Chapter 614: Ex Machina (1)
“Lyman’s workshop closed down recently.”
“The owner there was quite unique. It was always interesting to hear his thoughts after entrusting equipment to him. You even posted a review, didn’t you?”
A few days had passed since Lennok locked the workshop door and dedicated himself to modifying new equipment.
Rumors quickly spread that the workshop, which had been a hot topic for a while, had temporarily closed.
Not a few customers, having brought equipment they wanted Lennok to work on, swallowed their disappointment upon seeing the closed door.
“The door’s closed, but it looks like the forge in the workshop is still running, doesn’t it?”
“I heard rumors that he’s focusing on secluded training after falling behind in the Selection Ceremony.”
“…Secluded training? Was he a martial artist, not an engineer?”
“Anyway, it doesn’t seem like he’s moved the workshop or quit entirely, so let’s wait.”
“The reservation app for the workshop district is already fully booked. When will it refresh…?”
Grumbling, people passing through the workshop district gradually disappeared, and in the dead of night, with hardly any pedestrians left on the streets long past midnight,
Black shadows slowly emerged from various parts of the workshop district, centered around Lennok’s workshop, and began to approach.
Shaaaa…!!
Figures, draped in darkness even deeper than the night, slid through the dark streets, closing in.
Faint green eyes glowed, swiftly confirming each other’s positions.
[…]
[…]
They exchanged intentions without a single word, determined their order and timing with mere gestures, and returned to their assigned positions.
From within the shadows, a hand clad in a thick glove quietly picked the workshop’s locked door and carefully pushed it open.
Creak…
Some flowed through gaps in windows, others descended through rooftop ventilation shafts, and some simply walked through walls as if they weren’t there.
The shadows, having infiltrated the workshop in an instant, silently began to survey the interior.
[…]
Unlike when the workshop first opened and began receiving customers, it was now a chaotic scene, with all sorts of mechanical parts, almost like junk, piled up like mountains.
Various crafting tools, including hammers, were either melted, shattered, or broken, hung on the wall as if displayed.
Even amidst the debris of parts and discarded mechanical equipment piled so high the workbench was invisible, no sound came from the shadows.
It was a silence so profound it was as if the shadows absorbed any sound they made, leaving no trace of their movement despite their undeniable presence.
Yet, despite successfully infiltrating the workshop, the shadows appeared even more tense, beginning to scout their surroundings with increased vigilance.
As one shadow slowly reached for their waist, a sudden rustling sound echoed from behind them.
“…Mmph!!”
[…!!]
Immediately, the shadows drew various firearms from their waists, aiming in all directions and taking defensive stances.
Their movements were incredibly swift. There was an undeniable discipline in how they instantly divided and covered their sectors.
[…]
At the leader’s signal, the shadow holding an assault rifle at the front, the other shadows moved simultaneously.
They slowly turned, heading around the back of the junk pile from which the sound had come.
Centering on the source of the sound, the shadows split their positions and numbers, appearing simultaneously from three sides to point their muzzles.
Clack!!
The heavy click of a magazine was the first sound to echo. But the target, with a muzzle pressed against his forehead, showed no surprise at the cold touch of metal.
“Mmm, cough… cough…”
He merely smacked his lips with a discomforted expression, tossing and turning with rough breaths.
The shadow, having confirmed the face of a bearded middle-aged man, lowered their gun.
[Who is he?]
[Mouser Blofeld. A craftsman who has resided in the lower workshop district for a long time.]
The voices of the shadows, belatedly exchanging information through their comms.
[He’s never participated in the Meister Selection Ceremony, but he’s highly regarded for his skill and knows many other craftsmen. He’s a very well-respected individual.]
[Officially, this workshop is also registered under his name. Given the circumstances, it’s not unusual for him to be here, but… it seems the target is absent.]
[Should we wake him and interrogate him?]
[No.]
A crisp voice immediately cut off the question on the comms.
[There’s no reason to cause unnecessary commotion. He’s not our target. It’s better to leave him asleep.]
[…]
[No one has entered or exited the workshop for the past few days. Either he’s hiding inside, or he escaped through an external, hidden passage.]
The shadows slowly widened their search perimeter with silent steps, meticulously examining the workshop’s internal structure.
In the deep darkness, where not an inch ahead was visible.
Even in the workshop, where only the occasional sparks from a dead forge provided the sole light source, the shadows observed the darkness with ease.
The green glow of their night vision goggles clearly pierced through the darkness, allowing them to see more than what was visible.
[There’s no space for a person to hide. On the surface, it looks like an ordinary workshop, but…]
[We’ll have to find a secret passage. I’ve heard that sometimes these ordinary-looking workshops incorporate more sophisticated technology and design.]
[Our target is a craftsman specialized in modification technology. We can’t rule out the possibility that he modified the workshop itself into a passage…]
The shadow, muttering to himself, suddenly snapped his head up and turned his gaze.
At the end of his gaze was the back of another shadow, meticulously examining a corner of the room.
At the sudden reaction of the shadow, the others also paused their search and looked back at him.
[Team Leader. What’s wrong?]
[…It flickered.]
[Pardon?]
[The timbre of the comms… it flickered for a moment only when Brett spoke.]
[Leader. Directly naming a team member here is…!!]
The moment the bewildered shadows reached out to restrain the leader.
The leader instantly drew a pistol from his waist and shot the head of the fellow shadow he’d called Brett.
Thwack!!
The gunshot echoed cleanly, no longer attempting to conceal itself.
Brett, who had been facing away, stumbled heavily, and dark crimson blood splattered down.
[Leader!!]
[What are you doing?!!]
At the leader’s sudden act of shooting a comrade, the shadows quickly distanced themselves and reached for their waists.
[Is this fragging…!!]
“Cough, cough…”
Mouser, who merely smacked his lips and showed no sign of waking despite the gunshot right next to him.
The air between the shadows grew tense, so much so that Mouser’s utterly carefree insensitivity felt strangely out of place.
Seeing the shadows surrounding him, hands on their guns, the leader nodded, unperturbed.
[Look at Brett’s body. Don’t you see it yet?]
[…]
[He was already too late.]
Hearing those words, the other shadows turned their gazes to the fallen figure, swallowing silently.
CRUNCH!
Because Brett’s chest, clad in a colorlessly metallic suit, was violently torn open, as if savaged by a beast.
It was a gruesome sight, as if his heart had been ripped out while still alive.
Blood flowing from the savagely clawed and torn chest wound was already half-coagulated.
[Brett… is dead. Blood coagulation is already progressing.]
[Even if he died just moments ago, this speed is abnormally fast. This was from the beginning…!!]
[Yes. From the beginning.]
The leader, who had been watching the shadows with his arms crossed, spoke.
[From the very beginning, he never left this workshop for a single moment. He was waiting for us.]
At that moment, a bizarre screeching sound, like iron grinding and breaking, leaked from the vast workshop’s ceiling.
Screech…!!
SWOOP!!
Something descended from the air, snatching at the shadow’s neck as if swinging a claw.
Splat!!
The shadow, having lost half its head, died instantly without even a scream.
It was only then that the shadows realized the invisible enemy was hanging above their heads, raising their firearms in unison.
[…Impossible.]
Clank…!!
A gigantic Night Raven, its entire body covered in black metal, glared at the shadows, its red eyes glowing.
The blood dripping from its sharp beak and claw tips was so vivid it was hard to understand how they hadn’t noticed it until now.
A crow monster so bizarre and alien it was hard to believe it had been lurking in the middle of this quiet workshop.
Even the forms of auto-fabrication mechanical arms, haphazardly attached to its body and wings, which it hadn’t yet detached.
Clank, clank!!
As the shadows, speechless at the sight, stood frozen, a quiet voice spoke from behind them.
“Not a bad design, is it?”
[…!!]
Startled, the shadows spun their guns around, simultaneously pulling their triggers and unleashing a volley of bullets.
Rat-a-tat-tat!!!
As if the preceding silence had been a lie, fierce gunshots and intermingled muzzle flashes painted the workshop, filling it with the acrid smell of gunpowder.
Even amidst the chaos, the voice echoed clearly, unwavering.
“I let the actual operator design it, and it turned out surprisingly well.”
[What nonsense…!!]
“I quite like that form, a bit deviated from ordinary aesthetic sensibilities.”
Amidst the junk strewn with gears and screws.
The shadows were speechless when they saw the young man, covered in soot, sitting cross-legged with a screwdriver in hand.
Unknown mechanical arms, rising from among the fragments of junk, had caught all the bullets fired by the shadows with their long, slender fingers.
A system so precise and agile that it not only tracked the shadows’ movements in real-time but could also react to the speed of bullets on the spot.
Only then did the shadows realize they weren’t facing a defenseless engineer, but a craftsman who had constructed his own domain. The moment they recoiled.
Splat!!
The Night Raven’s claw, vanishing as if melting into thin air, effortlessly traversed dozens of meters and seized the shadows’ hearts.
[…Huh?]
The shadows died on the spot, unable to fully comprehend what had struck them.
Among the shadows falling like puppets with cut strings, only the leader remained standing stiffly.
Lennok looked at the leader, brought a finger to his lips, and smiled.
“It’s quieter now, isn’t it?”
[…]
Instead of answering, the leader intently observed the squirming form of the crow monster in the corner of the workshop ceiling.
He had thought its entire body was covered in black metal, but it wasn’t even a living beast to begin with.
A gigantic robot, its entire construction resolved with metal during its fabrication. It was impossible to even guess at its internal mechanisms.
All he knew was that the crow’s claw, having torn through the shadows’ hearts, had spatially leaped without any warning to rip them out.
[I thought he was a half-wit with a moderately dangerous talent, but I was completely mistaken.]
The leader, stretching his body and tapping his foot with a crisp voice, looked at Lennok and spoke.
[I wondered what he was doing holed up in his workshop, but he was making a spatial leap device? This guy was completely insane.]
“…”
Intervening with space. The leader knew how unrealistic it was to use technology that leaped and flung specific matter as a weapon.
Time and space. Manipulating these two fundamental forces that govern the world was, in every sense, the right of the chosen ones.
It was no different for craftsmen who implemented such concepts as tools rather than wielding the power themselves.
No, in fact, it was often more abstruse and intricate to imbue such metaphysical concepts into specific matter. That was a clear truth.
Yet, this disheveled man with a half-mask casually demonstrated such technology right before the shadows.
[Was participating in the Meister Selection Ceremony and failing just a way to avoid drawing unnecessary attention?]
“It’s surprising that you’re asking me that, actually.”
Lennok chuckled, toying with the iron mask that covered half his face.
“Didn’t you come here generally aware of the situation?”
[…]
“I wrapped up the Selection Ceremony rather discreetly, but I figured if they knew what kind of artifact I touched, it wouldn’t end there.”
Lennok tossed aside the screwdriver he’d been fiddling with and stood up.
“Actually, you came later than I expected. Thanks to that, I had more time to prepare than necessary.”
From the moment he repaired Teremer’s Demise and left a trace, Lennok had anticipated that things might turn out this way.
All the judges had witnessed that Lennok could, to some extent, handle an Old World relic that even Meisters couldn’t repair.
Officially, the result was postponed, but someone would undoubtedly want to know exactly how Lennok accomplished it.
Lennok had even guessed that they might go beyond that, coveting his very ability to repair Old World relics.
The Night Raven that just fought the shadow agents was another result of Lennok’s consistent preparations, separate from his firearm modifications.
It was a combat proxy, created by utilizing auto-fabrication equipment, designed to act as his military force as a craftsman.
“Which side is it?”
Lennok, enshrouded by the giant Night Raven’s wings, asked.
“The Meisters who participated as judges in the Selection Ceremony, and the Ex Machina committee members. I wonder who among them wanted to see my face.”
[Oh, are you perhaps thinking of accepting our invitation?]
The leader countered with a question, sounding intrigued.
[I thought you were an ordinary craftsman, but you seem far more accustomed to situations like this than I expected. If I had known beforehand, there would’ve been no need to apply excessive pressure.]
He casually nudged the fallen shadows’ bodies with his foot and nodded.
[Don’t worry about killing a few of these guys. If you’re willing to cooperate, we can still have a constructive…]
“No.”
Lennok chuckled, listening to the leader’s words.
“Of course, I plan to interrogate you and find out who your master is.”
[…]
Naturally, he wasn’t going to be pleasant to someone who had trespassed into his workshop to abduct him.
Only then did the leader realize he had overstepped, and he fell silent.
The leader, who had been silently assessing his surroundings, suddenly surged with magic and darted forward as if propelled.
[Then we have no choice but to proceed with the original plan…!!!]
CRRRUNCH!!!
The leader’s body, encased in a jet-black mechanical suit, unfurled, transforming from a human shape into a steel beast.
The leader, transformed into a monstrous, oil-dripping beast, opened his maw right there, attempting to swallow Mouser instead of Lennok.
Given that the two seemed to be partners, it was an improvised move to take Mouser hostage instead of Lennok, whom they knew to be wary from the start.
The moment the beast’s jaws clamped directly onto Mouser’s defenselessly sleeping leg and tried to lift its head.
The Night Raven, its steel wings fully spread, plunged down onto the leader’s head like a bolt of lightning.
CRASH!!!
[GRAAAH!!!]
Parts and junk from all directions surged into the air from the impact, then receded and settled like a wave.
But the space where Mouser lay sleeping remained utterly silent, as if time had stopped.
Only then did the leader realize that Mouser wasn’t merely in a deep sleep insensitive to external stimuli, but was being protected by some means. He let out a strained laugh.
[So, he set up some kind of protection for what was supposedly just bait…?]
“I owe him a little. Couldn’t let him get hurt.”
Lennok snapped his fingers, and mechanical arms that had sprouted from the surroundings grabbed hold of the leader’s entire body, beginning to dismantle him in place of the Night Raven.
Click, click!!
Sharp blades, heated and burning, began to cut through his outer plating, and then meticulously pry open tightened screws and parts, one by one.
The leader, watching his entire mechanical body being dismantled piece by piece on the spot, asked.
[What do you plan to do with me?]
“I plan to disassemble your body into individual parts.”
Lennok replied.
“It seems your entire body has been modified with magic-engineering metal. I’ll disassemble all of it, leaving only your logic circuit, and use it as parts for my own equipment.”
[…What?]
“Its preservation and hardness are excellent. If I modify it slightly into firearm parts, I think it would make really good equipment.”
An answer only someone completely obsessed with modification and maintenance could give.
Even the shadow leader, on the verge of death, was momentarily speechless at such an absurd reply.
Meanwhile, the mechanical arms steadily continued to dismantle the body of the giant robot beast.
Clank, clank!!
“Unlike its appearance, the concentrated circuitry was inside its chest.”
Lennok mumbled, confirming the location of the internal circuits and skeletal structure.
“This is why full-body modification is convenient. You can modify weaknesses or vital points however you like, completely flipping the body’s structure.”
Whiiirrr!!
The saw blade attached inside the mechanical arm spun rapidly, cutting directly through the inner skeleton protecting the internal logic circuit components.
The hard skeletal structure resisted, sparking, but it didn’t last long once mana was applied to the saw blade’s tip and cutting magic was infused into it.
CRRRUNCH!!!
Lennok cut away the inner skeleton and pulled out a transparent, glass-crystal-like object from within, gazing at it with interest.
“No matter how many times I see it, Machina’s advanced technology is truly astonishing. Now they’ve even materialized the logic circuit itself, containing consciousness within a sphere like this…”
As Lennok spoke, peering into the glass crystal, he suddenly fell silent, unable to continue.
Engraved within the crystal circuit of the logic circuit was an Eight-Armed Four-Eyed Idol.
The shape of the pattern was too unnatural to be engraved in such a transparent glass sphere.
Lennok had previously encountered a being with an exactly identical appearance in the satellite city of Bailuts.
The colossal Old World data storage idol that The Doctor had brought for interim settlement.
It was a trace of Pandemonium.