Chapter 633: Underwater Barrier, Heart-Star Vault (2)
Ssszzzzzzzz!!!!
Thousands of blue cubes, fluttering and falling like snow from all directions, glowed in the dark abyss.
Countless geometric lines, formed by the connecting cubes, stretched out like a spiderweb, encircling the Underwater Barrier and sketching a colossal network.
This was a Cybernetic Ability, deploying a simplified manifestation of spirit power in reality, a power usually only permitted to interfere within the Cybernetic World.
It was forcibly seizing complete control of the Underwater Barrier’s operations, prying its gates open.
Creaaak…!!
The ceaselessly turning gears seemed to slowly lose speed, then reversed direction, rotating sluggishly.
It was as if their previous rotation had been to securely tighten the barrier’s internal locks.
With each reverse turn of the gears, the barrier’s compressed internal space began to slightly expand.
Rumble, rumble, rumble!!
It was a grand spectacle in the dark abyss: thousands of colossal gears reversing their rotation, opening the way, all according to the will of the spirit and the wizard.
But just as the barrier thinned and cracks spread enough for its interior space to faintly appear…
Clank!!
The Underwater Barrier abruptly halted, its movement stopping in unison, as if caught by something.
Boom!!
Immediately after, the ground below the deep sea violently shook and swayed as if a massive earthquake had struck.
From that point on, even when attempting to forcibly dismantle the Underwater Barrier using Davi’s Cybernetic Ability, the barrier wouldn’t open; only the intensity of the earthquake would escalate.
Rumble, rumble…!!!!
The more mana was poured in to boost the Domain’s output, the more intense the shockwaves reverberated, vibrating the entire ocean as if it were singing in unison.
“…Master.”
“Yes.”
Lennok, realizing the meaning of Davi’s words, slowly retracted his Domain with a wry smile.
Whoosh…!!
The connecting lines of blue cubes, spread like a spiderweb in the dark sea, slowly vanished, and the monochromatic waves emanating from Lennok and Davi faded away.
Davi, who had been silent, spoke.
“At this rate, the sea area will completely collapse before we can open the Underwater Barrier’s gates. My power isn’t helping…”
But Lennok, with another wry smile, shook his head.
“No, it’s the complete opposite. It worked excessively well. That’s why I had no choice but to stop.”
Davi, not understanding his words, tilted her head.
“What do you mean by that?”
“That barrier wasn’t designed to open physically from the start. Now I get it.”
Lennok slowly retrieved his mana and leaned back into the submersible’s seat, muttering.
“It’s just components that form Machina’s district barriers, woven together and maintained in a specific shape.”
“What? Then how could a space like the Heart-Star Vault exist inside?”
“Think about the earthquake that just happened.”
Lennok said, pulling out a potion and drinking it.
“When I tried to force the barrier open, an earthquake occurred. Conversely, it means the barrier won’t open unless there’s a shock equivalent to an earthquake.”
It’s not about forcibly moving the barrier’s components to open the gate.
Unless there’s a colossal shock, like an earthquake occurring deep beneath this sea, the barrier simply won’t open.
That’s because it wasn’t designed to physically open and close in the first place.
Davi’s Domain, the Dream-Thought Electric Will Mirror, could indeed penetrate the Underwater Barrier’s control and forcibly dismantle it.
But at that very moment, the earthquake generated beneath the sea would spread through the deep sea and across all of Machina.
Lennok realized this fact and halted the projection of his Domain’s power before it became irreversible.
“So, a shock strong enough to cause an earthquake beneath this sea is needed to create a crack that briefly opens the barrier,”
Davi, receiving Lennok’s thoughts in real-time, nodded as if she understood.
“Calculated solely by the required impact, it would take firepower or an explosion capable of changing the map. But that just makes it harder to understand.”
Davi wiggled her five tails, asking from Lennok’s arms within Lennok’s embrace.
“Then how on earth does Machina open the Underwater Barrier and store items in the Heart-Star Vault… Wait?”
Lennok smiled, watching Davi tilt her head as if something had just occurred to her, a step too late.
“You may or may not remember, but Machina actually changes its map every quarter.”
Davi, who had been silent, spoke.
“No way…”
“Every quarter, they arbitrarily change the location of each district and barrier within the city, generating a shock intense enough to completely alter the terrain itself. That very reason was…”
Lennok’s cold gaze settled on the Underwater Barrier, which had stopped as if dead.
“To open the Underwater Barrier every quarter and pass in and out of it.”
The reason why Machina changes the location of each district and moves its dozens of meters-high mechanical District Barriers every quarter.
It was to utilize the intense shock generated during that process to create cracks that would allow entry and exit from the Underwater Barrier.
The truth that a shock and weight equivalent to moving the entire city was required to open the barrier.
Lennok immediately realized what that, conversely, implied.
“Machina wasn’t built, and then the Underwater Barrier was created.”
Lennok murmured.
“It’s possible that Machina was built, and its District Barriers and sections periodically relocated, specifically to create a way to access the Underwater Barrier.”
“But if that’s the case, then at this point, it seems there’s practically no way to get inside the barrier…”
Davi’s tail drooped.
“We now understand the relationship between Machina’s District Relocation Cycle and the Underwater Barrier, but this means we’ll have to wait until the day of the relocation.”
Lennok’s plan was to explore the Underwater Barrier in advance, before being summoned to the Heart-Star Vault, and secretly steal Teremer’s Demise, the Magic Gun from the Old World.
If the Underwater Barrier only opened with a shock equivalent to the entire city moving, then for Lennok, it was as good as having no way to enter the barrier at all.
‘I could forcefully apply a shock to open the crack, but it would inevitably result in casualties.’
If he were to force open the barrier with the power of the Dream-Thought Electric Will Mirror, the districts and District Barriers of Machina above the sea would move arbitrarily, causing thousands of casualties.
If that happened, it wouldn’t be impossible for him to be hunted down by the entire city before even entering the Underwater Barrier.
While he had used his Domain, accounting for the possibility of detection, casualties occurring and the repercussions spreading to the surface was an entirely different matter.
The moment Lennok reached that conclusion, a colossal mana source suddenly surged from behind the Underwater Barrier.
“Kwoooh!!!”
Erupting from behind the barrier, generating powerful currents, was a long, metallic body.
Its front bore a shape resembling a human face, and from nozzles all around, it spewed immense mana for propulsion.
The grotesque, fish-faced metallic behemoth shot towards the submersible in an instant, swimming as if targeting it.
Davi, immediately identifying its true nature, quickly shouted.
“Underwater Barrier Internal Intercept System activated. A maximum-level alert has been triggered in response to the manifested mana!”
“What’s that unpleasant-looking hunk of metal?”
“It’s an unmanned weapon specialized for underwater combat. Just its instant output measures at Level 7…!!”
Kwoooah!!!
The moment the fish-faced weapon gaped its mouth and drew in mana, the entire seawater vibrated, unleashing a powerful surge.
The aftershock erupted as a circular shockwave, violently rocking the submersible.
If they were to respond to that with a submersible not designed for combat, it wouldn’t be strange to be sunk along with the vessel right here.
“Davi. Get closer to the barrier.”
Lennok, making a quick decision, said so and nodded to Davi.
“First, we avoid that thing and get inside the barrier. There’s still one method left.”
Davi immediately manipulated the submersible’s controls, pressing the hull even closer to the barrier.
Rumble, rumble, rumble!!!
The violent currents caused by thousands of turning gears shook the submersible, but Lennok paid no mind, pulling something from his embrace and gripping it.
A faded, old pocket watch. Aside from its small size, easily fitting in one hand, it appeared to have no peculiar features outwardly.
However, Lennok’s gaze as he looked at it had already turned complicated.
Kaiser’s Pocket Watch.
Lennok’s sole time-attribute artifact, capable of reversing time within a localized space.
He instinctively knew that without the power of this artifact, penetrating the Underwater Barrier at this point would be utterly impossible.
Davi also seemed to immediately catch on to Lennok’s thoughts, slightly raising her head and asking.
“The Underwater Barrier is too large to be a target. Will it work?”
“If I reduce and limit the artifact’s application area to the absolute extreme, then somehow, yes.”
Lennok replied, stroking Davi’s head.
“The structural design of the Underwater Barrier I projected earlier. You remember it, right?”
“Of course!”
Davi, understanding Lennok’s intention in an instant, nodded.
Immediately after, the submersible sharply turned downwards, heading towards the very bottom of the colossal barrier.
Amidst the thousands of gears turning and creating violent currents, there was a particularly quiet, localized sea area.
It was a disturbed zone, secretly obscured by the thick darkness and powerful currents, making it impossible to notice unless one approached it up close.
There was a point where the movement paths and rotations of all the gears converged, intertwining the currents and forming an antagonistic equilibrium.
“Found it.”
At Lennok’s words, having discovered a precisely arranged spiral crack, Davi immediately maneuvered the submersible.
She pressed the submersible’s bottom against the crack, adhering to it as if pushing down.
Immediately, support struts jutted out from various parts of the hull, gripping the cracks in the barrier and securely fixing the submersible in place.
Drawing forth mana, Lennok simultaneously deployed shields and water current manipulation magic. After forcibly halting the seawater near the submersible and protecting the intervening space with a shield…
“Pressure adaptation complete.”
“Hull bottom opening.”
Swoooosh!!!
As the tightly attached submersible’s bottom opened, the barrier’s crack revealed itself beyond.
This was a high-level manipulation ability, connecting two different spaces while the external environment was crushed by immense water pressure.
Had Lennok’s magic and Davi’s precise control not been coordinated, the submersible would have exploded the moment its lower hull was opened.
Indeed, the submersible’s hull was swaying violently from the aftershock, incomparably more than before.
“It won’t last long…!!”
“Yes. I know.”
Lennok said so, rapidly pulling out a battery for the pocket watch, opening its back, and replacing it.
Click!
The moment he replaced the battery and carefully infused mana, the second hand slowly began to move.
Before he could even fully register that one of his objectives in Machina had finally been accomplished at this very moment, he immediately activated the artifact.
Whirrr…!!
Immediately after Lennok’s mana was infused into the artifact beyond a certain level, the pocket watch’s second hand stood vertically straight out of the watch.
Confirming that the minute and hour hands of the pocket watch were rapidly reversing, Lennok unhesitatingly plunged the second hand into the exact center of the crack.
Click!
The second hand was about the size of two finger joints.
Compared to this massive Underwater Barrier and the crack serving as its gate, it wasn’t even a needle in a desert.
But the moment the second hand was pushed into the crack and the pocket watch’s mana permeated its interior, the crack’s opening began to widen, as if by magic.
Dra-drrr…!!!
He wasn’t forcibly creating an arbitrary impact to open the crack.
Instead, he was reversing time to the moment when the Underwater Barrier’s crack had originally opened using that method, thereby forcibly opening the crack itself.
It was, in effect, locally manipulating the very laws of reality.
Creaaak…!!
A brilliant white light shone through the crack.
The spiral-carved gate split open in a circle, widening into a space large enough for one person to enter, at that very moment.
Lennok unhesitatingly pulled the pocket watch out.
Click!
As soon as the localized time-reversal power vanished, the gate of the crack began to rapidly close on the spot.
But Lennok, ignoring the quickly closing crack, drew in mana and concentrated his mind.
Lennok snapped his fingers, and the submersible vanished from its spot as if teleporting into the barrier’s interior.
Fwoosh!!
Blinding white light, bright enough to temporarily blind him.
He could feel the spatial coordinates, temperature, humidity, and wind direction all around him, protected by shields, changing in real-time.
He forcibly numbed his senses for protection, then slowly used magic to reopen them one by one to check his surroundings.
The moment he cautiously opened his hearing, prepared for any unforeseen situation, the first sound he heard was a familiar one.
Clunk, clunk!!
Mana-infused artifacts. Dazzling precious metals. All sorts of items and stolen goods piled like mountains in a colossal glass cavity.
Along with the regular noise, he could feel the surrounding landscape slowly moving.
“44B Area Judgment complete. Value of located stolen goods cannot be preserved. Recovering and disposing of artifacts.”
An incomprehensible announcement sounded from overhead, and beneath his feet was the shape of a colossal roller, sliding forward.
“This is…”
Lennok realized he was sprawled on an endless conveyor belt and smiled bitterly.
“This is more than I expected.”
Machina. Outermost Barrier Desert Zone.
Whoosh…!!
A man standing in the face of a fierce sandstorm suddenly turned his head.
The Enforcer standing behind him asked, seeing his expression.
“Sir Deiger. Is there a problem?”
“…”
The man called Deiger silently moved his hand instead of replying.
Simultaneously, a chilling squelching sound echoed from underfoot.
Squish!
A corpse, bloody and unrecognizable.
Deiger, stepping over it as if it were nothing, muttered.
“Which fleet was guarding the Deep-sea District this quarter?”
“I remember it was the 12th Fleet.”
Deiger, hearing the Enforcer’s reply, gave a twisted smile.
“The 12th Fleet? I wonder since when Machina’s navy had a formation beyond the 8th Fleet.”
“…”
The Enforcer standing behind him quietly swallowed at Deiger’s words.
The man standing before him now was not merely an ordinary member of the enforcement agency or a commander of the Mechanized Troops.
He was a monster who had been active decades ago, in the same era as Maiya Lonsdale, Machina’s top Enforcer.
He was an entity who might never have seen the light of day again if not for a committee member who recently gained control of the Ex Machina administration.
His current lack of knowledge about Machina’s naval formations was also due to the significant disparity, easily decades long, between his memories and current reality.
Considering that, it was difficult to lightly dismiss the words Deiger was uttering now.
Deiger, looking at the Enforcer’s face, which couldn’t hide his tension, finally chuckled.
“Don’t be so tense. If you manage to contact the higher-ups, just pass on a simple message.”
“Yes?”
“After the failure of the Ascension Gate, the Exiles left me a few authorities.”
Deiger said, pulling something that had been embedded in the ground.
Crrk!
A colossal greatsword, thoroughly stained with dark crimson blood.
Its peculiar feature, perhaps, was the dozens of sharp screws protruding from various parts of the blade, with bits of flesh caught between them.
Deiger lightly kicked the greatsword with his foot to shake off the flesh, then draped the blood-soaked greatsword over his shoulder and spoke.
“Most of them were blocked when the Ex Machina leadership changed, but a few still remain.”
“…I’m not sure what you mean by that…”
“The timeline twisted for a moment somewhere in the Deep-sea District.”
“…”
The Enforcer’s expression instantly turned blank at the unexpected reply.
Deiger ignored his reaction and continued.
“I possess the reporting authority for the Absolute Timeline Measurer, which was made decades ago with Artemeyer’s help. That authority just activated, so make sure to report it.”
“Artemeyer… Absolute Timeline Measurer… Ah, understood.”
“What, the Enforcers don’t even know that name anymore? It looks like they made an absolute mess trying to hide the Gate’s failure.”
Deiger chuckled, finding the reaction amusing.
“Well, whatever. Just contact them. You’ll get quite an interesting reaction…”
Watching the Enforcer nod with a tense expression, Deiger raised his greatsword.
Deiger’s eyes narrowed as he held the greatsword and gazed at the dusty sky.
“After decades, I’ve come out, and yet the work to be done remains the same… This is just my fate.”
It was unpleasant to divulge secrets about the failure of the Ascension Gate to an Enforcer who knew nothing about it.
But this was the best way to make him leave to contact his superiors.
A body that had regained freedom after decades.
However, Deiger himself knew well what it meant that he, of all people, had been summoned to the outer district for Machina’s defense at this very moment.
Groooowwl…!!
The air intensified in the silence.
A killing intent, rapidly swelling as if it would burst at any moment, even though nothing was visible around him.
A wind, both hot and chilling, blew.
The shadow that had seemed to sway beyond the horizon had already arrived before Deiger’s eyes.
Deiger smiled, realizing that this chilling presence had been forged into something incomparably more dangerous than what remained in his memory.
“Long time no see, sister. I wonder how you’ve been.”