◈ Episode 166. You Left Something Precious (2)
[Quernberg Machine Tower].
When the rift was created, I explored the structure of the machine tower in depth.
Why, I wasn’t as high leveled as I am now.
I needed a trick to win against high-level players like Rox.
“…… Are you sure you’re okay?”
Hiel asked cautiously.
No, I’m perfectly fine.
Apparently, actions speak louder than words.
I channeled my magic.
The process of assimilation is swift.
It was Grandfell’s gift, not Lee’s, not anyone else’s.
This means that you are not the kind of person who will forget something once you have assimilate it as time passes.
What’s more, it has the effect of [the Desire of Pure Knowledge].
I knew about all the minerals.
It immediately began the process of interference.
It doesn’t manifest in a new form.
It’s just reverting to the previous form.
So the only thing added is reversal.
Soon enough, magic seeped into the ruined machinery.
‘Unexpected?’
Reversal magic’s greatest advantage.
It must be that it’s quite efficient.
But this is different.
The amount of magic power drained is considerable.
Considering that the [First World Tree Blessing] is activated.
‘I can’t help but expect something…….’
It’s sucking the magic out of me, isn’t it?
Still, it’s bearable.
Because in the past, I am not the person who relied on a small amount of magic power.
Soon, a reversal magic manifests.
I began to revert back to the way things were before the core machinery was damaged.
Hiel spoke up.
“Indeed, forgive me for worrying for nothing.”
……I don’t have the slightest intention of stopping or correcting that way of speaking.
It would only hurt my feelings.
Rather, this is a moment when I should be focusing on the mechanics rather than on Hiel.
Crackle.
Crackle.
Clink, clink, clink.
Just looking at it makes my head spin.
Soon, the interlocking cogs began to turn.
At the same time, magic power surged from the center of the machine.
…… Was this what it was doing, sucking up my mana?
It was using my magic as an alternative fuel to the magic stones.
It took me a moment to realize it.
A message flashed before my eyes.
[You will receive the experience accumulated on the Battlecruiser Quernberg Machine Tower].
[Claim the prestige accumulated in the Quernberg Machine Tower].
My savings matured.
There was no time for celebration.
Immediately, an uncontrollable energy flowed from the machine!
Sussss─
A momentum that caused his silver hair to sway in his vision, and his neatly arranged clothes to become disheveled. The strange aura enveloped my entire body.
Another message popped up.
[You’ve leveled up.]
[You’ve leveled up.]
[You’ve leveled up.]…….
No, not just once, right?
But the sea was as expected.
And nothing else but Akshan.
It’s a Quernberg machine tower, once the ultimate weapon of the Demon Hunters.
If such a machine hunted demons until it shattered, how many could it have killed?
I’m sure you’ve hunted at least as many as I have, if not more, millions.
[Leveled up]…….
The message flashes nonstop, even as you think.
An odd aura that showed no signs of subsiding.
At that point, I had a feeling.
This is the limit, I’ll go up to level 50.
This is the overwhelming amount of experience I need to break through the wall that comes every 100 levels, this is……! Just as I was convinced, something flickered in my vision.
A message, but it wasn’t a level-up notification.
[Acquire the accumulated memories of the Quernberg Machine Tower].
Wait, stored memories?
At that moment, my vision changed.
As if I had pressed play on a video. The panoramic view of the Arcana continent as seen from the Quernberg Machine Tower began to flow before my eyes…….
.
.
.
Kugung!
Kung!
Kugong!
A technological marvel made of minerals.
Therefore, it has no emotions.
It has only one purpose.
-“In the name of Akshan’s legacy, may it fulfill its pride as a weapon of war.”
Follow the voice that awakened you.
To honor the legacy of Akshan.
It hunts demons to the last man, and then it shuts down.
Thud!
Kugung!
Thud!
The heavens and earth were covered in demons.
Thanks to them, I’m not afraid to walk.
Beneath the demonic onslaught.
Until they reached a village swaying like a windmill.
A figure came into view, a man screaming in agony.
A demon’s, glowing black through the fingers wrapped around his face.
“……My name is Mate. I am!”
A demon, that’s for sure.
It must be hunted.
The Quernberg machine tower was about to move with pride.
“Mate! Please, come to your senses!”
The human approached the demon.
As if approaching the demon wasn’t enough, he hugged the demon from behind.
Why?
……kugung.
The machine tower stopped moving for a moment.
“……Get away from me!”
“I can’t.”
“No more, please, Lansha.”
A whimper.
With trembling hands, the man handed over the sword he was holding.
A sword made of silver.
The man’s grip burned against the silver.
The man proves once again that he is the demon.
And then.
” …… stab me to death with this, or run away now.”
The behavior was not demonic.
“How could you ask me to do that?”
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t say you’re sorry!”
“Please, Lansha. Be a good……!!!”
Pow!
The man roughly pushed the woman away.
“Mate!”
She fell to the ground and tried to reach him again.
The sun had completely set, and a evil eye appeared in the sky.
The evil eye stared at the man and the burning village.
“Run, run, run!”
Boom!
Black pupils and hideous wings sprouted from its shoulders.
The man could no longer be called human.
I had to hunt down humans who had been corrupted into demons out of pride.
The machine tower did not move.
Evil eye shared the view.
Before the villagers could evacuate, countless demons rushed into the village.
At that rate, everyone would be slaughtered.
But that was the moment.
“Get the fuck out! Fucking assholes!”
Demon attacked demon.
To be exact, a man who had been corrupted into a demon attacked the demon.
Until he lost his life at the hands of the demons.
Until the woman who was crying while looking at him left.
The demon attacked the demon.
Grabbed their ankles.
And he was trampled to death in a gruesome manner.
Kugung!
The Quernberg machine tower was once again in motion.
It hunted the demons relentlessly.
But even Akshan’s ultimate weapon was no match for it.
It could not prevent physical damage.
Thud!
Demon blood poured out, stiffening the cogs.
One by one, the aftermath appeared on the machine tower.
Slowly, the tower began to collapse.
A collapsing machine tower.
All I could see was a male demon, and the village residents running away. The last of the last. Suddenly, it remembered the voice that had awakened it.
-“To fulfill your pride as a decisive battle weapon.”
Is it true that I have fulfilled my pride as a decisive weapon?
The Quernberg Machine Tower stopped trying to engrave a question into its memory. Because there was something more important than that. As expected, Akshan’s decisive weapon.
He left his last will in his memory device.
[Quest: Request from the awakened decisive weapon]
Akkshan’s Battlecruiser Quernberg Machine Tower.
Instead of answering the question, he chose pride.
The machine’s memory wants to protect the survivors left behind.
─Save the survivors of Dredsen Village. (Ongoing)
.
.
.
As soon as my vision returned, I opened my mouth.
“Thank you.”
I had seen the continent of Arcana before, as a trophy of the Demon King, and once before in person.
But this was the first time I’d seen the Arcana in such detail, the way they were formed and nurtured.
I stared at the machine.
“Thanks to you, I have seen something priceless.”
It’s devastating.
It’s hard to put into words.
It was so different from the reality of being threatened by a mere rift.
It’s almost a miracle to be alive.
The continent of Arcana, as he had seen it in the memory of the Quernberg machine tower, was a land of demons, a demon world.
‘Let’s think it through.’
What are the odds of the Holy War at this point?
He didn’t have to think about it.
We can’t win.
It’s a simple calculation.
The Kingdom of Yusra, the Frost, the Muons, the Magic Tower, and finally the players.
The combined power of all the forces currently engaged in the Holy War would be no match for the demons on the Arcana continent.
But I, Grandfell, will not use my head in the face of demons.
His heart will always take priority.
A pride that would not be broken by any trial.
“Even if the demon had taken my body.”
I was able to recognize him right away because he was a natural enemy and a Demon Hunter.
The man was possessed by the demon.
That’s a good thing.
“Human pride is unbreakable.”
Even on the wretched continent of Arcana, human pride is not easily diminished. I had just confirmed it through the memory device in the machine tower.
Even though the demons took his body and mind.
To protect what he loved.
Instead, he fought them.
I realized the power of pride in defying possession.
I stared at the machine.
It had done its job by replaying the memories.
The cogs slowly stopped turning.
I’ve earned experience and prestige, and I don’t think I need to put any magic into it.
I turned to the machine and spoke.
“A fitting and honorable end for one of Akshan’s greatest weapons.”
…… I was just talking to a machine.
That would have been embarrassing.
Or a dragon’s tooth, for that matter.
Anyway, as if it understood me.
Clunk.
The mechanical device stopped moving.
Of course, the machine stops, but I don’t stop.
That’s because a new quest came to mind.
[Quest: Request from the awakened decisive weapon]
Akshan’s Tradition.
Demon Hunters in Akshan will take over any requests that are not fulfilled by the other Demon Hunters. The decisive weapon, the Quernberg Machine Tower, was also a member of Akshan.
I like it or I don’t like it.
As the last of the Demon Hunters.
I have no choice but to accept the quest.
─Save the survivors of Dredsen Village. (Ongoing)
“And I will carry your pride with me.”
Of course, there was no conflict with Grandfell’s view of pride.
I delayed no longer.
‘Dredsen, I’ve never heard of it.’
The unavoidable gap of a decade and several years.
I don’t even know where it is in the continent of Arcana.
And I had no way of finding out.
Well, it didn’t really matter.
I had all the support I needed.
I stared into space.
‘… … Anyway, it’s a name I’m less accustomed to than Hiel.’
Really, I mumbled desperately.
“Answer my call.”
*
The sun set and night came.
In the woods.
I needed a fire to chase the wild beasts.
“Then I’ll turn it off.”
Chizik─
The survivors of Dredsen Village extinguished the torches they had worked so hard to light.
As Lansha extinguished the torch, someone grabbed the hem of her skirt.
Small eyes blinked in the darkness.
“Sister Lansha, I’m scared.”
“It’s okay, nothing’s going to happen.”
“… … It’s not that, that star is scary.”
Where the short, chubby finger pointed, there was Evil Eye.
It looked like it was rolling its eyeballs to find them.
Lansha grabbed the child’s face and turned it toward her.
She spoke firmly.
“Don’t stare.”
“…… Okay.”
“And there is no other star in the world that is as ugly and hideous as that one.”
“That’s true. Hehe.”
After tending to the children and the elderly, the night grew even deeper.
Lansha and the others looked down the mountain.
The continent was burning, as always.
Lansha looked at her sword.
In her moments of weakness, she thought of Mate.
She gripped the handle of the sword he’d handed her.
‘……I will live, because you said so.’
It was a moment of resolve.
“Well, something’s up!”
Retired mercenary Gardner stood up from his seat.
The demons had been acting strangely lately.
A demon soldier who moves around busily.
Tiny demons carrying armor tirelessly.
It was almost as if…….
“Those are the movements of those preparing for a ‘war’!”
War?
Lansha was dumbfounded beyond belief.
She grabbed Gardner and asked.
“Even yesterday. We’re still at war, Mr. Gardner! They’ve already taken our village, they’ve taken Dredsen, they’ve taken him……. What else are they going to take from us when we have nothing left!”
“My heart understands, Lansha. But I don’t know.”
It wasn’t just Dredsen.
There were no intact villages or cities for miles around.
But preparations for war on such a large scale?
It was beyond the experience of a mere mercenary…….
Gardner frowned.
“No, this is not the time!”
“……?”
“Everyone, hurry up. We have to get off this mountain!”
When war begins, supplies are consumed at a rapid rate.
To make up for the lack of resources.
From now on, demons will scavenge mountains.
Mines would be ransacked.
“Explanation later. Wake the children, Lansha!”
Gardner shouted urgently.
“……!!!”
The demons were visible down the mountain.
Gardner gritted his teeth.
“Damn it, and on the way down!”
“Everybody get ready for battle!”
“Evacuate the children and the elderly first!”
Although they were only low-level demons with powers similar to imps, Dredsen was a small village. Those who had the strength to fight against the demon, let alone soldiers, had already died.
Chuck-
Lansha raised her silver sword.
She stood beside Gardner.
“Lansha, what are you doing?”
“I’m going to fight back!”
“No, you’re no match for them!”
“No. I don’t want to run away anymore.”
Lansha thought of Mate.
Surely you wouldn’t want this, would you?
But Lansha laughed bitterly.
‘…… Then you shouldn’t have handed me this sword.’
Even if it meant losing her life to a demon.
Lansha wanted to die with dignity.
Like him.
Gardner spat out an expletive.
“Damn it. I’ve never resented my weakness so much, Lansha!”
We must buy time for everyone to escape.
The group raised their weapons and stood before the demons.
Squeak!
Gardner let go of his tautly drawn bowstring.
Poof!
It was a hit.
“Damn.”
But the demon didn’t show the slightest sign of pain.
Still, Gardner, Lansha, and the others didn’t back down.
A small feeling of weight lingered in the hem of their skirts.
Yes, to bear what they each carried.
That’s the kind of pride that even trials can’t break.
Pride creates change.
And that change would bring about miracles.
Go-oh-oh-oh!
An aura rose from thin air.
A black figure appeared.
So black that if you didn’t look closely, you wouldn’t recognize it.
“……Mr. Gardner, what is that?”
“What are you talking about all of a sudden, Lansha?”
Buried in the night.
I can barely see the shape.
It was.
It was a darkness so strange she’d never seen it before.
But there was a voice.
The darkness was speaking.
“I am Diend Chrysiad Eternal Darkness.”
“……?!!”
“According to my lord, the Infinite Deep Darkness, I will save the Dredsen.”
.
.
.
『Feiyan Lot, Senior Mage of Spiritism.
Unique spirits are being that transcends class and even spirit contracts.
So the moment Hiel became a Unique Spirit, the old Spirit Contract was destroyed! So, in theory, you can make a new contract with a new spirit regardless of Hiel! Oh, and if I’m being presumptuous, I apologize for the interruption…….』