#119
Boom-!
The elevator guided us to the entrance of the fissure.
What greeted us after entering the fissure was an endless fall.
“The shock absorption is quite lacking. Still far from catching up to those Republic bastards.”
“Are you saying that when you’re the one who developed that impossible thing called an automaton?”
“Why judge technical perfection by nationality? Rejecting enemy technology just because it’s theirs will get us nowhere.”
Speaking thus, Margrave Kassel checked the counter equipped on the arm of his protective suit.
“The counter’s broken. The contamination level is at its peak.”
The inside of the fissure was completely monster territory.
The air filling this place was no different from toxic substances full of all kinds of pollution.
For an ordinary person, just taking one breath would be enough to cause instant death.
“Are you alright?”
“I’m fine.”
Saying that, I slowly activated my magic circuit.
Swoosh-!
The magical power that instantly circulated through my entire body imdiately erased the monster’s contamination trying to penetrate my body.
This was the biggest reason why mages could beco experts at killing monsters.
Through magical power, they could purify their bodies and freely move in and out of contaminated areas.
‘Thanks to that, though, the amount of magical power I can use is sowhat limited.’
While thinking that and staying alert to my surroundings.
“Ahh~! So refreshing!”
At the cheerful voice of a girl shouting, Kassel and I could only stare blankly in one direction.
“Eugene!”
Irene was waving at .
Unlike us, who were wearing protective suits and circulating magical power to block the contamination, she was actually running around breathlessly all over the place.
“Hmm……”
Watching the girl running around the contaminated area like it was her own ho without using even a speck of magical power.
Seeing this anomalous sight, the Margrave recalled their conversation while descending in the elevator.
“A being with a monster’s mana core settled in a human body, where monster physiology and human body have fused together.”
“……”
“You’re saying such a being was acting normally among people? With the magical power of the mana core completely concealed?”
He wasn’t speaking from ignorance.
It was more like an exclamation of disbelief.
Even he, who possessed the seven stroke imprint, had barely noticed when she was right in front of him.
“Irene, was it? That child is…”
However, just as Margrave Kassel was about to say sothing after seeing Irene.
“Your Lordship. Over there.”
I raised my hand, pointing to a spot in the sub-space within the fissure.
Grrrrrr……!
Countless monsters approaching, tearing through the ground stained purple-black.
Unlike the group that had invaded the Great Wall, these specins had fins and scales all over their bodies.
“Finally eting so familiar faces.”
Lowering his voice and gritting his teeth, Margrave Kassel gestured toward .
As discussed before, it would take so ti for the automaton army to arrive.
Until they were all deployed, it was up to
to hold off this monster army.
‘However, using up all my magical power here would be troubleso.’
If I activated [Domain] and poured all my firepower, I could erase those monsters in an instant.
But if that happened, I wouldn’t be able to use magic for at least a day.
Moreover, if I used large-scale magic recklessly in such a contaminated area, there was a risk of falling into a Magical Power Exhaustion state.
Having magical power depleted in a gas chamber that takes your life the mont you breathe in would be an enormous risk.
Therefore, I decided not to use magical power in this battle.
‘And at the sa ti, there’s sothing I need to test.’
Thinking that, I opened my mouth without delay.
“Irene.”
The girl who had sohow approached and was looking at .
After briefly gazing into her sparkling eyes, I asked Irene.
“Are you ready?”
“Yes!”
She’s so good.
With an energetic response, Irene stepped forward and took a slow deep breath.
Like a child relieving tension before a recital.
After composing herself like that, Irene drew magical power from her mana core and.
Whoooong–!
The next mont, a huge black sphere had ford above her face.
“That is……”
Even now, automatons were continuously falling into the fissure.
The Margrave, who was connecting magic imprints with them, trailed off while looking at Irene’s sphere.
“She opened another fissure inside the fissure?”
You shouldn’t be surprised already.
I assessed the current situation.
‘The only ones in this isolated space of the fissure are myself, Irene, and Margrave Kassel.’
With only one witness, so persuasion should make it possible to keep this quiet.
Having finished my calculations, I made my decision.
“No need to hold back, Irene.”
This was a stage where Irene could be utilized one hundred percent.
“Fight them as much as you want, as much as you can.”
I said that to Irene, who was now facing the monsters alone.
“Okay!”
With a flushed face, Irene shouted and gave
a bright smile.
Her eyes, which had been glowing athyst, were now completely black.
***
Whoosh-!
After taking in a deep breath of the contaminated air inside the fissure, Irene stepped forward.
The black sphere floating above her head.
As it grew larger and fluctuated, the shadows spread around her body beca increasingly dense.
Splash-! Splash-!
A vast swamp made of shadows.
The essence of life made from grotesque biological tissue that wasn’t human.
Irene, walking leisurely through that bizarre liquid, reached a certain point and slowly extended her hand.
The nurous aberrations lurking within.
A queen’s single word descending upon them.
“Co out.”
Swoosh–!
Following her gesture, sothing erged through the black shadows.
A smooth body covered in black exoskeleton.
One arm transford into a sharp blade.
And engraved there……
“……magic imprint?”
Margrave Kassel’s eyes widened as he recognized the familiar pattern.
“That, that is…… Isn’t that the magic imprint of the Buckenheim and Nachtval houses?”
Why are imprints that should belong to knights embedded in the bodies of monsters?
While he was thinking this, the monster army Irene had summoned began forming ranks and battle lines.
Click. Click.
The first row lowered their stance, leading with arms transford into swords.
And the second row extended one hand, taking firing positions.
Seeing the familiar formation, Eugene’s voice erged.
“Don’t tell
that’s…?”
And at that mont.
Whooong–!
As the magic imprints engraved on the monsters’ arms began operating, the formulas inscribed in the imprints started activating one by one.
Crackle-!
Buckenheim’s magical power crystals enveloping the monsters in the first row.
Whoong–!
And spheres of Nachtval’s light appearing in the hands of the monsters in the second row.
Seeing this, Eugene was certain.
Her rampage from two years ago.
The hundreds of magic imprints… possessed by the knights she had personally killed then.
Irene had collected all of them without missing a single one and utilized them to create her own army.
This was the result.
She had now created her very own Knight Order.
‘And the magic imprints Irene took… weren’t just from ordinary knights.’
Just as Eugene was thinking this, Irene, looking at the monsters she had created, called their nas with obvious delight.
“Gerick, Ianne, Cedric, Hector, Kimri, Riley.”
The monsters bowed their heads as if honored to be called by na.
Soon Eugene could understand.
That what Irene was saying were the nas of the knights she had devoured at that ti.
And then, two nas flowed from Irene’s lips.
“Carlos, Zeplant.”
At Irene’s call, two monsters appeared on either side of her.
“Kiek.”
“Grrrr…”
One wielded a huge hamr made of monster bio-armor.
And the other was a specin controlling six spheres at once while taking a combat stance.
Plus the five stroke imprints shining on their arms.
These were pure-breed monsters that Irene had crafted with particular care compared to the others.
“Kwaaark?!”
“Grrrrrr…. Kruk!”
There seed to be so commotion from the monster side when they faced these non-human kindred.
But that was only montary.
Upon seeing the signal from the monster in the center, the monsters bearing azure teeth began charging all at once.
Thud thud thud thud thud……!
The vibrations shook the ground as thousands of monsters rushed in.
An avant-garde sight that would make anyone’s knees weak.
However, Irene, watching this, extended her hand without erasing the smile on her face.
“Maintain formation. All units prepare to fire.”
Swoosh–!
The monster army that received Irene’s order unanimously aid their weapons and.
“Fire.”
With Irene’s single word, nurous streams of light began ravaging the monsters.
That appearance of maintaining perfect order reminded one of soone on the battlefield.
***
“Hah……”
The sight unfolding before our eyes was pure terror itself.
Monsters lined up bearing imprints.
The trendous firepower these monsters were unleashing.
The thousands of monsters that had attacked us were being ravaged into a pile of corpses in an instant.
Overwhelming firepower superiority.
In these two years, Irene’s monsters had achieved this much growth.
“Dangerous.”
“Not necessarily.”
To the Margrave’s quiet comnt, I imdiately replied.
“We’ve seen quite a few cases of human and monster fusion during the war with the Republic. The Republic is already utilizing them as weapons.”
“This is on a different level.”
When I had no particular response, the Margrave said.
“The Republic creates many restrictions when weaponizing monsters. They brainwash them with drugs, deteriorate their bodies with restraints, and only utilize the mana cores that monsters possess as weapons.”
“……”
“But that child has none of those restrictions on her.”
The count’s eyes turned to .
Was it reproach, or admiration?
I couldn’t yet tell his true intent.
“That monster… Irene is cooperating with you of her own pure free will.”
“You’re certain of that already?”
“Just seeing how that child stays with you tells
enough.”
How old am I anyway.
Muttering that, the count continued speaking.
“The monsters that the Republic uses as weapons aren’t really a problem. They’re just monsters that indiscriminately spread destruction and contamination.”
“Then…”
“However, that child is different, isn’t she?”
The count said.
“That child Irene interacts with humans through you, and is blending into human society and culture. She uses the sa language as us, wears the sa clothes, eats the sa food, and mingles with us.”
Moreover, right now she’s creating monsters like humans and using human tactics, isn’t she?
Ah, you’re wrong, Your Lordship.
She doesn’t eat the sa food.
She literally ate people today too.
While I was thinking this, the count looked at Irene with a serious expression.
“No matter how strong sothing is, if you understand its essence, it’s not frightening. You just need to find counterasures, build up strength, and overthrow it.”
No matter how long it took, humans could do that.
Just like what Korhonen was doing now.
But…
“But what about that child?”
Watching Irene’s battle, the Margrave spoke.
“A monster that understands human thought patterns, goes beyond imitating them, and can coexist with humans? I don’t know.”
“……”
“I cannot predict at all what that child will beco, what kind of being she’ll turn into. How to deal with her, how to face her… I can’t even clearly gauge whether that child is my enemy or ally.”
That child is literally an unknown being.
I looked at the count’s face as he muttered this.
He who hadn’t batted an eye even when seeing the wave of monsters covering the barrier.
The emotion contained in his face was fear.
“If it were my younger self, I would have tried to eliminate that child by any ans necessary.”
“And now?”
“I have neither the strength nor the enthusiasm for that.”
However, just explain one thing clearly to , Eugene.
Speaking thus, the count looked at
and said.
“What exactly is that child?”
“……Hmm.”
There were many ways to describe her.
A fusion of human and monster.
The Black Witch who took hundreds of thousands of lives.
Elcidore’s test subject.
The newly born monster queen.
But those were just descriptions, not her essence.
‘As for what could be called Irene’s essence.’
After considering it, I was able to give an answer before long.
“Just… a normal girl.”
“……Normal?”
“Yes.”
What nonsense is this.
Though Margrave Kassel looked at
with such an expression, my answer didn’t change.
‘I know the danger Irene possesses.’
How she ends up in the original work too.
I know well what great calamity she brings.
Knowing all this, I still took her out of that dark Elcidore prison, and spent most of this life with her.
And at the end of that, I realized.
Irene’s end was just an event created by the nurous malicious intentions surrounding her.
Irene herself is no different from just a pure child.
‘Like a baby duck following the first person it sees after hatching from its egg, just a young child blindly following .’
And the one raising her, inducing her growth, and utilizing her as a weapon, was none other than .
So I should bear that responsibility too.
To be able to stop her anyti, to be able to kill her anyti.
This power I gained at a young age was also cultivated for that purpose.
“Eugene!”
From the middle of the scene where she was ravaging monsters, she waved at
beaming.
My family, my friend, my weapon.
Looking at that innocent face, I just showed my usual kind smile.
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