from the National Defense Research Institute, or someone else who knew of its existence. He had to pursue them further. Morio sent out a radzio call. “I’ve found bloodstains on the second floor of the biological experiments building that I believe came from Yukiharu the Twilight Diver. The amount of blood loss and elapsed time make it highly likely he’s already dead. All units, continue searching your assigned areas as scheduled. I’m returning to the rendezvous point first.” <Roger.> <Roger.> <…Master.> Morio surmised something was amiss from the third soldier’s voice. With a bit of a delay, a small rumbling passed through the floor. <I have just come under attack. It’s a monster. Currently near the Tim Great Canal sluice! A giant monster, what appears to be a tarantula…appeared from underground! It’s one of the Institute’s weapons!> “Roger. Alfa, Bravo, Charlie. Unless otherwise urgent, suspend your investigations. Head to the Tim Great Canal and support Alfa. I’m heading there now.” <Roger.> <Roger.> Morio turned his eyes to the lab wall. Whether as part of its camouflage or to maintain security, the National Defense Research Institute buildings weren’t built with windows but instead constructed with ceiling vents as the only connections to outside. However, if Morio left through the doorway, there was a chance he wouldn’t make it to his soldiers in time. With his back facing the door, he pulled out his musket. It went without saying that destroying the wall, or any similarly spectacular feat, was impossible to pull off with the firepower of a musket, and yet— “Don’t misfire on me now.” Together with the gunshot, the corpses of the Aureatia soldiers bounced slightly in the air. A moment later, there was an explosion along the wall. Morio used the operating table to shelter him from the explosive gust and endured the ear-splitting shock wave. Morio had shot one of the high-explosive shells included in the Aureatia soldiers’ gear and deflected it toward the wall. Without pausing for a moment after the explosion, he jumped through the gaping hole in the wall. Landing in the middle of debris-filled terrain, there wasn’t a single scratch on his body. Morio the Sentinel had selected the shortest possible route. By destroying the wall in this direction and jumping out, he ended up right in front of the sluice. “…What the heck is that?” High in the night sky, a purple luminous form was giving off an ominous glow. While he closed the distance, he realized these were the eyes of a tarantula, colored jet black as if to protectively blend into the night. However, if it was an actual tarantula, it had a bizarrely high point of view. A normal tarantula’s overall height was three to four meters. The light from these composite eyes was easily more than twenty meters off the ground. It wasn’t a normal tarantula. It was a construct that had been remodeled and altered. As he ran, Morio observed the entire scene before him. He discovered a soldier sitting behind some cover, shoving his body into a gap in the rubble. Without slowing his running speed almost at all, he slid down to where the soldier sat. “I’m here. You look real worse for wear there, Alfa.” “Yes, sir. Right after I engaged…it got me!” The soldier he came across had lost everything from his right elbow down. While he had performed first aid to tie off the artery, the blood loss continued unabated. “And the rest of your arm?” “Right here.” Morio glanced at the arm passed to him. It was keen severing cut. “See how the enemy attacked?” “No, sir… Not clearly in the dark.” “This cut… If that’s a construct built out of a tarantula’s body, then this’s gotta be the work of a tarantula’s weft threads. It’s still string, but its thin, sharp side sections can cut through things. If they were fired at you in the dark like this, makes sense why you couldn’t see ’em.” Morio was convinced of one other thing. It’s intelligent. The construct didn’t attack Alfa with the intent to kill him. It’s watching us, observing what our next move will be. Given that the enemy doesn’t know how many of us there might be, the best outcome for them is if we take this as a warning and back out of here. Morio the Sentinel was more than a mercenary, he was a commanding officer for his subordinates. He wanted to avoid any risk of revealing the truth behind their investigation by engaging this monster. Normally, the choice to retreat was always an option. However, Morio had one thing he needed to ask. “You, construct. You understand Word Arts?” Exposing himself from cover, Morio confronted the irregular monster. He could tell that the tarantula’s composite eyes were focusing themselves at Morio on the ground. “Good on you for figuring that out.” “I can’t tell you who I work for, but we have no intentions to harm you or this facility. There is one thing I want to confirm with you, though.” There weren’t very many individuals in the world who could create a construct with a heart capable of understanding Word Arts. Morio determined that this monster must have been an abandoned construct made by a self-proclaimed demon king within the National Defense Research Institute. Also, given its massive size, it had likely been kept hidden in order to guard this facility. “There should have been someone who arrived before us and recovered a body here. Any idea who?” “…You mean Yukiharu?” the monster murmured with faint displeasure. “That’s right. Yukiharu the Twilight Diver’s corpse should have been here.” “Hmmm. So you came here looking for Yukiharu, too, did you? I see; is that right…? Tee-hee-hee-hee.”