Chapter 352: Final Weapon, and Hekatonkheire.
The grandpa, who's most likely the Magicraft King, was resting his arms on the armrest of the throne while watching us with a smile on his face.
A faint motor-like sound could be heard from his two mechanical arms, which had a brass-like luster. The sound was faint enough that a normal human's ears probably wouldn't perceive it.
His age looks to be around seventy. His hair is in a slicked back style, and he's wearing a monocle. From the gaps in his smile, some gold teeth could be seen.
From his appearance, the impression he gives people is that of an "suspicious old man". The brazen atmosphere drifting out of him is probably the result of his years of experience.
"So you're the Magicraft King of Eisengard?"
"Exactly. At least, the public calls me with that name. Originally, the term Magicraft King was a title given to the best magic engineer of Eisengard. Well, since I've been monopolizing that title from when I was still a prince, it's basically become my namesake now."
Hee. So it wasn't another name for the king of Eisengard, huh.
Since the beginning, he's been sending an appraising look towards me from behind that monocle of his. Honestly, it's not a very good feeling.
"And? What business may you have with Eisengard? Mochizuki Touya-dono?"
"… How do you know my name?"
I frowned at the sudden words of the Magicraft King.
In this world, the number of people who knows me should be few. And Eisengard should've had none of them.
Seeing my face, the old man in front of me raised a cackling laugh.
"Although not to the degree of the [Black Cats], our intelligence department has a decent network themselves. The young man who stopped the war between Primula and Trihalan, and casted a curse on one of [Papillon]'s executives. Further, he also vanquished the golden monsters that appeared in our country using giant golems. Oops, right, I have to say my thanks regarding that last part."
The Magicraft King laughed heartily again. Somehow, I get the feeling he's looking down on us. And it's not like I defeated those variants for your country anyway.
"A great magician and the owner of giant golems. Now, from which ruins did you obtain all that power?"
The Magicraft King stared at me with an analyzing look again. Seems like he misunderstood certain parts. Well, there's no way he would arrive at the answer of it being another world, I suppose.
"I had thought that magic was something uncertain and not worth using, but it seems I've underestimated it. I had erected a magic barrier around this castle hastily, but seems like that was useless."
"No, well, that did block my search and transfer magics, and made us take quite a detour here, so it wasn't that useless."
Taking that detour didn't cost us too much extra effort, though. It's troublesome since this world also has magic in its civilization, albeit half-baked. If there were absolutely none, that would've saved us a lot of trouble.
Wait, if there isn't even magic power in this world, that would be trouble as well. Since it may lead to the scenario where I can't use magic myself too.
In the first place, the Legacy golems which are excavated from ancient ruins are crystallizations of ancient magic engineering techniques, and by extension can be defined as things born from magic.
Both the Surface World and the Reverse World may actually have the same starts to their civilizations, really.
"Now back on topic. What business may you have, invading my castle like this?"
"To say it straight, I want you to stop the invasion of Garudio Empire."
"Have Garudio hand the [Emerald Ruins] over to us, and that'll happen. Well, we've already made the same proposal to them several times before this. Since we had not received any good replies, we decided to take it by force instead."
Ancient ruins are treasure troves where various things of value could be found. They're not things countries can easily pass to anyone else. However, I think that the reason why the Garudio emperor wouldn't give them the ruins also has to do with how he doesn't want to give any more of the old Lowe territories, which was the birth place of Imperial Prince Lucrecion, to Eisengard.
"What is there in the [Emerald Ruins]? Exceptionally strong golems?"
"Strong golems… Huh. It isn't that far off. Do you know about the 'Ancient Great War of Golems'?"
While leaning back on the throne, the Magicraft King crossed his fingers on top of his stomach.
"It's the war in the past that became the trigger for the near-complete destruction of the world, right? And the golems used in that war continued to sleep to this day, and are now being dug up as Legacies. Am I wrong?"
"Ha. Didn't do your homework, I see. It's the golems that 'aren't used in the war' that are being dug up nowadays. Do you know, most of the ancient ruins are actually old golem research centers, factories, or other such important facilities? Due to that reason, most of the golems found there are of pristine condition."
The Magicraft King took out a cigar from his inside pockets, and cut its tip using a knife that sprung out from one of his mechanical fingers. Putting the cut end in his mouth, he lighted the other end with a lighter-like flame which came out from his thumb. Seems convenient, that arm. Looks like it has quite the number of gimmicks inside.
While puffing out smoke, the Magicraft King continued his talk.
"Towards the end of the great war, various countries began developing weapons that would bring a decisive end to the war they've been fighting. For one country, it was gigantic cannons. For another, it was a fortress floating in the sky. For yet another, it was a bomb with enough power to erase an entire city with just one. However, these so-to-speak final weapons have only ever appeared in old texts, and no actual examples have been found in ruins. I had thought of this talk as fairy tales before, as well."
"Don't tell me…"
Looking at my face, the Magicraft King cracked a smile.
"Yes. Those final weapons do exist. I have found one of them. A crystallization of the wisdom of an ancient civilization. I've given it the name 'Hekatonkheire'."
Hekatonkheire…? Does he mean he has already found what he wanted? Then, why does he still want the [Emerald Ruins]?
"Kukuku, well, it's the rare guest. I suppose I shall properly entertain you lot."
As the grandpa said that, he pushed down a level on the armrest of the throne; immediately, a strong thud was felt throughout the room, before it suddenly started moving downwards at a slow speed.
"T, the room is sinking-degozaru yo!?"
"Touya-sama, this is…!"
Is the entire room something like an elevator!? The audience room continued sinking, and when it has reached a depth which I believe is most likely underground, it stopped moving following another strong thud.
"What is this place…!?"
We were in a space so wide I couldn't see the edges of it (although the fact that the entire area was dimly lit also had to do with it); it's a place that fits the characteristics of a secret factory. I could see the figures of several work-type golems too.
And directly in front of us, being lit up by several lights, was an omnious-looking giant metallic structure made mostly out of blackish steel, with brass-colored edges.
"Is that… A golem?"
It looks like a head. However, it was too big for me to make a proper judgment. It's in a position where only the head is jutting out from the floor from the looks of it. If so, its main body would be further down underneath our feet.
In any case, it was huge. Due to the insufficient lighting, I couldn't see the entirety of this thing from where I am. If I activated [Divine Eye] I would've been able to, but the idea of doing that had completely slipped my mind.
The sinister demonic-looking head had two twisted horns growing out of its head, and several spheres were embedded on both sides. As the spheres had a horizontal line drawn on them, they looked like innumerable closed eyes.
Also, there was a single large sphere similarly embedded in the forehead area. It's almost like a third eye.
"That's Hekatonkheire…?"
"Precisely. In the first place, Eisengard was the country that guarded over the seal of this weapon. However, as time passed, the people forgot that role and even the existence of Hekatonkheire itself. If I hadn't found it, it would likely continue sleeping underground for all eternity."
A souvenir left by the great war that once nearly destroyed this world. To think something like that had been sealed underneath Eisengard.
It's almost like an advanced-class Phrase. No, since this was made by human hands, it's far more distasteful. It's a mindless weapon made to massacre the enemies of its maker, after all.
"Every golem has a [G-cube] which can be said to be its heart, and a [Q-crystal] which can be said to be its brain. However, for this Hekatonkheire, its Q-crystal compartment was incomplete. And as such, a replacement was necessary; however, Hekatonkheire had not woken up once no matter despite us trying all kinds of Q-crystals on it. It took us 30 years before we finally arrived at the answer."
The Magicraft King walked to the space before Hekatonkheire, and slid his mechanical fingers across a console jutting out of the floor. As electrical beeps resounded form the console, the half-spheres lined up on the head of Hekatonkheire began opening vertically.
"This is…!"
Within the half-sphere which opened with a motion reminiscent of an actual eye, was a human brain-like thing floating in a tank of liquid, connected to tubes.
Like a specimen preserved in formalin in a museum, the crystalline-like brain, or rather, thing that resembled a brain was floating inside an emerald-green solution.
It looked like a block of crystals which was carved into a sharply angled brain shape. The parts that looked like wrinkles of an actual brain were in fact circuit-like things carved into its surface. So that's the brain of a golem, a Q-crystal.
Things like that were lined up side by side behind glass-like panels. Even if I know they were man-made objects, the feeling of revulsion is still there.
"We finally managed to control it after using fifty Q-crystals. Those are not normal Q-crystals, mind you. Each and every one of them were high-quality Q-crystals extracted from high-level Legacies. However, even after all that, we still couldn't eliminate the possibility of a rampage; there's still one important thing we need to prepare."
Even within the dim room, I could somehow perceive the unsettling smile the Magicraft King made.
"The power source of a golem is light and magic power. Using those as reagents, the magic reactor of a golem would move the golem; Hekatonkheire is the same in that regard. However, to start the magic reactor of Hekatonkheire, a substantial amount of magic power is needed. It was ten years ago when I learnt that an artifact capable of producing that magic power existed in Lowe Kingdom."
"Ten years ago… That means the real reason for your invasion of Lowe…!"
"Exactly. It was to obtain that artifact. Well, on the side we also recovered the Q-crystals of the Beast Emperor golems we defeated for use within Hekatonkheire. However, the artifact in question wasn't found in the [Azure Ruins]."
Since the information was vague and only mentioned it's somewhere within Lowe, it wasn't like the [Azure Ruins] would definitely have it, huh.
And at that time, the [Emerald Ruins] was discovered. For Eisengard… No, for the Magicraft King, it's not weird to want to get his hands on that ruin at any cost.
"What do you intend to achieve through activating something like this? World conquest?"
"World conquest? A boring talk. I just wanted to prove the fact that I myself, as a magic engineer, have far surpassed the ancient craftsmen and reached the pinnacle of magic engineering. Even if a fool received these incredible objects left behind by the ancient kingdoms, wouldn't they just go to waste if he can't properly utilize them? All is for the sake of perfecting the ancient magic engineering techniques. I will not allow anyone to obstruct me."
A muddled light shone from beneath the Magicraft King's monocle. That light within his eyes was tinted with madness, as well as a pressure which threatened to burn to ashes all that stand between him and his desire.
"Just like Nia said, you're quite the messed-up grandpa alright."
"Kakaka. All humans are messed-up in one way or another. Most of them just don't realize it themselves, and think they're the only normal ones. You speak as if I'm a weird existence to you, but from me, you guys are the weird existences, you know?"
The grandpa in front of us raised a chuckle that sounded like he was taking us for a fool again.
My own grandpa taught me to always respect the elderly, but I don't feel like I can do that facing this old man in front of me.
"… Seems like there's no room for negotiation here. Sorry, but I'll be scrapping that tasteless- looking old antique over there. It's too dangerous to be left alone."
"And you think I'll let you do that? Why do you think I brought you guys all the way here while having this long talk?"
"… What?"
Suddenly, from the floor as well as the ceiling, a glass-like cylinder closed itself around me and sealed me in. Then, the sensation of strength leaving my body suddenly assaulted me, and I wobbled on the spot before being forced to lower my body.
This is… My magic power is being absorbed!?
"Touya-dono!"
"Touya-sama!"
Yae's katana and Hilda's sword flashed, and they instantly cut the glass cylinder imprisoning me into pieces.
During that time, although it was only for a few seconds, close to 40% of my total magic power had been taken. If this was a normal person, his magic power would've dried up in an instant, and at worst he may even die on the spot. My head still feels a bit light, possibly due to the sudden extraction process.
"Kukuku, kaahahahahaha!! Just as I thought, a splendid amount of magic power! More than enough to jumpstart Hekatonkheire's reactor! I thank you for this contribution!"
"What did you…!"
Even with my fuzzy thought process, I still understood the motive of that damn geezer. He had been aiming for my magic power from the very beginning. In order to activate Hekatonkheire's magic reactor.
That geezer, he used me as the replacement of an artifact…
"Damn you!"
Yae stepped into the bosom of the Magicraft King with lightning-like speed, and chopped off his right arm from the elbow down.
And as Hilda was preparing to charge in as well, an unbelievable scene played out in front of us.
The mouth of the Magicraft King split open horizontally. His jaw lowered by more than twenty centimeters, and from the depth of his mouth, a muzzle extended out and fired several rounds towards us.
"What the…! [Shield]!"
The invisible shield I deployed deflected the bullets that rained down on us.
After that, the back of the old man split open this time, and from under his clothes, several extendable arms shot out towards us. On the tips of those arms were sharp blades.
"D-did he replace his entire body with mechanical parts-degozaru ka!?"
"No, that's not it! That's a golem! A humanoid-type golem!"
Humanoid-type. A type of golem which is capable of making human-like movements. The golems I owned, Rubi, Sappha and Emera are of that type as well. Dr. Elka had said that a humanoid-type golem that looked identical to a human is extremely rare, but to think that old man was one of those!
Yae and Hilda continuously cut down the arms which were freely waving around as they attacked us. The combat strength of a humanoid-type is by no means high. It's because those golems usually focused most of their power on one particular aspect, the ability to mimic a human.
"Fu!"
"Haa!"
A flash of Yae's katana sent the head of the Magicraft King golem flying, while the leftover body was bisected by a clean stroke from Hilda.
While having the parts inside its body spill out onto the floor, the thing that was the Magicraft King collapsed.
"To think that he was a golem…"
But… What does this mean? Was the Magicraft King a golem since the beginning? Or did someone else prepare a fake Magicraft King… No, in that case it doesn't explain everything…
While I was deep in thought, suddenly, with a loud rumbling sound, everything within this underground factory began shaking violently. An earthquake… No, it's not!
"Kakakaka! Splendid, splendid! I can feel strength filling every part of my body, and the sharpening of all my senses as well! I have surpassed all of humanity!!"
The voice of the Magicraft King resounded within the factory. Where!?
"T, Touya-dono! That!"
Yae was pointing towards the ominous-looking head of Hekatonkheire… The forehead area, where a large half-sphere was embedded. That half-sphere was opening up vertically.
Inside that, just like the other Q-crystals, floating in an emerald-green solution, was—a human's brain.