"Well, what kind of name was this forbidden place?"
"The prison tower of grief, isn't it? It's dangerous here, you know?"
"Certainly, there is something."
While observing the towering white tower, or rather something like a building, from the shadow of a rock in the distance, we whispered. The reason why they didn't get too close was because there was something like a security robot with white armor patrolling around the tower.
Judging by the position of the sun, it must have been past noon. The white tower stood at the point where I moved two more days from the ruins of the evacuation shelter via the beastman village I stopped by during the last salt trade.
It is a tower-like building constructed with white structural materials that have become familiar. There are few things like windows, and the overall atmosphere is solid. Extending from the top of the tower is something like a shining antenna, which flickers periodically. It looks like a living facility. Well, if you look at something like a patrol machine soldier, it's obvious.
"Do you think you can break it?"
"I think I said it before, but you can't defeat that white-bodied soldier. No matter how much magic or arrows you throw at him, it will only stop him."
At first glance, it looks like a human wearing white armor, but its flat head has no peephole of any kind, and various parts of its body flicker periodically. It doesn't look like it's carrying any kind of weapon, and judging from the fact that it's walking with relatively light steps, it seems to have fairly high mobility.
"I wonder if this guy can't break it."
I take out a long gun-type magic gun from the treasure box and switch it to sniper mode. There is a sight that uses something like a hologram, but it's not like there's a sniper scope with high magnification, so it's a little difficult to hit from a long distance.
"I don't know. It seems to have the same power as an arrow encased in magic, isn't it difficult?"
"Right"
If shooting doesn't work, I have no choice but to hit it physically, but now.
"Are you sure you want to check this place? Wouldn't it be better to find a safer place and check it out like last time?"
"Hmm, but according to Real, there seems to be one of the objectives here."
"Yeah, I can feel the vibration of the pseudo-god. There is definitely a pseudo-god here.』
"As I thought, it is definitely here.
Saying that, I jumped out from behind the rock.
"Ah!? No more!"
"Rifana, I'll support you."
"yes"
Rifana will probably get mad at me later. Well, it's fine now, let's think about the future after overcoming the obstacles in front of us. While running, take out the enhanced sacred tree stick from the treasure box.
Perhaps noticing me running up to them, one of the patrol machine soldiers turned to me and sounded a warning sound. Regardless of that, I use both wind magic and magic combat to close the gap with explosive acceleration.
『Biiiiip!!』
"At least say something meaningful!"
A sacred wooden stick filled with magical power is thrust into the white armor as if gouging it. Zudon! A shocking sound resounded as if two cars had collided with each other, and the white mechanical soldier was blown away. Incidentally, the reinforced sacred wooden stick I was holding was also shattered.
"Ugh!?"
The mechanical soldiers who were blown away stopped moving, but two mechanical soldiers came rushing in from other places. Pull out a large bush knife from your waist and envelop it in magic.
The shoulder parts of the machine soldier rushing towards me snapped open. As soon as I had a bad feeling, I immediately moved and hid in a nearby rock. Then the rock began to break with a familiar gunshot sound. It seems that he's been hit with the same amount of fire as the magic gun he got recently.
"Scary"
While muttering, I took out a long gun-type magic gun from the treasure box, leaned out half of my body from behind the rock, and fired back in single-shot mode. He took a few hits, but didn't seem to do much damage. This gun seems to be underpowered.
This time, I fire back in continuous fire mode and hit continuously, but I can't even stop walking just by bending back a little.
Next, I tried to concentrate my magic power and fire a pure magic level 2 magic bullet, but the result was not much different from that of a magic gun. In other words.
"It doesn't work at all!"
One machine nailed me with its shooting, and the other one calmly closed the distance. Are you going to finish me off in close combat? You idiot, I'm better at close combat!
I jumped out from behind the rocks at the right timing and swung down the bushknife filled with magic to the mechanical soldier.
With a banging sound, the bushknife shattered.
"You're lying!?"
With that much magical power, even Orichalcum should be able to cut through it, but the white armor of the machine soldier didn't have a single scratch on it. As expected, I stepped on something that I couldn't kill the shock, but in other words, that's all.
The white machine soldier swung its arms in an unnatural posture and attacked. The movement itself is clumsy and easy to avoid, but if it hits, one or two bones are likely to be taken away. I thought about grabbing the arm that had been shaken off and throwing it away, but the machine that was shooting from behind was shooting bang bang without fear of erroneous fire, so there was no time to perform joint moves or throws.
If you can beat me like this, anything is fine. I took out a long gun type magic gun from the treasure box and hit the mechanical soldier in front of me with a full swing. It's a very good response. The magic gun doesn't seem to be broken, so I hit it repeatedly.
It seems that Elmina-san and Rifana are attracting the aircraft that was shooting in the back, and the shooting stopped flying here. If you want to finish it off, now is your chance. After hitting it several times, the mechanical soldier crumbled in various places and stopped moving.
I grabbed it by the leg, closed the gap at once, and slammed it into another machine soldier that was repeatedly shooting at the rocky area where Elmina-san and the others were hiding. A deafening sound of blows resounded, and the mechanical soldiers fell apart.
"I don't like it, this fighting style seems like my brain is clogged with muscles."
I murmured while looking at the long-gun type magic gun that had been distorted due to repeatedly hitting the white machine soldier. It's made of the same material as the exterior of the mechanical soldier, and can be defeated if you hit hard enough. Are you satisfied with just knowing that?
After confirming that a new recruit has appeared while emitting a warning sound, I hold the wreckage of the mechanical soldier in both hands.
"Oraaaaaaaaaa!"
"As expected, I was stunned."
"It's good because I was able to beat it."
Elmina-san, who is reprimanding Rifana who is amazed, is also smiling bitterly.
"I didn't fight like that because I liked it."
I had no choice but to try it as an emergency measure because all my weapons were completely destroyed, and it just happened to be effective. As expected, I don't want to hit the armor with my bare hands that would shatter with a sacred tree club or a bush knife.
"What should we do more than that? The weapon is broken, isn't it?"
"Aren't there a lot of them lying around!"
"In the end, we're going to fight in the same way."
"It can't be helped because it's a shockingly effective means."
Collect the wreckage of the mechanical soldiers scattered around. Anyway, what is this white material? It looks like pottery instead of metal, but I wonder if it's possible to make such strong pottery.
"I'll tell you next time, so let's move on quickly."
What is it? It's rare to hurry.
"Even for me, I can't calm down in a state where I have no power like now."
You're lying about messing around with people and having no power. Well, compared to my original power, it's like I have no power at all.
"Do you want to proceed?"
"Yes, let's be careful"
Rifana nodded silently. The entrance to the Tower of Wailing was just around the corner.
☆★☆
"I wonder what kind of facility this is."
"I have no idea."
Inside the building was a forest of machines that I didn't understand. Occasionally, something like an automatic machine gun that shoots magic bullets from the walls and ceiling comes out, so I can't let my guard down. I destroyed all of them by throwing the wreckage of mechanical soldiers.
Stick Shuriken? I tried throwing it, but it was bent without giving me a scratch!
"Well, it doesn't look like a military facility. It seems that what you're looking for was used as a large-scale power source, so is it an energy production facility?"
I have a guess that it might be something like a power plant. I found a room that looked like an employee's resting space and a room that looked like an office, but I didn't get anything in particular. I couldn't find a sketch, so the three of us wandered around the facility.
After going up and down the stairs for a while, I finally arrived at what seemed to be the innermost part. It's like a checkpoint.
"At the end of the passage in the front is a door that looks sturdy, and on the left and right is a room that looks like a checkpoint covered with glass."
"It's a place with a somewhat majestic atmosphere."
"Let's leave the front aisle for later, shall we investigate the left and right spaces first?"
Upon investigation, it appeared that this place was actually a checkpoint. It seems that there is an important division ahead. In the left and right glass spaces, there was a push switch that reacted to magic power, and pushing the switch at the same time seemed to open the front door.
"If we weren't here, you'd be stuck here, right?"
Elmina-san grinned. At first, I was thinking of going around the ruins alone, yeah.
"I'm glad I followed Elmina-san's advice."
"I?"
"I'm glad Rihanna came with me!"
I think it's really good that I didn't rely on two people and act alone.
"But this is going to be divided."
"This can't be helped. Unless you take risks, you won't be able to explore beyond this point, can you?"
"I don't think there's a trap here to kill the person who pressed the switch. Rather, isn't it more dangerous inside? Either way, there's no meaning unless God and you go, so it's no use just thinking about it."
"That's right, will you make up your mind?"
As Rifana said, there is no choice but to move forward. For the time being, I give them a pistol-type and a long-gun-type magic gun, have them open the door, and proceed ahead.
"be careful"
"Don't hurt me."
"Be careful, you two."
Talk to each other and open the door. It was dark inside, but it seemed to be a fairly large space. There doesn't seem to be any traps in particular, so I proceed carefully through the cool white passage.
"i got you"
I saw it that appeared ahead of the aisle.
A real voice echoes in your head.
"What is this?"
"It's pseudo-divine."
"This?
In the deepest part of the ruins, on top of a strange device, there was a pseudo-god. No matter how you look at it...
"Aren't you a naked girl?"
Inside a capsule filled with a liquid that emits a mysterious pale green light. A naked girl was floating there.
His figure is young, and he's probably about the same age as Sherry and Karen. She's wide open, her eyes blank, and it's unclear whether she's conscious or not. A crystal-like object that emits light is attached to the center of her chest, and the crystal periodically emits light. Countless cables connected to the capsule seem to absorb the light the moment the crystal shines.
"That's the pseudo-divine container. Can I have it quickly?』
"Wait wait wait wait, explain a little more. Is that child alive?"
"Only the body. The soul should have been shattered by the time the deity descended into its body, and even if the soul could endure the advent of the deity, it would be crippled by the constant pain that accompanies the formation of the pseudo-divine. Right now, that thing is just a mass of flesh that has a pseudo-god in its body."
"If you take the pseudo-goddess out of her, what will happen to her?"
"That body will die. But don't worry, the soul is long gone. It's no different from a skeletal corpse just with meat on it.』
That's what I say, but I can't wipe out the resistance.
"If you want to think about her, the best thing to do is release her from her pseudo-divine character. Otherwise her body will be alone there until this facility one day decays. And what would you do to get back to where you should be? Are you hesitant about this? 』
Reality whispers in my head.
"Now, pull out the glowing pseudo-goddess in her chest with your own hands. Don't let it end'
"...Understood"
Reach out and touch the capsule. Topuri, my hand slipped into the capsule. It seems that this is not a capsule, but a pillar of a mysterious liquid.
I reached out my hand to the girl's chest and touched the hard crystal. The girl doesn't respond at all. Her hollow gaze remains fixed in the air.
"let's go"
I grabbed the crystal with all my strength and pulled it out at once. With the sensation of tearing her flesh, her crystals were pulled from her body, and the pale green liquid was stained with blood. While I was stunned by the sight, the crystals I pulled out began to fill my hands.
"Gi!? Ah!?"
A sharp pain that tears the flesh pierces through. For some reason, crystals the size of a clenched fist don't penetrate and sink into my palm. At the same time, a sharp pain like tearing flesh spread from the palm of the hand to the arm and shoulder, spreading throughout the body. It feels like the inside of your body is being scratched by shards of glass. The pain was so intense that I broke my knee and fell to the floor made of white building materials.
"Ga!? Gua, ah!?"
Scratching all over the body, scratching algae in severe pain. It felt like something hard was crawling under my skin.
『I forgot to mention it, but it seems like it hurts when you take in pseudo-gods.』
too late to say
My whole body hurts and I can't move a single finger. I almost lost consciousness from the pain, but the pain brought me back to consciousness. she repeats it over and over.
How long have you been in pain? The pain gradually subsided.
I managed to wake up my trembling body and let out a rough breath. My body is wet with sweat. It's really frustrating. Endure the pain and use purification to wipe away the discomfort.
how long have you been suffering?
"It's not that long. I wonder if it's time to make about five cup noodles.』
Stop with that silly analogy.
"Then it will take five giants of light to return to the other side of the sky."
So don't.
Since I've calmed down, I manage to stand up and open and close my right hand, where the pseudo-god crystal is hidden. It doesn't seem to be a problem for the time being.
"So, was the import successful?"
'Success. Well, it takes a little while to fully draw out the power. I am still far from a complete recovery."
"Goodbye"
If you're one step ahead, that's fine.
"This time, well, I wonder if you can get back 80% of your power? 』
"I'm happy about that."
I turn my attention to the liquid that was floating on the girl. Nothing was floating there anymore. Neither the color of her blood nor her body exist.
"It looks like your body has collapsed after losing your pseudo-divine character."
too cruel. There is no evidence of her existence anymore. Everything perished and disappeared. It was me who did that.
"I can't help but feel sick. She died long ago. The fact that she was here is just a small residue.』
Can you split it up so easily? Anyway, I'm sure you're worried, so let's go back.
☆★☆
"You were really worried!?"
When I returned to the checkpoint, they were very angry with me. I could hear my anguished voice from beyond the open door, so it's only natural.
"I'm sorry"
"Is your body okay?"
"For the time being, I don't feel any discomfort.
It doesn't really feel like anything has changed. The bad god said that he would concentrate on his work for a while in order to deal with the pseudo-god that he had taken in.
"Are you going back to the village for now?"
"Well, it might be better to rest a little. You never know what's going to happen."
"The nearest village from here is the village of the snake people."
"Snake race?"
"Your lower body is that of a giant snake."
"Lamia huh... there's everything in this world."
While thinking about the serpent people that I haven't seen yet, I glance at the innermost door that has already been closed. No one is trapped in the Tower of Wailing anymore.
I left the ruins while swearing that I would at least remember the existence of an unknown girl who was trapped here.