The silver beast with the head of a unicorn approached the enemy swiftly. Its limbs, composed of silver instruments, were busily playing.
This wasn’t for the sake of someone. In fact, the sound of its performance was inaudible to human hearing.
It was like a screech of bats, a sound beyond human audible range. The magically tuned ultrasound seeped through and reflected off the Great Temple, returning once again to the silver beast.
It was a magic that allowed it to sense what and where things were through the echo of sound. Though inaudible to humans, the melody surely contained the curse of decay and foolishness.
The transparent ensemble conjured by the beast. The beast knew it couldn’t bring down intruders with just this level of curse.
However, the beast didn’t intend to single-handedly wipe out all the intruders.
But when the master’s disciples and followers arrived, the enemies would realize their power had weakened tremendously compared to usual, leaving them bewildered.
That one bout of confusion would be enough.
The arriving disciples of the master would unlock their abilities, and before the overwhelming power of magic, this temple would return once again to the silence commanded by the master.
But there was one thing. That exotic divinity unseen even in ancient times was a problem.
The master of the beast was wary of the unknown, and that instinct was immediately passed down to the beast. It was prepared to conduct the best ambush it could.
It was okay if it couldn’t neutralize the variable right away. As long as it could waste time keeping watch for an ambush in the darkness.
The scenery around the beast shimmered. No longer was the beast’s body silver, but rather a gray like the walls of the temple submerged in darkness. An impeccable mimicry of the surrounding scenery. A magic that would be difficult to follow even with modern fine art magic.
The variable halted in the depths of the temple.
There stood the representation of the Great Temple, which the master had personally destroyed.
What if a Holy Power capable of restoring the destroyed representation or a Sacred Command surpassing that level was handled?
Pluton’s Great Temple would once again become the center of the old enemies, hindering the master’s grand scheme.
The beast’s movements grew urgent.
The beast, now sinking into the thick darkness.
Faced a blue gaze glimmering towards it.
*
“How?”
It was the beast’s question.
That gaze was looking at it. Piercing through with shining irises aimed right at its eye sockets.
There was no sense of alienation in the magic. It had erased even the sound of footsteps using the power it possessed. Even if it pierced through the darkness, it could only see walls, and if it tried to hear footsteps, only the sound of the wind came back.
Was it the origin of the prey-tracking skills held by the priest who serves the God of Hunting? How could it track it without having seen it?
The long-unused alert of instinct rang. It had to either flee or fight.
Interpreting the instinctive fear logically. If it ran, that person would assuredly alert the other enemies about the abnormal situation. The master’s enemies would escape as they always had.
If it fought right away, it could buy time until reinforcements arrived.
“Utis, is that you?”
The beast, Adoosiam, trembled.
“I find you quite interesting.”
The nameless variable murmured softly.
“An ancient golem forged by the Mage King. I never imagined I would find it here.”
Kore was watching that scene.
*
In the innermost depths of Pluton’s Great Temple. There were four passageways leading there. Orthes and Adoosiam stood near the eastern and western passageways, facing each other, while observing the confrontation from the northern passageway.
‘In this place, both have blind spots….’
It was certain that the beast did not recognize him. It was Pluton’s Holy Power, “Transparent Helm”.
Being transparent didn’t simply mean visual concealment. It was close to the ability to hide one’s very existence from the world.
Pluton is the god governing the underworld. A Sacred Power symbolizing the sudden onset of “invisible death” at any time, anywhere.
However, unlike the beast, Utis might be able to see through his Sacred Power. Thus, Kore cautiously hid in the darkness of the passageway.
The form of something with magic was invisible, but its presence could be felt through the Sacred Power. It was right in front of Utis.
And Utis opened his mouth, with a voice similar to the one heard at the meeting.
“Adoosiam, is that you?”
He knew the name.
No answer came. Utis continued unperturbed as if he had expected it.
“I find you quite interesting. An ancient golem forged by the Mage King.”
There was one of those in Pluton’s Great Temple? Kore was astonished but quickly grasped the situation. The Mage King was a cautious person. He must have deployed it as a kind of alarm system to signal when the cult resistance attempted to liberate the temple.
What was rather incomprehensible was Utis.
The fact that a guardian created directly by the Mage King was stationed at the Great Temple was information even the priestesses of the Pluton order did not know.
No, it was rather strange for the people of the gods to know this. The Mage King must have set that golem as the guardian of the temple after the siege was concluded.
Who were the ones at the side of the Mage King who defeated the greatest resistance of the order?
The Mage King’s disciples. Only the current founders of the Ten Towers.
Kore shook her head. The identity of Utis being a spy for the Ten Towers was the worst-case scenario among predictions.
At the same time, it was also the least likely scenario. If he was a spy for the Ten Towers, he would have had too many opportunities to scheme toward the annihilation of the Divine Cult.
‘Utis said he operated from within Blasphemia.’
He could have obtained the information about that golem from Blasphemia. The Pluton Great Temple was sealed in a special way that the Ten Towers couldn’t release, but it wouldn’t be impossible if there was a similar golem in another temple investigated by Blasphemia.
“You were made using the mages from before the Ten Towers system. I never imagined I would find it here.”
There was something chilling in the way he blandly listed Adoosiam’s craftsmanship.
“Since I can see everything, why don’t you come out?”
Kore flinched. Utis’ gaze was still focused on Adoosiam. Yet somehow, that remark felt aimed at her.
Woosh, the vibration of mana resounded through the darkness. It was magic.
It was an action that could not be detected by ears or eyes. Only through the slight wavering of the Extraordinary Ability Field could one barely guess that magic had been activated.
Before that invisible attack, Utis only tilted his head slightly, unperturbed.
Swish…
The wall of the temple impacted by the attack crumbled to dust. Utis nodded and said.
“Is it a compressed sonic bomb? The principle is to vibrate according to the target material’s unique frequency at the moment of impact, instantly crushing it. This is closer to modern than ancient magic, isn’t it? It’s correct, isn’t it? It was created several decades ago.”
Utis raised his sword. Kore enhanced her vision to discern the shape in the darkness. While the golem itself was not visible, she could track its movements through the dust and debris it kicked up.
And the trajectory it indicated was clear.
Adoosiam was being chased by Utis.
For some reason, the sonic bomb Utis had described did not damage Utis’ sword. He was pressing Adoosiam by cleverly intercepting the trajectory of the sonic bombs with his strange swordsmanship.
The deflected sonic bombs always flew toward where Adoosiam’s Extraordinary Ability Field was felt. To be killed by one’s own magic.
It looked as if this were some intentional mockery. Kore could see parallels between the moments she had been chasing Utis and failing upon opening doors, now reflected in Adoosiam’s situation.
However, it was far more relentless than her case. Without moving from his position, he was swinging his sword, utilizing attacks against Adoosiam.
The stubbornness to crush solely with one’s own magic. It was as if he were trying to teach the dog daring to bare its teeth toward the master the difference in hierarchy….
*
I fiddled with the output control device of the High-Frequency Blade.
Thank goodness that the magic he was using was a compressed projectile of sound. If he were a charge-in type that said, “I use sonic magic, so I charge at sonic speed!”, it would have been much more troublesome.
The composition principle of the sonic bomb magic was simple. Crushing using unique vibration frequencies.
And my sword was a High-Frequency Blade. A tool that enhances cutting power through ultra-vibration. If I time the output of the ultra-vibration correctly, I can properly offset the sonic bomb’s crushing vibrations.
In the case of such a fellow, approaching would be even more dangerous.
Adoosiam fired a sonic bomb using the instruments within his flesh. To put it another way, if he were to take the risk of self-destruction, it meant he could unleash sound waves from his entire body the moment I got close.
There was no reason for me to make a foolish move and get caught up in the opponent’s self-destruction.
I calmly repelled the sonic bombs while pondering how to take this back to Hydra Corporation.
According to the information revealed to my eyes, Adoosiam was currently in a state where his upper functions hadn’t been unlocked.
The fact that he hadn’t immediately smashed me upon recognizing me was due to this. To unlock the upper functions, the creator or their agent’s permission is needed, and right now, there is no Mage King to grant Adoosiam’s functions.
In other words, the moment that guy becomes capable of ‘unsealing functions’ means the Mage King has returned.
‘I should take him and modify him as an alarm for the Mage King’s appearance.’
*
A silver flash erupted in front of the Pluton Great Temple. A group dressed in combat gear imbued with fine magic began to emerge from the gaping void.
“Was a fellow’s rescue signal transmitted from here?”
Argyrion had arrived.
My site has received a lot of DMCA notices, lol. From now on, I will update the MTL on https://darkmtl.com/.
The site is fast and lightweight because there are no ads yet. However, the theme is different from Cybor-TL, so take some time to familiarize yourself.
Support me by donating at least $10, and you'll have the right to request any novel from Novelpia (excluding 19+ content) using a newly developed tool.